Wanderlust November issue sampler

travel

IN W trips to

India & Canada

Budget-stretching special issue

Travel More pay less!

City breaks →✱ Budget gear →✱ Expert tips Turkey ✱ Ghana ✱ Guatemala ✱ Delhi & more…

Bali

and beyond

Temples, reefs & orang-utans for a few pounds a day

USA by rail

New York to San Francisco the pioneers’ way

Short-hop overlanding

Epic journeys in under a month

+

November 2010 £3.99

Wanderlust Issue 115 (November 2010) • TRAVEL MORE, PAY LESS • Travel Blueprint: Bali & beyond • Guatemala’s highlands • USA by rail • Ghana • St Paul Trail, Turkey • Overlanding • World Guide Awards winners

passion for

is elephant trekking ethical? the world’s best tour guides remote islands

Contents november 2010 • issue 115

WIN a trip to New Brunswick p44

USA by rail p56

Features: Travel More, Pay Less special 29 Top tips Experts’ money-saving special

76 Active Turkey

32 Blueprint Indonesia

86 Short-haul Budget breaks

From Simon Calder to the Twitchhiker – advice from the pros Spewing volcanoes, pristine reefs, real-life dragons... plan your trip to Asia’s bargainous beauty

46 Wildlife Ghana

Discover Africa’s cheapest walking safari and warmest welcome

56 Rail USA by train

Ride from New York to San Francisco in style – traverse North America on the USA’s unsung rail network

67 Explore Overlanding

Think you don’t have time for epic truck travel? Think again! Make a continent-crossing road-trip, whether you have a year or a week

THE FUTURE Like this map? To buy MAPPING a similar wall map, visit COMPANY www.futuremaps.co.uk

Ghana p46

Brazil p15

Turkey’s newest long-distance hike offers warm hospitality, wild tortoises and travel on the cheap

From illuminating Lyon to exotic Tunis, a run-down of the most exciting cities accessible in a long weekend – and the best value ways to visit them

91 First 24 hours in... Delhi

How to cope when you touch down in India’s frenetic, chaotic, intoxicating capital

96 Top 5 Guatemala’s Highlands

Meet the local Maya, laze by the lakes and learn to speak the lingo in Central America’s most beautiful, budget-friendly region

Guatemala’s Highlands p96

CheckIn

new trips, places & travel ideas

6 Your travels

20 People

9 Your letters

22 Departures

Where have you been lately? Readers report from around the globe Binocular buying, rickshaw antics and all sing for Scotland

12 Places

Istanbul of the cheap, new flights to Luxor, buzzing round Brazil and more

19 Diary

November’s best bashes worldwide

CheckOut

travel advice & reviews

108 Books

116 Health

Books on backcountry Sierra Leone, 100 Bizarre Animals and Loos With Views plus the best new guides

Taxis and free ice creams... travellers’ guilty pleasures From African safaris to Arctic adventures – when going with a tour operator adds value to your trip

25 World Guide Awards 2010: the results

Find out which of your shortlisted tour guides have been crowned the best on the planet

Can you really scrimp on your travel health? Yes (but carefully), says Dr Jane

118 Knowledge

110 What’s on

The great elephant-trekking debate: is it ethical? Plus your top travel tips

Dolphin documentary, lions on ITV, top travel talks countrywide and Wanderlust editor Dan on the Travel Channel!

120 Gear

Cheap gear: we put bargain boots, bags and fleeces to the test. How did they do?

112 Photo tips

128 Serendipities

Last chance to enter our comp, plus the lowdown on lenses

The pick of your travel tales

PASSION FOR

wan a

•

Capo in su eira ltry & cany Bahi on s a

TR AV EL MO RE , PA Y LES S

• Wor ld’s

Tra vel

es

8/7/10 14:27:52

be yo nd

27 10: 16:

•

_cmy

an ori ad Ecu

k PBv2

.indd

1

•

US A by

•

•

Pa ul

ng Ko

St

ng Ho

Gh an a

ing Hik

•

Tur ke y

an Om

Tra il,

•

•

a mo Sa

Ov erl an din g

Next issue! p54+ e p65 •

Wo rld

.99 £31 10 d 20SO.ind lyYK_ /Ju ne _CM Juver112

_Co

000

Te for mple a fe s, re w p ef ou s & nd ora s a ng New day -uta the Yo ns pio rk to ne ers’ San way Fran cisc o

Gu ide

Aw ard s win ne rs

000

_Co ver 115

dlv4

.ind

d

1

der EL EP am HA on NT th TR EK KIN G ET HIC AL?

