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!!
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
I am looking for people to join me in trekking in Nepal – Mt Everest region. If you are interested, or you know some one who may be, please send me mail – lszymala@poczta.onet.pl
I am trying to find a trip to the Norwegian fjords. So far, all the trips on the internet are American, so prices reflect included transatlantic journeys. My trip to the Travel Agents was not enlightening as the choice is very small.
What I'm looking for is a coastal trip along the fjords for 6/7 days, with return flight to and from London, preferably Heathrow, after September 24th. The travel agents said it wasn't something people were after!! Can anyone give me any advice?
Thank you, Ipsita: ipsita_halder@hotmail.com
If you are planning to go to Bhutan, mentioning the Globetrotters Club when booking with www.golays.com will earn you a discount of $35 per person per night in the high season and $15 per person per night in the low season.
A Ukrainian team of nine caving experts has set a new depth record for caving. They managed to go 2,080m (6,822ft) underground at Krubera in Georgia, the world's deepest known cave. The team carried an amazing five tonnes of equipment and kept in touch with the surface base camp by rigging nearly 3km (two miles) of rope strung with a telephone wire. The world's deepest known caves are:
I am writing on behalf of an NGO out in Ecuador with whom I volunteered last year. This organisation is trying to find other volunteers. The organisation has experience of placing volunteers previously and is a registered NGO with the Ecuadorian government. I can be contacted on: andy_blake31@yahoo.co.uk
Interesting Facts
work 35% longer than their men folk.
Source: www.nationmaster.com
Unesco has warned Peru that the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu might lose its world heritage status if they do not act to protect it. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people visit Machu Picchu. Experts say unrestricted tourism and landslides have damaged the 15th Century citadel and the nearby Inca trail that leads to it. In response, the Peruvian authorities have submitted a 400-page report $130m plan to the UN’s cultural arm which is believed to include satellite monitoring to measure earth movements and a daily limit of 2,500 tourists, to preserve the site.
Whilst we are talking about insects: spotted by webmaster Paul, US Entomologists Quentin Wheeler and Kelly B. Miller recently had the task of naming 65 newly discovered species of slime-mold beetles and named three species after the US president George W Bush, vice president Dick Cheney and defence secretary Donald H Rumsfeld. The newly found beetles are respectively called: Agathidium bushi Miller and Wheeler, Agathidium cheneyi Miller and Wheeler, and Agathidium rumsfeldi Miller and Wheeler. Naming the beetles after Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld was intended to pay homage to them, said Wheeler, who taught at Cornell University for 24 years and now is with the Natural History Museum in London.
When Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror took over Istanbul in 1453, he first ordered the construction of a new palace for this new Ottoman capital, on a site in the district of Beyazit where Istanbul University stands today. Then he changed his mind and had a number of buildings constructed on the headland which was an olive grove to the southeast. It is these buildings that became the Topkapi Palace. The Topkapi Palace was the home to all the Ottoman sultans until the reign of Abdulmecid I (1839-1860), a period of nearly four centuries. The final form of the first palace covered an area 700m², and was enclosed with fortified walls 1400 meters in length. The walls had a number of gates, namely the Otluk gate, the Demir gate and the Imperial Gate and a number of minor angled gates between them. After the reign of Mehmet, the palace grew steadily to form a city like complex of buildings and annexes, including a shore palace known as the Topkapi shore palace, as it was situated near the cannon gate -Topkapi- of the ancient walls of Istanbul. When the shore palace was burned down in 1863, it lent its name to the great complex we now know as Topkapi Palace.
The Topkapi Palace continued to be the principal residence for four centuries until in 1853, Sultan Abdul Mecid I moved into the new palace of Dolmabahce on the Bosphorus. The old palace was used as house for the women of the departed sultans and their servants until the Harem was officially disbanded in 1909. In 1924, Topkapi Palace was converted to a museum on instructions of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The final step was the opening of the Harem to the public in 1960.
Because Topkapi is the first attraction to tick off on everyone's list get there when it opens, so get there early. The Topkapi Palace Museum is open between 9:00 am-5:00 pm everyday except for Tuesdays. Tickets can be purchased in the gateway to the Second Court. The tickets cost 12.000.000 TL. (equivalent to about 8 USD or 7 EUR) per person. The treasury section needs a separate admission fee and costs 10.000.000 TL. There is a discounted fee for the students. The Harem Section can be visited with a separate ticket in the ticket office near the Harem entrance. The tours to Harem are operated every half hour from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm. The tickets cost 15.000.000 TL(11 USD or 9 EUR).
Go straight to the Harem, which can only be seen by guided tour, as the tours fill up early. After the Harem tour you can stroll around the palace's grounds and the four courtyards at your leisure. Also, don't miss the Treasury in the 3rd courtyard which houses gold, and works of art.
Straight after the Topkapi Palace, head for the Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque which are virtually next door.
Courtyard of the Eunuchs
A room in the harem
Topkapi Imperial Hall, Harem
Topkapi Gate
The bodies of 30 British soldiers and sailors and their families, who died during Nelson’s Nile campaign more than 200 years ago were discovered on the small island by an Italian archaeologist looking for Greek and Roman artefacts. The old graves were in danger of being washed away as the sea eroded the island. The remains were reburied at the Military and War Memorial Cemetery at British families cemetery, Al-Shatby in Alexandria with full families honours during a recent ceremony. One of the dead’s descendent Gordon Watson, 87, from Hampshire, and his 83-year-old wife, Joan, travelled to Egypt for the ceremony. After the ceremony, Mr Watson said: “It’s marvellous to be related to this man … It makes you proud to be English.”