Due to popular demand, we have included the answers to last month’s Travel Quiz. We are inundated each month by people entering the quiz, and receive many correct submission answers. Our webmaster collates all of the correct answers into a draw, and the Beetle selects a number. We notice that some people are sending multiple entries – if we notice this happening, we will restrict their entry to one.

1. How many states are there in Australia? Answer: 6: New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, Southern Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania.

2. In which valley in New South Wales can you visit famous vineyards? Answer: The Hunter Valley.

3. Which gorge named after a woman’s name is found in the Top End? Answer: the Katharine Gorge

4. The Great Barrier Reef stretches for more than 2,000 kms (1,240 miles) along Queens land’s coast and ends at which place 384km (238 miles) north of Brisbane? Answer: Bundaberg

5. By which alternative name is Ayers Rock also known? Answer: Uluru.

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U. S. Soldiers Home, Washington: during a century of travel (well 78 years!) both in and out of service I have travelled to over 150 countries (I count both North and South Dakota as countries) and for some reason have jotted signs and happenings that I thought funny at the time (and now wonder why). So here is the perfect opportunity to share some of my anecdotes.

In the Bangkok post office two Scandinavian girls came in with backpacks the size of a Volvo Auto on their backs. They were wearing dresses and proceeded to take them off in the middle of post office and stood there in their panties while they looked in their backpacks for jeans and blouse. Naturally, I volunteered my help. Patrons were dropping their mail at the sight of this goings on. You don’t have to go to the strip shows. You can just go to the Post Office.

Elephant School Chiang Mai, Thailand: Elephants go to school for seven years and live to be around 80. An American military retired man living in Chiang Mai, with his Thai wife told me that the elephant’s pregnancy lasts 2 years and he compared it to a U.S. Senator’s two year term of office. It is high level, there is lots of noise and it takes two years to get any results. Someone has asked me what elephants learn in their school. They learn potty training, basket weaving and how to pick up logs. I was given some bananas to feed the elephants at the elephant training school. I gave my elephant one and ate the rest myself. He has never forgotten this. I rode this elephant for an hour over mountainous hills sometimes so steep that I feared I might fall off and down he cliff with the elephant on top of me. The ride costs 480 bahts ($16.00) I kind of got roped into taking the elephant trip. A Thai girl told me that she and her husband would get a free ride on the elephant if they got eleven other people to sign up for the trip. They had just gotten married and the elephant trip was their honeymoon. (Don’t ask!) Elephants don’t eat after midday and monks don’t either. However, the elephant I was on ate everything his trunk could pull up along the road and it was about 1230 noon. Monks smoke but do not touch alcohol. If I understand correctly, Buddhism does not tell others how to live but it is within oneself to better yourself, treat others how to live and don’t steal bananas from elephants.

I met a British retired military that spends his time living in monastery guest houses in Thailand. He gives them a donation of $80 a month, which pleases them. He married a Japanese girl while in India (I don’t know what she was doing there) but she got homesick so left Thailand to return to Japan. He believes in reincarnation. He thinks it is the only way to handle the thousands of people that have died before us. He unfortunately had a stroke while revisiting England but returned here to spend out the last days of his life. He reads a book a day he rents from library in Chiang Mai, sees the sites and eats tomatoes.

A lady in a tailor shop (“our materials are the sheapest”) in Banglampor (the budget hotel section) of Bangkok claimed she knew me from when I was stationed there and said I should buy a suit from her for old times sake and the wonderful times we had together. I was never stationed in Thailand.

Next month, Mac discusses clothing.

If you would like to contact Mac, he can be e-mailed on: macsan400@yahoo.com

The Beetle received this e-mail from a Globetrotters who thought it might be useful to pass on to other travellers. If you find yourself under the weather, there is almost always an alternative remedy to finding the local doctor – but if in doubt, seek proper medical advice.

Ø Drinking two glasses of Gatorade can relieve headache pain almost immediately – without the unpleasant side effects caused by traditional pain relievers.

Ø Did you know that toothpaste makes an excellent salve for burns?

Ø Achy muscles from a bout of the flu? Mix 1 tablespoon of horseradish in 1/2 cup of olive oil. Let the mixture sit for 30 minutes, then apply it as a massage oil, for instant relief for aching muscles.

