The US government wants to begin testing a program this summer that would allow low-risk frequent fliers to avoid extra security inspections at airports.  Passengers could volunteer to pay a fee and submit to government background checks.  If they are not found to be potential threats, they would avoid being randomly selected for the follow-up screening at checkpoints where carry-on bags pass through metal detectors.  The aim is to move law-abiding and non-threatening travellers more quickly to their planes and permit screeners to focus more on people about whom the government has less information, said David Stone, acting chief of the Transportation Security Administration.  The program, which will last 90 days could begin in June, is expected to appeal mostly to frequent travellers who would think the cost would be offset by the time saved at airports.

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.

Travellers to Kenya will know that a ride in a matatu (minibus) can be a hair raising experience.  The last time the Beetle was in Kenya, a fellow traveller reported that he was on a matatu that crashed, because the driver was drunk and there were so many people on board that two occupants died. In response to a law published last year by the Kenyan government to fit in safety belts and speed governors as a measure to curb increasing road accidents, Kenyan matatu (minibus) operators are rushing to beat a government deadline to fit safety equipment on their vehicles.  But the chairman of the Matatu operators Association Simon Kimutai says only 10% of the vehicles have complied with the new rules.  Commentators say that Kenya's public transport system is heading for a crisis when the new laws become effective this month because so few matatu owners have complied.  The new law requires the matatus to sport one colour and have a yellow strip and matatu drivers and conductors will have to wear uniforms and badges.  Let’s hope that this does bring some safety to Kenya’s roads.

This is my first request to your excellent newsletter. I'd like to know if anyone knows of anywhere in Tibet where a young (23) year old guy could go to learn overtone chanting. Have you any ideas/sources/reports of young people. I'd love to know, and I can then pass the message on: di.hinds@ntlworld.com

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 Forum section of the Website: Mutual Aid

Three crewmembers found dead on a South Korean freighter that washed ashore in Shimane Prefecture on Sunday may have died after inhaling toxic gas generated from rotten squid organs, local Japan Coast Guard (JCG) officials said.  Three crewmembers were found dead in two storage rooms of the freighter and its skipper was unconscious in one of the rooms.  JCG officers found rotten internal squid organs in storage rooms where the three men were found dead.  Investigators suspect that the three crewmembers died from either an oxygen shortage or inhalation of carbon monoxide that had been generated from the rotten squid organs. The coast guard office said carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulphide were detected in the cabin.

Plans are afoot to cut transatlantic fares to as little as £66 return.  Passengers travelling to the U.S. and Canada could enjoy the type of low-cost fares that have revolutionised European air travel.  Executives at Cologne-Bonn airport in Germany say they are in 'serious' talks with several American airlines to offer budget return flights to the U.S. for just £66 starting by 2005.  The flights would be open to tourists anywhere in the world – as long as they have access to the Internet – though UK customers would first have to get to Germany.  'The plan is for all tickets to be sold online – no refunds, no frills, no fancy lounges and trimmed back in-flight entertainment and meals.  Locations being touted include New York, Boston and Washington together with mid-western U.S. cities and destinations in Canada.

Virgin Atlantic Airways scrapped plans to install bright-red urinals shaped like women's open lips at New York's John F Kennedy Airport, saying it had received complaints they were offensive.

“Virgin Atlantic was very sorry to hear of people's concerns about the design of the 'Kisses' urinals to be fitted into our clubhouse at JFK Airport.  We can assure everyone who complained to us that no offence was ever intended,” Virgin spokesman John Riordan said in a statement.

“I don't know many men who think it's cool to pee in a woman's mouth, even a porcelain one,” said one complainant.

The urinal, designed by a Dutch company, was the idea of a female designer. Riordan said Virgin was surprised by the negative reaction to the plan, part of designs for the lounge, built to pamper first-class customers.

A marathon competition to see who could live for a week in a cable car that makes the 1.7-kilometre trip between Singapore and the resort island of Sentosa about 80 metres above sea level was won by a couple who said they used meditation to overcome urges to use the bathroom. 

Thirty three couples started the competition and three teams dropped out before the contest even began.  Contest organisers confessed they hadn't expect so many of the 33 original teams to survive the stifling humidity, motion sickness, claustrophobic conditions and just 10 minutes to use the toilet each day. 

