Our first speaker was Simon Casson, who took us on a journey in the footsteps of his hero Butch Cassidy, riding the Outlaw Trail. Simon’s pictures portrayed the barren deserts through which the outlaws managed to stay one step ahead of the law. It was not an easy journey, made more challenging when Simon managed to buy a horse that was blind! Over the course of his trip Simon and his two companions got through a number of horses and also lost a couple. Simon finally managed to reach Canada some months later than planned.

Our second speaker was Calum Macleod, who took us Uzbekistan. The country only gained its independence from the USSR in 1991. We saw the beautiful cities of Khiva and Samarkand with their minarets and spires and wonderful blue tiles. Simon explained that the country is allegedly becoming easier to visit, so hopefully more of us will get the opportunity to visit these cities.

Mark your diary for forthcoming meetings:

Sat. 6th November

• Christian Tyler – Into the TaklamakanDesert – “Wild West China”
• Janet Street-Porter – Walking in Australia The Larapinta Trail [Alice Springs] and the Bay of Fire Walk [Tassie]

Sat. 4 December

• Amar Grover – North Pakistan – Kailash Valleys of Chitral to Gilgit via ShandurPass
• Matthew Leeming -Afghanistan OR Iraqi Marsh Arabs

Sat. 8th January 2005 (the second Saturday)

• Four Mini-talks and New Year Party

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 Admission: Members £2.00 Non-members £4.00.

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Interesting country facts.

1. The United States has the most money, power, airports, cell phones, radios and ISP's.
2. The United States consumes more energy than India, the Middle East, South America, Africa, South East Asia and Oceania combined – which means more than 3.1 billion people.
3. The top 5 energy consumers are all cold countries. The next 6 are mostly oil producers.
4. Guatemalan women work 11.5 hours a day, while South African men work only 4.5.
5. Guinea has the wettest capital on Earth with 3.7 metres of rain a year. You’re 66 times more likely to be prosecuted in the USA as in France.
6. Nearly 1% of Montserrations are police.
7. Most Zambians don't live to see their 40th birthday.
8. Want your kids to stay in school? Send them to Norway.
9. Mexico has the most Jehovah's Witnesses per capita in the OECD.
10. Indonesia has the most known mammal species – and the most mammal species under threat.

Source:

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There was no New York meeting in October, but we will resume in November – Subject will be Tibet by Ken Axen!

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

New York meetings are held at The Wings Theatre, 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.  Admission: $8.00 for members and $10.00 for non-members.

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We are sorry to say that Mac is not very well, but he is still e-mailing strong and recently sent the Beetle a collection of Mac reminiscences about some of his travels in 1992.  Here we have thoughts and experiences on India.

I am enjoying reading a book called Eating The Indian Air by John Morris, published by Atheneun 1969 New York.  Eating the Indian Air is an Indian expression meaning to take a walk.  Morris was in British Army in India and returned around 1969 to see changes.  He had been on Mt Everest expeditions of 1922 and 1936 so his visit to see Tensing at the Himalayan Mountaineering School, Darjeeling, India was interesting.

Quote: “After breakfast I set off to visit the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute.  The world famous Tensing is the chief instructor at the Himalayan Institute.  I had purposely not telephoned to let him know of my visit because I wished to give him a surprise. In 1936 as a young and inexperienced Sherpa porter he had been my personal servant on Everest and although I had seen him in England after the successful climb in 1953. By local standards he has become a wealthy man but he is quite unspoilt and still lives in a simple but comfortable manner.  His appearance reminded me of the best of the Swiss guides with whom in more affluent days many of us used to climb.  And he was dressed for the part, thick woollen knickerbockers, hand knitted stockings, a peacock blue sweater, Homburg hat (favourite of all men of Tibetan origin and the heaviest of climbing boots I have ever seen.  I could not resist pulling his leg about his appearance but this he said with a laugh was the outfit in which American tourists expected to find him; they were disappointed if they found him more soberly dressed”.

Me, Mac speaking now.  I visited this Himalayan School outside Darjeeling when I was maybe 69.  There was a slight hill to get to it and I came puffing in the door and asked if I could enrol in the school.  They laughed and said they did not take anyone over 18 years of age.  I was sorry Tensing did not get to meet me but he was either not in that day or away climbing a mountain. They had a gift shop and I brought several kinds of key rings with picture of Mr Everest and I think some saying.  They proved to be the gift the recipients enjoyed getting the most and they did not take up much room in my pack.

