Regular contributor Mac had some thoughts on hearing that The Ant is stepping into the Beetle’s very large shoes…

First there was the Beetle that for years kept the E Mail Globetrotters Letter going and what a job and now there is the Ant. I had to smile at the names.  The Beetle has for years been over kind to me printing travel nonsense and stuff from suitcases of travel notes from 83 years… in and out of the military service. It is an end of an era unless you can persuade her to contribute some in the future about her travels when she has time to travel and you can use anything she gives you.  I am grateful for all the kindnesses she has shown me. At my age I am constantly losing friends but usually to death, this time it is to a kind of retirement. Never let anyone else use the title The Beetle. I don’t know what I am saying but golly she sure kept the Globetrotter going for years. Maybe we could make a statue of the Beetle or something.

For all your kindness and good stories Beetle… a plenty. Mac

macsan400@yahoo.com  

“MADRID, Dec 11 (Reuters Life!) – A charity calendar sold by Ireland’s low-cost airline Ryanair showing its air hostesses in skimpy bikinis demeans women and breaks the law, a Spanish consumer group said on Tuesday. The Ryanair 2008 calendar called “The Girls of Ryanair” has photos of air hostesses posing in and outside of planes, dressed in bikinis rather than their normal blue suits. April’s hostess is Nicola from London Stansted, who is wearing only bikini bottoms, with her breasts covered by a lifejacket. “Miss July” — Edita from Marseille — reclines backwards over a wheel with a wrench in her hand and grease on her body.

“The company is attacking the dignity of women workers in general and especially of cabin crew members, by presenting stereotypical images of these professionals which they have spent years struggling against”, Spanish consumer group FACUA said in a statement. Ryanair, which is selling the calendar for five 5 pounds ($10) and giving the proceeds to the children’s charity Angels Quest, was not immediately available for comment.

FACUA has complained about the calendar and its promotional material to Spain’s Women’s Institute, which is part of the Labour Ministry, and to the National Consumer Institute.”

Read the full article at http://in.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idINL1111819420071211

“Ryanair has come bottom of an online Irish shopping survey, despite being named one of the most efficient airlines in Europe by the Association of European Airlines. On Friday, the airline topped the European organisation’s newly released league table, which assessed airlines based on punctuality and the number of bags lost. Despite this good performance in Europe, Ryanair’s website, Ryanair.com, finished in last place in a separate survey of consumer practises at 25 online firms by Irish internet consultancy firm AMAS.”

Read the full article at

Travel websites are among the worst for online customer service, according to new research from Transversal. The travel industry came joint worst along with telecoms, insurance, consumer electronics, grocers and utilities in a survey of 10 sectors. Although travel websites have improved their ability to respond to holidaymakers’ basic questions in the last year, 60% of questions remain unanswered. Travel websites that offer email customer service options took an average of 58 hours to respond, which is only eight hours better than corresponding research carried out in 2006. Transversal monitored 10 leading UK travel companies by phone, web and email as part of its third annual customer service research.

“Despite the enormous growth in the online channel, across all sectors, our research shows that consumers are still suffering from substandard online service”, said Davin Yap, CEO, Transversal.

Read the full article at http://www.travelmole.com/stories/1124662.php?mpnlog=1

The Globetrotters Club would like to wish all our eNewsletter readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The eNewsletter will be returning in the early 2008, until then why not read some of our most popular articles from past issues.

1. Murder and Horses by Daniel Wallace
2. The Beetle Goes Diving in the Similan Islands
3. Meeting News from London
4. Mac’s Travel Reminiscences
5. Rio de Janeiro ‘Cidade Maravilhosa’ or ‘Reasons to be cheerful in Rio’ by Tony Annis

Continue reading Season's greetings from the Globetrotters Club →

December 2007 London Meeting

At our last London meeting before Christmas, we were treated to two excellent talks.

David Waldman told us about his trip to visit the Nandi of the Rift Valley in Kenya. Inspired to visit by athletes such as Kip Keno, David wanted to discover why this pocket of Kenya has produced over 50% of the long distance running world championship and Olympic medal winners since the 1960’s.

