The May 11 meeting will meet at the library at 3 p.m., if you were not able to make the April picnic. The picnic went swimmingly – great weather, great company, good food – thanks to Christina for organising it!

Meetings are held at 3pm 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

On Mardi Gras in good old Carnival style some 800 identically dressed men go to the streets of Binche in south Belgium to fight for their freedom from feudalism like they used to some 400 years ago. In colourful uniforms with padded bellies and hunchbacks individual Gilles walk chaotically up and down the town stamping their clogs rhythmically to the sound of their personal drummers to pick up some fellow Gilles from their homes. After a while small groups of them form and along with their personal drummers trot their clogs on the cobblestones from one drinking establishment to another.

There doesn’t seem to be any age restrictions so they start from the clog wearing age to wheelchair ones capable to stamp their feet. Although there seems to be some distinctions in the ranks. Novice Gilles get up early in the morning and wearing identical masks march straight on the Town Hall. “Approved” ones are allowed to trot through all the bars and tavernas till the early afternoon when the real battle starts.

Clans of Gilles turn to the streets with long baskets full of blood oranges to start defending themselves. Crowds of friends and relatives follow them with massive sacks of ammunition. It is not clear why oranges have been originally used as offensive weapon or how XVI century paysans managed to import some 6 tonnes of them from Sicily. Nevertheless they start marching through the centre of the town throwing them more or less violently into the crowd. Oranges get squashed, splatted, caught, eaten or collected for later. Interim result is that most people look like Sissy Spacek in Carrie horror movie. Ambulances get busy and the battle goes on for a coupe of hours till even the senior Gilles wearing some 2 meter hats of ostrich feathers get to conquer the Town Hall.

Slight drawback is that the locals keep spraying some sticky foam all over people and with complete lack of public conveniences there is little one can do to clean it off. Also serving good old Belgian beer traditionally in relevant glasses and in large quantities leaves the cobblestones scattered with broken glass and mainly blood from oranges running down the streets.

My score was: caught two oranges, got badly hit by one on the forehead, was handed one while licking off my face after the first hit and apart from two badly dislocated fingers I really enjoyed the event.

Take a look at Krys’ web site: www.krystyna.com/Gilles.html

In the 15th Century, Dick Whittington, who was the Lord Mayor of London at the time, designated this site as an official food market and it has been serving the people of London ever since. Archaeologists say that the site is on what was once a Roman Forum.

It even gets a mention in Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby, as a place to buy new laid eggs.

The market's name was taken from a fourteenth century mansion with a lead roof. Traders from outside London were first allowed to sell their poultry here, then in 1377 cheese and butter. The City Corporation bought the house and estate in 1411, and in 1445 the newly built granary became a general market for poultry, victuals, grain, eggs, butter, cheese etc. The market and the mansion were both burnt down in the Great Fire of 1666 and the market was rebuilt round three large courtyards. The first yard was mainly a beef market, but it also sold leather, wool and raw hides on certain days. The second yard sold veal, mutton and lamb; but fishmongers, poulterers and cheesemongers had stalls here too. The third yard was a herb market selling fruit and vegetables.

Today, with its iron and glass architecture, an excellent example of Victoriana, Leadenhall has been the location for many a film, much to the bemusement of many a city slicker as this market is in Gracechurch St, close to Lloyds of London, in the heart of the City, London’s financial district. Today's market has high quality butchers and fishmongers, greengrocers, chocolate shops and bars, with high prices perhaps to reflect its location.

The market is open Monday-Friday daytime, some shops and bars remain open into the evening. The nearest tube is probably Bank, but others close by include Liverpool St, Aldgate and Tower Hill.

Next month: Petticoat Lane

Founded in 1982, Conservation Volunteers Australia is a national, non-profit and non-political organisation. CVA completes essential conservation projects, which could not be tackled without active community participation. The projects are as distant, diverse and unique as the Australian continent itself – for example, radio-tracking echidnas on Kangaroo Island; malleefowl surveys in Victoria’s Little Desert; construction of the Larapinta Trail in the Northern Territory; landcare projects in Tasmania and koala surveys in Queensland.

