Ever worried about being able to access your cash whilst overseas?  These two websites allow you to locate Visa and Mastercard ATMs.

In some parts of Nepal, particularly the western parts of the country, there is a tradition of keeping women in cow sheds during their menstrual cycle.  Nepal's Supreme Court has ordered the government to declare the practice as evil and have given one month to stop the practice.  Women's rights activists have said that this is a positive move but a change in the law alone is not enough, that people need to be educated against such a scourge of society.

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

A restaurant in north east China was closed down for listing stir fried tiger meat with peppers for US $98 or a kilo of tiger meat for US $ 863.  Maybe it was the fact that the sale of tiger meat is outlawed in China or that the restaurant was less than a mile away from a Siberian Tiger Park that attracted the attention of local authorities.  Police raided the restaurant to find that actually the tiger meat was donkey marinated in tiger urine – to give it “a special flavour”.  Hhhmm, nice.

The latest in a series of setbacks for the $1.8bn (£1bn) Hong Kong Disneyland occurred after Health Inspectors were called in after three cases of food poisoning.  The two health officials were asked to take off their uniforms to avoid scaring clients.  Hong Kong officials, angered that food inspectors were asked to remove their uniforms told Disney it is “not above the law”.  Disney has apologised and has promised to comply with local laws.

An editorial in the Ming Pao Daily News says Hong Kong residents suspect Disney “wants to engineer special rights and turn the theme park into an independent kingdom that Hong Kong laws can't reach”.

The park faced criticism from animal welfare groups in July, after reports local officials had been called in to destroy at least 40 dogs roaming the site.  A month earlier, it withdrew shark fin soup from planned banquet menus after campaigners condemned the dish, a local luxury, as cruel and ecologically destructive.

Kofi Anan says that substantial increases in illegal fishing, tourism, bio-prospecting, climate change and depletion of the ozone continue to pose major challenges to the Antarctic, and governments should continue to make major efforts to secure the area as a natural reserve devoted to peace and science.  Illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing for toothfish in the Southern Ocean still exceeds reported catches despite major efforts to address such activities.  Other major areas of concern are the increase in tourism over the last 10 years.  There is an increase by 308% in ship-borne tourists to the Antarctic Peninsula since 1993, up to 27,324 in 2004-5, from 6,704 in 1992-3.  An increase in high-risk, adventure tourism has also wrought havoc on the region, creating the need for new search and rescue missions and country liability assessments. 

Singapore is following London's lead and plans to build a giant Ferris wheel.  Designers estimate that it will be 142 feet taller than the London Eye and say that visitors will be able to enjoy views of neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia from the 587ft-high wheel when it is completed in early 2008.

The Great Express, a luxury overnight train for rich Russians and foreign tourists is now running between Moscow and St. Petersburg.  The cost ranges from 3,150 roubles, or $110, for the nine-hour overnight trip in a first-class seat to 12,500 roubles for a luxury compartment with a bed and bathroom.  All compartments are fitted with flat-screen televisions showing satellite channels and have wireless Internet connections.

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

Campaigners organising Malaria Awareness Week say that British tourists are too complacent about contracting malaria as they travel to more and more far flung locations.  In particular, last minute bargain hunters are at risk because they don't leave time to arrange medication.  Last year around 5m travelled to risk areas, but 60% did not take the right health advice before they set out. Around 2,000 Britons get malaria each year, and deaths are low but rising.

Be careful what you write whilst on-line in China.  Yahoo was accused last week of helping Chinese authorities identify and imprison a reporter who described government fears about pro-democracy activists.  Shi Tao of China's Contemporary Business News attended a meeting at which an official read a government memo warning of possible social unrest during the 15th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.  Using an Internet alias, Shi described the government memo in an email sent to a U.S.-based pro-democracy website, incurring the anger of Chinese authorities.

According to Reporters Without Borders, Yahoo's Chinese division helped local authorities crack Shi's alias, leading to his arrest, two-hour trial, and 10-year prison sentence.  Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft are all competing for a share of the Chinese internet market and all three come under criticism for lowering ethical standards when it comes to free speech.  In June, Microsoft fended off criticism for blocking Chinese bloggers on its sites from using words like “liberty,” “capitalism,” and “human rights.”

