Find out what happened at previous meetings in London and about future events

Saturday 6th December 2003 London meeting

Our first speaker was Paul Goldstein whose talk was entitled “Africa: An adventurous wilderness”. Paul has led many tours into sub Saharan Africa for adventure tour operators over the last few years. We started with shots of Victoria Falls and White water rafting, followed by bathing in a Kenyan mud spring! Paul’s passion is for the wildlife of Africa and we saw some wonderful pictures of lion, leopard, cheetahs and jackals. But the stars of the show for the globies audience were the mountain gorillas. Paul finished up in India with a great shot of a lion taking it easy in the middle of the road.

After the break John Pilkington gave an intriguing talk on his journey up the Mekong river to its source in Tibet. We started off in the markets of Saigon, not a place for vegetarians! John followed the river’s course but not always by travelling on it, he also used local trucks that served as busses. As he headed north into these Buddhist lands we saw Buddhist architecture and playful orange clad monks who thought nothing of playing with a mountain gun left over from a previous war. John took an unusual route over the border into China, he hitched a ride on a Chinese cargo boat delivering noodles and Red Bull! When the Mekong was no longer navigable John took to jeeps and finally onto horseback to become the first Britain to reach the source of the Mekong. (Find out more about John at http://www.pilk.net/lecture.mekong.html)

Saturday 3rd January 2004 London meeting

Our first meeting of 2004 was a series of 4 mini talks given by Globetrotters members. Many thanks to all those who took part, some at very short notice who made it a very enjoyable afternoon.

Our first speaker was London organiser Dick Curtis whose talk covered part of his “Gap year” from teaching. Dick slides took us through India, beginning as most Indian journeys do in the capital Delhi from where he took a train to Kashmir, all very exotic, especially to someone who had not ventured beyond Europe before. Dick’s wonderful photos showed us houseboats, temples and the very photogenic people. Dick met up with some other travellers and with them trekked to Ladakh taking in some beautiful mountain scenery and travelling from Hindu India to Buddhist Ladakh.

Our second speaker was club Membership Secretary Kevin Brackley, who took us to a now virtually impossible to reach destination, Saudi Arabia. His journey started in conservative Riyadh, with its fortress and modern Faisal Tower, then north to Sakaka where he showed us the 6000 year old standing stones in the desert. His trip then followed the old Hejaz Railway through the desert to Medina. We saw beautiful red desert colours, including slides of rocks carved by wind and sand and the spectacular Nabatean city of Maidan Saleh. At Al-Ula we saw old locomotives from the railway abandoned in the desert, before arriving via Medina at Globe Square in cosmopolitan Jeddah on the Red sea.

After the break Martin Wright showed us a glimpse of his marathon cycle ride to Australia. Martin illustrated his trip with great photos and narrative, particularly of some of his ailments along the way! He showed us eastern Turkey, before crossing into Iran, the photos of the tiled mosques at Esfahan were superb. Martin couldn’t get a visa for Pakistan so had to back track before ending up in Nepal and then via some hard uphill cycling into Tibet and Lhasa. He continued down through Indochina before crossing to Australia, where the “Pommie on a bike” was made very welcome, especially in places where according to road signs the population was outnumbered by sheep or flies.

Our last speaker was Globetrotters Legacy Coordinator Jeannie Copeland, who showed us a trip she led in Iceland for Ramblers. Starting in Reykjavik with its colourful houses and lake she travelled up the west coast to Akureyri, where some of her group made the boat trip to the Arctic circle island of Grimsey. Husavik on Iceland’s north coast was the chance for the group to try whale watching. Jeannie’s photos showed the group climbing mountains in a tropical for Iceland, twenty degrees, before travelling through rain to Myvatn, with its rock formations such as Dimmuborgir and natural hot spring pools, great after a long days walking.

After the talks, thanks to Nadia and all those who brought food and drink, we enjoyed the annual Globetrotters New Year party.