I stayed in a budget place and I thought they said I could see Mr Kangchenjunga, the third largest mountain in the world from my window. They suggested I get up at 5am before the clouds came in or something. What they said was that I could see this Mt perhaps at this time from the hotel but from the other side of hotel. I did later see it.

They brought hot water in something like a milk bucket at the time I told them I wanted to take a bath. The woodwork in hotel was beautiful although a budget place. They did not service meals but they told me how to get to a place friends owned and it was good. I really enjoyed Darjeeling and the little toy train to get up there. I also visited a Tibetan refugee place.

From book The Whole World Stranger by Virginia Moore, The McMillan Company New York 1957 Page 144: “In the big bazaar of Calcutta (India) amid merchandise common and exotic we saw up for sale boxes of food from America marked “Do not sell, this is a gift” and heard that many recipients mistaking cheese for soap had washed their clothes with it” (Me. The night before we were to get on troop ship at Bremerhaven, Germany  (WWII) to return to the states a German POW doing kitchen duty mistook a bar of brown GI soap for butter and put it in the soup, (or so the story goes.)  At three in the morning troops were wandering around with dysentery trying to find a dispensary.  What a mess.  I decided I was going to get on that ship in the morning even if I had to crawl up the gang plank on my hands and knees lugging my duffel bag.  I did manage to stand up but had a movement on the way up the gang plank.  What an exit from war torn Europe.  (I think it was an honest mistake on the part of the German POW and don’t think it was sabotage.  Ha!) When we got to New York there was a harbour captain that came out to guide our ship on in.  I was at the side of ship watching this.  He came on board and shook my hand and said “Welcome home son.” (I had cleaned my self up by then.)  I get tears in my eyes just remembering him saying this. 

Back to the book. “At Jjama Masjid (noble Moslem mosque) in Delhi, the guide showed them three world sights.  Mohammed’s sandal, his footprint, and from his beard a long red hair.” The sandals were two inches shorter than his footprint.  They had one guide that they joked needed a guide as he didn’t know what some well known sites were.

Me: I found the guides on the government sponsored tours were very good and tours were reasonable.  I also found the government sponsored hotels were reasonable, clean and met my needs.  You find out about them from the National Tourist offices. While I did not use them all the time it was nice to know they were there.

I am reading an article about Oil Rich Brunei a feast for eyes by Sandra Scott in today’s Washington Times Travel section. She writes: On the Royal Brunei airplane from Thailand to Bandar the capital of Brunei just before landing a flight attendant advised “The importation of drugs into Brunei is illegal and punishable by death.  We are sorry for any inconvenience this may caused.”.

The sultan’s new 1,800 room palace is the largest in the world and is managed by Hyatt Corp.  For three days following Ramadan the palace is open to the public, a buffet is served and the sultan and his wives- he has two greet the people.”.

I met in Rio De Janeiro one time the son of one of the Royalty of Saudi Arabia, or he said he was.  He said his father had seven wives and he was the son of the youngest one.  He may have been a fake as he was staying in same budget pension I was.  I know he did give Varig or whatever Brazils airline a bribe to get on flight out when it was difficult to get out and they took it. I was surprised at this little transaction.

If you would like to contact Mac, he is happy to answer e-mails: macsan400@yahoo.com

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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.

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Answers to Flag Quiz

1 Bahamas	2 Brazil	3 Croatia	4 Germany	5 Iceland

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We don’t have any information for upcoming meetings, but if you would like to attend a New Braunfels Globetrotters meeting, or obtain information about the Texas Branch: please contact texas@globetrotters.co.uk or register for email updates at our website (click here) or call Christina at 830-620-5482

If anybody would like to enquire about meetings or help Christina, please contact her on: texas@globetrotters.co.uk

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Complaints from international visitors to the United States about hostile treatment by immigration officials have prompted them to clean up their act, the official in charge of border controls has said.  The complaints, many from Britons travelling for business or pleasure have forced the agency to institute a code of conduct to ensure officers treat visitors with respect.  Complaints had come from all over the world, but the department was particularly struck by the number from Britain.  One of the major issues is said to be the handcuffing, detention and deportation of some potential visitors who had committed “minor technical visa violations” previously, such as briefly or unwittingly breaching a 90 day permission to stay. “While we must — and will — secure our border against terrorists, we must treat all travellers professionally and courteously,” said the agency.

