I went to St Moritz for a week in February – on a course in a place called Randolins in Survetta, a little way outside the town – not skiing.  Randolins is a not for profit organisation that caters mainly for groups, such as children on ski camps or adult learning.  It's a very nice place, simple, but comfortable – definitely not your 5 star kind of place.  It has shared rooms and you have to take part in the chores, so things like going and getting the food for each meal and wheeling it down to your building on a trolley, washing up, laying tables etc.  If you are looking for a group venue, it's not a bad place.

St Moritz is in the Upper Engadine.  Can't comment on skiing, but can say a few things about the town.  It's quite small, easily walkable, very posh with a very high fur coat count and is pretty expensive!  There are two parts to St Moritz: there's the dorf which means village and this is above the lake.  This is where the posh hotels, restaurants, shops etc are.  St Moritz-Bad is about 2km away southwest down on the lakeshore and is not such a pretty place, lots of concrete flats and other buildings.

The name of St Moritz has an interesting story attached to it: the story told to me was that Maurice (later turned into Moritz) was a Christian and came from Egypt.  He served in the Roman army under Julius Caesar and led a Theban legion for the Roman empire and fought in the Alps.  He refused to obey the order of the Emperor Maximian and sacrifice some Christians to the Roman gods because he was himself a Christian.  On hearing this, Maximian ordered Maurice's regiment to be decimated – i.e. every tenth person killed, and this went on until no-one was left.  And so commanding officer Maurice became a saint.  Legend has it that the rock used by Maurice to lay his head on so that he could be beheaded is at St Moritz.   Like England's St George, St. Maurice is a patron of knights and soldiers.  From the 12th century, due the similarity between his name and Maurus, he was depicted as a Moor, so he became the black saint.  

Even after Roman times, St. Moritz was known during the Middle Ages for its mineral springs and healthy climate and it became the first alpine winter sports and tourism centre in Switzerland.  It also hosted two Olympic Winter Games (1928 and 1948.) It became the famous ski and alpine sports centre that it is mainly due to the British, who went over in the 1860s and liked it so much they went back and stayed an entire season, and the word was spread.

To get to St Moritz is very easy, you can take a train from Zurich.  I flew from London to Zurich on Easyjet (AKA Sleazyjet) and that was a good price at around £75 including taxes.  Swiss Air and BA all fly there too from the UK but are more expensive.  There is a train station underneath the airport at Zurich and you can take a train from here to the main train station in the centre and go to Chor, change there for St Moritz.  The whole train journey from Zurich took about 3 1/2 hours. 

There are plenty of taxis outside St Moritz train station and the drivers seem to speak every language in the world between them.  Swiss Italian and Swiss German seem to be the predominant languages – and be warned, whilst many Swiss people are amazing linguists and speak good English throughout, if you were thinking (like me) to practice your German, think again, Swiss German is quite different.

Swiss trains are a delight – always on time, clean, and I especially like the double decker trains.  Whilst the airport is non smoking throughout – a fairly recent change, I think, the Swiss do allow smoking on trains, so be careful about which compartment you get into, if you are a non smoker.  I got on an intercity from Lucerne to Zurich and inadvertently sat in a smoking section, which by the time I realised, was too late to move as it was packed full.

Buying a Swiss rail pass makes a lot of sense.  I paid £105 for a pass that allowed me free travel on three specified days.  The days do not have to be consecutive.  The pass also allows you to receive substantial discounts on other trips.  You can buy rail passes for different lengths of trip.

I also went to Lucerne or Luzern.  Beautiful!  It's about 4 hours from St Moritz by train – and only an hour or so by the fast intercity train from Zurich, which also goes direct to the airport as well, which is pretty handy.  It is situated on a lake and has lots of history.  The river Reuss separates the old town from the newer, although that seemed pretty old to me too!  Then it flows into the lake.  The town is also very easy to walk around and was my highlight on this trip to Switzerland.  The train station is very close to the edge of the lake and close to the Art Museum and within easy reach of the hotels by foot.

