Train from Christchurch, New Zealand to Kaikoura

I would like to introduce everyone to Caleb. If you want to be given some reasons to come visit New Zealand (which frankly, everyone should do at least one time in their life), there is no better ambassador than this particular 12-year-old Kiwi.

As much as I love trains, during the two months I staying in New Zealand, I was only able to take one train trip, which just gives me more reason to come back and visit another time in the future. The one short train jaunt I was able to take was an early morning departure from Christchurch up to Kaikoura, where I intended to try to do a little whale watching.

Caleb’s birthday was the day after our shared train ride. His mother, Jenni, was taking him up to Kaikoura to meet the rest of their family, who were all driving up from Christchurch to save money. As a huge train fan, his birthday present from his mother was the train ride. Through the luck of random seating, they sat opposite me over the table we shared for the ride up. His level of enthusiasm was inspiring. I wish I had that level of enthusiasm for. . . well, anything. Not that I remotely want to go back to that age, but being able to look upon it and remember was a nice belated, non-prime number birthday present for me. It was an exceptional few hours.

Caleb wants to work for the Department of Conservation (DOC) in New Zealand, which to my eyes, he seems already well qualified to do. He told me about the only native mammal of New Zealand, a small bat, whose name he knew, but I could not jot down quickly enough as he raced to the next highlight of “the greatest country in the world.” I was told of many things and places I needed to see: Stewart Island, the original steam train at Waipura, Doubtful Sound, Lake Taupo, and Mount Hut for skiing in the winter. He could have been a tour guide – hell, I’ve had far less informed tour guides plenty of times on my journey. His mother was concerned that he was rambling on, and he was, and tried to hush him a few times, but frankly, I wanted to hear everything he could throw out there.

There was an open-air car on the train that you could go to in order to get a better view of the passing scenery. As the train got close to our final destination, to a part of the track where it ran right next to the ocean, Caleb and Jenni invited me to join them up there to look for seals. As the fresh air whipped through the open cabin and the morning sun reflected off the Pacific Ocean, Caleb turned to me and said with the absolute certainty that only a twelve year old can muster, “New Zealand is the best place ever.”

Can’t argue with you there, Caleb. Can’t argue at all.

Book your cheap flights to New Zealand, and visit "the best place ever".

Reprinted with permission from The Mobile Lawyer

Texan in Vietnam

In Hoi An, Vietnam there is a restaurant written up in all of the guidebooks I have seen called Café des Amis. It’s run by a Vietnamese owner/chef named Mr. Kim, who by his own proclamation has “the best food in Hoi An.”

There is no menu. You have a choice of vegetarian, seafood or meat. Once you choose what general variety of food you want for the evening, you get a three or four course meal of whatever Mr. Kim is serving for that evening. No options. No changes. And you have no idea what you are going to get until it hits the table. As a bonus, Mr. Kim or one of the other servers also shows you how to eat each course (chopsticks with one, spoon with another, chilies on this one, etc.). My dinner wasn’t that fabulous, but the entertainment value was high. By the way, the set cost for my dinner and beer was about $7 U.S. dollars.

Mr. Kim also has about 12-14 books that are stacked out front at the table Mr. Kim sits at soliciting prospective patrons that walk by his waterfront location. His pitch is two-fold: “best food in Hoi An” and “where are you from?”

“Where are you from?” is one of those lines that you get used to hearing in Vietnam and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Almost everyone asks you: shop owners, hawkers at the local market, tuk-tuk drivers, or kids begging. Once you say “the United States” or “Germany” or “Japan,” invariably whoever has asked you is able to say something in your native language and give you some fact about where you are from. It annoys some people, but I think it is very a creative and ingenious way to try to get you to stop and talk.

Mr. Kim’s “where are you from” pitch comes with a very unique twist. I told him I was from the U.S. He asked where in the U.S. and I said Texas – I find it a lot easier to just say Texas, rather than Arkansas, because so few people know where Arkansas is. He nodded and walked away to his books. About three minutes later he came back with one of the books and put it down on my table. The books are full of comments from previous customers raving about the food and Mr. Kim has an almost photographic memory of the home locations of everyone that has written in them. He’d opened one of the books to a comment from someone that signed from Dallas and went on and on about how great the food was. I read it and flipped through the rest of the book slowly, reading comments from people all over the world. A few minutes later, he brought me another book with another comment from someone from Texas.

