Episode 22 The Travel Show

Ukraine coming from our colleague Clive Mhairi in Amsterdam, and by

our correspondent in Ukraine at 5pm. Now, it is time for The Travel

Show. The scene of one of the most

shocking and famous examples of mass human brutality, but who's stealing

souvenirs from this historic site? This week, we find out why graffiti

and vandalism are becoming a problem We take to the high seas and find

out why people travel by cargo ship. We meet the lady who makes sure

the cast are all suited and booted for some of London's

most spectacular stage shows. It is not unusual

for us to put someone who is a size 18 into a size ten dress,

that is why it is a challenge. And I am in Borneo,

meeting the world's smallest bear. Welcome to The Travel Show with me,

Henry Golding, and Alan and Natalie, We are in Borneo at

a special conservation centre which Join us later in the show to find

out what the future holds for this Roughly equidistant from Krakow

and the Czech border lies Auschwitz first opened as

a museum in 1947, and, for many, it Damien McGuinness has been to the

former concentration camp to find out why some of those visitors

may now be causing a problem. It is arguably

the most notorious and most visited More than

a million people were gassed, Mainly Jews, but also non`Jewish

Poles, Roma, and Soviet soldiers. The huge site is today

a memorial which attracts But

the authorities here are fighting a problem, graffiti, carved into the

walls of barracks or the wooden bunk Very occasionally it is

anti`Semitic, but more often People have such a need of

documenting being in a historical place, and I think when you have a

wall like that, the easy thing is to write your name, that you were here,

but in fact people who do it destroy the building,

so this is of course from the beginning something wrong for

us, it damages, not destroys, but And stranger still some visitors

even steal ghoulish souvenirs, A few hours' drive away,

in the mountains of southern Poland, we visit Bernard Offen, an

85`year`old survivor of the camps. He was sent to Auschwitz with

his father when he was just 14. I was asking,

what happened to my father? And they said,

he went up the chimney. Bernard's father, mother,

and sister were all murdered I ask him how he feels

when he sees graffiti on the walls It is a denial

of what transpired there. Because people are not

taking it seriously? Not only are they not taking it

seriously, they are in denial because what

transpired there is so... It can be, it can make you sick

if you really start to understand Only a tiny minority

of the huge amount of visitors actually vandalise property here,

and all the people I talked to were I think it's incredibly

disrespectful. It's offensive to me as somebody

coming from another country to visit here, the fact people would deface

something that is so historical that I feel personally it is

quite disrespectful. I know people are saying,

rest in peace, etc, but it is disrespectful to the dead

and what has happened here. Some graffiti was scratched

by prisoners themselves in Probably these are the last words

these women were able to write. The authorities say this

graffiti must be preserved. But the main problem is how do you

remove the modern graffiti without So the memorial has launched

an ambitious conservation project. The first step is to analyse

the old materials to find out how to save the buildings

and remove the graffiti safely. Next year, conservation work itself

starts, but one of the barracks has And here you can see the

end aim of this mammoth conservation project, because that is what it is

about, about, conservation, not renovation, and that means

keeping the scars of history. So you have got the authenticity

of the building, To a certain extent, the Auschwitz

memorial appears to have become It has become so well`known

as a place that reminds us of the crimes of

the Nazis that some people seem to Damien McGuinness watching

conservation efforts If you are planning a trip to South

Africa this year, check that you have all the necessary paperwork.

New rules state that, from October one, parents travelling to South

Africa with a child under the age of 18 will need to produce an

unabridged birth certificate showing the names of both parents.

acknowledged that new regulations acknowledged that new regulations

may be off`putting, the ticket early for single parents, but hopefully it

won't stop people travelling to the country.

