Category Archives: archive

Bumsters in The Gambia

A recent report by the UK newspaper, the Independent said that the Gambian Tourism Association is fed up with reports saying that 60% of visitors to the country would not return after they found themselves the target of harassment by bumsters (beach boys). Some tourists, who were quoted as saying that The Gambia offers a wonderful and ideal holiday experience, said the bumster menace presents a frightening blot. The Gambia Tourism Authority (GTA) has announced that they are adopting tougher measures against the presence of beach boys (bumsters), through the temporary use of the National Guard.

Comments from tourists reported by the Independent include:

‘I found The Gambia excellent apart from the hassling, not only from the people outside, but also from the staff at the hotels, which should be stopped’, said a tourist who was ending his holiday.

”I found it difficult to cope with the harassment outside the hotel and the constant begging. There were times when I did not to go outside the hotel’ another complained to the Independent newspaper.

Other tourists were however more interested in the brighter side of the country, saying that in spite of harassment from bumsters they will return.

The bumsters said that the approach adopted by the GTA, having armed guards patrolling the beaches is a curb on their freedom. They noted that since the start of the tourist season soldiers are seen in every part of the industry armed with guns and arresting any individual or group of people on sight. However they said people arrested around hotels are taken to the Fajara military barracks, where they are subjected to hard labour and their heads completely shaved. According to them even girls found around the TDA are not spared. They are rounded up and forced to do laundry.

Despite the bumsters, the Beetle wondered what there was to do in The Gambia and has come up with the following suggestions.

When to Go:

The Gambia is a popular winter holiday destination. The best time to go is between November and March when it is dry and cooler than the searing hot summer months. The rainy season is June to October. Visitors no longer require a Yellow Fever certificate, (unless you are arriving from a country where Yellow Fever is endemic.) Most visitors from Europe do not require a visa for stays of up to 28 days. There should be no jet lag coming from the UK, as Gambian time is (theoretically!) the same as GMT. The Gambians have a reputation as being a very friendly people, but watch out for the beach boys, locally called “bumsters” – see above – who have a tendency to harangue, hassle and generally ask tourists for money.

Where to Go:

Most people come to the Gambia to stay for a week or two on one of the beaches on the Atlantic coast. It’s pretty easy to get to as the 10 km stretch of hotels is only about 15km from Banjul International airport. Popular resorts include Bakau, Fajara, Kotu and Kololi where you can find many good class hotels with all the usual tourist attractions including golf courses, water sports, cycle rental and good beaches for swimming and sunning. Incidentally, the further south you stay, the better the beach is likely to be for swimming. Banjul is served by a number of charter and scheduled flights from Europe and other African countries.

Banjul, the Capital:

You might be tempted to step outside your hotel compound as there are some interesting sites around The Gambia. Banjul, the capital city is on an island at the mouth of the River Gambia, separated from the mainland by a narrow creek. Because of its location, it has never really grown into a large city and it is worth maybe half a day to wander around. Take a look at Albert Market, a great example of an African market, with its fruit and veg stands, shoes and clothes and household goods. Close to the market on MacCarthy Square there is a War Memorial and Fountain, erected to commemorate the coronation of Britain’s King George VI in 1937. The Gambia National Museum is a bit decrepit but has displays of photos, maps and text about archaeology, African people and the colonial period. Close by is The Gambia’s tallest building, the 35m (115ft) Arch 22 which was built to celebrate the military coup of 22 July 1994 (led by Lieutenant Yahya Jammeh, who is still The Gambia’s president). You can go up the arch – take a camera as it has great views over the city and the coast.

Roots:

If you enjoyed reading the book Roots or seeing the film or TV series, you could take a tour to explore Jufureh, a small village on the northern bank of the River Gambia about 25km (15miles) upstream from Banjul. In Roots, Jufureh is the place where Kunta Kinte, Alex Haley’s ancestor, was captured here and taken as a slave to America some 200 years ago. Today, Jufureh is very much on the tourist trail as it’s easily reached from Banjul although there’s actually not a huge amount to see there, but the locals put in an appearance, there’s an artisan’s market and again, according to the Lonely Planet, an old lady called Binde Kinte, (a descendant of Haley’s), makes a guest appearance at her compound. Photos are produced of Haley and Binde Kinte and of the griot (storyteller) who first told Haley the tale of his family. The tours you can take usually include the village of Albreda. Here you can see the ruined ‘factory’, a fortified slave house originally built by the French in the late 17th century, and there’s a museum that tells you about the history of slavery on the River Gambia.

Well, that’s Banjul visited! If you are a twitcher, there’s good bird watching to be had around the mangrove swamps of Banjul Island; there are plenty of tours. The Gambia’s largest town and de facto capital is Serekunda. This is the transport hub and the economic centre of the country. There’s not a huge amount to see here for the tourist, but if you want to look around urban Africa, then this is it.

OK, so back to the Atlantic resorts: Bakau, the northernmost resort has botanical gardens, if that is your thing. They were established during colonial times and according to Lonely Planet it is looking “a little dilapidated now, but it’s still a peaceful, shady place that’s good for spotting birds”. Also at Bakau there is the Kachikaly Crocodile Pool, a sacred site for the local people, who come here to pray, as crocodiles among some tribes in The Gambia represent the power of fertility. At the southern end of the coastal strip at Kololi, there is a small wildlife reserve, Bijolo Forest Park, which has trails through dense, shady vegetation, where you can often see monkeys and birds.

Getting Around:

It is pretty easy to get around in The Gambia. Green (Tourist) Taxis are painted green with a diamond sign and a serial number on the side. They are licensed by the Gambia Tourism Authority and dedicated to serving tourists and other visitors. They are normally parked outside the hotels in the resort areas. Yellow and Green taxis are mainly 4 passenger saloon cars painted in these colours which run a shared taxi service between short distances or park by the roadside for individual hire. Collective (Bush) Taxi: The most common way of travelling in The Gambia is by Collective Taxis otherwise called ‘Bush’ Taxis. These are mainly 7 passenger saloon cars, vans and mini- buses and buses. They do not have a single colour and operate everywhere.

The Beetle would like to hear from you, if you have visited The Gambia – how did you find it?


