Latest / The Discussion Podcast / Talkin' Travel - From Croydon to Patagonia: Inside Distinctive Americas with Daniel

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Talkin' Travel - From Croydon to Patagonia: Inside Distinctive Americas with Daniel · The Discussion Podcast

• 0:00
  My guest is Daniel from Distinctive Americas. Good afternoon, Daniel.
• 0:03
  Good afternoon, Ken. Great to be in Autrykin, my first visit,
• 0:06
  and I'm enjoying it so far. And you came all the way up from Sirencester.
• 0:09
  Yes, in my new car, so it was a good chance to check out all the features.
• 0:12
  I didn't actually go well. My guest, as I say, is Daniel from Distinctive Americas.
• 0:17
  And Daniel and I met, I think, 15 to 20 years ago, don't you?
• 0:21
  I think it was, yeah. I can't remember exactly, but certainly a while ago now.
• 0:24
  It was, yeah. I thought it was about five to ten, but yeah, just going back all the time.
• 0:28
  And distinctive americas is your baby well not quite i'm the midwell i'm probably
• 0:33
  the the first person on the scene my colleague steve started it 20 years ago
• 0:37
  fat this march so we're 20 years this year and i knew him from university so,
• 0:43
  i kind of stumbled into travel by mistake and was the first person that worked
• 0:46
  with him once it was kind of up and running so yeah 20 years old and we are
• 0:51
  going strong well you're enjoying it then if you still stay there,
• 0:54
  i look like i'm enjoying it But yeah, I mean, as you know, Ken,
• 0:57
  travel has ups and downs.
• 0:59
  Certainly, there was a big down a few years ago. But I think,
• 1:02
  yeah, travel always bounces back, doesn't it? And people always want to go on
• 1:04
  a holiday. Yeah, I like to say it's a village. And once you're in it,
• 1:07
  you can't get out because everybody knows everybody, don't they?
• 1:09
  Yeah, I definitely don't want to leave the village. Lock me in, I think.
• 1:14
  Now then, you're not local. You're from where? Croydon, is it?
• 1:17
  Well, yeah. I mean, if someone asks me now, I'll say, sorry,
• 1:19
  sister. I've upgraded from Croydon. But yeah, my birth certificate would say
• 1:23
  Croydon. but I've not been back there for about 30 years.
• 1:26
  I'm not sure what it's like now, but this, as I say, is my first time in Altrincham.
• 1:30
  It looks better in comparison.
• 1:32
  I'm not saying a thing because I don't know Croydon that well.
• 1:35
  I've been there, but I don't know it that well. But welcome anyway.
• 1:38
  So you're in your local radio station here, Gloucester and Wiltshire.
• 1:44
  Yeah, yeah, Gloucester and Wiltshire, yeah. Is that a lot of ooh-ahs in there?
• 1:48
  I mean, there's a little bit of a rural twang. That's what I'm trying to say.
• 1:53
  Yeah, more in Wiltshire probably, but yeah, Gloucestershire's a bit posher probably.
• 1:56
  Yeah, well, my nephew's just moved to Minehead.
• 2:00
  Or Somerset. Somerset with a Z and Brizzle.
• 2:04
  Yeah, yeah. But that's a bit more intense, yeah. It's a bit more London countryside.
• 2:10
  London Overspill. Yeah, yeah. Well, now the posh London Overspill.
• 2:13
  Well, there you go. The people with money.
• 2:16
  That's okay. But your first jobs weren't anything to do with travel,
• 2:19
  were they? No. I mean, I don't think many people's are when you leave in school.
• 2:23
  I worked in a lot of warehouses, which I enjoyed.
• 2:25
  A lot of unloading bananas, unloading fruit, watching out for spiders,
• 2:30
  that kind of thing. Oh, yes. Worked in a pram factory, which I really enjoyed. We had to...
• 2:35
  Destroy the prams to make sure they couldn't be stolen by uh local gypsies used
• 2:40
  to come in and take the prams out of the skips
• 2:42
  so we had to literally break them in break them in every single place so that
• 2:46
  they couldn't say they bought them and ask for a refund yeah so that was fun smashing up prams.
• 2:52
  That was i'm not sure how that led to travel but um yeah it was it was a good
• 2:56
  experience yeah and you became a dj,
• 2:59
  well close i was so close uh me and my uh friend jamie we,
• 3:05
  used to listen to this pirate radio station around the Croydon area probably
• 3:07
  in the 80s and uh we submitted a tape which we recorded painstakingly uh and we got the job uh
• 3:15
  but two weeks before we're about to start they got closed down raided by the
• 3:18
  police so oh my pirate dj career never actually got off the ground
• 3:23
  welcome to radio ulti this is not pirate is it ken certainly This is not illegal, is it?
• 3:28
  No, no, no. Nothing like, I tell you. It feels very legal. We're a bubble.
• 3:33
  Good stuff. Now then, you met up with a guy called Jamie. That's the DJ slot.
• 3:38
  But then you moved on with Steve. Yeah. And who's Steve? So Steve,
• 3:42
  I say, he's the guy that started Instinctive many years ago. And I met Steve...
• 3:48
  When I went to uni, basically, which was Sheffield, so not a million miles from
• 3:51
  here, back in the early 90s. And yeah, I remember meeting Steve.
• 3:55
  He was hard to ignore because he was very loud. He is to this day,
• 4:00
  you may remember. Give him my regards.
• 4:02
  He has stayed at your house, so you can probably remember how loud he is.
• 4:06
  In fact, someone did say to me the other day, it was Bernadette from Ionian,
• 4:09
  if you know her. She said, how's Steve? Has he still got that loud laugh?
• 4:13
  And I said, yeah, he hasn't changed.
• 4:15
  So anyway, Steve and I, yeah, we're best friends at uni.
• 4:18
  And yeah, I guess we kept in touch over the years. So when he needed someone
• 4:22
  to help him out, then yeah, he just asked me and I was available.
• 4:25
  And your experience was?
• 4:27
  Well, as I said, my experience in Latin America was a day trip to Ciudad Juarez
• 4:31
  when I was backpacking. Juarez, El Paso. Yeah, exactly, from El Paso. Como esta?
• 4:38
  And I do remember actually, because I hit my head on, because I'm quite tall,
• 4:41
  which you can't tell on radio, but I am.
• 4:43
  I hit my head on a bit of metal in Ciudad Juarez, I was walking around with
• 4:46
  blood running down my head looking for tissue. So that's my main memory of Mexico.
• 4:51
  That was my kind of basis for my travel career in Latin America.
• 4:55
  So I can only just, I can see what you're doing here.
• 4:59
  You go across the board, El Paso is, well, they should be on the horse.
• 5:03
  This is the tourist board. Should be on the horse, race around the fields.
• 5:07
  And I couldn't mind. I just held on for the good day.
• 5:09
  And my, same as you, mine was a day trip with the Americans into Juarez.
• 5:14
  And let me get out of here quick. Yeah, it's not maybe the best introduction to Latin America. No.
• 5:20
  Yeah, I've built on that knowledge since then. Okay. Now, this is bang up to date.
• 5:24
  You've just arrived back from... Chile, yeah. I know you're bragging about your Shanghai trip.
• 5:29
  Yeah. Yeah, I've been to Chile. I took a group of agents because we work with
• 5:33
  travel agents very closely.
• 5:34
  We love travel agents like yourself. Yeah. So yeah, we went down to Chile in
• 5:38
  Patagonia, Torres del Paine National Park, and we spent a week down there doing
• 5:42
  some horse riding, doing some kayaking, doing some trekking,
• 5:46
  drinking some nice wine, eating some good food,
• 5:49
  didn't see any puma but we saw lots of sheep that's what you said to me you
• 5:54
  said we're looking for puma so you were trekking yeah we can't well actually
• 5:58
  we stayed at a really interesting instance here called the stanza serigido
• 6:02
  and they have a kind of groundbreaking project where they're.
• 6:05
  Trying to protect their sheep using sheep dogs and using these different methods
• 6:11
  rather than what used to happen people shoot the pumas yeah because obviously
• 6:14
  the puma is quite fond of sheep because they're quite tasty.
• 6:17
  So what they've got, they've got these shepherd dogs which protect the sheep.
• 6:21
  And also, one of the great things we did when we were there,
• 6:24
  we had to round up two and a half thousand sheep just by walking and running
• 6:29
  them into a corner of a field. And then they...
• 6:33
  When they're kind of penned up in that corner with the sheepdogs,
• 6:35
  they're much safer from the puma.
• 6:37
  So it was really fascinating, actually. And apparently we did a good job because
• 6:40
  the gauchos normally round them up with the vehicles. Oh, right.
• 6:43
  But they said, you know, because we did such a good job, they didn't need to bother.
• 6:47
  Brilliant. So yeah, we had it done in about half an hour. I was pretty impressed.
• 6:50
  And had the rest of the day off. Well, that was the end of the night because
• 6:53
  they go to sleep in the evening. But honestly, it was really fun.
• 6:56
  I think everyone was kind of hoping we'd see a puma.
• 6:59
  So everyone was a bit like, oh, we haven't seen a puma. Yeah.
• 7:01
  And they said oh guys we need you to help doing this and everyone's thinking
• 7:04
  well you don't really need the help but when actually we saw we were actually surprisingly helpful
• 7:09
  a thing everyone forgot about the puma so actually sheep are just as interesting
• 7:13
  yeah but can i say when you do a hands-on thing on holiday yeah you feel as
• 7:16
  though you've actually achieved something if it's helping the locals or whatever,
• 7:20
  and did you get you got something out of it didn't you yeah i think that's what
• 7:22
  i so whenever i take fam trips i always try and get people and so whether it's
• 7:26
  horse riding whether it's hiking, whether it's kayaking, if you're doing something,
• 7:30
  then, as you said, you experience, you know.
• 7:33
  The whole experience is more memorable rather than just looking at something
• 7:36
  and ticking it off on a list.
