Thinking of visiting the Horn of Africa? You along with millions of others may go hungry.
The United Nations food agency (FAO) has warned that millions of people could face starvation in the Horn of Africa, which includes Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti. The FAO say around 11 million need food aid.
For information on Ontario meetings, please contact Svatka Hermanek: shermanek@schulich. yorku. ca or Bruce Weber: tel. 416-203-0911 or Paul Webb: tel. 416-694-8259.
Meetings are held on the third Friday of January, March, May, September and November. Usually at the Woodsworth Co-op, Penthouse, 133, Wilton Street in downtown Toronto at 8. 00 p. m.
After a series of quarrels with his wife, an Indian man left his home to live in a tree and has been there for the past 15 years. Kapila Pradhan, 45, a resident of Nagajhara village in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, now lives in a tree-house 7. 6m (25 feet) above the ground. “Sometimes the villagers feed him during festive occasions,” says a local resident Sukanta Dakua. Cyclones, rain and wild elephants and monkeys forced him to move to a tree closer to the edge of the forest, near a village.
Mac has not been very well,
but is still e-mailing strong. Here’s an account of a trip he
made to
South Africa some time ago.
In South Africa I had been cutting my own hair but was invited to some wealthy South African friends of a friend of mine home. (They had their own game reserve, plane etc. ) so I thought I better get a better haircut so as to not disgrace my friend. When I went to the barber he took one look at my hair and said. “I see you have been having a go of it yourself. ‘
At a Catholic church in Johannesburg they hear confessions in Sesotha, Padi, Tsnamia, Zulu/Xnoise, Chiceno, English, Afriken, Dutch, Spanish, Italian and French but the priest did not understand my English (thank heavens!) At Notre Dame Cathedral in Pairs they hear confessions in Esperanto. Learning Esperanto is a good way to meet Esperanto speakers all over the world. I have a friend that speaks Esperanto and he goes all around the world spending a day or two with someone he has met this way. Actually all I think he knows how to say is Hello.
A white South African priest in Cape town told me that when they had apartheid he went out to meet an American priest at the airport. He could not find him and finally found him in the black section. When he asked the priest why he was there, the American said the other waiting room read Europeans Only and he was not European. This was his way of making fun of apartheid.
When I was in South Africa, a Canadian lady went on Sabi Sabi Reserve looking for animals. They got up at 5am each morning as we did also. They had a guide who warned them to not stand up if they saw any animals. They did this for three days and all they saw were birds! We were luckier at the Kruger Game Park. Sometimes you are lucky and sometimes you aren’t. If unlucky I suggest you go to the wonderful zoo in Pretoria. I enjoyed it even after being to all the game parks.
At hotel Killarney in Durban South Africa they had a Monks Inn where they have strip shows with lunch. You often see signs Steak, Eggs and Chips. This sign read Steak, Eggs, and Strips. If you see a strip show in a Monks Inn is that a double sin?
At Bergkelder winery at Stellenbosch (a university town in South Africa) I leaned that sweet taste buds are at the front of your tongue and bitter taste buds are at that back of your tongue. I wonder what I will learn tomorrow? Probably that I have a headache.
I went to see the l000 hills near Durban. There are 1000 Zulus living in 1000 hills. I asked the Zulu guide if I only looked at l5 of them (the hills) could I get a discount? He jokingly ordered me off the tour bus. He told us some of the Zulu history. There was a Zulu King named “Follow Me” in Zulu. He got a young girl pregnant. He denied he was the father saying it was a false pregnancy (her imagination. ) When the baby was born the new mother named the baby boy False Pregnancy, in Zulu, “Shaka. ” Shaka grew up to be a warrior and leader of the Zulus. He trained the Zulus to walk barefoot on thorns to toughen their feet (we did the same thing in basic training. ) It was rather a long but true story and one of the lady tourists interrupted this fascinating story to announce that she was cold.
The oldest bar in Capetown is the Firemans Bar. Firemen from ships used to go there. On the wall they have listed a telephone service with charges for answering services. He’s not here: 20 cents. He’s just left: 25 cents. Haven’t seen him all day: 30 cents. Haven’t seen him all week: 35 cents. Who? 40 cents.
