On the ball: The venues for this year's extravagant China Coast Ball are the capitals of Hungary and Romania, Budapest and Bucharest. Pre-programme activities taking place in Budapest from June 24 to 30 will include an organ concert at Matthias Church, a canoe trip on the Danube and a ball at the Ethnographic Museum. Partygoers will then take a chartered overnight train to Bucharest to attend a five-day ball programme from July 1 to 5 with a reception at Mogosoaia Palace, garden party at Snagov Lake, afternoon tea at Bran Castle (home of Vlad the Impaler) and a final ball at the Palatul Parlamentului, the second largest building in the world (after the Pentagon). Best book quick - organiser Ted Marr says there are only a dozen or so places left (e-mail: tedmarr@ compuserve.com; fax: 2537 1575).
Travel talk: Tony Wheeler, publisher of the Lonely Planet guides, will be in town to talk at the Foreign Correspondents Club on Friday. Entitled Breaking The Boundaries Of Tourism - North Korea, Burma And The Rest Of The World, Wheeler will speak about his recent visit to North Korea and the ethics of tourism in Myanmar, formerly Burma. At 12.30pm, tickets: members $150, non-members $170 (tel: 2521 1511).
Best beaches: Vote for your favourite beach in the Asia-Pacific region at
www.asia-hotels.com and you can win free nights at a range of top resorts including the Datai Langkawi hotel and Pangkor Laut Resort in Malaysia and Friday's Beach Resort in Boracay, Philippines. One voter will also have their round-trip flights paid for. Voting closes on June 30.
Aussie offer: Concorde Travel is offering a five-day/three-night package to Melbourne starting at $4,999. The package includes return economy flights via Manila on Philippine Airlines, accommodation and daily breakfast. For a list of participating hotels or more details, call 2526 3319 (
www.concorde-travel.com).
Shooting from the hip: Virgin has branched into travel guides and as to be expected from the brand that brought us funky airline freebies, cola and wedding sundries, the slim books are sassier than the competition. Clear plastic folders with velcro tabs keep the volumes as fresh as their colour-coded contents where entries on sights, shops, restaurants, clubs and hotels err towards the hip. Best of all is the 'day' and 'night' fold-out map that slots into the back of the folder. Eight Virgin City Guides have been published to date: Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris and San Francisco and each costs $170 at branches of Page One and Dymocks (
www.virginbooks.com).
Peking tuck: New at the Palace Hotel Beijing is Jing, a 'Modern meets Asian' restaurant serving fusion fare along the lines of Vietnamese Prawns with Spiced Naan and Chocolate Cake with Almond Milk Ice Cream. The glamorous dining room, entered via a glass spiral staircase, features three open kitchens, a glass wine cellar housing 1,400 wines and a private dining room by a water pond (pictured). Jing is at 8 Goldfish Lane, Wangfujing, Beijing 10006. Tel: [8610] 6523 0175;
www.peninsula.com).