Issue 3
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COMET - JUNE 1998 - ISSUE 3 For people who like their travel news down loaded, not loaded down. Brought to you by Lonely Planet (http://www.lonelyplanet.com) IN THIS ISSUE The Scoop - News From All Four Corners In the Spotlight - Travelling With Ovaries Two Cents Worth - Tales of Comet Readers Sleeping Around Compass - Get Your Bearings For a Chance To Win LP Books Top 5 - One Reader's Absorbent Offerings The Grill - On the Road With Vera Lynn Soapbox - Morality Versus Manners Shoestrings - Savings For Cardholders You Said it - Travellers' Tips, News & Views What's New On the LP Web Site Talk 2 Us How to Subscribe and Unsubscribe *** THE SCOOP A handful of headlines for world travellers France Nationwide industrial chaos continues to cause major headaches for travellers, as subway and rail workers, Air France pilots and baggage handlers continue to strike in the lead up to the World Cup soccer tournament, which begins on 10 June. Airline mechanics and hotel, department store and weapons plant workers have also announced plans for industrial action. Just 17 per cent of the Air France's usual long-distance flights and 30 per cent of its short and medium-distance flights took off from Charles de Gaulle Airport on the fourth day of the pilots' walkout over pay cuts. Lebanon Beirut visitors tired of taxi tussles will be pleased to hear that cabs between the airport and the city are now metered. The fare for the most lucrative 6km (3.7mi) trip between the city and the airport is now set at LL38,000 (US$25.00). Despite the introduction of the metered taxis, many non-metered taxis, offering the traveller a fare much lower than the official LL38,000, can still be found touting for business at the airport. Airport taxis are the only metered taxis in Lebanon. Russia Striking coal miners in Russia have lifted their blockade along the Trans-Siberian railway, allowing the delivery of supplies, including coal. The miners eased their blockade following negotiations with the government, which has promised to pay miners and other workers their wages. Striking miners held up more than 600 trains between RussiaÆs Pacific coast and Siberia while they waited for the government to agree to pay them more than US$4.5 million in back pay. Find out what else is happening on your planet: http://www.lonelyplanet.com.au/news/newsweek.htm *** IN THE SPOTLIGHT Blood on the Tracks: The Menstrual Traveller While it's getting easier for women to travel, there is still one extra hassle to deal with that no man is ever likely to experience. If you've ever frantically raced around the youth-hostel district of Phnom Penh looking for an open grocery store at 9pm armed only with the local translation of 'sanitary napkins', you'll know what I mean. Menstruation is usually left out of guide books and travel tips - but for any trip longer than three weeks, having your period while you're travelling is one of the few things you can actually be certain of (unless you dive right into the local culture and 'have an accident' during the early days of your journey - but we'll leave that problem for another issue). So what are your options? If you're travelling in 'developed' countries, or in urban areas just about anywhere in the world, you should have little problem getting hold of tampons and none getting your mits on sanitary napkins. You might find, however, that getting hold of the goods is the least of your worries. Tampons have been associated with toxic shock syndrome, an extremely rare but potentially serious bacterial disease, and if you're heading to a destination with dodgy toilet facilities, or where it's impossible to clean your hands, you could be increasing your risk. Bleaches used in tampon manufacture have been linked to cancer, and tampons and sanitary napkins also pose a serious waste problem, clogging up sewerage systems and piling up in landfills all over the world. There are alternatives. Most of them come under the 'oh my God, I'm going to have to touch my bits, and get blood everywhere, and it's so gross!' category, but with a bit of perseverance, many of them can make travelling with your period a whole lot easier. Reusable pads are one of the bulkier options - cotton cloths are wrapped in a fabric cover which clips around the underpants. When soiled, the cloths need to be soaked in cold water, then thrown in with the rest of your laundry. You'd need to carry about eight cloths, and you need access to water. Sea sponges replace tampons in a similar way - cut a piece of sponge to size and use it as you would a tampon. When it's full replace it with another one and wash it in cold water. If you're packing seriously light, consider the Keeper, a reusable rubber cup worn like an upside-down diaphragm. You remove the Keeper once or twice a day, give it a rinse and reinsert