IPP. Stephen opened today's meeting by thanking the Rotarians who were present for their support and "bravery" despite the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic. He mentioned that he received some notes about our sister clubs' concerns for our well-being amidst the virus epidemics. Dir. Laurence promised to send notes to all of our sister clubs assuring that we were all well. IPP. Stephen then welcomed back Dir. Laurence, who was away preparing for the SARS contingencies for his company. There were neither visitors nor guests today. Dir. Laurence, who acted as the Sergeant-at-Arms, reported a handsome collection of HK$1,000 - with only 17 members present! IPP. Stephen reminded Board members that the Board meeting was scheduled to take place on April 10 at 6:30pm, and he welcomed other members to participate as well.
IPP. Stephen then introduced our featured speaker of the day, who was none other than our Rtn. Andy Wong. In his vocational talk, Rtn. Andy was going to speak on the topic "Enjoy Your Trip!" Rtn. Andy started by saying that this was probably a good timing to talk about this topic, since many people were trying to get away for a break! In his talk, Rtn. Andy was going to focus on advising members on what they could do in minimizing travel expenses, obtaining the services that they deserved, ensuring that they got the protection needed and being able to travel safely.
Rtn. Andy first dwelled on the topic of air ticket purchase. He introduced to members that there were the following classes of tickets, namely, First class, Business class, Mid class, Economy and Excursion fares. The Mid class, which members would probably be less familiar with, was the seating class between the business and economy classes. Airlines like the British Airways and United had the Mid class. There were five major fare types, namely, Publish Fares, Round-the-World, Circle Pacific Fares, Triangle Fares and Special Fares. The Publish Fares type was the most flexible (as far as making changes to dates and routes) and expensive of all types. The Round-the-World, Circle Pacific Fares, and Triangle Fares were rated according to fixed regional and directional routes. The Special Fares type was the lowest cost and least flexible of all - some airlines offered as much as 25% discount off the Publish Fares. Rtn. Andy cautioned members about carefully noting the general fare conditions when purchasing tickets. These conditions included such characteristics as, ticket's validity and min/max stay; whether the ticket was endorsable, re-routable, and refundable; and whether refund penalty applied and valid on flight/date shown. He cited an example that if travelers violated some of these conditions, they might incur as much as USD100 of penalty per change for a ticket just costing HKD3000.
Rtn. Andy then addressed the situations on hotel accommodation. Similar to air ticket fares, the hotel accommodation possessed different kinds of publish rate, including the Rack rate, Weekend/Weekday Special (especially for short trips,) Seasonal Promotion Discount, Internet Rate and Senior Citizen Rate. In addition, there existed an Agency Rate, in which travelers pre-paid their fees and checked in with vouchers, but this type of vouchers were mostly non-refundable! Common to many other travelers, there were also many off-the-shelf packages readily available, which included combinations of such items as, air ticket, hotel accommodation, transportation between airport and hotel, meals and sightseeing tours. Rtn. Andy then introduced the different kinds of services that travelers were entitled to from airlines and hotels. From airlines, passengers might be able to request for seat assignments (typically, requiring 24-hour notification period,) special meals (such as, vegetarian, diabetic, and "barbecued pork for PP. John,") and special assistance service (such as, baby cot, wheelchair, and pet travel.) For hotels, travelers might be able to specify requests for Room Types (such as twin-bed and double-bed,) Smoking/Non-smoking, Early Check-in/Late Check-out, Internet Connection, and Adjoining/Inter-connecting. Most hotels would normally try their best to satisfy the guests' special requests, especially when the hotels were not fully occupied.
