Our first speaker was John Malathronas whose talk was called “Singapore, The old within the new”. John started by saying that most people know Singapore for one of 2 reasons, Changi airport and the City’s shopping opportunities. However there is plenty to see in this small island city state, where for the most part Malay, Chinese, Arab and Indian people live together with Hindu and Buddhist temples vying for space with mosques and churches. Below the impressive skyscraper skyline are the old warehouses of Boat Quay which have been turned into restaurants. There are many buildings dating from Singapore’s colonial era including Raffles Hotel, famous for the Singapore Sling, which has got the hotel into the Guinness book of records for its consumption of gin. John showed us Sentosa Island where the locals enjoy parks and fairgrounds connected to the mainland by a cable car. Instead of just being in transit through the airport, Singapore makes a great stopover on the way to Australia or New Zealand.
Our second speaker was Christopher Somerville whose talk “A golden step, a mountain trail through Crete” was the story of his 50th birthday present from his wife. She wanted him to take 3 months off and have an adventure. Chris decided to walk the 300 miles from east to west across the island of Crete by way of the E4 walking path. Finding the path markers however was a different matter, brown and red against a brown background made them hard to spot, especially as many then had large bullet holes from where the locals had used them for target practice! Over a 7 week period Chris managed to roughly follow the path, crossing 8000 foot mountains with help from local walkers and crossing coastal gorges. Along the way he saw a flock of dyed red sheep, made them easier for the shepherd to find, showing us a photo to prove that it wasn’t the local retsina colouring his judgment. He also showed us a giant man made of stones on a hillside, which was made by a German woman as her own personal reparation for Germany’s actions in Crete during WW2. Seven weeks of walking brought Chris to the Monastery of the Golden step on the west coast of Crete.
For details of the forth coming meetings of the London branch, April to July 2008 – http://www.globetrotters.co.uk/meetings/lon08it2.html.
London meetings are held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court, behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden at 2.30pm the first Saturday of each month, unless there is a UK public holiday that weekend. There is no London meeting in August, but we start afresh in September. For more information, contact the Globetrotters Info line on +44 (0) 20 8674 6229, or visit the website: www.globetrotters.co.uk.