Saturday 12^th November 2005, 10.30am – 4.00pm                        

Location:
The Newsroom, The Guardian
60 Farringdon Rd, London EC1R 3GA
Cost: £87.50

A day of two intensive workshops:

Travel writing and how to do it and how not to with Dea Birkett, the Guardian Travel 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.

We hope to build up a community of those interested in travel writing, by providing opportunities for participants to submit work they have completed after the course for further expert comment. You will also be able to move on to more advanced workshops, suiting the particular focus of your writing.

Participants will also be invited to exchange email details, in the hope that you may benefit from continued mutual support and positive criticism.

To apply for a place on the Travel Writing Workshop, see:

• www.deabirkett.com
• www.rorymaclean.com
• www.guardian.co.uk/newsroom

The Beijing Municipal Traffic Administration has launched a campaign to standardise road signs to make it easier for visitors to navigate the city.  Bilingual Chinese-English signs are to be displayed on streets as well as around the city's key tourist attractions. Many would agree that getting around Beijing can be difficult when you see signs saying “export” instead of “exit” for the word chukou and “scatter” instead of “evacuate” for the word shusan.

Zimbabwe is said to be about to import four endangered Siberian tigers from China for captive breeding.  China had received zebras, elephants and impala as part of an “exchange programme”. Yes, this comes from a country that is rapidly imploding, people being displaced from their homes and land, rampaging inflation and there is not enough to eat.  A local biologist working in Bulawayo, said the plan was “a complete load of garbage”, adding that the country even lacked the resources to look after its own wildlife.

Did you know, you can change the format of this e-newsletter? This e-newsletter is available in 4 formats:

1. This format with 2 columns.

2. A single column print friendly version available online, see the link in every e-newsletter (or click here).

3. The text only version, if you'd like your e-newsletter in plain text format, just send a blank email to text-enews@globetrotters.co.uk Globetrotters Webmaster with “Text+Enews” as the subject

4. Have a link emailed to you pointing to the online version, just send a blank email to text-enews@globetrotters.co.uk Globetrotters Webmaster with “Link+Enews” as the subject

We have seen four fatal plane crashes this month in Europe and South America claim the lives of hundreds of people.   On 6 August at least 13 of 39 passengers and crew were killed after a Tunisian passenger plane made an emergency landing in the sea off the Italian island of Sicily.  On 14 August, all 121 passengers and crew on a Cyprus airline flight bound for Prague died when it crashed into a mountainside near Athens.  Two days later, a Colombian plane operated by West Caribbean Airways crashed in a remote region of Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board.  In the latest crash, a passenger plane came down in Peru's Amazon jungle, causing the deaths of at least 40 of the 100 people on board.  Investigations continue into what went wrong on these flights. 

The Operations and Safety editor of Flight International magazine says that airline safety worldwide is now six times better than it was 25 years ago.  In 1979 there were three fatal accidents per million flights, compared with one fatal accident per two million flights by last year, according to International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) figures.  Safety improvements are due to better technology, compulsory industry audits and tougher competition, he said.  When compared with all other modes of transport on a fatality per kilometre basis, air transport is the safest, insists the Civil Aviation Authority.

In the past two weeks, there have been two major armed robberies at separate hotels in Zanzibar.  The first robbery took place at the Coral Reef Hotel about 28 miles north of Stone Town.  Eight men disguised as police officers, armed with submachine-guns tied up security staff and made off with nearly £15,000 in various currencies, watches and mobile phones. 

Less than a week later, six people armed with a gun and machetes arrived after dark at the Nungwi Village Hotel, an eco-resort in northern Zanzibar (where the Beetle passed a happy 10 days a couple of years ago.)  After threatening to kill staff and guests, the gang robbed them of their laptops, mobile phones and cash before stealing nearly £9,000 from the safe.

Four people have been arrested in relation to the first incident but no arrests have been made re the second robbery.

