For the end of the season London meeting, we had the traditional Members’ Slides to entertain us and this time around we had as many new speakers as returning favourites.  All provided the audience with a varied range of excellent journeys and adventures, illustrated with some stunning photos:-

Eric Hayman : slides and memories about the extensive steam rail network in Ireland that he travelled in the 1960’s, often by hitching a ride with the driver. A wonderful insight into times gone by and the life of those who lived nearest to the tracks.

Delia Cardnell : A colourful glimpse of Delia’s trip to Vietnam and especially her interactions with the children and families she met there.

Jacek Obloj : These fascinating portraits from a trip to Morocco showed both Jacek’s interest in the human face but also a close up and intimate look at a colourful and varied people in black & white.

Suneel Kaur : A recent trip to India to visit the Jain temples near Bundi provided the subject for this presentation. History, culture and lots and lots of steps added to the attraction of this ‘off the tourist trail’ site.

Liz Cooper : Beautiful close-up photographs of the insects, birds and animals of Thai and English islands. A timely reminder that it is not always necessary to travel a long way to see beauty in nature. 

Kevin Brackley : A trip to Sweden to practice his yoga gave Kevin a fine opportunity to explore the quirky sculpture & art that seems to litter the urban landscape of Stockholm. Who could miss the Shrek roof decoration or the stickered bin? 

Nick Preston : Katoomba and the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, Australia, was the source of Nick’s inspiration. Waterfalls, Adam Lindsay Gordon, the Three Sisters and lots of leafy bush spoke of sun and warmth and Nick’s love of travel.

Neil Harris : the Crimea. Florence Nightingale, the charge of the Light Brigade, Yalta, Soviet architecture,  beaches and the Russian naval base whose lease is almost up, all came up for a mention. Once a favourite vacation spot for the elite of the USSR, the Crimea is now the summer escape for Ukrainians, with package tourism starting to discover that the beauty & history of the region i.e. a real selling point.

Details of the forth coming meetings at the London branch, September to December 2009, can be found at http://www.globetrotters.co.uk/meetings/lon09it1.html

The London branch 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.

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.

The Ontario branch 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.

Fellow travel enthusiasts Footprint books have generously offered eNewsletter readers a summer surprise to help us all with our travels, whether we’re planning or actually setting off…if you read the following instructions, it should all be fairly self explanatory.  At this point I should say that you should read the fine print and for our non UK based readers, you should make sure you understand any currency & shipping costs, before you place your orders.

The Ant

     “Hello there,

      We would like to offer the readers of your monthly newsletter a discount off our guidebooks – would this be something of interest ?  Footprint would like to offer you an 15% off all their

      guides, all you have to do is:-

• log on to footprinttravelguides.com
• add the item [of your choice] to basket
• proceed to checkout and enter the coupon code, globe15
• click update [and complete the checkout process]

      Best wishes

      Hannah”

Channel 4 (UK) are producing a new landmark documentary series about the growing number of British families putting day-to-day life on hold to see the world with their children.

Through the films we hope to highlight just how rewarding, educational and most importantly possible it is to go travelling with the kids.

Our hope is that the programmes will inspire more parents thinking about this kind of trip to actually take the plunge and get involved around the world. We also want to highlight the positives of this kind of experience has on a family unit and the educational benefit for children. Each family would be left with a unique travel-log of their journey.

We would not plan to be with the family the entire time but would provide them with a camera to record the events with us dropping in at certain key points along the way.

We hope to follow five families in the series and whilst we have already started filming with four we are still looking for one more to be involved who could be leaving anytime up to 2010.

I am trying to cast the net as wide as possible in the search for families and simply want to spread the word so that people can get in touch with me if they are interested.

It’s like a needle in a haystack trying to find people so any suggestion or help however small would be very gratefully received.

Kind regards

Naomi Elkin-Jones

Assistant Producer

Twenty Twenty Television

20 Kentish Town Road

London NW1 9NX

Tel: 0207 2842020

NaomiElkinJones@twentytwenty.tv

Hot off the press the club has just received this email from one of its own speakers – read more and click the link to find out what Peter is up to…The Ant

Dear all,

I spoke at the Globetrotters club [London branch] during the March meeting this year about my Long Ride Home – bicycle journey from Japan-UK. 

I would just like to inform you that on August 16th I am beginning my next major two-wheeled adventure. The Big Africa Cycle is a solo and unsupported expedition from England-South Africa – 15,000 miles and 25 countries, give or take.  I have a website for the trip at www.thebigafricacycle.com – it would be a pleasure to share my experiences with members again on my return [and as I travel along].

