Colcannon and Chewy Pizzas..Ireland/Naples, July 2004

This year we used SIA for the long haul flights. I found the beds were quite easy to sleep on, even though they still tilt 8 degrees at maximum extension. However, at no time did I slide under the seat in front of me. In Europe, we used El Cheapo airlines, and one of them - Virgin Express - charged for food at a high rate - 4 Euros for an indifferent roll, and 2 Euros for a can of cheap beer.

We drove around Ireland and Northern Ireland in a clockwise direction staying close to the coast, starting and finishing at Dublin. In summary, I thought that the natural features, particularly the seascapes, were the highlights of the country. These natural features lacked the stunning and forbidding nature of the Scottish Highlands, being generally green and fertile in nature, with all of the country being closely settled (like the Lowlands of Scotland). The man made structures were not memorable, in my view.

Of the natural features, the Cliffs of Moher on the west coast were, I thought, the best - at around 700 feet sheer, these are the tallest cliffs in Europe, and extend for about 5 kms. The peninsulas extending on the south west corner presented very well, with outstanding seascapes, some very narrow roads along and around cliffs (I found it interesting that along almost all of the way to the cliffs there were new housing estates). A second peninsula in the North ("The Atlantic Drive") was equally picturesque. The Giant's Causeway, a world class sight, ranked high. Two poignant sights were the Old Head of Kinsale (near Cork in the south east), just off which the Lusitania went down with the loss of 1179 lives in 1915, and Mullaghmore Bay (near Sligo on the west coast) where Lord Louis Mountbatten, his grandson, and a local were exploded on a boat by the IRA in 1979.

Man made features included ancient tombs (at least one of which - Newgrange - predates the Pyramids), castles (we saw a number of these, but none was memorable), manor houses, and in Dublin Trinity College was an interesting place (particularly the Old Library, which contains the ancient Book of Kells). We saw one or two modest historical parks, dealing with the development of Ireland over the centuries - these were interesting.

Ireland is quite expensive, with petrol at SGD2 (equivalent ) a litre. Most hotels cost at least SGD200 (eq) a night, and evening meals for two (admittedly with two pints of Guinness/beer) around SGD100 (eq). Lunches were about SGD60 (eq) for two. The quality of the food was good, and the variety wide, with potato featuring, particularly in traditional dishes such as colcannon and champ. House prices much more expensive than Singapore, and new houses are springing up even in the remote parts of the country. It is difficult to see what supports people living in these new houses in remote parts, but we were told that many are holiday homes for Americans and British.. The cities were particularly clean in the south, though once in the Northern Ireland, this standard of cleanliness fell, with Derry (formerly Londonderry) being the worst (parts of this city - mostly in the Catholic Bogside - are still covered with Nationalist graffiti). Belfast was not much better than Derry.

Dublin has become the venue for music loving young people from around Europe, attending music festivals which are virtually always on. Many fly there on El Cheapo airlines for a weekend of listening to music, drinking and generally having fun. Dublin is proud of its literary heritage, and readings of the works of James Joyce and W.B. Yeats are regular. It is not an outstanding city, though it has a large and gracious Georgian section (and 800 or so pubs!). Skyscrapers are forbidden though a 395 foot high needle like Spire was erected in the middle of the city in 2003. The Liffey River is very narrow and ordinary, though it is crossed by a number of unusual wrought iron bridges. The city aspires to be a financial centre, and has a business area devoted to this. It has been very successful for the location of Fund Management companies.

In all, Ireland was worth visiting, but it is not a place that I would return to.

We moved on to Naples, overnighting in London, from where we flew directly to Naples. An evening in the centre of London took us on the tube from Heathrow (where we stayed) - the tube appears to be in a state of decay. Shopping at Fortnums, and dinner in Chinatown with an old friend.

Naples is much the same as it was 10 years ago - maybe gone backwards a bit. We had a magnificent room on the top floor of the Jolly Hotel. The view, over Naples Bay to Capri and Ischia was outstanding. Naples is as expensive as Ireland, though the high quality pizza (chewy, not crunchy, crusts - in the Neapolitan style ) was not expensive (the locals buy pizzas in vast quantities).

