Pleasure Travel

Spellbinding … Halong Bay. Photo: Manfred Gottschalk/Lonely Planet

Halong Bay looks just like it did in the movie, except Catherine Deneuve is nowhere to be seen, writes Dugald Jellie.

Two days adrift among these cathedrals of rock and I am spellbound by nature’s folly. On becalmed waters, in a crook of the South China Sea, I imagine I could float here forever. I think of the sublime. I think of Catherine Deneuve, in white cotton, in this steamy tropical heat.

The 1992 film Indochine, a nostalgic melodrama about love and betrayal in French Indochina, put Halong Bay on the map. Cinema audiences were beguiled by the film’s leading lady but enthralled by this ethereal landscape.

Years later, sprawled on a banana lounge on the deck of a Chinese junk, I have a moment of recognition. We’ve paid $US270 ($300) each for a three-day cruise, a loop of luxury through scenery I come to think of as a hanging garden of Eden. And here in swimming trunks, barefoot, the sense of verisimilitude is immediate: it is as it was on the big screen.

In Indochine, the bay’s broken isles are a labyrinth, a place of hiding, full of ancient curses and oriental mystique. It’s here that a French naval officer is banished and where, with a young Vietnamese lover, he later seeks refuge.

Our trip to Halong Bay is an escape from all the horns of Hanoi and a lassitude induced by muggy heat and sightseeing. For most travellers, the bay is a side trip from the capital – starting with a minibus hotel pick-up and a three-hour drive to the coast.

Boats depart from the eastern peninsula of Halong City, the closest setting-off point to the bay’s UNESCO World Heritage zone, inscribed two years after Indochine’s release. The area incorporates about 1600 of the 2000-odd isles strewn about the northernmost mouth of the Red River. It is spectacular from first sight: a wildly fanciful vision of rock pillars and walls that rise like bonsai gardens from the turquoise drink.

Wheelie luggage is trundled down a gangplank on to a stout junk and we feel awfully pleased with ourselves. In Hanoi we had shopped about for tours and opted for a luxury cruise (because my partner is five months’ pregnant, because this is a last hurrah), and now find that of the four berths only two are taken.

Days are spent in wonderment of the landscape; paddling into grottoes and undercuts worn away by tides, jumping off the boat, swimming, visiting floating villages, exploring caves by torchlight, shuffling deckchairs and having seafood barbecued for us in exotic locales.

Flying fish skip on the mirrored water at dusk. A full moon rises as big as a watermelon. I wish for it never to end.

Our guide explains the bay’s creation myth. Ha Long in local tongue means ”dragon descending”, and it was here that a celestial beast, sent by the Jade Emperor to thwart Chinese invaders, spat out pearls that formed the islands and gouged impenetrable valleys with its flailing tail.

The scientific rationale is that it’s a mature karst landscape, notable for its dramatic limestone structures formed by water erosion. Many of the remnant pillars are pencil-thin and most tower 50 to 100 metres from sea level, with craggy vertical cliffs that up close appear every bit like gothic cathedrals.

It seems a powerful yearning; the craving to find in nature a consolation for our mortality. And here with my partner, with our baby in utero, with cold beers at dusk, holiday insouciance and in scenery that looks as if we’re in a Chinese silk print, I think maybe I’ve died and gone to heaven.

But the trip ends, a bill for the drinks tab arrives and an awkward exchange comes when we’re obliged to tip the crew. Shangri-la costs 10 per cent more than the advertised rate.

Organised tours of Halong Bay can be arranged through Australian tour companies or travel agencies in Hanoi. Our trip was booked in Hanoi through Buffalo Tours (http://www.buffalotours.com/) and cost $US270 a person twin share on a four-berth boat run by Indochina Junk (www.indochinajunk.com).

On the waterfront … Shanghai’s new financial district skyline along the Huang Pu river. Photo: AFP

From a department-store liaison to a rooftop martini, the World Expo 2010 city has it all, writes Robert Upe.

I met her in Shanghai. It was a chance encounter in a department store in a megalopolis of 20 million people. She had long black hair, a straight-cut fringe and long legs with pink drainpipe slacks. I paid 249 yuan ($39) to take her home, perhaps a week’s pay for a Shanghainese labourer. Shanghai Barbie is a fad item at the $44 million, six-storey Barbie emporium on Huai-hai Road and, like so many others, I had to have her.

This superstore is the biggest in the world dedicated to the all-American doll and her handsome companion, Ken. The store is glitzy and modern and a symbol that Shanghai has well and truly embraced Western ways, right down to the Ken burgers that sizzle in the cafe.

Just as rosy cheeks and big smiles greet you at the Barbie store, Shanghai is putting on its best face for World Expo 2010, which starts in the city today and is expected to draw 70 million people by the time it closes on October 31.

Conde Nast Traveller calls the expo a ”coming out” party and Australian restaurateur and Shanghai identity, Michelle Garnaut, says the city has its mojo back.

”I feel Shanghai has been in the doldrums for years but people are coming out again and there is a real buzz after all the construction,” says Garnaut, who opened the now-lauded M on the Bund restaurant a decade ago.

Lonely Planet says Shanghai has ”projects and ideas exploding like oil in a hot wok”.

The filling of Shanghai’s skyline with modern skyscrapers has been rapid and relentless, with some estimates that more than 4000 buildings have gone up in the past two decades.

World Expo 2010 has fuelled further construction, with Shanghai spending $US45 billion ($48.5 billion) on the event and associated city improvements on parks, gardens, street upgrades and new bridges and train lines.

One local whispers that buildings on the main roads, which expo visitors will use, also have been spruced up and painted but only on the street front. At the sides and at the back, they are said to be as shabby as ever.

