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.

www.thetravelrag.com

A great resource that has travel stories, photos, accommodation reviews, travel book reviews and commissions travel writing.

Continental Airlines have announced that they plan to eliminate paper tickets by the end of 2004 in a bid to cut costs, theft and paperwork.  95 percent of its domestic customers and 88 percent system wide use electronic tickets.  The move includes tickets for international travel and those that involve other carriers.  Continental said it has terminated 50 interline ticketing and baggage agreements with carriers that do not have electronic ticketing capabilities.  Customers will still be able to make reservations through travel agents or on the phone, as well as on the Internet, but they will not receive paper tickets.  Instead, the reservations will be stored electronically.  Passengers who check in either via their computers at home or at airport kiosks will still receive the paper boarding passes that allow them to board planes.

Singapore has announced that it will build a new terminal at Changi Airport to cater for low-cost airlines once the carriers agree on its design.  Budget airlines are proliferating in Asia, challenging the dominance of full-service carriers such as Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines.  In the meantime, low-cost airlines may use Changi Airport's two existing terminals, though charges for no-frills airlines would not be lower than those imposed on their traditional competitors.

Singapore based Valuair has become the first budget carrier to get official approval to fly from Changi Airport.  Valuair, set up mostly by former Singapore Airlines plans to start flying in May to Bangkok, Jakarta and Hong Kong.

Singapore Airlines, the world's second-largest airline by market value, has teamed up with the founder of Irish discount airline Ryanair, Europe's biggest carrier by value, to launch Tiger Airways.  Tiger will compete with Singapore's Valuair, set up mainly by ex-Singapore Airlines staff, and is gearing up to launch in the second quarter of 2004.  Both will also be pitted against Malaysia's Air Asia, which is setting up an airline joint venture in Singapore and has applied for an airline license.

Toronto Pearson Airport opened one of the world's most expensive airport terminal.  The new CAD$3.6 billion (USD$2.7 billion) Terminal 1, whose price tag has enraged the airlines around the world that will have to help pay for it is the first stage of an overall redevelopment project for Toronto's Pearson International Airport.  Terminal 1 will eventually expand to take over the functions of two existing terminals, which will be bulldozed. The capacity of the airport, which is currently 25 million passengers a year, is expected to double by 2015.  Pearson is Air Canada's busiest hub, with 50,000 passengers flying to, from and through Toronto on its flights everyday.  The new terminal's sophisticated technology is complete with automatic check-in counters, multiple baggage claim kiosks, and even a parking guidance system that points drivers to available spaces.

According to a survey of US airline quality, three of the top four performing airlines last year were low-cost carriers.  The survey measures on-time performance, customer complaints, mishandled baggage rates, denied boardings and other criteria from the Transportation Department's monthly consumer reports.  JetBlue was the top-rated airline for fewest denied boardings and was second for on-time performance and fewest customer complaints.  Alaska Airlines ranked second, followed by Southwest Airlines, America West and US Airways, which is struggling in the face of low-cost competition.  Bankrupt United Airlines ranked ninth, while the biggest carrier, American Airlines was 11th.   Delta Air Lines ranked 12th.

State-owned Air Malta is setting up a base in Manchester, north-west England, to operate charter flights to Greece, Spain and other European destinations.  The first flights will start in May 2004, just days after Malta joins the European Union on Saturday, May 1.  Services will also operate between Catania in Sicily to London.

Malaysian low-fare carrier AirAsia said it would offer air tickets to Macau, known for its casinos, from Bangkok for as little as USD$25 from June 15.  AirAsia is an aggressive player in Asia's budding no-frills market where competition is heating up with entrants such as Singapore-based Valuair and Tiger Airways, a venture between Singapore Airlines and the founder of Irish no-frills airline Ryanair.

According to a recent poll, Brazilians appear to approve of measures to photograph and fingerprint US tourists entering the country, a move that sparked a diplomatic tiff between the nations.  Of 2,000 people surveyed, 74.4 percent said they agreed with the immigration procedures, which were enacted at the start of the year in a tit-for-tat retaliation for similar security checks by the United States.  The measures sparked a diplomatic row between the two countries and have been widely criticized by US travellers, including an American Airlines pilot and a retired US banker who showed their displeasure by giving their middle finger while being photographed.  Although some Brazilians worried the measures would deter US visitors at the height of the tourist season, the system has revealed resentment among Brazilians over what they consider to be costly and humiliating procedures to get a US visa or enter the United States.  Visitors from other countries need not worry, however, as only 3.2 percent of those polled thought the procedures should be extended to other foreigners entering Brazil.

Seven people have died and hundreds have lost their homes in Fiji after severe storms hit the main island of Viti Levu in the South Pacific.  Nine people are still missing.  In one of the worst incidents, five people died when their bus was swept away by a landslide.  

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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

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