gl12 sample

text: will gray

images: will gray + brian sheedy

SILVERSCREENRIVALOF THE

#18 get lost! ISSUE #12 get in the know! Richard Curtis, the screenwriter behind Love Actually, Notting Hill and Four Weddings and a Funeral, was born in New Zealand.

STARS ONCE FLOCKED TO FILM IN LONDON,bringing glitz and glamour to the streets of the national capital. After losing out

to Hollywood for decades, London is nowbecoming movie mad again.

It is three years since Film London was set up topromote film-making in the capital. With scenesfrom ‘Brit flicks’, Bollywood blockbusters and recenthits such as The Da Vinci Code, Blood Diamond andCasino Royale all being filmed in the capital, Londonis back on the filming map. In 2005, London hadsome 12,655 shooting days. Think of big icons suchas Bridget Jones and James Bond and films fromThe Thunderbirds to Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and thelist of top flicks that have been shot in London’sstreets quickly accumulates. To cater for the movie-mad tourist, Film London and Visit London havecollaborated on London movie maps thathighlight locations from over 50 London-shot films and a range of attractions with a cinematicconnection. In 24 hours, you can easily take in a trailerload of movie locations.

10:30amGrand Greenwich To The Tower

Begin in Greenwich and take a stroll into theimpressive Old Royal Naval College, spectacularlysituated on the banks of the Thames in thissleepy London borough. The building’s PaintedHall is a regular movie venue and housed the bell-ringing concert in The Madness of King George,the world leaders’ meeting in The Avengers andthe meeting of the Illuminati in a ‘Venetian’church in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

The nearby chapel played host to Hugh Grantand his mates when it was turned into the StMary of the Fields church in the fictional borough of Cripplegate, the location for the secondwedding in Four Weddings and a Funeral. It alsostood in for Charing Cross Station in ShanghaiKnights and was used in Patriot Games both as itself and, rather bizarrely, as BuckinghamPalace when Jack Ryan foiled an IRA attack.

Bridget Jone’s Diary: Edge of Reason.Courtesy of Universal Pictures.Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason courtesy of Universal Pictures.

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CITY

get in the know! Casino Royale was the first Bond film to be shown in cinemas in mainland China although Judi Dench has stated that she had to re-dub lines with references to the Cold War.

london

ISSUE #12 get lost! #19

From Greenwich there are plenty of boats thatwill take you to the Tower of London past thecontroversial Millennium Dome, which JamesBond descended upon in the opening scene ofThe World is Not Enough. Back on dry land, ashort jaunt past the Tower will deliver you to the impressive office of Willis Faber at 10 TrinityCourt. It towers over Trinity Square Gardens andwas used as the London home of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider’s villainous lawyer Manfred.

12:30pm Bankside, Borough Backstreets & Bank

After crossing Tower Bridge, you can walk the same route that was flown by Thunderbird 2:down the Thames past City Hall (used as BillyMack’s record company office in Love Actually)to the Tate Modern (its huge Turbine Hall featured in Match Point).

Double back and you will arrive at the AnchorTavern on Bankside, where you can enjoy a pint

of London ale on the same terrace where EthanHunt, played by Tom Cruise, unwound at the endof Mission Impossible. Just a few streets awayis Borough Market, one of London’s busiest filmlocations. It has plenty of unusual cafes for lunchand is famous as the location for Bridget Jones’flat, which sits above the Globe pub at theentrance to the market.

Also in this area, at 13–15 Park Street, are thegang hangouts featured in Lock Stock and TwoSmoking Barrels. One is currently a Paul Smithclothing store. Also found here is the dark alley of Winchester Walk, where the wolf was finallycornered in American Werewolf in London. Cross theThames via London Bridge and discover LeadenhallMarket. Lara Croft rode her motorbike through thismarket in the film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

3:00pmNorth Of The Thames

A short walk takes you to Bank from where aCentral line tube will whisk you to Chancery Lane,

the stop for London’s famous jewellery quarter of Hatton Gardens. It has featured in numerousmovies in different guises. In Eyes Wide Shut itwas transformed into New York’s GreenwichVillage, with New York-style payphones installed. The Professor and Sophie’s mad dash away from the coppers in The Da Vinci Code wasalso filmed on Chancery. In Snatch, 12 and 13Chancery Lane were home to Doug the Head’sdiamond store and director Guy Ritchie made his cameo appearance at the tiny Ye Olde MitreTavern at numbers 8–9.

The resurgent nearby area of Farringdon and Smithfield, home to some trendy cafesand restaurants, is a good spot to take a break.

