I am an artist and one who, not surprisingly, is drawn (no pun intended) to the sun, the sea and a beautiful landscape. Now, obviously, you don't need to be an artist to appreciate those sorts of things. I, on the other hand, do like to make paintings of them and it is because of that I would like to speak of a group of islands that lie off the north coast of Sicily. They are called the Aeolian islands and there are seven of them, steeped in history and wound into the fabric of myth. That, as they say, is another story, for now I would like to explore briefly only two of the seven islands and the first of those is called Stomboli.

Arriving at a small jetty, a long beach of black volcanic sand stretches away to your right and the tangle of tiny streets of Stromboli village lie ahead. Jasmine and bougainvillaea ramble over the garden walls, the narrow lanes are lively with scooters and “ape” a type of tiny three wheeled truck. Walkers are there, kited out for the rocky paths to the volcano summit. Behind you the spiky outline of islets break the blue water.

It takes about an hour, walking along a pleasant road through fields, from the square in front of a pretty church, at the top of the village, to the lower slopes of the mountain. Another couple of hours on a steep but well-marked path brings you to the peak, 918 meters up and as you arrive the craters explode dramatically, shooting stones and hot ash high into the air. This happens every twenty minuets or so and it's quite safe as long as you stay on the paths, strong shoes are a good idea, the ground is hot. These regular explosions give rise to the term ” strombolic action ” which prevents pressure building up to a major eruption.

By day the view of the other islands is stunning. Particularly from the high ridge on the southern side. Night hikes with a guide, or a night boat trip to the north-eastern side of the island offer spectacular views of the red hot lava flows and fiery explosions.

From there you board the ferry and eventually arrive at Alicudi. On the map, if you've got one to hand, it is on the other end of the group, the most isolated and the next island that I would like to speak of. Uniquely car free, Alicudi is a near perfect cone, over six hundred meters high and only 2.5 kilometres across. The rugged slopes are covered with huge prickly pear cactus, gorse, carob, olive and wild apricot trees. Surprisingly, in times not long past, over a thousand people lived on this tiny island supporting themselves by growing their crops on narrow terraced fields.

Over the years that number has dwindled and the population is now only about one hundred and life is quiet. Mains electricity arrived no more than a decade ago and the major water supply is still rainfall, caught off roofs and collected in wells on the terrace of each house. It is charming and quaint.

Hawks and ravens wheel high above and bright green lizards dash away as you explore. The sea is very clean and rich with fish, shrimp and shellfish, and, so the locals tell me, ideal for snorkelling although I've never done it but, from the look of it, I could well imagine.

At night you can see the lights off Sicily's north coast, 20 kilometres away and on days when the haze has evaporated, about this time of year, the snow covered slopes of Mount Etna are visible, the black summit streaked with red lava. Colour seems to be the theme of these islands, it really is a painters paradise, so much so that you don't need to be a painter or an artist at all to appreciate it. The imagery around you is just so strong and peaceful at the same time, the countryside so unspoiled. It is just one of those places. I have painted in country that is beautiful to the eye but putting it down on paper can be very difficult. One finds ones self inventing, a bit of red here, a bit of yellow there, not because it's in front of your eyes but because the painting needs it and so you make it up. Alicudi and the other islands are not like that in the least, the place is there to paint. The hand runs riot along with the eye. To my mind, not only an easy place to paint but a pleasure and pure joy, if for nothing else but to just sit and look. A tiny little haven almost at the end of Europe.

Murray Hubick is Canadian, now living in Kent in the U.K. As an artist his time is divided between work in the studio, teaching art and as much travelling as possible. He is currently in the process of organising an art excursion to the islands for the coming Christmas/New year and would welcome anyone interested to join him in having an espresso overlooking the sea in the sun on New Years morning.

Murray is happy to answer any questions on Sicily, so please e-mail him on: murrayr@onetel.net.uk

The tourist season in Oslo starts around the middle of June and finishes in the middle of September. The 15^th of September, to be precise.

This means that going to Oslo in October is not such a great idea. The second mistake was not only visiting Oslo in October but also flying there with Ryanair. A very bad move as Ryanair lands in Torp, some 100km away from Oslo where there is only a Ryanair bus to take you the 2 hour journey into Oslo. Torp airport is small, very small, the size if Cork perhaps (another Ryanair destination in Ireland) and there is little to do when your flight is delayed or waiting for luggage. There is also little tourist info at Torp.

