Australian photographer trains aspiring shooters on trips across Asia

Melbourne-based Ewen Bell runs and designs photography tours in the region, offering technical advice, as well as fun, for small groups of up to 8 people.

Bell, who has hosted trips to destinations including China, Malaysia and India, says the tours are aimed at adding a creative touch to holidays, and no photo experience is necessary.

"We give passengers a 110-page photography manual, but this is more about helping people be more creative," Bell, who was named 2007's Travel Photographer of the Year by the Australian Society of Travel Writers, told Reuters.

"We tell them to treat the camera like a paintbrush, and like a brush, the results are unique to the hand that holds it."

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Size-wise or price-wise, small is beautiful

Instead, this may be a good time to think small when shopping for the travelers on your Christmas list. Smaller items, after all, mean less hassle when packing (not to mention fewer fees when flying), while slightly older, less feature-laden models can provide excellent quality at lower prices than their next-generation replacements. Your giftees will still be grateful, and you may still have enough money left to get yourself something, as well.

In an era when airline blankets are either nasty or non-existent, the Comfort Travel Blanket ($20) from Eagle Creek will shield your favorite flier from both germs and frigid conditions. At 10 ounces and 59 x 36 inches, it’s compact, made of comfortable micro fleece and packs into itself to make a pillow. Best part: It features a zippered pocket that will hold an eyeshade, iPod and other small necessities of modern-day air travel.

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Instead, this may be a good time to think small when shopping for the travelers on your Christmas list. Smaller items, after all, mean less hassle when packing (not to mention fewer fees when flying), while slightly older, less feature-laden models can provide excellent quality at lower prices than their next-generation replacements. Your giftees will still be grateful, and you may still have enough money left to get yourself something, as well.

In an era when airline blankets are either nasty or non-existent, the Comort Travel Blanket ($20) from Eagle Creek will shield your favorite flier from both germs and frigid conditions. At 10 ounces and 59 x 36 inches, it’s compact, made of comfortable micro fleece and packs into itself to make a pillow. Best part: It features a zippered pocket that will hold an eyeshade, iPod and other small necessities of modern-day air travel.

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But not all national parks—some are closed during the winter; others offer reduced services. Still, others attract large numbers of wintertime visitors because they're located in regions that enjoy their best sunny weather when it’s frigid up North. A winter trip to the Virgin Islands National Park, will present the same problems that you'd find on summer excursion to Yosemite: high prices, long lines and a trail of “no vacancy” signs.

The best wintertime national park trips combine unique and surprising activities and fewer visitors. At Yellowstone, for example, just five percent of the three million annual guests come during the winter months. One January morning we were two of only a handful of people watching an eruption of Yellowstone’s Old Faithful geyser. The regular eruptions of this famous geyser during the summer months typically attract hundreds of people who jostle for position along the surrounding boardwalk.

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Cruising couple dinged $420, all for a few hours in Brazil

Expensive surprise

About six weeks before sailing, Princess notified the Belams’ travel agent stating the couple would need a Brazilian visa. The cruise line noted that it was the passenger’s responsibility to get them and any passenger who did not have a visa would be denied boarding.

The visas would cost $210 per person (actual visa cost, plus expedited service) — an unwelcome $420 surprise. It gets worse — the cruise ship was only stopping at one Brazilian port, Fortaleza, for only nine hours! “If we’ve known that it will cost us that much for a few hours in Brazil, we would have looked for cruises that do not go to Brazil at all,” says Aaron Belams.

"You don't 'make' chai, you 'cook' it." Raju didn't raise his deep-set eyes from the blackened, milk-stained pot. He was explaining the major difference between tea in India and elsewhere. The viscous mixture bubbled and threatened to boil over. "Everyday I sit and cook chai. I start when the sun comes up and finish when it goes down." Raju knows almost all of his customers by name.

