Piecesofeight

Peaceful, tranqil, good for the soul, rent a bicycle (you’re not allowed motorbikes in the park), and cycle around the old monuments and temples, bliss. Then head north again on the train. Take a torch. Trying to remove contact lenses in the evening, or put them in at night in a 40 watt light was not fun. The hostels I stayed at seemed to have the dimmest electric lighting I’ve ever seen.

I think you have to look around Bangkok when visiting Thailand if only because that’s the most likely point of arrival, but I have to say I was pretty disgusted by the traffic and the air quality (on the buses I found it difficult not to cough). The nicest place to be was on the river, on the ferries and best of all on the old canal system on a boat tour which apparently is the way all of Bangkok once was. My trip to Thailand in 1993 really began the day I left BK on a train headed north.

Imagine having been born back in the days when High Noon was being filmed, and accidentally walking onto the set. That was how I felt and my shipping companions when we set foot in the main street of San Lorenzo near the Cargill terminal where we were loading animal feed for Europe, into the holds of our merchant ship.

At lunchtime the dusty, sandy, empty, windblown street was deserted and the only thing missing were two cowboys and tumbleweed drifting by.

Rosario, the nearest town, was ok but nothing special, a few bars and shops. I had a strange feeling about Argentina from that trip, it seemed poor and uninteresting, and I’m not sure I’d take the trouble to go back. Perhaps Buenos Aires is a better bet, I really don’t know.

On a voyage from Kobe in Japan, to Rosario in Argentina, the merchant ship I was working on, passed West to East around Cape Horn. It was in June 1994, their winter but the weather was no worse than Force 7 on the Beaufort Scale, a little choppy, the sun was low in the sky and there was snow on the peaks of the mountains of Tierra del Feugo.

I had hoped to travel through the Magellan Straits instead but the shipping company would not pay the $5000 pilotage fee. Either way we had an interesting trip and it’s good to be able to say I’ve been there.

We arrived in Shanghai by merchant ship in the spring of 1988 and docked alongside a wharf on the Shanghai river. I quickly came to realise that Shanghai was a living museum of the 1930s.

Our journeys into town from the ship were by ferry and bus. The only moving vehicles on the street were bicycles, buses and army trucks. The band in the Peace Hotel on the Bund was playing “You are my sunshine” and other oldies while we sat around in the bar and drank beer.

It has changed immeasurably since that time and I am so glad to have seen Shanghai before they discovered private cars and tall buildings.

I visited this island in 1989 with a small merchant ship which was loading sacks of cocoa. We were there for a week and although getting ashore was difficult for various reasons, the Captain did manage to organise a trip one afternoon.

We went around the island by minibus, the land is green and tropical as you’d expect, overgrown with vegetation. There is a strong Portuguese influence in the buildings highlighted for us by a visit to a villa way up in the hills which we were able to visit for half an hour. Polished wooden floors unbelievably surviving in the tropical heat without coming up!

We all wanted to visit the cocoa processing plant given the cargo we were loading but because the political situation then was quite left wing, if not communist, there were restrictions in place and it didn’t happen.

However, the joy of the island is its tranquiility and isolation and I remember thinking that the villa would make a great honeymoon spot if you could book it!

Sadly the island’s tranquility is now under threat from oil exploration and I fear for its future. Go now if it’s not too late.

I was lucky to go by ship but I believe other transport is via Luanda and a local flight from Angola.

Please read this:-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/equatorialguinea/story/0,,1322333,00.html

It tells you everything that was happening there in 2004.

In 1989 I spent 10 days in Takoradi thanks to my job on a merchant ship. We spent most evenings in the Atlantic Hotel, drinking beer, listening to local bands, and fending off the ladies, (mostly) :-). I have to say that all my impressions were good. I was delighted with the warmth of the people, the good spoken English, and the general good nature. Although the furthest I travelled was to the local market to buy a tape of local music, it was all good, and I’d recommend a visit although I can’t of course speak for inland or local hotels and b&bs.

Monday March 11th 1985 – I was lucky enough to arrive by merchant ship the previous night. We were anchored offshore too far to get a boat out (and not yet cleared to enter the port) but close enough to see the lights. I had first seen a photo of the Pelourinho during the voyage from Cadiz, in a National Geographic magazine onboard about Bahia, and was so entranced by the double page spread that I determined to find this place on arrival.

It took three days. I didn’t ask, I didn’t want to spoil the fun of searching. On the day of discovery I took the long winding road up from the Cidade Baixa and came to the Pelourinho not from the most photographed end looking down on the church, but at the bottom, the junction by the church and didn’t recognise it. I walked slowly up the cobbled street towards the buildings at the top, turned around to look at the view, and – speechless.

There was my picture!

I have been in love with Salvador ever since and although the ship was only there for three weeks, I went back in 1989/90 for three months to catch up with a girl I’d met, walk the streets, learn a little of the language, expereience the Carnaval and the Trio Electricos and make friends, it was wonderful.

San Antonio was my favourite district then, and it took me a while to discover it. I met a girl from Radio Educadora who had lived in Salvador for ten years and didn’t know of the existence of the praca San Antonio! I understand the square is full of guesthouses now.

If you like old pastel coloured buildings, wonderful music, tropical temperatures, and don’t mind a long flight, go to Salvador, dress down, don’t wear jewellery, not even a watch, buy local clothes from the market, learn some of the language and go a bit native, you’ll be in heaven, I was.

[Added 23/4/07] Now unbelievably you can visit the whole city from above with Google Earth. “Walk” the streets, re-visit old haunts, see the changes, I’ve been able to view many places I travelled to years ago, without going back. Recommended.

Caveats. My last visit was 1992/93 so my information may be out of date, I went as a cyclist so if you are not cycling this may not apply, I preferred South Island (better scenery) to North Island so you won’t get an objective view about N.I. from these comments.

I recommend NZ to visitors because it has beautiful clean unspoilt scenery, clean air, and friendly people, also having a small population means few crowds, (except Auckland and Wellington) mostly sheep.

For a cyclist it is an absolute joy. I went 88/89 and 92/93 and both times started out by hiring a bike in Auckland and going south by train with the bike to Wellington then across on the ferry to Picton, then doing a clockwise tour of South Island. Between the Youth Hostels, backpackers and motor camps there was always somewhere to stay within a day’s ride (100km or more) at reasonable expense.

Of the whole of South Island I personally liked Lake Tekapo the best, the view from the garden of the YH is magnificent. The view from Kaikoura YH was good too, esp with snow on the facing hills. In 89 & 93 motorists would give you the whole lane width when they overtook, train drivers would wave, oncoming motorists would flash their lights (in friendliness), cyclists were welcomed anywhere when stopping for water. It is (was) a great place to cycle. The most exciting ride (IMHO) was from Makaroa over the Haast Pass and down through the forests out to the West Coast. The ride up the Buller Gorge from Westport to Murchison was good too, but there were so many. I guess we all have our favourites, there were more wonderful rides and sights than I could hope to name in this short write-up.

What I saw of North Island was by bus, train and hitching. Rotorua is worth a visit, Napier definitely for the Art Deco buildings. I know I’ve missed Russell, the Bay of Islands and 90 mile beach but another time.