Tourists warned of UAE drug laws

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Title – Tourists warned of UAE drug laws
Source – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 8th February 2008

It is often difficult to understand what we perceive to be the ‘crazy’ laws of some of the countries we visit, even countries which attract as many tourists as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), especially Dubai. But whatever we think and whatever our beliefs, when in another country we have to abide by their rules and their laws, otherwise staying at home is our only option.

UAE is certainly not alone in having very strong laws on both legal and illegal drugs. Comparatively they may actually be more lenient than other countries where a mandatory death penalty is enforced. However it is their approach that is drawing attention to the risks of travel. Most people will accept that drug smugglers should face the consequences of their actions, even if they don’t agree with some of the harsh sentences. Few people can any longer be ignorant of the consequences of drug smuggling; put simply the penalties for drug smuggling anywhere in the world are severe and can result in a mandatory death sentence.

The difference in UAE is the methods of detection and the requirements for conviction. A zero tolerance approach is not unusual, but it is what constitutes possession that is most worrying. The examples in this article certainly reinforce the idea that any contact with illegal drugs could be considered possession in UAE and this in itself is of concern, as many people will not even be aware that they are or have been in contact. New technology makes it possible to detect even the smallest quantity of illegal drugs. Let me put that into some kind of context; a recent study showed that almost every £10 and £20 note in circulation in the UK when tested contain cocaine residue… undoubtedly there are many cocaine users in the UK but we all carry £10 and £20 notes in our wallets even those of us who have never touched the stuff...

The situation with prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs is equally strict, but here at least there is something you can do about it. It should be in everyone’s travel plan to ensure they make themselves aware through embassy websites, the FCO and similar sources which drugs may be restricted at their destinations (including stop-overs). Certainly any prescription drugs should not be taken without a copy of the prescription and preferably a letter from your doctor highlighting the need for the medication. Copies of these documents should be treated just as carefully as your passport; with copies made and stored in different locations and electronically.

Our Gap Year & Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop provides candidates with guidance and advice on Travel Safety issues ranging from Travel Health to Documentation, Passport, Visa and Currency advice. We will help you to plan effectively for your trip, to avoid potential problems and to return home safely with just positive adventures to recount to your friends and family.

Please visit our website please visit at

www.safegapyear.com

And you thought your train was busy

Title – And you thought your train was busy
Source – The Metro
Date – 1st February 2008

Culture shock comes in many different forms and sometimes we just have to accept that staying away is better then the experience itself might be.

As a general rule I would say steer clear of crowds when you are in a foreign country or at least be on your guard and take additional precautions, where possible stay with a local guide or contact. Politically motivated crowds and crowd developing through local anger are even more of a no-go area and demonstrations generally are better avoided and in certain circumstances you should consider the option of leaving the area, city or country altogether.

Many crowds can however be predicted and happen regularly or even daily in some cities and you just have to negotiate them. Crowd control is a science and it has been studied at great length by psychologist, law enforcement and others, for generations. We understand some ways to deal with crowds and sometimes we apply them, but how a crowd in one country is dealt with can be very different to how they are dealt with in another country. In the frenzy the protection that you are often unwittingly given as a visitor is ignored when you find yourself surrounded by hundreds, thousands or even hundreds of thousands of locals, you become one and will be treated like one.

In Jakarta, Indonesia, a recent initiative to deal with serious overcrowding on trains forcing people on to the roof of the trains themselves, involved station staff developing a system of spraying those who climbed on the roofs with a pungent food dye that led to skin irritations, ruined clothing and resulted in their skin being stained for months. This was seen not only as an effective solution, but as a perfectly sensible on.

China saw some of its worst snow for a generation this year, leading to transport chaos at a time of year when traditionally the Chinese migrant workers get a few days off and travel home to visit and celebrate the Chinese New Year with relatives. At a time when transport is usually overwhelmed anyway, the cancellations led to such chaos that the Chinese Premiere offered an apology in person… anyone who has even the slightest understanding of Chinese politics will know this is not just unusual but unprecedented and demonstrates exactly how bad things were.

In a country where travelling is already difficult enough for non Chinese speakers, you really would not want to be thinking about buying a ticket or trying to push yourself to the front of the queue in this situation… Travel planning is essential, no one can predict what is going to happen with any accuracy in the form of weather, political turmoil, disease epidemics and all the other factors that need to be considered, but you can plan to reduce the risks to a minimum and avoid where sensible certain seasons, public holiday and other events that are predictable. You can also plan contingencies into your trip, when these scenes present themselves, our advice; go back to your guest house or hotel and enjoy a few more nights in Guangzhou, the Terracotta Warriors will still be there when you visit a week later. Our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshops can help you plan effectively for your trip and understand the need to be flexible to stay safe.


Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com

Hundreds feared dead in Congo lake

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Title – Hundreds feared dead in Congo lake
Source – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 30th January 2008

At this time visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo as an independent traveller may not be a wise choice and certainly not to be undertaken without seeking specialist advice for that country. But this story goes some way once again to demonstrating the dangers in some local transport options.

Local people often use the cheapest transport available and although cheap doesn’t always mean bad, it can often be that way in the developing world. Cutting corners allows the companies running these services to make a profit even when the service itself may seem almost ridiculously cheap by our western standards. In the UK a 10 minute cab ride would set you back £10 in the Democratic Republic of Congo this will probably get you half way across this enormous country.

The problem is that the corners cut often mean that safety standards that may have been low to start with, are reduced still further. Maintenance is ignored unless it affects the running of the service, capacities either do not exist or are flouted as every last paying passenger is welcomed and then squeezed on and safety equipment such as life jackets and life rafts are either wholly inadequate, insufficient in number or completely absent.

Add to these problems the fact that when something does go wrong, there is simply not the infrastructure to provide adequate rescue or medical facilities and the need to choose your Transport Options carefully and to have the courage to change them or cancel them if you are in anyway unhappy takes on a greater significance.

Some simple rules will allow the independent traveller where ever they are in the world to assess the risks of their transport options and understand the real dangers that exist on a daily basis in many parts of the world.

Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com

Paraguay put on dengue alert

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Title – Paraguay put on dengue alert
Source – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 30th January 2008

Dengue strikes again, this time in Brazil’s neighbour, Paraguay.

Dengue has no vaccine or cure and can be fatal. The fact that in travellers it is very rarely fatal, should not make people think that they should not be concerned, catching Dengue is not like having flu, it is a debilitating disease that can certainly end a trip and can take a while to recover from. People that catch Dengue can develop immunity to that particular variant, but this actually makes Dengue more dangerous as any subsequent contraction of any of the other variants of the disease can be substantially more dangerous and most fatalities are as a result of multiple infections.

As part of our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety and Awareness workshop we examine the issue of Travel Health and what you need to look out for in the particular area of the world you plan to travel to. With mosquitoes accounting for so many fatalities and infections from the diseases that they transmit, we not only look at which medical solutions might be available but also the best ways of preventing yourself being bitten in the first place.

In the case of Dengue fever, where no cure, vaccination or prophylactic is available, bite prevention and protection is more important than ever and even if there is probably no full proof way of stopping bites altogether, the practices we teach you will help reduce your vulnerability to an absolute minimum.

Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com

Flying three times greener then cruising

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Title – Flying three times greener then cruising
Source – Telegraph Travel
Date – 19th January 2008

Global warming is truly the challenge for the world, how do we continue to progress our economies without damaging the planet further? How do we continue to enjoy the fruits of our hard work by taking holidays or travelling and yet prevent further damage to our planet?

These are going to be the challenges of our generation and the challenges for which we have to find the solutions, because the consequences are unimaginable. But the question is, how we do this most effectively and the time has come for the opposing factions to put down their weapons of rhetoric and present the facts.

Currently news headlines convince us that the answer is for us to turn off our TV at night, to stop flying and to recycle the odd bottle here and there. We championed biofuels, just to discover that it is preventing the poor from accessing food as the cost rise. There does seem to be a new solution followed by a new problem day after day and who do we really believe. Industry is trying desperately to protect it’s profit margins for shareholders, governments are trying to protect business in order to retain power and some campaign groups are using scare tactics in their desperate attempt to maintain awareness. We the public just want to hear the balanced view, it is simply too important a subject to be used as a political ping pong ball.

We all have our part to play and we know that there are solutions out there, we see wind farms approved and never built, we see one side of nuclear arguments presented, we see world leaders fly in private jets around the world and tell us not to fly and we hear big business tell us how green they are by placing a solar panel on the roof of their head quarters on the one hand, while they pump tonnes of CO2 into our atmosphere with the other.

