Venue: – please note the change: Old York Tower, 85 The Esplanade (SouthEast corner of The Esplanade & Church) – 2 block east of the Union station. Public parking garage is at the foot of Church St. right next to the Old York Tower.
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.
U. S. Soldiers Home, Washington: during a century of travel (well 78 years!) both in and out of service I have travelled to over 150 countries (I count both North and South Dakota as countries) and for some reason have jotted signs and happenings that I thought funny at the time (and now wonder why). So here is the perfect opportunity to share some of my anecdotes.
Nairobi, Kenya. Because of the many pick pockets in Nairobi they are thinking of renaming Nairobi, Nairobbery.
Home member Donald French (now dead) in his eighties went with a group of young people from England on a truck trip thorough Africa. Each had an assignment: get wood for fire, cook, be a guard of their possessions at night etc. One night they decided they did not need a guard and all their shoes were stolen that night! As some had big feet it was difficult to get replacements. They became native in a hurry!
The Masai in Kenya have a drink made of cow’s blood and urine. Not available at the bar in our lodge. This cow’s milk urine combination drink is suppose to cure stuttering and athletes feet. One of the Masai wearing a blanket and carrying a spear surprisingly came into the bar of our lodge leaving his spear outside and said something to the bar tender. The Masai undid his handkerchief and took out tip money made from posing for pictures and ordered a Tusker Beer. The bar tender who was in Western Dress talked with him in Masai. After the Warrior left I commented to the bartender: “You speak Masai.” He answered: “I am Masai.”
The Masai warriors put red stuff in their hair. I thought maybe it was to keep flies away. Two were looking in the rear view mirror of our Landrover and I talked with them as best as I could and asked them why they put that stuff in their hair. They relied: “To look beautiful.”
At Salt Lick Lodge in Kenya, we were told to put down at the desk before retiring what animals we wanted to be awaken for if they came to the water hole. I put down: “Everything but mosquitoes.”
In the middle of the night someone was knocking at my door and shouting: “Elephants! Elephants!” I woke up not knowing where I was and wondered why someone was at my door hollering “Elephants! Elephants!” The hotel had an underground tunnel that led to a darkened bunker. No lights allowed. No flashlights. No Flashbulbs etc. Here you could watch the animals drink. At the bar they had a sign: “don’t bother the animals while drinking and vice versa”.
When we returned to the hotel from watching the animals, one of the couples suddenly realised that their small son was missing. Father and Mother had each thought the son was with the other. The hotel staff seemed concerned and said baboons sometimes attack small children. Don’t know if this is true or if we were being told this to make our Safari more exciting. By the way, safari just means trip. They organised us to form a line and to walk out into the bush as a search party. But before we got started someone went back to the dark bunker and found the child asleep in the corner.
Salt Lick Lodge is built up on poles so animals can walk under your lodge. There is a skull of an animal where you deposit your key. Skull of an elephant. The one that had been at my door.
We would leave each morning from some of the lodges to look for animals. The guides would use directions of the clock like “Lion at three O’ clock” to alert us where the animals were, but this one morning, we saw nothing. The terrain was rough and we had been driving and driving and driving. I thought I spotted something and thought I was being real professional when I said: “there is something at five O clock”. Someone dryly replied: “yeah, tea.”.
The Parks in South Africa were better organised than in Kenya, I thought. Kruger Park in South Africa is as large as Connecticut. You could drive anywhere in your Landrover in Kenya but had to stay on the road in Kruger.
In Swahili, a giraffe is called a Twiga, a leopard a Churi, a rhinoceros a Kikaru, an elephant an Oliphant, lion is called a Simba and Jambo means Hello.
Next month, Mac discusses Malaysia.
If you would like to contact Mac, he can be e-mailed on: macsan400@yahoo.com
Once again, we were honoured to have Norman Ford, founder of the Globetrotters Club, on hand presenting a slide show of his September 2003 Nordic adventure with us entitled:
Around Switzerland By Bike–On Your Own, The Globetrotter Way”.
