As Tabitha Boonstra showed the children of La Esperanza in Honduras their picture on her digital camera, she could not believe their reaction.

‘They would come running up to you from wherever they were, and they’d be yelling ‘photo, photo!’ They’d stand there, and you would take their picture, then you’d show them on the back of the digital camera. They would be the happiest kids in the world’.

‘It was such a simple thing, yet it made them so happy’ she says guessing that there aren’t too many mirrors in rural Honduras. It was moments like this, and many others that made volunteering such a memorable experience for Tabitha of Ontario, Canada.

She spent three months helping to build houses and provide aid with sanitation projects in rural Honduras through the Global Volunteer Network (GVN), an organization that helps connect volunteers with communities in need. She had previously volunteered within her own community, working with children and people with special needs, but never anything like this.

‘I wanted to do something different’ she says, ‘and volunteering is a good way to go and learn a different culture’.

Tabitha really enjoyed volunteering, getting amongst the action, and using the opportunity to really make a difference to the lives of the people in Honduras.

‘I built houses for the indigenous people using trees, mud and adobe bricks. I feel the living conditions of the people are greatly improved by this effort as less people are crammed into tiny houses and they have less draughty houses with better seals against animals and bugs. Some even got concrete floors put in, which greatly reduces health problems. The work was rewarding and seemed to make a big difference’ says Tabitha.

Rural poverty in Honduras is among the most severe in Latin America. Approximately 53% of the population is rural, and it is estimated that 75% of the rural population lives below the poverty line, unable to meet basic needs. The country still has high rates of population growth, infant mortality, child malnutrition and illiteracy. Access to simple healthcare and sanitation is lacking, and it is estimated that over 30 percent of child deaths in Honduras are caused by a common and preventable digestive sickness.

On top of all of this, Honduras was hit severely by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, and the results were devastating. At least 5,000 people were killed and 70% of the country’s crops were destroyed. This has put more pressure on the already struggling economy, and has been a huge setback to development.

The Honduras building program helps foreign volunteers assist families to build or improve their homes and schools, with work including renovation, making bricks, building walls, painting and building wooden playgrounds for the local children. There are also sanitation programs in place, in order to implement basic plumbing, and to help educate the local children about health and wellbeing.

As there are very few tools, the volunteers do mainly manual work. Because they are often working with mud bricks, they can get pretty dirty, but it is lots of fun, and a great learning experience. You also need to be prepared to use your initiative in Honduras, as Tabitha found out.

‘Because you are a foreigner, they treated you in such a manner, that they felt you were above them. If you wanted to work, you had to pick up a shovel and say ‘give me something to do’, she says.

But once you do get amongst it, the people are very grateful for the assistance the volunteers give. It really has a positive effect on a community to know that a volunteer has given up time, money and comfort to help them.

‘It’s just natural for them to think that foreigners don’t care about third word countries or people who have a poor life. But when they see volunteers, they realize that some people in the world, no matter how rich they are or what their status, they do care about others, and that people are willing to help’, says Tabitha.

The program is not all hard work though, and there is lots of time to get to know your host family, or to explore the country and mingle with the locals. Tabitha loved being around the local children, and took any chance she could get to hang out with them.

‘Playing soccer with the kids was definitely the most fun. There are wide open spaces everywhere and you are playing on a dirt road. If you would kick a ball too far, it would go way down this mountainous hill, and all the kids would run down to go get it for you, clambering down it. They were so eager to help you out’. The memory of their smiling faces will be something that will stay with Tabitha for a long time.

Building in Honduras enables volunteers from more developed countries to use their skills and enthusiasm to assist in providing these people with a better life. Tabitha believes that the organization really does make a difference, and it is because of the volunteers that this happens.

‘I do feel like I have helped, because we built the houses. These people now have safer shelters and a more sanitary place to live in’.

Volunteering in a foreign country is such a unique experience, and quite different from being a tourist. Not only does the community benefit, but the volunteer also gets an opportunity of a lifetime.

‘You actually get to hang out with the locals, get to know them, become friends with them, and get an idea of what life is like there. When you travel you get to see the scenery and eat the food, but you don’t experience what life is actually like in that country’.