Many thanks for your help.

Kind regards, Peter Gostelow

 

Paul Whittle – Land of Gold and Green, a journey through Burma, aka Myanmar. Burma gained its independence in 1948 and since 1962 has been run by the military with an iron rule, the only threat to its continued dictatorship being Aung San Suu Kyi winning the 1990 election, but never being allowed to hold office. The country is 90% Buddhist. Paul showed us the capital Yangon, where the public buses are made from 60 year old truck chassis. From Yangon you can take the steamer up the Irrawaddy river to Mandalay with its Pagodas and Kyaiktiyo gold rock said to be precariously held in place by a hair from Gautama Buddha. Paul travelled around Burma using a hired steam locomotive, which would stop whenever a photo opportunity arose. Paul showed us the beauty of Inlay Lake, with its famous “Jumping Cat” Monastery and also the UNESCO listed Bagan with its 2200 temples.

Brazil Bunch – Tony Annis & five friends (three of the six being Globetrotters’ members) travel across to the western Brazilian state of Acre, in order to spend time with the Ashaninka people and sample life in their communities along the rivers & forests for Peru/Brazil border. Whilst not professional speakers or authors, these enthusiastic travellers showed us a range of adventures as they left the modern state behind and headed up river in a small convoy of powerful motorboats. Whilst not quite Bruce Parry in Amazon, they did get a chance to gain a unique insight into a way of life that is rapidly changing.

Polly Evans – “Mad dogs and an Englishwoman”. Polly travelled to Canada’s Yukon Territory to learn about the Huskies who take part in the 1000 mile Yukon Quest sled race. First Polly spent time with Frank, who invented the race and his son Saul who have 108 Huskies in training. She learned about the dogs, how they each have a personality and like to “live” with their friends and their rather gruesome looking horse meat in hot water diet! The race itself runs from Fairbanks in Alaska, via Dawson where the Mushers have a 36 hour rest, before continuing to the finish at Whitehorse. Each team set out with 14 dogs and are allowed no outside help, though they can drop off injured dogs at “Dog drops” and pick up supplies along the way, though they must finish the race with at least 8 dogs, which the fastest sleds manage in 10 days. During the race Polly watched, a bad storm occurred resulting in the Military having to use helicopters to rescue over 88 dogs and their Mushers. After the race Polly had a go at dog sledding, as she said you end up with lots of photos of dogs behinds!

More information at www.pollyevans.com

Our second speaker was John Mole whose talk was called “I was a potato Oligarch!”. When Russia changed into a free market economy John thought he saw a gap in the market between McDonalds and Pizza Hut, something quintessentially English, his own version of the now defunct “Spud-U-Like” chain to be called “Jackets Moscow”. After getting a grant he set off to try and find the best potatoes Russia could grow, visiting farms, looking at Spuds and learning Russian along the way. Alas John’s plan was thwarted by the Russian Mafia, where everyone from the Police, Fire Brigade, Local council all want paying off, the Russian mafia demanded 10% of his takings, which was the equivalent of 80% of his profit, so the whole thing was a no starter, but made for a great story.

More information at www.johnmole.com/oligarch

For details of the forth coming meetings of the London branch, December 2008 through to July 2009 – http://www.globetrotters.co.uk/meetings/lon09it1.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.

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.

Ontario 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.

Oh, I know – Greece. Hardly globetrotting, says you. But some of the best experiences can be had close to home, if you dig a little deeper. You can go to the other side of the world, coddled in the security of an international community, a set route, your preconceived notions… Or you can take a cheapo Easyjet flight to Rhodes, then an erratic ferry to a quirky little rock in the Med, and you can be surprised by another way of life.

Yesterday, Dimitris the chemistry teacher and I went snorkelling and I asked him about the best places to find octopus. He found one for me, dived down, lifted up the rock, grabbed the little creature and thrust it into my hands underwater. I was giggling so much that I swallowed a big gulp of seawater. Just bigger than a fist, light brown it was, the gentle suckers gripping my hands as it tried to decide if they were a comfortable place to be or not. It decided probably not, blasted black ink at us, and like a cartoon octopus it shot off and into the seaweed.