• 7:37
  Yeah, I think you're quite right there. So we're back in Chile and you've just come back, obviously.
• 7:42
  And you're just telling me off air, which I love talking off air,
• 7:45
  you get all the stories, you flew straight to Patagonia, is that right?
• 7:48
  Well, we flew to Santiago from Heathrow. There's a direct flight five times
• 7:52
  a week, if anyone's interested.
• 7:54
  And then we went to see a vineyard just for a few hours whilst we waited for
• 7:58
  our flight down to Patagonia, because it's still a good four hours to Patagonia
• 8:03
  from Santiago. So it's already a 14-hour flight to Santiago.
• 8:07
  A few drinks of wine, a bit of lunch, and then a four-hour flight down to Patagonia.
• 8:12
  Okay, that's a long way in anybody's language. Good to kind of get it over and
• 8:16
  done with, I think, all in one go.
• 8:19
  That's one thing. It is a long way away. South America is a big continent. Oh, huge.
• 8:24
  And if you want to go right to the very bottom, then, yeah, it takes a while.
• 8:27
  It does. Now then, this is a week-long trip, is it?
• 8:30
  Yeah. Well, it was about 10 nights, and the idea was to spend a week in Patagonia itself.
• 8:36
  Because it's such a vast area that actually you need a long time to see all
• 8:41
  the different parts of it. Sure.
• 8:42
  And is it still a Welsh village down there? Oh, is it funny how popular these Welsh villages are?
• 8:49
  Funny enough, I did recommend to my group that they read Bruce Chapman's In
• 8:53
  Patagonia, which I think was the first book that really popularised the Welsh
• 8:57
  villages down in Patagonia.
• 8:59
  So they're more in the Argentinian part of Patagonia.
• 9:03
  But yeah, they're very famous in terms of they still serve the Welsh teas,
• 9:07
  the Welsh cakes and all the kind of nice fancies. Yeah. And they preserve the language, apparently.
• 9:12
  Yeah, yeah. I think, I mean, I'm not sure now, because you'll find probably
• 9:15
  that most of the, probably third, fourth generation now are total Spanish speakers,
• 9:20
  but they might have Welsh names. Yeah.
• 9:22
  Yeah, I think the language is probably preserved by some, but maybe not.
• 9:27
  All I can say is Borodar, which is good morning. That's all I know.
• 9:30
  That's my Welsh humongue. And Wales is only, what, 25 miles down the road here?
• 9:34
  Yeah, what you were saying, you almost saw the Beatles in Rhyl.
• 9:36
  So you've got some good Welsh knowledge. Yes. Beatles in Rhyl, yes.
• 9:41
  1893, I think that was. Yeah, yeah. However, we were back in South America,
• 9:46
  and that was your latest trip. How many times have you been to South America now?
• 9:49
  I can't count, Ken, but a lot. I normally try and go, say, at least three times
• 9:54
  a year, various kind of work trips and conferences, that sort of thing.
• 9:59
  So, yeah, if we did that over the past 20 years, maybe 50, 60 times. Wow.
• 10:03
  So, yeah, we try and do it, you know, all of our team try and get out as often
• 10:07
  as we can. So, where's home again?
• 10:09
  Well, yes, our ancestor. Yeah, I do get a bit of stick at home.
• 10:13
  I think I've been away about sort of two months this year in total.
• 10:16
  It's a wonder you're not speaking more Spanish than English now.
• 10:19
  Funny enough, in our house, we are all speaking Spanish on Duolingo. I've got a refreshing.
• 10:24
  My daughter's very good. And my partner's got in on the act.
• 10:26
  So, yeah, we definitely have to go to South America next summer holiday.
• 10:30
  You better have it or else you're in trouble. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
• 10:33
  Daff Question 99, what's your favourite part of South America?
• 10:36
  Oh, it's a tricky one. I do love Peru.
• 10:40
  I mean, you said off there you've been to Peru, haven't you?
• 10:42
  Yes, I've done most of the northern ones, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil.
• 10:47
  So, I mean, if it chimes to your experience, but I think Peru sort of ticks
• 10:52
  everything you'd expect in a South American country, the colour,
• 10:55
  the food, the altitude, the Andes, the wildlife, everything in one kind of hit.
• 11:01
  And actually as South American countries go it's quite small so,
• 11:05
  you can see a lot of the highlights and obviously it's got Machu Picchu which everyone knows so,
• 11:11
  yeah if you only had one country to go to I think you couldn't really go wrong
• 11:15
  if you chose Peru it's a fabulous place I went we did Machu Picchu we also went up to Lake Titicaca,
• 11:22
  you get a headache as soon as you step off the plane and the only thing that got me,
• 11:27
  free drinks in all the hotels however the sign says.
• 11:33
  Classy, yeah.
• 11:34
  With glasses. And the sightings all say,
• 11:36
  watch out don't drink the alcohol here because you'll have a worse headache
• 11:40
  than you got now is that something like that well i think actually what because
• 11:44
  obviously clients ask us a lot they're worried about the altitude because it
• 11:46
  is about 4 000 meters pretty high.
• 11:49
  13 000 feet yeah but all of the hotels will have um coca tea that's basically
• 11:54
  the coca leaf which um if you're a bit more hardcore you can chew it in your
• 11:58
  cheek like a little chipmunk but that does taste quite strong
• 12:02
  stroke horrible but if you put a few leaves in some hot water then the tea is
• 12:06
  actually quite tasty yeah and it i think yeah it works well for the altitude
• 12:10
  so i always recommend and it's free so yes what's not to like about that
• 12:14
  so yeah if you drink the coca tea that normally um helps people deal with the
• 12:18
  altitude yeah i like giving out these tips because you don't know till you get
• 12:21
  there half the time yeah you should read up on it yeah yeah well i think something
• 12:24
  honestly something as simple as that because people do worry about altitude
• 12:27
  in peru and obviously when we're
• 12:29
  arranging the trips we will try and make sure that,
• 12:32
  clients are climatised so they'll start at 2,500 metres move up to 2,800 then
• 12:38
  to about 3,200 so they're not jumping straight to 4,000 metres.
• 12:43
  No, we did and I got the headache as I say, that's the three days we were there
• 12:47
  but thoroughly enjoyed it don't get me wrong and the other one they gave you
• 12:50
  oxygen in a tank to take to the bedroom with you. Yeah, yeah.
• 12:53
  Thank you very much Free again.
• 12:55
  Free and again another little tip to keep you going. Yeah, yeah.
• 12:58
  Yeah, I mean, again, all hotel receptions will have oxygen canisters because
• 13:03
  I think it reassures clients as well to know if they need it,
• 13:06
  you can get it. It's there straight away.
• 13:08
  Did you go to Titicaca or did you? Yeah, well, I've been several times.
• 13:12
  I've been three or four times to Titicaca.
• 13:16
  I mean, actually, there's an amazing property there called Titilaca,
• 13:19
  which is on the Peruvian side, credible place right on the mainland, overlooking the lake.
• 13:25
  That is what, if you've got a decent budget, that is definitely where I'd go.
• 13:30
  But also, because Titilaca is shared by Bolivia and Peru, there's a really nice,
• 13:36
  there's a couple of nice islands on the Bolivian side, where you can actually stay on the lake itself.
• 13:41
  And for me, that is brilliant to be on the lake when all the boats have gone
• 13:44
  back for the day and you can look over the lake as the sun sets,
• 13:49
  that is an amazing experience.
• 13:50
  We stayed quite late and we were on the floating raft. Oh yeah,
• 13:54
  the Horus Islands. That's right. And we stayed on those and we took them presents,
• 13:59
  little cars and what have you.
• 14:01
  They didn't want them. What they wanted was what they saw on the Bolivian side were kites.
• 14:05
  So a bit of rivalry. So the kids on the other side got kites.
• 14:08
  I actually got one in my car boot a bit late now. No, I'll take you back next time I go.
• 14:12
  It's funny, actually, when we were on the Uros Islands one time,
• 14:15
  as you know, they're made of reeds, basically. So it's very simple.
• 14:19
  They're just floating out in the middle of the car car. So everything looks very basic.
• 14:23
  And we heard a bit of commotion. And we went into this hut right at the back of the island.
• 14:28
  And all the men were watching the World Cup on a TV set up in this hut.
• 14:32
  So it was a bit of a peek behind the curtain, literally. All solar powered,
• 14:36
  aren't they? Yeah, I think so, yeah. Yeah, that's what we saw.
• 14:38
  And the guinea pigs' little cages, their pets as well.
• 14:42
  But I'm not going to go into the eating part. Yeah, yeah, there's a lot more to eat and prove.
• 14:45
  You can do if you want to, but thoroughly enjoyed it.
• 14:49
  We've just off air talked about my exploits of,
• 14:53
  going on a river cruise on the Amazon where we flew into the deepest part of
• 14:58
  the jungle, got on a boat, the aqua boats, and apparently I was on the first
• 15:02
  one. There are now 10 aqua boats. Is that right?
• 15:05
  Something like that. Don't quote me on that, Ken, but something around about
• 15:07
  that. Absolutely brilliant. With pink dolphins in the morning going past your
• 15:10
  window, and where else did we see?
• 15:12
  Oh, the guy, we went fishing for piranha.
• 15:15
  And as I say, the girls caught them.
• 15:18
  They didn't let them go. What happened was they started swinging them around the head.
• 15:21
  So everybody was screaming. However, that's another story. And then,
• 15:24
  of course, just a lovely floating down the river.
• 15:28
  But meanwhile, back in Panama, is it? Yes. You just come back from there as
• 15:32
  well. Just said to Ken off air, often people say South America...
• 15:35
  And think it means all of us in America. But yeah, Central America is very different.
• 15:40
  And the main difference is, or a couple of differences, it's much smaller than South America.
• 15:45
  So typically, you know, a country like Chile, as we were talking about,
• 15:49
  that's going to take hours and hours to get from top to bottom.
