Very few people in China speak or understand English
After arriving in Xingping, a small town in China’s Guangxi Province, I stopped at a couple of tourist shops and restaurants, asking people for directions to my hotel. Much to my dismay, I couldn’t find anybody who spoke or understood English – not even in the restaurants that had an English menu. This experience made me realize that the language barrier in China is more of a problem than in Thailand where a lot of people know a little bit of English, while in China, only a few people know some English!

Do not change your leftover Chinese currency (Yuan) at the airport; Change your monies at a bank before leaving the country
Arriving at the Guilin airport for my return trip to Thailand, I looked for a currency exchange booth to change back my leftover Yuan to US dollars. Much to my chagrin, I discovered that there wasn’t a currency exchange booth at this airport; however I was reassured by the person at the information booth that I wouldn’t have any problem changing my monies at the larger Guangzhou airport where I had a connecting flight

Arriving at the Guangzhou Airport, I finally found the currency exchange bureau. After telling the clerk, that I wanted to change about 250 Yuan (approximately $35USD) to US currency, she advised me that there was a 50 Yuan ($7USD) service fee. The service fee seemed very exorbitant; I wish I had known about it in advance. Shaking my head, I walked away from the booth, thinking I would find something of value at the airport to purchase. About 20 minutes later, I aborted this plan and returned to the exchange bureau to cash in all my Yuan for US Dollars, service fee be damned!

Female Taxi Drivers
There are many women in China who drive taxi. During my brief time there, I had at least 3 female drivers.

While I was in Guilin, a medium sized city in Guangxi province, I befriended a middle-aged tourist from Singapore by the name of John. Ethnically Chinese, John spoke Mandarin fluently and had traveled extensively throughout China.

After a day of sightseeing with John in Guilin, he took me to a relatively upscale Chinese restaurant located in the heart of the tourist quarter. When John found out that I was a strict vegetarian, we began a conversation about the exoticism of Chinese cuisine - in particular, the diverse dishes normally offered at most Chinese restaurants.

Tongue in Cheek, John said “Chinese people eat anything moves.” Although this is a popular stereotype about Chinese people, it does have some basis in reality. Traditionally, Chinese people have a considerably more diverse and exotic diet than Westerners; the diet includes a greater variety of protein matter – including fried insects and grub, turtles, snakes, sharks, civets as well other mammals and wild animals – in addition to aphrodisiacs which often consist of the sexual organs and body parts of certain animals.

Usually you will have to go to a Gourmet Chinese restaurant in order to have the some of the more exotic dishes.

Rather than being critical about the Culinary Culture of Chinese people, let’s just say there are significant cultural differences between the West and the East.

Back to the story at hand – I had some delicious vegetarian food at the restaurant while John and the taxi driver devoured some very exotic seafood dishes. After making his selection from the menu, John was invited into the back room of the restaurant to choose which fish would be killed for his meal.

After finishing our dinner, we walked outside the restaurant where we saw a variety of animals in cages – civets, turtles, snakes and some rather exotic and large fishes in an aquarium. All these creatures were waiting to be selected and carved up for someone’s meal. Fortunately, I didn’t see any dogs, monkeys or bats in cages, otherwise I may have gotten sick.

It should be noted that most Chinese restaurants do not normally supply napkins to their customers. Upon request, they will provide a set of napkins for 5 yuan (75 cents USD).

If you have been following Calypso Island Chronicles, you know how much I detest cigarette smoke. Fortunately in California where I currently reside, all restaurants and bars prohibit cigarette smoking. Hooray!

However in many other countries, the laws pertaining to smoking in public places are either nonexistent or less restrictive, so as a traveler, a lot of times, I just have to grin and bear it because let’s face it, many of my fellow travelers - especially from Europe - are dyed-in-the wool smokers.

To illustrate my resolve against cigarette smoke (and smokers), I would like to share a recent experience at the Canton Airport in CHINA. I had a long layover for my continuing flight to Guilin, so I decided to hang out at one of the airport cafes at that offered free WIFI. Sitting myself down at a table in the nonsmoking section, I observed much to chagrin that there were a number of patrons smoking including middle aged Indian couple two tables away.

When I told the couple that this section of the café was nonsmoking – pointing to the nonsmoking sign on the far wall - and that out of consideration they should either stop smoking or to move to the smoking section of the café, the lady got very upset. She told me a very angry tone – it’s not her problem but the management’s as she continued to smoke away.

