Meeting news from our branches around the world.

Spotted by eagle eyed Kevin, the Membership Secretary: a new low cost airline is being launched at Luton, called “NOW”. The new airline will offer fixed fares according to the season, so that all passengers on the same flight will have paid the same amount. Now’s flights will be priced in zones, e.g. Manchester is in Zone A, a one way flight will start from £35. Whereas Lisbon in Zone E will have one way fares starting from £65 + tax.

Now is scheduled to begin services in June 2003, using 2 aircraft flying to

Manchester, Lisbon, Tenerife, Jersey and Rome. After 3 months there are plans to add an aircraft to the fleet add Valencia and Dusseldorf to the list of destinations serviced.

This will add another 30 flights/week at Luton providing another 650,000

seats in the first year.

Now expect to sell around 80% of the tickets via their website

www.fly-now.com

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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 19^th 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 5^th:

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

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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

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Next month on April 5^th 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.

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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.

30^th 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

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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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