• 15:52
  But with Central America, because it's so much smaller, you can easily get around
• 15:55
  with a minivan or you can buses, whatever.
• 15:58
  So it makes it much easier. And also the beaches are much more kind of usable.
• 16:04
  So if you're looking for a family holiday, it's a classic sort of family destination,
• 16:09
  whereas somewhere like Peru is more of an expedition.
• 16:11
  But yeah, I was in Panama back in May, was my first time.
• 16:15
  Must admit, I wasn't that excited to go. I thought it was all going to be just
• 16:18
  the canal and the kind of similar feelings Costa Rica, but it was so different. Absolutely loved it.
• 16:25
  Would love to go back maybe next year.
• 16:28
  Highly recommend it. It's an amazing destination. And yeah, it offers something
• 16:32
  very different to Costa Rica. I don't
• 16:33
  know if any of your listeners from Altingham have been to Costa Rica.
• 16:36
  I've been. Oh, yes. You should have guessed.
• 16:40
  When did you go? Oh, I keep saying 1893. It was, no, actually,
• 16:44
  it was probably less than 10 years ago.
• 16:46
  Oh, recent. Yeah, recent for me, yes. Yeah, so I don't know if you remember,
• 16:50
  but the one thing Costa Rica doesn't really have is any kind of cities where
• 16:54
  you would want to linger and have any kind of cultural time.
• 16:59
  But Panama City, there's the old part of Panama City, the Casco Viejo,
• 17:04
  is absolutely fascinating. Loads of colourful restaurants, bars,
• 17:08
  rooftop bars, you can have your cocktail.
• 17:10
  So that is a fantastic place to start your trip in a way that Costa Rica can't
• 17:14
  offer. So it definitely gives you a completely different experience.
• 17:18
  Well, Costa Rica, to me, was the animals, as in the sloths. And anything that moves is in Costa Rica.
• 17:24
  The wildlife is phenomenal.
• 17:26
  Well, the wildlife is phenomenal in Panama as well. And that's why I thought
• 17:29
  in a way it might feel very similar.
• 17:31
  But, funnily enough, when I was in Panama, once I've been to Panama,
• 17:36
  I've been to Costa Rica numerous times.
• 17:38
  It's the first time I saw the resplendent quetzal. I'm not sure if you saw those,
• 17:41
  the green birds with the huge, long sort of tails.
• 17:45
  Not that I remember that. They
• 17:46
  are very kind of the iconic species in the Monteverde cloud forest area.
• 17:50
  Oh, right. So I'd never seen them in Costa Rica, but I saw them in Panama the first time.
• 17:54
  We got toucans. Oh, okay, yeah. Yeah, and the parrots were there,
• 17:58
  obviously. Yeah, of course. But again, it's just phenomenal because you've got
• 18:01
  beaches in Costa Rica, mountains, and the jungle.
• 18:07
  I mean, it is our most popular destination by a long way for those reasons, really.
• 18:11
  Animals, particularly sloths, people love sloths. Yeah. Beaches,
• 18:15
  and then you've got Soft Adventure as well, which is a whole other side.
• 18:19
  It's all in one country. And Costa Rica's in, I think, is the one.
• 18:22
  And it's the first time I've done zip lines. Oh, yeah. And signed up for it.
• 18:26
  I thought it was one zip line. 10 ziplines later yeah yeah you probably did
• 18:30
  the one at Aronal didn't you,
• 18:31
  I can't remember where it was I just remember clinging off a deal life for the
• 18:34
  first one because the second one was the longest one it was like I don't know
• 18:38
  it felt like two miles it probably wasn't
• 18:41
  but absolutely I say Costa Rica I'm not comparing it with Panama because I've
• 18:45
  not been but I just love Costa Rica yeah well that's why and actually good news for Costa Rica this
• 18:51
  I didn't announce a couple of months ago BA now fly direct from Heathrow not
• 18:55
  ideal for you guys I guess but we can shuttle down yeah or you can I think you
• 18:58
  probably can connect from Manchester because it's going from Terminal 5 so the connection is good
• 19:04
  and that is now five times a week during peak season which is our winter and
• 19:08
  they've reintroduced the summer
• 19:10
  of the UK summer service three times a week so it's never been easier to get
• 19:14
  down there even from Aldringham we're just done we're done Central America you do Mexico?
• 19:19
  Yeah we do Mexico as well very popular yeah I mean we love Mexico because there's
• 19:23
  so much to offer and I think one of the,
• 19:26
  One of the things it shares with Peru and a lot of Latin American countries
• 19:28
  is the food is obviously incredible.
• 19:31
  And I think now people in the UK, we're obviously eating a lot more Latin American food.
• 19:36
  Every week people are eating it. So it's more familiar, but certainly my first
• 19:40
  trip to Mexico, the food is the main thing that I remember just everywhere I went.
• 19:44
  It was incredible. And when you were talking about guinea pig earlier,
• 19:47
  it's funny when I first went to Peru, like 20 years ago,
• 19:51
  I remember sitting in a restaurant, seeing six plates of guinea pig coming out,
• 19:56
  the tourists sort of laughing, taking a bite, and then leaving it.
• 19:59
  And then it just all got took away.
• 20:01
  But the good news is now, I don't think people eat guinea pig,
• 20:04
  really, because there's so many amazing things to eat in Peru that actually,
• 20:07
  you know, you'd be wasting your time, really.
• 20:09
  So, yeah, the food is definitely a big draw, I think, for Latin America.
• 20:13
  Yeah, exactly right. And in Mexico, I've got tacos, nachos, et cetera. It goes on and on.
• 20:18
  And the first time was to Acapulco. oh uh 1893 well we watched them i didn't try.
• 20:26
  But cliff diving uh well oh the first time i did the paragliding oh okay it's
• 20:30
  pretty adventurous yeah but hold on the number of times i've seen it now on
• 20:33
  instagram where they fall in the sea and that i think do you strap someone or
• 20:37
  are you on your own no by myself
• 20:39
  off the beach and away you go type of thing and i survived,
• 20:43
  wow that is pretty impressive yeah but you do these things when you're younger
• 20:46
  and i'm only 36 don't forget so.
• 20:48
  Yeah well I'm impressed I did it in Colombia but I was strapped to I think it
• 20:53
  was the Colombian champion and yeah it was amazing but there was no real fear because you know,
• 20:59
  he was flying but yeah doing it yourself well good for you
• 21:03
  apart from just taking off and landing that's all you do isn't it the landing's
• 21:06
  the hard bit isn't it yeah exactly you get the landing and you're alright
• 21:10
  so Mexico to me is brilliant of course you've got the Cancun side as well which
• 21:14
  is full of these huge high rise hotels do you think that spoilt it or does that sell it?
• 21:20
  I think to be fair because most of the trips we do we're not really doing beach
• 21:24
  sort of fly and flop most of our well all of our trips are tailor made so,
• 21:28
  we're looking at probably people a bit more interested in doing some touring
• 21:33
  they may end up on the beach for the last three or four nights so,
• 21:37
  Normally, we would try and recommend a hotel a bit further south of Cancun in
• 21:41
  the Riviera Maya, where there are lots of hotel options.
• 21:45
  But yeah, it's fascinating. The Yucatan Peninsula, as you said,
• 21:49
  has also got all of the Mayan sites, which are incredibly...
• 21:53
  Brilliant, the pyramids. Yeah, and there's lots of different ones.
• 21:55
  You don't have to go and see Chichen Itza. That's the most famous.
• 21:58
  But there's lots of other sites that we always recommend that are quieter,
• 22:01
  that give you a similar experience. Obviously, most people want to see Chichen
• 22:04
  Itza, but it can be pretty busy.
• 22:07
  Yeah, yeah. But Distinctive America specialise in off the beat.
• 22:11
  Yeah, well, so we are a, yeah, totally tailor-made. So in our brochure,
• 22:15
  which I failed to bring today, but we'll send to you.
• 22:18
  We've got ideas in there, our suggestions, our little tips.
• 22:21
  But the idea is that you call us or you email us, say what you're interested
• 22:26
  in, and we can then suggest the trips suit you, whatever length you want,
• 22:30
  whenever you want to go, whichever airport you want to fly from.
• 22:32
  And we tailor it to your interests and the budget so that every trip is going
• 22:37
  to be slightly different.
• 22:38
  Or you can visit your local independent travel agents, of course.
• 22:42
  And we work very, very much with travel agents. So about 90% of our business
• 22:47
  is with travel agencies.
• 22:49
  And what we love about working with travel agents. They obviously know their
• 22:52
  clients after building up relationships for years and years.
• 22:55
  So when they contact us, they already know what the client's like.
• 22:58
  We don't have to do all that digging.
• 22:59
  We just, we get the description from the agent and then they've got the trust
• 23:04
  and their connection with the client.
• 23:06
  And yeah, it just makes for a great experience all around. Fantastic.
• 23:10
  How many people have you got working now in Distinctive Workers?
• 23:12
  We are almost in double digits, Ken. We're up to nine. We've got a lady joining
• 23:16
  us next month, which is exciting.
• 23:18
  So yeah we might we might hit 10 but we've always wanted to have quality rather
• 23:22
  than quantity in terms of our operation so we're not looking at world domination
• 23:27
  yet not this week no i mean maybe the altering office is in the future but.
• 23:32
  Not not in the next couple of years but can i say that the personal service
• 23:36
  comes across the phone as well yeah well that's the kind of that's the i think
• 23:40
  that's the thing if you got if you get too big so if you start getting a call center
• 23:44
  then it you know you lose that i think what our agent partners like is if they
• 23:48
  call up they're going to speak to people they know they can ask to speak to
• 23:51
  people they know and between us we've been working at instinctive for over 90
• 23:55
  years so we don't tend to have much of
• 23:58
  a turnover of staff no i think that's great the continuity as well i mean.
• 24:04
  Don't go on trips just lock them in yeah yeah no i think the idea of the business
• 24:08
  is as you know the travel industry is a fun business to be So if everyone's
• 24:13
  enjoying their job, then I think that transmits itself to your clients.
