Pilgrimage, anyone?

The Royal Wedding.  You know, that little tiny thing that monopolized all TV channels and would still be recapped 24/7 if it wasn’t for that little Bin Laden being killed thing to take over the news reports?  Well, aside from “oh my God, that dress was gorgeous…” the Royal Wedding got me thinking about pilgrimages.  Let me explain that jump in my thought process.  Pilgrimages are most commonly associated with religious sites – Mecca, Fatima, Vatican City and the like, but I’m going for any location/landmark/once in a lifetime experience/whatever that means enough to someone that they will lay down the credit card, pack up the Volkswagon and follow the siren’s call.  Like the thousands of people who flew/sailed/swam/hitchiked/magic carpeted to London to line the Mall and catch a glimpse of the Royal newlyweds.  See?  It all makes sense now.

Think Graceland.  Since Elvis died, people have been flocking from everywhere to walk past his pink Cadillac, see the Jungle Room and eat overpriced peanut butter and banana sandwiches from the on-site concession stand.  It’s inspired songs, movies, tattoos and countless frequent flier miles.  And it’s just a house.  A house no longer inhabited by the King (or is it?  There are websites out there that still dispute this – the internet is a great way for crazy people to network).  This is the classic, iconic case of the pop culture pilgrimage.

I had a client recently who booked a vacation to Thailand, and two weeks before he was to leave, he discovered Depeche Mode (or something, it was 80’s synth-something-or-other) was going to be playing a one-off gig in Phuket three days before he was supposed to arrive.  So he called me to change his ticket, only to discover that the flight was practically sold out and he’d have to play transpacific business class prices (think of a high number, multiply it and add three per cent and you might come close), plus additional nights hotel and expenses, all for three hours of techno.  I automatically assumed he would shoot it down, but there were a few hours when he really, seriously was considering this.  The band meant that much to him.  It was the age old cost versus payoff debate, and to him the payoff may have been worth that month’s mortgage payment.  In the end common sense prevailed (hey, I like my 80’s new wave more than the average duck, but this was the financial equivalent of a small car) and he left it as it was… and a day later he calls again, saying he discovered they were playing in Dubai four days after their Phuket gig, and asking how much it would be to add a little side trip to Dubai for one night.  Geographically, Dubai is not a little side trip from anywhere, except maybe Abu Dhabi, but it sure as hell isn’t one from Phuket.  So now not only is it cost, but this guy was willing to spend approximately two and a half days on a plane for that aforementioned concert.  At this point, I had tried to talk him out of it, done my ethical due diligence, and I was totally willing to sell him whatever he wanted, as long as he told me how it went when he eventually crawled home, burned out, still hungover, jet lagged and blissfully happy.   Ten minutes before he was going to come in and pay for the new ticket, reality must have smacked him upside the head and he called to cancel the changes.  Can’t say I blamed him, but a small part of me had wanted to see the pure joy in his eyes when I handed him a ticket that would take him to his promised land, complete with glow sticks and navel-baring tees.

Admittedly, my own Achilles’ heel is Disneyland.  All of them.  Any time I’m within two hours of one of the parks, I hear the call and I must go.  Can’t fight the call of the mouse…  I had a fairly high-end tour guide in Paris practically spit on my shoes when I asked him how to take the train to Eurodisney (”Yooooo vant to go zheeere?  Quoi?  Eeeeest un giant pile of tooooooooorist merde!”)  Naturally, this was the same guy more than willing to sell me a steaming pile of tourist merde - I mean, an evening at the Moulin Rouge, complete with a huge financial kickback to himself – but Disney was just so…. gauche.  Well, suck it, Mr. Tour Guide.   Made it just fine, had a great time, and four years later when I was in London, I hopped on the Eurostar again for a one-day Disney fix.  Same thing happened in Hong Kong:  ”You want to go shopping again?”  ”Not really, you?” “How much HKD$ do you have left?”  ”Enough for Disneyland”  ”Sweet.”  And I can’t even count how many times I’ve found myself in California, staring up at Space Mountain, and wondering how I’d ended up here again, but knowing it won’t be the last.

So, what place/event/landmark calls to you?   Where is your Mecca?  Your Depeche Mode?  Your Royal Wedding?