Conservation Volunteers Australia welcomes everybody with a love of the outdoors and interest in the environment to take part as a volunteer. Our volunteers come from all over the world, including Korea, Denmark, Japan, Britain, Canada, USA and Germany. If you are looking for an opportunity to:

· visit some amazing locations,

· meet a broad range of people,

· learn about the Australian environment, and

· volunteer overseas

then volunteering with Conservation Volunteers Australia and having a Conservation Experience is for you. The Conservation Experience is a six-week program especially designed for overseas visitors to Australia. It is the perfect way to visit some of Australia’s special places. The cost of AUD $966.00 (just AUD $23 per day – around £8.20) includes all meals, accommodation and project-related transport. You can join the Conservation Experience on any Friday (subject to vacancies), from any of CVA’s office around Australia. For further details, visit our website at www.conservationvolunteers.com.au or email info@conservationvolunteers.com.au or write to Conservation Volunteers Australia, Box 423, Ballarat Vic 3353

While I spent last week in the shadow of Kilimanjaro the thought occurred to me, “Is anywhere still truly remote?” Though we were in the middle of Maasailand and a five-mile walk from the nearest town, Britney Spears still wafted through the air as we worked to lay the foundation for a Maasai health clinic. Though we have ants here so big they are used to close wounds (let them bite it, then twist their heads off), we have also brought modern surgical staple guns. Though people in the neighbouring shamba (village) were trampled by elephants last month, I saw one Morani warrior who kept his ear hole open with an Estee Lauder lotion bottle and used a dismantled Bic lighter as part of his headdress. In short, Rombo, in the far south of Kenya, is very remote and yet shockingly global. Likewise are the other Global Citizens Network volunteers with whom I am helping to bend metal for the clinic’s framework.

Source: Building Clinic in Kenya Opened Volunteer's Eyes about 'Remoteness'by Sean Maurer / Global Citizens Network (via GoNomad.com)

Oman is a fascinating country. For anyone who has been to Zanzibar, there are striking architectural similarities, but it is not all about modern or ancient towns, there’s desert, mountains and, of course, the Arabian Sea! Most of the dive operators are attached to hotels. There is one dive operation, called Dive Oman which is about 45 minutes drive south from the airport at Muscat Dive Oman is run by Bernard and Stephanie, a lovely couple, (French and Dutch) and is part owned by the poshest hotel, which is close by, called the Al Bustan. Bernard can be contacted on: diveoman@omantel.net.om

Here, you can stay right on the beach in a range of accommodation, from air con rooms to a shared dorm. The bay from here is superb, not much to see snorkelling, but it is very pretty, and a short boat trip away, you will be able to see dolphins.

The diving is very good for the novice and intermediate diver: there are no currents to speak of, you’ll find it difficult to get deeper than 20m and the visibility is generally 15m +. The corals are not as colourful as say the Red Sea, but this is more than made up for by fantastic amounts of fish! Great for macro photographers too! You get loads of them and they are so unafraid! The Beetle did not see anything particularly large, but there were lots of turtles, and the occasional docile reef shark, and in the right season, there are whale sharks. Visibility ranges from 15m+ and the water temperature is around 25 degrees C.

Dive Oman is a very safe dive operation, not run by cowboys, good air – reasonable equipment although the Beetle has her own. A proper briefing preceded each dive and although few dives were guided, it was very safe and almost impossible to get lost!

If you stay at Dive Oman, they are stuck out in the middle of nowhere and only have food at weekends i.e. Thursday and Friday, so you'll have to hire a care and go off and find something yourself the rest of the time.

If you are British, you can buy a visa at the airport, around £16 or $23. If you have an Israeli stamp in your passport, forget it, you’ll have a hard time getting in. Also, the Omanis are the worst drivers the Beetle has ever seen, even worse than the Egyptians! And that takes some doing! So driving can be fraught! The Beetle drove as a female over there, which is possible but a major novelty, so she had cars overtake and then sit on the other side of the road just staring in as she drove! The dress code is long and baggy: don't wear shorts outside the dive centre and females should wear long baggy trousers and long sleeved shirts or long short sleeved T shorts.

