A Brisbane woman has been killed in a shark attack at Amity Point, North Stradbroke Island near Brisbane. She was swimming about 15m (49ft) offshore when she was attacked in water which had become murky and muddy after a recent storm. Police believe that possibly three bull sharks could have attacked the young woman as they are known to be aggressive during mating season. Before you start to worry, let’s put this into perspective: there have been 10 fatal shark attacks in Australian waters in the past five years.

A tip from Mac’s friend, world traveller Stanley Sagara who travels around the world giving used glasses to the poor of the world (his next trip is to Ethiopia) gave me this travel tip: photocopy your travellers cheques as well as first page of your passport, drivers license, all your important papers. (This tip would be good even if not travelling. ) He suggests looking at back of papers to see if there is important information there as to how to get items replaced etc. and photocopy that side too so you know who issued cheques as well as who to notify in the event of loss or theft.

In December 2005, a drunken male passenger on a flight from northern England to the Spanish tourist island of Tenerife was dropped off at a small island off the African coast after he swore at the cabin crew. Press reported that the plane’s captain decided to leave the man at Porto Santo, just 10 miles long and four miles wide, a volcanic outcrop in the Atlantic, after he became abusive when he was refused more alcohol. (The island does have a few hotels, so he wasn’t left to sleep on the beach in case you were worried. ) Needless to say, police met the man at the airport who is due to appear in court in mainland Portugal in January.

To ensure UK travellers are fully prepared for your travels moving into 2006 please be aware that from 1st January 2006, UK residents travelling in Europe will require a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). This will allow you to benefit from free or reduced-cost medical care when travelling in an EEA country or Switzerland.

The EHIC replaces the E111 and is free of charge. For further information on the introduction of the EHIC and on how to apply for an EHIC, see: www. dh. gov. uk/travellers

If you are found to be a stowaway on a ship, the ship owners are obliged by law to bear the costs to send you home.

Unfortunately for seven Tanzanian stowaways who recently boarded a ship sailing to South America at Mombassa in Kenya, three Ukrainian sailors allegedly forced the seven stowaways to jump overboard. Two of the seven Tanzanian stowaways are believed to have drowned while five managed to swim to safety, say police.

Saturday 4th March 2006, 10. 30am – 4. 00pm at the newsroom The Guardian

60 Farringdon Rd

London EC1R 3GA

Cost: £89. 99 (inc VAT)

A day of two intensive workshops:

Travel Writing – How To Do It, and How Not To with Dea Birkett, Guardian columnist and author of Serpent in Paradise and Off the Beaten Track.

Fact, Fiction and Creating a Traveller’s Tale with Rory Maclean, author of Falling for Icarus and Stalin’s Nose.

The workshops include practical writing sessions. Participants should bring pen and paper – they will be expected to write! The emphasis is – whether you are a beginner or already have some writing experience – on developing skills which can be applied to both articles and books. Our aim is that, by the end of the day, each of you will have the tools to produce a publishable piece of travel writing.

Already done some travel writing? Contact travelworkshops@deabirkett. com for details of the Travel Writing Masterclass on Saturday March 18th 2006. Or book the Workshop and Masterclass together and save over £20.

The government of the Malaysian state of Johor says it is to organise an attempt to track down a legendary ape man said to roam its jungles. There have been a spate of sightings of Big Foot, known in local legend as Hantu Jarang Gigi – ghosts with widely spaced teeth. Last November three fishery workers claimed to have seen a Big Foot family that left footprints up to 45cm long. Conservationists say that damage to branches suggested that the creatures could have been up to 3m tall. There were similar sightings by members of the local indigenous minority who said they had seen a ‘King Kong’ covered in black fur. Now, the chief minister of Johor, Abdul Ghani Othman, says a proper scientific expedition will track Big Foot’s big foot-prints.

A Chinese HR company has announced it would like its new staff to include plenty of “dogs”. To reflect this, in its recruitment ad, they invited only people born in the Year of the Dog to apply. The reason? A personnel manager for the company said, “We believe that people born in dog years are born with some good characteristics such as loyalty and honesty. ”

According to the Chinese zodiac, 2006 is the Year of the Dog. Were you born in the Year of the Dog? Those born in 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982 and 1994 were all born to this astrological sign.

Oasis Hong Kong Airlines, a new start up company aims to be a low cost carrier but operate long haul routes. They plan to make their maiden flight from Hong Kong to London’s Gatwick Airport in June 2006 as Hong Kong’s first low-fare carrier.

