Compilation The Travel Show

Now its time for the Travel Show.

-- it's.

Hello and welcome to The Travel Show, coming this week

from the historic city of Canterbury in southern England.

I'm here to take a look back at some of the great stories we have

clocked up already in 2017.

And so far, it's been a great year.

It's actually quite difficult to walk through here.

It's so busy.

I only learned to ski for the first time two weeks ago.

It's definitely not recommended if you are a little bit claustrophobic.

Wow!

If you touch it four times, you're going to be in love

and married inside of six months.

Now one of the things we really pride ourselves

on here at The Travel Show is taking you off the beaten path,

to find destinations you may not find in your average guidebook.

Let's kick of the programme with some fantastic recent stories

that certainly tick that box.

In a moment, we look back at a truly astonishing sight that Rajan caught

a glimpse of in Myanmar back in January.

And then we check out some long abandoned military tunnels in Russia

that Carmen went to explore.

Something dropped on my head!

But first, we sent Henry off to Turkey to see an archaeological

dig that is revealing some fascinating insights

about that country's past.

In the heart of Nevsehir, among the modern houses

and office buildings, workers made a startling

find as they cleared a hillside for redevelopment.

The largest underground city of its kind.

Excavations have revealed these openings dug into

the side of the hill.

Experts estimate the caves could extend over 450,000 square metres.

Wow!

Look at all of this.

I find it quite hard to believe that there were people

living on top of here, and all of this was actually hidden.

So they had no idea that this was here?

No.

That is insane.

That ceiling is rather unique, isn't it?

What's all this?

This is a monastery.

And according to the scientists, the monastery dates back

to the sixth century.

You can definitely see the outline across there.

This region was very important for the early Christians.

Turkey is the single country on earth which has got the function

of a bridge which is connecting two continents together.

Asia to Europe, Europe to Asia.

Nearly 30 different civilisations have passed through this country.

Those early civilisations leave some remains.

There are plans to turn sections of the cave network

into an archaeological park with art galleries and boutique hotels.

Authorities hope to open it to the public in 2018,

when visitors can see the excavations in their full glory.

Look at this.

Wow!

These caves are home to 9,000 Buddhist statues,

some dating back hundreds of years.

They are all brought and donated by devotees hoping for a blessing.

It's just Buddhas galore!

And they are made of, what?

What material underneath the gold?

Like a mortar.

Concrete.

Concrete.

So by making a Buddha image, what do the people hope happens

in terms of Buddhism?

Does it give them a better life after life?

So this is like a good deed.

Like merit making?

Yeah.

And maybe the next existence, they can get a better place, you know.

They believe in levels of beings.

They want to be like an apple and to live in one day.

Wow!

Vladivostok in Russia's Far East is home to more than

half a million people.

And it is no stranger to traffic jams, partly because there

is no subway system here.

But what do lie beneath Vladivostok's hills are the remnants

of what used to be one of the most powerful maritime

fortresses in the world.

Abandoned for decades, some areas are now open to tourists.

This is Vladimir.

He is an author whose interest in Vladivostok's military past

was sparked as a young boy growing up in this area.

Is this where you used to come as a child?

Yeah.

Today, Vladimir and I are exploring his childhood stomping ground,

also known as Stronghold Number One.

So those holes there, were they for the guns?

Yeah.

There were holes for quickfire guns.

At the turn of the 20th century, Czarist Russia went to war

with Japan over who controlled Korea and Manchuria to the south,

and the waters surrounding them.

Vladivostok was home to the Imperial Russian fleet,

and that made it a potential target.

Vladimir, why was Vladivostok such an important military point?

Well, it was the only gate of Russia in the Pacific region.

And it was the only port on the Russian Pacific shore

connected with Siberia and other Russia by Trans-Siberian railway.

Wow, I didn't expect the ceilings to be so high.

It was proposed for shelter of peoples, and that's why

they have a lot of space.

Although many of the military structures in Vladivostok

are still derelict, it's great to see more people getting

interested in them.

These structures that once aimed to make Vladivostok impregnable,

deserve to be preserved.

Carmen going underground in Russia back in January.

Now where do you think is the best place in the world to meet

a potential love match?

Well, if you are Irish, it could be a little

place on the West Coast.

# Oh, Lisdoonvarna.

# Lisdoon, Lisdoon, Lisdoon, Lisdoonvarna.

The Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival is Europe's

largest singles event, attracting up to 60,000

people each year.