It is already the most visited attraction in Peru, but new

proposals to extend the opening hours of Machu Picchu have been met

with concerns. At the moment, there are 2500 visitors per day to the

World Heritage Site, but plans to extend opening hours until 8pm could

double its capacity. Conservationists say such an

increase could damage the ruins. And finally, how do you fancy a

slide down this? The world's tallest water slide has opened in Kansas

City, Ms Allred. Thrill seekers plummet from a flight as micro

height of more than 50 metres at speeds of up to 70 mph, more than

110 kilometres per hour. Its name is the German for crazy. Not that we

are suggesting anything about the people who give it a try.

Next, a new feature in which we meet some of the people who make our

cities tick, and we start in London, where taking in a show is a major

attraction, with a record 14 million seats sold last year. We go behind

the scenes with the person who ensures that the thousands of cast

members in the capital's most popular stages are dressed to

perfection. For me, it is a really special way of telling a story. With

music, and with dance, the emotions are really very strong. My name is

Mel Barton and I am head of the costume workforce here at Royal

Opera House. I think my main job, really, is to coordinate the work.

We have six workrooms. It is really about making sure that everybody is

supported in the way they need to be supported, that they have what they

need to do the job. We have a deadline every week, so that can be

quite demanding. This is our revival workroom, so our reason for being is

to maintain integrity of the designs, to keep the costumes

looking absolutely perfect. The majority of productions are

revivals, they are existing productions that we need to get back

on the stage. Lots of conservation work, restoration work, and, of

course, alteration. One of the important things is that everything

does that. It is not unusual to put someone of a size 18 into a size ten

dress, which is a huge alteration, and, as you can imagine, quite a

challenge. We are in our last performance for this season, the

40th revival at Royal Opera House. It is 40 years old, we have probably

revived it most seasons, it is tremendously popular. Also I am out

of the fact that 60 to 70% of the costumes are original. This is a

band uniform. We have six of them and it must have been purchased from

the military supplier because you can see from the back here, the

costumes were made in 1902, so these are our oldest costumes here. Every

season we do 40 ` 45 productions. This will be made up of 35

revivals, then maybe ten new productions. A large ballet or Opera

will have 500, 600 costumes, bringing it to over 7000 fittings in

a season. I think I feel satisfied if everything is on stage on time

and looking good. Still to come on this week 's

programme: I am in Borneo with the world 's smallest bare, finding out

how this species is being saved from potential oblivion. But first...

Next this week we are on the high seas. The number of passengers

taking a cruise has increased by 20% in the last few years, and for most

people that means travelling in the lap of luxury. But some travellers

are opting for freight cruising. It is considerably less glamorous, so

what is the attraction? Crystal finds out.

Norway's Hurtigruten is the poster boy for cargo travel. A years ago

the fleet started as a postal service of the west coast of Norway

linking what were isolated communities. Now, though, it has

become an attraction in its own right, taking tourists from the

UNESCO world Heritage city of Bergen up the west and north coast, to a

city not far from the Russian border. And it is crossing the

Arctic circle that is one of the chief attractions here, with a

creepy special guest and an unpleasant welcome ceremony.

All the fun aside, there is still a crucial social function that the

Hurtigruten provide. In the winter time there are times when even the

planes, and all the small villages on the coast of Norway, there are

airports but sometimes the weather is so bad that only the ships can

come in so it is very important to get there. Meanwhile if you're in

the Far East, how about a mammoth Pacific crossing? This line sales

from South Korea all the way to California, and you should be at sea

for ten days. Departure times are unreliable so be prepared for a long

wait. This is a bona fides cargo ship.

And these trips are not that much cheaper than your average cruise

liner holiday, but there is one way you could travel on a freighter and

actually get paid for it. Christophe Schwarz travelled to

Shanghai from Hamburg via Rotterdam alone for the most part on a

container ship, and made a film about it. He got a job as a ship

steward, there to look after the hundreds of shipping containers. But

a word of caution: If you are thinking about this route, the

isolation and board instead start to cause Christophe to exhibit some

fairly eccentric behaviour towards the end of the trip `` isolation on

board did start to cause Christopher.