After digesting her response, I called the young waitress over, and explained to her that this was a nonsmoking section and suggested that she should either enforce the rules or take down the sign. Although her understanding of English was not 100%, she definitely understood me. After some considerable hesitation, she went to all the smoking patrons – including the Indian couple - and advised them to either stop smoking or go to the café’s smoking section

Shortly thereafter, there was a mass exodus of all the smokers – about 7 people in all including the Indian lady. As she left, she gave me a very nasty look as if I was the villain in this situation. Smiling, I responded by saying “Have a Good Day”, satisfied with my triumph!

I really didn’t know what to expect when I visited Singapore, a small island state of approximately 5 million people. I heard all about the westernized high-tech sheen and cleanliness of the city, the anti-litter laws – including the rather steep fines for spitting chewing gum on city streets - and about the torrential downpours during the wet season.

With the exception of torrential downpours - there was absolutely no rain during the brief 4 four days that I was there - everything that I heard about Singapore was true. My conclusion - Singapore is a FINE city!

True, there are many fines to discourage littering - and most of them are very prohibitive - but it works, and that’s the bottom line. I think that is absolutely FINE. A clerk in a local minimart explained to me how it works – the litter police operate undercover, so they blend in with the woodwork. If you’re apprehended by one of the plainclothes police while in the act of littering, you will be issued a ticket on the spot. Fines are strictly enforced.

Walking around the city, I felt very safe and despite the occasional rare trace of litter on the city streets, Singapore has to be the cleanest city I have ever been to. Furthermore, the public transpiration system is marvelous and very efficient; it is very easy to travel to almost any part of the city by a combination of bus and MRT - it is almost impossible to get lost. The MRT operates until 11:45PM and there is a train virtually every 3 minutes.

If every country adopted Singapore’s laws regarding littering, this world would be a lot cleaner and better place. Shortly after arriving at the airport, I had a conversation with a Singapore expat who has lived in Denver, Colorado for the last 20 years - he told me that having been raised in Singapore, the act of not littering is ingrained in his psyche.

It may sound that I am gushing about Singapore being a modern day Utopia; on the other hand I found Singapore to be a bit monotone and boring for my tastes! Excluding the beautiful botanical garden, there are only a few vestiges of greenery and nature on this intensely developed island. Then again, I am not fond of big cities – I like nature, lots of greenery and wild places.

Having been in the travel business for many years, I have a pretty good
acumen for trip planning as well as understanding the psyche of the traveler. The best advice I can give to a prospective traveler would be - Make sure you plan your vacation as far in advance as possible. This tip is especially true if you are planning to travel during the Christmas Holidays or during the peak travel months to a popular vacation destination.

If you’re planning an extended vacation to Europe, Asia (or any other destination) for more than 2 weeks, you can probably “wing it” for most of your trip. Just make sure you’ve covered the basics – R/T airfare from your destination, accommodations for the first 2 nights and the last night of your trip – the rest can be impromptu.

If you’re planning a 1-2 week stay, I suggest that the itinerary be planned well in advance and hotels booked for the duration of the trip – there is simply not enough time to improvise or travel spontaneously. Unlike most Europeans, Americans cannot have an extended vacation - they are usually limited to 7-14 days.

Let’s face, it everybody (and their mother) would like to travel out over the Christmas Holidays, Dec. 20-27 or Dec 26–Jan 2/3 (the first Sunday after New Years) - these are real prime time dates, and there is extremely limited availability for affordable airline seats or hotel rooms. It is akin to finding a needle in a haystack.

Many people have come to me a month or so before departure, expecting me to make arrangements for those dates only to be severely disappointed when I tell them there is nothing available, or airline seats are only available at outrageously high fares. They shake their head in bewilderment. My suggestion is - Book for the Christmas Holidays no later than early July or 6 months in advance.

For travel during the peak summer months of July / August as well as January/February to the Caribbean, Mexico or to other popular resort destinations, you should book at least 2 months in advance in order to avoid major disappointment

How about me? I took take care of all my arrangements for my upcoming trip to Southeast Asia, November 18-December 30 over 2 months ago!

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Arriving in a foreign country can be somewhat of daunting experience as one is often confronted by a culture, way of life and language that is very foreign and different than one is accustomed to. To many travelers, including yours truly, our attitude about a new destination is often shaped by the first several encounters we have with some of the native people.

