Blogs

It all started one day in Malaysia while I was traveling around the world, over a bowl of roti canai at a guesthouse breakfast. A fellow traveler, from Britain, who had just come from a India, and I began talking, until he made a statement that seemed so ridiculous, so far-fetched that I refused to believe it could possibly be true.

As many of you know, I eat spicy. Rare is a dish (besides those from my mother's kitchen) that is too hot for me. That is because, within India, a country famed for i

Will buying an airline ticket soon be as personalized as buying a suit from a sales person? Probably, as trends go.

It's no surprise that airlines want to personalize their relationships to their customers. If they can figure out how, it would be a huge step toward making the ticket-buying process a lot more individualized, and rewarding.

And why shouldn't it be?
After all, buy a book from Amazon or any savvy online retailer, and you're guided to other books you might like based on your readin

Guitar case full of weapons, guns swinging from each hand, whole bars full of villains wiped out by one man and his sharp shooting. It is surely the hallmark of only one man, an actor who can keep both a male and female audience simultaneously breathless (if for very different reasons). Antonio Banderas as “El Mariachi” cuts a lonesome, brooding and very dangerous figure wandering through small town Mexico; dangerous that is if you are on the wrong side of the law in the violent world of the Mex

Watching different kinds of birds and their activities enchants many of us even if we're not be avid bird watchers. The colours of their feathers, the shape of their beaks, their chirping sounds, are all quite interesting to witness. Corbett National Park, being situated in between the Himalayan foothills and the Indo-Gangetic plains, offers an excellent habitat for all kinds of birds, and therefore, this activity can be undertaken while one is staying at Corbett resorts. The forests, the hills

If you enjoy visiting art museums, Paris really is the place to go. In the last 20 years or so, Paris museums 
re-organised their collections and the musée d'Orsay became the  receptacle for art dated between 1848 and 1914.

The Gare d'Orsay

The building that houses the collection used to be a train station and hotel, which due to its proximity to the Louvre needed to be built sympathetically. Its inauguration in 1900 revealed a very fine building where the stone façade hid the metal structure

Dazzling white sandy beaches backed by tropical rainforest, shimmering tropical-warm blue-green water, fresh ocean breezes, and a diverse array of wildlife – Manuel Antonio is one of Costa Rica’s most popular beach destinations. Conveniently located on Costa Rica’s Central Pacific Coast, here you can experience nearly all of the country’s enchanting attractions in one place. There is little that the Quepos/Manuel Antonio area does not offer tourists, from top beaches to lush rainforest, abundant

I have always loved the saying,  “success leaves clues.” Here’s a new saying along that same line: “luggage leaves clues.” What exactly am I talking about?

As I’m settling down to write this, I’ve just gotten into my comfy clothes…sweatpants and a t-shirt. Not just any old t-shirt, but a genuine SkyTeam t-shirt. I donned my slippers with the fancy ‘F’ on them – my comfy Fairmont slippers. I put my book to the side (I’m reading Tim Ferriss’s updated version of The 4-Hour Workweek), marking my pag

POSITIVELY WELSH

I am referring to Bocas Del Toro, Panama. While barely within the single digit latitudes,(9.80 degrees north) made famous by Jimmy Buffet, Bocas is also an easy destination to reach. Bocas is on the Caribbean side of Panama, as far west as you can go without getting to Costa Rica. That is right, west. Panama runs east-west, not north-south.

Transportation to Bocas is by air, or water. It is after all an archipelago of Islands. The town referred to as Bocas is on Isla Colon, but many people move

You can walk the streets of Lima yet still have the feeling that something is missing. You can take really good pictures in each of the most picturesque colonial streets but it won´t enough. You can say you know Lima but that's not completely true. What is missing then? Find a different spot from which you can observe the "whole" city, literally. That spot is San Cristobal hill.

Divided by three districts, the Rimac, Lima and San Juan de Lurigancho, this mound of earth and stones that does not

When we’re at home reading the headlines, watching the news, we can so easily reduce people of other cultures and countries to their problems.

