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 Japan, often near railroad stations, they have what they call Capsule Hotels. They are like train berths one on top of the other or some refer to them as coffins. Businessmen after a night at the bars and who miss their trains home often stay in them. They even have a very small TV set in the bunk with you and a telephone. If you can’t find a place elsewhere then you look for a capsule hotel. I stayed in several. One had a sign at the entrance. No elevator. No Cooking. No tattoos (they associate tattoos with criminals and Cher.) No dead drunks. One time the bunk over me was not occupied and for some strange reason I left my money on the bunk overhead like it was a shelf. When I returned that night the manager handed me the money. I guess he knew only a foolish foreigner would do that. One time I went into a coffee shop near train station in Ueno section of Tokyo and when I left I left my backpack at the stool. I went to downtown Tokyo before discovering my backpack was missing. I thought maybe it got pulled off in the crowded subway. There are thousands of coffee shops in Ueno and I did not know if I could remember which one I was in. I went into one and the manager held up my backpack as if he had been holding it all day waiting for my return. The Japanese are just incredibly honest. More about capsule hotels later.

One way to cut down on expenses in Japan is to use the many vending machines found on streets everywhere. Food etc is cheaper there. Coffee in YMCA was $4 a cup. In the machines, $1.10. In McDonalds $1.80 a cup. Beer can cost you $6.00 in a bar but in vending machines outside $2.90 or less. They even sell whisky in vending machines on the street. I don’t know how they keep children from buying whisky from the vending machines. Japan has clear plastic umbrellas you can see thorough so you won’t run into people and spike them. Stores have stands outside to place your wet umbrella and not take into store.

A Japanese man that looked older than me stopped me on the street in Tokyo one time evidently to try out his English and said to me. “My, you look old. Are you tired? It turned out he was older than me and had been a Japanese fighter pilot in WWII with he said 303 missions. (I suspect I heard wrong.) His English was not too good. For some reason he told me he did not like Italians. He sang a bit of song Coming thru the Rye and asked me if I knew the name of that song. He laughed when he heard my military background and saluted me and then scooted away. I would have liked to have found out more about him like did he bomb Pearl Harbour. It was a most strange encounter. About as strange as these notes.

The honour of inventing the useful rickshaw falls to an American missionary in Japan who designed one for his invalid wife. The Japanese appropriated the idea and then the Chinese.

I one time was on a train in Japan and some Indian congressmen asked me if I would have lunch with them in a week as they were invited to the States. Before I met with them, I read up books about our Congress, how many how chosen etc so I would not look like a dummy. The first question they asked me is: “What is pie a la mode?” (It is pie with ice cream on top if asked.) They then asked about tipping which they were not used to in Japan. I did not tell them I went to places where tipping is not required Ha! I have met particularly Australians that have worked while travelling. I met an Irishman that got a job as extra in Japanese movies where they needed a Caucasian face in background checking into hotel, airport etc. He talked me into taking such a job. Military Intelligence found out about it and suggested I not do this as the studio Nichikecki (or something), sometimes slanted their picture anti American and I might not know from scene I was in. There went my movie career. I could have been a star. I met an Australian temporarily tending bar in US Military Sanno Hotel. Some try jobs that do not take away jobs from locals. Like big firms hiring foreigners for practice in conversational English. I met some Japanese that had had British teachers. I had to smile when I heard them talking with a Japanese accent. I don’t know if your Embassies would know of trade shows or possibilities for temporary work that did not take away jobs from others or not. They hired a Japanese to teach my Irish friend some Japanese He got more pay if he spoke a few words. We think of Japan as having high class films but they also make a lot of cheap films. One day my friend was playing the part of a reporter in front of Judge’s stand. The Japanese actor Judge did not show up the next day so my Irish friend was promoted to Judge in same movie.

Next month, Mac discusses India.

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

What is it: Giardiasis is a diarrhoea illness caused by a microscopic parasite (Giardia intestinalis) that lives in the intestines of people and animals. It can occur anywhere in the world, although it is most frequent where water is not clean.

How do I get it: transmission occurs from ingestion of contaminated food or water or from exposure to faecal contaminated surfaces and from person to person by the faecal-oral route including homosexual practices.

What happens if I get it: symptoms occur approximately 1 to 2 weeks after ingestion of the parasite and usually last for over five days. Symptoms include Diarrhoea, flatulence, nausea, abdominal cramps, bloating, weight loss,

Diagnosis and treatment: the infection can usually be identified through a stool sample. A 7-10 day course of antibiotics, usually metronidazole sorts things out.