It's been a local tradition for 160 years.

The festival was originally designed to help find wives

for lonely farmers at the end of the harvest season.

For the past half-century, Willie Daly has been the town's

matchmaker in chief, using skills passed down

from his father and grandfather.

The process is this.

Would you like to have children if all goes well?

I think so, eventually, yeah.

Punters fill out their details and tell Willie about themselves

and what they would like in a partner.

I have you down there as good-looking and nice.

Oh!

Then, once the 20 euros fee is paid, Willie will attempt

to find them a match.

Joe's a little farmer.

He has his own farmer.

-- He has his own farm.

OK.

I had my doubts.

I may still have doubts.

But I thought I would give it a whirl, why not?

Not everyone attending the festival is single.

Many couples who met here in years past, return to celebrate and dance

the night and day away.

# Please help me I'm falling...

But most of the folk here are looking for love.

We want to find the one.

We want to find the one.

So far we haven't.

But you know what, there is such a good buzz around.

It's a great atmosphere.

It's a fantastic community.

It's brilliant.

We would like to find someone with a bit of land,

a nice personality, not bad looking.

We're not fussy.

We have to find the right match.

There are no shortage of options for the ladies here.

Is there anybody out there?

Yes.

Ta me anseo.

Now if I were to ask you, what's the most famous thing about Italy?

The chances are you would say it's food.

And most of their best pasta dishes contain meat of some sort.

But not if the new mayor of Turin has her way,

as Rajan found out recently.

Food is not just a matter of eating.

It is a matter of having knowledge of what you eat.

How you eat it, where you eat it.

And also about the story of what you're eating.

So it's about health, it's a matter of respecting environment.

So when we talk about vegetarianism, we are talking about what it means

to have a food policy, and what it means to having

knowledge of what you are eating.

Are you a vegetarian? No, I'm not.

Among the proposals are a vegetarian map for tourists.

One meat-free day a week.

And teaching children about animal welfare and ecology.

As a non-meat eater myself, I'm curious as to how realistic

the proposals are.

According to the mayor's office, there are already at least 30 vegan

and vegetarian restaurants like this one in Turin.

But she wants many more.

We want to propose something new, something different.

We study a lot about different kinds of ingredients, or techniques.

A lot of dishes inside Italian culture are vegan,

but people don't know.

People eat spaghetti and tomatoes and think

about spaghetti and tomatoes.

But it's a vegan plate.

Do you know what I mean?

So it's natural in Italian food? Yeah.

Yeah, it's really easy.

This soup is a cream made with potatoes...

Luca got into veganism through the punk scene

when he was young.

This is vegan Parmesan.

And he feels Turin is ahead of the game on eating trends.

We have to carve the truffle.

It's not easy, I know.

One of the most famous and the first vegan festival in Italy

was in Turin.

Like the first Gay Pride was in Turin.

I think it's like a really European and open-minded city.

Mmm.

Sumptuous.

Really, really nice.

Rajan in Turin.

It will be interesting to see how the mayor's plan turns out.

Don't go away, because there's plenty more to come here

on The Travel Show.

Addy takes to the decks in London.

I'm mixing!

And Carmen busts some moves in Peru, which could give any break dancer

a spin for their money.

But first, what's claimed to be the largest floating village

in the world.

We sent Henry to Brunei to check it out.

Along the Brunei River lies Kampong Ayer.

It's made a up of 4000 stilted buildings and over 18

miles of walkways.

To get over to the floating village over there, you have to take these

water taxis, which only cost $1.

But it's very choppy just because of the volume of water.

It's a channel, almost.

There is a lot of wind, a lot of these whitecaps that

you can see.

The older section of the village still features plenty of wooden

buildings and walkways.

It's not as pristine as the modern section.

But it has its own charm.

Wow!

What a beautiful boat.

So you made this?

So, so big.

How many generations have your family been

in the industry?

Just like that.

It fits perfectly.

This stunning entrance is the opening to the caves.

It's two to three million years old.

Once inside, you can explore the caves by using the specially

constructed walkways and take your journey back in time.

Starting to work up a bit of a sweat here!

Despite Oman being arid most of the year, the country's

pockmarked with river beds which can flood very quickly when it rains.

And flash flooding back and 2014 sent water gushing into the caves,

submerging most of them and closing the complex down to tourists.

Just over two years on, and the water is being pumped out,

returning the caves to their former glory.

