Monthly archives for July, 2011
Do travellers need to take lessons?
Seen the TV series An Idiot Abroad? It makes me cringe – but only because I know this is exactly the way I’ve behaved in the past.
I remember arriving at the ferry terminal in Surat Thani, in Thailand. I thought I’d walked into a time-warp. Here were a whole bunch of “freaks” looking as I had been trying to look twenty year [...]
The Human Voice in Cyberspace: Enrich...
Talk … talk … talk
As a species, we human beings are unique in that we verbalize — a lot. Some might say too much.
But, as I used to tell my students, the mouth is the centre of the universe. It is where nurturing of the newborn begins. It is love idealized. The kiss, as my hero Cyrano de Bergerac said, “… is the rose-coloured dot on the i of [...]
On the Zen Road Again
If you are a person of a certain age, you will probably remember Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance; and you may also remember the surprising effect the book had on the general culture of travel in North America.
Published in 1974, the book became a literary and cultural icon as the author took those of us who were he [...]
Postcard from Sapa
‘You buy from me? You buy from me…’
That phrase has entered our vocabulary since my photographer-husband, Gordon and I, made a recent trip to Sapa in the far north of Vietnam.
There is a ‘frontier town’ feel to the place. You can be shopping for the finest silk dresses or heritage silver jewellery, then step outside and see water [...]
The Grand Theatre of Canadian History
Today is Canada Day, July 1.
Prologue
In Canada, character, dramatic conflict, and nationhood have played out and continue to do so against a backdrop of diverse and imposing scenery. This interdependent relationship between landscape and history is not unique to Canada but it is very much part of the matrix of our nation.
Like classical [...]