Ø The Beetle’s own remedy for back pain is to put some powdered ginger and some water in a pan and heat until very hot; stir it all around. When the water is cool enough to handle, soak a tea towel in the water and ginger mixture, wring it out and place it over the sore area – bliss!

Still in Argentina, after El Chalten, we journeyed on to another place called El Calafate where again we spent three nights and it was here that we saw our most spectacular glacier ever, the Perito Moreno glacier which is enormous, rising many metres in the air and looking like a massive landlocked iceberg but much more spectacular than any other iceberg.

We took a trip on a catamaran to go right up to the face of the glacier and the catamaran stayed an hour, just circling so that we saw the glacier from every angle and were able to photograph it ad infinitum. Some people used up an entire film or more just on this incredible natural phenomenon, as following the boat trip we were taken to a viewpoint on land where we could carry on gazing at the glacier from different levels. Many of our group refused to leave at the stated time as they were convinced they were going to see great chunks of ice break off. One chunk did fall off, which I didn’t see.

Then we moved on from El Calafate to the Torres El Paine National Park in Chile. Judith and I weren’t too impressed with the actual walks we went on there as they just did not match up to the 12 hour one we had done before and the glaciers we had seen then, as the weather was not good in the park, very misty and although we managed the walk (8 hours again but we did it in 7 hours), we considered it mediocre, and a lot of hard work climbing for very little reward. However, the camp site where we stayed, on Lake Pehoe was superb with the most magnificent view of the mountains with their snowcaps and this marvelous lake beneath them.

The actual facilities at the camp were atrocious, as the camp site was large and well used by an incredible number of people but there were only two loos for the women with one sink to wash at, and similar for the men, and only four communal showers in a different location which only produced out hot water from 8 to 11 in the morning and from 1900 to 2200 in the evening and very often we had to leave to go on our excursions before the showers were hot in the mornings and often arrived back too late to take advantage of the evening sessions!

The only good aspect of the camp was the tiny shop which was hardly bigger than a garden shed but sold the most amazing range of wines, beers, biscuits, snacks, cigarettes etc to suit just about every taste and did not rip us off as other places appeared to be doing. While there, we also went on a bus ride to a glacier (yes, this particular area both on the Argentine side and the Chile side is renowned for its glaciers) and although we could only see the end of the glacier at a distance we were able to walk around a beautiful lake with the most fantastically shaped and coloured blue icebergs which obviously had broken away from the glacier at some point. And this little place in the middle of nowhere had the most beautiful toilets we had seen in a long time as it had obviously just been built, was brand spanking new and had toilet paper as well as soap and hand driers and doors that actually locked and believe me that really is luxury in the public loos here!

And now I am in Ushaia, the city at the end of the world, on the little island at the base of South America called Tierra del Fuego and we discovered, Judith and I, with a visit to the little well run and very informative museum here that it was so called because when the first white men arrived they saw all these fires burning on the hills that the natives had lit, but whether this was to welcome or frighten away the intruders or just to keep the natives warm, is not known!!

It is extremely cold here all year round and 15 degrees is considered hot! The sun does shine but there is always a cold wind blowing and that gets worse in winter and spring apparently! We took a boat trip up the beagle channel yesterday and saw a colony of cormorants and a colony of sea lions and circled the lighthouse at the end of the world and yes, we took dozens of superfluous shots of everything in sight! But the boat was also a luxury as it was the first boat trip we had been on which actually served food on board and hot drinks and alcoholic drinks and for the men provided these two very attractive young ladies to serve it! And these young ladies would dress up in their navy blue topcoats with brass buttons to come out on deck and tell us all about the sights and scenes we were seeing, and informed the more ignorant of us that no, that wasn’t a colony of penguins we were viewing but cormorants! (They looked very similar with black backs and white chests and from a distance and even close to looked very penguin like).

Next month: en route to Buenos Aires and real penguins.

