Hello all,

summer seems to have finally arrived here in England and like many of you I’m enjoying the light nights that last well into the evening…it makes meeting up with people so much more relaxing 

This month’s eNewsletter features a wide range of material – we feature our regular contributor Mac, reports on the latest London branch meeting, plenty of news & web sites to be explored and three articles that have been sent in recently. Tony & Hal are more seasoned long distance travellers, whilst Benjamin is new to the eNewsletter…enjoy what they have to say and send us your feedback.

As a bonus, the entire text of the eighth edition of Moon Handbooks South Pacific is now accessible on Google Books at http://books.google.com/books?id=EDGapfBX-CAC&printsec=frontcover. You can scroll down through the 1,091 pages or click the Contents button to jump to a specific section. Buttons at the top of the page allow you zoom in, view two pages at a time, or switch to full screen. From the right hand column, you can search inside the book. Moon Handbooks South Pacific is rich in detail and you’ll find specific information on thousands of islands.

Previous contributor & author David Stanley has given Google Books permission to post his book on their website to make its full contents easily accessible to people all over the world. However downloading, copying, saving, or printing out pages from Google Books is restricted as Moon Handbooks South Pacific is still protected copyright.

That’s all for now…enjoy your nights out,

The Ant

theant@globetrotters.co.uk

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.

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.

In advance of TonyÂ’s trip to the interior of Brazil later this year, I have dug up the account of his previous adventure, with Mm Mitterand and the Ashaninka. Globetrotters Club members recall Tony presenting an abridged version, but for those who wish to know moreÂ…

The Ant

The small plane lifted of the tarmac, climbed into the sky, banked away from Rio Branco by the border of Brazil and Peru; and at last we were up, up and away on the last part of our journey to visit the Ashaninka near the small town of Marechal Thaumaturgo.

I saw our future and the future was green, not just the sea of green we were flying low over with the occasional break in that verdant mass below, revealing a river with its golden banks meandering through the luxuriant forest. It has been sometime since I had been with a group of VIPs but now instead of doing a sword dance with a Saudi Prince I was in a small twin engined plane flying over the rich green rainforest of the State of Acre in Brazil accompanying Mm Danielle Mitterrand, the widow of a past French President, The Ministra do Meio Ambiente from Brasilia, the Governor of Acre and the usual body guard, TV cameraman etc. which follow VIPs. Last, but not least of all was Joao Fortes the leader of our small group and passionate helper of the Indians for more than twenty years, Cristina MendonÃĤa (expert on carbon credits), Maria Alice, whose expertise was to help the Indians make the right craft goods that would sell in the outside world.

Why was I there? I had been invited by Joao Fortes to write and take pictures of the Ashaninka as I and Adam Baines had twelve years ago about the Yawanawa people. This time instead of going up the river Juria, I was going to take the right fork up the river Amônia towards the border of Peru. Before that though I was to accompany the French delegation and record Mm Mitterrand’s meeting and signing of an agreement between France and the Ashaninka and the State of Acre.

The village greeted the very pleasant widow representing France and it seems in no time at all we were all exchanging views and the Indians were explaining how they had made their people live a sustainable way of life in the rain forest and now wanted to show the rest of the State of Acre how this could be done. This charming lady was told how they had no cattle on their land but planted thousands of trees each year and bees that did not sting but produced a honey, so good, that the gods would come down from the heavens to taste it. They had many different fruits, many types of potatoes, also a great knowledge of over two thousand medicines that the forest provided. They also wanted to publicise the fact that people were invading from Peru, with ‘PistoleirosÂ’, with large machines, that ripped out the trees and then pulled them back to Peru and then said they had been grown under licence there. Also the chemicals that these invaders were using have started to change the taste of the fish in the Rio Amônia. The Ashaninka have started to petition other nations as well as their own government to do something about this problem. The Brazilians have now put in satellite phones in the border villages, so that State forces can be called up to help in case of invasion by these foreign companies.

After Mm Mitterrand had collected some honey, planted a tree, taken a short trip up river, with body guards, TV Cameraman and the rest of the entourage – She was whisked off to Rio Branco to sign documents with all the group, leaving Cristina of carbon credits and myself back at the Ashaninka College.

