Green Holidays

Dogs love to chase, dig and run - so should we really let them into sensitive wild places?

Having been a dog owner for many many years myself I would love to say ‘yes’ - but having also been interested in wildlife and habitat management - it could just as well be a ‘no’.

The reason I think is because of the owner, not the dogs!  So make sure you consider the impacts of your little furry friends before letting them loose with wildlife!

Dogs In The Countryside:
Dogs have been designed by nature to run and run, and chase anything that moves.  So as long as they have been encouraged to run and run with other dogs only - and to chase only balls and toys - then feel free to let them loose over fields and valleys.

There is nothing better I think for the owner and the dog to have a really great run through different habitats, across streams, sniffing what has passed before and enjoying the sunshine.

And if your dog is ‘under control’ you can cross fields of livestock and wander through deer-friendly environments.  However, many people think that ‘under control’ means that at some point and sometimes after lots of shouting that their dog comes back to them - usually at the car!

However, under control should be taken to mean that at your instant recall, your dog stops whatever it is doing and returns to you immediately if you ask it.

If this isn’t the case, then the only way to have your dog under control is to keep it on the lead.  But unfortunately, people see this as ‘unfair’ rather than thinking that they could well have simply trained their dog to respond to commands then it would be safe off the lead.

Effects On Wildlife:
Dogs are all friendly and cuddly to us humans - but don’t forget that they are capable of sniffing out, chasing and even killing wildlife such as rabbits, birds and deer.

Just by letting your dog loose in a woodland, you could be responsible for lowering numbers of rare ground nesting birds, causing a deer to injure itself bolting away, scaring off shy species from breeding in the area and even spreading common diseases to wild mammals.

There is also the problem of dog feces as well.  As dogs are carnivores their waste products are not of any benefit to the wildlife, and can take a lot longer to decompose as a result.  They could also contain bacteria and worms too which are of no benefit to the environment or other dogs passing through.

Vegetarian stools (from cattle, horses, sheep and deer etc) are more natural as they only contain partly digested plant matter, and so they are easily absorbed back into the food chain by bugs, insects and earthworms.

Alternatives:
Maybe we should be getting our local councils to allocate large areas that are not wildlife sensitive for our dogs to play in in complete safety and without worry.

A huge fenced in area with woods, large grassed areas and plenty of doggy bins could be the best thing for local pet owners.  This would mean that there was always a safe place to let your dog run around to burn off that energy, a place to play with other dogs and people and no adverse effects on wildlife!

Who is your local councillor? - And what are they doing to help dog owners?

photo credit: Vinni123

Need a quick re-cap for 2010 on why we take green holidays?

Be Open To New Things
Remember that not everyone does things the way you do them - so make sure that you are wiling to give something new a go if asked. It will certainly allow you to experience a different culture - and you never know - you might really like it!

Be Fair To Everyone
Try to put money into local hands rather than the firms that run the big hotels and tours. By all means haggle for your goods, but a few pence saved by you getting the best price could mean the vendor having to settle for little profit - and having to sell a lot more for their money.

Be Aware Of Differences
Respect the culture and think ahead when dressing for the day. Should you be wearing shoes or not - covering your shoulders or your head. It is all very important to the people who live there even though it means nothing to you!

Be Respectful To Everything
Remember when taking pictures and traipsing across fields and ancient sites - that these places could be very important to local people and their culture. Don’t assume that everything is there for you to explore and take pictures of -and that include people and their homes.

Be Unique On Your Trip
Don’t just follow the tourist track and go to all the places in the guidebooks - use that as a starting point and go from there. Yeah - see the sites that made the country attractive to you in the first place - but visit at different times or in a different way - or maybe visit a sister site or one that is less explored.

Be Aware Of The Options
Make sure that you check tour operators, airlines, hotels, and other travel companies before you make a choice. Check their eco credentials before handing over any money and make sure that you write and tell the best and the worst why you will or won’t be using them this time!

Be Generous And Kind
Don’t offer kids and beggars money and sweets - as this can lead to all sorts of social issues. Take pens and other useful but possibly hard to come by items for the local people you meet to encourage education and entertainment rather than tooth decay and stealing!

Be An Ethical Tourist
Come away from your vacation knowing that you have not only visited an amazing place and experienced amazing things, but that you have left it as it was before you arrived, or possibly made it a little bit better!

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Which charity should you donate to, to help the Haitians get through this terrible natural disaster?

Well, that is the point of the DEC - the Disasters Emergency Committee which have been working hard for humans since 1963 - basically they join all the main humanitarian charities together to fight one cause.