How can I avoid contracting giardiasis: no vaccination is available, so it is best to avoid drinking or eating food from utensils that may have been washed in contaminated water. To be sure, boil water for at least one minute – longer if at high altitudes. Wash hands thoroughly with soap and water. Also wash your hands after using the toilet and before handling or eating food (especially for persons with diarrhoea). Avoid drinking untreated water or using ice. Wash and/or peel all raw vegetables and fruits before eating and use uncontaminated water to wash all food that is to be eaten raw. Avoid eating uncooked foods when travelling in countries with minimal water treatment and sanitation system.

And so we left Buenos Aires and now here I am in Brazil! We crossed the border last night after visiting the Iguaçu waterfalls on the Argentinean side, which was an incredible experience, including a train journey and a “quiet” boat trip on a rigid inflatable where we had to sit on the sides of the boat rather than on seats. Then we had a walk around the falls themselves, viewing them from all angles – and what an incredible sight they are! We took another boat trip under the falls in a high powered boat which appeared to turn on a sixpence and gave us plenty of opportunities, if we wished, to take photographs of the falls from below.

I didn’t take advantage, as there was so much water spraying about, the camera would have been swamped – and we were swamped because part of the fun of this trip was to go right under the waterfalls themselves, where the water churns up into huge waves which invariably ended up in our laps and all over us! Everyone wore either rainproofs, which weren’t terribly effective because the water found its way into everybody’s ponchos and macs, or the braver ones just wore shorts and a t-shirt and just enjoyed the soaking! I would have liked to go over them in a helicopter but decided it really was too expensive and in the end, as we had such incredible views from the ground, decided that was enough.

We crossed over into Brazil from Argentina and visited the falls here, which affords a greater panoramic view than on the Argentinean side. Talking of water, we have at last reached the rainy season and it has poured more frequently while we’ve been around the falls than at any time on our trip so far. Trouble is, our campsite has no proper roads, just mud tracks and when I tell you that the earth is bright red, you can imagine that my shoes, my trouser bottoms and most of my clothes that I am wearing at the moment seem to have red stains everywhere. So it’s a question of running around, trying to avoid all the red muddy puddles, all the deep red mud, and live as normally as possible!

We took a bus to the falls within the national park, and our truck just parked up outside and our leaders prepared lunch for us while we were away as we would only be there a couple of hours, as it is just a walk along a designated path to see the falls. It was, as I have said a spectacular sight. One hears the falls before seeing them and when one bursts upon them, one's thoughts turn to the first Europeans to discover them (and don't ask me their names now) and how they must have felt to see such a sight. We were taken to a bridge right under the falls and were all sprayed by the water and it cascaded down, but that was only one tiny part of the falls. They just go on and on and on, and each turning of the path brings a different perspective into view. It is totally impossible, I would say, to photograph them in their entirety whether you are in the air or on the ground. No photograph, however professionally done, can really do full justice to them. At the tourist shop, I got a book about them and it contained a CD with 60 photos on it, so hopefully I may be able to get a better perspective when I am able to view it.

Well, we then got on the road heading for what we expected to be our next camp site but somehow or other, the roads got rerouted and we ended up lost! However, Brazil has these fabulous restaurants called Churascias, which means really, barbecued steak, and they charge you for your food according to how much it weighs. We stopped off at this roadside restaurant at about 2100 as we were all starving, and as we entered, they gave us a credit card and it turned out that whatever we bought in their restaurant or shop went on to this credit card and then in order to get out, we had to present the card and pay our total bill. A fantastic idea, as the restaurant is a buffet type meal and one can choose whatever one wants, as much or as little, etc, and it doesn't matter whether you love meat or are a vegetarian because everyone is catered for.

After leaving there we moved on, trying to find the right road to our campsite but in the end our redoubtable leaders had to give up and we arrived at this dicey looking transport cafe, which really wasn't too bad, except the petrol station alongside was either being completely revamped or reconstructed and it was a building site. However, they let rooms and so that's where we stayed for the night, not without a little trepidation to start off with. As soon as we had climbed the stone steps to the upper floor, everything was transformed – clean tiles everywhere, a room with a fan whirling around creating lots of cool air, clean beds and a shower room with hot water, towels and toilet paper! Luxury. We had a thoroughly good night's sleep and Judith and I were able at last to wash all the red mud off our shoes although they didn't dry out for a day or two. We both had flip flops to wear and I had my black shoes I bought for £9 which have proved one of the most comfortable pair of shoes I have ever bought and which don't even stain one's feet black no matter how much they perspire!

