1. Bangladesh: Dhaka
2. Guyana: Georgetown
3. Oman: Muscat
4. Syria: Damascas
5. Vietnam: Hanoi

• 0 out of 5 – you need to get out more!
• 1-3 – not bad
• 4 – very good! You are a Globetrotter!
• 5 – are you sure you didn’t sneak a look?

Win a Frommer’s guidebook on the USA 2003. See www.frommers.com for info on Frommer’s guidebooks.

The winner of last month’s Frommer’s guide to Los Angeles is Nancy Haggarty.

Some people have said the quiz is difficult, we say do some research; try google.com or Ask Jeeves, if you need help with the answers.

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

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. Bangladesh
2. Guyana
3. Oman
4. Syria
5. Vietnam

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

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

Need to convert currency?

Take a look at The Globetrotters Currency Converter — get the exchange rates for 164 currencies The Globetrotters Currency Cheat Sheet — create and print a currency converter table for your next trip.

State-owned Air Malta has announced that it will operate low cost flights between Malta and London for USD$53 one way from March 2004.

Qantas will start a low cost carrier called owned JetStar in May 2004 to compete against Richard Branson’s Virgin Blue started in September 2000.

Good news for air travellers: Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific was granted rights to operate on the transatlantic route between Heathrow and New York, currently dominated by four US and UK carriers. At the same time, Virgin Atlantic has won the right to take on BA and Qantas on services to Australia. Both of these things should result in more competitive process for Globetrotters.

US Regional air carrier Atlantic Coast Airlines has unveiled 'Independence Air' as the name for the new low-fare airline it plans to start in the first half of 2004 at Washington Dulles Airport.

Singapore Airlines has confirmed that it is now carrying air marshals on some of its flights as part of increased security measures.

We are a semi-retired couple in our late 50’s from Adelaide, South Australia who will be visiting UK from May 21st 2004 – sometime in August 2004. We are experienced campervan grey nomads, looking to swap campervans either simultaneously or if you wish to travel to OZ at some other time, we could work out some other dates.

Our van is a 1990 Toyota Hi -Ace, LWB, Hi-top. We can help with any extra camping equipment needed. Our vehicle is in excellent condition as our hobby is vintage cars, particularly Austin 7’s which we restore.

We only wish to travel in U.K., not take a van on to Europe.

Looking forward to hearing from any UK adventurers with a campervan of similar size to ours. Contact Nadia & Arthur, nadiak@picknowl.com.au

The Globetrotters Club has been approached by the BBC about a programme they are working on about young gap year travellers. They are looking for UK based people aged 18-25 who’s either already out on their travels around the world or about to go out to potentially go out and film for a week in January. If you’d like more information, contact Karina on karina.griffin@bbc.co.uk

Mac spotted a website www.walkabouttravelgear.com that has a lot of good travel tips. He says: they include using empty gatoraide bottles for water instead of water bottles as the gatorade bottles are more leak proof. Another suggestion was to put duct tape around a pencil to carry duct tape that way and use less space. Someone suggested for both men and women to wear silk pantyhose (maybe they did not have to be silk) for warmth. Someone suggested silk clothes for warmth. Another person suggested taking vitamin B pills or chewing garlic pills to ward off mosquitoes bites. They don’t like the smell. Don’t use perfumes on your hair etc to avoid mosquitoes. Someone suggested an all purpose gel (for washing etc)

Club Reps, a bawdy real life UK TV documentary on the goings on in the town of Faliraki on the Greek island of Rhodes is blamed for an increase in drunken behaviour. A British policeman from Blackpool, (another delightful part in North-West UK), with similar issues has been dispatched to Faliraki to liaise with the Chief of Faliraki police after a British man was stabbed to death in a bar brawl and a woman jailed for baring her breasts.

Based on a successful model used in Blackpool, the UK police said the key to tackling problems is stopping the “aggressive marketing of drinks promotions” and bar crawls. Independent tour operators have sprung up which were taking 400 or 500 people on bar crawls. Suggestions have been made to install CCTV cameras on the streets, improve lighting, and increase police presence and officers are “firm but fair” early in the evening, to nip problems in the bud.

