In the 1984 comedy movie, Top Secret, the French resistance group has a member whose name is De Ja Vu. There is a scene in the movie where he is introduced to another character and he looks at him suspiciously and says, “Haven’t I met you somewhere before?”
Like deja vu, the sense of nostalgia can be triggered by an experience we are having. I was reminded of this recently when I saw an Instagram post of a Sydney ferry. Immediately I was taken back to 1983, pressing play on my red Sharp QT-12 cassette recorder to listen to Reckless by Aussie Crawl. The line in the song about the Manly ferry cutting its way through to Circular Quay came straight back to me just looking at the Instagram post of a Sydney Ferry.
It reminded me of how our senses are heightened when we travel. It works both ways as well. When I travelled through South Africa with my daughter we noticed the Jacaranda trees in glorious purple bloom and it reminded us of the streets around our home in Perth. Now when I see Jacaranda trees around Perth I’m reminded of travelling through South Africa with my daughter.
There’s so many other ways this can happen. Like the Instagram photo, I read a travel article the other day that included a photo of Polignano A Mare in Pulia, Italy. The photo was of a particular part of Polignano A Mare that I swam at, ruining many tourists photos. It’s one of the great joys of travelling; the years afterwards when you see the places you have been to in movies and the news or read descriptions of them in stories.
Ah! Cream buns. For me the sight and the smell reminds me of the Rottnest Bakery on a summers day. Perhaps it triggers a memory for you of the Dunsborough Bakery or the bakery in your local town.
The sights and smells of our travels throw us back in time and similarly, the joy of travel will be triggered for the rest of your life as you smell a cream bun or pad thai, check your friends social media posts or watch the latest blockbuster at the movies. Revel in it! Enjoy what travel can do to your senses and your memories!
What’s just as important as the destination? The journey of course! How could I resist using the image of Tom and his Cathay Pacific entourage as the featured image for this post?
Tom and I have just returned from Hong Kong where we travelled with Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong Disneyland, stayed at the Disneyland Explorers Lodge and spent a day on Hong Kong Island riding the Star Ferry and trains and visiting tucked away laneway markets filled with toys and communist memorabilia.
Typhoon Tom couldn’t sit still. He watched movies and played games, ate amazing food and endless ice-cream and made new friends. And that was just on the Cathay Pacific flights.
While I get busy writing up our adventures, enjoy a few pics from our time in one of the worlds bucket list countries and bucket list theme parks.
Turn around Tom! Our wheels are about to touch down on Hong Kong!
The Star Ferry is old, slow and completely and utterly gorgeous and cheap.
Tom tests his strength in Tomorrowland at Hong Kong Disneyland
Pocket watches of all shapes and sizes at Upper Lascar Row (Cat Street) Market. You’ll also find Communist era propaganda posters and lots of Mao Tse Tung statuettes and even copies of his little red book.
My son Tom and I recently travelled with Batik Air to our favourite island in the world, Bali, to experience a new resort, Apurva Kempinski. It was promised to us as a ‘new era of first class hospitality’ and without doubt the level of luxury is absorbing from the moment you arrive.
The soaring spaces of the reception area set the scene for the essence of Balinese culture that ebbs and flows seamlessly throughout a visually stunning resort that is located on the south eastern tip of Nusa Dua, just a quick fifteen minute drive from the airport.
While I get busy writing and talking about this experience in more detail, sit back and enjoy a few photos of an experience that is perfect for couples of all ages, families of all ages, those who want to get married and even just a boy and his dad finding quiet spaces to chat, noisy spots to play and lots to discover in between.
Batik Air are a wonderful family friendly airline who love opportunities to ensure that children have good flying experiences.
Evening view from our suite. Private pool to the right, Indian Ocean to the left.1-2-3 Go!
Kempinski Hotels around the world are famous for their concierge Ladies in Red. While Tom loved his Ladies in Red he also loved meeting our special friends Kadek and Danti who made sure every experience and moment was special.
In a recent Friday night conversation with Chris Ilsley on 6PR Perth Tonight we had a great conversation about undiscovered lands in well discovered countries, particularly Puglia in Italy and Kerala in India. If you’d like to listen, the link below should take you to the 6PR website.
Discover these regions before everyone else does. In Puglia do a walking tour with Exodus Travels through olive groves and ancient towns. In Kerala, explore the quiet streets of Fort Kochi and be surrounded not by the crush of congestion like India’s north but by the scent of spices being harvested and dried in the laneways of this peaceful and beautiful region known throughout India as ‘God’s own country’.
Pic above: Matera in Puglia is one of Europes most ancient cities and is the 2019 European City of Culture.