UK's Longest Coastal Trail marks 25 years

Britain’s longest national walking trail, from Minehead in Somerset to South Haven Point near Poole in Dorset, will celebrate its 25th anniversary this year.

The 630-mile South West Coast Path takes in steep, ‘hog’s back’ cliffs rising to 800 feet, fishing harbours, pretty villages and unspoilt countryside.

There will be a wide variety of events between April and October, including guided walks, talks and displays of works by local artists, writers, musicians and other performers who have been inspired by the path. For more information, see http://www.swcp.org.uk/

Source: Britain Express


Of Connemara by Matthew Doughty

Sitting silently during the drive over from Rosleague Manor to Killary Harbour, I reflected on whether this was one of those trips where I would fail to write about what I could see. Despite being surrounded by striking views, I was troubled on how find a theme with which I could connect an article.

However as soon as I had dismissed any writing expectations I might have had, our progression along the fantastically situated N59 immediately provided the missing inspiration! As this west coast route ran along side Kylemore Lough, it struck me that autumn Connemara is full of rich, varied colours, which are vividly magnified by the ever-changing climates of each weathered hill we passed. These colours instantly brightened as the afternoon sun chased away the day’s heavy rain clouds leaving a valley of wet, verdant grass to open up before our eyes. Further out across the landscape of boggy fields and coniferous plantations, neatly stacked and apparently drying (!) peat bricks helped contrast this lush greenness. At this section of the N59, the road rises away from Kylemore and up alongside the mitre shaped and wonderfully named Church of our Lady of the Wayside! Across the horizon the dark, sodden clouds clung to the high peaks of the distant Maumturk Mountain, lingering for simple chance to return centre stage.

If I were ever to seek voluntary exile, Killary Harbour would be high on my choice of havens! As the N59 drove us towards our initial view of Ireland’s only fjord (can anyone provide a geological definition?) I found myself surprised by what lay ahead. To the north the 817 metre high Mweelrea shouldered this long, silver water along its winding course, whilst the road, sheep and houses competed for footholds on the lower hillsides of the southern shore. Despite this forcing of direction, Killary itself still had space to be laned- off like a swimming pool by the blue buoys of the local fish farms. At the head of this natural harbour sat the scattered village of Leenane and the Aasleagh Falls, across which the browned and fast flowing Erriff River flowed out and into the harbour.

To stop rather than peer round the next corner of our road was difficult but the deep red and slowly settling Guinness of Gaynors’ allowed us a splendid retrospective on what we had just taken in ! And even though we were almost as far west as possible on the Irish mainland, Steve and I found the hospitality of this whole haven to be of somewhere much more cosmopolitan…

How else could these colours be surpassed? Later from our week of touring I could offer up the small market town of Westport with its brightly painted market streets or the tidally excluded Omey Island but I feel that our journey to Inis Mór deserves is a highlight worth mentioning.

At the third time of asking we were able to catch the ferry across to the largest Aran Island and spend the best part of a glorious day surrounded by blue seas and bright, clear skies! A smooth forty five minutes later we found ourselves spilling out in to Kilronan, where the majority of our fellow passengers were swept up by the waiting horse and bicycle-hiring locals towards the most famous Celtic antiquities. Steve and I had to be different, much to the consternation of many, and as such we walked in the opposite direction towards Killeany. My fellow traveller even managed to add to the collection of colours in his own style – as without notice he stumbled across the beach and had to issue expletives and bloodied grazes to make himself feel better! All that our small tourist map seemed to reward such stubbornness with was a ruined castle and a very precariously perched church!

However reality and bright sunshine proffered sights of both that deserved better depiction. Caisleán Aircín, built in the sixteenth century, did not survive its Cromwellian ransacking and now exists solely as a facade monitoring Killeany Bay. Aran Islanders have since stole a march on twenty-first century recycling ideas by converting much of the castle’s rear into small farm buildings and dry stone walls. Though the claim to be one of the smallest churches known to exist could be counter claimed, Teampall Bheanain did offer a wonderful perspective across the eastern end of the island. According to myth and legend St Bheanain, a successor to Ireland’s patron saint at Armagh, had this small and unorthodox church built over one thousand years ago. Unusually to those in the know, this church stands on a north-south axis, allowing the sweeping weather to ride along its’ frame rather than across any roof that it might have supported! Sitting up against one of its granite grey walls we could understand why the founder soon accepted a higher position on the mainland, even though his church had not been completed too long ! The nearby airfield and its surprisingly regular prop driven flights emphasised the battering that Inis Mór faces – how could those small aircraft handle those constant winds?

Returning from our perch, the leisurely paced walk awoke me to the fact that all journeys have to end and that our general direction was now eastwards, all the way back to our home lives. Still time a plenty left to enjoy an ever growing delight of mine in west Ireland – fresh seafood washed down with another of Arthur Guinness’s finest at The Aran Islander!

Contact the author of this article: Matt is happy to be contacted if you’d like some more information about planning your travels or about any of the places he talks about in his own travel planning. E-mail mattdoughty@tiscali.co.uk


The End of Concorde

British Airways and Air France have both announced that Concorde will be grounded permanently as from the end of November 2003. Passenger demand has fallen significantly since the Concorde crash near Paris in 2000. BA justified their decision by saying that maintenance costs have become too high for them to continue the service and the global downturn in demand for all forms of premium travel in the airline industry. France said “the deterioration of business results from the transatlantic service”, the aircraft’s only scheduled route.


Cataluna Chill Out by Tony Annis

It was 31o C and a cold one slipped easily down my throat. The cyclists were lying in the hot sun, and yet this was still England. We were awaiting our pickup from the European Bike Express, which was on the way down from Middlesbrough. They do three routes: Alpine, Mediterranean and Atlantic. For some of the cyclists this was their third trip, a good omen I thought. The Alpine route bus pulled in, on time to the second, picked up its passengers and their bikes, and was off. Soon we were on the Mediterranean bus, off and rolling. The idea is that buses drop you off en route and pick you up at a mutually agreed point somewhere on the return route.

