TRAVEL IMPRESSIONS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 400, 8 December 1932, Page 7

TRAVEL IMPRESSIONS

YISIONS OF THE EAST. I had a letter last week from a young authoress who has just recently arrived in England. Ixx it s'ho descrihes some of her travelling ixnpressions going "Home" through Suez. They appeared so vex'y interesting to nxe that I thought xnaybe they miglxt also appeal to some of -our readers who read the page of MARY ANNE. Here they are: — These are just some of the places we passed through. — Colombo. — On going as'hore at Colombo, one is greatly attracted hy its trop'ical luxuriance. Viewed fronx the sea, it is a town of bright colours :scattered anxidst great xnasses of green foliage, and tliis impr-ession is not lost when one walks about its streets. Everywhere jtliere ax'e grieen trees with blazing verdant hlossoxns. Under ! the blue sky the effect is startling in its feeling of exaggerated life axxd vitality.

The centre of the towxx opens almost from the landing-stage, and no sooner has oxxe set foot in Colombo , thane one is in the midst of the jewS ellers' shops, placed thex'e for the ' enticenxent of travellers. Ingratiatixxg ' gentlenxen, very far removed from the siixxple Singhalese and Tamils ' that throng the paths, srnile their i weleome. The flamhuoyant treasures ! of the East are about you — gorgeous ! silks, worked tortoiseslxell, unnxounted ! spaphires, aquaixiarines axxd Moonj istones. But let not your enthusiasm i outweight your judgmexxt. j The real Colombo, the Colombo of j tho unchaixging East, does not lie ! there, any xxxore tlxan it lies in great hotels like the Grand Oriental or the Gall-e Face. No, it is to be found in narrow, teenxing streets, where the shops open from the sidewalk like black hol'esi, where strange odours | fill the air, and where white-clad people hurry to and fro intexxt upon the secretive business of their lives. The frantic excitement of a disputa gives way to a sudden apathy, children stare with fingers ixx their xnouths, dogs yelp, and the hargaining of the

crowd goes on incessaxxtly in a sxbilant mutter of strange tongues. The suburbs of Coloxxibo stretch far out axxxid xnagnificent avexxues of giant trees. The bungalows in pink or whitewashed stxxcco, and after with a bizarre Oriental decoratioix upon their front, lie back from the road, and the winding traeks are rich in the promise of the unknown. Cocoanut groves axie everywhere, and flaming bougaxxinvillea and poixxsettia give vivid touches of colour to the green depths all powdered with the dust of the road. ....Aden. — From Colombo one journeys across the Ax'abian Sea to Adexx, whieh is lcnown as the last place on earth. There is no vegetation anywhere, just rocks axxd sand for xniles arouxxd. Rain falls once in seven years a this reminds one of Kipling's verse: "Ship we soxnewhero east of Aden, Where a man can x*aise a thirst." On ax'riving at Aden scox-es of Arabs came out iix sailing hoats to sell their wares. They cause a great deal of laughter with their exclamations, such as "Mr. MacGregor, wlxat's your priee?" Mr. MacGregor: "Ten boh." Arah: "Rats! Where you eomo from, Aberdeexx, Glasgow, Dublin, Jex'usalexxx, Damascus, Jericlio?" S "Corne along, Mr. MacGregor, ! w'hat's your price; how nxuclx you ' give " "Gille, gille, gille." It seems that travellers are considered Scotch ixx the East. j Malta. — Malta can boast of a place ' in history at the very dawn of civi- ' lisation. Her unique position on the j highway froxn East to West, in the ' very centre of the Mediterx-axxean, and her fxn.e harbour, have given Malta a special character.

On entering the harbour oi Valetta (the capital of Malta) one is spellbound with the antiquity of its walls, battlements and fortifieations. Away to th'e right of the harbour is St. Paul's Bay, showing the two small islands upon which he was ship-wreek-ed. (See Acts Apostles, 27 and 28.) On going aslxore one is delighted with its ancient buildings and narrow, steep streets, which have steps all the way up. Of the saered island of the ancients we have ^ evidence in xnagnificent tenxples and in the absolutely unique Hypageum dug in the rock. The Knights of St. John have left wonderful buildings, including the Church of St. John, lavis'hly decorated with pxctures, tapestries and mosaics, the Palace of the Grand Masters, Containing a fine armoury, tapestries and pictures, many fine auberges or hotels of the Order, and a woxxderful system of fortified lines. A feature of the countryside is the nuemrous wandering herds of goats, whose presence is due to the fact that the Maltese

I require the goats to be nxilked at their doors to ensure that their milk i is quite fres'h. _ ' Taking an early morning stroll in Malta (Valetta) impresses one very 1 much to hear the church bells x'ing- | ing, sunxmoning the Maltese to early ; morning service, which the women at- 1 tend always dxessed in black. Gibraltar. — The Rock of Gibraltar, which' looks as though naturally constructed to guax'd the entrance to the Mediterranean, has heen a possession of England since 1704, when it was captured in the nama of Queen Anne bv Sir George Rooke. It is by far

the smallest of our Crown colonies, ■being less than three xniles long and varying in breadth from a quarter to three-quarters of a nxile. Seen from the sea, especially on a moonlit night, there is something indescribahly majestic about that sombre tower of rock, and there is over and above that no sight rnore xnoving to the inward eye in the powex* of its histoi'ic association. Its history goes back very far — thex»e were ten sieges between 711 and 106 — and there is still standixxg on the rock the squ'are keep of a castle completed in 742. These fa(ts added to the events of 1704 and the siege of 1779-83, when our forces resisted all efforts to dislodge thern, have rnade of Gibraltar one of the xnosi? famous spots in the world. For many years its name, indeed, has been synonymous with the sea-power of Britain.

Extraordinary natural tunnels penetrate the rock; the one called St. Michael's Cave, which opens 1100 feet above the sea, penetrates into the limestone' for 400 feet and contains stalactites of indescribably strange beauty. It has never yet been explored to its extreme lixnits. The tower lies at the north-west corner of the rock. It is a comparatively modern towex', the older buildings having been destroyed in the siege of 1779-83. Although the language spoken- is a rather poor Spanish, xnost of the permanent inhabitants are of Italian origin, with a sprinkling of Maltese and Jews. Many people who work in Gibraltar cross the "lines" every evening into Spanish territory. Civilians are not encouraged to settle in the colony, fox-, first and foremost the rock is a naval and xnili£ary base.