As a result of last month's feature on the world's smallest countries, David wrote in to say:

Ahh, but what about the Sovereign Military Hospitable Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Rhodes, and Malta, which has diplomatic ties with 87 countries, its own license plates, postage stamps passports, and currency, and runs dozens of hospitals and clinics worldwide. Its sovereign territory is a second floor office suite in the Palazzo Malta at 68 via de Candiotti in Rome, and an applicant for UN membership.

Slightly larger, but not as big as Vatican City, we of course have Sealand, which you probably know–six miles off the English coast, a WWII antiaircraft tower “liberated” in 1967 by Major and Mrs. Roy Bates.

What do you think? Let the Beetle know!

Outdoor enthusiasts and holidaymakers planning trips to central and eastern Europe this year are being warned about a potentially life-threatening disease.

The 'Tick Alert' awareness campaign urges travellers to 16 named European countries, including many of the new popular destinations for outdoor tourism such as Croatia, Slovenia and Slovakia, to protect themselves against Tick Borne Encephalitis (TBE).

Increased tourism to rural and woodland areas of endemic countries in Europe is increasing the risk to visiting UK outdoor enthusiasts, the majority of whom remain unaware of the disease, how it is contracted or that they are members of a high-risk travel group.

TBE is a potentially life-threatening viral disease that can lead to meningitis and in serious cases can result in paralysis and death. It is transmitted via the bite of an infected tick, found typically in rural and forest areas up to a height of 3,000ft and occurs mainly during the late spring and summer months. The disease can also be transmitted by the ingestion of unpasteurised milk.

There has been a dramatic rise in the incidence of tick-borne diseases in central and eastern Europe over the last 10 years. TBE is now endemic in countries spreading from Sweden, across the Baltics and down to Croatia.

The fact that a number of endemic countries conduct intensive inoculation programmes for their resident populations should be heeded by all UK visitors.

“There is a low awareness of TBE, even among people experienced in outdoor activities abroad,” said Tick Alert's Lynda Bramham. “The aim of this campaign is to encourage anyone travelling to TBE endemic regions, and at risk of the disease through their outdoor leisure activity, to take effective precautions.”

Official figures show the number of UK tourists to the former Yugoslavia rose by 40 per cent last summer to 114,000 compared with the previous 12 months. Similarly, visitors to central and eastern Europe reached 558,000, an increase of 38 per cent.

Adventure travel, hiking and mountain biking in Europe are all increasing in popularity as people discover these new destinations.

A 2004 report by Mintel highlighted the growth of agritourism and countryside holidays in places such as Croatia and Estonia, and the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) lists Slovenia and Bulgaria among its hot tips for holidays in 2005.

Professor Sarah Randolph, head of the Oxford Tick Research Group at the University of Oxford said: “In some countries of mainland Europe the most serious vector-borne disease is caused by a virus transmitted by ticks, tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), which may kill one in every hundred people infected.”

There are a number of bite prevention measures that can be taken to reduce the risk of infection: these include using an insect repellent, wearing protective clothing to cover all areas of exposed skin, regularly inspecting your body for tick bites and carefully removing any that are found. However, the Foreign Office advises that travellers to TBE endemic regions seek inoculation advice form their local surgery of clinic – well before travelling.

Immunisation against TBE is available as a paid-for travel vaccine from specialist travel health clinics operated by MASTA, the UK's leading provider, and at GP surgeries and healthcare centres. For further information and advice for travellers visit www.masta.org/tickalert

For a truly unique experience with nature, you can't beat Xcarat in the Cancun area of Mexico.

Best known for the swimming with dolphins opportunity they offer, most tourists flock there for the experience, and it is well worth it. For a reasonable fee you have about an hour with the dolphins. The trainers teach you about their habits in the wild and how they interact with humans. At some point you are allowed to pet them and feel connected with these incredible animals. The trainers then get the dolphins to do tricks in the pool and even jump over you in incredible formation. It is all caught on video tape and photos that you can purchase after the experience. It was incredible to me, after viewing the video tape, to see how close the dolphins came to us before leaping up behind us and jumping over our heads. When you are in the pool waiting for them to jump you actually don't feel them behind you. You just suddenly see them over you. That proved to me how graceful they are in the water and how they could be inches away from you without you even realizing it. It was a truly thrilling experience.

