The Enid Blyton Society

Ming wrote:Tony and Poddys, I am insanely jealous of the both of you!

I've been to, in order, Singapore, the UK, the UAE, Hong Kong, China, India, Nepal, South Korea, Qatar (6 hours in transit!) and South Africa... and I thought I was adventurous.

Suffice to say your visit to my house was the most important of all your visits!

Moonraker wrote:
Suffice to say your visit to my house was the most important of all your visits!

If it was wouldn't have Ming said so!

I've never been abroad either, unless you class Wales and Scotland as abroad! I've ventured to Jersey, Sark and the Isles of Scilly. But I have to say I'm happy staying on home ground.

Never stepped out of my home country. Don't even have a valid passport now. How much more insular can one get?

Edit: Forgot about a job-related visit to Singpore ten years ago when I *did* have a valid passport. Flew in, sat through a boring press conference by Hewlett-Packard, slept, flew back the next day.

Fatty wrote:Never stepped out of my home country. Don't even have a valid passport now. How much more insular can one get?

Edit: Forgot about a job-related visit to Singpore ten years ago when I *did* have a valid passport. Flew in, sat through a boring press conference by Hewlett-Packard, slept, flew back the next day.

You are not alone, I don't have a valid passport either - it ran out about twenty years ago!

It is a pity you didn't have longer to spend in Singapore as it is one of the cleanest and greenest countries in Asia, it puts London to shame!

Ming you are one up on me as I have never been to Bangladesh, though I have been to your three nearest neighbours, India, Nepal and Burma.

I have also done a few transit lounges, Poddys, but I didn't count them as countries visited. So although I spent eight hours in transit in Miami airport (an experience I wouldn't wish on anybody!) I have never actually been to the USA. Most of my travelling has been in Europe and Asia and a little bit (3 countries) in North Africa.

You could call us "The Travelling Tony's" I guess, since I am a Tony too!

I always wanted to travel, but never went anywhere until I was in my early 30's, when my business went under (long story), and I decided to take a year off and go to New Zealand where my cousin lives. We went out via Los Angeles and Tahiti, then spent 9 months touring bits of the North Island of New Zealand at the weekend (I had to get a full time job out there unfortunately to keep money coming in). Spent 6 weeks coming home via New Caledonia, Australia (Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney), Bali, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Bangkok and Hong Kong. It was an amazing trip, and Asia is still even now relatively cheap in parts.

Then when I got back to London I had to look for work, and got a contract with an Oil Company to help develop and install a computer system. I worked on that for 12 years, travelling to exotic places to install it and to train people. That took me to much of Central/South America and the Caribbean, as well as to Kenya and Papua New Guinea.

The sad thing is that even though I saw so many amazing places, I was there to work, so only had the weekends off at best, and a lot of trips were only a week long. It was brilliant though.

These days all I seem to do is spend the whole year saving up to see my daughters who live in Florida.

Tony Summerfield wrote:Ming you are one up on me as I have never been to Bangladesh, though I have been to your three nearest neighbours, India, Nepal and Burma.

I can forgive you for that as Bangladesh didn't exist then.

Moonraker wrote:Suffice to say your visit to my house was the most important of all your visits!

Without a doubt! Next time I venture into the UK I shall bunk into your house - unannounced!

Tony Summerfield wrote:I have also done a few transit lounges, Poddys, but I didn't count them as countries visited. So although I spent eight hours in transit in Miami airport (an experience I wouldn't wish on anybody!) I have never actually been to the USA. Most of my travelling has been in Europe and Asia and a little bit (3 countries) in North Africa.

Actually don't you have to go through immigration in the USA rather than just sit in an in-transit lounge, which in theory makes you a visitor to the USA. I know it doesn't really count does it...

I was lucky that none of my trips were there one day and back the next. Those are just hard on you, long flights, the stress of airports, and you really don't see a lot of where you have been.

I know Miami airport well, I worked in Miami and lived in South Florida for 4 years. It's ok on a good day, but on a bad one, especially around Christmas when half of Latin America are trying to get home to see their families, it's chaos.

My wife hates it, since we had a visa problem with her, and now every time she enters in Miami she gets pulled into the back room, even though I now have an American Passport as well as my British one. Last summer it cost us 2 hours delay after we arrived. Very frustrating

I did try to go through immigration, but they wouldn't let me out of the transit area, which had no shops or anything. I had hoped that I could spend a few hours in Miami, but it wasn't to be!

