Exploring Bethlehem The Travel Show

Meanwhile, the daily Star has some

alternative advice to keeping the

bug at bay.

Now on BBC News,

it's the Travel Show.

This week: on The Travel Show, we

catch up with our blind backpacker

is the rise in Bethlehem.

This is

the place where Jesus was born.

Simon is here with his top tips for

travelling by train across Europe

and I am in Paris seeing the city of

light turning into an all-night

party.

The number of people is just

crazy, we are talking about 100,000

people. 800,000.

First up, we are on the road with a

backpacker who has clocked up more

than 120 countries and has done all

that without being able to see.

My

name is Tony, I am from England, I

am totally blind and severely deaf

and I travelling around the world,

trying to visit every country.

Previously we join him as he

explored Jerusalem. Very smooth. But

today he heads into Palestinian

territories to make his way into the

holy town of Bethlehem.

I am now at

the checkpoint between Jerusalem and

Bethlehem. Walking across the

checkpoint and go to the Wailing

Wall. Going through the checkpoint

is a little bit complicated.

Slightly more complicated and

confusing than I thought. And then

sought of trying to follow other

people and people pushing me from

one way to the other. I would say we

are in the Palestinian side, the

Palestinian territories. It is quite

exhilarating.

As you come out the tunnel into the

taxi area, where the wall is, you

can hear people talking, you can

smell food and coffee and that is

quite loud and interesting. Can you

show me to a taxi? Church of the

Nativity.

OK. I will take you for a

photograph on the wall.

I will take

it with my camera. OK, cool.

Are you

happy? All ways.

How big is the

world? It is big.

Ten metres? It is

large. Tony, welcome to Bethlehem.

You want to go to the church? The

Church of the Nativity.

OK. All this

way on the wall, you have a lot of

Banksy on the wall.

I am feeling

excited to be in Bethlehem, a new

city, a Newtown, new experiences.

Driving through Bethlehem, along the

wall, it has given me a brief

glimpse of how long the ball can be.

It certainly feels quite long,

driving along here. In my mind it

seemed quite impressive. I guess it

is quite scary to a lot of people.

Here is the Church, Tony.

I just

called to let them know I am still

coming. Hello, we are at the church.

Hello? Hello?

Give it to me I will

call them. Hello. One minute and

they will come here.

Thank you,

Mohamed.

Hi, Tony.

Hi, Adam. Good to

meet you. Looking forward to seeing

your place.

Yes, my plays. How many

countries have you visited before?

I

have visited 124 countries.

Oh, my

God, yes, nice. Hill at all like

Alibaba. -- you are like. Have you

done much travelling? No, just here.

It is not easy to move or to travel

in another country. So he get

travellers to come to you. Yes. You

have steps here.

In theory, you stay

for free here. You live in a castle.

Yes.

A used a website. You find

people on it. And if they want to

meet travellers will want to travel,

that is how it works. This is home.

We have landed. Thanks. I have had a

range of experiences. I have slept

on floors, mattresses like these,

couches, and in Africa, in a heart

where the toilet is outside and it

is a hole on the ground. -- in the

ground. I do not see the dirt, the

danger, I just get on with it. You

are meeting the people, the local

hosts and they are sharing their

food, culture and knowledge,

whatever they can offer you and

hopefully you make friends.

Good

night and good dreams.

And to you.

People think, oh, being blind us be

terrible but they do not understand

it, they do not know what they are

talking about. I am so lucky. I am

leading a brilliant light. I go from

country to country, I can go

whereupon two, very few

restrictions. The come ham and you

see people, and they can see but

they cannot go places.

You want

directions? You go directly this

way.

Just straight. OK.

I wish you

be happy and luck in your life.

OK

thank you. Good to meet you, Adam.

This is the entrance to the church?

Yes stop you can go in that,

straight.

OK, thank you. I can

roughly hear a voice but it is a bit

disconcerting echo. It splits the

sound and it takes away the

direction. We will get there. It

cannot be far. A big metal thing

with studs which could be... Yes, it

is a gate. Oh, there is oil,

candles. It has a waxy smell.

Finding the entrance is like

reaching my goal, reaching my target

and anything else after this is a

bonus.

I think they have started singing,

it is louder so I need to get closer

to these because they will be a lot

of energy involved and I will try to

get closer and closer and eventually

use bike came to pick out the steps.

A guide held me down. SINGING.

Realising I was the only person to

get close to hear that makes me feel

very privileged, very warm inside. I

am absolutely buzzing after that.

The energy is incredible. That was

cool just to be here for that if

nothing else.

It is quite crowded going down the

steps. It is very deep. My goodness.

From the fire into the furnace. It

is a very hot in here. I guessing

the rack candles and more people

coming in.

This is my hand. This is

the place where Jesus was born. This

is the start were he was born. Kneel

down, more, more, more. Kneel down.

You can touch the place where Jesus

was born. This is the star, it has

14 points.

It is the star of David.

Marble? No, it is a silver. The

ground is marble. This is where

Jesus was born. You feel it?

This is

the grotto.

Yes, he was born here.

It is not OK like this. Let me help

you a little bit. Like this, you can

take a photograph.

