Geo: -23.3549, 43.6761You could probably spend months/years wandering the wilds of Madagascar and not see all of the unique species on offer here (90 percent of all plant and animal species found in Madagascar are endemic). As part of the world's loudest bus tour, we never did get to see the Giraffe Weevil, the Comet Moth (largest in the world), the Tomato Frog, Aye-Aye Lemurs, Flat-Tailed Geckos (impossible to spot since they look like a dead leaf), Streaked or Aquatic Tenrecs, Madagascan Land Crab, and a whole lot more star attractions. We did manage to track down the Hissing Cockroaches, King Crickets (much like DH, they go into a Kung Fu stance when threatened), a Hedgehog Tenrec, a Radiated Tortoise, a Wolf Spider and more. Even the trees and forests are unique. The Baobab Tree is ... read more

Geo: -21.25, 47.45We're still cleaning the Lemur footprints off of our clothing and getting ready for our next encounters, but, as a form of personal stress relief, I need to address the trials and tribulations of bus touring. As with most of these off-the-beaten path trips, many of our fellow travelers are hardcore- there's The Gang Of Six (far flung friends who frequently get together for trips like this in order to sing Top 10 songs from the seventies and pose for jumping photos), a Dude from Salt Lake City (didn't know you were allowed to be a dude in Utah), a couple from Regina (who picked up a stomach bug on the second day and gave new meaning to the word perseverance on a bus tour although they missed out on many of the trip ... read more

Geo: -24.6919, 31.7107Before going to Kruger, we had heard that game viewing could be a bit hit and miss because you are required to stay on the roads and the park can be overgrown. Our Kruger experience turned out to be fabulous and we saw much more than we had hoped for but we had already hedged our bets by booking a few days in one of the more famous private game reserves adjacent to Kruger - Sabi Sands. These reserves are home to some of the most luxurious and expensive lodges in Africa. We picked a mid-range option as I didn't want the Princess exposed to the pampering that goes on in some of these African Shangri-La's (how do I get DH back in a campervan if she's gets used to pedicures before breakfast?). That ... read more

Geo: 25.27, 55.33Dubai is one strange city. Good strange or bad strange seems to depend on your mood and what you're looking at. Because of oil revenues, a large modern city exists where none should exist- on the edge of an Arabian desert. And because Dubai is the one city state within the UAE that is actually running out of oil, it is rapidly trying to diversify into a financial centre, airline hub, tech centre, and just about anything else it thinks might guarantee the future of Dubai citizens who live simply to shop. And if you're building a city that is looking to attract attention, you will need to veer off the path of bland and ordinary (hello Toronto), and step outside the box. Dubai steps so ... read more

Geo: 61.794, 34.3462When trying to cobble together the logistics for the trip to Russia, I was left with the challenge of connecting two must-see places, Moscow and St Petersburg, and, although there are quite a few options, the one that stood out on Google was a river cruise between the two cities. River cruising seems to be a bit of thing these days but it does appeal to an older crowd so we weren't sure what we were getting into (the company we booked with prided itself on putting together groups of older like-minded Americans so it was a bit of an ordeal just to book passage- our home address was listed as Boston, Mass and we were never issued the name badges, most of them gold, that everyone else was sporting). After boarding we knew ... read more