I was taking ‘time out’ from urban London and its tourists, to join all the rest of the tourists who had gone to the Costa Brava. Through ‘The London Cyclist’ I had found out about the Bus and its enormous specially designed bike trailer. This was a holiday that had to be taken in a limited time. I wanted to chill out, with some good food, wine and a little exercise, in other words, fifteen days of fun in the sun, or so I hoped.

A couple called the Champions were taking their tandem. They had King of the Mountain racing jerseys – and of course they were dropped off in the south of France to do some climbing. Meanwhile I and one of the other fellow cyclists, John McGuigan, spent the night at the town at the end of the line. Empuriabrava is a large holiday town, with large campsites, and man made canals with hundreds if not thousands of moorings each with their own house! It was not exactly what I wanted from my holiday but I knew that if I looked around I would find many uncrowded places. The next day John cycled off. I stayed another day as my birthday was coming up and I wanted to celebrate. And celebrate I certainly did. I swam in the Med, went for a cycle ride, ate an excellent fish dinner, drank lots of wine with some Germans, and then smoked a cigar. The next morning I woke up somewhere near my tent and decided it was time to move on. The idea was to spend two or three days at a different campsite and explore the local area in a cycling softy sort of way.

A good campsite on the other side of town in a small National park, called ‘Camping Laguna’ became a favourite. Laguna is still big but it faces the sea, and the town can be reached by wading across the Lagoon exit or a fourteen kilometre ride to the nearest bridge. My next stop going south was a small town called Sant Pere Pescador, a campsite by the river, which of course was called, ‘Camping El Rio’. This place is the start of a cycle track that leads all the way to L’Escala. From here it was a delightful days gentle cycling starting on a slightly roughish track from the river, continuing by the sea and ending up as a paved track into L’Escala, a popular resort but at the same time still a nice old town.

I had travelled down the coast on a boat and had seen some great looking harbours, from Rosas to a lovely town called Cadaques, and had decided that not withstanding a very hard climb, I would visit it. At first the fifteen Kilometre climb seemed not too bad, then perspiration broke out all over my body – or was it the red wine leaking out of my system? Then I began to wonder: why was I carrying so much gear? It’s at times like this that I remember all the stories about the cyclists who cut their toothbrush in half, have an extra small toothpaste tube and also don’t carry a bottle of wine in their bottle cage! The hill grew steeper, the cars hooted to give me encouragement, the sweat streamed into my eyes. I looked up and the lovely girl in front said, “If you can’t keep up you don’t deserve me”. Another two Kilometres and I new the fantasy of the girl wasn’t enough to keep me going, so I changed the fantasy to an Afghanistan warlord chasing me on horseback and I had to get to the top before he cut my head off. I collapsed finally at the top of the hill with clouds all round me, so no vista after all that effort. Then rolled all the way down to Cadaques, wimped out and booked into a hotel for this one night. The film the ‘The Bourne Identity’ had its last happy scenes in this town and it was certainly worth the pain of the climb. Should I come back this way again, I will certainly revisit this picturesque town by the sea. My one mistake was to buy a disco ticket without looking or listening properly to the seller. It turned out to be for young people between the ages of twelve to sixteen. Embarrassing, especially when the doorman asked me, “where is the young person that you’ve brought with you”? As he looked at my one ticket and me!

Back on the Bus, John, the Champions and I exchanged stories and drank some wine, maybe more than a little, as the bus rolled on into the night, through France and on to England – and yes we did have fifteen days of fun in the sun.

About Tony, the author of this article: I have worked, lived and rolled about this lovely planet from a very young age and in fact just back from a magazine shoot in Rio. I’m nearly sixty five, still alive, my get up and go has not completely got up and gone and like good whisky I’m still going strong. If you would like to contact Tony, his e-mail address is: tony@annis.co.uk


Airline News

Air Canada, the world’s 11th largest carrier has filed for bankruptcyprotection. They say they will continue to fly while it reorganises its operations. The company says that Air Canada customers around the world can continue booking with confidence that their travel plans will not be disrupted.

Want to fly to Kuwait? While most of the world’s large carriers are reducing their services in line with a down turn in demand, mainly due to the Iraq conflict, Dubai-based carrier Emirates is introducing extra flights between now and July. They plan to increase services to the Middle East by increasing frequency of flights to Doha, Tehran, Sanaa, Dammam and Kuwait.

Air Wales are planning to start a 50 seat daily flight between south Wales and London, the first for 40 years on April 28th. The service will run up to three times a day between Swansea and London City Airport, stopping off in Cardiff. The journey time will be 80 minutes – half the time of the train and will cost as little as £19 each way.

Singapore Airlines, who are celebrating their 21st birthday this year, have been named Airline of the Year at the prestigious OAG Awards. Changi airport also won the best airport title for the eighth year running.

US budget carrier Southwest Airlines topped the Best Low Cost Airline category, a title it has held for three years.

Midwest Airlines was named Best Airline based in North America and Canada.

A Czech woman, Hana Peskova of CSA Czech Airlines won the Outstanding Service Award an award given to airline or airport staff who have acted above and beyond the call of duty for her efforts to help the people of Prague during the floods of August last year.


Our Friends Ryanair

Well, it’s now official: European budget carrier Ryanair has completed its take-over the low cost airline Buzz , formerly owned by KLM. Ryanair paid EUR 20.1 million (USD$21.5 million) some EUR 2.8 million lower than the original purchase price. Ryanair has formed a new subsidiary – Buzz Stansted – and the company will operate a fleet of 10 aircraft, employ up to 130 people and start flying on May 1st. It will serve a network of 12 routes, formerly operated by KLM UK/Buzz. The new Chief Executive of Buzz will be John Osborne, a former Director of Operations for Ryanair and former Chief Executive of GB Airways and Virgin Express.

~~~~~~~~

And still on the subject of Ryanair, a recent Mail on Sunday article, spotted by webmaster Paul made the Beetle laugh. It states that Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary is, in his spare time, a keen breeder of Aberdeen Angus cattle. The article asks how would he like it if you agreed to sell him a pedigree bull, but actually, out of the cattle carrier toddled a hamster? The article then goes on to compare this to booking a flight to Ryanair’s new destination, Barcelona – you actually get flown to Girona, some 60 miles away. In response, Mr O’Leary says: “Don’t be cross; by comparison Gatwick is also a long way from the centre of London.” (It’s actually 30 minutes away from either Victoria or Blackfriars station in central London – Beetle). The article goes on to show how in Ryanair’s world Hahn manages to become Frankfurt 70 miles away, and how Forli doubles as Bologna some 50 miles away. Not so long ago, readers may remember the howls of discontent when the Beetle travelled 2 hours from Oslo to Ryanair’s base at Torp airport. By way of appreciation, the article says that “whilst many have managed to come to terms with Ryanair’s rather cavalier attitude to customer relations. i.e. you got a cheap ticket – what are you moaning about? But why is it that for an airline that hails from a country famed for its blarney, Ryanair manages to exude so little charm?”