Case in point - I arrived in Malaysia with no real advance preparation for my visit, other than planning my itinerary and booking my hotels for the duration of my 13-day stay. I admit that I really didn’t know much Malaysia other than it was a Islamic State and former British crown colony in addition to being considerably more tropical and biodiverse than Thailand, Malaysia’s well-known neighbor to the north. I was also familiar with the story of the legendary Jim Thompson, a legend of sorts in Thailand and former WW2 pilot, who mysteriously disappeared in Malaysia’s Cameron highlands in 1967.

Getting back to my story - shortly after landing in KLIA, the international airport located just outside of Kuala Lumpur, I proceeded to the currency exchange booth to change some monies. The gentleman who worked behind the counter, Mr. Kamarozaman B Abdul Rahim, was tremendously helpful and informative about the ins and outs of currency exchange. At the airport he explained, there is a small service fee of $4.00USD for cashing traveler’s checks up to $500, however at any of the currency exchange outlets in town, the rate of exchange would be more or less the same, but there would be no service fee. I went ahead and cashed $300USD in travelers checks anyhow (the rate of exchange being 3.55RM for 1.00USD). He volunteered this information freely without me having to extract it from him. I commended the young man for being so honest and forthright. Thanks to this goodwill ambassador, my initial impression about Malaysia was a good one - he definitely made this traveler feel at ease.

Next up is a story about Eddie, the best airport taxi driver in Kuala Lumpur and another fine ambassador for Malaysia.

Tourism is a dual edged sword – there is a delicate balance between development and environmental integrity. Once the line is crossed, tourism will often kill the goose that laid the golden egg. I’ve seen (and have read about) too many “so-called eco-destinations” that went downhill very fast because the tourism development got out of hand. Call it human greed - it happens all the time. Take a destination with considerable natural beauty like Galapagos Islands, Kenya’s Serengeti, Negril, Jamaica as an example – the big developers and resort conglomerates rush to the scene to get a lion’s share of the action. Soon they are followed by many small entrepreneurs, tourism concessionaires and the like who also would like to make some monies. I liken this phenomenon to “a shark feeding frenzy”.

Before you know it, the place becomes overrun with too many camera toting, cigar smoking, trash talking tourists who don’t have any respect for the locals or the indigenous populations, neither do they have any self-respect. This leads to even more development to meet the demand and before you know it, this once idyllic place of considerable natural beauty is ruined for good - the delicate ecological balance of an area degrades severely leading to declines (and extinctions) of native animal, insect and plant species (replaced by invasive species) and coral reefs dying. Let’s not forgot how rampant tourism development can have a negative impact on the cultural traditions & lifestyles of indigenous peoples.

In time, the beauty and uniqueness that people paid monies to see is no more, replaced by an excess of commercialism. Such is the way of the world - what we need in the tourism business and in the world in general is a real effort towards sustainable development and lifestyles. Human greed as well as the Evils of Tourism will bring this planet down unless we have a global revolution. The time to start is now!

Conde Nast Traveler is a wonderful magazine. In every monthly edition, I usually find at least a couple of articles that I enjoying reading and which are also good material for a blog. The latest edition’s focus is on ASIA; not only do they have a profile on the exotic and relatively unknown “Stan countries” of Central Asia – Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgzstan, and Tajikistan - all of which were former republics of the now defunct Soviet Union but there is an interesting foldout section called “Occidental Tourists”. This article features a short bio on the 16 most popular Asian destinations for the American traveler. As part of the bio for each country, they list the total number of U.S. visitors for 2007, the number of daily nonstop flights from the U.S. and the cost of a Big Mac (with the percentage difference from the U.S. price of $3.57), which I have coined the McDonald’s Index.

Funny thing, I never have eaten a Big Mac in my entire life, and when I see a McDonald’s in a foreign country, my stomach gets a little queasy. Fortunately not all of the countries on Conde Nast’s popularity list have been infiltrated by the ‘King of Fast Foods’. Curiously enough, India, the 3rd most popular country with 697,000 US visitors (2006), has the least inexpensive Big Macs at $1.31, which is 63% less than a Big Mac in the USA. Being #1 on the McDonald’s index may be a general indicator of the buying power of the US dollar. You may be wondering, what was the most popular Asian country for Americans? The answer is China with 1,710,300 US visitors (these figures are tabulated from 2006).