Pic above: As busy as traffic gets in Fort Kochi, Kerala. Visit the spice traders of Fort Kochi, watch the Chinese Fishing Nets be raised at sunset, recline in the gondolas of the Allepey Backwater canals and walk through the tea plantations of the Munnar Highlands.
In the link above to Have A Go News enjoy reading my feature article on travelling, eating and shopping your way around Kuala Lumpur and making sure you stay somewhere amazing as well. You can also find Have A Go News in over 1800 outlets across Perth and regional Western Australia.
Love Lot 10! From the Hutong Food Court in the basement, amazing shops and activities in between and the cheesecake in Tokyo Restaurant at the top, you’ll be splashing your cash and loving every minute of it.
Travel from KL airport to Kl on the fantastic KLIA Ekspres. The best way to travel into KL and also the easiest and most comfortable.
Stay in the heart of KL’s shopping precinct, Bukit Bintang, at the luxurious and very friendly JW Marriott. If you’re not doing the shopping, this will be the perfect place to wait for your shopping partner to return. Look, they even parked my car under the hotel sign!
What a great chat on Saturday morning ABC Breakfast with Christine Layton, discussing the Australia Day events from Broome to Albany to keep you entertained and then a few suggestions for daytrips and overnighters throughout Western Australia. Get out there and find new adventures even on the most well trodden path.
Below are some pics to help you pick your next regional day trip or overnighter. Have you been to Bridgetown or Rockingham recently?
Above: Go down The Rabbit Hole on the main street of Bridgetown for an amazing range of local artist workshops and galleries.
Above: There’s no way you will leave the lolly shop in Bridgetown without a smile on a face and a bag full of sweet treats.
Above: Get to Rockingham which has the best range of aquatic activities in Western Australia. Kite surf in Safety Bay, visit the penguins and dolphins on Penguin Island and in Shoalwater Bay, swim with dolphins off Palm Beach, hire jet skis, jet packs, stand up paddle boards, kayaks or cast a line on the beach and flick in some whiting and flathead.
They make movies here. It’s a land that gave birth to one of the worlds greatest crooners and one of the worlds greatest songs. Below are some links to my story, published in The Starfish and also by Have A Go Newspaper. This is a love story. This is a story about Puglia, a land with towns that one junior reviewer of my work described as, ‘being full of towns with funny names’. He’s right. Puglia does have lots of towns with names you just want to keep on saying, not just for the memories but for the mood it puts you in, just like humming a few bars of ‘Volare’.
The following story, as published by Karryon (www.karryon.com.au), shares with you the exploits of my daughter and I in a remarkable part of South Africa:
As my daughter Matilda and I touch down on a little airstrip in the Madikwe Reserve in South Africa for a safari with Sanctuary Makanyane Luxury Safari Lodge, the next ten minutes are as imprinted on my mind as the birth thirteen years ago of the girl beside me. Every second as vivid, exhilarating and heart thumping as life can throw at you.
Just seconds after departing the airstrip an impala leapt lightly to the side of the track and the gasps of Matilda led our guide, Kaiser, to turn his head to check if we were OK.
Imagine our behaviour less than ten seconds later when a big bull elephant was standing alongside the track. A real elephant in the real wild. Then at our first river crossing we saw zebra, waterbuck, warthog, impala and a monitor lizard. I was looking for Elton John to start singing the Circle of Life.
CHECK-IN & BEYOND
As we approach the Makanyane Safari Lodge I notice a gathering of people at the entrance and think that we must have arrived at a busy time with people checking in and checking out, the usual commotion of a hotel reception area.
Remarkably, the gathering was the management team of Makanyane Safari Lodge, out to welcome us. I had thought a free iced tea on arrival at some of the South East Asian resorts I’ve visited was pretty flash but this was taking things to another level.
Furthermore, it wasn’t because I was travelling with the most gorgeous girl in the world, it is just what they do for all of their arriving guests, for which there are no more than sixteen at any time. For the next few days we experience not just a luxurious way of life but a level of service that was more akin to friendship than customer service.
THE ROOM
Accommodation is spread across just eight luxurious suites that are more like small houses. Each suite is well spaced from the others and built from thatch and stone. The air-conditioned bedroom and bathroom have floor to ceiling windows overlooking a river but I highly recommend the outdoor shower to instantly get you back to nature.
While they are mostly intended to be occupied by couples, the suites pass the rigorous privacy test of a father and daughter. There is plenty of space to do what needs to be done without cries of, “Gross!”
