Meeting news from our branches around the world.

In this, Sally talks about her return to the UK for Christmas 2003 after having started a new life in Portugal. 

It was very strange to be back in the UK.  I flew on 19 December.  At check-in at Lisbon airport, I was furious to be charged excess baggage by BA especially when the flight was half full.  Interestingly enough, the return flight with self same baggage incurred no excess baggage charge on another half full flight.  Other friends, who flew the following day to London to connect with a flight to Canada, were also hammered for ski kit.  An outraged missive to BA on why Lisbon charged when Heathrow doesn’t, resulted in no apology.  I have always preferred to travel with TAP who surprisingly did not charge any excess baggage to anyone over Christmas!  Warn friends over the double standards of BA!

When I arrived at Heathrow, having left Lisbon in deep mist (they like to call it fog), I had forgotten how grey the winter skies are – quite a shock.  I did find the UK incredibly expensive.  I know it was only 18 months or so since I had left, but I certainly thought things had increased in price.  Also you notice the commercialism much more with all the adverts on TV, radio and hoardings.  You also realise what a wide difference between earning levels there are between the UK and Europe. As an example, I was in Carphone Warehouse picking up a new chip for my phone when I ear wigged a conversation at the side of me.  A young lad was with his parents and enquiring about the latest state-of-the-art mobile.  The cost of this phone was approximately £350!  When you convert that over to euros, it is roughly the monthly salary of a policeman here – fireman earn slightly less.  I took the bus from Bath to Bradford-on-Avon and nearly fainted at the single fare – £2.40!  The journey is about 20 minutes.  For that fare you can travel twice (return) from Cascais to Lisbon on the railway (a forty minute journey)!

The biggest shock to the system was the price of coffee!  Definitely spoilt over here.  A small black coffee is about 50 cents out of the city and in small coffee bars; the highest price would be about 90 cents in a posh area of Lisbon (70 UK pence is roughly equal to 1 euro).

Strangely enough I actually found just before I left the UK that I was feeling homesick for Portugal – I wonder what that means!  Driving a car was great fun but again I found I had to work really hard at remembering which side of the road to drive on, and I admit to going the wrong way round a junction – luckily nothing was coming!  I also had to concentrate and remember that sunshine and frost sometimes mean ice!  Funny how fast you forget these things.

Flew home to Portugal on 3 January and left grey skies for stunning blue skies and burning hot sun!  Coming back along the motorway was quite surreal, as so many flowers had bloomed over the Christmas period.

Pompey (the kitten) was so thrilled I was home that he slept with his head on my face and his body curled between my head and shoulder for a whole week!

Although it is winter here in Portugal, it is quite different to the UK because there is so much in flower.  Because of the rain we have lots of different shades of green, Madonna lilies are all out, the cherry blossom is just starting, magnolias are in full bloom along with camellias.  Mimosa is also out.  It does make a difference.  The weather has been far better than last winter.  We have had some days where we have had torrential rain but then it stops and you get a bit of blue sky and sometimes, magnificent rainbows.  Some days have been quite warm but again, it can get quite cold at night and I have had my gas log fire (salamandra) on a few times which is rather nice as you have this glow in the corner. 

I have now received my official Numero do Contribuinte – my tax card which means that I now have to sort out all my receipts to hand in by the end of this month.  I can claim medical, dental, any purchases to do with work, petrol and restaurant bills (this I was told was to help the tax authorities make sure the restaurants in question actually declare revenue!)  For those of you who know my hatred and frustrations with sums – keep your fingers crossed.  I have no doubt that things will be thrown and tears shed when I do this later this week.