We revisited the Archeological Museum, the two well known castles (Nuovo and Dell'ovo), and Sorrento (which had become much more touristy). The rocks along Via Carraciolo were revisited. These serve as a popular swimming place for the locals, and being summer, it was swarming with people - the girls and women are generally buxom to very buxom, and many had their bathing costumes almost on ! The saying "See Naples but watch your wallet" proved true for me. On one mid afternoon I went without Kim to investigate restaurants near the Castel Dell'ovo for a possible dinner the same night. This took me off the elevated main road, down some stairs to the restaurants (which are on a wharf in a marina). I passed a group of youths swimming, and went to each of the restaurants to read their outside menus (being mid afternoon they were closed for siesta). Returning along the wharf, I was suddenly accosted by two of the youths I had passed previously. They immediately tried to pull my carry bag from me but it was looped around my neck, so they had no success, although they tried three times. After that, I was able to stand heavily on the foot of one of them (the other had given up). He shouted (presumably swear words), and hobbled back to his friends, some of whom then took the opportunity to throw handfuls of pebbles at my departing back. Later on, I observed (from a distance) that the group had returned to the main road, and grabbed the bag of an old gentleman, who was shouting and waving his walking stick at them, whilst they ran off. The food in Naples had improved (to my mind), and of course the gelato are fit for a king.

From Naples, we flew on to Amsterdam, virtually in transit to Singapore. Amsterdam remains the same - a good place for food and shopping. The weather turned for the worse in the day or so we were there, so no chance of visiting the beach.

Where the Moors were - Spain (May 2005)

We used SIA again this year, using Paris as our turn around city in Europe. We found the beds increasingly good, as we slept more than 6 hours of the 12 1/2 hour journey (this was helped by the fact that we left SIN at midnight. On the way back, the bed was useless, no sleep, as we left Paris just after lunch).

We transitted only in Paris. On to London to catch up with friends for a weekend. The red bus service from LHR doesn't seem to operate any more, so we took a mini-bus LHR/your hotel service (13 pounds). The journey took longer than the flight from Paris, as the service goes to small suburban hotels if required. The driver had great difficulty finding a hotel in Belgrave Road, hence the delay. We saw more of London on the way in than we had ever seen! We were too clever by half with our hotel in London where we used www.lastminute.com to obtain an el cheapo room in a good class hotel. We were not told the name of the hotel until after we booked (for 100 pounds per room per night) - it turned out to be the Radisson in Oxford Street, just behind Debenhams. However, the room was the smallest we had ever seen. So small that when a friend stopped by for pre-dinner drinks, he had to lie on one bed, I had to lie on the other, and Kim had to sit on a small stool (no chair provided). London is expensive (a meal at an ordinary restaurant cost GBP25 a head, with drinks). What spare time we had in London was given over to shopping.

On to Madrid for a few days. The highlights were the Royal Palace, and the Museum Prado. The latter contains famous paintings by Velasquez, Goya and El Greco, to name a few. The most famous work is Les Meninas (The Maids of Honour) by Valasquez. We did see a further museum – The Thyssen-Bonemisza. It is privately endowed, and said to have collection of minor works by major artists, and major works by minor artists. Not high marks for this one. In Madrid we were rudely woken up to Spanish dining habits. Many restaurants do not open for dinner until 9 p.m. (by which time in SIN I like to be tucked up in bed !). We found it difficult to accommodate to this system, and also to the system of eating tapas. "Paella Mixta" is universal on menus, and it is OK for a couple of times, we found.

From Madrid we took the very fast train (AVE) to Seville, the capital of Andalucia. The 550 km journey took 3 hours, and at times the train reached 280 kms an hour. There is llittle impression of this speed though. Seville is famous for having the third largest church in Christendom (after St. Peters and St. Pauls). It is not easy to understand why such a huge church should be located in a minor Spanish city (pop. 800,000) and perhaps the statement that the the original conceivers of the church reputedly said "let us build a church so large that future generations will think we were mad" is true. Superlatives only describe it - e.g. the largest altarpiece in Christendom. Seville also introduced us to Moorish architecture – the famous Alcazar is here. Sumptuous in the Moorish style (but much less florid than the western style) this fortress is well worth seeing. Gardens play a large part of the complex, with jasmin and myrtle everywhere. Adjacent to the complex is the Giralda, a 300 foot tower which once was the minaret of a mosque, and from the top of which the whole of Seville can be seen. In Seville we had an apartment, and it was pleasant to spread out, after our time in cramped hotel rooms (the room in Madrid was not much bigger than the room in London). In Seville, we saw a very high tech garbage disposal system. Presumably because the streets of the inner city (where we stayed) are too narrow for garbage trucks, throughout the whole area are pillar boxes, each of which is connected to a vacuum system (rather like the toilets in a 'plane). Residents bring all of their rubbish to the nearest box, throw it in, and away it goes ! (No early morning banging and crashing of garbage tins for them !).