TH EW OR LD ’S

14:0

7:59

REM OTE

ISLA ND S

29/ 9/1

0

WIN a trip in India p94

Bali & beyond: West Indonesia guide p32

St Paul Trail, Turkey p76

Overlanding for all p67

/10

BES T TO UR GU IDES

Delhi p91

Luxor p16

19/8

WIN a photo commission to Northern Territory p112

issu e

m ar ala ✱ ✱ Exp De er lh t ti i & ps mo re …

ly, US NZ, A…

rai l •

es dg -lo n eco azo Am

an db eyo nd US Ab yr ail Sh o ov r Ep er t-h ic jo la o urn nd p ey s in ing un IS

Bu dg et-s tret ch ing spec ial

ak daypy ✱eGrrehfe an sc✱tB walk a ✱ ud Sh Irela ort hi s Guateget ge nd, kes in Ita

Gu ate ma la’ s hig hla nd s

r114

TR A P�A�VEL YL M ES OR S! E

Tu Cit rk y e b

•

Cove

WIN

TRIPS INDI TO CANA A& DA

Blu ep rin t: Ba li &

es tur ven ad

5/1 13/

• Tok yo

er mm p su -ho ort sh

Don’t m B an issuiess ali !

Subscrib wal ks

30

Eas alia t Co ’s as inal t ey

Thro

•

•

bes t day

s , Lao ng ba g Pra an Lu

“Nowhere Aus likehas leopards tr it”

ugh Abor EXPOSURE DRESS FOR SAILING • SET YOUR ig

000_

art he ba d i Cu wil ob to ’s air ip bia N a tr – Ara urs in Win n ho � Oma t 24 � Firs �

(No vem be r �� ��)

Se Bracret zil

LE HO ARN

�� LIDA ING be trips YS tte fo Se r y r a e p� o � u

plan you r ult imat e ge taw ay

The world’s new big cat hotspot

HOW TO: FERRY-HOP CANADA • 0

+

How to

A wi ld rid e th roug h th e Ok avan go De lta

���

� Back-routes into Petra,

000_Cover113_cmyk.indd 1

! ay aw urs 4 ho

PA

TRSSAION FOR VEL

Wa nd erl us t Iss ue

•

Budget city breaks p86

• Eas t Coa st Aus tral ia

ne ryo eve

s dvean aLess th

Bah ia, Bra zil

is for far Sa

te

Japa n • Rem ote

er: nn p pla Tri

�la�sutm-mminneutrures

without the crowds Machu Picchu, Angkor Wat… � Bedouin trails in Egypt � Hidden corners of Mexico

��-p age spec ial!

Bot swa na

•

ra gP an f Lu so cret Se

�� perfect

• Cyc ling

��) ly �� /Ju ne (Ju

os La

Oka van go,

���

? nd n ha frica Old t A er? rfec ou tim pe r y st the re fo ir F d tu Fin ven g ad ban

ial ec e sp -pag ��

RO WOUND T RLD HE TRI PS Bot s

Go wild in Scotland

13-page guide to Highland adventures

• Wha lew atch ing

ue Iss t us erl nd Wa

fa Sa

Top treks revealed

alia Come on or Austr Morocco p87 See

• Pad dlin g the

in

ri !

! rapher photogassignment in

wor ld spe cial

on az es Amlodgto sleerepst o- re fo ec Whthe e rain

Thailand’s hilltribes

ea

Becom travel

• Rou nd the

L

Wan der lust Iss ue ���

OR

• Sailing gear Atlas, Morocco • UK travel health Chile • Mexico photos • High • Sri Lanka • Tierra del Fuego, • Sinai, Egypt • Wild Scotland ����) • Thailand’s hilltribes

NF

IO E SS AV TR

PA

(Oc tobe r ��� �)

Wanderlust Issue ��� (August/September

TRAVEL

20:

32:

01

PA

TRSSION AV FOR EL

Travel more , Pay l£ss

BALI &BEYOND → travel blueprint

Komodo dragons and teeming reefs, fuming volcanoes and fiery cuisine – and all for just a few pounds a day. Iain Stewart guides you round the idyllic and economical islands of Java, Sumatra and Bali

