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
Category Archives: Sidebar
6 Month + UK Visas
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
Travel Quiz
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.
Sorry, we ate your missionary
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.
Answers to: So You Think You’re Well Travelled? Bangladesh: Dhaka Guyana: Georgetown Oman: Muscat Syria: Damascas 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?
- Bangladesh: Dhaka
- Guyana: Georgetown
- Oman: Muscat
- Syria: Damascas
- 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?
Discount on Karrimor products
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
Money in Sick Bags
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.
Tourists Kidnapped in SE Iran
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.
Globetrotters Travel Award
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!!
Vietnam Airlines
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.
Top 5 Things to Do in a Lifetime
The BBC recently showed a programme outlining the results of a viewer’s poll stating the top 50 things they thought everyone should do in their life.
The top 5 things were as follows:
- Swim with dolphins
- Dive the Great Barrier Reef or Coral Reefs
- Fly on Concorde
- Whale watching
- Dive with sharks
What would your top 5 things be? Write in and tell the Beetle.
Have you got a tale to tell?
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
Globetrotters Travel Award
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!!
Travel Quiz: Los Angeles
The winner of last month’s Frommer’s Guidebook on Spain Moon guide is: Azusa Nakamura congratulations!
This month, win a Rough Guide guidebook on Los Angeles. See www.roughguides.com
for info on Rough Guides.
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.
Giant Squid Found Dead
Four giant squid, one of which is said to be the length of a bus – 12 metres long – have been washed up on the northern Asturias coast of Spain. Spain’s marine agency believe that naval exercises have been causing shock waves that have contributed to their deaths, although the Spanish navy deny this. Giant squid, as in the monster that attacked Captain Nemo’s Nautilus in the Jules Verne adventure 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, is the world’s largest invertebrate and lives at depths of up to 2,000 meters (6,562 feet).
Answers to: So You Think You’re Well Travelled?
1. Austria: Vienna
2. Ethiopia: Adis Abbaba
3. Mauritius: Port Louis
4. Swaziland: Mbabane
5. Vanuatu: Port Vila
- 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?
Danube Wrecks
Due to the unseasonably hot weather Europe has been facing over the summer months, the Danube has fallen to its lowest level for over 120 years. This is normally bad news as it prevents the usual convoys of ships – tugs barges pulling barges from travelling between the Black Sea and the rest of Euope. However, in one stretch of the river, between Serbia and Romania, this has revealed the most amazing find: wrecks from the second World War of German warships, once Hitler’s Danube Fleet.
Discount on Karrimor products
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 our website www.karrimor.com
Further details are avalible in Globe or our online members area
Mutual Aid
We are a couple in our mid 50’s in Australia. We are experienced campervan travellers who wish to travel in UK during mid April 2004 – mid August 2004. We are looking for a campervan/motorhome exchange site. We have a Toyota hi-Ace LWB 2/3 berth hi-top & looking for a similar exchange. Can any e-newsletter reader help with a site or we would not mind a private hire arrangement. Nadia, e-mail: nadiak@picknowl.com.au
Visiting Iceland?
Gudbjorg offers his services to e-newsletter readers. If you are planning to visit Iceland, he can arrange a variety of trips. He is a trained tour guide, has transport and can find suitable accommodation in Iceland. He says: “be among the first to experience the West fjords in Iceland, where hardly any tourists ever visit. For more information, contact Gudbjorg Bragadottir on: guggabraga@visir.is