Vacation Dreams

Category: Sidebar

  • Don't Upset The Elephants!

    They really do have long memories! Research by the
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology has shown that elephants have
    very long memories, large brains and are highly emotional.
    Orang-utans are the cleverest of non human primates and can perform
    complex tasks such as opening doors by choosing the right key from a
    bunch of keys. Squirrels have a brain proportionally 1.5 times bigger
    than humans and can remember where they have buried 10,000 nuts!

  • 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

  • Chernobyl

    The United Nations last week identified Chernobyl
    as being an eco-tourism venue of the future. Wildlife has started to
    come back to the area after the terrible radioactive contamination.
    Moose, red deer, beavers and lynx have all been spotted in the woods
    along with flowers and birds. Would you go?

  • Not to be Seen Dead In?

    The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)
    in the UK is advising against all travel to Afghanistan, Iraq,
    Pakistan, Tajikistan and Yemen until further notice. Reprisals are
    also feared against Western travellers in other parts of the world
    including the Chechen Republic, East Timor, Indonesia, Macedonia,
    Somalia, the West Bank and parts of Albania.

    FCO Website.

  • Joke time

    From Bretislav, in the Czech Republic:

    A guy is flying to London checking in at the airlines counter with
    3 suitcases. He tells the lady there: “I want the first
    suitcase checked through to New York, the second to Paris and the
    third to Bombay.” The lady says, “I'm afraid that
    won't be possible sir.” The guy says, “Why not?
    That's what you did to my luggage the last time.”

  • January 2002 '

  • Pirates foiled by international co-operation!

    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.

  • Not to be Seen Dead In?

    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.

  • Watching the Road in Iran

    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.

  • Dinner: snake, ants and scorpions … London

    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