In Durban I wanted to go out to the Hare Krishna Centre (there are a lot of Indians that live in Durban and some are very wealthy. ) I had not been out to the Hare Krishna centre in Virginia but decided to see this one in South Africa. I was told to take the Indian bus out from the Indian market. I asked how I would know the Indian bus and was told, “It has Indians on it. ”
En route to Addo Game Reserve 90 kilometres from Port Elizabeth, the guide was telling us the farmers in the desolate area raised goats. The German along with us did not know what animal the driver was talking about. I pointed to my goatee and then he knew. They used to feed the elephants citrus fruit and apples at 4. 30 PM (there is a travel book entitled Elephants arrive at half past four. ) But they have quit doing this as they want the elephants to take care of themselves so they now issued them food stamps. The elephants are smaller at this reserve.
If you would like to get in touch with Mac, he is happy to correspond by e-mail when he is well. His e-mail address is: macsan400@yahoo. com
If you have a travellers tale that your aching to tell. Then why not visit the “Travel Sized Bites” section of the Website and share it with the world.
Travel Sized Bites
Air New Zealand and Qantas Airways confirmed have barred men from sitting next to unaccompanied children on flights. The policy came to light after a man seated next to a child was asked to change seats with a woman in another row and was told by a Qantas flight attendant that the airline’s policy stipulated that only women should sit next to unaccompanied children. The man asked to move, Mark Worsley, 37, was later told by the airline that Qantas wanted to err on the side of caution. “I felt that it was totally discriminatory,” Worsley told The New Zealand Herald. A Qantas spokesman confirmed the policy and said the airline believed customers wanted the policy.
Oasis Hong Kong Airlines, a new start up company aims to be a low cost carrier but operate long haul routes. They plan to make their maiden flight from Hong Kong to London’s Gatwick Airport in June 2006 as Hong Kong’s first low-fare carrier.
Oasis aims to price round-trip tickets starting as low as HKD$1,000 (USD$128), although customers looking for such a bargain would have to book months in advance, said Oasis Chief Executive Stephan Miller, a founder and former chief executive of the city’s second largest airline, Dragonair. Oasis will not be alone. Qantas’ Jetstar arm and Viva Macau also hope to launch low-cost long-haul flights.
To ensure UK travellers are fully prepared for your travels moving into 2006 please be aware that from 1st January 2006, UK residents travelling in Europe will require a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). This will allow you to benefit from free or reduced-cost medical care when travelling in an EEA country or Switzerland.
The EHIC replaces the E111 and is free of charge. For further information on the introduction of the EHIC and on how to apply for an EHIC, see: www. dh. gov. uk/travellers
Ryanair will soon make passengers who wish to travel with bags that weigh over 10kg (the weight limit for bags permitted as hand luggage) pay £5 per piece of checked luggage, or £2. 50 per bag if it has been registered in advance on the airline’s website – an initiative the budget airline claims will mean only 25 per cent of its passengers losing out financially. For those who have bags that weigh more than 20kg, there will be an excess baggage fee of £5. 50 per kg.
This means that for example, two people cannot share their luggage allowance. This is a u-turn to existing policy where Ryanair used to allow passengers travelling together to pool their baggage allowance. The move will penalise families with young children in particular, as children do not have a separate baggage allowance so their belongings must be included in their parents’ allowance.
For passengers travelling with hand luggage only, the new rules could be good news, as those in possession of an EU passport will now be able to check in online at www. ryanair. com , before going to the airport and will be eligible for priority boarding.
The charges will apply to bookings made after March 16.
Also from March 16, Ryanair will allow passengers to by-pass airport check-in if they have previously checked in on the carrier’s website. This service is available to EU passport holders travelling with hand luggage only and mirrors a similar recent move by smaller low-cost rival Flybe. These passengers will be given ‘priority boarding’ which will also reduce boarding gate queues. However, passengers checking in baggage on flights booked after March 16 will now pay a fee — 2. 50 stg (3. 50 eur) per bag, per flight, if booked in advance on the website, or 5. 0 stg (7. 00 eur) per bag, per flight, if presented unbooked at the airport.
Simultaneously, Ryanair is increasing each passenger’s luggage allowance from the current 25 kgs to 30 kgs — comprising 10 kgs carry-on and 20 kgs checked in luggage, a move it reckons will substantially reduce excess baggage fees.
