Chinese marriage was systemized into custom in the Warring States period (402-221 B.C.). Due to the vast expanse and long history, there are different customs to follow in different places, although they are generally the same. Visitors still get chances to witness traditional marriages in the countryside.

In the ancient times, it was very important to follow a basic principle of Three Letters And Six Etiquettes, since they were essential to a marriage.

Three letters include Betrothal Letter, Gift Letter and Wedding Letter. Betrothal Letter is the formal document of the engagement, a must in a marriage. Then, a gift letter is necessary, which will be sent to the girl's family, listing types and quantity of gifts for the wedding once both parties accept the marriage. While the Wedding Letter refers to the document which will be prepared and presented to the bride's family on the day of the wedding to confirm and commemorate the formal acceptance of the bride into the bridegroom's family.

Six Etiquettes

Proposing: If an unmarried boy's parents identify a girl as their future daughter-in-law, then they will find a matchmaker. Proposal used to be practiced by a matchmaker. The matchmaker will formally present his or her client's request to the identified girl's parents.

Birthday matching: If the potential bride's parents do not object to the marriage, the matchmaker will ask for the girl's birthday and birth hour record to assure the compatibility of the potential bride and bridegroom. If the couple's birthdays and birth hours do not conflict according to astrology, the marriage will step into the next stage. Once there is any conflict, meaning the marriage will bring disasters to the boy's family or the girl's, the proposed marriage stops.

Presenting betrothal gifts: Once birthdays match, the bridegroom's family will then arrange the matchmaker to present betrothal gifts, enclosing the betrothal letter, to the bride's family.

Presenting wedding gifts: After the betrothal letter and betrothal gifts are accepted, the bridegroom's family will later formally send wedding gifts to the bride's family. Usually, gifts may include tea, lotus seeds, longan, red beans, green beans, red dates, nutmeg, oranges, pomegranate, lily, bridal cakes, coconuts, wine, red hair braid, money box and other stuff, depending on local customs and family wealth.

Picking a wedding date: An astrologist or astrology book will be consulted to select an auspicious date to hold the wedding ceremony.

Wedding ceremony: On the selected day, the bridegroom departures with a troop of escorts and musicians, playing happy music all the way to the bride's home. After the bride is escorted to the bridegroom's home, the wedding ceremony begins.

Different from the West, the colour red dominates the traditional Chinese wedding. Chinese people tend to use or wear red to add a happy atmosphere to such a festive occasion.

At dawn on the wedding day, after a bath in water infused with grapefruit, the bride puts on new clothes and wears a pair of red shoes, waiting for the so called good luck woman to dress her hair in the style of a married woman. Her head will be covered with a red silk veil with tassels or bead strings that hang from the phoenix crown. She waits for her future husband to escort her home, with married women talking around her about how to act to be a good wife.

On the other hand, the bridegroom prepares himself to receive his wife. He gets capped and dressed in a long gown, red shoes and a red silk sash with a silk ball on his chest, the groom kneels at the ancestral altar as his father puts a cap decorated with cypress leaves on his head to declare his adulthood and his family responsibility.

Then the bridegroom sets out to receive his bride. Usually he is escorted by a crowd of his friends and musicians who play joyful tunes the entire trip. Dancing lions, if any, precede the troop. In ancient times, a bridal sedan chair (or a decorated donkey due to poverty or bad traffic) would be used to serve the bride. A child carries a bridal box among the people, reflecting the bridegroom's expectation to have a child in the near future.

The most interesting part of the reception really takes place at the doorstep of the bride's residence, heavily guarded by the bridesmaid or sisters of the bride. It is customary for the bridesmaid to give the bridegroom a difficult time before he is allowed to enter. Usually wisdom and courage and his friends will help the bridegroom to succeed in his “trial”. However, there is one more situation he has to negotiate with the bridesmaid and sisters of the bride – to distribute among them red packets containing money – in order to take his bride home.

Before the bride departs to the bridegroom's home, the good luck woman will lead her to the sedan chair. On her way to the chair, a sister of hers will shield her with a red parasol and another will throw rice at the sedan chair, at the back of which hangs a sieve and a metallic mirror that are believed to protect the bride from evil. The bride has to cry to show that she does not want to leave her parents.

Then firecrackers will be set off to drive away evil spirits as the bride sits into the sedan chair. All along the way people make great efforts to avoid any inauspicious influence. For instance, the sedan chair is heavily curtained to prevent the bride from seeing an unlucky sight, e.g. a widow, a well or even a cat. When the parading troop arrives at the bridegroom's, firecrackers will be set off to hail the bride's arrival. Before the sedan chair a red mat is placed so that the bride will not touch the bare earth. By the threshold a flaming stove and a saddle will be set up, the bride is required to sidestep or step over them to avoid evils.

The wedding ceremony is the focus of interest. The bride and bridegroom are led to the family altar, where the couple kowtows to Heaven and Earth, the family ancestors and parents successively. Then they bow to each other and are led to the bridal chamber. The ceremony proceeds under a director's prompts and applauses of the audience.

