Canals The Travel Show

Coming up on this week's Travel Show, I meet the people

who are cleaning up the canals of Bangkok.

We've got so much just rubbish.

We are searching for the secret sights of New York City.

This view is incredible.

And heading to Italy to taste some of Turin's finest chocolates.

Wow.

Hello, and welcome to the Travel Show, coming to you this

week from the capital of Thailand, Bangkok.

It's a vibrant city packed with sparkling temples,

skyscrapers and night markets, but home to some of the most

congested roads in the world, and getting across the city

through the tuk tuks and the traffic is a bit of a nightmare.

But I'm here to find out what's being done to take the people off

the frantic streets and on to the city's Waterways.

First built over 200 years ago, Bangkok's huge network of canals

criss-cross the city.

This is Thailand, Bangkok, the Venice of the East,

where water is in everyone's way of life.

Over the years, some of the canals, or 'khlongs' as they're called here,

were filled in, but an extensive system still exists today.

Saen Saep Canal is an important artery in the network and 100,000

people travel on it every day.

But gopping onto one of the boats as a tourist looks daunting,

to say the least.

Take a look at this - these commuter boats quite literally

wait for not a single person.

You'll see as soon as it docks, everybody leaps

for their lives off it.

And we are going to be right in the melee.

People get splashed, maybe even fall into the river itself.

The canal.

You don't want to go in there - the water is dark, dingy,

and very, very smelly.

Here comes another one.

The pollution is caused by waste from houses,

stalls and restaurants that line the sides of the canal.

Now, work is underway to clear up the khlongs

and improve boat services.

By doing that, it is hoped more people and tourists will use

Bangkok's waterways, and congestion on the city roads

will be reduced.

This doctor manages the clean-up teams that work on the canals.

We've been travelling through this canal for quite a while.

Going through all the skyscrapers, all the way through the middle

Bangkok.

This is one of the main boats that are cleaning by hand these canals.

You can see the amount of rubbish, the plastics, the leaves,

that could clog up this place.

Hard work.

And they do this every single day.

You have to clean the canal, of course, but how to clean it?

You have to prohibit people throwing away what they don't need

into the canals.

So, do you think it's about educating the local Thais

and not throwing their rubbish?

Yes, of course.

That is very important.

Education is very important.

Especially the younger generation.

Further down the canal, I see just how much of a challenge

is facing the cleaning crews here.

And what they have here is these bamboo booms which are collecting

all of the rubbish.

And this is where they crane it out of the water, literally,

with a huge machine here.

You can just have a look at what actually floats up.

Insane.

So much polystyrene.

There's old teddy bears, mattresses.

Have a look at that.

So how often do they have to take all of this out?

Twice a day.

Twice a day?!

You've got so much...

Just, rubbish...!

What are the types of things that washed down?

Anything and everything?

Even furniture!

Something like that.

So people just throw couches, refrigerators, whatever they don't

want, they throw it in the river?

Yes, yes!

I've got to say, the smell coming off the water itself is very rancid.

Very sort of seweresque.

Not very nice at all, not pleasant.

Time now to get away from the smell, and head to one of several canals,

that has already been cleaned up.

And new boat services are already running.

Looks nice from afar.

Look at that - seats!

Not too packed, that's always good.

I've got to say that this is so much more of a calm a way

of seeing the city.

I don't know if it's the time of evening,

when it's kind of golden-lighted.

But it's smooth.

There's no sort of smell of that nasty water.

And, the plus for tourists, there's wi-fi.

Because who can't go without wi-fi these days?

Look at that, straight to a beautiful temple -

that's the benefit of travelling by these waterways.

No traffic, no fuss.

It's hoped cleaning up the khlongs won't just help to ease

traffic on the congested roads, but will mean more tourists go

and explore the floating markets and canal-side communities that

are a big part of the city's heritage.

So this is our boat for the day?

Amazing!

Long tail boat.

The James Bond boat!

This man runs longboats to an area where some

of the traditional wooden houses have been restored.

So where are we heading now?

We're heading into the one that is for the old-fashioned

market, and we are going to see the artist's house.

How long has it been there for?

Oh it's about - a long time ago...

Before 1782, before Bangkok city was even built.

In the 18th century, hundreds of stilted houses like this

would have lined the canal.

That's how they get across the canals themselves -

these motorbikes have to come over these very steep ridges.

So people still live here.

Yes.

Amazing.

Slanting at all sorts of weird angles.

Because of the - how old this place is.

These old Thai puppets.

They open this place to be an artist house,

for any artist to come and enjoy making a masterpiece.

The last thing I expected while coming here was seeing this

rather eccentric place.