Other dive operators include Blue Zone and Ecodivers bluzone@gto.net.om

Dive Oman have a web site: http://www.diveoman.com.om/

Next month: more on the sites of Oman

Greetings!! When last I wrote carnival was in the offing and here it is a month later and it all seems so far away. Rio was excellent despite the weather that alternated between wet, humid and baking hot. I was staying at a fancy hotel (+++++) and the air-con. was a life saver. There was a real buzz about the place as carnival seemed to take off from the Friday onwards. The streets echoed to the samba drums and there always seemed to be someone (or some group) parading somewhere. Copacobana, Leblon, Ipanema, the Rua Branco all saw their fair share of parades and costumes, feathers and absent items of clothing. The transvestites were by far the most outrageously garbed but the theme everywhere was excess in all things – sequins, feathers, papier-mâché, bright colours and skimpiness. Sambadrome was the focus for the major samba schools to display their year’s work and the show was pretty spectacular. Music blared and repeated as each group took the maximum allowance of time to dance, sing, gyrate and party their way down the half mile long track.

It was a dazzling exhibition and went on from about 9pm to 6am on the Sunday and Monday nights of Carnival. I lasted til just after two am before I could not look at anymore glitter. There had been on and off rain all evening but that did not dim the party spirit or delight of the crowd and paraders. Some of my companions salvaged costume items on the night and I can only wonder whether (and how?) they will get them home. As we left the arena to try and find a taxi, huge piles of discarded costumes were on every corner awaiting collection by the garbage men. It seemed a little sad given that the whole thing takes a year to put together, 80 mins to show and about two mins to throw away.

The other highlights of Rio, for me, were the ´hippie market´ at Ipanema, the Cristo Redentor statue on Corcovado, catching up with Ana Amelia and having yummy Japanese food. And I saw ´Lord of the Rings´ one night too. There was much I did not get to see, or do, so I guess I will have to go back – but perhaps not for Carnival. It was great to have been there but there is so much more to Rio and when Carnival is on, everything else is shut. My only disappointment in Rio was not receiving mail I had hoped for. Only a card from Angela made it, so if any of you wrote to me at that mail drop, please understand that I did not get any letters so will not know to reply.

We bade farewell to Annie and Andy, and welcomed six new people into our group as we left Rio. This meant that our truck was filled to capacity and has 22 passengers. No more spare seats and extra room but it has not been a tough as expected either. And the new people are a nice mix of age, and interest (and a couple more Australians to boost our strength). From Rio we headed north to a town called Ouro Preto (Black Gold) that was really lovely. A colonial Portuguese town with a church on every hill, we spent the whole day there wandering around and taking gazillions of photos. A huge rainstorm obscured the views for about thirty minutes in the afternoon and showed up the many leaks in the tents some of us had bought from Martin. The other highlight of this part of the world was a visit to Conghonas – a town famous for its statues and churches, quite lovely and the connection with the Bom Jesus church in Braga (Portugal) was profound.

Back to the coast and time spent at lovely seaside places as we headed north to Salvador. My personal favourite was a tiny town called Caravellas-Barra. We stayed in a lovely guesthouse opposite the beach, with fresh coconuts served at the stall there, fish and chips to die for and long gentle sunsets. We went snorkelling one day at islands 50 kms off the coast and otherwise just enjoyed the relaxed pace of life there. Salvador was good fun. It is a vibrant and colourful city with strong influences from the slaves that were sent here centuries ago. Dark skins, white clothes, pastel houses, spicy food, and underlying it all the drum beats of their distinctive percussion music. I went to a concert one night and the atmosphere was electric. Very powerful!

Since then we have been heading west to get to here – Bonito. As the name implies, it is a very pretty place on the edge of the Pantanal, and not far from the Paraguay and Bolivian borders. It is also the action centre for the region, with ecotourism at its heart but plenty of thrills for the seekers of such things. We snorkelled to three hours down a river on Saturday. The water was so clear and the fish so plentiful pretty and unafraid, that three hours could easily have been ten minutes. It was great fun and we all looked a picture in our ill-fitting wet suits and goggles. There are birds a plenty here too and everything is green. It is near the end of the wet season so all is lush and hot and very humid. It is hard to keep up with the clothes washing as it takes only minutes for them to get sweaty and need another wash. I have also started sleeping in my hammock – outside! At first it was just a chance to check out how comfortable it would be for the river boat trip up the Amazon but with the hot weather, and being in dorms at the moment, I ended up sleeping there all night. It’s excellent and so much cooler than the dorm. Today was a visit to a Blue Grotto cave, very pretty and unusual, not to mention slippery getting in and out.