Then there will be a grand feast for relatives and those who help in the wedding. The newly wed couple will resume drinking wedding wine. Generally they are required to cross their arms to sip wine. They also will toast their guests. Guests voice their good wishes for the couple even though the bridegroom is trying to be humble while acting embarrassed.

Teasing games in the bridal chamber: After night falls, the teasing games start. Usually all young men can participate except for the bride's married brothers-in-law. Those funny and silly games will ease the tension, since in ancient times the newlyweds never met each other before the wedding! Most of the games require the shy couple to act like wife and husband. The festive atmosphere also promotes closeness among all the family members and the community beyond. There also will be other activities conducted by the bridegroom's mother after the roaring laughter fades into the darkness.

Preparing the bridal bed: A good luck man, usually having a nice family, will help to install the bridal bed in the right place in the bridal chamber on a selected day before the wedding day. Before the wedding, a good luck woman will arrange the bridal bed and scatter symbolic and lucky fruits on the bed. Nobody is allowed to touch the bed until the couple enters the bridal chamber after the wedding ceremony. Children will then be invited onto the bed to bless fertility of the couple.

Dowry: Usually the bride's dowry shall be sent to the bridegroom's family by the day before the wedding day. Sometimes the bride’s escorts will bring the dowry. A traditional dowry normally consists of items such as jewellery, embroidered beddings, kitchen utensils and furniture. The type of the dowry is always changing except for the basic, symbolic items. For example, dozens of years ago, a sewing machine, a bicycle, and a recorder were musts in a marriage. Now, they are totally out of fashion.

Bride's Return: Traditionally, the newlyweds are to return to visit the bride's parents one or three days after the wedding. They will be hailed with a banquet, and it is the bridegroom's turn to suffer the well-intentioned teasing of the bride's relatives and friends.

Traditional marriage customs lost their popularity due to the collapse of feudal marriage customs and their complexity. However, traditional marriage can still be seen in the countryside, despite innovations. Now, traditional marriage customs are revived in some places, and they are attracting many prospective couples.

paula7141@yahoo.com.

Can anyone help Jill: For the last eighteen months I've been trying to find out exactly what was the sterling travel allowance (Exchange Control) which British citizens were allowed to take out of the U.K. in July 1964.

H.M. Customs and Excise have come up with five possible answers but basically admit they don't know; the Treasury have no comment – I seem to have exhausted every possible avenue, having endlessly trawled almanacs, newspapers, the Web etc.

A Globetrotter member – Rene Richards reports – it was £25 in the early 60's reaching £50 in 1970– however I know from a contemporary Cunard document of 1961 that it was £50 then, so did it go down and if so when?

The novel for which I need this is due for publication by Penguin in 2003 and we're reaching final copy-editing any moment now, so any help would be most gratefully received – so, offering my thanks in advance.

If you feel you can help Jill, she can be contacted at jill@laurimore.fsnet.co.uk

During the medieval period the Cotswold area underwent a startling transition from small scale agriculture to large scale wool production. This shift, most noticeable by the 15th century, enabled wool merchants to realize tremendous profits with the aid of the “Golden Fleece” produced by Cotswold sheep.

The “gold” in this case refers not to the colour of the fleece itself but the tremendous economic value it possessed. The prosperous wool merchants put back some of the money they earned into their local communities, often by building manors for themselves, but just as frequently by endowing their parish churches.

The “wool churches” of the Cotswolds are among the most elaborate and architecturally attractive in the entire country due to the largesse of successful wool merchants. Many of these magnificent buildings are like mini-cathedrals, complete with fanciful carvings, elaborate ornamentation and funereal monuments inside the church. Taken as a whole, the parish churches of the Cotswold area constitute a superb collection of architecturally important historic buildings. And to those who enjoy medieval architecture, the Cotswold churches offer an unparalleled experience.

It is perhaps dangerous to single out just a few Cotswold wool churches for special mention, as so many deserve a leisurely visit, but mention should be made of a few personal favourites. The church of St. Peter and St. Paul at Northleach is one of the finest wool churches in England, with the lavishly carved south porch worthy of special note.

As with most wool churches the magnificence of Northleach can be traced to the endowments of a few wealthy patrons. In this case the donors were Thomas Fortey (d. 1447 ) and his son John (d. 1458). With its decorated parapets and soaring pinnacles Northleach is reminiscent of a fairy tale castle as much as a parish church.

Another personal favourite would have to be St. Peter at Winchcombe. Not as fanciful or striking as Northleach, Winchcombe is of slightly later date and has suffered at the hands of Victorian restorers. Yet despite this, the church has a peculiar charm, due in part to the survival of a profusion of gargoyles populating the parapets. These gargoyles, both in human and animal form, provide a wonderfully whimsical touch amid the architectural beauty wrought by generations of craftsmen.

I would also be remiss if I didn't mention St. Mary's at Fairford. The first glimpse of the church rising above low pasture land to the west is likely to make unsuspecting visitors stop in their tracks and stare (as I did). The ornamentation of the tower is reminiscent of lace, so extravagant is the stonework.

