The Globetrotters eNewsletter
eNewsletter Archive

Meeting news from our branches around the world.

June 2005: our first speaker today was John Gimlette,
whose talk was entitled “Theatre of Fish” and was
about Britain’s first colony, Newfoundland. John showed us
the capital, St John’s which is largely made of wood and has been known
to burn down occasionally! The houses, some of which are known as
Saltboxes can literally be picked up and moved. Fishing is still one of
the mainstays of the area, though locals are now restricted to catching
15 cod each per year, though most seem to get
“stuck” on 14 for some reason!

Our second speaker was Tim Mackintosh-Smith, who is
based in Yemen and came to tell us of his travels in the footsteps of
Ibn Battuta. Battuta made his journey over 670 years ago, leaving his
Moroccan home to travel the Middle East into Asia and eventually beat
Marco Polo to China. On his return he explored Muslim African lands
such as Mali. Tim is hoping very much that one day the finance will be
available to turn Ibn Battuta’s journey into a television series.

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

We are sorry to say that for the time being, New York
meetings are suspended as Laurie really needs a helper. If you have
some time to spare and are based in or near NYC, please contact Laurie
on the e-mail address below.

For details of forthcoming meetings email newyork@globetrotters.co.uk
or register for email 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.

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.

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.

Due to bereavement in Christina’s family, we regret to
say that Texas meetings have stopped pending further notice. If you
have time to spare and would like to take over Texas meetings, please
contact the Beetle on: beetle@globetrotters.co.uk

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 10,000 people currently subscribe to the Globetrotter e-news.

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

It was with a sense of relief rather than rather than
elation or sadness, that I escaped London. First stop was Singapore.
The weather here in Singapore has been horrendous - extremely hot,
around 34 degrees centigrade each day with 100% humidity, but grey and
overcast skies. The newspapers say the overcast weather is as a result
of air pollution from forest fires in Indonesia. I’m not so
sure, maybe it is that but also the amount of exhaust fumes in
Singapore too. It’s not like you can sit by the pool and enjoy the sun.
I was extremely jet lagged and pretty much non functioning for the
first three days - never had jet lag this bad before and could only
manage to grab around four hours sleep each day starting at 6am
Singapore time which was not good at all!

I’ve been here many times before and enjoy
its company. It’s spotlessly clean, technologically advanced
in a way Europe is not – for example, wi-fi hot spots all
over the city, there’s very little crime, you don’t
see gangs of hooded youths hanging around the place, its transport
system is by far and away the best I’ve ever encountered and
there seems to be plenty to do. If you are a shopper, the place is an
absolute delight – shops routinely open until 9pm and
sometimes later. It’s not all built up commercialism, there
are rawer, grittier edges such as Little India, and there are a
surprising number of green places, you just have to seek them out.
There are plenty of coffee shops, and my favourite place to hang out
was the Coffee Bean next to the IT Funan mall, a place to cater for any
type of electronic goods, especially computers. Food is great, with a
wide choice from food courts usually to be found on the top floor of
the shopping malls, or supermarkets, usually in the basements of
shopping malls, street food, food cooked in the open air at hawker
centres, or a wide range of restaurants from the quick and cheap to
real top notch stuff.

Singapore is a tiny place with a lot of people
– around 4.2 million people and 800,000 non residents i.e.
foreigners in 647.5 sq km making it a pretty densely populated country.
The population make up is around 76% Chinese, 15% Malay, 6% Indian.
Languages spoken include English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil.

Would it be a good place to settle and live and work? I
don’t know. I’ve spoken to many people who have
worked in Singapore; great standard of living - over 92% of
Singaporeans own their own home, and over 91% have a mobile phone,
which incidentally work on the MRT, deep in underground tunnels,
there’s good housing and an excellent (private i.e. paid for)
health care system. It’s very easy to get about, which is
just as well, as owning a car is horrendously expensive and a very
complicated procedure.

Downside, it can get very claustrophobic –
it’s small and samey - and many people say that they leave
the islands at least once a month, just to get away – but at
least it is well placed to hop over to other places. Close by is
Malaysia, just a short drive across the bridge to Johor Bahru.
There’s also Indonesia, many of whose islands can be reached
by ferry from Singapore. Places like mainland Indonesia, Thailand, Hong
Kong, Borneo, Bali are just short plane trips away, which have got to
be a good thing in my book.

Then there’s the single female syndrome. Many
of my friends who know Singapore well have warned me that it is very
hard for expat women to find a partner. The expat men, it seems, are
pursued by local women at every turn (so I’m told) and also
that expat women generally don’t fancy or hook up with local
men. Who knows!

