Category: Sidebar

  • Fave Websites of the Month

    The Beetle likes the UK Foreign and Commonwealth site – it has everything from employment opportunities to individual country reports – really interesting! UK Foreign and Commonwealth

  • Travel Tips

    Sort clothes together and put them in different coloured plastic bags – helps you to find your socks as opposed to your T-shirts and also keeps them clean and dry when your back pack is accidentally dropped in the river/sea or when it rains and it is stored on top of a bus.

  • Funny Signs Again….

    Back in 1959, when Frank from the US was in Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia on Lebuh Chulia Street he saw a local Chinese Hotel named the Hang Chow Hotel and Restaurant, referred to by some of the other back packers as the Constipation Hotel.

  • Scams

    Paying by credit card? Check the currency you think you’ve just paid in! Ensure that the currency you have paid in is clearly marked on the credit card slip and don’t forget to match it to your credit card statement when you get home – you may be in for a surprise! Got any scam…

  • 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

  • Tibet from Tom

    Tom from North Carolina wrote in to tell us about his time in Tibet: we (a small group of 8) had the usual difficulty with our visa delaying our entry to Tibet from Katmandu by a day even though this was planned and paid for in advance. We had to pay a second time and…

  • Not to be Seen Dead In?

    The CNN website cites Robert Young Pelton’s book The World’s Most Dangerous Places and say that the top 10 most dangerous countries are: Chechnya, Sierra Leone, Colombia, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Southern Philippines, Algeria, Angola and South Africa.

  • Italian Food… Rome

    Rob from New York (yes, he of hiking in Grand Canyon) recommends the L’Hosteria da Isidoro near the Coliseum in Rome. He says that you sit down and ask for the tastings and basically they just keep bringing trays of pasta to your table until you say uncle. The pasta and risottos are excellent and…

  • Travelling up the Northern Californian Coast

    Peggy from San Francisco wrote in to tell us about travelling in Northern California: it’s a terrific time and the crowds have vanished and the summer fog replaced by mild weather. A trip up the Northern California coast is a journey into forests of giant redwood trees and along a beautiful wild coast. Take a…

  • Reader's Information/Fave Website

    From Ben and Elfriede from Texas would like to share with us their experiences with the 5W Group that is HQ’d in England. They have just got back from a 2-month vacation in Europe. “We stayed primarily with members of “Women Welcome Women World Wide“. What a great way to travel and meet new people!…