Johan from Belgium contacted the Beetle to say that he visits The Gambia on a regular basis. He says that it is true that the bumsters have gone – because of police and army presence, but readers should be warned that inland, in The Gambia, it can be quite dirty with rubbish piled up, mostly plastic bags. But even so, it offers sunshine for when the rest of Europe is cold and snowy.

Any more comments, anyone? E-mail to the Beetle

Here’s a little Beetle quiz based on airport codes. How many did you get right! Go on, have a guess!

Which cities are served by airports with the following codes:

1. PHX
2. ATH
3. ZNZ
4. DPS
5. EZE

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

Muir’s Tours have opportunities for their volunteer teaching programme in Peru. This is proving to be very popular with Gap Year students. Please note it is open to all ages, but preference is given to those with a TEFL certificate or similar, or valid experience. For more info, please see Muir’s Tours

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal told of how the Hilton Hotel chain, all 21,000 of them have a new customer system called OnQ. This records all customer details and preferences of those who have stayed with them, including movies watched, what and how much you drank from the mini bar and any complaints made. You have been warned!

Italy is to be the first EU country to introduce mandatory screening of passengers arriving from countries affected by the SARS virus and including passengers who have first made stops in other places.

Any passenger showing symptoms of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which currently has killed over 500 people worldwide, will be quarantined.

Due to a computer crash, the Beetle has lost this month’s commentary on our friends Ryanair. We hope to return to our favourite love to hate subject of Ryanair next month, if there is anything news worthy to note.

Changi Airport in Singapore is using high technology to screen the foreheads of inbound passengers as they step off the plane. The infrared fever screening system has a thermal imaging thermometer that works like a camera. It takes a picture of each passenger and transfers the data to a computer screen. Blue dots indicate normal temperature and red fever. Anyone looks feverish is checked for SARS symptoms by a nurse.

Andrev, a student in the beautiful city of Wroclaw wrote in to tell us about his hometown. He says he would like to tell us about a few interesting things about his city and (hopefully) encourage someone to come here!! Let's begin with a Town Hall – one of the most beautiful late Gothic and Renaissances Buildings in Europe. It was started in 14th century with 15th century towers and is situated in the old Market Square a huge 120 square metres itself – just imagine. Another interesting place to see is St. John the Baptist's Cathedral. This was built on the site of the first wooden church and dates from 1000. The present Gothic cathedral was rebuilt between 1244 and 1376. Further development took place in 15th century and added the side chapels and the main portal. The last thing I would like to describe is Panorama of the battle Raclawice – one of a few preserved monuments of this kind in the world a huge 120m x 15m.

If you would like some more information about Wroclaw please contact Andrev on: and_f@wp.pl

Would you like to take part in a documentary we are currently making for Channel 4? It is provisionally titled Travellers Tales, and is about travellers who have experienced tropical illnesses. Perhaps… you unwittingly transported a bot-fly home from a remote destination? Someone on your expedition was cured by a medicine man? You left the country on a mission to solve a medical mystery? Or are you still staggered by a memorable bout of Delhi Belly? I would like to hear about your experience of the places you have been to in addition to accounts of any illnesses you might have had. I am concerned with illnesses ranging from diarrhoea to dengue and would be very interested to hear your story – funny or painful – with a view to including it in the documentary. Should you be interested in taking part, your journeys will be portrayed accurately and responsibly. Please contact me, Catherine on: Catherine.Brindley@rdfmedia.com

If you're going to visit Japan on business, or even if you are going for pleasure, this website shows you how to you bow appropriately and how to behave when you have been invited to someone’s home. There are lots of hints and tips on appropriate presents to take, how to use the washroom, and this is all animated which makes it quite addictive to look at. Take a look at animator and illustrator Nora Krug's web site – we like this!

If you have plans to visit India this summer – never a good time to go – take note that around 200 people have died during the heat wave that is currently sweeping through Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Pakistan where temperatures have soared as high as 47.2C. The high temperatures have led to a shortage of drinking water and deaths through dehydration and sunstroke. Last year, a heat wave killed more than 1,000 people in the state and caused devastating drought. The situation should improve with the approaching monsoon rains, which usually reach the south coast in the first week of June.

Terror alerts are in force around the world; Australia and New Zealand have just warned their nationals to be on their guard in South East Asia: Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, East Timor and Brunei.

The US has issued warnings of possible terrorist attacks throughout East Africa and parts of South East Asia in the wake of the triple suicide bombing in Saudi Arabia.

The US state department also warned of a “continuing concern” of attacks against Americans in Malaysia, particularly in the state of Sabah.

Thailand has dismissed travel warnings by Australia and New Zealand, which say the country is at risk of an attack by Islamic militants. Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Sinawatra said that there was “nothing to worry about” in Thailand and that he “was confident that his country was not a terrorist target, since it was not an enemy of any particular terrorist group. I will ask the foreign ministry to notify the Australian embassy that they should not overreact”.

Malaysia has also hit back at its inclusion in a travel warning issued by the US. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said that insecurity resulting from the Iraq war had made the United States “afraid of its own shadow”.

The US state department has recommended that Americans defer non-essential travel to Kenya and to carefully review plans to visit East Africa in general. All flights between the UK and Kenya have been suspended after warnings of new terrorist threats in the east African country. It is thought that Al Qaeda, who are believed to be responsible for the bombings in Saudi Arabia this month may be preparing an attack. All US and UK bases in Kenya have been given added security by the country's government.

The UK Passport Service plans to put biometric chips into passports by 2005. The agency is to run a six-month trial to “evaluate issues around biometric capture using iris, facial recognition and fingerprints to support the passport card development programme.” An 'Omnibase' global database of all passports issued will be created, along with a global lost, stolen and recovered passport database which is due by the end of this year.

An exhibition of objects recovered from the wreck of the Titanic, including a chunk of the ship itself is on show at the Science Museum in London.

Visitors can see crockery from the ship, papers, money and personal effects preserved for decades in baggage, and one of the liner's bells.

The display also includes mock-ups of Titanic's first and third class cabins and an exhibit which demonstrates the terrible cold encountered by those trying to escape the ship after it hit an iceberg and began to sink.

Each visitor receives a boarding pass bearing the name of one of the passengers. At the end of the exhibition you discover whether the holder of their ticket survived.

For more information, see: The Titanic Exhibition

The Globetrotters Club has just teamed up with Oanda.com to provide people with information about currency conversions and cheat sheets. To translate currency or make a cheat sheet, visit:

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.

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!!