A recent UK survey for the Department for Education found that of over 1,000 adults found 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.

You would have to be living in a world with no access to the radio, newspapersor tv not to hear about the recent bombing in Bali. News reports say that around 75 percent of those who died (around 200) in the blasts were Australian nationals.

But let's not forget the local people of Bali and other nationals too, who lost their lives in Bali. A further 300 people were injured in the attack. As investigations start into Saturday's nightclub bombings on Bali, Australian airline Qantas is laying on extra flights to bring tourists and injured victims back from the Indonesian island. Singapore Airlines has also been carrying additional passengers.

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation and Australian police and intelligence services are helping in thesearch for the bombers.

The governments of Australia and the United States are advising against travel to Indonesia and the US State Department has asked all American citizens to leave the country. All US government personnel, apart from those in key positions, are being withdrawn.

The UK has also issued a travel warning, advising the cancellation of non-essential visits to Indonesia.

Despite some expected cancellations, Singapore Airlines says it is continuing to operate four daily flights to the area.

The airlines say they will not impose penalty charges on passengers who change or cancel their flight reservations. Those without tickets wishing to leave Bali are being offered discounted fares.

The US carrier Horizon Air, based in Seattle, is set to equip its entire fleet of 60 regional aircraft with defibrillators and medical kits to deal with in-flight heart attack emergencies.

Horizon is making the move two years ahead of a US Federal Aviation Administration deadline requiring any US commercial plane of at least 7,500 pounds and carrying at least one flight attendant to install the life-saving equipment.

Some information on one of the best accommodation bargains in Spain if not Europe via Membership of The European Alpine Federation.

British residents can join through the Austrian Alpine Club-UK Section PO Box 43, Welwyn Garden City, Herts, AL8 6PA, Tel 01707-386740. Or e-mail: e-mail: manager@aacuk.uk.com

website: www.aacuk.demon.co.uk/

Membership costs £30 per year and entitles members to stay at the many Spanish mountain huts for between 3.45 – 4.10 Euros per night, less than £2.50. Non-members pay between three and four times these prices.

Facilities are roughly comparable to very simple grade Youth Hostels with shared dormitories and sometimes a hot shower. You can self cater or buy a 4 course meal from the Guardian.

Your membership card also entitles you to massive discounts in the mountain huts of France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Slovenia plus medical and mountain rescue insurance anywhere in the world.

There are three galleries offering a change of photographic exhibitions from photographers around the world.

Admission is free and the small gallery can be found at 5&8 Great Newport Street WC2H, tel: 020 7831 1772, website: www.photonet.org.uk From 4^th October to 16^th November, there is a great exhibition called Brixton Studio which looks at local photographer Harry Jacobs and four other contemporary artists. There's a great bookshop too.

The nearest tube is Leicester Square, so you could combine this with a visit to the great National Portrait Gallery that is close by, followed by a Chinese dinner in China Town, or a film in Leicester Square.

Yes, it's almost that time of year again. The annual Regent Street Christmas lights will be turned on Wednesday 13 November and will remain lit until 6 January 2003.

The Malaysian prime minister condemned the new security checks on Muslim and Arab visitors introduced at US airports in October 2002.

Mahathir Mohamad labelled the new immigration rules as “anti-Muslim” and said America's stance was unfortunate. Passengers arriving in the US from Muslim and Middle East countries are now photographed and fingerprinted by the immigration authorities at all ports of entry.

In particular, nationals of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Sudan will be heavily scrutinized. Visitors from other countries, including Malaysia, who are thought to be a possible security risk, will also undergo the tougher immigration checks.

The authorities will compare pictures and fingerprints with criminal and terrorist data held by the US government. There could be a personal element here: Mr Mahathir made his attack on the system after his deputy, Ahmad Abdullah Badawi, claimed he was forced to remove his belt and shoes during a security check at Los Angeles International Airport as he arrived for a United Nations meeting.

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:

1. AMS
2. MCO
3. CDG
4. YYZ
5. HND

For the answers, see at the end of the e-newsletter.

We've all seen those wispy white trails that aircraft leave in the skies. Until now, scientists have been unable to calculate the impact on weather of these vapour trails. That is until post 9/11.

The grounding of flights for three days after the 11 September attacks gave scientists in the US a unique opportunity to see what the weather would be like with no air traffic at all.

They compared temperatures at 4,000 weather stations across the country with figures for the previous three decades at the same time of year. Their findings show that the gap between daytime and night time temperatures was more than one degree Celsius larger than normal when flights were at a standstill.

This is thought to be because the jet trails reflect sunlight and trap heat. That makes the day cooler and the night warmer where air traffic is heavy. However, the effect is almost certainly outweighed by the global warming influence of greenhouse gases, created by the burning of fuel including emissions from jet engines.