Neil Rees – The Czech Connection – The Czechoslovak Government in Exile in London and Buckinghamshire
Neil was first introduced to Czechoslovakia when he worked in the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen “within smell of the famous brewery” after the end of Communism in 1990-91. While there he travelled all over the Czech Republic, doing some fantastic hiking in the beautiful countryside and picking a lot of mushrooms, which is something of a national hobby in the country. He also enjoyed the food, although he says dumplings tend to be served with everything !
While on a bus ride in the country he overheard two English women talking and later discovered they had married Czech soldiers during the war and been in the country for 45 years. This piqued Neil’s interest in Anglo-Czech wartime relations, even more when he discovered that several famous Czechoslovak political figures had spent time in London and Buckinghamshire – near his own family home – during the First and Second World Wars.
Tomas Masaryk, who was elected the first President of Czechoslovakia in 1920, lived for a while in England when the First World War broke out to avoid arrest for treason, while President in exile Edvard Benes and his wife spent five years in The Abbey, a country estate, in the picturesque village of Aston Abbots. His cabinet stayed nearby at Wingrave Manor in a local village, while around 100 Czechoslovak soldiers were kept on to protect them. As a gesture of thanks to the area, President Benes had a bus shelter built at Aston Abbots, which cost £148 – a considerable amount at the time – which is now a Grade II listed building.
Neil’s talk was full of humour and fascinating historical facts, and went down very well with members. For more information see on the subject and Neil’s resulting book see http://www.radio.cz/en/article/69301
Sam Manicom – Under Asian Skies
‘Under Asian Skies‘ took up Sam’s story where Africa is left behind, once Sam discovered that he actually liked being on the road…Sam says his mid-life crisis came to him relatively early in life, and at the age of 34 he found himself on a motorcycle at the edge of the Sahara.
He planned to travel for a year but ended up on the road for several years. During this time he was arrested three times and jailed once, shot at, suffered numerous broken bones and almost killed by malaria. After travelling around Africa he went to Australia, getting a lift over on a cargo ship, which he shared with an all-male crew and their collection of “thousands” of porno videos.
While in Australia he worked and had fun, until he had a serious accident. Doctors told him he would never ride a motorcycle again, but after three months he was back in the saddle. From Australia it was a jump into Asia, where in Malaysia he contracted Dengue Fever. Too weak to get help, Sam was in serious trouble until the prostitute living in the hut next to his saved his life by finding him and raising the alarm. Sam said she only came in because she hadn’t seen him for a few days. Doctors told him he had had just a day of life left in him.
Sam visited India, although it took six weeks battling local bureaucracy to get his motorbike off the ship. He showed us images of the millions of people who travel to bathe in the holy waters of the Ganges. When he asked a local man if water that dirty could really be beneficial, he was told the water wasn’t really dirty, it just looked dirty. Although India was hard work, Nepal was more laid-back, said Sam. He rode the fabled Quelta to Taftan road on the border of Iran, which was doubly dangerous, he said, because as Afghanistan was just over nearby hills, his insurance would not have been valid.
The adventures demanded that Sam’s Guardian Angel work overtime in covering what went wrong, what was learnt from the disasters and How many of the dreaded lurgies could he catch? As the story developed we then heard what happens when a solo adventurer decides to take a pillion on board? But most of all…was it about two wheels being the best possible way to see the world? For more info see: http://www.sam-manicom.com
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.