Vacation Dreams

Tag: April 2005

  • Country Statistics: smallest counties in the world

    Country Statistics

    Smallest Countries (in sq mile): 2002
    1. Vatican City 0.2
    2. Monaco 0.8
    3. Nauru 8.1
    4. Tuvalu 10.0
    5. San Marino 23.6
    6. Liechtenstein 62.0
    7. Marshall Islands 70.0
    8. St. Kitts & Nevis 101.0
    9. Maldives 116.0
    10. Malta 122.0

    Source: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0762380.html

  • Globetrotters Travel Award

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

    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!!

  • Answers to Flag Quiz

    Answers to Flag Quiz

    Algeria Botswana Cayman Islands Dominican Republic Guam

  • Gambling in Singapore

    Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced
    that the government had decided to give the go-ahead for
    two casinos on Marina Bay and on Sentosa resort island.
    Despite 30,000 people signing a petition against the idea,
    Mr Lee said the casinos were necessary to help Singapore
    attract more tourists. The casinos, which will be
    operational by 2009, are central to Singapore’s goal of
    doubling the number of tourists to 17 million a year. A
    casino is believed to help Singapore recover much of the
    $180m a year it is estimated that Singaporeans spend each
    year in neighbouring Malaysian casinos.

  • Our Friends Ryanair

    Back in September last year, you may recall us reporting that
    Ryanair were proposing to make in-flight entertainment available on
    its flights. Passengers were to be charged £5 ($9.48) to access
    films, cartoons and tv shows on portable lap top type units.
    Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary who said in September
    the units would become “as common as the in-flight
    magazine”. These have been on trial since November and are
    about to be abandoned. “It was lack of demand. They decided
    not to follow it any further,” a Ryanair spokeswoman said.
    Ryanair said it had not lost any money on the system, which was on
    trial in only five planes before making a significant investment.
    The latest money making wheeze is to have in-flight gambling. Watch
    this space!

    News comes of Ryanair selling
    a brand of water called Blue Rock water, which costs £1.85 for a
    500 ml. Reports state that this special Ryanair water isn't
    from a pure mountain stream or highland spring – it is just
    carbonated tap water. To purchase the same water from Thames Water
    i.e. turn on the tap costs 0.06p per litre. The only difference
    between turning on the tap in any London home and Ryanair's
    Blue Rock is that the sparkling version has been carbonated at a
    water treatment works in Beckton, East London, before being bottled
    and labelled. While the label does not claim to be genuine spring
    water, neither does it make it clear that it is tap water. Britvic,
    which 'makes' Blue Rock, made exclusively for Ryanair,
    claimed the brand was about to be replaced by a new product called
    Pennine Spring, sourced from a natural spring in Huddersfield.

  • Kashmir Buses

    Two new bus services linking Muzaffarabad in
    Pakistan-administered Kashmir for Srinagar in
    Indian-administered Kashmir. The new service has been
    hailed as a major boost to India and Pakistan’s developing
    peace process. The inaugural service on 7 April was the
    first in nearly 60 years. Before you get too excited, it is
    still dangerous to visit this region and there is heavy
    security all along the route including decoy buses,
    escorted by the police and parafamilies forces. The
    historic bus services has been welcomed by most Kashmiris,
    many of whom have been divided by the decades-long
    conflict. Many of them have defied the militants’ call to
    avoid boarding the bus. “The desire to meet separated
    relatives is proving stronger than the fear of death,” a
    trader in Srinagar, Zaffar Ahmed, told the BBC News.

  • Being Careful: Thailand

    This is the latest advice from the
    UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office     on Thailand: there
    is a high threat from terrorism throughout Thailand,
    particularly in the far southern provinces of Pattani,
    Yala, Narathiwat and Songkhla. We recommend against all but
    essential travel to these four provinces where, since
    January 2004, there have been regular attacks including
    bombings and shootings. On 3 April, three bombs exploded in
    Songkhla Province, one at Hat Yai International Airport,
    one at a hotel and one in a shopping centre. Further
    attacks against places frequented by foreigners, including
    tourist resorts, could occur at any time.

    Watch out for crimes of opportunity. Theft of passports
    and credit cards is a problem. Passport fraud is high and
    penalties are severe.

    Penalties for possession, distribution or manufacture of
    drugs are severe and can include the death penalty.

    There has been an increase since January 2005 in the
    number of reported cases of Dengue Fever, in particular in
    Southern Thailand and the area near the border with
    Malaysia. In a very small number of cases, Dengue Fever can
    be fatal if left untreated. If you suffer from a fever
    whilst (or shortly after) visiting Thailand, you should
    consult a doctor.

  • Fave Website

    Spotted by Mac, a new travel website:
    http://www.travelpost.com/

  • London's Open House

    Every September the annual Open House London event takes place and
    this year the dates are 17th & 18th September 2005. Over 500
    buildings are opening their doors to everyone and turning the
    capital into a living architectural exhibition. And it's
    absolutely free! Last year, the Beetle and Padmassana braved the
    cold autumn air and set off to see if we could get to go inside the
    famous Gherkin – the tall, glass clad bullet shaped building. It
    could have been the early hour, or the lack of copious amounts of
    coffee, but coffee, we could see the gherkin but could we find it?
    It took an age to get there! By the time we got there, around 9.45am,
    the queues were breathtakingly long, as Padmassana's photos show.

    So, instead, we went to the Bank of England and we
    joined a guided tour there. It was excellent! Believe it or not,
    the site of the Bank of England, which has been located in
    Threadneedle Street since 1734, covers a massive 3 ½ acres – who
    would have thought it! We moved down a very majestic staircase
    to some beautiful state rooms downstairs and through the
    gardens and up again to the rooms that are used to hold meetings
    with visiting officials to discuss monetary policy. The tour ended
    in the Bank's museum which is fascinating and includes a gold
    bullion bar, encased in bullet proof glass, of course, which
    Padmassana had a go at lifting through the specially designed hole
    for people to touch the bar. You can visit the museum any time and
    it is free of charge. The museum is open Monday to Friday, 10.00 –
    17.00, Christmas Eve, 10.00 – 13.00 but is closed at weekends and
    on Public and Bank Holidays.

    After the Bank of England tour, we visited one of the
    livery companies near Smithfield market and after a fry up at the
    Beetle's favourite 24/7 greasy spoon café, we headed up to St
    Pancras and joined a tour run by Arups, the consulting engineers
    responsible for building the new ST Pancras train staton which is
    to be the new home of the Eurostar as well as a new and upgraded
    train station for regional trains.

    All photos are by Padmassana. We are looking forward to this
    year's Open House and maybe this time we'll be better
    organised to go and visit the Gherkin!

    If you'd like more information about this years' event,
    then take a look at the official website, which also runs other
    architectural tours during the year: https://www.openhouselondon.org.uk/

  • Exploding Toads

    Thousands of toads in an area of northern Germany are
    exploding. Seriously, this is not a late April Fool’s joke.
    Scientists do not yet know why the toads are exploding, but
    they are contracting some type of disease that causes their
    body to expand to three and a half times their normal body
    size – to bursting point. The BBC news report that the
    toads’ entrails are being propelled up to a metre (3.2ft),
    in scenes that have been likened to science fiction.