Benki was a charming remarkable man and from the age of thirteen he had taught himself all about the forest, its over two thousand medicines and how to make the tribe self sufficient and was now the recognisable face of the tribe on TV or in the political circles of Brasilia. His paintings are shown in Rio de Janeiro, his music sells on CD and women fall at his feet – Intelligent, charismatic, good looking and IÂ’m glad to say he is a good friend of mine – I will say, that I would surely like some of his magic to rub off on me! Benki playfully said to me “Tony my friend, you are lucky you were not born in my village – Nobody wears glasses because no one in the tribe is short sighted. No woman would marry me because I would not be able to hunt fish and look after a family”. Survival of the fittest and I certainly wasnÂ’t the fittest either in the rain forests or in cities with their high forests of concrete reaching for the sky. The Ashaninka are very fit, healthy and the only person who wore glasses was one lady in her seventies. The Uruku, the paint on their faces, gives them a very good skin complexion and also acts as a mosquito repellent. Aveda, the makeup company, use it in their lipsticks etc. And buy it from the ‘Yawanawa TribeÂ’.

Cristina and I spent an interesting night at BenkiÂ’s house on the other side of river in Marechal T, built to show the locals that a house can make its small section self sustainable and it certainly was – He reared chickens, grew fruit and vegetables and needed very little to be bought in to his home. He played his guitar, sang and listened to Cristina explaining the ins and outs of Carbon Credits as she was leaving next day to go back to her consultancy in Rio de Janeiro. Sunday, Benki and I hit the beach where the rest of the School and the residents of the small town pretended they lived on the coast and behaved as if they lived by the Atlantic instead of thousands of miles inland – We downed a few cold ones and planned the next part of the trip, basically turning right up the River Amônia and going up river for a few hours until we reached the Ashaninka village.

Picture by Tony Annis : Benki and friends at his home with the Ashaninkas

We reached the village and of course, right in the middle of it was a football pitch – The Ashaninkas are Indians but also Brazilian and all Brazilians love football. We had broken our journey to take some pictures of his family and watch a local tournament and unfortunately watch the tribe lose even though Benki came off the bench to play centre half and shore up the defence. Benki told me, “I am growing ‘The greenest little stadium in the world’ I have cleared the ground and started planting palms to cover the thousand spectators and then I will try to weave in flowers the names of famous European teams, such as Chelsea and Juventus and probably a French one as they are helping us now”.

Benki showed me round the village, the tree plantations, the pond where the turtles were reared, and the ladies making their craft beads, as well as one of them making their homemade beer for a village party. We were going further up river to a waterfall and camping for two or three days but as luck would have it we broke our propeller and one of BenkiÂ’s friends had to fix it by carving a propeller out of wood and all without the help of anything other than a knife and a stone used as a hammer. This coming July I hope to return and complete the journey to the waterfall with a few good friends of mine.

We headed down river back to the College of the Forest, via Cruzeiro du Sul (For Benki to pick up his e-mails). Finally, Rio de Janeiro for Benki and other Brazilian personalities to plant trees live on TV and for Benki do a brilliant live two minute piece to camera and as one of the Politicians said, “If I could only speak as well as that and to time, I would be Governor in the State of Rio by now, instead of being a local Deputy”. All this on my last day and before long the big plane lifted of the tarmac, climbed into the sky, banked away from Rio de Janeiro by the border of Brazil and once again I was up, up and away.

Despite its reputation for road accidents and poor preparation for this year’s Olympics, China does offer this century’s traveller one ray of hope: long-distance bus rides, at least in the coastal provinces, are much more safe and comfortable than they used to be. In many respects, China is the supreme example of plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose, but it has improved its transportation infrastructure a great deal. While in the country last August, I had the pleasant surprise of making a day trip by bus from Jinan, capital of Shandong Province, to the city of Zibo, where a former student of mine resides. Since I had lived in Jinan as an English professor ten years earlier, I approached the long-distance bus terminal with trepidation, remembering all those near-death experiences of days gone by. Instead of the gimcrack building with people fighting for tickets dispensed by a crabby old woman, a vehicle without seatbelts that needed replacement parts all over it and a sadistically reckless driver, I found myself in a carbon copy of a western airport lounge, with everything computerized. Having purchased my ticket as easily as I would in a western country, I bought a junk food breakfast at a KFC outlet within the terminal, there being no decent sandwiches available (this was still the orient, after all). Shining, new buses were drawn up in orderly rows around the parking lot, with none of the dangerous reversing and swerving that I recalled from my professorial days. Nor were passengers obliged to risk their physiques by walking behind reversing buses or boarding them at a run as they sped toward the exit; rather, everyone sat on cushioned chairs indoors until boarding time. Inside, the buses were air conditioned and had safety belts, features of which I had despaired back in the 1990s.