Whilst in Seville we took a day trip to nearby Cordoba, to examine the Mezquita - the famous 9th. century mosque. Outstandingly colourful, the central section of the mosque is supported by more than 800 columns of jasper, marble, granite and onyx. There are numerous red and white arches which also lend colour to the building. When the Christians recaptured Spain from the Moors, rather than raze this mosque, they continued to use it as a Church, with only minor internal changes, thus preserving a great Moorish building for the future.

We went on by train to Granada, the final Moorish city. It is quite small (pop. about 300,000) but dominated from a hill overlooking the city by the Alhambra complex. One of the major tourist destinations in Europe, the Alhambra receives 2 million visitors a year (only 6300 people per day are allowed through the complex - a ticket must be bought beforehand, giving entry at a set time. Miss the time, miss your visit !). This complex of buildings, palaces and gardens is quite outstanding, and the old saying that "the worst thing that could ever happen to a blind man would be for him to walk through the Alhambra" is very relevant. Geometric patterns in the Arab style abound in the decorations, which are colourful. Exquisitely fashioned arches, patios and cupolas are spread throughout the complex, adorned with stucco and ornamental stalactites. An outstanding and not to be missed experience!

From Granada we flew to Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, where the architecture is different and outstanding also. Barcelona is the city of Antoni Gaudi - the so called evangelist in stone, who lived from the 1850s to the 1920s. He supposedly noted that buildings were restricted by what instruments could draw - in two dimensions circles, rectangles etc., and in three dimensions cylinders, spheres etc. He then supposedly noted that such shapes are not own in nature (e.g. in trees, leaves, animals, and the human form). So, his form of architecture follows the latter, and throughout Barcelona, there are many buildings in this style. However, his most famous legacy, and the most stunning of all the buildings we saw in Spain, is the Temple of the Sacred Family. This vast complex, said to be the most outstanding architectural creation of the last two centuries, will take 170 years to complete (it is now in its 120th. year of construction), following the drawings Gaudi left at his death. When finished, the structure will seat no fewer than 15,000 people, and will be staggering to look at - there will be 18 bell towers, dominated by one rising more than 500 feet. The facades are already outstanding (there is a stone matrix of numbers on one of the facades, such that no matter which way the numbers are added, the total is 33 - the age at which Jesus Christ died). The interior columns are treelike, decorated with flowers and similar. Anything else we saw in Barcelona was an anti climax in my view, though there were other outstanding buildings in the Olympic Park area, at the waterfront, and along it. Barcelona is also a good town for walking around, with wide avenues, good shopping, good restaurants, and good food. Barcelona is also Picasso's town, but time precluded our seeing much to do with him.

From Barcelona, we moved to a nearby beach suburb (Sitges) where we took a penthouse in an old hotel. It had a wonderful view from its terrace, but it was 78 steps from the gound. Try lugging a 20kg. suitcase up 78 narrow steps! Sitges is quite touristy, with good restaurants, and modern beach side villas. However, the beach and the water were not of high quality. We went there from Barcelona (60 kms) in a suburban train on a public holiday. Try loading a 20kg. suitcase again on onto a packed train without dropping it on to too many toes, and not having your pocket picked !

In all, the visit to the part of Spain we went to was very worthwhile, and we would return to Barcelona. The main gripes (again) we have, are the difficult evening meal hours and the siesta hours when most shops shut. The country was not terribly expensive - most hotel rooms we had were between 100/150 Euros per room per night, with breakfast another 15 Euros on top of that. Evening meal about 60 Euros for two, with wine included. Lunches and beer could be had cheaply. Internal travel by train is the way to see the country, as internal airfares are very high.

