Newsletter

Spring 2007

The news of the cyclone disaster and political aftermath coming out of Burma as I write this letter will be especially painful to our many travellers who have visited this beautiful country and its warm and gentle people. We cancelled our visit last November when the peaceful demonstrations were brutally repressed, and evidently our plans to revisit will be further delayed. Meatime, I am sure many of us will have responded to the appeal for aid and hope that it quickly reaches the people who need it.

John Osborne has just returned in triumph from another adventure in Iran. I have received several enthusiastic letters from members of the group, praising John & Karen as tour leaders and Iran as a wonderful and hospitable destination. John’s ‘Persian Spring’ in April was fully booked, so we have added a ‘Persian Autumn’ (this coming 18 Oct – 1 Nov), which is already very nearly full, as is John’s tour to the Ottoman Capitals: Istanbul, Bursa & Edirne, 4 – 15 October. Look out for John’s exciting offerings to Iran & Bulgaria on our list for 2009 – ‘TOURS NEXT YEAR 2009’ on the website.

Anthony Earl & Ruth Chavasse recently returned from another very successful tour to Ravenna & Venice, and as I write, Anthony is with a small group on an unusual itinerary, looking at art treasures and aspects of Renaissance & Reformation in East Germany. Anthony offers interesting new tours to Milan & Lake Garda, Tuscany & Umbria, and to Alsace next year.

Our Indian adventures proved especially enjoyable earlier this year, thanks to the two lovely groups who accompanied us. In January we travelled through Central India for a month, visiting some new places, some familiar, and some very remote places. A quite elderly, but very enthusiastic and intrepid group managed a few long journeys – some scheduled and some not! A flight from Khajuraho (where some of the group had been able to explain the explicit erotic carvings on the temples to some curious younger tourists) was cancelled due to bad weather and we had to drive 11 hours (instead of flying for 1) to Varanasi. This proved to be a very interesting journey, through forests and picturesque villages, and especially through the very crowded narrow lanes of the carpet weaving town of Mirzapur, on the banks of the Ganges, where there had been a downpour and the streets were inches deep in mud! In Varanasi the strike of boatmen, who take pilgrims and tourists out on the Ganges, was called off just as we arrived at the river: such is the fame and influence of The Travellers’ Club. We certainly saw India off the tourist trail!
We said goodbuy to these friends in Delhi, and went to meet the next group at the airport. Their flight was late, having been diverted to Karachi as airspace over part of Pakistan was closed for a missile test! Not at all daunted, we set off for more adventures in Rajasthan & Moghul India with what proved to be a very jolly lot. Again, there were some long journeys over road-works that seemed at times to cover the whole of India, but the group had the ability to turn water into high spirits (40%) just when spirits might have been flagging. My written and repeated warnings that India could be a shopping temptation went unheeded, so there may be a sale of Indian goods at the summer party on 15 June to help our now impoverished travellers. If you see some beggars sitting on the ground offering trinkets, embroidery, toy rickshaws, wooden snakes, do try to help. Some may also sing ballads of Old Rajasthan - be generous.

New Indian adventures are planned for early 2009: The Grand Tour of South India 9 Jan – 6 Feb is a lovely picturesque journey, starting on the east coast near Madras and travelling through the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, ending on the west coast in both Cochin & Goa. We visit temples and palaces, hill stations where spices, tea and coffee are grown, wild life reserves, palm-fringed backwaters, beaches. Before arriving in Goa to relax we visit the wonderful site of Hampi – the enormous abandoned city where the last Hindu Vijayanagar dynasty fell to the Muslim rulers of the Deccan. For those with less time, the tour can be shortened to start in Madras and finish in Cochin 9-24 Jan or start in Cochin and finish in Goa 22 Jan – 7 Feb.
Gujerat, Rajasthan & Moghul India 6 Feb – 10 March starts in the remote area of Kutch, with fascinating tribal villages, travels through former princely states and the last home of the Asian lion in the Gir Forest before climbing into the Aravali Hills and entering Rajasthan. After exploring (and staying in) some lovely forts and palaces, the tour ends with Moghul wonders (including the Taj Mahal, of course) in Agra & Delhi. Again, the tour can be shortened, starting in Gujerat and ending in Udaipur 6-25 Feb, or departing for Udaipur on 21 Feb and ending in Delhi on 10 March.

