The Weekly Web

Image courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History

My round-up of the best of my online ramblings over the past week begins with the Shamans of Siberia. The American Museum of Natural History in New York City has a comprehensive program of events and activities that run throughout the year. I have visited the museum twice and hope to visit again during my trip to New York over the coming summer. I signed up for their email newsletters several years ago, and each issue always makes me wish I lived much closer to the museum than my current address some ten thousand miles away. 

The latest newsletter had several links to items of interest, and I thought this would be a good time to mention an ongoing program called Shelf Life, which presents a series of short videos highlighting the Natural History museum’s ongoing conservation programs. In Shamans of Siberia in 360, we get to look at an expedition to Siberia that took place from 1897 to 1902.

The Jesup North Pacific Expedition (1897–1902) was conceived and directed by Franz Boas, the founder of American anthropology. The expedition aimed to investigate the links between the people and cultures of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America and the eastern Coast of Siberia. Boas was also concerned about documenting cultures that he and many other anthropologists feared would soon be lost to colonialism and acculturation.

The video below is one of the new style of documents that presents footage in 360 degrees. Make sure you enlarge the video to full screen, and then use your cursor to manipulate the film to see everything around the camera.

Read more here…

The ‘Protector’ and ‘Fitzjames’ (in the background), c.1885 at Largs Bay. State Library of South Australia

South Australia’s “hell afloat”

InDaily is an online publication out of Adelaide, Australia—my home town. The site has been publishing a regular series, Time and Place, which focusses specifically on important South Australian events and achievements. The entry: South Australia’s “hell afloat”, provided information about an aspect of the state’s early history I knew nothing about, and I suspect that few others did—or still do.

Between 1880 and 1891 the hulk Fitzjames, colloquially known as ‘hell afloat’, served as a Reformatory for over 100 boys aged from eight to 16 years of age. The first 35 of these were transferred from the Boys’ Reformatory at Magill on 5 March 1880. Some had been sentenced for having committed serious crimes, while others had been found guilty of petty theft, or deemed uncontrollable or neglected.

Read more here…

More Time and Place stories here…

Sumida River, Tokyo.

36 Hours in East Tokyo

One of the most daunting cities for foreign visitors, Tokyo is a manic, hyperactive assault on the senses. But steady your focus and you’ll notice that a distinct strand of traditional elements also weaves through the Japanese capital. Even without leaving Eastern Tokyo, here defined as the area east of the Imperial Palace, a visitor can experience the enormous breadth of what this mesmerizing metropolis has to offer. From boutiques blooming in abandoned spaces to new ramen shops taking root amid glittering high-rises, Eastern Tokyo promises — now more than ever — to leave even experienced travelers wide-eyed with wonder.

Read more here...

National Portrait Gallery, London

50 Free Things to Do in London, England

Actually, this Guardian newspaper series dating from 2012, originally ran to 200 free things to do in London. I have included links to Parts 3 & 4 of the series, but Part 2 seems to have disappeared. Even the Guardian website does not seem to know where it is. Be aware that some of the details provided in the articles may have changed in the five years since first publication.

See Part 1: Central London...

Part 2: I will update this post when (and if) I find part two of this series

See Part 3: North London...

See Part 4: West London...

Photo by Dan Winters / Courtesy NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS

Interstellar Travel — Don’t Hold Your Breath

This story by Burkhard Bilger (The Martian Chroniclers), published in the New Yorker in April, 2013, is a ‘long read’, but is worth the time taken to read in full. Mars of course, is the next planet humans have long set their eyes and hearts on to send a manned mission to. The fascination with the red planet is the belief that some form of life (however basic and primitive), exists on some primal level. 

The search for life on Mars is now in its sixth decade. Forty spacecraft have been sent there, and not one has found a single fossil or living thing. The closer we look, the more hostile the planet seems: parched and frozen in every season, its atmosphere inert and murderously thin, its surface scoured by solar winds. By the time Earth took its first breath three billion years ago, geologists now believe, Mars had been suffocating for a billion years. The air had thinned and rivers evaporated; dust storms swept up and ice caps seized what was left of the water. The Great Desiccation Event, as it’s sometimes called, is even more of a mystery than the Great Oxygenation on Earth. We know only this: one planet lived and the other died. One turned green, the other red.

