The Globetrotters eNewsletter
eNewsletter Archive

Our first meeting of the new year was as always 4 mini talks given by club members. Tony Annis was first with his talk about Saudi Arabia - Filming. Tony was involved in making a film about King Abdullah’s life, this included charging camels and the logistics of getting equipment and props into the country. Tony also showed us Riyadh’s “Chop chop square”.

Sylvia Pullen took us to North West Pakistan to the valley of the Kalasha people near Afghanistan. Sylvia explained the Kalasha are Pagan and not Muslim, and may be descendents of Alexander the Great’s army with their light skin tone. We also saw the Khyber Pass and an Afghan village that was less than welcoming when Sylvia and her party tried to visit.

After the break John and Roz Williams transported us to Transylvania, very rural Romania, only reachable down roads that became tracks that became impassable. They stayed at a guest house that uses some of it profits to support the Carpathian Large Carnivore Project, involved in helping the country’s bear, wolf and Lynx populations to survive. We saw close up pictures of bears which are fed small amounts by the project.

David Boyd was our last speaker, taking us to Kruger National Park in South Africa. David had some great photos of Lions, Elephants and some hard to get Leopard shots. David also showed us the camps in the Kruger which range from basic to fairly upmarket.

Many thanks to all our speakers for getting the 2007 talks off to a wonderful start. That was not the end of proceedings as all present then enjoyed Globetrotters traditional New Years party, thanks to all those who brought along food and drink.

By Padmassana

3^rd February 2007: Dave Atkinson - Bradt Guide author – will be talking about Bolivia, to coincide with launching their new edition. After the break, Juliet Coombe will be talking about Galle Fort - the lives of the 800 people in Galle fort, Sri Lanka.

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

Our first meeting of the new year was as always 4 mini talks given by club members. Tony Annis was first with his talk about Saudi Arabia - Filming. Tony was involved in making a film about King Abdullah’s life, this included charging camels and the logistics of getting equipment and props into the country. Tony also showed us Riyadh’s “Chop chop square”.

Sylvia Pullen took us to North West Pakistan to the valley of the Kalasha people near Afghanistan. Sylvia explained the Kalasha are Pagan and not Muslim, and may be descendents of Alexander the Great’s army with their light skin tone. We also saw the Khyber Pass and an Afghan village that was less than welcoming when Sylvia and her party tried to visit.

After the break John and Roz Williams transported us to Transylvania, very rural Romania, only reachable down roads that became tracks that became impassable. They stayed at a guest house that uses some of it profits to support the Carpathian Large Carnivore Project, involved in helping the country’s bear, wolf and Lynx populations to survive. We saw close up pictures of bears which are fed small amounts by the project.

David Boyd was our last speaker, taking us to Kruger National Park in South Africa. David had some great photos of Lions, Elephants and some hard to get Leopard shots. David also showed us the camps in the Kruger which range from basic to fairly upmarket.

Many thanks to all our speakers for getting the 2007 talks off to a wonderful start. That was not the end of proceedings as all present then enjoyed Globetrotters traditional New Years party, thanks to all those who brought along food and drink.

By Padmassana

3^rd February 2007: Dave Atkinson - Bradt Guide author – will be talking about Bolivia, to coincide with launching their new edition. After the break, Juliet Coombe will be talking about Galle Fort - the lives of the 800 people in Galle fort, Sri Lanka.

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 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.

For information on Ontario meetings, please contact Svatka Hermanek: shermane@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 Old York Tower, 85 Esplanade (It is at the south-east corner of Church & Esplanade - 2 blocks east from the Hummingbird Centre at 8.00 p.m. 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.

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 14,000 people currently subscribe to the Globetrotter e-news in over 150 countries around the world.

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Write for the Globetrotters Club e-newsletter! To see your story in cyber print, e-mail the Beetle with your travel experiences, hints and tips or questions up to 750 words. If you have photos, we can include up to 6 good quality JPEGs, and let us have a couple of sentences about yourself. Please contact: Beetle@globetrotters.co.uk

If you like the Globetrotter e-newsletter, why not join the Globetrotters Club! You can join on-line, so click here to join and become a Globetrotter! Membership costs are as follows:

Join now with our no-risk guarantee. If you find that Globetrotters does not offer the advice and information you need, let us know within 14 days of receiving your first issue of Globe and we will refund your subscription fee in full (there is no need to return the magazine).

As a member, you will be a part of the oldest travel network in existence and have the opportunity to make new friends who share your interest in travel. Once you are a member, you will receive our annual membership that lists all Globetrotters members around the world.

You can contact fellow Globies and even stay with some of them or offer to put fellow Globetrotters from around the world up yourself!