London meeting 3^rd April 2004 by Padmassana

John Douglas was our first speaker this afternoon, who showed us Norway’s Arctic Highway which begins life further south as the E6. John's photos took us through the roads history which began in the 1930’s, through the years of WW2 when the Germans used slave labour from Yugoslavia to push the road into previously impenetrable regions. In those days the road was not much more than a track, a far cry from today’s paved road. The reason for the improvement to the road in the last thirty years or so being Norway’s North sea oil, not only paving the road but driving tunnels through mountains and under fjords and the sea. John explained that this was partly done for political reasons, to encourage the population to stay in the north and keep the area populated during the Cold War. John also showed us the Norway we expect to see, reindeer, glaciers, snow capped peaks and the Sami people in their colourful traditional costumes that sadly only come out nowadays on ceremonial occasions. John finished this interesting talk with a photo taken near Hammerfest, the midnight sun giving rise to a magnificent orange sky.

Our second speaker was Karen Neale, an artist’s journey through world heritage cities and sights. This highly innovative talk was not illustrated by the usual slide show, but rather by Karen’s own sketches, which she made as she travelled. Her 5-month journey was funded by a grant from the Churchill Trust Travelling Fellowship. During her trip she made over 100 sketches, which brought the places to life for the audience and for those of us who have visited some of the places rekindled many memories. Karen left a rainy London for a rainy Paris in April 2001, but the sun finally shone for her as she drew Avignon’s Papal Palace. She travelled into Italy, via Milan, Venice and Rome and into Greece, then into Turkey, Karen’s sketches of Istanbul’s domes and minarets and the Grand Bazaar bringing this eastern city to life. Karen’s enthusiasm bubbled throughout her talk, particularly her sketches in Iran, from the history of Persepolis, the beautiful drawing of Imam Square and the most evocative of all the mud walled city of Bam, which was destroyed in December 2003 by an earthquake. Many Globies who have been there will no doubt be asking for prints of that drawing. Karen headed east into Uzbekistan to the fabled cities of Khiva and Samarkand, where she drew the mosques. A dodgy Uzbek airlines flight took her to India, where she had difficulty drawing in the cities as she became an attraction herself, surrounded by people watching her, but she still managed to bring us colourful pictures of Jaipur and the temples at Ranakpur. Karen’s was a very different presentation and I am sure it is going to be remembered as one of the highlights of Globetrotters in 2004.

Next month

On Saturday 8th May, Liam D’Arcy Brown talks about China's Historic and Symbolic Borders an 11,000 mile journey to the country's extreme four corners and after the break, John Malathronas will give a slide show and talk about Brazil – Life, Blood and Soul.

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

Mac is not responsible for finding these signs, he saw them on the internet and thought they may be amusing for readers of the Globetrotters e-newsletter.  Please, no complaints about being patronising, this is just for fun. 

Spotted in a toilet of a London office: TOILET OUT OF ORDER. PLEASE USE FLOOR BELOW

In a Laundromat: AUTOMATIC WASHING MACHINES: PLEASE REMOVE ALL YOUR CLOTHES WHEN THE LIGHT GOES OUT

In a London department store: BARGAIN BASEMENT UPSTAIRS

In an office: WOULD THE PERSON WHO TOOK THE STEP LADDER YESTERDAY, PLEASE BRING IT BACK OR FURTHER STEPS WILL BE TAKEN

In an office: AFTER TEA BREAK STAFF SHOULD EMPTY THE TEAPOT AND STAND UPSIDE DOWN ON THE DRAINING BOARD

Outside a second hand shop: WE EXCHANGE ANYTHING – BICYCLES, WASHING MACHINES, ETC. WHY NOT BRING YOUR WIFE ALONG AND GET A WONDERFUL BARGAIN?

… and the best one…Notice in health food shop window: CLOSED DUE TO ILLNESS

Spotted in a safari park: ELEPHANTS PLEASE STAY IN YOUR CAR

Seen during a conference: FOR ANYONE WHO HAS CHILDREN AND DOESN'T KNOW IT, THERE IS A DAY CARE ON THE 1ST FLOOR

Notice in a field: THE FARMER ALLOWS WALKERS TO CROSS THE FIELD FOR FREE, BUT THE BULL CHARGES

Message on a leaflet: IF YOU CANNOT READ, THIS LEAFLET WILL TELL YOU HOW TO GET LESSONS

 … and finally…

On a repair shop door: WE CAN REPAIR ANYTHING. (PLEASE KNOCK HARD ON THE DOOR – THE BELL DOESN'T WORK)

Liz and Josh Ferber presented slides and talked about Australia and New Zealand.