The magnificence of the carving may seem out of place in this quiet market town, but it gives a fascinating glimpse at what life must have been like when the “Golden Fleece” brought prosperity to this region. Fairford is unique in that it possesses the most complete set of pre-Reformation stained glass in the country. As a final, whimsical, touch, look for the carven effigy of a pet cat just outside the main entry.

For more on the Cotswold region and its magnificent wool churches visit: http://www.the-cotswolds.org/top/english/intro.html

Source: Britainexpress.com

The planet has 6.157 billion people, of whom, 4.5% are in the US, and 1% in the UK.

• 30% of the world’s population is less than 15 years old, but in the US this is 21% and 19% in the UK.
• The world’s birth rate of 21 per 1,000 people is higher than the US rate of 14 and the UK’s 12.
• 7% of the world’s population is at least 65 years old, compared to
• 13% in the US and 16% in the UK
• Life expectancy at birth is 64 years, compared to 77 in the US and 78 in the UK.
• Of the 407 million internet users, 36% are in the US and 5% are in the UK. (Don’t forget, the US has c.250 m people, compared to 64m in the UK.)

Source: Simon Briscoe, The Financial Times, 27/7/02

Spotted by our eagle-eyed Webmaster: The only way a pilot can apply for a job at Ryanair is via the internet. The recruitment data contains credit card information because Ryanair refuses to consider applications unless a £50 fee is paid.

Sensitive personal information, such as credit card details, health records and career history, is collected by the unsecured site and sent in unencrypted email to the company's back office.

Ryanair admits that its online recruitment website has a serious security flaw which exposes job seekers' details to the eyes of crackers and unencrypted emails could breach Data Protection Act.

Phil Robinson, managing consultant at Information Risk Management, pointed out that the inclusion of credit card details made the vulnerability “very serious”. Unlike personal data, credit card details can easily be turned into money.

Embarrassingly for the airline, this vulnerability is easy and cheap to avoid. Secure socket layer (SSL) security, the encryption feature in the software, should be switched on and the company then has only to spend a few hundred pounds on a digital certificate to ensure that data is sent to the correct party instead of to a rogue server.

Ryanair's recruitment site states explicitly that applicants' information will remain confidential. “That is clearly incorrect,” said Robinson. “The way the data is submitted is totally unconfidential.”
Source: By Liesbeth Evers, Network News [31-10-2001]

Happy Holidays!

Meeting News

Meeting news from our branches around the world.

Richard was a volunteer working in Mikindani, Tanzania for a charity, Trade aid.

My first impressions of Mikindani were what an improvement it was on my initial reaction to Dar-es-Salaam, [probably influenced by jet lag and the uncomfortable heat]. After the long journey it was a relief to get into Mikindani, and all I really wanted to do was sleep, however we had to prepare for the long awaited home stay. It was initially a shock, and various words were running through my head, which I shall not repeat. I found my home stay family to be extremely helpful and tolerant towards my bad Swahili, and repeatedly getting the wrong end of the stick.

Home stay was initially difficult, but once you have settled in you learn to ignore the screaming kids “watoto”, and you get on with things. However there is one thing I never got used to, Ugali (Cornmeal Porridge). It’s foul, and each meal was a bit of a trial, with Mama Asha encouraging me to eat more, and me desperately and as politely as possible trying to convey the message that “as much as a like Ugali I’m really actually very ill”.

So it was with some relief that I left my home stay and settled into the base house. I do still go back to my home stay family, just never at meal times.

It was now time to start on the project [bee keeping], and things seemed to get rolling pretty quickly with the help of Mr Thomas and Fabian, the ex-government beekeeper from Mtwara. It took some time to actually get the hive built and it is only now complete, all we need now are the bees. The bees will either come from a feral colony behind the Boma [a natural colony], or they will come from Mtwara. If we get them from behind the Boma we will wait for the bees to naturally colonise the hive, which is baited with bees wax [very much the lazy mans option]. If we use the bait hive then we are going to use some strange and mysterious Tanzanian method of catching bees, which Fabian has yet to reveal to me, should be interesting.

Teaching is something else that I have started since home stay. Teaching the staff has been particularly successful and enjoyable. Computer lessons, swimming lessons and English lessons seem to be the order of the day, and several of the staff seem to be making good ground in some of these areas. However, different things can be said about teaching at the schools. I have come to the conclusion that to get yourself, a head teacher, children, a classroom together at the same time requires an act of divine intervention, to be fair there are usually good excuses, however it is still infuriating.

I have found that a laid back attitude is required when working out here, and that flexitime is essential i.e. “so what time tomorrow morning?” “In the morning” “yes but when?” “Sometime”.

I know that when I get back to the England it is going to be difficult not being famous anymore, it’s quite strange when you walk around Mikindani and several thousand people all know your name. It really would be too easy to get delusions of grandeur.

It has been quite entertaining to watch some of the guests who have never been to Africa before, let alone Mikindani. In a place that feels, not exactly like home, but somewhere that I have got used to, the sight of a large group of Europeans clustered together and meekly discussing how different everything is, seems quite odd. But then I think back to my first reaction to Tanzania and Mikindani, and I realise I was the same.

