The Globetrotters eNewsletter
eNewsletter Archive

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.

In the India train schedule they have all these comments on leprosy.

1. Deformity does not mean infectivity.

2. Leprosy affects all faiths (Me. Surely not Catholics)

3. Any doctor can treat leprosy

(I have three suitcases full of notes I have taken about travel, military,
yes, three suitcases. I have to get rid of some of the notes. Guess where I am
sending them? Ha!

One Sign in restaurant: do not spit

Do not make nuisance

(Indians use this word nuisance often in their signs. Always reminding you
to not make a nuisance of yourself (bad form)

One sign reads Deshi chicken eggs 20 rupees

English eggs 12 rupees

I was told English eggs mean the chickens were imported from England.
Perhaps the eggs are smaller than Indian chickens.

They have a neat way of presenting your bill in Indian restaurants (even
budget ones.) It is put in a folder that looks like a leather stationary folder
which you open to look at the bill and no one else can see the amount of your
bill. You then put the money in the stationary folder and close it. If you are
host no one sees the bill and also they don’t see how little you leave as
a tip inside the folder. I, of course like the system.

Sign in store: Vacancy for peon.

The different color turbans the Sikhs wear have no religious significance or
other meaning. They can wear whatever color they wish. The man telling me this
said he was wearing a black one because he was wearing a black suit.

Next month, Mac discusses Kenya. If you would like to contact Mac, he
can be e-mailed on: "mailto:macsan400@yahoo.com">macsan400@yahoo.com

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The Foreign Office is urging travellers to avoid all
non-essential travel to major Turkish cities following November’s bomb
attacks in Istanbul which killed at least 27 people, including three
British citizens, and injured 450.

Updated advice on the Foreign and Commonwealth website ( "http://www.thisistravel.co.uk/travel/standard/frame.html?in_bottom=http://www.fco.gov.uk"
target="_new">www.fco.gov.uk) now reads: 'There is a high threat from
terrorism in Turkey. We urge you to be vigilant in all parts of the country,
and especially in the vicinity of potential terrorist targets.

'We advise against all but the most essential travel to Istanbul and
other major cities, until the situation becomes clearer.'

The Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking on David
Frost’s BBC programme, responded to FCO advice by insisting his country
is safe for anyone to visit.

A tour company in Kuala Lumpur are offering a tour on Asian ghosts, spirits
and superstitions. It costs US $44 and starts at the site where more than
a decade ago, a terrible triple murder occurred in Bangsar in Malaysia.
Two children and their maid were killed by a security guard who had just
started work that day at the expatriate’s home. The guard was
caught, tried, sentenced to death and hanged in 2002. The tour takes in
an Indian temple, a Chinese cemetery, a prison, old railway station and a
den. For those of you who would like more info, see: "http://www.ez2pr.com/Tourinfo.htm">KL Ghost and Spook Tour

Malaysia’s Petronas Towers used to be the world’s tallest
buildings. Taiwan intends to top this (groan… with a 508-metre
(1,667-feet) tower, the Taipei 101 which is expected to be completed in
November 2004. No inauspicious activities have been spared – feng
shui and geomancy experts have been called in. The $1.7 billion
skyscraper is meant to resemble a bamboo stalk, known for its sturdiness and
vigour. It will have 101 storeys and will house the Taiwan Stock Exchange
and offices for 12,000 people. There are plans for the world’s
fastest lifts: 34 double-decker shuttles that can reach speeds of 60 km/h (37
mph) and take passengers to the 90^th floor in less than 39
seconds. Wow! That will be some tourist attraction in its own
right!

With effect from Thursday 13 November, entry clearance will become mandatory
for nationals of the ten phase one countries and all work permit holders
(except for nine EU accession countries) who wish to stay in the UK for more
than six months.

Nationals of Australia, Canada, Hong Kong (SAR passports), Japan, Malaysia,
New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea and the USA will require
entry clearance before travelling for all stays in the UK of longer than six
months.

The entry clearance requirement will also apply to all work permit holders
staying for more than six months, with the exception of the nine non-visa
national EU accession countries (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary,
Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland and Slovenia).

For more information, see: "http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1006977150250&a=KArticle&aid=1067969086264">
UK Visas

Ratu Filimoni Wawabaluva, a chief from Navosa, on the Fijian island of Viti
Levu, has announced that a traditional apology ceremony is to be held to
apologise 136 years after their ancestors killed and ate a British
missionary.

Fiji were once known as “Cannibal Isles”. At the time, it
is said that one local boasted after scoffing the Rev Thomas Baker, from
Playden, East Sussex, in 1867: “We ate everything but his boots.”
The Rev. Baker’s descendants were invited to the ceremony. Some
residents of Navosa believe they have been cursed with bad luck since their
ancestors ate the Rev Thomas Baker. Accounts differ on how he came to be
eaten, with one version being that he broke a taboo by touching a chief’s
hair to take out a comb.

An archivist at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies said
that the story could be a myth saying: “It seems Baker got caught up in
some sort of inter-tribal feuding relating to his right to travel across the
island.”

A spokesman for the London Missionary Society, which sent dozens of
missionaries to the South Pacific, said Baker’s was “not an unusual
story”. Another missionary made a “similar cultural error” in
Papua New Guinea around the same time and was also eaten.