Christina also shared stories and photographs from her Dec 2003 Santa Goodwill Tour to Asia.
Dates of future meetings: February 14th (Travelocity), March 13th (Southwest Airlines), Mark your calendars
If you like independent, adventuresome, fun, daring, exciting, “off the beaten path” travel, this club is for you. Our meeting begins at 2 P.M. Come early so you won’t be late! Enjoy handouts, travel talk time, and door prizes!
For more information about the Texas Branch: please contact texas@globetrotters.co.uk or register for e-mail updates at our website (click here) or call Christina at 830-620-5482
If anybody would like to enquire about meetings or help Christina, please contact her on: texas@globetrotters.co.uk
Derek, a retired UK diplomat, contacted the Beetle to say that all too often the controversy over whether or not to visit Burma tends to overlook the very important issue of whether the people of Burma themselves are happy to see and meet foreign tourists. Derek, who is to visit Burma again next month, has made a study of anecdotal reports of Burmese attitudes over the last five years – alas the sole source of information in the absence of credible opinion polls – and his conclusion is that the Burmese people themselves very much favour visits by tourists and travellers to their country by a margin of at least 10 to 1. We have reproduced a cut down version of his survey.
*****
Some travel correspondents say that on their visits they found it difficult, if not impossible to find any Burmese, even rank and file members of Daw Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, who were against tourism to their country, despite Daw Suu Kyi’s strictures. A “search” on Alta Vista for “Burma Travel Boycott” any evening will produce over 3,000 “hits”. A sample selection of reported Burmese views from these “hits” confirms my conclusion that the Burmese people generally really do want tourists and travellers to visit.
It is for many their main source of income, protection against the excesses of the military and an assurance that their plight may at least be witnessed by those who are sensitive observers. Travel and tourism indeed advance the cause of democracy.
My simple conclusion is that we should primarily be guided by the wishes and advice of the Burmese people , and not that of the UK Government whose policy is to “strongly discourage tourism to Burma” – FCO Minister Bill Rammell, 25 November 2003, speech on “Why Human Rights Matter” to the Institute for Public Policy Research.
Tourism is admittedly a source, but not, as another FCO Minister, Mike O’Brien stated in a letter on 14 July 2003 to the Chief Executive of ABTA, Ian Reynolds, “an important source” of hard currency for the SPDC. Net profits pale into insignificance against the US$ 2-3 billion purchases in recent years, mostly from China, of arms and military equipment. Most hotels are barely covering their operating costs. Remittances by tourist enterprises out of Burma of some US$ 25 million annually [IMF estimates] for essential payments punch quote a hole in US$ 100 million annual revenue. Local costs swallow up much of the balance. It is not credible to argue that tourism is in any serious sense helping to prop up the regime. It would do so if numbers increased tenfold, but this isn’t likely to happen for a very long time.
There is no doubt that Daw Suu Kyi would prefer tourists to delay visiting Burma. Over the years, she has advanced numerous reasons for not visiting Burma, some of which are not all that convincing, notably arguments about giving the regime “legitimacy” (while the UK accepts Burma as Myanmar at the UN and maintains full diplomatic relations, with an Ambassador in post), about “it’s better to stay at home and read some of the many human rights reports there are” (which is not perhaps the best way to experience and witness what is going on in Burma), about “the bulk of the money goes straight into the pockets of the Generals” (when revenue clearly goes to meeting operating expenses, debt, depreciation, transfer to reserves etc.), about “Burma will still be there when the time is ripe” (but not for octogenarian veterans of the Burma Campaign, while for scholars, linguists, ethnologists, Buddhist scholars and many others with specialist interests Burma has been a hermit kingdom ever since the military took over in 1962), about “we haven’t had time to discuss it [tourism policy] properly” at a news conference in May 2002 (which might leave some of us still wondering what NLD policy really is).
The tourist trade has been hard hit by the latest indiscriminate US sanctions which have led to the suspension of all credit card transactions in Burma and restrictions on the utilisation of the US Dollar. Quite soon, thousands of postcard sellers and stall holders, tourist guides, hotel staff and drivers will be joining the 80,000 or so textile workers who have been made unemployed.