Perhaps pop into the Vic Naylor pub on St JohnStreet, used as “JD’s”, Eddie’s dad’s bar, in LockStock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Will’s flat from About a Boy can be found at 16–18 St James Walk, a pleasant street next toa quiet square. However, the real highlight here is the Church of St Bartholomew the Great, where

The Da Vinci Code.

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#36 get lost! ISSUE #12 get in the know! Vietnam has 54 distinct ethnic groups recognised by the Vietnamese government, each with its own language, lifestyle and cultural heritage.

REAL VIETNAM

Steve Davey wanders the northern province of Lào Ca to Sapa and beyond on the trail of the hilltribe people, all the while ‘battling’ against Vietnamese hospitality and its brutal rice wine.

text: steve davey

images: steve davey

vietnam

ASH

OT O

F

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get in the know! Hmong court partners by singing love songs that boast of the composer's physical attributes, domestic abilities and strong work ethic. ISSUE #12 get lost! #37


#38 get lost! ISSUE #12 get in the know! In the 19th century, Hmong were encouraged by the French imperialist government to grow opium in order to pay hefty taxes, and so the colonialists could buy it.

ILIE AWAKE FOR ABOUT TEN MINUTES. I AM TOOscared to open my eyes. My neck feels like it is caught in a vice and pain shoots up

across my head to my eyes. They throb with each heartbeat. My mouth feels dry and furry.Tightness in my throat sends waves of nauseathrough my body. I open my eyes. I am sprawledon a sleeping mat on the floor of a bamboo-wovenhouse. This is my Apocalypse Now Martin Sheenmoment, but it is not the sound of fans orhelicopters that I am hearing, just the pulsing inmy head. Through half open eyes I see a table inthe corner with the remnants of the meal from theprevious night. An empty bottle sits malevolentlyon the table. I groan and let my head slip back tothe floor. I vow never to engage a Vietnameseruou (rice wine) drinking session ever again.

It had all started so well. I had been staying at the Auberge Dang Trung Hotel in the northernVietnamese town of Sapa, waiting for the famousweekend market. I arrived a couple of days earlyand spent the time recovering from the slowsingle-line railway journey. Hard seats made the journey seem twice as long and the stops in the middle of nowhere made it seem eternal.When, at each stop, scores of locals arrived to sell sweets, cigarettes and great lengths of sugar cane to the passengers I started towonder whether the train drivers were beingbribed to stop by these budding entrepreneurs.

The weekend arrived and the market waspacked. There are around twenty ethnic groups of so-called hilltribe people living in South-EastAsia. This market is particularly renowned for the regular presence of the Hmong people. TheHmong, who wear indigo clothes that they weaveand dye themselves, occupy a strange place inVietnamese society. Many of them sided with theAmericans during the war and when the south fellmany Hmong were airlifted to the United Statesby their erstwhile allies. Many more were leftbehind, however, and were persecuted for being on the ‘wrong’ side of the war.

Members of other hilltribes were also presentat the market, including a number of women fromthe Red Dao (Zao) hilltribe with shaved heads andbright red headdresses. In addition to visiting themarket to make purchases, many of the hilltribewomen were there to sell an assortment of tat to the tourists present. The Zao women were the most engaging of these vendors: laughingand joking while trying to convince me to buy


get in the know! The Vietnamese currency (VND), dong, means copper or bronze in Vietnamese, which was what coins were minted pre-French colonisation. ISSUE #12 get lost! #39

The sessions always seemed to proceed in thesame fashion: every man in the room wanted todrink a toast with me individually. With three orfour important men from the village at the table, I was drinking far more than anyone else. Othersmay have ended up sprawled on the table, but I was underneath it. Waking up the following day and piecing events together, I cursed myself for falling for that trick again.

I stagger out to the veranda. Down below, two great water buffalo are standing next to

two giant boulders. The smell of buffalo shit rises towards me and makes me gag. Today isgoing to be difficult. When I wake up feeling thisbad I usually spend the entire day in bed. Today I will spend most of the day trekking. Tran bringsme a cafe sua – a strong filter coffee dripped onto sweet condensed milk. He also looks rathercrestfallen and sorry for himself. I drink thecoffee in silence and then down another three. I am beginning to feel up to breakfast and as the sun makes it over the surrounding mountainswe resume our excursion.

a ‘traditional’ hilltribe shoulder bag made out of someone’s leftover denim jeans.

I decided that after the market closed I wouldaccompany the people on their trek back to theirvillages. I arranged a guide, Tran, and set off. Thehilltribe women trudged along, carrying whateverthey had bought at the market. Every so often I heard the grumbling of an old Russian Minskmotorbike and had to move out of the way toallow the rider and two or even three pillionpassengers to pass. Only men rode on the

motorbikes – the women had to walk. The wobble of the motorbikes down the tracks suggested that the women were probably safer: drink drivingseemed to be a hobby in these parts.

