In Novgorod we discovered the value of Russian money. We saw banknotes in the dustbin next to the toilet used as toilet paper.
In St Petersburg we got really fed up with the foreigner-rates charged at museums. We tackled the problem this way: at the entrance we figured out the rate for Russians and handed over the exact amount of money to the cashier without saying a word (just as the Russians do). We still had to get through the control. Most of the time people noticed we were foreigners, but they either did not care or were too busy checking other people to make a fuss about us. So we got in without any problems. Unfortunately this method did not work at the Hermitage.
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Accommodations can be tricky, as most reputable hotels are filled by honeymooners. Many a Western tourist has checked himself unwittingly into a brothel/hotel, and although staying at a house of ill repute can be an adventure, those who wish to steer clear of such places should pay close attention to the d?cor of the room ? steer clear of rooms decorated with pictures of scantily clad women. Another pitfall of staying at a brothel is police trouble: if Vietnamese police come pounding on the door, it?s best to be very quiet and hope that they go away, but even better is to avoid the trouble by choosing accommodations carefully. Recently, a number of newer hotels have been built in Dalat with Westerners in mind, so finding a good place to stay should be much easier than it has been in the past.
Many travelers stop at the city of Dalat before setting out for the nearby Montagnard villages. The Montagnards are an aboriginal people who live in the hills of Vietnam. Many of the them fought for the Americans during the Vietnam War, but tensions between the Montagnards and the Vietnamese predate the arrival of Westerners. The Montagnards are a remarkable people with a rich history and culture, but before heading out to their villages, tourists should check through the American embassy or local tourist offices to make sure that times are peaceful.
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Comdex is barely a couple of hours old, and already we have details on 3dfx’s newest graphics processor, Napalm.
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South of the city center between the Second and Third Ring Roads lies the Tiantan (Temple of Heaven) Park, an imperial shrine designed for an annual ceremony to appease the heavens. Constructed in 1420, this perfect embodiment of Ming architecture is rich with symbolism and is considered by most Chinese to constitute the center of the universe. Northwest of the city lies the magnificent Summer Palace (Yiheyuan) a royal playground first constructed in 1750 that contains over 3000 halls, pavilions, towers, and courtyards as well as the vast Kunming Lake. The 728-meter-long Long Corridor wings around most of the sights and offers stunnig views of the lake. Northeast of the Summer Palace lie the ruins of the Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan), which was pillaged by French and British troops during the Second Optium War of 1860. Farther out of town lie several remnants of the Great Wall, which once extended more than 6400km across northern China ? greater than the width of the continental USA. The skeleton of the Wall was first joined together by the first emperor of the Qin dynasty, but most fortifications and reconstructions date from the more recent Ming dynasty. Three sections of the Wall are open to tourists: Badaling, Mutianyu, and Simatai. Badaling is the best preserved, but Mutianyu is less overrun with tourists. Simatai is the most dangerous, and most inaccessible, and hands-down the most impressive portion.
Mausoleum of Chairman Mao: open M-Sa 8:30-11:30am; free. Great Hall of the People: open daily 8:30-11:30am; Y30. Chinese Revolutionary History Museum: open Tu-Su 8:30am-4:30pm; History museum Y5, Revolution museum Y3. Forbidden City: open daily May-Sept. 8:30am-4:30pm; Oct.-Apr. 8:30am-5pm. Palace museum Y30; Palace Museum, Jewelry Hall, and Clocks Hall Y50. Audio tours Y30 plus Y200 deposit. Jingshan Park: open daily 6am-10pm; Y0.30. Beihei Park: open daily 6am-10pm. Entrance only Y5, including White Dagoba Y10. Tiantan Park: open daily 6am-8pm; Y10. Summer Palace: open daily 8:30am-5pm; Y30. Old Summer Palace: open daily 9am-6pm; Y10. Badaling: open daily 8am-8pm; Y30. Mutianyu: open daily 9am-4pm; Y20. Simatai: open daily 8am-5pm; Y20.