Furthermore, Rtn. Andy tried to share with members other travel programs as well as safety and protection tips. Accordingly, there were many different Frequent Flyer Programs, including Asia Miles, Star Alliance, World Perks and other individual airline clubs, such as the Marco Polo Club (from Cathay Pacific) and Executive Club (from British Airways.) Other than flying, one could earn mileages via the Frequent Flyer Program's partners, such as, other airlines, financial services, hotels, telecommunications, petrol stations, car rentals, tour operators, dining, media & entertainment, luggage & travel accessories, health & beauty shops, florists, wine merchants, insurance and internet. Rtn. Andy also offered some travel protection tips that travelers should be checking for and aware of before they engaged in their journey, including detailed itinerary, travel arrangement confirmation, reconfirmation (so that travelers might be able to know of any last-minute flight delays or cancellations,) airlines package insurance, comprehensive travel insurance (which should include the "evacuation" option, so ill travelers could have an option to go back to their own or other countries for medial treatment,) TIC (Travel Industry Council) levy stamp (that would ensure that travelers could get 90% refund should the agent go bankrupt,) Doctor's certificate (especially for pregnant women to travel before their 36th week of pregnancy,) and police report (particularly for loss of tickets and travel documents.) Rtn. Andy then briefly mentioned some of the unexpected events that a traveler might encounter: flight delay or missed connection, flight cancellation, absence of booking record, involuntary re-routing, luggage loss or delay, and travel documents. He also noted that a good travel agent would alert and prepare for their clients for these mishaps. He further offered some travel safety tips: having someone keep a photocopy of the travel documents, keeping some of the credit cards in the safety box, recording emergency numbers for medical purpose or loss of credit cards, keeping close eyes on hand-luggage during check-in time, being aware of safety information, and bearing small first-aid kit as well as personal medication.
All in all, Rtn. Andy believed that to enjoy one's trip, one needed to find a good travel agent that showed evidence of flexibility, creativity, details-oriented-ness, understanding of clients' needs, good knowledge, and good connections (especially needed for obtaining good bargains!) He ended his talk by citing the following Tourists' Prayer:
Heavenly Father, look down on us, your humble, obedient servants, tourists who are doomed to travel the earth taking photographs, mailing postcards, buying souvenirs, and walking around in drip dry underwear.
We beseech You, O Lord to see that our plane is not hijacked, our luggage is not lost and our overweight luggage goes unnoticed.
Protect us from surely unscrupulous taxi drivers, nasty porters and unlicensed English speaking guides.
Give us this day Divine Guidance in the selection of our hotels that we may find our reservations honored, our rooms made up, and hot water running from the tap if at all possible.
We pray that the telephones work and that the operators speak our tongues and that there is no mail waiting from our children which would cause us to cancel the rest of our trip.
Lead us, Dear Lord, to good inexpensive restaurants where the food is superb, the waiters friendly and the wine is included in the price of the meal.
Give us the wisdom to tip correctly, in currencies we do not understand, forgive us for under tipping out of ignorance and over tipping out of fear.
Make the natives love us for what we are and not for what we can contribute to their worldly goods.
Grant us the strength to visit all the museums, the cathedrals, the palaces, and the castles listed as "musts" in the guide book.
And if perchance, we skip a historical monument and take a nap after lunch have mercy on us for our flesh is weak.
Dear God, keep our wives from shopping sprees, and protect them from bargains they don't need and can't afford. Lead them not into temptation for they know not what they do.
Almighty Father, keep our husbands from looking at foreign women and comparing them with us. Save them from making fools of themselves in cafes and nightclubs. Above all, do not forgive them for they know exactly what they do.
And when our voyage is over and we return to our loved ones, grant us the favor of finding someone who will look at out home movies and listen to our stories so our lives as tourists will not have been in vain. Amen.Finally, IPP. Stephen thanked Rtn. Andy for his informative and interesting talk, and the former then ended the session by proposing a toast to the Rotary Club of HK Island East.
The Rotary Club of Kabul, Afghanistan, was welcomed back into Rotary International recently, ending a 24-year absence of Rotary in that country and raising the total number of countries in which Rotary Clubs are active to 166.
The club had previously existed from 1968 to 1979, but more than two decades of war and political instability made it impossible for it to remain active
The addition of the reinstated Rotary Club of Kabul marks another milestone in Rotary's expansion into Muslim countries. Before Afghanistan, The United Arab Emirates was the most recent predominantly Muslim country to join Rotary's family when the Rotary Club of Dubai was chartered in 2002.
