		會訊(第二十五期) 出版日期：二○○六年一月一日自由講場


香港灣仔愛群道34號電話Phone：(852) 2574 4296 電郵Email：club@qqclub.org 電傳Fax：(852) 2835 7777 34 Oi Kwan Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong

Days In Tunisia

Grace Wong

王建明夫婦聯袂於9月間隨同總會代表團出席在突尼西亞舉行的第37屆世界童軍會議。王太Grace曾予好友講及Alex在當地角逐2011年主辦第39屆世界童軍會議和第11屆世界童軍青年論壇權時的情況，還提及當地一些有趣的事情。徵得Grace的同意，大家可以藉著她給Sandra的電郵分享Alex 當時的工作和他們在住宿時遇到的情況。

Dear Sandra,

We only arrived the day before yesterday from Tunisia having spent 24 hours on board the airplane and between airports.

Alex’s Scout function was held in Hammamet about 70 miles from Tunis. He was put in charge of bidding to have the World Scout Conference to be held in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in 2011. He didn’t make it and the right to host the conference went to Brazil.

Although the Asia Pacific Region has half of the World Scout population, but there are only 23 countries and without the help of other Regions, it is a Mission Impossible in particular Australia also wanted to host the event in Sydney which means close to 10 countries (Papau New Guinea, Fiji, New Zealand and Solomon Islands, etc) were taken away by them. But Alex’s African friends remain loyal which makes about 40 countries supporting Hong Kong. But EU was behind Brazil and Alex only secured three Nordic votes (Iceland, Denmark and Ireland) with 70 European and South American countries backing Brazil. And Australia got the Anglo (UK) etc and Pacific votes. It is so political not much different from the Asian Games bid won by Qatar.

There is a cartel controlling the hotel rooms. We were moved to a so called 5 star hotel two days prior to our departure. We did not deal with the hotel staff but an agent sitting at the Duty Manager’s desk throughout the conference period. Payment has to be made to the agent, no one were given a hotel room unless with the nod of the agent; changing hotel seems like asking for a miracle as each hotel has its own agent. Alex’s colleague managed to get three prepaid hotel rooms in a leading real 5 star hotel (not designated as conference hotels) through Hong Kong Swire Travel but the agent informed that hotel that we were scout delegates and the hotel refused to give us the rooms and said that there has been a mistake from our agent in Hong Kong and advised us to get a refund.

I suspect that our hotel has not been run in yet and is not in full operation when the delegations arrived and occupied every of its room. It is understaffed with only one staff at the counter when all the 500 rooms were occupied. It has No Service, No Extra Key; No Toiletries and with most of the lights off leading us to suspect that there is not enough electricity. There was no bedding when we checked in and there was not even any pillow.

I was so edgy that Alex desperately appealed for help and luckily through his connections he got me a suite from a former World Scout Committee member in another hotel run by Ilberostar chain and we ended up paying only half of what we have to pay for that horrible hotel which we had to put up for 3 nights.

I had a full programme for the accompanied persons while Alex was busy attending his meetings which was full time. Seeing much of Tunisia but it is so hot during the day. We were supposed to be on a 2 day post conference tour travelling from North to South with desert tour near the Sahara Dessert, but Alex had to give it up for my sake knowing that I could not make it as it would mean 5 am departure each morning and up to 12-14 hours on a 4 wheel drive. He is still grumbling for his loss of opportunity at the time of this writing.

This email is becoming too long so I better stop here before I bore you to death.

Yours,

Grace

_{Copyright
© 2002-6, Queen's Scout (HKI) and
Queen's Guide Club

Web hosting sponsored by www.ayebiz.com

Last modified on Januray 8, 2006

If you experience any problems with this site, please contact our
webmaster webmaster@qqclub.org.}