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326 lines
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travel
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familyholidays
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# Spy holidays: following in the steps of James Bond
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## When Jon Stock was researching his new thriller, his children went with
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him to scout out the stamping grounds of James Bond and Jason Bourne.
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![Spy holiday destinations: following in the steps of James Bond ][1]
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Image 1 of 4
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'Washington is not exactly exotic, but it is the undisputed spy capital of the
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world'
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![Spy holiday destinations: following in the steps of James Bond ][2]
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Image 1 of 4
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'Espionage tourism' has become the norm in our household ever since I began to
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write spy thrillers
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![Spy holiday destinations: following in the steps of James Bond ][3]
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Image 1 of 4
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'The CIA guards no doubt assumed we were terrorists'
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![Spy holiday destinations: following in the steps of James Bond ][4]
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Image 1 of 4
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Trekking in the mountains of Morocco
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3:26PM GMT 23 Mar 2011
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[Comments][5]
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I knew I had made a mistake when we rounded the corner and saw a group of
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armed men running towards us, pointing semi-automatic weapons at our car.
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"Leave this to me," I said to my wife, who was driving.
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Our three young children had fallen silent in the back. I had announced
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earlier that we would be taking a short detour to look at the headquarters of
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the CIA in Langley, Virginia, but I hadn't expected a welcoming party.
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As we stopped in front of a concrete roadblock, I wound down the car window
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and found myself instinctively raising my hands above my head. It was decision
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time: Jason Bourne or Johnny English. I opted for the latter and summoned an
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exaggerated British accent, waving a road map feebly in the air. "Terribly
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sorry, we're lost."
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"Get the hell out of here!" one of them shouted, lifting his gun.
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## Related Articles
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* [Oscars 2011: film location holidays][6]
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22 Feb 2011
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* [Into the heart of Brighton Rock][7]
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22 Jan 2011
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* [The lure and illusion of film tourism][8]
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04 Sep 2010
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* [Anthony Horowitz's Egypt][9]
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04 Jun 2010
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* [North America holiday planner 2011][10]
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17 Feb 2011
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* [Lost in Louisiana][11]
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09 Mar 2011
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"OK, OK," I said, as my wife spun the car around, which seemed to make the men
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even more jumpy. "Sorry, everyone," I whispered, turning to reassure the
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children.
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But one of them, the youngest, was missing. "Where's Jago?" The other two
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pointed downwards. Jago, eight, had taken his own evasive measures and was now
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crouching in the pit of the car, behind my seat.
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It was a dramatic end to our holiday, and I still wince at what might have
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happened. We had taken the detour on our way out to Dulles airport after a
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two-week stay in Washington DC. The sign on the highway had sounded welcoming:
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"Next right for the George Bush Center for Intelligence". But that's the
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United States for you. Best not to pry beneath the veneer of openness.
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Balancing the demands of a family holiday with researching the world of
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espionage is not usually so risky. "Espionage tourism" has become the norm in
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our household ever since I began to write spy thrillers. And the family love
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it. As they keep reminding me, the more exotic the location the better when it
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comes to spy thrillers, as the makers of the James Bond and Jason Bourne films
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know only too well.
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Washington is not exactly exotic, but it is the undisputed spy capital of the
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world. It is also a good place for a family holiday. While I was busy in
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famous Cold War locations in Georgetown, including the Brickskeller (now
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called the Bier Baron), the pub where the CIA's most famous traitor, Aldrich
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Ames, met Soviet agents, the children took in the Smithsonian museums.
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They particularly enjoyed the National Air and Space Museum, where I joined
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them to look at an unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone, currently a CIA
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favourite on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. We also pulled a few barrel
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rolls in an F-4 Phantom II jet fighter simulator, as I have some high-speed
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flying sequences in my new book. That was my excuse, anyway.
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But it was at the International Spy Museum that our interests as a family
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really came together. The children adopted "legends", answering questions
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about their cover stories as they made their way around the museum, crawled
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through air-conditioning shafts to eavesdrop on other visitors and got to
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grips with basic tradecraft, including brush-passes - the clandestine exchange
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of a package - and dead-letter drops.
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Meanwhile, I focused on Ames, whose treason is covered extensively in the
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museum. The United States can be surprisingly open about some of its most
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shaming espionage incidents. Ames, who was a counter-intelligence officer with
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the CIA, betrayed 25 spies working in Russia, 10 of whom were later executed.
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The museum is more coy about 9/11 in its Ground Truth Theatre, but I learnt a
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lot in the last room, which is dedicated to cyber-espionage and "weapons of
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mass disruption".
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My only failure in Washington was the CIA itself and its headquarters in
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Langley. I had been able to contact its public-affairs department, but a
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meeting during our holiday was out of the question. Hence my decision to try
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my luck on the way to the airport.
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The CIA guards no doubt assumed we were terrorists, but their overreaction
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could also be explained by the increased activity of Russia's intelligence
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services. Since he became president, Vladimir Putin has invested heavily in
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the SVR (the KGB's foreign directorate), which makes the Russians big players
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again in the world of spy fiction. But where best to see them in action,
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either as "illegals" or accredited to embassies?
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We came across plenty in southern Sardinia, but a recent trip to north-east
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India proved the most fruitful. Kalimpong is a Himalayan hill station in West
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Bengal, sitting on the old trading route from India to Tibet, in the shadow of
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Darjeeling. It has fantastic espionage form. According to a reliable source,
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it has always been popular with Russian intelligence officers seeking a break
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from the Calcutta heat.