If you like the Globetrotter e-newsletter, why not join the Globetrotters Club! You can join on-line, so click here to join and become a Globetrotter! Membership costs are as follows:

Join now with our no-risk guarantee. If you find that Globetrotters does not offer the advice and information you need, let us know within 14 days of receiving your first issue of Globe and we will refund your subscription fee in full (there is no need to return the magazine).

As a member, you will be a part of the oldest travel network in existence and have the opportunity to make new friends who share your interest in travel. Once you are a member, you will receive our annual membership that lists all Globetrotters members around the world.

You can contact fellow Globies and even stay with some of them or offer to put fellow Globetrotters from around the world up yourself!

Portsmouth now has The Spinnaker Tower, built to celebrate the millennium which is the tallest publicly accessible building outside London. Visitors can take a lift to the three viewing decks at 100m, 105m and 110m for stunning views across to the Isle of Wight. Whilst in Portsmouth you can also visit HMS Victory, Nelsons flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar, HMS Warrior which was the first iron hulled armoured battleship which has been restored to 1860’s condition and the Mary Rose Museum, which is the only 16^th century warship on display in the world. It was built for Henry VIIII and sank in 1545. There are also interesting harbour cruises available.

Car ferries from Portsmouth, cross frequently to Fishbourne and Ryde. Other ferry services can be taken from Lymington to Yarmouth, Southampton to Cowes or for those travelling on foot a ferry from Portsmouth or the Hovercraft from Southsea arrives at Ryde with the only railway on the Island going from Ryde Pier to Sandown and Shanklin. There are also good local bus services to all parts

www.islandbuses.info

On the island visitors will find plenty of interesting places to go to. A visit to Osborne House at East Cowes is a must. This was the seaside home of Queen Victoria and there is a fascinating tour of the house and gardens and a short free bus ride within the grounds will take you down to the Swiss Cottage where the Royal children played. 01983-200022 for admission charges and opening times.

The Needles, Alum Bay- This is a famous landmark with spectacular chairlift down the cliffs to the bay from which the many coloured sands so popular in souvenirs on the island. www.theneedles.co.uk

Cowes is a famous maritime town with many sailing clubs, known worldwide for its Royal Regatta and for those interested in doing some sailing there is the UK sailing centre.

Old village Shanklin and Shanklin Chine – This is a picturesque village with many thatched cottages and the chine is a steep scenic gorge with waterfalls, nature trail, displays and exhibitions. Site of the PLUTO (pipeline under the ocean) which supplied fuel for the D-Day landings.

Sandown and Ventnor are along with Shanklin typical seaside towns, a little dated but great for family visits with plenty of accommodation across all ranges.

Tourist info.www.islandbreaks.co.uk Accommodation line 01983 -813813

As Tabitha Boonstra showed the children of La Esperanza in Honduras their picture on her digital camera, she could not believe their reaction.

‘They would come running up to you from wherever they were, and they’d be yelling ‘photo, photo!’ They’d stand there, and you would take their picture, then you’d show them on the back of the digital camera. They would be the happiest kids in the world’.

‘It was such a simple thing, yet it made them so happy’ she says guessing that there aren’t too many mirrors in rural Honduras. It was moments like this, and many others that made volunteering such a memorable experience for Tabitha of Ontario, Canada.

She spent three months helping to build houses and provide aid with sanitation projects in rural Honduras through the Global Volunteer Network (GVN), an organization that helps connect volunteers with communities in need. She had previously volunteered within her own community, working with children and people with special needs, but never anything like this.

‘I wanted to do something different’ she says, ‘and volunteering is a good way to go and learn a different culture’.

Tabitha really enjoyed volunteering, getting amongst the action, and using the opportunity to really make a difference to the lives of the people in Honduras.

‘I built houses for the indigenous people using trees, mud and adobe bricks. I feel the living conditions of the people are greatly improved by this effort as less people are crammed into tiny houses and they have less draughty houses with better seals against animals and bugs. Some even got concrete floors put in, which greatly reduces health problems. The work was rewarding and seemed to make a big difference’ says Tabitha.

Rural poverty in Honduras is among the most severe in Latin America. Approximately 53% of the population is rural, and it is estimated that 75% of the rural population lives below the poverty line, unable to meet basic needs. The country still has high rates of population growth, infant mortality, child malnutrition and illiteracy. Access to simple healthcare and sanitation is lacking, and it is estimated that over 30 percent of child deaths in Honduras are caused by a common and preventable digestive sickness.

On top of all of this, Honduras was hit severely by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, and the results were devastating. At least 5,000 people were killed and 70% of the country’s crops were destroyed. This has put more pressure on the already struggling economy, and has been a huge setback to development.

The Honduras building program helps foreign volunteers assist families to build or improve their homes and schools, with work including renovation, making bricks, building walls, painting and building wooden playgrounds for the local children. There are also sanitation programs in place, in order to implement basic plumbing, and to help educate the local children about health and wellbeing.

