Our first speaker was Mark Honigsbaum, whose talk was entitled The Fever Trail, after his book of the same name, which documents the discovery of the Cinchone tree (Cascarilla), which was found between 4,000 & 10,000 ft up in Ecuador. This tree provided the cure for malaria and was brought back to Europe and then…

The central monk body has begun teaching computer operations to monks in its bid to electronically archive Bhutan’s rich collection of Buddhist manuscripts, biographies and historical documents. Twenty monks of the central monk body recently completed a two-week computer operations course conducted by the National Technical Training Authority under its special skills programme. Among the…

Hello Globies! June 1st is our next meeting. A timely and interesting topic; Afghanistan. We will NOT have a July meeting due to all of our summer travel plans and the July 4th holiday. Hope to see you June 1st. See below for a glimpse into Jason's adventure in Afghanistan. Travels in Afghanistan August 2000…

Where is it? South of France, on the Med Why would I know it? The French Connection? The Count of Monte Cristo? Beautiful people in the south of France? How do I get there? It is possible to fly direct, alternatively, get into Paris, by plane or train (Eurostar from the UK) and take the…

The last Ontario/Toronto GT meeting was held on Friday, May 24th; members Ray & Inge Bates spoke on “Six Months in Asia Following 911” and Dan Ramrose spoke about “Five Months' South American Adventure” and Paul Webb gave a talk on “Eight Weeks in Ghana”. We are planning our annual GT picnic this summer. Proposed…

Who, you might ask? William Speirs Bruce, let’s call him Bruce, may not be as famous as other Antarctic explorers, such as Scott and Shackleton, but he certainly did his bit for Antarctic exploration! Bruce was from Scotland and headed up the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition 100 years ago. Bruce wanted a place on Britain's…

The next Texas meeting will be completely open: please come and talk about your favourite place, travels, anecdote or listen to others! Congratulations to Christina, Chair of the Texas branch of Globetrotters on her new job on the San Antonio Riverwalk. Because of this, please note that Texas meetings will start one hour earlier, at…

Koh Samui Airport, Thailand is good. No doors here! This has to be one of the prettiest airports around. Liz, England Koh Samui, The most tropical airport ever! The most beautifully in all Thailand: Sukhothai…I could live there 🙂 Greetzzz Erik Jan, The Netherlands A site recommended by Erik in the Netherlands, identifies good and…

Due to technical hosting problems, we are going to run last month’s travel quiz again for those who did not receive last month’s Globetrotter e-newsletter. Win a copy of a map and guide of Scotland, courtesy of Harper Collins who make this excellent series of map/guides. 1.The Cairngorms includes some of Scotland’s highest peaks. What…

This is East London's famous Sunday morning market that has been trading for more than two centuries. In Elizabethan times, the market was called Hog Lane, because this is where pigs were sold. The Sunday market grew out of observance of the Jewish Sabbath on Saturday. Amongst the bargains hanging up on the rails were…