It has been strange in the way that Africa seems to bend time, the pace of life is extremely slow, and for some reason it doesn’t seem like I’ve been here six weeks.

For more information about Trade Aid, volunteers and their work, please visit their website www.mikindani.com or e-mail Sherie on tradeaid@netcomuk.co.uk

Globetrotters meeting Saturday 2^nd November 2002 By Padmassana

Our first talk was from James Greenwood and was entitled Globetrot on Horseback. James’ round the world journey took him ten years to complete. His slides began in Argentina and then north into Bolivia, where hostel (or should that be hostile?) owners lock their guests in their rooms at night, not to protect them, but to ensure that they pay for their accommodation the next morning. And in James’ case without shooing out the various sheep, chickens and cats that were already in the room. James was introduced to Horse soup that is actually made of beef, but which gets its name from the way the meat is transported and preserved. James’ photos of Potosi included stalls selling dynamite and other explosives, he told us how he had bought some and gone up the hill to “blow up” a rock, which resulted in the taxi that had taken him up there being showered with rock from his explosion!

Fitting such a long journey into a 45-minute talk is not easy so we jumped across the Pacific to Japan. The Japanese authorities had actively tried to discourage James’ project, but with some help from a local Mr Big James obtained a horse in the shadow of Mt Fuji and was able to explore Japan. We crossed to India where James’ bought a black horse with an even blacker temperament. The horse spent the first 3 days trying to injure James, but once it worked out James was on his side he became very protective of James, to the extent that when James was struck down with heat stroke, the horse wouldn’t let anyone through the door to attend to him and resulted in his rescuers having to break into to the back of the building. After India it was into Pakistan and into munition strewn Afghanistan, where he had to travel with a Kalashnikov carrying guard. The fantastic mountain views making up for the inconvenience. James’ Iranian visa was only for 2 days, but he managed to string this out to 6 months! James’ story continued westwards into Turkey and southern Europe. His ride through the Champagne region of France was reminiscent of Afghanistan, but this time he and his horse were trying to avoid munitions from the first world war, that had been unearthed by local farmers and dumped on roadside verges. After ten years James arrived back to Gloucester and his waiting family.

Our second speaker was Peter Hutchison whose talk was entitled– Across the great South American watershed. Peter’s journey to the previously unexplored Parapeti river in southern Bolivia was funded by a grant from the Winston Churchill Trust. When Peter and his group reached the river they found large areas of it were only navigable by pulling the canoes along. It was too shallow to paddle; on day one disaster struck as one canoe hit a tree stump and was so badly damaged they had to return to the nearest town for repairs. To compound the early bad luck their expedition medic became ill and had to return home. But they battled on, having to rely on a GPS for navigation as the maps they had were found to be wildly inaccurate. The river wound its way in places through deep undergrowth, hard work chopping their way though. They also had to contend with mosquitoes and tarantulas; they were forced to dress as for a winter trip covering every piece of exposed flesh to avoid being bitten.

Peter and his team managed to paddle their canoes to the to the Kaa Iya del Gran Chaco National Park and to their final destination of Quimome. The trip took two months to complete and they were the first people to descend the Parapeti river, a tributary of the Amazon. While in Quimome Peter hired a light aircraft to get an aerial view of the trip they had just completed. A hard trip that won’t be featuring in any travel agents’ brochures in the near future!

London meetings are held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court, behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden at 2.30 pm the first Saturday of each month. There is no London meeting in August. For more information, you can contact the Globetrotter Info line on +44 (0) 20 8674 6229, or visit the website: www.globetrotters.co.uk

Mike is the winner of the Globetrotter Club £1,000 legacy available to members under 30 years of age for the best independent travel plan. Our £1000 travel prize is available to anyone in the world, as long as they are a member, have a great plan for independent travel and are under the age of 30. So, visit our legacy page and get those plans in!!

Mike is using his travel award to visit Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Here’s Part 2 of his travels:

I am now in Luang Prabang in Laos and have been for the last few days. I believe Tha-ton was the last place I e-mailed so I’ll try and update you on the progress. I took the boat down to Chiang Rai where I visited the Hill Tribe museum and pottered about. Chiang Rai is a very prosperous city with large shops and a very large number of four by fours.

I left the next morning to make it up to Chiang Sean further north on the Mekong which allowed me hire a motor bike to head up to the Golden Triangle and to the boarder crossing with Burma. The motorbike allowed a great deal of freedom and the chance to take back roads and see farms and local industries.

From Chiang Sean I set off early for the slow boat into Laos leaving from Chaing Kong. The trip took two days. We spent the night in a little village called Pakbeng roughly half way along the route. The scenery was amazing, mile after mile of hills covered in vegetation the whole way down. A snake came aboard for a while and water was being bailed for the whole of the second day but we made it into Luang Prabang without sinking!

