Need to convert currency?

Take a look at The Globetrotters Currency Converter – get the exchange rates for 164 currencies The Globetrotters Currency Cheat Sheet – create and print a currency converter table for your next trip.

Indian Railways has announced that it plans to introduce electronic tickets.  Electronic tickets can be purchased for trains between New Delhi and Kalka, in northern India.  Passengers have to show an identity card and the printout of the electronic reservation.

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

Ministers from 23 countries in Africa and south-east Asia have appealed for international help to save the world's great apes from extinction.

Urgent action was needed to protect the great apes and provide sustainable ways of living for local communities, the UN-backed meeting in Kinshasa agreed.

Poaching and damage to forest habitats have led gorilla, chimpanzee, bonobo and orang-utan numbers to fall sharply.

Kofi Anan says that substantial increases in illegal fishing, tourism, bio-prospecting, climate change and depletion of the ozone continue to pose major challenges to the Antarctic, and governments should continue to make major efforts to secure the area as a natural reserve devoted to peace and science.  Illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing for toothfish in the Southern Ocean still exceeds reported catches despite major efforts to address such activities.  Other major areas of concern are the increase in tourism over the last 10 years.  There is an increase by 308% in ship-borne tourists to the Antarctic Peninsula since 1993, up to 27,324 in 2004-5, from 6,704 in 1992-3.  An increase in high-risk, adventure tourism has also wrought havoc on the region, creating the need for new search and rescue missions and country liability assessments. 

Spotted on the Globetrotter's forum: http://milvetstravel.net/virtualtours.html is a website that allows you to take virtual tours of a whole host of places – check it out, it's pretty interesting!

If you have a travellers tale that your aching to tell. Then why not visit the “Travel Sized Bites” section of the Website and share it with the world. Travel Sized Bites

Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines, the third and fourth-largest US air carriers, both declared bankruptcy in September citing rising oil prices and low-cost competition among their reasons.

Saturday 12^th November 2005, 10.30am – 4.00pm                        

Location:
The Newsroom, The Guardian
60 Farringdon Rd, London EC1R 3GA
Cost: £87.50

A day of two intensive workshops:

Travel writing and how to do it and how not to with Dea Birkett, the Guardian Travel 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.

We hope to build up a community of those interested in travel writing, by providing opportunities for participants to submit work they have completed after the course for further expert comment. You will also be able to move on to more advanced workshops, suiting the particular focus of your writing.

Participants will also be invited to exchange email details, in the hope that you may benefit from continued mutual support and positive criticism.

To apply for a place on the Travel Writing Workshop, see:

• www.deabirkett.com
• www.rorymaclean.com
• www.guardian.co.uk/newsroom

On Wednesday, 29th March 2006, the shadow of the Moon will sweep a band starting from Brazil, through Atlantic Ocean, Gold Coast of Africa, Saharan Desert, Mediterranean Sea, Turkey, Black Sea, Georgia, Russian Federation, northern shores of Caspian Sea, Kazakhstan; ending in Mongolia. The duration of totality will be less than 2 minutes near the sunrise and sunset limits, but will be as long as 4 minutes and 7 seconds in Libya, at the moment of greatest eclipse.  The partial phases will be witnessed by all of Europe. All Asia west of Yakutsk, Mongolia, central China and Myanmar, and north of the line joining Bombay and Calcutta will see some of the Moon in front of the Sun. Also, only the south eastern parts of Africa will miss the partial eclipse.