Travel Tips from Around the World
AFRICA
The best adventure. The most recent natural thrill obtainable in South Africa may be the underwater shark watching. Four shark spotters at one time can spend three hours in sturdy cages, watching the truly amazing whites circling looking for prey. Contact Exotic Drive Tours, 45 Rosmead Ave., Kenilworth, Cape Town 7700
The best Java. Kenya produces the very best coffee in the world and is among the world’s leading exporters of Arabica coffee. The Coffee Board of Kenya, Mama Ngina Street, serves the most tempting coffee in town, in addition to light snacks. An easy snack includes coffee, mandazi (fried dough) and samosa (meat pie within the Indian fashion as interpreted by Kenyan cooks). Coffee was brought to Kenya by the French Holy Ghost Fathers (who liked a good mug of coffee) in the 1890s. It had been developed in the location north of Nairobi. African farmers were forbidden to grow coffee until 1954. It is now Kenya’s main export crop (which in turn causes problems once the coffee crop fails). The berries are handpicked twice yearly. The second leading export crop is tea. Today the region around Limuru supports more than 100,000 African smallholders, who grow enough tea to create Kenya the third-largest producer on the planet, after India and Sri Lanka.
CENTRAL ASIA
The very best travel tip of for the countries ending in “stan” Be sure to carry a roll of toilet paper with you. It is not yet common in Central Asia. Bathrooms may be a significant shock. Potable water is another condition in Kazahkstan. Don’t drink the plain tap water. And limit your locally bottled mineral water intake, since it can be quite salty. Bottled soda and juices are your best choice; they’re plentiful. Drink boiled water whenever possible; carry a canteen with you and grow it with boiled water at every opportunity. Carry iodine tablets when ever none of the above is available and Lomotil just in case.
CHINA
That old Red Light district Until 1949, the area west of People’s Park, off Fuzhou Road, was one’s heart of Shanghai’s world-famous red-light district known as Blood Alley. Prior to being cleared out, it was inhabited by thousand of opium addicts and prostitutes. Liberation Lane alone, then referred to as Meet-With-Happiness Lane, had 34 brothels worked by more than 1,000 women. From 1949 until 1954, the brothels and opium dens were closed, the prostitutes given new work and new identities and the addicts detoxified.
MACAU
The best gambling tables in Asia-and the ugliest hotel on the planet. Macau is famous for its casinos. The largest is the Casino de Lisboa, avenida da Amizade, within the Lisboa Hotel. The Lisboa has become the ugliest hotel on the planet, made to seem like a roulette wheel, so it wears like a crown upon its head. The Macau Palace, known as the Floating Casino, is a some exotic place to gamble. This red and gilded Chinese boat is moored around the inner harbor off avenida de Almeida Riveiro. Games include both those familiar to Westerners, for example blackjack and Chinese games, such as dai-siu and keno. Slot machines are known locally as “hungry tigers”.
Where to honeymoon. Macau’s Pousada de Sao Tiago, avenida da Republica; became a hotel in 1980-it was built 350 years ago like a fortress (the Fortaleza da Barra). Every historical feature was preserved throughout the transformation, such as the Portuguese marble, hand-painted tiles, ancient stonewalls, gentle cascades, hand-carved mahogany and even the trees that shade the multi-level terraces. Overlooking the South China Sea, enveloped in warm, salty breezes, the pousada is a perfect romantic hideaway, ideal for a honeymoon. You might have the wedding here too-small weddings could be arranged in the chapel (which holds only 15 people). The pousada is complete with restaurants, gardens, a swimming pool and reading rooms-you never need to venture beyond its grounds. The pousada has 20 rooms and three suites, starting at $125 an evening.
MEXICO
The earth’s grandest canyon-and most enjoyable train ride. Chihuahua’s Barranca del Cobre (Copper Canyon) is 4 times larger and 300 feet deeper compared to U.S. Grand Canyon. Its mountain peaks rise 10,000 feet and it is valleys drop 1,500 feet. Until 1961, once the Chihuahua al Pacifico train line opened, the canyon was inaccessible and known simply to the isolated Tarahumara Indians residing in caves. The train line climbs from sea level at Los Mochis on the Pacific to eight,000 feet before descending to Chihuahua. It passes probably the most spectacular scenery in Mexico-sheer cliffs that change color because the sun sets, giant rock formations, deep gorges and mountain peaks. You are able to catch the train every single day in Chihuahua at 7 a.m. or in Los Mochis at 6 a.m. The price of a one-way trip from beginning to end is $80.
Where in which to stay the canyon may be the Hotel Cabanas Divisadero-Barrancas, in Divisadero, midway along the way. This rustic log-cabin hotel is perched on the rim of the canyon and affords dizzying views. Several Indian families live in caves nearby. These timid people sell handwoven baskets, wood carvings and necklaces. All around the hotel are trails the Indians follow towards the bottom of the canyon, 5,000 feet below.
Where to hear the flutter of butterfly wings. A three-hour drive from San Miguel de Allende is the colorful old mining town of Angangueo. And only an hour or so from Angangueo, up a steep, unpaved road, is the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary, now available to the public. The park’s 12,000 acres was a protected area in 1986 in reaction to warnings from conservation groups the logging operations threatened to eliminate the area’s unique butterfly habitat and migration site. The butterflies seclude themselves within the abies religiosas (a type of fir tree) at the summit from the 10,000 foot climb. When you climb to the top, you are overwhelmed by the noise developed by the fluttering wings of 10 million butterflies.