I could stare at these rocks for ages.

That looks like a lion's head.

I swear it looks like a lion's head!

You can see its mane.

There's a bit of its mouth.

It's bizarre.

As you venture deeper and deeper into the caves,

the walkways get longer and the stairs get steeper.

Look at that!

But after coming all this way, I'm determined to see as much

as I can.

This is like being back at my mum and dad's old council flat.

You've got to be pretty able to get around this cave.

Sadly though, it doesn't look like I'm really cut out

to be a caveman.

It's like a proper training work-out.

Wow!

Look over there, it's just stairs - flights and flights of stairs.

I think my cave dwelling is over now.

This is enough for me.

To finish off our look back at some of the recent best bits

of The Travel Show, here's a selection of stories that seem

to be the producer's favourites.

Those are the ones where presenters get pushed way out of their comfort

zone and have to try something new.

Well, I didn't have to travel far from here in Canterbury to try

a spot of champing recently.

All will be revealed in a moment.

I'm mixing!

And neither did Addy, when he tried his hand playing a set

in one of London's most famous nightclubs.

We sent Carmen all the way to Peru and wanted her to try her hand

at scissor dancing.

I'm here for a spot of champing - church camping.

It's available at 12 historic venues around the country.

Beautiful ancient sites that are rarely, if ever,

used as places of mass worship any more.

That's a very big hotel room.

Money raised from letting champers like me stay,

means the crumbling buildings are spared

a slow inevitable decline.

Somebody at the pub just told me that tonight is supposed to be

the coldest night of the year.

So that's good, as I head into my unheated church room

for the night.

I've got my...

Air bed.

Sleeping bag.

So I've just got into bed.

And it's quite comfy, actually.

I feel quite cosy, given how cold it is.

I can see my breath.

I am going to try to go to sleep now.

And try and forget that I'm entirely surrounded by graves.

It is quite cold, notably quite cold.

I think there's a jolly good reason that champing is only done

during the summer.

Deciding to come champing at the dead of winter

was a really terrible idea.

You've got your volume controls here.

You've got your highs, mides and lows.

Your bass knob.

This is the big bass knob.

Give it some sibilance.

Straighten it out.

With the technology today, it gives you much more flexibility

to take risks and do things that you couldn't do

in the old days with vinyl.

So could you put a classic opera track with some hip-hop?

Yes.

Beethoven wrote most of his music in 120 BPM.

So he was one of the first House DJs.

Beethoven knew what he was talking about!

He dropped beats.

He did.

And a lot of his stuff was dance music speed.

All right, let's do this then.

OK.

One, two, three, four.

Two, two, three, four.

Three, two, three...

Four, two, three, four.

Bingo!

I'm mixing!

Now time to see if all that training has worked.

It's the moment of truth.

I'll tell you what I will say, it's very loud in here.

Now fortunately, it's still early, so the pressure is off a little bit.

And I'm getting the hang of things.

By the end of the night I've got the house rocking.

The origin of the Peruvian scissor dance is shrouded in mystery.

But many believe the tradition began in the highlands of the Andes

as an act of worship to the mountain gods.

Now its importance in Peru's history has been recognised by Unesco.

And it's backbreaking moves would put many break

dancers to shame.

First, I've got to get to grips with the scissors.

The aim is to hit the handles together in time to the music.

The blunt blades aren't connected, so holding them in position

is really tricky.

There is no way I'm going to be able to do this, and coordinate my feet.

And it's not just mastering the scissors.

This is the one that makes your knees bleed.

Learning the dance moves takes some serious commitment.

After a few minutes, I'm exhausted.

I can't even imagine how hard it would be to do these moves up

in the Andes, where the thin air makes everything so much harder.

These guys are true athletes.

That was hard work!

Carmen there, trying a spot of scissor dancing.

And as they say, folks, don't try that one at home.

Well, that's all we've got time from this week's show.

Coming up next week...

Henry is hitting the canals of Bangkok to find out what's

being done to clean up the city's waterways.

So much polystyrene, old teddy bears, mattresses.

Have a look at that.

So do join us then if you can.

In the meantime, don't forget you can keep up with us while we're

out on the road in real-time, by signing up to our

social media feeds.

But for now, from me, Christa Larwood, and the rest

of The Travel Show team in Canterbury, it's goodbye.

of The Travel Show team in Canterbury, it's goodbye.