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Latest update:
March 20, 2009 9:20 PM
Source: www.metro.co.uk by JAMES ELLIS and KIERAN MEEKE What a bad trip it's been
JAMES ELLIS Lord Of The Rings, New Zealand, 2003Every survey you read says New Zealand is the top place to visit before you die and who am I to argue? I first went in 2003 between the release of the second and third chapters of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. Along the way, we discovered Hobbiton in Matamata, the mines of Moria in Waitomo and the stand-in for Mount Doom - Mt Ngauruhoe - while taking the Tongariro Crossing, a 19km hike (pictured) that is one of the best in the world. A magical trip based on Peter Jackson's magical films.Plenty of room at the inn, Bethlehem, 2005Unlike years ago, there were plenty of places to stay on my arrival in Bethlehem thanks to the troubles and the subsequent building of the 'security wall' by Israel. Despite that, and the security checks stretching the drive from Jerusalem from the usual 15 minutes to almost two hours, I found the people warm, the place fascinating and the history spine-tingling.Becoming a reverend in Las Vegas, 2004I like the Americans, they tend to let Metro do stupid things. So I've sold my soul to the devil, following in the footsteps of blues legend Robert Johnson in Mississippi; wrestled 'gators at Gatorland in Florida and been honorary Duck Master, leading a troupe of Ducks from the lobby to the penthouse at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis. Becoming a reverend in Vegas has to take the biscuit, though. Along with city wedding queen Charolette Richards and an Elvis impersonator, I married an unbeknowing English couple at the The Little White Wedding Chapel as 'Elvis' implored me to 'sing along' as we crooned Love Me Tender.Worst: Flight of fear, Bangkok to London, 2009Yes, my worst experience really did happen a week ago. Halfway through a flight from Bangkok, the oxygen masks fell from the ceiling, alarms went on and the aisle lights flickered. A panicking plane of tourists furiously grasped the masks, pulling down on the tag as seen on so many safety demonstrations only to find no oxygen was coming out. It was the longest ten minutes of my life before the pilot said they had been released in error.KIERAN MEEKE By the beach in Baracoa, Cuba, 2004A flight in a pensioned-off Russian Air Force plane landed me on the remote eastern Caribbean coast of Cuba (pictured). 'The most beautiful place in the world. I heard the birds sing that they will never ever leave,' wrote Columbus in 1492. Of course, he'd just spent several months holed up in a dirty, stinking ship but, even allowing for that and my nerve-shredding flight, my memory is still of paradise: a sugar-loaf mountain rising from tropical forest; groves of fruit trees; a river of clear water and a beach of white sand where the waves of the blue Caribbean break endlesslyExceeding expectations of Ethiopia, 2002Like anyone else who hasn't been to Ethiopia, my expectation was of famine and poverty. Many of its people are among the poorest I've seen but the richness of the country's cultural heritage is staggering. The rock churches of Lalibela, the towering columns of Axum, the seemingly endless hilltop monasteries where monks would let you handle 700-year-old manuscripts, the lakes, waterfalls, medieval bridges and fertile valleys are just a few of the precious things that went into my memory bank.Kyoto bathhouse, Japan, 2000My first trip to Japan felt like an expedition to an alien planet. Not being able to read the language was hard enough but the lack of visual clues was a real shock. Was that a doorway into a shop, a house, a hardware store, a brothel, my hotel? Nothing looked like it does in our Western culture. And that's my excuse for finding myself naked in the ladies' section of the bathhouse, officer.Worst: Say neigh to Sweden, 2007I'd been expecting a long horse-riding holiday in the woods of Sweden. What I got was a hire car from Copenhagen, an overnight stop in a rain-soaked seaside town and another day in the car before an hour on a tiny Icelandic pony. Being 6ft 2in, I could have stretched out my legs and walked over it as we experienced some splendid farmland. A night in a B&B saw me rise for a day-long drive to ride another Icelandic pony for an hour through more farmland. Ah, the romance of travel. |
With our tenth anniversary today we thought we'd look back on some of our favourite journeys over the years… along with a couple of bad ones.
AFRICACape TownSun CityAMERICA N.Antelope CanyonHawaii USALos Cabos MexicoTahitiAMERICA S.Machu Picchu PeruASIAHalong BayPetra JordanSanchi IndiaAU-OCEANIAQueenstownEUROPEBrijuni CroatiaHauterives FrancePlitvice LakesSchwangauTyneham England |
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