05/12/2015 The Travel Show

Our holiday let in Japan's old imperial capital. Why renting a

piece of history could preserve it for the future. Hello and welcome to

the Travel Show. This week we are in Japan, where a little later in the

show I will be looking inside some of the country's most historic

homes, to find out why they are the latest hot property items for

overseas property buyers. Here is what else we have coming up for you

today. We are heading underground with the opal miners of South

Australia. Some people say that opal miners are crazy, we think we are

normal. And our global guru is he with his top tips. This week he has

tips on how to combat altitude sickness on board the world's

highest train ride, and how to get the most out of your hard earned

cash in Argentina. But first, it is known as one of the most beautiful

cities in Japan, with Sareen Gardens, colourful shrines and

temples dating back thousands of years --. It is also home to one of

the only surviving geisha districts. Because it was one of the cities to

escape bombing during World War Two, up until recently much of care to

look untouched by the 20th century. With many of its traditional wooden

townhouses, known locally as machiya, still standing. Now many

are under the threat of being bulldozed to make room for new

earthquake proof and air-conditioned apartment blocks.

Only 28,000 traditional machiya still exist in Kyoto. That might

sound like a lot, but when you consider that this is a city of

almost 750,000 million homes, it is no wonder people are worried. But

there is hope for these historic homes in the shape of foreign

investors think to buy a holiday home here in Kyoto. This is one of

our properties. It has ten bedrooms, and the price is 100 million yen.

That is just under $1 million. This looks like a tiny house, I can't

believe it has ten bedrooms! Will make it is not very wide but it is

long in the back. This place is huge! It has 280 square metres. I

would never have guessed! This reinforces stability, this

structure, and it creates Bideau mentions to the space. It is

beautiful. This is the place for carpenters to show their skills. It

is like a movie set. Look at this kitsch and! I have never seen a

stove like this. It is rare. How wild would it be? About the same as

the house, 128 years. I wouldn't know how to operate something like

this -- kitchen. It is like stepping back in time. What are people

looking for when they buy a machiya? They are usually looking for a

second house, but some people actually want to move into Kyoto

from abroad. Who are your clients, whereas a from? Mainly from

Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and America. Many overseas buyers are

also drawn by the plummeting yen, which has lost a third of its value

against the dollar over the past few years. Once these foreigners have

fought their traditional holiday home, many choose to rent it out. A

modest machiya in this bustling tourist city can fetch as much as

150 dollars a night in the high season. So, I decided to try out one

of these historic holiday lets for myself. Luckily the phone is

e-mailed me a detailed map, so I think it is down here. This looks

really residential. It says it is down a little alley, let's have a

look. Found it! This is a bit of a high-tech door code. We are in.

There are Western-style beds, and I'm a bit relieved. Usually you

would be sleeping on traditional maps on the floor. Space wise, this

machiya is about the size of a studio apartment. There is a

kitchen, a microwave oven, a table, a TV. There is even a washing

machine. This is cute. Check out the bath! Or should I say bucket... The

bathroom was on the small side, but overall my stay was pleasant enough

with all the creature comforts of home. While I know not all Kerkar

homes look like this, staying in a residential street and renting my

own traditional house made me feel a little bit like a local, and that is

something of growing number of travellers are looking for. -- Kyoto

homes. If you want to see things historical, here is the travel guide

on where to rest your head on heritage bet. Head over to Florence

in the north of Italy and you could be sleeping under a canopy of 16th

century frescoes and mosaics. This hotel dates back to the 15th

century. Once a week there is a traditional communal Tuscan dinner,

which recalls its history as a gathering place for the wealthiest

families of the city. In Switzerland, you will find this

family owned establishment. It has hosted countless royal guests, and

apparently Alfred Nobel was inspired to create his international peace

prize here at the end of the 19th century. Go now and you may still

brush shoulders with mobility, and with its vantage point overlooking

Lake Zurich, you will have one of the best views in the city. For

many, nothing says heritage like a good old European castle. Thornbury

Castle in England's south-west has a 500 year history. Including a stay

from King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn on their honeymoon tour. Hop across

to the west of Ireland that you could be stepping back to the 17th

century. King Henry V, Ronald Reagan and John Wayne Havell stayed here.

