Travel & Holiday

Situated between Ethiopia (to the north) and Tanzania (to the south) lies the unspoilt Kenya with world famous safari parks and glorious sandy beaches.

Kenya is split up into eight provinces which can further be split down into districts. There were sixty nine in total according to the last census in 1999. The eight provinces are: Central, Coastal, Nairobi, Eastern, North Eastern, Nyanza, Rift Valley and Western. As well as having the provinces to explore, Kenya also has several busy cities if you would prefer to escape and indulge in a spot of retail therapy. Kenyan markets and shopping are things that may rarely be considered when thinking about the country, but in actual fact it is a veritable smorgasbord out there, with many fine shops and markets to cater for everyone’s taste. Start off with a trip to the capital city, Nairobi, and think about the kind of items you may want to acquire. One thing that Kenya is known for is the beautiful cloth that comes out of the country. Head down to Biashara Street and have a look at the range of fabric shops available, so you can choose a lovely piece to take home.

If you are someone who prefers markets or going to see a range of different shops though, then definitely just wander around the city and make the most of the open air markets there every day. The City Market itself is great and has a variety of items that you could buy, for yourself or as gifts to take home for friends and family as a token of Africa. Haggling is perfectly acceptable, and encouraged, at these markets, so you can easily get bargains. However, be careful when haggling over goods such as ornaments as often these can be handmade and are of a high quality. It can be offensive to name too low a price, so make sure you inspect items and see how well crafted they seem before you put in your initial offer. Bargaining is fun in the culture, but if you are someone who has little time or get frustrated, then just make a clear ‘final price’ and ask for the stall owners own. Make a compromise and pay up or leave without the item. Nairobi also hosts the Sarit Centre, a large shopping zone that can be found by heading for the Westlands area if you want to make the most of every shopping district.

Travelling out into the lesser know cities of Eldoret and Machakos can be good for shopping if you do not like the busier environments as much. Real bargains can be found out in the smaller towns though. Often there will be markets selling many goods which are handmade and very well crafted: wood carvings, cloths, jewellery and baskets are treasures to look out for. If you are prepared to travel, the coastal town of Lamu is perfect for shopping for good quality items. Renowned as one of the best areas in terms of craftsmanship, it is worth going to see, or maybe even being the destination you choose to stop in.

Kenya is well known for excellent shopping, but make sure you take advantage of other wonders too. There are beautiful sandy beaches in the coastal regions which, although very hot, will allow you beautiful sea views and a chance to paddle. Consider The Gedi Ruins, Mount Kenya, Maasai Mara and Kakamega forest reserves (to name a few) if you are in Kenya and make the most of this beautiful country.

Happy Holidays!

Diamond Holiday Travel is the latest multi-level travel company to begin promoting its prelaunch, or in this case pre-prelaunch. I am going to cut to the chase about the details of this company. There is a one time fee of $300 which comes along with a free travel voucher. No inventory or monthly expenses. The overall concept of this company is similar to some of the recent board structure programs we have seen with TVI and Royal Cruise Matrix, where new members only pay a one time fee to become a part of the business. This approach works well considering the attrition rate with MLM is so large.

Diamond Holiday Travel has a revolving matrix compensation plan. I was unable to find a detailed version of how exactly it works on their website but I believe to understand the gist of it. If you sponsor a bunch of people and receive a ton of spillover you will make money. It is as simple as that. This company is new to the network marketing industry and the latest to of many to enter the travel segment. You essentially become a part of travel club which offers many perks to its members and looks to be a good amount of fun as you develop camaraderie with your team and other like-minded travelers.

When I look at Diamond Holiday Travel I see another opportunity where there is potential to make money. However, mostly what I see is a lot of people that are trying to be the first to jump into a pre-launch company in hopes of making a massive residual check. Here is the secret to all MLM companies and Diamond Holiday Travel is no different. Everyone who is successful in an MLM has worked their tail off; there is no get rich quick by finding an opportunity early and sitting on your duff. Diamond Holiday can be a lucrative opportunity for someone looking to join a new company and making an income by putting in strong effort. If you are someone who is moved by the prelaunch approach to marketing the latest opportunity, chances are you will be moving on to the next one in about a month when you don’t see any checks from Diamond.

Sightseeing

New York New York one of the most popular places to be visited with its magnificent and world’s largest cathedral, St Johns the Divine. Central park stretches over two and a half miles, full of restaurants, playgrounds, zoos and the Metropolitan museum. There is so much to do and see in New York. Visit the empire state building – it has an observatory on the 86th floor that enables you to see over 80 miles away when the weather is clear. It once was the world’s tallest building standing 1454 ft tall. It was built it 1931 during the Art Deco period. Take a visit to the Hudson River and Riverside Park where you will see the Grant memorabilia and Civil War artefacts on display. It houses the largest mausoleum where president Ulysses Grant and his wife rest. There are plenty of museums of art and history in New York to keep you busy as well as the zoos and Aquariums city wide. Don’t forget the Statue of Liberty, you can take a short boat ride to view her standing on Liberty Island. You will never be short of something to do in this great city.