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So, plenty for me to get stuck into, but what about the family? Luckily, we
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had a great guide, Sidharth, who had already taken us on a trekking holiday
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through the nearby state of Sikkim. His father was born in the town and he was
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extremely proud of its history. He also embraced the challenge of "espionage
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tourism".
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Our first stop was the Himalayan Hotel, which was once home to David
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MacDonald, who accompanied Francis Younghusband on his trip to Lhasa in 1904,
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and is still owned by the MacDonald family. The guest book includes the names
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of Mallory, Tenzing and Hillary, who stayed before advancing on Everest.
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The bar is apparently where SVR agents relax over vodkas and lime. They also
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like to visit the home of the late Russian philosopher Helena Roerich, who
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moved to Kalimpong after the death of her husband, the acclaimed artist
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Nicholas Roerich.
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We didn't see any Russians, but the hotel would make an atmospheric setting
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for a fictitious debrief, with its heavily varnished wooden panels and old
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gramophone player on the bar. They were more Russians in evidence at the
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Roerich home, Kruketi House, now a museum. Fresh Russian signatures were
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drying in the visitor's book. SVR? Perhaps. And certainly enough colour for a
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cameo in a future book.
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My daughter liked Roerich's vivid paintings, and the house, seemingly
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untouched since Roerich's death in 1955, gave an insight into her life as a
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thinker, writer and traveller.
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Half an hour later, after being shown the covert base of India's SAS, the
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Black Cats, we were bathing in a spring-fed outdoor pool. We had the place to
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ourselves apart from three Bhutanese women, who had come across the nearby
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border to let their hair down. They were in bikinis, chain-smoking and
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listening to rock music on mobile phones. It was a surreal sight, but Sidharth
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said it was a common one in Kalimpong, where things are more relaxed than in
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Bhutan. I knew at once that the pool would make the perfect setting for a Cold
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War-style honeytrap.
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We stayed for a few more days, enjoying views of Kanchenjunga, the third-
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highest mountain in the world, and the River Teesta in the valley below. The
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children loved haggling in the main market, where everything from pigs to fake
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Chinese iPhones could be bought.
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Kalimpong was a great success and not somewhere we might have visited if it
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hadn't been for our other agenda. Sometimes, though, it works the other way
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around. We go on holiday and I realise that it would make a perfect spy
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location.
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That happened most recently in Morocco. I came across Marrakesh's famous
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storytellers - halakas - in Djemaa el Fna square and discovered that they were
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once used to convey coded messages about imminent police raids. A "serpent"
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sliding through the narrative was a warning that General Oufkir, feared
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interior minister in the late Sixties, was about to strike. In my latest book,
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the _halakas_ convey a message to a terrorist on the run - an ancient form of
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communication that can't be intercepted by GCHQ's technology.
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I still want to visit the CIA headquarters. Until 9/11, there were official
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tours - the ultimate in espionage tourism. Now there's just a virtual one on
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the agency's website. I fear that in these nervous times I've got as close as
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I'm going to get.
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* Jon Stock's Games Traitors Play (HarperCollins) is available from
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Telegraph Books (0844 871 1515; [books.telegraph.co.uk][12]) for £12.99 (rrp
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£14.99) plus £1.25 p & p
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**Basics**
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* Virtual tour of the CIA's Langley headquarters ([www.cia.gov)][13]. Free.
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* International Spy Museum, Washington (001 202 654 0977;
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[www.spymuseum.org][14]): 9am to 8pm. Open daily (except Dec 24 and 25 and Jan
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1). $18 (£11) plus tax for adults, $15 (£9.20) plus tax for children aged
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between five and 11.
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* National Air and Space Museum (202 633 1000; [www.nasm.si.edu][15]): Open
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daily (except Dec 25). 10am to 5.30pm. Admission free; jet simulator $8
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($4.90).
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* Himalayan Hotel, Kalimpong, India (00 91 3552 255248;
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[www.himalayanhotel.biz][16]): £40 (2,800 rupees) for double room only.
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[X][17] Share & bookmark
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[What are these?][18]
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* Share: [Share][17] [ ][19] [ ][20]
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[Tweet][21]
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/familyholidays/8401303/Spy-holidays-
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following-in-the-steps-of-James-Bond.html
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Telegraph
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## [Family holidays][22]
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* ### [Travel »][23]
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* ### [North America »][24]
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* ### [USA »][25]
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* ### [Washington DC »][26]
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In travel
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[![][27]][28]
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### [Telegraph Cottages: Choose from thousands of holiday cottages][28]
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[![Greece holiday planner 2011][29] ][30]
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### [Greece holiday planner 2011][30]
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[![Italy holiday planner 2011][31] ][32]
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### [Italy holiday planner 2011][32]
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[![Spain holiday planner 2011][33] ][34]
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### [Spain holiday planner 2011][34]
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[![Normandy, France, holiday planner][35] ][36]
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### [France holiday planner 2011][36]
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[X][17] Share & bookmark
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Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][18]
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Share:
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* [ ][17]
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* [ ][19]
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* [ ][20]
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* [Tweet][21]
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* Advertisement
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![][37]
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telegraphuk
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Please enable JavaScript to view the [comments powered by Disqus.][38] [blog
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comments powered by Disqus][39]
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[![][40]][41]
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Advertisement
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## [Telegraph Cottages »][42]
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* [UK][43]
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* [FRANCE][44]
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* [ITALY][45]
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Loading
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[View more Telegraph Cottages here][42]
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var puffs_5978637 = new Array();
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