Future meetings

Saturday 7th February

Chris Bradley — Walking Wadi Hadramaut [Yemen] – a 550 mile solo unsupported trek and first westerner and Rupert Attlee — The Trail to Titicaca – a 7000 mile cycle adventure through S.America

Saturday 6th March

Anthony Lambert — Railways on the Wlldside – travel on a selection of the World’s railways and Jacqui Trotter — Travelling South America – 8 months of overland and independent travel Part II

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

This is an extract from a great website that gives visitors to Peru lots of invaluable information about Peru, how to get around, visas, museums etc. It is a not for profit organisation that is aimed at encouraging people to visit Peru.

1. Do you carry a first aid kit?

2. Are your guides trained in first aid and C.P.R?

3. Do you feed your porters and what do you give them?

4. Are your porters given proper tents and equipment?

5. What is the difficult level of the Inca Trail?

6. What is the meal plan for each day?

7. Do you supply us with 3 season tents?

8. Are your guides specialist in birds, plants, and culture?

9. What is the maximum weight your porters Carry? ( 20 – 25 Kilos )

10. How much do you pay your porters?

11. Do you follow the regulations? Do you have a printed copy?

12. What do you do with waste from the trip and do you use plastic bottles?

For more information, see:http://www.perutouristinformation.com/

From women who work at re-opened museums to hunky gym rats who worship Arnold Schwarzenegger, Afghanistan has changed in the 2 years since the ouster of the Taliban. A lot more work needs to be done, but new buildings rise from the rubble to punctuate the Kabul skyline, archeological initiatives are helping tourism, and wheelchair programs are giving mine victims a new chance in life. See the Afghanistan you never read about in the papers.

We looked at what there is to see as a tourist in Kabul and also touch on travel to other Islamic hotspots like Jordan, Turkey and Morocco.

For details of forthcoming meetings e-mail newyork@globetrotters.co.uk or register for e-mail 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.

Mac’s been reviewing travel websites again and here are some of the better travel tips he’s gleaned and would like to pass on to us:

Water or sports drinks plastic bottles are often better than the traditional water bottles – they don’t leak, are usually lighter and at the end of the trip, you can throw them away (into a recycling bin, if possible) and after this, you have more room for those totally cannot afford to miss souvenirs!

Tights (panty hose) are cheap, warm and disposable and make great layers when travelling in cold places, when layering is essential.

You can keep your hair looking good for longer, ideal if you are travelling in the wilds and don’t have access to a daily shower. All you need is a small bottle of deep cleansing shampoo and a tiny bottle of coconut oil. After washing your hair, rub a tiny drop of oil into your hair. Go easy the first time to know how it looks when dry. Hair stays soft and clean looking and will keep nasty things out of hair such as lice.

Venue: – please note the change: Old York Tower, 85 The Esplanade (SouthEast corner of The Esplanade & Church) – 2 block east of the Union station. Public parking garage is at the foot of Church St. right next to the Old York Tower.

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.

Iris and her group arrive in Salvador in Brazil.

What can I say about Salvador? I loved the place. It wasn’t so when I first arrived because we got there quite late at night, we were all tired and then found we had a hike across a busy main road to a dirty little side street full of rubbish over spilling on to the street and there was our hotel! I thought “What sort of a dump have we been brought to?” but it turned out to be a charming place, very helpful staff, a beautiful little garden at the rear with a miniature waterfall and a bird in a gilded cage singing its heart out for us, morning and night.

Salvador is a city of great contrasts. We were housed in the old city which is reached by climbing steep hills or by a lift from the lower level to the top. The lower level has nothing much of interest. It is commercial with docks, but there is a very interesting market housed in a round building with a restaurant overlooking the harbour. I did eventually get to it on the last day we were in Salvador and bought myself a hammock for my stay in the jungle when I shall have to sleep in a hammock on board the ferry, for the 9 days we are there. But for the most part we stayed in the old city, as it is far more interesting and has lots of old buildings and narrow streets with fascinating shops and restaurants. One restaurant we went to had the most beautiful garden and the most incredible service all for a few pounds, and it boasted a really good little trio serenading us as we ate.

