iblog

Anna: Browsing a travel forum about essential pieces of kit to take on a long tour, I found myself reading about the Whiz Away. This gadget is described on the official website as “The World’s First Antibacterial and Hydrophobic Urine Director for Leisure Use and for Mobility Impaired Users”. In short, the device allows women to pee like a man! Remember that scene in The Full Monty? This is admittedly far more hygienic, but I hope I’m not alone in still finding it a bit of a weird concept!

Of course it is inconvenient to be female when there is a dearth of toilets or even, in the outdoors, a lack of suitable cover behind which you might be able to crouch. I think it’s a great invention for women whose mobility is impaired, whether permanently due to disability or illness, or temporarily following an operation or because of a broken limb, for example. Excellent, then, that Whiz products are available on the NHS for those who need them. Also, because it allows you to expel urine while lying down and without undressing, I should think the Whiz Away is a hit with female high-altitude mountaineers. And the idea that this device “preserves Dignity and Liberty whatever the circumstances” is also commendable. But, personally, I’m not sure I’d have used a Whizz Away when cycling through Africa - perhaps it’s just me, but I’d rather hang on and wait until a nice big tree appears on the scene.

Anna: We’re in the middle of Malaria Awareness Week, and you might like to check out the campaign website to make sure you are up to speed with this mosquito-borne disease. We all know millions die from malaria annually, but are you aware that 2000 Britons return home every year suffering from the disease? Of these, around 10 die, and that’s a fact you might want to think on - it could, after all, be you. Malaria is preventable, but you need to do your homework to find out which prophylactic drug is the most suitable for the type of malaria you might encounter, and you for personally. The website has some useful info, including a malaria map highlighting destinations with possible malaria risk, but you’d be advised to consult your GP, travel clinic or visit Fit For Travel, an excellent NHS-run travel health information site. With a 150% increase in travel to malarious destinations, including Africa and India, over the last decade, there’s never been a better time to find out about the dangers of being bitten.

Anna: Are we getting the message about the impact of air travel on the environment? Even with all the publicity about carbon footprints, and stay-at-home eco-friendly holidays, it seems there’s no stopping growth in the airline industry. Compared to May 2006, there will be an additional 8000 flights to and from the UK this month, according to industry magazine “Travel Weekly”. The publication also notes that 16% of airline flights are now low cost. So with a huge number of budget flights on offer, perhaps we just can’t resist jetting off on frequent breaks?

Rushda: The Taj Mahal has been considered by many to be the most beautiful building in the world. Representing love it has been nominated for one of the seven wonders of the world. Sadly, however, the beauty of it has been fading over the years as it is continuously being tarnished by the air pollution of India’s busy city of Agra, which is gradually turning the impeccable white marble slightly yellow. It has been decided, therefore, to give the Taj Mahal a traditional beauty treatment. The process, costing about £115,000 in total and taking a few months to complete, involves the use of a natural mud pack which will be used to remove deposits from the building. The whole of the Taj will be covered with this traditional mud from and then washed off to reveal its new sparkly white skin once more. I’m guessing the mud-covering feat will become a tourist attraction in itself!

Anna: You might have noticed that an increasing number of petrol stations are offering Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). You might also have spotted that this fuel is typically half the price of petrol or diesel. A mixture of propane and butane, LPG’s simple chemical make up means it burns more cleanly, so it’s better for the environment and your pocket. LPG is a by-product of the extraction and refining processes needed to produce oil. It was previously flared off as a waste gas, so harnessing it to power vehicles is a definite step forward. The UK produced 6.4 million tonnes of LPG in 2001, but less than 10% of this was used to power our cars so there’s great potential for an increase.

To find out more about reducing fuel costs, paying less road tax and converting your car to use LPG, log on to The Greenfuel Company. If you travel by car a lot, the money saved on fuel could pay for the conversion within a relatively short period of time. I’d like to see someone set up a LPG taxi company - green cabs would certainly brighten up the streets of London and the reduced emissions would help make the Big Smoke less smoggy.

Anna: “Walk to School Week” runs from 21st-25th May this year. It’s a big event, with over 2 million children joining in to raise awareness and enjoy the benefits of walking to school. As well as this event, organised by Living Streets, Sutstrans is running an ongoing campaign called Bike It to encourage pupils to cycle to schools, and to urge schools to promote cycling in general.

