Category Archives: Sidebar

Mac’s Jottings

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.

Itchy Feet Event London

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:

  • plan your next trip
  • hear tall tales from others who have been travelling
  • find someone to help you out with your sticky question about round the world fares, or how to get into Cambodia from Vietnam.
  • or just have a beer and catch up.

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

Mutual Aid

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

So You Think You’re Well Travelled?

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. GVA
    2. DXB
    3. MAD
    4. BKK
    5. LAS

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

Travel Quiz

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.

1. To which country does Corsica belong?

2. Which famous French leader was born in the 18th century in Corsica?

3. Which Italian island is 12 km to the south of Corsica?

4. Corsica has almost 1,000km or 2,000km of coastline?

5. The GR20 is a walking track true or false?

Your Name:

Your e-mail address:

Lake Diving, 4 Miles High!

Scientists are set to explore the world’s highest fresh water lake 4 miles up in the Licancabur volcano near Antofogasta in Chile.

Their aim is to find out how the organisms that live there can survive in such a hostile environment. They will do this by taking samples and diving to the bottom of the lake.

Although the lake at Licancabur volcano is covered with almost two feet of ice during much of the year, the expedition will take place in the southern hemisphere's spring, when the lake is not completely frozen.

The information they hope to gather will help astrobiologists devise strategies and technologies to search for life on planets like Mars during future missions.

Learn English at Youth Hostels in the UK

The Youth Hostels Association (YHA) has teamed with English Out There to offer English language courses for visitors to London. Accommodation will be at one of six YHA hostels in the capital and the packages include bed and breakfast, an Underground pass and tickets to some famous attractions.

The language lessons are designed around themes or tasks, and students can choose how many they want to take from 20 modules. The students are expected to be mainly families or young people, who want to combine a holiday with improving their English.

Websites: yha.org.uk and EnglishOutThere.co.uk.

Source: britainexpress.com

Fave Websites of the Month

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.

New Sources for Genealogists

Here's a new resource for genealogists. Origin Search is a search engine just for finding family history information. You do have to pay a fee to use the service, but you can try out the Irish resources for free.

Take a look at their website

Space Tourism Lifts Off

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.”