By October, Oslo is beginning to be cold. The first day of the Beetle weekend, temperatures were around 6^OC and the next day it snowed. If you don't do cold, this is not the time and place for you. Take a hat, gloves and a scarf, plus a warm coat and good walking shoes.

OK, what is there to see: well, the “attractions” consist mainly of walking around the town (it's small), seeing the royal palace, the university, the Parliament building, the town hall, visiting the Arkhus Castle, taking boat trips, (summer months only), and visiting the 20 or so museums, none of which have free entrance. That is Oslo in a nutshell. You will not want to eat, have coffee or go shopping – it is so prohibitively expensive! Also, the shops are closed on Sundays and the museums have shorter opening times so that after about 3pm, on a Sunday, in Oslo, there is very little to do – so book your return flight for the late afternoon!

Spending more than a weekend in Oslo might necessitate considering your finances, maybe a second mortgage: it is breathtakingly expensive – about 50- 100% more than central London prices!

The next mistake was to buy an Oslo card. The Beetle could only find one guidebook in the whole of Stamfords, (the most wonderful travel bookshop on this earth – funny, that …), but both the guidebook and the local literature, of which there was plenty (thanks goodness!) all said that we should buy an Oslo card and this would entitle us to free entrance to all of the museums and local transport.

A 2 day Oslo pass costs around £25 or $40 per person. This allows the holder free entrance into all Oslo museums and free transport around the city. As museum entrance only costs around £2.50 or $4, it became a challenge to visit as many museums as possible in order to get our money's worth! However, our vfm did not take into account public transport – when we added in the cost of a day ticket for the bus, train and tram, (£5 or $8) we just broke even.

The Kon-Tiki museum is disappointing: small, amateurish with bizarre exhibits including polystyrene sharks. Very odd. The Fram museum was one of the better ones: a small-ish A frame building, built around the original early 20^th century ship used by Amundson and others in voyages to Antartica. The Viking museum houses 3 10^th century long boats and even if you are a Viking buff, it'll take you about 20 minutes. The Museum if the Inquisition was plain upsetting. The Beetle's fave place was Viegland Park, a park a short tram ride out of town with a collection of sculptures and statues. The Oslo city museum was dire; about a third of the exhibits were labelled in Norwegian only! The ski Museum is one of the most expensive museums to get into – entrance fee around £7 or $11 but you get to go up to the top of the old Olympic ski jump. We had to go there to get value for money and also take in the views of the city!

The transport system is excellent, frequent, clean, modern and fast. There were many fast food outlets – Kentucky, Burger King, McDonalds – when you see the prices in the restaurants, you can start to understand why. Eat well at your hotel by stocking up on the buffet breakfasts is the Beetle's advice! The people were friendly enough, but compared to the last Beetle visit, an embarrassing 15 years ago, the city was surprisingly dirty, the walls had graffiti sprayed on, and there were a few people begging on the street – not at all the clean Scandinavian image the Beetle had imagined, but then it is a capital city and perhaps nowhere is exempt from these problems.

If you want to visit Oslo – go in the summer months! Then you can take boat trips and visit the fjords. For more info on Oslo, contact the Beetle on: Beetle@globetrotters.co.uk

It may be cheap (but not always), but it certainly isn't clever. And it definitely isn't funny! Flying Ryanair is not the fantastic low cost and cheerful option that it is made out to be. First, the low cost airlines (Ryanair, Buzz, and Easyjet/Go) have made Stansted their main hub.

Stansted is a major pain to get to and from as it is situated some 68km north of Central London and the principal way, to get there using public transport, is on the Stansted Express from Liverpool St in Central London. A return ticket from Liverpool St in central London costs £23 – not cheap for the 50 minute journey each way. If you arrive back into Stansted after midnight, the chances are that you will have missed the last train, because they do not always wait for the last flight, so the alternative to travel back to London is by expensive taxi – we are talking £60+ (or $100+). Now that the Stansted Express no longer runs on Sundays due to rail works, you have to take a painfully long coach journey that takes around 2 hours.

