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.

An airline passenger discovered the a frog perched on a slice of cucumber while on a Qantas flight from Melbourne to Wellington in February. “Naturally there was a bit of consternation by the passenger who called back the attendant,” Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry quarantine general manager Fergus Small said.  The flight attendant removed the salad and the 4 cm (1.6 inch) whistling tree frog, which was killed by quarantine staff when the aircraft landed.  Qantas was not immediately available for comment but a spokesman told The New Zealand Herald newspaper the airline had since changed its lettuce supplier and introduced “additional procedures into the salad supply process.”

A foreign pilot who infuriated Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew by leading a rare union revolt has been told by the government he can no longer live in Singapore as a permanent resident.  Captain Ryan Goh Yew Hock, a Malaysian citizen, was singled out by Lee as the main instigator in a November 2003 vote by pilots to sack their union leaders for caving into wage cuts and layoffs imposed by state-controlled Singapore Airlines.

The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority said Goh, who has lived in Singapore for 26 years, had been told that his entry and re-entry permits that are necessary for permanent residents would be cancelled.

The leaders of Singapore's government have said “confrontational industrial relations” are a threat in a country where the government, employers and unions traditionally co-operate closely and where industrial action is rare.

Spotted by Mac who wrote in to say: I read in yesterday’s Travel section of the Washington Post that a couple taking the Queen Mary 2 had picked out cabin but a few days before sailing were notified that they had been upgraded to the Deluxe Deck 8.  They found out the upgrade was really a down grade although four decks up.  There was a 150 person lifeboat outside their window.  They said “it was like a tractor trailer blocking their view.” They looked in brochure and noticed a tiny asterisk at bottom page of brochure that some cabins had obstructed views. They were not able to change back or change.  They wrote that while the Queen Mary 2 does fulfil the promise of being the longest, tallest, grandest ocean liner ever most of the cabins on Deck 8 (deluxe deck) are behind lifeboats. While most of you wont be booking passage on the Queen Mary 2.  I wonder if one when booking on a ship gets to see layout of cabin with obstructed views. The few times I was on ship I had not view but was out of cabin except for sleeping up on deck so it did not make much difference.

Under 30? A member of Globetrotters Club? Interested in a £1,000 travel award?

Know someone who is? We have £1,000 to award each year for five years for the best submitted independent travel plan. Interested?

Then see our legacy page on our Website, where you can apply with your plans for a totally independent travel trip and we'll take a look at it. Get those plans in!!

For a while now postage costs to the EU countries have been rising and has now reached the point where they are on a par with the costs for our other members worldwide members (USA, South America and Australia). We feel that it is unfair for one member to subsidise another and have decided to abolish the EU price band.

The new fees will be effective from the 1^st June 2004 when the following fees will apply:

• 1 year subscription £18.00 (around €27)
• 2 year subscription £34.00 (around €51)
• 3 year subscription £48.00 (around €72)

If you would like to renew or extend your membership or have been thinking of becoming a member then join or renew before the 1^st June, to get the current rate.

Get the current rate

From Mac: one of the users of Internet Cafes overseas suggests that you leave a list of e mail addresses with a relative or friend in your home town that has a computer and just write one e mail to that person and have that person forward to those on e mail addresses you gave them. The person who receives e-mail from you is glad that you are having a good time and this saves you time at the cybercafé.