TO MIDDLE EAST BY MOBILOTEL
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'WHILST coach tours to some of the exotic places in the Middle East are becoming increasingly popular, one of the problems of such extended tours is hotel accommodation, particularly in remote yet very often exciting and interesting places. What better solution can there be than to take your own hotel with you!
This solution has been chosen by Sir Henry Lunn Ltd. for a series of new tours they are offering this year to the Holy Land, Asia Minor and India and Pakistan. Named the Mobilotel, the new unit is to be operated by the West Belgium Coach Co., Ostend, for whom Sir Henry Lunn act as general agents. It consists of a 36-seat Mercedes coach, with the latest direct-injection diesel engine, which tows an ingenious trailer fitted with sleeping accommodation.
The trailer was built by Carrosserie Remi Desot Carette, who also built the bodywork of the coach, and is an extensible unit, folding up to a width of 3.49 metres (8 ft. 21 in.) for daily transit. Bunks are arranged in tiers of three, with nine single beds along each side of the trailer in its extended position, and double beds in the centre. Each bed is equipped with a first-class mattress, sheets and blankets, with space to hang clothes and a shelf for small everyday articles. Draw curtains ensure complete privacy for each passenger.
At the rear of the trailer or Mobilotel is a fully-equipped kitchen with refrigerator and full cooking range on which simple meals can be prepared. It is proposed to provide a Continental breakfast and a light supper, other meals being taken in hotels, and four large electric rings are provided on the range. Power for this, the lighting, air conditioning (an essential feature for the typeof climate encountered), refrigerator, and so on, is provided by a portable generator carried beneath the kitchen and erected some distance from the Mobilotel each evening. At the front of the trailer are two wash, basins supplied, together with the sink unit in the kitchen, from a tank above the trailer.
Each evening the Mobilotel will halt at a pre-selected site where adequate toilet and other facilities are available. The Mobilotel is not claimed to be luxurious but is comfortable and practical, offers opportunities for overnight stays at places previously inaccessible or without accommodation and allows "off-beat" tourism throughout the Middle East and into India at prices hitherto impracticable. F.K.M.