Travel more , Pay l£ss

Forget the automobile: the train is the truly great – and great value – way to cross the USA, reckons Martin Symington 56 Wanderlust November 2010

Seattle Portland St Albans

Fargo

Burlington

Springfield

Sacramento

Virginia City I

Emeryville (for San Francisco)

II I

I I I II

I

Chicago

Salt Lake City Granby

Omaha Denver

Yosemite

New York City

HYR

NIA ZEP

CALIFOR

Indianapolis Washington DC

CARDINAL

Grand Canyon

Los Angeles

Oklahoma City

Albuquerque

Memphis Atlanta

Charleston Savannah

Fort Worth

New Orleans San Antonio

Orlando

Miami

Professor Bop/Flickr Creative Commons

I

knew Colonel Grant was going to be an engaging dinner companion when he joined our table, tipped his cap to the young girl seated next to her Mom, and asked earnestly: “Say, honey, d’ya reckon this train has ears?”

The girl looked at the tall, white-haired black man, and shook her puzzled head.

“Sure it has. Engineers!”

The ice was broken, as intended, and conversation flowed freely while the great plains of the American Midwest unfurled on both sides of the train.

I had already discovered that condensed life stories are as much a staple of mealtimes on US trains as the succulent steaks (freshly grilled on board) and cheesecake.

Colonel (his first name, not military rank) remembered Pearl Harbour, had heard Martin Luther King preach in Atlanta and witnessed the launch of Apollo 17 into the Cape Canaveral night.

At one point he also mentioned: “I was raised in Mississippi by my granmammy and gran-pappy, who were born slaves.”

This comment shocked me. But, as my new friend pointed out, slavery finally ended only in 1865, and he would be 85 next birthday. Perfectly possible, then, I thought, and something to mull as we chugged past endless flat expanses of corn, trekked by westward-heading pioneers back in gran-pappy’s day.

I, too, was heading west – by rail, from New York to San Francisco; Brooklyn Bridge to Golden Gate. Soon after dawn on a misty Manhattan morning the sleek, silvery Amtrak train stretched along the platform at Pennsylvania station, hissing as if raring to get going.

Ahead of me lay four time zones, 17 states and 67 station stops. You could make the whole trip in four days and three nights if you wanted, changing trains just once: the Cardinal runs three > Wanderlust November 2010 57

Travel more , Pay l£ss

long short Overlanding

Crossing continents by truck is one of the cheapest ways to travel – and you don’t have to have months to spare. Here are the best overlanding routes, whether you’re free for a year or a fortnight

Nikki Self/Tucan Travel

A truck can be more than just a truck.

It’s a viewing platform, a social club, a kitchen, a security blanket, a library, a home – and a way to cross continents and explore remote areas from under £20 a day. During the four decades that overlanding trucks have been trundling across the planet, five classic routes have been forged. And it’s now possible to pick short sections of each – so you can cherry-pick the choicest moments and get a flavour of the overlanding experience in just a couple of weeks. We’ve outlined the main events as well as the best of the shorter tasters – for a list of overland operators to match, see page 74. >

Wanderlust November 2010 67

→ overlanding THE sEMI-CIRCUMNAVIGATION

UK to Australia

Delve Down Under without flying (much) on this immersive bus ride ulgaria – Turkey – I Typic ia – Bnesia – Australia – r2an – Pakistan n a a l r – India – Ne o 4 weeks do om pal – ute: UK y – Rpore – In r a Tibet – Fran g a Hun ing – Chi c na – Le – Germany – Austria – ysia – S aos – ThailanAd – Mala THE Long version Guide price: £5,000 – £6,300 Highlights: k Feel surreal in fairytale Cappadocia k Be wowed by blue-tiled Islamic masterpieces of Esfahan, Iran k Pay your respects in holy Varanasi, India k Gawp at Mount Everest, Tibet k Meet monks in Luang Prabang, Laos k Wake up in the Outback, Australia

hiking – are interspersed with the souks and lavish mosques of Tehran and Esfahan, then the teeming nations of Pakistan and India before the wild peaks of the Himalaya loom. In a sense it’s a combination of city sightseeing and wilderness trucking, with some classic icons thrown in – Taj Mahal, Everest, Uluru, and maybe the Potala Palace and Angkor.