Despite such allegations of slapdash patch-ups, the city is probably in the best shape ever and the expo site is impressive.

Expo will take place in a 5.28-square-kilometre precinct, with more than 180 countries exhibiting in elaborate architect-designed pavilions. A lot of the energy of expo is directed at corporate clientele, with countries trying to entice business visitors, but there’s also a lot for everyday travellers, with daily shows, parades, food samplings and musical and dance events.

The Danish are throwing everything into the event, including the Little Mermaid, a bronze statue that has stood at the entrance to Copenhagen Harbour since 1913.

Australia’s $54 million curved three-storey pavilion has been built of steel and copper and will change colour as it weathers during expo to reflect the hues of the outback. The pavilion is expected to host 40,000 people a day.

But, naturally, it is the host country’s red pavilion – which looks a little like a rice bowl – that has attracted most attention. The 1.5 billion-yuan structure is 63 metres high, three times the height of any other.

Even the Bund, the city’s most famous streetscape, has not escaped the jackhammers in preparation for the event. It has just reopened in time for expo with an elevated pedestrian promenade next to the mighty Huangpu River, which provides a daily and fascinating parade of barges, cargo ships, tourist boats and cruise ships visiting during round-the-world voyages.

Look east from the promenade and across the river and you see Shanghai’s Pudong commercial zone with gleaming high-rises, including the iconic Oriental Pearl Tower, with several observation levels, and the 492-metre Shanghai World Financial Centre, which looks like a bottle opener and is the tallest building in China. Twenty years ago most of Pudong was a fishing village.

Look west from the promenade and you see a line-up of glorious lower-rise European buildings in a mishmash of styles from art deco to gothic, Romanesque and baroque. Many of these buildings along the Bund are from the 1920s and ’30s when foreign financial firms and banks built their headquarters there. That was a time when gangsters roamed the streets and vice was rife.

Today the Bund is a busy strip of trendy restaurants, bars and apartments in these rejuvenated buildings and rooftops, where you can drink lychee martinis or lunch on exotics such as peppercorn frogs legs – or the best pavlova in China at M – while red Chinese flags with yellow stars flutter from rooftop poles.

The Peace Hotel, built in the 1920s, has been a centrepiece of the Bund and an art-deco masterpiece. It, too, has just reopened after a three-year renovation in time for expo but it is the hotel’s history that is compelling.

Charlie Chaplin was a guest at the hotel, so too Noel Coward, who wrote Private Lives while staying there. The Gang of Four, a political faction that included Mao Zedong’s last wife, used the hotel as a base during the Cultural Revolution, which choked Shanghai and the rest of China of economic, intellectual and artistic progress in the 1960s and 1970s.

Garnaut recalls the Bund before it was fashionable. She says when she first arrived in Shanghai in 1985 the Bund was a wasteland of grand and dusty European buildings, either abandoned or used by government departments that forbade public access to the rooftop views over the city and river.

Garnaut – who organises Shanghai’s annual writers’ festival – says Shanghai has matured in many ways, not just physically.

”There’s been progress in every sense – from artistic to intellectual,” she says. ”When I first arrived here the place was a ghost town. It had been asleep for 80 years.

”I had to ride a bike everywhere because there were few taxis and the light bulbs were 20 watts and hardly provided any light. But now we have had 100 years of progress in 20 years and I think we are in for a real revival.”

The Australian consulate general to Shanghai, Tom Connor, says the city is cosmopolitan and has been open to foreign influence for more than a century. ”It is the mixture of cultures that sets the place apart from most of the other large centres in modern China,” he says.

But there are always reminders that this freewheeling city is under the rule of authoritarian masters.

Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu’s recent trial in Shanghai was conducted partly in ‘’secret”, there is no Facebook access, there is a one-child policy for families and ageing rocker Bob Dylan was banned from performing in the city just weeks ago. Some newspaper reports said Dylan was banned because of a general crackdown on musicians from an incident two years ago when Bjork angered Shanghai authorities during a concert by shouting out ”Tibet, Tibet”. The cultural ministry said the outburst had ”hurt the feelings of the Chinese people”.

Despite its flirtations with the West, Shanghai maintains a Chinese charm. An early morning TV program demonstrates kung fu moves such as the ”high pat the horse”, men push carts and ride bikes laden with mysterious cargo wrapped in hessian along the busy and noisy roads, hawkers hustle everywhere and entice you down out-of-the-way laneways to sell fake watches and handbags, and we eat jellyfish in soya sauce. My preference, though, is for Shanghai ‘’soup” dumplings sampled at one of the city’s feted dumpling houses, the Lubolang Restaurant at the popular tourist area of Yuyuan gardens and bazaar.

Steaming hot and usually made with pork, they are served from small bamboo baskets and on first bite they squirt delicious broth into your mouth. Get it wrong and you’ll have a burnt mouth and broth on your shirt but wait a moment for the heat to go and envelop the dumpling in your mouth and it is one of the simple delights of a city about to let its hair down, Barbie dolls and all.

Robert Upe travelled courtesy of Accor hotel group and Qantas.

FAST FACTS

Getting there
Qantas has a fare to Shanghai for about $1180, including tax, flying from Sydney. Melbourne passengers fly to Sydney to connect. The Maglev (magnetic levitation) train travels at more than 400km/h and gets you from airport to Pudong in less than eight minutes. A one-way ticket costs 50 yuan ($7.90).

Staying there
Qantas and the Pullman Shanghai Skyway hotel have a four-night package that includes airfare, accommodation in a superior room, daily breakfast and airport-hotel transfers from $1524 a person twin share from Sydney and $1675 from Melbourne. The 52-storey five-star hotel is handy to the expo site (eight minutes by taxi). Must be booked by May 31, valid for travel June 1-24. See www.qantas.com/holidays.

