Loudest Flight Ever
I’m travelling Alaska to Las Vegas. It sounds more impressive than it really is. I’m aboard my first Alaska Airlines flight as I write this. Top Tip – Barely inside the US border and a short bus ride from Vancouver, Bellingham is a small, manageable airport that offers incredibly inexpensive flights further into the States via Alaska Airlines and Allegiant Air – with low taxes...
Read MoreThe Joy of the Journey
Today I bought a piece of wrapping paper, not because I had a gift to give – nor in fact will I likely use it to wrap a gift – it’s too nice. I bought it because the images on it caught my eye. I bought it for what those images represent. It is a collage of old advertisements for grand international hotels and stately cruise liners, mixed with old luggage tags and different-shaped stylised...
Read MoreBlack Water Rafting
Experience # 174 Leave to the Kiwis to take caving one step further to create an adventure sport called Black Water Rafting just so they can clean their clothes. I went underground for the full story. I first discovered New Zealand as a backpacker in 1990. I spent three months traversing the Land of the Long White Cloud and fell in love with every cm of its 2,000kms from tip to toe. I’ve...
Read MoreParisian Sub-culture
Experience #126 On your next trip to Paris why scale the heights of the Eiffel Tower when you could be exploring the depths of the city’s catacombs? For a tourist destination on the dark side, walk the skull-lined corridors getting up close and personal with more than six million past Parisians. I love Paris. Sorry, j’adore Paris. Although, I didn’t love it on my first trip and...
Read MoreThe Seven Trials of Tibet
Experience #936 Hoping to tread the path to enlightenment I took the Tibetan challenge and travelled the rough road from Katmandu to Lhasa discovering a rural land trapped in time and ruled by religion. Himalayan hidden and oft-shrouded in secrecy, Tibet has always attracted attention because of its blocked borders. More recently Tibet’s political plight and the Dalai Lama’s celebrity...
Read MoreAmazonian Anomalies
To date there have been 25,000 confirmed plant species, 2,500 fish (a third of the world’s fresh water total), 10 per cent of the world’s bird species, as many as six million insect species found and up to 2,000 butterflies cataloged. Is it any wonder that nature challenges the norm here? The river itself pushes nature’s boundaries. Even after two weeks of exploring the Amazon, it’s...
Read MoreSouthern Exposure
Experience # 901 Travelling to the coldest, driest, windiest and least inhabited place in the world to gape at floating ice cubes is not everyone’s idea of a holiday. In fact, roughly only 10,000 privileged people a year have the passion to venture into this eternal winter wonderland, but for those who do the rewards are great. There is a timelessness about Antarctica that humbles even the...
Read MoreIsolation on Easter Island
Experience #924 Walking along the statue strewn slopes of Easter Island’s extinct volcano Rano Raraku is a magical, almost spiritual experience. Essentially the main quarry and workshop for the island’s famed statues, it is here the volcanic rock was carved into life by the Polynesian islanders. What remains today is an empty studio of enigmatic statues in various states of progress,...
Read MoreNew York State of Mind
Experience #530 For those bored by Broadway, tired of traffic, or caught up in the chaos that is New York, a nearby Zen Buddhist monastery offers peace of mind in meditation. Nestled in the Catskill Mountains, little more than one hundred miles north of the ‘City that Never Sleeps’ those seeking spiritual enlightenment can find it at the Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji monastery....
Read MorePolar Bear in Peril
Best be quick if you want to see a polar bear in the wild. By some scientific predictions two thirds of the world’s polar bear population could be dead by 2050 and possibly extinct by the end of this century if global warming continues unabated. In May 2008 the majestic polar bear – the world’s largest land predator – was registered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) as...
Read MoreVancouver: New Park Discovered
Experience #2101 The joy of discovery. The thrill of stumbling across something new and feeling that this is your discovery. Yours, and yours alone. The people, if there are any, whether they be tourists or locals, they simply blend into the background while you make a personal connection with your newest find. Today I discovered a new park in Vancouver. Of course as its ancient trees would...
Read MorePhoto of the day
Recent Comments