Secondly, one of the particularly unendearing habits practiced by BAA (British Airports Authority) at Stansted is to be selective as to which flights they decide to put up on the flight information screens. This lack of info seems to apply particularly to Ryanair flights. This means that you could be sitting waiting in the check in area for your flight check in information to appear on screen and it never does. A weary frequent Ryanair traveller warned the Beetle that this happens frequently, so a lesson learned is to occasionally prowl around the airport to check that your flight hasn't already started checking in. This happened to the Beetle going to Trieste, resulting in a late check in, only 15 minutes before the gate closed, reducing the amount of time available for foraging for duty free chocolate (and other Beetle fodder) to a minimum!

Thirdly, Ryanair do not give you a boarding pass with a printed seat number – it is free seating. What a nightmare, all those people with their sharp elbows. Dignified British queuing (um, no!) turns out in reality as a training opportunity for a rugby scrum! Is it really too much trouble to put seat numbers on a ticket?

Once you have wrestled your way on board, you may think about reading material to while away the excessive amount of time spent on the runway awaiting clearance to depart. You'd be disappointed. There is no reading material whatsoever; no free newspapers or magazines to read. The staff do hand out a brochure with pictures of perfumes and silly Ryan Air models (as if!!) and then when you approach landing, you are requested to hand them back again! (There really isn't anything worth reading in them anyway all, unless you like looking at pictures of grey coloured pearl necklaces.) Buzz, by contrast have excellent info brochures with information about your destination, what to see, where to go, recommendations on where to eat, day trips away etc.

Fifthly, forget on-board entertainment or headphones, music or films – the only entertainment to be had is to observe the no frills service you are paying for, for example, watching the faces of the uninitiated when they are asked to pay £4 ($6) for a sandwich, and £1.50 ($2) for a small and nasty coffee. For her trip to Oslo, the Beetle took a flask of coffee, much to the envy of fellow passengers and the annoyance of the air crew. (Buzz do the best and very drinkable coffee if you have a choice! Also recommended by our Webmaster!)

Even for someone of limited height, (5'2”), the seats are cripplingly unrealistically tiny with next to no leg room. Even the Beetle's knees touched the seat in front.

Sixthly, presumably also to cut costs, passengers are responsible for cleaning; whilst I agree with our webmaster that passengers should be tidy and take their rubbish away with them at the end of their journey, the Ryanair way is to have 2 “hostesses” walk down the aisle with a big bin liner open. You are required to lean over your fellow passengers and throw your rubbish in the bin liner as they walk by. Talk about target practice. It is one of my nightmares that one day, someone will actually use the sick bag provided (the only object to be found on your seat pocket) and be too embarrassed to try and throw it into this walking bin bag, so they'll leave it for me to find, whilst thinking oh, that's strange there actually is something in my seat pocket, I wonder what it is!

Seventh: the staff. My theory is that people who work for Ryanair failed to pass the Aeroflot entrance exams. Rudeness, ability to glare and make unnecessarily snotty remarks are all prerequisites for hiring. As for the pilots, flying Ryanair for them must be their first job out of pilot school. The Beetle has never, ever had a smooth two tyred landing on the handful of flights she has been with them.

But my biggest complaint about Ryanair: it's not just the poor service, which is abominable, it's not the supercilious staff, the lack of decent coffee or seat numbers, it's the fact that to cut costs, they often do not fly into the main airport in a city – and they don't even warn you about it on booking! The Beetle finds this practice offensively misleading. For example, if you want to fly to Copenhagen in Denmark, you actually arrive into Sweden and have to take a bus journey back into Denmark.

The Beetle recently flew Ryanair to Oslo. It was only after she had booked the tickets when she investigated how to get from the airport to the centre of Oslo, that she realised that Torp airport, where Ryanair fly into is 100km away from Oslo. At no time was this made clear when booking on-line, even though the booking was for Oslo. Had this been made abundantly clear, the Beetle would have gone elsewhere.

Not only is it 100 km away from Oslo, but there is no public transport after 8pm to Oslo from Torp (and even then, it is a very expensive taxi ride to the train station) as Torp is a very small sleepy little town. The Ryanair dedicated coach cost around £20 or $30 return and took 2 miserable hours so that a 7.25pm Stansted departure resulted in the Beetle arriving at her Oslo city centre hotel at almost 1am – and it is a 1 ½ hr flight and a one hour time difference. Do the math, as they say! The real airport in Oslo, where all of the other carriers fly into has excellent transport connections and takes less than half an hour from Oslo city centre by train. Never again!