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You no longer have to buy youth train tickets in special places, you can simply buy them in train stations. Furthermore they are not limited to students and anyone aged between 122 -25 years can buy them.
Unfortunately, luggage lockers in train stations all around France have been closed (due to the threat of bombing).
Isar Rosenberg – Israel (19/7/97)
In the Lonely Planet book, which for the most part is very good, there is an error about ferries between France and Ireland. Only some of these ferries accept the EuroRail Pass and these only leave about twice a week. Plan for this or you’ll have to shell out about US$100 for a ticket.
A Meyer (2/96)
In Paris, the consigne for left luggage may close early. We got stuck lugging huge suitcases on the train with us because the consigne at the Paris Gare de Lyon closed at 10 pm, we arrived at 10.10 pm for an 11 pm train.
The town of Chamonix (and some other mountain towns) is closed from 15 November to 15 December. Many of the hotels, restaurants and lifts were closed, even the indoor skating rink! The bridges were removed from the hiking trails, the train to the ‘Mer de Glace’ was closed for its annual holiday. There was too much snow for safe hiking and not enough for skiing.
Dianne Saxe – Canada (2/95)
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Near the Rmer is the birthplace of Germany’s most beloved poet and philosopher, Johann Wolfgang Goethe. The master was born in Frankfurt in 1749, and he wrote some of his best-known works there, including The Sorrows of Young Werther. The icon’s birthplace, a typical 18th-century home for a showy, well-to-do family, was one of the first buildings to be reconstructed after the war and refurnished with the family’s original belongings that had been spared, and many of which Goethe junior (the famous one) hated. The house is on Grob er Hirschgraben 23-25.
Frankfurt is perhaps most famous for the word it lends to the English language: Frankfurter. And, not surprisingly, the best dogs can be had in Frankfurt, in the restaurants of a district called Sachsenhausen. The long wooden tables of Zum Gemalten Haus (Schweizerstr. 67) have seated locals and tourists alike for years to offer them W?rst, Kraut, and home-brewed ?pfelwein (a bitter sparkling version of apple cider). By the end of lunch hour, the restaurant and its jolly, rowdy patrons create a village-like atmosphere that is quite sobering (excuse the pun!) in a fast-paced, business-oriented city. In Sachsenhausen years ago, the many pubs and restaurants only brewed ?pfelwein and refused to serve beer. They often competed with each other fiercely for customers and for the neighborhood vote of best ?pfelwein brewer.
After such a satisfying meal, the Museumsufer awaits nearby, a mile-long stretch of museums along the southern bank of the Main, each more eye-catching than the next. Some are housed in opulent 19th-century mansions while others are in modern buildings designed by contemporary architects from all over. On Wednesdays, all the museums are free. Of particular interest are the Museum f?r Kunsthandwerk (Schaumainkai 17), containing crafts made in Europe, the Near East and the Far East from many time periods, and the Deutsches Filmmuseum (Schaumankai 41), which exhibits the history of filmmaking in an entertaining style.
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Day One: Central Sights
Begin on the Île de la Cité with Notre Dame, then move inland over the Pont Neuf to the Louvre. If you’re not too jetlagged, either the Marais or Montmartre will be good afternoon options—both have plenty of cafés for cooling your heels and lowkey sights. The 3ème’s Musée Picasso and Musée Carnavalet are both fascinating; the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur, at the height of Montmartre’s hill, holds a different type of fascination.
Day Two: the Tower, Orsay, and Rodin
Step out of the métro under the Eiffel Tower’s legs and then scale her if you dare. Bop along the Seine to the Musée d’Orsay and then if you can stomach any more art, lounge in the delicious gardens of the Musée Rodin for the remains of the day. Sample some of Paris’s Champs-Elysées nightlife when the sun goes down.