Tilos has a population of 300 – people that is; though there are probably more goats (the main traffic problem is that the goats like to sit in the middle of the road towards the end of the afternoon when it’s nice and warm). Ferries come here somewhat less than once a day, though we do get the occasional warship or submarine in the harbour, being so close to Turkey. Boosting the local population now as well as a few Brits there are Albanians, Romanians, Bulgarians and Ukrainians. The government offers tax incentives to Greeks to move back to islands with a population this low, and there’s now a primary and high school on the island. Children play on the beach in the afternoon and play football in the square at night, watched over by everyone.

I go snorkelling often in one of the tiny coves where you have to scramble down steep slopes covered in wild thyme and sage and oregano (in antiquity, the island’s herbs were well known for their healing powers) and flowers, since the dry season is only just starting. The rocks in the north-west are volcanic – purple bauxite and white pumice. My favourite fish is the fikopsari, ‘seaweed fish’, which looks to me more like a native spear with eyes, and changes colour in seconds. On the way back, I look out for the big lizard, the agama, scuttling away into the rocks.

My friend Vangelis remembers when the families moved down to Despoti Nero beach in the summer for its fresh water supply which drains into the sea, and they’d grow grapes and figs. Tilos still grows oranges, courgettes, potatoes, lettuce, tomatoes, though the island is capable of growing much more. You can eat tiny sweet shrimp straight from the sea – or octopus, if you’re a good fisherman, like Dimitris. You can gather herbs and other edible plants from the wilderness of the island.

Four and a half thousand years ago, when civilisations on Crete and Santorini were thriving, Tilos had the last European elephants. They came from Africa 45,000 years ago, crossing the sea when it was shallower, and living on an island evolved into a dwarf species just one and a half metres tall. The bones of the last remaining forty elephants were found in Harkadio Cave, probably trapped during an eruption of the volcano on the next island, Nisyros. You can see a skeleton of mother and baby in the tiny museum in Megalo Horio.

The European Commission has helped to turn Tilos into a Special Protection Area for endangered and rare wildlife such as Bonelli’s Eagle and Eleonora’s Falcon; historically it’s been an important stopover for migrating birds such as Bee-eaters in spring and autumn, and is visited by monk seals and sea turtles. Vangelis says before the buildings in Livadia there was a wetland, and it was fantastic to watch all the birds landing here.

People do what they can to make ends meet here, since no business can be very busy. Some keep bees or collect grass for hay. Vangelis keeps goats (‘I go to kill two animals,’ he said, one day when he got an order) and makes charcoal in the winter when there are no visitors to be bothered by the smoke; he does the slow burning of the wood up on the mountain near a small chapel; in the summer, he’s adapted to the new way of life and sells bottles of water on Eristos beach. Meanwhile, Georgos, the waiter in Irina, the restaurant named after the island’s famous ancient poetess, works as a medic, going around to visit the old people who live on their own, taking their blood pressure. The husband of the lady who looks after the museum is a roaming barber on a motorcycle.

Things get busier in July and August. The festival of Saint Pandelimon (July 25-27) culminates in feasting and traditional dancing at the monastery on the desolate cliffs of Profitis Ilias, and there’s less traditional dancing till the early hours at a bar in an abandoned village, and hundreds of families from Italy and Greece camp for free on Eristos beach. But it’s hard to beat the months of eesikheea, tranquillity.

In some ways it’s a scrappy little island. There’s no recycling, and cars and tractors get abandoned wherever they stop working. Oil gets onto the beach from passing tankers, and stray cats leap out of rubbish bins leaving plastic bags and bottles in their wake. Plastic washes up onto the beaches, and there are always goat droppings. Roads get bulldozed in whenever someone wants to build a house, and the rule on building no more than two stories high has been bypassed. Meanwhile the new museum near Harkadio Cave has been half-built for three years now, and its shiny marble floor is covered with goat droppings. Everything, here, is for the goats.

If you want pretty perfection, go to Symi or Halki. But if you want the freedom of a wild, ancient rock with a mysterious past and a slow and simple present, Tilos inspires. I love the fact that there are sheep in the fields on the edge of the beach. That’s how it should be.

To find out more about Jennifer and her travels see

Jennifer Barclay once lived in Greece for a year, teaching English in Athens and cleaning hotel rooms in Santorini, and has visited regularly ever since. Her first book is Meeting Mr Kim: Or How I Went to Korea and Learned to Love Kimchi (Summersdale, 2008).

CultureShock! A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette…

CultureShock! is an essential range of guides for those travellers looking to truly understand the countries they are visiting, as well as for expatriates settling into a new assignment in a foreign land. Covering over 80 countries and cities each title explains the customs, traditions, social and business etiquette in a lively and informative style. The books have a friendly and honest writing style and are full of personal experiences, practical advice and useful information.