You know, the artist need some feeling and emotion

to create their masterpiece.

Or their things.

This is a beautiful area to get that stuff.

The clean-up has already gone a long way in restoring the canals

to their former glory, but for the project to be a lasting

success, the community here also has a big part to play in protecting

the amazing system of waterways that help make Bangkok so special.

Time now for this week's global gourmet.

Coming to you from the rolling countryside of Lancashire,

in the north-west of England, where they are cooking up

a new twist on a traditional dish.

The first thing about using all of the food from the local area

is that everybody helps each other.

Another fact is that the boned beef and mutton is just so good.

Because of the rain, we had lots of grass,

that is what they eat, and it makes fantastic produce.

You want to encourage people to eat what is from within the region.

Because we think there is enough of it around.

Plenty to go around.

And to populate the menu, yeah.

Why would you order a Lancashire hot pot?

First, why not, because you are in Lancashire,

and it is a nice old traditional dish from the Industrial Revolution.

It is a one pot dish, cooked in an earthen ware

pot and slow cooked in an oven

for quite a while.

It is delicious.

It is hearty.

It is robust, it warms your cockles on a winter's day and when you're

eating it, you really feel you are having a flash

of the countryside in your dish.

And then you've got this lovely onion, quite a lot of the onion,

very important, this onion, it adds a lot of sweetness.

Not only do we have a hotpot, we have a beautiful light very sort

of sexy modern dish that you can eat.

You're not going to feel heavy and stodgy.

"We're up north, it's really heavy, it's full of fat."

That is so removed from what we do with our hot pot.

There we are.

This is the Lancashire hotpot.

Beautiful gorgeous melting lamb underneath, fragrant,

clean, clear light broth.

Gorgeous crispy, crunchy topping.

Lancashire hotpot, what a lovely dish.

Stay with us, coming up...

With Easter on the way, we had to Italy, to take a look tour

around the world famous chocolate shops of Turin.

The Travel Show, your essential guide, wherever you're headed.

Next it's Secret City, this week coming to you from New York.

A place we've seen so often in the movies that many people feel

like they know it already, even though they've never been,

We sent Jo to find a hidden side to the Big Apple,

To kick off she's heading to Times Square, to meet travel

blogger Jessie Fester who's put together a list of things

for her to uncover, starting with an audible artwork

that is underneath the city streets.

Here we are, do you hear anything down there?

It's actually an art installation.

In the 70s, this guy Max Neuhaus installed it, no sign,

he wanted you to be able to find it on your own.

And you put your ear right to it, you can hear it quite clearly.

Most people aren't curling on the ground.

It's pretty cool.

Next, I'm off to find some lunch, New York's famous for its diners

and delis but Jessie has sent me to find a restaurant that is a bit

different because it operates out of a loading bay.

I think this must be it, I feel like I'm walking into a factory.

I know you're coming, I make a nice pork for you.

That is impressive pork.

Yes.

Tony moved here from Ecuador 40 years ago and serves

traditional South American food from this unusual location.

This is a special sauce that we make over here.

This smells absolutely amazing.

It's so moist, the meat.

I'm working here, I'm also from Ecuador.

Is this a bit like a taste of home?

It is, it is, that's why I keep coming back.

Now, I'm off to try a new tour, which goes behind-the-scenes at one

of New York's most iconic hotels.

Historian Joel takes me down to an abandoned tunnel,

used until the late 1960s as a private route in for the VIPs.

We are underneath the intersection of 8th Avenue

and 34th St right now. We're headed south,

towards Penn Station.

What famous people came here?

John F Kennedy and Robert Kennedy were here.

Many legends about John F Kennedy.

This will take you out to the platforms at Penn Station.

But the most exciting bit is the roof.

This view is incredible.

We are besides the Chrysler building, the Empire State building,

if you look down there, you can see the Statue of Liberty,

let's go and see the roof sign.

You can see it all over the city, can't you?

I can see it from the town where I live in New Jersey.

The letters are enormous, when you get up close.

The letters are about 20 feet tall, and illuminated by LEDs.

How may people have touched the sign?

You're in a group of less than a dozen people, I'm sure.

Thank you for bringing me up here.

Oh, you're welcome.

So Jessie said to come here to see an orchestra but the address seems

to be just a normal block of flats.

Who is it?

Hello, it's Jo.

Hello.

Are you Sam?

What's happening here?

This is Groupmuse, a classical music house party.

Come with me.

We arrive in the middle of a recital.

This is really special.

Groupmuse is a classical music house party that connects classical

musicians in the area to people who have living rooms

or rooftops in the area.