A cloud of dark, acrid smoke from a passing diesel-choked engine floated down Deeg's dusty lane, locally known as a road. A few minutes passed and the cloud settled. The dark outline of the massive fortifications from the town's 18th-century palace reappeared across the way. The serene demeanor of the Indian winter morning reassumed its gentle pace unchanged from years, possibly centuries before.

"Chai, chai, chai…" Raju's low, deep voice resonated a rhythmic chant to let passersby know the tea is on the boil. His equipment, a small hand-primed kerosene stove and aluminum pot, project an air of antiquity. They could have been discovered in a nearby archeological dig. Fresh cow's milk, water, plenty of sugar and any number of spices provide the essential mix. It sells for 2 rupee ($0.05) a glass and earns enough for Raju to support his wife and two children.

In India everyone drinks chai. It is essentially milk tea with sugar. As sociable as sharing a coffee or beer with a friend, so too is chai in India but more so. To reject an offer is a grave insult. You will never enter someone's home or place without being given at least one cup.

Deeg lies 85miles south of India's capital of New Delhi, and Raju has been a part of the 40,000-strong population for 48 years, tending his chai stall for 18 of those. His family has been serving chai to the locals as long as Raju can remember. He is not sure which of his forefathers started the tradition.

Life is sweet in the quiet town. It is not an opulent existence--far from it. But it is a simple life for a simple man with simple needs. Deeg is home to the Maharaja of Bharatpur's Monsoon Palace. Bharatpur was the princely state before the departure of the British in 1947, when Deeg came under the principality of the State of Rajasthan. Besides the Monsoon palace of the Maharaja with its hundreds of fountains, well-maintained gardens, and original furnishings, there are few reasons for travelers to visit Deeg,--except for the tea.

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"The busiest time for visitation to NYC is typically the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas," said NYC & Company spokesman Chris Heywood.

In addition to seeing the Rockefeller Center tree and decorated windows, many December visitors come to shop. Naturally chain retailers — especially the Manhattan flagships for stores like Macy's — are a big draw. But New York is also full of one-of-a-kind shops and ethnic neighborhoods where you can find unique merchandise in all price ranges.

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Bunnies, bunnies everywhere, and in all forms: stuffed, ceramic, painted—even a few real ones. Not only does the onslaught of bunny paraphernalia in Pasadena, California’s aptly named Bunny Museum overwhelm the senses, but the 23,000-item collection has grown so large as to require relocation to a larger space. In fact, so passionate are owners Candace Frazee and Steve Lubanski about bunnies that their hare-filled shrine isn’t just a museum—it’s also their home.

While the Bunny Museum may very well be a one-of-a-kind museum, it most certainly isn’t the only place showcasing items that are, well, a bit out there. People’s fascination with the strange, the quirky, and the perverse has inspired an array of outlandish museums that dot the globe.

The hum of the single-engine Cessna fills your ears as you ascend above the Peruvian high desert. Below you, flat expanses of dry, brown earth extend in every direction, punctuated only by twisting dry riverbeds ... a lifeless landscape. Then the plane banks, and over the intercom the pilot directs you to look at what appear to be just another set of curving, squiggly lines. But then, as you watch, the lines start to come to life, to form a definitive shape ... with a spread-finned tail at one end, a gaping mouth at the other, and an eye in the middle, staring up at you: it’s a giant line drawing of a whale, carved right into the landscape.

An aerial tour is the only way to fully appreciate Peru’s mysterious geoglyphs, known as the Nazca lines; the 2,000-year-old depictions of animals and geometric figures can be miles long—much too immense to be seen from the ground. But though these earth-etchings are some of the most dramatic sights you’ll ever see from the air, there’s plenty of other scenery around the world best viewed from on high.

Most anyone who’s spent an hour playing with Google Earth already knows the fascination of observing places from above. When seen from a bird’s-eye perspective, even familiar land- and cityscapes become completely new, with colors, patterns, and geographical features you’d never known existed until you hovered above them.