~~~~~~~~

A Ryanair Joke spotted by one of our readers

American special forces have this morning reported the successful takeover of Baghdad airport. However further inspection by Irish journalists of the lack of ground staff and no open services or shops revealed it to be the Ryanair Baghdad airport. American troops have in fact landed 400 miles south of Baghdad but will avail of the feeder bus that leaves from Mohammed O’Kelly’s Irish bar every day at 6pm.


Discount for Globetrotters In Mallorca

We have been contacted by Felisa Forteza who tells us about her new small and charming hotel in the very heart of Mallorca. Sa Rota d´en Palerm is an 18th Century house that has been lovingly restored and converted into a countryside hotel. They are offering a special 10% discount to readers of this e-newsletter on stays with them in Mallorca. For more details, take a look at: Sa-Rota website

Similarly, a French barge company approached the Globetrotters Club with some large discounts available on hiring luxury French barge boats. See www.bargefrance.com for more info.


Part Two of: Travelling in Tibetan Buddhist Spiti: High Altitude Adventure in the Indian Himalayas with Carol and Martin: What Happened When it Rained in this Rainless Land

All the houses in Kaza are built in traditional Spiti style: massive two-storied mud brick structures. Their flat mud roofs are supported by beams of poplar tree trunks with a network of branches and twigs crisscrossed over them. Stacks of shrubs pulled from the mountainsides and used for fuel surround the edges of the roofs like thorny crowns. Such buildings as these are practical only in a rainless climate and Spiti, lying in the so-called rain shadow of the Himalayas, are a high-altitude desert and see virtually nothing of the southwest monsoon that drenches virtually the entire Indian subcontinent each summer. In winter, when huge amounts of snow do fall in Spiti, the weight on the roofs would become unbearable and so they are swept clean as snow accumulates. Every house has a long-handled wooden snow pusher.

On that first visit to Kaza we stayed in a guesthouse built along traditional lines. After attending the fabulous lama festival in Ki Gompa that I described in my last letter we returned to our guesthouse and relaxed on the veranda drinking cups of chai. The sky was a deep blue and as the sun set; the mountains lining the Spiti Valley took on magical hues. And there were some clouds in the usually cloudless sky.

We went out to cosy Layul’s restaurant for steaming bowls of skiu, homemade noodle squares with delicious chunks of local vegetables in a flavourful broth, and steamed momos with chilli sauce. Some juicy apricots from farther down the Spiti Valley (it’s a bit too high here for apricots trees to grow: 3600 meters) completed the meal perfectly. It had been a wonderful day and we slept like logs.

The next morning was unmistakably cloudy and we wondered. After all, we were in Spiti, virtually in Tibet, where the skies are a soul-piercing blue, where the houses are made of earth and water carefully measured! We did some shopping in the bazaar that afternoon and bought some incredible wooden masks, just like the ones the lamas had worn in their dances and beaded collars with strange tribal designs. Even a tantric mirror, a convex brass disk worn to keep away evil spirits.

Well, there’s nothing evil about rain and no one would want to keep rain away in a dry place like this, or would they? Anyway, that evening it started to drizzle. It was not the sort of rain that would attract much attention in temperate climes – a light, insistent sprinkle, consisting of mist rather than discrete drops. But it fell continuously for three days and three nights. During the first day, there was no foreboding among the locals. A day of light rain is an infrequent but not a truly unusual occurrence. Rather, there was quiet enjoyment– a sprinkle to refresh the fields and lanes was a welcome event.

But the morning of the second day brought a change in local consciousness. It was not only the fact that it was still raining, it was also that the rain, light as it was, had been continuous – it had not let up for more than five minutes in the past twenty-four hours. And the look of the sky and the feel of the air promised more of the same.

The dry dusty paths that are the town’s streets were already turning into a substance somewhere between mud and slime. It was earth not used to being wet and didn’t know how to handle it. People started collecting mud and putting it on their roofs: the idea being that the thicker the layer of mud on the roof, the longer the rain would take to percolate through it. No one seemed particularly worried about the extra weight the mud-brick walls and the roof-support beams were being subjected to. After all, these houses were “built”. The walls were two feet thick. The main thing was to keep the houses from dissolving.

Before we retired on that second night, having sat through a day of precipitation identical to the one before, and having watched bag after bag of mud being dumped onto the roof, I carefully questioned the owner about sleeping under this now sodden roof, bearing I didn’t know how many times its usual weight. Our room, wouldn’t you know, was on the top floor of the guesthouse.

“Don’t worry! No problem! The building is strong and the roof is thick and the water will not come through,” he said. But he said it with such hearty offhandedness that I was not at all reassured. Before we went to bed we organized our belongings for a quick getaway.

It was two-thirty in the morning when we woke up, Carol having just been nailed between the eyes by a dollop of water. Directing our torch beams around the room, we noticed strange patterns on the white walls, ochre stains that hadn’t been there when we went to bed. And in a few places water was running quite uninhibitedly down the walls. We quickly packed the rest of our belongings. Stepping out on the veranda, I realized that the entire town was awake and that it was still raining. People were on their roofs spreading still more mud. We moved down to a vacant ground floor room and blithely resumed our night’s sleep.

The next day dawned grey, and yes, it was still raining. All the ceilings and floors of the upstairs rooms were pocked with leaks, but the building had not collapsed and our ground-floor room, though somewhat damp, was unblemished and leak-free.