No-one in Burma is making any serious money out of tourism at present, and what is the point of allocating beach land to cronies of the regime when there is no investment capital available to develop projects? Occasionally critics point to the Shangri-La Traders Hotel as an example of a Joint Venture which must be making money for the SPDC. They might be surprised to know that Traders Hotel has been in liquidation since 1999.
Tourism is about meeting people, and in the case of Burma letting the Burmese know that the outside world has not forgotten them.
Derek Tonkin
If you would like to contact Derek, he can be reached by e-mail as follows: d.tonkin@btopenworld.com
‘Mwenge’ is the Kiswahili word for torch but it also represents a major national event in Tanzania, which is also known in English as the National Torch Run. If you can imagine an African version of the carrying of the Olympic Flame, restrict it to one country but take it all over that country, and make it an annual event which has a ‘message’ to pass to the people – that is ‘Mwenge’.
‘Mwenge’ began as a single event in 1961, as part of Tanzania’s Independence celebrations, when a burning torch was carried to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro. A few years later, the nation-wide runs began and it is now an annual event. In the technologically advanced countries awareness of major issues is spread through newspapers, television and radio. Tanzania, although now trying hard to catch up, has not had these advantages, and so the ‘Mwenge’ is run with the purpose of spreading a message – a different message each year. The original Mt Kilimanjaro torch was to celebrate President Nyerere’s independence slogan ‘Umoja na Kazi’ ‘Unity and Labour’ – there have been issues such as encouraging parents to send their children to school and this year it was HIV/AIDS awareness.
One Tuesday evening 2 ladies from Mtwara Town Council appeared and asked if we would be prepared to ‘host’ the ‘Mwenge’ breakfast on the following Thursday – 2 days later – for the runners and officials – a total of 40 people. It was to consist of a cup of tea, a hard-boiled egg and a bread roll. They would only stay for about 15 minutes and then move on to the next place. This seemed a simple request and despite their pitiful budget we decided that this was a reasonable public relations exercise. I am not sure that we could have refused – it would not have been a diplomatic move to turn down the opportunity to be involved in this event.
We had been advised to expect the runners and their entourage at 10.00am but would be ready for an earlier arrival. So, at 9.45 we were ready and, together with several other members of staff, I climbed up the Boma tower from where we had a spectacular view of the bridge at the far end of Mikindani. Below us in the village we could hear singing and drums as the party atmosphere got underway. Already on the bridge was a convoy of cars, pickup trucks, motor bicycles and people. It seemed a long time before they slowly moved off but eventually they started moving, and we watched this motorised cavalcade wend its way though Mikindani. The convoy was accompanied, as always, by crowds of people, and along the route there were groups of people dancing, playing drums and singing all adding to a real celebration and party atmosphere. The convoy stopped when it reached the Clinic by the Friday Mosque, and message-carrying speeches were made to the Mikindani people. Then they all moved to the open area by Livingstone House, where the runners and officials left the crowd and walked up to the Boma for their breakfast. The crowd remained down by the official cars parked outside Samaki and Livingstone – it appeared that most of the people of Mikindani had taken a ½ day off to celebrate ‘Mwenge’.
The District Commissioner and other Mtwara officials enjoying their breakfast by the Boma swimming pool were joined by 5 of the 6 runners – unfortunately the only girl in the group was unwell, and remained sleeping in the car. After the food had been consumed, the District Commissioner stood up and made a short speech on the importance of ‘Mwenge’, and what it stands for, together with the honour of being chosen to run throughout Tanzania for this cause. Almost as quickly as they had arrived, they all left. They had arrived half an hour late, but by 11.00 they had gone. The 40 breakfasts had grown to 42, and they had also bought some bottles of water. We certainly did not make any cash profit, but we had participated in a national event and hopefully shown a little goodwill, and were proud to have done so. We were left clearing up, knowing that the next village to receive them would have to provide lunch – a much more extravagant meal!
