Project Runaway

When I was in high school I dated a boy who was so enthralled with all things Californian that he bought a surfboard and carried it around school. The catch was we lived in a small hamlet approximately a 16 hour drive from any waves. I am sharing this embarrassing tidbit to demonstrate that young [...]

My permanent home is on Vancouver Island. To get to the mainland, one hops on a B.C. ferry for the 1 hour and 35 minute trip across the Strait of Georgia. I have been asked how often I make this trip and the truth is not often. This usually leads to a puzzled look on [...]

When I worked at the Foothills Hospital in Calgary, I used to take my evening break in a quiet area where there were several comfy chairs and the only traffic was the rare person going into the chapel nearby. As I sat there and read an older lady from housekeeping would clean the area. She [...]

Research shows that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  Experience shows that eating the free breakfast included in most establishments saves you money.  As I like to be healthy and cheap this arrangement works well for me.
From Europe to Asia the breakfasts have been diverse. In Italy: a cappuccino and a cornetto; Turkey: cay tea, [...]

When we left on our travels, time seemed to stretch far ahead of us. Now it is 2010 and we are already nearly 8 months into our 10 month trip. SE Asia has been exhilarating and exhausting, and I have just not had time to keep up with my blog as well. So this is [...]

Our dear friends and fellow travelers, one-giant-step.com, tagged us in a blog challenge to reveal our Three Travel Secrets. After 7 months and 2 weeks these are the tips that I would like to share.
Rent Serviced apartments when staying for longer periods in a location. This is the one tip that I can’t stress enough. [...]

It is December, but as there has been no change of seasons to mark time, I feel as if it is July. Malaysia is a long ways back now. We had worked our way up the coast and then crossed into Thailand. I am hungover and on an overnight train to Bangkok. We decide to [...]

British novelist Anthony Burgess writes that eating durian is “like eating sweet raspberry blancmange in the lavatory.”
definition of blancmange: sweet almond-flavored milk pudding thickened with gelatin or cornstarch; usually molded
Chef Andrew Zimmern compares the taste to “completely rotten, mushy onions.”
Anthony Bourdain, while a lover of durian, relates his encounter with the fruit as thus: [...]

We were back on the road again and this time headed for the Cameron Highlands. The highlands are the highest area in mainland Malaysia. The area is known for its tea plantations and rolling green hills reminiscent of the English countryside. After another grueling multi-bus ride, we arrived at Father’s Guesthouse feeling like we had [...]

How many people can say they have actually been in a tropical rainforest? A jungle that is over 130 million years old. That has been untouched by any natural or unnatural disaster and has been around since the time of the dinosaurs? When you try and imagine the jungle, images from every movie you had [...]