Nature called, and as I was inside the outdoor toilet, a piece of land above it gave way and a miniature landslide composed of bowling-ball size rocks and a ton of mud stopped just short of the outhouse door. And just short as well of the nicely ambiguous headline that would no doubt have appeared in newspapers throughout the world: “Tourist washed away in toilet.”

About the authors of this article: Carol and Martin Noval have lived in India for more than twenty-five years and organize and lead cultural and adventure tours and treks throughout India and the Himalayas. Check out their website: www.tripsintoindia.com and can be reached at: tripsintoindia@usa.net


Charity Cycle Ride, Sri Lanka, September 2003

International Childcare Trust (ICT) is organising a coast to coast cycle across Sri Lanka 19-28 September 2003 to raise funds to help support programmes in Africa and Asia with some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable children.

ICT is taking advantage of the long held peace process in Sri Lanka and cycling up into the north of the tropical island, an area which only very recently opened to tourism. As far as we know, ICT will be the first charity to cycle up into this virtually unexplored part of the island, where elephants roam free! We will unwind after the cycle by snorkelling near Trincomalee, at one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

The cycle offers keen travellers the chance to tour Sri Lanka whilst keeping fit. Those who sign up will also be granted the opportunity to meet other travellers and visit two of ICT’s projects to see how the money raised will benefit some of the world’s most disadvantaged children.

Since the north of the island has opened to tourism, Sri Lanka is being written up in all the UK national papers as the new ‘hot spot’ to travel before it becomes too tourist driven. Over the next couple of years, it is anticipated that the tourist industry will grow and that the prices for travel in Sri Lanka will rise considerably.

Therefore, an entry fee of £250 for the cycle (which covers flight on Sri Lankan Airlines, hotel accommodation, provision of bike, etc) seems to good to be true.

The challenge for people is: can you get fit enough? And can you raise enough for ICT? We think that every individual is capable and it is a memory that you will have with you for the rest of your life.

If you have any further queries or questions please visit http://www.international-childcare-trust.org/cycle-and-trek-challenges


Iris.s Diary of An Overland Trip Through South America

Iris, a British lady of considerable character and pluck, is on a 23 week overland expedition from Quito in Ecuador to Caracas in Venezuela. After this, she plans to do a 3-month voluntary placement in Ecuador, and then visit Central America for another overland trip between Panama City and Mexico City, ending up with perhaps another 2-month voluntary placement somewhere in South America again. This amazing journey will take Iris one year. Here is an extract from Iris’ journey notebook.

13th December 2002: Iquitos, the Amazon, and Bolivia

I am in Iquitos – at the frontier of the Amazonian Jungle. We arrived here by plane five days ago and the next day after arrival went off early in the morning up the Amazon to a Jungle Lodge called Muyuna Lodge. It took us 2 hrs 15 mins to get there (140 kms or roughly 90 miles) and we thought that fast but on the way back it took less than 2 hours and we stopped for petrol. Maybe we were going with the current on the way back! Anyway, it was quite an experience although unfortunately I was a little under the weather there and so missed quite a few late night and early morning excursions and one day’s excursions into the jungle. I think the heat caused a reaction – I was dehydrating fast and had to rest and rehydrate with electrolyte solutions and it worked. Within 24 hours I was back on form.

We saw lots – local medicinal trees, local insects (the odd spider but I missed the tarantulas (1) because of my illness (2) because they only visited them at night and I wasn’t about to do that – I’d rather face that kind of fear in broad daylight!!!) The trip I most enjoyed was to a local village where we were invited to a couple of homes to see how they lived and worked and to cook our barbecue of fish kebabs (catfish), which were delicious. Unfortunately, my camera broke down, which I didn’t realise until much later and all my excellent photos (especially of me holding the local anaconda round my neck and one of a little 3-yr old showing us his ultimate “clockwork” toy – a live baby caiman (crocodile)). This afternoon we fly back to Lima and if I have time to email again I will, before we move on to other beaches and other camp sites!

23rd January 2003: from the Amazon in Ecuador to the Salt Flats of Uynuni (Chile)

I spent five days on the Inca Trail and needed a shower at the end of it as we didn’t have any such luxuries in our rough campsites. Occasionally, we got a proper loo (washroom – Beetle) ,if loos in Ecuador, Peru or Bolivia could be called “proper” – I’ve experienced it all – no water, no light, no toilet paper, no soap, no sink at times! – but Chile spoils us on the whole with beautifully clean loos with all facilities in just about every service station en route! But more often than not it was squat over a hole in the ground and get on with it! Of course, at the end of the Inca Trail we were able to return to Cusco, to our hotel there, and get a couple of nights with hot showers and to celebrate New Year, which most of our number did in style, but as I think I said, Judith and I just had a quiet meal and were early to bed.

And then we were off to other climes, travelling off down through Peru and into Bolivia and that was our first real shock, to see how poor Bolivia is. No proper infrastructure, roads that are just rough tracks so that at times one is fording rivers without benefit of bridges. Our first big stop was La Paz and what a town that is! I loved it there. It is so frenetic and vibrant but mainly because of the ethnic groups (local Indians) who set up stalls in the street so that pavements are barely visible and very often one has to wend ones way through shoppers pausing to browse between the stalls that are set up on both sides of the pavement with a very narrow passage between them. But you can buy just about anything in the street from a tiny screw which would fit a pair of spectacles to replace one lost, to a full bathroom suite and more besides. Some of our group needed to replace cameras which haven’t stood up to the climate and so they got their replacements in La Paz in the street markets and came out with some very good bargains.

But the incredible thing about La Paz is its altitude (over 4,000 metres) and the way it is literally built down the mountainsides and I reckon in most of the streets coming down from the summit, your knees must touch your chin trying to get up those slopes! We were only in La Paz a couple of days and so not enough time to see everything, but we had a city tour and went to their Valley of the Moon, so called, but which should really have been called “Lunar Valley” because it gets its name from the fact that the landscape is lunar, not because of any religious connotations.

