World Reviewer blog

Just in case you though the credit crunch has totally rained on your European travel parade, I’ve found some pockets of Europe where you won’t be held to ransom by the euro.

We’re all looking for a break from the evils of the credit crunch - and a break to an exotic destination sounds fair…  You may even be surprised to hear that there are some pretty good deals around at the moment.  First check out some tips on how to travel for less, then an article about which countries have got favourable exchange rates at the moment, and finish off by  weighing up the pros and cons of long haul versus short haul in the current climate…  I can’t believe it either - but apparently the credit crunch does have a silver lining.

It’s so much easier to learn things when you’re a kid. It’s also less embarrassing. Especially if it’s learning something that can involve a lot of falling over. Which is why World Reviewer has put together the list of Top Ski Resorts for Families and the North American equivalent, Top Ski Resorts for Families Too (USA).

It’s been a real pleasure for me to put together the new category on Volunteering.  I’ve been lucky enough to speak to a group of people who have had some really interesting experiences doing something for themselves while doing something for someone else.  From Letitia Mckie’s story of he time spend with HIV orphans in South Africa to the vastly different stories about teaching English in Peru, Namibia and Micronesia, I think we have the beginnings of one of our most inspirational of categories, and I invite you to have a wander though it.

As scout masters and bank managers all over the world will tell you being prepared is as a smart lifestyle choice - and though we can’t see into the future we can definitely offer some sage suggestions for how to prepare for November.  Recently nominated resident where-to-go-when expert Lara has kindly prepared us for the Best of November as well as finding out where to find the best November Festivals.

If you’re missing the sun already then my contribution to our calendar efforts is an article about where to bask in the heat of the suns rays in November.

We haven’t solved the credit crisis but at least we’re offering you the best places to escape it to…

A big welcome to a woman who has been on some pretty big adventures, Ceris Borthwick.  Her first recommendation for us was a trip overland between the UK and Cape Town.  Definitely worth checking out if you’re sitting at your desk today dreaming of making the most from your time on the planet.

Can I go back on the road James?

If you go to Kyoto you’re potentially looking for traditional Japan.  Geisha spotting, an invitation to a tea ceremony, admiring carefully-altered-to-perfection gardens, visiting the shrines and tasting all the detailed nuanced flavour of this ancient culture are the activities on the traveller’s agenda in Kyoto.  Some of these things you can pre-arrange but some are pot luck and sometimes you need the gods to smile on you…
Which is what happened to me at the Yasaka Shrine.  At the top of the main traffic street in Gion, Shijo dori, most tourists will be tempted by the bright red gate of this shrine by default because it’s right there and enter to find a shrine kept carefully lovely – it’s role in the important Gion Matsuri festival guarantees it’s gorgeous up keep.  It’s main focus as a shrine is keeping people safe from illness, but it has other practical uses – namely as a wedding venue.  And I was lucky enough to see two beautiful, traditional Shinto brides on their big day.  In her heavy, heavily embroidered white kimono, with its long train, fan and head gear one bride was pleasant tempered-ly having her photo taken with her new husband, also dressed beautifully, and I was totally taken in an stared at here like she was some kind of exquisite artefact – which in a way she was.  A thing of great beauty which totally distracted me from admiring the temple…  But I’m sure it was lovely if this wonderful creature would choose it for her nuptials.

May the Shinto spirits smile on her as they smiled on me when arranging that I come out the nearby Maruyama Park at just the right moment in the gentle Autumn rain.

Arriving in Kyoto from Tokyo is at first not much of a shift.  The station is ultra modern and the sign-age points you in a thousand different directions, to the bus, the train, the shops, the coin lockers, the toilets the JR station, the Subway station, the rail line…  You get the idea…  But one you’re out of the station it is almost unbelievably different to the Tokyo I had just come from.  Narrow houses, traditional style houses with bamboo shades and wood features line narrow streets running along beside twinkling canals and you can see the top of temples and shrines peeking over the top of the houses behind high gates.  It doesn’t seem like a city in the same sense of the word, but a slower, gentle old town.
Walking beside the canal on the ‘Philosopher’s Walk’, named for the university philosophy lecturer who used to partake in this stroll every evening, it is peaceful.  There may be tall buildings and traffic, but all I can see is those narrow houses on either side of the canal with it’s draping trees and fat, happy carp.  Tea houses, and shops – some of them no doubt lures for tourists, but it’s out of season so the shop keepers are leisurely – and the tori gates which signify a shine is near, or a particularly nice tree or bridge are the landmarks.
I wander humble and peaceful as a cloud… when suddenly I see a man accompanied by a woman in one of the most beautiful kimonos I have ever seen.  I could be on a film set for a film I’d love to be in.  How lucky I feel at this small encounter – you can see that I’m getting into the tea ceremony ethos of making each moment its most lovely.  I wonder if I can move here….

P.S. TRAVEL TIPS:  The new section of Kyoto station is a massive rabbit warren and it’s difficult to find the Subway - accept that you may have to follow the signs into what feels like an entirely different postcode…  And try the vending machine coffee…As well as having a choice of hot or cold and it being about a quarter of the price of a cafe version they have very entertaining names.

