Hop with dohop
As a travel journalist who plans and coordinates his own trips abroad there’s been one website that has proven invaluable over the years: www.dohop.com At its most basic function the website is an up to date database of the world’s airline routes and schedules and as such, finds every possible permutation of how to get from A to B. And all you have to do is plug in the two...
Read MoreFeedback Please
It’s funny, but in all my years as a journalist I can count on one hand how often I’ve had feedback from readers on my work. (Travel writing, you see, is rarely contentious enough to illicit reader response.) As a freelancer I have a pretty solitary office life, just me and my laptop. It’s an odd existence that never quite feels complete. Plucking away at the computer keyboard I watch a...
Read MorePeople are fascinating
Today I was on a colourful bus ride from East Vancouver into the city. The bus was already packed with a cast of characters when a working girl tottered aboard in her 3 inch clear plastic platform heels and her barely there skirt. If the way she was dressed didn’t have the entire bus’s attention, her high-pitched plea to the bus driver that she was going to be thrown in jail if she didn’t...
Read MoreHelicopter your Hometown
There is nothing like seeing the world from above, particularly if you recognise what’s below! Recently I’ve had a couple of flights with American Airlines where I’ve been treated to the most amazing views from above. A few weeks ago I flew from New York (LaGuardia, my new favourite NYC airport – small, manageable and easy & inexpensive to get to via public transport – see how...
Read MoreRats & a Laundered T-shirt
It’s 1am in the morning and I am spending the night at YYZ (Toronto Airport) – by choice – because I couldn’t impose on anyone to get up in the middle of the night to deliver me the required two hours before my 6:30am flight. (“4:30am? Are you kidding!?”, was the exact response I think.) I’ve been here since midnight but I’m happy enough because I’ve found a quiet place...
Read MoreBaby on Board
(…. but far from bored!) I caught up with a highschool friend over the weekend and we spent a lovely afternoon together in an unexpected way. We went on a drive together. A drive that my friend regularly takes to lull her feisty 10 month old daughter to sleep and buy herself some tranquillity and some ‘me time’. But like any multi-tasking mother it’s how she spends this ‘me...
Read MoreMurals from Around the World
Graffiti or art? I tend to think it’s the latter but decide for yourself … Here is a series of outdoor murals collected from recent travels. The photos can be viewed below or as a slideshow by clicking on the link. Click here for a brief...
Read MoreNo, Not …
. . . . . (Can you guess?) . ... Tokyo? ... Amsterdam? . ... Sydney? ... London? ... New York? . ... Paris? . Yes, they're all photos of ......
Read MorePostcards to yourself
I was recently admiring a friend’s collection of postcards on his fridge, when he told me that he posted them all to himself. I’ve always been a big advocate of handwritten letters and postcards as a way of brightening up someone’s day on the other end of the mailbox, but I’ve never thought to send one to myself. He explained further: Not only do you have a picture of...
Read MoreBird Brightens Day
Today I had a bad day. I’m not sure how it began and I can’t remember what fuelled it – although a lack of food and too many things on my plate probably contributed. What I do know was that I was in a foul mood. Hunger being an issue, I stopped at McDonald’s for a burger. There were no seats inside so I sat outside. No sooner had I sat down, when a light rain started. Great! Could my day...
Read MorePost Travelling Depression
Experience #176, 355, 528, 872 & 1643 (This is something I wrote years ago following my return home after my first big overseas trip.) So you’ve just got back from an overseas adventure? Riding the wind, following the sunset, discovering new cultures? You’ve finally returned home to the joy of friends and family – who make you feel like the star of the show, as...
Read MorePhoto of the day
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