Expo 2010
From May 1 to October 31. Single-day admission is 160 yuan but many other ticket options are available. See www.expo2010.cn/expo/expoenglish; www.australianpavilion.com; www.expo.cn.

Sightseeing there
Barbie Shanghai, 550 Central Hauihai Road. Six storeys of Barbie merchandise and activities where children can design and outfit their own Barbie doll, dress up and be a supermodel on the fashion runway and eat in the Barbie cafe. See www.barbieshanghai.com.

Xintiandi, a popular tourist precinct of restored shikumen houses that are now restaurants, bars and shops. Shikumen houses were the main style of architecture in old Shanghai. A good example, complete with furnished rooms characteristic of the 1920s, can be seen at Shikumen Open House Museum No. 25, Lane 181, Taicang Road. Open 11am-11pm.

Tianzifang, Lane 210, Taikang Road. Lane factories of the 1950s have been converted into a creative zone where artists work and sell their wares. There are galleries, boutiques, cafes and shops selling authentic Chinese trinkets and collectables.

Eating there
M on the Bund, No. 5 the Bund, see www.m-restaurantgroup.com. Also try The Glamour Bar downstairs.

Reading
Life and Death in Shanghai, Nien Cheng’s account of victimisation and imprisonment during the Cultural Revolution led by Mao Zedong.

Melbourne Hotels

This classic coastal run takes in thousands of kilometres of coastline. It could take a lifetime or, with just 10 days and a handful of airline tickets, you could taste a few of the east coast’s highlights from Melbourne to Cairns.

1. Melbourne

Start this itinerary in the southern capital of Melbourne, a city famous for its nightlife, multicultural mix and diverse dining experiences. Rather than wander far and wide, we suggest you delve into the inner city’s bohemian and mainstream art scenes, linger in the cafe-colonised laneways, go shopping and take in a show.

2. Sydney

Your next stop is the bright and breezy harbour city of Sydney. You really need a couple of days to do this city justice. Must-dos include a Sydney Harbour cruise to get your bearings and a sense of how geography influences this city’s personality. No visit to Sydney would be complete without a plunge in the famous waves of Bondi Beach. On your final night book a restaurant with views of the spotlit Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

3. Brisbane

Move north to Brisbane, Queensland’s fast-paced capital, where you can board a river cruise to go cuddle a koala or catch a ferry to Moreton Island and hand-feed a wild dolphin.

4. The Gold Coast & Sunshine Coast

From Brisbane there are options to head to the Gold Coast with its glamorous beachside developments, great surf and over-the-top theme parks. Alternatively, head to the Sunshine Coast via the famous Australia Zoo, and then on to the stylish beach resort town of Noosa.

5. Whitsunday Islands

To get to the magnificent Whitsunday Islands you can fly to the party town of Airlie Beach or directly to Hamilton Island. Here you can opt for tropical cruising under a billowing sail, fabulous coral reef diving or snorkelling, or just lazing by the resort’s pool.

6. Cairns

Perhaps as an alternative to the Whitsundays, or if you still have the time and energy to go further north, move on to Far North Queensland’s tourism mecca. Cairns has something for everyone. There are fabulous excursions to rainforest hinterland and tropical beaches but best of all Cairns is the base for exploring the Great Barrier Reef. Once out on the reef, join a dive, strap on a snorkel or just hop on a glass-bottom boat.

As Munich’s amber-fluid festival gets under way, Sacha Molitorisz samples the city’s best beer gardens.

You may smile. I certainly did. Conforming neatly to stereotype, the waitress is wearing a traditional Bavarian dress, or dirndl, a fetching number of sky blue and white frills carefully engineered to accentuate her bosom. Up higher, she wears an expression of pure determination. No surprise really, for in her arms are eight glasses of beer.

I say glasses but that doesn’t do them justice, as each one contains a litre of beer. In Munich’s beer gardens, this is the standard serve, just as in NSW it’s a “schooner” and in Victoria a “pot”. And I can see her still, carrying eight litres of Bavaria’s finest, four heroic mugs on each arm.

One is for me.

“Danke,” I say as the waitress delivers my “mass” (pronounced “muss”).

She scowls. Ah, German hospitality.

Whenever I visit Munich in spring or summer, my first priority is to explore its beer gardens. Even my grandma, who should be my first priority, understands.

Once the temperature tops 15 degrees, there’s nothing more Munich than sitting under a chestnut tree, taking a hearty sip of the world’s best brew and striking up a conversation with a stranger.

Nowadays, beer gardens are as ubiquitous as Irish pubs but only in Munich will you find the real thing, brimming with the elusive quality of “gemuetlichkeit” – that is, an inviting, friendly cosiness. Why? Because strict rules and traditions underlie the easygoing atmosphere. Above all, there must be chestnut trees, communal wooden tables and punters must be allowed to bring their own food.

A few centuries back, after struggling to keep their beer cool in summer, Munich’s brewers started storing their barrels in cellars and planting chestnut trees to provide shade with their grand canopies. Then, not quite 200 years ago, King Ludwig I granted these brewers the right to sell beer on the spot but not to sell food. These days drinkers are still allowed to bring their own nosh for “brotzeit”, or “bread time”.

Most don’t, however, preferring to buy the local equivalent of pub grub: weisswurst (veal and herb sausages, a Bavarian specialty meant to be eaten before 11am); bratwurst (roast snags); kartoffelsalat (potato salad); radi (radishes with salt); or, my favourite, schweinshaxe (pork knuckle). And, of course, brezen (pretzels).

That said, the most important food of all is beer.