If humans ever do make it to Mars, and survive long enough to reproduce and populate that planet, it will be long after I have moved on to whatever other dimension awaits—if any. Personally, I can’t see the point of exporting the full gamut of human foibles and failings to another planet—unless the first hundred crews are manned by politicians, and that is never going to happen. If we can’t get this world sorted out, what makes anyone think we can do so on a planet as harsh and barren as Mars? But that’s just the cynic in me talking. I’d love to read your comments on this topic. In the meantime, you can read the full article here…

Was David Letterman At 1969 Jimi Hendrix Gig?

Well you can call me crazy but today I was watching a YouTube video of Jimi Hendrix playing a concert at London’s famed Royal Albert Hall in 1969, and as a camera pans across the faces of audience members, I swear I spotted David Letterman in the crowd.

Yes, that’s the David Letterman of the old Late Show With… show.

Letterman, who was born in 1947, would have been around 21 or 22 at the time of the concert.

Does anyone know whether he ever mentioned seeing Hendrix in London on his show?

Below is a screen grab from the video with an insert I’ve added of Letterman. You can see a clear resemblance, or am I imagining things?

In the video of the 1969 Royal Albert Hall concert, Letterman appears for about three seconds the 2:43 mark.

So, am I crazy or not? 

The Reading List 5

This week the Reading List looks at the street photography of Henri Cartier-Bresson, twenty free London attractions, and the importance of saying "Thank You".

10 Things Henri Cartier-Bresson Can Teach You About Street Photography

Eric Kim, at Eric Kim Photography has put together a great photo essay outlining 10 Things Henri Cartier-Bresson Can Teach You About Street Photography.

Among Eric's suggestions: Focus on geometry, Be patient, Travel, Stick to one lens, Take photos of children (see image), Be unobtrusive, See the world like a painter, Don’t crop,  Don’t worry about processing, and Always strive for more. 

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Twenty free attractions in London (by Robert Reid)

There’s an excellent article over in the travel section of the BBC.COM website, outlining 20 free attractions in London. As the article, by Robert Reid states: No city in the world has more free stuff to do. In addition to admission-free world-class museums, there are parks, canal walks, supermarkets (Portobello Road Market at Notting Hill Gate, Camden Market at Chalk Farm Road, Columbia Road Flower Market in East London) and maybe even some royal-spotting to pass the time. The possibilities are endless.

As you would expect, all the heavyweights are here including the British Museum, Houses of Parliament, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, and National Portrait Gallery. But among Robert’s recommendations are some less well known sites like the British Film Institute's Mediatheque, which features four cinemas (not free) and the fun Mediatheque, where you can peruse the DTV/film archives and watch items for free.

The there is the Museum of London, of which Robert writes, “Off the radar to most visitors, yet one of the city's great attractions, this museum offers a walk through London's various incarnations - from Thames Valley geological history, to Anglo-Saxons and 21st-Century bankers.”

He also offers the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, the Photographers' Gallery, Serpentine Gallery (in Kensington Gardens), and others. All in all, it is a great list to get you started if you are planning a visit to London at any time.

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Uncornered Market on The Importance of Saying Thank You

Daniel Noll over at the Uncornered Market has been musing on the importance of saying Thank You as you travel the world. He begins…

This is about saying thank you: why we do it, the ways we do it, the cheapening of it, the deepening of it. And why, when you’re traveling, it’s one of the most important words to know in the local language.

Thank you. For travelers, it’s no wonder those words are among the first our guidebooks suggest we learn. With such a simple expression, satisfaction is affirmed, respect is underscored, roads of goodwill are paved and we are bound to one another just a little bit more than we otherwise might have been. Read full article here...

