Tag: January 2002

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

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

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 section of the Website: Mutual Aid

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

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.

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!!

Trying to travel light? Shampoo is not only good for washing hair
and body, but clothes as well!

Got any travel tips for the Beetle? Then e-mail them to: the Beetle

A recent report from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia: a Swedish
diver had a narrow escape after a giant grouper attempted to
swallow his head on New Year's Eve. The diver managed to escape
with only a broken mask, cuts and scratches after being spat out.

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.”