In Munich, the home of Oktoberfest, beer is the prevailing faith. Catholicism runs second. Actually, hereabouts the two are often closely linked. Last summer, a newspaper story told of the struggle of Munich’s St Maximilian Church to attract parishioners and funds. Priest Rainer Schiessler is considering opening a beer garden adjoining his house of God. Asked to comment on the proposal, parishioners were overwhelmingly in favour.

Near Munich airport, the town of Weihenstephan is home to a Benedictine abbey founded in 725. In 1040, thirsty monks established what now ranks as the world’s oldest operational brewery. It has close links with the Munich University of Technology, which runs courses in brewing. But not theology. There is, of course, a beer garden at Weihenstephan.

The world’s oldest food purity law is said to be the Reinheitsgebot of 1516, which prescribed that only three ingredients be used to make beer: water, barley and hops. The law was only recently changed. Still, many brewers proudly declare that they abide by the Reinheitsgebot, thus receiving special treatment for their “traditional” food.

Suffice to say that you’ll struggle to find a bad beer and that Germany’s often additive-free brews are much kinder on the system than some Australian brews. You just need to know whether you want a “helles”, which is actually a clear, full-strength lager, or a “weissbier”, which means “white beer” but is actually a cloudy wheat beer (traditional in Bavaria). Alternatively, order a “radler”, which means “bicyclist” and is a mix of beer and lemonade – that is, a shandy. Then decide whether you want a mass or a “halbes” (half-litre). Generally, helles comes by the litre and weissbier by the half-litre. If the terminology escapes you, you can always just point to what you want at the self-service area, then pay and sit down at a communal wooden table. Just don’t sit at the tables bedecked with tablecloths, crockery and cutlery. That’s the full-service area.

It is in a service area of the Hofbraeukeller that the dirndl-clad waitress drops off my mass before turning abruptly to deliver the other seven. Newcomers to Munich might assess the service as rude and perfunctory. Sure, it’s far from fawning and, yes, Munich’s wait staff are often older than Weihenstephan’s brewery. In most cases, though, beneath the gruff exterior beats a warm heart. Flash a smile and crack a joke and you’ll be looked after.

On a warm afternoon or evening, where else would you want to be? As a pocket-sized volume called Der Biergarten Fuehrer says, “The Augustinerkeller on a warm summer evening is unique in the world, it is unrepeatable, it is untransplantable, it is Munich’s most ancient and personal life feeling and that’s why we’re the envy of the rest of the world.” (The 2009 edition, which I bought for €5 ($7.24) at Munich airport, is handy but available only in German. Blame me for the clunky translation. Still, there are analogous English-language websites.)

As Der Biergarten Fuehrer shows, there are hundreds of beer gardens in Munich and surrounds. Most are worth visiting but I agree entirely: the centrally located Augustinerkeller (augustinerkeller.de) is the pick of the bunch.

Whenever the “cellerman” taps a new keg of Augustiner Edelstoff, a bell is rung. My hearing is not what it once was. Snippets of conversation escape me. My daughter’s voice is a blur. But this heavenly clang I hear from Sydney.

Truth is, it’s not in a scenic part of town. A short walk from the main railway station, it’s surrounded by train tracks and commercial buildings. Step through the gates, however, and you’re surrounded by picturesque conviviality beneath a ceiling of vivid green. Old-fashioned wooden huts serve beer and food, and in one corner is an impressive children’s playground. This is a recurring theme: unlike Aussie pubs, Munich beer gardens are devoutly family friendly, complete with slides, swings and expansive menus for children.

In the beer garden there’s one “stammtisch” (locals’ table) beside another, marked with the names of regulars including actors and politicians. It’s a locals’ local but even so you won’t have trouble finding a spot: there’s room for 5000. (Big? Bavaria’s biggest is the Hirschgarten, which accommodates 7000.) And if, despite the foliage, it gets too hot in the garden you can descend eight metres underground into the former ice cellar, where summer nights are invariably noisy. Layers and layers of joy.

North of town, in the middle of the grand park that is the Englischer Garten, the Chinesischer Turm (Chinese Tower, chinaturm.de) is best reached by bicycle. Indeed, Munich is a wonderful city for cycling, with few hills and plenty of bike tracks. One of three beer gardens in the Englischer Garten, the Chinese Tower is famous enough to attract swarms of tourists and locals. Foreign students sit with shirts off beside Bavarian suits downing lunchtime libations. Here you must pay a “pfand” for each drink – a deposit that’s paid back when you return the glass – but that’s a minor inconvenience in a glorious spot where there’s usually a brass band playing. And when it’s time, you can take your leave in a horse and cart.

Each July at the Chinese Tower, the Kocherlball, or Cooks’ Ball, is a colourful dance of traditional music and outfits. The twist is that it starts about 5am. In the days of old, this was the only time cooks and waiters could have their knees-up.

In the centre of Munich, the Hofbraeuhaus (www.hofbraeuhaus.de) is the most famous of beer halls. This is because it’s a large and inviting old room but also because it was Hitler’s local. It’s the birthplace of Naziism: at a 1920 meeting here, Hitler and his cohorts renamed their German Workers’ Party the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. The Hofbraeuhaus is worth visiting, in part for its beer garden.

Personally, I prefer the Hofbraeukeller (hofbraeukeller.de), a 30-minute walk east across the Isar River from the city centre. Set among the parks and old apartments of Haidhausen – Munich’s answer to Paddington or Fitzroy, perhaps – it’s old-fashioned and unpretentious. The building itself, dating from 1892, is stunning inside, with its painted ceilings and wooden furniture. The food is excellent and there are three play areas for children: inside, there’s an enclosed area with a supervisor who has more toys, games and books than your average childcare centre; in the beer garden, there’s a regular playground with a slide and climbing equipment; and for younger kids there’s also an enclosed, supervised play area. As far as I could tell, these child-minding services were never abused by parents on benders.