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Friday Fotos – London May Day

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Ah, those were the days. I remember them well, or at least as well as my aging memory is able to recall after more than 30 years.

Back, way back, when I was in my 20s living in London during the 1970s, it seemed as if there was a demonstration taking place there every weekend, and I’m sure I attended most of them. There were liberation struggles in Africa to support; anti-racist protests against home-grown nationalists; support for the burgeoning women’s movement, and of course the struggle to unite Northern Ireland with the rest of that troubled country.

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The series of images captured here were taken around London’s Trafalgar Square in the aftermath of the May Day march that ended there in 2008. To be honest, I had completely forgotten the anniversary, and just happened upon the event as the final speeches were taking place and the crowd was dispersing.

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May Day (celebrated on May 1) is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival related to the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night (after Saint Walpurga, an English missionary to the Frankish Empire who was canonized on 1 May ca. 870 by Pope Adrian II).

Since the end of the nineteenth century, May Day has also become synonymous with International Workers' Day, or Labour Day, and the annual anniversary is often used as a day of political protest.

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Now this is more like it! Forget the KISS principle, let’s combine a series of slogans on one placard to maximise the message.

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Friday Foto – Tradesmen’s Entrance

I spotted this sign on the gate of a large property as I wandered through the streets of the London suburb of Kensington, one spring day in March 2008. I hope this sign, and the class society it represents, is a relic of a distant past, and that tradespeople and servants are now able to enter the building in question via the front door, rather than be required to enter through a rear entrance.

The building in question, Cromwell Mansions, and the sign itself (at lower right) can be seen below in this screen shot taken from Google Maps. The address is 217-239, Cromwell Road, Kensington, London.

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Friday Photos: South Bank, London

Image: Salvador Dali sculpture on London’s South Bank of the Thames River

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Three images taken during my visit to London in March 2008. Specifically, the shots were taken while walking along the South Bank of the Thames River.

The first photograph is of a sculpture by the surrealist artist, Salvador Dalí. This was part of an exhibition of Dali’s works taking place at the time, although I can’t tell you what the work is called. If any reader does know, please feel free to share the title of the work via the Comments section for this post.

Dali was a highly imaginative, Spanish Catalan painter who liked to take part in unusual and grandiose behavior, in order to draw attention to himself – the most obvious of which was the way he waxed and shaped his moustache to curve upwards towards the top of his head. This apparently irked those who loved his art as much as it annoyed his critics, since his eccentric manner sometimes drew more public attention than his artwork.

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Image: Foot of light fitting on London’s South Bank of the Thames River

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I am continually fascinated by the way art is incorporated into everyday objects – like the footings of the light fittings along the wall overlooking the Thames River. These objects were produced in an age when building projects often seemed to include an artistic element to them, despite the extra cost of construction that casting something as elaborate as this footing must have entailed. Today, everything seems to be built with eyes firmly fixed on keeping costs as low as possible, with the result that very little excites the eye, or fires the imagination once construction is completed.

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Image: London Eye on the South Bank of the Thames

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I didn’t get an opportunity to ride the London Eye, during my all too brief visit to London in 2008. Even in early March, when I was there, the queues were longer than I had the patience to line up for. From the ground it makes for a spectacular sight though, and if I find myself in the vicinity again with more time on my hands – and patience – I will make the journey to the top.

The Art of Subways

~ For most commuters, subways are often a ‘necessary evil’ that simply help them get from one part of a city to another in (hopefully) the safest, quickest and most comfortable way possible. Generally, people don’t travel around the world just to see subway stations, but some subway systems are well worth the visit.

As someone who rarely uses public transport at home, I was more than happy to re-acquaint myself with that means of travel as I explored London, New York City, and Athens in 2008. Of the three cities mentioned, I personally found London’s subway system (the ‘underground’) to be the least interesting visually. It began operating in 1863, and as the first underground transport system in the world, its designers and architects didn’t waste time or money trying to turn it into a work of art.