June 5th: Amy Gissen – still to be decided – but will probably be talking about Cambodia and Thailand.

$10.00 for non-members, $8.00 for members.

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

New York meetings are held at The Wings Theatre, 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 .

Iko Poran society is a Brazilian association of private non-profit , non-political, non-denominational organizations guided by the principles of democracy. The mission of our organization is to promote volunteer programs that have a positive impact on their communities and surrounding and promote a beneficial exchange between cultures. Volunteer work varies according to project. For more information see our website at http://www.ikoporan.org/ or email rj@ikoporan.org

Youth Services with TIPACOM, Peru

TIPACOM a program that helps babies, children and teenagers living in extreme poverty, mainly in Villa El Salvador as well as other pueblos jovenes in Lima. TIPACOM has developed many projects including training programs for young people. The organization also works to promote health awareness and aid the sick. Volunteers can work in any of these areas and are encouraged to organize other social project in pueblos jovenes. Those with background in Administration are needed as are English teachers. For more info, email tipacom@hotmail.com

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.

We are sorry to say that Mac is not very well, but he is still e-mailing strong and recently sent the Beetle a collection of Mac reminiscences about some of his travels in 1992.  Here we have thoughts and experiences on Malaysia, India, Komodo Dragons and Singapore.

Kula Lumpur, Malaysia: Malaysian children are singing in the church across the street from my four star, oops, excuse me, I mean four dollar hotel.  It is sweltering hot and they are singing: “Dashing through the snow in a one horse open shay.”

When I stepped outside my Hotel Shelly in Bombay one night (it is along the water front) I heard on a microphone “Humpty Dumpty. Number eight.”  They were playing Bingo and calling number in English manner, I guess, outside the pier of a membership recreation club.  An Indian gentleman came up to me in a chilled beer bar and complained to me that his son worked for American Express and they were taking advantage of him and having him work more than eight hours a day.  I told him I would speak to them about that.  Ha!  I later saw Indians picketing American Express for unfair labour practices.  The other side of the coin is, according to the Americans that the Indians do not work as hard as the Americans and that they are used to goofing off in Indian firms and expect to do the same in American firms.  I am trying to stay neutral. I can’t solve all the worlds problems!

25 Nov 1991, Singapore: a cable car with wonderful views of Singapore takes you to Sentosa Island.  The wax museum (I like wax museums, I learn my history there) shows the founding of Singapore and about the War years and is well worth the $1.80 US it costs.  It is called Pioneers of Singapore/Surrender Chambers.  It always intrigues me, the foreigners living in Singapore were dancing the night away in formal clothes at the Raffles Hotel and then in a few hours, they were prisoners of the Japanese.  They had not expected the Japanese to attack down the Malaysian peninsula but rather from the sea and certainly not that fast if they did.

I just found out that if in Malaysia I had told them I was a Senior citizen I could have travelled at half price on the train.  The Singapore Senior Citizen rate at their zoo, however, is for Singaporeans only.  I tried to look Singaporean, but strangely, it didn’t work.  They charge $7 U.S.  I am used to zoos being free but it is a good zoo.  

Komodo dragons: the largest is about the size of a crocodile and can eat a horse.  They thought they were extinct and then they found some on an Indonesian island, Komodo, hence their name.  Left over from past ages.  I also saw Meerkats which are like mongooses and they all got to see me.