Tags: Graceland, London, pilgrimage, religion, Royal Wedding, USA

You drive like crazy

        It seems like the most convenient thing to do.  Why bother having to sort through bus and train schedules on your trip when you could just rent a car and go where you want when you want?  Hold up there a minute, Skippy, make sure you know what this entails or you could be dealing with more hassle than you’d ever anticipated.  If you’re from Canada and heading down to California for Disneyland, for example, then I wholeheartedly encourage a car rental.  You’re familliar with the makes and models of the cars on offer, you know the basic road rules, as they’re the same up here, and you can read the street signs.  These three criteria are not going to be met everywhere, though, so I recommend doing a little online research before you even consider getting behind the wheel. 

    First off, the majority of rental cars internationally are standard transmission.  You need to specify an automatic at time of booking, and be prepared, they’re usually a higher price due to their uniqueness.   So if you can’t drive stick and don’t want to wind up like those Amazing Race contestants repeatedly stalling out in the middle of traffic and enduring the wrath of the locals, you have two options: either practice a bit before going (driving your cousin’s borrowed standard around parking lots for a few hours is so much cooler than learning all the bad hand gestures the hard way on your trip) or cough up the extra cash and get one you can drive.

               Similar to this is the “check which side of the road your chosen country drives on” rule.  I’ve had clients who were perfectly capable of driving standard, but kept missing gears in New Zealand as they were shifting with their left hands while remembering to drive on the right side of the road.  This is also why renting a car in London to drop off in Paris is not possible, as your steering wheel is not going to magically switch sides mid-ferry crossing, and there are a lot of people out there that think the side the wheel is on dictates the side they should drive on.  A client asked me that once, if they could follow the French or the English road rules while in France with an English car.   I am not making this up.  Luckily, I didn’t have a car rental company that would allow him to do this itinerary, so I was spared from having to explain to him that the French don’t like cleaning up after hundreds of tourists killed in head-on collisions near the port of Calais.

      Similarly, if you can’t read the street signs, or understand the basic laws of the road, don’t drive.  When in destination you’re subject to local laws, and ignorance is not a legal defense.  Legal matters aside, by driving yourself you also have to navigate yourself to your destination, so learning the local words/signs for things like “stop”, “road closed” and “if you drive down this road you will be shot”  are a good idea.  I’ll get you started.  “Ausfhart” is German for “Exit”.  There, I’ve just saved you hours of driving down the Autobahn, giggling to yourself and wondering why all roads lead back to the town of Ausfhart while the city you’re looking for never appears.

       Then there’s the little matter of practicality.  Some places it’s actually more inconvenient to have a car than take public transport, particularly if you’re spending a prolonged time in a major city centre.  London is a great example of this, where just driving into the city centre will cost you GBP$7 per day as a congestion charge.  Then there’s the horrendous lack of parking, high traffic congestion combined with the crazy streets that can change names every block or just stop for no reason (not kidding about this, taxi drivers have to study maps and test-drive the city for years before they get their license – passing a test ominously called “the Knowledge”), and when you add it all up it’s enough to have you thrown up your hands in exasperation and abandon your Hertz in the middle of Trafalgar Square in favor of the Underground.  At least on the train you know you’ll eventually wind up at your destination.

      All this being said, a car rental can be a great way to get from one place to another, moving at whatever pace you choose to, as long as it’s under legal limits.  It gives you the freedom to buy that ten-gallon jug of drinking water on sale at Target because you know you don’t have to carry it all the way back to your hotel carefully balanced on your head.  You can reach so many off the beaten path places that major transportation links might not get to.  So rent away – I have some great rates! – but make sure it’s the perfect decision to make your dream trip all you want it to be

Tags: Amazing race, Ausfhart, car rentals, England, France, German, international, London, Tips

London – My favorite museums Pt. 2 – The Natural History Museum

Finding a museum in London is like finding a Starbucks in downtown Vancouver – if you spit, you have a pretty good chance of hitting one.  But unlike Vancouver Starbucks, the majority of these gems are free (although a donation is greatly appreciated).  Thank the British lottery for that.  With availability like that, if you tell me you didn’t visit some of these incredible museums, I’m going to smack you.  Seriously, I will smack you.  I know all that choice can seem overwhelming, but allow me to help steer you in the right direction with a spotlight on my must-sees.  This one proves that looking at Dinosaur bones isn’t just for kids and nerds, the Natural History Museum.