Thanks to the 2004 Olympic Games, Athens has a stunning new subway. While the underground component is not particularly extensive, it is clean and efficient. It also incorporates many fascinating archaeological discoveries unearthed during the construction of the network that are worth seeking out and examining closely in their own right.

The first underground line in New York’s subway system opened in October 1904. While many of the old lines and stations are showing signs of wear and tear, the inclusion of works of art or station designs that were aesthetically pleasing to commuters, was part of the brief city engineers and architects had to take into consideration when planning the subway.

Many stations are decorated with intricate ceramic tile work, some of it dating back to 1904 when the subway first opened for business. The "Arts for Transit" program oversees art in the subway system. Permanent installations, such as sculpture, mosaics, and murals; photographs displayed in lightboxes, and musicians performing in stations encourage people to use mass transit. Some of the art is by internationally-known artists such as Elizabeth Murray's Blooming, [see image] displayed at Lexington Avenue/59th Street station.
[Source: Wikipedia…]

The New York subway system was a revelation as I constantly discovered massive murals, quirky sculptures, colourful mosaics and many other types of art scattered through the subterranean depths beneath that great metropolis.

Which brings me to the Design Boom website.

They have posted a feature on some of the world’s most visually stunning subways systems and their stations, and it is well worth taking a look at. Of course, most of the stations illustrated in the article are far newer than either the New York City or London subway systems. Never the less, all are a feast for the eye and would surely make even the most jaded and jet-lagged traveller, reach for their cameras to capture the underground wonders they are passing through.

Artwork: Blooming, Elizabeth Murray (1996).
Photo by: Wayne Whitehorne

Travelling Lighter

~ Yesterday, I bought a new piece of luggage in preparation for my travels next year (see image).

It is a 54cm ‘Jet Stream’ bag from Tosca. That’s right, folks, 54cm. That is less than two feet high for those of you still using Imperial weights and measures. Anything smaller, and I would be restricting myself to carry-on luggage only!

I have written before on this blog about the concept of travelling light, and next year I hope to put my own advice into practise. As I said in an early post on House Sitting, I will be looking after a house for six weeks in Melbourne early in the new year, and I am using it as a practise run for my packing skills before I fly out to Europe in April or May.

I figure if can pack light enough to survive six weeks in Melbourne, I won’t need to pack anything extra for my European trip.

I should point out that I will also have a small carry-on backpack which will hold all my non-wearable gear such as camera, laptop computer, battery chargers, and other associated paraphernalia. I will also have a small ‘man bag’ – actually an old laptop computer bag for those extra items one always needs on long haul flights (water, ear plugs, reading material, etc).

Last year I used the 71cm version of the bag you see illustrating this post – as well as the backpack, and let me tell you, folks, a full 71cm bag is a pain in the back (not to mention the @ss) to drag around London, New York, Athens and the Greek islands!

I vowed that never again would I take such a large bag with me on my travels, and so the baby of the set, the 54cm piece will hopefully do the job for me. I say, ‘hopefully’, because I honestly don’t know if it will be enough, but then, one of the benefits of my six week house sitting gig is that it gives me the opportunity to fine tune my packing before I depart for Greece and beyond.

When I do eventually head off to Melbourne, I will post a complete packing list on this blog just so you can see what I have selected. Once the house sit is over, I will again post an entry letting you know what worked and what didn’t.

The Week That Was #11

Welcome to my weekly collection of The Odd, The Useful, and The Downright Bizarre.

The Odd: First up, I’m posting a video for you to watch, but only if you promise never to do what you are about to see on your next international flight.