For more information about Trade Aid, see: www.mikindani.com
What is it: Lassa fever is an acute viral illness that occurs in West Africa. It is highly contagious and occurs mainly in the dry season in West Africa, particularly Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and the DRC.
How do I get it: Rodents shed the virus in urine and droppings which means that the virus can be transmitted through direct contact with these materials, through touching objects or eating food contaminated with these materials, or through cuts or sores.
What happens if I get it: Symptoms of Lassa Fever typically occur 1-3 weeks after the patient comes into contact with the virus. These include: fever, pain behind the chest wall, sore throat, back pain, cough, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea and a rash. After four weeks occur: bleeding, ascites and shock. Death occurs in 50 % of patients.
Diagnose and treatment: the virus can be detected in blood and urine. The anti-viral agent Ribavarin can be used, otherwise it is a question of symptom control and intensive care.
How can I avoid contracting Lassa fever: avoid contact with rodents.
Sally is British and has lived in the UK all her life. International travel as part of her work took her to many countries, including Portugal. She fell in love with the place and decided to sell her beautiful cottage in Malmsbury, Wiltshire, and relocate to Lisbon. In this article, she tells us of getting her first job.
I have started work (about time most of you are probably saying!) this month. I am teaching at a local international school (20 minutes by car) which is great fun. The headmistress has decided that the playground assistants, gardener, porter, cleaners and security staff should all learn English so that they can communicate better with the kids and parents. I have two classes each Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. The age range is between mid twenties to late fifties. Two cannot read or write! I have one Romanian (who doesn’t read or write), and three Ukrainians (one is a qualified engineer working as the gardener, and one is an Economist working as a cleaner). It is great fun and very challenging as I don’t use a text book because I have to verbalise and visualise everything due to the non reading and writing element. On Monday I took them all around the grounds of the school identifying objects – they love “small wheelie bin” and “shed”.
Pronunciation is tricky and the word “fork” does tend to sound like something else! Tomorrow they have asked for phrases to use in the playground i.e. “shut up”, “sit down”, “what have you got there?” etc etc and the cleaners want their cleaning equipment identified. They can now introduce each other, say who they are, where they live and what they live in, whether they are married or single, how many children they have and how many pets – not bad in three weeks.
I have also just had an interview with a language school in Sintra and hope something might come from that and have another one scheduled for Thursday afternoon with a school about 15 minutes from here – so things might be looking up. I am also going to advertise English conversation classes to see what comes from that.
I have joined the IWP – the International Women of Portugal. I though it might be a good way of meeting new people. I duly trotted along to one of their coffee mornings and wondered whether it had been worth bothering. Most of the ladies grabbed a coffee and bun and headed off in groups – not quite what I had been expecting.
One lady did come over and talk and it turned out that her husband worked in the power industry over here, which was a coincidence as it turns out I spoke to him about two years ago when I was headhunting with my friend Cathy! What a small world! Anyway, she invited me over to her house for coffee a few weeks later which was rather nice.
Still not too convinced it’s the right thing to belong to, but I will persevere a bit longer. I have also, via an advert in their magazine, found a brilliant library. It is run by a lady who has converted what were maids quarters at the back of her villa into this gem of a place. There are three sections, large print, hardback and paperback – over 1,000 in total! And it’s all free. She will not take any money for anything. It’s brilliant for getting rid of unwanted paperbacks, tapes, videos etc. She has also got a very good selection of audio tapes. Just listened to second Harry Potter spoken by Stephen Fry which was fabulous and the Alan Bennett “Talking Heads”. I met two very interesting ladies there and have lunch with them at weekends. One of them has lived here for 40 years – she was married to a Portuguese artist and lives in a wonderful old villa with three rescued cats and three dippy dogs. The other lady is fascinating. She used to answer the problem letters in various teenage magazines in the sixties, typed scripts for someone who made blue movies and is quite a character – very strong minded and incredibly opinionated which is a bit difficult at times!