• 24:17
  You sell yourself to sell the product basically. It is a great industry to work
• 24:21
  in. There is no doubt about that.
• 24:23
  Well, just going back to the trip out to Shanghai and Japan.
• 24:27
  There are some characters that came out with us, I'll tell you.
• 24:29
  I'm not naming individual names at this moment, but I will give a list of names.
• 24:33
  You were one of them, though, I guess. I'm not saying.
• 24:34
  And there is a list I'm going to give out at the top of the hour because they
• 24:38
  all need to mention. They're all characters in their own rights,
• 24:41
  but they're all hardworking travel people as well, which is great.
• 24:44
  Yeah, yeah, this is it. It's not just a jolly, is it, when you go on a trip
• 24:46
  like that? No, no, no. We were flogged to death.
• 24:49
  I can imagine. Now then, well, another one of yours, this old heart of mine.
• 24:53
  Oh, that classic, yeah. Yeah.
• 27:41
  I'm Sarah Fixta, one half of the husband and wife team behind Circle Funerals here in Altrincham.
• 27:46
  With backgrounds in law, psychotherapy and HR, Jeremy and I have always focused
• 27:52
  on empathy, listening and supporting people through complex and emotional times.
• 27:57
  We founded Circle Funerals in 2022 to offer a different kind of funeral care.
• 28:03
  Thoughtful, flexible and truly person-led. The kind of experience we'd want for our own families.
• 28:10
  From 2022 to 2025 we were known as full circle funerals partners ultram we've
• 28:16
  always been locally owned and run and now continue that same trusted service as circle funerals,
• 28:22
  to find out more visit circle funerals.co.uk or call 0161 928 6080 you'll speak
• 28:31
  directly with jeremy or me circle funerals a calm personal approach to funeral care.
• 28:43
  There we go. That's Sarah and Jez from Circle Funerals on Ashley Road.
• 28:47
  And meanwhile, back in South America with Daniel.
• 28:51
  And we're going to Brazil, I think, Nick. Yes, Brazil. Yeah,
• 28:54
  one of my favorite countries.
• 28:55
  One of the biggest countries in South America. It's always a good start.
• 28:58
  I mean, the first thing I'd say is definitely something we've started doing in the past few years.
• 29:03
  Don't try and do all of Brazil in one trip. It's just not possible.
• 29:06
  Big yeah so we'll try and encourage people just try and do a smaller bit whether
• 29:11
  it's the south whether it's the north or maybe,
• 29:13
  amazon and that kind of area don't try and do all in one go because yeah the
• 29:17
  size of brazil if you if you check it out on the map it would not be possible no bombed ear to you yeah,
• 29:23
  then you're bilingual trilingual i'm not sure multilingual but i don't understand
• 29:27
  the word i say did you pick up any chinese when you yes we did uh kong hay fat choice shindan Filer.
• 29:34
  Okay. That's a happy new year and Merry Christmas. Very useful.
• 29:38
  At least you can use that one coming up soon. But yeah, back to Brazil, I would say...
• 29:43
  I think all of the countries in South America, and Central America,
• 29:47
  even though they're all on the same continent, they're all so different.
• 29:50
  And Brazil, even though it's neighboring Argentina, is so different.
• 29:55
  The feeling, obviously, it's so much more tropical. It's got a completely different
• 29:59
  kind of history in terms of the Portuguese rather than the Spanish.
• 30:03
  The Amazon, which everyone knows it for. But as well as the Amazon,
• 30:06
  there are lots of other wildlife hotspots.
• 30:08
  You probably know it, Ken. The Pantanal? Yes, down in the south.
• 30:12
  Yeah, so the Pantanal, I was there last year, a couple of years ago,
• 30:15
  and the big drawdown there is the Jaguar. Yes. So I stayed at this incredible
• 30:20
  lodge called Kaiman Lodge, where, again, they are doing a scientific kind of
• 30:24
  project there to study the Jaguar.
• 30:27
  So the Jaguar there are habituated to the vehicles of their researchers.
• 30:32
  Yeah. So you can go out with them if you stay at that lodge,
• 30:35
  and then that gives you a good chance of seeing the Jaguar whilst they're studying
• 30:38
  them. So that was pretty amazing. Well, strangely enough, we bumped into Australians
• 30:42
  in Peru who just come from the Pantanal.
• 30:45
  They were just so enraptured. It was their cup of tea. Yeah, yeah. It's very...
• 30:50
  I mean, the good thing about the Pantanal, I think one thing people forget about
• 30:53
  jungles is there are a lot of trees there.
• 30:57
  Hence the jungle. Yeah, so you probably saw in Peru. If you're trying to see
• 31:01
  wildlife, then the main things you're going to see are birds and monkeys because
• 31:04
  they're in the trees, they're higher up.
• 31:06
  You're not going to see many mammals because they're often nocturnal and the trees get in the way.
• 31:11
  Whereas the Pantanal is very few trees. It's wide open grassland.
• 31:15
  So it's much easier to see the mammals like the jaguar and the jaguarundi and other small...
• 31:21
  Yeah, I've seen several programs on them where they release them back into the
• 31:25
  wild because they've been trapped by trappers and etc.
• 31:28
  Or they've got a litter or the mothers die, that sort of thing.
• 31:32
  Those are the ones there which gets you interested in what's going on out there.
• 31:36
  Yeah, although it's funny enough, when we were there.
• 31:38
  As part of their scientific study, they're also trying to protect these blue
• 31:44
  hyacinth macaws. So there's huge birds.
• 31:47
  And so as part of your visit there, you can go out with the hyacinth researchers,
• 31:52
  see the nests, see the birds.
• 31:53
  And I must admit, I wasn't looking forward to that. I thought it would be a
• 31:56
  bit boring. But actually, it was quite fascinating to see the work they've been doing.
• 32:00
  We saw lots of the hyacinth macaws. I think that's probably my number one bit
• 32:04
  of advice for people doing any wildlife holiday.
• 32:07
  Don't obsess about the big things because you'll often see, as we saw in Brazil,
• 32:11
  loads of giant anteaters, which are incredible to look at.
• 32:16
  And in some ways are more exciting than Jaguar because they're so mysterious
• 32:21
  and looks like a cartoon character. It does. It looks like somebody's drawn
• 32:24
  it. It's like there's a shaggy dog with a big nose.
• 32:27
  Did you know, I don't know if you've heard this, but when we were there,
• 32:30
  they passed around the claw of a anteater.
• 32:34
  And it's probably, I don't know, I'm trying to work out centimeters here,
• 32:37
  probably about 10 centimeters long, at least very sharp.
• 32:40
  And so if they do get attacked by a jaguar, they will then rake those claws
• 32:45
  on the jaguar's belly and they can actually badly injure them or kill them.
• 32:50
  So the jaguar don't mess with them very often because they know they can be
• 32:54
  dangerous. Yeah, exactly right. But the thing is that smaller things like that
• 32:57
  and the, I was going to say, well, lots of smaller animals anyway.
• 33:02
  Yeah, exactly. These are the things that people don't realize.
• 33:05
  This is a It's just as interesting as a Jaguar. I think it's a lesson for life,
• 33:08
  isn't it? Don't obsess about the big ticket things. Just take what turns up
• 33:12
  and enjoy it. Exactly right.
• 33:14
  And yeah, there's so many amazing things in Pantone apart from Jaguar.
• 33:18
  Yeah. Do you go down to Iguazu?
• 33:19
  Yeah, yeah. Iguazu. I mean, lots of Tukins there if you're a Tukin fan.
• 33:23
  And I've been to a few waterfalls. I've been to Kaita Falls in Guyana,
• 33:27
  which is incredible, and Victoria Falls. But I think Iguazu is probably the
• 33:31
  most impressive in terms of
• 33:33
  Just the noise. Yeah. 256 waterfalls. I was going to ask you.
• 33:37
  Thank you. Yeah, yeah. I was just desperately trying to remember.
• 33:40
  But yeah, 256. Have you been or not? No, I had a trip with TAPA Portugal.
• 33:46
  Right. It got cancelled.
• 33:47
  It was Rio, which was brilliant. So you've not been to Brazil?
• 33:51
  Yes, I did. I eventually got on the wait for this British Caledonian.
• 33:55
  Oh. Don't go back. It was actually going to be sorry. It was.
• 33:58
  We had to row ashore. And yeah, and I love Rio.
• 34:03
  Yeah, fantastic. The only thing was Cocavada, Sugarloaf, etc. were all closed.
• 34:07
  The Pope was coming in three days' time. So obviously they did a spruce up for him.
• 34:12
  So you didn't trump the Pope, Ken versus the Pope. It was Ken's trip that the Pope got in the way.
• 34:18
  I mean, good reason to go back, Ken. I was going to say, if you want to go back,
• 34:21
  get in touch, we'll get you over there.
• 34:22
  I'll give you a ring tomorrow. Maybe do a live broadcast. We could always do that.
• 34:26
  You'd be six hours behind, so it'd be eight o'clock over there.
• 34:30
  Well, this last week I was, what, seven hours ahead when we got traveling but yeah,
• 34:36
  it's the place i think there's still these discovering yeah yeah i definitely
• 34:40
  agree with you anyone to discover it please get in touch but i think also it's because
• 34:45
  i think africa because we do sell africa as well as part of our sister brand
• 34:48
  synctom africa but i think africa's got more links with the uk in terms of culturally historically,
• 34:55
  whereas um south america is more that spanish culture so i think it's taken
• 34:59
  longer for people to discover it yeah well i think i was saying off air before
• 35:03
  iberia is probably the number one carrier down there but in the from the uk
• 35:07
  to africa you've got ba virgin,
• 35:09
  as i said to you earlier or mentally about the costa rica flight yeah ba now
• 35:13
  do fly direct to sao paulo buenos aires santiago they've increased their flights
• 35:18
  there rio and costa rica and
• 35:22
  And they did fly to Peru, to Lima, pre-COVID, so hopefully they'll bring that
• 35:26
  back. So actually, I think they've seen that, you know, the appetite is there
• 35:30
  to get around South America.