Promise? Ok, then. Now you can watch it:



The Useful: 5 secrets for avoiding sky-high cell phone bills. Christopher Elliott, over at Consumer Traveller writes about ways to avoid exorbitant cell phone bills while you are travelling, and recounts one example of Verizon greed when a traveller returned home from vacation to a staggering $8,000 cell phone debt. Among the strategies Elliott suggests for keeping your cell phone costs under control are these: Buy another phone in the country you are visiting; Get a plan that specifically includes overseas calls at favourable rates; Go VOIP and use services such as Skype; Swap cards — that is, swap out the SIM cards on your phone with a local national card; and finally, if all else fails, turn your phone off or better still, leave it at home. Read more here…

The Downright Bizarre: "Putpockets" give a little extra cash. How’s this for a weird promotional idea? A British broadband provider is paying reformed pickpockets to surreptitiously slip money into the pockets of unsuspecting Londoners. Instead of ‘pickpockets’ the firm has coined the word, putpockets, because the former thieves now give people money instead of steal it from them. "It feels good to give something back for a change -- and Britons certainly need it in the current economic climate," said Chris Fitch, a former pickpocket who now heads TalkTalk's putpocketing initiative. Fagan would be rolling over in his grave! Read more here…

Friday Photo #9: Cheeky Monkey

Click image to view larger size…

One of the first places I visited on my return to London in March 2008 (after an absence of over 30 years), was London’s Natural History Museum in Kensington.

Originating from collections within the British Museum, the landmark Alfred Waterhouse building was built and opened by 1881. The museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 70 million items within five main collections: Botany, Entomology, Mineralogy, Palaeontology and Zoology. Given the age of the institution, many of the collections have great historical as well as scientific value, and include specimens collected by Charles Darwin.

The foundation of the collection was that of the Ulster doctor Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753). Sloane's collection, which included dried plants, and animal and human skeletons, was initially housed in Montague House in Bloomsbury in 1756, which was the home of the British Museum.

Walking through the building taking in the many displays, my attention was captured by the sight of hundreds of carved monkeys climbing the internal walls and support structures of this magnificent building. Like the gargoyles which were the subject of a previous Friday Photo (Friday Photo #4: London Gargoyle), these monkeys and other decorations represent an age when workmanship and beauty were greatly prized and appreciated.

There is much to see and appreciate in the Natural History Museum, and not all of it is behind glass cases. The next time you visit this building, take the time to look around and see how many of these cheeky monkeys adorn the main entry hall, and marvel at the skilful hands that created these objects of delight and splendor.

Note: visible in the photograph are at least 18 similar monkeys on the curved column on the far wall to the left of the monkey shown here in close-up. Presumably someone knows the exact number of monkeys

Visit the Natural History Museum here…

Photograph: Cheeky Monkey, by Jim Lesses

Location: Natural History Museum, London, England

With thanks to Wikipedia for the background information on the Museum

Friday Photo #4: London Gargoyle

Click on image to view full size

London is full of buildings that were constructed in an age when owners where not just interested in throwing up any old edifice, but wanted buildings that would last. Buildings with character. Buildings with charm and personality. Buildings that appealed with their unique individuality.

Imagine the amount of time, effort and craftsmanship – not to mention, money – that went into creating the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of gargoyles adorning thousands of buildings across Britain, and indeed the rest of the world. Will we ever see their like again? Which entrepreneur today; which Board of Directors; which construction magnate will direct their architects to design buildings that are not just functional – but aesthetically pleasing, not just to their owners, shareholders and users, but for generations to come?

Whose imagination sparked this cheeky gargoyle? Whose skilled hands wielded the tools and materials to craft this one individual character? This one, out of countless millions?

Did the artisan delight in the shape and form of this creature? Did he find – or hide – some deeper meaning in its pose and expression? Was he offering a not so subtle comment on the wealth and standing of the building’s owner? It’s eventual occupants?

We will never know. We are left forever to wonder and speculate. And finally, to appreciate and enjoy.

Location: Building façade in Carmelite Street, London, EC4

Photographer: Jim Lesses, September 30, 2008

Note: Click on image to view full size.

Ten Things for Ten Dollars (more or less)

~ The Hostel Bookers website is featuring a number of cities where they say you can see 10 things for $10. That is, ten dollars per selected attraction or event. Well, more or less.

I’m not sure about the math, and I guess it all depends on the exchange rates you achieve at the time you are travelling, but I like the idea behind the series. It is good to know that not everything has to be a constant attack on your credit card whenever you travel.

