Vacation Dreams

Tag: December 2002

  • MEETING NEWS

    Meeting news from our branches around the world.

  • Being Careful – Advice

    France: thieves may target cars with foreign number
    plates. Conceal bags and purses when driving and never leave valuables
    in a vehicle, even for a short time or when you are nearby. The last two
    digits on a French car's number plate indicate the département
    in which the car is registered. Many hire cars are registered in Marne
    département (51) and cars with registration numbers ending in 51 attract
    the attention of thieves.

    Venice: The heightened tension in the Middle East
    has led the Italian authorities to increase security around the Jewish
    quarter in Venice. Extra police have been drafted in to guard the area.
    Security in the Jewish quarter in Rome has also been increased.

    Greek Islands: Personal attacks, including sexual
    assaults and rape, are infrequent. However there have been incidents of
    sexual assault and rape on some Greek Islands. Visitors are therefore
    advised to maintain at least the same level of personal security awareness
    as in the UK. We strongly advise lone visitors, especially, never to accept
    lifts from strangers or passing acquaintances at any time.

    Portugal: Crime remains comparatively low in Portugal
    but pickpocketing, handbag snatching and theft from cars are increasingly
    common in major tourist area. Passport, credit cards, travel tickets and
    money should not be carried together in handbags or pockets. Leave spare
    cash, passports and valuables in a safe place. Portuguese police recommend
    that car windows and doors are closed and locked while driving at night
    in urban centres. Pedestrians are advised not to wear valuable jewellery
    or watches in public areas.


    Source: the Foreign & Commonwealth office

  • Currency Conversion

    A recent UK survey for the Department for Education found
    that of over 1,000 adults, 30% felt unable to compare rates in exchange
    bureaux. A similar proportion said they were not comfortable converting
    foreign currency into sterling. Over a fifth of those surveyed admitted
    they had wrongly calculated how much they spent on holiday, with 12% saying
    they had run out of money.

    The Globetrotters Club has just teamed up with Oanda.com
    to provide people with information about currency conversions and cheat
    sheets. To translate currency or make a cheat sheet, visit:

    The Globetrotters Currency Converter
    — get the exchange rates for 164 currencies
    The Globetrotters Currency
    Cheat Sheet     — create and print a currency converter table for
    your next trip.

  • Meeting News from London

    Globetrotters meeting Saturday 7th December 2002
    By Padmassana

    This afternoon our first speaker was Damian Welch, Royal Geographical
    Society (RGS) winner of a “Journey of a Lifetime “ Award,
    who took us to Tokelau, a group of remote Polynesian islands located north
    of New Zealand. His talk and slides demonstrating to us the effect that
    the 21st Century has had on the islanders way
    of life. Tokelau’s population of 1,500 souls crowd onto just three
    islands. Damian's graphic photos demonstrated just how dependant the
    islanders are on the imported barrels of oil, petrol and diesel, which
    arrive like everything else by ship. The islanders life revolves around
    the ship’s comings and goings. The islanders share everything, from
    the oil, to the work and the food that sustains them. Though this system
    is rapidly being overtaken by the introduction of money, people are asking
    how much?, before doing tasks they would previously have just done. Fishing
    is one area where the old way carries on, the fish are caught and shared
    equally among the people when the catch is landed. Tokelau’s women
    folk prepare the food and then play noisy games of dominoes. Afternoons
    on Tokelau are often spent playing volleyball under the scorching sun.
    Unfortunately the once healthy Tokelau diet of fish and coconut is being
    replaced by imported corned beef, beer and vast amounts of sugar, resulting
    in the 21st century diseases of obesity and
    diabetes. Damian’s idyllic photos of the islands peeping out of
    the blue sea and thought provoking talk on daily life made for a very
    interesting and educational 40 minutes.

    Our second speaker was Robert Twigger, whose talk was entitled
    “Putting the adventure back into travel”.

    Robert’s wanderlust was instilled in him by his Grandfather, who
    had returned from his own travels with Naga spears, which Robert has inherited,
    just as well as I don’t think you would be very successful at bringing
    them through Heathrow airport in the current climate.