These humanitarian agencies include Save The Children, Help The Aged and the British Red Cross, and in times of emergency - like the earthquake that recently devastated Haiti - they join together to make big things happen - and fast!

This way funds, supplies and more importantly - information, gets passed to the right people at the right time  - rather than having all of the 13 single charities all trying to ‘do their bit’ to help separately but at the same time basically treading on each others toes!

It makes perfect sense to organise emergency relief this way - otherwise there will be too many people all on the same place at the same time all using valuable funds to do the same thing.

The DEC makes sure that none of the funds are wasted and that every charity can work in it’s area of expertise without wasting time deciding who is going to do what.

Your Donations:
By donating directly to the DEC, you can save even more of these funds by limiting the administration costs (and wasted time) of transferring money to Help The Aged, who then have to process and bank this money, only to then process these funds again when working with the DEC.

And, donating directly to the Disasters Committee means that that is exactly what your donation is going to be used for.  It isn’t going to pay wages for charity workers who are not directly helping the victims of the earthquake; it is going straight to the problem - and fast!

The DEC can also call upon huge international broadcasting agencies and distribution companies to help spread the word and facilitate collections and direct action - like free-phone numbers and televised broadcast appeals.  Your money makes this possible - and gets results.

Emergencies:
No one can plan for such emergencies, so these ‘on demand’ appeals are the best way to get the publics attention and to get one-off donations from companies and individuals.  These disasters don’t happen every week - so treat them as a rare event that you can help out with.

I mean, no-one is going to become a member of the DEC and get newsletters from it - it is an instant decision charity, and everyone can help by lifting the phone or getting online.

If everyone in your street gave just £5 that could be over £500 raised - multiply up your close neighbourhood - and it rises to £3000+. 

It might only be a small amount to you - but it soon treats thousands of wounded people - feeds hundreds of families and eventually helps to rebuild homes, hospitals, schools and cities.

Have you donated your £5 yet?  Donate Now.

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If local women are not allowed to visit somewhere - why should female tourists get access?

I was just reading an article in last months National Geographic about a peninsula in northern Greece filled with around 2000 monks.   This self-governing state is seen as the focal point of Orthodoxy in this region, and is home to over 20 monastical buildings and various other shelters and buildings - and not one single woman!

The males here have decreed that there should be no women allowed to visit, work or live on the peninsula - and they have lived here a long time holding on to this wish.

Mainly as they do not want to be distracted from their busy lives of worship and also as the land they occupy is hemmed in by great mountains, and only accessible by boat, so they have a certain amount of control over who enters.

Everything that happens here is ruled by the self appointed ‘rulers’ and they are sticking to their word.

However, now Greece has become involved in the European Union and many of the monasteries are receiving financial support from it - there is talk of ‘changes’ to modernise the area and bring it into line with the rest of the country.

And this could mean allowing women to visit!

Is That Wrong?
Just because we (as travelers) can visit virtually anywhere in the world that we want to, including remote Amazonian tribes in Brazil and Aboriginal families in the vast wilderness of Australia, does that mean we can ignore their culture - and their history - and in this case; their beliefs?

So, should men be able to stop women visiting this region?  Well, I think so.  Or more correctly - women should see how important this is to the monks and refrain from going there.

It is directly comparable to our personal space.  For example: when we go to the gym - we don’t just wander into the men’s locker room?  When we visit someones home - we don’t just go looking around their bedroom - so why should we go and ‘look’ at their monasteries?

It’s a matter of respect really.

Preservation Of Culture:
We all know that as the world expands, so history and culture are lost - so why are we not helping to preserve them?  Things may well eventually have to change - but we shouldn’t be the one’s speeding it up.

There are plenty of people living in the world today that do not want to or do not need to become modernised and have everyone trampling all over their land to see what they are like.

They should be able to just continue doing what they have done for centuries before without being ’studied’ or dissected to see how they ‘fit in’.

It is amazing to think that their are still places in the world that we don’t know about - and I must admit that I enjoy reading about such places and the people who live there.  People living their whole lives in religious seclusion or totally isolated from the rest of the world.

And sometimes, I just hope it will stay that way.

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Welcome to the final Green Holidays Blog Carnival of 2009.

It has been snowing where I am for days now and the ground is thick with snow! Great stuff - but not so good for all the people who are trying to get home before the new year!

And, not so many to choose from this month - maybe as everyone has been out visiting families or trying to escape to the countryside rather than be stuck in town on the holidays!