A very humbling

experience. Being in a place where

one might argue history occurred

2000 years or so ago. So visiting

the church, the smells, the sounds,

that is what makes travelling for me

special. I travel by myself because

it is my challenge. It is like

climbing a mountain. You think it is

difficult, it is a struggle but you

get to the top and, yes, I have made

it. It is magical. And that is what

it is all about, broadens my

horizons and Helsby come a better

person hopefully. Helps me.

Still to come on the travel show. I

am in the French capital, Paris, for

its bustling festival of light. --

dazzling.

Welcome to Manchester airport and

the slice of the show that tackles

your questions about getting the

best out of trouble. Coming up, the

merits of a trip to Sri Lanka during

monsoon season and how to get from

north-west England to south-east

Europe by train. First, work is

beginning on Southeast Asia's

leading high-speed rail project from

Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. When it

opens in 2026 it should reduce the

journey time to just 90 minutes. At

present it takes seven hours to

reach the Singapore border from the

Malaysia capital. At this time of

year many people are heading south

from Europe to Australia and facing

this problem. I am helping my

elderly parent to apply for a

shortstay tourist visas to Australia

but I am increase -- confused about

which one to use. Many people plan a

holiday, a business trip or a family

visit and all they need is an easy

is utter. And electronically stored

trouble authority. The application

process to visit Australia is quick

and easy and confirmation is

normally given within a few minutes.

VE visitor is valid for one year for

stays of up to three months and it

is free unless you inadvertently go

through a website that seeks to

divert visitors from the official

government side and charges fees

while adding no value. So look for

border .gov.au to be certain it is

the official scientific and Sri

Lanka in May.

While it is perfectly possible to

enjoy Sri Lanka in May, I would

recommend you choose another time of

year to visit this lovely Indian

Ocean island. Manias when the

south-west monsoon begins, bringing

heavy rain and humidity. Agreed it

also coincides with the dry season

in the north and east of the island

but I prefer to be in Sri Lanka

between December and March when

highlights, concentrated in the

south-west quadrant, a relatively

cool and dry. Aside, May is a

wonderful time to be in the

Mediterranean, particularly on a

Greek island. And speaking of

Greece, we have this question.

From Manchester you can happily

reach El grade in Serbia by train,

going via London, Paris, Munich and

Croatia. From here, however it gets

Rob lamented that it you can get as

far as the Greek border by train but

from there you are likely be

transferred via bus to Thessaloniki,

a city which I strongly recommend

you explore. From there to Athens,

trains are fast and cheap. Whether

you are contemplating a trip to the

nation next door or the ends of the

earth, I am here to help. E-mail

your question to the address on the

screen. I will do my best to find

you an answer. From me, Simon

you an answer. From me, Simon

Calder, the gullible guru, see you

you an answer. From me, Simon

Calder, the gullible guru, see you

next dash -- the global guru.

Calder, the gullible guru, see you

next dash -- the global guru.

Calder, the gullible guru, see you

next dash -- the global guru.

Finally, I am in Paris where the

city has been celebrating. E.g. The

city of lights gets even brighter as

artist 's and performers light up

Paris with free events from sunsets

sunrise for one night only. The

festival takes over the whole city.

I have come down to the river for a

behind-the-scenes look at rehearsals

for one of this year's most

eye-catching installations. The

theme of the event is working

together. And it is all about

getting Corinthians and tourists

alike involved in the art. When it

is up and running, this giant

installation will give visitors a

chance to send a message across the

city.

Altogether we have 42 letters

because it 42 is the answer to

everything. People have an app and

there they can see a list of topics.

For each hour of the night, from

seven p.m. Until seven a.m. We have

a single topic and people can make

suggestions, according to this

topic. The suggestion with the most

votes wins.

And moving these giant

letters takes quite a knack, as I

discovered when I tried to move just

one. I think I'm picking up a life

skill here.

Make it straight. Make

it completely parallel to the

direction.

As the on the night the letters came

to life and I decided to make my own

suggestion for the first phase of

the evening.

You download the app

and you can either vote for the next

phrase to appear on the bank or you

can create your own. I will go for

Allons-Y. My suggestion did not

quite make it. This was what the

Peruvians preferred. -- Parisians.

Since it began in Paris, the white

knight ID has spread to nearly 30

cities around the world. And back in

its birthplace, it is still as

popular as ever.

The number of

people going is crazy. We are

talking about 800,000 people. You

can feel it. On one side you have

walking and contemplating the city

and on the other side you have the

artistic project. I think this is

why it is so famous. And it

certainly seems to have worked.

There are over 150 events on

throughout the night and every venue

we went to was packed.

The most

popular events are the ones that a

more immersive. I enjoyed this quite

serene exhibition about European

rail travel. It is a soundscape that

has been composed to evoke the

history of rail. And with the smoke

it is quite atmospheric. The whole

of Paris seems to come together for

this event with restaurants, bars

and public transport staying open

through the night. For those in it

for the long haul. If you are hardy

you can party until seven a.m. But I

am not quite able to make it that

far. It is past one a.m. And this

party is showing no signs of letting

up. It is the end of this week 's

travel show and coming up next

week... Henry's in Australia's red

Centre to find out how a ban on

climbing the sacred side of Uluru

could affect tourism in the area.

At

the moment, tourist are allowed to

go up to the peak. That is about to

change.

Join us then if you can. In

the meantime, don't forget you can

keep up with us on the road and in

real-time by signing up to our

social media needs, details from

which are on the screen right now.

From me and the rest of the team

here in Paris, it is goodbye.