I have to say, the idea of living and working in
Singapore does appeal, perhaps on a short term basis, maybe a couple of
years, but the culture is decidedly different from Europe,
it’s so technologically advanced, safe, clean and ordered.
Maybe too ordered. One of the things I liked about London was its
cultural diversity, not just ethnic diversity, but the different ways
people dressed, the different languages, different ways of living.
I’m not sure I would find that here.

And of course, there’s the issue of finding
work here. It proved quite hard. If you are a foreigner, you need to
have an employment pass EP to be eligible to work. But, you need an
offer of work to get an EP. Hhhmmm. Chicken and egg. Large companies
will sponsor you and I understand that the process of getting an EP
through this route has been much simplified, but even so, you have to
find a willing employer who would see you in the first instance,
without an EP and then be such an outstanding candidate, that they will
employ you. And don’t get me wrong, the standard of education
in Singapore is excellent, and there is a pool of good and well
qualified people in Singapore. So it’s a tricky one, but an
appealing idea to pursue.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Many people have lived through life defining events.
Some remember where they were and what they were doing when John F
Kennedy died. I’m not old enough for that, but mine first
happened when I was a student preparing breakfast in my bedsit when I
heard on the radio that John Lennon had been shot in December 1980.

But these events get uglier and uglier – the
next event in my psyche being 9/11. My friend Sally in Portugal texted
me to tell me to turn on the TV immediately when I saw the ghastly
replay over and over that has never left me of the planes’
last flights. Then on December 26^th the tsunami
hit in SE Asia. I was diving in Sulawesi, Indonesia when the tsunami
hit. I was numb, along with hundreds of thousands of people in
Indonesia and around the world.

On Thursday 7^th July, I was in
my room, on line and I received a travel newsflash e-mail that started
to unfold the events of today 7th July 2005: central London has been
rocked by a coordinated and calculated series of terrorist attacks. It
feels surreal. I’m thousands of miles away, a seven hours
time difference, but this, London, is my home, where I live(d). I even
shed a few tears as I watched the BBC World news broadcasts during the
day. Yes, I know I said that I had fallen out of love with London, but
now it seems that this has shown to me that my loyalties still very
much lie in London, with my friends, the place, physically, the streets
I know so well, the buses I complained about, (the number 30 I used to
take, one of which was bombed,) the tubes I griped about. I’m
sure all of our thoughts go out to the people of London and those
injured and killed by the blasts.

Might you be the type that goes somewhere new and ends
up only seeing the designated and well known tourist sites? There is,
of course, nothing wrong with that , as it is actually a pretty good
way to get acquainted with a place. But it’s also nice to experience
the natural perspective; to get to know the origins of a place and see
how it was, even before development. Sydney, the largest city in the
Southern Hemisphere, is a superb place to do this, and all by using
public transport to boot. Sydney is surrounded by incredible and
historic National Parks, and wonderful walking trails right around the
gorgeous harbour. You can spend 2 weeks hiking around Sydney and
surrounds and not need a car to get to any of them.

Start in Sydney’s south at the Royal National
Park, the 2nd oldest national park in the world, after Yellowstone. On
Sunday’s you can take the train to Loftus station and then get a tram
right into the park. It’s a short walk from the tram to the visitor’s
centre, where maps and information about trails are provided.

There are 3-4 wonderful trails that lead right out from
the visitor’s centre and take you along differing and beautiful vistas.
Some of the views are breathtaking and at the same time let you imagine
a Sydney before high-rises and a sprawling suburbia.

Some trails are challenging, but there is something for everyone and
you can spot many native animals in their natural habitat (just steps
from the visitor’s centre we spotted a Lyre bird, several rainbow
lorikeets and rosellas, white cockatoos as well as the more rare black
variety). It is quite calming listening to all the sounds of the bush
and to know that in one hour you can be back in the city centre and be
shopping in some of the best stores and eating in the best restaurants.
Available too are hire boats to row on the lake, picnic areas and a
place to buy a meat pie, should all that walking make you hungry for
some good Aussie tucker.

You can also get a train north of the city to Mt.
Kuringah Chase National Park and walk to the trail from the local train
station (we also saw several birds there and a very tame Kookaburra
that came right up to us). Although rare, you should always be wary of
snakes and spiders, but all the trails are well defined and often used.

It’s also good to know the Harbour foreshore and most beaches now have
wonderful walking trails as well. You can walk from Darling Harbour,
around The Rocks and Circular Quay and around to Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair
and Darlinghurst along one trail and take the ferry to Taronga Zoo on
the other side and walk still another trail there.