it. It lasts for about ten years, rarely leaks, and has had rave reviews from many women, but you do need access to clean water for rinsing. A product called Instead is similar, but non-reusable. Some women prefer to avoid periods altogether. Women on the pill have the option of skipping their monthly 'withdrawal bleeds' - some women report having done this for years in a row, but you should probably discuss it with your doctor if you intend to avoid menstruating for any length of time. If you use Depo-Provera, an injectable contraceptive which provides three months' protection, you will also skip your periods. If you want to take either of these options, you'll need to talk to your doctor or a family planning clinic. And of course there's always the chance that strange food, weird weather, and the everyday stresses of travelling will cause you to skip a few periods without the need for chemical assistance. As well as the general annoyance of dealing with large quantities of blood, many women are also concerned about suffering painful cramps while travelling. Taking the pill can help reduce these. If your cramps are severe enough that you usually treat them with medication, it's worth bringing your own supply. Keep the medication in its original box and carry a prescription if you have one - these are good to wave in the face of suspicious customs officers, and will also help if you want to get more medication while you're on your travels. For more information, see The Red Spot (http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/1072/) Many Moons alternative menstrual products (http://www.pacificcoast.net/~manymoons/) Museum of Menstruation (http://www.mum.org/index.html) Depo-Provera (http://www.depo-provera.com/) Thorn Tree 'Cramps & Travel' (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/women/bgtt.htm) and the Thorn Tree 'Alternatives to Tampons' (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/women/ott.htm). *** TWO CENTS WORTH In the last issue we asked about the weirdest place you've ever slept on your travels. Readers obliged with tales of snoozing inside an igloo on top of Mt Blanc in France, a dugout canoe on the Sico river in Honduras, a cave in Zimbabwe and a grizzly's abandoned den in Alaska. Some snored atop a pile of bleeding rawhide in a truck in Nairobi and on an oil tanker parked outside a brothel in Addis Ababa. A few were caught napping inside a backpack wedged under a rock in Nepal, a spirit house in Papua New Guinea and a train locker in India. Others kipped on a jetty in Sumatra, a construction site in Baja, California and a moose trail surrounded by grizzly tracks in northern Canada. Incredibily resourceful or outrageously cheap? You decide: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/choice/adtt.htm *** COMPASS So much for making Compass harder last time. Loads of you figured out that the event described was the Festival of the Bonfires held each December in Louisiana, USA. As the bonfires stretch for 12 miles along the Mississippi River from Grammercy to Convent we accepted several towns in St James Parish area as the correct answer. The following 20 people won a Lonely Planet Deep South guidebook, USA phrasebook and Sean Condon's new road book 'Drive Thru America' (published by Lonely Planet's travel literature series, Journeys): Carlo Arlandini, Giles Belanger, Tony Bidgood, Susan Bouchon, Gregory Cherlin, Jennifer Cook, Gordon Deboo, Billie A. Hamm, Suzanne Isack, Carl & Sherry Kottmeier, Jenny O'Leary, Ronald Picard, Neil Spence, Ann Stockham, Linda Stopforth, Brian Tidlund, Doug Vickers, Paula Williams, Babs Wright and Brian Yeh. This month's destination should get you thinking. Name the place, region and country described below for a chance to win one of 20 prize packs featuring LP's new Walking In Italy guidebook, Italy guidebook and Italian Phrasebook. At sunset in a cool green valley brimming with flowers you watch the fading light transform the great vertical peaks above from white to blue-grey then rose and purple. You heed the warnings of locals, many of whom speak German, about the extreme weather conditions characteristic of this 80km-long stretch of mountains and valleys crisscrossed by a vast network of walking trails. You set off early the next morning to scale strange-shaped steeples, pinnacles and towers. As an icy wind picks up it's hard to imagine these mountains were born out of an ancient tropical sea 250 million years ago. Think your internal compass is working? Email us at: comet@lonelyplanet.com.au Don't forget to include your name and postal address with your answer, which must include the correct name of the place, region and country described. *** TOP 5 Mark H. Lewis managed only four nominations in this month's Top 5, but that's probably a good thing - more research may have caused a nasty injury. The Worst Toilet Paper