The new year kicked off with the usual 4 mini talks from club members. Dan Bachmann who took us to rural Romania and showed us horses still being used to bring wood out of the forests, how sheep are one of the mainstays of the economy, producing not just meat but also milk, which is so abundant that they even use it to do the washing up.

Neil Harris took us into Myanmar to show us wonders such as Pagan, now a UNESCO site because of its 200 pyres. Neil showed us pictures of monks, doing building work and listening to a walkman and another monastery that had cats jumping through hoops. We also saw the more expected sites including Inlay lake and the city of Mandalay.

After the break we headed further east as Steve Golding and Francesca Jaggs took us to Japan, they showed us the beauty of Miyajima and its floating Torri, Kamakura with its massive Buddha, the “Medicine Buddha” of Nara. On Shikoku we saw two sides of the island, pilgrims doing the 88 temples in a week and the very graphic Sex museum!

Last up was Globetrotters Legacy winner Marcin Dabek, who showed us his trip to South America. Not only did he see the sights but also worked on Organic farms staying with local families. Marcin also showed us Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni, the wonder of Iguasu falls and the rugged beauty of the Torres del Paine national park in Chile.

By Padmassana

Forthcoming meetings: Saturday 4th February 2006, Gavin Fernandes – Life and Death at Varanasi, a talk/slide show about this holy Indian city on the Ganges in 2001 shortly after the record breaking Khumb Mela Festival that year, where Gavin took the shot that won the TPOTY award and Alistair Humphreys – Round the World by Bike ( http://www.roundtheworldbybike.com ) 4 years, 46,000 miles, 60 countries, 5 continents in support of ” Hope and Homes for Children ”

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

Ryanair will soon make passengers who wish to travel with bags that weigh over 10kg (the weight limit for bags permitted as hand luggage) pay £5 per piece of checked luggage, or £2. 50 per bag if it has been registered in advance on the airline’s website – an initiative the budget airline claims will mean only 25 per cent of its passengers losing out financially. For those who have bags that weigh more than 20kg, there will be an excess baggage fee of £5. 50 per kg.

This means that for example, two people cannot share their luggage allowance. This is a u-turn to existing policy where Ryanair used to allow passengers travelling together to pool their baggage allowance. The move will penalise families with young children in particular, as children do not have a separate baggage allowance so their belongings must be included in their parents’ allowance.

For passengers travelling with hand luggage only, the new rules could be good news, as those in possession of an EU passport will now be able to check in online at www. ryanair. com , before going to the airport and will be eligible for priority boarding.

The charges will apply to bookings made after March 16.

Also from March 16, Ryanair will allow passengers to by-pass airport check-in if they have previously checked in on the carrier’s website. This service is available to EU passport holders travelling with hand luggage only and mirrors a similar recent move by smaller low-cost rival Flybe. These passengers will be given ‘priority boarding’ which will also reduce boarding gate queues. However, passengers checking in baggage on flights booked after March 16 will now pay a fee — 2. 50 stg (3. 50 eur) per bag, per flight, if booked in advance on the website, or 5. 0 stg (7. 00 eur) per bag, per flight, if presented unbooked at the airport.

Simultaneously, Ryanair is increasing each passenger’s luggage allowance from the current 25 kgs to 30 kgs — comprising 10 kgs carry-on and 20 kgs checked in luggage, a move it reckons will substantially reduce excess baggage fees.

Passengers who check-in on the web claiming hand luggage only but then turn up at the boarding gate with baggage will be sent back to the check-in desk and ‘fined’ £25.

We used to have meetings in New York City and New Braunfels, Texas . Regrettably, after having done a superb job, neither organisers are able to give their time to Globetrotter meetings. If you are based in New York or New Braunfels and have the time to commit to pick up where our previous organisers left off, we’d love to hear from you – please see our FAQ or contact our the Branch Liaison Officer via our Website at

Meeting FAQ

. If you are based elsewhere and are interested in starting a branch of the Globetrotters, please feel free to contact us.