There are cheap things to do in every major city in the world, and in fact, using the resources of the internet, you can easily find a host of free things to do in all the cities selected for these online features.

So far, the site has created lists for the cities of New York, Edinburgh, Paris, Barcelona, Rome, Athens, Amsterdam, and London.

The articles focus on the not quite ‘top tier’ attractions. Sites that might be your second choice, rather than your first. For example: instead of fighting your way through the thousands of tourists swarming over the Forum and the Colosseum in Rome, they recommend a visit to Ostia Antica, the remarkable ruins of ancient Rome’s port city.

In Athens they suggest a visit to the Agora (market) that surrounds the Acropolis, and I agree. I spent several hours exploring this area and was surprised by the many ‘hidden’ treasures this site holds. Developed in the 6th century BC, the Agora was once the focal point of Ancient Greek society. It was here that Socrates first talked philosophy and where St Paul tried to convert people to Christianity.

I can also vouch for the full English Breakfast they recommend on the London feature. I would start each day with the ‘Builder’s Breakfast’, which as its name suggests is a meal fit for the British working man. For £5, you can expect each ‘Full English’ to consist of bacon, eggs, sausage, baked beans, fried tomatoes, toast and a large pot of black tea. It may not be the healthiest way to start the day, but it was cheap, filling, and enough to see you through several hours of brisk walking around London’s busy streets.

I can only say, I wish I had the information in my hands before I visited New York, London and Athens, last year. London especially, I found to be very expensive, and if it hadn’t been for the fact that museums and galleries offer mostly free entry, I’m not sure that I would have been able to see very much at all during my all too brief stay there.

Thankfully, New York was much more wallet friendly, and I was surprised at the range of reasonably priced attractions on offer. Of course, there is so much to see and do in New York anyway, that you could spend days, and weeks, simply walking around that great city before you felt a need to pay to see the major attractions that virtually every tourist or visitor has on their list of ‘must see’ sites.

Anyway, if you are heading to any of the cities listed, take the time to explore the links to your location of choice and see how much money you can save by visiting some of the recommended sites.

Image: Agora, Athens, Greece.

Photograph: Jim Lesses

Friday Photo #2: Autumn Creepers, London

Note: Click on image to view full sized.

Taken just a few days before I left London before my return to Australia in late September 2008. I was attracted by the autumnal colours of this wall creeper in St. Bride’s Passage, near St. Paul’s Cathedral.

I am repeatedly attracted to examples of how nature adapts to urban environments and often survives and thrives in the most unlikely places. City workers hurry past views like this and barely give them a second thought – assuming they notice them at all. But for me, it is precisely these splashes of colour (representing nature at its most delightful), that make city living bearable.

It is discoveries like this that make hours of walking busy city streets worth the effort. You never know where the surprises are, or what they might be. And yet they are everywhere, waiting to be discovered by the alert observer.

Location: St. Bride’s Passage, EC4, London, England.

Photograph: by Jim Lesses, September 30, 2008.

Note: Click on image to view full sized.

Take a Slow Boat To…

~ Ever heard the expression, Taking a slow boat to China?

Well, guess what? You can still catch a slow boat to China. Or to New York, London, Piraeus (Greece), and even Sydney, or to any number of other working ports around the world. And I’m not talking about using luxury cruise ships either. I’m talking about utilising the sea lanes of the world to reach your destination by travelling on a merchant ship.

Yes, Ripley, believe it or not, many merchant ships have paying passengers aboard who prefer taking that form of travel rather than fly, drive, or by ocean liner.