Through the Middle East and Asia, accommodation is usually in guesthouses and hostels – but the Australian Outback is the perfect campsite.

What’s it like?

Possibly more than any other overland route the trail to Oz is a concept more than a journey – and one that’s captured the imagination of travellers for the best part of half a century. In a sense the stops on the itinerary are incidental, mere stepping stones on this hemispherehopping odyssey; however, the true pan-global overland companies (notably Oz Bus and UK to Oz Overland) do tend to follow similar routes.

Tripping lightly through Europe, you’ll touch on medieval towns and mountainside vineyards – but the real adventure starts past the Balkans and into Asia. Stretches of open landscapes – across Turkey and Iran, mountains and salt deserts offer excellent

Top tip: Pack lightly – you’ll pass through some

of the world’s best markets. Pick up essentials as you travel, and hone your haggling.

the short cuts

beehive domes of the Bungle Bungles in Purnululu National Park (pictured).

Who: Intrepid (£1,095)

16 days: Moguls, Mosques & Mahals India – Nepal Starting from Delhi, gawp at the Pink City of Jaipur and dreamy Taj Mahal, admire the erotic carvings of Khajuraho and the tigers of Bandhavgarh NP, float past the burning ghats of Varanasi and wander the medieval streets of Nepal’s fascinating capital, Kathmandu.

Who: Dragoman (from £525 + US$340 kitty) >

9 days: Wild Kimberley Australia The Gibb River Road is the real Outback deal: a dusty, corrugated trail passing crocodile-inhabited gorges and vast swathes of russet-hued emptiness.

Camp in swags at isolated billabongs, dive into Lake Argyle, saddle up at a cattle station and explore the bizarre

Wanderlust November 2010 71

Travel more , Pay lÂŁss

→ ACTIVE TURKEY

Walking with saints Following in holy footsteps, the St Paul Trail is a wild and wonderful walk across central Turkey.

Better still, the homestays en route provide inexpensive insights into the region and its people.

David Atkinson laces up and beds down Photographs by Peter Mallet

→ ACTIVE TURKEY

S

harp suit. Serious demeanour. Glint of gold wrist bracelet in the afternoon sun. The silver-fox village elder, or muhtar, of Müezzinler came across as part Vince Cable, part Tony Soprano.

“Welcome!” He extended a firm, tanned hand.

“We have prepared tea and sesame snacks.”

He led me through the spring-flowering village, all tulips and wild tortoises, to a traditional timber house: animal quarters downstairs, living room on stilts above, with rugged floors, wood-burning stove, and his 86-year-old mother hiding from the mid-afternoon sun under a patterned headscarf.

“Any stranger can still come to a village like this, knock on a door and have a place to stay and eat,” said Murtha Mustafa Acar as we sipped tea more saccharine than a Turkish love song. “Ten years from now, when the trail is established, I hope villages like ours will be alive again.”

Turkey has been making headlines of late – from the 2010 European Capital of Culture programme in Istanbul to a growing reputation as a euro-free fly-and-flop bargain. But the most rewarding and best-value way to explore the real Turkey remains trekking – engaging with local communities at grassroots level.

The coastal Lycian Way remains the country’s most popular route, welcoming some 12,000 trekkers per year. But I had come to walk a number of sections of the St Paul Trail, the 500km, 24-day long-distance footpath stretching north from either Aspendos or Perge, both near Antalya in the south.

The trail partly follows paths walked by St Paul on his first

Map: Scott Jessop

‘Only the reverberating hum of bees and gentle fragrance of flowers could distract me’ missionary journey in Asia Minor, and continues north to Yalvaç in central Turkey’s Lake District. I’d hop between sections by car as logistics demanded.

The trail was established by walking guide Kate Clow six years ago and is still in its infancy in terms of local infrastructure and visitor numbers. Some sections are remote and physically demanding, with variable signposting. Some trailheads are served by local buses, or you can arrange a guided hike through a local agency.

My aim was to explore some of the more accessible lengths of the trail, keeping costs low by shopping in markets, eating in local cafés and taking advantage of the groundswell of simple but welcoming rural pensions and homestays springing up like wildflowers along the way. For some sections I joined an international group of volunteer waymarkers, led

by Kate, which was busily clearing the path and painting new signs on rocks to keep the trail in working condition.