I gave my classes homework for the first time on Wednesday and apart from about two small spelling errors, they got everything right! I am so thrilled. I have also been told by the headmistress that they love the classes – makes me feel quite proud. Our final topic of the day today (25 September) was “what are you doing at the weekend?” We had the usual things like going to the supermarket, sleeping, watching Benfica on TV, celebrating 3rd wedding anniversary (he got a round of applause) and then with a bit of giggling and translating we had the classic: “On Saturday I am going to the supermarket to do the shopping. I am going to make love on Saturday night”. This got cheers! They really are a great bunch of ladies and gents!
That’s fine. You could also add that I am now working for Big Ben in Cacem teaching three children aged from 6-8 and two adults in their late twenties. The biggest problem with the adults is that they hate the text books they have been given because they are aimed at children. I am trying to devise something of more interest and relevance to them.
Oh and there has been a recount at the library – Jennie reckons there are now over 5,000 books!
If you’d like to contact Sally, she can be reached by e-mail on: pethybs@hotmail.com
Under 30? A member of Globetrotters Club? Interested in a £1,000 travel award?
Know someone who is? We have £1,000 to award each year for five years for the best submitted independent travel plan. Interested?
Then see our legacy page on our Website, where you can apply with your plans for a totally independent travel trip and we'll take a look at it. Get those plans in!!
Mac has been reading and researching again! The following travel tips are a culmination of his recent reading.
Luggage tags: these can easily be lost. One potential solution is to put your address inside your suitcase or to put some distinctive marking with a permanent marking pen on the side of the suitcase, such as a circle, or triangle. On that advice, I have put a big cross on each area of my baggage. I hope someone will think maybe there is religious stuff inside, that I am a missionary or something and won’t steal my naughty magazines inside. (Only kidding!)
Getting lost – directions: one person suggested when you go to theme parks or such like, he goes to the right, then to the left and so on and return in reverse. Now why didn’t I think of that! (Globetrotters membership Secretary Kevin takes his compass with him on his trips to Japan to ensure that he exits subways in the right direction.)
Showers: if you don’t have shower clogs, one person suggests putting a hand towel on the bottom of shower tray and standing on it . Another person suggests that when you enter your hotel room you should turn on the shower for a few minutes which will get rid of the build up of spores that cause Legionnaires disease.
Taxis: one person suggested on leaving a taxi, to leave the door open while you are getting your bags out of the boot/trunk., this way the taxi can’t drive off before you have had a chance to make sure you haven’t left anything behind.
Travel on Sundays: I often travel on Sunday but one person recommends not travelling on Sundays as most train and bus times are infrequent or destinations are limited and many stores and businesses close early or are not open, such as money changers.
If you would like to contact Mac, he is happy to answer e-mails: macsan400@yahoo.com
Vietnam Airlines has announced that it will change the current two-tier price system for Vietnamese and foreigners from January 1 next year to boost tourism. Foreigners will no longer pay 20% more for domestic flights and will pay the same amount as Vietnamese nationals. A round trip ticket from capital Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City costs 3.3 million dong (USD$212) for foreigners while locals pay 2.7 million dong.
Trevor from the UK writes to tell us of his experience booking flights through the internet based travel company lastminute.com. He says:
Be very careful before booking flights through lastminute.com. I recently booked two flights a week or two in advance of travelling and elected to collect my tickets via the e-ticket mechanism. My account was duly debited for two tickets and I received confirmation to the effect that the e-tickets had been issued. So far so good. We then arrived at the airline check-in desk on the morning we were due to fly only to be told by the airline that they only had one e-ticket on the system and had no record of a second e-ticket ever being issued.
We were unable to contact lastminute.com (the only obvious way of contacting anyone at lastminute.com seems to be via an online web form) and we were faced with the choice of either;
A] Abandon our holiday
B] Pay the airline to issue the other e-ticket
C] Go by myself and leave my wife in England [ just kidding… 🙂 ]
We took option [B] and I contacted lastminute.com to obtain an explanation and a refund for the second e-ticket that we were charged for but never received. I received an email informing me that my wife’s name was too long (longer than a piece of string, presumably) and so they hadn't issued the second e-ticket. No explanation as to why I hadn't been informed of a problem prior to turning up at the airport, or even an apology. The best they could offer was to “request a refund via the airline on [our] behalf”.