David discovered that running is not just a hobby or a sport, but an occupation, a possible escape from the poverty where those not gifted to run do jobs like breaking rocks or selling tomatos for $3 a day. Despite having no facilities at all, David found whole families who can all run world class marathon times. The runners do a 20km run in the mornings and another 10Km at night, their gym if you can call it that is a rock attached to either end of a metal bar. “Train hard, win easy” is their motto.

Those that make it to Europe can make more money from one race than the average Kenyan makes in a lifetime. They return to buy some land, build a house and farm, though once their running days are over many unfortunately descend into alcoholism. David had set out with the idea that there is a genetic reason for the running dominance, without doubt the altitude helps, but from early on they are out rounding up their cattle, they are doing the sheepdogs job.

And when a neighbouring village come to steal cattle they literally run after them with bows and arrows. There seems to be some degree of natural selection too, those that can run get the girls and produce more runners, the rest remain on the shelf.

Our second speaker was Jo Huxster, who should have been joined by Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent, who was ill. “Tuk to the road” was the story of Jo and Ants 12,500 mile, 12 countries in 14 week trip by Tuk Tuk from Bangkok to Brighton in aid of the Charity MIND.

Anyone who has taken a ride in one of these vehicles around an asian city will know it can be a bum numbing experience. Jo got the idea a couple of years previously while on holiday in Thailand.This was not going to be any old Tuk Tuk though, this was a custom built bright pink Tuk Tuk, which they christened Ting Tong, which actually means “crazy” in Thai.

They had decided on the northern route, via Laos, China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Germany and Belgium. So on 28th May 2006 they set off from Bangkok, crossing the Mekong into Laos, once the paperowrk issues had been resolved. Once in China a slight hitch occured when they discovered they were not allowed on the nice fast dual carriageways, instead they had to use what amounted to cart tracks which ran frustratingly alongside the main roads.

They had to race across China, as they only had a set amount of visa time, Jo particularly enjoyed the drive across the Gobi Desert. They had been fretting about the Kazakh border, but two girls in a pink Tuk tuk got taken to the front of the queue and they were soon crossing the green Kazakh countryside, one day they had to cover over 700Km as there was nothing inbetween. On their map the Kazakh M36 road to Russia was a nice fat red line, however the reality turned out to be one a track dirt road through fields.

The Russian police broke all records for pulling them over, they were stopped 35 times in 2 weeks! Ting Tong stood up to its journey quite well, however the shock absorbers that had taken 10 Chinese all night to repair broke again, but luckily a Ukranian mechanic was able to do the job on his own in a couple of hours, so they were soon on their way again. Once they crossed into the EU it was a case of pedal to the metal and head home, via the Channel Tunnel, arriving in Brighton on 3rd September. Globies raised in excess of £100 in a collection for MIND at the meeting.

If you want to learn more about Jo’s trip, buy the book or donate to the charity you can visit their website http://www.tuktotheroad.co.uk

By Padmassana

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) 020 8674 6229, or visit the website: www.globetrotters.co.uk

November 2007 London Meeting

Our first speaker was Phil Koniotes who took us to southern Africa to see the vaired wildlife, particularly the bird life of the area. Phil and his wife Linda took in parts of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia on their trip. Phil explained that to see the animals and birds at such close quarters they had to endure long hard days of travel to remote areas, this included what Phil described as one of the most boring bits of road on the planet, the Caprivi strip. But it was worth it for the wonderful photos of Fish Eagles, snorkelling Elephants and an extremely close up picture of a Hippo.Their trip was not all hardship, after flying into the Okovango Delta they stayed in tents with en-suites and enjoyed floodlit evenings by the side of waterholes.

Our second speaker was Jules Stewart whose talk was called Spying for the Raj. This was the fascinating story of how the Himalayas were mapped, during the period of The Great Game. The Pundits were trained in the art of taking an even stride length, whatever the terrain before being sent out to measure distances using sets of Mala beads to keep count, with 8 removed to make an even 100. The Pundits would be gone for up to 4 years before returning with their information.

By Padmassana

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) 020 8674 6229, or visit the website: www.globetrotters.co.uk