If you’d like to contact Iris, whether to wish her luck with her trip or to ask questions about her itinerary and places visited, I am sure she would like to hear from you. She can be contacted on: irisej2002@yahoo.co.uk

Facts about the Oceans and Seas of the world

European no-frills airline Ryanair says it is to stop accepting American Express charge cards. They say Amex makes higher charges than most other companies and that they will refuse to take bookings on the cards from the end of June 2003. Ryanair emphasized that it would continue to accept other credit cards.

Ryanair reported a big rise in net profits in its last financial year. Net profits of EUR239.4 million (USD$281.4 million) were 59 percent up on the previous year and the carrier says it expects to see passenger numbers in 2003/04 to soar to 24 million from the present 15.7 million. They are predicting that they will overtake both British Airways and Germany's Lufthansa within three years.

And finally here is a very sad website, for all those who would like to “virtually” fly a Ryanair plane. http://members.lycos.co.uk/virtualryanair/AboutVirtualRyanair.htm

Gary, from the US is planning to cycle 1,500 miles around the UK. He started his journey on the 16^th of May 2003. Since that date he has travelled over 1,100 miles on a recumbent bike. At the time of writing, he has approximately 400 mile to go to complete the trip. Gary says: “The trip has been a real adventure. It's been absolutely fantastic!”

I had an interesting day today. I left Banff this morning around 9 am, and was heading for Elgin. It was raining, but not hard. Fifteen miles into my ride my rear tyre went flat. It was a good spot on the side of the road and the rain had stopped. I managed to get a new tube installed, but, evidently, I damaged the tube and the tyre immediately went flat – again. Well, I was on the edge of a village so I pushed the bike to town for help. There wasn't a bike shop or garage in town. The first person I met was a chap taking pictures of the bay. We started driving around in his car looking for help.

We came up to some workers working on the water mains. The boss wound up taking me to the next town five miles up the road to a bike shop. He wouldn’t hear of me compensating him for his troubles. He said he needed to do his part in increasing tourism. Luckily the bike shop was open. They are closed on Wednesday's. The fellow that owns the bike shop had his wife make me up a cup of tea. She also invited me in her home so that I could clean the grease off my hands. By this time it's three o'clock in the afternoon, so I decided to call it a day, and found a lovely four star B&B. People here are so friendly and generous here it's unbelievable.

One thing I've learned, it doesn't take much to survive. I'm on a seven week trip with roughly two of everything. I have to keep clothes in three groups – clean, only used one or two days, and definitely need to be washed. If I can't find anybody to wash them or too embarrassed to ask, I wash out a set in the sink with hand soap and hope they dry by morning. More than once, I had to put on wet clothes. I'm sure this isn't the kind of news you were waiting to hear, but that's the reality of the trip.

I've tried almost everything on the menu, but one of the things I haven't tried is black pudding. They tell me it's very good, but someone said it's fried pigs’ blood. I haven't been able to bring myself to trying it. Maybe it's something I'll never have the opportunity of experiencing.

I'm still slugging along. Today I was feeling so smug. I was ready to bestow expert map reader after my name till this afternoon. There were conflicting signals on the trail and I went left instead of right. The outcome was too bizarre to go into much detail. The upshot was I was lost and in the middle of a field that a farmer was cutting hay. The hill was steep and slippery. When I tried to apply the brakes, my feet snagged the cut grass and I was catapulted headfirst. Luckily, I had a soft landing. Well, I finally made it to my destination of Falkland at 6 pm. It's a real small town with a castle and huge cathedral. Yesterday I was talking to the sheep all day.

I was in Inverness. I don't know how everybody keeps putting up with me. I'm constantly asking for directions to somewhere- bike shop, streets, B&Bs', you name it. Everybody is so patient and willing to help in any way they can. I'm not shy when it comes to asking for directions. When you're on a bike you can kill a half hour real quickly going in circles. I met a couple of hikers around my age (nearing retirement) over breakfast at the last b&b I stayed at in Buckie called the Rosemount who are from the Orkney Islands. They looked at my map and it so happens I'll be passing within a half mile of their house. They asked me to stop by for a cup of tea. What a small world!

When I was eating dinner last night I noticed on the menu they were featuring lamb imported from New Zealand. Now, of all the things the Scotts need to import you would think the last thing would be sheep. Somebody said in a grocery store a couple of days ago, “You've seen more of the UK in the last four weeks than I've seen in my whole life”. I suspect that's true!