Anyway, we arrived at the next camp site in Paraty rather late the next night, as we had decided to miss out the one night stand on the way and press on to the place where we would be staying for a few days. Paraty is a seaside resort, with a lot of history but don't ask me what it is! It has an old town, with cobbled streets, and of course it was carnival fever there already. We stayed in a nice campsite which had soap dishes and nice showers and toilets which were kept a lot cleaner than the other place in Foz and also did not have any red mud. But it was a bit of a one horse dope and also made me realise how much more expensive Brazil was going to be for just about everything than the rest of South America. Laundry was costing four times as much as elsewhere – you would laugh and say I was still paying pennies, but it is in comparison to the rest of the continent that I judge it.

The highlight of our stay there was a boat trip, or I should say a schooner trip around the islands. It stopped off every now and then to let down anchor as the boat couldn't get too close to shore, and people who could swim just jumped off and had fun. We non-swimmers were rather restricted until one our leaders ask the captain to let the dinghy down and go ashore, so I got Paddington out, slung him round my neck and together we progressed to shore where we had our pix taken several times. So who's Paddington I hear a lot of you ask? Well, Paddington Bear, of course, from Peru, who has been my trusty friend this many a week, blown up and placed round neck when necessary, although at the falls he could not be utilised because only the proper life jackets were allowed. Anyway, Paddington and I are now on record, braving the waves to go ashore and return to boat.

After Paraty, where we stayed three nights, we were off to Rio and arrived in time for carnival. Now, my companion, Judith said she could forgive our truck company, Exodus everything for the marvellous package we had in Rio. The Imperial Hotel turned out to be very imperial and provided us, albeit three to a room or more to keep the cost down, with a swimming pool, which suited me down to the ground because at the deep end it only came up to just over my shoulders, and at the shallow end was just under my armpits. So I was able to go there, open air, with a palm tree, together with growing coconuts, and a few pot plants, in the early morning, do my exercises (with Judith doing hers too) and then we would take a dip in the pool, Judith to swim and me to just paddle around. And then down to breakfast with a buffet meal which provided us with all sorts of dishes, bread, cake, fruit, juice, coffee, etc. The laugh was, I ask wherever I go for hot water and lemon and everywhere I go I get it, with the lemon suitably sliced. However, this is where the Imperial Hotel let me down because they could not understand my request and brought hot water and a whole lemon and left it on the table. I went and asked the waiter to cut it, and he took it from me, took an ordinary breakfast knife from the bar, sliced it through once and handed it back to me! It took until the last day of my stay to educate them as to how that lemon should be served up!

As for the rest of Rio, we went to see the Christ Redeemer statue, and that was quite an experience which we both loved. It was very busy there with huge crowds and we had to wait over an hour to get on the train, but one buys the ticket in advance, a time-stamped ticket, so we are assured a place on the train and so can go away and come back. We stayed in the immediate environs and sat in the shade and had a cool drink, etc. But it was worth the wait as the vantage point of the statue gives the most marvellous panoramic view of the whole city and gives a large scale photograph of each section one can see, highlighting the various buildings of interest, so that from the north, south, east and west, we can see not only the focal points but identify landmarks etc. The statue itself is a little disappointing because if it had been New York, we would have been able to go up inside it, come out at the top and see even better views, but Christ is not hollow!

That night, which was Saturday, we went to see a carnival procession in Rio. It is not the proper procession, which we saw at the sambadrome on the Sunday night, but it had a special place in my heart as it was the little people, putting on their own little displays, the ones who will never get to the sambadrome but are given their moment of glory anyway. And it was fantastic with floats and marching and dancing people, with their bands and we could get right up close to them and in some cases join in if we wished. The part where we were was great because there was no hard liquor being sold, just soft drinks and the odd beer. Judith and I had had nothing to eat and all the restaurants apart from the fast food places like McDonald's all street stalls were closed, and so in the end we finished up having, would you believe, two salads, chips and chicken nuggets in McDonald’s. Judith is a vegetarian and just had the salad and chips with orange juice but she was well satisfied and said it was one of the best salads and orange juices she had ever tasted. Before we left McDonald’s I went out to the street and bought us a couple of wigs, a green one for Judith and a blue one for me, made from tinsel, and we then donned these and went back out on the streets to enjoy ourselves.

One particular lady in the parade caught out eye and we wished we had taken out cameras to catch her – a black lady completely naked except for a G string and a spray of gold paint. She looked fabulous and had a figure any girl would die for. She was obviously enjoying herself and giving everyone else a lot of enjoyment.