-- have all stayed here. Time now to leave the past behind and step into

the present. Here is your travel update.

Officials in Rome say they are tightening security at some of the

historic sites in the city, as they prepare to welcome millions of

pilgrims for the Roman Catholic holy year. There will be new metal

detectors at the Colosseum. A man was protesting about new public 40

laws last year and he managed to climb up onto an outside left.

Belgium has employed its cat population to help the tourist trade

recover from the recent security alert. The tourist boards made this

cat think promotional video after residents flooded social media with

pictures of their pets during the five-day lockdown. December is

normally a busy time for the hotels and restaurants as people arrive to

visit the Christmas markets. The threat level has now been lowered.

Beijing has issued its highest smog alerts so far this year. The orange

status is the second highest possible. At one stage, the readings

were 17 times greater than the level considered safe by the World Health

Organization. Some reports say visibility was down to a few hundred

metres in some places. Lets finish with happy news in

Mexico, where crowds came to see millions of striking orange and

black monarch butterflies heading off to their winter home. 3000 mile

mass migration goes from as far as Canada all the way down to the

California coast and central Mexico.

Stay with us on the Travel Show, because coming up next... Simon is

he with his top tips on how you can get the best out of your money in

Argentina. If we wanted to make an extra bedroom or have mother-in-law

coming, we would dig at another room. Welcome to the slice of the

show that tackles your questions about getting the best out of

travel. We are off on a train to Tibet shortly, but first column with

peak season approaching in South Africa there is concern about the

tricky new rules for anyone under 18 travelling to the country, even if

they are only changing planes in Johannesburg. When both parents are

travelling with the child you will need to carry an unabridged birth

certificate showing parental details. If only the mother or

father is travelling, then the other parent has to complete a consent

affidavit, either through a lawyer or at the South African embassy.

Eileen Reins free is about to travel the world's highest railway. I am

concerned about the altitude. This is one of the world's great rail

journeys, trains from three cities run to the Tibetan capital on the

highest railway in the world, reaching 16,640 feet. That is above

Western Europe's highest mountain. The train carriages have a special

ventilation system that delivers air enriched with oxygen, and in

addition each passenger has access to an individual oxygen supply. I

haven't yet travelled on this line but I have taken it to Bolivia,

which goes almost as high. My main concern wasn't oxygen shortage, it

is the cold, so take 20 of warm clothes. Gabrielle is also going to

extremes, planning an Alaskan cruise.

American's electronic system for travel authorisation is basically to

check your details against a range of watch list, and to establish if

there is anything about you that demands a closer look. Once you have

a ballade number you are clear to apply for entry, and that your first

port the officer will clarify your plans. For subsequent ports you will

be regarded as a domestic passenger into the deep the US. Ian is heading

thousands of miles south to the Argentinian capital, Buenos Aires.

But he says... Take a wad of fresh, clean US dollars in denominations

from $10 to 100. At the international airport, pay for the

fast frequent bus to the city centre with a credit card, then put away

the plastic for the rest of the trip. Your Hotel staff will

recommend the best and safest place to change money. If you plan to

explore beyond the city to anywhere more rural, change money before you

go. Outside the big cities the options and rates are not so

favourable. Finally, Claire, who lives on the Greek island of Crete,

says... What a great opportunity to explore

the Grand Canyon State, the biggest danger will be simple road safety.

And I'm sure she'll be careful and drive defensively. My only other

observation, she will be travelling through a wonderful state and might

want to share the journey through Arizona with a friend or a parent!