Anyway, we are here to talk about some green holidays - and lets start with a short one about voluntourism from Mircea: Tips for Volunteering and Traveling Abroad

Next, another short post about feelings running deep in some countries about cultural sites and landmarks where Dan gives us his opinions on The Ethical & Responsible Travel Minefield. Linking to this is a similar post by another writer: Take Care Not To Climb Uluru.

Ther is also another article about the ethics of travel these days, and poses some interesting questions and ideas.  Compare it to what you think when reading Should We Be More Travel Eco Friendly?

Lastly, Theo presents Green Christmas Ideas Revisited where he covers a few ideas for having greener holidays at home and with family at this time of year.

So, it’s ho ho ho and see you in 2010!

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The best way to learn a second (or third) language is to go to where they speak it!

Apart from in school where it is compulsory to learn a second language - whether you want to or not - you shouldn’t rely on books and things to learn how to communicate with the locals.

By all means, get started with a basic introductory guide - but the real language can only be found in restaurants and stores in the place you are visiting.

Downside To Books:
Well, needless to say - books and cd’s are using energy and valuable resources to create, and there is only so much you can learn about a language from written text.

Learning how to pronounce the words is virtually impossible with their weird symbols representing unheard of English sounds - for example the Spanish double l in paella.  You need to hear it to have the confidence to use it.  So if I said you should use the ‘y’ sound from the happy cheer word ‘yeay’ (or yay) but also don’t forget to pronounce the ‘ey’ for the ‘e’ - could you come up with it?  Oh and don’t forget to use the emphasis on the correct syllable too!

Go!!!

Or in Egyptian - pronounce the word ‘ughniyya’ if the ‘gh’ should be rolled like a French ‘r’ and you must pronounce both y’s individually with the stress on the second to last syllable.  Any the wiser?

Also, books are also quite repetitive in the sense that if you buy one basic German book for example, it will cover your name, where you live and giving directions.  Any other basic or introductory or ‘one-day’ books will also contain the same things.  They will all go for the standard stuff first.

Yes, they may do it from a different angle and some may have more role play than others, but you will basically be giving directions to the post office or from the police station over and over again (via the second turning on the left…..!  It can be quite frustrating every time you take up learning again.

And they are heavy to carry abroad too!

The Real Thing:
After travelling quite a bit in South America, I get so much more confident when I am there than when I am at home. 

Ask me to order a cheese and ham sandwich and a cup of coffee in Spanish while sitting on the bus puts a whole different stress on your brain than standing in a restaurant queue in Peru trying to get something to eat!

It just all falls into place.  You have to say the words otherwise you hold up the people behind you and don’t get your lunch!

You don’t need word perfect grammar to get started - and if you have ever watched people ordering food in their own language, it’s never said literally and in perfect order and timing anyway.  It usually goes something like this; “Hi, yeah, can I have a, er, well I suppose, er, a quick sandwich for me; ham and cheese, and a tea.  Thanks.”

Alright, you may get the odd thing wrong and end up picking something you didn’t want out of your dinner - or getting a different dinner to the one you had planned - but you won’t make that mistake again! I always have a reference book abroad with just keywords in it - but I never use it when I am out - it’s just to check things before I go!

And of course, you could always get asked a question about your order after you made it, throwing you totally out of kilter - but just pick up on the words you do know and try to answer their question - this is when you could use pointing!

Fresh Approach:
Seeing as we should all be taking longer holidays now to counter the terrible effects of long haul flights - you will have plenty of time to perfect your new language skills.

Nothing beats turning up at a train station somewhere needing to find you hotel to bring out all your learnt vocabulary.  Even if it is just a few words strung together - you will get by, get to your hotel and probably order something to eat as well.

You really shouldn’t be afraid to start chatting to locals with what you know - they will always be happy to help fill in the gaps.  They can also help you with colloquial terms and phrases too, like the way different regions of your own country refer to their parents (mum, mom, mammy, mother, ma) or their friends etc.

I had more fun learning a language whilst on my holiday than any number of lessons back at school.

So, take your time on your next vacation - and come home with a new language under your (money) belt!

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Learning to Tango in Argentina can be just as important as visiting a rainforest…….

There are a whole host of festival and events that may well rely on your visit to survive the next 30 years or so. 

I’m not talking about the modern Rio Carnival or Oktoberfest - I’m talking about traditions that have lived for centuries in small communities across the world.

UNESCO has set about preserving these traditions with their Intangible Cultural Heritage scheme - to which they have recently added the Tango - but which holds many many more already including many little known cultural delights from across the globe.