Sign in subway in Singapore: No Durians allowed.  Durian is a fruit that is delicious tasting but has a terrible smell to it.  Many hotels and places will not allow you to bring in Durian (they smell like farts) or as a British Colonial descried Durian “Like eating a garlic custard while standing over a London sewer.” I gave some stuff to Catholic Church in Kula Lumpur and the priest and his students took me out to eat Durian.  One girl said her grandmother was addicted to it.  Announcements on subway in Singapore (and they have a beautiful one) were in four different languages (all saying No Durian I guess).

An Iranian seaman sat next to me on bus from Singapore to Kula Lumpur, Malaysia.  He was eating almonds he had brought from Iran.   He said he had been in twenty countries, but not the United States, as they would not let him in.  He said that the Revolution was bad, everyone is unemployed.  There had been so many Iranians at Ueno train station in Tokyo, Japan, each morning when I was there.  They would congregate there hoping to get a day job from Japanese looking for cheap labour for the day.  It was odd.  I am American and they were Iranians, but they approached me to go site seeing with as if we were old friends.  He was a marine engineer (the guy on the bus). Oddly enough, I met a marine engineer (three different ones) on three different tour buses in different places.  You think of seamen spending their time in bars but all three I met were avid sightseers.

While waiting for a bus in Singapore, I met an American school teacher that joined an International Pen Pal Club just to have contacts while travelling.  He was amazed to find the pen pal he had in Indonesia lived in a beautiful eight room house that had a waterfall in the house.  At pen pal places he says he usually pays a nominal amount as he stays for long periods.  He paid $85 a month at one place on East Coast of Malaysia.  It was a place he had fallen in love with.  Name is something like Khoutan.  One of the pen pals he visited was in Brunei.  He had never heard of it before (not all school teachers are smart!)  It is oil rich.  He says that some wealthy Brunei will charter a whole public bus just for himself and the people that were going to take that public bus are just out of luck with no advance notice.  Today I guess it would be internet pals.

If you would like to contact Mac, he is happy to answer e-mails: macsan400@yahoo.com

Country Statistics

Source:

On Saturday May 9th Wayne Stevenson Thomas from the International Cooperative Exchange Network, SERVAS gave a talk at the Texas branch of the Globetrotters Club.  SERVAS was established in 1948 and is an international network of hosts and travellers building peace by providing opportunities for personal contact between people of diverse cultures and backgrounds. Through mutually arranged individual visits, hosts and travellers share their lives, interests and concerns about social issues. These encounters help form the building blocks of peace in the spirit of mutual service and respect.

See their website:http://www.usservas.org/

Dates of future meetings:

• June 12th
• July 10th
• Mark your calendars now

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

Director of Ryanair.com Conal Henry announced proudly: ‘Ryanair is the ONLY airline that provides access to all European Grand Prix destinations – all other airlines are the pits!!’  According to them, the best access to Hungarian GP near Budapest on August 15th is via… Graz, Austria, the distance to Hungary JUST 364 km.

What is going on!  The passenger traffic statistics for March 2004 confirm Ryanair has carried 204,187 more passengers in UK/Europe than British Airways. 

Ryanair on 7 April 2004 released its customer service statistics for March 2004.  Ryanair is committed to publishing customer service statistics each month and these confirm that Ryanair is also No.1 for Customer Service.

• 93% of all Ryanair's 15,798 flights during the month of March arrived on time.
• Complaints registered at less than 1 (0.49) complaint per 1000 passengers.
• Mislaid baggage registered at less than 1 (0.64) bag per 1000 passengers.

Just in case you a regular visitor to Brest, in France, Ryanair has decided to discontinue the Brest-London (Stansted) route.

I have been living in Thailand since 1989.  I have travelled extensively throughout the Kingdom and wanted to share my wonderful experiences of Thailand with others.  I talked with many travellers here in Thailand and saw a need to take visitors away from the normal tourist areas filled with large tour buses and groups. The biggest complaint I heard from visitors is “there is no real Thai culture… it’s staged for the tourists”.  This is because they keep following each other around using their guidebooks and never see the real Thailand.