So that brings you up to date. Next we are headed north to Manaus (and hopefully some snail mail at the poste restante) and our jungle expedition, then further north and into Venezuela. I am not sure where my next update will come from but …. watch this space. It’s so hard to believe that I have been out here for five months already.

Thanks Jacqui and keep us posted! If anyone would like to contact Jacqui, her e-mail is: jacquitrotter@yahoo.com

What have you seen on your travels? Drop a line to the Beetle! the Beetle

Skagway, Alaska is quite impressive – one shack and a runway!

Pyongyang, North Korea – loads of staff servicing very few flights!

Canaima, Venezuela, says the Beetle, is quite funny, a tiny strip cut out form the surrounding jungle with a wooden café close by with tens of stalls operated by companies all offering trips to the Angel Falls.

Write in and tell us your best airport nominations! the Beetle

The Beetle’s second favourite museum in London is the National portrait Gallery. At the moment, this is a terribly fashionable place to be seen as it currently hosting a Mario Testino exhibition, attracting the likes of supermodels and Madonna. It costs £6 per ticket, (like gold dust) which can only be booked through the booking agency, Ticketmaster. When the Beetle manages to get tickets, she will report back on it! That aside, the rest of the NPG is absolutely free. The beauty of the NPG is that it combines art with a wonderful pictorial history of the UK, through portraits of kings, queens, courtiers and leading figures through British history. A visit here can easily take up an entire day looking around – so, if you plan it right, you could spend a couple of half days, combined with visits to nearby St Martins in the Field, the theatres in nearby St Martin’s Lane, a visit to Trafalgar Square, a walk along the Mall or down to Embankment. The closest tubes to the NPG are Leicester Square and Charing Cross. Weekends are the busiest time since the admission fee has been scrapped, so try and visit during the week, if you can. Details are as follows: NPG Website

Music and travel have been synonymous since the hippies took their music along with them in the sixties. Certain pieces of music have the ability to remind of places we have been and the experiences we enjoyed there. Here are my top 5 that evoke cherished memories of my travels.

Istanbul – “Mea Culpa” by Enigma, it was the first time I had heard this piece, as it woke us from our sleep as well pulled into Istanbul in a January snowstorm. It was a wonderful way to arrive in a place I had long wished to visit.

Iran – “Silk Road, God is Good” from Lonely Planet. This haunting piece will remind anyone who has travelled in the Middle East, but for me particularly of Iran, of the early morning call to prayer resonating from the towers of the ornate mosques.

Yangshuo – “Linger” by The Cranberries. One of my abiding memories of this lovely Chinese town is this song wafting out of virtually every Restaurant and backpacker hotel in the place. Whenever I hear this song on the radio at home it always evokes memories of China.

Australia – “Highway” by Gond Wana Land from the album, “Let the dog out”. Our bus driver played this super album as we crossed Australia’s Red Centre, the didgeridoos providing a fitting accompaniment to the landscape that passed outside the window.

France – “Anni Rose” by Tulka from the Buddha bar album by Claude Challe. This piece will always be a reminder of happy days and warm evenings in the south of France, while doing an Astanga course.

Write in and tell us your musical memories and associations! the Beetle

This is the first of a series of seven looks at the seven wonders of the world. The list was started in the second century BC and the wonders we know today were finalized in the Middle Ages. Only one still in existence, after some 4,500 years, and visible today is the great pyramid of Khufu at Giza in Egypt. It is 756 feet long on each side, 450 high and comprises 2,300,000 blocks of stone, each averaging 2 1/2 tons in weight.

