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NEWSLETTER 59: March 2021
Thank you for your interest in the Afaranwide travel blog. |
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Colin's crew candidate certificate
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NOT being able to travel during lockdown is making us pretty restless. So I've signed up for the longest trip anyone will have ever done – to the other side of the Moon and back. Japanese online billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has bought up all the seats on a lunar flight aboard SpaceX's Starship rocket. And eight members of the public are being invited to go along for the ride. The flight, scheduled for 2023, will not land on the Moon but will loop around it. SpaceX founder Elon Musk said: "We expect people will go further than any human has ever gone from planet Earth." I've been fascinated by space travel since I was a child, so I put my name down straight away. Rather discouragingly, on the same day an unmanned Starship exploded after landing successfully following a test flight. Maezawa tweeted yesterday that more than 300,000 others had pre-registered for the Moon trip. Initial screening will be completed by March 21, so I'll let you know how I get on! – CS
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Beaches are closed in Lagos
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Green Shoots of Recovery? | |
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WE'RE entering the eighth week of lockdown in the town of Lagos in the Algarve, Portugal. The Covid numbers are dropping dramatically – along with our options for getting out. We're allowed to shop for food daily and exercise "locally" and have found ourselves loitering in the supermarket aisles for something to do! The street etiquette around being too close to strangers is entrenched and it will take more than a few green shoots of recovery to shake off our new people-phobia. However, the shoots are appearing. For example, from May 1, Cyprus will take in British tourists who have been vaccinated; the Seychelles reckons it will reach so-called herd immunity soon; and the EU is looking at a digital passport which would allow vaccinated tourists to travel. We're still waiting to be vaccinated and getting restless to see more of Portugal than the street where we're living and our local supermarkets. But perhaps we can start looking ahead, and we're thankful for that. – SB |
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Venus Williams, in yellow, prepares to serve
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Weirdest Tennis Match Ever? | |
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NEW POST: Dubai's popular tennis championships get underway, without spectators, on March 7. We look back at the day seven-time Grand Slam winner Venus Williams played a semi-final of this major tournament in front of a handful of fans on a lowly outside court.
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Empress Dowager Cixi's mausoleum
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Plundered by Tomb Raiders | |
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NEW POST: Join us as we visit the lavish mausoleums of Chinese emperors, princesses and concubines that were looted by treasure-seeking grave robbers.
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Dolphin-watching cruise at Musandam
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Fjords, in the Middle East? | |
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NEW POST: We race friendly dolphins on a traditional Arabian dhow in a Middle East fjord close to the flashpoint Strait of Hormuz. |
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Sue and Colin on the Star Ferry
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IT WAS love at first sight when I caught the iconic Star Ferry across Hong Kong Harbour. I went home and asked Colin: “How about buying one and living on it?” Fast-forward six years, and people who did just that have put their converted ferry up for sale at HK$21 million (US$2.7 million). I must confess that I’d sometimes hop on a ferry at Pier 7 and go to Kowloon just for the fun of it. The sparkling brass and shiny wood interiors always lifted my spirits and as the five-minute crossing only cost peanuts it wasn’t really a wild indulgence. Now it’s just a question of finding that 21 million… – SB |
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Sue at the Hilton Ras Al Khaimah Beach Resort, UAE
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Clean-it-Yourself Hotel Breaks | |
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WE’RE all obsessed with what travel will look like post-pandemic, and I’m not comforted by Hilton’s predictions for the future of its hotels. Posting a loss of US$720 million last year, they’re warning we will see less housekeeping and food and beverage staff in their hotels as labour costs are one of their key cost-cutting strategies. With unemployment hovering around 23 per cent in the American hotel industry, this seems like bad news all round to me. It’s unfair to single out Hilton just because they’ve gone public, but hotels rarely offer better service by cutting staff numbers. – SB |
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Computer image of how sails would look
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WE’VE never been on a cruise. The idea of dropping in on a number of countries without having to struggle through airports with heavy suitcases is certainly appealing, but the environmental impact concerns us. Take, for example, Royal Caribbean International’s Freedom of the Seas. At her average speed of 21.6 knots, she burns through 2,800 gallons of marine fuel per hour – think of the greenhouse gas emissions that creates. Could the answer be giant luxury cruise ships powered by sails? That’s what’s being suggested by the French shipbuilder Les Chantiers de l’Atlantique. Conventional sails on large ships would tear, so solid ones would be used. The boss of the shipyard in Saint-Nazaire says a number of cruise companies have shown interest and the first orders are set to be signed this year. Computer-generated images of the ships look fantastic, and it’s claimed the technology would slash emissions. That just leaves the other problems associated with cruises, such as the flushing of sewage, the dumping of rubbish, and the way places such as Venice and Petra are overwhelmed by passengers who contribute little to local economies. |
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Bonnie Tyler in lockdown at her villa
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Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean | |
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THE closest we got to booking a cruise was in Hong Kong a couple of years ago. We saw an advert for a two-day round trip featuring a show by Bonnie Tyler. The prospect of hearing Bonnie belting out Total Eclipse of the Heart and the rest while at sea was impossible to resist. So imagine our heartache when we tried to sign up and were told the cruise was fully booked, though fortunately we didn’t fall apart. Fast forward, and we were surprised to learn that, like us, the Welsh songstress is currently holed up in the Algarve because of Covid. She told the BBC’s Front Row show that she flew in to spend a week at her villa in Albufeira a year ago, and has been stuck there ever since. We’ll keep an eye out for her at the supermarket. |
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Bonnie's villa in the Algarve
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The personable Bonnie is just one of many celebrities with links to the Algarve. Cliff Richard has a winery and a home at Albufeira, though he’s been trying to flog both for years. The region is popular with TV stars such as Ant and Dec and football’s Ronaldo, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Teddy Sheringham and Wayne Rooney. And as the setting for some spectacular courses, it attracts Rory McIlroy and other top golfers.
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