Substitutes Offered at Restrooms or Gas Stations: 1. A handkerchief, to be used and rinsed out in the bathroom sink and given back to the attendant for use by the next passerby (New Mexico) 2. Cactus woody skeleton pieces (Baja, California) 3. Sheep's bladder (English countryside) 4. Bird wing (Morocco) Send us your Top 5 and if we REALLY like it we'll send you a free LP guide and publish it in an up-coming issue of Comet. Email us at: comet@lonelyplanet.com.au *** THE GRILL Time to grill opera singer Mary-Louise Santa on the art of travel. At 19 she hit the road with the Australian Army singing Vera Lynn tunes in a military tattoo, and before long had swapped her khaki strides for a scholarship to La Scala in Milan. She's been singing her way around the world for the past 10 years, and her eclectic career has taken her from concert series in Florence and Cats shows in Hamburg to Unicef concerts in Zagreb in the midst of civil war. COMET: How do you cure homesickness? MARY-LOUISE: My first long stint abroad alone was tough at first, especially dealing with the queues in Italy. They queue for everything, even groceries. You queue to send a parcel back home or to bank a check, and all this difficulty to do simple things added to my homesickness. I carried a couple of eucalyptus leaves and burnt them to remind me of the Australian bush, stuck pot plants on my balcony, whipped out the Vegemite and spread it thickly over toast, had a weep, drank copious amounts of red wine and, in times of real distress, called home. COMET: What three things do you do when you're travelling that you'd never do at home? MARY-LOUISE: Speak to complete strangers, have strange love affairs, lose all concept of distance. COMET: What's the most overrated place on earth? MARY-LOUISE: Coober Pedy in South Australia. COMET: Where do you head to when you're tired of talking to other travellers and want to meet some locals? MARY-LOUISE: I get on a bus, train or motor scooter and head for the suburbs. I've found great restaurants, bargains, fabulous people, unexpected galleries, free concerts, B&Bs, cheap language schools - I'd recommend it to every traveller. COMET: When was the last time you arrived in a new town to discover you were just in time for the party/festival/terrorist attack of the year? MARY-LOUISE: I arrived in Verona in time to go to an open air performance of Puccini's La Boheme at the Arena Di Verona. It was raining and I thought the performance would be cancelled, but the taxi driver assured me it would go on. I bought a ticket from a scalper for the bargain price of L19,000. I made sure my ticket looked exactly the same as everybody else's, just in case I was buying a bum ticket - Italians will rip you off while they're singing to you. The rain stopped 10 minutes prior to the overture and everybody held a candle, which looked absolutely magical against the black sky. You could buy a plastic coat for L5000 that didn't win you any fashion awards but was mighty practical. The acoustics of the arena were incredible, and the voices soared. *** SOAPBOX How far would you stray from your moral code to show respect for the customs of locals you meet on your travels? Adbuster's philosphical question recently shook the Your Choice branch of the Thorn Tree (LP's online traveller bulletin board). Should polite vegetarians swallow their principles - and the sheep's eye hors d'oeuvres kindly offered to them - out of gratitude to their carnivorous hosts? Would you do drugs, jump off the wagon or slit a sheep's throat for a family feast simply to avoid offending people? How far would you go to please guests of your own? Weigh into the debate: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/choice/jhtt.htm Or swing over to another branch of the Thorn Tree and create a post of your own: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorn/thorn.htm *** SHOESTRING Tips for travellers with more time than money If you're studying or under 26, student and youth ID cards are your ticket to real savings on the road. International Student Identity Cards (ISIC) are issued by youth hostels, student unions and student travel agencies such as STA or Council Travel. Get a card before you leave home or while you're travelling to be eligible for discounts on air, rail, bus and ferry fares, museums, galleries and some accommodation. The international trade in fake student cards has led places to stipulate a maximum age for student discounts, effectively substituting a 'youth discount' for a 'student discount'. If you're going to Europe or the UK and are under 26 but are not a student, you can apply for a Go25 card issued by the Federation of International Youth Travel Organisations (FIYTO), or the Euro<26 card, which go under different names in various countries (UNDER 26 in England and Wales, Young Scot in Scotland, Carte Jeune in France, CJP