A monk has travelled from China to Ruabon, near Wrexham in Wales to help open a special temple to teach the ancient discipline of Shaolin.  Shi Xing Du will draft a syllabus for students to learn the Shaolin way, which includes kung fu, Chinese medicine, Buddhism and meditation.  The centre of the discipline's teaching is the Shaolin temple in the Henan Province of China, which is a Buddhist temple.  Shi Xing Du said he knew instinctively that north Wales was the right place to create a temple. “Wales is beautiful and I think it is the right place to set up a school,” he said.  Speaking through his disciple Pol Wong, he said the area surrounding the school in Ruabon was similar to the area around the Shaolin temple on the Song Shan Mountain.  To find out more information, see: http://www.chenloong.com/school.htm

Clarence House stands next to St James's Palace and was built between 1825 and 1827 to the designs of John Nash for Prince William Henry, Duke of Clarence.  He lived there as King William IV from 1830 until 1837.  During the second world war, the War Organisation of the British Red Cross and Order of St. John of Jerusalem for the duration of the war. Two hundred staff of the Foreign Relations Department maintained contact from Clarence House with British prisoners-of-war abroad, and administered the Red Cross Postal Message Scheme.  In 1949 Clarence House was returned to Royal use, when it became the London home of Princess Elizabeth, elder daughter of George VI, following her marriage to Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten on 20 November 1947. The couple could not move in straight away since the building needed complete refurbishment. Wartime restrictions on building work made progress slow. The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, as they were then known, moved to their new home in June 1949.

It was the London home of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother from 1953 until 2002.  A story goes that she once (probably often) rang down to the butlers after getting no response from her bell pull and said in a very camp way: “I don't know what you old queens are doing down there but this old queen up here is dying for a glass of gin.” For a time Princess Margaret lived there too.  After the death of the Queen Mother, Clarence House became the official London residence of The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall. It is open to the public during the summer months each year.

Since 2001, in Swaziland, teenage girls have had to wear large woollen tassels as a sign of their chastity. Now news comes that Swaziland's King Mswati III has ended a five-year sex ban he imposed on the kingdom's teenage girls a year early and there is to be a ceremony where all tassels are burned. The sex ban was allegedly imposed to fight the spread of HIV/Aids.

The king fined himself a cow for breaking the ban by marrying again – he married a 17-year-old girl as his ninth wife just two months after imposing the sex-ban in September 2001, sparking unprecedented protests by Swazi women outside the royal palace. Swaziland has one of the world's highest HIV infection rates, at about 40% of the population. Meanwhile, the health ministry has released new figures which show that 29% of Swazis aged 15-19 are HIV positive and for pregnant women, the figures were 42%.

British airline bmi plans to launch daily services to Mumbai. Bmi, which hopes to compete with larger rivals British Airways and Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic, starts the four-times-a-week service from London to Mumbai this Saturday.

Kenya Airways will start direct flights to Istanbul in June 2005, hoping to serve an increasing number of African traders visiting Turkey. The twice weekly flights to Istanbul will make Kenya Airways the only airline from sub-Saharan Africa to fly to Turkey, the airline said.

Mexico's government is privatising top carriers Mexicana and Aeromexico, and has recently handed out concessions to low-cost airlines. A Mexican billionaire called Carlos Slim and broadcaster Televisa are joining forces in a new low-cost airline to be called Vuela. Vuela already has a concession to operate and expects to begin flights in the first half of next year from the international airport in Toluca, west of Mexico City. Earlier in July 2005, Brazilian airline Gol said it planned to launch a low-cost carrier in Mexico. Another new airline, ABC Aerolineas, also plans to begin service in the low-cost market, which has quickly grown in the United States and Europe with mixed results.

Yes, it is possible to tour one of the most famous television centres in the world. The tour lasts up to 2 hours. You'll see into the studios, visit BBC News, play in the interactive studio and be shown around by well-informed, entertaining guides.

Please note that Television Centre is a working building so no two tours are ever the same.

Pre-booking is essential. Regular tours Monday to Saturday. They are open to anyone over 9 years old.

Prices – Adult £8.95 Concession £7.95

Students £6.50

Children (over 9 years) – £6.50

Family ticket (2 adults & 2 children or 1 adult & 3 children) £25.00

Group rates available
Prices valid until 31st March 2006

To book tickets:

Please call: 0870 603 0304

Outside the UK call: +44 28 9053 5904

Textphone for hearing-impaired callers: 0870 903 0304

If you have any special interests or requirements please state them at the time of booking.