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Britain's most famous luxury cruise ship, the Queen Elizabeth 2, arrived in Dubai on Wednesday where it will turn into a floating hotel moored off an artificial palm-shaped island.

More than 60 naval vessels and private boats, led by a mega-yacht owned by Dubai's ruler, met the 70,000 ton ship in the Persian Gulf on Wednesday. In the city's Rashid port, the legendary cruise ship was greeted by a police marching band and fireworks.

In 40 years at sea, the luxury liner has traveled 6 million miles, carried 2.5 million passengers and crossed the Atlantic more than 800 times.

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A founding tenet of geek culture is the blurry distinction between high and low—the rumpled schmo waiting in line for a half-caff skim latte could easily be a billionaire—or your company's incomprehensible IT guy. With that in mind, we've collected a list of the hotels where titans dwell; the scruffier places where younger geeks hash out business plans on cocktail napkins; and the big events that have them dusting off their light sabers and brushing up on their Klingon.

1. San Francisco + Silicon Valley

Plugged in: The Bay Area is still tech Olympus, where a pantheon of heroes (that is, venture capitalists) sip ambrosia (artisanal coffee) upon winged chariots (shiny electric hybrids). The city basically invented the concept of the tech entrepreneur: young, dressed down, and brash, but unassuming. A full 35 percent of all venture capitalist (VC) dollars invested in the United States comes to the Bay Area—some $9.5 billion in 2006. Today, alternative-energy start-ups own the VC buzz.

Homeport: The restaurant and patio of the Hotel Vitale are known to draw the VC crowd. But if you want to sleep like a tech king, there's the sleek and serene St. Regis, where Al Gore crashes when he's in town and Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page keep pieds-à-terre. Squint, and the place is as good as home (it costs $500,000 per room, after all), with a 42-inch plasma TV, a fax/scanner/printer on request, and a bedside "digital assistant" that controls the lights, shades, TV, and alarm clock. Even the art has a touch of tech: Wooden sculptures are laser-cut instead of hand-carved.

Social networking: Buck's in Woodside is the closest thing Silicon Valley venture capitalists have to a clubhouse. eBay was first pitched at this kitschy diner; Hotmail and Netscape were conceived here as well. Those lower on the Web 2.0 food chain subsist on caffeinated beverages from Ritual Coffee Roasters, in the Mission District. You're likely to see excitable types huddling over business plans at just about any hour of the day or night (and the notice pictured above keeps Twitter-happy customers from holding up the line). Other less publicized places win high-tech workers by virtue of their coffee rep; Piccino, the Hat Factory in Dogpatch, is a stylish group work space for freelancers.

When to interface: In San Francisco, it's easy to find fellow techies who share your love for rocketry or steampunk. This is, after all, the city that goes crazy during geek events such as Dorkbot, a boozy party held regularly in rotating venues; it's headlined by techno artists, presenting their latest projects—one recently taught a crowd how to stitch robotics into stuffed animals. Meanwhile, start-up types are easy to meet at events like January's annual "Crunchies," which have become the Oscars for the tech crowd, andTechCrunch50, a mass launch of the year's most anticipated start-ups held in September.

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That’s just some of the data we uncovered researching on-time percentages from September 1, 2007, to August 31, 2008. Mining that data, we put together a list of the best and worst airlines for delays. This list has changed quite a bit from 2007, even more so than our list of the Best and Worst Airports—there are newcomers in both categories, and some airlines have changed dramatically. How come?

While there are industry-wide efforts to improve on-time performance, perhaps more effective are the steps that individual airlines are taking. US Airways, which had the lowest on-time performance in 2007, with just 68 percent of domestic flights taking off on schedule, began offering its employees bonuses for improving conditions. In 2008, its punctuality record ranked near the top. And the worst offender, American Airlines (running last during the first eight months of 2008), is also changing its ways. The carrier has scheduled longer periods between flights to give staff more time to prepare planes, and it’s building up its spare-parts inventory so that repairs can be made more quickly.