I stayed in the Hotel Krone which is a Best Western and is in the Old Town, it was very nice and has free internet and the people there were very nice.

There are lots of bridges across the River Reuss, it reminded me a little of Ljubljana, especially with some of the dragon symbols, some of my friends said Stockholm.  One of the most famous is the Chapel bridge built in the 14th century as a part of the city's fortifications and named after St. Peter's Chapel, which is located nearby. It has paintings on it including some info on the city's patron saints, St. Leodegar and our friend St. Maurice.  There's also a very splendid 17th century baroque Jesuit church.  I really liked the water spikes that act like a lock  to regulate water levels like in a canal. and you can see the remains of water mills.

There are lots of old squares and beautiful buildings with pictures on the walls, red spires and steeples.  The Weinmarkt is one of these old squares, and is by the Hotel Krone – very pretty. There's also a great restaurant, and not too expensive (for Switzerland!) in the cellar of the town hall, or Rat Haus that has its own micro brewery inside – great beer, and good food, especially the Braui special which has lots of different types of pork and sauerkraut.  It is also a good place to go and talk to local people, as everyone seemed really friendly.

On my final day in Lucerne, I went to the tourist information centre at the train station and asked where I could go in the mountains.  They suggested a trip to Rigi Kulm, so, using my rail pass, instead of paying 79 Swiss Francs, it cost me 29 Swiss Francs.  It was a great adventure!  I took a boat across Lake Lucerne, and then a funicular or cog wheel train up the mountain to the top of Rigi Kulm, about 1,800m, so not too high, and then the cog wheel train to the half way point and a cable car down to Weggis back down by the lake, and the boat again back to Lucerne.  It was a wonderful half day trip, where we could see above the clouds, the mountain tops poking through, then there was the lake and the green of the alpine pastures leading up to the mountains.  There are a couple of other mountain type trips you can do like this whilst based in Lucerne.

Then  I took the train from Lucerne back to Zurich airport, the direct trains run at 10 minutes past the hour and it took about 1 hour.

I’d definitely recommend Lucerne as a base for 2/3 days to explore.

Where? 

St Helena is situated in the South Atlantic Ocean, 5° 43' west and 15° 56' south, 1,200 miles from the south-west coast of Africa, and 1,800 miles from the coast of South America.  The nearest land is Ascension Island, which lies 703 miles (1,125km) to the north-west.  Cape Town lies some 1700 miles to the south east.  In other words, it’s pretty remote!

St Helena Island land is only some 47 square miles or 122 square km, ten and a half miles or 17km long and six and a half miles or 10km wide.  St Helena Island has two other British Overseas Territories: Ascension Island which lies 703 miles to the north west and Tristan da Cunha, which lies 1500 miles to the south west.  

It was uninhabited when it was first discovered by the Portuguese explorer, Juan Da Nova on 21 May 1502. The name St Helena is derived from the fact that the day Juan Da Niva discovered St Helena, it was a festival day, of St Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine the Great, so he named the island in her honour. The Portuguese kept quiet about St Helena’s existence and used it as a convenient stop off place for ships returning home from the east to stock up on fresh water and fruit. For a little over 80 years only the Portuguese visited St Helena until in 1588 Captain Thomas Cavendish, captain of the H.M.S. Desire, called at the island on his voyage round the world and stayed 12 days there. After this time, English and Dutch merchant ships began to stop off for provisions and repairs.

As might be expected from this period in history, disputes soon arose between the Dutch and the English over sovereignty of St Helena.  In 1659 the British East India Company placed a garrison on the island and started the first permanent settlement. In retaliation, the Dutch invaded in 1673 forcing the English out.  The island was recaptured by the English and held by the British East India Company until 1834 until it was brought under the direct government of the British Crown.

In the Eighteenth century over a thousand ships called annually.  Following the opening of the Suez Canal and the advent of steam the island slipped into oblivion and remained as sort of time warp with its elegance period buildings , relaxed atmosphere and virtually crime free community.

