TRAVEL Sunday, August 12, 1990 - North Shore News ~ 27 Rugby rules for Hong Kong Mad Dogs HONG KONG — When William Webb Ellis invented rugby by picking up a soccer ball and running with it, he could have had no idea that the ball would still be in the air nearly two centuries later. Or that his initiative would one day lead rugby players from Canada, Scotland, Japan and Hoiland to the Mad Dogs bar in Hong Kong and allow them to sing, in enthusiastic if uncertain harmony, Why Was He Born So Beautiful. The pub singing is a sideshow of the annual Hong Kong interna- vional rugby seven-a-side tourna- ment and 2 faraway but integral part of the rugby ethos that is firmly entrenched in Canada. The roots are in British schools which carried the ball after William Webb Ellis’ first play. The Royal Navy brought the game to Halifax and Esquimalt around 1820. Today there are about 10,000 tugby players in all provinces in Canada, playing in competition among 170 clubs, as well as pro- vincial and international matches. Many clubs have teams for players of all levels, and some are more interested in propping up the bar than the scrum — but for that very reason rugby has become a very sociable game. After matches, everyone goes for a shower (in many clubs in Britain they prefer to wallow in a giant bathtub but losing the soap is not encouraged) and then gather in the clubhouse for a few beers and perhaps a song. These male-bonding intimacies have become the rites of rugby and they are performed worldwide so that rugby players from Van- couver, for example, have been able to move to Hong Kong and fit into a hectic sporting/social scere in the time it takes to put on their kit. The expatriate community in Hong Kong leads an enviable life of good salaries, servants, free housing, liberal leave, and memberships in sporting clubs Airport securi I STARTED updating my files and I'd like to promise you that it’s no chore to be attempted lightly — or on a hot day. I didn’t get any further than “A? — under ‘‘Airline safety’? 1 found a gem of an article torn from Life magazine on the status of the safety of American air- ports. Scary reading: The headline tTeads, ‘‘No airport in the U.S. is safe,*’ and it quotes the world’s top expert in airline security, Isaac Yeffet. Mr. Yeffet was director of se- curity for El Al for six years and I'd have to think that would prove quite a training ground. The major problem stems from poor baggage handling. There is no assurance that the baggage loaded onto a plane is the proper- ty of an actual passenger aboard. Not too many people want to fly alongside their own bombs — it’s quite enough if they can read about the bang in tomorrow’s . paper. Airports with curbside check-ins are the worst from a safety view- point. Anyone can drop off a bag, tag it with the appropriate flight ticket and make cff into the crowd. Yeffet, accompanied by a Life reporter, Edward Barnes, took a NORTH SHORE tour of a number of the largest U.S. airports and this is what he found: La Guardia, New York: Lug- gage goes directly into the belly of the plane without any security check. He was able to check his bag onto a United Airlines flight to Chicago while he flew to that city on American. His bag was waiting for him. O’Hare, Chicago: Unattended baggage is heaped everywhere. The ‘‘tourists’’ deposited a gar- ment bag right by a departure gate. It sat there for three hours without anyone even stealing it. Security people walked by, Sweepers swept around it, travel- lers tripped over it and no one gave it any notice. Stapleton, Denver: A_ security guard running an X-ray monitor told them if he missed a bomb and a plane blew up, he’d have to go in for retraining (eight hours). If he missed a second one he’d be fired. One incentive was a $25 bonus for every gun he caught. Miami International: Baggage being transferred from one flight to another is X-rayed. The ones being loaded for the first time VENTURE day KAUAI BICYCLE ADVENTURE plus 6 days in WAIKIIE Nov. 21 to Dec. 02/90 CDN $1660 PP/DBL Our Kauai Bicycle Adventure is an exhilarating melange of majestic canyons, mountain mists and -wonderfully warm beaches. This is a comfortable tour for the beginning bicyclist while longer mileage is available for the more experienced. David Wishart TRAVEL TIPS where rugby is the favorite game. A well-connected tourist can expect invitations to lunch at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, golf at Fanling or Shek-O, drinks at the cricket club and dinner at the Hong Kong Club. Expatriate rugby fanatics hat- y shou aren’t checked. The article points out that Miami is serving Latin America, where 20 per cent of the world’s terrorist attacks happen. San Francisco