"Why El Salvador?", the surprisingly friendly U.S. immigration officer at Vancouver's airport asked us. "The chance to not get murdered, their homicide rate is down 98 percent!", I replied. Actually, we had been interested in it in theory since a spectacular brief high above fly-over of some of its volcanoes on departing Nicaragua in 2015.

Conquering the Lands of the Conquerors   https://www.flickr.com/photos/stuvan/albums/72177720329870633/with/54873588178 In the year 1066, William could not even have conceived of it. In the early 1800s, Napoleon would have thought it impossible. But then, neither of them lived in the 21st century. We have just finished circumnavigating the globe in sixty-eight days, highlighted by visits to both of their homelands, with Normandy, Brittany, and Corsica being our principal des

flickr photo link We have just finished an expectation-exceeding week in the Maldives, as our side trip from a two-month post-retirement relaxed stay in Penang. The Islamic Republic of the Maldives, southwest of Sri Lanka, consists of 1,196 islands—most uninhabited—comprising 26 island groups (atolls) spanning a north-south orientation of just under 1,000 km, but with a total landmass of only 298 km² (Asia's lowest). The islands, all less than 8 km long, are made from coral

UnBoratistan and the Dangers of Scenic Scottish Sheep Pastures Flickr photo link Kazakhstan- can a "reasonable" white-skinned traveller really go there? And a non-Muslim (to say the least)? Do they actually have real hotels and roads? Is it safe? Can you speak freely? Will a vegetarian / pescatarian starve to death in the world's largest land-locked country? All questions demanding consideration when I first came up with the idea last spring after finding out that Air Asia ha

If you know where that is then consider yourself up one on me in geography, as I wasn't aware of this region until after arriving. Macaronesia is a collection of four volcanic archipelagos in the North Atlantic, off the coasts of Europe and Africa. There four groups from north to south- the Azores [2/3rds of the way from Newfoundland to Portugal] and Madeira archipelagos are both autonomous regions of Portugal, the Canary Islands are part of Spain, and lastly, the Cape Verde

'Round the World- Wales- Country #100! , and Laos too! - and, unfortunately, current events. Oct 2023 It's been several years since I've written one of these, but with a full day of travel from the very pretty UNESCO-heritage building-coded Laotian royal city of Luang Prabang back to our "home" in Penang, including a four and a half hour transfer in crowded BKK airport [new airport, old code transferred tho old airport remains in use], and a book that I'm not thrilled with [

2019 We got back last weekend from 11 days in Myanmar (country #95!), after a couple of wks in Malaysia, and are both still suffering from considerable jet lag. I didn't send out a trip email after our trip to Sardinia last fall as there was nothing very special to say (beautiful large Mediterranean island, excellent food..., our 2d in the world's oldest republic, tiny cliff-top, tri-towered San Marino, was more exotic), however the country formerly known as Burma is far too

That would be "What is Iceland?", Alex. Hi everyone, Imagine being able to drive from Niagara Falls to Yellowstone's Old Faithful geyser in 10 minutes. Now put both of them within a half hr of historic Jamestown, and only 90min from your nation's capital and largest city- without exaggeration, such is Iceland. We just finished a 2-wk, 2900km drive of Iceland's 1300km Ring Road with side trips to the West Fjords and Snaefellsnes peninsula. Iceland is impossibly beautiful, ev

We are flying back from Hong Kong after 12d in Cambodia- 3 in the bustling capital of Phnom Penh, 3 in the small former French colonial coastal area of Kep and Kampot, 2 in the now southern Chinese investment boom-town port of Sihanoukville, and 4 in the tourist Mecca of Siem Reap with its nearby innumerable staggering temple complexes of the former city of Angkor. Earlier we spent 2wks back in Malaysia with a side-trip to the quiet but impressive regional/royal capital of Al

Where? mid-Atlantic coast of USA: essentially bounded by eastern Maryland and below that northeastern Virginia. Why? Years ago I drove a seemingly endless narrow bridge just above the waterline, then up ahead the bridge disappeared with land nowhere in sight. The highway dropped down below the water into a long tunnel. A couple minutes later it rose back above with land still nowhere in sight. It then again dropped below, and finally once again rose above reaching land after