Global Guru is the element of the travel show that aims to help with

every aspect of your journey. So just e-mail. And I will do my very

best to find you an answer. From me, Simon Calder, the Global Guru,

goodbye for now and see you next time. Next up we are off the

southern Australia, where 100 years ago this year miners found a vast

seam of global and a highly profitable industry was born. --

opal. The only problem was that temperatures above ground made life

unbearable so the global community dug in and built their town below

ground. The appeal of Coober Pedy, it is the vastness. There is no

other place like it. It is very unique, not just the opal but the

area, the countryside around it. The people themselves, everybody is an

individual, you hear people saying there is a lot of characters in

town. Some people some us up as everybody in Coober Pedy, or opal

miners, are crazy. We think we are normal.

I found a beautiful opal. My first find in Coober Pedy, my brother said

come out and I will show you what we're going to look for. I thought

ho-hum, a couple of stones. I'm going back up to the car. And as I

walked up, I pick up a piece probably only two millimetres or

three millimetres thick and it was a perfect green crystal and I turned

around and said is this what we are looking for? We had $15,000. Opal

mining is what Coober Pedy is all about, that is why Coober Pedy

exists. There was nobody living within this region before opal was

discovered by a 14-year-old boy named Woody Hutchinson. And then

took off in the 1960s and that is when our lot of one was coming out

of Coober Pedy, literally millions of dollars. 50% of opal miners will

go broke. 1% will get exceptionally wealthy. Coober Pedy was a very old

town, and about 80% of the population live underground. It is

distinguishable by either 44 gallon drums above the ground or poly pipe,

and if you see that, that is their air shaft. That is how they get

oxygen into their rooms underground. People live in dugouts for the

project control. It is warm in winter and cool in summer. The

temperature can get up to 50 degrees in some here. Average of 45 over the

summer months, but it is a constant 21 to 25 degrees in a particular

home here. Maintenance internally, you just have to be careful that

there is no cracks in the wall. You have matchsticks in the ceiling,

they have been here 20 odd years and if they are on the ground in the

morning we know that the ground has moved. This is our bedroom, this is

where we slip down here. And you will notice that the walls are a

natural colour. There is a bit of a pinkish tinge, but this is the

natural colour of the sandstone. There is no windows in this room but

we get our air from the actual shaft. It is very quiet, very dark

and very peaceful, and we get a very good night's sleepy. So if we wanted

to make an extra bedroom, or have mother-in-law coming, we would dig

out another room. And if we were fortunate enough to find a seam of

Opal, so be it. This here, this is one of the most accessible opal

mines in Coober Pedy. All dug out by hand, with pick, shovel, and Barrow.

Moving the dirt by hand. And there was actually a time, especially in

the olden days, where they could walk from one side of Coober Pedy to

the other underground. This is what it's all about. This is what we come

here for, to find opal. You just never know when this opal is going

to turn into something amazing, maybe hundreds of thousands of

dollars worth of opal. The reality is, in this establishment, we do

have anywhere between $50,000 and $100,000 of rough opal still in the

wall. Now this machine is called... We are now a tourist attraction. We

see about 20,000 visitors a year so in essence we are still a mining

establishment every single day, except there are tourists making

claims. Well, that's all we've got time for in this edition of the

show. I hope you've enjoyed joining us on our travels. And don't forget,

you can come on our journeys in real-time by joining our social

media feeds. The details are on your screen now. Coming up next week: we

are in London, where one hotel has just opened the most expensive suite

in the city. We are there on launch day to see what ?24,000 a night will

buy you. Most of the contract is and supplies will be leaving the sweet

at about 6am and your arrival is about nine a.m.. Have you got any

whites? We've got paint on the carpet. And how good is your

gloving? Christer is in the States to CF Pele's latest craze is likely

to spread to the rest of the world. It is a very strange thing, all of

this. You can see how much training has gone into these performances.

It's kind of amazing. Join us for that if you can, and don't forget to

send us your travel pics and by using the hashtag #TravelTuesday,

they will be seen by us. From me and the rest of the team, it's goodbye.