For more info on Ryanair, visit: http://ryanair.com/

What do you think? Do you have a fave or hated airline? Want to get an airport or airline off your chest? Drop the Beetle a line: beetle@globetrotters.co.uk

Lahore is located 288 km from Islamabad. This capital of the Punjab is a city of gardens, parks and educational institutions with a rich heritage. It is an ancient town rich in historical monuments, including Mughal architecture. Lahore is considered to be the cultural capital of Pakistan.

Places of interest include the Badshahi Mosque, Lahore Fort, Old City Shrine of Data Ghanj Bukhsh, Anarkani Bazaar, Wazir Khan's Mosque, National Museum, Sikh monument, Minar Pakistan, the mausoleum of Jahangir, Nur Jahan and Asif Khan, Shalimar Garden, Jallo National Park as well as (some two hours drive from Lahore) there is a world's largest man made forest Chhanga Manga. Lahore is famous for folk dances (dhamal) with drum beating in a traditional way at shrines with a totally different essence of mystic surroundings. Visiting countryside and villages is an excellent experience near Lahore. Lahori people are very hospitable and this hospitality leaves unforgettable impression.

Badshahi Mosque

The city next crops up in literature in connection with the campaigns of the Turkish dynast Mahmud of Ghazni against the Rajas of Lahore between I00I and I008. Around this time it established itself as the capital of the Punjab and thereafter began to play an important and growing role as a centre of Muslim power and influence in the subcontinent. Its heyday was the Mughal era from the early sixteenth century onwards and, as Mughal power began to decline in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Lahore suffered a concomitant period of ignominy and political eclipse. It was here, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, that the Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh declared himself Maharajah of the Punjab and allowed his troops to desecrate many of the city's beautiful Islamic shrines- including the Badshahi Mosque which was, for a while, converted into a powder magazine. By the time British occupied Lahore in I849, one writer moved to describe the city as 'a mere expanse of crumbling ruins'.

Lahore Fort

Nearby, the massively fortified walls of Lahore Fort speak eloquently of the centuries of passing history that they have witnessed. The fort antedates the coming of Mahmud of Ghazn i in the eleventh century, was ruined by the Mangols in I241, rebuilt in I267, destroyed a gain by Timurlane in I398 and rebuilt once more in I421. The great Mughal emperor Akbar re placed its mud walls with solid brick masonry in I566 and extended it northwards. Later Jehangir, Shah Jehan and Aurangzeb all added the stamps of their widely differing personalities to its fortification, gateways and palaces.

The fort encloses an area of approximately thirty acres and it is possible to spend many hours wandering there, lost in contemplation of times gone by, trying to reconstruct in your imagination a way of life that the world will never see again. The buildings within its walls are a testament to the gracious style of Mughal rule at its height, in which every man knew his place and courtly behaviour had been refined into an elaborately stratified social code. Much of the architecture reflects this code. From a raised balcony in the Diwan-e-Aam, or Hall of Public Audience, built by Shah Jehan in I63I, the emperors looked down on the common people over whom they ruled when they came to present petitions and to request the settlement of disputes. Wealthier citizens and the nobility were allowed to meet their emperors on a level floor in the Diwan-e-Khas, the Hall of Special Audience-which was also built by Shah Jehan, in I633.

Shalimar Garden, Lahore

Another magnificent remnant of the Mughal era, also partially vandalized in the late eighteenth century by the invading Sikhs, is the Shalimar Garden which stands on the Grand Trunk Road about eight kilometres to the east of the old part of Lahore. “Shalimar” means 'House of Joy' and, in truth, the passing centuries have done nothing to detract from the indefinable atmosphere of light-heartedness and laughter that characterizes this green and peaceful walled retreat. A canal runs the entire 2,006 foot (6II meters) length of the garden and from it 450 sparkling fountains throw up a skein of fresh water that cools and refreshes the atmosphere, making this a favourite place for afternoon walks for the citizens of modern Lahore. Lahore is rightly regarded as the cultural, architectural and artistic centre of Pakistan; indeed, the city is so steeped in historical distinction that it would be possible to spend a lifetime studying it without learning everything that there is to learn.