However, sailing on a merchant ship is not for everyone. Here are some issues to consider before you elect to travel via this method:

• All freighter companies have age restrictions which exclude children under 5 years of age, and most set a maximum age limit of 75-80 years.
• Few merchant ships have lifts, which means passengers must be fit and healthy enough to negotiate many flights of stairs each day.
• Merchant ships are working ships – not holidays at sea. Apart from television and movies, they may also include a small swimming pool; an exercise room with not much more than table tennis, stationary bike, and a few weights; a small library of well read books; and that’s about it.
• This form of travel is much cheaper than sailing with a cruise line, but more expensive than flying.
• Your time in a foreign port is severely restricted – sometimes as little as eight to twelve hours.
• Most merchant ships carry as few as six paying passengers and generally no more than twelve. This makes for a very small and potentially intimate group of fellow passengers.
• If you prefer the anonymity of large crowds (or the crowded decks of an 800 passenger cruise ship), freighter travel may not be for you.
• If you find it hard to relax on an quiet deck in a comfortable chair with a good book, freighter travel may not be for you.
• If you have difficulty keeping yourself amused, and active, freighter travel may not be for you.

The Benefits of Freighter Travel
Given these (and other) restrictions, why would anyone choose to travel on a working cargo ship? I’m glad you asked. Let’s look at the benefits of freighter travel.

• The informality. Passengers are not required to dress up for meals. Men can leave their ties, and ladies their cocktail dresses at home.
• Freighters do not offer any pre-planned activities like cruise ships do, and mealtimes are the only daily structure. This means…
• You have time to relax on an uncrowded deck in a comfortable deck chair with a good book.
• You can sit in quiet contemplation and watch the ocean roll by for as long as you wish.
• Freighter passengers enjoy extended contact with officers and crew.
• Most freighters are liberal with bridge visitation, and unrestricted bridge visits are not uncommon.
• With ships carrying only 2 to 12 passengers, lasting friendships are often formed between passengers and officers.

Types of Freighters
There are several types of merchant ships you might consider travelling with.

Container Ships: The most popular method of transporting goods by sea is the container ship. Container ships can be loaded and unloaded very quickly. One of the disadvantages of this, as far as passengers are concerned, is that the fast loading and unloading of containers means that time ashore is usually quite limited. The ship would rarely spend more than 24 hours in port - often less in a very efficient container terminal.

General Cargo Ships: These are ships that transport cargo that will not fit into containers, such as large machinery, sheets of metal, timber, agricultural exports etc. The slower loading and unloading of general cargo - also known as break bulk - means that general cargo ships usually spend much longer in port than container ships - making them an excellent choice for passengers who wish to spend as much time ashore as possible.

Bulk Carriers: These ships transport 'loose' cargo, such as coal, mineral ores, phosphates and grain in holds below deck. Again, like general cargo ships, bulk carriers tend to spend longer times in port loading and unloading.

Other types of merchant shipping includes 'Roll on - Roll off' ships; Mail and Supply ships; and other smaller craft.

Some helpful websites to get you started:
For answers to almost everything you need to know visit:
The excellent FAQ at Freighter Trips…
...and read about the origins of the phrase Slow Boat to China…

The Obsessive Traveller

~ I recently finished reading, The Obsessive Traveller by the Australian author David Dale.

Despite the fact that it was first published in 1991, I like the book for the way Dale combines many experiences into each chapter. Rather than write in a linear fashion, that is, start at the beginning of a journey and document his travels from start to finish, he divides the book into sections with each chapter looking at different aspects of the travel experience.

That way he can write about, and compare luxury hotels he has stayed at in America, France, Italy, and elsewhere. Or he can do the same for meals he has eating in various countries; famous burial grounds he has visited – one of his obsessions; and a host of other experiences.

I particularly liked his fondness for choosing an item from menus when he has no idea of what the item or meal might be. It was the danger and excitement of knowing he might discover an amazing gastronomic delight, or find himself eating something plain and bland, or worse still, disgusting and inedible that made his dining out experiences just that much more interesting.

Dale also made a point of using public transport as much as possible wherever he travelled. As he rightly noted, and as I myself found, there is so much more to observe and discover about a city and its inhabitants when you share their buses, subway trains, and other means of public transportation.

I also like how he indulges himself at least once on every trip he takes. He does this by spending at least three nights in some of the most expensive and exclusive hotels he can afford. One of these cost him $400 a night (and this was during the 1990s), but he built this indulgence into his budget. It was Dale’s way of rewarding himself for tightening his ‘purse strings’ throughout the rest of the trip. It also gave him an opportunity to try out the top end of the travel experience, if only for a brief few days.