In the course of setting up a travel agency here in Thailand, it took about 2 years of research to find the areas that were safe and could handle visitors.  I spoke with village headmen, temple Monks, Hill Tribe villagers, National Park officials and local bird experts.  I then had to train staff that would take care of our clients with excellent service and provide correct information about Thai and hill tribe culture, Thai food, Buddhism, birds of Thailand, etc.

I lived in a remote area of north Thailand at Wat Thaton temple in the town of Thaton on the Burmese border for more than 3 years.  I taught English to Monks, novices, high school students, the Thai Army, local and tourist police.  I also did hill tribe programs by taking a small number of tourists to hill tribe villages to spend the evening.  All the money for the trek went to the villagers.  I bought clothes for the children, medicines and blankets for the families.  I paid the villagers to build a bamboo schoolhouse and paid a teacher to teach Thai at the school who could speak their language.  I taught them how to dispose of waste properly, keep the children and village clean and to use spoons instead of their fingers when eating which was a big source of their health problems.  I provided vegetable seeds and logan and lychee fruit trees for planting.

This was fine until I left the temple then the school stopped and the health problems returned.  I talked with the Abbot of the temple and he now has a school for the children at the temple.  He has a nurse looking after the children and takes those to the clinics that have problems.

While I was there I help start a guest home where travellers could stay in a Lisu hill tribe village and go trekking in the jungle and visit primitive hill tribe villages in the area.  This was not easy, as the villages we visited didn't want visitors as they wanted to maintain their lifestyle and culture.  They have seen other villages that accepted tourists turned into a village without harmony and their culture was gone forever. These villagers were farmers and didn't want to look at tourism as a source of income.

I understood the problem as I have seen what a tour operator can do to a village. To most tour operators in Thailand money is first and they don't care about the hill tribe people or their way of life.

I stayed in these villages and met with the village headmen many times. I learned about their culture, way of life, religion, and do's and don'ts. We then came up with a plan that worked out well for the villagers and our clients.

For the Jungle portion of the trek I had to teach the guides to use different trails so it could grow back.  They make a hut out of bamboo and banana leaves for sleeping and I taught them not to clear-cut and not to return to an area for at least two months.  No more hunting of birds or wild animals.

Without the local culture we would not be able to give our clients the experience they are looking for. We also encourage our clients in helping the local people we visit.

Next month, Randy talks about the difference between tourism and eco-tourism, and provides us with some guidelines about the kind of questions we should be asking ourselves when visiting Thailand or going on any kind of eco-trip.

Randy who was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1948 has lived in Texas for more than 20 years and in Thailand since 1989 can be contacted by e-mail on: allthai@all-thailand-exp.com.  For more information on trips to Thailand, see: http://www.all-thailand-exp.com  

Answers to the Flags Quiz

Burma

Canada

Denmark

Gibraltar

Japan

Many globetrotting travellers now regularly carry a GPS (Global Positioning System) with them when they travel. These superb little handheld devices can be bought for as little as £100, though prices do go up to several hundred pounds for the most sophisticated machines. They show your position on earth in latitude, longitude and altitude, via triangulation from satellites orbiting the earth.

To those of us not blessed with a great sense of direction, especially when exploring a new city, these devices are a godsend. Just “Mark” the co-ordinate of your hotel for example, wander all day and then your little machine will guide you back home in the evening. If you know the GPS co-ordinate of the sight you want to visit, these little boxes can save you time by taking your straight there, as depending on conditions they can be as accurate as 10ft.

Though GPS's are a great piece of kit to have with you they are used in more serious applications. For example Padmassana recently went to a lecture on volcanoes and the lecturer described how GPS's are being used to monitor the height of the land in volcanic areas. The land rising if only by centimetres over a period can signify that magma is building up underneath and indicate that an eruption is more likely and hopefully give the authorities an opportunity to evacuate the area.

