A travel tip from Stanley in the US via Mac: it is a good idea to only take new dollar bills etc and then iron them (make sure iron is not too hot) so they will not be too winkled. Some countries will not take old or tattered bills. To my surprise I ran into this in Northern Thailand out in the boon docks.

Travel Facts

• Kazakhstan is the world's largest landlocked country.
• Sri Lanka has lowest divorce rate in the world – and the highest rate of female suicide.
• Australians have a huge 380,000 sq m of land per person – and yet 91% live in urban areas.
• Nearly a quarter of people in Monaco are over 65.
• Americans have the world's highest marriage rates, divorce rates, teenage pregnancies and one person households.
• There are three persons living per room in Pakistan.
• Elderly Dutch and Swedish are the most likely to live in old-age homes. Elderly Japanese are the most likely to live with their children.
• Andorra has no unemployment, which is just as well because they have no broadcast TV channels either.
• China has the most workers, so it's a good thing they've also got the most TV's.
• Indians go out to the movies 3 billion times a year.

Source: http://www.nationmaster.com

A tip from Mac’s friend, world traveller Stanley Sagara who travels around the world giving used glasses to the poor of the world (his next trip is to Ethiopia) gave me this travel tip: photocopy your travellers cheques as well as first page of your passport, drivers license, all your important papers. (This tip would be good even if not travelling. ) He suggests looking at back of papers to see if there is important information there as to how to get items replaced etc. and photocopy that side too so you know who issued cheques as well as who to notify in the event of loss or theft.

To ensure UK travellers are fully prepared for your travels moving into 2006 please be aware that from 1st January 2006, UK residents travelling in Europe will require a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). This will allow you to benefit from free or reduced-cost medical care when travelling in an EEA country or Switzerland.

The EHIC replaces the E111 and is free of charge. For further information on the introduction of the EHIC and on how to apply for an EHIC, see: www. dh. gov. uk/travellers

Saturday 4th March 2006, 10. 30am – 4. 00pm at the newsroom The Guardian

60 Farringdon Rd

London EC1R 3GA

Cost: £89. 99 (inc VAT)

A day of two intensive workshops:

Travel Writing – How To Do It, and How Not To with Dea Birkett, Guardian columnist and author of Serpent in Paradise and Off the Beaten Track.

Fact, Fiction and Creating a Traveller’s Tale with Rory Maclean, author of Falling for Icarus and Stalin’s Nose.

The workshops include practical writing sessions. Participants should bring pen and paper – they will be expected to write! The emphasis is – whether you are a beginner or already have some writing experience – on developing skills which can be applied to both articles and books. Our aim is that, by the end of the day, each of you will have the tools to produce a publishable piece of travel writing.

Already done some travel writing? Contact travelworkshops@deabirkett. com for details of the Travel Writing Masterclass on Saturday March 18th 2006. Or book the Workshop and Masterclass together and save over £20.

A Brisbane woman has been killed in a shark attack at Amity Point, North Stradbroke Island near Brisbane. She was swimming about 15m (49ft) offshore when she was attacked in water which had become murky and muddy after a recent storm. Police believe that possibly three bull sharks could have attacked the young woman as they are known to be aggressive during mating season. Before you start to worry, let’s put this into perspective: there have been 10 fatal shark attacks in Australian waters in the past five years.

A Chinese HR company has announced it would like its new staff to include plenty of “dogs”. To reflect this, in its recruitment ad, they invited only people born in the Year of the Dog to apply. The reason? A personnel manager for the company said, “We believe that people born in dog years are born with some good characteristics such as loyalty and honesty. ”

According to the Chinese zodiac, 2006 is the Year of the Dog. Were you born in the Year of the Dog? Those born in 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982 and 1994 were all born to this astrological sign.

In December 2005, a drunken male passenger on a flight from northern England to the Spanish tourist island of Tenerife was dropped off at a small island off the African coast after he swore at the cabin crew. Press reported that the plane’s captain decided to leave the man at Porto Santo, just 10 miles long and four miles wide, a volcanic outcrop in the Atlantic, after he became abusive when he was refused more alcohol. (The island does have a few hotels, so he wasn’t left to sleep on the beach in case you were worried. ) Needless to say, police met the man at the airport who is due to appear in court in mainland Portugal in January.

A recent report in “Holiday Which?”, published by the British Consumers’ Association, found that the number of people who take “independent holidays” has now overtaken those booking the traditional package, predicting that 55 percent of overseas holidays in 2005 will have been arranged independently. Travellers are searching the internet and booking flights, cars and hotels on-line. In the travel industry, this is called “dynamic packaging”: travellers who build their own itineraries, or vacation packages.

Unsurprisingly, tour operators recognise this trend and have responded. For example, Flexibletrips. com, part of Thomas Cook, allows you to build exactly the sort of holiday you want by “bundling” flights, hotels, car rental and extras such as tours and transfers. British Airways plans to introduce a “shopping basket” feature on BA. com allowing travellers to book hotels, and other travel products, alongside flights.

The disadvantage to dynamic packaging is that you may not have financial protection if something goes wrong – (pay with a credit card, not a debit card) and it can be hard to compare like with like e. g. some packaged breaks may include airport transfers and a room upgrade, and of course, all this internet searching takes time.

If you are found to be a stowaway on a ship, the ship owners are obliged by law to bear the costs to send you home.

Unfortunately for seven Tanzanian stowaways who recently boarded a ship sailing to South America at Mombassa in Kenya, three Ukrainian sailors allegedly forced the seven stowaways to jump overboard. Two of the seven Tanzanian stowaways are believed to have drowned while five managed to swim to safety, say police.