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Daily Article for 2010-07-02
Best Unusual Foreign Travel Destinations (part 2 of 2) by Xina V
In the first part of this article, I recommended Tierra del Fuego and Xinjiang Province, China as two of my top five picks for an unusual vacation. Here are the remaining three.
Madeira Islands, Portuguese Autonomous Region
The Madeira island chain consists of Madeira and Porto Santo, as well as a few other uninhabited isles located off the coast of north Africa. Madeira’s location and history has bequeathed to it a unique culture. Portuguese is spoken here, and traditional azulejos (ceramic tilework) and Manueline arches are everywhere, but there is a well-established British expatriate community (a remnant of the British maritime trade of centuries past) which gathers for wine, tea, and cakes after Sunday service at the charming Anglican church.
The island chain takes its name from the Portuguese word for wood. At one time, the main volcanic island of Madeira was entirely subtropical forest. It was initially discovered by Portuguese sailors who were driven off course in a storm and realized there must be a landmass beneath the huge cloud which always hung over the island. Although deforestation over the centuries was substantial (early settlers used fire to clear the land for sugar cane) and rainfall is much diminished, Madeira is still lush with flowering trees and plants. Up in the misty mountains rising above the capital of Funchal, you can hike the network of cleverly constructed levadas (aqueducts) which bring water down from the mountains for irrigation and also prevent soil erosion. Or you can take a breathtaking cable car ride up to Monte or the botanical gardens.
The climate is mild year round. If you go between Christmas and Epiphany, you are in for a real treat. Madeira is one of the most Roman Catholic places in Europe, replete with Baroque churches, tiled murals of the Virgin, and shrines that open only one day a year, but are maintained nonetheless. Christmas is celebrated with extraordinary exuberance here. Along the main avenue in Funchal, there are life-sized creches overflowing with fresh flowers, fruits, nuts, and grains. The streets are draped across with lapiz and gold colored lights, and small choral groups sing carols in the streets.
Madeira is famous for its fortified wine, which, according to legend, was invented accidentally when a cask of wine was accidentally left on board a ship. After rolling around for months as the ship sailed in tropical temperatures, it was discovered that the wine had become sweeter while it aged. Other traditional crafts are lace, embroidered linens, and ceramics.
It really pays to rent a car for some spectacular drives along the coast and through the interior. Porto Moniz, on the northern side of the island, has marvelous saltwater pools formed by lava rocks.
Madeira’s sister island of Porto Santo looks more like the quintessential desert island with palm trees and a shimmering six-mile beach of golden sand terminating at Calheta (known locally as sunset beach). You can get to Porto Santo by a choppy three-hour ferry ride from Madeira, but the 15 minute early morning flight is really the way to go. On one side of the plane the sun rises amid tufts of pink, blue, green, and yellow cotton candy, while on the other the moon is setting. Christopher Columbus is the island’s most famous former resident. He lived here with his wife, the daughter of the island’s governor, until her death (and before he sailed to the New World). His house is now a museum.
Dahab, Egypt (Sinai)
Dahab is an old Bedouin town on the Red Sea north of Sharm El-Sheikh. In contrast to the overdeveloped Sharm, Dahab has a reputation for being laid back, hip, even counterculture, although this may be changing. (When I was in Dahab several years ago, there was more marijuana being smoked there than there was in Crested Butte, CO.) It has pretty views (you can see the Saudi coastline), with a whole string of outside cafés along the coast promenade.
The entire coastline surrounding Dahab is a fringing coral reef, so divers and snorkellers can see the colorful, teeming reef without going far from shore. Because of the sudden drop off to depth, the waters of the reef are clear, cold, and relatively unpolluted and the coral reef is among the healthiest in the world.
One of the big draws here is Saint Catherine’s monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai. The monastery is one of the oldest Christian religious communities in the world. Legend has it that it is built on the site where God appeared to Moses as a burning bush and gave him the ten commandments.
Since so many people are trying to sell you a trip to Saint Catherine’s (Saint Catherine’s represents an entire cottage industry), no one will tell you that for far less money, you can take a regularly scheduled bus to the monastery, returning the same day. (I was told several times by hotel clerks and the tourist office that the regular bus to St. Catherine’s was not running; this was an outright lie designed to drum up business for the numerous local travel agents.) The do-it-yourself option also has the great advantage of definitely happening; if you sign up with a tour agency and they don’t get enough people, they will cancel, but not until the last minute, which makes it impossible to make alternate plans. (This happened to us two days in a row with two different agencies.) Be sure to have your passport on you at all times; the Egyptians consider this area to pose heightened security risks and there are numerous checkpoints along the highway.
From Dahab, you can also take a hydrofoil to Petra, Jordan.
Lady Elliot Island, Australia
Lady Elliot Island is the southernmost coral cay of the Great Barrier Reef. Because of its location within a highly protected zone of the Great Barrier Marine Park, the number of visitors permitted at any time is limited. It’s a small island; you can circumnavigate it on foot in a few hours. But you won’t run out of things to do. It’s like summer camp for adults, what summer camp should have been but never was.
You fly from Bundaberg on a prop plane which lands on a very short airstrip running through the center of the island. When I went some years ago, as soon as we got off the plane we were given a lecture warning us not to handle a certain kind of cone shell whose venom could be fatal. (To this day, I recall being told that if you were stung, the only recourse would be to immerse the limb in boiling water to stop the spread of the venom; there was no antidote. I’ve always wondered if this was an exaggeration designed to ensure compliance.)
While more traditional rooms are availabe (and the prices are reasonable), you can also sleep in a large safari canvas tent with wooden floors, screened windows, and bunk beds (sheets provided) right by the beach. This is my idea of camping: no insects and a real bed. Because it’s so quiet on the island, the sound of the waves and the soughing of the pine branches is the only sound you hear all night (after the bar closes). And because there’s no light pollution, the night sky is really magnificent. At dawn, you can get up and swim out to the dolphins, then go off for your dive lesson or a reef walk with the naturalist. The best part of the whole experience is the complete lack of pretension.
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Past Articles
The Most Powerful Actors in Hollywood by Leslie Kelly
The Bit (History's Most Influential Stand-up Comedians) by Jessica Mullan
Court TV: the Original Reality Televison by Xina V.
Celebrities whose Faces I Never want to see Again by Jessica Mullan
Best Unusual Foreign Travel Destinations (part 2 of 2) by Xina V
Best Unusual Foreign Travel Destinations (part 1 of 2) by Xina V
Dreamgirls: Did Berry Gordy Turn Florence Ballard's Dream into a Nightmare? by Patricia Martin
Has Cable News Made Us Better Citizens? by Jessica Mullan
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