South Africa Tourism Hosts March 14th Season Finale of "The Bachelor"

Brad Womack, "The Bachelor" of this season's  ABC hit TV show of the same name, narrowed his choices down to two bachelorettes on the February 28th episode that featured a South African getaway. In Episode 9, the love seekers headed to Lion Sands Private Game Reserve, Sabi Sand on the banks of the Sabie Riverin Kruger National Park. Dates included safari game drives; a romantic encounter at the Chalkley Tree House; relaxing in a secure bush bedroom under the stars; and an interaction at Elephant Whispers. They also took a helicopter tour to the Blyde River Canyon in the Drakensberg Mountains for a delicious picnic lunch. The Rose Ceremony that narrowed the three remaining "bachelorettes" to two, took place at Lion Sands' Tinga Legends Lodge, a safari lodge built around an enormous Jackalberry tree which is reputed to be over 200 years old.

South African Tourism (www.southafrica.net), which is also host of the March 14th season finale, and South African Airways Vacations have created The Bachelor Ultimate South Africa Getaway, a fantastic 10 days/7 nights package inspired by Brad and the Bachelorettes' romantic South African adventure.  

Source: Luxist.

World Race 2011 -- Drive from Beijing to Paris

This 'round-the-world' adventure rally may be right up there with being a civilian on a space shuttle. MIR Corporation, a US-based specialist in active and cultural travel to Russia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, is offering John Q Public a chance to ride or drive from Beijing to Paris as part of World Race 2011 - New York to Paris. 

"This is a modern re-creation of the epic and grueling 1908 New York to Paris Race," explains Douglas Grimes, MIR Founder and President. "Not since then has such a monumental overland journey been attempted."

Participants can sign up a team consisting of driver and navigator for the entire journey from New York to Paris, or enter just the U.S. portion or just the international leg from Beijing to Paris separately. An individual can also participate as a passenger in one of a few spots available in a support vehicle.

If driving the Beijing to Paris segment, participants would ship and then meet their cars in Beijing with time to visit the classic sites of Beijing while the cars are clearing customs. Comfortable hotel rooms wait ahead across China, Kazakhstan, Russia and Europe, with race support vehicles following along.  

From Beijing all the way to Paris, the World Race 2011 Tour Operator MIR Corporation (www.mircorp.com) takes care of the details.

Click here to learn more.

A Sense of Travel...With Georgia Hesse

HRH Princess Pilolevu and Capt. Maulupe Kotofa Tuita on their royal wedding day in 1976.

The Kingdom of Tonga is very small. The king of Tonga when I first saw him (Taufa'ahau Tupou IV) was very large. My visits to Tonga have been brief but the lessons I learned there are long-lived.  

Queen Salote's regal height measured 1.91 meters or 6 foot 3 inches.

I learned to admire Tonga way back in 1952 when the islands' towering Queen Salote Tupou III strode unhatted and sans umbrella down London's soggy Pall Mall in the coronation procession for Queen Elizabeth II. Salote was the most obviously regal person present. 

The popular Polynesian queen reigned from 1918 until 1965, endearing herself to her people and to England, of which Tonga then was a protectorate.

I first encountered her king-size son, Prince Tungi, after he had ascended to the throne in the Victorian, white-framed royal palace that dominates the seafront in Nuku'alofa, the capital. He was crowned King Toufa'ahau Tupou IV.  

King Tupou IV

In England, it is traditionally forbidden for anyone to look down upon the monarch. In Tonga, it was impossible. Tupou IV was gigantic. On my first trip to the capital on its luxuriant island of Tongatapu, I was told that when Taufa'ahau hurtled along the one main road in his chauffeured London taxi (the only vehicle that could accommodate his handsome bulk, pedestrians (everybody else) should step off it and lower their eyes. Years later, an Indian colleague regaled me with the tale of the scandal that arose when he, on assignment, hopped aside to allow Tupou solitary passage while his accompanying photographer jumped before the royal "carriage" shouting "Say cheese, Your Majesty!" (Off with his Nikon!)