24 more sites of “outstanding universal value” have been designated world heritage sites by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). These include the ancient Iraqi city of Ashur and Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley, where towering statues of Buddha (see picture right) were destroyed by the former Taleban regime.

The first eight of the new UNESCO heritage sites are as follows:

· Purnululu National Park, Australia: Located in the state of Western Australia, it covers an expanse of nearly 250,000 hectares. The park's Bungle Bungle Range contains sandstone eroded into the shape of beehives over 20 million years.

· Three parallel rivers of Yunnan protected areas, China: A 1.7 million hectare site in Yunnan province, containing parts of three of the great rivers of Asia: the Yangtze, Mekong and Salween. The rivers run parallel through steep gorges, from 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) to 6,000 metres high.

· Monte San Giorgio, Switzerland: A wooded mountain shaped like a pyramid. Contains some of the best fossil records of marine life from about 250 million years ago.

· Uvs Nuur Basin, Russian Federation/Mongolia: About a million hectares. Contains a rich diversity of birds and is home to the gerbil, jerboas, the marbled polecat, snow leopard, mountain sheep and the Asiatic Ibex.

· Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park, Vietnam: A dramatic, forested highland which includes underground caves and rivers and is mainly covered by tropical rainforest.

· Bamiyan Valley, Afghanistan: Previously home to two colossal statues of Buddha, which were blown up by the Taleban in February 2001, provoking worldwide condemnation. UNESCO says the choice “symbolises the hope of the international community that extreme acts of intolerance, such as the deliberate destruction of the Buddhas, are never repeated again”.

· Quebrada de Humahuaca, Argentina: A major trade route over the past 10,000 years. Shows traces of the Inca Empire (15th to 16th Century) and of the fight for independence in the 19th and 20th Centuries.

· Historic Quarter of the Seaport City of Valparaiso, Chile: An interesting example of late 19th Century urban and architectural development in Latin America.

Source: BBC News

Recently, the Beetle was asked about Guidebooks – what is out there and can she make any recommendations? Below is a commentary on a selection of some of the guidebooks available:

Eyewitness guides, published by Dorling Kindersley produce glossy guidebooks with lots of pictures on cities and also countries. The city guides are especially good although a little heavy and longer than most of the others. The Beetle particularly recommends these for short city breaks as they provide lots of background detail about certain sites or attractions and exploded diagrams of the insides of churches or palaces etc. They are not so great about telling you how to get to and from some of the attractions, although the Istanbul guide was excellent and rated better in a recent trip there than the corresponding LP on Istanbul. See www.dk.com

Fodor’s used more by the North American market and for slightly more wealthy travellers than backpackers, although they do have shoestring guides too. They tend to be fairly slim volumes and are particularly strong on North America, Mexico and the Caribbean. Take a look at www.fodors.com/

Footprint guides have very good guides on South American countries. They also do Canada, (not the US), selected European and African countries, Middle East and a good range of SE Asia. At the time the Beetle was backpacking around South America, the Footprint individual country guides were a lot better than the LP guides, in particular that awful huge tome LP produces on all S American countries! For more info, see footprinttravelguides.com

Frommer’s – used more by the North American travel market and appear to be aimed at a slightly more affluent market than backpackers – unless anyone would like to write in and disagree! The maps are generally good, and a lot of emphasis is placed on reviewing pubs, restaurants, hotels, bed and breakfasts etc. A quick look at a guide on Ireland, Jury’s Court Inn in Cork is described as inexpensive at $61 and up for a room. Otherwise they offer slightly pared down info on LP and RG. Frommer’s also do portable guides that you can download onto your palm pilot or similar not to mention a magazine and an e-newsletter. They are strong on the number of Caribbean titles. For more info on Frommer’s guides, see www.frommers.com

Insight Guides publish over 200 titles, again quite glossy, good photos – more of a coffee table book than a guidebook to take with you on a trip. This kind of book may be useful for planning a trip as it has the glossy pictures, but I would not take it on a trip to use as a guidebook. For more info, see http://www.insightguides.com