Hameed's areas of specialisation include documentary filmmaking, being a conservation leader from the WWF College for Conservation leadership, graphic design, teaching multimedia Arts at national college of Arts and he is a regular travel column contributor to an English speaking Pakistani newspaper. For more information on travel in Pakistan, Hameed is happy to answer any e-mails: hameed@gandhara.org

If you are looking for a friendly, clean cheap backpackers in Lahore, Hameed recommends the Regale Internet Inn in Lahore. E-mail: Regale_internet@yahoo.com

Ask most of the people around you: “where is Mauritius?” and they probably could not tell you. And yet the famous writer Mark Twain said: God created Paradise, and copied Mauritius. I am a Moroccan citizen lady, and by recent marriage to a Mauritian citizen, and I am now in Mauritius.

MY WAY is a famous song.

MY WAY OF SEEING MAURITIUS, is another story.

Mauritius is really indeed a beautiful island in the Indian ocean, near the east coast of Madagascar and South Africa. The main industry of the country is tourism, and tourists come from everywhere in the world, and all throughout the year, as there is really no winter here, and the weather is always temperate.

The tourism sector is well boosted and organized, and whatever type of tourist you are, you always have what you want in terms of accommodation and rates. It is very easy to get a good accommodation at even 4 Euros per day per person, in an apartment, studio, bungalow and you can also be accommodated in 5 stars hotels and suites.

If you browse any search engine over the internet and put “Mauritius” in your search box, you will be surprised to the number of information available and to see the number of companies, selling and servicing the Mauritius tourist business.

Unlike other places, Mauritius has lots of activities and places to interest tourists, for example, you get the best of many lovely beaches, interesting sightseeing tours that will lead you for example to the unique spot of 7 coloured earth in the world, situated at Chamarel, beautiful nature forests and waterfalls.

Mauritius is a cosmopolitan island where there is harmony of race. On the island, white people, Creole, Hindus, Muslims and Chinese live peacefully. Each race has its own culture, and it is very visible while going from one place to another, seeing the temples, churches, mosques. People in Mauritius attach great importance to religion.

For the short time that I have been on this island, I have seen the following:

You should always bargain and never accept the first price that is quoted to you. Whether it is for the airport taxi, or whatever goods you purchase, and you will see after the transaction that it was really worth bargaining.

Lots of native people are attracted to tourists and never miss an opportunity to make friends with you. It depends of what you want, but they already know what they want from you! Many Mauritians are proud to be in the company of blondes! (Beetle watch out!) Mauritians are very helpful – ask anything and they will try and help you.

There is also another side of Mauritius, which most of the tourists do not see: there is another way of seeing Mauritius, to live as a Mauritian with a Mauritian. You will see his difficulty for struggling to get his living. The salaries are low and prices have gone up. The gap between the rich and the poor has never been as wide as it is now.

Anyway, I am in Mauritius now, and one thing I want to recommend to you, is that you must not forget to do is to taste the dhull purri and farata, which is in a sense the national food, served on the street as a kind of fast food.

Yours from Mauritius

Fatiha Mray.

If you would like to contact Fatiha for information on Mauritius, please e-mail her on: cbspride@intnet.mu

Muir's Tours is committed to travel with concern for the environment, the indigenous people and of course our clients. Our name was inspired by John Muir, the “Father of Ecology”. We are a non-profit organisation with proceeds going to various charities. Your custom will provide us with funds that are passed on to various charities and projects.

We are looking for any help we can get, but most volunteers fall into one of two categories. The Casual Volunteer (CV) who will commit for at least a month and the Long Termer who will stay at least 1 year. We offer the casual volunteer on most of our projects food and accommodation at low cost and practical / logistical assistance with travel. All CVs must pay their own costs – these are minimal (e.g. in India US$6 / £4 per day for food and basic accom, US$21 / £15 train – Delhi / Dehradun / Delhi) together with a registration fee of US$75 / £50 to help with our admin costs.

The options are quite varied and the more popular locations are detailed below.

North India – In Dehradun and Dharamsala we are developing ways to help the Tibetan people help themselves. In Dharamsala there is a well established craft workshop and guest house and we are planning to set up others. We also need people to help promote the sale of crafts back in their home country. We want to establish homestays – a short holiday living with local people – in the areas around Dharamsala and Dehradun. Research work is needed to identify additional suitable families / homes.