In recent years, unfortunately, the Hofbraeukeller has opened an outdoor bar named Sausalitos, with sand, beach chairs and tequila shots to attract a hip young crowd. Such “beach beer gardens” work well in Spain. Or even Berlin. At the Hofbraeukeller, however, Sausalitos is like sticking flippers on a jackaroo. No matter. It’s easily ignored.

South of the city centre, Paulaner am Nockherberg (nockherberg.com) is a famous boozery on a hill. Billing itself as “an open-air stage of Munich’s art of living”, the beer garden has been here since 1820 but it burnt to the ground in 1999 before reopening in 2003. Luckily, the ancient trees survived the inferno and from the ashes have risen new buildings with spectacular interiors. The atmosphere is returning, too, so much so that in July Nockherberg was named winner of the Abendzeitung newspaper’s annual My Most Beautiful Beer Garden contest, beating the Hofbraeuhaus and the Schloss at Munich’s Olympic Park (where the sand and beach chairs make much more sense than at the Hofbraeukeller).

Paulaner am Nockherberg has a small but useful playground, excellent food and, above all, a great opportunity for jokes about waitresses’ “nockherbergs”. The place used to be known as the Salvatorkeller, in honour of the Salvator strong beer brewed here and stored underground in what is said to be the world’s deepest lager cellar.

Thanks to the Salvator, the saying goes that getting up the hill of the Nockherberg is easy, whereas coming back down is tricky.

Each March, the first keg of Paulaner Salvator is tapped by a celebrity, bringing joy to thousands of lovers of “bockbier” (strong beer). At venues around Munich, the Starkbierfest, or strong beer festival, lasts about a fortnight and is known as Munich’s “fifth season”. If the early spring weather is warm enough, the Starkbierfest can coincide with the tentative beginnings of beer-garden season.

A little further south from Nockherberg, on an island on the Isar, Zum Flaucher (zum-flaucher.de) has a spacious, relaxed, removed feel. Near the zoo, it’s surrounded by green fields where people play frisbee, football or (with your help) cricket. It’s a great place to reach by bike.

So is the Waldwirtschaft, or Wawi (waldwirtschaft.de). Ten kilometres south of Munich in the leafy ‘burbs favoured by the film stars and Bayern Munich players, the Wawi is a renowned Sunday favourite with an unwavering commitment to live music, especially jazz.

North of the city centre is the Ungererbad, one of Munich’s eight outdoor swimming pools (there are details at swm.de, albeit in German). On a sunny summer’s day, one of the nicest places to be in Munich is at a pool, particularly since they all have cosy beer gardens. With huge grounds, a 57-metre waterslide and a separate water domain for kids, the Ungererbad is the pick. Or maybe it’s the chemical-free Naturbad Maria Einsiedel, where you can swim in a frigid canal of the Isar.

And then, right in the heart of town is the Viktualienmarkt beer garden, set among the sausages stalls, fruit stands and miscellaneous vendors of the food markets. With stockbrokers drinking beside students and farmers, the beer garden here is a terrific melting pot. Some of the city’s best eateries are steps away (don’t miss Beim Sedlmayr on Westenriederstrasse). In a quirk symbolising the Viktualienmarkt’s central location, the city’s “big six” breweries take turns selling their beer here.

The way I see it, Bavaria is to Germany as Ireland is to England. The people talk funny and like a drink. And, much to the relief of visitors, the latter always seems to take care of the former.

Singapore Airlines flies to Munich for about $2030, via Singapore (8hr) and then to Munich (14hr). Emirates has a fare to Munich for about $1820, via Dubai (14hr) and then to Munich (6hr 30min). Fares are low-season return from Sydney and Melbourne, including tax.

Thermal pools are one of Iceland’s hot attractions. Photo: AFP

“It’s post-apocalyptic,” Elouise Carden exclaimed as she basked in steamy, glimmering turquoise water against a backdrop of jet-black volcanic rock.

The 28-year-old Londoner and her husband Daniel are among the thousands of tourists who have flooded into Iceland this year, drawn by whale safaris, geo-thermal spas such as this one — and a highly favourable exchange rate.

Still struggling to overcome the deep crisis that set in when its major banks collapsed in late 2008, Iceland is hoping the recent surge in tourist numbers will help put it on the route to recovery.

The small, north-Atlantic island just below the Arctic Circle abounds with natural beauty, from myth-like volcanic landscapes and geysers shooting jets of hot water and steam into the air, to the near-round-the-clock daylight in summer that keep Reykjavik’s vibrant clubs and bars rocking through the night.

And with the Icelandic krona at rock-bottom — the currency has shed over 50 per cent of its value in 18 months, from 70 kronur to the euro, to a current 172 kronur ($A1.47) – an exotic getaway to Iceland has become increasingly affordable.

Going to Iceland “is really getting popular at home,” said Elouise, who flew in for a romantic weekend.

“People realise it’s less expensive. We were even quite worried when we saw the long line at the entrance” to the Blue Lagoon spa, which lies some 40 kilometres (25 miles) southwest of Reykjavik, she said.

As worldwide tourism figures were dragged down by the global downturn in 2009, the Blue Lagoon and the rest of Iceland saw its own tourist trade boom.

Visitor numbers jumped 12 per cent last year to around 1.23 million people, or about four times Iceland’s population, with German, French and British visitors topping the list, and the trend was set to continue this year.

The financial crisis brought a double windfall for the island’s tourism sector, with low prices attracting foreigners while Icelanders hit by the crisis and the staggering cost of foreign currency, have increasingly decided to holiday at home.