Despite not having the scientifically accurate instruments of today, no side is more than 8 inches different in length than another, and the whole structure is perfectly oriented to the points of the compass. It seems likely that the pyramid was a tomb for a Pharaoh. Even in ancient times, thieves, breaking into the sacred burial places, were a major problem and Egyptian architects became adept at designing passageways that could be plugged with impassable granite blocks, creating secret, hidden rooms and making decoy chambers. No matter how clever the designers became, though, robbers seemed to be smarter and with almost no exceptions each of the great tombs of the Egyptian Kings were plundered.

Until the 19th century, the pyramid of Khufu was the tallest building in the world. A Greek traveller called Herodotus of Halicanassus visited Egypt around 450 BC and included a description of the Great Pyramid in a history book he wrote. Herodotus was told by his Egyptian guides that it took 100,000 slaves twenty-years to build the pyramid.

The site was first prepared, and blocks of stone were transported and placed. An outer casing (which has disappeared over the years) was then used to smooth the surface. Although it is not known how the blocks were put in place, several theories have been proposed. One theory involves the construction of a straight or spiral ramp that was raised as the construction proceeded. This ramp, coated with mud and water, eased the displacement of the blocks that were pushed (or pulled) into place. A second theory suggests that the blocks were placed using long levers with a short angled foot. Stones were lifted into position by the use of immense machines. The purpose of the structure, according to Herodotus's sources, was as a tomb for the Pharaoh Khufu (whom the Greeks referred to as Cheops). Scientists have since calculated that fewer men and less years were needed than Herodotus suggests.

Next month: the Lighthouse at Alexandria

Food (curry): The simple unexpected truth is that Indian/Bengali food in England is much tastier than the food here. Not sure why that should be, but the local curries are surprisingly bland and lack the savour of spices to which our palettes have become accustomed. More than that, there are remarkably few ‘Indian’ restaurants – I’d expected it to be like Malaysia where you can pop into a kedai serving a range of curries with roti and rice. But they don’t seem to exist, at least here in the suburban (sic) delights of Gulshan. So we’ve eaten mostly Thai and Chinese (there’s a large Chinese population here in all branches of business) more often than local. But travel to the districts has been a real gastronomic pleasure: delicious fish, chicken, mutton, more fish with delicious vegetables, rice and paratha.

Mango tree: Mangoes not yet in season unfortunately. My room looks out on a splendid huge specimen, weighed down with flowers. It will deliver a bumper crop if only small a proportion of the flowers set. Our agro-economist tells me that the fruit is ready to eat 70 days after flowering.

Air pollution: The lack of rain exacerbates the air pollution. It is acknowledged to be one of the world’s worst capital cities (Taipei, Jakarta, Lagos??), caused by dust and traffic fumes. I’ve had a sub-clinical cough ever since I arrived. There’s a permanent haze spread over the city – and it was a real relief to get out into the countryside for our project town visits. Since so many city journeys are made in open rickshaws, this is surely more than an inconvenience and must be a major public health hazard.

Arsenic: poisoning from ground water drawn from shallow aquifers is a major problem in B’desh. It is has no taste, so one is not aware of being affected (no-one has given an explanation why this problem is so particular to B’desh – yet there must be one; presumably something to do with geology). In mild form it causes unpleasant skin disease; prolonged exposure causes cancer. Only the large towns and cities have piped water supply derived from lower strata. So the vast majority of the population – including our project towns – gets its water from shallow tube wells using hand pumps. The harsh reality is that there are not the resources to ensure safe water supply for the masses – our project funding won’t stretch that far even for our 12 towns. Shallow wells are progressively being supplemented by deep wells – but not only is drilling more expensive, they also need electric pumps; hence the cost escalation.

Islam: A big surprise is how low key it is – whether in Dhaka or the small towns – compared with Indonesia or Malaysia You’re barely aware of the sound of mosques, or of mushollas in offices, or workers breaking off work to pray; yet it is clearly profoundly institutionalised in national social and political life. And there seem to be very few mosques, compared with the one-in-every-kampung in Indonesian small towns. We (the mission) surmise that Islam can afford to be less demonstrative here because it is more confident and better established; whereas Indonesia and Malaysia form the Muslim geo-political frontline in Asia, and there is a corresponding emotional need to make a loud declaration of faith in the face of the heathen hordes on the horizon. Having said that B’desh is surrounded on all sides by non-Islamic states: mostly India, with a tiny frontier with Burma.