To those who already have a GPS, most will know about Geocaching. A global game of hide and seek using a GPS. Globie Tracey introduced Padmassana to this “sport” on a Globetrotters weekend away. On the website www.geocaching.com you type in your postal code (in countries that have this system) and you will be taken to a page showing “Caches” within a 10-mile radius. The Cache is normally hidden and usually has the form of a plastic box with some trinkets in. Most Geocachers leave something and take something. There is always a book to record your visit and sometimes a throwaway camera for you to take a picture. Once back home you can go online and record your visit, this allows the person who planted the cache to know how often it is being found or not as the case may be. Some caches are just one location, but many are a series of clues leading to a final cache. For example you may be given the co-ordinates of a church, where you have to look for a particular grave, then transpose a date of birth into another set of co-ordinates, which take you to another clue and so on.

In some cache’s you may be lucky and come across a “Travel bug”, these are small metal dog tag beetles with a number on. If you decide to remove this from the cache you must put it in the book. Once you get home look up the Travel bug online and see what its mission is, some want to reach a particular destination, others just want to visit as many places as possible. Your mission once you have discovered what the bug wants to do is to help it on its way by planting it in another cache, which hopefully helps it get nearer to its goal.

Since the first cache was “planted” near Portland Oregon in May 2000, the worldwide number of caches has increased to over 90,000 and are hidden in 199 countries. In the UK alone there are around 3000 hidden caches. In just one 7-day period in March 2004, over 64,000 caches were logged as “Found”, which goes to show what a popular pastime this has become. (Figures courtesy of www.fingertech.co.uk)

Now this is where we want all you Globetrotters out there to do your part. I am trying to put together a database of co-ordinates of famous sights and monuments, for example: Buckingham Palace in London is located at N51 30.101 W000  08.487. 

We are inviting you to take part in geocaching in your area – please take two or three readings to make sure they are as accurate as possible, then e-mail the following information 1) The site 2) The address 3) Its co-ordinates 4) Your name to gps@globetrotters.co.uk  Once we have begun to build a database it will be made available to all Globetrotters to enjoy.

By the way, Padmassana released a travel bug on Monday, April 05, 2004 in the UK.   The mission of the travel bug is as follows: to travel far and wide, but my dream is to visit Iran.  I would like to visit caches in England, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey and finally Iran.

According to Conde Nast Traveller’s, the “Next Seven Wonders” of the world feature two concert halls, a museum, two stores, a church and a hotel.  They are:

• Tenerife Auditorium, a curving, soaring concert hall on Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
• The Kunsthaus contemporary art museum in Graz, Austria, a blue, other-worldly building with light flowing in from 16 nozzles, dubbed the “Friendly Alien” by locals.
• The six-storey Prada tower in Tokyo with a facade made from diamond-shaped grids of glass, some concave, others convex, illuminated from within at night.
• The Jubilee Church in Rome, comprising three concrete shells, soaring skylights and glass exterior walls that fill the church with light.
• The Selfridges store in Birmingham, England, a futuristic pod of a building with 15,000 glittering aluminium disks covering its wavy walls.
• Hotel Unique in Sao Paulo, a boat-shaped semicircle, complete with round nautical-style windows.
• Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, known for its acoustics and reflective stainless steel panels.

Is there anywhere you’d like to nominate as the next wonder of the world?  The Beetle would like to nominate the Gherkin, also known as the erotic gherkin, or more properly known as the Swiss Re Tower in the City of London.  Let the Beetle know and we will compile a list for next month’s e-news.

Silja was our roving correspondent at the ITW show in London in January.  We asked what were the most important travel tips she came away with after having attended some of the talks and walked around the show several times.  This is what she reported back on:

1 Insecticide evaporates quickly, so reapply frequently in heavily infested areas (Paul Goodyer, Staying Healthy on the Road).

2. Sponsorship can cost a lot of money to get, and may not be worth it in the end (James Greenwood, Global Ride on Horse Back).

3. Travel writers should have an angle, or put another way, why should they publish your work? (Travel Writing – Dream Job panel).