Or you can catch the ferry to Manly and get information
at their visitor’s centre about several hikes in that area, including
one to North Head.

The beaches on the south side of the city also have
long walks that can take you past several other beaches. There is a
famous one that starts at Bondi beach (accessible by bus and train) and
goes south past several famous beaches with spectacular views. It even
passes a famous and surprisingly impressive cemetery on the cliffs.

A train to Kogarah, a bus to Sans Souci and a walk
along the coast of Botany Bay for several miles will take you to
Rockdale and beyond.

Another can’t miss beach is Cronulla in the city’s
south. It isn’t as well known as Bondi or Manly but many like it better
and say it’s more beautiful. Take the train right there and walk south
past more gorgeous beaches like Shelly Beach. From Cronulla, catch a
ferry to Bundeena. There are several miles of trails there that go past
breathtaking beaches, through incredible bush land, along awesome
cliffs and even past Aboriginal rock carvings. You get the point. Along
most of these walks you experience the incredible natural beauty of
Sydney, see beautiful and unique wildlife, experience Australia’s rich
history and get an amazing workout, all for the price of a bus, train
or ferry ticket.

If you are willing to venture 2-3 hours out of the city
you can visit the Blue Mountains National Park. There you take a train
and then a local bus drops you off at the trail heads. You can spend
all day walking the different trails here, taking in the truly
delicious views, including the famous three sisters rock formation.
Consider staying in Katoomba overnight and exploring more of the park
the next day.

Everything is very easy to get to and there is ample
information at visitor’s centres, tourist information centres or even
the airport or hotels. Of course the Internet is a good way to print
out trail and park maps or even bus and rail schedules.

So you can’t limit yourself in Sydney even if you
wanted to. Sydney’s natural wonders are just as rewarding, enjoyable
and accessible as are its traditional attractions. Happy hiking.

Independent travel in Europe - Seven Secrets for Success by Karen Bryan

One: Do not try to see and do too much.

You may end up actually seeing very little. I think it
is better to see more of fewer countries/regions and see them properly.
You may not want to stay in one location for your whole trip. However
if you choose carefully it may be possible to do several day trips from
one central location. If you do decide to tour, consider spending at
least two nights in some of your destinations. It can be quite tiring
being on the move every day, packing and unpacking.

Two: Decide on mode of transport.

Driving will give you more flexibility but can be
daunting at times and is not recommended if you mainly wish to visit
cities. You may decide to take your own car if you live in Europe. If
you fly you can hire a car. Beware of extra charges for additional
drivers, insurance excesses, airport charges, out of hours charges etc.
I always book a hire car through a UK company, with no excess.

If you use a budget airline try to only book direct
flights. If you book a two leg journey, the budget airlines will not
assist you, as they only operate a point to point service. Public
transport is pretty good in most of Europe. There are also several
budget airlines you can use between countries e.g. Ryanair and Easyjet.

Three: Be aware of security of possessions.

Use a money belt, hotel safe etc. Do not have all your
money/cards in one purse or wallet. If you lose it you are in trouble.
This happened to me when I was in Milan: I was travelling alone and was
left penniless. My credit card company did transfer funds to me but it
took 24 hours! I had to borrow 10 euros from the hotel receptionist.
Make sure you have travel insurance and if there is an incident get a
written report from the local police station, to enable you to make a
claim. Four: Try to learn at least a few words of the language.

This will be greatly appreciated. My French is what you
might describe as school girl (that was 25 years ago) but I do try when
in France. Often I receive the reply in English but at least I tried. I
always apologise if I cannot speak the language. I don’t assume that
the person I am talking to should speak English, I ask in their
language if they speak English. As I do have a Scottish accent, I try
to speak more slowly and clearly than usual, certainly not raising my
voice.

Five: Don’t be too structured.

You should allow some time just to wander around, enjoy
a leisurely lunch. You do have to plan an itinerary, or you can just
waste a lot of time, but it doesn’t have to be written in stone! Allow
yourself the opportunity to be spontaneous.

Six: Don’t just stick to tourist traps.

Try to visit some authentic local restaurants, markets,
villages, etc. where you will meet local people, rather than just other
tourists. Surely part of the reason for going abroad it to experience
at least a little of the local flavour, not just spend all your time
with other tourists.

Seven: Book your accommodation in advance.

This may mean that you miss out on a charming
establishment you come across in your travels, (you could always stay
there on your other trip). However it will mean that you don’t waste
precious time going from hotel to hotel trying to find a room, having
to arrive early enough at your next destination to look for
accommodation. I am not even convinced that you save money by last
minute searches.