We said goodbye to the parade quite early as we wanted to be fresh the next day to go to the Sugar loaf mountain and to prepare for our long night at the sambadrome. Sugar loaf was not as exciting as the Christ statue vantage point, but it provided a different perspective and we went up in cable cars, whereas there is a train which goes up the side of the mountain to the Christ. But Christ has far more to offer and we only spent an hour up Sugar loaf, whereas we spent a couple of hours at the Christ and saw far more and were entertained by a carnival band who were being filmed for TV.

I loved the Rio Branco parade the night before because I felt I could participate in it, whereas we were stuck up a terrace and behind big barriers at the Sambadrome and although we were at the end of the parade avenue, where all the parades came to an end, and the participants mingled to some extent with the audience, it was not the same as being on the streets. Having said that, I enjoyed it all, and glanced up at the lit up Christ statue and then back down at the arena and what was going on there and I too thought: “Goodness, it's carnival in Rio and I am here!”

We finally left at 0330 before the end of the parade and walked some distance to get a taxi as the taxis right outside, when you could get to them through the pressing crown, were charging exorbitant fares. We slept late the next day but then were up again to do whatever we wanted by 0830. No exercises, though, we were too tired and it was too hot!

We finally left Rio on the Wednesday. We had not been able to see a lot because the shops and a lot of the sights were closed, but we saw enough to satisfy us and were well pleased with our stay in Rio at such an exciting time.

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

Our webmaster passed on an e-mail of complaint by an easyCar customer. easyCar is a low cost, no frills car hire company. We thought we’d pass it along in case any reader decides to rent a car through easyCar. This is what he has to say: Just to let you know that I rented from easyCar last night and they have put in 3 new Ts & Cs which seem very unfair. See for full details, but in summary:

They take a deposit of 50 pounds (80 euro) which is fair enough, BUT:

1. Firstly, they used to refund the deposit automatically (albeit very slowly). Now you have to claim it back from them within 3 days of finishing the rental or else you don't get it back.

2. Secondly, they used to charge you a 10 pounds cleaning fee if you returned the car dirty – again fair enough for a low cost operator. Now however, they take the fee up front and it's on you to prove that the car is clean on return if you want the fee back.

3. Finally, you can no longer pay for excess mileage on returning the car. Now you have to estimate how much further than 75 miles a day you're going to drive, then pay in advance. But the real killer is that if you get your sums wrong, and go even 1 mile over your estimate, then they get to keep all of your deposit !!!!!

And if you're short of the excess mileage that you've already bought, you don't get the excess back either. I think this is outrageous. They clearly don't want to rent cars to people who are likely to do more than the 75 miles a day allowance.

Good news and bad news for our friends, Ryanair. On the one hand, they recently reported a 44 percent year-on-year increase of passenger numbers. They say that they handled 2.141 million passengers in August 2003 compared to 1.487 million a year earlier. Internet bookings rose 2 points to 94 percent. The average load factor (the average number of seats sold as a proportion of seats available on flights) fell by five percent to 78 percent in the three months to June, while yields fell 14 percent. Ryanair blamed the decline on the launch of 50 new routes, the weakness of sterling against the euro, the one-month closure of buzz, the former budget unit of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines it snapped up earlier this year, and cheaper fares.

The bad news is that a French court has ruled that subsidies it receives in Strasbourg are illegal. Air France's subsidiary Brit Air filed the case against Ryanair, whom they said were receiving unfair subsidies. Ryanair said that when the Strasbourg Chamber of Commerce approached Ryanair requesting it fly to Strasbourg, Air France was only carrying around 3,000 passengers per month on the London route and in August 2003, Ryanair carried over 18,000 passengers on this route. “Air France has been downgrading services from Strasbourg and other French regional airports, having withdrawn from 10 direct international routes from Strasbourg alone in the past 8 years,” said a spokesperson.

“Ryanair's partnership with the Strasbourg Chamber of Commerce led to 130,000 additional visitors to Strasbourg and the Alsace Region, resulting in increased revenues to the airport and increased tourist spend to the region, along with the creation of approximately 200 new jobs. All this will be lost until our appeal has been heard,” they said.

As a result, Ryanair have suspended flights to Strasbourg and switched to nearby Baden Baden across the border in Germany. (Oh yes, another case of flying to a different country!)

Another law case is pending. Ryanair are waiting to hear about a deal it has with Charleroi Airport, near Brussels, where it has established one of its bases.