Priceless.



In case you can’t read it too well, let me retype it in its entirety:

“While on business in Da Nang, I made the short trek to Café des Amis on the recommendation of my fiancée-to-be, an ever so-slightly voluminous Swede who knows a thing or two about inconspicuous consumption. In any event, although the much vaunted ‘Goat Cheese Sandwich’ wasn’t on offer today, the four-course seafood outlay was simply spectacular. Morever – miracle upon miracles – I actually enjoyed a Tiger beer served at something appreciably less than ambient temperature.”

I am a typical guy in a quite a number of respects. One of those is my love for quoting various movie lines at a frequency that seems to discourage my ability to find a woman that will put up with me. In this case, let me go with a classic from “The Princess Bride. . .” 'I don’t think that word means what you think that word means.'

You think his girlfriend – and what the hell is “fiancée-to-be” mean?? – would like to be described as “voluminous?" As my good friend, Ken Kendrick, would likely chime in at this point – “yes, quite Rubenesque.” And conspicuous consumption, inconspicuous consumption – guess that’s about the same thing. “Seafood outlay??” “Ambient temperature??” Really?

Such an effort to impress with one’s linguistic skills. I got the feeling that this particular individual was proud of their excellent college education and wanted to make sure that everyone else that read this particular comment would be impressed also. This was all verified when you scrolled down to his signature:



Get your guns up! Go Red Raiders!

Reprinted with permission from The Mobile Lawyer

New York makes the perfect getaway

10 NOV 2009:  Recently a friend Helen Tilston and I took off for a way-too-short “girl’s weekend” in New York.  I am regularly amazed at the number of people I meet across Canada and the US, who only an hour’s flight, or less than a  day’s drive away, have never visited Manhattan.  With one of the world’s three greatest cities (my opinion of course - the others - London and Paris) on your doorstep, you stay home.  That’s just mindboggling.

Anyway, Helen and I decided to drive (always my first choice) so we set off Thursday morning bright and early from Toronto, stopping only at Duty Free to stock up, and at US Customs and Immigration where the officer had some unusual questions as to how long we had known each other and where we met.  We managed to provide pretty quick answers – “over 25 years” and “Wardair” so I guess we passed and he let us go with a wave and a “have fun”.

Getting there

I love the drive through New York and Pennsylvania which, once you get off the New York Thruway and past Syracuse is lovely all the way through the Poconos and The Delaware Water Gap Recreational Area.  We stayed overnight at Clark’s Summit in Pennsylvania about two hours out of New York and headed for the city bright and early. 

With just one unintended detour, (“keep to the right” said Helen as I veered left), we soon zoomed through the Lincoln Tunnel and into the cacophony of midtown Manhattan.  People are sometimes concerned about driving in New York, but while, certainly the traffic (especially the cabs, can be intimidating, it’s easy to navigate. It’s a grid and it’s got (for the most part) a logical system of alternating one way streets.  In no time we were heading up Sixth to The Midtown New York Hilton. 

Then came the sirens, the police cars, and the stopped traffic.  For a moment we thought the Hilton was on fire – but no, it was the building next door which had smoke pouring out of somewhere (turned out to be a manhole).  The streets were of course barricaded and police were redirecting traffic and fire department officials were scurrying about.  I dropped Helen at the entrance with the luggage and scooted around to the hotel garage entrance on the next street.

Nice and easy

The way parking is handled is usually a dead giveaway as to the service levels of a hotel. In this case I drove into a brightly lit area (parking lots in New York can be horribly dingy) and there was an attendant at my side in less than 30 seconds.  He asked if I needed any assistance with luggage, handed over a ticket and directed me to the main lobby – through glass doors leading into the hotel - right there. 