Judges chose a winner by tallying which team spent the least amount of their allotted time for restroom breaks.  The winning couple – Singaporeans Zaiton Majeed, 22, and Abdul Rahman, 29 – spent only 22 minutes and 15 seconds outside the capsule all week.  The winners plan to use the prize money to open a body painting studio in Nagoya in central Japan, Majeed said. They also won a S$30,000 ($A23,400) boat cruise.

More than a million British holidaymakers heading for the Costa Brava in north eastern Spain face an increase in prices due to a tourist tax.

The new tourism director-general of the Catalan region, Isabel Galobardes, said 'some sort of tax' was essential to improve infrastructure in the most popular areas.

ABTA, the Association of British Travel Agents and the Federation of Tour Operators have criticised this idea, fearing a repeat of the controversy surrounding the Balearic Islands' introduction of an eco-tax in May 2002.

A spokesman for ABTA said: 'This would be an extremely foolish move by the Catalan government. They would be shooting themselves in the foot, to say the least.'

Such a tax would affect resorts such as Lloret de Mar, Sitges, Salou and Blanes, along with city breaks to the Catalan capital Barcelona.  When the £1-a-day eco-tax was introduced on the islands of Mallorca, Ibiza and Menorca, UK visitor numbers dropped by up to 4 per cent.

An airline passenger discovered the a frog perched on a slice of cucumber while on a Qantas flight from Melbourne to Wellington in February. “Naturally there was a bit of consternation by the passenger who called back the attendant,” Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry quarantine general manager Fergus Small said.  The flight attendant removed the salad and the 4 cm (1.6 inch) whistling tree frog, which was killed by quarantine staff when the aircraft landed.  Qantas was not immediately available for comment but a spokesman told The New Zealand Herald newspaper the airline had since changed its lettuce supplier and introduced “additional procedures into the salad supply process.”

A foreign pilot who infuriated Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew by leading a rare union revolt has been told by the government he can no longer live in Singapore as a permanent resident.  Captain Ryan Goh Yew Hock, a Malaysian citizen, was singled out by Lee as the main instigator in a November 2003 vote by pilots to sack their union leaders for caving into wage cuts and layoffs imposed by state-controlled Singapore Airlines.

The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority said Goh, who has lived in Singapore for 26 years, had been told that his entry and re-entry permits that are necessary for permanent residents would be cancelled.

The leaders of Singapore's government have said “confrontational industrial relations” are a threat in a country where the government, employers and unions traditionally co-operate closely and where industrial action is rare.

Spotted by Mac who wrote in to say: I read in yesterday’s Travel section of the Washington Post that a couple taking the Queen Mary 2 had picked out cabin but a few days before sailing were notified that they had been upgraded to the Deluxe Deck 8.  They found out the upgrade was really a down grade although four decks up.  There was a 150 person lifeboat outside their window.  They said “it was like a tractor trailer blocking their view.” They looked in brochure and noticed a tiny asterisk at bottom page of brochure that some cabins had obstructed views. They were not able to change back or change.  They wrote that while the Queen Mary 2 does fulfil the promise of being the longest, tallest, grandest ocean liner ever most of the cabins on Deck 8 (deluxe deck) are behind lifeboats. While most of you wont be booking passage on the Queen Mary 2.  I wonder if one when booking on a ship gets to see layout of cabin with obstructed views. The few times I was on ship I had not view but was out of cabin except for sleeping up on deck so it did not make much difference.

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!!

For a while now postage costs to the EU countries have been rising and has now reached the point where they are on a par with the costs for our other members worldwide members (USA, South America and Australia). We feel that it is unfair for one member to subsidise another and have decided to abolish the EU price band.

The new fees will be effective from the 1^st June 2004 when the following fees will apply:

• 1 year subscription £18.00 (around €27)
• 2 year subscription £34.00 (around €51)
• 3 year subscription £48.00 (around €72)

If you would like to renew or extend your membership or have been thinking of becoming a member then join or renew before the 1^st June, to get the current rate.

Get the current rate

From Mac: one of the users of Internet Cafes overseas suggests that you leave a list of e mail addresses with a relative or friend in your home town that has a computer and just write one e mail to that person and have that person forward to those on e mail addresses you gave them. The person who receives e-mail from you is glad that you are having a good time and this saves you time at the cybercafé.