From La Paz we went off to Potosi – a very, very long drive along increasingly difficult roads and especially because the road through the mountains is being upgraded and there is lots of roadwork going on. Potosi is even higher than La Paz at nearly 5,000 metres altitude and claims to be the highest town of its size in the world. It is an incredible place and the first night one almost took one’s life in one’s hands trying to negotiate its narrow streets with all the traffic milling around and it is also amazing how everyone comes out at night – the streets were thronged with people and of course all the shops were open until whenever, it seemed. We stayed in a hostel there for a couple of nights before going on to Sucre, which of course, as I told you, is the capital city of Bolivia, vying with La Paz for that title, as La Paz thinks it should be the capital city as the seat of government is there. However, Sucre is a lot quieter than La Paz and I suppose more “upper class” as there are few ethnic groups there and everyone looks very cosmopolitan and prosperous.

We stayed two nights in Sucre and then took off for Uyuni which really is at the back of beyond, a real frontier town, the gateway to the salt flats. But as usual the ethnic groups are there in their hundreds, setting up stalls for the tourists, and I can see that in a few years, if things go well, Uyuni will become a large town or even a city because it is clear that the inhabitants are planning for it that way with some quite amazing edifices being built there. We stayed just the one night there as the jumping off point for the salt flats and the next day all piled into our jeeps and away we went.

Our first stop was at a small settlement just on the edge of the salt flats where the salt is processed and one sees big piles of salt waiting for the process to commence. And then we went on to the salt flats themselves, and talk about “white-out”, without sunglasses we would have been suffering from salt blindness! We were heading for a place called “Fish Island” which is in the middle of the salt flats and is literally covered in tall cacti. People wandered off to have a good look at the place, but I was feeling the heat and had a slight tummy upset, and so I was just content to sit in the shade and let the more energetic ones do the exploring. Reports were that it was just an island of cacti, and once you’ve seen one…. We had lunch there and were off to our first overnight stop in a hostel where we had to bunk up, six to a room, sharing one bathroom. The only saving grace was that we had hot water and electricity from a generator, but of course, we had to wait for the generator to be switched on before we got those luxuries!

Next day, we left the salt flats behind and were off to see a volcano from a distance and to explore three lakes each full of flamingos. Needless to say, lots of photos were taken and at one lake we had lunch and so could linger to explore and appreciate the incredible colours the lakes turn from the mineral deposits pouring into them – yellows, pinks, browns – one has to see the contrasts to really appreciate them.

The next night was spent in a really rough hostel. There was a cold strong wind blowing and here again it was dormitories with bunk beds and very basic toilets with no running water at all, we had to flush the loos with a bucket of water taken from a big tank, and the sink could be used just to spit one’s mineral water out as one brushed one’s teeth but again no running water there either. We had been told there was no electricity but in fact they had just fitted some bulbs in the dormitories and so when the generator kicked in at about 20:00 we were able to see to go to bed, but in the morning, when we got up at 04:00 to get away early, it was pitch dark except for our torches and the occasional candle dotted about!

This last day on the flats, was very cold. We visited some geysers and hot springs and people actually stripped off and laid down in the hot springs; others were induced to just soak their feet, whilst the more trepid of us just kept all our clothes and boots on and just waited for hot drinks and breakfast to be served el fresco. And we did get hot drinks and scrambled eggs and toast from the camping gas rings, so it was worth the wait.

And then on to the border – the whole point of getting up early was to get us to the border with Chile at a place called San Pedro de Atacama and that is where our jeeps deposited us and where we were herded into coaches for the crossing into Chile. And what a difference in Chile. We were like schoolchildren let out after a long exam period. Okay, San Pedro was a town of adobe houses, but the camp site did provide us with hot showers and running water and electricity, and the town’s people were very friendly and welcoming without being as mercenary as in other places, demanding one buy something, one could just wander around at ones leisure and look at the merchandise without having to keep saying: “No, gracias.”

If you’d like to contact Iris, whether to wish her luck with her trip or to ask questions about her itinerary and places visited, I am sure she would like to hear from you. She can be contacted on: irisej2002@yahoo.co.uk


Currency Conversion

A recent UK survey for the Department for Education found that of over 1,000 adults, 30% felt unable to compare rates in exchange bureaux. A similar proportion said they were not comfortable converting foreign currency into sterling. Over a fifth of those surveyed admitted they had wrongly calculated how much they spent on holiday, with 12% saying they had run out of money.

The Globetrotters Club has just teamed up with Oanda.com to provide people with information about currency conversions and cheat sheets. To translate currency or make a cheat sheet, visit:

The Globetrotters Currency Converter — get the exchange rates for 164 currencies The Globetrotters Currency Cheat Sheet — create and print a currency converter table for your next trip.


Meeting News from London

Globetrotters meeting on March 1st by Padmassana

Two old friends of Globetrotters gave this month’s talks. First off was Geoffrey Roy, who talked about The Great Wall of China. Geoff started off by dispelling a few myths that surround this ancient construction – that it cannot be seen from outer space, it is not a continuous structure and that there are no bodies entombed in the wall (they would have decomposed and would have weakened the structure). Many sections of the wall have been repaired for the benefit of the 89 million tourists who visit China each year. Of the parts tourists do not generally visit, many are falling down through weathering and the occasional earthquake, or have been bulldozed to make way for roads or to use the stones for new building. Where the stones have been taken Geoff showed us that the mortar still remains, this is because it was made with a kind of rice that sets as hard as concrete. Geoff’s super photos of the wall and surrounding countryside gave us a more accurate view of what the wall looks like today, not just the tourist sections that we see on TV travel shows. Geoff also showed us the China we expect to see such as Mao’s picture outside the Forbidden city in Beijing and people doing Tai chi in the parks. (Find out more about Geoffrey http://www.kaaphotos.co.uk)

Our second speaker was Lesley Downer, who spoke to us about Sadayyako and her journey around the world. Sadayyako was born in central Tokyo and was sent by her family to train as a Geisha (“arts person”). She was in the top echelon of Geisha’s and was soon noticed by Ito, Japan’s first Prime Minister and subsequently became his mistress. Lesley compared them to today’s Posh and Beck’s (for any non UK readers they are a footballer and ex pop singer). As Sadayyako got older she realised that her Geisha work would slow down. Sadayyako then married the equivalent of a pop star, Together they formed a theatre troupe and went to tour America, performing abridged versions of Japanese Kabuki. Lesley explained that Kabuki is traditionally performed by men, with men taking women’s parts, however this would not go down well in 19th Century America, so Sadayyako stepped in and with her Geisha training soon became the star of the show. After America they took a boat to Liverpool and played to audiences at the Coronet theatre in London. Europe beckoned and they travelled to Paris for the 1900 Expo, then other European capitals including Berlin and Bucharest and onto Moscow. They eventually returned to Japan where they performed abridged versions of Shakespeare. Lesley’s last pictures were of Sadayyako’s house in Nagoya, where she died aged 75. If you want to read more about Sadayyako Lesley Downer’s new book is called, Madame Sadayakko: The Geisha Who Seduced the West.(see http://www.madamesadayakko.com for more information.)

