From the swivellin' chair...

Some people must have too much time on their hands!! Great video

Some people dream of sandy beaches.

Some people dream of cultured holidays in cultured European cities.

And then there's some people, who dream of places like this:

(Photo courtesy of NASA)

That's the Bellingshausen Sea and it's the destination of DrPaul's 2 month voyage to the Antarctic aboard the RRS James Clark Ross. Paul writes:

We will be spending two months away, during which time we hope to collect oceanographic and sea-ice data in the Bellingshausen Sea for the benefit of civilisation (whether they like it or not).

Less than a week into his journey and only two blog entries in, Paul's trip is already affording the adventures it promised. After flying from Cambridge on the 22nd of February, a planned 2-hour stopover turned into a 30-hour stopover on tropical Ascension Island. Hardly the place for a man dressed for Antarctic weather conditions. The island itself earned this glowing description:

Generally the scenery was military hardware and communications technology superimposed on a beautiful Martian volcanic rock landscape adorned with cacti and other succulent plants. An amazing place.

After a night in the Falkland Islands, Paul is finally aboard the James Clark Ross, pushing on towards the Antarctic. You can read about all his adventures at his blog, which appears to be regularly updated with photos, maps and plenty of stories.

Can't get enough of Antarctic adventures? Check out Lindsey's blog, about her cruise through the South Pacific and Antarctica in January and early February.

In light of this week's announcement that Indonesia is aiming to increase tourist numbers to seven million by 2008, I thought it would be an appropriate time to share one spectacular description of Bali I received a few weeks ago.

It came from a webmaster, with the simple request that we link to his Bali-related site:

Bali, a tropical island in the Indonesian archipelago, is so picturesque and immaculate it could almost be a painted backdrop. It has rice paddies tripping down hillsides, volcanoes soaring up through the clouds, dense tropical jungle, long sandy beaches, warm blue water, crashing surf and friendly people who don't just have a culture but actually live it. Island Bali is exotic, you'd feel to differ in Bali, very strong and natural culture with very friendly society, Bali the place of favorite to have the day off, very place good to privacy, ascertaining you to attend in Bali, if you take a fancy to tropical atmosphere and beautiful culture, Bali is place which suited for you.

Unfortunately, we had to deny his request for a link.

If you've been keeping a close eye on the blogs page, you'll notice a preponderance of blogs run by couples doing round the world trips. Bizarre, ey? Must be something in the digital waters of Travellerspoint.

One of my favourites is Bob and Jan's round the world trip. From their home in Kidlington in the UK, the couple travelled east through Thailand, China, Australia and New Zealand before making it to California last week. The photos along the way have brought the journey to life, which is one reason why I've always enjoyed reading their entries. It's sad to see that they're winding up their blog a little prematurely: "Living out of a suitcase and travelling on to a new place each day has taken its toll and both of us are exhausted (in need of a holiday!)."

But all's not lost. For the fans of the lovebirds-travelling-around-the-world style blog, the options are plenty. Try these:

Dan and Sarah's World Tour 06/07 - from the UK, Dan and Sarah ventured through South America, New Zealand and the east coast of Australia before ending up in Perth, with an overland trip through Southeast Asia still to come. No photos, but engaging writing more than compensates.

Nat and Ev - they left behind Australia on New Year's Eve and hit Kazakhstan in early February after a month-long sojourn in India. Though they freely admit destinations like Shymkent aren't on the proverbial list of places to see, they manage to keep things interesting for themselves and their readers. Beautiful photos along the way don't hurt either.

John and Nadine (TulsaTrot) - Check out my previous post why you should read their blog. Whether sharing toilets with crabs in the Cook Islands, watching Aussie Rules Football in Melbourne, or playing basketball with Chinese kids, there's a blog entry to tell the tale.

More than 18000 members have posted in our forums and for some, it's serious business. Ever since we introduced member titles, there have been members dreaming of ascending the heights of Travellerspoint and attaining the glorified status of Travel Guru. (Don't believe me? Just take a look at this thread...)

Following on from Gelli's suggestion in the System Talk forum, we've introduced another stats page, dedicated to ego-coaxing and fostering rank-envy. Besides listing all the Gurus, you can also find out who the Respected Members, Moderators and Administrators are.

And if you want to know how to become a Travel Guru, you can take some pointers from the list of top forum posters. In the past 30 days, 3 Gurus have posted over 290 times. Each.

Guess you'll have to get posting!