The highway between Jinan and Zibo was another morale booster. Six lanes wide, it had newly planted trees in neat ranks lining it, beyond which well-organized farmland and some new factories were visible. The most notable aspect of this journey, however, was the driving: gone were the terrifying, white-knuckle accelerations into the oncoming traffic lane in an effort to pass some unsafely laden truck in front, with hell-for-leather swerving back into the proper lanes just before shattering, head-on collisions, all of which were routine then, and went on for kilometre after kilometre, hour after nerve-wracking hour. Nowadays, it’s just like “going Greyhound” in the USA. All along the route, I could observe signs of heavy economic development, since I wasn’t constantly worried about being hurled through the bus’s windshield, then through that of another bus going in the opposite direction. In fact, traffic going in opposite directions was separated by a centre divider, and there were no Indie 500-like attempts to pass vehicles in front during the whole trip! The drivers to Zibo and back seemed as sane and sober as was I.

Arriving at Zibo’s terminal, I found it to be a miniature version of Jinan’s, with everything clean and tidy, except the lavatory, a room which, everywhere in China, seems oblivious to the benefits of sanitation. The overall effect, though, was nothing like what I remembered, even from my 2001 trip there. Thus, I was able to link up with my ex-student, himself now a professor, and spend the afternoon catching up before returning to Jinan in the evening. Later, I took a trip from Jinan to Shanghai on a sleeper bus that, while not too comfortable, was nonetheless safer and faster than a particularly nasty and prolonged sleeper bus trip I took from Canton to Guilin in 1995.

As the Middle Kingdom slouches toward hosting the games later this year, it’s nice to know they have gotten one thing right.

The initial attraction to visiting Christchurch was its colonial buildings and beautiful gardens. With only one day to enjoy the city I wasnÂ’t sure how to fit it all in. I headed to Cathedral Square and came across a distinctive blue retro style bike outside the Information Centre. Ahh, a bike tour, those were the daysÂ…. but at my age? I havenÂ’t ridden a bike for 25 years, I couldnÂ’t could I? I phoned the booking line and explained my predicament. The friendly man on the other end of the line chuckled, heÂ’d heard it all before. He assured me I would be fine and stated that Christchurch city was very flat and the guide takes a very leisurely paced tour. So I signed myself up! On meeting the guide and six other people in Cathedral Square we were fitted with our bikes and helmets. The bikes were great, big comfortable seats, a basket at the front for my bag and best of all, a bell that I could ring!

We pedalled down Worcester Boulevard along a lovely cobbled street to the Arts Centre. In front of us stood several beautiful gothic style buildings that originally housed the University of Canterbury. It is now home to craft studios, cafes, art galleries and live theatre. There was also an open air market with stalls selling all sorts of arts and crafts. Next stop was the historic Antigua Boatsheds where we pedalled alongside the English style punt into the Botanic Gardens and then Hagley Park, the green heart of Christchurch. We biked on the cycle ways enjoying the open space and fresh air.

After heading out of the Park we arrived at the lovely homestead of Riccarton House and the historic Dean’s Cottage. We were told a tale or two here and saw a reconstruction of what life was like for the hardy pioneers. Our guide locked up the bikes and took us for a short walk through a precious piece of virgin New Zealand bush with rare Kahikatea trees. We even caught a glimpse of a native Fantail. Once back on our trusty bikes we headed to Mona Vale, a beautiful estate with sculptured gardens, a lovely homestead, as well as two gate houses. We stopped here for tea and scones on the veranda of the old homestead.

The final stretch took us along to New Regent Street, a colourful little pedestrian only street (except for cyclists of course!) filled with antique stores and cafes. This is where I had to bid farewell to my new cycle friends and reflect on the saying Â…itÂ’s just like riding a bike.

Hello all,

First up in this month’s eNewsletter is April Competition result. As I detailed last month, travel author David Stanley offered you a chance to win your own copy of the recently launched 8^th edition of Moon Fiji – . We asked you to email the most original & yet correct answer to the question What is yagona and when might it be used?