The rest of the park is also amazing. We saw an exhibit with quails, hatching before your eyes, out of their eggs. It is a credit to the park that before you enter, they supply you with sunscreen made from only natural ingredients. So you don't harm the animals with which you interact.

Also available is a wonderful open exhibit with local birds, monkeys and even baby crocodiles. You walk along a paved walkway and all the creatures are out in the open, so it's almost like being in the forest itself, with nothing between you and the animals. The variety of birds is spectacular and the colours are a real feast for the eyes. Just when you think you know what to expect something surprises and delights you. For example, at one point we were only expecting to see more birds but were pleasantly surprised to look up and saw a large family of monkeys, directly above us. The male of the group became territorial and to protect his family threw branches at us. It was truly an interactive experience and something we weren't expecting.

There are also guides around that allow you to hold a small crocodile; still another photo op! You can even walk up to some of the larger parrots to pet them. Don't try this while they are eating though, because they think you are trying to steal their food. But it was really incredible seeing all this wildlife and actually being able to touch and interact with them.

Xcarat is truly a must see for nature lovers as well as those who want to experience local animal and bird life.

We are sorry to say that Mac is not very well, but he is still e-mailing strong and recently sent the Beetle a collection of travel reminiscences and in particular discusses some travel writers. Former Globetrotter President, Arthur Frommer (Europe On $5 A Day) gave an interesting interview to travel writer Michael Shapiro for Michael's book, A Sense of Place Great Travel Writers Talk About their Craft, Lives and Inspiration.

In this he writes: “As a G.I. stationed in Germany in the mid 1950s, Frommer had travelled on a shoestring whenever he had a couple of days off. Early on, he realized an essential truth pertaining to intrepid travellers. The less you spend, the more you enjoy. After travelling widely throughout Europe and self-publishing a slender guide for G.I.s, Frommer wrote his seminal Europe on $5 a day”.

Arthur Frommer was my hero and his books were my bible for years. One of his funny stories: “Our first edition of Mexico on 5 Dollars A Day was written by John Wilcock who hates Mexican food. He spends pages telling you where you can find a decent tuna fish salad sandwich in Mexico City. I think I wrote to tell them that place he recommended was now a parking lot! He doesn't like Mexican food, yet he is the author of one of classic guidebooks to Mexico. When you read the restaurant chapter you could tell that he is virtually holding his nose. I never changed that – what he wrote went into print. In my opinion, a copy editor's function is grammar, punctuation, consistent abbreviations and the like- it's not style. A copy editor has no right to impose his or his style upon the author.”

Close to home here he tells of “A young woman named Beth Bryant called us many years ago she lived in Washington, D.C. and said she wanted to write guidebooks. I said write the restaurant section of a hypothetical guidebook to Washington, D.C. in which you rate the government cafeterias. And she wrote this absolutely delightful comparison of the Justice Department cafeteria with the Commerce Department all of which are open to public visits. We immediately knew that we had a star on our hands. She was sent to Ireland where she wrote the first edition of our Ireland guidebook which is a travel classic. It's one of the best ones we have ever done.”

I am reading and enjoying A Fortune Teller Told Me by Tiziano Terzani. Here are some sentences I have copied down. Page 58: it was the Burmese kings hankering after one of the King of Siams' seven white elephants, very rare and therefore magical that sparked a war which lasted three hundred years – the upshot being that Auydhya (Siam's then capital) was destroyed and the Siamese had to build a new capital, present day Bangkok.

