Tag Archives: August 2003

Being Careful: Dengue Fever in Tonga

The Australian High Commission currently advises that there is currently an epidemic of the mosquito-borne disease Dengue Fever in Tonga on the main island of Tongatapu. Anyone visiting Tonga is strongly advised to protect themselves from mosquito bites at all times.

You do not want to catch Dengue Fever – see Ingrid Style’s article in this e-newsletter about her Dengue Fever in Thailand.


Mutual Aid

Can you help David and his wife and two young children who are planning to travel to Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the US, Canada and Africa. Can anyone give him some advice on work permits? David's wife is an occupational therapist. Also can anyone give David some advice on travelling with young children? If you can help, please contact David on: david.flower3@ntlworld.com

The Beetle would like to hear from anyone who has dived at Madang, Tufi or Walinde as she is planning a trip there at Christmas. Please e-mail the Beetle: beetle@globetrotters.co.uk

Need help? Want a travelling buddy or advice about a place or country – want to share something with us – why not visit our Mutual Aid section of the Website: Mutual Aid


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.


I Want That Holiday – TV Show

Are you a UK resident, going on holiday in October or November, but haven't decided where? Do you fancy letting us plan it for you?

If you want a holiday with a difference then call us on 023 80 712568 or email us at iwthol@granadamedia.com for an application form.


Meeting News from Texas

Globetrotters meeting on Saturday 13th September at 2pm

The Texas Branch of the Globetrotters Club will meet Saturday Sept 13th, 2003, 2pm at the New Braunfels Public Library 700 E. Common Street, New Braunfels, Texas 830-620-5482

The September meeting will Feature a speaker from “Friendship Force International” for more information, see their website: http://www.friendshipforce.org/

If you like independent, adventuresome, fun, daring, exciting, “off the beaten path” travel, this club is for you. Our meeting begins at 2 P.M. Come early so you won't be late! Enjoy handouts, travel talk time, and door prizes!

Dates of future meetings: October 11th, November 8th – Mark your calendars.

For more information about the Texas Branch or help Christina, please contact her by texas@globetrotters.co.uk or register for email updates at our website (click here) or call Christina at 830-620-5482


Free London Museums: Theatre Museum

Five galleries illustrate the history of the performing arts in the UK. The collection includes displays on theatre, ballet, dance, circus, puppetry, opera, musicals, rock and pop. There's usually a daily workshop on performing arts subjects, such as pantomime and making a play.

The museum is found in Russell Street, Covent Garden.
Open: Tue-Sun, 10:00-18:00.
Tube: Covent Garden
Enquiries: 020 7943 4700
Entrance: FREE admission for individuals.


Berlin National Holocaust Memorial

Building work on a national Holocaust memorial in the German capital, Berlin, has begun. The memorial is being built in the centre of the city, close to the Brandenburg Gate and near the bunker where Adolf Hitler committed suicide in 1945. The monument should be completed by May 2005 – in time for the 60th anniversary of the end of the World War Two.


Write for the Globetrotters monthly e-newsletter

If you enjoy writing, enjoy travelling, why not write for the free monthly Globetrotters e-newsletter! The Beetle would love to hear from you: your travel stories, anecdotes, jokes, questions, hints and tips, or your hometown or somewhere of special interest to you. Over 7,500 people subscribe to the Globetrotters e-news.

To see your story in cyber print, e-mail the Beetle with your travel experiences, hints and tips or questions up to 750 words, together with a couple of sentences about yourself and a contact e-mail address to Beetle@globetrotters.co.uk


Say No to Flying Fox

The Pacific island of Guam is known for very high rates of a degenerative disease that looks like motor neuron, Parkinson's and dementia, but cannot be firmly identified as any of them. Researchers believe that this higher than average incidence could be due to eating a bat, also known as a flying fox. The flying foxes feed on seed containing a chemical highly toxic to human brain cells. When humans eat the animals, high levels of the chemical, which had accumulated in the bat tissues, was passed on. Flying fox is a delicacy in many parts of the Pacific, including Tonga, Vanuatu, New Caledonia.


Laos Snippet by Busby

I went on my two month long trip of Indochina. I skulked a bit in Qatar eyeing up the tablecloth-clad gentlemen and in turn being the recipient of their roving eye. Thought maybe not. From Bangkok Railway Station there was a direct train. This leaves every night at 8:00pm or 8:20pm. You can book a sleeper berth complete with curtains to the Friendship Bridge at the Laotian border. Crossing the border is easy – the usual stuff – $20 and a British Passport and you are there. Vientiane is the next stop. One needs to speak a little French to admire Alleys, les baguettes, Les Arch de Triomphe. I walked everywhere – the whole place is less than three square miles.

If you happen to skip the French breakfast, the French colonial attitude and the temperature, go to Luang Prabang. It’s a beautiful place – until they get funding to finish the long runway.

If you happen to be female, make sure you are wearing the right underwear: the Buddhist monks on the top of the hill happen to be very observant

Then there was a little problem. Up the Mekong down the Mekong. Make sure you are fit rather than panting your lungs away along the waterfalls like I did.