I've found an incredible difference between Thailand and what I have so far seen in Laos. There are many obvious changes like they drive on the opposite side to Thailand (though in both countries no one seems to stick to anyone side for very long!). The money also is almost comical. The exchange rate is about 10,800 kip to one US dollar so when I changed a 100 dollar travellers cheque I was an instant kip millionaire! This alone is not the crazy thing – the largest current kip note is 5,000 or around 50 cents so my 100 dollars brought me literally a rucksack full of cash I guess it must be easier to weigh it then to count it out. The kip also goes down in denominations down to a 1 kip note! The greatest difference that I have found is the people. In Laos they are so friendly – in my experience I have never come across such genuine friendliness – everyone smiles and wants to chat, everyone always waves as you go past and the children especially want to see you and play.

There has been none of the hassle which you can get – especially in Bangkok – everyone just seems happier and contented and it is definitely noticeable. Luang Prabang is exactly as I hoped it would be. The town is beautiful and very small and you can easily walk across it. The atmosphere is very relaxed and slow moving you can sense the French influence all around and I’m going to be sad to leave. Around the city there is lots to do including many incredible waterfalls where you can walk right onto them and swim at the bottom. I went to the Royal Theatre last night in the grounds of the old Royal Palace – for a traditional Lao night – so culture is being thrown at me from all angles.

There was no November New York meeting, but Laurie plans a December meeting on 7^th December. Details will be sent out to all those on the mailing list. However, Laurie is looking for co-leader to help out!…Anyone interested?! E-mail Laurie on newyork@globetrotters.co.uk.

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.

Its been, I believe, more than two months since I last sent an email of substance about our trip. My eyes have been filled with so many sights and my head filled with so many thoughts that my pen hand has been frozen, like a boy who has taken too big a bite of an apple, whose jaw is stuck clenched around it.

Whereas the first few months of our trip can be described as nomadic and arduous, the last several weeks have been marked by the slowness of time and seeming randomness of events. However undirected our travels initially appeared, they were, in fact, pretty direct. We travelled northwards through South Africa, straight into and through Zimbabwe, meandered around Zambia and then entered Malawi. Look on a map and you'll see that it's pretty straightforward. But everything changed once we hit Malawi. We were tired. No, let me rephrase that. We were haggard. Months of spartan, itinerant living had taken its toll. We reached beyond the breaking point days before when we got stuck driving across a river purportedly infested by crocs and hippos. Forced to set up camp, we spent that night alone in the bush among the animals of the wild.

Fortunately, we were towed out the next day. We are not, and never will be, the same. Thus, we looked upon passive little Malawi, known alternately as the “Warm Heart of Africa” and “Africa Light”, as the cure to our ills. We welcomed with pleasure the conveniences of Blantyre, Malawi's largest commercial city, and the soothing atmosphere of Doogles, Southern Africa's hippest backpacker lodge and Blantyre's coolest pub. Like Cheers, everyone knows your name and they're always glad you came. With tracks of David Gray (our new favourite crooner) playing in the background and good food served all day, our frayed nerves slowly eased.

The list of characters flowing in and out of Doogles runs long: there was a merry band of travellers calling themselves “Hot Rocks” in the midst of a 3-year expedition circumambulating the globe in a enhanced Mad Max-style truck from England (check out their site at ; there was a British couple riding their BMW motorcycle (the ride was so smooth, claimed the husband, that his wife could read when sitting behind him) around the world, financed by rental payments received for the use of their home; there was the lycra-clad professional journeyman on a continuing mission to circle the earth by motorbike who likened himself to James Bond, carried little other than albums containing clippings from travel magazines depicting his life's work, and never tired of describing his latest blaze through the pre-truce Congo (days after I last saw him, I caught the tail end of a Travel Channel episode telling his tales); there was the lanky used car salesman born and raised in Blantyre who showed up every night for beers and conversation; there was the British med student who came alone but quickly found company; there was the reunion with Maria and Oliver, a German couple with whom we formed a quick and comfortable friendship days earlier in Zambia – they beat us in Pictionary 🙁 – there was a British jack-of-all-trades who rolled in to Doogles with three 18-wheelers and stacks of used tires, all shipped over from England and ready for sale to any interested buyer; there were Swiss travellers, Dutch, Irish and Israeli, French travellers, Aussie, American and Kiwi, just to name a few, checking in and out, dining by the pool and quaffing beers in the moonlight; and, of course, there were Souli and Servanne, two of my favourite travellers and half of our meandering quartet.

Travelling is as much a skill as it is an art and Servanne ranks among the best travellers I've encountered. Always upbeat, forever a team player, she has an unquenchable thirst for the sights and sounds penetrating the world. A Frenchwoman, she also speaks English, a smattering of German, Spanish, and numerous esoteric languages that she has picked up from travelling in, out, through and around the world's most unique places. At about 5'1″ and 103 pounds (just a guess), she may be, pound for pound, the world's strongest traveller, and, I can assure you, the most energetic.

Souli, short for Souliman, is a Lebanese-born German dentist who is the oldest of ten children. When we met him, he was stuck in Blantyre waiting for a parcel containing a headlamp to make it through Malawi's lethargic postal system. This guy was finishing up a nearly 14-month bicycle journey from Germany to South Africa (check out his website at www.radflimmern.de). Why, with less than two months left on his trip, did he suddenly need the headlamp? I never could understand it–something about needing it while he rode through the bush in Botswana–but it kept him hanging around, so that was good enough for me.

