The Globetrotters eNewsletter MEETING NEWS
Tuesday, February 28th, 2006Meeting news from around the world
Archive for February, 2006
Meeting News from London by Padmassana
Tuesday, February 28th, 2006
Our first speaker was Gavin Fernandes, who showed us life
and death at Varanassi. Daily life including everything from
bathing, praying, meditating and funerals taking place on the
ghats by the side of the river. We saw ash covered saddhus and
Bollywood films being made. Gavin also showed us the Kumb Mela,
(a grand Hindu Festival and Ceremony, taking place every four
years,) where millions of pilgrims go for a dip to cleanse their
sins in the Ganges. Gavin got to know some of the Saddhus who
allowed him to take photos in return for some copies for
themselves.
After the break our second speaker was Alistair Humphreys,
who took four and a half years to cycle round the world, covering
over 46,000 miles in the process. His route taking him via
Europe, Middle East, Africa, by boat to Rio, from where he took a
bus down to the tip of South America so that he would be able to
say he had cycled the whole way up to Alaska. He took a ship to
Siberia and cycled through temperatures of minus 40 in Russia,
then down through Japan and along the great wall of China, then
back though central Asia, disappointingly having to miss Iran
because of visa problems. 46,000 miles over four and a half years
condensed into 45 minutes for Globetrotters, well done Alistair.
By Padmassana
Forthcoming meetings:
-
Saturday 4th March, Jane Robinson - “The
Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands” and
Neville Shulman OBE –Climbing the Equator -
Saturday 1st April (no joke!), Jonathon Kaplan
- “A surgical Sojourn in the Mountains of Iraqi
Kurdistan” and Anne Mustoe — “The
Amber Route”
Full Details can be found on the website
Meeting Page.
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:
Overseas Meetings
Tuesday, February 28th, 2006
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
FAQ. If you are based elsewhere and are interested in
starting a branch of the Globetrotters, please feel free to
contact us.
Meeting News from Ontario
Tuesday, February 28th, 2006
For information on Ontario meetings, please contact Svatka
Hermanek:
or Bruce Weber: tel. 416-203-0911 or Paul Webb: tel.
416-694-8259.
Meetings and travel presentations are held on the 3rd Friday in
January, March, May (4th Friday), September and November at the
Old York Tower, 85 The Esplanade (SouthEast corner of The
Esplanade & Church) - two blocks east of the Union station.
Public parking garage is at the foot of Church Street right next
to the Old York Tower at 8.00 p.m.
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Tuesday, February 28th, 2006
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Padmassana Visits Lebanon
Tuesday, February 28th, 2006
On Christmas Eve I flew from London to Beirut on BA and landed
during a spectacular thunderstorm. I managed to get in for free
after buying a visa at the airport bank for $18, the immigration
man said it's free today, go, and get your money back, so we
did! By total coincidence, the next morning the first person I
saw at breakfast was Katerina, a fellow Globetrotter from London!
alt="Sidon castle" title="Sidon castle" class="pic" hspace="12"
align="left" />I was part of an organised tour of the Lebanon and
there were 10 of us. We left Beirut on Xmas day and headed south
via the Corniche to the port city of Sidon. On the way we passed
near to the sports complex behind which there are massive Shatila
and Shabra Palestinian refugee camps, where the massacres in the
1980's happened. In Sidon we visited the Caravanserai where
there is a collection of photographs showing the hours leading up
to and the assassination of president Hariri in February 2005;
the devastation from the 350kg car bomb has to be seen to be
believed.
Also in Sidon we saw the Crusader castle which is reached by a
stone bridge across the sea. The castle is well preserved and
there are lots of towers and ramparts to explore, though at lower
levels of the castle we had to avoid the massive waves that were
breaking over the castle. In Sidon we also visited, the market
and the soap museum, which is quite interesting.
Our next stop was the drive up into the Chouf mountains to Deir
el Qamar to our Auberge, a lovely place to stay run by an
eccentric old French lady who had a roaring log fire, just as
well as it was very cold. Our Christmas dinner was a meze: loads
of meat and bread, etc, very nice, and no sheep's eye balls
to be seen. (My mother had predicted a Christmas dinner of
sheep's eye balls)!
alt="chouf mountains" title="chouf mountains" class="pic"
hspace="12" align="right" />
We had planned to go walking in the Cedar forest, but the rain in
Beirut had been 3ft of snow in the mountains so that was
abandoned. The snowy trip over the mountains into the Bekaa
valley was precarious and our driver had to be careful not to hit
parked vehicles that you couldn't see as they were buried in
snow. On the other side of the mountains we visited the Ummayad
ruins at Anjar which borders Syria, but again it was raining, so
we saw the main buildings and temples, but it was too cold too
really take our time, so after a chicken shawarma and chips it
was up into “Hezbollahville”, aka Baalbeck, famous for
its fantastic ruins.