Oasis aims to price round-trip tickets starting as low as HKD$1,000 (USD$128), although customers looking for such a bargain would have to book months in advance, said Oasis Chief Executive Stephan Miller, a founder and former chief executive of the city’s second largest airline, Dragonair. Oasis will not be alone. Qantas’ Jetstar arm and Viva Macau also hope to launch low-cost long-haul flights.

A recent report in “Holiday Which?”, published by the British Consumers’ Association, found that the number of people who take “independent holidays” has now overtaken those booking the traditional package, predicting that 55 percent of overseas holidays in 2005 will have been arranged independently. Travellers are searching the internet and booking flights, cars and hotels on-line. In the travel industry, this is called “dynamic packaging”: travellers who build their own itineraries, or vacation packages.

Unsurprisingly, tour operators recognise this trend and have responded. For example, Flexibletrips. com, part of Thomas Cook, allows you to build exactly the sort of holiday you want by “bundling” flights, hotels, car rental and extras such as tours and transfers. British Airways plans to introduce a “shopping basket” feature on BA. com allowing travellers to book hotels, and other travel products, alongside flights.

The disadvantage to dynamic packaging is that you may not have financial protection if something goes wrong – (pay with a credit card, not a debit card) and it can be hard to compare like with like e. g. some packaged breaks may include airport transfers and a room upgrade, and of course, all this internet searching takes time.

Air New Zealand and Qantas Airways confirmed have barred men from sitting next to unaccompanied children on flights. The policy came to light after a man seated next to a child was asked to change seats with a woman in another row and was told by a Qantas flight attendant that the airline’s policy stipulated that only women should sit next to unaccompanied children. The man asked to move, Mark Worsley, 37, was later told by the airline that Qantas wanted to err on the side of caution. “I felt that it was totally discriminatory,” Worsley told The New Zealand Herald. A Qantas spokesman confirmed the policy and said the airline believed customers wanted the policy.

Bear in mind, before you read this, that this news is reported by the China Travel Service.

“China is the main engine driving Asia-Pacific travel; and by 2020, China is expected to be the world’s No. 1 travel destination with an estimated 100 million tourists visiting every year. ”

Sent in by Francesca: ever fancied climbing Everest? Now there is a company that trains and supports amateurs. Check out about climbing Everest:

http://www. everest2006. co. uk/

Visitors to Asia and the Pacific should look out for the new SkyTeam Asia Pass that gives access to 61 cities in 21 countries through three major gateways: Guam, Seoul and Tokyo, on flights with Air France, Continental Airlines, KLM, Korean Air or Northwest Airlines. You need to buy 3 coupons, or a maximum of 8, in conjunction with an intercontinental round-trip ticket to the region on any SkyTeam of the 9 SkyTeam member airlines, at www. skyteam. com. Someone arriving from Europe, America or Africa could choose to visit Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo, Osaka, Taipei, Bangkok and Saigon for $2,310 (8 coupons), saving at least $4,000 on regular air fares.

A sparrow shot dead after flying into the middle of a Dutch world record attempt, knocking over 23,000 dominoes with a little flap of its wing is to be given pride of place at Rotterdam’s Natural History Museum. The bird, whose killing last month in the northern Dutch city of Leeuwarden enraged animal rights activists, will be placed on top of a box of dominoes at an exhibition. The sparrow was shot with an air rifle during a televised world record dominoes attempt. Thousands of messages of condolence were sent after its death to the website dodemus – set up to record the storm of protest from people across the Netherlands. The sparrow’s exterminator was fined €170 (£115) on Friday for shooting a protected species. The common house sparrow was added to the Dutch list of endangered species last year. Participants in the record attempt went on to knock down about 4 million dominoes to claim a new record, yet to be verified by Guinness World Records.

The sparrow will be on display at the museum this year with another dead bird, famous for different reasons – a male duck, obtained posthumously, said to be the victim of the first scientifically documented case of “homosexual mallard necrophilia”.

A belated entry to the e-newsletter; this was passed to me by Padmassana whilst the Beetle was working away in SE Asia.