For me, Souli was a breath of fresh air. As a German, he proudly rooted for the plucky U.S. soccer team when the two countries faced each other in the World Cup. Germany advanced, so he cheered wildly for the heavily outmatched South Koreans in the semi-finals. Why root against his countrymen? Those soccer stars were too cocky, he told me. Souli's soft-spoken affability combined with a limited attention span for all things outside the domain of his interest left me continuously in stitches. To dismiss someone as a nuisance while making him feel good about it is a skill the guy has mastered. I don't mean to sound callous, but in Africa locals approach foreigners for various reasons. These encounters are precious to all travellers, but they also tend to be draining. Souli had a knack for pleasantly nipping those unpleasurable encounters in the bud. Perhaps most of all, I was fascinated by his physically challenging and mentally gruelling trip that brought him, ever so slowly, out of Europe, through the Middle East and across Africa. Along the way, he re-established family ties in the country of his birthplace, found spiritual rejuvenation in the kindness of strangers and dealt with uncommon frustrations like flat tires in the Sudanese desert and rocks thrown by children in certain locales.

The four of us–Servanne, Sali, Souli and I–made a good team. Sali and Servanne enjoyed conversing in French, pondering things European and talking of literature. Souli and I shared an interest in poorly played Chess and laughter at life's trifling events. After a few days together at Doogles, we set out on a camping trip in Malawi's Shire Valley. Uninterested at the time in anything touristy, we pitched our tents in a dry riverbed on the outskirts of a simple village. We spent three days cooking, sunning, laughing and interacting with locals in what were very ordinary conditions–lots of sun, no electricity, a borehole providing freshwater one kilometre away, villagers with small plots of land that produced a variety of vegetables, a population rapidly diminishing in numbers due to the onset of AIDS.

After the camping trip, we headed back to Doogles. Eventually, Servanne hopped on a bus to Mozambique, Souli cycled off to Zimbabwe and Sali and I set out for a hike through Malawi's Mulanje Mountains. We anticipated a 4-5 day trip where we would move from lodge to lodge each day, but the daily hikes were long and tiring and we were poorly prepared, not bringing enough food and failing to hire a porter to assist in the portage of food and supplies. After two days, we found ourselves in a gorgeous spot and too tired to enjoy it. That's when we met James and Hannah, lovebirds soon to be wed, who kindly left us some of their food as they headed down the mountain and invited us to stay with them once we returned. We decided to spend the next three nights in the same mountain hut, enjoying its tranquillity and scenic beauty, and then took a more direct route back to James' and Hannah's three days later.

The next couple of weeks are a blur. All I can remember is breakfasts on their veranda, long stretches of time spent reading, midday naps, fantastic meals, thoughtful conversations with our hosts, evening laughter and a rekindled relationship with television. James and Hannah opened their home to us and we just couldn't get enough. In fact, it soon dawned on us that the expatriate lifestyle (he's from the U.K., she's from British Columbia) in Malawi was not half-bad. As fate would have it, the stunning home next to them had just become vacant. With four bedrooms, two solariums, a swimming pool, stables and beautifully landscaped grounds, this house was nestled in the foothills of mountains, bounded by a nature preserve on one side and James and Hannah on the other.

What could we do in Malawi, we wondered. We floated our resumes around town, meeting several respected lawyers including the head of Malawi's bar association, leaders of their nascent stock market, foreign consultants and bankers, the police department's chief of criminal affairs (it's a long story) and the dean of one of the country's two law schools. After rubbing shoulders with these bigwigs, we became stuck on the idea of teaching at the law school. Encouraged by the dean to seek outside funding–he expressed interest in our services but lacked the funding to pay for them—we met with several development agencies funded by the British and U.S. governments in pursuit of a backer. We wrote letters, shook hands, issued pitches and submitted proposals. Sadly, the well of funds was dry. The mighty New Yorkers had struck out.

During our tireless fundraising campaign, we sought refuge in the crystal clear waters of Lake Malawi on two occasions. Here, the beauty and challenges of African life struck me more clearly than anywhere else on our trip. Warmed by the majesty of the lake's undeveloped serenity and the unbridled decency of its surrounding community, I nonetheless felt weighted down by the pressures of village existence–unceasing poverty in the face of an outpouring of tourist wealth; in the wake of the AIDS pandemic, too few elders caring for too many children; the youthful desire for fun in the sun against the practical need to earn and save; the inescapable fact that villagers rarely leave the at once inviting and confining land on which their parents', their parents' parents and their parents before them were conceived and reared, on which they founded their families and on which they expired.

Smarting from the burn of rejection, our hearts began to wander back home. Liz, Sali's blue-blooded high school friend, was engaged to wed Niels, a German gentleman living in D.C., at the end of August in Virginia. Jean, my former French neighbour in New York, was engaged to wed Caireen, a feisty Australian, in the middle of September in the French Riviera. We checked our budget, realized we couldn't afford trips to these far-off places, and then decided to go anyway. We bought round-trip tickets to the States with stopovers in London and connecting puddle-jumper flights to Nice, and we were off.

