mart tourists avoid Sunday, January 16, 1994 - North Shore News - 35 azardous destinations Travellers in trouble often have an easier time phoning home than contacting a local embassy arbara McGreadie ne TRAVELWISE oy NOT MANY of u us would “book a vacation in Lebanon, ‘We’re staying away from the ..former Yugoslavia for obvi- ous reasons and Somalia wasn’t much of a tourist trap at the best of times. oe ‘Generally, tourists are smart ‘enough to avoid hazardous destina- ‘tions, Hawever, I still- wonder about the ones’ who demanded to go to Kauai a couple of years ago despite newsreels showing hurricane devas- tation. They were convinced that it - wasn "t their Kauai” that was hurt. ” Everything would be just peachy if the nasty old airline would get back to normal. Afterall, they’d_ ;ooked six months ago and the.- brochure ‘showed tropical paradise: Go figure, One’ clear. way for rebels to get attention is to disrupt the tourist malcontents screaming for attention “have made it plain that their target is the ourist. And, to prove the point,” ing buses is the way to go. Not all rebellions focus on™ tourists. For the most part,: ‘bombs in ‘Britain are democratic - they kill the locals and you're ‘only i in trouble if you happen to get in the way. 2 On the flip side of the coin, trav- : ellers i in Florida are targets but not cause of any revolution or civic ‘unrest: Criminals find them easy pickings — - screamingly obvious in heir ‘ental cars and always ¢ arrying - CHARTER AIR FARES oe TO. =. . LONDON GLASGOW MANCHESTER via Caledonian Airways DC 10 “April 39 to Oct. 08 from $698.00 Low Season “to $948 90 High Season: DiscoUNTS FOR Children 2-14 yrs. Youth 15-20 yrs. Seniors 60+ yrs. In resort areas everywhere white knees and dangling cameras are a dead giveaway — fat wallets are part of the package. So, we avoid war zones, we dress modestly, we carry traveller's cheques and we stay out of red Jight areas. We don't borrow trouble. Does that mean we're safe? Hell, no. The news cameras were quick to interview tourists caught in San Cristobal De Las Casas. “We didn't know anything was wrong.” Meanwhile, everyone else in the world knew the shooting had start- ed. That's a big part of the problem, you see. A tourist is generally the last to know when all hell is about to break loose. Revolutions are most apt to occur in countries where the lan- guage isn’t English. You can’t read the papers (English language edi- tions may exist buy they're often hard to find and feature last month's news and Ann Landers), Radios and televisions may have flash alerts but you have no idea what the alert is about. Let me tell you what it’s like to be caught in a revolution. [ could look up the exact date but it really doesn’t matter — it was about this time of year, 18 years ago. The country was Argentina, . My mother was about 70. One of my daughters, Suzy, was eight. What were we doing in Buenos -. Aires? Travelling. One of our goals when raising kids was to have them see as much ~ of the world as we could arrange, and this time it was Suzy’s turn, We'd been in Brazil for a week and had flown to Buenos Aires to visit friends and to catch a ship to cross the Atlantic. . Suzy had paddled in the Atlantic, climbed the stairs to Christ the Redeemer, shopped Florida Street and posed for pictures outside" Argentina's capital building, the Pink House.” There was some sort of demon- ‘stration going on, but if you’ve spent any time in South America you disregard most of the shouting and flag-waving. It's very common to have trucks with loudspeakers going by, holler- ing about anything from cigarette taxes to religion. “Rubber Ducky Need a reason to get out of town? Duck into the Edgewater. You'll be right next to the big . pond, in the middle of the. ° * waterfront district, and all the’ downtown fun Seattle hasto * offer. Even at these special rates. we never discount service.: Expect to be treated like 2 big duck in a little pond. Rates are lor sinale or doubly aveupancy. plus applicable tac baci on avattability, Bow |, Pte Mar AL ivy non commamatabte gas the eGR EDGEWATER Pier 67 + Downtown Seaitle « Toll Free l-800-624-0670 66 A tourist is generally the last to know when all hell is about to break loose, 99 How were we to know we were in the midst of a military coup? There was some bombing that night but we didn’t hear a thing. There was also some shooting but it might have been firecrackers. We paid no attention. No one in the hotel (the Sheraton) seemed anxious and we were cerlainly not warned of any possible trouble. "Next morning we were sched- uled to leave. At breakfast, we were joined by one of our Argentine friends. Only then did we learn ~ about the “trouble.” He wasn’t too sure what was going on, but it was “bad.” One of the bomibs had trapped his grand- mother in her apartment —— the whole ground floor of the building was blown out and rescue opera- tions were diccy. By then, the hotel was alerted. The ship we were scheduled to board was hovering oul at sea, afraid to dock for fear of being seized. There were a few scattered mob scenes outside. We looked out from the 12th floor in relative safety. Sull, we knew that we'd have to get to the harbor when and if the ship docked. Fortunately for us we were at a big international hotel. The Sheraton had the clout to keep in touch with the shipping line. They were told that the ship was doing 2 fast pickup, hours ahead of schedule. They bundled us into a limo. Our: driver was armed. He crept through alleys and side sirects and got us to the dock. There. hundreds of people were “trying to get aboard the ship — many without tickets or passports. We were told later that the crowd contained many wealthy Peronistas, Mecing as the military toppled the government of Isabel Peron. Imagine, for a moment, the scene at the dock. ; Hundreds of noisy. pushy peo- ple, yelling in Spanish. 1 had an elderly mother, a small child and three suitcases to manocuvre through the throng. “Mom! You hit him!” Of all the stupid things I’ve done in my life, this one ranks right up there. A stocky man hit my mother from behind, knocking her flying. Without thinking, I socked him in the jaw. It was done instinctively. I just balled up my fist and got him squarely under the chin. How stu- pid! ft could have started a riot. Instead, it cleared a path — | grabbed the bags, Suzy grabbed her bag and her granny and we scuttled up the gangplank. oo¢ There are no rules guaranteed to work if you're caught in a rebellion (or coup, war or anything else you want to call it), From experience I’ve learned the following: © Its a great ides to trv to get in touch with your embassy. Good luck! It has to be done by telephone — we never did get through to ours but I think the hotel finally man- aged. We'll never know. @ {t was our good luck to be in an international hotel, If you get caught in a mess, get to one! Pay whatever they ask, camp in the lobby if nec- essary. ® Go into the streets only long enough to get to a big hotel and | even then you're running a big risk. ® Keep your tickets and documents on your body — not in a purse. ® Stay away from windows. This is no floor show, © Cail home! This may sound real- ly stupid but oddly enough you may have more luck with an internation- al call than you would phoning locally. Your family wil! have a lot better chance calling External‘ Affairs in Ottawa from there than you will calling an embassy in a war zone. ® To give you a rough idea of what can happen, see the Jack Lemmon film Missing. And never think it can’t happen to you — I’ve been there. For All Destinations ... Talk To Us! LONDON rrom‘697 Discover Your World ‘Travel | 1295 Marine Or., N.Van. 980-4526 Call: Casey Innes ‘ste’ $ just been there At one low price. To reserve your deluxe guest room and Super Saver oe guidebook filled with savings at downtown's best shops, restiurints and atenictions, contact your travel agent orcall us coll free at (800) 22 83-3000, Seattle Ors Tae Westin Hore Subject to availability; offer expires March 31, 1994.