After a day of walking, we arrived at a houseowned by one of Tran’s cousins. Thrilled to see us and perhaps with one eye on the dong in mypocket, he laid on a slap-up meal washed downby many toasts of ruou. I had consumed the localrice wine in Asia previously and despite being 6’2” and equipped with a stone liver, had sufferedafter each occasion.

The light in the village is fantastic: backlitmorning mist mingles with smoke from themorning cooking fires. People are starting theirdays and travelling out into the terraced fields. An old man wearing the standard indigo baggytrousers and tunic of the Hmong leads two waterbuffalo up to a recently harvested field. Thebuffalo will spend the day grazing on the stubble.

The small village is largely constructed fromthe ubiquitous woven bamboo. Indeed, eachvillage that we pass has a large plantation toservice the many construction needs. Bamboo is a fantastic building materia: for its weight it is stronger than steel. It can be hollowed out andused as a water pipe, and also grows remarkablyfast and will thrive almost anywhere.

As the morning wears on, the temperatureclimbs. It is also getting humid but the elevationprevents it from getting too oppressive. I cannotimagine what it would be like here in the rainyseason when most of the rice is planted. Thereare few roads and many of the paths cross theraised boundaries of the rice paddies. In the wetseason, when the paddies are flooded, these areslippery and covered in leeches. In many placessnakes live in the flooded fields.

After a couple of hours trudging up and downsteeply terraced hills, we reach another village on a sunny valley floor. A strange sight greets us: awall of wanted posters, each with a grainy black-

vietnam

’’

Only men rode on the motorbikes – the women had to walk... (They) were probably safer: drink driving seemed to be a hobby in these parts.’’


get in the know! Cheetahs are relatively weak hunters – they can’t pierce a victim’s neck with their teeth as leopards do. #42 get lost! ISSUE #12

text: chris ord

images: chris ord

Brad and Angelina deemed it good enough to have their child there and if the rising number of travellers making an overland beeline for its expansive wilderness is any indication, Namibia is Africa’s golden child destination in more ways than one. Travelling the length of the country, Chris Ord tempts the appetites of some wild cheetahs.

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ISSUE #12 get lost! #43get in the know! All cheetahs living today appear to be descended from a relative handful of survivors.

PROBLEM: YOUR PRIZED LIVESTOCK – YOURlivelihood – keep ending up as ravagedcarcasses rotting in the African sun,

the victim of midnight raids by local wildlife.SOLUTION: ditch the sheep and ‘farm’ the predator to create Otjitotongwe, a unique grassrootscheetah conservation project operating on the Namibian plains.

That’s the thing about Africans: black, white orotherwise – they make the most of any situation.The glass is always half-full, even when it hasn’trained in months. The prevailing attitude (andsaying) is “make a plan”. Which is exactly whatthe Nel family did when their livestock chargeskept turning up dead, stripped of all but skin andbone by unseen predators on their farm in north-west Namibia.

They knew cheetahs were to blame. But thespotty devils are elusive and no matter the violenceof their appetite, they elicit a sympathetic followingworldwide, which makes them mighty hard to put abullet in with any kind of public (or legal) support.That’s assuming you’re a crack shot in the firstplace and able to hit the world’s fastest creatureon land, which moves at speeds of over 100km/h.

But with 38 livestock lost in a four-week period in 1994, something had to give. Rather than shootthem, as would most Namibian farmers, Tollie andRoeleen Nel decided to trap the cheetahs with thehope of relocating them to a game park. Releasingthem back into the wild far, far away wasn’t anoption as nearly every inch of Namibia is eitherfarmland or tightly controlled reserve, the onlyexception being the Namib Desert where cheetahscannot survive.

“But the bureaucracy that controls wild animals in Namibia is bloody complicated”, says the Nel’seldest son and park manager Mario. “We couldn’tlegally transport the cheetahs to any gamesanctuary outside of Namibia.”

This was despite strong interest from parks in Tanzania and Kenya.

The Nels then contacted Namibia’s famousEtosha National Park, located to the north of Otjitotongwe, but park authorities weren’tinterested. They were faced with having to

release the cheetahs back onto the land, until one of the captured cheetahs, which happened to be pregnant, gave birth.

Of five cubs, three survived. Returning thenewborn cheetahs to the wild would condemnthem to death (only five percent of cheetah cubssurvive in the wild). With the prospect of havingto hand rear the cubs there was only one answer.

“We figured we would farm the cheetahs”,deadpans Mario.

This didn’t mean the Nels were looking to floodthe Japanese delicacy market with cheetah steaks.“We thought if we could use the land as a cheetahreserve we’d solve all our problems at once: no more dead livestock, we help the cheetah

conservation effort and the farm stays open and financially viable by charging travellers to see and feed the animals.”

