All posts by The Beetle

New York:

Hola from Laurie!

Our next meeting will be March 2, 2002. The usual: 4:00pm at the Wings Theater, 154 Christopher Street.

The subject is MEXICO! I will be in Mexico myself at the end of February but will be back in time for our March meeting… Matt Link is back again! And along with Gretchen Kelly, they will explain the interior of the Yucatan peninsula with an emphasis of staying at small villages near archeological sites in lieu of staying at the plastic, commercial areas like Cancun. They will delve into the mysteries of the Maya, touching upon their spiritual practices and history in the area, as well as present day problems modern Maya face in Mexico. They will also be visiting the historic town of Merida as well, one of the loveliest towns in the country. We will have slides as well as some arts and crafts to pass around. Both Matt and Gretchen have attended the Maya World Conference, a meeting of all the countries that have Mayan populations. So this will undoubtedly be a slide show and lecture not to miss!

Gretchen Kelly is the News Editor for Business Traveler magazine and the travel editor for Design Times magazine. Recent feature stories Gretchen has worked on include profiles of Buenos Aires (where she interviewed Eva Peron's living relatives), Aboriginal Australia and the story of porcelain from Dresden to Chungking. She is currently at work on a feature article about Jakarta, Indonesia. For those of you who did not meet Matt at previous meetings, he has been traveling since the age of twelve, when he boarded his family's boat for five years and sailed around the Pacific including the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Micronesia, the Solomon Islands, and New Zealand, where he attended high school. He hasn't stopped since, having visited dozens of countries in Eurasia and living for a number of years in both Hong Kong and Hawaii, where he ran kayak tours and published the guidebook Rainbow Handbook Hawaii. He now lives in New York where he works with Arthur Frommer as Associate Editor of the magazine Budget Travel. See you all soon. Adios!

New York meetings are held at The Wings Theater, 154 Christopher Street (btw Greenwich Stand Washington St), to the right of Crunch Fitness, in the Archive on the first Saturday of each month at 4 pm.

Texas:

It was a marvelous meeting: Chris from Austin did a first class slide show of the Greek Isles and provided a map for each of us so we would know where we were for each slide. We exchanged travel advice, ideas and materials. A bunch went to the Hoity Toit afterwards for a great time. 21 people attended the February meeting, 5 of whom were new. Once again, thanks to Pauline and Frommer for helping to publicise the Texas meetings – except, now Christina says she really needs a secretary!

In the March Globies, Chris will give a slide show of Turkey and tabletop discussion of 2/3 night great get-aways. After the meeting, for anyone who'd like to continue the discussions, we will adjourn to a local hostelry, to be advised at the meeting.

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

Travel Tips

Putting a backpack in a large rice sack or specially made nylon sack is a great way of not only tidying away the handles, but also deterring potential thieves.

Got any travel tips for the Beetle? Then e-mail them to: the Beetle

Request for Help with Food Survey

Holly, originally from Austin, Texas but now living in Newfoundland is hoping that readers of the e-newsletter may be able to help her research for her doctoral thesis. Her thesis explores the ways in which individuals experience food as part of travel in Atlantic Canada.

Holly has a short survey that anyone who has visited any of Canada's Atlantic provinces (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador) can complete. There's also a web page that people can have a look at to find out more about her project, if they wish or, you can email Holly with any questions. To contact Holly for preliminary questions, and returning any completed surveys, is drpepper@warp.nfld.net

Interview topics may include: 1) food choices at home and while travelling; 2) lifestyle considerations influencing food preferences; 3) extent of travel experience; 4) and expectations of travel. The data obtained from interviews and observation will form the basis of the thesis, and may also be used in published articles and/or book chapters, class lectures and public presentations. Anonymity will be maintained for any participants who wish it.

The Seychelles in a Nutshell

The Seychelles are in the Indian Ocean, 1,000 miles away from the African coast and the island of Mauritius. The capital is Victoria on the largest island of Mahe (17 miles by 5 miles) and they are about 11 hours flying time from London.

They consist of 115 tropical islands with some amazing wildlife, for example, the huge tortoises that freely roam some islands. The people of the Seychelles are called the Seychellois and are a mix of Creole, Indian, Chinese, French and British. It is not an easy or cheap country to travel around cheaply and most of the food is imported, making it quite expensive to eat too.

A useless fact: the local beer is called Seybrew!

Mutual Aid

Paula would be grateful for some help or advice: she is a single female aged 43 and a diabetic who wants information on travel to Ireland. She is planning a trip either next August or December. She is interested in music, Irish culture, meeting Reform Jews in the area and would be grateful for any advice on the best places to visit. If you are a music lover please tell her where the best CD stores are and where she can hear the finest Irish music. She is interested in classical music, Irish folk, pub music and pop.

She also wants information on safe accommodations, diabetic food spots, where the nicest Jewish temples are and best times to visit.

Please e-mail or write to: Paula Hurwitz, 7545 Murray Hill Road, #832, Columbia, MD 21046 or e-mail phurwitz@erols.com

Need help? Want a travelling buddy or advice about a place or country – want to share something with us – why not visit our Mutual Aid section of the Website: Mutual Aid

Don't Upset The Elephants!

They really do have long memories! Research by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has shown that elephants have very long memories, large brains and are highly emotional. Orang-utans are the cleverest of non human primates and can perform complex tasks such as opening doors by choosing the right key from a bunch of keys. Squirrels have a brain proportionally 1.5 times bigger than humans and can remember where they have buried 10,000 nuts!

MEETING NEWS

Meeting news from our branches around the world.

Ontario:

The last meeting was on January 18th: Ann Dohler talked about her recent trip to Peru, the Galapagos and the Amazon. The next meeting is on Friday, March 15th at 8 p.m. Bruce Weber will be giving a “SAMPLER OF YUCATAN”.

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.

Toronto GT 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. (Wilton St is a very short E-W street south of and parallel to Esplanade, east of Jarvis – just around the corner from St.Lawrence Market)

Fly Me to the Moon!

Have you got £15 million to spare? There have been two space tourists so far: 61-year-old American businessman Dennis Tito paid to go into space on a Russian space vessel. Mark Shuttleworth the South African business tycoon has just finished his week's training and is set to become the world's second paying space traveller when he visits the International Space Station aboard a Russian ship in April.

Up until now, NASA has opposed private individuals paying to go into space. Until now, that is. NASA has now published a set of rules which all potential space travellers must meet before being allowed into a spacecraft.

NASA's chief astronaut, Charles Precourt, who helped draw up the rules, said: 'We don't want to embarrass our space partners by having [a tourist] who would be so controversial that it would be an insult to the other partners to fly them because of some behavioural background that was considered distasteful.”