• 35:32
  I'm sure they'll bring those routes in. So basically what you're saying is still
• 35:35
  easy to get there. Oh, yeah.
• 35:38
  You can fly multiple carriers. You can fly the Alianca, the Colombian airline,
• 35:42
  overnight from Heathrow down to Bogota and then on to pretty much anywhere.
• 35:47
  And obviously you've got all the Air France, KLM. I was just about to say,
• 35:50
  that's the route I went out to Peru over Amsterdam very easy and KLM basically
• 35:54
  got I think 22 airports around the UK flying into Amsterdam
• 35:58
  so wherever you're listening from now you can get there via Amsterdam certainly
• 36:02
  for regional departures from Manchester or elsewhere then they're a good option
• 36:06
  so we could all have a holiday and go Tropicana yeah.
• 39:59
  Hello, this is Ed Pugh reminding you that you can get your week off to a great
• 40:03
  start by listening to The Big Alty Breakfast Show from 8 till 10 every Monday
• 40:08
  morning. We have a comedy spot, a live track and a little bit of calm with a classical track.
• 40:14
  There's yesterday's classics, today's tunes and forever songs.
• 40:18
  Don't forget, it's more groovy than granola. Join me every Monday.
• 40:28
  There we go. meanwhile back in the room and we've not been to Argentina have
• 40:32
  we we're going south from Brazil yes I was just saying just off air there we
• 40:37
  were just debating whether to play Coldplay or next not my favourite but.
• 40:41
  Should we debate should we debate Viva La Vida or Argentina yeah well it's not
• 40:46
  it's Lee Coldplay but when I was in Argentina I was flying over the Rio Plata
• 40:51
  the football team stadium,
• 40:53
  and it was when the Coldplay gig was on I don't know if you remember it was
• 40:56
  about oh I think it was a few years ago. It was big.
• 40:59
  And actually, yeah, I'd had problems getting a hotel room in Buenos Aires because
• 41:03
  they'd been playing there about, I think it was like six or seven nights in a row, wasn't it?
• 41:06
  Yeah. And so they literally, they had kind of locked down Buenos Aires because
• 41:10
  everyone wanted to see Coldplay. And on our flight, everyone was looking out
• 41:14
  the window into the stadium.
• 41:17
  And you can see, we must admit, it was a good light show. Thankfully,
• 41:20
  I couldn't hear any of the music. You don't like them, do you? I can tell now.
• 41:24
  Well, I don't mind one of the yellow. Is it yellow? Yeah, I've got yellow.
• 41:28
  Yeah, you can play yellow, but maybe when I'm gone, do what you want.
• 41:31
  Meanwhile, back in Argentina.
• 41:32
  Yeah, back in Argentina. So yeah, Argentina, the second biggest country after
• 41:36
  Brazil, and totally different to Brazil.
• 41:39
  You've got a lot of European influence because a lot of European immigrants
• 41:44
  into Argentina, similar to Chile, actually, in terms of...
• 41:49
  They had all this land, especially down south of Patagonia. They wanted to get people to settle it.
• 41:54
  And one of the biggest things was getting people to do sheep ranching and cattle ranching.
• 41:59
  And those were things obviously Europeans were very good at.
• 42:01
  And so they bought sheep down from, actually, I think across from the Falklands.
• 42:05
  So a lot of European settlers came to Argentina. Italians especially.
• 42:09
  Italian, yeah. Obviously, you mentioned the Welsh already, further down south.
• 42:13
  So when you go to Buenos Aires, that is probably, in my opinion.
• 42:19
  The city that certainly for English people, you'd feel probably most at home
• 42:23
  because it feels like a giant version of Paris.
• 42:26
  Yeah, western. Crazier, but the
• 42:29
  architecture is going to look slightly familiar, just on a bigger scale.
• 42:33
  And in terms of walking around, it's a very walkable city.
• 42:36
  Loads of incredible museums, art galleries, restaurants.
• 42:40
  Obviously they're very famous for their beef for their red wine for the malbecs and the tango.
• 42:47
  Yeah i almost forgot that so
• 42:49
  yeah they're all slightly cliched i guess but actually when you're there,
• 42:53
  we always include a tango show in our trips there because they are really good
• 42:56
  fun yeah and you do get a sense of how important the tango is you know to the
• 43:00
  national identity of the of the argentinians so yeah definitely if you're going to go to
• 43:05
  argentina you need to obviously eat some meat if you're not a vegetarian,
• 43:09
  yes and drink some lovely melbeck and yeah go to a tango show
• 43:14
  let's say even though it's all very touristy it does give you that that flavor
• 43:17
  of argentina just you know how deeply they feel the passion for the music yeah
• 43:21
  lovely country it's a jumping off point for ushwire as well and uh that
• 43:26
  brings us into the antarctic yeah exactly so yeah it's uh.
• 43:31
  You can actually fly to Antarctica as well. So that would be from Chile.
• 43:37
  So what a lot of clients do now is because...
• 43:39
  Have you done Antarctica? I haven't yet. I only have ice in my gin and tonic.
• 43:46
  We did have some Glacier ice in our gin and tonic down in Chile.
• 43:49
  Oh, wow. Really? Yeah, when you go out to see the Balmer Seda Glacier, they carve it off.
• 43:53
  Of course. And then they serve it later. But yeah, the traditional place is Ushuaia.
• 43:57
  So that's where all the cruises would depart from.
• 44:00
  But because the Drake Passage is pretty legendary for being a little bit rough
• 44:04
  so a lot of people prefer to avoid it completely or go one way and fly back
• 44:09
  the other way so you can do both but yeah Ushuaia,
• 44:12
  is the sort of departure point for all the Antarctic cruises yeah I think
• 44:16
  this is in explorers want to do this sort of thing they don't want lying on
• 44:20
  a beach anymore yeah yeah a bit cold to lie on a beach in Antarctica yeah you
• 44:23
  might get a bit frostbite you can do the Antarctic plunge
• 44:25
  so you can jump in oh I've seen it I've seen it my colleague Mike was there
• 44:28
  a couple of years ago we've got a nice photo of him jumping in yeah it's kind of smiling but,
• 44:33
  yes grimace yeah and you can yes you can do a lot of adventurous things you can do,
• 44:37
  skiing on the on the on the ice you can camp out actually you can do kayaking
• 44:42
  so you can actually do a lot of adventurous things down on these cruises it's
• 44:46
  not just looking and of course going back to animals the penguins are there
• 44:49
  i wonder what you're doing sorry i'm about to sneeze sorry i was trying to be
• 44:53
  subtle i thought I thought that was like,
• 44:55
  your kind of penguin impression.
• 44:58
  Of the universal signal for a penguin.
• 45:00
  If he only had TV in here, that would be, yeah, that's fine.
• 45:03
  I mean, everyone loves penguins. So that is probably one of the main reasons
• 45:06
  people go to Antarctica.
• 45:08
  But you can actually see them in Chile as well.
• 45:11
  And Antarctica, incredibly popular. I think it's...
• 45:16
  When we started 20 years ago, the Galapagos was the kind of bucket list trip
• 45:22
  everyone wants to do. I think now Antarctica has transitioned to Antarctica.
• 45:25
  Well, we're coming to end of our time here, but just listen. What on earth?
• 45:29
  Not that fatal, no. It's my show that bad.
• 45:33
  But basically, you just touched on something we didn't even touch on.
• 45:36
  So I'm going to ask you now if you could come back. I'm not going to say next
• 45:39
  week, but we can come back and go through something.
• 45:42
  Yeah, yeah, definitely. Always available. And the other one you just mentioned
• 45:45
  was to distinctive Africa.
• 45:48
  Yeah, yeah. And we may do that as well. Yeah, yeah. We've got a lifetime of
• 45:52
  programmes ahead of us. Yeah. Now then, you've got a choice.
• 45:55
  Yellow or Viva La Vida. It's got to be yellow.
• 45:59
  At least I'm giving you a yellow beanie as well. So let's go with yellow. Going for it.
• 50:19
  Hello, this is Whispering Bob Harris. You're listening to Radio OT and the great Ken Garrity.
• 50:29
  There you go, Whispering Bob Harris. And Daniel didn't believe me I spoke to him. Yes, he's...
• 50:34
  Oh, I'm very impressed with that, Jim. Yeah, I do have stars coming through
• 50:38
  here. Yeah, yeah. Whether you like it or not.
• 50:41
  But can I say, Daniel, thank you for our tour around South America and Central America.
• 50:46
  And Daniel represents distinctive Americas. That's the one. And he's still working
• 50:49
  for them. Yeah, 20 years later, still working, still getting paid,
• 50:53
  still loving it. Well, thanks for inviting me, Ken. Absolutely loved it.
• 50:56
  Thanks for the cup of water, which I haven't finished.
• 50:59
  You can recycle that for the next guest if you wish. Yeah, hopefully see you
• 51:02
  again sometime. We can continue this discussion. And you didn't mention the broken biscuits.
• 51:06
  Meanwhile, this is one of yours again. Here comes the sun.
• 54:10
  As I say, we're on 365 days a year, 24-7. And thanks to the people who sponsor
• 54:16
  us for making it work, because we're all volunteers.
• 54:18
  I believe it's 31 of us, and only half of them work. No, I didn't say that at all.
• 54:22
  However, the man that did a lot of work for me over the night is Mark.
• 54:27
  I've got to give him a big shout out, because I've presented him with 22 interviews,
• 54:31
  or me talking, from my trip to Shanghai and Japan, which I keep mentioning every
• 54:38
  two minutes, with Royal Caribbean and Travel Week.
• 54:41
  Now then, I interviewed quite a lot of people. The first part of this is getting
• 54:44
  you to Shanghai, and it's my version of getting over there.
