Tony and Maureen Wheeler sold Lonely Planet to the BBC in the beginnnig of October 2007, but are as passionate as ever about travel. The British Newspaper Gurdian made an interview with the couple. Here are 25 amazing places they think we should all see.

This year World Travel Market - WTM’s Technology & Online Travel Sector will be exhibiting some of the latest developments in the digital world with the must-have tools needed to ensure business success. Online travel has exceeded all predictions this year with growth of 20% and forecasts of a market worth over £33 billion in Europe by 2011, according to Euromonitor International.

Acquisition will extend iconic travel guides across multiple media platforms. BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC - British Broadcasting Corporation, has acquired Lonely Planet, the leading travel information group, in a deal that will build the Lonely Planet franchise around the world.

Contest Invites Quality Video Uploads for Cash Awards & National Cable TV Exposure for Top Nine Videos. Travellers around the world are getting into the act, taking their travels straight to video as user-generated sites proliferate on the Web.

Dagbladet, Oslo, from Norway has become the best travel website. Communities strengthen readers’ loyalty towards “their” newspaper, according to Ifra XMA Cross Media.

The seventeenth century masterpiece “Portrait of a Knight” painting by Caravaggio will be arriving in Malta on Tuesday on loan from Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti in Florence. This painting is one of the few pictures that Caravaggio painted during his stay in Malta in 1607-1608. It will be on display for public viewing at St John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta, between the 11th October and 16th December 2007.

Archaeologists have discovered what they believe to be the first Viking ship ever discovered in Britain, buried beneath a pub car park. The vessel lies beneath 6-10 feet (2-3 metres) of clay by the Railway Inn in Meols, Wirral, where Vikings are known to have settled.

A major tourist destination located in the South of Thailand, the island of Phuket is known for its white sandy beaches, friendly locals and exciting nightlife. Yet during the months of June to October the nightlife comes to a screeching halt. Unfortunately the rainy season in Phuket has not been dubbed “the green season” because of the colour of the money that comes in, but rather from the lush green vegetation that is a result of four months of almost constant rain.

On a 3-days tour on a bike in Laos in February 2007 Chris from US encountered many challenges, especially trouble with his motorcycle. Anyway driving around on a motorcycle in Laos is a wonderful way to experience the landlocked country. As Lonely Planet describes the country on its website: Snaking rivers, lush jungle, hectic markets and the UNESCO-listed Plain of Jars. Lonely Planet considers Laos as the highlight of Southeast Asia.

I went up a big rise and began to coast it on the other side, spying a village below. I pulled into the gas/mechanic hut and had them get a wrench to check the oil. The cap was so encrusted with petrified dirt that it could not be unscrewed by hand. The mechanic, an ancient crease-faced man, undid the cap and peered into the smoking oil chamber, which was empty. He shook his head and pointed.

The Mechanic was a man, though one unsuited for farm work. He was deformed, with shriveled and useless legs. He had matted long hair with bits of wood and grass in it and wore an old army jacket so filthy that I had an impulse to yank it off and burn it. He got around on his hands, which seem longer and broader than usual, but perhaps this was only a result of him ambling about on them for a lifetime.

Eventually the road stopped winding and climbing and I rolled into a proper town, or what passes for one in remote areas of Laos. Was this Nakai? Had I reached my day’s goal? The roads were dirt and the whole place covered in reddish dust. It had the feel a frontier boomtown – a result of the work the dam project had brought, to be sure. As I entered the town I noticed a large billboard. In English it boldy welcomed me, but the name of the place wasn’t “Nakai”. I supposed that this was a town not accounted for on the map and decided to press on until I came to the real Nakai.

The first thing I did was stop into the nearest garage and have my mirco-mirrors tightened. Little did I know of how many more Lao mechanics’ garages I would see over the next few days. I would experience a real life Zen of motorcycle maintenance, emptying my mind while watching Buddhist after Buddhist labor over my sad machine.

It was a 100cc Chinese make – a glorified scooter, actually – the type of four speed bike that is ubiquitous throughout Southeast Asia. The horn was burned out, along with the electric starter and both turning signals. The tires were bald. Neither the speedometer nor the gas gauge functioned. The silver-dollar sized mirrors looked as if they had been ripped from makeup compacts and attached to the bike with safety pins, spinning freely on their mounts like reflective whirly-gigs.

Archaeologists have found remains of two prehistoric stone circles in Germany, which are approximately 2000 year older than the English Stonehenge (Aftenposten, 30th August 2000). These circles are probably built by sun worshipers.