From Spain, we returned via Paris. A couple of days in Paris enabled us to visit the Louvre (the room in which the Mona Lisa is hung is like the room in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo where the mummy of King Tutankhamen rests - about 100,000 people trying to see it at the one time. Elbow jostling, and watch your pockets !). We went to the Eiffel Tower (and nearly got blown off the platform at 984 feet). Long queues to get into both places. Finally, we went to Notre Dame cathedral (no sign of Quazimodo). In Paris, we could not locate an authentic French restaurant (we stayed near the Opera House, apparently not an area noted for eating), and so were disappointed with what we ate. We was pleasantly surprised by the fact that young people anyway (shop assistants, waiters etc) were quite happy to speak English. We would return to Paris, and probably elsewhere in France.

In all, a good holiday.

The rest of the pictures can be found by clicking here.

The Great Wall Adventure - Beijing (Aug 2005)

It was necessary for us to take a 6 hour plus flight from Singapore before the end of August, in order to retain Kim's frequent flyer status with Singapore Airlines. Alexandria (where I had been previously, but where Kim had not) , was the first choice, but there is no direct flight there from Singapore. The transit points we looked at (Dubai and Cairo) both involved flights at odd hours and lengthy stopovers - not at all conducive to a 7 day journey. So, Beijing was the next choice, an easy direct flight of 6 hours or so, done in daylight both ways.

Unfortunately, the weather was difficult. The whole of northern China was covered by heavy fog throughout our time there. This, coupled with pollution, significantly reduced visibility in Beijing, and we never saw blue sky for 7 days. The maximum temperature was in the low 30s (C) every day, and this, coupled with the fact that it was school holidays, meant sightseeing (almost always involvimg lots of walking) was very tiring, particularly as all sites were jammed with locals of all ages.

Beijing is a large city, with an official population of 11.5 million (plus 2 million unregistered residents). This makes it twice the size of Bangkok. It is much more modern than I thought it would be - vast western style shopping malls, innumerable modern office buildings (forests of building cranes), and wide roads (which become gridlocked at peak periods, being then almost as bad as Bangkok). The underground railway is a very useful means of getting around , being well signposted in English, but the trains have no A/C. Taxis are also easy to use, with care.

We made a mistake by choosing a hotel close to the Forbidden City and Tian'an men Square (on the wrong side as well), but not close to any restaurant area. This meant that every night we had to take the underground or a taxi (through gridlocks) to eat out. After a tiring day sightseeing, this was often not easy to do.

The range of eating, both Western and Chinese, is very wide, and not expensive (USD30 would cover a fine meal, and beer for both of us). The Chinese food encompasses minority cuisines not seen in Singapore - e.g. Shanxi, Guizhou, and Uighur - but we did not venture beyond Hakka and Sichuan, both being known to Kim and I. Even then, these cuisines contained adventurous dishes not seen in Singapore - Braised Bear, Mustard Duck Web, Baked Snake, and Dog Meat Hot Pot, to name a few. These were beyond our palates, but what we ate was good. ( I did try lily flower, which I had not had before). The main beers (Yanling, Beijing) are weak. In all as to food, I believe the old saying that Chinese will eat anything on four legs except the kitchen table, can be expanded to include a number of two legged things as well.

As noted above, sightseeing required some stamina. The four major sites - The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace, The Temple of Heaven Park, and Tian'an Men Square, took a day each (half a day or so to look, nearly half a day to recover !). The first three of these are immense, particularly the Forbidden City. Having just seen important Christian and Muslim buildings in southern Spain, I thought that these building exteriors and interiors were not as impressive, being lightly decorated externally, and as to the interiors, dim and bare (the fact that one had to look over the heads of about 10 rows of people in front of one, at each viewing point, made it difficult to form views about interiors). More impressive, I thought, were the quaintly named gates, halls and palaces in each of these three places - Divine Military Genius Gate, Hall of Mental Cultivation, Hall of Multitudinous Fragrances, to name a few. A Starbucks in the middle of the Forbidden City was a bit jarring, and one imagines the last emperor, Pu Yi, spinning in his grave at the thought. Tian'an men Square is the largest public square in the world, covering about 90 football fields, and jammed with people throughout the day and night. Nearby to this is the Great Hall of the People, a vast but essentially lifeless series of rooms and halls (I briefly sat in Seat 33, Row W of the main assembly hall, and hope to be able to see this seat again on TV).