Lonely Planet – see also the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree website for sources of travel information. Lonely Planet, or LP is the granddaddy of modern guidebooks. People tend to either love LP or they hate it, and if the latter, their usual choice is Rough Guide (RG). The Beetle prefers the LP because it usually has good maps, (some colour pictures!) and she likes to know about every single restaurant and hostel available at the time of writing and feels quite aggrieved when only a selection are given (as in the RG)! Whilst prices change, you can always work out the ratio of increase so that you still have a rough idea of potential prices. See www.lonelyplanet.com

Moon has been going 25 years and produce guides covering Americas, Asia, and the Pacific. They are slightly biased to the US market but do nevertheless produce good guidebooks with good maps and lots of detailed information. The Beetle finds that Moon Guide distinguish themselves on regions, particularly US states rather than entire countries, for example excellent guides on New Mexico, Kauai, Mexico City etc. If I were to visit a US state, then this is the book I would take with me – lots of good maps, and local info. They also have city guides called Moon Metro and include San Francisco, New York, Paris. For more info, see www.moon.com

Rother guidebooks are about walking. They are a very handy size, good for slipping into a pocket, they usually have around 50 walking routes per guidebook, with fabulously detailed maps, giving you all the info you need such as grade of walk, approximate time to take, refreshments available en route, how to get there and return. The Beetle likes these books very much – if you are a walker, then these are for you! Destinations covered include many different parts of the Mediterranean, and Norway and Iceland. For more info, see www.cordee.co.uk

Rough Guides – as discussed above, we tend to find that people either love these or hate them. They have just as good a range in titles as LP, and they are very popular. They are just as comprehensive in terms of information as the LP, but in a very different format. Both LP and RG publish language guidebooks and a newsletter. Rough Guide tends to place hotels, hostels, restaurants etc in price brackets, but nonetheless give you enough info to make a decision re restaurant or hotel. For more info, see www.roughguides.com/

Trailblazers a small UK based company that do excellent guides particularly on walking and trekking, so if this is your thing, then these books will give you very details routes with distance, estimated times, danger points, and a whole load of walking or hiking – even climbing activities. For more info, see: www.trailblazerbooks.co.uk

Ulysses publish two series of travel guides and are strong on Canada, the US and Central America. The Beetle bought Ulysses guides on Panama, Honduras and El Salvador when there was nothing else available, and they were really very good. They also do language guides. For more info, see www.ulyssesguides.com

Do you have a favourite guidebook, or one that was just terrible? E-mail the Beetle and let us know about it!

Same names: how many place names have you come across that are the same, but different countries? There’s Paris Texas and Paris France. Other place names include Versailles in Kentucky and Versailles in France; Naples and Venice in Florida and Naples and Venice in Italy. Do you have any favourites? Write in and tell the Beetle!

Matt is a volunteer at the Old Boma, Mikindani, Southern Tanzania.

During a visit last year to Mikindani, I was informed of a physiotherapist working in Nyanguo mission hospital and having now started my degree in this subject I decided to try and gain some experience. Arriving I was happy to find the hospital staff willing to have me for the day.

Physiotherapy is a treatment supplementary to medicine and aims to bring people back to as high a possible level of recovery. In its simplest form it is finding out what a patient wishes to achieve and working towards that by doing things differently or using treatments. I had the opportunity to go on the ward rounds at the hospital and saw many patients and got to see the differences of practices here in Tanzania compared to the UK.

The cause of hospitalisation can be more bizarre here: one patient had been washing his hands in a river when a crocodile bit his arm. Although he was severely wounded there was no loss of nervous tissue, so exercises could be done to help him regain hand movements. Another patient had fallen from a coconut tree and broke his back so was regaining strength in his upper body after prolonged traction.

Physiotherapists can have time to sit and talk to patients, which allows you to find out a lot more about them, their problems, and local life. A female road worker suffering from ‘good old lower back pain’ revealed that she had visited a witch doctor, which had resulted in infection and incidentally, increased pain.

The most rewarding part of the day was spending time with one small girl who had fractured her femur, trying to get her to use small crutches. She was very active and enthusiastic, and after some effort she could manage alone. We also visited the paediatric ward to play ball games with the kids to keep them active. Here the physiotherapist had done a great job building relationships with the children, which made it easy to fit in and create conversation with them.

