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 at random.
1. The Incas were defeated by conquistadores from which country in 1533? A: Spain
2. The population of modern day Peru is around 8 million, 18 million or 28 million? A: 28 million
3. Cuy is a local speciality – what type of animal is it? A: Guinea pig
4. Maria Reiche was an expert on which lines in Peru? A: Nazca Lines
5. How many countries does Peru have international borders with? A: five
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Jaipur, popularly known as the Pink City, was
founded in 1727 AD by the Maharaja of Amber Sawai Jai Singh.
This remarkable city is considered a marvel of town planning.
Designed in accordance with ancient Hindu treaties on
architecture, the Silpa Shastra, Jaipur follows a grid system
and is encircled by a fortified wall. The palace lies
in the heart of the city and occupies the space of the
central grid. The rest of the grids were cut across neatly by
wide lanes, which divided the area into tidy, well laid-out
rectangles of commercial and residential use. The fortified
wall has eight gates (originally had seven) and was built for
protection against invading armies and wild animals. Today
the city has spread beyond these walls and reached
neighbouring towns and continues to grow.
Held at Pushkar near Ajmer once in a year,
better known by the name of Pushkar Cattle Fair, is one of
the most colourful festivals of India. Thousands of pilgrims
come to bathe in the holy water of the Pushkar Lake. Legend
has it that the lake appeared miraculously on the spot, where
the petals of the lotus fell from the hands of lord Brahma.
Pushkar has an atmosphere of an ancient town, peaceful and
secluded but for twelve days of the month of KARTIK (Hindu
calendar), it transformed into a spectacular fair ground.
The fair is an amazing sight to behold including street
sellers showing off their dazzling range of wares in hundreds
of roadside stalls.
People come from different parts of
Rajasthan to worship lord Brahma and take bath in the holy
lake. Pilgrims start coming in the early morning in
groups singing the religious songs dedicated to Hindu gods to
bathe in the Pushkar lake. The process continues throughout
the day to turn into DEEPDAN ceremony. The entire
atmosphere reverberates with the ringing of bells. At
night, hundreds of small oil lamps placed on green leaves set
the lake alight. Shopkeepers keeps their shops open day
and night for the last three or four days to keep the city
alive.
The ringing of metal hitting metal in the early evening sunshine rang across the stillness of the Fiord as we moored for the first night on our Norwegian sailing trip. Driving a steel stake into the rock that had a ring attached allowed one to pass a warp through the ring and back to a cleat on the boat – Thus enabling any one to explore the shore easily by just jumping on to the rocks from the bow or stern, have a BBQ or merely to stretch their legs in the evening after a day at sea. The locals used this way of mooring up for the afternoon or night, and this was only possible because of the lack of tides in this part of the world. This was a very pleasant surprise after the difficulties with tides and mooring in the UK. 
We had set out in ‘Turid’ a 35 ft Halberg Sailing sloop, from Kragero in the south of the country to enjoy a few days break from tackling the stresses and strains of life in London. The Norwegian Skipper had an old 1780’s house overlooking his mooring and was just back from sailing round Greece. David and I have been friends since way back when we were nearly young. He has a wooden Folk boat on the south coast of England and I once had a four berth sailing cruiser moored in Conway. The second piece of luck was that as we boarded the sun came out and for the rest of the trip we had sunshine until about 2130 hours at night with a temperature of 26 degrees Centigrade at sea during the day. People expect it to be cold but in the summer this place can be extremely warm, in fact the week after we left the temperature rose another five degrees.
We started our trip around this wonderful coast with fir trees on the rocks and the houses right on the waterside. Rocks and inlets all around the place, so be careful if you’re not with a local skipper who has a good knowledge of the area. It seemed that everyone in Norway had some sort of boat and they were all making the most of the summer either in their holiday homes right by the sea or on the water.
We only docked to take on provisions, but we still had time to visit some of the excellent little ports – Risor, Arendal, Grimstad to name but three. Grimstad was my favourite with some of its wooden houses, in the old town, going back to 1729. I even encountered two Dutch cycle campers that were on a cycle way that took in six north European countries.
Seeing the Boma, (see photo by the Beetle,) now a fully restored small hotel is even more amazing than any of the photos I had seen, such a dramatic transformation from the derelict building here on my arrival, which was only just nearing completion when I returned for the millennium festivities. It now stands in grounds surrounded by all manner of vibrant vegetation, attracting varied animal life – from butterflies to lizards to the occasional monkey.