Next month, on April 5th:

SIMON MYERS talks about China. Simon spent five years in China before riding a Chinese motorbike and sidecar back from Beijing to London. His first book “Adrift in China” has recently been published. ANNE MUSTOE talks of “Two Wheels in the Dust” – a cycle journey from Kathmandu to Kandy. Anne’s journey followed the paths of the Ramayana’s characters Rama, Sita, and Hanuman, in a lone cycle journey crossing the Indian sub-continent from Nepal to Sri-Lanka. Her two previous epic journeys have circled the world following historical routes – the first made travelling westwards “A Cycle Ride” following the Romans then the Greeks to India and finally across the States following the “settlement” in reverse. “Lone Traveller” follows the Conquistadors from Lisbon across South America, pursues Captain Cook over the Pacific to Australia, Indonesia, before following a caravan Silk Road from Xian to Rome.

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

Discusss this article in our new forum


Spotlight on Greece

Tour operators are worried: the Greek Islands are beginning to lose that golden reputation as the place in the Med to chill out and explore the ancient historical sites. Recently, there have been some high profile sex attacks, reports of dirty beaches, racism and incidents in some of the noisy rave type resorts. According to Noel Josephides, managing director of Sunvil Holidays, a Greek holiday specialist, “the number of British holidaymakers to Greece levelled off this summer, and the country cannot afford to be complacent. This was the first summer in 30 years that we did not have a single incident of hotel overbooking. Nothing is ever full now.”

Other tour operators have criticised Greece as a holiday destination. Abhi Dighé, a director of Kosmar Holidays, the biggest operator to Greece said: “In Portugal and Spain, the beaches are raked overnight. People there still leave cans and rubbish — but in the morning they come back to a clean beach. This has to happen in Greece as well. People don’t want to clear away rubbish and take it to an overflowing bin before they put their towels down. It is not luxury that people are looking for, just quality and safety.”

And yet, the Greek government recently announced that it would be building more large resorts.

So what is there to do in Greece? Interestingly, most tourists view Greece as a comparatively inexpensive sun-and-sea destination, rather than for its classical sites. The number of visitors to the major ancient sites and museums declined during the 1990s. On the other hand, there were more visitors to archaeological sites on islands that have become tourist destinations. Alternative tourism, including ecological and special interest holidays is gaining ground, but remains a small segment of the overall market.

Who will I be sharing my plot of beach with? The latest figures that the Beetle could get hold of show that 12.8 million visitors went to Greece in 1999. The Germans and the British account for about an astonishing 50% of all arrivals. They are followed by other western Europeans, mainly French, Scandinavians and Italians. There are comparatively few high-spending US and Japanese visitors. The number of tourists from the former communist countries of eastern and central Europe is increasing at a steady pace. There was an estimated 15% increase in visitor numbers in 2000, mainly of people going to Crete, and Rhodes.

So where should I go? More than 50% of visitors to Greece stay on half-a-dozen resort islands – Crete, Rhodes, Cos, Corfu, Mykonos and Santorini. – with airports equipped to handle international charter flights. In northern Greece, the main destination is the Halkidiki peninsula.

And how long is long enough? Most tourists come on package holidays, flying directly to a resort destination aboard an international charter flight. While the number of arrivals increased by over 30% during the 1990s, the average stay declined in length from over two weeks to about 10 days.

Is it posh? Um, well, no. If you go by the figures, Greece has an estimated 1.5 million beds in hotels and rooms for rent. Of these, only 30,000 are in luxury and first-class hotels – that’s 2%, and about a third of these are business hotels in Athens!

Greek officials predict that tourist arrivals will peak in 2004, when the http://www.athens2004.comOlympic Games will be staged in Athens.

Statistics provided by the Greek Tourism Services

Discusss this article in our new forum


Currency Conversion

A recent UK survey for the Department for Education found that of over 1,000 adults, 30% felt unable to compare rates in exchange bureaux. A similar proportion said they were not comfortable converting foreign currency into sterling. Over a fifth of those surveyed admitted they had wrongly calculated how much they spent on holiday, with 12% saying they had run out of money.

The Globetrotters Club has just teamed up with Oanda.com to provide people with information about currency conversions and cheat sheets. To translate currency or make a cheat sheet, visit:

The Globetrotters Currency Converter — get the exchange rates for 164 currencies

The Globetrotters Currency Cheat Sheet — create and print a currency converter table for your next trip.


Meeting News from New York

Next month on April 5th 2003:

Ladakh: the last Shangri-la? “In the forbidding terrain of the Himalayas, a robust people embellish their frugal lives with rich endowments of faith” (Thomas J. Abercrombie, National Geographic). Experience the beauty of this exotic land through a slide show by Kenneth Axen, PhD, research scientist, graphic artist, and serious amateur photographer.

For details of forthcoming meetings email newyork@globetrotters.co.uk or register for email updates at click here at our website.

New York meetings are held at The Wings Theater, 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.

Discusss this article in our new forum


Iris.s Diary of An Overland Trip Through South America

Iris is a British lady of considerable character and pluck, on a 23 week overland expedition from Quito in Ecuador to Caracas in Venezuela. After this, she plans to do a 3-month voluntary placement in Ecuador, and then visit Central America for another overland trip between Panama City and Mexico City, ending up with perhaps another 2-month voluntary placement somewhere in South America again. This amazing journey will take Iris one year. Here is an extract from Iris’ journey notebook.