We also found, courtesy of our Korean friend (who always goes off exploring on his own) the most incredible shopping centre which is about 3 times as big as most types of shopping centre in UK) but this was on our last day, we were pretty tired by then, and we were only able to explore about a quarter of it, before deciding we’d had enough and wanted to go back to the hotel!

The beaches in Salvador were really beautiful and the bus service superb. I’d really love to go back there sometime.

Since Salvador, we have been to several unspoilt places – Lencois, the centre of an area of outstanding beauty with lots of rivers, waterfalls and lakes to see, besides caves and we did go on a full day’s trip to the countryside to see the waterfalls, and caves and rock formations, in the company of a man called Issy (short for Isadoro) who was a very enthusiastic fellow who loved talking about his native Brazil and its fauna and flora.

We are now in a place called Bonito where we are for five days. We have used this time, Judith and I, to rest and take stock, especially as on the way here our truck broke down and we had to be rescued by a fellow Exodus truck which has been shadowing us all the way around South America, normally in second place, and then they came into their own as we needed to be given a lift! We spent some time in a place called Itiquira, but just two nights really and most of that was spent trying to get the truck recovered and once it was recovered, getting lots of our baggage off it, as we were probably not going to see the truck again for a week or two until it is repaired and now in Bonito. We are stuck with no truck, just the extra Exodus truck which rescued us and which can’t take us any further, and it looks as if we are going to be taking public transport to our next destination until the truck is repaired and can catch up with us!

Bonito is the first place where we have actually stayed in a Youth Hostel and it has some surprising facilities, like a swimming pool and a really good laundry, and some excellent staff who cater for our every need. We don’t need money here, we just put it all on tick! (Goodness only knows what the final bill will be, it’s amazing how the pennies mount up when you don’t have to pay as you go!) And of course it has Internet! Only two machines and I have been hogging this machine most of the afternoon, but now I have to come to a close, read it and send it off to all you people out there, wondering why I have been up to since I last wrote.

Just for completeness, we did call in briefly at Brasilia to look at the city. What a non-event. It is a manufactured city with its only claim to fame being its President Kibutschek whom they revere as a god and have produced this awful mausoleum which is pitch dark inside except for illuminated display cabinets of all his clothes and paraphernalia, books and objets d’arte, including all his wife’s clothes etc. and it was the most boring exhibit I had even been in. The only highlight was they had a cadaverous member of the Adams family popping out to give us a fright every now and again, and provided a staircase in midnight blue carpet, lit only by ambient light, to provide a place for people to have fun, falling down it and seeing who can crack their head open in the most spectacular way! One poor lady was carted off to hospital while we were there, having done just that, so I suppose she won first prize!

Take care, I’ll be in touch again soon, and hopefully by then we will be back on our truck. By the way, the diagnosis was a broken crankshaft.

Once again, we were honoured to have Norman Ford, founder of the Globetrotters Club, on hand presenting a slide show of his September 2003 Nordic adventure with us entitled:

Around Switzerland By Bike–On Your Own, The Globetrotter Way”.

Christina also shared stories and photographs from her Dec 2003 Santa Goodwill Tour to Asia.

Dates of future meetings: February 14th (Travelocity), March 13th (Southwest Airlines), Mark your calendars

If you like independent, adventuresome, fun, daring, exciting, “off the beaten path” travel, this club is for you. Our meeting begins at 2 P.M. Come early so you won’t be late! Enjoy handouts, travel talk time, and door prizes!

For more information about the Texas Branch: please contact texas@globetrotters.co.uk or register for e-mail 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

U. S. Soldiers Home, Washington: 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.

Nairobi, Kenya. Because of the many pick pockets in Nairobi they are thinking of renaming Nairobi, Nairobbery.