Perhaps many people recognise the name St Helena in connection with Napoleon.  Napoleon was confined to St Helena in 18l5 after his defeat at Waterloo.  Residents of St Helena call themselves “Saints.” Things to do on St Helena include visiting the Plantation House, the residence of the Governor where one can photograph the giant tortoise reputed to be more than 150 years old, Longwood House where Napoleon was kept until his death in 1821 and is maintained by France as a museum.

Ascension Island has a military airstrip that can be used by civilians, but there is currently no civilian airport, so the only way to get there is by boat.  The UK Royal Mail Ship, the RMS St Helena, built in Glasgow, Scotland in 1990  provides cargo and passenger services.  It has a passenger capacity of 128 people.

The British Royal Mail ship sets off from Cardiff in the UK, calling at Tenerife and Ascension Island, and Cape Town. There are usually 4 voyages from the UK, 15 voyages from Ascension and 10 from Cape Town each year. Once a year the RMS calls at Tristan da Cunha – a Dependency of St Helena.  Most people travel via Ascension Island or Cape Town. The travel time for the RMS St Helena is 2 days from Ascension, 5 days from Cape Town and 14 days if travel is direct from Cardiff, UK.  If you are interested in taking the boat, take a look at: www.aws.co.uk or e-mail reservations@aws.co.uk or  enquiries@solomons.co.sh

According to Mac, who has looked into freighters, most freighters won’t take passengers over 75 years of age, as they have no doctors aboard, and he a little over this. He has culled some information from reading an account of freighter travel to St Helena.

One reader suggested going to a university and sign up to use the net, then try the local library, and then a net cafe.  Try visiting internet cafes in the morning and early afternoon (not quite so busy).  You could also ask at your hotel if they have free internet access. In one of the most isolated place on earth Easter Island a reader asked about using internet and they pointed to a corner of the office where there was a machine they could use free (as I think deluxe Hotels sometimes charge heavy prices perhaps you might get free access to internet in lower price places)

Another person said that in Hungary the easiest and least expensive place to access and send e-mails was Burger King. 

In Spanish speaking countries, to get the @ symbol you hold down the “alt” key then press 6 and then 4 on the number keyboard (there is something about the @ key has a couple of other symbols on same key or something and when pressed nothing happens.

Visit our website www.intltravelnews.com

Meeting news from our branches around the world.

In this, Sally talks about her return to the UK for Christmas 2003 after having started a new life in Portugal. 

It was very strange to be back in the UK.  I flew on 19 December.  At check-in at Lisbon airport, I was furious to be charged excess baggage by BA especially when the flight was half full.  Interestingly enough, the return flight with self same baggage incurred no excess baggage charge on another half full flight.  Other friends, who flew the following day to London to connect with a flight to Canada, were also hammered for ski kit.  An outraged missive to BA on why Lisbon charged when Heathrow doesn’t, resulted in no apology.  I have always preferred to travel with TAP who surprisingly did not charge any excess baggage to anyone over Christmas!  Warn friends over the double standards of BA!

When I arrived at Heathrow, having left Lisbon in deep mist (they like to call it fog), I had forgotten how grey the winter skies are – quite a shock.  I did find the UK incredibly expensive.  I know it was only 18 months or so since I had left, but I certainly thought things had increased in price.  Also you notice the commercialism much more with all the adverts on TV, radio and hoardings.  You also realise what a wide difference between earning levels there are between the UK and Europe. As an example, I was in Carphone Warehouse picking up a new chip for my phone when I ear wigged a conversation at the side of me.  A young lad was with his parents and enquiring about the latest state-of-the-art mobile.  The cost of this phone was approximately £350!  When you convert that over to euros, it is roughly the monthly salary of a policeman here – fireman earn slightly less.  I took the bus from Bath to Bradford-on-Avon and nearly fainted at the single fare – £2.40!  The journey is about 20 minutes.  For that fare you can travel twice (return) from Cascais to Lisbon on the railway (a forty minute journey)!