These are the big challenges we face, to convince our politicians it really is time for change, time to stop talking and start acting and we tell them we are willing to pay the short term price for the long term gain. To achieve this we have to be proactive and we all have to put pressure on those people we elect across the world to start to listen to what we the majority want. As well as this we have to lead by example, it’s really a bit of a role reversal, but might be the only way. We all know the little things we can do in our own lives to reduce or CO2 emissions or carbon footprint, this does not mean changing fundamentally the way we live, it does not mean cancelling holidays, it means seeking out the services we want not just based on the traditional criteria, but on how they will affect the our carbon foot print. Where the footprint is large we should look to reduce it, where we can not reduce it, we should look to offset it. Never think you alone in this, if your neighbour doesn’t do it, it does not mean it is pointless and does not mean you are alone and can’t make a difference. Every time you turn off the light (whatever type of light bulb you use) you are making a difference.

So should you go on a cruise? If that is what you have worked all year or for ten years towards then yes, go and enjoy it. But think a bit about which company you go with for more reasons than just the glossy brochure, take a little time and research how much of an environmental impact they have and how you can off-set that impact before you go and once you return. Because if we all choose services and companies based on more than just price, glossy brochure and convenience and consider 'green' criteria more importantly, then companies will start to really compete to be 'greener' that others, will invest in 'greener' technology. They will also invest in the people that were clever enough to put a man on the moon or develop antibiotics and give them the funding to find the solutions to this latest man made problem. But it has to happen today, not tomorrow.

Responsible and Ethical Travel is important and travel has a big impact not just on the environment, but on the people whose country you are visiting, we believe it can be a positive one and we know our workshop can help you achieve this.



Please visit our website at www.sfaegapyear.com

UK woman murdered in New Zealand

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Title – UK woman murdered in New Zealand
Source – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 18th January 2008

New Zealand is a very popular choice with tourists, 'gapers' and people on working holidays. It is a very stable and generally safe country. Many people think of it as a prettier version of the UK (especially Scotland) on the bottom of the world, caught in a time-warp where people are more in tune with their community and the pace of life is a little slower; something many people yearn for.

But these thoughts and perceptions can be dangerous and result in people being complacent in their behaviour. Any time we take holidays, we seem to behave in a way that leaves us susceptible to risk in its many different forms. This is partly because as we are on 'holiday', we are generally in a more positive and relaxed frame of mind and this can leave us vulnerable.

In this tragic case of Karen Aim there is no suggestion at the time of writing that this is anything other then a horrific indiscriminate attack on an innocent traveller who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Our thoughts are with her family and friends who not only have to deal with this tragedy, but have to cope with being so far away on the other side of the world.

Travelling takes us far away from the help we are used to, travellers are often wary of starting out on a trip and the concerns of those they leave behind can be substantial. Parents feel helpless to protect their children, something that has dominated their lives for over 18 years.

Despite people being 'street-wise' or confident at home, this does not always translate to other parts of the world and there is truly nowhere entirely safe. We aim to show candidates on our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop (GYITSA) that glossy travel brochures don’t show the darker side of countries, but they all have one. People should not be put off travel by this dark underbelly, but they should consider and manage the risk.

The vast majority of travel to New Zealand results only in fond memories to bring home and share with others, our aim is to enhance those memories by providing effective advice for those attending our workshops.

Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com

Yellow Fever alert alarms Brazil

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Title – Yellow Fever alert alarms Brazil
Source – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 11th January 2008

Travel Health should be near the top of anyone’s agenda when they are planning to travel. Some vaccinations can take weeks to organise or involve a series of treatments over months. Generally you should visit your doctor or travel clinic at least six weeks before you plan to set off, to ensure you will be able to complete any vaccination process prior to departure.

There are sporadic outbreaks of different diseases across the world at any one time, some are just worth knowing about so you can take a little extra care, others will require you to seek additional medical advice and others still can require you to change your plans completely. Where there is a serious outbreak of disease, the local medical facilities may barely be able to cope, the last thing they need is more people (tourists) turning up, falling ill and further stretching their facilities.

This recent outbreak of yellow fever does seem to be serious, but also seems to be under control, but travellers should still seek specific advice from a medical practitioner before travelling.

As with all mosquito borne diseases, effective prevention measures can reduce the risks substantially. On our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop (GYITSA) we examine diseases including yellow fever and dengue and we discuss what prevention and protection solutions there are from insect borne diseases.

The risk of yellow fever may be reduced by effective prevention techniques, but only you will know that. Many countries will expect you to have a yellow fever vaccination certificate to gain entry to their country, if you have previously visited an endemic yellow fever region of the world.