Padmassana heard on the radio that a Thomsonfly a stewardess said she needed “eight fat people” to sit nearer the front because the captain of a half-full London-bound Thomsonfly flight was unhappy about the weight distribution and therefore the handling of his plane. Passenger Peter Harrison, who weighs 24-stone, said the request for people to move was made as the plane taxied to take off from Tenerife to Gatwick last Saturday. Mr Harrison added: The stewardess said there were too many passengers on the back of the plane and she needed eight fat people sat in rows 31 to 42 to sit near the front. Mr Harrison, a postman, was not in those rows but felt awkward. He said: “In the end eight people got up and shuffled forward before we took off.

Trip Advisor, the US based travel organisation recently conducted a survey of over 3,000 travellers. Their findings are that the top three most desirable travel destinations in the next year, if money were no object, are Australia, Italy and Hawaii.

The top three airlines, according to respondents, are British Airways, American Airlines and Virgin Atlantic. Surprisingly, American was also one of the three least favourite airlines, and British Airways was overwhelmingly least favourite among travellers from the U.K.

Delta was the least favourite airline and yet nearly 40 percent of those who chose Delta as least favourite participate in the Delta Skymiles program. US Airways and American tied for second least favourite airline but 36 percent of those who chose them are still enrolled in US Airways’ Dividend Miles and American’s Advantage programs, respectively.

Top considerations for choosing their favourite airline were friendly and helpful staff, sticking to schedules, and best fares and comfortable seating tied for the third.

Discover the world in a day at Destinations: The Holiday & Travel Show, the essential event for travel inspiration.

Get tips from the travel experts while experiencing Destinations Sensations, demonstrations of global culture, culinary delights and live entertainment on the World Entertainment Stage.

Meet the Expert Theatres feature inspirational talks to fuel your imagination, experts include John Simpson – BBC World Affairs Editor (London Show), Jake Meyer, the youngest Briton to climb Everest and Nick Middleton, presenter and writer of ‘Extremes Along the Silk Road’. Plus, participate in interactive sessions on topics from Travel Writing and Photography to Argentina: Beyond Buenos Aires.

• Destinations 2006 takes place at London Earl’s Court: 2nd-5th February 2006 Time: Thursday 10am – 8.30pm, Friday, Sat & Sun 10am – 5.30pm
• Birmingham’s NEC: 3rd – 5th March 2006 Time: 10am – 5pm

eNewsletter readers can buy tickets under a 2for1 ticket deal, just quote “Globetrotters email“when applying for tickets. Full Members of the Globetrotters Club are entitled to an improved offer, see your latest copy of Globe for details.�

Tickets cost: �8 in advance /�10 on the door and are available from the Destinations Hotline on 08701 200 332 or log onto www.DestinationsShow.com (Calls charged at national rate. Booking fee applies.)

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office advise all travel to the island of Ambae, where the Mount Manaro volcano is threatening a major eruption. The Government of Vanuatu has begun evacuating people from the centre of Ambae, and is considering a wider evacuation of the entire island.

We advise caution when considering travel to the islands of Tanna and Ambrym, which are also currently affected by volcanic activity (see Natural Disasters Section). The Government of Vanuatu issued a warning, advising people not to go near the crater of the Mount Yasur volcano on the island of Tanna.

Vanuatu is in an earthquake zone and suffers frequent tremors and shocks. Three earthquakes measuring between 6.2mw and 5.6mw hit Vanuatu on 25 and 26 September 2005. No serious injuries or damage were reported.

The British High Commission in Port Vila closed to the public on 21 October 2005. There is no longer any British consular representation in Port Vila. Routine consular services for British nationals will be provided by the New Zealand High Commission in Port Vila. The British High Commission in Fiji will be responsible for non-routine consular matters. Please see Travel Advice: Fiji for contact details.

Violent crime is increasing and you should avoid visiting isolated locations alone.

The threat from terrorism is low. But you should be aware of the global risk of indiscriminate terrorist attacks, which could be against civilian targets, including places frequented by foreigners.

The Chiang Mai Night Safari Park, part of a huge project aimed at turning the area into “Chiang Mai World”, has received a boost with Kenya agreeing to provide Thailand with 135 African wild animals. Thailand in turn has pledged to provide financial assistance worth 20 million baht to Kenya so it can set up an elephant fund to help Kenya tackle the problem of rogue elephants. Wildlife activists have expressed concern over the welfare of the wild animals. Several major NGOs have expressed strong opposition to the use of wildlife for entertainment. They also questioned the deal’s transparency. One key concern is opposition to the export and exchange of wildlife, particularly species protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species list, such as white rhinos, lions and Sita tigers.