‘I could have just travelled for four months and maybe seen some cool things, but not bettered myself or anyone else. Because I volunteered with my time, it helped other people too, and I think that is just a great thing’.

If you are interested in volunteering, visit the GVN website at www.volunteer.org.nz

Do you love cruise vacations but find them way too expensive? Are you looking for the exceptional and unique in sea travel? Then you may want to consider a freighter cruise.

To really enjoy a freighter cruise, you must be flexible and acknowledge that cargo movements govern all schedules and itineraries. Period.

When travelling alone, the charge will be between $65 to $125 USD per day. Always request a single cabin because a double will cost significantly more. When only doubles are available, the extra may be sufficient to make you think about a different voyage altogether, or wait for a later voyage when a single cabin is available.

Two people booking a double cabin will usually pay less per person than one person booking a single cabin, although on some lines these fares are the same, and in a few cases, can be even less than the double fare per person.

Usually a freighter carries no more than twelve passengers, but in many cases only five or six. Any more than twelve passengers requires the ship to employ a doctor. All passengers must provide a medical certificate signed by both their physician and themselves, confirming that they are able to travel on a freighter where there is no doctor on board.

All suites and staterooms are spacious, well furnished and equipped to a good standard, some with a TV/VCR and refrigerator. They come with private bathrooms and air conditioning. Located on the upper decks and on the outside of the vessel, all cabins have windows; however, the view can sometimes be blocked by containers stowed on deck. Bed linen and towels are changed once or twice a week.

Swimming pools, saunas and fitness rooms, are normally provided as well as passenger lounges with TV/VCR and stereo sets and small video and book libraries. Deck space can be limited but there’s always room for sunbathing, and deck chairs are usually available.

The fare includes accommodation and three meals per day. Passengers dine with the ship’s officers and, on many vessels, enjoy complimentary wine at lunch and dinner. The pantry is usually always open to anyone fancying a light snack. Alcoholic beverages and soft drinks are available on all vessels, at duty free prices.

Your fellow passengers will be people who love adventure and who do not enjoy regimentation. Organized activities are not for them! They are frequently people who can take lengthy periods of time off, such as teachers, people who run their own businesses and retired folk.

The Beetle spent a large part of 2005 working in Brunei. Here is a whistle-stop summary of some of its attractions; Brunei is definitely worth a three day or so detour.

Brunei, or to give it its full and correct title, Darussalam is situated on the north-west of the island of Borneo. It is a comparatively small country and has a total area of 5,765-sq. km. with a coastline of about 161-km along the South China Sea. It is completely surrounded by the state of Sarawak, East Malaysia though the Malaysian state of Sabah is to the east and Indonesia’s Kalimantan is to the south comprising the rest of Borneo. Brunei became independent from Great Britain in 1984 and Malay and English are widely used.

Brunei is blighted by a most unjustified reputation of being very expensive. Compared to say, Singapore, you can get a room in a hotel, say the D’Angerrek (where the Beetle lived) which is of a very high standard, for around £20 a night – something you could not find in Singapore for the same budget or indeed standard. The food in Brunei is excellent and there are many restaurants to choose from, from the ubiquitous food courts on the top floor of shopping centres to Indonesian satay and gado gado places to Japanese restaurants, all at very reasonable prices. There are a number of extremely good supermarkets that stock everything you could possibly want and far, far more in the way of fish, meat, fresh fruit and veg than say the UK – everything except alcohol, for Brunei is a dry country.

Public transport, or rather the lack of it lets Brunei down. There are buses, but the network is not extensive and they tend to stop at 5pm, so hiring a car is something of a pre-requisite.

There is a centre to Bandar, the capital but it is not big. There is a small shopping complex with a food court and an impressive mosque, the Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque – see picture left.