A recent report from Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit says that fewer than 20,000 lions may now survive in the whole of Africa, although they do not face immediate extinction. The greatest threats to the species are sport hunting and conflict with farmers over livestock. The estimate of 20,000 lions or fewer compares with a population put at about 200,000 in the early 1980’s. The researchers studied the impact of sport or trophy hunting in Hwange national park in Zimbabwe, surrounded by hunting concessions where the parks department allocates an annual quota: the hunters traditionally target male lions. Findings suggest the levels of hunting there were not sustainable. Of the adult males the team tagged or collared, 63% were shot by hunters in the surrounding area. WildCRU estimates there are about 42 adult male lions in Hwange, where between 1998 and 2002 the hunting quota in the concessions was set at 63 lions. It says the number shot annually far exceeded the recommended sustainable level of 4-10% of the adult males. The parks department is considering lowering the quotas.

Vietnam Airlines has announced that it will change the current two-tier price system for Vietnamese and foreigners from January 1 next year to boost tourism. Foreigners will no longer pay 20% more for domestic flights and will pay the same amount as Vietnamese nationals. A round trip ticket from capital Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City costs 3.3 million dong (USD$212) for foreigners while locals pay 2.7 million dong.

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!!

Three cyclists, two German, one Irish are reported missing between the city of Bam and Zahedan near the Pakistani border – a notorious opium smuggling route from Afghanistan to Western Europe. A ransom is thought to have been issued. Kidnappings there, as in the rest of the country, have been rare in recent years. A number of European tourists were abducted in southern Iran in 1999. We hope for their safe release.

When you sit on that plane and feel for the sick bag, think again. Online auctioneer eBay has a section for unused sick bags from almost ever airline around the world, described as being in “mint and very fine conditions.” There are dedicated Web sites, including the Air SicknessBag Virtual Museum, which has bags from airlines, trains and ships — and even some from outer space. American Steven Silberberg, who runs airsicknessbags.com says: “I don't use them for their intended purpose, I just leave them at home in binders… most expensive bag I've ever seen sold was for $220. It was a Court Line Aviation bag, a company that folded in 1973,” he told CNN. Scandinavian bags are highly prized for the artistic impression on the bags where US airlines have plain bags.

Karrimor are pleased to announce to all Globetrotters Club members (please note, club members only and not Including sale goods) a 25% discount through their factory shop. They offer a mail order service and all products can be found on their website www.karrimor.com

Further details are avalible in Globe or our online members area

Ratu Filimoni Wawabaluva, a chief from Navosa, on the Fijian island of Viti Levu, has announced that a traditional apology ceremony is to be held to apologise 136 years after their ancestors killed and ate a British missionary.

Fiji were once known as “Cannibal Isles”. At the time, it is said that one local boasted after scoffing the Rev Thomas Baker, from Playden, East Sussex, in 1867: “We ate everything but his boots.” The Rev. Baker’s descendants were invited to the ceremony. Some residents of Navosa believe they have been cursed with bad luck since their ancestors ate the Rev Thomas Baker. Accounts differ on how he came to be eaten, with one version being that he broke a taboo by touching a chief’s hair to take out a comb.

An archivist at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies said that the story could be a myth saying: “It seems Baker got caught up in some sort of inter-tribal feuding relating to his right to travel across the island.”

A spokesman for the London Missionary Society, which sent dozens of missionaries to the South Pacific, said Baker’s was “not an unusual story”. Another missionary made a “similar cultural error” in Papua New Guinea around the same time and was also eaten.

With effect from Thursday 13 November, entry clearance will become mandatory for nationals of the ten phase one countries and all work permit holders (except for nine EU accession countries) who wish to stay in the UK for more than six months.

Nationals of Australia, Canada, Hong Kong (SAR passports), Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea and the USA will require entry clearance before travelling for all stays in the UK of longer than six months.

The entry clearance requirement will also apply to all work permit holders staying for more than six months, with the exception of the nine non-visa national EU accession countries (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland and Slovenia).

For more information, see: UK Visas