The process was completed in under a minute. It was convenient, efficient, professional and pleasant.  I reached the check-in counter at the same time Helen did.

Check in was smooth and swift and handled with a smile.  We were soon following a porter up to our room.

The room was a good size with two queen beds and all the mod-cons including a LCD flat screen television, coffee/hospitality area and mini-bar (untouched by us).  There was also a multi-functional rolling desk which was quite a neat innovation. 

The phones are two-line cordless with speakerphone and voicemail capability, and there is desktop-level data port and plug.  I don’t know about anyone else, but for me who has to pack a computer at all times, and often has to conduct phone interviews, these are convenient  touches that make the difference in a choosing a hotel.  The other thing that ranks high with me are sufficient pillows and comfortable beds.  The Hilton is tops in this department.

Our bellman was helpful and pleasant without being obsequious, and helpfully went a fetched a bucket of ice.

Our view overlooked the burning (well, smoking) building leaving Helen and I to reminisce that the very first time we had a “Girl’s weekend” in New York, which was not far off 20 years ago, we stayed at the same Hilton and had arrived (via the now defunct People’s Express airlines) and checked in about ten minutes when the fire alarms went off and looking out our window we could see a small fire on the awning over the entrance.  Looking at the smoke pouring out the manhole on the street below, felt as though the years had just vanished and here we were again standing at the window - same place – same smoke. 

Ever so cultured

With a brief relaxation we decided to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was a beautiful autumnal day – sunny and crisp so we took off on foot.  One of the biggest plusses of the Hilton, is its proximity to everything.  You can walk almost everywhere.

Strolling along Fifth Avenue across from the Park, we could almost believe we were New Yorkers.  Two beautiful young men came jogging by.  Probably in their early twenties, well built, dressed identically in below the knee tight running pants and grey sweatshirts, they had identical below shoulder length dreadlocks and were identical twins.  Absolutely identical.  It was quite a sight as they ran in perfect synchronization with each other.

We decided to stop for lunch before hitting the Met and found an Italian Restaurant with a long narrow front section, leading a few steps down to a pair of dining rooms bright with original paintings, and crammed with late lunchers.  Squeezing into a small heavy wooden table and had an excellent and quite reasonable lunch. 

It was only a few minutes from there to the Met where for US $30, we spent an entire afternoon and much of the evening enjoying the art.  There was a Vermeer exhibition on, and as is frequently the case, famous paintings are usually much smaller than what one has imagined them to be. 

I particularly enjoyed a trip to the roof garden where aside from a fabulous view of the city, on exhibition was a sculpture called Maelstrom by American artist Roxy Paine.  The stainless steel installation (130 feet by 45 feet) encompasses the entire roof garden for which it was especially created, and one can actually be right in it, giving a sensation of almost walking through a shiny silver treetop. 

At some point we checked the time to discover that the afternoon had sped by and we were exhausted.

We grabbed a cab back to the hotel stopping at a small grocery store across the street to buy some essentials - cheese, tapenade, bread, grapes, apples, and a dubious bottle of red wine, we staggered back across the street to the hotel.

Well, dubious turned out not to be the word for  the wine.  The last time I tasted anything of quite this vintage the Vietnam war was in full swing, and a friend and I pooled our payday-is-just-around-the corner-resources (about $5) to buy a jug of Andreas red.  Back then we drank it and solved the problems of the world too boot, these days we took a sip, ditched it, and switched to Talisker, a rather nice single malt.

After deciding on all the things we could/should do on a night in New York we fell asleep. 

Relax and enjoy

The next day, both being painters we packed tiny watercolour boxes and books and set off for the West Village.  The destination was my favourite lunch spot (no pun intended) – the Spotted Pig.  Arriving (intentionally) early we set up across the street and spent an hour or so creating little masterpieces (!) 

I say this every time I talk about or write about New York.  Go to the Spotted Pig.  It’s not fancy. It’s just a pub.  A very Englishy pub.  But the food is superb and the atmosphere just “real”.  Of course, all the servers are ’resting’ actors or dancers.