I was reminded of this when listening to a recent broadcast of Tapestry on CBC Radio (their podcasts are free). I was also reminded of an objection I received to a post I wrote in which I suggested that Cuba has a unique sense of luxury. This is a bit of a response.

We are always more than the sum of our problems.
Tariq Ramadan was the guest being intervie

Vitrum Hotel

By Roy Heale

Palermo ‘Hollywood’ is an identity that was recently fabricated, but this area has been renowned as a popular place to live in Buenos Aires since the late 1800s.

As you discover Palermo Hollywood you will probably be struck by more of the old, Spanish-style architecture than other areas of the city, and also fewer high-rise buildings, apart from newer apartment towers. That’s because for a long time there was a law prohibiting new buildings in this community from being

Of Gods and Men is proof if it were ever needed that even today the essence of a great movie continues to be about the quality of the script and the acting. There is no computer generated wizardry here and no expensive film sets. Yet by drilling down to an astonishing level of detail Xavier Beauvois has expertly told the moving and ultimately tragic tale of a group of nine French monks in Algeria who get caught up in the country’s civil war in the 1990s.

Living in Peace

The actors who were cast to

by Kyle McCarthy (Family Travel Forum) and Kaleel Sakakeeny

Forty-four per cent of adults bring children (and grandchildren) along on leisure travels. Taken as a group, they take more trips per year (4.5) than business travelers (3.9), Gen Y (3.9) or Gen X travelers (3.5), according to the 2012 Portrait of American Travelers (MMGY Global/Harrison Group).

Parents, fueled by social media, are becoming more vocal, more demanding and more interested in what travel businesses can do for them and their

Costa Rica’s amazing natural attractions make it an incomparable vacation destination. You’re in paradise here in the tropics with lush rainforest, active volcanoes, spectacular mountain ranges and valleys, and endless beaches on both Pacific and Caribbean coasts.

Domestic flights are the perfect option for travelers who want to visit as many places in Costa Rica as possible in a short amount of time. Plus, you get a beautiful aerial view of the landscape. Costa Rica is a rugged country of peaks

When you're packing light, it's tough deciding what to take back home for souvenirs. Is it liquid, too heavy, fragile? Well, if you're coming from the Cayman Islands, you have options! Here are 3 not-to-miss Cayman savories that you'll absolutely enjoy for weeks to come after returning from your island escape.

Tortuga Rum Cake

In 1984, while working for Cayman Airways, Captain Robert Hamaty and his wife Carlene founded the Tortuga Rum Company. For years Carlene baked rum cakes for special occasion

El surf de remo es la última tendencia para los amantes de la playa y bañistas. Es un ejercicio ideal para la parte superior del cuerpo, ya que ayuda a la resistencia, el equilibrio y la estabilidad. Dadas estas características, ha ganado adeptos en tanto en jóvenes como en adultos; en aficionados y profesionales. Esto porque existen distintas subdivisiones que se adecuan según las habilidades y experiencia de cada participante. Eso sí, para todos aquellos que carezcan de experiencia y que desee

Peru, a few years ago, was the only country in the world where the prestigious Coca-Cola drink wasn´t ranked first in the market because a national drink so was deeply rooted in the Peruvian palate.

Inca Kola, the classic yellow drink that accompanied all Peruvian dishes at the tables, was the favorite. That was the reason why Coca-Cola and Lindley Corporation (producer of the local drink) signed a strategic alliance: Lindley would be the official bottler company and Coca-Cola would be the own

In the middle of the wedding, my friend's grandma, a short, stocky, but strong aboriginal Taiwanese woman in her 80s, went up on stage. She grabbed the microphone and, after a short introduction in Mandarin, the dominant language in Taiwan, began a Christian prayer in the Atayal language.

The fluid, slightly raspy words sounded quite different than the varying toned, short-syllables of Mandarin. I was in Taichung, Taiwan, a groomsman at the wedding of my good friend. Here, the attendees were most