Also in town, there’s the Kampong Ayer, a somewhat up market floating village. I was told by a boatman who lives there that around 20,000 people live in the Kampong and more and more are leaving for more comfortable housing. I say up market, because it has electricity, satellite dishes and some of the houses have two storeys and pretty painted verandas and large pots of flowers and other plants. There are also several primary and secondary schools, a mosque and a fire station and a floating Shell petrol station. On my last trip there, I was told that the govt has plans to demolish some of the houses to build a bridge but it is still in the planning stage and attracting much controversy. The inhabitants are planned to be moved to the less characterful single storey concrete houses on stills at the lower end of the Kampong. It’s a little strange to see people’s cars parked on the opposite side of the Kampong – there are loads, and another reason why I say it’s not quite like similar Kampong’s I’ve seen. You should expect to pay about between 15 – 20 Brunei dollars for an hour’s tour of the Kampong. Further upstream you can see proboscis monkeys in the morning and late afternoon, but the usual boatmen will not usually take you there, you may find you have to book a tour (not cheap at 60 Brunei dollars).

About 6 kms out of town on the way to one of the two royal yacht clubs there’s a rather dry and dusty museum where they make you put your belongings including camera in a locker. See photo right. Downstairs artefacts from Iran, Turkey etc and you are left wondering about Brunei. Upstairs is about Brunei and its history. Also near the museum is the tomb of the Sultan Bolkiah which is a short walk from the road. It is in a pretty setting with frangipani trees around it, close to the river.

Tasek Merimbun, also known as Merimbun Heritage Park, is 27km (17miles) inland from Tutong, and contains Brunei’s largest lake with a tumbled down and decidedly precarious wooden walkway that used to take you all the way out over the lake and across to the island in the middle. It used to be a pretty place surrounded by forest with several walking trails. You can tell that it used to be very pretty but it has a somewhat dilapidated air about it these days.

A drive to Miri the small seaside border town in Sarawak takes you through the Shell oil town of Seria in the south of Brunei where, you can see tucked away down a lane leading towards the sea, past the Shell training and development centre, Brunei’s Billionth Barrel Oil Monument commemorating one billion barrels of crude oil from the Seria field 1 well which was the first commercially viable oil well to be drilled in 1929. This monument was commissioned by Brunei Shell Petroleum, designed by a local architect and built in 1991. It commemorates the production of billionth barrel of oil by the Seria oilfield which can be seen very close to the shore.

There’s also the Jerudong Park Playground, a huge amusement commissioned by the sultan in 1994 as a gift to his people. Until 2000, entry was free until 2000, but when it started charging, locals lost interest. According to local expats, it was around this time that various foreign workers responsible for maintaining the amusement ground left the country, so some local people laughingly joke that the rides are not quite as safe as they once were. When the Beetle went, most rides were available and she had great fun on the large roller coaster (there are two or three) and especially the log flume which does a crazy reverse at the top of a peak and whooshes down backwards (amidst much embarrassing Beetle squeaks). The second time the Beetle visited, many rides were shut down for maintenance, but it’s still a fun and occasionally spooky place to visit (where there is no lighting because the rides are closed) for an evening out. Now many rides languish, waiting for spare parts or to be re-insured but it’s still an intriguing experience to wander round the massive semi-deserted grounds in the evening.

Close to the Jerudong Amusement Park is the uber posh and very spectacular Empire Hotel, commissioned by the Sultan’s brother, Prince Jefri. This amazingly luxurious Empire Hotel which inside resembles a pastiche of all the different styles you possibly imagine, from 1920s art deco to the Harrods-like Egyptian and Greek columns is very impressive and a tourist sight in its own right – an absolute must in all its gaudy glory. There are several restaurants and buffets to sample and there is a small beach and pools as part of the grounds. Definitely worth a visit and occasionally, because of very low occupancy rates, good rates are to be had to stay in the hotel.

Getting to Brunei is easy – there are flights (including low cost airlines) from Singapore, Malaysia and Bangkok and direct flights from Europe. British subjects are allowed a thirty day visa on arrival, for others, there are different rules. There are coaches from Malaysian Sarawak to the west and you can take a very nice ferry to Labuan and then, if you wish, taken another to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysian Sabah.