International: Very security conscious, but still not secure. There is little coor- dination as the security is handled by private firms. One area of se- curity, the quizzing of passengers about gifts and perhaps packages being carried along for someone else, is nct done. But in all my travels I’ve never been asked that question. Los Angeles International: Unattended bags, and passengers cleared through security and then allowed back out. Late passengers not checked at all. JFK, New York: You could take a bazooka to the Port Authority’s parking lot on the roof of the Pan Am terminal and be a short distance, unobstructed, from a group of jumbo jets. A terrorist could blast away at a juicy multiple target. kaw Perhaps you can see why my file update got boggeddown with the ‘*A”’ section! The tack of security that I’ve experienced is appalling. In Los NORTH SHORE ched the idea of an international tournament with seven-a-side teams during a lunch at the Hong Kong Club in 1975. The tournament quickly caught fire, growing to today's 24, in- cluding Canada. At last year’s event, officially known as the Cathay Pacific/ Hongkong Bank Invitational Rugby Sevens, nearly 30,000 spec- tators jammed the Government Stadium at So Kon Po. Throngs of business people scheduled trips around the event, and sales meetings were conve- niently arranged to coincide. “See you at the Sevens!’’ is Hong Kong’s answer to ‘‘Let’s meet at the Grey Cup!”” Tourists who enjoy rugby go out of their way to catch what has become the world’s biggest and best invitational sevens tourna- ment. New Zealanders, fanatical about rugby, come in droves regardless of whether employers or wives approve of the outing, recalling the lines of the Welsh entertainer Max Boyce: We all had doctor's papers Not one of us in pain And Harry Morgan buried His grannie once again. Spectators show up in kilts, gai- ly striped rowing blazers, Cam- bridge rugby caps and Oxford bags. Extravagant dogs, such as Great Danes and [Irish Wolfhounds, are paraded around with club ties, bandanas and straw hats. Old rivalries prompt humor, and as 1989's event came soon after the tearful confession of in- fidelities by Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke, two Brits paraded in T-shirts which said “British prime ministers don’t cry." It all wraps up with a banquet at the Hong Kong Hilton, when the players, up to now on a disciplined short leash, can let their hair down. There is a band and never enough girls, but a bar that never runs dry. Deep in Wanchai, meanwhile, the fans spill out of restaurants and seek more beer. d be improved Barbara McCreadie TRAVELWISE ER Angeles, I was cleared through se- curity by two guards who were busy discussing an upcoming party and never even glanced at the X- ray screen. At that very moment, a gunman who must have cleared the same checkout just a short while earlier shot the pilot and co-pilot of another plane, same airline. No survivors. VENTURE TRAVEL Bermuda Star Lines WESTERN CARIBBEAN and MEXICO 7 DAY XMAS CRUISE aboard Quéen of Bermuda Dec. 21 to 29/90 CDN $1470 pP/DBL OUTSIDE CABIN « New Orleans * Playa Del Carmen and Cozumel Grand Cayman e Montego Bay Jamaica 140 East 14th St. (at Lonsdale) North Vancouver, B.C. I lost my bags twice in Sea-Tac. Both times I wandered unchecked through the baggage claim area, found my missing bags and left with them. I could easily have left behind a bag with a bomb. Vancouver is no better. Many times I’ve checked my _ bags. through security and have been allowed out of the sterile area for various reasons. Waving my ticket 1 explained that I’d forgotten to visit the duty free. Another time | apologized that I'd left my coat in the cafeteria. To my knowledge, no check was ever made that I'd returned. The Life article points out that European airports are far safer. For example, Athens. “At Hellinikon airport, passen- gers must pass two metal detec- tors, one at check-in, another at boarding. Labrador dogs are trained to detect explosives, and an anti-terrorist squad stands ready. When a high-risk plane (El Al or any U.S. carrier) is being fuelled or loaded, it is protected by an armored car, two police cruisers and one secret police car. The airport fence is monitored by eight shifts of sharpshooters.’” It’s odd to think that you're probably safer in Athens than in Alberta. See Security Page 28 NORTH SHORE VENTURE TRAVEL| “We are pjeased to welcome Janice Bridgman to our staff. Janice Bridgman is a Certified Travel Consultant. She brings to our office many years of retail travel expertise She will be happy to assist you with your enquiries an cruises and tours’ 110 East i4th St. B (at Lonsdale) North Vancouver, B.C. 906-1977 |