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.

A Ukrainian team of nine caving experts has set a new depth record for caving. They managed to go 2,080m (6,822ft) underground at Krubera in Georgia, the world's deepest known cave. The team carried an amazing five tonnes of equipment and kept in touch with the surface base camp by rigging nearly 3km (two miles) of rope strung with a telephone wire. The world's deepest known caves are:

1. Krubera, Georgia (Abkhazia) 2,080m (6,822ft)
2. Lamprechtsofen, Austria 1,631m (5,354 ft)
3. Gouffre Mirolda, France 1,626m (5,335 ft)
4. Reseau Jean Bernard, France 1,602m (5,256 ft)
5. Torca del Cerro, Spain 1,589m (5,213 ft)
6. Sarma, Georgia (Abkhazia) 1,542m (5,062 ft)
7. Cehi 2, Slovenia, 1,533m (5,030 ft)

Artists Against AIDS USA will be in Melbourne 27 November 2005 to support “Rockin the Square” in Federation Square for their second World AIDS Day concert

Once again, we'll be sending our very own “Star Search” finalist (and Melbourne's new favourite crooner), Spencer Day who will be accompanied this year by the multi-talented Shayna Steele who just completed a successful run on Broadway with “Hairspray – The Musical”

In an effort to keep costs down, we are trying to get a jump on air-fares, hotel accommodations plus other events/venues where we might be of service while we are in OZ.

If you could quote us on your current airfare from the US to Melbourne (or thereabouts) and accommodations somewhere in the vicinity of Federation Square, it would be appreciated.

Questions, comments or press kit requests can be directed to Joe in our San Francisco via this email address: joe@a3usa.net

Artists Against AIDS USATeam SOHO www.a3usa.net

Dubai has always been the jewel in the United Arab Emirates crown, and Abu Dhabi considered a little quieter, more traditional and more conservative. Well, plans are afoot that may change all this. The United Arab Emirates is planning a 21 billion dirham (USD$5.7 billion) expansion of Abu Dhabi Airport in an effort to revamp the city's profile and attract millions of tourists. The new Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority said the emirate wants to attract over 3 million tourists a year by 2015, compared to 830,000 in 2003. Abu Dhabi has even tried to match Dubai's famed Burj al-Arab hotel, with its distinctive sail shape with its own Emirates Palace, where some suites cost USD$16,000 per night.

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

I am looking for people to join me in trekking in Nepal – Mt Everest region. If you are interested, or you know some one who may be, please send me mail – lszymala@poczta.onet.pl

I am trying to find a trip to the Norwegian fjords. So far, all the trips on the internet are American, so prices reflect included transatlantic journeys. My trip to the Travel Agents was not enlightening as the choice is very small.

What I'm looking for is a coastal trip along the fjords for 6/7 days, with return flight to and from London, preferably Heathrow, after September 24th. The travel agents said it wasn't something people were after!! Can anyone give me any advice?

Thank you, Ipsita: ipsita_halder@hotmail.com

Spanish airline Iberia is considering buying or setting up its own low cost airline. More than 50 million foreign tourists visit Spain every year, increasingly arriving on budget airlines such as Ryanair, easyJet or Lufthansa's Germanwings. Watch this space!

I am writing on behalf of an NGO out in Ecuador with whom I volunteered last year. This organisation is trying to find other volunteers. The organisation has experience of placing volunteers previously and is a registered NGO with the Ecuadorian government. I can be contacted on: andy_blake31@yahoo.co.uk

The Peruvian government is to sue a unit of the Chilean airliner LAN over an in-flight video it showed allegedly depicting Lima as not a very nice place to go. The in-flight video is said to include old images of a man urinating in the street and gutters filled with litter. Peruvian officials say that the material misrepresents the capital Lima. The airline has apologised and withdrawn the film and three of its senior executives have resigned.

When: Saturday 18th June, 10.30am-4.00pm
Where: The Newsroom, The Guardian 60 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3GA
Cost: £85.00
A day of two intensive workshops:

Travel Writing – How to do it and how not to with Dea Birkett, the Guardian's Travelling with Kids 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 are followed by 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.

For further details and application form contact: travelworkshops@deabirkett.com

For further information:

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

The Ukraine has announced the temporary implementation of the visa-free entrance regime for EU and Swiss citizens.

This means that from 1st May 2005 till the 1st September 2005 EU and Swiss passport holders will be able to enter the Ukraine without visas for the period up to 90 days. For more information, see:Ukraine Visa

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

Flying into Iran? Iran opened its new international airport, the Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran at the end of April 2005, despite warnings from Britain and Canada who fear that the runway may be unsafe. Neither Britain nor Canada said exactly why they were concerned about the safety of the runway. “We are aware of reports that the runway at the new Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran may not yet be suitable for use,” the British Foreign Office said in a travel advisory. We are in contact with the Iranian authorities about this. Until the situation has been clarified, we advise British travellers to travel by flights using the existing airport.”

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, (CPJ), murder is the leading cause of job-related deaths among journalists worldwide. The Philippines is the most murderous country of all, followed by Iraq, Colombia, Bangladesh, and Russia.

CPJ studied more than five years of death records starting January 1st, 2000, and found that the vast majority of journalists killed on duty did not die in crossfire or while covering dangerous assignments. Instead, 121 of the 190 journalists who died on duty worldwide since 2000 were hunted down and murdered in retaliation for their work, including for reporting on government corruption, crime, drug trafficking, or the activities of rebel groups.

Project IRIS is being introduced at Heathrow's Terminals 2 and 4 at the end of April 2005 before being rolled out to other UK airports, and is aimed at anyone not holding an EU passport who regularly travels through Heathrow. They will be invited to have their iris patterns photographed and stored in a database upon departure. Those passengers can then use special automated security check-points which scan their eyes, avoiding long lines for non-EU passport holders when they return to the country. The new security system aims to replace face-to-face passport control interviews and reducing long queues at the immigration counters.

If you are planning to go to Bhutan, mentioning the Globetrotters Club when booking with www.golays.com will earn you a discount of $35 per person per night in the high season and $15 per person per night in the low season.

Be careful driving in Uganda's capital, Kampala. The pot holes in Kampala's roads are said to be so bad that protesters have started to plant banana trees in the middle of the potholes. One campaigner says he saw a fish caught in one of the bigger potholes that had filled with water.

A grey 10m long whale swam into an industrial part of Tokyo Bay in early May, causing much surprise. Only 12 sightings of the mammal have been confirmed around Japan since the 1960s. It is rare for grey whales to be sighted in Japan, much less in the capital's congested waterways a spokesman said. Grey whales travel about 20,000 km during their annual migrations between the sea off the coast of Vietnam to Russia's far eastern Sakhalin Island.

Spotted by Webmaster Paul, here's a satellite photo from Google of Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace

Volunteer in Africa is an organization dedicated to disseminating information on voluntary work programs in Africa. We also organize volunteer programs and other programs including group tours in Ghana.

We place volunteers from worldwide on our own projects and on the projects of other organizations in Ghana for a period of 1 to 12 weeks. The volunteers stay with carefully selected, respectable, well screened, dedicated host families.

Our work is aimed at promoting environmental preservation, sustainable social and economic development, literacy, health care, international friendship and cultural exchange. For more information, see: http://www.volunteeringinafrica.org

A celebration of musical excellence from London's diaspora communities!

The weekend will feature a selection of world-class performers, all now based in the capital of the UK from all around the world. For more information, see: www.culturalco-operation.org

Admission is free by downloadable voucher from the internet site. The music weekend will take place at KewGardens, Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th June.