So I arranged a trip to palau. I was telling everyone I met. "I'm going to Palau". And they'd say "Cool... um... where's Palau?" and I'd say "Micronesia" and they'd say "Cool....um.... where's Micronesia?" - insert embarrassed tone and bashful expression here - And I'd say "Um....north". I didn't really, exactly know where it was either. Even now, after I've been there I have a little difficulty locating it on a world map. There. I admit it - insert embarrassed tone and bashful expression here. Worldly traveller indeed. But at least I don't think Micronesia is a fictional place made up [View Full Entry]

---

---

"Wow, how many are there?" Asked the lady on the roadside. She was, of course referring to the bevvy of beavers that have taken up residence by our driveway. Busy as... well... beavers, they have been wreaking havoc in the most adorable sense of the word. Trees that have stood for many a year are painstakingly nawed to the ground. The stump hone into a perfect point, the trunk stripped of its branches and said branches, combined skillfully with mud are crafted expertly into a dam, blocking off our storm water drain. Creating their own private pool. The Beavers have become [View Full Entry]

---

---

We pulled into the bus stop at Creekside around 5 in the afternoon after the scenic drive from Vancouver to Whistler. Jim's friend Jeff met us and helped haul our bags up the hill to his place. We'd planned to stay with him and Shannon until we found a place but Jeff gave us the news that his friend Rosie had told him the day before that she was looking for someone to rent her one bedroom apartment. Word of mouth is a powerful tool in such a small community and over the months here I have come to realise getting [View Full Entry]

---

---

As we flew over the great expanse of Canada we actually caught up to the sun. It had be dark when we took off from London, Ontario but after a couple of hours we were able to relive dusk, hypnotised by the thin, burnt copper rim of the world arching around, dividing black sky from black earth. It was surreal, lasted not nearly longer enough and soon our attention returned again to the inflight movie. After five hours in a plane - the last of such trips for a while - we were touching down in Vancouver. I am ashamed to [View Full Entry]

---

---

Standing there amidst a throng of snap happy tourists from around globe, jostling for a clear, unfettered view among the crowds I thought how spectacular it would have been to experience Niagara Falls back when it was largely undiscovered save for the native people. To stumble across this awe inspiring natural feature on your hunt for carabou or as a unexpected cherry on the top of early explorations. I pondered what it would be like to experience Niagara in the absence of like minded traveling hordes. Experience it without Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, House of Horrors, Guinness Book of [View Full Entry]

---

---

Had we known it was such a long drive from Halifax airport to Charlottetown we would never have dreamed of asking our friend Mitch to drive up to meet us and chauffeur us back down. After almost an hour and a half in the car I enquired as to how much further it was to Charlettetown and Mitch replied we were almost half way there. "Yeah, right! When are we really gonna be there?" I scoffed. "No, really. We're about half way there." "Your kidding?" "No, I'm not." He wasn't. Well, we'd look on the map and there'd barely been an [View Full Entry]

---

---

Or my back, to be more precise. Only, it wasn't a straw. It was a couch. And no, I wasn't carrying it. It was a lazy day on the farm after a busy week in Toronto, I had just finished watching a movie with Jean, while doing my nails and went to get up off the couch. Searing back pain seized me and became increasingly severe over the following hours until I could barely walk. Even the slightest movement sent nasty nerve pulses to my brain. I knew I'd done a number on myself, of course, this being the 3rd time [View Full Entry]

---

---

Traveling into town you note that, for a country area, the roads are wide. They're as wide as highways, built to carry heavy vehicles, those used in both agriculture and industry. The flat farmland with it's farmhouses and fields that are either full of wheat or sprouting with the first seasons corn give way to a more urban environment as the endless flat expanse is gradually broken up by buildings. Walmart looms huge and inviting, competing with Canadian Tire, offering convenient all-in-one shopping with everything from groceries to clothes to furniture to gardening equipment to whatever else [View Full Entry]

---

---

On the 2 hour bus from St Thomas to Toronto I marveled at the number of flags flapping along the way. At first sporadic appearances were made but as we drew nearer to Toronto they multiplied in number and size, the mighty maple leaf waving hello at me, in case I forgot for a moment where I was. About 30 minutes outside the city I started keeping count, reaching 37 flags in 15minutes. By then this game was getting a little boring so I struck up a conversation with Jim. Upon my probing, Jim replied this nationalistic zeal comes from a [View Full Entry]

---

---

Waiting in the Frankfurt Airport after a long flight from Bangkok I was shifting from one uncomfortable position to another, drifting in between consciousness and unconsciousness, that twilight of being, where you aren't really asleep but you aren't really awake. Too weary to really think, half dreaming and half aware of the clatter of baggage wheels and shuffle of feet, the last calls for flights over the loud speaker jolted me at regular intervals, until somehow I manage to glide off into fitful snooze, though nothing even approaching the REM mode my mind and body so desperately need. The ma [View Full Entry]

---

---