This was published 8 years ago
Traveller letters: Emirates return wallet lost in Dubai, intact
The much-photographed Hungarian Parliament Buildings in Budapest.Credit: Oleksandr Prykhodko
LOST AND FOUND DEPT
My wife and I have just returned from a holiday in Europe and Britain. We returned with Emirates flying from Gatwick via Dubai and Singapore and on to Melbourne. Disembarking in Singapore, I realised, with horror, that my wallet was missing.
I returned on board and searched, with the help of Emirates air stewards, under and around my seat, but without success. I knew I had had it at Dubai airport, so it went missing either there or on the flight. After arriving home, I sent an email to Lost Luggage Dubai Airport with a description of my loss.
The next morning, I received a reply saying that it had been found. It was put on the next Emirates flight to Melbourne and I picked it up at Tullamarine and found all of the cards and cash in place.
My grateful thanks. Some things still work.
Gilbert Foster, Wheelers Hill, VIC
LETTER OF THE WEEK
Lee Tulloch's account of her flight to Dublin includes the throwaway line "the flight attendant thought they were amusing and kept plying them with liquor". Having seen a fellow passenger on a flight from Dubai similarly plied to the point where he needed assistance to stand and leave the aircraft at Melbourne, surely the conduct of the cabin staff is of real concern.
My understanding is that were I to present myself at the gate in an intoxicated state, I could expect to be turned away – and rightly so. So how can it be right for airline staff to provide passengers with amounts of liquor that would render them incapable of complying with any emergency instructions, let alone becoming obnoxious to their fellow travellers?
You would think that all airlines include "responsible service of alcohol" in their training programmes, but my experience, and that of your columnist and others, suggests they may not.
David Muggleton, Mornington, VIC
HERITAGE VALUES
As important as they are, there are important benefits from World Heritage listing beyond those resulting from increased visitation.
The outstanding universal value of World Heritage areas plays an important educational role in teaching us about our history, our wildlife and the forces that shape the earth.
Above all, though, in nominating a place for the World Heritage List, we accept a shared responsibility for its protection, an example of a co-operative approach that we will need far more of if we are going to secure a future for our planet.
Dr Geoff Mosley AM, Hurstbridge, VIC
GOD IS A TASMANIAN
I can explain to Stelvio Vido (Traveller Letters) why the parking spaces at MONA in Hobart are labelled "God" and "God's Mistress". Here in Tasmania, [MONA founder] David Walsh is God. He has saved our economy, our pride and probably our souls.
Jane Lorimer, West Hobart, TAS
CLASS ACTS
What is going on with parents when flying? On several travel legs, we have had up to four families leaving their kids to wander down to their seats in economy whilst they comfortably ensconced themselves in business class, leaving the children to fend for themselves.
Our last leg of eight hours flying, we saw three children aged five to nine having to be assisted by the adjoining passenger and flight attendants.
Angela Zammit, Sydney, NSW
QUESTION OF BALANCE
The article on Israel (Traveller, October 17-18) claims to offer "glimpses of lives shaped by conflict". With 80 per cent of the article devoted to the West Bank, Israel is allocated a mere 20 per cent, which touches on Haifa's science and technology park, Tel Aviv's architecture and breakfast at a trendy venue.
It is a pathetically superficial look at a society shaped by thousands of years of persecution that, having finally achieved nationhood, has demonstrated the ability to make hope a reality.
There is no mention whatsoever of Israeli lives "shaped by conflict". No mention whatsoever of Israeli settlements being bombarded by missiles, where children are herded into air raid shelters. No mention of the need for young lives to be put on hold by three years of compulsory military service.
And no mention of Israeli doctors and hospitals where Palestinians, Israeli Arabs and Gazans receive the same professional treatment as Israelis.
While your writer travelled at her own expense, she travelled with Political Tours, a travel group that focuses on contentious politics in the places it visits. While I do not dispute the validity of its purpose, one would expect the group to have received a balanced view of the politics of the country visited.
Whether the tour did, in fact, provide balance, your writer has not, focusing almost entirely (80 per cent) on Palestinian disadvantage on the West Bank. Any reader who had not visited Israel would be hard pressed to gain any knowledge of the Israeli perspective; a perspective that recognises the constant threat under which Israel has lived from the day it was awarded statehood by the United Nations in 1948. The article quotes heavily from Palestinians, but no Israelis are afforded the courtesy of expressing their viewpoint.
Marcelle Grolman, Greenwich, NSW
HUNGARY FOR INFORMATION
In your latest Saturday edition of Traveller, the same building appeared prominently three times (four times in total) in adverts for three different European river cruise companies. It seems compulsory to have it in the picture behind every river-going vessel in Europe.
Please put me out of my misery and let me know what and where this compulsory building is.
Darren Bruce, Greystanes, NSW
EDITOR'S NOTE: It is the magificent Hungarian Parliament Buildings, also known as the Parliament of Budapest. The building, which opened in 1904, stretches nearly 300 metres along the banks of the Danube River, which passes through the capital.
WE WELCOME YOUR TRAVEL-RELATED OPINIONS AND EXPERIENCES
The writer of the letter judged the best of the week will receive a Lonely Planet prize pack valued at almost $90, it includes The World's Best Brunches, The World's Best Spicy Food and The World's Best Street Food. See www.lonelyplanet.com.
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