MEAL PLAN
Have you noticed that vegetarians have become the new holy cows of air travel? They have a personal choice, meals are often delivered with a slight bow and served first. I have no choice – chicken, beef or stinking Asian fish (just lift the foil and smell it). I usually end up with fish and end up feeling like a second-class traveller on Thai Airways and Singapore Airlines. My advice to Sally Banfield, you do not like the airline food, then bring your own.
Chris isles, Warriewood, NSW
Sally Banfield (Traveller letters, April 22), you have been ordering the wrong vegetarian meal. On most airlines, "western vegetarian" meals start from a vegan base meal, usually with a few additions (such as a serve of dairy milk for tea/coffee), and have exactly the same problem with blandness that other airline meals often have.
This is then combined with more ingredient restrictions than you wanted (cardboardy egg-free quiche, anyone?) But when you are selecting your meal, it is worth taking the time to scroll down and look at all the other special diet options available. It is a revelation.
If you order "Indian vegetarian", most airlines will serve you a couple of delicious spicy curries with rice, a serve of yoghurt, mango chutney, pappadum, flatbread and an Indian dessert such as cardamom milky rice pudding, to the envy of everyone sitting nearby.
The "Asian" or "Oriental" vegetarian option is usually vegan but similarly flavourful and also a much better option than the western one.
This doesn't work so well on some airlines (in Eastern Europe, for example) or on all flight times as not everyone wants to eat curry for breakfast, but in general I highly recommend this strategy, and it has the added bonus that you are served long before everyone else.
Suzie Ferrie, Newtown, NSW
LETTER OF THE WEEK: EASY RIDER
I recently completed a mountain bike ride from Sapa, Vietnam, to Luang Prabang, Laos, a distance of more than 600 kilometres over passes and through villages populated by the many different ethnic groups living there.
The majority of the ride was on sealed roads, some of them quite busy and in places quite narrow with precipitate edges. It was a wonderful experience with nine good friends as we enjoyed the scenery and local hospitality.
The one thing we did not experience was road rage. With 10 of us riding over nine days we never felt we were in the way and never felt we were delaying someone's progress. No sense of entitlement to road use but rather a sense of sharing as fellow travellers.
Whether it was the large trucks travelling to and from China, local and inter-country buses, motorists, scooter riders, tuk-tuk drivers and other local cyclists we shared, waited and passed safely. My wife and I experienced the same accommodating manner riding in Hue and Hoi An in Vietnam.
Could this just be the result of living closely together or an attitude reflective of a long and turbulent history where a lack of aggression is now such a welcome part of their life?
Les Lambert, Wangaratta, VIC
WORLD VIEW
Islamic wonder: Samarkand in Uzbekistan.
I cannot believe you included in your cover story, "Keeping the faith" (Traveller, April 22), Jantar Mantar, Jaipur, a Rajasthani Hindu structure, ahead of the many wonders of Islamic architecture on the subcontinent.
Cities such as Bijapur in southern India, and Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India and Multan in Pakistan are other cities on the subcontinent that are crammed with medieval Indo-Islamic architectural treasures.
Moreover, any assessment of the Islamic world that leaves out Samarkand and Bukhara in Uzbekistan is flawed and shows that the writer did not do his homework.
Taariq Hassan, Rosanna, VIC
EDITOR'S NOTE Many of the astronomical measurements at Jantar Mantar were influenced by the Islamic school of astronomy which was regarded as the most advanced of the era. Space precludes us from publishing a fully comprehensive report on such a broad subject as covered in the story in question.
LOOK NO FURTHER
I, like Brian Johnston (Traveller, April 22), enjoy visiting mosques around the world. But it isn't necessary to leave Sydney to visit a beautiful and welcoming mosque. I just wandered into the Auburn Gallipoli Mosque when exploring Auburn for my fortnightly suburban exploration. I was stunned by the beauty. If you are intimidated by going in alone, find out about their guided tours.
Joanne Karcz, Dangar Island, NSW
PLOT THICKENS
I was quite dismayed to read Ros Barwick's letter (Traveller letters, April 1) relating her visit to the Bawa brothers' renowned gardens near Bentota, Sri Lanka. Both gardens are unique and special and I have never encountered anyone expressing disappointment associated with visiting them.
Ironically, our first of many visits to Geoffrey Bawa's garden, Lunuganga, involved our driver mistakenly taking us to Brief Garden by Bevis Bawa, the reverse of Ros' experience.
Such a shame she couldn't see the Lunuganga home. The Bawa Trust manages the estate along with his former Colombo property and bookings are made through them (its website, geoffreybawa.com, is worth exploring).
Geoffrey Bawa's architectural footprint across Sri Lanka and further afield, such as in Bali, is significant and also worth exploring. The brothers' history, estrangement, colonial and post-colonial lives are fascinating and captured in various books reflecting an era now gone but which can still be imagined through visits to their respective properties.
Frank Page, Daylesford, VIC
EMISSIONS OMISSION
I was astonished by Lee Tulloch's article titled "Why the travel industry needs to go greener" (Traveller, April 22) and highlighted on the front page of Traveller which did not even mention air miles.
Air miles and the extensive carbon emissions that are produced by all flights are like the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. How about a serious article on this enormous problem which most travellers either don't know about or don't want to discuss?
Pauline Nunan, Parkville, VIC
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