Even Mother Nature appears to be working to pad the coffers of Iceland’s tourist industry.

Last month a minor volcanic eruption turned a previously deserted part of the country into a major attraction, with visitors flocking to catch a glimpse of the still gushing lava.

“I hope the eruption continues for a while since it’s very good for business,” rejoiced Ingi Thor Jakobsson, who manages a hotel near the glacier Eyjafjallajokull, where the Fimmvorduhals volcano erupted on March 21.

Up until a year and a half ago, Iceland figured among the world’s wealthiest nations thanks to a booming finance sector, but since the banking bust tourism has emerged as one of its only likely saviors.

Finance Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson even used a drawn-out clash with Britain and the Netherlands over compensation for losses linked to one of Iceland’s failed banks, to put in a good word for the tourist industry.

“I call on our British and Dutch friends to come and join the tourism boom we’re experiencing in Iceland right now,” he said recently.

“Help us get our money back!”

Crowned the “best-value destination for 2010″ by Lonely Planet guidebooks, there is no question Iceland is brimming with bargains, with finger-licking fresh fish dinners on the menu for less than 1500 kronur ($A12.85).

But to keep prices from tumbling too far, many establishments like the Blue Lagoon have started to list their prices … in euros.

“Really? The prices have gone down? It doesn’t seem like it!” 48-year-old Peter Iu of Hong Kong grumbled as he fished for his wallet in line at the Blue Lagoon cafe.

The entrance fee to the geo-thermal spa has been hiked to a hefty 23 euros (30 dollars), horrifying locals who see it as part of their national heritage.

Many jumped at a recent “two-for-one” coupon offer available only in Icelandic newspapers, for a chance to splash in the hot water next to wealthy foreigners.

“Otherwise it would be off limits to us,” shrugged student and spa regular Sigrun Jona Norddahl.

AFP

Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum opened the world’s tallest tower today and renamed it the Burj Khalifa after the ruler of neighboring Abu Dhabi. Photo: Bloomberg

The ‘At the Top’ viewing deck of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, has reopened after being closed for maintenance for almost two months, an employee said yesterday.

The deck reopened at 1pm local time on Saturday, the employee in the tower’s information office said.

Emaar Properties, which developed the tower, said in a February statement that the deck would be temporarily closed for “maintenance and upgrade.”

A spokesman for Dubai Civil Defence later said that on February 6, the elevator became stuck near the 124th-floor viewing deck, trapping passengers for around 30 minutes.

The passengers were rescued unharmed, he said.

The lavish January launch of the glistening concrete, glass and steel tower, which rises 828 metres out of the desert sands, was part of Dubai’s efforts to burnish an image tarnished by its crippling debt woes.

AFP

British tourist Charlotte Adams and expat Ayman Najafi have been sentenced to a month in jail for kissing in public.

Dubai’s appeals court has upheld a one-month prison sentence against a British couple for kissing in public in the Muslim emirate, their lawyer said.

The court has upheld the verdict of the court of first instance, the lawyer, Khalaf al-Hosani, said.

The Britons had been on bail since their arrest in November last year, when an Emirati woman accused them of kissing in a restaurant in the trendy Jumeirah Beach Residence neighbourhood.

The pair have been named in the British press as Ayman Najafi, 24, a British expat, and tourist Charlotte Adams, 25, whose surname was previously reported as Lewis.

They said they kissed only on the cheek, but pleaded guilty to charges of consuming alcohol.

The two are entitled to challenge the sentence in the cassation court, the highest court that can review cases in the United Arab Emirates, a Gulf state made up of seven members including Dubai.

They were convicted in January and sentenced to one month in prison, but were released on bail with their passports held by the authorities, the lawyer said.

He said he would discuss with the defendants whether they wish to take the case to the cassation court, but he said “the hope is dim” of overturning the verdict.

He had told court last month that the only witness, a 38-year-old Emirati woman, had presented different statements.

“She told the police that she saw them kissing, while she told the prosecution that her children saw them,” he said, adding the defence is arguing that the couple only kissed on the cheek “as a greeting”, which is allowed.

Dubai, which despite its pro-Western outlook still adheres to certain strict Islamic rules and bans sex out of wedlock, is a popular destination for British tourists.

About 1.1 million Britons visited the United Arab Emirates in 2009, and more than 100,000 British nationals live in the country.

In 2008, a British couple, Vince Acors and Michelle Palmer, were convicted of having sex on the beach in Dubai but an appeals court suspended their three-month jail term.

Acors and Palmer, both their 30s, were expelled from the Gulf Arab country and fined 1000 dirhams ($295) for drinking alcohol.

A mother-of-two and her alleged lover, a fellow Briton, were convicted of adultery and jailed for two months in June 2009 after her estranged British husband tipped off police who caught the couple leaving a Dubai hotel at 2.30am.

The British Foreign Office warns Britons travelling to the UAE that the Muslim country has strict rules on public displays of affection and points out women should dress modestly in public.

“Proportionally, Britons are most likely to be arrested in the UAE than any other country in the world,” says the travel advice, also highlighting the UAE authorities’ zero tolerance of possession of drugs.

AFP

On parade … Coney Island will undergo a $30 million restoration. Photo: Getty Images

On for the ride Watch out, Walt Disney. Coney Island is making a comeback with New York City investing $US30 million ($32 million) to revitalise the island and its amusement parks.

Coney Island has been a feature in the lives of New Yorkers and, to a lesser extent, the world, through the movies that have used it as a backdrop. The first carousel on the island in the borough of Brooklyn was erected during the 1870s. Coney Island’s heyday was in the early part of the 20th century when millions visited the island, its beaches and parks annually.