Shopping

Make sure you have plenty of money because Ney York offers so much opportunity to spend all your money in the hundreds of fantastic stores. Take a day or two in the Rockefeller building where there are over 300 shops and 35 restaurants. You will be shopping until you drop, well you could drop into the famous rainbow room if you have not run out of money by then. This place is marvellous and all good shoppers should not miss shopping in the Rockefeller building.

Eating

Food in New York is so varied it has every cultural restaurant you could possibly think of then more. You will perhaps leave NY a lot heavier than you arrived as there are so many eating outlets from fine cuisine to fast and unhealthy burger bars, sea food and steaks. Whatever you palate fancies you will find it with over 18000 restaurants in New York to choose from.

Nightlife

New York’s evening entertainment has a wealth of variety to choose from including bars, nightclubs, comedy shows, jazz clubs, bowling alleys and pool halls. There is something for all the family. Watch a fabulous show on Broadway which runs the full length of Manhattan right down to the Bronx. Daily and evening shows are available 7 days a week. Have a laugh with some of the best comedians in the comedy rooms. Try a day out watching an American Football match and watch how the Americans do it. Or be a spectator at a fast and furious ice hockey game. There is always something to keep you entertained whether you are a solo traveller, family or a couple on a romantic break. There is entertainment everywhere in New York.

Beaches

There are a few summertime beaches in New York in Long Island, Brooklyn and Southampton with beautiful soft white sands and they are very family friendly and life guards are on duty. There are plenty of water activities and beach games to enjoy all along these long beautiful summertime beaches. You will also come across a few topless ones in Brooklyn, but this isn’t the norm for America, though it is usual of the European countries. There are plenty of hotels, bars, and restaurants along the shore fronts.

Happy Holidays!

Sightseeing

Bulgaria has many archaeological Museums dotted around its towns, with beautiful churches and ruined fortresses dating back to the 14th Century. There are over 150 decorated monasteries to see in the towns, villages and scenic areas. Varna is the capital of Bulgaria with baroque, turn-of-the-century and contemporary architecture blended with shady promenades with a pleasant seaside garden. Varna is said to have the oldest gold ever found in Europe that dates back to 4500BC. It is a very modern city with the imposing Varna Cathedral. The Cathedral has many unusual stained glass windows and a bell tour with around 132 steps, but what a magnificent view once you have reached the top, a journey well worth doing. You will also find the ruins of the Roman baths dating back to the second century.

The archaeological museum is the place to go to see extremely valuable exhibits linked with the ancient Thracian culture, Slav and Proto-Bulgarian pottery and jewellery from the Middle Ages. Down by the sea gardens you have a wonderful dolphinarium where you can take all the family to see one of its 40 minute shows. Back in 1992 a baby dolphin was born to the aquarium. The national maritime museum has a fabulous display of marine guns and mine sweepers but the most valuable exhibit there is the Drazki torpedo boat, which earned its fame by sinking the Turkish cruiser Hamidie during the First Balkan War in 1912. It is said to be the only ship of its kind to be preserved till the present day. You will have plenty to see in Varna and its surrounding villages and towns; it is also a wonderful place for scenic hikes or bike tours.

Shopping

Varna has the one of the biggest shopping centres in Bulgaria, it was officially opened in 2008. It also houses an ice rink and cinema. It is the most modern building in Bulgaria. There are plenty of shopping facilities in Varna for your modern requirements and souvenirs. Outside of the main town and into the villages you will find more of the local art and crafts for the area.

Beaches

Bulgaria’s oldest beach resort is St Constantine and Helana which is approx 8 km from Varna. It is a very quiet place to relax and great for underwater diving. The most popular beach is Golden Sands, they call it the pearl as it has golden clean sand and a has a rich forest park to the back of it which keeps it cool in the sweltering heat during May to October. There are a lot of water sports and other entertainment to experience along the 3.5 mile long beach. It is a stunning area with plenty of photo opportunities.

Eating

There is a wide choice of dining in Bulgaria from Indian, Chinese, Mexican and fast food bars. There are also plenty of opportunities to taste the local more traditional foods. Among these you will find some are cooked with feta cheese, yogurt, vegetables and meat like a rich hearty stew called Gyuvech Kavarma. Another favourite is spicy meat rolled into balls and served with vegetables. There are plenty of fine dining restaurants and places to suit a family budget all around Bulgaria.

Nightlife

There are more than enough nightclubs and bars in Varna some near the beach front others into the town, where you will find a place to suit most tastes in music. You will also find a traditional English pub called Taifun that serves liver and onions with fries, salads and pizza and more than 16 different beers to try out. You’ll never be short of a night out in Varna and its surrounding areas.

Happy Holidays!

Travel Writing
When it comes to travel writing, the literature can narrate the writer’s experiences that occur during those travels, the people the writer meets and the ambience and aesthetic appeals the writer may be experiencing – these all go into a travelogue. It is fair to say that a travelogue tends to be more directly allied with literature about al fresco events than about proceedings taking place within the boundaries of buildings of one sort or another.