The Inka Porter Project has issued a new set of environmental guidelines for trekkers on the Inca Trail in Peru and other Andean hiking circuits. Visit their website at www.peruweb.org/porters for the full guidelines, which give advice on dealing with rubbish, washing with biodegradable soap, using refillable water bottles, toilet etiquette while trekking, and how best to respect flora and fauna.

Reunion Kingston London Sunday 11th Sept 2005 for any member of Globetrotters who travelled overland to India or on the rail tours organised by Butterfields. Please e-mail butterfieldashley@yahoo.co.uk

In a speech accusing the South African government of failing to make crime a priority issue, a South African politician claims that the murder rate in South Africa is roughly the same as the death rate from terror attacks on civilians in Iraq. “The murder rate in South Africa, at about 43 murders per 100 000 people, is roughly the same as the death rate from terror attacks on civilians in Iraq” were the figures quoted. “So, despite the government's claims that crime is 'stabilising', South Africans are still living in what amounts to a state of civil war between criminals and law-abiding residents.

According to the South African Law Commission, only 6% of violent crimes reported to police result in a conviction, and 75% do not even make it to court. South Africa's overcrowded prisons were described as “universities of crime”. and said they are not rehabilitating criminals. An alarming recent trend is the rise in crime involving youths. “Forty-four percent of the children under 14 who were taken to Durban mortuaries in 2004 had been shot dead, for example.” Young people are also, increasingly, the perpetrators of crime. “The number of children convicted of violent crime jumped by 5% from 2003 to 2004, according to the National Institution for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders.

Spotted by Webmaster Paul, here's a satellite photo from Google of the Lake District.

French President Jacques Chirac has again urged world leaders to impose a levy on airline tickets to finance extra aid for Africa. If accepted, the tax would be imposed on tickets of planes leaving from airports in participating countries.

Chirac, who told the World Economic Forum in January that a tax of USD$1 per airline ticket could raise USD$10 billion a year to fund campaigns against diseases in Africa, pressed his case in a letter he wrote to more than 140 world leaders.

“I offer you to associate yourselves with the establishment of an international solidarity contribution on plane tickets, aimed, particularly, at financing the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria”.

The Group of Eight industrialized nations have decided to consider imposing a levy on airline tickets to finance extra aid for Africa, a proposal which has run into opposition in Europe and the United States.

Chirac's idea has received support from Germany, but even though talks so far have centered on a voluntary tax, some other European governments, including tourist destinations Greece and Italy, have given the idea an icy reception.

Every September the annual Open House London event takes place and this year the dates are 17th & 18th September 2005. Over 600 buildings are opening their doors to everyone and turning the capital into a living architectural exhibition. And it's absolutely free!

Two former America West pilots have been convicted of operating a packed passenger plane while drunk and sent to prison on Thursday by a Florida judge, who called their crime “outrageous and horrendous.”

Judge David Young sentenced Thomas Cloyd, 47, to five years behind bars — the maximum term — and Christopher Hughes, 44, to 2-1/2 years in prison for trying to fly from Miami Airport on July 1, 2002, after a night of beer drinking.

The pilots' Airbus A319 aircraft was being towed to the runway for takeoff to Phoenix with 124 passengers and three flight attendants aboard when it was ordered back to the terminal. A security screener had reported that the pilots smelled of alcohol. They had spent the evening before playing pool and drinking at a Miami area bar. They left the bar around 5 a.m. after running up a tab for 14 jumbo glasses of beer — the equivalent of nearly 22 pints (10.5 litres) — and showed up late for the 10:30 a.m. flight. FAA rules bar pilots from consuming alcohol for eight hours before a flight.

Unusually high concentrations of jellyfish have appeared along Spain's Mediterranean coast this summer. The Red Cross said its lifeguards had treated almost 11,000 people for stings on beaches so far this season in the north eastern region of Catalonia alone, twice the number from the same period last year, when the jellyfish count had already begun to rise. Factors like drought, heat and over fishing contribute to a rising jellyfish count, according to the international environmental group Oceana.

France: water-rationing is in place across more than half of France, with the west particularly affected by drought. A plague of locusts in the south of France, around Aveyron, has been put down to the continuing dry, hot weather.