We are on our way back from 3¬+ wks in the mostly the Pyrenees and Basque regions of both France and Spain, with a short trip thru SE England on the way back. The latter was added when the airline prices for the planned Barcelona to Bilbao portion kept escalating, and I came up with the idea of using relatively cheap Air Transat into London (Gatwick) and then super-cheap intra Europe flights

We are on the way back from two great weeks of travel in Poland! Country #90 for me! I had been hesitant to go there before because of the horrible legacy of the holocaust

Our 12d itinerary was Bogota-Zona Cafetera (coffee-producing region)-Cartagena-Medellin. Overall, as always seems to be the case for various reasons, mixed reviews. Before arriving our fears were initially about safety, and then more recently Zika virus. No, we haven't changed our minds about not wanting kids, however more recently Zika has been linked with an at least 10-fold increase in Guillain Barre paralysis, of which I might at increased risk due to a family hx in my Da

3. Klondike Gold Rush history 1896-98. Never understood why needing to go up the Chilkoot pass’ ice steps outside Skagway, Alaska was such a big deal until I found out that the RCMP mandated you needed to carry one year’s worth of supplies to be allowed into Canada- so you had to do it 40-50 times! The goal was to get over the coastal mountains to Carcross, then go by the Yukon River ~600 km past hazardous Whitehorse rapids (they looked like the flowing manes of white horses,

Monikers given to Sri Lanka and Taiwan by Arab and Portugese traders respectively, and where we have spent the "travel" portion of our current tripSri Lanka is a crazy (there is actually a website called crazylanka) and fascinating place, and travel there is quite the adventure. It is not, however, somewhere that I would recommend that anyone other than the very-widely travelled put on their destination lists. Why? well in addition to being far, difficult to reach, and hassle

Nicaragua?! Are We Nuts?! Those were the questions we were wondering when we first considered the idea two months ago. Guide books seemed to state that Nicaragua was among the safer countries in the Americas, and that much of its bad reputation related to outdated vague memories of considerable violence from the '70s and '80s of Somoza, the Sandinistas and the Reagan-backed Contras.

From The Cook Island(s) to Mt Cook We are on our way back from Auckland after 3d on the Cook Islands and 3½ wks in NZ. Although both made for quite enjoyable travel, neither are as intriguing culturally as the two prior years’ overseas tripsThe Cook Islands –or should I say “island”- are/is beautiful. Like most visitors and locals, we only visited the main island of Rarotonga- which has 2/3rds of its population, and most of its economic activity (tourism is the #1 industry).

2013   Hi Everyone, We are heading home after 4wks of travel, the last 19 days in Japan (my 1 st  time there, JC has overnited before) after a week back in Malaysia. We flew into Osaka, from which we also day-tripped to the nearby  ancient capital of Nara (with its many temples from the 7 th  and 8 th  centuries) and Hiroshima (~330km but only 90min going by rapid “Shinkansen” train, max speed 320km/h- jumped on the wrong one returning so it took 3hrs) with its impressive mus

We are flying from Istanbul into London, at the end of nearly 4 weeks of traveling. We started with 2d in Istanbul, then 5 in Serbia (Belgrade, Novi Sad, and Lake Palic, with a side trip into Szeged, Hungary [country #50 for JC], and Smederevo) 4 in Bosnia (Sarajevo, Mostar, Medugorje [no, Virgin Mary did not make an appearance to me, continuing instead only with her daily apparitions to the six former 1981 teenagers, now wealthy businessmen, my explanations to some of the be

Canals, Bikes, Lions, a Leopard, and 5 Days of Living Dangerously (The Netherlands, Tanzania and Kenya) We just crossed over the north coast of Egypt on the way to Tanzania.he safari itself surpassed my jaded (having already done one unguided [essentially not permitted here] in South Africa) expectations. In large part this was due to the eye and knowledge of our driver/guide, Tito. Highlights included seeing many lions (including 2 matings- very brief and business-like; I’d