In October I was on a trip with an obnoxious American travel writer who remarked that she found Winnipeg to be a dangerous city. I suppose just about anywhere can appear threatening if you end up in the wrong neighbourhood, but this writer, who lived in New York, had already made several disparaging remarks about Canada, and I decided to call her on this one. ”Well, if we’re talking about truly dangerous cities, I would say that some of the most dangerous in the world are found in the U.S. You can get killed for your shoes down there, which is a pretty disgraceful situation considering America is one of the richest nations on earth.” Not so surprisingly, she vehemently disagreed. Later, when I mentioned this verbal exchange to a couple of my friends, they also claimed that I was off base, suggesting cities like Baghdad, Kabul and Mogadishu were a lot more hazardous than anywhere in the U.S. The question remained unresolved, but this week I tried to find out in which cities you have the best chance of getting killed. The answers were quite interesting. Continue reading
Category Archives: International
Stuff I Really Need to Read…. Next Year
The end of the year is fast approaching, which, as we all know, means it’s time to look back and forward at the same time, and try not to get dizzy. In this case, I’m looking back at some of the excellent travel books published in 2008 that I neglected to read, but which I plan to track down and peruse in 2009. Of course, by necessity I am relying on what others claim are good travel books. This is precisely the sort of exercise I often indulge in at the year’s end, and not only with books, but also with music and movies. I review a bunch of reviews and then decide what looks most promising. It’s not that I don’t have a mind of my own, but simply that I don’t have time to keep up with everything that is going on during the year. So, without any more preamble, here are six travel books that really sound like the sort of thing I will enjoy reading next year.
Christmas Cheer
Not everyone in the world celebrates Christmas the way we do here in Canada, with a fat, elderly, laughing man in a red suit, who soars through the sky in a sleigh pulled by a team of magical reindeer, then lands on rooftops and slides down chimneys with a sack of toys. No sir, in some other countries they have strange Christmas customs. In case you happen to be on the road during the festive season this year it may help to know what to expect. Continue reading
The Mystery of Maya Blue
A few years ago I travelled to Mexico to see the fabled Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. I stayed at the Hacienda Chichen, which is located only a few hundred metres from the main gate, so I could be on the grounds the first thing in the morning. It was a wise move. By doing so, I had several hours to explore the site virtually by myself, before the busloads of tourists began arriving from the surrounding towns and the Yucatan’s infamous humidity began to melt my brain. Chichen Itza was a magnificent place, beautiful, awe-inspiring and seemingly touched by magic in the drifting mist of the dawn.