But meanwhile…

By subjecting most visitors to scans of their faces and fingers, the United States will this week expand a mass surveillance system that threatens freedom and race relations, a privacy watchdog says.

Now most visitors entering the United States will have to put each index finger in turn on a glass plate that electronically scans it, and to have a digital photo taken.

The United States says its US-VISIT program — already in place for travellers requiring visas and now being rolled out more widely — will add an average of just 15 seconds to entry checks and will enhance security.

It says the biometric data will be stored in databases, along with personal information such as full name, date of birth, citizenship, sex and passport number, and can be accessed by border, consular, immigration and law enforcement officials.

London-based rights group Privacy International said in a recent report that the scheme relied on flawed technology and opaque, error-strewn watch lists on which innocent people could find themselves wrongly identified as security threats.

Ryanair are advertising jobs: http://www.careerjet.co.uk/jobs_ryanair.html  We at Globetrotter Towers are idly wondering whether benefits include free flights located in the bathroom.

New routes added Ryanair airline announced last month it would begin flying on Oct. 31 to Riga from London, Frankfurt, Germany, and Tampere, Finland, after the Latvian government cut airport taxes in an attempt to lure more tourism and make Riga International Airport a regional hub.  It is Ryanair's first venture into one of the 10 new European Union member states.  Commentators have wryly noted that it is not clear who is most excited about the new route into Riga, travellers into Riga or Latvians looking to travel out.  Uhh… didn't Michael O Leary say that Ryanair would not be expanding into the new EU accession countries?

No unions, please  Ryanair is about to get into another spat, this time with SAS.  Ryanair is not unionised and promises to pay more than union rates if its employees negotiate their contracts directly with the company rather than join unions for collective bargaining.  Most SAS workers do belong to a union.  Swedish trade union HTF recently handed out sick bags to passengers flying on Ryanair from Nykoping, what Ryanair refer to as Stockholm, some 160 km south west of Stockholm as part of a wider campaign organized by the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF). The white bags were printed with claims that Ryanair staff had to work longer and for lower pay than rivals.  Speaking at a Stockholm press conference, Chief Executive, Michael O'Leary said that Ryanair paid more on average to staff and that its rules on the maximum hours staff could work were the strictest in the industry. “We are an embarrassment to a lot of trade unions,” he went on to say.  According to O’Leary, Ryanair staff earn an average of EUR50,582 a year, more than staff at airlines where staff are unionized, O'Leary added.  O'Leary also said Ryanair would sue Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter unless it retracted reports critical of some aspects of Ryanair's safety record.

Yet more pay as you go service Ryanair has been looking for ways to introduce new services they can use to boost revenues while keeping fares low.  Their latest attempt is to introduce in-flight entertainment such as movies, chart videos, cartoons and sitcoms on all its flights, but passengers will have to pay GBP£5, EUR7 (USD$9) per flight if they want to access movies, cartoons and television shows on the portable units, which will not be built into seats as on full-service carriers.  Ryanair said the system will be trialled initially on five Stansted based aircraft from November. If successful, it will gradually be rolled out across the airline's entire fleet over the winter.  Ryanair needs three percent of its passengers to use the units to cover its costs.  Each plane will initially carry 24 entertainment units which would be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.  The units, which look like a small laptop, are the brainchild of former aircraft baggage handler Bill Boyer who sold the idea to his then employer, Alaska Airlines.

Boyer later founded APS, based in the industrial city of Tacoma, south of Seattle. Ryanair is now APS's biggest customer.

The entertainment units are Ryanair's latest push to tap new sources of non-ticket revenue. Ryanair passengers are also charged for drinks and food. “At the moment the ice is free, but if we could find a way of targeting a price on it we would,” O'Leary earlier told an airlines conference.

And finally… their blurb about themselves, Ryanair describe themselves as being like superman, up, up and away, they say.  It took us a week to stopped laughing, and if you don’t believe us, take a look at this: http://www.ryanair.co.uk/about/abouthome.html

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