We're still waiting for our money, and I'm now considering legal action.
Caveat emptor, as they say.
If you want to contact Trevor, he can be e-mailed on: trev_gs@blueyonder.co.uk
A recent report from Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit says that fewer than 20,000 lions may now survive in the whole of Africa, although they do not face immediate extinction. The greatest threats to the species are sport hunting and conflict with farmers over livestock. The estimate of 20,000 lions or fewer compares with a population put at about 200,000 in the early 1980’s. The researchers studied the impact of sport or trophy hunting in Hwange national park in Zimbabwe, surrounded by hunting concessions where the parks department allocates an annual quota: the hunters traditionally target male lions. Findings suggest the levels of hunting there were not sustainable. Of the adult males the team tagged or collared, 63% were shot by hunters in the surrounding area. WildCRU estimates there are about 42 adult male lions in Hwange, where between 1998 and 2002 the hunting quota in the concessions was set at 63 lions. It says the number shot annually far exceeded the recommended sustainable level of 4-10% of the adult males. The parks department is considering lowering the quotas.
Meeting news from our branches around the world.
Rank Country (GDP per capita)
Club Reps, a bawdy real life UK TV documentary on the goings on in the town of Faliraki on the Greek island of Rhodes is blamed for an increase in drunken behaviour. A British policeman from Blackpool, (another delightful part in North-West UK), with similar issues has been dispatched to Faliraki to liaise with the Chief of Faliraki police after a British man was stabbed to death in a bar brawl and a woman jailed for baring her breasts.
Based on a successful model used in Blackpool, the UK police said the key to tackling problems is stopping the “aggressive marketing of drinks promotions” and bar crawls. Independent tour operators have sprung up which were taking 400 or 500 people on bar crawls. Suggestions have been made to install CCTV cameras on the streets, improve lighting, and increase police presence and officers are “firm but fair” early in the evening, to nip problems in the bud.
1st November 2003 London meeting
On November 1st, we had two very different talks this month. The first was by Amar Grover, entitled “The Hindustan Tibet road”, an old trading route used by pilgrims on their way to Mt Kailash. The area is very mountainous and picturesque, Amar showed us villages and 800 year old temples perched high on cliff tops, some only reachable by use of “Flying fox” pulley systems across the valleys, not for use by those with a nervous disposition. In this Buddhist region we saw monks who perform dances depicting parts of the Buddha’s life. We also saw how hard daily life is with yaks being used for farming. But it was the stunning scenery, which stole the show.
Our second speaker was the ever-popular Tom Freemantle, who delighted us with his talk “Mexico to Manhattan with a mule”. Tom was following once again in the footsteps of a relation who did this journey during the American civil war. Tom met “Brownie” the mule at the Mexican border and after a few tips from the owner set off in temperatures of 100 degrees. Tom’s epic journey of 2700 miles took seven months, Brownie going through seven sets of shoes. Along the way Tom showed us some of the great sights including the Alamo. But it was the hospitality of the American people that shone through. During Tom’s trip September 11th had happened and it was fitting that the last shots we saw were Tom’s photos of “Ground Zero”.
Next month, on Saturday 6th December, Paul Goldstein will talk about Africa: An Adventurous Wilderness/The Hunters and the Hunted. Paul has travelled to sub-Saharan Africa over fifty-five times guiding safaris and tours, and photographing. He has climbed Africa’s highest peaks, rafted the wildest rivers and stood toe-to-toe with charging rhino. His passion, for “conservation” for the people and wild-life, is supported by award-winning photography in both BBC and Royal Geographic Photographic competitions.