After having had such a lovely time, it all went a bit sour: three days after flying back from Cambodia, I spent 40 minutes on the internet in Ko Chang (Eastern Thailand) Internet café. A local man asked me if I wanted to buy drugs. I politely refused. What happened next? The guy kicked me in the face and broke my nose, leaving me in a lot of pain, and bleeding all over the place. A Kiwi traveller called the police who arrived pretty quickly. After 4 hours of investigations and searching my possessions, they decided to find the offender. The court case took on the spot. By 2 a.m. the police and the translator were around and so was my attacker; very professional, except me bleeding all over trying to fix my broken nose. I identified my attacker and then I was taken to hospital where the costs of fixing up my poor nose were paid for. I flew back home to avoid the rest of the nonsense.

If you'd like to contact Busby, please e-mail her on: me@krystyna.com


Overland West Africa

If you a planning an overland trip in west Africa, then please note that the Nigerian Government has announced that it is closing its borders with the Benin Republic with immediate effect due to an increase in cross-border crime such as smuggling and human trafficking. The main border crossing into Benin is not far from Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos and it normally carries travellers and traders from Benin, Togo, Ghana and beyond.


Woman killed by Shark

A woman was killed by a great white shark while swimming with sea lions at Avala Beach, between Los Angeles and San Francisco in California. This is the first attack in almost ten years. Four lifeguards tried to save her life, but the 50-year-old was declared dead upon reaching the shore. The shark had bitten her left leg, severing her femoral artery. The area is known to be populated by sharks but they usually only attack humans if confused, said a shark specialist interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle. 'If you are wearing a wetsuit and fins and you are swimming with sea lions you are doing a clumsy job of imitating shark food,' he said.


Travelling to Mikindani from Mozambique – Becky Stickland

Having allowed myself the luxury of a two-week break in Durban visiting a long lost friend I turned my thoughts towards the adventure that lay ahead. I have always wanted to visit Mozambique and I saw this as my opportunity to experience, or even just catch a glimpse of, the culture and lifestyles of the Mozambican people as I travelled from South Africa in search of Mikindani.

Arrival in Mocimboa seemed dreamlike as lack of sleep, the temperature rise as we headed north and the travel left me disorientated. I found accommodation in a nearby guesthouse and decided to explore the town. Mocimboa is a sleepy town with white sand lining the streets that lead to the beach at the end of the town. Being accosted by Lucia Juma, the local drunk, (the Beetle has also met this man too – not a nice experience!) set the scene for the rest of the day when I’d naively anticipated a peaceful evening. I played dominoes with the girls in the local restaurant, chatted with the men at the local bar and then a meal at the guesthouse where I chanced across Taiwanese Mr Wu and Abo his Mozambican friend. Mr Wu (no English), myself (no Portuguese) and Abo (a little of all languages) agreed that the local disco must be attended.

The electricity is cut at 10pm so the town is plunged into darkness and the only noises I heard as I walked under the stars to the disco were voices, laughter and crickets. The disco was my first taste of African nightlife and was assuredly colourful, and I danced with my new friends and many others until we left the activity to head for some sleep. My chance stalking by an ‘unpleasant man’ meant that I was escorted back across town by Mr Wu, local ladies and a number of others who clutched my arms the entire walk and yelled at each other in Portuguese; they insisted I stay in their guest house where they could take care of me, but a Muslim guest house, where two men bring back two women in the middle of the night I can assure is not a positive situation. I drifted to sleep and then the cock crowed two hours later as I arose early, once again, for the last part of my journey.

4am perched on the back of an open truck, wedged in between buckets, bicycles, yams and small children as I saw the sunrise. The group of ten of us bumped and rattled, spun and raced along sand filled tracks bound northwards for the Tanzanian border. Mozambique is certainly a beautiful country and it's hard to believe that only years earlier the lands I was fleeting across were littered with landmines. It seems so unlikely that fear and destruction could reign in such a place. It seemed appropriate that an hour from the border our vehicle should break down. A half hour stop as engines were tinkered with, bits of pipe bent and bashed, the lid shut down and once more we flew north. Somehow I imagined my AA card would be of little use in such parts. The Mozambican authorities inspected our vehicle two miles from the border, where an official in khaki and a sultry face indicated that an inspection of my luggage was in order. I began unloading each item out of my 70 litre rucksack and felt violated and indignant that anyone thought they had the right to rifle through my wash bag. (Same thing happened to the Beetle.) He quickly lost interest and although at first intimidated by his stature and official stance, as he mounted his motor-ped I smiled as I observed his right foot was protected by a steel top-capped boot and his left just a flip flop.

We continued by truck, wending our way down towards the Rovuma River. How better to embark in Tanzania than being carried across the shallow waters of the Rovuma to the sandy beach having crossed the mighty river by dhow. The scene was reminiscent of a biblical scene as I was carried like an injured hero returning from war. As I saw Jean and the Trade Aid Land rover waiting close by I breathed a sigh of relief, as I knew I had finally made it safely to Mikindani.