Our hotel was right opposite the ruins, and pretty spectacular
they are too. We had a local guide to take us round, as Baalbeck
is quite a big place, and also home to Hezbolah. There were
yellow signs showing a fist with a Kalashnikov all over the place
and local people try to sell you Hezbolah flags and t-shirts and
there are people collecting for the cause. I had a wander around
Baalbeck in the evening, a nice place and despite those that run
it, it was not in the least threatening, bought some sweets off
an ex-Australian Lebanese who called me “mate”!
alt="Baalbeck" title="Baalbeck" class="pic" hspace="12"
align="left" />
We were supposed to go straight to the Qadisha valley from
Baalbeck, but because of the holiday weekend we had not visited
Beit Eddin, due to it being Christmas day on the Sunday and the
day off for public building employees on the Monday. Beit Eddin
is a fantastic palace, very much in the style of the Alhambra in
Granada, lovely architecture, beautiful fountains and gardens. We
had to make quite a detour to this, but it was well worth it, we
then skirted back around Beirut and then up to Byblos on the
coast.
Byblos or Jbail to give it its proper name has some nice Roman
ruins and a castle. It was also where our guide Nasim lives so as
there were only 10 of us we went round his house for tea and
cakes with his sister and Father, which was nice. During that
night the PFLP (Peoples Front for the Liberation of Palestine)
lobbed a couple of Katusha rockets over the border into Israel, a
while later 30 miles south of us the Israeli air force bombed a
Palestinian camp in South Beirut, we heard “something”
in the night but didn't find out what had happened until the
next morning.
Went next to Tripoli, a lovely old city by the sea, fantastic
castle to clamber over, ramparts giving great views with sheer
drops off the side, in Europe there
alt="Tripoli market" title="Tripoli market" class="pic"
hspace="12" align="right" />would be “Don't climb the
ramparts” signs and a huge big fence to stop you, not in
Lebanon, go where you like and we did.
Then went down into the market great fun eating hot bread
straight from the bakers. We got into the big mosque too. I love
the architecture of these places, the girls with us were given
all covering pink robes, looked like a day out for the KKK or a
bunch of druids at the Solstice. Then we drove into the mountains
to Bcharre, home to the writer/painter Gibran. His stuff is not
my kind of thing and there's no chance of it ever touring
Saudi Arabia or Iran as nobody in his pictures has a stitch on
and as for what they are getting up to…..After a quick look
round we came out and built a snowman and had a snowball fight!
alt="Byblos" title="Byblos" class="pic" hspace="12"
align="left" />We spent the night in an Hermitage called St
Elysee, whose back wall is actually the rock of the mountain
behind. To get to the place we had to go down a steep mountain
road that was a sheet of ice - which was exhilarating, but the
next day we had to come out by the same way and ended up using
snow chains and taking runs at bends to get round them. We were
also supposed to do a walk here, but were forewarned about the 12
inches of mud and 2 ft of snow by another group that had tried
the walk and had to give up. Instead we went to Byblos for lunch
and then down to Jeita Grotto, a fantastic series of caves which
were brilliant. After the caves we went to Jounie and got the
cable car and funicular up to the top of the hill behind the
town, which has a giant statue of the Virgin Mary, but we just
made it for sunset.
alt="Beiruit Corniche" class="pic" hspace="12"
align="right" />We finished up in Beirut and first visited the
famous Corniche that runs by the sea, the place to be seen in the
1970's but now a bit tatty. Then down to Martyrs square which
is the start of the “Green Line” that divided east and
west Beirut during the war. The buildings directly on the line
have been rebuilt or restored, but you only have to go a street
or so east or west to find the evidence of 15 years of war.
Beirut is on an extremely high state of alert. There are tanks
and armed police and army all over the place - they are expecting
something to happen. The bars and clubs in the city that last
year were packed have been cancelling New Years eve parties as
nobody is buying tickets. The city dwellers do not want to be in
a place with a large crowd that would be a target for the next
bomb. But having said that Beirut is a nice place, the people are
extremely welcoming, there are lovely shops and cafes and I'm
really glad to have visited.