As there are very few tools, the volunteers do mainly manual work. Because they are often working with mud bricks, they can get pretty dirty, but it is lots of fun, and a great learning experience. You also need to be prepared to use your initiative in Honduras, as Tabitha found out.

‘Because you are a foreigner, they treated you in such a manner, that they felt you were above them. If you wanted to work, you had to pick up a shovel and say ‘give me something to do’, she says.

But once you do get amongst it, the people are very grateful for the assistance the volunteers give. It really has a positive effect on a community to know that a volunteer has given up time, money and comfort to help them.

‘It’s just natural for them to think that foreigners don’t care about third word countries or people who have a poor life. But when they see volunteers, they realize that some people in the world, no matter how rich they are or what their status, they do care about others, and that people are willing to help’, says Tabitha.

The program is not all hard work though, and there is lots of time to get to know your host family, or to explore the country and mingle with the locals. Tabitha loved being around the local children, and took any chance she could get to hang out with them.

‘Playing soccer with the kids was definitely the most fun. There are wide open spaces everywhere and you are playing on a dirt road. If you would kick a ball too far, it would go way down this mountainous hill, and all the kids would run down to go get it for you, clambering down it. They were so eager to help you out’. The memory of their smiling faces will be something that will stay with Tabitha for a long time.

Building in Honduras enables volunteers from more developed countries to use their skills and enthusiasm to assist in providing these people with a better life. Tabitha believes that the organization really does make a difference, and it is because of the volunteers that this happens.

‘I do feel like I have helped, because we built the houses. These people now have safer shelters and a more sanitary place to live in’.

Volunteering in a foreign country is such a unique experience, and quite different from being a tourist. Not only does the community benefit, but the volunteer also gets an opportunity of a lifetime.

‘You actually get to hang out with the locals, get to know them, become friends with them, and get an idea of what life is like there. When you travel you get to see the scenery and eat the food, but you don’t experience what life is actually like in that country’.

‘I could have just travelled for four months and maybe seen some cool things, but not bettered myself or anyone else. Because I volunteered with my time, it helped other people too, and I think that is just a great thing’.

If you are interested in volunteering, visit the GVN website at www.volunteer.org.nz

New regime, new management, new ideas! Only taking over the show from last November, so how did it work out? Did they rejuvenate it or did they blow it?

The Photographic competition exhibition was gone, bad news – good news the sound system was much improved in all the talk areas. Travel lecture open theatres, did well for Nomad and even attracted more audience. Not so good for lectures using slides but I’m told made little difference for the ones who used digital presentations.

Amongst Gap year, and the sports adventure stands were others that believed in sustainable tourism; in fact, now a days all companies say they believe in this type of tourism; some I believe more than others! Dragon Overland, Queensland and even Gap for grown ups, were among the many exhibitors.

Wanderlust Magazine, Editor in Chief, Lyn Hughes led from the front by not only by having her large stand but also by putting her travel Advice Theatre next to it and importantly kept the sides covered to concentrate attention on her speakers and it worked very well in her case.

The Globetrotters Club had their own Travel Advisor Stand, (see picture left with some of our members and committee members) a little bit more out of the way than usual but it received many visitors and I hope new members. Personally I spoke to several who said they would check out the web site and think about joining. Dick Curtis who runs the London Globetrotter meetings (see photo below right) as usual did sterling work and organized everything with the new management. The members and committee covered the three days, each of them with an expertise in some part of the world or other.

Guys and girls from Adez fruit juice kept us supplied with cold juice which made up for the fact that food and drink is so expensive at the show. As is the custom with the Globetrotters Club, after the event in the evening, Matt our chair, guided us to a fine pub behind Olympia, without the aid of GPS and a compass – later I rolled off my bus outside my flat and thought a good night was had by all.

The climbing wall and the diving pool were good to see but I think the show lacked a few visual events; otherwise it is too much like one stand after the other. All the exhibitors were on hand to help or cajole us into going on to some amazing trip or other. Plus presentations on nearly every place you could wish to visit.

Visitor numbers seemed a bit down, but the new regime (ATS Events, UK Ltd) is going to have a few more visitor participant companies in next year’s show, and that they will start to plan for this, as this year’s show ends.

How did it work out? I think the jury still out but as they only had from November to plan and as they are continuing the rejuvenation process, we will know by next years Adventure Show. Every show of every type, whether west end musical or travel show, needs a shake up now and again as nothing can stay the same without starting to look tired and the boring. Visitors need to think they need to come every year and not just once every five years or so.

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. I am always available for writing and photography commissions and still work professionally in journalism and broadcasting.

See you over the next horizon, Tony, e-mail: tony@annis.co.uk