But, according to New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, numbers dwindled after World War II and Coney Island lost its lustre. “This summer, we’re reversing that trend,” Bloomberg says.

The first part of a new Luna Park is scheduled to open on Memorial Day (May 31) and will remain open daily until Labour Day (September 6), then on weekends until Columbus Day (October 11). When completed next year, Coney Island will have 23 rides. It is expected that the revamp, which will include a new neighbourhood of shops and residences, will generate more than $US14 billion in economic activity for New York City over three decades.

NT planner
For anyone contemplating a trip to the Northern Territory, the new iPhone app, iOutbackNT, is worth considering. Developed by Tourism NT, the application has a variety of interactive maps, text, videos and images to help travellers plan holidays. Once downloaded, it is stored on your phone and can be used when out of mobile range.

Singles’ lifeline
Coral Princess has ditched the single supplement on its three-, four- and seven-night Great Barrier Reef cruises between Townsville and Cairns and from Cairns to Lizard Island. Prices on the 50-passenger vessel start at $1496 a person for a three-night return cruise and include accommodation, meals, lectures, group transfers, activities, excursions and landing fee.

In the saddle
Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat at Tallebudgera in the Gold Coast hinterland has equine therapy – for guests, not horses.

“Yes, it’s different,” the general manager, Sharon Kolkka, concedes, adding that the therapy grew out of the practice of using horses to help disabled children.

“There is something about the energy of horses that seems to work with some people. It might be soothing or it might energise and we’ve seen it help with confidence.” A 50-minute “treatment” with Steve or Doc, the resident horses on the property, is $120; $180 for 80 minutes.

All hail the saint
The canonisation of Mary MacKillop is working miracles for tourism. Harvest Tours, the official tour operator appointed by the Sisters of St Joseph, has been inundated with inquiries, says the managing director, Philip Ryall.

“Travellers are mostly interested in Rome stays of six to seven days and want to be involved in the other ceremonies surrounding Canonisation Sunday [October 17],” Ryall says. These include the combined concert and vigil and a Mass of Thanksgiving, he says.

“Many are taking our various extensions to Assisi, Bay of Naples, Florence and Padua. Others are taking the option of retracing Mary’s journey back to her homeland in Scotland in 1873 to ‘74.”

Small-group tour operator Academy Travel is also reporting strong interest for its tours – an eight-day tour of Rome and an 11-day option that includes three nights in the Bay of Naples.

On the final day of both tours planned by Academy Travel, each group will attend the canonisation mass at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome and then will celebrate in the evening with a barbecue.

Closer to home, the various sites associated with MacKillop – South Australia’s Mary MacKillop Centre in Penola and the house in suburban Kensington, which was the first home of the order she founded, as well as North Sydney’s Mary MacKillop Place Museum – report a surge in visitors since last month’s announcement that MacKillop is to be Australia’s first saint.

Festival of food, wine
Organisers of the Noosa Food and Wine Festival, from April 30 to May 2, are expecting more than 25,000 visitors this year.

The festival organiser and Noosa restaurateur, Jim Berardo, says it appears this year’s festival, the seventh, will be the biggest yet. “We didn’t think it could get any bigger than last year but bookings suggest we’ll beat attendance records,” Berardo says.

Some of Australia’s best-known chefs including Peter Doyle, Jacques Reymond (pictured), Andrew McConnell, Matt Moran, Justin North and Alla Wolf-Tasker will feature, as will tours of the Noosa hinterland food trails.

Lindy Chamberlain was mocked on a spoof website / supplied

• Tourism Australia’s campaign mocked
• Steve Irwin, Cronulla riots ridiculed

AUSTRALIA’S new tourism campaign has been ridiculed by a spoof website and various social networking websites.

Tourism Australia is considering legal action against the creator of the nothinglikeaustralia.net website, which was believed to have been registered in the US just minutes after the campaign was unveiled.

It features the famous image of the late Steve Irwin with his son Bob inside a reptile enclosure where a crocodile was waiting to be fed, with the tagline “There’s nothing like taking your child to work”.

Another image makes fun of the famous Chamberlain case, showing her with her daughter Azaria and the line: “There’s nothing like a dingo taking your baby.”

There is even a picture showing a mob bashing a man, with the slogan: “There’s nothing like welcoming the new guy.”

The campaign has also been mocked by a Facebook page set up by Tourism New Zealand, which also features the image of Steve Irwin.

Tourism New Zealand’s Facebook profile includes the caption: “Nothing like Australia. 100% betterer, 100% Pure New Zealand”.

“It’s nothing personal Australia, we love your new advertising campaign, it’s just that we’re nothing like you. Love from New Zealand.”

Tourism New Zealand also set up accounts on social networking site Twitter and photo sharing site Flickr.

The Flickr photo stream is called “NothingLikeAustralia” and features only images of New Zealand including the famous Milford Sound and Mount Sefton.

Tourism New Zealand claims it set up the tongue-in-cheek Facebook page and profiles as joke.

“Tourism New Zealand’s had its bit of fun on April Fools Day, but the joke’s over,” Tourism New Zealand’s Chief Executive Kevin Bowler said.

“After a bit of neighbourly high jinx, Tourism New Zealand’s going to relinquish the @NothinglikeAus Twitter account and similar names on Flickr and Facebook.

Mr Bowler said he wished Tourism Australia all the best with its new campaign.

With Simon Canning.

Best trip ever … follow these tips to make the most of your holiday. Photo: Tom Cockrem/Lonely Planet

There’s a lot you can do to make a good trip a great one – and squeeze every last drop of fun out of your hard-earned time off. Lonely Planet’s Best Ever Travel Tips offers advice on how to make the most of it.