After the break, John Pilkington will give a talk entitled: Up the Mekong to Tibet about a journey up one of Asia’s longest rivers from the South China Sea to Tibet and beyond. Starting from the rice paddies of Vietnam, John follows its course through the gorges of China’s Yunnan province to where it rises at over 16,000 feet, meeting river people of six nationalities along the way.
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
Plenty of news about our friends Ryanair.
Despite their difficulties with court cases with the European Union about state aid, (whether Ryanair received unfair state subsidies at its Belgian hub of Charleroi) Ryanair has announced two new European bases in Rome and Barcelona. The new bases would start from January 28 and February 5 2004 respectively, adding 12 routes to its rapidly expanding network.
And the bad news: Ryanair is to close all its recently-opened intra-Nordic routes due to weak demand and switch capacity to destinations outside the region. They plan to end flights from Sweden’s Skavsta to Oslo in Norway, Tampere in Finland and Arhus in Denmark from January 14 2004. Ryanair added in a statement it was also shutting its flights from London to Ostend in Belgium, Maastricht in the Netherlands and to the French destinations of Reims and Clermont.
The good news: new routes will be from London Stansted to Linz in Austria, Bari in Italy, Erfurt in Germany, Jerez in Spain, and from France’s Charleroi to Calladolid in Spain.
You really wanted to know this, didn’t you: you can now buy Ryanair gift vouchers: for more info, see: http://www.ryanairvouchers.com/They say you can choose from 135 routes across 16 different countries (does that include flying into the wrong country – Beetle?) and that for every voucher bought Ryanair will make a £1/€1 donation to charity
Mac spotted a website www.walkabouttravelgear.com that has a lot of good travel tips. He says: they include using empty gatoraide bottles for water instead of water bottles as the gatorade bottles are more leak proof. Another suggestion was to put duct tape around a pencil to carry duct tape that way and use less space. Someone suggested for both men and women to wear silk pantyhose (maybe they did not have to be silk) for warmth. Someone suggested silk clothes for warmth. Another person suggested taking vitamin B pills or chewing garlic pills to ward off mosquitoes bites. They don’t like the smell. Don’t use perfumes on your hair etc to avoid mosquitoes. Someone suggested an all purpose gel (for washing etc)
For details of forthcoming meetings email newyork@globetrotters.co.uk or register for email updates, click here at our website.
Hi Globies – hope you all had a good Happy Thanksgiving! We have another great slide shows coming up for January 10th!
Michael Luongo will be talking about Rebuilding the Ruins of Afghanistan – from women who work at re-opened museums to hunky gym rats who worship Arnold Schwarzenegger. Afghanistan has changed in the 2 years since the ousting of the Taliban. A lot more work needs to be done, but new buildings rise from the rubble to punctuate the Kabul skyline, archeological initiatives are helping tourism, and wheelchair programs are giving mine victims a new chance in life. See the Afghanistan you never read about in the papers. We'll look at what there is to see as a tourist in Kabul and we'll also touch on travel to other Islamic hotspots like Jordan, Turkey and Morocco
Venue: as always 4:00-5:30 The Wings Theater 154 Christopher Street. $10.00 for non-members and $8.00 for members.
The NY Globetrotters website: www.globetrottersnyc.com
New York meetings are held at The Wings Theatre, 154 Christopher Street (btw Greenwich St and Washington St), to the right of Crunch Fitness, in the Archive on the first Saturday of each month at 4 pm.
After her memorable barbecue in Itaunas, Brazil, Iris and her overland group make their way to Caravelas.
We moved on to a place called Caravelas which was right by the sea, a nice little Pousada (hotel) as they call them in Brazil, with a little dip pool and nice little rooms, with the sea just seconds away. It was here that I decided to get rid of a load of outstanding postcards and so took a trip into the little town to find a post office and send them off. I do hope they all arrived safely because I was advised it might be better to wait until Salvador as rural post offices are notoriously sleepy places, but when I got to the post office, I found it very efficient and the staff of two extremely helpful, and I was able to get directions to a stationery shop so that I could buy more envelopes to post off the rest of my postcards at a later date.