Dubbed the Friendly Islands in English and by the local Tourist Office, Tonga is an admirable archipelago of 176 coral and volcanic dots floating upon 700,000 square miles of ocean, 52 of them inhabited by about 200,000 usually-smiling near-giants. They had been around making elaborately decorated pottery for about 3,000 years when Europeans began to arrive: Dutch Jakob Le Maire in 1616 and Abel Tasman in 1643. British Captain James Cook stopped by to decide the natives were Friendly in 1773.  

Tongan beach party.

As I remember, I was met at my hotel, the International Dateline, by a young woman from the Tourist Office who made my mind say, "Brown is Beautiful."

"Would you like to see the god Maui's backrest?" She bowed her head shyly. "Oh, yes!" I nodded. Mauiis my favorite in the Polynesian pantheon. After all, anyone who can fish islands up from the bottom of the sea and whack the sun with a magic jawbone to force it to creep slowly across the sky, the better to dry his mother's washing, must be respected. So we were off. 

Maui's backrest, academically known as the Ha'amonga'a Trilithon, erected around 1200 C.E., stands 16+ feet high, each coral-lime building block weighing more than 40 tons. We were both impressed.

Beautiful Tonga.

"I am an American, as you know," I said. "Do you know that in our state of Hawaii we have an island named Maui in honor of this god?"

"You do not!" she scowled. "Maui is ours!" Then she remembered I was a VIP."But many lands call him theirs. It is just a mistake." We shook hands and I was struck, not for the first time, at the continuing might of myth.

Next stop: the grove of hundreds of casuarina trees at the village of Kolovai where flying foxes hang upside down in their thousands, foxy little heads dangling below dusty wings.

"You would like to taste one?" my guide giggled. "No!" I tried not to shiver.

"Anyway, only the royal family may hunt them." Goody, goody.   

The caves where flows a deep underground river was next on the itinerary, then the terraced tombs (langi) built of mounds and coral rock to shelter members of a vanished dynasty, then the fruit and vegetable market and that was that. We did not stop at the Royal Tongan Beer Factory (sic), labeled with a photo bearing the king's bust and this slogan: "The First Beer in the World Everyday." 

Young Tongan men dance in celebration of King Tupou V's corination.

Next morning, I strolled along the 30-minute walk into town to buy a stamp at the Post Office. (Such stamps are fine collectors' items, large and in the eccentric shape of the kingdom.) In the middle of the street stood one of the town's handsomest Gigantes, girdled about with sarongs in all the shades of the rainbow and hung with strands of stylish shell necklaces. She stopped me.

 

"Oh you!" She stared. "You are so-o-o-o-o beautiful! Beautiful! I like you and I want you for a friend." She placed both of my hands in one of her fists. "You like me, too, yes?" I nodded, weakly. "How many children you have? Where are they? How old?

 

"Oh, I lo-o-ove you. I must give you something. Something nice. May I give you something nice?"

 

I nodded, almost in tears at this show of affection for a wandering American unaccustomed to adoration.

Corination of King George Tupou V in 2008.

Then, from off her ample form, she selected a formidable necklace and placed it gently over my head. "There," she sang, releasing my hands. "Oh, thank you, thank you!" I burbled. "I will keep it always."

 

She grinned, not quite maliciously but with great satisfaction. "Now," she pronounced in the tones of a circus barker. "Now look here! You give me something!" She stared at the purse I should have left at the hotel. After a second's shock, I fumbled for a few coins. "Anyway," I told myself, "she's earned this. She's really good at what she does."

 

We parted, regretfully, waving.

 

Moral: Even in the remotest of landfalls, caveat viator; loosely translated, ya don't git somethin' for nothin'.

 

N.B.  Today's king is Siaosi Taufa'ahau Manumataongo Tuku'aho, also known as King George Tupou V.  Day to day the government is in the charge of his Prime Minister, Dr. Feleti Sevele.