So we have music pretty much every night.

Anyone can host.

Anyone can attend.

The idea is that people make a $10 donation to the musicians

which makes this a much cheaper night out than an evening

at the orchestra.

To end my hectic day in New York, Jessie has fixed me up

with a bed for the night.

Are you the guy that has sorted me somewhere to stay?

Absolutely, follow me.

It's a taxi cab.

It's a luxury liner taxi cab.

Wait until you see the inside, you're going to love it.

That's lovely.

Complimentary free water for you, and your official taxi hat...

How much does it cost to stay here?

$39 a night, Monday to Friday, 39, weekends, 49.

You are allowed to be parked here?

Yes, nothing I'm doing is illegal.

The only thing I have to do is make sure I follow

the parking regulations, I always pick a place which has

a beautiful view of the skyline.

Right then, better get in.

It's actually quite comfortable!

But very strange.

Well, good night!

Jo discovering the secret side to New York.

Now to end this week, we are off to Turin in northern Italy.

This historic city is known as the country's chocolate capital,

and we went to find out what the chocolatiers are cooking

up in time for Easter.

When you think about the home of chocolate in Europe,

you probably think about Belgium or Switzerland, which is just over

the Alps over there, you probably don't think of Italy

and certainly not Turin.

Well, think again.

So celebrated is Turin's sweet tooth that there are even organised

tours of the city's chocolate shops.

And we can try the hot chocolate...

This hot chocolate layered with an espresso and cream

is a local speciality.

It's like a feast, it's like a dessert, it's not

like a normal coffee.

And how many of these could people drink in one day?

LAUGHTER.

Just one!

LAUGHTER.

And to really grasp the story of how this region's chocolate

speciality came about, you have to take a journey

into the Piedmont countryside, and the rolling hills of the Alta

Langa.

It all really began thousands of miles away with a trade

blockade in Latin America in the late 18th century

imposed by Napoleon, which restricted supplies

of the crucial ingredient of chocolate.

The signature chocolate of this region is the gianduja, and it came

about really through necessity.

Because of the higher price of cocoa beans,

they decided to mix it with local hazelnuts, and it proved

to be a magic recipe.

In fact, it was in this region in the 1960s when the first ever jar

of what was to become the world's most famous spread was made.

Local tastes are far more refined than that.

This factory claims to be where the iconic gianduja chocolate

was first produced in the mid-19th century by Pier Paul Caffarel.

Now a million of these signature ingots, the Gianduiottos,

are produced every day.

The beauty about this factory is a lot of process steps

are still very artisan.

We are producing chocolate more or less as we have done in the past.

But we combine this with modern technology and quality is not just

top ingredients and all this, it is also about what is

the story of the product.

Who produces the product.

I always refer to the soul of the product.

To realise how seriously people here take their trade,

you have to go behind the scenes, to the self-styled

University of Chocolate.

We clean the cocoa beans, we cut it, we can check

the health of the cocoa beans.

Here in the lab, it is all about meeting the exact needs

of the chocolate connoisseur.

All my chocolate is small size, because I think that

people like to eat some different flavours.

And a lot of chocolate.

But you can't stand still in this world, the trick is to find

new varieties that attract an ever-changing market.

Guido should know, he is the award-winning don

of chocolate in Turin, a real-life Willy Wonka,

and the son of a chocolate artisan.

We have the pin pfeffer, it is fantastic.

Not too strong.

Very aromatic.

You can smell now.

This is a very elegant flavour.

We put white chocolate here.

Balsamic.

Fresh grass.

It is a labour of love, and far more intricate

than you might imagine.

Cocoa coffee, caramel.

Guido showed me his sensorial map of chocolate.

Mushroom.

Yes.

It's interesting, eh?

Do you think this is art or science?

LAUGHTER I think it is art and fantasy.

That needs science to be perfect.

The price of seeing chocolate being made first-hand is that

you look a little bit silly, because you have to

put these things on.

I will pay that price, it's worth it.

Whoa, look at this stuff.

It's nice.

And you end up with chocolate.

Is it important to test these, do you think?

Yeah?

You need an outside opinion.

Wow!

The texture is really nice.

That's it for this week, but coming up next week:

I'll be continuing my journey here in Thailand, visiting

the world's first ever elephant hospital.

And I'll be meeting some of the amazing animals.

And don't forget you can join us on the road by following any

of our social media feeds, the details are on your screen now.

From me, and the rest of the team in Bangkok,

Thailand, it's goodbye.

Hello there, good morning.

As April weekends go, I think we are in for a bit

of a treat this weekend, because there is some strong

sunshine to be had for large swathes of the UK on both days.