Near Dehradun in the small village of Rajpur is a home for Tibetan children (mostly orphans) that have escaped by foot over the Himalaya from Tibet – we want to support this establishment by sponsoring individual children for their education. You can help immediately by suggesting to friends and relatives that they sponsor a Tibetan child, most of whom are orphans. If you know someone who is willing to pay $ 21 / £15 per month to educate, house, feed and clothe a young Tibetan, please let us know.

North central Nepal – near the Tibetan border in and around the village of Panglang. There is accommodation available in a local home and in the tourist periods of March / May and Sept / Dec there is the luxury of a riverside camp at additional cost. The camp is a permanent set up which is a base for rafting and kayaking. Some prior study of the language would be required as there are interpreters available some of the time only, but a limited vocabulary would not be too great a problem.

Mid central Nepal – near the town of Pokhara in a Tibetan Refugee Camp. There is accommodation available in a local home or in the community owned guest house. The camp was set up in 1962 following the Chinese invasion of Tibet and is now well established with brick homes, a fine monastery, a school and a carpet factory. The NKF has English speaking Tibetan staff permanently in the camp, so Tibetan language study is not necessary.

Mongolia – famous for it's horsemanship and yet it nearly lost its most precious horse breed. They are probably the last remaining wild horse species in the world. Przewalski horses almost become extinct with some horses surviving is zoo's. After careful breeding they were reintroduced in several Mongolian nature reserves. Only the group in Hustain Nuruu Reserve was successful. We need to monitor the horses to make sure they are adjusting to their new environment and to gain a better insight into their behaviour. You need to be able to work without assistance in tracking down the harems on horse-back and compiling data on their whereabouts and behaviour. You will need to help us encourage conservation awareness in the local communities.

Eastern Nepal – The Makalu – Barun area. We have a number of projects in this area in conjunction with The Mountain Institute (TMI) and the accommodation would be in local homes or lodges normally. Some prior study of the language would be required as there are interpreters available some of the time only, but a limited vocabulary would not be too great a problem.

To find out more, visit Muir's Tours website on: www.nkf-mt.org.uk or contact info@nkf-mt.org.uk

Mike is the winner of the Globetrotter Club £1,000 legacy available to members under 30 years of age for the best independent travel plan.

If you are under 30 and are a member, please visit our legacy page for details of how to apply. It is available to anyone in the world, as long as they are a member of the Globetrotter Club, have a great plan for independent travel and are under the age of 30. Get those plans in!!

Mike is using his travel award to visit Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Here's Part 1 of his travels:

We've been in Thailand now for about 10 days and thought I should drop you all a line to let you know we're actually alive and what we've been up to. We spent a few days in Bangkok which was very different than I expected. It was so much cleaner and more organised and the Sky train makes it feasible to get across the city quickly. There is lots of diversity across the city with huge modern skyscrapers next to slums.

The Grand Palace is incredible and so are many of the other sites but the food is by far the best aspect. You can pick up great noodles on the street for only a few pence. We've also tried Scorpion, grasshopper and loads of other things that so far our bodies are accepting. The nightlife in Bangkok is also a completely new experience and we had a couple of wild nights out. We're also getting pretty ruthless with the tuk-tuk drivers.

We caught the sleeper up to Chiang Mai the second largest city where we had our Visas for Laos and Vietnam done whilst we went off into the Jungle Trekking. The Trek lasted 3 days and was hard work but well worth it! We met some hill tribes and also did the very touristy elephant rides and white water rafting. The weather here is mixed with some rain but always very hot and within seconds of doing anything we're sweating. We then headed up by bus to Tha-ton where we are now which is a small town only a few kilometres from the Burmese boarder.

It's been really nice staying here for a couple of days away from the noise and pollution of Bangkok and Chiang Mai. The views are amazing and we've only seen two other westerners here. We've even spent an afternoon chatting with a group of young monks about philosophy. We're leaving in an hour by boat down to Chiang Rai where we'll be spending a while exploring the northern tip of the country. So far it's all gone really well (touch wood) the people are very friendly especially when you get out of the cities. The weather has been good and we've kept away from trouble and illness.

We should be getting to Laos this weekend we think but we're just taking it as it comes.