Category Archives: Sidebar

Tourists warned to avoid camel fair

Britain and the United States are warning of the risk of an attack on the world's biggest camel fair in the deserts of western India and urged their citizens to stay away. The fair, which runs in mid November, draws thousands of foreign and Indian tourists to the lakeside town of Pushkar in the desert state of Rajasthan.

The British High Commission said on Wednesday that although it had received no specific threat against its citizens, it regarded the carnival as “a potential target of terrorist activity”. “Information has been received which suggests that there is a risk of terrorist activity at the Pushkar Camel Fair,” the U.S. embassy in New Delhi said in a statement. “While we have no indication of a specific threat to American citizens, we advise that they should avoid this event.”

Travel Quiz

Win a Moon Handbook on the San Juan Islands. See www.moon.com for info on Moon guidebooks.

The winner of last month's Moon guide is Mary Attick.

1. To which country do the San Juan Islands belong?

2. The San Juans are famous for whale watching – what is another word for an orca?

3. The Pig War (in 1859, over a pig that was shot), was fought by which 2 nations?

4. Which film about a whale was filmed in the San Juan Islands?

5. The San Juan Islands are located in the northern reaches of which Sound?

Your Name:

Your e-mail address:

Colombia and Drugs

There are several reasons why travellers do not visit Colombia, but perhaps they come down to the same thing: the cocaine industry and the people who control it. Even the Colombian government acknowledge that 80% of the world's supply of the drug comes from Colombia, and 70% of this was now grown in the Amazon region.

Colombia is without doubt a very beautiful country with mountains, forests, beaches, colonial towns and cities, but it is just not safe. Everyone, from people who live in the towns and cities to the countryside, including tourists are at risk. It is one of the few countries in the world that the Beetle would not visit herself. The Beetle’s former Spanish teacher, a London based Colombian was herself viciously mugged within minutes of arriving in her hometown of Medellín.

The new Colombian government have just announced a policy called Trees for Drugs, under which poor farmers would be paid to protect the forest instead of growing coca and are appealing for international funding from the international community to help fund a scheme to pay poor farmers to protect trees instead of cutting them down to grow drug crops.

Cocaine-users across the world are helping to destroy the Amazon rainforest, Colombian Environment Minister Cecilia Rodriguez has warned. Dr Rodriguez said the message to the world's drug users was clear: “I should call the attention of all consumers of cocaine that they're are harming dramatically the tropical rainforest of the world, because this is what the world needs for its oxygen.”

London Tube Closures

Those of you who are planning to come to London should be aware that because of a firemen’s strike, some of London’s deeper tube stations are closed where safety officials feel that the use of lifts may cause safety issues. To find a list of the closed tube stations, take a look at the London Transport website:

LondonTransport

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

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

The European Alpine Federation from Iain Kemble

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.

FBI Asks for Diver Info

A Beverly Hills scuba diving store has resisted a federal grand jury subpoena demanding that they identify everyone who had taken, but not finished, recreational dive classes over the last three years.

The subpoena was based upon far-fetched fears that an underwater terrorist attack could be accomplished by partially-trained divers. Apparently the FBI has already obtained information about every certified diver in the United States through the certification organisations PADI, NAUI, and SSI.

Ken Kurtis, co-owner of Reef Seekers, stated: “The scenario the FBI was painting–of divers swimming into a harbor with explosives to blow up ships–is extremely difficult and far-fetched for even the most skilled and experienced diver, and would be next-to-impossible for a newly certified diver, let alone one who had dropped out of a class and never completed training.”

New Airport Checks on Middle Eastern Visitors to the US

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.

Effect of Aircraft Vapour

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.