Brazil Adventure by Tony Annis and Friendships at our Globetrotter Club
Tuesday, February 28th, 2006
8am and damn hot, 8am and bloody humid, 8am in the Brazilian
rainforest. Tramping through the jungle and trying to keep up the
fast pace of the Indian guides, the perspiration stung as it ran
into my eyes. My camera pack seemed to weigh a ton and was biting
into my
alt="Brazilian rainforest" class="pic" hspace="12"
align="left" />shoulders. Then we burst upon it. It was only a
small ravine, a twenty-foot drop to a rocky bottom, where, in the
wet season the tiny stream would swell into a fast flowing angry
river. The streamlet travelled between large sharp rocks and
seemed to be willing me to fall.
The bridge across this dangerous gap was a dripping wet tree
trunk about 16 inches in diameter and 35 foot long. I had camera
gear as well as my overweight body to haul across to the other
side, preferably without anything too disastrous happening either
to my equipment or myself! I paused and thought, “It could
all end in tears before our adventure has really begun.”
Adam and I had finally reached the Amazon rain forest and were
following the Yawanawa guides along what, to me, seemed a
non-existent trail. We brushed aside all sorts of hanging
vegetation that criss-crossed in front of us.
I jammed my 'Tilley' hat hard on my head, trying to avoid
the sharp Boca (that looks like bamboo but unlike the giant
bamboo, has small, sharp, vicious thorns) from piercing any part
of my face. The heat and humidity was making the sweat pour out
of me like tiny rivers which ran all over my body, soaking me
from head to toe. This trip was hard, tough and very different
from anything I had imagined whilst planning my journey back in
the calm of Kensington. “So isn't this what you so
wanted?” I said to myself. “If you don't like it,
it's too bloody late. Stop daydreaming: and cross that
ravine.” When, finally and thankfully, I reached the other
side, I stopped to take a breather - and said to myself,
“Are you sure you haven't bitten off more than you can
chew?”
Adam Baines and I first met in the Globetrotters Club. He had
just cycled around Vietnam and
alt="Canoe on the river" class="pic" hspace="12"
align="right" /> I was not long back from doing the same in New
Zealand. He had heard that I was planning a journey to somewhere
in the back of beyond of the Amazon Basin and as we both like
living on the edge, so we teamed up, thinking “what the
hell, let's do it.” Adam was thirty something, fit, and
spoke fluent Spanish; I was fifty something, not so fit and spoke
fluent Portuguese.
This was not only the story of a tribe's phoenix like
renaissance, but was also the tale of two independent
travellers' great adventure way down the Rio Gregoria near
the borders of Brazil and Peru. 'Yawanawa' -
21st Century Warriors' was a taste of where
we've been, what we have done and what's been done to us,
what we enjoyed what we didn't, did it all turned out cool or
did it all end up pear shaped? Like the films used to say - it
all started back in the summer, when - - -
alt="Linda Foz do Iquacu" title="Linda Foz do Iquacu"
class="pic" hspace="12" align="left" /> So Adam and I went off
into the depths of the green rainforest and our story of
frustrations and successes have been written down and seen in
various articles, slide shows, for the Globetrotters Club and
others. To this day we are still good friends having survived the
'Urban Jungle' as well as the 'Amazon jungle'.
A lovely lady had introduced me to the GT Club around seventeen
years ago and awakened my interest not only in her lovely self
but also to adventure travel around the world. We saw where the
Amazon met the sea in Marajo in the north and travelled south to
those magnificent falls at Foz do Iquacu as well venturing into
Africa. A wonderful adventurous person, the type one could only
encounter at our club.
alt="my 'Tilley' hat" class="pic" hspace="12"
align="right" /> I have met and I'm sure I will still meet
some wonderful and life long friends in my time at the
Globetrotters Club. So thanks to them, some good nights in the
pub with Dick and with the members - Good conversation after the
'Slide Talks' have finished - My independent travelling
days are not yet over, with the help of all my vitamins, I will
continue to roll around this exciting world, either with or
without a travelling companion from our great Globetrotters Club.
About the author Tony Annis: Have camera will travel. Over
the top but not yet over the hill. Past sixty five and still
alive, my get up and go has not entirely got up and gone - like
good whisky, I'm still going strong. Travelling through these
global villages of ours is great adventure but to me it is the
people that make this wonderful world, as well as the exotic
places that I love to visit. See you over the next horizon, Tony.