THE BASICS

If you’re travelling for a special occasion, say so. While a business-class upgrade is rare, a special occasion might just tilt the balance in your favour when trying to score that room with a view, a table at a happening restaurant or a visit to the VIP lounge.

When taking a long weekend make it a long midweek instead. Not only will you find flights easier to come by – provided you avoid key business flights – you’ll avoid the Friday-night and Sunday-night crushes at the airport. You’ll also find museums and galleries open, missing the dreaded Monday closures, plus it’ll be easier to get into restaurants. Bear in mind, though, that business hotels will be busier midweek.

Getting local advice is often recommended, but what if you don’t know any locals or can’t crack the language barrier? Many cities offer tours or arrange time with local volunteers who can show you a different side of where they live, such as New York City’s Big Apple Greeters (http://www.bigapplegreeter.org/). And if you’d like to stay in a local’s home, sites like Couchsurfing (http://www.couchsurfing.com/) and Globalfreeloaders (http://www.globalfreeloaders.com/) can broker a free night on someone’s floor or sofa in exchange for good karma and you repeating the trick at home.

Self-catering doesn’t just save you money, it gives you the chance to do some unusual sightseeing. Cities all over the world have superb produce markets where you can put together a picnic breakfast or lunch for a fraction of the cost of eating a (possibly worse) restaurant meal. You’ll also happen across local ingredients and flavours that may otherwise have passed you by. Go early for the widest selection.

Get the city’s true foodie vibe by heading for still-hip, midrange places rather than the hottest ticket in town. And don’t worry if you forgot your book: your Blackberry or iPhone will keep you amused and you can review your meal as you’re eating it. If you’re lucky, the restaurant may even assume you’re a critic and load on an extra scoop of ice cream.

A passion for food can take you to some great places – and it doesn’t matter if you’re alone, either. Rather than hide away with room service, ask your hotel front desk to recommend some local restaurants with communal tables, or ones where you can dine at the bar. This can also be a great way to taste the menu at a hot restaurant that’s booked months in advance.

From the experts

“Many of us read a great novel set in a destination we’re keen to head to as inspiration before taking a trip. But in advance of travelling, why not also go online to search for the website of a local newspaper based in your location of choice? That way you will pick up on how residents view their home and can learn about local current affairs, events that are coming up and new galleries or restaurants that may just be opening – plus you’ll have plenty of topical interest to chat about on your arrival”. – Peter Grunert, Editor, Lonely Planet Magazine (UK)

“There’s always an advantage to being the calm one if you get into a dispute. You’ll attract more sympathy and make a peaceful resolution more likely without anyone losing face, the avoidance of which on both sides should always be at the front of your mind. Focusing on talking quietly is an effective way to control your actions and not get carried away.” – Tony Wheeler, cofounder of Lonely Planet

TRADE SECRETS

By Robert Reid, Lonely Planet’s US Travel Editor (http://www.reidontravel.com/)

Seeing movies in foreign countries is better than taking a break watching sport on TV back in your hotel room. How else will you know that they play the Thai national anthem before your screening of Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery or that if only a few people show up in some Vietnamese cinemas they will be expected to sit in the same row, side by side? Or that in Bulgarian ones they’ll just cancel the whole thing?

Scared of rats in the dark in a strange room across the globe? Be sure to wash your hands. Those cookie crumbs on your fingertips will be the ones to get licked first.

Don’t forget to give yourself time to stop. Those on a bike see more than those in a car, those walking see more than those biking, and those stopping – just to sit and stare, at a street corner, orbeside a rice field in Southeast Asia – see the most.

Travel lives when we say ‘yes’ to local offers – ahem, decent offers – and get a true window on how locals live. Like an invitation to join two grandparents for tea on the balcony, or an invite for tea and a walk around the lake, or to see a beekeeper’s bees and fresh honey. The museum you might forget, but the people you meet – less likely. People everywhere are pretty nice.

Too much hassle where you are? Look around. If you are in the majority as a foreign traveller, walk two blocks to another part of town and get out of that tourist ghetto you’re probably in. Hasslers and touts know where to go, so go elsewhere.

Taking courses on vacation usually leads to stories that can make the greatest trips, even if it’s not that necessary you ever learn to speak Quechua or how to play the Bulgarian bagpipes.

You really don’t have to try the crickets on the stick if you’re not comfortable with it.

HOW TO TAP INTO LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

By Sally Broom, founder of the trip-planning website Tripbod ( http://www.tripbod.com/).

Get to know the locals before you get there. There are many community sites that you can use to connect with people who live in your destination, and the more niche the better. Are you a rock climber? Or perhaps you like a particular food? Tap into local knowledge networks and find out about life where you’re going from the people who live there. This way you’ll hit the ground running when you arrive and have more chance of meeting those unforgettable people who can really make a difference to your trip. Blogs written by enthusiasts can be a great place to start.

Make sure you’re spending money locally where possible, and ask questions of the people you’re buying from. You’ll soon get an insight into whether they really are a thoughtful company or they’re just in it for your cash. Just ask yourself, ‘do I feel good about spending my money here?’ If so, great. If not, are there other ways of going about it?

SMART WEBS

Travel Phrase (http://www.travelphrase.com/) has handy translations of common phrases from English into French, German Italian, Spanish and other languages.

Glimpse (www.glimpse.org/tips/topic/etiquette) has fascinating snippets of dos and don’ts from around the world.

The Practical Nomad (http://www.hasbrouck.org/) has some innovative and detailed tips on everything from booking fl ights to bargains.

Smartphrase (http://www.smartphrase.com/) – useful phrases in seven different languages arranged by theme.

This is an extract from Lonely Planet’s Best Ever Travel Tips by Tom Hall © Lonely Planet 2010. AUD$14.99