4. Whatever your injury check your insurance company will pay for treatment, and if you travel with a group and you go off alone, you may not be insured (Mr. Henderson, Getting the Most from your Grudge Purchase).

5. The three greatest hazards in the jungle are flood, dead trees falling on you and hornets (Ken Hames, Survive the Jungle).

6. Email your CV to yourself if you don’t want to carry copies, especially across borders (The Big Trip panel)

7. You can earn money abroad by taking a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) course (I-to-I TEFL Workshop: Travel and Earn).

8. If you send publishers sheets of transparencies, copyright and caption each one as they may get separated (Travel Writing – Dream Job panel).

9. If you video your trip, take care with sound as wind can obliterate voices (Tarquin Cooper, How to Make & Sell a Film of your Expedition).

10. A disposable nappy is a great dressing for a head wound, it even has holes for ears (James Greenwood, Global Ride on Horse Back).

Silja Swaby is a consultant marine biologist, runs her own business, travels, and writes.  Right now she is looking for a publisher for her book about travelling light, and is planning an expedition with a horse.  If you would like to contact Silja, her e-mail address is: siljaswaby@hotmail.com

Although, now perhaps ‘old news’ to those of us living and working in Mikindani we couldn’t let this event pass unreported. Last November The Old Boma’s reputation had had yet another shot in the arm! The District Commissioner invited us to prepare lunch for the Tanzanian Prime Minister and 30 of his party; approaching election time he was going to be making an official visit to Mtwara Region for 2 days. However it was not to be held at the Boma but at a Primary School in the remote village of Hinju some 50 km inland from here. The village is so remote that there are no facilities at all – no power, limited water and we would have to take absolutely everything with us. Initially they thought we would donate the entire cost! However, when I explained that we are a charity they agreed to give us a ‘donation’ to the cause which did just about cover the cost of the food.

Friday – the shopping trip to Mtwara took 5 hours whilst Esther searched all over town for enough chickens to feed this crowd whilst the goat in question was tethered outside the Boma bleating for a few hours. Saturday – kitchen a hive of activity chopping, cutting, marinating and counting bottles of water, soft drinks, plates, glasses, knives, forks etc. Last minute panic appeared non-existent – my own memories of the night before a major event of this importance were very different!

It was a very early start on the Sunday morning – but the excitement was tangible! On the unmade country roads there was no sign of a police or security presence -the only suggestion that the PM might be in danger was the Prime Minister’s Waiter hovering around ‘tasting’ the food whilst we were preparing it – he must have approved because he kept coming back for more!

We had originally been told that lunch would be at 2.00pm – then they changed that to 12.30 – as it happened the official party turned up at 2.15! But there was a lot of ‘on site’ preparation so several hours were required. We were given the headmaster’s office for preparation (including the barbecue – his office will never smell quite the same!) and the classroom next door was turned into a dinning room. The rest of the food preparation and the cooking was done in the open air on the other side of the school!

In the ‘dining room’ tables were arranged around the edge of the room in a ‘U’ formation and white sheets were used as table clothes. With the new Boma china, some hastily created green & black batik it all looked very elegant or at least as elegant as it could be in a classroom with concrete walls, a corrugated iron roof and a huge old blackboard on the wall!

The official party arrived in a flurry of dust as about 40 cars swept into the school ground. In the background was the celebratory sound of drums and chanting, and there were dancers that we could hear but not see from our corner of the school ground. Because they were so late we abandoned all attempts at ‘silver service’ and put a couple of desks in the centre of the room as a buffet and allowed them to help themselves. We were advised to do this so that we could not be held responsible for delaying them and influencing how long they took to eat!

The menu

Roast Goat (marinated with ginger and then cooked on the BBQ)
Marinated Chicken (with garlic and lemon, also cooked on the BBQ)
Beef Curry
Vegetable Curry
Pilau rice / Plain rice / Ugali / Salad
Fresh fruit – (as the PM does not eat any fruit that is already cut – it was just bananas!)