Getting Great Photo Prints From Your Digital Camera by Bob Stephens
Tuesday, February 28th, 2006The first step to getting great digital photo prints is to make sure you use a good quality digital camera. Digital photos are gaining popularity over traditional film photos because of the features and convenience associated with the newer technology. In some cases it’s even more cost effective to print your own photos at home instead of taking them to a developer or sending them in.
Here are some words of wisdom for making great digital photo prints at home.
There are really 4 key components to a great printed photo: Image, Printer, Ink, and Paper. Each is part interrelated therefore equally important for success.
The image is the starting point for a good photo. There are many different camera models out there, but in general, you will need at least 3.2 mega pixel picture taking ability. Some snazzy digital SLR cameras have 8 mega pixels or more. The camera should always be set to the highest resolution while taking the shots just in case you want to make enlargements later on.
Image transfer is crucial! Do not just throw the highest pixel image at some paper, you may not be happy with the results. Sometimes, too high of a pixel count will create unsightly jagged colour transitions in your photo and waste a lot of your ink and time. Too few pixels and the photos will turn out very “grainy”. It’s usually best to stay within the 200-300 pixels per inch range.
This chart may help you determine your appropriate photo sizes.
| Print Size | Good Results (200 ppi) | Excellent Results (300 ppi) |
| 4×6 inch | 800 by 1200 px (~1 mpx) | 1200 by 1800 px (~2 mpx) |
| 5×7 inch | 1000 by 1400 px (~1.5 mpx) | 1500 by 2100 px (~3 mpx) |
| 8×10 inch | 1600 by 2000 px (~3 mpx) | 2400 by 3000 px (~7 mpx) |
| 11×14 inch | 2200 by 2800 px (~6 mpx) | 3300 by 4200 px (~14 mpx) |
| 16×20 inch | 3200 by 4000 px (~13 mpx) | 4800 by 6000 px (~29 mpx |
Legend
- px = Pixels
- mpx = Mega pixels
- ppi = Pixels per inch
(data compiled from PCWorld.com)
For example, if you had a picture taken with a 1.5 Mega pixel digital camera, a 5×7 inch print is probably the largest size print that would work. Anything larger than a 5×7, may not look good. However, if you had a picture taken with a 14 Mega pixel camera, you should be able to print out an 11×14 inch print with excellent results (300ppi), or a “good” looking 16×20 inch print at 200 ppi.In addition to the digital camera image, there are a few other components that go into making good quality digital photos you’ll want to be aware of: Your printer, the ink cartridges you use, and the quality of the photo paper you use. Each component factors into your end result.
Bob Stephens is director of operations for ASAP Inkjets. ASAP Inkjets offers ink cartridges & toner at up to 80% below retail. Sign-up for their free newsletter for tips & discounts at: http://www.asapinkjets.com/ or email: subscribe@asapinkjets.com
The Beetle Goes Diving in the Similan Islands
Tuesday, February 28th, 2006
The Similan Islands can be found about one hundred kilometres northwest of Phuket, Thailand. They comprise nine granite islands covered in tropical jungle. The word Similan is said to be given by Malay fisherman who named it “The Nine Islands” (Sembilan is “nine” in Malay) and now the islands are identified by a Thai name and a number, for example, Ko Huyong (Island #1), located at the southern end of the chain or Ko Miang (Island #4) located in the middle. The Similan Islands are national parks and there is limited accommodation on them.
The Beetle has always been attracted to the idea of diving in the Similan Islands, and they are reckoned to be the second best dive site in SE Asia, after Sipadan. It is not possible to stay on the Similans and dive, so the usual arrangement is to stay on a liveaboard. These are not cheap and range from US $300 and upwards for 3 nights stay. Generally speaking with liveaboards, you get what you pay for, so the more you pay, generally, the better living accommodation you have, nicer food and so on. 
This was not to be my case as I soon discovered. First, I was told that I would not be sharing my cabin with a male, and that the cabins had bunk beds on top of each other. What actually happened is that I shared my cabin with a young Canadian guy who was very nice, and the beds were about two feet apart and not bunk beds at all. Next I discovered that the boat was in fact over booked and that there was one dive passenger too many on board. There was a jumble around with the mostly male group and someone slept with the three dive masters in what can best be described as a hole under the bow, though in the end, there was a fight to sleep on top of the boat because it was so hot and damned uncomfortable. Except it rained and then there was a fight to get back down again. The food was okay, but we started to run out of food, especially items such as milk after two days. I started to feel a little bit ripped off, I’d paid a lot of money - US $600 which I couldn’t really afford, but did so because I felt it was a once in a lifetime chance, and that I was in Thailand, why not, but I came away feeling that it was extremely poor value for money and the diving wasn’t actually that good, and I would not repeat the experience.