The biggest shock to the system was the price of coffee!  Definitely spoilt over here.  A small black coffee is about 50 cents out of the city and in small coffee bars; the highest price would be about 90 cents in a posh area of Lisbon (70 UK pence is roughly equal to 1 euro).

Strangely enough I actually found just before I left the UK that I was feeling homesick for Portugal – I wonder what that means!  Driving a car was great fun but again I found I had to work really hard at remembering which side of the road to drive on, and I admit to going the wrong way round a junction – luckily nothing was coming!  I also had to concentrate and remember that sunshine and frost sometimes mean ice!  Funny how fast you forget these things.

Flew home to Portugal on 3 January and left grey skies for stunning blue skies and burning hot sun!  Coming back along the motorway was quite surreal, as so many flowers had bloomed over the Christmas period.

Pompey (the kitten) was so thrilled I was home that he slept with his head on my face and his body curled between my head and shoulder for a whole week!

Although it is winter here in Portugal, it is quite different to the UK because there is so much in flower.  Because of the rain we have lots of different shades of green, Madonna lilies are all out, the cherry blossom is just starting, magnolias are in full bloom along with camellias.  Mimosa is also out.  It does make a difference.  The weather has been far better than last winter.  We have had some days where we have had torrential rain but then it stops and you get a bit of blue sky and sometimes, magnificent rainbows.  Some days have been quite warm but again, it can get quite cold at night and I have had my gas log fire (salamandra) on a few times which is rather nice as you have this glow in the corner. 

I have now received my official Numero do Contribuinte – my tax card which means that I now have to sort out all my receipts to hand in by the end of this month.  I can claim medical, dental, any purchases to do with work, petrol and restaurant bills (this I was told was to help the tax authorities make sure the restaurants in question actually declare revenue!)  For those of you who know my hatred and frustrations with sums – keep your fingers crossed.  I have no doubt that things will be thrown and tears shed when I do this later this week.

London meeting 3^rd April 2004 by Padmassana

John Douglas was our first speaker this afternoon, who showed us Norway’s Arctic Highway which begins life further south as the E6. John's photos took us through the roads history which began in the 1930’s, through the years of WW2 when the Germans used slave labour from Yugoslavia to push the road into previously impenetrable regions. In those days the road was not much more than a track, a far cry from today’s paved road. The reason for the improvement to the road in the last thirty years or so being Norway’s North sea oil, not only paving the road but driving tunnels through mountains and under fjords and the sea. John explained that this was partly done for political reasons, to encourage the population to stay in the north and keep the area populated during the Cold War. John also showed us the Norway we expect to see, reindeer, glaciers, snow capped peaks and the Sami people in their colourful traditional costumes that sadly only come out nowadays on ceremonial occasions. John finished this interesting talk with a photo taken near Hammerfest, the midnight sun giving rise to a magnificent orange sky.

Our second speaker was Karen Neale, an artist’s journey through world heritage cities and sights. This highly innovative talk was not illustrated by the usual slide show, but rather by Karen’s own sketches, which she made as she travelled. Her 5-month journey was funded by a grant from the Churchill Trust Travelling Fellowship. During her trip she made over 100 sketches, which brought the places to life for the audience and for those of us who have visited some of the places rekindled many memories. Karen left a rainy London for a rainy Paris in April 2001, but the sun finally shone for her as she drew Avignon’s Papal Palace. She travelled into Italy, via Milan, Venice and Rome and into Greece, then into Turkey, Karen’s sketches of Istanbul’s domes and minarets and the Grand Bazaar bringing this eastern city to life. Karen’s enthusiasm bubbled throughout her talk, particularly her sketches in Iran, from the history of Persepolis, the beautiful drawing of Imam Square and the most evocative of all the mud walled city of Bam, which was destroyed in December 2003 by an earthquake. Many Globies who have been there will no doubt be asking for prints of that drawing. Karen headed east into Uzbekistan to the fabled cities of Khiva and Samarkand, where she drew the mosques. A dodgy Uzbek airlines flight took her to India, where she had difficulty drawing in the cities as she became an attraction herself, surrounded by people watching her, but she still managed to bring us colourful pictures of Jaipur and the temples at Ranakpur. Karen’s was a very different presentation and I am sure it is going to be remembered as one of the highlights of Globetrotters in 2004.