The sight of a child overwhelmed by cancerous growths or a victim of major burn injuries was not pleasant but obviously these sorts of things are expected in hospitals. However, unfortunately all of the cases were affected by the patients' financial situation and therefore ability to pay fro treatment. Without payment, treatments are not given and, this being true of government hospitals also, many people are left to suffer. I could only be left thinking how much luckier we are to have the British National Health Service to fall back on.

However having read several articles about hinting that only the ‘dark’ side of Africa it told, I always try to pick out the magical things here of which there are many. A wedding is such a colourful and happy event, and the end of Ramadan is always an event to remember with the children dressed in new clothing and adults enjoying the night. Everything I have experienced here thus far seems to be more enhanced than at home and I encourage anyone to come and see things for themselves.

For more information about Trade Aid, volunteers and their work, please visit their website www.mikindani.com

U. S. Soldiers Home, Mac: I am a compulsive reader and pick up any newspaper, any printed matter I see laying around and start reading.

This is from January 14, 2003 issue of Examiner newsmagazine. Nick Jeffreys write about a guy walking around the world. The walker is Karl Bushby from Hull, England. He is a 33 years old ex-paratrooper. He began the walk Nov l, l998 at the tip of Chile. Has walked 12,00 miles so far going through Peru, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Mexico. He goes 20 miles a day every day and has nine years to go.

He started out with $500 sewn into his jacket (I would probably absent mindedly lay the jacket down some place.) His mom and dad send money and replace his boots every 1,178 miles. His website is www.earthtrekuk.net and there is a lot of info on it, about Karl, why he is doing it, his Colombian girlfriend and more.

He pulls a small aluminium cart with his gear tent, sleeping bag, food, and water behind him When his provisions run out, he lives off the land. A picture of the cart shows that it has large wheels. I always like large wheels on carts as they pull easier and easier to pull up and down stairs. He was in a Panamanian jail for l8 days “in a stinking cell with crooks of all varieties,” for not having the correct visa.

When his journey is over in 2010 he is not sure what he will do next. “But he has a lot of time to think about it. “ Maybe I will just throw myself in front of the TV and never move again.” If I am ever thrown out of the soldier’s home I live in, I hope he will loan me his cart and I will try to follow in his footsteps, although, at 79 I may just be dreaming!

Budget airline EasyJet has been told by a UK advertising watchdog to make the true cost of its flights clearer in its adverts. The carrier must include potential taxes and other costs alongside the price of the flight. This response came about as a result of complaints about three adverts promoting flights “from just £1”.

You may have received an e-mail saying that British Airways is giving away free plane tickets to anywhere in the world to anyone who forwards the e-mail to 10 or more people – it is sadly a hoax.

The e-mail claims that it is encouraging more people to fly, following a downturn in the airlines industry because of concerns about the SARS virus and the war in Iraq. It also says that British Airways is working with Microsoft who is allegedly monitoring the distribution of the message. It’s just not true, I’m afraid, so delete them.

I’ve been to Japan before, to Honshu, but have not explored the southern parts, so this trip was designed at seeing Kyushu. I flew into Fukuoka as an entry point via Seoul that is a lot cheaper than going to Nagasaki. My trip had three bases: I used Beppu as a base to see the Hells, and Usuki, Kagoshima to see Sakaragima (a volcano), Ibosuki (sand baths), Shiran (the kamikaze museum) and finally Kamomoto for the city itself and Mt Aso.

Kyushu is nothing like as busy as Honshu and doesn’t seem quite as affluent. The trains and buses all ran on time. Kyushu is probably cheaper than Honshu for accommodation – I spent on average £23 a night in mostly Ryokans – good value – and can all be booked through the Japanese Inn group. There are also far fewer foreigners and tourists in Kyushu than Honshu.

It's less than a year since I last came through Seoul airport. A year ago it was a busy, heaving place with all the restaurants and shops packed out. Today you can go in anywhere and do anything without waiting. I think SARS is having a big effect. There are lots of people walking around with masks on, should I have got one I ask myself? There’s not even much in the shops. I just cannot believe how quiet this airport is, there's nobody rushing, no announcements, there's only about 10 flights on the departures board.