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You can go as big as you want in Big Sky Country. But which is the real Montana?

I grew up there and can tell you with authority, they both are. Here are some observations from recent visits to both resorts:

Big Mountain: They just renamed this "Whitefish Mountain Resort at Big Mountain," but it's just Big Mountain to Montanans. It has fewer runs and a more rustic village than Big Sky, but many of the condos are nice and affordable, and usually come with access to a pool or hot tub.

The restaurants tend toward ski bum chic: dark, woody, places with lots of burgers, pizza and beer. Prices aren't a lot higher than in the charming town of Whitefish at the bottom of the hill. Kids are welcome most everyplace, and the beer tends to come in pitchers.

Whitefish is near the western edge of Glacier National Park, and the scenery and tourist amenities are spectacular.

The town is served by Amtrak's Empire Builder. On our recent trip, we rode the train from Spokane, Wash., to Whitefish, a five-hour trip in the middle of the night. Cost was $50 per person.

We stayed in town at a golf resort. The hotel sent a van to pick us up at Whitefish's charming old train station. After we checked in, they shuttled us up the mountain, to the hotel's private lodge in the village.

We skied all day, had dinner, then got shuttled back to our hotel in town.

This area nestled between Glacier and giant Flathead Lake has long been one of the most popular parts of Montana, and is awash in out-of-staters buying second and third homes.

But it also remains popular with Montanans, and has maintained much of the state's casual attitude. The blue jeans tend more toward Levi's or Haggar than Ralph Lauren. The people wearing cowboy hats may actually work on a ranch, and many of the customers come from places like Great Falls and Missoula.

Celebrities do appear. I once rode up the lift with former NFL quarterback Bobby Hebert, the Cajun Cannon. We had a nice chat, but when we got to the top our skis crossed, Hebert fell to the ground and the chair hit him in the helmet.

It's my one and only quarterback sack.

Big Sky: If Big Mountain is burgers, Big Sky is steak. It was founded by a group that included former television anchorman Chet Huntley (the main bar in the Huntley Lodge is called Chet's Place), and is located in the posh Paradise Valley near Yellowstone National Park.

Luxury is the order of business here. The hotels and condos are decorated right out of lifestyle magazines, with prices to match. While there are some generic ski hill restaurants, the dinner places tend be fancy and pricey, including one that can be reached by horse-drawn sleigh. We considered going to a Japanese restaurant with a large family group, but a glance at the menu posted in the window sent us elsewhere.

The staff all wear black cowboy hats, giving a theme park feel.

Big Sky has lots and lots of ski runs and high-speed lifts, so the mountain feels uncrowded. There's a shopping mall where one can buy furs. The celebrity count is often relatively high.

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BELIZE

Getting there
There are nonstop flights from Dallas, Houston and Miami to Belize City Airport, where you can rent a car (Budget, National, etc.). From New York, airfare now is just under $600. From Chicago, just under $700.

When to go
From November to April, the weather is perfect. You’ll probably want to avoid the wet season, from June to October.

Know before you go
No special vaccinations are required, but be sure your routine shots are up-to-date. Malaria is a slight risk. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention suggests travelers take the anti-malarial chloroquine. Or you can choose to use a bug repellent containing DEET, and in the jungle wear lightweight pants and long-sleeved shirts.

There are few public telephones along the highways, so be sure to pack an international phone or rent a cell phone at the airport in Belize City.

What to see and do
You’ll want to stay in Ambergris Caye, a laid-back island just off the coast from Belize City, with a nice selection of hotels. The Victoria House, a luxury resort there and part of the T+L 500, has rates as low as $155 a night and close to the island’s main town, San Pedro, where you’ll find dive operators to take you to the area’s top attractions: the Blue Hole and Shark-Ray Alley.

• The Blue Hole: Experienced divers shouldn’t miss a day trip to the famous Blue Hole, a nearly perfectly round sinkhole that's 1,000 feet in diameter and some 400 feet deep. You can do a day trip for around $250, including breakfast and lunch and scuba equipment.
  