It’s the now grown-up cubs that greet you with

a surprisingly pet cat-like curiosity at the high steelmesh fence that surrounds the family home. Thegarden behind doubles as a feeding enclosure forthe cheetahs, which seem a whisker away frombeing fully domesticated felines.

Entering the enclosure, our host Tollie Nelrattles off the dos and don’ts as though talkingabout kittens that can’t slice you in ten with anonchalant whisk of their paws.

“They like to play with things, like cameras, sodon’t leave anything unattended.” And in typicallyrelaxed African fashion, that’s it for rules andregulations as you are invited to pat the purringcheetahs, an experience as unnerving as you’dexpect. Yes, it’s zoo-like, but you’re inside the cage.

After a heavy petting session Tollie feeds thecheetahs, which lose all interest in our bags and cameras as soon as the glistening flesh of goat and donkey is thrown their way.

While Otjitotongwe doesn't have the researchaspect of other comparable cheetah conservationprojects like Africat or the Cheetah ConservationFund, there’s no doubt that the Nel family hasdeveloped a fervent passion for their charges.Which is comforting, because in the small pocketswhere they do still roam the world beyondNamibia, cheetahs are considered endangered.Inside Namibia’s borders, they aren’t. Of theestimated 7,000 to 15,000 cheetahs left in theworld, 2,500 are found in Namibia where localsdon’t consider them to be under threat; ratherthey view them as a threat.

After the Nel family decided to take on thecheetah cause, they gained a bleeding heart

namibia

They like to play with things, like cameras, so don’t leave anything unattended.

’’

’’

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GETTING THE MACAQUE

OFF YOUR BACK

#88 get lost! ISSUE #12

THE MONKEY FOREST IS HOME TO THREE

Hindu temples dating from around the 14th

century and over 200 macaques. It is lush

and shady in the forest, with stone pathways,

carved statues and an intricate man-made pond

in the centre. This is where most of the monkeys,

and therefore the tourists, congregate to study

each other with mutual curiosity.

There are warnings against touching or engaging

the monkeys throughout the Monkey Forest.

Despite this, I noticed a young man aged about

twelve squatting down behind a juvenile female

macaque. Amazingly (and somewhat courageously)

this boy dared to delicately stroke the fur on her

back. The macaque let him do this, even closing

her eyes with contented pleasure. I looked on

My mum recalls that when

I was little I insisted that

when I grew up I was going

to be a monkey. I ended up a

comedian, so I guess I’m living

the dream. My fascination with

monkeys has never waned

and on a recent holiday to Bali,

one of my priorities was a visit

to the Sacred Monkey Forest

Sanctuary of Padangtegal in

Ubud. Not quite Gorillas in

the Mist I’ll grant you, but

I certainly got Long Tailed

Macaques in the Drizzle

and I was more than happy

with them.

get in the know! Banana in your backpack? Bali’s monkeys will bite you for it.

confessions

text: janelle koenig

spellbound. The boy made to stand and the

macaque casually climbed his arm and perched

quietly on his shoulder. Looking as if having a

wild animal alight your shoulder was the most

ordinary thing in the world, the boy stood and

absent-mindedly threaded the macaque’s powerful

tail through his fingers as he gazed through the

trees. I stood there gaping in awe.

The monkey eventually tired of her perch and

wandered down the boy’s back. Concerned for the

animal’s balance, the boy cautiously and with

much tenderness bent double, extending both

arms – aeroplane-style – to steady himself. The

harmonious moment was abruptly interrupted.

“Stand up, Danny!” bellowed an unmistakably

Australian male voice. With a quiet calm beyond

his years, Danny explained, “I can’t Dad, it will fall,

I don’t want to hurt it!”Dad scornfully and loudly

replied, “It’s a bloody monkey, Danny! It climbs

trees for Christ’s sake!”

Patiently, Danny started, “Dad, it might

fall”. Suddenly, the cry of an unmistakably

Australian female voice cut through the forest.

“Danny! It’s weeing on you!” And indeed it was.

In one fluid movement, Danny stood up,

screamed and, abandoning any previous

gentleness, hauled the monkey from his

back. Sending the mid-pee macaque flying

like a furry frisbee, he twisted his singlet

around to inspect the damage while his

international tourist audience collapsed with

laughter and pointing. OK, it was just me that

pointed – but everybody laughed.

And the lesson I learned from this?

Remember that even when you’ve got

a monkey on your back, it can still get

worse: monkeys wee, monkeys do.

Note: no animals were harmed during

this incident. However one young lad’s

Bintang singlet was totally ruined.

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