The winner, Paul Roberts, came up with “In Fiji- and other parts of Polynesia — the drinking of yaqona (pronounced Yangona) or kava, is a common ceremonial and social custom. The yaqona ceremony has great significance in Fijian life but is now used by westerners to get high!!!” Perhaps Paul knows too much about Fiji or is getting ready to plan a trip & find out, either way he should be able to tell us more about Fiji when he writes his review of David’s guide for a future eNewsletter !

There are also two requests for assistance this time round – one from Laura who would like some help with her degree dissertation and two from Andrew who is working hard to warn all about the varying problems that ticks can cause travellers and local communities alike.

Additionally the Globetrotters Club Legacy Officer tells me that the new deadline to send in your applications for the William Wood Travel Award is 31 October (club members only but we welcome newcomers all the time !!). This year the April award has been rolled over, so now the club could send two lucky winners out on an independent journey of a lifetime. See the legacy page on the club’s web site for more details!!

That’s all for now…enjoy the very welcome spring sunshine,

The Ant

theant@globetrotters.co.uk

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.

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.

Gautam Chatterjea is a travel consultant, planner and organizer of exotic holidays. He can be reached at info@indiadreamtours.com

It’s been a passion that has repeatedly taken me to the Himalayas since my childhood and each time it was a discovery of the incredible that enchanted my senses. People who love the mountains know how mesmerizing the sylvan or the snowy folds are, when you traverse through them. Travellers who go for Himalayan destinations often make the gaffe of choosing the crowded hill stations for holidays. Indeed these developed destinations are good with general conveniences, but they certainly compromise on natural ambience that the unspoilt locales in the Himalayan offer in abundance. Here is where one discovers the true nature of this enchanting land in its people, culture, ecology and serenity. And the precious, friendly attitude of Himalayan people is always found reassuring for the traveller. Such sentiment hasn’t faded out among the people of rural Himalayas in most part of its 2500 kilometre stretch, although in some areas, despite their innate hospitable nature the hill people these days are a bit wary of bad elements, violence and extremism, entering their domain. This is how the innocent altruism of hill culture is run down by the antithesis in urban cultures.

I lived in Delhi, and Himalayan destinations were not too far away, which gave me the opportunity to escape to the hills as often as I could. Friends often asked me if I were not bored visiting the same environment over again. It was hard to explain to them that no place in the Himalayan grandeur was the same and each area was an independent canvas portraying the nuances of the spot. It was evident that those who questioned my sanity of repeatedly visiting the hills, in their personal visit didn’t open up enough to absorb the sights, sounds, feels and mood of the place, and realise its charisma. The great Himalayan wall with the highest peaks in the world is shared by five Indian states besides Nepal and Bhutan. Beyond the wall lies the Tibetan plateau. In this arc people and cultures present different shades of lifestyles, each one robustly fascinating in its nature, and amazing in appeal. The people from Ladakh in Kashmir, for example, would be so different in their way of life, their attire, their language, culture and religion from their counterparts in the Kashmir valley just a few hundred miles away. So are Himachal, Uttaranchal, Nepal, Sikkim Bhutan and Arunachal characterised distinctly by their culture and natural ambience and each region offers a new revelation.

Picture by Gautam Chatterjea : Kashmir meadows	Picture by Gautam Chatterjea : Shikara lake side

I have been visiting the Himalayas untiringly all my life and my quest for more never ends, simply because surprises of Himalayan glory never ceases. Unlike the heritage locations in cities and towns around the world, where, after a short visit you could feel ‘I have seen enough of it’, the Himalayas would always spring up relentless attractions to keep the visitor thirsting for more. Exotic is the word that truly describes the Himalayas.

To finish these musings…there is the story of a French woman Diane who fell in love with the charms of Himalayas and on her fourth holiday in the region, Sikkim this time around, she met a Bhutia youth whose politeness and way of life appeared so refreshingly different to her own. She was charmed by the man of Himalayas and romance blossomed soon enough. Knowing that the tradition and culture of the land allowed nuptial bonds only within the tribe, yet unable to accept the imminent parting on the conclusion of the tour, she enquired if he would accept her as his wife. He and his family gained the consensus of other villagers for their marriage and Diane became the Bhutia wife. And they lived happily in the glory of the White Mountains…