CultureShock! authors, all of whom have experienced the joys and pitfalls of cultural adaptation, are ideally placed to provide warm and informative advice to those who seek to integrate seamlessly into diverse cultures. Now a TV series! Taking the iconic series into the next level, CultureShock! is now a TV series programme airing on Channel News Asia (CNA).

Here’s some tips on customs and etiquette from CultureShock!:

CultureShock! Thailand provides a valuable crash course on the who’s who, and the what’s and how’s of the country, guiding readers through a wide range of topics for day-to-day living including how to interact with the local people and fit into Thai society. Full of humour and practical tips, a must-read for those intending to stay for any length of time in the Land of Smiles.

Do’s

• Do use a person’s first name, not the family name. Adults should be addressed as Khun unless a title is used.
• Do learn when, who and how to wai ( the Thai greeting which consists of a slight bow, with palms pressed together in a prayer-like fashion)
• Do treat royalty with the greatest respect. Do stand up when images of the king or royal family appear on the cinema screen.

Don’ts

• Don’t point your feet at anybody. Don’t step over anybody or anybody’s food
• Don’t touch hair and heads. If you do so by accident, excuse yourself.
• Don’t be surprised if your laundry is done by a man and he refuses to wash a woman’s underclothes.

CultureShock! United Arab Emirates orientates you into a country that is moving forward at a breathtaking pace unlike any other. The thriving economy attracts a large and diverse expatriate workforce, while luxurious hotels, spectacular skyscrapers and top-class shopping places continue to draw tourists from all corners of the globe. Beneath this cosmopolitan surface though is a culture deeply rooted in Arabic tradition and tribal values that continue to exist till this day.

Do’s

• Respect the local laws, culture and Muslim sensibilities of the UAE
• Shake hands with a person of the same gender as you. Men should allow an Emirati or Arab woman to decide if she will shake hands. Western women should err on the side of caution and not extend a hand to an Emirati man unless he extends his hand first.
• In business, schedule your appointments for the morning if possible and always carry business cards with English on one and Arabic on the other side of the card.

Don’ts

• Don’t wear a veil or the traditional dress if you are a non-Muslim woman
• Don’t discuss your humble origins; you will only embarrass yourself. Don’t boast of your achievements either. Fortune and unearned wealth are more greatly admired. Wait for them to ask.
• Don’t conduct business on Friday

CultureShock! Czech Republic allows readers to discover the rich history behind the country, from the Hapsburg era to the effect of Communism. Gain an insight into the local characteristics from the Czech love of nature to their musical inclination to their magical folklore.

Do’s

• Be modest. Czechs appreciate modesty and humility in a person. Arrogance, aggression and ostentation are frowned upon. Observe and recognise behavioural patterns, and try to align with them as much as possible.
• Try to recognise Czech sarcasm and dry humour. Czechs are good at making jokes out of virtually any situation. Try not to take yourself too seriously, and don’t take commentary too personally.
• Always toast your friends before taking the first swallow of the evening, and always look into your companion’s eyes when doing so. This is part of the ritual of drinking.

Don’ts

• When in somebody’s home, don’t talk too much about business and politics. Social situations are to be reserved for social matters, and there is a strong divide between work and play in the Czech Republic.
• Don’t be picky when in a pub or restaurant. Special requests are rare, so don’t, for example try to order a vegetarian version of a fish dish.
• In any business or social situation, don’t try to impose your cultural values or business principles upon your Czech friends or business associates. Instead, observe and demonstrate humility, but without pandering or flattery.

CultureShock! Beijing offers an insight into life within the Chinese capital. Home to more than 100,000 foreigners, it is no surprise that the city has been spawning modern buildings to accommodate the increasing economic activity. Ironically, many Beijingers still do not have running water in their homes and most of them are not able to afford the imported goods on sale at the new shopping malls. Nevertheless, the people of Beijing boast a rich culture which has been preserved through a long line of dynasties.

Do’s

• Do make an effort to learn and practise speaking Mandarin. You can improve only if you try.
• Do remember the concept of “face”. Learn how to give others face
• Do prepare business cards in simplified Chinese characters and keep plenty of them with you at all times.

Don’ts

• Don’t make fun of or criticise Chinese people and their customs
• Don’t wear clothing that is overly garish or revealing

Don’t drink tap water, eat uncooked vegetables or take other unnecessary health risks.