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.

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PLEASE NOTE NEW LOCATION

We will meet at the VFW Hall on Peace Street instead of the library on Common St.

The hall is across from the entrance to Cypress Bend Park where the April 2002 picnic was held.

Peace Street is between the library and the river off Common St. Turn on Peace Street – the Fairgrounds are across the street so you can only turn one way. There is a sign for the VFW hall on the corner. Go to the dead end (cemeteries on both sides) and turn right into the parking lot for the VFW hall.

Mark your calendars – Dates of future meetings: April 12th,

The VFW folks will open their bar so we will not go to the Hoity Toit after the meeting. If you like, bring some nibbles to share for conversation time following the meeting – since we will miss the peanuts from the Toit.

For more information about the Texas Branch: please Contact texas@globetrotters.co.uk or register for email 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

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U. S. Soldiers Home Mac: 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.

I stayed in Hotel Blue in Delhi (avoid it.) Actually OK but basic and the police were constantly checking the place as so many of the clients were young people travelling the world for years and didn’t have any work (except temporary jobs). There was a young German travelling around the world on a motorcycle. He was born after Hitler was dead. He told me he was in Egypt and when an elderly Egyptian heard he was from Germany said to him. “Hitler is a good man. How old is he now? This broke up the young German. Some people never get the word. Indian police came up to the hotel looking for illegal immigrants and the young German disappeared.

While waiting for a room in New Delhi at the Hotel Ashok Yatri News $10 US a day (it seemed to be a budget hotel ran by the government and I liked it) I went into the public toilet in the lobby and took all my luggage into the stall with me. When I went to leave stall I had trouble getting the door open as my luggage was in the way. As I struggled out, I saw an Indian at the washbasin watching my antics. I told him. “I spent the night in there – couldn’t get a room. Without batting an eye he said “You did not have to do that”

Puri, India. Stayed at Z Hotel. That is the entire name of hotel or as the British say zed for Z I think. Z hotel is on Chakraateertha Road. A short name for hotel. Long name for road. It is on the beach next to the ocean. The hotel was a palace of a very minor Maharaja of a very minor state in West Bengal. I was offered a complimentary drink as I signed in. All this for 480 rupees ($4.80 U.S. a night.) You can walk to fishing villages with palm huts a short way from hotel. When I went to see the fishermen bring in the fish at 4PM, a little boy ran ahead of me to point out the faeces on the beach (the fishermen use the beach as a toilet). He would point and say Toilet. He was constantly saying Toilet, toilet, toilet so I would not step into the faeces.

At the Konark Temple in India where they have erotic carvings of men and women doing things in almost impossible gymnastic positions a little boy appointed himself as my guide. This ten year old guide solemnly informed me. “There are sixty four approaches.”

Madras, India. Diana had read that the bicycle rickshaw drivers in front of train station would often take you to a hotel where they got a commission instead of the hotel you requested. She told me to give the address of a landmark near the hotel you wished. Tell him you want to go to Star Theater (which was near Broadlawn Hotel I wanted) I said Star Theater please and he replied. “Oh the Broadlawn Hotel!” I moved from there to Himalayan Hotel that Dianna kept calling the Everest.

The Fairlawn Hotel in Calcutta is a hoot. It is run by an Albanian lady (I think) who had been married to a British Major, since died. She was more British than the British and she ran the hotel like they did in the days of the Raj. She had all the men servants wear colourful turbans although they were not Sikhs (I at first thought when they said someone was Sikh I thought they were saying they were sick.) When she was out of sight they would pull them off. She would walk around with a little poodle in her arms saying “And how are you my dear?’ Americans loved this but some Indians from America revisiting India told me that their daughter hated this.

I stayed in several hotels in New Delhi including YMCA and YWCA International Hotel (took both men and women) food very good there. In an Indian brochure I read “When our hearts are empty we collect things” (give me your things and sin no more.) It is true that we sometimes become slaves to our possessions. Give them away and travel!

Next month, Mac discusses animals. If you would like to contact Mac, he can be e-mailed on: macsan400@yahoo.com

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The following is an extract from Henry from Hawaii’s website which has lots of interesting links and provides much background to this memorable trip to Molokai. To find out more info, take a look at:

The research vessel Atlantis is a state-of-the-art oceanographic ship, delivered in 1997, which launches the well-known deep diving submersible Alvin. I was invited to join the 14 Nov voyage departing Puntarenas, Costa Rica for an area in the rift zone northeast of the Galapagos Islands. This deep-sea odyssey, configured to retrieve borehole information from both the rift area northeast of the Galapagos and the deep trench area west of central Costa Rica, was essentially to help more precisely determine the subduction mechanisms of plate tectonics. Incidentally, the daily location of the R/V Atlantis (AGOR-25) can be viewed online along with its recent track.