But for Scott, the cargo ship adventure was inspirational. He took

an 11 day journey from North Carolina to Antwerp in Belgium.

For me personally, I had quit my job and I had been living abroad for a

while, because I had no `` so I had no permanent residence any more. I

was just trying to rediscover my true passions, and I needed time

away from the noise of life and everything else. For me that was

quite valuable, I was quite happy to be by myself and reflect on the

things I have done and what I want to do next. So if you are in that

part of your life it might be a good one. Scott paid 1500 euros for the

trip, but was it really worth it? It depends on many different aspects of

how you value your trip. If you are trying to get from point a to point

B cheaply and quickly not the best value, but if you want a good long

voyage and discover yourself and read a lot of books, of values. Good

long the desire `` delights or otherwise

of freight cruising. Finally this week my travels took me to Borneo,

to the north of the island. Borneo is famous for wildlife including

endangered and like the orangutan or the smarter and rhino, but by far my

favourite and the cutest of them all if the Malaysian sun bear, so I have

come to this conservation Centre to find out what they are doing to

protect the future of the shy and elusive animals.

snouts and soft paws. This is where the problems lie, people take them

as pets. Add poaching and loss of habitat and these creatures don't

have much going for them. Yellow the sun bear is the most adorable bear

in the world, they are very good tree climbers. It takes a man of

great fortitude and love for sun bears to make a difference, and this

is just that man. He started the sanctuary back in 2008. Sun bears

live in this type of dense tropical forest and they are very shiny,

their density is low, and for conservation work on Endangered

Species Act, the first step is to begin public support, `` on

endangered species, and for public support, knowledge has to be there.

Our centre has been open almost three months now. So many people

coming and this is the first time they have heard of the sun bear.

This is the first time they had seen what a Sunday looks like. I think it

is amazing, and being able to see the sun `` sun bears being able to

be rehabilitated, learning to climb, and look for food, open coconuts, it

is amazing seeing them turn into real sun bears. There are currently

33 rescued bears here into houses, a quarantine building and a number of

forest enclosures. `` in two houses. Sadly many have already

spent too long in cages, and in some cases they begin to exhibit odd

behaviour brought on by years of abuse in terrible conditions. All of

our bears were captured as very small cubs, and were then kept by

humans as pets, and due to the point that the owners realised, this baby

Bear Cub used to be very cute and is no longer cute any more. In the end,

those bears will be killed, or they will sell them to a restaurant, for

example, you know, to sell as body parts, meet, and if they are capable

they would keep as a pet locked up in a small metal cage for the rest

of their life, and that causes suffering. So it seems all these

bears have sad stories. Are there any happy endings? Well, this is

what we try to which Eve, and happy ending would be the bears going back

to live in the forest, in the wild. This is what we try to achieve. I

have always been a bit of a sucker when it comes to the cute and

cuddly, and it just so happens I managed to pester Wong enough that

he would let me feed them. Oh yes, it was definitely worth it. This is

very exciting indeed, I think this will be my chance to get really

close to the sun bears, especially when I am holding loads of food.

literally seven metres away, just munching on the sugar cane and

sweetcorn. What an absolute privilege it is to

be this close to such a beautiful creature. I'm afraid that's all we

have time for on The Travel Show this week. Join us next week for

this. Date of birth, face shape, even my

eye collar, it is all on here, but exactly who else has my data? `` my

eye colour. Spying and surveillance remain powerful tools used by

governments around the world. And next time you are heading off on

holiday, don't think you are not being watched.

That looks like a good one so catch it if you can. In the meantime, keep

up`to`date with us on our travels by heading to our website or social

media feeds. The details should be on your screen now. From me, Henry

Golding, and the rest of The Travel Show team in Borneo, including the

bears of course, it is goodbye. out across the UK at the moment. The

sun is out for some, for others the rain is lashing