Karen Bryan is an independent travel consultant and
writer, specialising in less well known destinations in Europe. Her
websites are: www.europealacarte.co.uk,
www.europe-culture-activity-tours.com/

My name is Greg McKenzie
and I’m currently taking a break from earning a living to do something
which has festered in the back of my mind for a while now - a major
motorcycle trip.

I’m going to ride the length of the Americas south to
north, starting January 2005. I’ll be visiting friends on the way and
hopefully making some new ones too. I anticipate it will take me
six-months - but in truth, I don’t know and more than that, I don’t
care! I’ve taken many road-trips before - often on the bike, sometimes
in a car - very often to the south of France, occasionally further a
field. But these have been mere appetisers - building an appetite to
embark on this one big adventure.

Up until now now, I’ve never ridden into the sunset
without knowing when I need to be back. The timetable of work, annual
leave and mortgage payments dictating my thoughts, attitude and agenda.

The broad plan is to visit the southern most town in
the world (Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego) and riding to the northern most
point of the north American landmass (Deadhorse, Alaska).

This is the plan :

• PART 1: Ride to as far south as you can get (Ushuaia
  - 55deg SOUTH)
• PART 2: turn around and head as far north as you can
  go (Deadhorse - 74deg NORTH)

There’s beauty in simplicity! What could be easier? So
this is the ambition and the basis of the preparation.

FIRST LEG - South America

I land
in Buenos Aries, Argentina on 21st January 2005,
briefly travelling north to visit Montivideo, Uruguay
before turning south heading for Ushuaia, just short of Cape Horn.

I then turn north again trek around Patagonia, based
out of Punta Natales, Chile and continue on through
Santiago and the Atacama desert into Bolivia.
Across the border into Peru and head north again to
Quito, Ecuador.

SECOND LEG - Central and North America

The bike will be flown to Panama
from where I’ll continue heading north through Costa Rica,
Nicaragua, Honduras and Mexico.

I intend to visit the Baja peninsula for
some sea-kayaking and more trekking before continuing up into the USA
stopping at Los Angeles and San Francisco on the way.

Across the border into British Columbia, Canada
and on towards Anchorage, Alaska. From Fairbanks I’ll take the 400 mile
solitary road towards Deadhorse and the the Arctic Ocean.

The bike is all set to go but it needs to go to
Liverpool (!?!) to get a Dangerous Goods Certificate, basically means
somebody checks that I’ve drained the petrol and disconnected the
battery.

My flight is booked for Thursday 20th Jan with Iberia -
I’ll arrive in B.A. late night on the 20th. I’ve booked a swanky hotel,
if only to ensure I can get some English speaking help for picking the
bike up. There’s a bunch of stuff that was intended but hasn’t
happened, but I’m keen to get under way.

YE-HAW…….arrived in Buenos Aires 11.30pm on 20th
Jan. The adventure begins!!!

The last couple of weeks before I left were
manic..suddenly the motivation is get things done increased remarkably
as the deadline sharpened.

Departure day was mighty long..after a few quenching
ales the night before, I was left to pack the gear until 2am. Then up
at 4.30am to catch the connecting flight to Madrid . Buenos Aires is
minus 3 hours to GMT so the beer in the Hotel Nogaro tasted so
goooooood!!!!

Despite the beer enhanced pack-job, I haven’t noticed
anything missing. I even remembered to bring the bike keys!!

Initial thoughts on Argentina and Buenos Aires are
great. People are friendly, prices are incredibly cheap, the food is
copious and great quality (steak and red wine - perfect for a gout
sufferer as myself) and the city easy to navigate. The taxi driver
drove like like a nutter from the airport and he didn’t stand out (!)
so looks like I’ll be right at home.

This morning I swapped the rather average
hotel breakfast for a much better offering from a café on
Plaza del Mayo. Coffee so think it could stand for election. A few
photo´s are attached below to get a flavour of the city. In
truth I´m still seeing the parts of B.A. that some Minister
of Tourism encourages us to see. Despite taking a stroll away from the
tourist / shopping centre today towards the more
´bohemian´ San Telmo barrio this afternoon (lots of
shaded cobbled streets and quaint antique shops) I´m still on
the tourist trail I think.

The bike arrived in one piece - good. I´m
getting restless already. If things go to plan I´ll be on the
road on Tuesday (25th).

If you want to know more about Greg’s
travels, visit his website at: http://www.unbeatentrack.com/