On a more positive note, contrary to popular belief, US citizens are allowed to visit Libya! This is good news as the Beetle is trying to persuade one to join her on a potential trip to Libya!

And on the flip side, just two days after the US government eased its warnings to US citizens not to travel to Pakistan, following the abduction of a US Wall Street journalist, the warnings are back in place.

Forget the romantic notion of Captain Hook and Cap'n Kidd – piracy is alive and well in the modern world!

Just last week, coastguards in Falmouth, in the south west of England picked up an SOS call almost 4,000 miles away from the Princess Sarah, a Greek owned ship off the Horn of Africa. The British alerted the French army based in Djibouti and Somalia who had a warship in the area. The French ship, Floreal, sent a helicopter to assist the Princess Sarah and scared the pirates off.

Incredibly, this is the second time that the Princess Sarah has been helped by the same coastguards, only a month earlier whilst off the coast of Somalia.

An alert, bought to the attention of the Beetle by Frank, in the US, about a female traveller in India who was bitten by a monkey at Agra Fort. Frank saw a report in a Lonely Planet bulletin: the report says that the traveller was not carrying food, was not feeding the monkeys or trying to gain their attention, when she received a nasty bite on the leg, quite out of the blue.

She went on to say that the “friendly” monkeys, as described in various guide books are far from it: they have become aggressive and are prone to attacking visitors. She then had to spend large amounts of time (and money, and worry) ensuring that she received all of the immunisations against diseases that the monkeys can carry -these include rabies and a virus which can lead to encephalitis.

Travellers – you have been warned! Animals like this are still wild and should be treated with caution.

This wonderful snippet about travelling in Iran came from Kevin, near London (not Croydon!) Kevin tells us about the effect some of the girls he was travelling with had on a hapless Iranian driver.

After leaving the “Hotel Fleapit” in Neriz we were on the road to Bam, when we unfortunately broke down. While Percy, a mechanically gifted Canadian, set about fixing our truck the rest of us put the kettle on and watched the world go by. Some of the girls decided to mark out a hopscotch pitch on the roadside, and started to play, dressed from head to toe in their black chadours, which was quite an exhibition. As they played we sat transfixed as a Pykan (Iranian Renault 12) came round the corner, the driver clearly not used to seeing a bunch of girls hopping at the roadside, drove straight into the ditch.

Perfume comes from the Latin per fumus (through smoke). The smoke of incense, burning woods and spices were the most ancient scents.

Some useless facts courtesy of directcosmetics.com

When Cleopatra headed down the river to meet Mark Anthony, her ships we perfumed so that he could smell her coming.

At the court of Louis XV, etiquette decreed that a different perfume be worn every single day.

Rumour has it that en route to the guillotine, Marie Antoinette trailed drops of her favourite Houbigant perfume along the way.

Read any or have any useless facts you'd like the Beetle to publish? Then e-mail them to the Beetle

Ever wondered what scorpions taste like? Or cobra stew? Look no further. You can now try such delicacies at Empire, a new London restaurant where snake, kangaroo, zebra, ants and other miscellany can be found on the menu. Address: 38 Lambs Conduit Street, nearest tube, Holborn, tel: 020 7404 6835.

Want to tell us about your favourite coffee corner or watering hole? Then contact the Beetle

Marine archaeologists in India believe they have found a sunken 'lost city' which pre-dates all previous signs of civilisation by 5,000 years. The site lies at a depth of 36m, 40 miles off the coast of Gujarat, in an area known for dangerous currents and rip tides. Most of the investigative work has been carried out using sonar scanning equipment which reveals the buried structure. Divers have retrieved a number of artefacts which have been carbon dated to 7,500BC. If these dates are correct, the city will predate the earliest known urban civilisation by 2,000 years. The discovery has been greeted with scepticism by many experts as carbon-dating is not regarded as completely reliable.

Source: www.divernet.com

Under 24? 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!!

Serious and not so serious diving news :

Great for recommendations on where to dive, equipment tests and news about new dive sites.

www.divernet.com