I flew from Chicago, via Mexico City, arriving very early in the morning and stayed at the Posada Aeropuerto near the airport for a relatively few hours until I started exploring the Poas volcanic area and later in the day driving to the capital, San Jose, for an overnight stay. The next day was spent visiting the city sights such as the National Museum and the evening was given to travelling some sixty miles west to Puntarenas. As usual, the wet season afternoon showers were heavy but nothing large enough to impede any plans. Incidentally, the wet or green season as they like to call it there, ends just about mid-November and the rest of the time the weather was excellent.

In Puntarenas, I stayed at the recommended Hotel Tioga with a good view of the beach looking south to the sea. It was a much welcomed stay and very quiet compared to the constant noise of San Jose. I even enjoyed all two stations on the local television scene and the big and inclusive breakfast. At first light from my balcony, I could see the m/v Atlantis riding at anchor almost due south of the hotel.

Puntarenas is both a fishing port and a resort centre on the west central coast of Costa Rica. It is situated on a four-mile-long spit that extends east-west from the narrow waist of Costa Rica. Its tourist activities consist primarily of water-related attractions; however, excursions to the cloud forest at Monteverde and to San Jose, for example, may be accomplished as day trips. This is not the case for the volcanic areas of Arenal Volcano, Poas Volcano and Irazu Volcano inasmuch as the distances to these areas generally are too great when starting from Puntarenas.

I caught a water taxi to the Atlantis and was introduced to the ship by its most hospitable captain, George Silva. The research vessel is a remarkable self-contained workshop of the deep with a most competent staff of high-calibre people. Later in the day the scientist in charge, Dr Keir Becker of the University of Miami, embarked with his group of sea-going scientists. It was a most impressive group.

The first two days at sea were involved in heading almost due south some 600 miles to the first dive site at 1*14’N/83*44’W. The next day was taken up with Alvin diving to 11,500ft to two boreholes to retrieve information pertaining to physical conditions within the wells. In addition, sampling was made of the water content for evidence of bacteria that have been residing in the deep areas beneath the floor of the ocean. NASA apparently is interested in these results as they will also be attempting to retrieve evidence of bacteria that might have resided on such remote areas as Mars.

The following two days were spent travelling north northwest to a second dive site at 9*39’N/86*11’W where Alvin was sent down 14,000ft or almost three miles to retrieve data from the deep trench that parallels the western coasts of both North and South America. On the outside of Alvin, we attached a bag of Styrofoam cups with various messages and logos only to see them shrink to inch-high thimble-sized curiosities due to the huge pressure exerted at those depths.

The last leg of the voyage covered approximately 100 miles as we headed east around the Nicoya Peninsula back to Puntarenas. Incidentally, during the cruise we saw dolphins. turtles and pilot whales. Overall, it was a most successful and enjoyable voyage.

The fifty-mile drive from Puntarenas to the San Jose international airport took two hours on the narrow two-lane Pan American Highway and, after another overnight at the Posada Aeropuerto, an early flight to Chicago completed this portion of the trip. The flight track brought us over Guatemala City and the view to the west at the string of coastal volcanoes, some of them smoking, was marvellous. Lake Atitlan was clearly visible in the early morning and I took an awful lot of pictures. Even smoking Popocatepetl (18,000ft) and snow-covered Ixtacihuatl near Mexico City presented calendar-quality photo opportunities.

The entire trip was rewarding and I would hope to accompany the Atlantis on some future research voyage.

If you would like any further information, please contact Henry by email: Nowicki@webtv.net

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Thank you to all those who wrote in to our debate.

Bernard from the US wrote in to say, “A quick stop in a place shouldn’t necessarily qualify as “having been to a place”. According to such thinking, I have travelled to Canada, though I was only there one day on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. Also, I travelled to Amsterdam, though I was only there for a weekend; doing a last quick bit of European sightseeing before heading back to the states. I believe the essential point of travel, is to gain some degree of familiarity with a geographic area & experience with the local culture; ideally in order to come away with a greater understanding & appreciation of the place where you have been. A person just stepping foot on foreign soil for a day or two, just isn’t going to cut it. However, I understand there are others who may disagree. In reality, anything less that this is just basic sightseeing”.

