Globetrotters meeting on August 9th

The Texas Branch of the Globetrotters Club will meet August 9th 2003 at the New Braunfels Public Library – note back to old location.

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!

Dates of future meetings: September 13

For more information about the Texas Branch or if you would like to help Christina, please contact texas@globetrotters.co.uk or register for email updates at our website (click here) or call Christina at 830-620-5482.

The Beetle recently visited Munich for shell repairing and discovered that it is a really nice, friendly, pretty and interesting city, easy to get around with some surprising touches – beautiful architecture, outdoor markets, fountains and sculptures.

How to get there: the airport at Munich is vast and well served. From London you can take Lufthansa and British Airways. It’s a short hop – around 1 ¾ hours. To get into the city centre, there are two S-Bahns – the slow one, the S1 and the faster S8. Either journey takes less than an hour. Tickets costs 9 euros and can be used on your next journey to complete your destination, e.g. the bus. You can buy tickets on the platform or from the airport information counter. The S-Bahns are excellent, cheap, clean, completely safe and frequent. Both go directly from the airport via many stations around the city to the central train station where you can make your connection with one of the other many S and U-Bahns.

When to go: well, the Octoberfest jumps out as a good time to visit Munich, which takes place over four weekends in September/October. Otherwise, any time, although July is very, very hot! There are good Christmas markets in November and December. There is almost always a large festival taking place in Munich during any given month.

What is there to see and do: lots and lots. You can stay in the city centre and easily spend a weekend prowling around the baroque churches, museums, art galleries, the town hall, theatres, outdoor fresh produce market, the Residenz, botanical gardens, the Olympic stadium and the English Gardens. One of the oddest sights was muscle-bound tanned men surfing on an artificially made wave of the Eisbach, about 5m wide in the English Garden. For major label shopping, all of the posh shops are rather conveniently concentrated on one street, Maximillian Strasse, otherwise, there’s plenty of high street shopping to do around Marienplaz and some wonderful off beat shops in Munich’s back streets.

Is there more to do than just a weekend? If you want! You can take self guided walking tours around the city, or join one of many walking tours, run in many different languages, or alternatively, there are a variety of day trips that you can do, solo or in an organised group, including one to Dachau, one of many Bavarian palaces, or even the Alps.

Food and Drink? Large portions seem to be the norm. If you like pork, you’ll be very happy here. There is a wide range of restaurants from the usual fast food outlets to upmarket French, Italian, Thai and local Bavarian speciality restaurants. The Hofbrauhaus may be a little touristy, but it’s well worth a visit for a beer and some local food if you are strolling around the English Garden.

Prices? Eating out is generally very reasonably priced, but hotels can be a little pricey. Search on the internet first and contact the tourism agency.

Language: don’t worry if you don’t speak German, a few basic words go a long way, but most people you will encounter speak some English, and menus written in English are widely available.

The UK Foreign Office has asked British tour operators to stop arranging holidays to Burma because of the ruling regime's record on human rights.

In a letter to ABTA, the Association of British Tour Agents, the UK’s Foreign Office minister, said that there were “compelling reasons” not to holiday in Burma.

He cited the use of forced labour by the Burmese Junta, who have been used to help build some of Burma’s tourism infrastructure and that some communities have been forcibly relocated to make way for tourism-related developments.

Recently, the military regime stepped up its actions against democracy groups in a campaign of violence and intimidation and has arrested the democratically elected Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy.

ABTA in its turn said that it left commercial and moral decisions on holiday destinations to its members: “It's up to our members to make that decision,” said an ABTA official. “It would be different if the Foreign Office were advising people not to go to Burma because it was dangerous.”

The Globetrotters e-news recently reported that award winning Kuoni, has withdrawn from Burma following the lobbying of Burma Campaign UK.

Do you have a view? Would you travel to Burma, or would boycott it? Write in and tell the Beetle your views: beetle@globetrotters.co.uk

Padmassana went travelling around Kyushu in June/July time. Here is the second of three extracts from his travel journal.

I left Beppu in more torrents of rain after a night of storms and went to Miyazaki. Miyazaki was a staging post on the way to Kagoshima and is famous for the Haniwa figures, clay statues that were found in burial mounds, similar to the Xian terracotta warriors. These were all items the Shogun would need to take with him to the other world. Some are funny, some threatening, some are mysterious, and include boats, carriages and horses. I found a local moggie asleep in one of the carriages, taking shelter from the rain!

After finding my nice hotel I decided to go to Heidawa Park and promptly got lost. There is a Peace Tower in he park, built in 1940. It started to hail so I ended up sheltering under a bridge. There was a Mini Mart near by so I went in for a sausage on a stick and found I was actually very near the park.

From Miyazaki, I did the 2 hour ride down to Kagoshima. I was immediately impressed with Kagoshima – it is a lovely city, has a very nice Ryokan, a KFC and a McDonalds all within a short walk, so I wont be starving!

It’s now lovely and warm and the sun occasionally comes out. The Nakazono Ryokan in Kagoshima was superb, tatami mat floor with futon. The owner is very knowledgeable about the city, such as knowing where the free internet cafes are and says the weather is going to be good for the next few days! Had lunch by the port looking towards the volcano Sakurajima.

I took the 24 hour ferry from Kagoshima, a 5 minute boat trip ($3.50, £2 return) across the sea between Sakurajima and the volcano. Once there, you take the tour bus that picks you up from where the ferry docks. It runs twice a day and costs 1,700 Yen, about £10 or $15. I did a tour, 10 Japanese people and me! The guide didn’t speak any English so she gave me a book with numbers. She would be gabbling away in Japanese, then she’d shout “Number 21” and I’d read the book while trying to look out of the window! Really enjoyed the island, where I saw all the different layers of lava and the lava fields which you can see from the viewing platforms is in wave shapes. The tour includes a village that has been buried and a ceramics workshop where you can buy pottery glazed with volcanic ash.

I also went to Ibusuki to try out sand bathing. You go upstairs, pay 900 yen about £6, and are given a big cotton bath robe and walk across the beach which is so hot on the feet to lie down in a body shaped hole already dug. You are then covered in this volcanic steaming sand for 20 minutes. After this, you feel nice and warm, but don’t do as I did and go and wash your toes in the sea, because it is too hot! Instead you wash yourself off under the tap carefully placed for visitors to clean off. It is supposed to be good for you!

If you would like to contact Padmassana to ask him about his time in Japan, he can be e-mailed on: Padmassana. A good web resource, says Padmassana is: http://www.seejapan.co.uk/fseedo.html