Next month

On Saturday 8th May, Liam D’Arcy Brown talks about China's Historic and Symbolic Borders an 11,000 mile journey to the country's extreme four corners and after the break, John Malathronas will give a slide show and talk about Brazil – Life, Blood and Soul.

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

Mac is not responsible for finding these signs, he saw them on the internet and thought they may be amusing for readers of the Globetrotters e-newsletter.  Please, no complaints about being patronising, this is just for fun. 

Spotted in a toilet of a London office: TOILET OUT OF ORDER. PLEASE USE FLOOR BELOW

In a Laundromat: AUTOMATIC WASHING MACHINES: PLEASE REMOVE ALL YOUR CLOTHES WHEN THE LIGHT GOES OUT

In a London department store: BARGAIN BASEMENT UPSTAIRS

In an office: WOULD THE PERSON WHO TOOK THE STEP LADDER YESTERDAY, PLEASE BRING IT BACK OR FURTHER STEPS WILL BE TAKEN

In an office: AFTER TEA BREAK STAFF SHOULD EMPTY THE TEAPOT AND STAND UPSIDE DOWN ON THE DRAINING BOARD

Outside a second hand shop: WE EXCHANGE ANYTHING – BICYCLES, WASHING MACHINES, ETC. WHY NOT BRING YOUR WIFE ALONG AND GET A WONDERFUL BARGAIN?

… and the best one…Notice in health food shop window: CLOSED DUE TO ILLNESS

Spotted in a safari park: ELEPHANTS PLEASE STAY IN YOUR CAR

Seen during a conference: FOR ANYONE WHO HAS CHILDREN AND DOESN'T KNOW IT, THERE IS A DAY CARE ON THE 1ST FLOOR

Notice in a field: THE FARMER ALLOWS WALKERS TO CROSS THE FIELD FOR FREE, BUT THE BULL CHARGES

Message on a leaflet: IF YOU CANNOT READ, THIS LEAFLET WILL TELL YOU HOW TO GET LESSONS

 … and finally…

On a repair shop door: WE CAN REPAIR ANYTHING. (PLEASE KNOCK HARD ON THE DOOR – THE BELL DOESN'T WORK)

Liz and Josh Ferber presented slides and talked about Australia and New Zealand.

June 5th: Amy Gissen – still to be decided – but will probably be talking about Cambodia and Thailand.

$10.00 for non-members, $8.00 for members.

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 .

Iko Poran society is a Brazilian association of private non-profit , non-political, non-denominational organizations guided by the principles of democracy. The mission of our organization is to promote volunteer programs that have a positive impact on their communities and surrounding and promote a beneficial exchange between cultures. Volunteer work varies according to project. For more information see our website at http://www.ikoporan.org/ or email rj@ikoporan.org

Youth Services with TIPACOM, Peru

TIPACOM a program that helps babies, children and teenagers living in extreme poverty, mainly in Villa El Salvador as well as other pueblos jovenes in Lima. TIPACOM has developed many projects including training programs for young people. The organization also works to promote health awareness and aid the sick. Volunteers can work in any of these areas and are encouraged to organize other social project in pueblos jovenes. Those with background in Administration are needed as are English teachers. For more info, email tipacom@hotmail.com

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.

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 Malaysia, India, Komodo Dragons and Singapore.

Kula Lumpur, Malaysia: Malaysian children are singing in the church across the street from my four star, oops, excuse me, I mean four dollar hotel.  It is sweltering hot and they are singing: “Dashing through the snow in a one horse open shay.”