Richard, also from the US, wrote in to say: “I have had this problem a number of times. I don’t count an airport stopover as a visit. If you never leave the airport building (or step more than a few feet from the riverbank as the person in Feb e-news did in Laos), you shouldn’t count it. I believe that to be fair, one needs to experience some of the country, even if it’s only a one-hour guided tour or a bus ride into the nearest city. Involvement with a local resident also would help validate the visit, even if it’s only buying a snack from a street vendor (outside of

the airport/dock area). Sixty-seven “real” visits and counting!”

What do you think? Write in and let the Beetle know.

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Los Angeles International Airport, code LAX is some 15 miles or 25 km away from the city of LA. It can be contacted by phone on: +1 310 646 5252. There are 8 terminals as follows:

Terminal 1 is for America West, Southwest and US Airways.

Terminal 2 is for Northwest flights plus Air Canada, Air New Zealand, ATA, Hawaiian, KLM, Virgin Atlantic and others.

Terminal 3 serves Alaska, American, Frontier, Horizon and Midwest Express.

Terminal 4 is the American Airlines terminal.

Terminal 5 is for Aeromexico, American, Delta, Spirit, Vanguard and other airlines.

Terminal 6 serves Continental, Copa, National and some United Airlines flights.

Terminal 7 is the United Airlines terminal.

Terminal B The Tom Bradley International Terminal serves most non-US airlines.

Back in the 1920s, today’s LA airport stands on the site of wheat and barley fields and what was back then part of Southern California’s wealthy ranching land.

Although there was no federal money available for investment, LA’s Chamber of Commerce promoted the idea of building a municipal airport on the land even though flying was still a fledgling activity. In 1928 they chose Mines Field from a list of 27 possible sites, named after a real estate agent called William W. Mines who represented the ranching interests. For years, the people of LA refused to call their airport anything else. The city leased 640 acres for ten years and aviation got an immediate boost when America’s National Air Races brought the crowds flocking to Mines Field to see pilots like the legendary Charles Lindbergh.

Los Angeles Municipal Airport was officially dedicated in 1930 when the lease was extended to 50 years. The depression years were hard for LA until the arrival of such as Douglas, Northrop and North American who established the area as an aircraft manufacturing centre. After the Depression, airlines increasingly came to LAX and to encourage further investment, the city bought the lease and became full owners of the land.

As a result of WW2, Southern California and the area around LA had become the hub of America’s aircraft industry. The airport management had already laid its post-war plans and in 1946, with all five major airlines installed, commercial operations began. Five years later, as world routes were developed, Los Angeles added ‘International’ to its title and in 1952 it made its first profit. A new terminal was built, the forerunner of huge development as the jet age arrived and the ten million passenger mark was reached in 1965. Since then expansion projects have come thick and fast with a $700 million improvement program, started in 1981, providing two new terminals and a $3.5 million cargo centre. Hangar Number One, the first building ever constructed at Los Angeles Airport in 1929, is still in use and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. LAX has never looked back!

For information by e-mail, infoline@airports.ci.la.ca.us

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Trade Aid’s next group tour is a unique opportunity to be involved in an 8 day, self-drive 4WD safari through the unspoilt countryside of Southern Tanzania. The route is via the Selous Game Reserve, the world’s largest. As usual, group rates and airfares etc give a good price reduction. The price for readers of the Globetrotters e-newsletter is £999 per person, including flights from the UK and transfers.

For further details and bookings contact:

TRADE AID – Burgate Court, Burgate, Fordingbridge, Hampshire SP6 1LX UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1425 657774; Fax: +44 (0) 1425 656684; E-mail:tradeaid@netcomuk.co.uk

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Journalist, historian and novelist Jan Morris will share her love of writing and travel with an audience at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) on Tuesday 15th April.

It promises to be an enlightening evening: Jan Morris “one of the most remarkable literary careers in the second half of the twentieth century” (The Guardian), has been writing for over fifty years and is a major figure in journalism travel writing in Britain and the United States. Major reporting landmarks include coverage (as James Morris) on the British ascent of Everest the day before HRH Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation in 1953 – an event that touched the world. Since then she has gone on to write over thirty books about her travels around the world, covering the British Empire, Europe, Venice, Hong Kong, Sydney, Spain to name a few.