• 54:48
  So I'm flying from Manchester Airport, joining the group in Heathrow,
• 54:52
  and we moved out of Terminal 4, I think it was about 9.20 at night,
• 54:57
  overnight through into Shanghai and Mongolia.
• 55:01
  Now, if you hear my voice change, I'm Barry White every morning.
• 55:05
  My voice just goes very deep, so you'll probably hear that coming up. But here we go.
• 55:09
  Let's get off on our trip to Shanghai.
• 55:12
  Hi, this is Ken off to Shanghai. This is the trip I won through the Travel Weekly and Royal Caribbean.
• 55:19
  So presently, I've just gone through checking at British Airways.
• 55:22
  I'm on my way to Heathrow and I'm in the breakfast area.
• 55:27
  Oh, I thought it was the breakfast area. It's the Great Northern Market.
• 55:31
  And unfortunately, breakfast finished about an hour ago. So I missed that.
• 55:34
  However, if you're coming up to the eating area, shopping area, go past Starbucks.
• 55:39
  Go past Joe the Juice. do not go up the escalators
• 55:43
  unless you've got a lounge booked up there and then come to this great northern
• 55:47
  market which is lots and lots of seats a bit busy at the moment but it'll probably
• 55:51
  quiet down opposite are quite a few seats where you can see out over the
• 55:55
  apron as well so you can see the planes coming and going so this is the first
• 55:59
  part of my journey so tonight i will meet up with the group of travel agents and royal caribbean.
• 56:04
  And then we're flying chinese and out of heathrow 12 hours later, arriving in Shanghai.
• 56:10
  And then from Shanghai, we have four nights there, and we've got the Rolex Tennis
• 56:15
  Championships to see, a city sightseeing tour, and one or two surprises.
• 56:20
  Then we go on our cruise, which is a spectrum of the seas with Royal Caribbean
• 56:24
  from Shanghai to Okinawa.
• 56:26
  Now, that's a sail out from Shanghai, a full day at sea, a full day in Okinawa,
• 56:33
  and then a full day at sea and back to Shanghai with a flight home.
• 56:36
  So that's the basic outline of the itinerary. But what I'll do,
• 56:39
  I'll keep you tied in with what's going on and updating you on where I am.
• 56:44
  So, it's morning time, somewhere over, I think, Mongolia at the moment.
• 56:49
  So, we left Terminal 4 last night, about a quarter of an hour late due to luggage being loaded.
• 56:55
  The flight is pretty full, but I'm quite impressed with China Eastern Airlines.
• 56:59
  The legroom is fine. I'm six foot, and I've got an extra couple of inches out
• 57:03
  there. So, basically, yeah, comfortable, although service on board was slightly different.
• 57:10
  They don't do a drink service. They just do a meal and drink service at the same time.
• 57:15
  And then with the meal, you can either have red wine or soft drinks.
• 57:18
  And that is your choice. No other mixtures of drinks or anything.
• 57:22
  You actually cannot go back to the galley and get any more. However,
• 57:25
  I did, as you do, and I got a Coca-Cola, which is a big deal.
• 57:30
  But yeah, so the meals are okay. It was beef and rice.
• 57:34
  Starter was ham and a salad and i think the pudding was a,
• 57:39
  fruit so that was okay basically we've got another an hour and a half to go
• 57:44
  and this should be a 12 hour flight but today's 10 and a half because of strong tailwinds that
• 57:49
  means we had a slightly bumpy flight today however it's all go and uh coming
• 57:54
  down to shanghai in a little while and then would you believe we're ready for a meal so,
• 57:59
  i'll come back to you and keep up to date with what's going on.
• 58:02
  There we are we're almost in shanghai now and he throw i met up with the colorful
• 58:06
  gang i'm going to call them because we absolutely got on like house on fire
• 58:10
  so i'm going to give a name call out now,
• 58:13
  sam nadia eva emily rebecca vivian danielle francesca angie and ruth and later
• 58:21
  on we're joined by lucy huckley travel weekly editor and sam sorry adam,
• 58:28
  from raw caribbean and uh when we got over there we were,
• 58:32
  met also by benjamin i'm going to call him he's called ben ben buldin president
• 58:37
  of china and managing director of royal caribbean asia so yeah big big group and lovely people and we.
• 58:45
  We just got on like a house on fire as i say and we had so many unexpected things
• 58:50
  all lovely and this is us now arriving in shanghai so we've arrived in shanghai
• 58:56
  and First impressions of the airport is huge.
• 58:58
  Two big terminal buildings.
• 59:01
  It looks like one is China Southern and Associated Airlines,
• 59:05
  and the one we're at is China Eastern Airlines.
• 59:07
  So the huge arrivals hall, lots of marble, lots of gates. In fact,
• 59:13
  I think there's over 20-odd gates here, and the queues are moving.
• 59:17
  So we're through immigration, very easy, very pleasant gentleman as well.
• 59:22
  And he talks about Manchester United, as you do.
• 59:25
  And then we picked up the luggage. Again, the luggage was there when we got downstairs.
• 59:31
  And now we're off to...
• 59:33
  Well, we were stuck in the traffic, which for a one-hour journey took us two hours.
• 59:39
  And if you think that the Mancunian Way is busy, well, you've not seen anything
• 59:44
  yet. This is, well, not gridlock because it's actually moving,
• 59:47
  but it's chugging along very, very slowly.
• 59:50
  And we've got three, four lanes each side of the road. And all you can see right
• 59:55
  through is solid traffic and more and more traffic joining it.
• 1:00:00
  I am impressed by the road layout, by the way.
• 1:00:03
  It's multi-level, and you can count up to five different levels of traffic, and it's incessant.
• 1:00:12
  The city is 33 million people strong, and it goes on forever.
• 1:00:17
  Flying in yesterday, we saw lots and lots of, I would call them suburbs,
• 1:00:21
  but it's all huge. There's not any large parklands or anything like that.
• 1:00:26
  It just seems to be lots and lots of buildings going on and on and on.
• 1:00:30
  But we'll soon find out because we've got lots and lots of things to see here
• 1:00:34
  and I'll come back to you.
• 1:04:37
  Join me, Rod Maxwell, for the Late Late Lunch Show on Radio Alty every Monday,
• 1:04:41
  Wednesday and Friday between 2 and 4 p.m.
• 1:04:44
  For tunes and chants.
• 1:04:52
  So good morning. This is the first day of our few days in Shanghai.
• 1:04:59
  And would you believe my view is of the Bund?
• 1:05:03
  And if you don't know the Bund, this is the most picturesque place in Shanghai
• 1:05:08
  as we see it at the moment.
• 1:05:10
  And we're off to do a walking tour of the French Quarter.
• 1:05:14
  However, last night we were met by Ben and Adam, who are Royal Caribbean people.
• 1:05:21
  And we were taken for a huge hosted meal with many, many courses.
• 1:05:26
  Is Ben was making sure that we enjoyed ourselves.
• 1:05:29
  Lots of fish, beef, and obviously rice with that.
• 1:05:33
  But yes, depending on what you like, quite strong tastes. And yeah,
• 1:05:38
  a really, really excellent meal that we had there.
• 1:05:42
  He also encouraged us to have lots of cocktails. So we were going through the
• 1:05:47
  cocktail list last night, and we were made to feel very welcome here.
• 1:05:52
  And I'm very, very pleased. and again just going through the streets going to,
• 1:05:57
  our restaurant it's absolutely full of restaurants every shop is a restaurant and how they manage to,
• 1:06:04
  look after themselves because they seem to be full and this is friday night
• 1:06:09
  and everywhere was busy busy busy and apparently that's why we were held up
• 1:06:14
  in the traffic people coming into town,
• 1:06:16
  uh to to go to eat because it's the thing to do over here but yeah very very
• 1:06:21
  impressed with shanghai and uh looking forward to going out and seeing some
• 1:06:26
  more of it so i'll be back to you with more updates,
• 1:06:30
  yeah so there we were we arrived in shanghai that's our first day and And we stayed at the St.
• 1:06:34
  Regis Hotel, part of the Marriott Group. And it's a five-star hotel in the centre
• 1:06:38
  of Shanghai, ready for walking out to most places.
• 1:06:42
  And we also went down to the U Gardens, which are over 400 years old.
• 1:06:46
  And then we went out to the Water Village. But in between, we had a tennis match
• 1:06:50
  to watch. And I was with the group of agents and me and Adam are talking.
• 1:06:56
  Hi, this is Ken and I'm at the Shanghai Tennis Championships.
• 1:07:02
  Ships this is a countdown for the stars to come out any second now
• 1:07:06
  and i've got my colleague here this is adam what do you think of it so far this
• 1:07:11
  is absolutely phenomenal i am speechless to what is going on right now here
• 1:07:15
  they come this is so exciting this is brilliant here they are,
• 1:07:38
  This is Alejandro Davidovich and he's the first one out and he's now setting up the,
• 1:08:02
  and he's coming out and again making his way through the court and the packed
• 1:08:08
  audience here he just closed the roof because it's too hot what do you believe
• 1:08:12
  so that the air conditioning units are now on but as you can hear fabulous background and uh.
• 1:15:29
  Radio Alty, putting the community first.
• 1:15:37
  You certainly are listening to Radio Alty, Ken Garrity and friends on a Tuesday afternoon, 2 till 4.
• 1:15:42
  And I'm still awake as well, by the way. So just having a ride back from Shanghai
• 1:15:47
  on the fabulous trip to the Royal Caribbean.
• 1:15:49
  And a load, a load of nice people we all met up there.
• 1:15:54
  Just to let you know that it was Alejandro Davidovich Foligno who beat Rafael
• 1:15:59
  Hodra two sets to one in the final at the Shanghai, the Rolex Shanghai final.
• 1:16:06
  And that was sponsored by Royal Caribbean in two hours and 28 minutes.
• 1:16:10
  And the reason I played the champagnes over and over is for those...