    Roberts’s plan was to try and replicate the epic 1793 journey of
    Alexander MacKenzie, who crossed Canada from east to west. Robert particularly
    wanted to repeat the last section down the Athabasca river in a birch-bark
    canoe. First though Robert and his friend Ben had to get the canoe to
    their starting point. They achieved this by delivering a van 3500 miles
    across Canada in three days, before being dropped off in the middle of
    nowhere to begin their journey. They set off paddling often against quite
    strong currents, seeing nobody else for days on end. Though they did see
    a lot of bears, which were not intimidated or scared off by the bear horn
    they carried with them. The locals all carry a gun for this job! Robert
    and Ben camped by the river and we saw some beautiful sunset photos, however
    this didn’t tell the whole story, as wherever they stopped they
    were set upon by millions of mosquitoes. Unfortunately Robert’s trip was
    limited by time and they have had to leave the canoe in storage having
    completed 600 miles until next year when he hopes to complete the trip
    all the way to the Pacific.

    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 Globetrotter Info line on +44 (0) 20 8674 6229, or visit the
    website: www.globetrotters.co.uk

  • Free London Museums: Theatre Museum

    Located, appropriately enough, in the heart of Theatreland,
    the Theatre Museum is dedicated to promoting the performing arts. In addition
    to housing the National Video Archive of Stage Performance, the museum
    boasts a staggering collection of over one million programmes and playbills,
    puppets, photographs and props relating to theatre, ballet, dance and
    music. Visitors can participate in workshops, makeovers, tours and try
    their hand at animation and puppetry. There is lots of memorabilia from
    old theatres and stage sets, which creates a very special theatrical ambience.
    The Theatre Museum opens 10:00-18:00 Tues-Sun. Closed 24-26 Dec. Tube:
    Covent Garden Enquiries: 020 7943 4700 Entrance: FREE admission for individuals

  • Racial Profiling at US Airports

    Celebrated Canadian author, Rohinton Mistry, has cancelled
    the second half of his US book tour because of racial profiling at US
    airports. Mr Mistry – the Indian-born author short-listed for the Booker
    Prize this year – was “extremely unhappy” about the treatment
    he received, Canada's Globe and Mail reported.

    “As a person of colour he was stopped repeatedly
    and rudely at each airport along the way – to the point where the humiliation
    of both he and his wife has become unbearable,” a memo from the writer's
    US publisher Aflred A Knopf said. “I find it outrageous,” Betsy
    Burton of The King's English bookstore in Salt Lake City said. “It
    makes me feel ashamed of my country.”

    The US introduced extra security measures – including
    fingerprinting – for people born in 20 predominantly Arab and Muslim countries
    following the 11 September attacks.

    Last week Canada urged its citizens born in Middle Eastern
    and Muslim countries to think carefully before going to the US because
    of the new checks.

  • Meeting News from New York

    Our guest speaker at our december meeting was Amy Gissen, who gave a
    great slide show and lecture about Myanmar, truly one of Asia's jewels.

    For details of forthcoming meetings email newyork@globetrotters.co.uk or register
    for email updates at click here at our
    website.

    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.

  • Ciudad Juarez Women Murdered

    More than 300 young girls and women have been killed
    in Ciudad Juarez since 1993 on the other side of the US border, across
    from El Paso, Texas. Late November, over 1,000 women dressed in black
    and holding candles marched through Mexico City to demand that those responsible
    for killing hundreds of women in the border town of Ciudad Juarez be brought
    to justice. Despite several federal and state investigations, the authorities
    have been unable to identify the killers or establish a motive behind
    the murders. Several people have been arrested or detained, but still
    the killings continue. Various motives have been offered: satanic black
    magic rituals, drug related and sex slavery.

  • The Spratly Islands

    The Spratly Islands are 100 tiny formerly uninhabited
    islets and reefs making up 5 km of actual land spread over 410,000 sq
    km of sea. They are believed to have oil and gas reserves in addition
    to good fish stocks.

    The problem is that both China and Taiwan lay claim to
    all of them and Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and the Philippines to part
    of them.

    South East Asian states have just reached a draft agreement
    aimed at avoiding conflicts over the disputed Spratly Islands. All 10
    member-states of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) approved
    a code of conduct for the islands in the South China Sea, which will in
    turn be presented to China, which is not a member.

    Friction over the islands, in the South China Sea, most
    recently erupted in August when Vietnamese troops based on one islet fired
    warning shots at Philippine military planes.

  • Meeting News from Ontario

    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.