Shopping was good, including copy items available of what seemed to be every label known. We tried the well known "Silk Road", where I bought shirts of what was said to be Chinese silk, but might be treated plastic. Hard bargaining is essential - though I thought it a bit over the fence when a vendor offered me a silk shirt for USD350. When I countered with a bid of USD4, he immediately reduced his offer to USD6, and I bought the shirt for USD5. We bought an expensive silk carpet after major haggling, and then foolishly indicated the possibility of buying a second. When we failed to advance the second purchase and walked away, Kim was pursued by a lady assistant, eventually dragging her along, one of her arms around his waist, and the other hand furiously punching ever lower prices into her calculator, whilst shouting in Mandarin Kim remained unmoved, and we did not buy the second carpet.

We went out of Beijing only once - to the Great Wall and the nearby Ming Tombs at Badaling (about 50 kms away). We took an organised tour for this. Our intention had been to go to a further and less visited part of the Wall by our own taxi, but we did not do so, mainly because the thought of bargaining to buy a lunch at a roadside stall, fending off souvenir sellers, and making a difficult climb was a bit much. The organised tour saw us amongst an army of other tourists throughout the day. The Wall itself at Badaling is certainly impressive, and well worth the visit there. The nearby Ming tombs were not as impressive as other tombs I have seen. Lunch saw our bus amongst 51 others at an immense roadside restaurant. I counted 93 tables occupied when we went in, but despite this our enjoyable meal was served quickly and efficiently. Part of the tour saw a compulsory stop at a large herbal medicine establishment. A doctor saw us immediately. By simply feeling my pulse, he diagnosed that I was virtually at death's door, but then recommended a series of herbal preparations which, for only USD400, would stop the aforesaid door from opening. I declined his offer. Even Kim was ill - he has a weak liver, according to the doctor. He did not buy the herbs recommended for him, either.

After a very busy week we left. A final problem was that Kim and I tried to take out 5 cans of local beer (out of 6 we had bought) in our hand carry. At the security screening, we were told that Chinese beer cannot be taken out of China in hand carry, and so they were confiscated. I thought afterwards that I should have opened the cans before they were taken, but this may have caused the security people (who probably sold the cans later) to turn nasty. The last can came to Singapore in a suitcase.

In all, Beijing is an interesting and inexpensive city to visit. Hotels, food, transportation all easy for a Westener to use. Good shopping, even if it is hard work. However, Beijing is not on my list of places to visit again.

A Moorish adventure : Tunisia (Dec 2006)

This year Tunisia was chosen, for a two week visit. Firstly, Tunisia is probably the most secular of the Muslim countries, secondly because of the freebies being offered to travellers on Emirates out of Dubai on their new route Dubai/Tunis/Tripoli/Dubai. The freebies for us were four free nights at the Sheraton, Tunis.

We used Singapore Airlines to Dubai, and then Emirates to and from Tunis. For three of the four flight legs the 'planes were captained by Australians, beacons of safety in an unfamiliar environment (there is no need for non-Australian readers to speak or think enviously about this). All of our hotel bookings, in Dubai and even for the hotel in Sousse, were done on the Internet before we left Singapore.