• Hol Chan and Shark-Ray Alley Marine Reserve: A little closer to Ambergris Cay is a marine reserve called Hol Chan. Its highlight is a cut through the barrier reef, just 25 yards wide and 30 feet deep. As such it attracts an abundance of sea life traveling from the oceanside to the landside of the reef. That in turn has brought divers to this spot, making it one of the most popular dive sites in Belize. You will see an incredible amount of sea life, including nurse sharks and sting rays. Dive trips from Ambergris Cay cost as little as U.S. $50, including your equipment

ICELAND

Getting there
Icelandair is offering a great deal now that includes airfare and two nights at a Reykjavik hotel for just $479 per person. Extra hotel nights are only about $50 per person. And Reykjavik is the perfect base for your excursion around this island-nation. Iceland is a year-round destination, but you have more hours of daylight in the summer.

What to see and do
Icelandtouristboard.com has a list of tour operators who can schedule day trips from Reykjavik to all the main attractions of Iceland, but it’s also easy to rent a car and drive yourself. Some top destinations are:

• The Blue Lagoon: One of the top tourist destinations in Iceland, about a 45-minute drive from Reykjavik, the Blue Lagoon is an outdoor pool of geothermal seawater, naturally heated to 100 degrees F, 12 months a year. Bring a bathing suit and spend all day soaking away your cares. About $20 for adults.
  
  
• Gullfloss Waterfall: Gullfloss (Golden Waterfall) is one of the most popular attractions in the country, an awe-inspiring waterfall of enormous beauty. There had been plans to use the waterfall as part of a hydroelectric project, which would have required changing the flow of the waterfall and perhaps ruining its scenic beauty forever. However, that move failed, and the waterfall is now preserved in its natural state.

If you really want to go over the top, Butterfield & Robinson offers an eight-day guided tour that starts and ends in the country's capital, Reykjavík, for about $8,000 per person.

AUSTRALIA

Getting there
You can fly nonstop from L.A. to Sydney on Qantas, United or American for around $3,000. If you don’t mind changing planes, you can take a one-stop flight on Air New Zealand for under $2,000. In the past, Qantas has offered a $999 Aussie Airpass deal, so keep an eye out for air specials in the future.

When to go
Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere, so our winter is their summer. Although you may not want to time your visit to the Outback in the heat of their summer, or go to Manly Beach in the depths of winter, Australia is generally a year-round destination.

Know before you go
You should always see your doctor before embarking on a major trip, but most visitors to Australia don’t need any special vaccinations. And a visit to Australia is not an arduous trip, so there aren’t any particular health requirements.

One of the most difficult parts of a trip to Australia is the flight time: 14 1/2 hours on average from L.A.

You can easily plan your own vacation to Australia by booking your airfare and hotels online or with a travel agent. Hotels are pretty affordable, especially now that the U.S. dollar has strengthened against the Australian dollar. If you want to stay by the beach in Sydney, stay at the Ravesis hotel; rooms start at about U.S. $157 a night. If you want to stay in the city, rooms at the Altamont start at about U.S. $78 a night

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Goa is definitely the favourite holiday spot for most Bollywood celebrities. From Esha Deol and Arshad Warsi to Imtiaz Ali and Malaika Arora Khan - they all prefer to hit the golden beaches to unwind.

Esha Deol: Since I'm a total beach bum, Goa is one of the best spots India has to offer me. Lately, however, it's become too commercialised and not so safe. But I'll always have fond memories of my Goan holidays.

Chitrangda Singh: Goa is the Indian Europe. It has great energy.

Raima Sen: I go at least four times a year. I love the seafood, beaches and shacks. I love the chilled-out life there and the friendly vibes of the place. I can comfortably let my hair down.

Minissha Lamba: Goa is among the most easily accessible holiday spots, and one of those places where the beaches are swimmable.