When I stepped outside my Hotel Shelly in Bombay one night (it is along the water front) I heard on a microphone “Humpty Dumpty. Number eight.”  They were playing Bingo and calling number in English manner, I guess, outside the pier of a membership recreation club.  An Indian gentleman came up to me in a chilled beer bar and complained to me that his son worked for American Express and they were taking advantage of him and having him work more than eight hours a day.  I told him I would speak to them about that.  Ha!  I later saw Indians picketing American Express for unfair labour practices.  The other side of the coin is, according to the Americans that the Indians do not work as hard as the Americans and that they are used to goofing off in Indian firms and expect to do the same in American firms.  I am trying to stay neutral. I can’t solve all the worlds problems!

25 Nov 1991, Singapore: a cable car with wonderful views of Singapore takes you to Sentosa Island.  The wax museum (I like wax museums, I learn my history there) shows the founding of Singapore and about the War years and is well worth the $1.80 US it costs.  It is called Pioneers of Singapore/Surrender Chambers.  It always intrigues me, the foreigners living in Singapore were dancing the night away in formal clothes at the Raffles Hotel and then in a few hours, they were prisoners of the Japanese.  They had not expected the Japanese to attack down the Malaysian peninsula but rather from the sea and certainly not that fast if they did.

I just found out that if in Malaysia I had told them I was a Senior citizen I could have travelled at half price on the train.  The Singapore Senior Citizen rate at their zoo, however, is for Singaporeans only.  I tried to look Singaporean, but strangely, it didn’t work.  They charge $7 U.S.  I am used to zoos being free but it is a good zoo.  

Komodo dragons: the largest is about the size of a crocodile and can eat a horse.  They thought they were extinct and then they found some on an Indonesian island, Komodo, hence their name.  Left over from past ages.  I also saw Meerkats which are like mongooses and they all got to see me.

Sign in subway in Singapore: No Durians allowed.  Durian is a fruit that is delicious tasting but has a terrible smell to it.  Many hotels and places will not allow you to bring in Durian (they smell like farts) or as a British Colonial descried Durian “Like eating a garlic custard while standing over a London sewer.” I gave some stuff to Catholic Church in Kula Lumpur and the priest and his students took me out to eat Durian.  One girl said her grandmother was addicted to it.  Announcements on subway in Singapore (and they have a beautiful one) were in four different languages (all saying No Durian I guess).

An Iranian seaman sat next to me on bus from Singapore to Kula Lumpur, Malaysia.  He was eating almonds he had brought from Iran.   He said he had been in twenty countries, but not the United States, as they would not let him in.  He said that the Revolution was bad, everyone is unemployed.  There had been so many Iranians at Ueno train station in Tokyo, Japan, each morning when I was there.  They would congregate there hoping to get a day job from Japanese looking for cheap labour for the day.  It was odd.  I am American and they were Iranians, but they approached me to go site seeing with as if we were old friends.  He was a marine engineer (the guy on the bus). Oddly enough, I met a marine engineer (three different ones) on three different tour buses in different places.  You think of seamen spending their time in bars but all three I met were avid sightseers.

While waiting for a bus in Singapore, I met an American school teacher that joined an International Pen Pal Club just to have contacts while travelling.  He was amazed to find the pen pal he had in Indonesia lived in a beautiful eight room house that had a waterfall in the house.  At pen pal places he says he usually pays a nominal amount as he stays for long periods.  He paid $85 a month at one place on East Coast of Malaysia.  It was a place he had fallen in love with.  Name is something like Khoutan.  One of the pen pals he visited was in Brunei.  He had never heard of it before (not all school teachers are smart!)  It is oil rich.  He says that some wealthy Brunei will charter a whole public bus just for himself and the people that were going to take that public bus are just out of luck with no advance notice.  Today I guess it would be internet pals.

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

Country Statistics

Source:

On Saturday May 9th Wayne Stevenson Thomas from the International Cooperative Exchange Network, SERVAS gave a talk at the Texas branch of the Globetrotters Club.  SERVAS was established in 1948 and is an international network of hosts and travellers building peace by providing opportunities for personal contact between people of diverse cultures and backgrounds. Through mutually arranged individual visits, hosts and travellers share their lives, interests and concerns about social issues. These encounters help form the building blocks of peace in the spirit of mutual service and respect.