We stopped in Dubai for only one night on the outward journey. This was the night of 24th. December, a night of celebration because of the large number of Christian expats. in the country. We stayed at the Airport Meridien, and became quickly aware of the cost of living in Dubai. We enquired if bookings had to be made for the celebratory dinner provided by the hotel that night. In response, we were offered one of the few remaining seats, at AUD330 (equivalent) per head with champagne, or AUD180 (eq) per head without. We declined, and found that the Hotel also had an Irish Pub, which that night was featuring a traditional English meal at AUD75 (eq) per head We went there, and enjoyed a great meal, which surprisingly, included one dish with ham (from a pig!). Kim was able to renew his acquaintance with Kilkenny beer.
The journey from Dubai to Tunis is seven hours, and we found that Emirates was reasonably good servicewise. They use Airbus 330s on this route, and thus there were no beds. Although we travelled on Christmas Day, obviously there was no traditional Christmas lunch. It can be difficult for Australians to arrive at Tunis. Visas are required, and these are obtained on arrival at an office before Customs/Immigration. Unfortunately, the Tunisian dinar is not convertible, and hence cannot be bought outside the country. Visas must be paid for in dinars. So, after completing an application for a Visa at the office, frequently being elbowed aside by the flock of other people also wanting a Visa, I left my passport and the application at the office and, feeling a bit naked without documents, went looking for dinars.I had to thread my way through milling crowds at both Immigration and Customs, looking for a Bank. Being Friday, all the Banks except one were shut, and it took me some time to find the open one (in the greeting area). It was then a major effort to reverse this journey outwards through Customs and Immigration. I was relieved to eventually find my Passport (and Visa inside) with the officer attending, whose face I had forgotten. Kim, carrying a passport from a fellow Muslim country, didn't require a Visa. The overwhelming first impression of this airport were the clouds of cigarette smoke wafting everywhere.The taxi driver to the hotel overcharged us (as expected) , but we negotiated his fare down to only four times what it should have been (We paid AUD 15 (eq)). The Sheraton is a very old hotel, and was the Hilton when I was in Tunis 30 years ago. It was comfortable enough, and even had a small Father Christmas discreetly placed in the foyer..

Tunisia is an ancient land, first settled in the 11th. century BC by the Phoenicians (from Tyre, in what is now Lebanon). Successively it was occupied by the Romans, then briefly by the Vandals, then Byzantines and a series of Muslim dynasties, then the Ottoman Turks, then it fell under the French. Independence was achieved in 1956, when Habib Bourguiba became the leader of the country. He is known as the father of modern Tunisia. Despite declaring himself President for Life, in 1987 he was overthrown by his then Interior Minister, Zine Al-Abidin ben Ali, who is still President. There is no doubt that secularism came through Bourguiba. It is said that he viewed fundamentalist Islam as primitive and inimical to modern development, most particularly apparent in the standard of education and by the manner in which women were treated. Accordingly, he closed religious schools and expropriated their funds, and then banned the wearing of the veil (burq'ah). As a consequence, the standard of education is good and technical people are being produced. Women are fully emancipated, and wear figure hugging jeans and other modern clothes. Older women sometimes wear the scarf.

Tunisia is not a rich country. It has small amounts of oil, but tourism and remittances from its citizens working offshore are the main sources of the country's foreign income.

Tunis has little of tourist interest. The Phoenician ruins at Carthage (now a suburb of Tunis), dating from the 8th. Century BC, are too scattered and too insignificant, for them to be fully appreciated. This is in contrast to, for example, Ephesus in Turkey. There is a major Museum in Tunis - the Bardo, which has exhibits from all stages of the history of the country. Beyond this, there is a Medina (old City), which has a warren of lanes lined with shops selling everything. We found that the quality of the goods on offer was not high, and we made few purchases. Some of the suburbs of the city are beautifully situated along the shores of the Mediterranean, with large houses painted white with blue trimmings in the Mediterranean style.

We hired a car to drive to Sousse, which is three hours south of Tunis, along the coast road which leads to the Libyan border. We were given a brand new Ford Focus. Although brand new, this vehicle was ungainly in appearance, because it had old and well used wheels and tyres, which seemed to have come from another car of a different type. Despite this, it went well. Driving in Tunisia is not difficult, though it is a left hand drive country. Tunisian drivers, like those in, for example, Malaysia, tend to overtake other cars when they come to them, rather than when it is safe to do so. Consequently, it became important to look at the quality of the shoulder when topping hills, or approaching blind corners. We saw a few vehicles where their drivers had misjudged the ability of shoulders to bear the weight of their vehicles, which had thus toppled off the shoulder into fields below (many of the roads are on earth embankments). On two lane highways, occasionally there would be vehicles, mostly from farms, which travelled on the wrong side of the road for reasons not readily apparent. However, these vehicles travelled slowly, and could be negotiated easily, with a cheerful wave.

