Category Archives: Sidebar

Asian Spooks Experience

A tour company in Kuala Lumpur are offering a tour on Asian ghosts, spirits and superstitions. It costs US $44 and starts at the site where more than a decade ago, a terrible triple murder occurred in Bangsar in Malaysia. Two children and their maid were killed by a security guard who had just started work that day at the expatriate’s home. The guard was caught, tried, sentenced to death and hanged in 2002. The tour takes in an Indian temple, a Chinese cemetery, a prison, old railway station and a den. For those of you who would like more info, see: KL Ghost and Spook Tour


Have you got a tale to tell?

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


Taiwan Tallest Building in the World

Malaysia’s Petronas Towers used to be the world’s tallest buildings. Taiwan intends to top this (groan… with a 508-metre (1,667-feet) tower, the Taipei 101 which is expected to be completed in November 2004. No inauspicious activities have been spared – feng shui and geomancy experts have been called in. The $1.7 billion skyscraper is meant to resemble a bamboo stalk, known for its sturdiness and vigour. It will have 101 storeys and will house the Taiwan Stock Exchange and offices for 12,000 people. There are plans for the world’s fastest lifts: 34 double-decker shuttles that can reach speeds of 60 km/h (37 mph) and take passengers to the 90th floor in less than 39 seconds. Wow! That will be some tourist attraction in its own right!


Travel Quiz

Win a Frommer’s guidebook on the USA 2003. See www.frommers.com for info on Frommer’s guidebooks.

The winner of last month’s Frommer’s guide to Los Angeles is Nancy Haggarty.

Some people have said the quiz is difficult, we say do some research; try google.com or Ask Jeeves, if you need help with the answers.

  1. What is the telephone number for emergency services in the USA?
  2. In which collection of states do people often go to see that Fall Foliage?
  3. What is the name of the former capital of Russian America in Alaska?
  4. In which Mardi Gras city is can the French Quarter be found?
  5. What is the nickname of Washington DC?

Your Name:

Your e-mail address:


6 Month + UK Visas

With effect from Thursday 13 November, entry clearance will become mandatory for nationals of the ten phase one countries and all work permit holders (except for nine EU accession countries) who wish to stay in the UK for more than six months.

Nationals of Australia, Canada, Hong Kong (SAR passports), Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea and the USA will require entry clearance before travelling for all stays in the UK of longer than six months.

The entry clearance requirement will also apply to all work permit holders staying for more than six months, with the exception of the nine non-visa national EU accession countries (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland and Slovenia).

For more information, see: UK Visas


Answers to: So You Think You’re Well Travelled? Bangladesh: Dhaka Guyana: Georgetown Oman: Muscat Syria: Damascas Vietnam: Hanoi 0 out of 5 – you need to get out more! 1-3 – not bad 4 – very good! You are a Globetrotter! 5 – are you sure you didn’t sneak a look?

  1. Bangladesh: Dhaka
  2. Guyana: Georgetown
  3. Oman: Muscat
  4. Syria: Damascas
  5. Vietnam: Hanoi
  • 0 out of 5 – you need to get out more!
  • 1-3 – not bad
  • 4 – very good! You are a Globetrotter!
  • 5 – are you sure you didn’t sneak a look?

Sorry, we ate your missionary

Ratu Filimoni Wawabaluva, a chief from Navosa, on the Fijian island of Viti Levu, has announced that a traditional apology ceremony is to be held to apologise 136 years after their ancestors killed and ate a British missionary.

Fiji were once known as “Cannibal Isles”. At the time, it is said that one local boasted after scoffing the Rev Thomas Baker, from Playden, East Sussex, in 1867: “We ate everything but his boots.” The Rev. Baker’s descendants were invited to the ceremony. Some residents of Navosa believe they have been cursed with bad luck since their ancestors ate the Rev Thomas Baker. Accounts differ on how he came to be eaten, with one version being that he broke a taboo by touching a chief’s hair to take out a comb.

An archivist at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies said that the story could be a myth saying: “It seems Baker got caught up in some sort of inter-tribal feuding relating to his right to travel across the island.”

A spokesman for the London Missionary Society, which sent dozens of missionaries to the South Pacific, said Baker’s was “not an unusual story”. Another missionary made a “similar cultural error” in Papua New Guinea around the same time and was also eaten.


Globetrotters Travel Award

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!!


Discount on Karrimor products

Karrimor are pleased to announce to all Globetrotters Club members (please note, club members only and not Including sale goods) a 25% discount through their factory shop. They offer a mail order service and all products can be found on their website www.karrimor.com

Further details are avalible in Globe or our online members area


Vietnam Airlines

Vietnam Airlines has announced that it will change the current two-tier price system for Vietnamese and foreigners from January 1 next year to boost tourism. Foreigners will no longer pay 20% more for domestic flights and will pay the same amount as Vietnamese nationals. A round trip ticket from capital Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City costs 3.3 million dong (USD$212) for foreigners while locals pay 2.7 million dong.