Take for example, the Indonesian Wayang Puppet Theatre. This art of story telling has been used in Indonesia for 10 thousand years, across the royal courts and in towns and villages, to bring the regions epic history to life.

There is still an interest in the puppets - either 3-dimensional or brought alive by shadows - accompanied by musicians and singers, but it is having to compete with television and the internet for viewers. 

By making sure you add a visit to a traditional theatre show on your trip to the area, you could be making sure that it is worth continuing the tradion and worth training for.  Would you invest your time learning a skill that people might not need in 5 years?

Or a trip to Mexico in late fall could coincide with the huge festival: el dia de los muertos - the Day of the Dead.  Thousands of local villagers spend the day in celebration of their lost loved ones who are said to come alive for the day and to bring properity and good luck to the families.

Cultural Heritage:

We all know how important it is to encourage traditions and festivals, but of course we need to make sure that we don’t make them into a side show, like the Kayan women from Thailand have become, but we want to make sure that they know the importance of their traditions.

Also, they do not want to freeze cultures in time.  There is no intention to force people to continue with customs that are no longer relevant, but to empower cultures with their past - rather than force them into an uncomfortable future.

Things like Morris Dancing in the UK are well known not to be a part of modern culture - yet we all love the tradition of the dancing and the people who dress up for this know the history and pass on the reasons behind the colors and the stick-bashing!

Society will always evolve - but why not hold on to the things that were once important.  Hopefully governments are working with these groups to make sure that these traditions are not lost forever like many languages around the world have been.

The RGS are hosting a fantastic EcoFair on the 5th and 6th of December in London.

They are bringing together some fantastic international eco friendly companies and charities to fill your day with excitement and fill your bags with great goodies!

Stalls include some of the old favourites like the RSPB selling wildlife gifts, memberships and information for your gardens and great days out and the CO-OP will be promoting their eco friendly and fair trade clothing ranges.

There are also products available from around the world, with alpaca clothing from Peru, ethical accessories from Nepal, hand-made silks from Cambodia and Luxury fabrics from India.

There are also creations from the UK, including recycled household goods, hand-made bespoke jewelry, fair trade organic babywear and luxurious oils and soaps.

There is also a free puppet show being performed at the show just after lunch time - called the Forest of Fables, and is performed using Japanese style puppets (made from recycled materials) to African music depicting well known Greek fables!

In addition, there is even a puppet making session beforehand - so your children can make their own recycled pupet like those from the show and learn how the show is put together - including a sneak preview at some of the songs - and they get to keep their puppet!

The whole show is free entry to all - with free fairtrade wine for all RGS members and guests - see the RGS website for more details……..

Not just 1, but 2 chances to make a difference in London for you and your friends!

There is a great build up of events across the world in the build up to the Climate Talks in Copenhagen this December, so make sure you drag your friends along to as many as you can so that our voices can be heard.

Remember, great things can be achieved if you let someone know your opinions - and voting with your feet or your money are the best things out there!

Event 1: Your Feet (and some blue gloves!)
Starting at Grosvenor Square in London at 12am is The Wave. An event where (hopefully) thousands of people will march through the streets of London dressed in blue like a giant wave!

A tide of change if you like!

There are events leading up to the rally, and events after the rally - with the big climax involving blue ‘waving’ - which is where the blue gloves are going to come into their own!

Bring as many friends as possible and spread the word to complete strangers too! The more people - the greater the impact!

And, Megabus are offering a massive number of buses into London for the event from just £2 - check online for details………

Event 2: Your Money
Bring your money and your re-usable shopping bags to the greatest Eco Christmas Fair in London!

The Royal Geographical Society are opening their doors in South Kensington and offering you the change to try and buy from a whole host of eco friendly and community-driven enterprises and goods.

From baby wear to body care, fair trade to hand made, and much much more including and eco puppet show - free for the kids!!

And don’t worry if you are busy at the demonstration above - or don’t want to go shopping in blue - then visit the Fair on the following day from 9.30am.

Two green events in 1 great weekend!

Here we are again in the blustery weather for another cosy look at other peoples holidays!

Oh, no. Hang on - there is only one entrant this month - so they get the whole post to themselves!

So, here we are with a story of a rather brave adventure to Sudan with Shannon O’Donnell and An Unexpected Stop in Wadi Halfa, Sudan | A Little Adrift…An Around the World Travel Blog |

Hopefully see you all next month for the final edition of 2009!

Travel Cat