A remote and ruined temple with massive face-towers and intricate carvings shrouded in mist and jungle vegetation conjures up all the romanticism of a lost Khmer city. One such place where this is a reality is Banteay Chhmar in the north-western corner of Cambodia, close to the border with near neighbour Thailand.

Never fully excavated and inaccessible for decades due to Khmer Rouge activity in the area, Banteay Chhmar (“Narrow Fortress”) was constructed late in the 12th century, allegedly as the funerary temple of King Jayarvarman VII’s son, the Crown Prince Indravarman and four generals killed in the war against the Chams. Other scholars have suggested it was built following the death of Rajapatindralakshmi, the paternal grandmother of the King. Along with its ruined face-towers, the temple is renowned for its bas-reliefs, which cover the outer face of the enclosing gallery and includes a unique sequence of multi-armed Lokitesvaras (left).

Unfortunately these carvings have been an irresistible magnet for looters in the last few years and this pillage plumbed new depths recently with the boldest and best-organised temple robbery of all time. In all, just under half of the temple’s wall carvings have now been removed but the latest theft was discovered by accident when Thai police stopped a truck carrying no less than 117 heavy stone pieces from a dismantled wall. This has prompted a major crackdown on the plundering of artefacts from the 1,200 ancient temples scattered across the country by both Cambodian and Thai authorities. A visit by Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn to Banteay Chhmar has helped to raise awareness of the plight facing these remote Khmer temples and the above picture shows her inspecting one of the bas-reliefs still in place.

Banteay Chhmar originally covered an area of 2.5 x 2km (in comparison, Angkor Thom is 3km square) and contained the main sandstone temple, a number of other religious structures and a baray (1500 x 700m) to the east of the temple. Lying outside the moat-enclosed main temple’s eastern entrance is an isolated stone rest-house, known as a dharmasala (similar to the one found at Preah Khan in Angkor). A wall measuring 250 x 190 metres surrounds the temple proper, with four gopuras in the middle of each side. Its outer face carries bas-reliefs on three tiers showing alternating military and religious scenes, recalling those of the outer gallery of the Bayon, including battle scenes featuring the Chams (left). Although some parts of the wall have collapsed, the best of the reliefs are south of the gopura on the west wall and include a series of eight colossal standing, multi-armed Lokitesvaras, facing west.

The confusing jumble of ruins that comprises the temple’s central complex gives the visitor no obvious route or path to follow and due to the tangled vegetation the best way of exploring is scrambling over gallery roofs and the large piles of collapsed stones. The long, narrow central sanctuary (170 x 40m) has interconnected galleries, gopuras and towers, both with and without carved faces (again, similar in style to those at the Bayon; pictured right). Near the centre, three face-towers stand in isolation amongst the ruins and undergrowth. To the north, west and south are three separate temples with more faces but most have collapsed and cannot be identified. Close by, a building known as the ‘Hall of Dancers’ houses a fine lintel showing half-human, half-bird apsaras, rishis and Brahma in excellent condition.

The temple complex lies sixty kilometres north of Sisophon along Route 69 and just thirteen kilometres from the Thai border. From Sisophon, it takes around 2 hours on a motorbike to travel the 43 kilometres to the village of Thmar Puok and then another seventeen kilometres to the south-west corner of the moat surrounding Banteay Chhmar. The road follows the moat around to the east side and a broad causeway, flanked by the baray, signals the entrance to the temple-city. Foreign visitors have so far been few and far between, although the improved security situation in the area will one day make the temple a popular diversion for those taking the overland route from Thailand into Cambodia via Poipet. A recent [2000] visitor to the site, Phalla from Angkor Adventures, confirmed that soldiers act as guides for the few travellers that make it up there and charge a $5 entrance fee. He took the pictures that you see above.

The photographs below, courtesy of Lisa Cox, are some of the stolen Banteay Chhmar friezes and carvings on display in the National Museum in Bangkok in March 2000. Under an agreement between the two countries, these sculptures will be repatriated back to Cambodia very soon but in the meantime they are on public display. They include two large wall bas-reliefs of multi-armed Lokitesvaras, large heads of asuras, a winged garuda, a stone inscription and other priceless artefacts.