Spain: is suffering its worst drought since records began in 1947, with the east particularly badly hit. Temperatures have risen to 40C (104F) in parts of Andalusia, in the south. Water is also being rationed across half the country, including in major tourist centres.

Portugal: Portugal faces its worst dry spell since the 1940s. Some 97% of the country is suffering a severe or extreme drought, ministers say. Shortages are particularly acute in the Algarve region, where the population more than doubles during the peak tourist season.

Italy: the temperature has topped 35C (95F) in cities including Milan, Florence and Turin. Several people have died in northern Italy as a result of the intense heat.

According to the Nepal Tourism Bureau, in the first four months of this year, covering the peak spring tourist season, Nepal logged roughly 72,000 tourists, a reduction of 34 percent from the same period last year. The Tourism Board has also tried to lure back trekkers, slashing fees by half – to about $5,000 for a team of seven – for some prime peaks, including Kanchenjunga, which at 8,600 meters, or 28,200 feet, is the world's third-highest mountain. Government tourism officials have said that Nepal, after King Gyanendra's emergency proclamation, is safer than ever before.

The Maoist insurgents, who have been fighting the government since 1996, officially welcome foreign tourists. Well, they would – a significant part of their income is derived from charges or tolls extracted from individual tourists, lodges and other tourism-related industries.

Many foreigners have stayed away from Nepal. Peace Corps activities were suspended in September because the U.S. government lists the Maoist rebel group as a terrorist organization so American citizens are forbidden to contribute funds, goods or services to or for the benefit of the Maoists, according to the State Department.

Huge parts of the countryside are effectively no man's land, where the rebels or government troops may be found. On the Annapurna trail, there are plenty of rebels who try to collect their taxes from tourists and it is considered dangerous to refuse the demands of the guerrillas. The Mount Everest trail from Lukla onward remains untouched by fighting, according to trekking groups that organize tours to Everest.

Sometimes a tourist hotel is bombed, but it is said that this some of these attacks are staged because the hotel owner's payments to the guerrillas have been regarded as unsatisfactory. The latest incident came on May 20, when a hotel in Pokhara, in the foothills of the Himalayas and a stop on the Annapurna trail, was attacked with a homemade bomb, injuring two waiters.

Educational travel conference at York St John College in York, UK on Saturday 15th October 2005 from 9.30 am to 5.00 pm. Tickets cost £15 (£10 for students) including lunch and refreshments.

A practical day of advice and guidance to help prepare and support young travellers on their gap year travels.

Young travellers, educators and parents are
encouraged to attend this one day Educational Travel Conference & Exhibition which will provide information & options on how to get the maximum out of travel experiences whilst keeping safe.

Full programme of experts including former BBC war correspondent and independent MP, Martin Bell and Deidre Bounds, founder of Leeds-based i-to-i the UK's largest company specialising in volunteer travel.

For further information, see:
www.carolinesrainbowfoundation.org

When the first modern humans evolved in Africa, they lived mainly on meat hunted from animals. Scientists had always thought the exodus from Africa around 70,000 years ago took place along a northern route into Europe and Asia. Now, according to a new genetic study, it seems that early modern humans followed the beach, possibly lured by a seafood diet. The study believes that humans quickly reached Australia but took much longer to settle in Europe. Dr Martin Richards of the University of Leeds, who took part in the study, says the first humans may have moved south in search of better fishing grounds when stocks in the Red Sea dwindled due to climate change. The new research suggests they moved along the coasts of the Arabian peninsula into India, Indonesia and Australia about 65,000 years ago. An offshoot later led to the settlement of the Middle East and Asia about 30 to 40,000 years ago.

Need to convert currency?

Take a look at 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.

Potential good news for those wishing to travel to Spain. According to newspaper ABC, Spain's flag-carrier Iberia will launch a low-cost airline at the beginning of next year. The new airline may be called “Mediterranea” and will have its hub in the Mediterranean city of Barcelona, the paper said. An Iberia spokeswoman said it was still considering the option of a no-frills sibling, but nothing had been decided yet. “We still don't know whether we're going to do it or not,” the spokeswoman said. “It's something that will be covered in the strategic plan we'll unveil in September.”