Walking through the Ginza district I saw a line of people in carefully arranged and put together outfits queuing for something.  I hate queues but this one was a quiet, patient double file of people at the most outrageous whispering quietly, so the guards wearing sea blue Army uniforms with badges saying TaskForce and white gloves were having an easy time of herding them in line across roads and keeping them out of the way of the pedestrian public.  Turning a corner and walking a couple of blocks  (250 metres) down I found out they were queuing to be allowed into H&M.  And even more surprisingly, unlike the Topshop sales, people were exiting sedately carrying only one bag.  Who could queue for over an hour to go into a store then only buy a few things.  Apparently the well behaved, gracious Japanese Ginza shoppers.  I immediately set my behaviour drive to very good and smoothed out my dress – luckily I packed for a city rather than trekking holiday but still…  When in Rome and all that…
People not bumping you with their umbrellas and patiently waiting their turn aren’t the only charms of Tokyo, you’re also asked to turn your phone onto silent on the train and not answer calls, so the subway is quiet peaceful, clean and free of smelly food.  The city seems to be pretty clean as well, and the girls dressed in their long socks and boots all look to me like they’ve made an effort – I love it.  Even as I fumble though my poor knowledge of the language people have been politeness personified – am I lucky or is this city really this gracious as a whole?  How can it be?
Earlier in the day I’d been at the fish markets, probably getting into people’s ways with my camera, and possibly even making a face at the sheer scale of marine carnage around me – I saw a tuna longer than I am tall have its massive head cleaved from the rest of it.  It was enough to put me on to vegetarian sushi and ramen for the rest of the day and possibly tomorrow as well…  I have never before seen the things that I saw there.  Have you ever seen a fish turned inside out so its roe are showing?  No?  Me neither.  And I used to hang out at the Sydney Fish Markets all the time.  It was as manic as the guide books say it will be and then a few slivers more.  The main mode of transport is a drum engine lowered on to the top of a four wheeled tray which looks like the kind of truck a five year old would make out of lego, and these are driven wild with abandon.  I don’t think there are any road rules.  There certainly aren’t any rules about not smoking around what will be food – some of it won’t even be cooked, though there is so much ice and water around that it shouldn’t matter – I’m just trying to make the point that these guys work to rules of their own.  Even if you’re only in Tokyo for one day you should see this.  Seriously.  It’s definitely worth getting up early for.
My afternoon was spent with Mr. Fuji (actual name.), who was my guide around the Edo Tokyo Museum, he was a child in WW2 when the allies were fire bombing Tokyo and one of the most graceful, reserved men I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.  The perfect guide he gave me just enough information to go on with and let me ask questions.  He knew a lot about samuri and Edo period wood block printing and let me ring a big old bell – he could tell I wanted to – as well as play some musical instruments, even though I think they were really only for children to play with.

This blog was written while travelling at 300km p/h on the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto.  I’m typing rather than writing but if I was writing you’d think I was sitting at a desk which was travelling at much lower speeds – beside me sits a rather classy looking woman with one of those ‘this-years-must-have-handbags’ who begun the journey working on her laptop on a marketing presentation but is now playing her PSP.  I love Japan.  It’s so full of easy metaphoric comparisons – people, like my charming chair-mate just keep dropping them into my lap.  And I just saw Mt. Fuji outside the window.

I’m standing in Tokyo Central Station looking at a map asking myself “How do I get to ‘pregnant lady standing beside a tree and square lantern’ via ‘man’s head in a hat, water pump and tree on a box’?”.  I step outside myself for a minute to ask myself “What’s wrong with this picture?”.  Literally.
Japanese has three different character sets.  I know this from studying this at school.  Hiragana corresponds to particular sounds like our alphabet, Katakana, which are broken up parts of the more complicated Kanji (Kanji’s the third one in case all this Japanese is reducing my ability to be understood in English.) - which are basically one picture for one word.  Since being in Japan I have come to discover that there are no useful maps of the city where roads are all marked in any language…  which is how I found myself at Kyoto station looking to get to ‘pregnant lady standing beside a tree and square lantern’ via ‘man’s head in a hat, water pump and tree on a box’.  I meant to mention this tip earlier but this is the best advice I can offer about travelling in Japan – don’t try and read the script – half the time sentences are made up of characters from all three alphabets – but when place names are concerned make up little stories for each character – they’ll probably be in Kanji and untranslatable into anything other than the place name…  How sorry do you feel for Japanese children now? Especially when I struggle to say even the simplest thing in Japanese and people rush to my rescue to help me in their best English…  I could do with some help learning languages from the smallest kid – but this is a nation that could do with some help with their mapping.  Beware – up is not north by default…  I’d like to be able to recommend where to get the best map from – if anyone knows can you tell me…  Until then is ‘pick up sticks beside a waffle, fork with the middle prong the longest’ near ‘man’s head in a hat, water pump and tree on a box’?