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What a Life I Lead

1. June 2007

Jenny, working hard & loving it When you think about the great jobs of the world, a few spring to mind. Travel journalist, roller-coaster tester, even candy taster – but I think my job is right up there with the best of them. What I do is try out the tours and activities we sell on the [...]

Ode to the Commode: Toilets of the World

18. May 2007

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I’m not going to tell you who found this “Toilets of the World” book, but I will say that “ellyKay” was a “ecretSay antaSay” for someone in San Francisco and this was the gift. Alas, our site director never had a chance to take his inspirational reading material home, as his fellow co-workers kept borrowing [...]

Don’t Hate Toronto

13. April 2007

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What’s not to love? There’s a new documentary coming out titled “Let’s All Hate Toronto” and it will premiere at Toronto’s very own Hot Docs film festival. And yes, as you might guess, it’s all about Canadians who hate Toronto. Here’s a description from the Hot Docs website: This tongue-in-cheek road doc follows “Mister Toronto” as he [...]

New Zealand’s North Island

31. March 2007

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A couple of years ago it seemed like everybody had to go to New Zealand. The Lord of the Rings movies were being released, the ‘Pure New Zealand” campaign was in full swing, and every couple of weeks I got a new email with a link of Flickr photos from yet another friend’s trip. My [...]

Throw Away the Guidebook

29. March 2007

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Travellers should never take notice of suggestions about what the supposed “highlights” of their destination might be. Highlights ought to be personal, not lifted from a guidebook or acquired from knowledgeable friends who’ve been there before you! To illustrate what I mean, here are three things that I’m still thinking about after a recent trip through [...]

Suggested Itineraries: Belize

27. March 2007

4 Comments

The Blancaneaux Lodge, Belize It’s Better in Belize. You Better Belize It. It’s Unbelizeable. If I had a nickel for each time I saw a Belize-inspired T-shirt, I’d have at least 60 cents by now. Maybe a buck. The problem is not a lack of T-shirts. Trust me, there are heaps on sale in Belize. The problem is [...]

Grand Canyon Skywalk: Opening Ceremonies

21. March 2007

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Bootee-clad Skywalkers on opening day On the Grand Canyon Skywalk, everyone wears bootees, and for the $25 you’ll pay to enjoy this horseshoe walkway that’s been clipped onto the side of the Grand Canyon, that’s a good deal, because the Skywalk experience is priceless… It’s sort of counter-intuitive that the new must-see attraction [...]

St Patrick’s Day, No Guinness, No Funny Green Hats

18. March 2007

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Here are my wishes for you on this morning after St Patrick’s day. May you have spent the evening at an Irish pub enjoying a creamy pint of Guinness. May you have been locked in after last call, curtains drawn, doors locked, surrounded by good friends and a sympathetic bar man. And may your hangover [...]

World Snacking

6. March 2007

4 Comments

My husband likes to compare me to a hummingbird. He says that like a hummingbird I need to constantly eat to stay in flight (and by in flight he means be a happy, sane person). In our ten years of travel together we’ve fought about being lost, late, tired, fed up with each other’s griping, [...]

The Old Quarter in Hanoi, Vietnam

4. March 2007

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Hanoi street scene I arrived in Hanoi by train from China, and watching from the windows, I found Vietnam to be wild and unkempt, with reddish orange dirt, dark green vegetation, and a trace of brown everywhere. Vietnam is tropical, and tropical places always have that overgrown feel - a bit wild, a bit less minded [...]