We walked off lunch strolling through the west village and the boutiques and galleries of Soho, and ended up on Canal Street where we picked up a couple of bargains and Helen witnessed a pickpocket team in action.

Finally we made our way back to the Hilton, stopping for a drink and some people watching in the lobby bar which is well suited for both activities.

After a brief rest we decided to take a stroll and find a restaurant for dinner.  Well, that took all of about five minutes, as we found a charming spot just up the street from the hotel.  Great food, excellent service and there sitting at the bar across from us was one of the jogging twins from the previous day. Serendipity!

Heading home

The following morning, retrieving the car was as simple as checking it in and we waved goodbye to the Hilton and headed for the Holland Tunnel and home. 

Easier said than done – a marathon had closed the tunnel, so adjusting to the situation and once again navigating New York with relative ease we headed downtown and crossed at the Lincoln Tunnel.

We were back in Toronto by dinner time.  It may seem a long way to go to not do a huge amount, but New York is invigorating all on its own. Rather than a packed itinerary I have always preferred to do one or two things (in this instance the Met, some watercolour painting and the Spotted Pig)  and then spend time browsing through stores or galleries, just people watching  and soaking up the atmosphere of a city.

If you are looking for a short getaway, there are any number of flights available, and if flying from Toronto don’t forget Porter Airlines at Toronto City Centre Airport. I will always recommend the midtown Hilton for great service and great location – walking distance to Broadway, theatres, any number of restaurants and steps from Central Park and shopping on Fifth Avenue or Madison Avenue.

These days when quick, short getaways are increasingly popular, New York is a perfect location.

 New York views
 





Reprinted with permission from Travel Industry Today

Top 5 Hotels In Havana, Cuba

Havana, Cuba offers many great, luxurious Cuban hotels - here are just a few that come highly recommended:

1 - The Hotel Saratoga

The Hotel Saratoga in picturesque Old Havana. Overlooking the intersection at Paseo del Prado and Dragones Street, it faces the Capitolio building with an astonishing view of the world renowned Partagas Cigar Factory and the Gran Teatro de La Habana. Each room is equipped with a minibar, security box, private bathroom, telephone, and satellite television. While perhaps standard in American hotels, these are rare conveniences in Cuba. The hotel itself provides a laundry service, car rentals, cyber cafe, room service, a swimming pool, a bar, and an in-house babysitter. The Saratoga has recently been refurbished in the neo-classical style, with a mezzanine bar and a spectacular rooftop pool that allows views of the old town and port.

2 - Melia Habana Hotel

Business visitors will enjoy accommodations at the Melia Habana hotel in the heart of Miramar, the center of Havana's business trade. In-house food facilities are extensive, offering a Miramar restaurant buffet, as well as a la carte restaurants featuring Cuban, Italian, and Barbeque cuisine. Hotel features include a fitness room, tennis court, beauty salon, medical services, events hall, sauna, swimming pool and internet access.

3 - Parque Central

Hailed as the most luxurious international hotel in the city, Parque Central offers modern facilities in the heart of historic Old Havana. The terrace holds a tropical bar with a swimming pool.

4 - Hotel Nacional de Cuba

Hotel Nacional de Cuba is situated atop a prominent promontory overlooking the pristine coastline. Amenities include restaurants, convention halls, car rentals, currency exchanges, fitness rooms, massages, laundry services, medical services, a pool, a cigar shop, and virtually every convenience a visitor could ask for.

5 - Santa Isabel

Santa Isabel holds its traditional, historic charm and features, despite being recently renovated and reopened in the 1990s. Features include an in-house babysitter, cyber café, bar, car rental, restaurant and art gallery.

Brought to you by Floridita Travel

My trip to Varadero, Cuba

We just got back from a week-long trip to Varadero, Cuba with Signature Vacations.