in the Netherlands etc). These cards offer the greatest range of discounts in Europe and the UK (in fact the Euro<26 can't be used outside these countries). Youth hostel cards (also called YHA or HI cards) are another source of discounted accommodation. You can pick these up from youth hostel offices. *** YOU SAID IT Some of the latest UNVERIFIED reports & tips from travellers China Last winter when I travelled in China for three months, the most helpful thing my friend and I had (apart from a good guide) was a Chinese-English train timetable. You can find all the trains in China in this book. It takes a little time to find out how it works but I would not have wanted to travel without it. It makes buying train tickets so much easier. You just point at the train number and destination in the book, add the number of tickets you want and whether you want hard sleepers, and you always get the tickets you need. It doesn't get you out of the long lines, though. We bought the book at the Bejing railway station at the foreigners' ticket window for about $4. Elvira Hautvast, May 1998) Indonesia I recently spent a very enjoyable week in Cianjur as guest of a language school. In return for speaking with students learning English I was given free accommodation, meals and trips to untouristed sights. They are keen to receive more English speaking visitors, whether they are native speakers or not. Cianjur is between Bogor and Bandung, close to Puncak pass, so it's on most travellers' routes east-west or vice versa. Your hosts, students and teachers, can show you rural village life, unique floating fish ponds, plastic recycling, tea plantations, Sundanese food and culture and, if you are as lucky as I was, a Sundanese wedding. They will teach you Indonesian and Sundanese, but the best part is living in a town where nobody has seen a tourist. You will be made very welcome. Contact Yudi or Siti at Interlingua (Tel: 0263-268373; email yudi-sujana@hotmail.com). (Tracy Pearl, May 1998) USA These are actual comments left in 1997 on Forest Service registration sheets and comment cards by backpackers completing wilderness camping trips: 'A small deer came into my camp and stole by bag of pickles. Is there a way I can get reimbursed? Please call.' 'Trails need to be wider so people can walk while holding hands.' 'Escalators would help on steep uphill sections.' 'Found a smoldering cigarette left by a horse.' (Robert Von Liski, May 1998) Take me to your reader. For more travellers' tales: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/postcards.htm *** WHAT'S NEW ON THE LP WEB SITE We've finally emptied out the mailbags: check out the brand new Asian Postcards at http://www.lonelyplanet.com/letters/asia_pc.htm. Chris Taylor's walking for redemption on the Mt Kailash pilgrimage trail: read 'The Accidental Pilgrim' at http://www.lonelyplanet.com/journeys/pilgrim/pilgrim.htm Get like Genghis in Mongolia at http://www.lonelyplanet.com/dest/nea/mon.htm or check out the charms of Croatia at http://www.lonelyplanet.com/dest/eur/cro.htm. Check out our new guidebooks, phrasebooks and travel literature this month, including fabulously shiny editions of Chicago, Lisbon, Mexico, Walking In Italy and Drive Thru America. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/prop/newlist.htm#out Keep an eye out for Canary Islands, Berlin, Pakistan and Bejing coming soon. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/prop/newlist.htm#soon You can find Lonely Planet on the Web: http://www.lonelyplanet.com On AOL (keyword: lp) And on Minitel (3615 lonelyplanet) *** TALK 2 US Is Comet the greatest thing to happen to travellers since a broke Swiss soldier decided to hock his knife, or about as useful as a backpack full of wet matches? Let us know how we're doing: talk2us@lonelyplanet.com.au *** SUBSCRIBE & UNSUBSCRIBE Subscribing and unsubscribing to Comet is dead easy. Do it all from your desktop. To subscribe: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/comet To unsubscribe: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/comet/uncomet.htm Don't have web access? Send us an email and we'll do it for you: comet@lonelyplanet.com.au Lonely Planet now produces two different newsletters: Comet (monthly via email) and Planet Talk (quarterly via snail mail and bookshops). If you're currently on the mailing list for Lonely Planet's quarterly printed newsletter, Planet Talk, but would prefer to receive Comet instead, let us know: comet@lonelyplanet.com.au COPYRIGHT All material in Planet Talk is copyright (c) 1998 Lonely Planet Publications. All rights reserved. Although we have tried to make the information in Comet as accurate as possible, the authors and publishers accept no responsibility for any loss, injury or inconvenience sustained by any person using this newsletter.
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