I dare say recipients who receive the postcards initially noticed that the envelopes were stuck down with sellotape in a very haphazard fashion! Well, it was only after I had bought the envelopes and came to stick them down that I realized there was no sticky on them! Apparently this is the norm in Brazil and one has to either buy a glue stick to stick them down or use the facilities at the post office! We have decided that this is probably because it is so humid in Brazil that any sticky on the envelopes would soon deteriorate and stick themselves down before they were used, if you see what I mean.
We stayed in Caravelas for just two nights and then moved on to Caraiva, which is a small island just the most incredibly small boat journey from the shore, it took the boatsmen all of two minutes, I would think to row us across. And this again was an unspoilt place with no built up roads, and the island itself was on a coast line which was reached only by a very basic mud track road which sent us all lurching and bumping around inside the truck as it negotiated potholes, ruts and ridges in the road and at times had difficulty getting through narrow openings and sharp bends and some bridges that looked as if they wouldn't take a horse and cart, let alone an enormous truck!
Anyway, we spent an enjoyable three nights there. I wasn't prepared to enjoy it to begin with because we had such a trek round the island to find our accommodation only to find the place we were supposed to stay at was inexplicably closed, and so it was a race to find the best accommodation available and as usual, Judith and I got left behind in the crush and rush by the younger members of the group to get themselves sorted (there’s no concession on this trip for the aged among them) and so in the end it meant that we were housed in a small Pousada across the road from the rest of the group, but we did pay Reais 5 less than they did per night and got a really nice two-bedded (one double bed and one single bed) room and it took us quite some time to assure our landlord that Martin, who had come to act as interpreter for us, didn't want to share the double bed with one or both of us!)
We also found our landlord had donkeys who came by to spend the night just outside the grounds of the Pousada in a square area formed between two buildings. During the evening, we went to the landlord’s restaurant for a meal and noticed the gate to the Pousada and its grounds had been shut, so we carefully closed it behind us. We met a Brazilian lady at the restaurant, who seeing our difficulty with the menu, came to assist us. It turned out she had spent time in USA and spoke really good English and she turned out to be an artist of sorts, her speciality being designing patterns for materials, and her husband’s speciality was making jewellery and they travelled around on public transport selling their wares. We spent a pleasant evening with them before going back to bed, and then as I looked out over the grounds, once we had got to our room, I noticed we had inadvertently left the gate open and the donkeys, who had arrived to spend the night in the lee of the buildings, had entered the garden and were about to feed off the plants! Well, some of my friends and family know I am not too happy dealing with large animals, but without thinking I went straight down and shooed these three big animals out of the garden and they obeyed me so willingly, I felt quite proud of myself as I closed the gate behind them. (I didn't want to have to pay for all the plants they might have eaten and that spurred me on, I think)
We spent a pleasant couple of days in Caraiva, exploring the beaches and finding everyone so friendly and helpful. Most of the group descended on a particular restaurant for breakfast and to spend the day there while they frolicked on the beach and in the sea, and I just wandered from place to place, studying my Spanish and just contemplating the ocean. There were plenty of places to eat in the evening, mostly serving fish, and we met our Brazilian friends each evening and spent some pleasant times with them. They were in Caraiva to display their wares, and weren't too hopeful of selling much as they were relatively expensive compared to the normal tourist junk, but the lady was just pleased to practice her English and we were relieved because we weren't too keen to learn Portuguese. I had studied it a year or so ago, but I had then decided to concentrate on Spanish and so forgot most of what I had tried to learn!
We then went on to a place called Porto Seguro, which is in the middle of the mining area of Brazil where many precious stones and metals are found and whilst there visited their museum with exhibits from all over the world depicting stones in their raw state and in their polished state, and showing all the various minerals and metals extracted in the region together with the machinery etc to do it with and it truly was a very fascinating exhibition and I spent a couple of hours there. Porto Seguro is an unspoilt town with narrow streets and colonial buildings, unfortunately many of them in bad need of renovation, but it also made a pleasant stopping point for us on the way to Salvador.