We flew from Vancouver to Varadero on Skyservice Airlines and we were booked into Star Class both ways. My overall experience traveling in Star Class was that I found it well worth the upgrade charge to take Star Class. This is still 3 and 3 seating, so it's not a wider seat, but the leg room is much more than the regular seating. Also, there are so many extras that come along when booking Star Class - advance seat selection, priority check in and priority luggage, 30KG luggage allowance, headsets and bar service on board complimentary. The meal service was the same for all of the passengers, and our morning flight was served a Western baked egg omelet with cheddar cheese on an English muffin, orange juice and Yoplait yogurt. It made for a comfortable journey traveling in Star Class. We did have the luggage come off first both in Cuba and back in Vancouver, so the priority luggage tags that are put in when checking in do work and bags came out on the carousel first!

My last trip to Cuba was about 5 years ago and I did notice a few things that have improved/changed, and that is the quality of food and variety certainly is better to what was available on the previous trip. Cuba is rich in culture and I found the people very friendly. A trip to Havana even just for the day is a must. To see Old Havana is quite incredible and very interesting rich in history of the country. Currency is the CUC (Convertible Cuban Peso) which is on par or higher than the US dollar so this does make Cuba a bit more expensive for Canadians when there, however there is not a lot of shopping to be had so one will not spend a lot of money. Of course Rum and Cigars are good deals and if you make the trip into Havana check out the Rum factory you will get some great rates on Rum and cigars. Hotels will exchange Canadian Money to the CUC but be sure to only change small amounts as you need it, for you will lose again when you have to convert it back to Canadian money. You cannot convert CUC outside of Cuba so you must do this before you leave the country. The airport does have a currency exchange however if you had an early flight it would not be open.

Tipping is quite the norm now and one will find they will tip small amounts even in the all inclusive resorts. We did find service a bit better if we had tipped and I still brought some small gifts for the maids and I left a small amount of money at the end for the maid. They really appreciate this and I had the maid leave me a nice note to thank me for the gifts. Any excursions taken you should expect to take some money to tip the tour guides etc at the end of the trip. Guideline would be the same as tipping in Canada for tour guides etc. They really do just appreciate any amount and they are very friendly and helpful one does not mind tipping for the great customer service.

Here is some information about the hotel where we stayed in Varadero:
Hotel Sirenis La Salina Varadero

Large hotel - 1035 rooms

New hotel and largest in Varadero - Opened in 2007

This hotel is built in a Ecological park so a lot of the area respected and protected when built

There is a relaxation pool as well as the main activity pool

7 a la carte restaurants

10 handicapped rooms located on the main floor nearest the lobby area

Centre Square, as it is called in the resort, is where the theater area is located at this resort

Piano bar- which turns into the disco later in the night

Waterslides off the main pool area with swim up bar in the main pool area

Mini club with 2 kids pools

Baby club – 0-4 years – mini club for 5-12 years

Standard rooms with either 1 king or 2 double beds

charge for safe of 2 CUC per day

Netherlands River Cruise

We took a river cruise last spring on the Viking Europe from Amsterdam to Volendam. Small river cruise ships allow you the opportunity to see much of the countryside along the canals and rivers, and they can also dock in small villages, enabling you to visit places that are not accessible with larger ships. Our Dutch Journey cruise on the Viking Europe river cruise ship spent the first day and a half in Amsterdam and then sailed northward to Noord Holland late one afternoon, just in time to have a dinner cruise on the way to Volendam, which is about 20 kilometers north of Amsterdam. Although I thoroughly enjoyed visiting Amsterdam on previous vacations, none of those trips gave me time to venture out into the Netherlands countryside.

Soon after leaving Amsterdam on the Viking Europe, we came to our first lock of the cruise. The Netherlands is covered with many rivers and canals. The locks were built to help with flood control, and ships must plan their time in the locks in advance since they can only be opened during certain stages of the tide. Ships can only use the locks when the tides are almost at a standstill. This means the locks are available only four times a day for just a few hours on either side of high and low tide.

After leaving the lock, we entered Gouwzee Bay, which is part of the Ijsselmeer (Ijssel Lake). While enjoying our dinner, we watched the other ships on the lake and small cottages scattered on the many islands in the Ijsselmeer. The Netherlands is a very flat country, and it's easy to see why flooding is such a concern. We also got a close-up look at the new 'Dolly Parton' bridge. We had driven past the bridge earlier on our way to the Floriade but we hadn't seen it up close. Its two large spans make it seem aptly named.

