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# Sunday, 11 November 2007

blogoftheweek_thumb This week's travel blog of the week is Old World Wandering London to Shanghai by land. It is written by Claire van den Heever and Iain Manley and follows their journey from London to China through Western Europe, the Middle East, India and South East Asia. The most recent posts follow their progress through India. One recent post describes the not so luxurious journey on a train in third class where although you do get a seat (unlike here in the UK) you do have to sit crossed legged on a luggage rack.

Backwaters 1

The same post also describes how the local ladies make strong ropes out of coconut fibre by twisting them together before attaching them to a spinning wheel. Another thing that I found really interesting was the way that people get around needing an alcohol license which is apparently a rarity on the island. Beer is served in a teapot to disguise it and if a policeman should come to investigate they are offered an incentive to turn a blind eye.

Another interesting post which is well worth a read describes a ride on the typical Indian bus which the author describes as being "made of metal sheets, generously dented". The bus has no set fare, that must be negotiated with the conductor. It also has no set capacity. This blog contains a wealth of information and stunning pictures. It also includes a useful map that charts their progress so far and shows how far they still have to go.

posted on Sunday, 11 November 2007 18:18:20 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Friday, 09 November 2007
Around 100 people turned out to protest outside the Crown Post Office in Trafalgar Square yesterday. The protest was at the proposed closure privatization of 85 Crown post offices and the closure of 2,500 others. It was attended by the CWU and the National Pensioners Convention and was aimed at highlighting the fact that in many towns disabled and elderly people will no longer be able to access facilities which they currently rely upon.

posted on Friday, 09 November 2007 11:20:03 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Wednesday, 07 November 2007
Royal Mail has announced plans to close another 42 post offices across Merseyside and Cheshire. A six week consultation process is now under way that will enable people to give their views on the proposed closures. You can see a full list of the planned closures here.

posted on Wednesday, 07 November 2007 16:16:05 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Tuesday, 06 November 2007
PC2Paper users can now view and download invoices showing all of their monthly transactions. This new feature can be accessed from the left hand menu after you have logged into your account. We have added the feature so that customers can download a full record of their past transactions and keep track on their monthly spend.

posted on Tuesday, 06 November 2007 15:02:03 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback

blogoftheweek This weeks Travel Blog of the week is Travel Rants, its editor Darren Cronian was inspired to start this blog after a nightmare booking experience with a high street travel agency. It appears that from then on Travels Rants has grown into a popular destination for travel consumers to rant about their travel experiences and to find advice and guides on traveling.

One article I found particularly interesting was how Travel Agents were responsible for airlines charging such extortionate fees for changing the names on travel tickets.  According to the article Travel Agencies used to buy the tickets cheap when they were first released and hold onto them until near departure when they would greatly increase in value and sell them on at a greater profit.

posted on Tuesday, 06 November 2007 00:41:49 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Monday, 05 November 2007
Ryanair have been given a fifth ultimatum for breaching advertising standards for the fifth time this year. The airline has been accused of misleading the public and undermining advertising rules vu overcharging Ryanair passengers who book with them rather than with the carrier direct.

posted on Monday, 05 November 2007 14:28:48 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Sunday, 04 November 2007
Air South West has announced it will double the number of destinations it flies to. They currently operate from Plymouth Airport flying to Gatwick, Manchester, Leeds Bradford and Bristol and Jersey. From next April this list will be extended to include Newcastle, Glasgow, Dublin and Cork. Flights to Chambery in France will start the following December.
posted on Sunday, 04 November 2007 14:30:14 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Saturday, 03 November 2007
Ryanair has started new services from George Best City Airport. The airline will now operate flights to London Stansted, Liverpool, the East Midlands and Glasgow and Prestwick. They expect to carry around 200,000 passengers on these new routes every year.

posted on Saturday, 03 November 2007 13:14:14 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback
# Friday, 02 November 2007
Royal Mail has ended Sunday collections in order to cut costs. Although most mail boxes do not have a Sunday collection a small proportion of boxes mainly outside main post offices did have a Sunday collection. Royal Mail have said that the demand for Sunday collections is limited and that it costs four times as much to handle those letters as it does letters posted on other days of the week.

posted on Friday, 02 November 2007 10:52:56 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Trackback