See their website:http://www.usservas.org/

Dates of future meetings:

• June 12th
• July 10th
• Mark your calendars now

For more 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

Director of Ryanair.com Conal Henry announced proudly: ‘Ryanair is the ONLY airline that provides access to all European Grand Prix destinations – all other airlines are the pits!!’  According to them, the best access to Hungarian GP near Budapest on August 15th is via… Graz, Austria, the distance to Hungary JUST 364 km.

What is going on!  The passenger traffic statistics for March 2004 confirm Ryanair has carried 204,187 more passengers in UK/Europe than British Airways. 

Ryanair on 7 April 2004 released its customer service statistics for March 2004.  Ryanair is committed to publishing customer service statistics each month and these confirm that Ryanair is also No.1 for Customer Service.

• 93% of all Ryanair's 15,798 flights during the month of March arrived on time.
• Complaints registered at less than 1 (0.49) complaint per 1000 passengers.
• Mislaid baggage registered at less than 1 (0.64) bag per 1000 passengers.

Just in case you a regular visitor to Brest, in France, Ryanair has decided to discontinue the Brest-London (Stansted) route.

I have been living in Thailand since 1989.  I have travelled extensively throughout the Kingdom and wanted to share my wonderful experiences of Thailand with others.  I talked with many travellers here in Thailand and saw a need to take visitors away from the normal tourist areas filled with large tour buses and groups. The biggest complaint I heard from visitors is “there is no real Thai culture… it’s staged for the tourists”.  This is because they keep following each other around using their guidebooks and never see the real Thailand.

In the course of setting up a travel agency here in Thailand, it took about 2 years of research to find the areas that were safe and could handle visitors.  I spoke with village headmen, temple Monks, Hill Tribe villagers, National Park officials and local bird experts.  I then had to train staff that would take care of our clients with excellent service and provide correct information about Thai and hill tribe culture, Thai food, Buddhism, birds of Thailand, etc.

I lived in a remote area of north Thailand at Wat Thaton temple in the town of Thaton on the Burmese border for more than 3 years.  I taught English to Monks, novices, high school students, the Thai Army, local and tourist police.  I also did hill tribe programs by taking a small number of tourists to hill tribe villages to spend the evening.  All the money for the trek went to the villagers.  I bought clothes for the children, medicines and blankets for the families.  I paid the villagers to build a bamboo schoolhouse and paid a teacher to teach Thai at the school who could speak their language.  I taught them how to dispose of waste properly, keep the children and village clean and to use spoons instead of their fingers when eating which was a big source of their health problems.  I provided vegetable seeds and logan and lychee fruit trees for planting.

This was fine until I left the temple then the school stopped and the health problems returned.  I talked with the Abbot of the temple and he now has a school for the children at the temple.  He has a nurse looking after the children and takes those to the clinics that have problems.

While I was there I help start a guest home where travellers could stay in a Lisu hill tribe village and go trekking in the jungle and visit primitive hill tribe villages in the area.  This was not easy, as the villages we visited didn't want visitors as they wanted to maintain their lifestyle and culture.  They have seen other villages that accepted tourists turned into a village without harmony and their culture was gone forever. These villagers were farmers and didn't want to look at tourism as a source of income.

I understood the problem as I have seen what a tour operator can do to a village. To most tour operators in Thailand money is first and they don't care about the hill tribe people or their way of life.

I stayed in these villages and met with the village headmen many times. I learned about their culture, way of life, religion, and do's and don'ts. We then came up with a plan that worked out well for the villagers and our clients.

For the Jungle portion of the trek I had to teach the guides to use different trails so it could grow back.  They make a hut out of bamboo and banana leaves for sleeping and I taught them not to clear-cut and not to return to an area for at least two months.  No more hunting of birds or wild animals.