There are a lot more ruins tucked away in the remote north-western corner between Sisophon and the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Anlong Veng in the north. Continuing on from Banteay Chhmar, a large complex called Banteay Top (‘Army Citadel’) lies a few kilometres away in deep jungle and along with a handful of other temples, Prasat Mebon, Prasat Taphrom, Prasat Samnang Tasok and Prasat Ta Preav could form a tourist circuit in the future, according to UNESCO and the Ministry of Culture, who have installed guards and cleared vegetation in recent months. There’s also Prasat Rovieng, an early brick structure on Route 69, near Bak Noem and an Angkorean period bridge on Route 68 south of Chong Kal, with a fairly large Angkor-era structure nearby.

If you have any more information on these sites, please let me know, I can be contacted by e-mail on: andy.brouwer@btinternet.com or for more information on Andy’s travels, visit his website which has lots of travelogue stories with pictures: http://www.btinternet.com/~andy.brouwer/index.htm

What does the average person want from their summer holiday? Whether it be sightseeing or sunbathing, something lively or laid back, a holiday with friends, as a couple or as a family, Bulgaria has something for everyone; a phrase often used but rarely true as it is in this case. Top of the list for a lot of people would be value for money; with two weeks all inclusive in the popular resort of Sunny each at £609pp or a week’s bed and breakfast at an incredible £250pp this is a box definitely ticked and amazingly without any kind of compromise.

The local currency is the Bulgarian Lev, currently 2.57 to the pound and you wont need to spend many of these while you’re there; the average three course meal is just £5 and a bottle of wine from a restaurant £3.50. Should you take the bed and breakfast option you’ll be spoilt for choice as to where to eat, with more than enough restaurants in the resort to eat at a different one for every meal and a huge variety of dishes to choose from. If you like a drink, most bars don’t just serve cocktails, but give you two for the price of one and happy hour lasts all night!

If sunbathing is your thing, you’ll be more than pleased with the eight kilometre stretch of beautiful golden sand (hence the name Sunny Beach). To cool down, the variety of water sports available on the beach are great fun!

On the other hand, if you prefer sightseeing and exploring whilst on holiday, there is certainly no shortage of things to see and do. Varna is just an hour’s drive away, with a city centre great for shopping as well as a fabulous park with an assortment of pretty flowers and trees to walk amongst. This park is also home to an open air theatre, planetarium, aquarium, small zoo and the only dolphinarium in the Balkans. A riverboat ride at Sozopol could take you turtle spotting, or venture further inland to the dense forest covered mountains. Khans tent is situated here, another popular venue for tourists, providing a four course meal and nights entertainment with dancers, jugglers, mime artists and more. The old town of Nessebar is within walking distance, or a short bus or taxi ride away if you prefer. The narrow cobbled streets here are busy with locals selling souvenirs and local produce such as wonderfully detailed hand painted pottery, engraved wooden trinket boxes and silver jewellery. A few small churches are open to tourists to take a look around and of course there are plenty of places to eat and drink. If you still run out of things to do, the magnificent Turkish capital city of Istanbul isn’t far away and many tour operators organise overnight trips there.

Bulgaria has all the attractions of any beach holiday as well as being extremely affordable. The glorious sunshine is perfect for sipping a cool exotic cocktail from a sun bed and the resorts and everything within them are very clean. The people are some of the friendliest you’ll meet, very eager to please and speaking good English. Finally, Bulgaria has only become a popular holiday destination in the last couple of years; they provide the perfect holiday, but not many people have experienced it yet. So be one of the first to visit Bulgaria, because now the secret is out you certainly won’t be one of the last!

About the author: my name is Charlie, I’m 21 and a girl not a boy! I’ve always had an interest in the media but only recently had an urge to actually do something about it, and this is the first piece of writing I’ve submitted to anyone. Beetle – congrats, Charlie on your first published article, we enjoyed reading it at the Globetrotters Club.

The Human Development Index (HDI), published annually by the UN, ranks nations according to their citizens’ quality of life rather than strictly by a nation’s traditional economic figures. The criteria for calculating rankings include life expectancy, educational attainment, and adjusted real income. The 2005 index is based on 2003 figures.