We spent practically every moment of our time back home soaking up the love and attention of our respective families, catching up on everyone's life, telling stories of our own, and fattening up on tasty home cookin'. In a certain twist of fate, Liz and Niels were married in a country French chateau nestled in a small Virginia town among their closest friends and family, while Jean and Caireen paired themselves amidst the glitz and glamour suitable to Hollywood's elite. While guests at the Brinton-Kusserow merger engaged in thoughtful, intimate conversations with the bride and groom and dined among a choice group of guests, attendees at the Bourlot-Shanahan extravaganza rocked the night away under the stars of Beaulieu Sur Mer.

And that, my dear friends and family, is nearly all there is to tell. There was our 3-night escapade through Mozambique and our continuing education on David Livingstone, the Scottish missionary who introduced much of Southern Africa to the European world while campaigning against slavery with every step (see www.nationalgeographic.com/features/97/lantern/), there is the sociologist/filmmaker who is tending to our car while putting the finishing touches on his documentary of Malawian street children, there was a week secluded in the Italian Alps following the French wedding (and the 4-train, 10-hour trip it took to get there), our inability to meet up with our Slovenian friends in Venice, the long journey by rail to meet Liz and Niels in Koblenz (Niels whisked his beautiful bride back to his motherland after the wedding), our recent lesson on German beer and sausages and our grand opportunity to sample Niels' famed plum cake (deeeelicous), but there isn't time for all that. In a few days we will have a reunion with Maria and Oliver and in a few weeks we'll be back in Africa steadily collecting stories for the next briefing. Until then, be well.

Wed in September 2001, Sali and Michael left their jobs as New York lawyers six months later and flew to Cape Town to begin a one-year travelling expedition. Without much of an itinerary, they bought a car in Cape Town and have been slowly working their way north through Africa, spending time in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and, currently, Tanzania. Always eager to swap travel tips, Sali and Michael would be pleased to hear from any travel enthusiasts and can be reached via email at mrakower@hotmail.com.

Greetings fellow Globetrotters The next Globetrotters' meeting and a “pre-Christmas pot-luck” took place at 7.45 pm to 10 pm on November 15, 2002. Robin Christmas, Linda Rosenbaum & Family talked about “The Ve-Ahavta” (“You Shall Love”) a video of a community development project in Bartica, Guyana. 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 (south-east from St. Lawrence Market in Toronto, South of Esplanade, 2nd very short block east from Jarvis) in downtown Toronto at 8.00 p.m.

Everyone has heard of Dracula. Dublin born Bram Stoker (1847-1912) created Count Dracula as a figure of fear and revulsion in his novel “Dracula” published in 1897. Since then, we’ve had countless Dracula versions through film, novels, TV series and even comic books. We all know that Dracula comes from Transylvania, in Romania but is there any truth in these myths? Did he really exist?

Popular opinion says that Dracula is based on an exaggerated account of a man called Vlad Tepes, the prince of the Wallachia (found in the southern part of today's Romania). Vlad Tepes was considered at the time to be a fair but very cruel man.

Let’s call him Vlad – Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg granted him rulership of Wallachia in 1431. The emperor gave Vlad a necklace and a golden medallion with a dragon engraved on it. Vlad set up a mint where he used the dragon emblem.

The name Dracula is actually a nickname and is derived from the Romanian language that in turn comes from Latin – Drac means Devil. Vlad’s father was called this, and the name stuck, and so Vlad became known as Vlad Dracula. He was not a friend of the Ottoman Empire and started organising the state, the army, the law, applying the death penalty by impaling against all those he considered enemies: highwaymen, robbers, beggars, cunning priests, treacherous noblemen, usurper Saxons (who tried to replace him either with cousin Dan cel Tanar (Dan the Young) or by his natural brother Vlad Calugarul (Vlad the Monk)).

Vlad died in 1476 in a battle at Snagov, killed by Laiota Basarab who succeeded him to the throne of Wallachia. To experience some places in Dracula’s life, you can visit:

• The Birgau Mountains to see Dracula's Castle
• Bistrita at the Golden Crown Hotel to remember Stoker's famous character
• Sighisoara to see the mediaeval fortress and the house of Dracula's Childhood (the tourist may have dinner at his house, not far from there is gallows he put up to punish his enemies)
• Bran Castle (Vlad Dracula's halting place), dating from the 14th century and the ruins of the fortress Poienari rebuilt by Vald Dracula

• Poienari Fortress Ruin, a fortress rebuilt by Vlad Dracula

Globetrotters Meeting Texas Branch – 9 November 2002 by Emily

We had two groups of speakers at our meeting, both on Spain. The first group was Chris and Julie who displayed some fabulous slides of different areas of Spain: Toledo, Madrid, Balboa and San Sebastian.

Our next group of speakers on Spain was Christina and Susan. They spoke mostly about their recent experience at a language school. This school, based in a restored village, is specifically for Spanish professionals to practice their conversational English. They also spoke about their sightseeing adventures in Madrid after they finished a ten day course helping the Spaniards with their spoken English.

