This is my first request to your excellent newsletter. I'd like to know if anyone knows of anywhere in Tibet where a young (23) year old guy could go to learn overtone chanting. Have you any ideas/sources/reports of young people. I'd love to know, and I can then pass the message on: di.hinds@ntlworld.com

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 Forum section of the Website: Mutual Aid

Three crewmembers found dead on a South Korean freighter that washed ashore in Shimane Prefecture on Sunday may have died after inhaling toxic gas generated from rotten squid organs, local Japan Coast Guard (JCG) officials said.  Three crewmembers were found dead in two storage rooms of the freighter and its skipper was unconscious in one of the rooms.  JCG officers found rotten internal squid organs in storage rooms where the three men were found dead.  Investigators suspect that the three crewmembers died from either an oxygen shortage or inhalation of carbon monoxide that had been generated from the rotten squid organs. The coast guard office said carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulphide were detected in the cabin.

Plans are afoot to cut transatlantic fares to as little as £66 return.  Passengers travelling to the U.S. and Canada could enjoy the type of low-cost fares that have revolutionised European air travel.  Executives at Cologne-Bonn airport in Germany say they are in 'serious' talks with several American airlines to offer budget return flights to the U.S. for just £66 starting by 2005.  The flights would be open to tourists anywhere in the world – as long as they have access to the Internet – though UK customers would first have to get to Germany.  'The plan is for all tickets to be sold online – no refunds, no frills, no fancy lounges and trimmed back in-flight entertainment and meals.  Locations being touted include New York, Boston and Washington together with mid-western U.S. cities and destinations in Canada.

Virgin Atlantic Airways scrapped plans to install bright-red urinals shaped like women's open lips at New York's John F Kennedy Airport, saying it had received complaints they were offensive.

“Virgin Atlantic was very sorry to hear of people's concerns about the design of the 'Kisses' urinals to be fitted into our clubhouse at JFK Airport.  We can assure everyone who complained to us that no offence was ever intended,” Virgin spokesman John Riordan said in a statement.

“I don't know many men who think it's cool to pee in a woman's mouth, even a porcelain one,” said one complainant.

The urinal, designed by a Dutch company, was the idea of a female designer. Riordan said Virgin was surprised by the negative reaction to the plan, part of designs for the lounge, built to pamper first-class customers.

A marathon competition to see who could live for a week in a cable car that makes the 1.7-kilometre trip between Singapore and the resort island of Sentosa about 80 metres above sea level was won by a couple who said they used meditation to overcome urges to use the bathroom. 

Thirty three couples started the competition and three teams dropped out before the contest even began.  Contest organisers confessed they hadn't expect so many of the 33 original teams to survive the stifling humidity, motion sickness, claustrophobic conditions and just 10 minutes to use the toilet each day. 

Judges chose a winner by tallying which team spent the least amount of their allotted time for restroom breaks.  The winning couple – Singaporeans Zaiton Majeed, 22, and Abdul Rahman, 29 – spent only 22 minutes and 15 seconds outside the capsule all week.  The winners plan to use the prize money to open a body painting studio in Nagoya in central Japan, Majeed said. They also won a S$30,000 ($A23,400) boat cruise.

More than a million British holidaymakers heading for the Costa Brava in north eastern Spain face an increase in prices due to a tourist tax.

The new tourism director-general of the Catalan region, Isabel Galobardes, said 'some sort of tax' was essential to improve infrastructure in the most popular areas.

ABTA, the Association of British Travel Agents and the Federation of Tour Operators have criticised this idea, fearing a repeat of the controversy surrounding the Balearic Islands' introduction of an eco-tax in May 2002.

A spokesman for ABTA said: 'This would be an extremely foolish move by the Catalan government. They would be shooting themselves in the foot, to say the least.'

Such a tax would affect resorts such as Lloret de Mar, Sitges, Salou and Blanes, along with city breaks to the Catalan capital Barcelona.  When the £1-a-day eco-tax was introduced on the islands of Mallorca, Ibiza and Menorca, UK visitor numbers dropped by up to 4 per cent.