Source: Human Development Report, 2005, United Nations. Web: hdr.undp.org

Mac is still not very well but is still e-mailing strong. In this month’s Globetrotter e-newsletter, he writes about postcards he sent home over the years and a trip he made over twenty years ago to Britain’s Chelsea Pensioners.

Notes from back of travel picture postcards. You may travel vicariously, but not sinfully: from notes I wrote on back of picture postcards. At least find budget places to stay. On cards I sent back from Russia, the authorities there must have written down the names and addresses of those I was sending cards to as they were later contacted to see if they wanted to subscribe to a Russian picture magazine they put out.

I also discovered my cards sent back to home were being read by those in our mail room. I addressed a card to Marlos Marr at the home calling her Marvellous Marr. She got teased about this. One trip I sent out 66 cards and I don’t know 66 people! One guy at home asked me to send him a card from every country I visited. Later I thought he must have quite a collection and asked if I could see them. Oh he said, they weren’t for me and named the one person at the home I couldn’t stand. All that waiting in line at post offices and all that writing for nothing!

2nd Dec 91: back in Bangkok. King Bhumih Aduladiz has cassette tapes (3) of his own compositions for sale here (front of card showed the Grand Palace) 150 baht each ($6 US.) Proceeds will go Royal Charity (and to buy a new reed for his saxophone.) Princess Mah ChakSinindhaar sends her best. She remembers you fondly. Leave for India Wed (by request.) Saw the King arrive here the other day. He does not live here but in a different location. His brother while King was mysteriously was shot in bed here so the new King has decided to live elsewhere. King was attending college at Harvard in the States when the incident happened. The Queen is now in Washington, D.C. receiving an award for her charity work. You no longer have to wear coat and tie to visit Palace like I did last time. The King now wears sports shirts. (King plays saxophone.)

On the back of picture of Taj Mahal, Agra, India Jan 92. Another of my budget hotels. Kitchen privileges. Have found work outside this place as as a snake charmer. Could use a couple of assistants. I may cut trip short or I might keep on going. Happy Holidays. I have said that people either hate or love India. I am in between. One minute I will be thinking, “This is the most wonderful experience of my life,” and the next I will be thinking, “Good God let me out of this place.” Ha. Happy Holidays. Bill – Bill who? Bill your brother.

One of the WWII heroes residing here at the home spent a couple nights in a jail cell in a jail in Ottawa, Canada. They were not mistreating him. It was the Hostel International Ottawa Jail Hostel. 75 Nicholas St, www.hihostels.ca You pay $23 Canadian to spent a night in a jail cell. Don’t choose the Sixth floor as that was Death Row and guests report seeing ghosts at night. You can be exposed to public scorn by sticking your head in hole in pillory outside (and have your photo taken.) The cells have been enlarged but have the original cell doors. There is no air conditioning. This way you will be quicker to confess crimes you may have committed that they don’t know about. This jail was built in 1860-1862 as Carleton County Gaol and was active for 110 years. If on good behaviour you can use their kitchen and lockers. The Wardens private room is available. There are prison stripes on over stuffed furniture. There are evening Crime and Punishment Tours and Ghost and Gallows Tours ($7.50 Canadian.) They also have tickets for local sights. It is open year around. See you in jail.

I had visited England’s Soldiers Home on my own. This was before the exchange visits were started and this was what I evidently thought our home members would like to know about their home. I wrote – the method of feeding (I am always interested in food) at England’s Soldiers Home (Chelsea Royal Hospital) is that there are no assigned seats for meals but whoever happens to be at the head of the table has to ask the others, “How many want Chump Chop? How many want Braised Ox Tongue? How many want soup?” He writes the order on a pad and hands it to a waitress. I prefer our system. I was told by one member that the only time he had ever heard of anyone getting kicked out of the Home was because of a dog. A member had taken a friend with a dog into their pub at the home. (British then could take dogs into pubs – still can, Mac.) He was politely asked to take the dog out and he refused. They called the Sgt Major and he tried to be diplomatic about it, but the man absolutely refused to remove the dog so they removed both forever.