Sousse sits on the Mediterranean, and quite a way before it is reached by road, wall-to-wall hotels appear along the beach. These hotels cater for charter tourists, and are mostly closed in winter. However, when we were there some were open, and, with the daily maximum temperature being around 16 degrees, there were hardy souls bathing. Sousse caters well for tourists, but has only tourist class hotels. However, it had a variety of good restaurants, where prices were the equivalent of those in Singapore. The one locally made Tunisian beer (in bottles of only 240 mls) smells of formaldehyde, and I found that I could take this beer or leave it. Lowenbrau from Germany is its largest rival, and is a nice drop.

Aside from being a tourist centre, Sousse is a starting point for visits to a number of important ruins. These mostly date from Roman times, and include the second largest Colosseum in existence (at El Djemm), with a capacity of 30,000 compared with the capacity of 43,000 at Rome's Colosseum, large sea forts (at Monastir and Mahdia). The nearby town of Kairouan is the carpet centre of Tunisia, but we found nothing in this respect of interest.

Via Tunis, we returned to Dubai, stopping at Tripoli. The 'plane filled with passengers at Tripoli, with groups of Japanese tourists, amongst others, boarding. I was surprised at this, as I hadn't realised that Libya was open to tourists. Also, looking at the quality of the Libyan Arab Airlines 'planes on the tarmac, I was not surprised that the Emirates flight was full ! Then on to Dubai, where amongst other things, Kim wanted to ski in the immense man made ski field within the Mall of the Emirates. Dubai is the second richest of the seven Emirates which comprise the UAE. Being settled since ancient times, Dubai had British influence (as part of the Trucial States), and since the mid nineteenth century, has been ruled by the Al_Maktoum dynasty. Presumably before the discovery of oil in 1966, Dubai was an exporter of dates and fish, with some minor entrepot activities. Since 1966, at the behest of then ruler (Sheikh Rasheed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, the father of modern Dubai), the city state has modernised at an amazing rate. Despite this, it is much more Islamic than Tunisia, with many of the local women wearing the burq'ah. Although these are invariably black, they can be embroidered in bright colours, and it is pleasant to look on them.The population is somewhere between 1 million and 2 million, and comprises 80% foreigners, ranging from street sweepers, domestics, shop assistants and taxidrivers (Indians, Bangladeshis and Filipinos predominate) to high powered financial people (Dubai has an "International Financial Centre"). Phenomenal wealth exudes. There are more cranes on the skyline than in any country I have recently been to, and include those on top of a partially built combined hotel/condominium of 200 storeys (being built at the rate of one floor every four days), and in another estate with 40 condominium buildings of 25 floors each. It appears that with the purchase of a condo. unit residency is acquired by the buyer, and this appears to appeal to well heeled Europeans who bask in the climate, particularly in winter (summers are hot, with the daily maximum temperature in the high 40s C). Shopping malls abound, with at least two of them being immense, larger than any here in Singapore. The quality of goods in the shops is world class, and no doubt a delight to (well off) shoppers Despite being in a desert, Dubai is "green", securing 97% of the large amount of water it needs by desalination. Dubai's vision for the future is also amazing. The number of hotels is to be increased dramatically (there are presently 45 5-star hotels out of 278 in all). The largest airport in the world is also to be built. Presently the most flamboyant building is the Burj Al-Arab Hotel, a seven star hotel with 202 suites (these are said to be priced around AUD2,500 (eq) per night and come with gold plated taps and butlers -maybe also gold plated !. Guests are taken from the airport to the hotel by helicopter or Roller). In all, this city state does virtually the same things as Singapore does, perhaps with less substance, but perhaps with more glamour. A place well worth visiting, and probably also a good place to live in. The supermarkets had everything that one might want - including goat's milk and goat meat and even some non-halal meat too. Medical and similar facilities are readily available in numbers. However, to live comfortably, money would be required..

An uneventful flight to Singapore, except that the flight, which had originated in Moscow, included a large number of Russians. Some of their women were statuesque, to say the least, and some were boldly dressed and not couth, even where we were sitting (written like a true snob !).

The rest of the Tunsia holiday pictures can be found here.