Next, each member and visitor spoke about recent trips and future hopes for trips. Upon closing, a suggestion was made to bring ethnic holiday foods to the December meeting, although this is contingent on the approval of the library where our meetings are held.

The next Texas meeting will be held on Saturday 8^th December.

A reminder that Texas meetings will start one hour earlier, at 2pm and not 3pm.

Meetings are held at 2pm at the New Braunfels Public Library, 700 E. Common Street in New Braunfels, Texas. The meeting ends at 5 p.m. If you would like to continue travel talk on a more informal basis, we plan to adjourn to the Hoity-Toit, a local New Braunfels establishment. If anybody would like to enquire about meetings or help Christina, please contact her on: texas@globetrotters.co.uk

Rank

Airport

Total Passengers

% Change

1

ATLANTA, GA (ATL)

75,849,375

-5.4

2

CHICAGO, IL (ORD)

66,805,339

-6.9

3

LOS ANGELES, CA (LAX)

61,024,541

-8.3

4

LONDON, GB (LHR)

60,743,154

-6

5

TOKYO, JP (HND)

58,692,688

4.1

6

DALLAS/FT WORTH AIRPORT, TX (DFW)

55,150,689

-9.2

7

FRANKFURT, DE (FRA)

48,559,980

-1.6

8

PARIS, FR (CDG)

47,996,223

-.5

9

AMSTERDAM, NL (AMS)

39,538,483

-.2

10

DENVER, CO (DEN)

36,086,751

-6.9

Hartsfield, Atlanta

Hartsfield Atlanta Airport is situated on the site of an abandoned racetrack owned by a Coca-Cola magnate. The City Council took a 5 year lease on 287 acres of land in 1925, rent free, if you can believe it, with the option to buy the land for $100,000. They exercised the option in 1930 and the rest as they say, is history. The airport is named after William Berry Hartsfield, the city alderman who found the site and pushed for the airfield. Hartsfield went on to head the city's new aviation committee and served as Mayor of Atlanta from 1938 to 1961, the year the airport terminal was built.

Information supplied by Airports Council International, the organization that represents most of the world's airports. http://www.airports.org/

Scuba diving is the fastest growing sport in the world, each year the number of certified divers doubles. Travel to another world is not just a slogan that many dive centres use to attract the client, it’s true….. to dive is like a dream. Floating underwater is like meditation, yoga or living solitude on a lonely island. You hear nothing, only the bubbles, you feel complete freedom when you are scuba diving. The fish could be your enemy, but in the Greek waters there are only friendly species. Diving in Greece is very popular, the locals like doing it and being a favourite holiday destination……… let’s not forget the tourist. Since the government released some strict rules, particularly about the archaeological places, scuba diving is growing rapidly and in almost every tourist place you can find a diving centre.

On the southernmost point of Europe near the village Plakias on the island of Crete you will find several diving centres. There’s one that opens all year.

Plakias lies opposite the legendary island of Gavdos, where Odysseus spent seven years with the goddess Kalypso. Gavdos is the most southern island of Europe, but there’s no diving centre, only a shepherd with some sheep and goats.

During the wintertime Plakias is a lively little fishermen’s resort. Here you’ll find supermarkets, rooms for rent, restaurants, bars, a doctor, a pharmacy, a post office and a cash machine.

The medieval Town of Rethymno on the north coast is only 45 minutes by car.

Crete in the winter offers a subtropical climate with average day temperatures seldom lower than 16^o C and on a good day above 20^o C. The island has an average of 300 days with sunshine per year. January and February is the rainy season (good for the farmers) but the tropical showers seldom destroy your whole day. God is taking an hour of your time and you can enjoy the sunny hours afterwards.

Being the cradle of Europe there are many historical places that you can visit. There’s Knossos, the archaeological Museum, and there’s the green countryside with botanical beauties that you’ll find only on Crete.

The friendly Cretans are working in the olive groves or picking the oranges, so Crete is alive during the winter and there are not so many tourists. The locals have time for you and if you like it “siga siga” (no stress) than you should visit Crete in the winter.

The island offers all sorts of activities, like guided walking tours, biking tours, you can rent a car for your trips and let’s not forget the diving excursions.

A good contact point is a local adventure club named Kalypso Rocks Palace.

Let’s stick to the diving where we started this article.

There are dives from the shore or boat starting from an old natural (pirate) harbour that is situated near Hotel Kalypso Cretian Village. The diving scenery here is perfect and the visibility underwater is 20-25 metres, making the Libyan Sea the clearest ocean of Europe.

You’ll see plenty of fish: Groupers, Octopus, Shrimps, Sea Stars, Sea brass, Sponges, Morenos, Corals, etc. Look for them in the numerous small canyons, caves or along the mountain walls. Crete is not comparable with top diving destinations, but by European standards it’s a very good location.

Your gear can be provided and on request accommodation in the hotel or in a pension in Plakias for a reasonable price.

If you are interested tin diving or comming to Crete to look around, please contact the Kalypso Adventure Club www.kalypsodivingcenter.com or email: info@kalypsodivingcenter.com

Update: Kalypso diving centre tell us that any readers of this e-newsletter are eligible for a discount of 10% on diving.