Sadly, our friend John Moor has been unwell, so we have had to cancel our tour to Talinn, St Petersburg & Riga this summer. We hope to reinstate these very special tours, involving the singers of the wonderful Rossica Choir as hosts, as soon as John is fully recovered.

There has been a very disappointing response so far to our planned tour to Indonesia: Bali, Central Java & Lombok 8-30 November. But please note that it is still on offer. The tour visits some marvellous sites & sights (including the breathtaking Buddhist site of Borobudur) and is based in very charming and comfortable hotels in some stunningly beautiful locations. If you may be interested please let me know urgently for us to confirm with our excellent agents.

We also need a few more people to support the exciting tours nearer home this summer and autumn. Adrian Mourby is an enthusiastic tour leader, well-known for his writing on opera & a recent guide book on Venice. His tour to the Puccini Festival at Torre del Lago, 7-11 August, visits 3 operas in the new open air opera stage and stays in the lovely medieval town of Lucca, Puccini’s birthplace. Adrian is also leading our very grand-luxe visit to Venice in Winter, staying at the famous Danielli Hotel 24-28 November.  Adrian’s Spotlight on Venice (AA) has just been published. Our tours to Rome (Sept), France, Spain, Sicily, Libya, Jordan & Syria,  and a grand tour of Southern Morocco (October) all still have vacancies.

Send for details now, but find out more about these and our other new trips, meet old or new friends when you

COME TO THE GRAND SUMMER BARBECUE At Halnaker Park Cottage on Sunday 15 June from 12 noon

Everyone is invited. Come to meet many of our tour leaders and fellow travellers, friends old and new. We always promise a warm sunny day, with old roses in bloom (we hope! – the sudden very warm spell has started them blooming in May!), the swimming pool ‘invitingly warm’. We hope that everyone who has been on a trip or may be thinking of joining one will come, and you are certainly welcome to bring family and friends of any age. The day is free, of course, but please bring contributions to the barbecue (to cook & eat), and items to share at the bar & buffet. Don't forget towels for swimming, garden chairs or rugs, plates and glasses. Bring photos to show old friends and to astonish but not alarm potential travellers! PLEASE mount some photos on a display board to illustrate any tour that you joined - you could win a WONDERFUL PRIZE. And there will be prizes, too, for the best (or worst) entries for the Limerick or Ode or other forms of Poetry or Song Competition. And remember, this is almost certainly the only opportunity to wear those outfits bought in rash moments abroad, so take the chance to wear them before they find their way to Oxfam.

TOURS IN 2009  - PLEASE HELP US TO PLAN AHEAD
On our ‘TOURS NEXT YEAR 2009’ tab on the website are the proposed small group tours in 2009. Please help us by registering your interest as soon as possible.

Please pass on our website address www.thetravellersclub.com to your computer-minded friends. Don’t forget that we also tailor-make tours for individuals, couples, families or groups of friends, or even larger groups from clubs or societies. Several DFAS branches ask us to plan their shorter tours in Europe. Our arrangements mean that you can travel where you like, when you like, for as long as you like and even with the people you like! [Though all our travellers are likeable]. Special tours can be planned for you, & we may be able to arrange to add to or subtract from our group travels, or stopover for a tour en route to another destination. We are always interested to know of your ideas, so please don’t hesitate to suggest destinations, hotels, places to visit and places to avoid. If you have moved, or there is any mistake in your name and address, or you would prefer not to receive further information about The Travellers’ Club, please tell us.

It will be very helpful if you can show our information to all your friends and invite them, or better still bring them to the barbecue on Sunday 15 June. We rely almost entirely on ‘word of mouth’ to spread the news about The Travellers’ Club, so please help us wherever, or whenever you can.

We look forward to hearing from you.
With all good wishes