We reached the village of Volendam after dark. I had heard both positive and negative things about Volendam. Some friends had raved about how charming and quaint Volendam was, while others had complained that it was simply a tourist trap. Since it is close to Amsterdam it makes it an easy day trip for throngs of tourists, and its numerous sailboats and rows of wooden houses make Volendam very picturesque. Volendam was once a busy fishing port, but when the enclosure dike was completed in 1932, the subsequent change of the Zuiderzee (South Sea) from salt water to the freshwater Ijsselmeer ruined the fishing.

Early the following morning, I went outside and was amazed to see how charming the city was. Volendam was very beautiful in the early dawn. Sailboats were rocking peacefully in the water, and the sun was trying to peek through the morning clouds. It was a terrific way to start the day! We left Volendam early that morning by bus to visit Hoorn and Edam before meeting the ship again in Enkhuizen. As we walked through Volendam to meet the bus, I noticed that most of the quaint buildings were souvenir shops. Maybe there was something to the "tourist trap" label after all! I'm glad that we left Volendam early, and my memory of it will always be as it looked in the early morning: peaceful, calm, and nearly deserted.

During our first night at sea on the Viking Europe, we saw demonstrations of several Dutch folklore dances by a dance troop in traditional Dutch costume. If you're looking for glitzy Las Vegas-type entertainment on a cruise, then a small ship river cruise is NOT for you. Our river cruise ship featured local talent such as these dancers and the ship's crew.

The small dance troop were all seniors, but they had a lot of energy. You could tell that were proud of their heritage and loved the traditional dances. The women each wore 4 petticoats under their dresses, and the men were wearing heavy woolen jackets and pants, along with knitted socks. I'm sure they were sweltering hot after all of that dancing. The women wore traditional lace caps that were held in place with silver pins. Where were the cute little Dutch girl pointed caps that we always associate with Holland? We thoroughly enjoyed learning about the dances and hearing about the history of the costumes. One of the gentlemen asked me to dance, and we did the "famous" skating dance. I didn't embarrass myself, but don't think I am ready to change careers!

New Sensatori Hotel in Cancun

I just came back from Cancun last week, and had a chance to stay at the new Sensatori Hotel that just opened 2 weeks ago. This hotel is approximately 35 mins from Playa Del Carmen, and is exclusive to Signature Vacations. From my experience, I think you will find this hotel to be just great.


The Sensatori Hotel is very kid-friendly. Here are some of the amenities available for families.

Strollers are offered at no charge

They have playpens/cribs and they are offered at no charge you can either preorder or there is a check list you can fill in upon arrival and they will then have items sent to your room

Gourmet Gerber baby food and there is a kid menu that they have in each restaurant so that kids can have that if they do not want what is on the main menu for adults

Baby monitors are available at no cost

Onsite store to buy diapers and misc items for the children

There is the splash pool that has kids things to play on

Toy lending library at the kids club - just sign out what is needed to take back to the room

Staff can be hired to babysit for a cost of $15.00 per child per hour – all staff that do this service have first aid and have completed a babysitting course

Toddlers welcome package includes smoothie shake with sprinkles, and an activity book.

There is the area by the Italian restaurant where the teens club is, so they can hang out with other teens on their own, and have things to do there that would be more what teens are looking to do. This area is always supervised so parents can let the teens go on their own, as there will always be adult supervision.


All rooms come with the mini fridge. Tipping is included, however, like at any resort if you wish to tip for service above and beyond that is fine. The beach was good, swimmable and was the powder white sand.

Although the hotel is not promoted as wheelchair accessible, the property seems fairly flat with ramps around. As with other Mexican hotels I've stayed at, the rooms are not equipped with the full bathroom for handicapped but the wheelchair will go through the door. Actually, as we were there a gentleman did arrive who was in a wheelchair, so that was good to see to know that one could get around in a wheelchair.