“Villages in rural Turkey are within a generation of dying,” said Kate, who was coordinating the waymarking team over the dinner table in a remote Forestry Commission hut. “When the old people die, the villages will die with them. My aim, by 78 Wanderlust November 2010

waymarking trails and fostering infrastructure, is simply to keep the land alive.”

I joined the three-pronged trail just north of E˘girdir, a friendly lakeside town with an ancient mosque and bazaar.

Heading south through protected forest, my first destination was to be the Roman site of Adada, where the two southern sections of the trail converge and where I would join the waymarkers. But first my guide, Deniz, led a half-day hike through the ruins at Prostanna, climbing Mt Sivri for a view over Lake E˘girdir and a perspective on the trail snaking ahead to the south. I sat on the remains of a sixth-century Roman watchtower, swigging water and taking in the view: snowcapped peaks, ancient ruins and grazing goatherds.

This was going to be fun.

Adada felt gloriously lost in time when, after a short transfer by car to meet the waymarking group, I explored its ancient Roman ruins. As I clambered over the pillars in the forum and St Paul’s Basilica, a stone church dedicated to the peripatetic saint, only the low-reverberating hum of bees and the gentle fragrance of the purple flowers could distract me. I was alone, silent among the ghosts of an ancient civilisation. >

Top 5 Guide

Guatemala’s highlands Volcano-flanked Lake Atitlàn, the colonial charms of Antigua, exuberant Maya markets… welcome to quintessential Central America. Claire Boobbyer picks the very best of Guatemala’s wonderful western highlands

96 Wanderlust November 2010

Cancún Mérida

Chichicastenango

This characterful highland town of winding streets and red-roofed houses is the spiritual and shopping hub of the Maya K’iche’. Come for religious rituals and its popular market (Thursdays & Sundays).

Todos Santos Cuchumatán

Laguna Chicabal

Visit this Mam-speaking highland Maya town for the spectacle of the annual horse race, and the vibrant reds and pinks of the locals’ traje (costume).

GULF OF

Climb to the sacred green waters of this lake, in the crater of an extinct volcano, Campeche and watch for the will-o’the-wisp cloud dance over the surface.

Cobá Cozumel Ixil Triangle Chichén TrekItzá in this remote area – in a Tulum Tulum Uxmal region defined by the three

communities of Nebaj, Chajul

Yucatán and Cotzal – populated by the Ixil Maya, whose women wear a stunning costume and Bacalar of rainbow colours. headdress

MEXICO

Río Usu

Río San Pe

maEl Naranjo cin t

MEXICO Todos Santos Cuchumatán

Zunil

Flores

BELIZE l Macar Rive

GUATEMALA

Ixil Triangle Huehuetenango HONDURAS Chichicastenango Lake Copán Atitlán Quetzaltenango (Xela) Laguna Chicabal GUATEMALA CITY Zunil Volcán Santiago Atitlán Antigua Pacaya PAC I F I C Volcán Acatenango

EL SALVADOR

OCEAN 0

Pay your respects to the idol Maximón, visit the market, then soak your tired limbs in the alfresco thermal baths that steam amid lush vegetation on the flanks of Pico Zunil volcano.

Tikal

a

Numerous buses head west from Guatemala City along the Carretera Interamericana, which sweeps up into the highlands and connects the main towns (you’ll need to detour slightly south for Antigua.) North of the highway is Chichicastenango and the Ixil Triangle, south is Lake Atitlàn, while further west is Guatemala’s second city Quetzaltenango (Xela) – a good base for visiting local villages. With no shortage of small-scale accommodation, this a great region for independent travellers.

dr

o

Guatemala’s highland highlights

CARIBBE SEA

Santiago Atitlán

Admire the weaving and embroidered birdlife on men’s trousers at this Tz’utujil Maya town perched on the lakeshore – also a religious centre for Catholics and Maximón worshippers.

Lake Atitlán

NICARAGU

300km

Board a boat to visit the Maya communities on the shores of this blue crater lake surrounded by three conical volcanoes – considered by writer Aldous Huxley ‘the most beautiful lake in the world’.

Antigua

Delve in among the ruined churches and columned courtyards of this Unescolisted Spanish colonial city, dominated by three volcanoes, and preserved in time by an 18th-century earthquake.

Wanderlust November 2010 99