Arrived in the city with the best 3-letter airport code I know Fukuoka (FUK)!!! Got the shuttle bus then the ultra efficient metro in to the city. I was glad that I had my compass to come out of right exit. Then a 10 min walk to my hotel: very nice, tiny room, probably big for Japan, but it has a bed, shower, TV and its own ultra efficient kettle, very handy! Apparently a rice breakfast is included but as I didn’t wake up till 9am, I missed it! Fukuoka is a big modern city, nobody here has a mask on there is not much for a tourist to see, it is more of an entry port.

I took a side trip from Fukuoka to Dazaifu to see a shrine and a couple of Zen gardens. They are great with all their symbolism. Loads of parties of school kids going “Herro” i.e. “hello” and “England number 1”. All of it is good natured, and people have been so helpful: I had 3 old dears put me on the right train this morning!

Took ages to cash travellers cheques, because they are issued by Barclays via Sumitomo Bank. This meant that I had to find a Sumitomo Bank to cash them. It rained yesterday afternoon, so I went to a baseball match in the Fukuoka Dome, which was fun. I like baseball, and went to lots of games when I visited the USA. The Japanese cheerleaders are nuts, they keep up this constant barrage of noise and at 7th inning stretch they all let off balloons with whistles in – you should hear it! Also visited the museum of contemporary Asian art, some nice things and some so decidedly strange that they would not look amiss in the Tate Modern in London!

I’m surviving with the food ok, (Padmassana has been known to be a bit of a picky eater – the Beetle!) bought some hot tofu on sticks and stuck them in some bread rolls with my pea crisps for a picnic today, they even have little pods! KFC etc for major meals. Body clock not happy, keep waking between 2am-4am, then can’t get back to sleep till 6am.

Up early today, getting the train to Beppu. Took about 4 hours to get from Fukuoka to Beppu. Beppu is famous for the Hells. If anyone tells you Beppu is a “Hell” of a place it’s true! I checked in at Beppu Hotel and went to the tourist office to ask for directions. The man at the tourist office took me right to the door. I don’t think that would happen in London!

The Hells, as I have already said are Beppu’s claim to fame: a series of hot springs that are different colours due to the underlying rocks and minerals etc, one is bright red. A 2,000 yen ticket allows you visit all seven. Some are boiling mud pots, but most are steam. The last one is a sort of geyser that explodes every 20 minutes. It took me 4 hours to go round them including a bus ride between two sets.

Did a day trip from Beppu, about an hour and a half by train to visit some stone Buddhas, dating from the 10th century. You walk up a short hill and then see lines of Buddhas carved into the hill. These are reputed to be the best and oldest examples of stone Buddhas in Japan. Also visited Usuki from Beppu. The town itself is quite nice, has an old street of houses that are interesting. There was torrential rain, so the rent a brolly lady was doing a good trade! I am staying in a business type hotel that has free tea on every floor. I managed to sleep through the night for the first time since arriving. Despite the weather, another nice day, a country where you feel safe and the people are fantastic.

In Part 2, Padmassana tells us about Miyazaki and the clay statues and the journey to Kagoshima. If you would like to contact Padmassana to ask him about his time in Japan, he can be e-mailed on: Padmassana

Tokyo Haneda airport is the largest and the busiest airport in Japan – over 300 flights take off and same number of flights land each day and around half are Japanese domestic flights.

There are two railways connecting the airport terminal building (Haneda Kuko station) and Tokyo city center. The Tokyo Monorail line from Hamamatsu-cho on the JR Yamanote line is a circular line connecting to major places in Tokyo. The monorail runs every 4 or 5 minutes and takes 24 minutes journey from Hamamatsu-cho into the town centre, costing 470yen (US$4 or £3).

The other train is the Keihin Kyuko (Keikyu) line from Shinagawa also on the Yamanote line. There is a direct service every 10 minutes, although you must change train at Kamata station in the early mornings and late at night. The journey takes between 30 and 35 minutes from Shinagawa, and costs 400yen (US$3.50 or £2.50).

There is also a direct train to and from Narita every 80 minutes, taking 105 minutes journey. There is also a bus service between the terminal building and major places and hotels in the Tokyo area.

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