30th November cont.: Cuenca

Onward, ever onward, to Cuenca. By the time it had reached 1845 and we had been on the road for 11 hours we were all becoming increasingly impatient to arrive. Darkness had descended, quite a lot of the time, after leaving our lunchtime site, it was raining heavily, and for hours we had had to make our own fun in the back of the truck, playing cards, some of the lads giving us a selection of the music they had brought on mini discs and mini disc players – most of it being quite presentable – Robbie Williams, Abba, Kylie, to name a few, although when a Turkish member of our group produced a CD of Turkish music, the reception was somewhat mixed, and when someone produced a couple of CDs of Australian folk songs, there were a lot of jeers, even from the Aussies amongst us, about songs like “Tie my Kangaroo down sport!” or “Waltzing Matilda” and others of that ilk.

One of our amusements, rather unkindly but not intended so, was our 68 yr old, Judith, my room-mate in Baños. Poor Judith, she had been very jet-lagged when she had arrived in Quito, but she had had four nights to recover, so everyone was very amused when she proceeded to fall asleep. She was sitting with one of our younger men (Matt is about 33, I would say, and he is a quiet man) and he had an inflated neck cushion and had dozed off leaning against the window (the seats are like public bus seats, there are no head rests and support ends at just below the shoulders) so poor Judith was lolling back with mouth wide open, catching flies.

Kindly, our policeman, Paul, who was sitting sideways on behind Judith decided she had to be given a cushion and so a sleeping bag, rolled up in its sack was produced and placed strategically behind Judith’s head, which seemed successful, but as the sleeping bag roll was in a large empty cavity between Judith’s front-facing seat and Paul’s side-facing seat, every movement of the bus sent it sliding away from Judith, or Judith sliding away from it. Another sleeping bag roll was produced but then Judith would gradually slip between the two rolls! Then it was decided to wedge the sleeping rolls in place with a water bottle and this did the trick but then Judith found Matt’s shoulder and snuggled up to him! This just went on and on throughout the day. Both Matt and Judith would wake up at intervals but gradually both (Judith more than Matt) would drop off into slumberland once more and the whole pantomime would be played out again, very much to everyone’s amusement!) We reckoned Judith slept for at least seven of the 13 hours we were on the road!

Eventually, after many small disappointments as one large town vanished into the darkness to our rear which had been mistakenly identified by us as our destination, we arrived in Cuenca and got to our hotel. But we had all to share 3 or 4-bedded rooms, although that is par for the course when so many have to be accommodated in large city hotels. I shared with three other ladies – Alison, Eren (our Turkish lady) and Judith, and after we had all got settled we went off across the road to an Italian restaurant for a meal (as our last meal had been some 8 hours previously on the side of the road), however, at 2130 we were not too keen to eat anything too much and Judith and Eren just had soup and a roll, and Alison and I had pasta.

Today, the rain has vanished and it is quite sunny in Cuenca. We had a light breakfast (rolls and jam and scrambled egg) and then I decided to go my separate way. Judith and Alison and Eren wanted to go to an archaeological museum out of town, but I wanted to wander around on my own. Unfortunately Eren is ill today, being sick and feeling poorly so in the end we left her in the hotel room bedded down. I don’t know what she had eaten and neither did she, that had made her sick, but it is not diarrhoea, just sickness, so hopefully, she will be recovered by tomorrow for our next 366 km journey to Punta Sal where we will be camping on the beach for 3 days.

I think this first week is being used to break us in gently to the rigours ahead of us – the jungle trip and the Inca Trail – so some long journeys have to be faced and some hotels are used so that we are not faced with too much hard work putting up tents every time we arrive at a destination, and camping to show us what we are in for when there are no hotels to stay in. So think of me on 1 Dec 02 having to face putting up a tent after a 12 hour journey!

Today in Cuenca I have just walked round the city centre, looking at the local shops and populace. I got to a little square and realised there was an art museum there so went in to have a look round. The young security guard, who watches over everyone coming in, got me to sign the book and put my passport number and name in the book and then was determined to practice his rather limited English on me. Anyway, to cut a long story short he ended up giving me a guided tour and I asked him if I could take his photo, but although he agreed he was determined the photo was going to have me in it as well, so I obliged him, when he produced a young friend to do the honours! After the guided tour I told him that I was returning to Ecuador next year for maybe two stints of 3 months and 2 months and asked him for his address so that I could not only send him the photo but also perhaps visit him when I return. He is a university student working as a guard at the museum during the day and has another evening job as well to bring in the money while he is studying. He is at Rio Bamba university and hopes to travel round the world when he has finished his studying. He is about 18, I would say, and demanded that we kiss each other on the cheek before parting to show our new-found friendship and the hope of it continuing in the future, so I obliged and insisted we do it the French way of kissing on both cheeks! Then as I left, he ran after me “I don’t know your name! What is your name?” And I said: “Francisco, you have it in your book, remember, I signed in?!” And he was so relieved!

If you’d like to contact Iris, whether to wish her luck with her trip or to ask questions about her itinerary and places visited, I am sure she would like to hear from you. She can be contacted on: irisej2002@yahoo.co.uk

Discusss this article in our new forum


Mutual Aid

Need help? Want a travelling buddy or advice about a place or country – want to share something with us – why not visit our Mutual Aid section of the Website: Mutual Aid


Meeting News from Ontario

The March meeting of the Ontario Globetrotters was held on March 21st. Jim Low presented “Chasing the Midnight Sun,” a slide documentary and personal commentary of his recent motor trip up the Dempster Highway through the Yukon and NWT to Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk.

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.

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.

Discusss this article in our new forum


Be Careful . Africa

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office have just updated its advice for Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti, referring to a high risk of terror attacks.

The FCO website (www.fco.gov.uk/travel) warns visitors to the three countries to be highly vigilant in all areas frequented by foreign visitors, including hotels, nightclubs, shopping centres and restaurants.

The website has been changed to underline the continued threat from terrorism: ‘The Foreign Office continues to receive information that Westerners are at risk from terrorist attacks in areas frequented by foreigners.

‘In particular there is a potential threat against western interests in Nairobi, Kenya.’

Despite the current warnings, the Foreign Office has stopped short of advising against all non-essential travel to the three countries.