For more information on the work carried out by Trade Aid in Tanzania, see their website www.mikindani.com


Travel Photographer of the Year Competition

Travel Photographer of the Year is a new annual competition, supported by major names in the photographic and travel industries, that recognises and celebrates the very best travel photography.

Any photographer – amateur or professional – can enter TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR (TPOTY) by submitting a portfolio of four images in one, two or all three of the portfolio categories. There’s an Image of the Year category as well and even a special award for those aged 16 and under – the YOUNG TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR. Entries close on September 14th 2003.


So You Think You’re Well Travelled?

Here’s a little Beetle quiz based on capital cities. See how many you get right! Go on, have a guess!

What is the capital city of the following countries:

  1. Angola
  2. Cyprus
  3. Laos
  4. Nepal
  5. South Korea

For the answers, see at the end of the e-newsletter.


Padmassana Travels To Japan – Part 3

Padmassana went travelling around Kyushu in June/July time. Here is the final of three extracts from his travel journal.

From Kagoshima I went on a day trip on a small bus to Chiran. The bus took about an hour and a half and cost about £10 return. Chiran is famous for Samurai houses and the Kamikaze museum – very interesting but little information in English, most interesting part is the now de classified documents relating to the USS Curtis which took a direct hit from a kamikaze plane. Kagoshima has plenty of things to see including a superb aquarium with giant crabs that live at 300m at the bottom of the sea and a good jellyfish exhibition and good English signs.

From Kagoshima I travelled north to Kumamoto, which took about three and a half hours. I stayed in a beautiful Ryokan with tatami room, even if I did have to get a postman to show me where it was! Kumamoto is easy to get round with trams and busses, though most of it is walkable. Went to the super castle and a wonderful Japanese garden.

Kumamoto is a very nice city, it has some Suizenn-ji gardens, which were built by a Shogun in the 16th century for him to have tea, as there is a spring there perfect for making good tea. Around this he built fabulous Japanese gardens complete with koi carp ponds. This is a very popular destination with Japanese tourists who go there to have their pictures taken with Mt Fuji in the background. Around the edge of the gardens are little stalls, which sell the locally famous “fish on wheels” and spinning tops, great souvenirs. Kumamoto-Jo or castle is largely new and inside apart from a bit of armour there's not much to see, outside is a little more interesting and again there are signs in English explaining what you are seeing.

From Kumamoto, I went to Mt Aso. To get to Mt Aso, you have to take a local train from Kumamoto, then a small bus up the side of the mountain and then take a cable car to see the inside of the volcano crater. But I was unable to do this, as it was active! A little while ago, the volcano started spewing poisonous gas and lumps of rock, and as a woman was killed so the authorities put a 1km exclusion zone round it. Went instead to the museum, which is not bad, although there was not much signage in English but it does have the feedback from 2 live video links from inside the crater. Today’s pictures were pretty good – a shame that there was no lava, although I suspect that the locals are relieved.

Next, I took the train from Kumamoto to Nagasaki, a nice city, it’s quite industrial, and obviously new. Went to the temples and went to the A-Bomb museum, the No. 1 tourist attraction, full of Japanese school children but also has a scenic river that has stone bridges that used to lead up to a stone temple but this is not there any more. There is another temple with a roof shaped like a tortoise, which is a really nice place to visit. Inside this, it has a Foucault’s pendulum that shows the earth’s rotation – one of only three in the world, the other 2 being in Paris and Leningrad. Nagasaki's “temple row” is quite interesting, many of the temples have started to produce little leaflets in English as the west’s interest in the east and Buddhism has grown in the last few years.

I went up the Nagasaki cable car to get a view over the city yesterday before getting the train back to Hakata/Fukuoka. The train took about 2 hours and was included in my two 5 day passes. The city has two names if you didn’t realise: the airport is called Fukuoka, but the train station is called Hakata. Was going to go up the Fukuoka tower but despite being 80 degrees it was very hot and sticky with low cloud, so did what the Beetle would have done and went shopping! Bought myself a little Japanese garden that you build yourself, saw one in a Ryokan and have been looking ever since, would you believe I found one in the basement shopping area of Hakata station at 7.30pm on my last night. And then ready to come home back to the UK.

A note on Japanese train passes: Japanese train passes are only available to foreigners and must be bought outside Japan. Once you start a pass you have to travel from that day onwards. Passes come in 5, 10, 14 and 21 days. This works out much cheaper than buying train passes as you go. Some ferries and buses are included in the passes.

If you would like to contact Padmassana to ask him about his time in Japan, he can be e-mailed on: padmassana@globetrotters.co.uk


Globetrotters Travel Award

Under 30? A member of Globetrotters Club? Interested in a £1,000 travel award?

Know someone who is? We have £1,000 to award each year for five years for the best submitted independent travel plan. Interested?

Then see our legacy page on our Website, where you can apply with your plans for a totally independent travel trip and we'll take a look at it. Get those plans in!!


Have you got a tale to tell?

If you have a travellers tale that your aching to tell. Then why not visit the “Travel Sized Bites” section of the Website and share it with the world. Travel Sized Bites