Category: enewsletter

Sebastian Hope gave us a delightful talk about fishing
and the sea gypsies of South East Asia, peppering his talk
with anecdotes of friendships he made on his various visits
to South East Asia and glorious slides of azure seas and
beautiful multicoloured tropical fish. Sebastian has written
a book about his exploits called Outcasts of the
Islands

After the break which included requests for information on
places such as New Caledonia, Iguaçu, Cambodia, Mali
and lots of other places too numerous to mention, Tim
Burford gave us a talk centred on Romania’s wooden
churches. He explained that although many are said to date
from the middle ages, most are only a couple of centuries
old. Tim went on to show modern Romanian architecture in
Bucharest. Tim also explained Romania’s version of the
Dracula story and advised us to visit soon as there are plans
for a Dracula theme park.

On the 1st December, Jon Hornbuckle will be talking
about Chile, Atacama Desert to the Land of Fire. Jon has
spent the last eight years travelling world-wide in search of
wildlife and cultural experience. Denise Heywood will
be talking about Vietnam, descending the Land of the
Ascending Dragon from Hanoi (a French Colonial city)
travelling south through the great Cham Empire, to the
Imperial city of Hue and Saigon, and ending at the Cambodian
border – everything except the war!

For the month of December 2001, only, the
London meeting will be held at 3pm at the Concert Artists
Association, 20 Bedford Street, Covent Garden , the door is
at the end of a long passageway next to the Springbok Bar.
(This is the opposite side of Covent Garden to the Crown
Court, our normal venue)

Other than in December 2001, all 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. For more information, you can contact the
Globetrotter Info line on +44 (0) 20 8674 6229, or visit the
website: http://www.globetrotters.co.uk

The November New York meeting was cancelled due to clashing
with the New York marathon.

Laurie, our New York Chair says “Hello Globies! and Happy
Thanksgiving!” Due to holiday parties, travel and cheer, we
will not be holding a December Globies meeting.
We WILL resume in January with what promises to be a
great line up of speakers!

More to come on that later.

New York meetings are held at The Wings Theater, 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.

As soon as we get information on the annual barbecue we will
let you know what happened! 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.

Tibet is the land of spectacular mountains, majestic views,
yaks and where Harry Potter is a subversive. My first
experience of Tibet was coming into Gonkar airport over a
barren, rugged landscape. As you come down the aircraft steps
you feel the altitude, shortness of breath and a pumping
heart. Once through immigration you collect your bag and have
them x-rayed. This is where the fun starts, the stern woman
customs officer couldn’t have cared less about my Lonely
Planet and detailed maps, what caught her eye was my copy of
Harry Potter. She spent twenty minutes turning every page,
not that she could read it, before grudgingly handing it back
in a semi dog-eared state.

It takes around 3 hours from the airport to get to the
capital Lhasa. Two enormous gold yaks stand guard on the
first roundabout and on the left is the Potala Palace. The
city has been taken over in every way by the Chinese, only 5%
is still Tibetan. This 5% is centred around the Barkhor. The
Barkhor is a lane which surrounds the wonderful Jokhang
Temple. You can spend hours wandering(Clockwise) around the
market, which is mainly full of tourist kitsch, you can buy a
complete set of monk’s robes or an “Antique” in the
wonderfully named “Ancient Thing store”!

After doing the Kora or circuit, stroll into the Jokhang
which is usually packed with pilgrims, some of whom have
travelled hundreds of miles, for their once in a lifetime
visit. You will remember the Jokhang’s ethereal quality,
incense and prayer wheels long after your visit. Go up to the
roof for a fantastic view of the Jokhangs golden roof, look
across to the Potala and see the city spread out below. The
Potala Palace takes a good five hours to visit. The Potala is
a warren and is best visited with a guide and a torch.
Without the aid of a guide the hundreds of chapels would have
no meaning and without a torch you would miss the frescos
down the dark passages. The Norbulingka Palace, where the
Dalai Lama fled from, can be seen in an afternoon, you can
see where the Dalai Lama slept, lived and meditated, all just
as he left it, 1950’s furniture, old radiograms and even his
bath with the “Made In England” still visible.

Food in Lhasa is not for gourmets and vegetarians may starve.
The Dunya Restaurant, run by a Dutch couple during the summer
months is worth a visit, a mixture of Chinese and Western
dishes are offered in pleasant surroundings.

Lhasa is a fascinating city to visit, just make sure you get
there, before the Chinese take over the remaining 5%.

Kevin can be contacted on Kbrackley@yahoo.com

Next week, Japan by the Travelling Stoat!

The Globetrotters Texas branch held their fifth meeting on
Saturday, November 10. Attendence continues to grow, with 19
happy people at the meeting. Brad and Mamie
spoke and shared slides from their travels to Afghanistan in
the early 70’s. Their separate stories were fascinating. The
group discussed favourite travel websites and travel
magazines. Most everyone learned about something new.

The door prize was a two volume Encyclopedia of World Travel
– a classic from 1973. How appropriate that Mamie was the
winner, as her presentation was based on her travels in 1973!
Following the meeting, 11 people adjourned to the Hoity-Toit,
a local beer joint for refreshments and fellowship.

The next meeting will be December 8. Everyone is
invited! Christina’s advice is to come early so you won’t be
late! Handouts and refreshments will be available. Anybody
want to help Christina or enquire about meetings, please
contact her on: texas@globetrotters.co.uk

Twelve countries will introduce Euro notes and coins on 1
January, 2002: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany,
Greece, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal
and Spain.

The UK, Denmark and Sweden, who are also members of the
European Union, are not part of the Euro area and neither are
any countries outside the EU, for instance Turkey and
Switzerland. Euro notes will be identical for all countries
and usable in all EU countries.

Each EU member country will produce their own
coins, with one common side and one national side, but
they can be used in any of the Euro area countries. Cash
dispensers will dispense Euro notes and national notes and
coins can be used until 28th February 2002, except in the
Netherlands, Ireland and France.

Euro notes can be purchased from most banks and Bureaux de
Change from 1st January 2002. If you have existing foreign
currency for EU countries, unless you intend to visit these
countries very early in 2002, you should exchange them now.

Don’t wait too long as you will not be able to use old
currencies by March 2002 at the latest.

Source: http://www.fco.gov.uk/