Page 54. The tie. Originally a Mogul invention for dragging prisoners tied to the pommels of their saddles. Note from the Beetle: some people believe that tie originates from Croatia. IN the 17th century, a huge number of soldiers and knights went to Paris to give their support to King Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu. Some Croatian mercenaries went too, wearing traditional costumes whose traditional included colourful scarves tied around their necks. This attracted the attention of the fashion-conscious French who adopted it as part of the uniform for French officers. The description “a la croate” evolved into “la cravate”. British exiled King Charles II took the fashion with him from France and soon the tie or cravat spread across Europe to America.

On Bangkok, page 33. Spirit temples and small shrines. The phii (spirit) of the plot of land where the old Erawan Hotel (in Bangkok) was built was so happy with the way it has been treated that it took to performing miracles and today its temple is still one of the most frequented and most popular in Bangkok. One of its specialties is to aid the conception of male offspring and thousands of sterile women have come to it with all sorts of offerings; some dance around it semi-nude at night. (Mac: I wish they would be more specific. At what time??)

Laos, page 27. During the war, every time the Pathet Lao crossed a river the last man had to turn back and call to a non existent comrade. The spirit of the river habitually carries off the last of the line i.e. the last man in the patrol, and in that way the guerrillas hoped to deceive it.

Tibet, page 2l. The Chinese to facilitate tourist access have decided to modernise the lighting of the Potala (used to be Dalai Lama palace-temple) and have installed neon lights. This is no accident as neon kills everything even the Gods. And as they die, the Tibetan identity gradually dies with them. This Italian writer travelled for a year in 1993 without using a plane as a fortune teller had told him not to travel by plane in 1993. He is the Far Eastern correspondent of the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel. Since 1994 he has made New Delhi his base.

Interesting times! Happy trails, Mac. Mac can be contacted on: macsan400@yahoo.com

What is it: hookworm is an intestinal parasite of humans that usually causes mild diarrhoea or cramps. Heavy infection with hookworm can create serious health problems for newborns, children, and pregnant women. Hookworm infections occur mostly in tropical and subtropical climates and are estimated to infect about 1 billion people — about one-fifth of the world's population. One of the most common species is found in southern Europe, northern Africa, northern Asia, and parts of South America. Hookworm eggs require warm, moist, shaded soil to hatch into larvae. The larvae are hardly visible and penetrate the skin (often through bare feet), and are carried to the lungs. Then they go through the respiratory tract to the mouth where they are swallowed, and eventually reach the small intestine. This journey takes about a week. In the small intestine, the larvae develop into half-inch-long worms, attaching themselves to the intestinal wall, where they suck blood. The adult worms produce thousands of eggs. These eggs are passed in human faeces (stools).

How do I get it: you can become infected by direct contact with contaminated soil, usually by walking barefoot, or accidentally swallowing contaminated soil. Children in the countries or areas above are most likely at risk because they often play in dirt and go barefoot. Since transmission of hookworm infection requires development of the larvae in soil, hookworm cannot be spread person to person.

What happens if I get it: itching and a rash at the site of where the skin touched soil or sand is usually the first sign of infection. These symptoms occur when the larvae penetrate the skin. While a light infection may show no symptoms, heavy infection can cause anaemia, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, loss of appetite, and weight loss. Heavy, chronic infections can cause stunted growth and mental development.

Diagnose and treatment: the infection is diagnosed by identifying hookworm eggs in a stool sample. Hookworm infections are generally treated for 1-3 days with medication prescribed by your health care provider.

How can I avoid contracting hookworm: don't not walk barefoot or have contact with the soil with bare hands in areas where hookworm is common or there is likely to be faeces in the soil or sand.

Ryanair has banned its staff from charging their mobile (cell) phones at work, saying it is an inappropriate use of office time. A UK newspaper reported that staff were “furious” about the rule. However, a Ryanair spokeswoman said no-one had “batted an eyelid” since the rule was introduced about two months ago. She said the decision to ban the charging of phones was more related to work ethic than cost-cutting – though “obviously there is a small saving”. “It's not good for people to be charging up their phones in work time,” the spokeswoman said.