Boasting 41 charter members, the newly formed club will be a part of District 3270 with Pakistan. RI President Bhichai Rattakul was instrumental in facilitating the work of the Rotary Club of Hayward Sunset, California, USA, which is comprised almost entirely of Afghan immigrants, to sponsor the provisional club along with the Rotary Club of Uni Town Peshawar, North West Frontier Province, Pakistan.
As a new member of Rotary's international association of clubs, the Rotary Club of Kabul can make use of the many resources that exist within Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation - not to mention the vast network of clubs and their 1.2 million members - to partake in projects that will help the country continue to rebuild its infrastructure and address a plethora of humanitarian concerns following recent events there.
Although Rotary has been away from Afghanistan for years, the Foundation has supported polio eradication activities in the country. Also, in Rotary year 2001-02, during and immediately after the war that ended the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Rotarians rallied to the aid of Afghan refugees and internally displaced people. The RI Afghan Refugee Effort Committee worked in tandem with the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to help purchase and distribute aid, impacting the lives of thousands of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan.
Jokes & Cartoon A beautiful woman loved growing tomatoes, but couldn't seem to get her tomatoes to turn red.
One day while taking a stroll she came upon a gentlemen neighbor who had the most beautiful garden full of huge red tomatoes.
The woman asked the gentlemen, "What do you do to get your tomatoes red?"
The gentlemen responded, "Well, twice a day I stand in front of my tomato garden and expose myself, and my tomatoes turn red from
blushing so much."The woman was so impressed, she decided to try doing the same thing to her tomato garden to see if it would work. So twice a day for two weeks she exposed herself to her garden hoping for the best.
One day the gentlemen was passing by and asked the woman, "By the way, how did you make out? Did your tomatoes turn red?"
"No" she replied, "but my cucumbers are enormous...."
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WARNING If you are wearing those surgical masks... read on...
ONE DAY at TAN TOCK SENG HOSPITAL - Center for Communicable Disease
This story was told by a nurse...and she swears this really happened on her ward.
A man suspected of SARs is lying in bed with an mask over his mouth.
A young auxiliary nurse appears to sponge his face and hands.
Nurse," he mumbles from behind the mask, "Are my testicles black?"
Embarrassed the young nurse replies, "I don't know Mr. *****, I'm only here to wash your face and hands."
He struggles again to ask, "Nurse, Are my testicles black?"
Again the nurse replies, "I can't tell. I'm only here to wash your face and hands."
The Head Nurse was passing and saw the man getting a little distraught so she marched over to inquire what was wrong.
"Nurse," he mumbled, "Are my testicles black?" Being a nurse of long-standing, the Head Nurse was undaunted.
She whipped back the bedclothes, pulled down his pajama trousers, moved his penis out of the way, had a right good look,
pulled up the pajamas, replaced the bedclothes and announced, "Nothing wrong with your testicles!!!"At this the man pulled off his mask and asked again, "I SAID.... Are my TESTS RESULTS BACK .....!! ???"
Photographs of our meeting on 9th April, 2003
The speaker for this week was our own Rtn. Andy Wong who talked about travel business entitled " Enjoy the Trip!!!"
(L to R) PDG Uncle Peter sitting with our speaker Rtn Andy & Acting Pres. IPP Stephen at the left head table. (L to R) On the right head table were seated Hon Sec Eddy , our newest member Dr. Stephen Chow & member at leasure PE Henry enjoying his day off. (L to R) Dr. Tony, Rtns JohnV, Alex, PP Andrew & Rtn Danny all enjoying the day. (L to R) Rtn Andrew II, Dir. Laurence, VP Rudy, PP J.L. & PP Hubert all smiling happily. Our Group photo of all members present with PDG Uncle Peter, Acting Pres. IPP Stephen on 9th April, 2003