While on a much more modest level, I too enjoyed my stay at the Lake Placid EconoLodge hotel, in upstate New York when I stayed there during May 2008. At US$60 a night, it was twice the price of my YMCA accommodations in New York City, but the luxury of having my own room with two double beds, en suite, TV, tea and coffee making facilities, and free WiFi internet connection was worth the expense.

As far as accommodations are concerned, it was in fact, my only major indulgence in seven months. The hotels I used in London, while more expensive than the Lake Placid EconoLodge, were far more modest.

The book is informative, easy to read, full of humorous anecdotes and observations, and makes me want to travel again – sooner rather than later.

I’m delighted to find that David Dale is alive and well and still writing.

You can read his bio here…
He also has a blog, Who We Are, here at the Sun-Herald here…
And his own Essential Ideas website is here…

Image courtesy of Wall Media website

The Wired Traveller

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.”
- Jack Kerouac

~ Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the wired world.

A couple of days ago I wrote about the Plugged in Traveller. Today let’s look at the Wired Traveller.

Actually, the plugged in traveller and the wired traveller are generally one and the same person. But first, let’s reminisce…(insert dreamy transition sequence as we flash back to the olden days…).

Dear reader, if you are as old as I am, you will still remember the days of ‘snail mail’ – that ancient and all but lost art of letter writing. When men (and women) of letters sent home detailed reports of their adventures as they crossed the globe encountering strange and exotic people, in lands they had previously only read about in geography class. You do remember geography class, don’t you?

If you didn’t have time to write extended reports you could always get away with a PAR AVION* letter.

Remember them? Bought from a local post office, these were light weight, pale blue, one page, prepaid sheets of paper with gummed edges, that had to be folded in a particular sequence before you could drop them into any post box you stumbled across (see image illustrating this entry).

The really lazy traveller always made do with Post Cards. At least post cards gave you the added bonus of including a picture of a famous landmark, or island sunset to make the folks back home envious of your exciting adventures.

You can still get post cards of course, but I haven’t seen an air mail letter in years, and as for long letters home, they too are pretty much a thing of the past. Because today, we are living in a wired world, and the wired traveller wants to work fast, cheap, and online.

Yes, the wired traveller is constantly plugged in, switched on, instant messaging, and uploading to their FaceBook, MySpace, Blogger, Twitter, WordPress, Flickr, YouTube or personal web sites. In fact, the truly wired traveller probably keeps in contact through all the above portals.

Now as you travel the world you can take photographs of the pyramids with your mobile phone and upload them instantly to any number of free websites. Or you could send them to everyone on your phone contact list, and really make your friends back home jealous as they sit, shackled to their work desks, dreaming of their own foreign escapades.

The wired traveller moves around the world with a GPS enabled phone and never has to worry about getting lost in a strange city. He can check his email on the move, and answer them while enjoying a cappuccino in London, a slice of pizza in New York, or a kebab within sight of the pyramids.

The wired traveller can pop into her nearest Internet Café and Google her favourite fashion chain, before heading out to try on the latest summer craze, whether she is in Paris, Milan or Rio. Come to think of it – she can do that from her phone.

If your mobile phone is up to the task, a new opt-in service being trialled by Google called, Google Latitude allows your friends and family to know exactly where you are in the world, at any time, at the touch of a button. While there are some privacy concerns, the security conscious among us will feel a lot happier knowing our movements can be tracked in real time as we travel the world in search of new experiences. Click on the video to watch a short demonstration of Google Latitude’s features.



It won’t be long before you are able to hit a special key on your phone, to send out an alarm to the nearest police station if you are caught up in an emergency, allowing law enforcement to know exactly where you are and track your movements while they close in on you and those threatening you – if it can’t be done already!

Welcome to the wired world, indeed.

*PAR AVION is French for ‘By Air’.