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The Beetle
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Meeting News from Texas.
Globetrotters Meeting Texas Branch – 9 November 2002 by Emily We had two groups of speakers at our meeting, both on Spain. The first group was Chris and Julie who displayed some fabulous slides of different areas of Spain: Toledo, Madrid, Balboa and San Sebastian. Our next group of speakers on Spain was Christina and…
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The Beetle
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Discover Crete Under Water
Scuba diving is the fastest growing sport in the world, each year the number of certified divers doubles. Travel to another world is not just a slogan that many dive centres use to attract the client, it’s true….. to dive is like a dream. Floating underwater is like meditation, yoga or living solitude on a…
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The Beetle
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Travel Warnings
The FCO said early November: 'Following the terrorist attacks in Bali… in which Western tourists were deliberately targeted, the threat to British nationals in Thailand, including popular tourist areas, the island of Phuket in particular, has increased significantly.' This statement has enraged not only the Thai and other South East Asian tourism authorities, but ABTA,…
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The Beetle
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7 UK Airports may Close Due to Strike
A British union that has firemen and airport workers as its members has announced a set of dates it on which it proposes to strike. These will affect seven airports: Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Edinburgh, Southampton, Glasgow and Aberdeen. Proposed strike dates are: 28 Nov, 2, 10, 15 & 23 Dec and 2nd Jan, and if…
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The Beetle
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The Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes Night
Here in the UK, we’ve just had our traditional bonfire night, on November 5th, to celebrate the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot. We’ve been doing this off and on, barring wars, since 1605. Each year either on November 5, or the weekend closest, people get together all over the UK to light bonfires, burn effigies…
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The Beetle
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Manila Warning
Canada and the European Union have joined Australia and indefinitely closed their diplomatic missions in the Philippines after receiving information about an “imminent” terror attack. The move came after Australia said it had received “credible and specific” warning of the attack by Islamic militants on its embassy in the capital Manila within the next few…
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The Beetle
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Fave Websites of the Month
Passed on by the London Meetings co-ordinator: TravelIntelligence is a new website giving access to good travel writing (mainly British) – Philip Marsden, William Dalrymple, Stanley Stewart, Nick Danziger et al. Take a look at Travel Intelligence and sign up for their monthly newsletter – mostly links to other sites.
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The Beetle
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Is South Africa Safe? by Geoff
People coming here from the UK and elsewhere expect South Africa to be just like the UK. It is just not so. With the advent of the new ANC government things have changed a lot. Everybody can go anywhere they want to. Crime was restricted to certain areas in the past but not so anymore.…
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The Beetle
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Free London Museums: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
Many of the London hop-on-hop-off buses throw in a free river cruise – often to Greenwich,with the ticket. And even if you are not doing that, a visit to Greenwich can make a good day out. The Beetle’s favourite way of getting there is to go on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) to Island Gardens…
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The Beetle
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Airline News: November 2002
A new “no-frills” international carrier, Qantas-owned Australian Airlines, launched its schedule with flights from the northern city of Cairns to Nagoya and Osaka in Japan. They plan to start services to other Asian destinations, most likely Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong and aim to bring thousands more tourists to the tropical north of Queensland. The…
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