Win a Trailblazer Handbook on Trekking in Corsica by David Abram who was a wonderful speaker at the London February Globetrotter meeting. See http://www.trailblazer-guides.com for info on Trailblazer guidebooks. They are an excellent series.
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.
The winner of last month's Moon guide of Guadalajara is Mark Gregor, so please let us have your postal address, Mark.
The UK government has just given the go-ahead for specially trained under cover armed police officers to be placed onboard civil aircraft. This is a part of a range of security measures to prevent attacks by international terrorists.
In addition to the UK move, undercover armed guards are to be allowed on flights between Australia and Singapore after the two countries reached an agreement ahead of a conference on terrorist activities.
Australia is seeking similar agreements with both the United States and Indonesia.
Domestic flights in Australia have carried air marshals for several months in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11 in the US.
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!!
The Beetle likes the Aussie slang website spotted by our eagle eyed webmaster.
Having just come back from Australia, she noticed a propensity to end as many words as possible with “ie” as in, being asked by an air hostess, would you like “brekkie” i.e. breakfast. A barbecue is a barbie, football, footie and so on.
The website also provides the translations to mysterious words like “onya” and the use of G’day and ‘oroo. Incidentally, back to the site’s home page, there’s also an English to American dictionary (and vice versa) British, Canadian and American words.
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
According to the Geneva-based Aircraft Crashes Records Office, fewer people died in aircraft crashes last year than at any time since 1947, according to figures released this week. The records are based on most aircraft with the capacity to carry six passengers in its calculations and include commercial and private flights, rescue aircraft, cargo planes and military transporters.
The death toll was 1,379 worldwide and the total number of accidents, 154, was the lowest for 37 years.
Most of the serious incidents took place in the first half of the year, with three major crashes in May. That month saw the year's worst accident in Taiwan, involving a China Airlines Boeing 747-200, which killed 225 people.
Although around 45 percent of accidents were in North and South America that was a 14 percent reduction on the previous year. Crash figures in Asia, however, rose by 15 percent. Europe saw a 4 percent drop in accident numbers, but in Africa the figure rose by 5 percent.
The 46 crashes in the United States mostly involved small planes. There were no deaths on commercial or cargo aircraft in the US according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
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Australian aviation authorities have warned that the country's air links with Papua New Guinea could be severed at the end of January 2003 because of concerns over safety standards. The well used daily service between the capital Port Moresby and Cairns, flown by Air Niugini, is under threat unless PNG's civil aviation authority matches up to international air safety requirements.
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A passenger travelling club class on a British Airways flight from London to Los Angeles was found dead in a bathroom. A newspaper report said the middle-aged man, who is believed to be a Swiss national, was found hanged.
Members of the cabin crew broke into the bathroom after it had been closed for 30 minutes and concerns were raised about the person inside. A doctor who was on the flight tried to save the man, but he was already dead.
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In 2003 British Airways is going to withdraw services from Leeds-Bradford and Cardiff. In April 2003 it will begin flying from London City Airport for the first time, launching three new routes to Frankfurt, Paris and Glasgow. BA also plans a major boost to its Manchester flights, adding more capacity and three new routes. The bad news is that BA plans to cut 21 routes to be announced.
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Scandinavian airline SAS have just announced a low fare private travellers program from March 30, 2003, serving European destinations where SAS does not normally operate.
Although the new service will have its own identity, it will not be a separate airline. The as-yet unnamed operation will be a business unit of SAS.
Travellers will be able to fly from Copenhagen to Alicante, Athens, Bologna, Lisbon, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Pristina and Sarajevo. Flights are also planned from Stockholm Arlanda to Alicante, Athens, Barcelona, Bologna, Budapest, Dublin, Istanbul, Malaga, Nice, Prague and Rome.
“It should be inexpensive and easy to travel. Travellers will experience a totally new concept. We offer only one-way trips, one class, no advanced booking rules and tickets must be booked and paid at the same time,” said Eva-Karin Dahl, who is responsible for the new concept. Passengers will also pay for on-board food and drink.
A unique Internet site is being developed for ticket sales but, initially, tickets will be available via SAS's ordinary sales channels as well as through agents.
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Middle East carrier Gulf Air, owned by Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and Oman, is to launch the region's first all-economy class, full service airline later this year aimed largely at the leisure market and the large number of overseas workers in the area.
The airline, which will operate under its own name and have its own livery, will make its first flight from Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, in June.
A recent UK survey for the Department for Education found that of over 1,000 adults, 30% felt unable to compare rates in exchange bureaux. A similar proportion said they were not comfortable converting foreign currency into sterling. Over a fifth of those surveyed admitted they had wrongly calculated how much they spent on holiday, with 12% saying they had run out of money.
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.
Switzerland: Foulee Blanche 2 February This cross-country ski race is one of the most popular events in the Swiss Alps, open to everyone.
Japan: Bean Throwing Festival 3-4 February The Japanese dress up as devils and pelt one another with beans to drive out evil spirits.
London Dive Show 1st & 2nd March
The London International Dive Show will take place over the weekend of the 1st and 2nd of March at the ExCel exhibition halls in Docklands, London. In its 23rd year with over 250 exhibitors, the show features new equipment, holiday destinations, presentations and seminars. For more info, visit:
Source: What’s On When
Globetrotter Mac shares with us his thoughts and experiences on his travels around the world. If you want to contact Mac, please e-mail him on:
1. In England pubs labelled “Free Houses” mean that the keepers have no tie up with a particular brewery and serve various brands (you still have to pay for the beer.)
2. Guide in India trying to get tour group to move faster: “don’t look, it will take time” Another time he said “Don’t look in a scholarly manner.”