Day Three: the Latin Quarter
The Left Bank is full of romantic students and fancy-pants intellectuals. Visit the Sorbonne to catch them where they live, or stroll the Mouff’ to view the places they shop. The Musée de Cluny has classy medieval art. The Jardin des Plantes holds gorgeous vegetation. The Mosquée presents a lovely facade and an even lovelier tea room; its sister, the Institut du Monde Arabe du Paris exhibits art from the Arab world. Enjoy the jazz at central Au Duc des Lombards on your last night out.
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After the 1944 bombing that leveled almost 100% of the city, Frankfurt, like many of its fellow German cities, had to get a makeover. With one eye looking to medieval times and the other spying on corporate America, the cross-eyed result is a city of wood and concrete, Gothic and post-modern, with one history 1000 years old and another just 50. Some things never change though, and in Frankfurt?s case luckily it?s wealth that decided to stay. Since Charlemagne first put this “Ford of the Franks” on the map in 794, fledgling capitalists sailed down the Main to barter and now full-blown capitalists concord in for the world?s largest trade fair.
In 1356, Frankfurt charged ahead politically too with the promulgation of the “Golden Bull,” an imperial law that would make the trade center also the election and coronation site of the Emperors until the Holy Roman Empire?s dissolution in 1806. It is fitting then that since 1998 Frankfurt is home to the European Central Bank?the parent of that darling coin that will securely realize the dream of ambitious politicians from Julius Caesar to Napoleon: a European empire united?at least economically.
Another empire builder, Hitler, hated the city for the same reason JFK called it “the cradle of democracy:” its tradition of tolerance. From persecuted Huguenots in the 16th century to refugee Dutch in the 18th, Frankfurt has always welcomed immigrants through its gates. And now at least one fourth of the small metropolis? population of 660,000 is likely to be speaking something other than German. This is also true of the animated students at the University that once held the members of the prestigious Frankfurt School.
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The last Vietnamese Emperor had a small palace in Dalat. The house is in a sad state of disrepair, but still provides a fascinating and oblique commentary on twentieth century Vietnamese history, especially the history of the Vietnam War. Dalat also boasts a large park with French-style gardens and caged monkeys. It may be less than thrilling, but cultural theorists will enjoy watching Vietnamese men dressed as cowboys lead visitors around on horseback tours. The park is adjacent to a large market for merchants selling arts and crafts items, an area that makes Dalat one of the best places in South Vietnam to buy cheap stone carvings. The choice can seem daunting, as there are literally dozens of stone carving shops in this small area, but thoroughness and patient haggling pay dividends. The competitiveness of the marketplace is a great aid to the buyer leaving and coming back later, as if you’ve been examining another merchant?s wares, often results in a greatly reduced price.
Among Vietnamese, the city is perhaps most famous for its many waterfalls. Dozens of falls dot the landscape of the region, but only two of the waterfalls stand out as particularly impressive. Gougah, a short distance outside of the city, becomes most impressive after the rainy season. Rains during the monsoon swell the width of the falls, which empty out into a deep, wide ravine. For travelers in good shape, the bottom of the ravine is accessible, but the paths down are very steep and should not be attempted without care.
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As abruptly as the western edge of the Andes erupts from the lowlands of the Pacific, the chain’s eastern edge plunges thousands of meters to the sweltering, seething immensity of the Amazon Basin. This is not a manicured tourist “rainfor-est”; this is tropical jungle at its most feral. The untamed expanse of northeastern Peru alone is larger than Germany. Though most people think of it simply as a geo-graphic region, those who have visited know that the jungle is our planet at its most alive. It certainly has the wildlife to support that claim. Created by a chorus of howler monkeys, toucans, crocodiles, jaguars, the mighty anaconda, and thou-sands of insects, some of the nocturnal noises that travels through the darkness of the jungle are best left unrepeated. Spend a few days exploring its depths from Puerto Moldanado and Iquitos in Per?, or Coca in Ecuador, and you’ll likely feel the same. If unsettled wilderness sounds a little bit too fore-boding, take refuge in a jungle lodge, most of which offer the basic comforts of civ-ilization, but still make visitors feel hard-core. Many of these guided excursions in Ecuador leave from Macas, Tena, and Misahuall.
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