This beautiful cottage that dates from 1614 has been converted to a Youth Hostel. Thanks to fellow Globetrotters Jeanie Copland’s organisation, we met in the middle of National Trust land with Polesden Lacey estate in front of us. Those who arrived on time had the pleasure of starting the weekend at the Pilgrim pub in Dorking. The two who were late put up their tents in the dark, having a spot of trouble when the tents kept sliding down the steep slope.

The Youth Hostel might be a good half an hour walk away from the nearest means of transport but that didn’t mean a quiet and relaxing night: the owls seemed to be in the biggest chat room ever above us, and Elvis the pedigree Dorking cockerel (who does not deserve to have his photo shown here) kept us awake for the most of the night. The green woodpeckers were not wasting their time either and you could see them just in front of the place.

An arduous walk on Saturday got me and our party to the top of Box Hill after which I retreated gracefully with John back to the camp whilst the more energetic people in our group decided to add another 5 miles to do the shopping. Yummy dinner followed in the evening.

On Sunday there was a 1936 reproduction of Lady Greville house parties. Can you imagine! We witnessed 1930's Mercs and Bentleys which all in all seemed a bit too posh for an average Globie so we moved on for a long walk.

Brilliant weekend. Thanks Jeanie and Tracey for getting it so well organized.

Etna burst into our view as we explored Taormina’s Teatro Greco early one April morning. The day’s clear skies allowed us to look out across from this large amphitheatre and notice how the volcano formed a marvellous and deliberate backdrop through the semi ruined red brick stage walls. The Greek colonists certainly a had sense of place and made the most of the peak and its domination of eastern Sicily’s skyline. Two thousand years later its presence also acted as beacon – this time in fulfilling our day’s aim of appreciating a major reason for visiting the island.

Driving anti-clockwise around the Parco d. Etna allowed a plan of seeing how far we could actually get into the heart of Etna to be hatched. As our steady passage along a somewhat haphazard route succeeded in drawing us closer towards Etna, all seemed to bode well as we strained our necks along unhindered views of the still snow caped peak. But more and more we bumped into the consistent problems of vague road signs & our poor navigational skills and as such we found ourselves failing to penetrate very far into the park at all, apart from a few impassable trails near Bronte. Even at this point our first lava flows, whether hundreds of years old or more recent, looked impressive as their long since cooled remains lie amid the trails of destruction wrought across the surrounding countryside. Walking on top of these flows felt like walking out onto the remains of a burnt out BBQ – the crunching steps sounded much like the point where the charcoal can be crumbled into nothing and lacks any density.

Time and lack of progress soon concluded that heading inward from the north west was going to fail and as an alternative we struggled round to the southern entrance at Belpasso. Finally, after passing through a number of grey, industrial communities we started to get drawn in towards the dwarfing centre. We moved up through kilometres of ever switching roads, across grander lava flows and on past a more disturbed countryside. Our road finished at Cantoniera d’Etna (a mere 1881 m above sea level) and we crossed up on to a landscape that looked like a cross between the moon and a war hardened battlefield. Varying craters from previous eruptions littered the scenery, whilst the main peak stood away up another 1500 meters. Even at this level heat and steam still rose, whilst swirling winds and eerie silences added to the atmosphere and only machines being used to repair the most recently damaged roads broke the spell.

Etna’s continual eruptions have generated huge outpouring of ash, which over time has settled as dust into everywhere. We noticed that it covered the remainder of the winter’s snow and formed much of a crater we clambered up to get a better view of the quickly clouding over peak. Walking up such dusty surroundings made staggering across a sandy beach in heavy boots seem easier, as each step gained cost us half a stride backwards. Our calf muscles ached for a respite by the time we reached our wind blown crater rim…

Once back in breath there was time to enjoy the stunning views – south through the hazy sunshine towards the eastern coast of Sicily and round behind ourselves and up to towards the now almost shrouded summit. Our photographic urges found us trying to capture the surrounding colours of a fired furnace contrasted reds, yellows & deep charcoals and across the horizon toward the remnants of a chairlift which had been left upright, like hairs on the back of a hand. Down below many of the restaurants and administration buildings had either been completely brushed aside or remained semi submerged within the lava flows! These sights left me wondering how such a natural force can discharge so much power and toss aside all human activities with disdain!

Such was the magnetism of Etna and its surroundings that it was with some reluctance and much lateness that we found ourselves moving on from this step of our Mediterranean tour. However when looking to fulfil the ever present needs of food and accommodation, even Etna’s charms could only sway for so long…

If you’d like to contact Matt, to ask him any questions or ask advice, please e-mail him on: matt