If you ever find yourself in south-central Nevada with a day to spare, you could impress your friends with stories of your drive along the Extraterrestrial Highway. Here’s my version of an impressive tale. I hope to read yours soon. It all begins in a small town called Caliente in central Nevada, about 240km north of Las Vegas. I think…
Category: Travel
A few gratuities for Brand USA
I see President Obama’s plan to increase selective tourism to the USA is about to commence next month with the launch of a marketing campaign called Brand USA, according to this recent New York Times article. The objective of the Brand USA campaign is to stimulate inbound tourism to the states from a select bunch of countries. According to the NY…
Doing the Mâconnais
Four hundred km south of Paris and 75km north of Lyon, the small city of Mâcon on the west bank of the river Saóne is the southernmost outpost of the French region of Bourgogne (Burgundy) and the capital of the department Saóne-et-Loire. A population of 35,000 swelled by two recently when we sat in a cafe on Esplanade Lamartine to…
The Pisco King
Meet Johnny Schuler, Peruvian restaurateur, celebrity chef, tv personality, master distiller and Medal of Honour winner for his work in promoting the uniquely Latin American spirit, Pisco. We bumped into Johnny one freezing Friday over lunch in The Plaza Food Hall by Todd English when we stepped in from the cold to enter the Plaza Hotel in our dining ‘brag book’. We’d…
Mulholland Muddle
I’m not a big fan of Los Angeles. To me, the conurbation is a large collection of villages connected by a lacework of freeways with very little attractiveness or interest in between. This often presents a dilemma as sometimes we’re in LA on a stopover with time to explore the Greater LA area, but no hire car. Other times we…
The Art of Modern Restaurant Dining
Six months ago Michelle and I had dinner at The Modern – the flagship restaurant of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. It was a day, pretty much like any other, if your typical day includes… A 90 minute haircut resulting in a tonsorial crop shorter than your typical marine grunt. Or … Getting married in…
A few days in Vietnam
Frankly, I’d been too busy to really consider a holiday, but when Michelle suggested a fortnight in Vietnam, I thought I’d give it a go. Armed with the latest Lonely Planet we came up with suggestions for ground content which I sent to Anne at Travel Indochina to develop a full itinerary. Three weeks later, following vaccinations and visa photographs,…
Oman
My introduction to Doha was a half-day guided city tour showcasing the sea-front Corniche, Dhow Harbour , The Old Souq (Market), Equestrian Club, Falcon Market, Fruit and Vegetable Market, Fish Market, Traditional Market and the city Centre Mall. Thoughts of Doha were overall positive, but qualified. I concluded that Doha is a “Work in Progress”; clean, but a little sterile, and…
Saigon
Sipping a chilled 333 in the window of a buzzy bar on Saigon’s renowned Dong Khoi Street I was taken by the faith and trust complete strangers place in others. The spark of this reverie was the nonchalant way many visitors stepped off the footpath into the path of a tsunami of motorbikes and purposefully strode across the road as…
Beijing
A chilly, foggy Friday morning and we made the 2 hour flight to Beijing. I know it’s 2 hours because we made that flight twice. Turned back just prior to landing in Beijing we returned to Xian airport for a long and frustrating wait in the terminal where we made deletions to our Beijing itinerary to compensate for the lost time.…