There were 15 of us and three dive guides. Usually, you are put into groups according to experience, but this did not happen here, so we had mixed ability groups, and then I discovered that of the 15 people, 5 people were novices and had only just completed their PADI open water course, which seemed incredibly mean for them - the Similans is not easy diving, strong currents and deep. The problem with being in mixed groups is that in these conditions, you usually have to surface when the first person is low on air and needs to come up to the surface, and in this case, this was sometimes after 20 minutes. Not ideal. Having said this, the beginner divers coped extremely well with the difficult conditions, far better than I would have at their level. It wasn’t their fault, they’d just been ill advised to go to the Similan Islands. There was one couple who didn’t mix much with the rest of the group, who between them had a couple of hundred dives. It seemed to be their mission to destroy as much sea life as possible on each and every dive. Between them, they seemed to flatten and break any hard corals that came in their way. Night dives were the worst times to witness this mass destruction. The dive guides said and did nothing about this blatant lack of consideration, and bad dive manners. None of us wanted to dive with them, and after a while they were allowed to go off and do their own thing as they were also avid photographers and were usually far behind the rest of the group anyway. 
Night dives were a complete fiasco. The first two sets of night dives were taken by just two of the dive masters, so picture this, 15 divers and 2 dive masters and a whole bunch of inadequate torches. They bumped, jostled, elbowed, finned each other in the face, the back, leg, you name it. It was horrible and unpleasant and if someone saw, as happened, a turtle, then everyone swooped on it and shone their feeble torches in its eyes. On the last night dive, there was only one dive master for the group as the other was ill. Each of the dive masters was very nice and interesting to talk to, and I should say that they were all safe, but it became increasingly clear that they did not get on and that this was the first time they’d all worked together. The crew were pretty lazy. They would help you if they were being watched, but if there was no-one around, they’d just sit and watch you.
What was it like? Disappointing, in a word. Very quiet, not huge amounts of aquatic life, certainly no leopard sharks which are supposed to be common there (the picture is of a leopard shark at Sipadan, about 3m long but totally harmless). 
Strong currents in places, a lot of surge in others, and in one case, 3m visibility. I’d done a couple of dives around the Phi Phi islands on a cattle boat (i.e. 45 divers), which whilst the visibility was not that great, the diving was far superior to all but two of the dives I did on the Similan Islands. Something was wrong, seriously wrong, it should not have been like this.
At first, I thought it was me, that maybe I had hyped the Similans up too much in my mind, especially having dived in Sipadan just two weeks earlier which was in every way far, far better than the Similans. No, I am an experienced diver, I don’t think it was a case of expecting too much, but it just didn’t hang together.
When I got back to Bangkok, I put a message on the dive board of the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree (an excellent resource) about my experience asking if other people had had a similar time. Slowly, slowly, the replies came in: who did I go with? Which sites did we dive and so on. Eventually, with input from dive instructors based in Phuket and other dissatisfied customers I pieced together what had 
really happened. It seems to be like this: the owner of the boat is greedy, he pays the crew including the dive masters very little, but is good at marketing. The three dive masters had never worked together before and were relatively new to the Similans and one is well known for not looking after their charges. The�dive sites we visited were largely not the best for diving, but more convenient for the sailing schedule. I am not pleased that given the money I paid that we didn’t even tick off some of the best sites, we just didn’t. A classic flog it and ignore the complaints scenario.
So what did I learn, and what is the motto of the story? It wasn’t all a disaster. Getting wet, i.e. any kind of diving is usually good, and there were two excellent dive sites we visited, but the rest, the remaining 12 were distinctly lack lustre, considering the Similan Island’s reputation - and the night dives were appalling. I went right at the start of the season, and this was the boat’s first trip of the season (old boat, new season). Maybe I should have waited until later in the season when operations became smoother. I’d recommend asking around, getting personal recommendations by people who have made the trip. Ask the right questions, like how many divers per dive guide? Are the groups segregated by experience? Which sites do you go to?
If anyone has had any good experiences of the Similans, I’d love to hear from them.