Arbaaz Khan: Goa is definitely my favourite holiday spot. It's chilled out, not much hustle bustle. I love the place, people and food. Being close to Mumbai, it is an ideal vacation spot.

Tusshar Kapoor: I've only been to Goa for shootings. I love the place. The ambience is excellent. I love the water and the warmth of the people. It's the ultimate place to get out of the rat race.

Imtiaz Ali: Goa is big in my life. I go there very often, but still not as often as I'd like. I'd like to live the life of a hippy or a nomad on one of the beaches there. I'd like to just travel around the beaches and villages. Life is not possible for me without Goa. It takes the traffic and the noise out of my blood system.

Rohit Roy: Goa has been my favourite Indian holiday destination from the time I was in college. Earlier I'd go with a bunch of friends. But now it's become a hotspot for family holidays. My wife Manasi and daughter Kiara are as much beach persons as I am! I absolutely adore its chilled-out pace. I love Goan food, prawn curry and rice being my favourites. Oh I love everything about Goa!

Arshad Warsi: I love Goa. The place slows me down. I go there as often as I can.

Malaika Arora: I don't think there's any better place to holiday than Goa. I love it! My husband Arbaaz and I always dreamt of owning a home there. And now our dream is coming true.

Sammir Dattani: Since I am total water person, Goa is the place for me. At least twice a year I take off with a bunch of friends and we never get out of the water.

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10. Antarctica

Antarctica is Earth’s southernmost continent, overlying the South Pole. Be prepared to have your breath taken away by the spectacular sight of the Antarctic Peninsula as you follow in the footsteps of some of the world’s greatest explorers - Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen. Penguins and albatrosses are the birds most associated with Antarctica, but it is petrels, prions, fulmars and shearwaters that make up most of the species inhabiting the Great White Continent. Sea life include whales, seals, squid and fish. This is an ideal holiday for lovers of nature and the cold!

9. The Amazon

You might think that an immense rainforest would be a bulwark against extinction, but several species of turtles in the Amazon Basin are facing severe threats from development, hunting, and habitat loss. The Amazon turtle (Podocnemis expansa), a huge creature reaching 60 kilograms, and the smaller Tracajá turtle (Podocnemis unifilis) are hunted for their eggs, meat, oil, and shells. What’s more, these endangered species also depend on the river beaches to nest, and hydroelectric dams and river navigation projects threaten to flood critical nesting sites. If conservation is your thing, this is the holiday of a lifetime. What a great opportunity to see beautiful rainforests and the Amazon River - just be careful if you go swimming - there are some rather nasty creatures in that water.

8. Siberia

A truly cultural experience with a North Pole touch! Tour the Polar museum in St. Petersburg, visit with reindeer herders in the Siberian village of Khatanga, excursion to Taymur Nature Reserve, barbecue at the taiga border in the picturesque valley of Kotuy River and of course…stand on the North Pole! If you are lucky, you might even get to see Santa having a wee break after the Christmas rush. Oh - and maybe next year you can do Antarctica so you can tell your friends you have stood on both poles.

7. Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands (the western portion of the island is occupied by the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua). Papua New Guinea is probably the most undiscovered country in the world. Some of the many things you can do in Papua New Guinea are visit markets, festivals, diving, surfing, hiking, fishing and see amazing unique flora and fauna. The markets are a definite must-see: along with local foods, arts and crafts are often on display and can be purchased for reasonable prices. Some of the items on display are traditional carvings and beadwork, traditional and contemporary paintings on canvas and traditionally woven baskets and serving trays. If you do decide to travel to Papua New Guinea, you would be well advised that there is a great deal of violence and crime there, and women should not travel unaccompanied.

6. Tibet

Tibet is becoming a much more popular tourist destination now that the Communist government of China are promoting tourism; nevertheless, it is still a place worth visiting because of the fascinating history of turmoil that has best the nation. This is the home of the unique form of Buddhism known as Tibetan Buddhism (headed by the Dalai Lama). If you are lucky, you may even have the opportunity to see an authentic Tibetan sky burial- keep away from those vultures though!