3. Malaysia: I got diarrhoea travelling on a boat in Malaysia. I have gotten diarrhoea all over the world. Advice the Malaysian guide gave me: “for your diarrhoea eat burnt toast soaked in water”. If you get chilli (hot sauce I guess) in your eye pour water on your toe. If you burn your finger put it in your ear, who needs Walter Reed Army Hospital? Pepto Bismol sometimes helps me. I also Blackberry wine. (I drink a lot of this just to be on safe side!)
4. On Indian trains they have a hook on floor under berth where you can chain your luggage, so I carry lightweight padlock and small chain. If you check luggage at the baggage room in India train station they required the bag to be locked. Can use same padlock.
5. Bucharest. 1,2,3,4,5,6, 7. Our guide counts the empty bus seats and if she has 7 empty seats she knows we are all on the bus. I went into a pastry shop here in Bucharest and pointed to the pastry I wanted. A local came up to me and said they are very cold. Later when I ate it I realized he probably said “they are very old”. Ha!
Would you like to tell us about your travels? Contact the Beetle.
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Anyone got Cabin Fever?
You know the feeling, stuck inside with only electric lights to shine upon you, thinking about far off exotic places. Help is at hand in the form of our monthly meet ups, where you can:
Where: Upstairs at The Globe pub, 37 Bow St,
Covent Garden W2
When: Tuesday 4th Feb from 6:30pm
Price: NOTHING
There is a map at ifworldwide.com
Did you know, you can change the format of this e-newsletter. This e-newsletter is available in 3 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, simply let us know send a blank email to The Globetrotters Webmaster with “Text+Enews” as the subject
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
LONDON (Reuters) – The government says an “international terrorist group” might be planning to carry out an attack on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar, and warns visitors to be careful.
“We have received information that an international terrorist group may be planning an attack on the island of Zanzibar,” a Foreign Office spokeswoman told Reuters.
“British nationals in Tanzania and especially in Zanzibar should be particularly vigilant in public places frequented by foreigners such as hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, markets, bars and nightclubs.”
She did not specify what the threat was or what organisation was believed to be involved, and said Britain was not advising its nationals to leave Tanzania.
The warning follows a similar message from the United States last week warning its citizens to be on alert in public places on the predominantly Muslim island that is popular with tourists.
In December, Australia also advised its nationals to exercise “extreme caution” in Tanzania, especially in Zanzibar.
The alert comes less than two months after suicide bombers killed 12 people in a blast at an Israeli-owned hotel in neighbouring Kenya.
Minutes before that blast, two missiles were fired at an Israeli airliner carrying 261 passengers as it took off from Kenya's Mombassa airport.
“We believe that Tanzania, including the Zanzibar and Pemba islands, is one of a number of countries in East Africa and the Horn of Africa where there may be an increased terrorist threat,” the Foreign Office spokeswoman said.
British authorities have been criticised in the past from some quarters for not going public quickly enough on possible terror threats their intelligence services hear about. But Prime Minister Tony Blair's government says it is a hard balance between keeping the public informed but not provoking panic given the flood of information on international terror activities received in London on a near-daily basis.
Here’s a little Beetle quiz based on airport codes. See how many you get right! Go on, have a guess!
Which cities are served by airports with the following codes:
For the answers, see at the end of the e-newsletter.
Gunnersbury Park Museum Dating from 1835, the former country residence of the Rothschild family is now a local history museum with exhibitions charting local history from prehistoric times to the present.
The grounds are lovely to walk in, with Japanese and Italian gardens cultivated by the family in the nineteenth century, as well as the large open space of Gunnersbury Park.
The Beetle likes cityguide.travel-guides.com
Here you can select from a number of cities around the world and compile your own guide, for free. There is a very diverse set of headings from which to chose, e.g. history, cost of living, getting around, shopping, excursions, major sites, tourist information, street maps, nightlife, sport, culture, special events etc.
If you are going away for the weekend and don’t want to buy a guidebook or just want to do some digging around, this is an excellent resource.
A man has died after contracting Britain's first case of rabies for 100 years, hospital bosses have confirmed. David McRae, a 56-year-old conservationist from Guthrie, Angus, Scotland, failed to recover from European Bat Lyssavirus (EBL), a type of rabies found in several northern European countries. Mr McRae, who was licensed to handle bats, was bitten by one of the creatures on at least one occasion.
In Europe, where the EBL strain is common, there have only been three cases of humans catching rabies since 1977.
If you are planning on visiting countries where there are bats, please don’t pet them. If you are bitten or scratched by a bat, you are at risk of infection and should seek urgent medical advice.
A South African scuba diver set a new world record after living underwater in a steel tank for 10 days and surviving by eating through a tube. Tim Yarrow was (30) cheered by hundreds of onlookers shortly after 12:30pm on Saturday when he climbed out of the 3 by 2,3m tank, his home in a Johannesburg shopping mall since November 6. Yarrow spent 240 hours underwater with scuba apparatus in a controlled environment without surfacing. The initial record was just under nine days and Tim managed 10 days, Greg Wharram, team co-ordinator, said they had contacted Guinness World Records before the attempt began and now must file papers to make the record official.
Recent press reports state that a Houston store for space buffs is helping the Russian Space Agency find potential space tourists who have $20 million to spare. This seems to be the going rate for space tourists, paid by the two last space tourists, American Dennis Tito and South African Mark Shuttleworth. The Russian space industry appear to have decided that offering space trips to incredibly wealthy people is a good way to continue to finance its participation in building the space station. Vladimir Fishel, vice president of Russian programs for Spacehab, a US spacecraft and living space manufacturer and parent company of The Space Store, acknowledged the few wealthy people enough to pay the tab likely would approach Russian space officials themselves. But marketing efforts could add that extra bit of encouragement. “Russians are in dire need of cash,” he said. “This helps not only them, but everybody.”
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