Dengue fever is also a great concern, with no effective vaccination or cure, prevention is doubly important. Do not be fooled by the 'relatively' low fatality rate (98 out of 438,000 in Brazil in 2007). Although the odds of survival are 'relatively' good, it is a very debilitating disease. It will certainly cut short your trip and can take months to recover from even with supportive medical care. Don’t take risks, protect yourself! If you want to find out the best way to do this attend our workshop.

Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com

Tibet tourism ‘hit record high’

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Title – Tibet tourism ‘hit record high’
Source – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 17th December 2007

Once the last frontier of adventure travel, exploration and expeditions, Tibet became a favourite with backpackers and Gap Year travellers and is now teetering on the edge of becoming a mainstream tourist destination. With 4 million tourists visiting Tibet (a substantial increase will have come from Chinese tourists) each year, it can hardly be described as the final frontier of adventure travel any more.

But independent travellers should not be deterred, Tibet still has a lot to offer and will be a spectacular destination for anyone not having visited the Himalayas before. Anyone truly willing to put in the effort will still find untouched landscapes and hiking trails which the masses choose to ignore or don’t have the time or fitness levels to attempt.

Politically Tibet is sensitive, many are calling for the Chinese to leave and autonomy to be restored. Undoubtedly the Chinese influence is a negative and repressive one and one that threatens (some would say already has) to permanently ruin one of the countries greatest attractions; the spiritual heart beat which has survived centuries, but is critically threatened by Chinese 'development'. As long as his Holiness The Dalai Lama is exiled from his spiritual homeland, Tibet will be missing its heart beat.

Tibet is a perfect example of a country where tourists and travellers should choose where they spend their money wisely, support local Tibetan businesses when you choose your hotel, dinner, guides and choose authentic local crafts as gifts to take home rather then cheap Chinese imports.

We believe that every individual should be allowed to choose where they decide to travel to themselves, but that they should be informed of both politically sensitive areas, politically unstable areas, medically dangerous destinations and culturally sensitive destinations before they make their final choices. Our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety and Awareness workshop provides candidates with comprehensive Destination Advice and safety tips specific to your destinations to allow you to make informed choices. Where we determine the destination to be unsuitable for safe independent travel we may refuse to offer advice, but this is determined before the booking process is completed.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com

Malaria risk ‘higher’ this year

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Title – Malaria risk ‘higher’ this year
Source – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 3rd December 2007

Having accurate and up-to-date information about your travel destination is vital for any travel you are planning.

Travel Health is an essential part of any travel plan and Malaria is one of the more serious risks faced by travellers to certain parts of the world. When the risk increases, such as is the case in South Africa currently, then the protection you afford yourself needs to be redoubled.

We take Travel Health seriously and protecting yourself from Malaria and its devastating effects is to near the top of our list. Both a proactive and a prophylactic approach is called for and we advise candidates on our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop (GYITSA) of the best ways to protect themselves against Malaria and other travel health issues.

Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com

Rift valley fever deaths in Sudan

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Title – Rift valley fever deaths in Sudan
Source – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 15th November 2007

Rift Valley Fever is just one of the many afflictions parts of Africa have to deal with and it sometimes seems that Sub-Saharan Africa suffers from the scourge of almost every tropical disease know today.

Travel to the Sudan is not common, the reputation of a country synonymous with war, famine, Dafur, Al-Qaeda and so many more news headlines means that most people cross it off the list early when deciding where to travel to, but it is still on the list of some intrepid travellers mostly on organised tours.

Disease is prevalent on every continent except Antarctica and no travel should ever be planned without an in-depth look at the dangers disease causes the locals and therefore travellers to those areas. Fortunately instances of Rift Valley Fever are relatively rare, but the same can not be said for Malaria, Tuberculosis, Hepatitis, Typhoid, heatstroke, altitude sickness and many more.

A trip to any part of the world needs to be planned in conjunction with a programme of appropriate vaccinations, prophylactic drugs and most importantly sound preventative measures. A basic understanding of the symptoms and incubation periods of diseases from the areas of the world you are travelling to also helps, when it comes to diagnosis. Malaria for example can have an incubation period of several months; the symptoms are initially similar to a common cold, so when you visit your doctor with a cold 3 months after you return from your tropical adventure, the knowledge you have will allow your doctor to make a more accurate diagnosis.

Making plans is more than just choosing which countries to visit, it’s about planning for the worst case scenario and leaving as little to chance as is practicable. Our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshops help you achieve this goal.

Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com