![\"mac\"](\"https:\/\/globetrotters.co.uk\/newsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2010\/12\/mac-small.jpg\")
We are\nsorry to say that Mac is not very well, but he is still e-mailing
\nstrong and recently sent the Beetle a collection of travel
\nreminiscences. <\/p>\n
We are
\nsorry to say that Mac is not very well, but he is still e-mailing
\nstrong and recently sent the Beetle a collection of travel
\nreminiscences. <\/p>\n
A friend of mine reading my Guam notes was also
\nstationed in Guam whilst working in the Navy. He told me something
\ninteresting about a couple of Japanese soldiers that had hid in the
\njungles for many years not knowing the War was over. He said that one
\nwas something like a private and the other a Corporal and they had some
\nkind of disagreement between them and did not speak to each other for a
\nperiod of twenty years while hiding out in the jungle. Ha! <\/p>\n
I am still enjoying reading A Sense of Place about
\ntravel writers by Michael Shapiro. I was surprised to learn that India
\nis Rick Steves favourite country although he writes and conducts tours
\nmostly in Europe. He said he would never take a tour group to India as
\nit is unpredictable: “I wouldn’t want to be in
\ncharge of making twenty people happy in India”. <\/p>\n
Me: I visited India three times taking India rail pass
\nand loved it and found it fascinating, but like Rick Steves, I would
\nnot recommend it to others for fear they might get ill and blame me!
\nRick Steves says the Reichstag (new one) building in Berlin is a new
\nglass dome that is open and free all the time so people can literally
\nlook over the shoulders of their legislators and know what’s
\non their desk and keep an eye on them. He has a building in Edmonds
\nWashington where he employs sixty people. Here, I thought it was just
\nhim with a backpack on his back roughing it through Europe, well, maybe
\nalong with a photographer! He says his tour guides for his tours are
\nthe best paid in Europe. I suspect his tours would be good for someone
\nwanting to be with a group. <\/p>\n
One of my favourite writers is Jan Morris. I started
\nreading her when he was James Morris. Morris had sex change operation
\nin Casablanca. He had been at one time an Intelligence officer in the
\nBritish Army and accompanied the 1933 Everest expedition that reached
\nthe summit for the first time. He was married with four children. His
\nwife and he still live together in Wales. I was disappointed when I
\nheard he had become a woman as I prefer male travel writers. I guess I
\nwill have to reread his earlier work when he was a male to see if I can
\nnotice any difference in his travel writing as a woman. <\/p>\n
The travel writer Eric Newby spent thirteen months in
\nPOW camps in World War II. He escaped in September 1943 immediately
\nafter the Italian armistice. A sympathetic Italian commander who was
\nlater beaten to death by the Germans let the prisoners escape. Newby
\nwho had recently broke his ankle left atop a mule. A Slovenian couple
\nwith anti-Fascist sympathies sheltered Newby who became smitten with
\ntheir daughter Wanda. When it became unsafe for Newby to stay with
\nSlovenian family, he sought shelter in the maternity hospital of a
\nnearby hospital. But as the Germans closed in father of the family
\nrisked his life to drive Newby through Parma to a mountain hideout in
\nthe Po Valley. Ultimately Newby was recaptured and returned to prison
\ncamps but survived the war. Interesting accounts (to me)! <\/p>\n
On continuing on the theme of travel writers,
\nI’ve been reading Fodors’ Exploring India Author
\nFiona Dunlop 1998. On page 14, she says, “When a desert woman
\nin Rajasthan (the most colourful and interesting section of India to
\nme. Mac) dons a pido, a yellow veil with a large red spot, it announces
\nher pregnancy and acceptance by the community. Simply being fertile is
\nhowever not enough. Vedic verses honour sons followed by more sons but
\nnever daughters. When a boy is born conch shells are blown in Bengal
\nand Assam and drums are beaten in Makargshtra. When a girl is born the
\nwomen of Rajasthan retreat behind their veils and wail. In traditional
\nHindu households throughout India an ancient rite to produce a male
\nchild is still performed over pregnant women”. <\/p>\n
In the 1980s a survey revealed that of 8,000 abortions
\ncarried out in India after prenatal sex determination only one was a
\nmale foetus. On page 15 the author talks about Muslims, who, unlike
\nHindus believing in resurrection after death and in the existence of
\nheaven and hell. It is customary for Muslims to bury rather than
\ncremate their dead. <\/p>\n
If you would like to contact Mac, he can be e-mailed
\non: macsan400@yahoo.com <\/p>\n
We are sorry to say that Mac is not very well, but he is still e-mailing strong and recently sent the Beetle a collection of travel reminiscences. A friend of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","css_class_manager_body_classes":"","css_class_manager_use_in_post_loop":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main-article"],"yoast_head":"\n