After they had eaten the District Commissioner invited the whole Boma team into the room, introduced us and gave a short speech of thanks for providing such a wonderful lunch. He acknowledged that the Boma is run by Trade Aid and proceeded to thank Trade Aid for providing this opportunity for employment and the development of tourism in the Mtwara Region. The Prime Minister's photographer recorded the event and held a photo shoot taking a number of pictures on the Trade Aid digital camera.

Once all the clearing up and packing up was complete we set off back to Mikindani. ‘Tired but happy’ is a phrase that comes to mind! PS -  all the Boma China that went to Hinju came back intact! Well done! to the team once again.

The summer is soon here and that reminds us of our romantic honeymoon we had last summer. We want to share our memories with you.

We got married last summer outside Brighton, UK, after 10 years together and we had a fantastic wedding with all our friends, 110 persons. On our honeymoon we wanted to start with relaxing on the countryside and then some city life. We choose Sweden and Stockholm,  not far from London, and with fast direct access. And we found a tour operator, Peace and Quiet Travel,  offering what we were looking for.  Three nights in the beautiful Mälar Valley and two nights in Stockholm! The week after our wedding we were on our way.

After picking up our rental car at the airport and after some looking on the map we found Surahammar Manor. A fantastic place in the Mälar Valley with romantic surroundings! And such a family atmosphere! The owners themselves welcomed us and we got a high standard room facing the parkland. All rooms are  individually decorated with elegant antique furniture. And we really enjoyed the welcome dinner with Swedish schnapps. In the evening we went early to bed, talked about our wedding and revelled in that pleasant tired feeling in your body and serenity in your heart that only a great day can  bring!

And what did we do in the Mälar Valley?  After breakfast we went canoeing and brought our own picnic lunch with us. Total relaxation and what a scenery, unspoilt and beautiful!  In the afternoon we decided to go fishing, a new experience for both of us. We hired the equipment and thought  that we had to go far away,but not. We were fishing from the Manor’s park! After some hours we had got four salmon trout and thought it was enough. In the evening we prepared  them together with the cook. Never has a dinner tasted so good!

Next day we decided to be a little cultural so we went to Tidö Castle, a well-known Mälar castle. Tidö is from the 1600s and famous in part for its 43 magnificent carved doors with wood inlay and also for a comprehensive toy museum. We enjoyed a romantic walk, before dinner, in the Manor’s flower-filled parkland, along small paths, over  small white bridges, and watched carp  swimming in the pond. Our last day we tried horse riding, new for me but not for Mary. The stables were just five minutes away and an instructor took care of us  and gave us a riding lesson and then we went out in the  countryside in a slow pace. Both relaxing and exiting! The service at Surahammar was very high, they suggested excursions and helped us in every possible way.

Stockholm city life: We checked in to our double room at hotel Terminus, located in the very centre of Stockholm. The hotel  opened in 1909 and is well-known  for its traditional atmosphere and personal service.  Near to all that Stockholm offers of restaurants, theatres, shopping, historic buildings and other attractions. In the afternoon we enjoyed a walking tour in the Old Town and visited the Royal Castle. In the night we went to Spy Bar and mingled with Stockholm’s glitterati!  The day after we took a guided boat tour under the bridges of Stockholm.  And visited the Vasa Museum, a 17th century pride of the Swedish fleet, resurrected 333 years after sinking and the nearby Skansen, a zoo and the world’s first open-air museum. In the evening we just relaxed  in one of Stockholm’s open-air cafés and enjoyed the city nightlife.  Before leaving to the airport we just had a morning of leisure.

If you are interested in spending some time in the Mälar Valley, contact Eva at Peace and Quiet Travel, a Swedish tour operator, offering all sorts of packages to the Mälar Valley and combination Stockholm city and countryside.  Eva can be contacted by e-mail on: info@peaceandquiet.co.uk or take a look at their website: