RTW Countries Visited » One Giant Step

Monday Moment: Berlin U-Bahn

6. February 2012

I used to have a somewhat recurring dream as a teenager. Hearing the drone of engines overhead I look up to see a pattern of bombers heading towards me. The first wave of bombs drop just as the leading line of planes block the sunlight overhead. A heartbeat later the second wave drops. Then another [...]

Remember That Time…We Visited The Dead?

25. January 2011

15 Comments

Now that we’ve returned home and have settled back into our routine lives again we find it funny how our travel stories keep coming up. Invariably one of us will look at the other and say ‘Remember That Time…’ I thought it would make a good series; a way to tell these small stories that [...]

Prost! Here’s To Schnaps!

4. January 2011

10 Comments

Without doubt one of my favourite traditions in Germany is the welcoming of guests with schnapps and, as we were guests with family during our time there, we were welcomed with open arms…and bottles. Schnapps, as we know it in North America, doesn’t hold a candle to the real deal. Here it is syrupy and [...]

India: If She’s Been Calling You, You Should Go

28. December 2010

19 Comments

Has India been calling you? Her seductive voice reaching out and invading your imagination? The sounds of sitars and manjira filling your mind? The aromas of cardamom, ginger, cloves and turmeric tickling your nose? Then you should go. Have you been wondering if you can do it? You can. Everyone’s experience is different and many [...]

Leaving India: One Year Ago

14. December 2010

33 Comments

We left India a year ago today. We left in a state of deep despair; saddened that it wasn’t working out, wondering what it was going to mean for us, and fearful that it would mean the worst… that we were going to have to go home. For a long time I couldn’t talk about [...]

India Is Hard

18. November 2010

10 Comments

We entered India one year ago today. It is a place that I had been looking forward to seeing for many, many years. I was nervous and apprehensive but, more-so, I was excited. Finally I would be able to see what this great, magical country had to offer. I learned, more than anything, that India [...]

Remember That Time…I Colored My Hair In Vietnam?

31. August 2010

8 Comments

Now that we’ve returned home and have settled back into our routine lives again we find it funny how our travel stories keep coming up. Invariably one of us will look at the other and say ‘Remember That Time…’ I thought it would make a good series; a way to tell these small stories that [...]

Enchanted In Bali

26. April 2010

9 Comments

Bali is turning out to be everything I expected from a lush, tropical paradise. The weather is hot, there are periodical monsoon rainstorms, and beauty abounds everywhere I look. All around me is green. The terraced rice paddies in the country-side are a green so vibrant and fresh that they exude hope for a successful [...]

Scooter Mania

20. April 2010

2 Comments

There is a dull roar that hangs over Vietnam. From north to south, in the highlands and in the delta, in small towns and especially in big cities the inescapable sound of a million scooters fills the air. Scooters are everywhere. People don’t walk anywhere, they just jump on their scooter and ride to where [...]

The American War

13. April 2010

6 Comments

It’s been a while, but when I was younger I had a somewhat re-occurring dream. I grew up in the 80’s during the time of the so-called ‘cold war’ but must have been influenced by war accounts from the second world war. I had an impending sense of doom but it was, strangely, coupled with [...]

Halong Bay

28. March 2010

6 Comments

I’d been looking forward to seeing Halong Bay since we left home. Visions of limestone islands rising up out of the sea seemed, to me, to be one of the quintessential Asian scenes… vibrant green rice paddies, women wearing conical hats, and wrinkled old men being some of the others. We had been warned that [...]