I don’t remember anyone arriving at my primary schools by car when I was younger. Personally, I’d always arrive a little late on my bike, pedalling furiously to keep up with my mum. It wasn’t far - perhaps 3 miles - but a bit too far to walk twice a day for a 6 year old, so my mum learned to ride a bike (at the age of 43) so as to escort me every day. So it’s amazing what a desire to travel sustainably can do on a personal, as well as an environmental, level. I know I may be imagining some time-rich, car-poor utopia of a future here, but walking or cycling to school is such a good idea. It exercises kids (and parents), wakes pupils up before they arrive at school, teaches then to think and look out for themselves, and it’s fun. If you’ve got kids, I urge you to leave the car in the garage!

Anna: It probably won’t be top of Bush’s bedtime reading list, but “Bad Lands” sounds like a promising travelogue. Written by Tony Wheeler, founder of Lonely Planet, the book is a first-hand account of a journey to the less desirable corners of the world, specifically the rogue nations out of vogue with Western leaders. The countries in question, there’s no escaping that some of them are downright dangerous to visit, include Afghanistan, Albania, Burma, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Saudi Arabia. Wheeler, without ever getting too heavy, asks some pertinent questions - “what makes a country truly evil?” and “how bad is really bad?” - and blows a few myths out of the water while he’s at it. The book is in the shops now and, with a price tag of £7.99, probably a lot cheaper than a nano-second of war in Iraq - maybe someone should post a copy to Bush?

Caroline: If you fancy flying business class to New York but are unwilling to shell out the £2000 to £2500 charged by the major carriers, you might be interested to know that a new all business class airline Silverjet is giving their competitors a run for their money. They charge £838 and operate out of Luton, flying Boeing 767s with only a hundred seats. There is no fancy limo pick-up included in the price although it can be arranged. There is a designated Silverjet lounge at both Luton and Newark allowing you to escape the scrum, the entertainment system seems good as do the meals. As far as I can see the only downside is that there is only the one plane so only one flight each way per day is available and if there were problems with the aircraft you would be well and truly stuck. Another minor niggle is that the seats do not recline fully to a flat bed so will be less comfortable than say BA. All in all though, for £838 it seems to be a good bargain.

Anna: Fast becoming the new eco-tourism destination, the African nation of Gabon is still not a place most people would expect their travel agent to recommend. Bordered by Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and Congo, you’d be forgiven for thinking this might not be the most stable of summer holiday spots. But you’d be wrong - although there is poverty, Gabon prospers thanks to oil wealth and seems to have done a better job of remaining stable than that other petrodollar giant, Nigeria. The government is serious about protecting its ecology - creating 13 new National Parks in 2002, together covering 10% of Gabon’s total landmass. Habitats vary from dense jungle, savannah and mountains to pearlescent beaches, mangroves and still lagoons. All are packed with wildlife - elephants, leopards, gorillas, humpback whales and turtles are among the creatures you might see on a safari in Gabon. The number of eco-friendly camps is growing and tour operators are realising the potential of this equatorial treasure trove. Find out more about the national parks on the official website or, if you can’t wait, book a tour with Operation Loango, a company which combines luxury and environmental responsibility. Gabon, surely, is a tourism blueprint for other countries which have wilderness to offer - invite small numbers of tourists to experience incredible wildlife, and protect the natural resources which draw the tourists and the revenue.

Anna: “World Music” has been gaining ground for decades. I know much less that I would like about music, but I think it’s a wonderful medium for communication. I managed to watch the Eurovision Song Contest for about five minutes before having to switch off the telly. It seems to me that, despite the huge number of nations represented, very little of the spirit of that country actually comes through in the music. Mostly, the songs are sung in English and it seems this year, as ever, like a hash of Americanised lyrics, poppy sounds and an overpaid bunch of wardrobe assistants spangling the whole affair up beyond belief. And the UK entry? Well, I’d have to agree with Rushda that it was utterly embarassing!

Three cheers, then, for the Malian band Tinariwen. To me, they really do represent the true power of music to cross cultural boundaries and get a message across. Tinariwen (from “Kel Tinariwen”, meaning the desert boys) hail from the southern Sahara, their people are Touaregs - fierce nomadic desert tribesmen as likely to be carrying a gun as a guitar. Their songs speak of rebellion, repression, marginalisation and poverty - real desert blues. But their political message doesn’t smother their music - the quality of their ensemble is the reason they have been invited to play at festivals including Glastonbury, Womad, Latitude and Lovebox this summer. Their third album, Aman Iman: Water is Life, is out now.