Described in the New York Times as “perhaps the best descriptive writer of our time”, Jan Morris is renowned for her unique writing style – her use of peculiar words, her personal perspective and her descriptive and imaginative prose which captures the spirit of the place she is writing about. In her own words she says “The best way to find out about a place is wander around. Wander around, alone, with all your antennae out thinking about what’s happening and what you see and what you feel”.

Date: Tuesday 15th April 2003

Time: 7.00 pm

Location: RGS-IBG, 1 Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AR

Details: An informal interview, travel writer and journalist Jan Morris talks to Libby Purves about her love of travel and writing.

Cost: £5 per ticket

Ticket Request: Events Hotline on +44 (0) 20 7591 3100 or email: events@rgs.org To view more details, visit: www.rgs.org

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‘But do you actually do any good?’

As a foreign aid worker I often get that question, usually asked rhetorically by my travelling friends who have long ago made up their minds that ‘expats’ are a waste of space. They punctuate their prejudice with pithy anecdotes from their travels – tales of drunken UN workers they saw picking up girls in bars, the 4×4 cars with logos of famous charities spotted on safari in African game parks. Or the aid workers who commandeered a luxury local villa (complete with swimming pool) upwind from the refugee camp.

And many foreign aid workers are as quick to stereotype travellers. There is the bargain-hunting backpacker who barters locals under the poverty line, or the holidaymaker glued behind a video camera who wanders into a war zone.

I recently saw these counterpoints crystallised in a string of messages posted on the Internet, on a travellers’ bulletin board. The comments kicked off with a backpacker in Africa who called foreign aid workers ‘the ultimate travel snobs, on some kind of human suffering safari’. Another weighed in with: “The majority of foreign workers I have come across in east and central Africa are just there for the money and good life.”

Aid workers – who obviously are tuned into travellers’ web sites – quickly hit back. Said one: “Can you imagine what it was like in post-genocide Rwanda? I can, I was there. So if aid workers want to get drunk and blow off a little steam then I can understand.” Another added: “What the hell business does a back-backer have being in either a war-zone or a disaster site? Chances are good that they are getting in the way.”

And so it flowed on with arguments launched from both sides of the divide. I read with great interest, perhaps because I have a foot in both camps. I had worked in long-haul adventure travel years before I became a Logistician for MSF. So I have met a myriad of traveller types, just as I now know a kaleidoscope of aid workers, of varying competencies and qualities.

I like to think there is good on both sides.

Travel is the world’s biggest industry and potentially a huge power for economic good. Tourism, properly managed, can generate a quick flow of cash from rich to poor pockets. And those hard-bitten backpackers (the same ones who slag off aid workers) are the pioneer species of their type – hardy weeds who spread into those corners of the globe still ‘caution strongly advised’ by the Foreign Office, but precursors for more lucrative tourism that will surely follow if better times come.

Do aid workers do good? I can only talk from my own experience. As a field worker for Médecins Sans Frontières in Colombia I have never doubted for a minute the value of our project. I worked with MSF in the conflict zone, helping get mobile health clinics to a civilian population terrorised by opposing war gangs; guerrillas, paramilitaries or drug gangs. In most cases these villages were abandoned by the state, or worse subjected to barbarities by the same state forces supposedly there to protect them.

Often we were the only outsiders to reach these villages. I will never forget the joy of the campesinos who come to greet us. Just our presence in this troubled zone was as vital as our medical work. Alongside our local and dedicated Colombian counterparts, we ran risks every day to get our work done, and as expats ‘in charge’ we often worked months without a day off. It was not a holiday.

Yes, I admit, at first I was thrilled at the ‘exclusivity’ of our mission, seduced perhaps by the frisson of being a one-and-only in the backwoods of a country at war. No, I can’t guarantee that our work – however welcome in the short term – will affect the torturous path of Colombia’s 40-year war.

Because of course aid workers cannot cure all of the world’s ills, any more than travellers and tourism can provide a post-op panacea. Both have the power for good and harm.

But I would like to see those lush hills of Colombia to be traversed by happy mountain-bikers. The campesinos, in between farming avocados, guiding birdwatchers and orchid lovers along the banks of clear streams. Homesteaders sell bowls of fragrant chicken stew to grateful hikers. The abandoned health posts are repaired, the village schools get their roofs back, the bullet holes are plastered over, and a teacher welcomes his young smiling students. Then I would be happier to be on holiday than working as an expat.

Steve has been on 3 missions for medical aid charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Colombia and El Salvador. He is currently in Angola as an MSF Logistician on a primary health care and nutrition project. Take a look at www.uk.msf.org for more info on volunteering for MSF.

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