Passengers who check-in on the web claiming hand luggage only but then turn up at the boarding gate with baggage will be sent back to the check-in desk and ‘fined’ £25.
Speak Chinese and travelling to Africa? You may get a chance to try it out. Zimbabwe’s government hopes to see Mandarin Chinese taught in universities as the school year starts in February. This is part of mad crazed dictator Robert Mugabe’s “Look East” policy of building closer economic links with China amid worsening relations with the West.
Kew Palace in south-west London once a royal palace that was once home to “mad” King George III is to open to the public after being shut for 10 years. The king used Kew as a place to convalesce during his bouts of mental illness, which are believed to have been caused by the hereditary disease porphyria.
From May 2006, visitors will be able to tour the palace, which is in the grounds of Kew’s famous Royal Botanic Gardens. The palace was a royal residence from 1728 to 1818, and in the early 19th Century was the home of King George III and Queen Charlotte.
The newly opened palace will show an exhibition of Georgian life, including literature, music, horticulture, architecture and astronomy. The second floor of the palace has never been seen before by the public, and has been hardly altered since it was decorated for the Georgian princesses in the early 19th Century.
The Beetle read a touching account from the BBC News on-line about women in Afghanistan having freedoms but not being free to enjoy these. This is what it said: Girls can go to school, at least in the big cities like Herat and Kabul, and a fragile peace now exists in a war-torn country that has known only brutality and chaos since 1979. But some things, it seems, have not really changed at all.
Mamozai’s Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s Driving School was one of the first driving schools in Afghanistan to allow women to enrol. The Taleban thought the idea of teaching women how to drive was “satanic”, but Mr Mamozai’s school now has more than 200 female graduates.
Even so, the women are often told to “sit up like a man” by their male instructors as they navigate the precarious back-roads of Kabul, and to “stop driving like a woman. ”
But then that is hardly surprising. Most of the instructors are ex-Taleban and they do not really think women should drive at all. They certainly would not allow their own wives to drive
The new year kicked off with the usual 4 mini talks from club members. Dan Bachmann who took us to rural Romania and showed us horses still being used to bring wood out of the forests, how sheep are one of the mainstays of the economy, producing not just meat but also milk, which is so abundant that they even use it to do the washing up.
Neil Harris took us into Myanmar to show us wonders such as Pagan, now a UNESCO site because of its 200 pyres. Neil showed us pictures of monks, doing building work and listening to a walkman and another monastery that had cats jumping through hoops. We also saw the more expected sites including Inlay lake and the city of Mandalay.
After the break we headed further east as Steve Golding and Francesca Jaggs took us to Japan, they showed us the beauty of Miyajima and its floating Torri, Kamakura with its massive Buddha, the “Medicine Buddha” of Nara. On Shikoku we saw two sides of the island, pilgrims doing the 88 temples in a week and the very graphic Sex museum!
Last up was Globetrotters Legacy winner Marcin Dabek, who showed us his trip to South America. Not only did he see the sights but also worked on Organic farms staying with local families. Marcin also showed us Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni, the wonder of Iguasu falls and the rugged beauty of the Torres del Paine national park in Chile.
By Padmassana
Forthcoming meetings: Saturday 4th February 2006, Gavin Fernandes – Life and Death at Varanasi, a talk/slide show about this holy Indian city on the Ganges in 2001 shortly after the record breaking Khumb Mela Festival that year, where Gavin took the shot that won the TPOTY award and Alistair Humphreys – Round the World by Bike ( http://www.roundtheworldbybike.com ) 4 years, 46,000 miles, 60 countries, 5 continents in support of ” Hope and Homes for Children ”
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. There is no London meeting in August, but we will be back in September. For more information, you can contact the Globetrotters Info line on +44 (0) 20 8674 6229, or visit the website: www. globetrotters. co. uk
A Brisbane woman has been killed in a shark attack at Amity Point, North Stradbroke Island near Brisbane. She was swimming about 15m (49ft) offshore when she was attacked in water which had become murky and muddy after a recent storm. Police believe that possibly three bull sharks could have attacked the young woman as they are known to be aggressive during mating season. Before you start to worry, let’s put this into perspective: there have been 10 fatal shark attacks in Australian waters in the past five years.