• 1:16:14
  Everybody who went to the match we just had champagne didn't we as you do uh
• 1:16:18
  meanwhile back in shanghai excuse me and uh we did a full day tour a quick uh.
• 1:16:26
  Mention of this and uh onto eva who uh is one of the people on the trip lovely
• 1:16:30
  lady from five and uh we spoke so this is my version of the full day tour,
• 1:16:35
  good morning this is ken and this is our first full day here in shanghai and
• 1:16:40
  we've been really really busy so today we had a tour of the
• 1:16:45
  yu gardens which is central to
• 1:16:49
  shanghai and this was built or developed should i say over 400 years ago,
• 1:16:55
  and the family had obviously had a lot of money and the gardens are laid out
• 1:17:00
  in the what they call the feng shui style so that they have corridors and things
• 1:17:06
  pointing the right direction in East, West, North, South, whichever.
• 1:17:10
  And it's surrounded by water, fountains, and pavilions.
• 1:17:16
  This is where the family used to live in various quarters. So,
• 1:17:19
  for instance, the children have their own quarter.
• 1:17:21
  Family parents have their wives, concubines in another pavilion,
• 1:17:26
  and so on, set out in large gardens.
• 1:17:29
  However, it's a very touristy attraction. I hadn't realized Shanghai had so much tourism to offer.
• 1:17:35
  So there are lots and lots of people wandering around these gardens but very.
• 1:17:40
  Very nice and if you can imagine there's a ponds lakes ducks fish coy carp so very very picturesque
• 1:17:47
  and we've also been to the bund which is the large area in the middle by the
• 1:17:53
  river where the buildings are over a thousand foot tall,
• 1:17:57
  And they go on. For instance, there's one called the Banana.
• 1:18:01
  However, we are now on top of a building which covers the whole of the city.
• 1:18:07
  So I can see it everywhere, right down to the port, the sea,
• 1:18:11
  back down to the airport, and of course inland as well. So a huge, huge area.
• 1:18:16
  As I mentioned earlier, something about like 33 million people live here.
• 1:18:20
  It feels like there's 33 million cars as well. So it goes on and on and on.
• 1:18:26
  The traffic is tremendous lovely city as i say lots of history here i hadn't
• 1:18:30
  realized and uh yeah very very pleasant people if you're walking around you
• 1:18:35
  can go down the streets there westernized streets so you've got
• 1:18:38
  shops bars cafes down each one and if you look around you think you'd be in
• 1:18:42
  a european city so excellent place to be and thoroughly enjoying it,
• 1:18:47
  so good morning this is ken and i'm talking from the hotel lobby in shanghai
• 1:18:52
  st reedus now one of my travelling companions here is Eva and it's basically,
• 1:18:57
  Eva's story this morning so I'll get her to talk but the reason I'm talking with Eva is she was so.
• 1:19:04
  Full of this trip when I first met her.
• 1:19:06
  I think you still are aren't you? Yeah definitely. Okay. Very excited to be
• 1:19:11
  here, very grateful so yeah.
• 1:19:13
  Okay now then what when you first was chosen what did you think?
• 1:19:20
  Well obviously I ended up getting a place on this trip because someone else
• 1:19:25
  dropped out so I couldn't believe my luck because obviously I'd watched the winners come out.
• 1:19:32
  And I hadn't been chosen, so when I then got the email to say,
• 1:19:36
  you know, you've been given a place, I was so excited because I'd already lost hope.
• 1:19:43
  So, yes, I was very, very excited because it's a once-in-a-lifetime trip.
• 1:19:47
  It certainly is, isn't it? I mean, they're just, we're overboard with everything,
• 1:19:51
  aren't we? Everything's coming towards us. Yeah, it's VIP everywhere, very exclusive.
• 1:19:56
  So, yeah, different from my usual trips that I would do.
• 1:20:01
  Well, talking about your usual trips, you're no stranger to the far east or
• 1:20:04
  Asia, are you? You've done your little travelling bits, haven't you?
• 1:20:07
  Yes, but not as comfortable as this.
• 1:20:10
  Lots of night buses, budget travel, hostel rooms.
• 1:20:15
  So, yeah, the St Regis is very different from the rest of Asia now I did the
• 1:20:20
  rest of it. Yeah, you've seen it from the ground floor up, haven't you?
• 1:20:23
  So, have you any highlights so far? I know it's day three, but any highlights so far?
• 1:20:28
  Yeah, so, I mean, the tennis yesterday was amazing.
• 1:20:32
  I think, again, it's just such an exclusive experience.
• 1:20:37
  You know, I wouldn't have ever been able to do that if I wasn't on this trip.
• 1:20:41
  You know, someday, I don't know, maybe not right now, but someday I'm sure I
• 1:20:46
  could stay in a very nice hotel in Shanghai, but am I ever going to be able
• 1:20:50
  to go VIP in the Royal Caribbean box in Shanghai to the Rolex Masters final?
• 1:20:56
  Probably not. That was a one-off, wasn't it? Yeah, so that was amazing and something
• 1:21:02
  that I'll probably never experience again.
• 1:21:05
  To be honest, Ken, just the food. Every meal that we've had has been a highlight.
• 1:21:10
  That first night meal was, yeah, incredible.
• 1:21:14
  What was it? Sichuan Citizen. That's right. Yeah, that was, for me, a great entry to China.
• 1:21:22
  I think you were blown away with it. I was, and it just kept coming as well.
• 1:21:26
  And your face was lit up all night long, and I can tell you.
• 1:21:29
  It wasn't just the cocktails, was it? No, no, it was the food, trust me.
• 1:21:33
  So, yeah, but just honestly happy to be here. Okay. Now, what do you think of
• 1:21:37
  Shanghai itself as a city?
• 1:21:39
  I really have enjoyed it, actually. And as someone, I'm not a huge city person.
• 1:21:43
  I prefer, you know, like the countryside or...
• 1:21:46
  Mountains and things like that but this is i think because it's so futuristic
• 1:21:51
  and it's just very different it's modern but it still has quite a lot of green space so,
• 1:21:57
  yeah i've really enjoyed it and i would definitely come back again
• 1:22:01
  um and i feel like we've been lucky as well because we're getting such an overview
• 1:22:05
  of the full city because we're getting these amazing tours that we're getting
• 1:22:08
  to go on you feel like you're really seeing everything that you need to be seeing so Yeah.
• 1:22:14
  I hadn't realised, I don't know whether you had, so many tourists are here as well.
• 1:22:17
  Yes, yeah. And I mean, as well, because it's fairly walkable in this area that
• 1:22:22
  we're in, but I didn't realise how big Shanghai was.
• 1:22:25
  I mean, I remember Ben was saying he went three hours out of the central city
• 1:22:32
  and he was still in Shanghai. Yeah.
• 1:22:34
  If I drove three hours, I would be in another country at home.
• 1:22:38
  It's the size of the place, isn't it? I think I heard, depending on who you
• 1:22:42
  spoke to, between 24 and 33 million people here.
• 1:22:45
  Yes, yes. So the scale is just crazy compared to my town in Scotland.
• 1:22:51
  So, yes, very different from home.
• 1:22:53
  Now then, we've got some more developments here. We're going on a cruise tomorrow, aren't we?
• 1:22:57
  Yes, yes. And the itinerary, we've just had an updated itinerary because it
• 1:23:03
  sounds like there's a typhoon in Naha where we were meant to be going.
• 1:23:06
  So yeah, I've been to Okinawa before, but actually now the new stop,
• 1:23:10
  Sasebo, I've never been there, so that's quite exciting for me, yeah.
• 1:23:15
  So yeah, I mean, there's no bad option, it's an incredible country,
• 1:23:19
  so yeah, just excited to kind of see what we're going to be up to now.
• 1:23:22
  So it's a great big thank you to Royal Caribbean and Travel Weekly,
• 1:23:25
  isn't it? Oh, massively, I mean, it's just...
• 1:23:28
  Can't believe we're only on day three. I feel like I've lived five different
• 1:23:31
  lives already and we're not even halfway through, which, yeah,
• 1:23:35
  it's hard to comprehend.
• 1:23:36
  Well, with a smile on your face, I know that you're still enjoying it,
• 1:23:39
  and I am as well, obviously, and I think we've got more to come,
• 1:23:41
  haven't we? Oh, loads more. I mean, yeah, I don't think we've even scratched
• 1:23:45
  the surface yet, to be honest.
• 1:23:47
  So I've got to say thank you for your time. Thank you. And I know we're off
• 1:23:50
  on another adventure this morning. I know, yeah, just about to head out, actually.
• 1:23:54
  Okay, so take care. Thank you.
• 1:23:57
  Hi, I'm back again with Stephen, and Stephen was talking about another tour we had done.
• 1:24:02
  This is the downtown area. Now, Stephen, what's this area called again?
• 1:24:06
  The area is Bund, B-U-N-D.
• 1:24:09
  Actually, this word is not from English. It's not from German.
• 1:24:14
  It is originally from Asian Indian dialect. And who introduced this word to Shanghai in China?
• 1:24:23
  Very famous trading company, East India Company.
• 1:24:28
  What's the meaning of a bond in India dialect? That is, riverside waterfront.
• 1:24:35
  How come they have the India influence in Shanghai?
• 1:24:39
  And back in 1843, because China, we lost the opium against the British,
• 1:24:48
  so we had to sign the treaty with British.
• 1:24:51
  According to the treaty, normally we cede Hong Kong off, but also we allowed
• 1:24:57
  the British to select five cities in China as free trading ports.
• 1:25:02
  And Shanghai was chosen by British. So 1843, British first arrived in Shanghai,
• 1:25:08
  and they select the Western Bank River about two square kilometers as a British settlement.
• 1:25:16
  And nowadays, we can see the bond about 28 colonial buildings.
• 1:25:21
  Most of them were built from 1920s to 1930s.
• 1:25:26
  They housed the embassies, hotels, banks, newspaper office, and companies.
