All posts by The Beetle

The Seychelles in a Nutshell

The Seychelles are in the Indian Ocean, 1,000 miles away from the African coast and the island of Mauritius. The capital is Victoria on the largest island of Mahe (17 miles by 5 miles) and they are about 11 hours flying time from London.

They consist of 115 tropical islands with some amazing wildlife, for example, the huge tortoises that freely roam some islands. The people of the Seychelles are called the Seychellois and are a mix of Creole, Indian, Chinese, French and British. It is not an easy or cheap country to travel around cheaply and most of the food is imported, making it quite expensive to eat too.

A useless fact: the local beer is called Seybrew!

Mutual Aid

Paula would be grateful for some help or advice: she is a single female aged 43 and a diabetic who wants information on travel to Ireland. She is planning a trip either next August or December. She is interested in music, Irish culture, meeting Reform Jews in the area and would be grateful for any advice on the best places to visit. If you are a music lover please tell her where the best CD stores are and where she can hear the finest Irish music. She is interested in classical music, Irish folk, pub music and pop.

She also wants information on safe accommodations, diabetic food spots, where the nicest Jewish temples are and best times to visit.

Please e-mail or write to: Paula Hurwitz, 7545 Murray Hill Road, #832, Columbia, MD 21046 or e-mail phurwitz@erols.com

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

Fly Me to the Moon!

Have you got £15 million to spare? There have been two space tourists so far: 61-year-old American businessman Dennis Tito paid to go into space on a Russian space vessel. Mark Shuttleworth the South African business tycoon has just finished his week's training and is set to become the world's second paying space traveller when he visits the International Space Station aboard a Russian ship in April.

Up until now, NASA has opposed private individuals paying to go into space. Until now, that is. NASA has now published a set of rules which all potential space travellers must meet before being allowed into a spacecraft.

NASA's chief astronaut, Charles Precourt, who helped draw up the rules, said: 'We don't want to embarrass our space partners by having [a tourist] who would be so controversial that it would be an insult to the other partners to fly them because of some behavioural background that was considered distasteful.”

Don't Upset The Elephants!

They really do have long memories! Research by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has shown that elephants have very long memories, large brains and are highly emotional. Orang-utans are the cleverest of non human primates and can perform complex tasks such as opening doors by choosing the right key from a bunch of keys. Squirrels have a brain proportionally 1.5 times bigger than humans and can remember where they have buried 10,000 nuts!

Historic Scotland: The Island of Iona

Iona, the tiny island off Mull, off the west coast of Scotland, is known as being the island where St. Columba and his 12 disciples landed from Ireland in AD 563 and spread the word of Christianity to Scotland and beyond. As such, it is an important centre for pilgrims who flock to Iona once a year. In fact, many Kings of Scotland, Norway and Ireland are buried on Iona.

It is unbelievably small and picturesque and runs 3 miles from north to south and 1½ miles from east to west. Whilst cars are not allowed on Iona, it is possible to visit by ferry from Mull. There are two hotels which can be contacted by internet: the Argyll Hotel reception@argyllhoteliona.co.uk and the St Columba Hotel columba@btconnect.com.

Iona is very green and peaceful; it has a wonderfully serene feel to the island, one of calm. There is an Abbey and a Nunnery that hold what is believed to be some of the most complete collection of Christian carved stones in Scotland, ranging in age from 600AD to the 1600s.

To see: there is St Columbus' restored monastery, shops, a post office, hotels, a golf course, an old marble quarry, gorgeous sandy beaches, walking paths and plenty of wild life to see.

Travel Quiz – East & Southern South Africa

The winner of last months' Fiji Quiz is Arthur Carmichael from the United States. We have another travel guide to give away this month, called Climbing in New Zealand by the repressible Alastair Lee who was a fantastic speaker at the January London Globetrotter meeting.

1. What is the capital of New Zealand?

2. Are the Wanaka Crags in the North Island or the South Island?

3. What watery feature would you find in Taupo, in the North Island?

4. What side of the road do you drive on in New Zealand?

5. What is a Kea?

YourName:

Your e-mail address:

Pirates foiled by international co-operation!