5. Mongolia

Mongolia contains very little arable land as much of its area is covered by arid and unproductive steppes with mountains to the north and west and the Gobi Desert to the south. Approximately thirty percent of the country’s 2.8 million people are nomadic or semi-nomadic. This is where the holiday comes in - you can take a horse trek across the steppes following the same paths that generations of nomadic tribes have taken, or across the desert. The Gobi Steppe Ride is supported by camel carts and ventures south through treeless steppes and semi arid areas towards the desert. Both rides take you into areas where there are no fences, no tracks and no telegraph poles; the only sign of human activity are the nomadic herders you meet along the way. This is a truly unspoilt land and it is almost unbeatable as a holiday destination for those who love the great outdoors.

4. Tangiers

This city in Morocco is not the most unusual on the list as it is a fairly popular holiday destination, but it is overlooked by so many people that it deserves a place here. Tangiers is a city with a brilliantly colorful past. From the 1920s it was an International Zone which made it virtually lawless, and in this climate many great writers (namely William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Tennessee Williams, and Paul Bowles) lived there. After the Second World War the city was reunited with Morocco. The city is a multicultural mecca and is situated across the strait from Gibraltar. Tangier has been reputed as a safe house for international spying activities and is home to one of the worlds largest private investigations company in the world. A railroad line connects the city with Rabat, Casablanca and Marrakech in the south and Fès and Oujda in the east.

3. South Korea

South Korea is not a particularly common holiday destination, but in my own experience, it is a great country to visit. If you stay in Seoul you can visit the DMZ (The Demilitarized Zone) - a section of land between North and South Korea which is a no-mans land. You can visit the tunnels that were built by the North Koreans in the hopes that they could be used for a sneak invasion of Korea (this happened after the Korean war incidentally), and you can use binoculars to look across the DMZ to see North Korean soldiers manning their side of the region - it is very eerie but amazingly cool. South Korea also has some incredible food - such as their famous Korean Barbeque, and be sure to try out kimchi (a fermented side-dish) - loved by all Koreans and many non-Koreans. Did you know that when Koreans have their photographs taken they often say “Kimchi!” in much the same way as Westerners say “Cheese!”?

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Last month, the cost of travel rose by 8.7 percent, according to the Travel Industry Association. Families, however pinched, are not likely to abandon holiday trips. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics says visiting friends and family is the single-biggest reason for travel, so to keep from breaking the bank, families have to become more creative in their travel planning.

"Really, it's about what's most important to you when you travel," says Elizabeth Sanberg, co-founder of gogreentravelgreen.com, a site that focuses on sustainable travel. "By figuring out what things you care about most that can't be changed, and what's flexible and can change, you can really cut expenses."

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Carnival Cruises, in order to augment cruise holidaying among Indian travellers, has made available its entire fleet consisting of 22 ships for FAM trips for Indian agents. The agents can select any ship of the company for a FAM trip at reduced rates. The initiative started in September this year will continue till year end. Travel agents who have successfully completed the online cruise education course on Carnival University Online or the contracted agents are qualified for the FAM trip.

“Travel agents will be allowed to go on FAM trips at reduced rates and study the offerings of Carnival Cruises,” informed Mark Mendes, Managing Director, Discover the World Marketing India – representatives for Carnival Cruises in India. Carnival University Online is a joint initiative of Discover the World Marketing India and Carnival Cruises, focusing on cruise education. The University, which was launched late last year, currently has about 100 agents going through the course. “There is a dire need to educate travel agents about cruise destinations as they are a very different from regular destination one covers on land,” said Mendes. The online university cruise education is based on six different modules covering ship facilities, different vessels of the company, various destinations covered by Carnival Cruises, accommodation, identifying potential clients, deposit, payment and cancellation policy, customised cruise packages etc.

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