Home member Donald French (now dead) in his eighties went with a group of young people from England on a truck trip thorough Africa. Each had an assignment: get wood for fire, cook, be a guard of their possessions at night etc. One night they decided they did not need a guard and all their shoes were stolen that night! As some had big feet it was difficult to get replacements. They became native in a hurry!

The Masai in Kenya have a drink made of cow’s blood and urine. Not available at the bar in our lodge. This cow’s milk urine combination drink is suppose to cure stuttering and athletes feet. One of the Masai wearing a blanket and carrying a spear surprisingly came into the bar of our lodge leaving his spear outside and said something to the bar tender. The Masai undid his handkerchief and took out tip money made from posing for pictures and ordered a Tusker Beer. The bar tender who was in Western Dress talked with him in Masai. After the Warrior left I commented to the bartender: “You speak Masai.” He answered: “I am Masai.”

The Masai warriors put red stuff in their hair. I thought maybe it was to keep flies away. Two were looking in the rear view mirror of our Landrover and I talked with them as best as I could and asked them why they put that stuff in their hair. They relied: “To look beautiful.”

At Salt Lick Lodge in Kenya, we were told to put down at the desk before retiring what animals we wanted to be awaken for if they came to the water hole. I put down: “Everything but mosquitoes.”

In the middle of the night someone was knocking at my door and shouting: “Elephants! Elephants!” I woke up not knowing where I was and wondered why someone was at my door hollering “Elephants! Elephants!” The hotel had an underground tunnel that led to a darkened bunker. No lights allowed. No flashlights. No Flashbulbs etc. Here you could watch the animals drink. At the bar they had a sign: “don’t bother the animals while drinking and vice versa”.

When we returned to the hotel from watching the animals, one of the couples suddenly realised that their small son was missing. Father and Mother had each thought the son was with the other. The hotel staff seemed concerned and said baboons sometimes attack small children. Don’t know if this is true or if we were being told this to make our Safari more exciting. By the way, safari just means trip. They organised us to form a line and to walk out into the bush as a search party. But before we got started someone went back to the dark bunker and found the child asleep in the corner.

Salt Lick Lodge is built up on poles so animals can walk under your lodge. There is a skull of an animal where you deposit your key. Skull of an elephant. The one that had been at my door.

We would leave each morning from some of the lodges to look for animals. The guides would use directions of the clock like “Lion at three O’ clock” to alert us where the animals were, but this one morning, we saw nothing. The terrain was rough and we had been driving and driving and driving. I thought I spotted something and thought I was being real professional when I said: “there is something at five O clock”. Someone dryly replied: “yeah, tea.”.

The Parks in South Africa were better organised than in Kenya, I thought. Kruger Park in South Africa is as large as Connecticut. You could drive anywhere in your Landrover in Kenya but had to stay on the road in Kruger.

In Swahili, a giraffe is called a Twiga, a leopard a Churi, a rhinoceros a Kikaru, an elephant an Oliphant, lion is called a Simba and Jambo means Hello.

Next month, Mac discusses Malaysia.

If you would like to contact Mac, he can be e-mailed on: macsan400@yahoo.com

If you enjoy writing, enjoy travelling, why not write for the free monthly Globetrotters e-newsletter! The Beetle would love to hear from you: your travel stories, anecdotes, jokes, questions, hints and tips, or your hometown or somewhere of special interest to you. Over 7,500 people subscribe to the .Globetrotters e-newsletter

To see your story in cyber print, e-mail the Beetle with your travel experiences, hints and tips or questions up to 750 words, together with a couple of sentences about yourself and a contact e-mail address to Beetle@globetrotters.co.uk

Derek, a retired UK diplomat, contacted the Beetle to say that all too often the controversy over whether or not to visit Burma tends to overlook the very important issue of whether the people of Burma themselves are happy to see and meet foreign tourists. Derek, who is to visit Burma again next month, has made a study of anecdotal reports of Burmese attitudes over the last five years – alas the sole source of information in the absence of credible opinion polls – and his conclusion is that the Burmese people themselves very much favour visits by tourists and travellers to their country by a margin of at least 10 to 1. We have reproduced a cut down version of his survey.