If you are found to be a stowaway on a ship, the ship owners are obliged by law to bear the costs to send you home.
Unfortunately for seven Tanzanian stowaways who recently boarded a ship sailing to South America at Mombassa in Kenya, three Ukrainian sailors allegedly forced the seven stowaways to jump overboard. Two of the seven Tanzanian stowaways are believed to have drowned while five managed to swim to safety, say police.
In December 2005, a drunken male passenger on a flight from northern England to the Spanish tourist island of Tenerife was dropped off at a small island off the African coast after he swore at the cabin crew. Press reported that the plane’s captain decided to leave the man at Porto Santo, just 10 miles long and four miles wide, a volcanic outcrop in the Atlantic, after he became abusive when he was refused more alcohol. (The island does have a few hotels, so he wasn’t left to sleep on the beach in case you were worried. ) Needless to say, police met the man at the airport who is due to appear in court in mainland Portugal in January.
The government of the Malaysian state of Johor says it is to organise an attempt to track down a legendary ape man said to roam its jungles. There have been a spate of sightings of Big Foot, known in local legend as Hantu Jarang Gigi – ghosts with widely spaced teeth. Last November three fishery workers claimed to have seen a Big Foot family that left footprints up to 45cm long. Conservationists say that damage to branches suggested that the creatures could have been up to 3m tall. There were similar sightings by members of the local indigenous minority who said they had seen a ‘King Kong’ covered in black fur. Now, the chief minister of Johor, Abdul Ghani Othman, says a proper scientific expedition will track Big Foot’s big foot-prints.
Need help? Want a travelling buddy or advice about a place or country – want to share something with us – why not visit our Mutual Aid section of the Website:
Mutual Aid
Need to convert currency?
Take a look at The Globetrotters Currency Converter – get the exchange rates for 164 currencies The Globetrotters Currency Cheat Sheet – create and print a currency converter table for your next trip.
Institutional Investor magazine’s recently ran its 25th annual survey of its wealthy readers. The St. Regis Hotel in New York was ranked first among the world’s top hotels by Institutional Investor magazine. Survey respondents had average annual incomes of $817,000 and spent an average of 62 nights in a hotel last year, the magazine said.
Following the St. Regis in descending rank were: Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme; Mandarin Oriental, New York; Four Seasons Milan; Four Seasons Singapore; Four Seasons George V, Paris; Mandarin Oriental, San Francisco; Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore; Peninsula Hong Kong and Four Seasons, Chicago.
World Tourism
The World Tourism Organisation announced last month that the number of tourists around the globe should climb by 4 to 5 percent in 2006 and that tourism grew strongly in 2005 year despite natural disasters and attacks.
World tourism as measured by international arrivals, rose 5. 5 percent in 2005 to a record 808 million arrivals though the pace of growth had slowed sharply from the 10 percent rise in 2004. “Gradually slowing growth is expected to continue,” the World Tourism Organisation said in a statement and that growth was likely to stay above the long-term average of 4. 1 percent thanks to a more robust global economy and an improved outlook in Europe, particularly Germany, one of the biggest groups of global tourists.
The WTO said that terrorism, the effect high energy prices could have on the economy and bird flu could yet threaten tourism. “However, experience shows that (terrorism’s) impact lately has been rather limited and short-lived. Travellers overall have assumed the risk and have been undeterred by external threats. ”
So where is tourism growing the fastest? The answer appears to lie in Africa, up by 10 percent, led by Sub-Saharan countries such as Kenya with a 26 percent rise in arrivals in the first 10 months of the year and Mozambique with 37 percent more visitors in the first 9 months of the year.
Tourism to Asia and the Pacific grew 7 percent in 2005. Countries directly affected by the tsunami which washed away hotels and beachfronts in late 2004 suffered drops; the Maldives received 39 percent fewer tourists while visitor numbers to Indonesia fell 9 percent. And Sri Lanka reported a drop of just 0. 4 percent but that figure could have been skewed by the arrival of aid workers and Sri Lankan expatriates.
Whilst a string of hurricanes hit the southern United States last year clouded the outlook for the tourist market, optimism was starting to return and despite lengthy airport security procedures cause delays on arriving in the US, the number of visitors to the United States rose 8 percent last year.