A prime example of this kind of travel writing is ‘Just a Little Run Around the World’ by Rosie Swale Pope. Adventure World Magazine records that, during her travels, Rosie’s trip took her five years during which she encountered three packs of wolves, and wore out 53 pairs of shoes – to paraphrase the sub-title of her book: “….5 Years, 3 Packs of Wolves and 53 Pairs of Shoes”. During this sojourn she also accumulated 29 proposals of marriage, had a brush with frost bite and got hit by a bus! She also got chased by a man in his birthday suit, brandishing a gun! Why did she undertake this mammoth odyssey? You’ll have to read the book to find out – turn to our Travel and Holiday section where you will find the story of this woman’s amazing travels listed, along with a diversity of other titles.

Would you Put this into the Travel Category?
As with any other genre, the travel and holiday category does not stand alone, but rubs shoulders with essay writing such as a writer’s observations on the peoples of a specific nation. An excellent example of this sub-genre would be Kate Fox’ “Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour”. It is an intensely amusing observation of the detailed behaviour that is inherently English.

Personally, I dislike this particular treatise because I find it over-generalised with references to the English when it might be better to refer to those people as British. Kate Fox focuses on her observances of English behaviour and practices which, admittedly are often totally alien to people from other nationalities: however, her treatise would have been more balanced had she entitled her book “Watching the British: The Hidden Rules of Regional British”. Why have I made this comment? If you are Welsh, Scottish or Irish, you will know exactly what I am talking about.

Countries and Regions
Foreigners tend to make this over-generalisation that, if they say ‘English’ it’s a catch-all word covering with whole of the British Isles. Truth be told, nothing could be further from the truth: Kate Fox fails to make any distinction between the individual identities of the countries and regions that make up the British Isles – all of which have distinct and regional differentiations that have absolutely no reference to the comments Kate Fox is making in her book. Added to that, lumping English people together when the people of Cornwall, as a prime example, consider themselves completely unique to the rest of England – as do the people in the North of England – is a vast over-generalisation and could well continue to perpetuate the myth amongst foreigners that England constitutes the whole of the United Kingdom when, in fact, the English are just one nationality amongst their regional cousins, all of whom are governed separately and independently for the most part and whose peoples are totally and completely different to the ideal and popular perception of the English.

Guidebook Series
Volume sales of travel and holiday guidebooks in general have seen a slump of 4.8% in 2008 according to Stanfords, a bookshop in London. Those guidebooks that specialise in advising visitors where to eat and drink and where to stay has really taken a knock: this sub-genre has lost 20.9% in sales value over the past year. It would be interesting to hear what readers of this site think – what do you attribute to this loss in sales of the ubiquitous guidebook series? Write in and tell us what you think.

One of my all-time favourites when it comes to travel and holiday writing, is Karl Pilkington. At present he is a little-known author, having only written two books – both of which you will find amongst our travel and holiday pages, under the section marked ‘General AAS’. While both his books make excellent reading, the book I am specifically referring to here is “Happyslapped by a Jellyfish”. The title says it all! Pilkington describes this book as a travel guide although, equably it could fit just as easily into the autobiography genre – as well as various other sub-genres as well. The book is humorous and witty – and I am not going to say any more about it. If you want to read it [and you should] you need to pop it into your basket and head for our checkout. This book is remarkably cheaper here than in many other places so, apart from being a good read that will make you laugh, it is good value as well.

Atlases & Maps
Satnav sales may be increasing but, is there a corresponding plummet in the sales of atlases and maps? Overall, figures taken from Nielsen BookScan reveal that the travel genre overall saw a fall of 8.7% on the total sales from the previous year. The year 2008 saw sales of atlases and maps down by 19.6% in value – a factor that retailers are attributing to internet route-finders and satellite navigation increasing in popularity.

Tourism & Leisure Studies
One thing you probably wouldn’t think of in relation to tourism and leisure is the impact of politics associated with leisure pursuits. This is a factor focused on by the Nijmegen University in The Netherlands, with their research centred on the close proximity between tourism and leisure, geographic perspectives and the impacts on these pursuits by social and planning activities. Their studies centre on the link between man and his environment and between concepts of space-time together with supply and demand, all of which culminates in burgeoning political interest in tourism and leisure as an industry.

Basically, in a nutshell, the impact that tourism and the need for leisure facilities have on the environment in which people live has a direct effect on planning issues and the economics of the country involved. While this research was carried out in The Netherlands, this is true of any country which depends on tourism as a major source of their economy, affecting everything from planning regulations to the development of their infrastructure to take into account huge influxes of tourists during the strategic months. The principles and practice of tourism and leisure studies form the basis of the book “Leisure and Recreation Management” written by Dr George Torkildsen who has been instrumental in teaching, management and writing about the leisure industry and tourism management generally for the whole of his career.