*****

Some travel correspondents say that on their visits they found it difficult, if not impossible to find any Burmese, even rank and file members of Daw Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, who were against tourism to their country, despite Daw Suu Kyi’s strictures. A “search” on Alta Vista for “Burma Travel Boycott” any evening will produce over 3,000 “hits”. A sample selection of reported Burmese views from these “hits” confirms my conclusion that the Burmese people generally really do want tourists and travellers to visit.

It is for many their main source of income, protection against the excesses of the military and an assurance that their plight may at least be witnessed by those who are sensitive observers. Travel and tourism indeed advance the cause of democracy.

My simple conclusion is that we should primarily be guided by the wishes and advice of the Burmese people , and not that of the UK Government whose policy is to “strongly discourage tourism to Burma” – FCO Minister Bill Rammell, 25 November 2003, speech on “Why Human Rights Matter” to the Institute for Public Policy Research.

Tourism is admittedly a source, but not, as another FCO Minister, Mike O’Brien stated in a letter on 14 July 2003 to the Chief Executive of ABTA, Ian Reynolds, “an important source” of hard currency for the SPDC. Net profits pale into insignificance against the US$ 2-3 billion purchases in recent years, mostly from China, of arms and military equipment. Most hotels are barely covering their operating costs. Remittances by tourist enterprises out of Burma of some US$ 25 million annually [IMF estimates] for essential payments punch quote a hole in US$ 100 million annual revenue. Local costs swallow up much of the balance. It is not credible to argue that tourism is in any serious sense helping to prop up the regime. It would do so if numbers increased tenfold, but this isn’t likely to happen for a very long time.

There is no doubt that Daw Suu Kyi would prefer tourists to delay visiting Burma. Over the years, she has advanced numerous reasons for not visiting Burma, some of which are not all that convincing, notably arguments about giving the regime “legitimacy” (while the UK accepts Burma as Myanmar at the UN and maintains full diplomatic relations, with an Ambassador in post), about “it’s better to stay at home and read some of the many human rights reports there are” (which is not perhaps the best way to experience and witness what is going on in Burma), about “the bulk of the money goes straight into the pockets of the Generals” (when revenue clearly goes to meeting operating expenses, debt, depreciation, transfer to reserves etc.), about “Burma will still be there when the time is ripe” (but not for octogenarian veterans of the Burma Campaign, while for scholars, linguists, ethnologists, Buddhist scholars and many others with specialist interests Burma has been a hermit kingdom ever since the military took over in 1962), about “we haven’t had time to discuss it [tourism policy] properly” at a news conference in May 2002 (which might leave some of us still wondering what NLD policy really is).

The tourist trade has been hard hit by the latest indiscriminate US sanctions which have led to the suspension of all credit card transactions in Burma and restrictions on the utilisation of the US Dollar. Quite soon, thousands of postcard sellers and stall holders, tourist guides, hotel staff and drivers will be joining the 80,000 or so textile workers who have been made unemployed.

No-one in Burma is making any serious money out of tourism at present, and what is the point of allocating beach land to cronies of the regime when there is no investment capital available to develop projects? Occasionally critics point to the Shangri-La Traders Hotel as an example of a Joint Venture which must be making money for the SPDC. They might be surprised to know that Traders Hotel has been in liquidation since 1999.

Tourism is about meeting people, and in the case of Burma letting the Burmese know that the outside world has not forgotten them.

Derek Tonkin

If you would like to contact Derek, he can be reached by e-mail as follows: d.tonkin@btopenworld.com