In between game drives and meals, we sit and watch the environment that is just outside our suite. We spot snakes in the trees, monitor lizards, birds and monkeys while other travellers we meet have watched zebra, elephant and kudu make their way along the riverbank in front of their window.
FOOD
(Pic provided shows our lunchtime feast of chakalaka, ostrich skewers, bocconcini and bush tomato salad, potato and egg salad and lamb samosas with mint chutney)
For meals at the lodge there is always plenty of choice and Matilda and I are quick converts to South African cuisine. We loved the gamey flavour of ostrich skewers and tang and spice of chakalaka and love saying it almost as much as bobotie. Chakalaka is a vegetable relish that can used alongside anything while bobotie is a spicy mince dish that is baked with an egg topping.
Matilda and I are warmly included in forming a larger group at mealtimes despite her being the only child at the lodge and all of the other guests being honeymooners. She probably hears a few stories that aren’t quite age appropriate but having heard some of her exclamations upon getting close to roaring lions and charging elephants perhaps I need to reassess her ability to understand the world around her.
THE VERDICT
We depart Makanyane Safari Lodge in much the same way as we arrived, in the company of the staff who embrace us. Around our vehicle are the friends we have made and as we take a final look at the faces who have pampered us, fed us, protected us and taught us, I hope they truly understand the impact they have had on our life. Experiences that I hope my daughter will describe to her children one day and inspire them to add this remarkable land to their travel bucket list.
The Sanctuary Makanyane Luxury Safari Lodge is located within the lost world of the Madikwe Reserve and is one of the few Malaria free safari locations in South Africa.
Madikwe Reserve is in South Africa’s North West Province, close to the border of Botswana and just a short flight by light aircraft from Johannesburg. It is surrounded by a ridge of hills and well protected by antipoaching patrols.
South African Airways is the flag carrier airline for South Africa and flies regularly to Johannesburg’s O.R Tambo International Airport. From the airport, it’s a one hour flight with Federal Airlines to the Madikwe Reserve or a three hour drive, renting a car from the airport.
Prices at Sanctuary Makanyane Safari Lodge start from ZAR 7,500 per person per night, twin share, for 1 – 3 nights, including all meals and drinks (excluding premium brands) and transfers to and from the airstrip to the Lodge plus a choice of daily shared game viewing activities.
But for even better savings, take advantage of Sanctuary Retreats’ extended stay offer 2018, when you stay at one or more of our properties including Sanctuary Makanyane Safari Loge depending on your season of travel.
Stay 4 – 6 nights and save up to 30%.
Stay 7+ nights and save up to 40%.
Terms and conditions apply.
For more information about Sanctuary Retreats visit:
South Africa has very strict anti-child slavery rules. It is important to ensure that if you’re travelling as a single parent with a child to South Africa that prior to your travel you complete the immigration form and have it correctly signed by a valid certifying agent and, if possible, correspondence from the other parent of the child that certifies permission to travel to South Africa.
Be conscious of the timing and detail provided in social media posting of your safari experience as poaching is a serious issue throughout Africa and any notification of where an animal is located may be of use to poachers.
Great discussion on the ABC Saturday Breakfast Show about the lure of the regional shows – the agriculural shows – that can get city folk hitting the road for a day trip or weekender.
Regional shows have big tractors, big roosters and rams and if you’re lucky, big scones and mock chicken sandwiches in the CWA tent.
A wander through sideshow alley with spruikers enticing your participation with great calls of, “Don’t be bashful, don’t be shy, step on up and have a try!”
Just remember the golden rule on the Dodgems/Bumper Cars; “One way ’round only drivers, one way ’round only! Left hand down, left hand down is the only way ’round!”
On 22 Setember, I was invited to speak with Jules Schiller on ABC Adelaide’s Drive Program to discuss the issue of travel agents in light of the ABC story about Flight Centre, which described the issue of ‘marking up’ fees and a culture of underpaying staff.
My contribution to the discussion was focused on why people still use travel agents and why people choose not to use travel agents.
Nothing broadens the mind like travel and the number one thing we all learn is that there are all sorts of people out there and however you choose to plan your travel is fine by me.
Don’t be afraid to plan your own travel but if you want assistance go for it. Your travel experience either way is more likely to be like Eat, Pray, Love than Taken.
Image above from ABC Story: Current and former Flight Centre staff have been speaking out against the travel giant
Stay in the heart of KL’s shopping precinct, Bukit Bintang, at the luxurious and very friendly JW Marriott. If you’re not doing the shopping, this will be the perfect place to wait for your shopping partner to return. Look, they even parked my car under the hotel sign!
Chris Parry Writes For Us 