Saturday 4th March 2006, 10. 30am – 4. 00pm at the newsroom The Guardian 60 Farringdon Rd London EC1R 3GA Cost: £89. 99 (inc VAT) A day of two intensive workshops: Travel Writing – How To Do It, and How Not To with Dea Birkett, Guardian columnist and author of Serpent in Paradise and Off…

A Brisbane woman has been killed in a shark attack at Amity Point, North Stradbroke Island near Brisbane. She was swimming about 15m (49ft) offshore when she was attacked in water which had become murky and muddy after a recent storm. Police believe that possibly three bull sharks could have attacked the young woman as…

A recent report in “Holiday Which?”, published by the British Consumers’ Association, found that the number of people who take “independent holidays” has now overtaken those booking the traditional package, predicting that 55 percent of overseas holidays in 2005 will have been arranged independently. Travellers are searching the internet and booking flights, cars and hotels…

In December 2005, a drunken male passenger on a flight from northern England to the Spanish tourist island of Tenerife was dropped off at a small island off the African coast after he swore at the cabin crew. Press reported that the plane’s captain decided to leave the man at Porto Santo, just 10 miles…

Bear in mind, before you read this, that this news is reported by the China Travel Service. “China is the main engine driving Asia-Pacific travel; and by 2020, China is expected to be the world’s No. 1 travel destination with an estimated 100 million tourists visiting every year. ”

If you are found to be a stowaway on a ship, the ship owners are obliged by law to bear the costs to send you home. Unfortunately for seven Tanzanian stowaways who recently boarded a ship sailing to South America at Mombassa in Kenya, three Ukrainian sailors allegedly forced the seven stowaways to jump overboard.…

Visitors to Asia and the Pacific should look out for the new SkyTeam Asia Pass that gives access to 61 cities in 21 countries through three major gateways: Guam, Seoul and Tokyo, on flights with Air France, Continental Airlines, KLM, Korean Air or Northwest Airlines. You need to buy 3 coupons, or a maximum of…

Oasis Hong Kong Airlines, a new start up company aims to be a low cost carrier but operate long haul routes. They plan to make their maiden flight from Hong Kong to London’s Gatwick Airport in June 2006 as Hong Kong’s first low-fare carrier. Oasis aims to price round-trip tickets starting as low as HKD$1,000…

A belated entry to the e-newsletter; this was passed to me by Padmassana whilst the Beetle was working away in SE Asia. Padmassana heard on the radio that a Thomsonfly a stewardess said she needed “eight fat people” to sit nearer the front because the captain of a half-full London-bound Thomsonfly flight was unhappy about…

Air New Zealand and Qantas Airways confirmed have barred men from sitting next to unaccompanied children on flights. The policy came to light after a man seated next to a child was asked to change seats with a woman in another row and was told by a Qantas flight attendant that the airline’s policy stipulated…