Forget the romantic notion of Captain Hook and Cap'n Kidd – piracy is alive and well in the modern world!

Just last week, coastguards in Falmouth, in the south west of England picked up an SOS call almost 4,000 miles away from the Princess Sarah, a Greek owned ship off the Horn of Africa. The British alerted the French army based in Djibouti and Somalia who had a warship in the area. The French ship, Floreal, sent a helicopter to assist the Princess Sarah and scared the pirates off.

Incredibly, this is the second time that the Princess Sarah has been helped by the same coastguards, only a month earlier whilst off the coast of Somalia.

Not to be Seen Dead In?

On a more positive note, contrary to popular belief, US citizens are allowed to visit Libya! This is good news as the Beetle is trying to persuade one to join her on a potential trip to Libya!

And on the flip side, just two days after the US government eased its warnings to US citizens not to travel to Pakistan, following the abduction of a US Wall Street journalist, the warnings are back in place.

Watching the Road in Iran

This wonderful snippet about travelling in Iran came from Kevin, near London (not Croydon!) Kevin tells us about the effect some of the girls he was travelling with had on a hapless Iranian driver.

After leaving the “Hotel Fleapit” in Neriz we were on the road to Bam, when we unfortunately broke down. While Percy, a mechanically gifted Canadian, set about fixing our truck the rest of us put the kettle on and watched the world go by. Some of the girls decided to mark out a hopscotch pitch on the roadside, and started to play, dressed from head to toe in their black chadours, which was quite an exhibition. As they played we sat transfixed as a Pykan (Iranian Renault 12) came round the corner, the driver clearly not used to seeing a bunch of girls hopping at the roadside, drove straight into the ditch.

Useless Facts: Perfume

Perfume comes from the Latin per fumus (through smoke). The smoke of incense, burning woods and spices were the most ancient scents.

Some useless facts courtesy of directcosmetics.com

When Cleopatra headed down the river to meet Mark Anthony, her ships we perfumed so that he could smell her coming.

At the court of Louis XV, etiquette decreed that a different perfume be worn every single day.

Rumour has it that en route to the guillotine, Marie Antoinette trailed drops of her favourite Houbigant perfume along the way.

Read any or have any useless facts you'd like the Beetle to publish? Then e-mail them to the Beetle

Dinner: snake, ants and scorpions … London

Ever wondered what scorpions taste like? Or cobra stew? Look no further. You can now try such delicacies at Empire, a new London restaurant where snake, kangaroo, zebra, ants and other miscellany can be found on the menu. Address: 38 Lambs Conduit Street, nearest tube, Holborn, tel: 020 7404 6835.

Want to tell us about your favourite coffee corner or watering hole? Then contact the Beetle

Lost City off Gujarat, India

Marine archaeologists in India believe they have found a sunken 'lost city' which pre-dates all previous signs of civilisation by 5,000 years. The site lies at a depth of 36m, 40 miles off the coast of Gujarat, in an area known for dangerous currents and rip tides. Most of the investigative work has been carried out using sonar scanning equipment which reveals the buried structure. Divers have retrieved a number of artefacts which have been carbon dated to 7,500BC. If these dates are correct, the city will predate the earliest known urban civilisation by 2,000 years. The discovery has been greeted with scepticism by many experts as carbon-dating is not regarded as completely reliable.

Source: www.divernet.com

Globetrotter Travel Award

Under 24? 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!!

Travel Tips

Trying to travel light? Shampoo is not only good for washing hair and body, but clothes as well!

Got any travel tips for the Beetle? Then e-mail them to: the Beetle

Giant Grouper – Barrier Reef

A recent report from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia: a Swedish diver had a narrow escape after a giant grouper attempted to swallow his head on New Year's Eve. The diver managed to escape with only a broken mask, cuts and scratches after being spat out.

Mutual Aid

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

Joke time

From Bretislav, in the Czech Republic:

A guy is flying to London checking in at the airlines counter with 3 suitcases. He tells the lady there: “I want the first suitcase checked through to New York, the second to Paris and the third to Bombay.” The lady says, “I'm afraid that won't be possible sir.” The guy says, “Why not? That's what you did to my luggage the last time.”