We seemed to have dropped 'Circus' and just be in an 'Adventure' now. So I will digress further. I was wandering around in Delhi, up near India Gate (featured in the film Gandhi) and there wasn't a single person in sight (unusual in India!!) apart from one or two police and a few soldiers. One of them came over to me and said, "Can I help you?". I smiled and said, "No thanks, I'm quite happy, I know where I am going." His jaw dropped and I wandered off. I found out later that Delhi was under martial law because of riots and I was there in the middle of a curfew!

from Tony Summerfield: A Personal Anecdotage

Trust you to get mixed up in a real adventure, Tony!

Besides England I've been to Wales (I grew up in North Wales), Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Yugoslavia (as it was then), Greece, Israel and Morocco.

The most adventurous time I had on holiday was 20 years ago when my wife and I
(sounds almost royal) went with a very small group to Kasmir. We had toured round
Dehli but our guide would not go on to Kasmir - we soon found out why. After an
adventurous flight to Shrinigar (the plane dropped 4,000 feet in about a minute with
people screaming) we got into the airport OK and then are troubles really started.
We managed to get our luggage but were held in the main entrance and not allowed
to depart. Eventually we managed to negotiate with a group of tough-looking individuals
who said we could leave on payment of a specific sum! We hired a group of taxi drivers
to take us to the houseboats on one of the famous lakes. Over the next few days we
noticed loud explosions overnight (they turned out to be bomb explosions!). The local
shops insisted on showing us atrocity photographs - committed by the Indian security forces.
This was the start of the troubles in Kasmir which have kept that unhappy land closed to
tourists ever since. We hired our taxis to give us a break and takes us up 14,000 feet
into the pre-Himalayas. The older ones wouldn't go and we again found out why - the
road with precipitous ungarded 5,000 feet drops were negotiated at speed by our drivers
- they were having a race!! The view at the top towards the Himalayas and accross the
plains of Kasmir was incredible (we could see K2 as part of a panoramic wall of mountains and snow).
We remember this holiday to this day! The Famous Five would have loved the mountains,
the lakes, the birdlife (3 types of kingfisher, many eagles and vultures) and had adventures to
last them a lifetime!

Sounds like quite an experience, Francis - memorable for being both terrific and terrifying!

I not as adventurous any more - Swanage and Corfe suit me these days!

Martial law, riots, explosions. Now I know why I prefer to holiday 'at home'!

Seriously, there are a few countries I'd like to visit eventually. Money is the biggest obstacle to me travelling at the moment (or lack of), but also there are several holidays I'd like to do, which I don't think are practical with a young family.

So I'm quite happy to set my sights on a trip to Corfe Castle withing the next couple of years, and similar holidays. Although I would like to see the next Passion Play which is 8 years away, so will need to sort my passport out by then.

I'm pleased to see I'm not the only person with a lapsed (or even non-existent) passport. Several times I've met with looks of disbelief when asked for ID and I've had to say I don't have a passport. Someone even suggested I fork out £60 for one just to use for identity!

Travelling can leave you with some great memories, Katharine - even if things were not so rosy at the time. I wrote off my motor caravan in the middle of nowhere whilst driving from Kiev in the Ukraine to Moscow - it was in the days of the Soviet Union and the KGB wanted a word or two! It was the Stasi when I got arrested in East Germany, I was driving around East Berlin and apparently I shouldn't have been there, but I wasn't held for long, I just got escorted to Checkpoint Charlie and pushed over the border into West Berlin. All good clean fun and there's plenty more in Tony Summerfield: A Personal Anecdotage. I had better get writing as another thread seems to think I am on the way out!

It certainly sounds like you have some interesting memories Tony. The most dramatic travelling memory I have was when I was in Florida we witnessed an armed arrest by the police which was a bit of an eye opener. Especially as I don't think I've ever seen anyone arrested in this country, let alone with guns.

I definitely don't like to be out of my comfort zone though. Most of the countries people have listed don't appeal to me, either because they are too hot, I'd need a vaccination or I'd feel frightened in a country where I didn't understand the language - so doesn't leave me much of a choice really