• 1:25:31
  There used to be the financial street in Shanghai. We call it Wall Street in the Far East.
• 1:25:38
  So these are the classic buildings we saw as well.
• 1:25:41
  And the British Embassy was there, is that right? Yes, yes, the British embassies were there.
• 1:25:46
  And many international companies and Chinese companies and banks were founded
• 1:25:52
  on the bond, such as one of the famous British banks, HSBC, was founded in Hong Kong.
• 1:25:59
  And that year was 1865, and they had the headquarters of HSBC in Shanghai at the same year.
• 1:26:07
  And you can see a very nice architecture with a dome on the top.
• 1:26:10
  That was an old office for HSBC, which is called the most luxury banking building
• 1:26:18
  to be found anywhere between Swiss Canal and the Bering Street.
• 1:26:21
  Oh, really? I hadn't heard that.
• 1:26:23
  Now, across the river, basically, there's a huge brand new development.
• 1:26:28
  Is that right? Yeah. Can you believe on that side of the river 30 years ago,
• 1:26:33
  it was nothing but farmland.
• 1:26:35
  So all the high-rises, skyscrapers, they have less than 30 years old.
• 1:26:41
  And one of the landmarks of Shanghai, the one that looks like a needle, it's a TV tower.
• 1:26:47
  And on the right side of the TV tower, that is the highest building in China, Shanghai Tower.
• 1:26:54
  You said it looks like a banana. It's a banana. It's a curve. It's a curve shape.
• 1:26:59
  And also we have a nice interesting shape with a square hole on the top.
• 1:27:05
  It looks like a big bottle opener.
• 1:27:07
  Yeah, good names. Yeah, so we have different architectures, but that is the
• 1:27:13
  CBD of Shanghai nowadays, Central Business District. And when you're standing
• 1:27:19
  on the bond, you can see the big contrast.
• 1:27:22
  So west side of Shanghai, all the colonial buildings, 100 years old,
• 1:27:26
  and east side of Shanghai, all the futuristic buildings, 30 years old.
• 1:27:29
  Yeah, it looks spectacular. Can I say thank you for your time again?
• 1:27:32
  No problem. Yeah, and for the information.
• 1:27:35
  Yeah, thank you, everybody. There you go. That was Stephen from Wendy Woo Tours,
• 1:27:39
  who did two tours with us and out to the water village, which I'll use on,
• 1:27:43
  well, probably next week's show now, because I want to introduce you to Lucy Huxley, the editor, the,
• 1:27:49
  main person at Travel Weekly and part of the group Royal Caribbean and Travel
• 1:27:54
  Weekly put our trip together where we all had to dress up with a fan.
• 1:27:59
  And luckily, I had the costume from downstairs here at the Garrick.
• 1:28:02
  So let's have a word with Lucy. and just a little side note as i started to
• 1:28:06
  talk to lucy i forgot her name however we both had a laugh and mark my engineer
• 1:28:12
  went and took it out so i will try and recover it but here we go lucy and ken talking,
• 1:28:18
  So, this is another guest that I know I have known for quite some time,
• 1:28:23
  actually. So, I'm going to go straight into it.
• 1:28:25
  This is the amazing Lucy Huxley from Travel Weekly. Good morning,
• 1:28:28
  Lucy. Hello, Ken. How are you? We have known each other a long time,
• 1:28:31
  haven't we? Yes, we have.
• 1:28:33
  Every time we meet, I seem to be in fancy dress of some sort.
• 1:28:37
  Well, luckily, the most recent time has got you here. Exactly.
• 1:28:41
  So, yeah, and we love a bit of fancy dress. We do, yeah.
• 1:28:44
  So tell me the history of this, basically this tour that you put together with
• 1:28:48
  Ben from World Caribbean.
• 1:28:49
  It's obviously been a long time in coming and you did this last year,
• 1:28:53
  I believe. Yeah, that's right. So I've known Ben for a long time.
• 1:28:57
  I think he joined the travel industry.
• 1:28:59
  I think he was saying it was, you know, maybe 10 years ago.
• 1:29:04
  So we've always been friends. I've done a lot of work with Ben when he was running
• 1:29:06
  the UK market, but he got moved out to run the China market a couple of years ago.
• 1:29:12
  And he still wanted to make sure he got sales from the UK, even though obviously
• 1:29:17
  a lot of what he's selling is in the Asia market.
• 1:29:20
  So we thought we'd do a competition to educate travel agents a bit more about
• 1:29:25
  China and sailing from Shanghai out to Japan. It's a really popular region.
• 1:29:30
  It's very, very in vogue at the minute to sail in this in this area.
• 1:29:34
  So we ran a competition called Fortune Awaits. We looked for 10 agents.
• 1:29:39
  They had to do training on our training platform it's an online training platform
• 1:29:43
  all about the region and the ship which is spectrum of the seas it went so well
• 1:29:48
  we took 10 agents out last year,
• 1:29:51
  um and they were great and they've been back and they've been selling it with
• 1:29:53
  much more confidence um but then we thought we'd do it again so uh that's where
• 1:29:58
  you came in but you did enter last year as well didn't you yes this time i've
• 1:30:02
  actually succeeded i know um,
• 1:30:04
  so last year i think you had to eat some noodles this year we had a chinese
• 1:30:08
  fan and you had to display that fan you had a fabulous costume i think from
• 1:30:11
  the ming dynasty i mean you were unrecognizable i actually was born in the ming
• 1:30:15
  dynasty it was natural for me.
• 1:30:18
  Oh my goodness, you look fantastic. And we've got agents here from all across
• 1:30:22
  the country and all different types of travel agents.
• 1:30:24
  So some have retail shops, some are home workers, some are part of big consortia,
• 1:30:29
  some have been in the industry a very short time, some have been,
• 1:30:32
  if I may say, Ken, in the industry a little longer, like yourself.
• 1:30:36
  So more mature experience.
• 1:30:39
  But it's lovely because you bring a group together who are very different people,
• 1:30:42
  but like-minded because they want to learn and they want to be able to find
• 1:30:45
  new products to suggest to their customers.
• 1:30:48
  So, yeah, so it's been similar, the trip, not identical, but flown out to Shanghai, staying in the St.
• 1:30:55
  Regis in the centre of Shanghai, beautiful hotel. Lovely hotel,
• 1:30:59
  yeah, thank you, yeah, brilliant. Really nice, so we had three nights there.
• 1:31:02
  Oh, you had four nights, you came earlier than me.
• 1:31:04
  I did, yes. Four nights, but yeah, lots of tours, a tour with Wendy Wu Tours,
• 1:31:09
  is another partner, which I'm sure you've sold Wendy Wu Tours as well already,
• 1:31:12
  but Royal Caribbean and Wendy have teamed up with a partnership, So,
• 1:31:17
  Spectrum of the Sea's guests, if they do pre and post, will do some Wendy Woo tours.
• 1:31:22
  And then we boarded the ship, didn't we, yesterday? And now you've got four
• 1:31:26
  nights on board the ship to sort of see what that's all about.
• 1:31:29
  Well, you were on this ship last year. Yeah. What were your highlights of the ship?
• 1:31:34
  Well, the speciality dining, which we tried last night, we were in Chop's Grill.
• 1:31:39
  We were going to Teppanyaki today and Jamie's Italian. And we're also doing the chef's table.
• 1:31:45
  There's a restaurant called Wonderland, which is, you can imagine it's all inspired
• 1:31:48
  by Alison Wonderland. It's all, you know, it's everything's not what you see.
• 1:31:53
  What you see is not what your ultimate is. It's really, it's really, it's really amazing.
• 1:31:57
  So I think the speciality dining is incredible. The show's on board.
• 1:32:01
  You saw Silk Road last night. We're seeing showgirls tonight.
• 1:32:05
  I think, I hope you agree. I mean, that was something else. It's very,
• 1:32:08
  very different to anything on other ships.
• 1:32:11
  So there's some sort of standouts.
• 1:32:14
  I'm not sure if you've done some of the more high-octane adrenaline stuff yet,
• 1:32:18
  Ken. I imagine that's this afternoon's plan.
• 1:32:20
  Well, as long as we don't kill ourselves, we should be okay,
• 1:32:23
  and I'll come back on that one. Okay, well, there's things like,
• 1:32:26
  on this ship, they've got some amazing things like the Flowrider,
• 1:32:28
  which is the surfing simulator.
• 1:32:31
  They've got the iFly, which is the, what do you call it? Like the flying. You fly, that's right.
• 1:32:37
  Yeah, you're flying in a chamber, basically, and you get under a big fan and
• 1:32:42
  you actually learn how, you sort of feel like you're skydiving,
• 1:32:44
  I guess, which is incredible.
• 1:32:46
  So there's some really cool things up on that top deck, which,
• 1:32:49
  I mean, it keeps people entertained.
• 1:32:51
  There's something, I mean, there was a dance class here today in the promenade
• 1:32:54
  this morning. So there's just, there's so much going on. We just heard when
• 1:32:58
  they did the bing-bong right across our conversation was the fashion show as well. Oh, yeah.
• 1:33:02
  So there's everything. Are you coming to the fashion show?
• 1:33:05
  I think I might be on top deck today. Yeah, exactly. Now, can I say that this
• 1:33:10
  is, for me, this is one of my highlights in the whole travel business. I mean, for the last...
• 1:33:15
  So many years, I'm not saying how many years, that I get invited on various things.
• 1:33:19
  But to me, I wanted this one. I saw it and I thought, fantastic trip.
• 1:33:23
  And it's actually living up to my expectations. Great.
• 1:33:27
  Well, that's what we wanted to create. We want to say it's a kind of chance of a trip of a lifetime.
• 1:33:33
  Exactly right. And then obviously Ben and the team at Royal Caribbean are really
• 1:33:37
  trying to sort of spoil you. But, you know, what are they saying?
• 1:33:41
  There's no free lunch. We want you to go back and be inspired and to be able
• 1:33:45
  to go to your customers and say, have you.