From 17th - 28th February next year you can enjoy hundreds of entertainment opportunities at the traditional Venice Carnival. It's a party with no barriers or borders, and it's arranged in one of the most amazing and famous historic city in the world. For more than 200 years, Venice has been a wonderful place for fancy-dress parties, jokes and sneers. And for over 20 years, Venice has been welcoming masqueraders, visitors and tourists who want to join the carnival and have fun in the late winter.

So this morning on Oct 8th (2005) I wake up and I notice my bed is moving. Weird, I check and it's moving alright. I think neighbours shagging, but the vibration is not coming from the wall so then I think large mammal under the bed. I jump up and shout 'what the fuck'. I get off bed, cross the room and look beneath gingerly, nothing there. After a few minutes it stops.....

The World's Best Award winners are selected each year through an extensive survey conducted by Travel + Leisure Magazine. Tens of thousands of questionnaires are sent to the Magazine`s readership world wide. In Travel + Leisure Magazine`s 10th annual poll this year (2005), the result from their readers vote for the best in travel is now avaible. The 15 best tour operators and safari outfitters on the list are: Micato Safaris, Tauck World Discovery, Wilderness Safaris, Lindblad Expeditions, Butterfield & Robinson, Travcoa, Backroads, International Expeditions, Geographic Expeditions, Intrav, Odysseys Unlimited, Big Five Tours & Expeditions, Overseas Adventure Travel, Abercrombie & Kent, and CIE Tours. So what are the qualifications for these travel companies to be awarded?

Bolivia is full of wonderful og mysterious archaeological sites. In the late afternoon July 2002, I was determinded to explore one of Bolivia`s greatest wonders near Puno, the Sillustani. Inspired from exploring another prehistoric site on my tour called Tiwanaku, I went out in the Bolivian highland and arrived just in time to experience the sunset. It gave the mysterious site an even more strange atmosphere. Viewing the ruines from the old Chullpas culture, with the clear blue Lake Umayo in the background, was an unforgettable moment that really turned me on.

The next year is the Peer Gynt Year. Then it`s hundred year after the famous Norwegian author Henrik Ibsen died. Announced in a press release on 14 October this year (2005), the Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs, informed that it has suggested for the National commitee to give 12,7 million Norwegian kroner extra in grant for celebrating Norway's big son. All together this Ministry intend to contribute with 19 million kroner. It`s also proposed to spend 8 millions kroner from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs` budget dedicated to the finale big show in Egypt.

The celebration will be marked with over 300 arrangements around the world. The finale arrangement will as mentioned be in Cairo, Egypt, at the Great Pyramid of Giza. The scene play will be accompanied by music from another famous Norwegian, Edvard Grieg. It will be dance, theatre and music based on Ibsen`s poem about the great adventurer Peer Gynt, inspired from a true person from Vinstra. As dramatically told about in the poem, Peer Gynt talks to the Sphinx in Cairo. It's a travel tale beyond all imaginations.

What is hiding below the surface of Lake Titicaca? The AKAKOR team has searched in this expedition for traces after the dawn of civilization in the Andes. They wanted to prove the Akakor theory about that Lake Titicaca for 5,000 and 8,000 years ago was shallower, and also in some areas was dry and habitable. Already on an expedition in 2000 the AKAKOR team made some discoveries backing up their theory. Due to the more incredible finds the history has to be rewritten about pre-Incas civilizations.

Teotihuacán's mythological builders in Mexico's have so far managed to hide the secrets. By using advanced equipment archaeologists have revealed more of amazing Teotihuacán's history, the first major metropolis of the Americas. Teotihuacán was built by an unknown people almost 2,000 years ago. The site sits about 25 miles (40 kilometres) north of present-day Mexico City. Temples, palaces, and some of the largest pyramids on Earth line its ancient main street. The probably biggest unanswered questions about Teotihuacán concern is why the city was abandoned around A.D. 650?

How long will the Bushmen manage to retain their cultural heritage? Survivel International reported 8 October 2005 that dozens of Bushmen were evicted yesterday from their ancestral land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana. Police carried out the removals at gunpoint and then set fire to the Bushmen's huts.

The mysteries related to Stonehenge goes on, and even recent discoveries make it bigger. It`s probablably the most famous of all English Heritage Properties. Archaeologists discovered in May 2003 six more bodies near the grave of the so called King of Stonehenge.

The remains of four adults and two children were found at a site in Amesbury, close to where the Amesbury Archer was discovered the year before.

Ten o'clock Thursday night (20 October 2005), Kath my Aussie travelling companion has gone to bed. I walk toward the bridge over to Hanuman Ghat on Lake Pichola in Udaipur. This is the Venice of Rajasthan, an alluring, seductive city built by the Maharajas.

I am not ready for bed and I want some hard liquor to help me kill my cold. I wait for the first auto rickshaw to come along and I hail it.

During my tour in Jordan in July this year (2005), I talked to several Bedouins about Lawrence of Arabia, his lifestyle, preparation and attack on Aqaba. Who was he really? Is the movie about him telling the truth? His full name was Thomas Edward Lawrence, who lived from 1888 to 1935. He wrote the self biography Seven Pillars, but what think the Bedouins about him?

On Saturday 8 October this year (2005) a powerful earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale struck the region bordering Pakistan, northern India, and Afghanistan. This quake is estimated to be responsible for at least 20,000 deaths in southern Asia, and the death toll may be as high as 30,000 according to local officials. Everybody can do something to help those affected by the earthquake! People who have passion for travelling care about other people. If you would like to donate to the relief effort, there are several organisations who offer both immediate and long term assistance as Care, Red Cross, Save the Children, UNICEF and others.

Take a virtual sightseeing tour around the world. By using the Google Earth-tool you have the whole globe inside your PC. You can point and zoom to any place on the planet that you want to explore. For example you can find the easiest way in Grand Canyon and the best route up to the top of Kilimanjaro before you go, and you can consider the efforts by studying the terrain. And the best of all: Google Earth is free for personal use.

Cato Zahl Pedersen (46) and his team reached the top of the sixth highest mountain in the world, Cho Oyo in Himalaya. The other six persons in the Norwegian team are: Stian Voldmo (29), Einar Osland (51), Brit Volden (44) Øyvin Thon, (46), Rune Snaprud (36) and Casper Ravnsbaek (26). Cato has just one arm and to make this arm working, he uses a prosthesis on the right arm. The team gives credit to the four sherpaes Tenzing, Tapa Kilo, Dawa Chiiri, who assisted them whole the way to the top, and also the cook Lat Sang, who waited for them in the Base Camp - all with Sherpa as surname.