Without the local culture we would not be able to give our clients the experience they are looking for. We also encourage our clients in helping the local people we visit.

Next month, Randy talks about the difference between tourism and eco-tourism, and provides us with some guidelines about the kind of questions we should be asking ourselves when visiting Thailand or going on any kind of eco-trip.

Randy who was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1948 has lived in Texas for more than 20 years and in Thailand since 1989 can be contacted by e-mail on: allthai@all-thailand-exp.com.  For more information on trips to Thailand, see: http://www.all-thailand-exp.com  

Answers to the Flags Quiz

Burma

Canada

Denmark

Gibraltar

Japan

Many globetrotting travellers now regularly carry a GPS (Global Positioning System) with them when they travel. These superb little handheld devices can be bought for as little as £100, though prices do go up to several hundred pounds for the most sophisticated machines. They show your position on earth in latitude, longitude and altitude, via triangulation from satellites orbiting the earth.

To those of us not blessed with a great sense of direction, especially when exploring a new city, these devices are a godsend. Just “Mark” the co-ordinate of your hotel for example, wander all day and then your little machine will guide you back home in the evening. If you know the GPS co-ordinate of the sight you want to visit, these little boxes can save you time by taking your straight there, as depending on conditions they can be as accurate as 10ft.

Though GPS's are a great piece of kit to have with you they are used in more serious applications. For example Padmassana recently went to a lecture on volcanoes and the lecturer described how GPS's are being used to monitor the height of the land in volcanic areas. The land rising if only by centimetres over a period can signify that magma is building up underneath and indicate that an eruption is more likely and hopefully give the authorities an opportunity to evacuate the area.

To those who already have a GPS, most will know about Geocaching. A global game of hide and seek using a GPS. Globie Tracey introduced Padmassana to this “sport” on a Globetrotters weekend away. On the website www.geocaching.com you type in your postal code (in countries that have this system) and you will be taken to a page showing “Caches” within a 10-mile radius. The Cache is normally hidden and usually has the form of a plastic box with some trinkets in. Most Geocachers leave something and take something. There is always a book to record your visit and sometimes a throwaway camera for you to take a picture. Once back home you can go online and record your visit, this allows the person who planted the cache to know how often it is being found or not as the case may be. Some caches are just one location, but many are a series of clues leading to a final cache. For example you may be given the co-ordinates of a church, where you have to look for a particular grave, then transpose a date of birth into another set of co-ordinates, which take you to another clue and so on.

In some cache’s you may be lucky and come across a “Travel bug”, these are small metal dog tag beetles with a number on. If you decide to remove this from the cache you must put it in the book. Once you get home look up the Travel bug online and see what its mission is, some want to reach a particular destination, others just want to visit as many places as possible. Your mission once you have discovered what the bug wants to do is to help it on its way by planting it in another cache, which hopefully helps it get nearer to its goal.

Since the first cache was “planted” near Portland Oregon in May 2000, the worldwide number of caches has increased to over 90,000 and are hidden in 199 countries. In the UK alone there are around 3000 hidden caches. In just one 7-day period in March 2004, over 64,000 caches were logged as “Found”, which goes to show what a popular pastime this has become. (Figures courtesy of www.fingertech.co.uk)

Now this is where we want all you Globetrotters out there to do your part. I am trying to put together a database of co-ordinates of famous sights and monuments, for example: Buckingham Palace in London is located at N51 30.101 W000  08.487. 

We are inviting you to take part in geocaching in your area – please take two or three readings to make sure they are as accurate as possible, then e-mail the following information 1) The site 2) The address 3) Its co-ordinates 4) Your name to gps@globetrotters.co.uk  Once we have begun to build a database it will be made available to all Globetrotters to enjoy.

By the way, Padmassana released a travel bug on Monday, April 05, 2004 in the UK.   The mission of the travel bug is as follows: to travel far and wide, but my dream is to visit Iran.  I would like to visit caches in England, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey and finally Iran.