The complete list (based on number of American visitors in 2007 unless as noted):

#1 China (1,710,300)* #2 Japan (815,900) #3 India (696,739) * #4 Thailand (682,000) #5 Philippines (679,000) #6 Vietnam (412,301) #7 Singapore (409,000) #8 Malaysia (205,000) #9 Cambodia (137,539), #10 Indonesia (131,000) #11 Pakistan (126,168) * #12 Nepal (19,925)* #13 Bangladesh (13,422)* #14 Mongolia (9,649)** #15 Myanmar (6,309) * and #16 Bhutan (5018)*

*Figures are based on US visitors in 2006
** Figures based on US visitor in 2004

A couple of observations - China by far was the most popular Asian destination for Americans with Japan a distant 2nd; India, Thailand, Philippines were closely bunched together at 3, 4 and 5 respectively; Vietnam is rapidly becoming a favorite destination with Americans and note the steep drop-off for those countries that were in the 12-16 positions. A glaring omission from the list was Laos, Thailand’s neighbor to the Northeast.

I would like to institute “a Starbucks Index” – for each country in a geographical area (Asia as an example), I would like to do an inventory of the total number of Starbuck stores and the average price for a cup of joe (coffee). In Bangkok, Thailand, there are numerous Starbucks scattered around the city. Anybody know how many?

I came across some very disturbing news the other day that caused me to shed a tear or two – I discovered that the Casuarina Beach Club in Barbados had ceased operations in Spring 2005 due to financial problems and the property had been sold to Almond Resorts, a large resort management company headquartered in the Caribbean. With the management’s dedication to conservation and environmental issues not to mention the magnificent rainforest-like gardens that enveloped the hotel, the Casuarina Beach Club wasn’t just any hotel - it was both a sanctuary and a very special institution.

I first discovered Casuarina Beach Club on my first trip to Barbados in 1985 when it only had 45 units or so. Of all the hotels I visited, the Casuarina, while definitely not the most luxurious hotel on this small island, was by far my favorite. In the ensuing years, I sent a number of clients to this fine property including my parents, and I had the opportunity to stay there myself in late 2003. When I returned, I really didn’t recognize the Casuarina as it had grown quite larger (but in a very environmentally friendly way). The showpiece of the hotel was the magnificent rainforest gardens - so very lush and green.

The philosophy of the Casuarina Beach Club was grounded in a very strong environmental ethos - they implemented a number of environmentally friendly practices – including composting, recycling as well as actively promoting local Bajan culture and community tourism. Eclectic paintings by some of Barbados’s premier artists were often on display throughout the hotel amidst plantings of lush tropical foliage and flowers. Over the years, the Casuarina had received numerous awards for their Green Philosophy and Conservation ethos.

After a significant expansion and thorough remodeling of the existing facilities over the last three years, the new resort renamed The Almond Casuarina was scheduled to reopen in May 2008. Among the major changes, the new hotel will have added 100 more guestrooms - bringing the room count up to 267 - two more swimming pools, a fitness center and like all Almond Resorts, it will be all-inclusive.

I can only imagine that in order to accommodate the expansion, a good chunk of the rainforest gardens was removed and many trees in the immediate area were destroyed in the process. The additional facilities and rooms can only have a negative impact on the environment in the already resort saturated area known as St. Lawrence Gap. I really can’t say whether Almond Resorts will continue all the environmentally friendly practices of the former management - my gut feeling says no, but I guess the new Almond Casuarina will be profitable, hence sustainable.

Goodbye Casuarina Beach Club; I will miss you dearly!

Costa Rica is one my favorite places in the world. It is so green and lush and the tropical landscapes are simply marvelous. In addition, the ticos have such an even temperament and are so cordial to the tourists. What a wonderful place to be!

The worst thing I can say about Costa Rica are the roads. I have driven a number of times in Costa Rica, and let me tell you thing - outside of the Pan American Highway and the scenic thoroughfare which passes through Braulio Carillo National Park to the Caribbean Coast, the roads are abysmal. There are potholes (in Spanish, huecas) of every size and shape imaginable - in general, they are somewhat circular in shape and range in size from 1 - 10 feet in diameter or more. I have heard of small cars been swallowed by huge crater size huecas.

Driving at night in a tropical downpour, while dodging huecas of every size and shape can be especially treacherous – all I can say, been there, done that! I remember very distinctly driving from Poas in the mountains just outside of San Jose on a fogged-in evening to the lowlands of San Carlos Valley. The visibility factor was next to zero! Descending from 9000 feet or so to the lowlands, the heavy mist gradually morphed into a steady rainfall, and I remember dodging pothole after pothole in my 4WD drive car rental with the hi-beams on. What a harrowing adventure that was. Thank G_D, I didn’t have a backseat driver accompanying me or that would have definitely been my last ride! My recommendation is to refrain driving at night on secondary roads and in the countryside. Better be safe then sorry!