Members are allowed 42 days leave a year and they get paid rations while on leave, one pound twelve pence a day (($l.68 US.) They can actually take as much leave as they wish and one man was going to Australia but they only get rations for 42 days. They have above their rooms date admitted, age, rank, religion and what outfit they were in. Most of their rooms were much smaller than ours but not all the same size. Because rooms are small there is an easy chair out in the hallway in front of each room. Some rooms have Dutch doors so that the top half of the door can be open enabling the occupant to look up and down the hallway and they seem to spend a lot of the time in the hallways. Each room seem to have a tea pot on a shelf.

I got my information from Members of the home and not official sources but understood one member to say they had about six or seven hundred of which about 200 were in the infirmary. They have a Governor, garden plots for Members as we do, similar beautiful grounds and even the fence around the grounds look like ours. In fact looking into the grounds from the Thames river side I thought, “This place looks familiar.” Some of the buildings were designed by Christopher Wren who designed St Paul’s Cathedral. They have a small museum as we do. They have no golf course and of course ours is a bigger and better operation as I have found no retirement home in the world that can match ours. We feed better etc. They wear black uniforms for daily use and scarlet ones for dress. They do not like to have their red dress uniforms referred to as red. They refer to them as scarlet. The entertainers at the British Holiday Campus wear red outfits and they don’t want any confusion. This is of course twenty year old information and I understand they have enlarged their rooms but still no not allow dogs in their beautiful pub.

There is a story that Nell the mistress of Kind Charles II saw some veterans searching for food and talked King Charles into building England’s Old Soldiers Home (our equivalent) I think we should all toast Nell. One Britisher was upset that they did not have a statue of Nell on the grounds of their Old Soldiers Home. Some say this is just a story. Can anyone verify it?? Mac – the Royal Hospital is one of London’s landmarks — an exquisite building set in Chelsea, built by Sir Christopher Wren in 1685 to provide a retirement home for old soldiers. The Chelsea Pensioners, as they are known, are a distinctive sight around London with their famous scarlet uniforms, dripping with service medals and decorations.

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

Ryanair’s Chief Executive, Michael O Leary has been hitting back about criticisms that the airline industry are irresponsible when it comes to CO2 emissions.

In response to being called, “the irresponsible face of capitalism” over its stance on climate change, Michael O’Leary suggested that old aircraft should be penalised as should business class passengers and also connecting travellers, the latter referring to indirect, environmentally inefficient journeys.

He said business class travellers were paying only a fraction of the cost of their expensive tickets, compared with UK plans to charge 10 pounds (US$19.38) on Ryanair flights where the average fare is 28 pounds.

As a final parting shot, Ryanair’s chief called for an end to “environmental hysteria” in British politics and media which he blamed for exaggerating the role of aviation in CO2 emissions. He acknowledged that global warming was an issue but said that the industry contributes less than 2 percent of global CO2 emissions.

Even the UK’s Prime Minster Tony Blair has been caught up in the row over his refusal to give up long-haul holiday flights in the interests of saving the planet. Naturally, Mr O’Leary said Blair was “absolutely right to keep flying”.

Then, Mr O Leary recently announced at a press conference that increases in airline taxes aimed at helping reduce greenhouse gases should be repealed as greenhouse gases were not the real reason for the increase in taxes and demanded an explanation from the Treasury about how it plans to use the extra £1bn in revenue that will be raised. ‘Gordon Brown won’t spend any of this money on the environment. He is just using the environment to steal more taxes from ordinary passengers,’ O’Leary claimed. Some truth in this?

Environmentalism has become a political hot potato these days – what do you think? E-mail the Beetle and let her know and we will publish your views and thoughts.

A big thank you goes to Webmaster Paul for his unsung and unpaid, not to mention heroic work on the Globetrotters Website and for organising the mail out of this e-newsletter. If it was not for Paul’s work, this e-newsletter would never happen. The Beetle feels he deserves a big mention and a big thank you. Here he is – he is a shy and retiring type so he’s at the end of this e-news and maybe he won’t notice it and get embarrassed.