The Globetrotters eNewsletter
eNewsletter Archive

According to the Transportation Security Administration
Air travellers in the United States will soon be allowed to carry small
scissors and tools on planes, but will face more random security
searches that focus more on detecting explosives at airports as part of
an effort to thwart potential terrorists.

The new focus on random searches will include more
additional screenings of passengers and their bags at security
checkpoints. While in the past passengers have been selected
for extra
or “secondary” screening when they check in for their flight, that will
be expanded to checkpoints as well. The secondary checks will
be based
on behaviour patterns and a random pattern selected by the
screeners.

TSA screeners will also use a different pat-down
procedure, to improve their ability to detect nonmetal weapons and
explosive devices that may be carried on the body. Pat-down
searches
will now include the arms and legs. But oh, none of this is
supposed to
cause any major delays.

If you were thinking of going to work in Saudi, be
aware of a “Saudi-isation” program that is edging foreign workers out
of the country in favour of local people.

According to press reports late last year, the Saudi
Labour Ministry has banned the renewal of work licenses of expatriate
workers who reached 60 years of age and also banned the recruitment of
foreigners aged over 60 years.

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 the weight distribution and therefore the handling of his
plane. Passenger Peter Harrison, who weighs 24-stone, said
the request
for people to move was made as the plane taxied to take off from
Tenerife to Gatwick last Saturday. Mr Harrison added: The
stewardess
said there were too many passengers on the back of the plane and she
needed eight fat people sat in rows 31 to 42 to sit near the
front. Mr
Harrison, a postman, was not in those rows but felt awkward.
He said:
“In the end eight people got up and shuffled forward before we took
off.

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 8, in
conjunction with an intercontinental round-trip ticket to the region on
any SkyTeam of the 9 SkyTeam member airlines, at www. skyteam.
com.
Someone arriving from Europe, America or Africa could choose to visit
Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo, Osaka, Taipei, Bangkok and Saigon for $2,310 (8
coupons), saving at least $4,000 on regular air fares.

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. ”

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 on-line. In
the
travel industry, this is called “dynamic packaging”: travellers who
build their own itineraries, or vacation packages.

Unsurprisingly, tour operators recognise this trend and
have responded. For example, Flexibletrips. com, part of
Thomas Cook,
allows you to build exactly the sort of holiday you want by “bundling”
flights, hotels, car rental and extras such as tours and
transfers.
British Airways plans to introduce a “shopping basket” feature on
BA. com allowing travellers to book hotels, and other travel products,
alongside flights.

The disadvantage to dynamic packaging is that you may
not have financial protection if something goes wrong - (pay with a
credit card, not a debit card) and it can be hard to compare like with
like e. g. some packaged breaks may include airport transfers
and a room
upgrade, and of course, all this internet searching takes
time.

A Chinese HR company has announced it would like its
new staff to include plenty of “dogs”. To reflect this, in
its
recruitment ad, they invited only people born in the Year of the Dog to
apply. The reason? A personnel manager for the company said,
“We
believe that people born in dog years are born with some good
characteristics such as loyalty and honesty. ”

According to the Chinese zodiac, 2006 is the Year of
the Dog. Were you born in the Year of the Dog? Those born in
1922,
1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982 and 1994 were all born to this
astrological sign.

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
the Beaten Track.

Fact, Fiction and Creating a Traveller’s Tale with Rory
Maclean, author of Falling for Icarus and Stalin’s Nose.

The workshops include practical writing
sessions.
Participants should bring pen and paper - they will be expected to
write! The emphasis is - whether you are a beginner or already have
some writing experience - on developing skills which can be applied to
both articles and books. Our aim is that, by the end of the
day, each
of you will have the tools to produce a publishable piece of travel
writing.

Already done some travel writing? Contact

travelworkshops@deabirkett.
com

for details of the Travel Writing Masterclass on Saturday March 18th
2006. Or book the Workshop and Masterclass together and save
over
£20.

To ensure UK travellers are fully prepared for your
travels moving into 2006 please be aware that from 1st January 2006, UK
residents travelling in Europe will require a European Health Insurance
Card (EHIC). This will allow you to benefit from free or
reduced-cost
medical care when travelling in an EEA country or
Switzerland.

The EHIC replaces the E111 and is free of
charge. For
further information on the introduction of the EHIC and on how to apply
for an EHIC, see:

www. dh. gov. uk/travellers

A tip from Mac’s friend, world traveller Stanley Sagara
who travels around the world giving used glasses to the poor of the
world (his next trip is to Ethiopia) gave me this travel tip: photocopy
your travellers cheques as well as first page of your passport, drivers
license, all your important papers. (This tip would be good
even if not
travelling. ) He suggests looking at back of papers to see if there is
important information there as to how to get items replaced
etc. and
photocopy that side too so you know who issued cheques as well as who
to notify in the event of loss or theft.