I admit, I have a bit of a passion for architecture.  Maybe it’s because I’m a painter, but the incredible, graphic things being done with stone and glass always fascinates me.  The Natural History Museum holds a special place in my heart, architecture-wise, as it’s an interesting mix of classical and whimsical, and I love whimsical.  Technically it’s an example of the German Romanesque style, with spires and sweeping arches, all done in a mix of buff and cobalt blue terra cotta, circa 1881.  What makes it stand out are the relief carvings of plants and animals that crawl all over the outside, so subtly included in the design that you could easily walk by and not notice them.  But upon closer inspection it becomes “ooh, there’s a monkey climbing up that tower!”  and “is that a Pterodactyl on the roof?”  The western winghas living forms while the eastern’s are all extinct. I spot more creatures every time I’m there and, as I learned firsthand, it makes waitingin line to enter a rather pleasant experience.  Inside it’s just as cool, particularly the ceiling of the central hall, which is covered with a patchwork of more than 160 painted botanical panels, each depicting a different plant.  There are more monkeys crawling the columns and girders in here, too.

I love a good entrance, and this one greets you with a fully-assembled diplodocus skeleton smiling at you.  Well, if he had skin and muscles, I’m sure he’d be smiling.  Anyway it’s sure an impressive way to greet the visitors.  He’s just the first of many dinosaurs, some real, some animatronic that fill the gallery to your right.  That’s an interesting gallery, as are the Earth (earthquakes, rocks, weather, etc.) and Ecology ones (bugs, big trees, recycling), but personally, as a girl who’s been hauled to zoos around the world her entire life, the real draw for me are the animals.  The stuffed animals.  Taxidermy still kinda creeps me out, but when you remember that this was the norm back in the 1800’s when most of these samples were collected, and that they’re incredibly well preserved and displayed, it takes some of the “eww” factor away.  Some are even faded from sun exposure over the last hundred and fifty years or so.  This is also the only way to actually see a dodo, sabre-toothed cat and more species of animal than any zoo could hold, all life-sized and not reproduced by computer, so I guess it’s worth it. The bird, primate and mammal galleries are my favorites, specifically the animals that are elusive to see in the wild, like lemurs (only in Madagasgar), lorises (damn that nocturnal thing) and duck-billed platypusses (what is the plural of platypus?  Platypusses? Platypii?  Whatever it is, they’re so damned hard to find they were thought to be a myth for years).

Another thing the Natural History Museum has going for it is their food, specifically the cafe by the bird hall in the green zone.  No, we’re not talkinghigh gourmet here, but as far as museum food hall fare goes, it’s pretty darn good with a price point and selection to match.  You can get everythingfrom a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to fresh plated pasta.  A couple of years ago I had a bowl of tomato-basil soup that tasted exactly like my homemade spaghetti sauce, and I love my spaghetti sauce.  I cannot tell you how good this was.  It’s making me hungry just thinking about it.  Once we were wanderingaround South Kensington around lunchtime and couldn’t decide on a restaurant, so, because of it’s free admission, we went into the museum cafe just to eat.

The Natural History Museum is totally not just for kids.  Granted, the kids will love it (lots of ooh-ing and aah-ing), but you adults will enjoy it too.

Tags: animals, architecture, birds, BlogSherpa, cafe, England, free, London, monkeys, museum, terra cotta, UK, weird

London – My favorite museums pt 1 – The British Museum

Finding a museum in London is like finding a Starbucks in downtown Vancouver – if you spit, you have a pretty good chance of hitting one.  But unlike Vancouver Starbucks, the majority of these gems are free (although a donation is greatly appreciated).  Thank the British lottery for that.  With availability like that, if you tell me you didn’t visit some of these incredible museums, I’m going to smack you.  Seriously, I will smack you.  I know all that choice can seem overwhelming, but allow me to help steer you in the right direction with a spotlight on my must-sees.  I’ll start with the most iconic, and spectacular of all, The British Museum.

Not only is the British Museum a national treasure with some of the most remarkable artifacts in the world within it’s walls (I’ll get to those later), but the Great Court itself is a sight to see.  The classical, round (literally) reading room, sweeping staircases, outstanding sculptures of men and/or horses,  a cafe, and gift shop, all done in white marble and stone that positively glows with the natural light coming in through the modern geometric glass ceiling.  It reminds me of a television version of heaven, where every thing’s white and shiny and ethereal.  I dare you not to take a picture here, it’s that compelling.

Once you tear yourself from the Great Court, you’re transported to another magical world just by walking through the doors of any gallery.  My personal favorite place to start (because I love Egyptian history and like to work clockwise) is the Egyptian Sculpture hall, home of giant – and I mean Volkswagon Beetle big - sculptures, all so perfectly smooth and detailed that the fact that they were able to carve this well back then is astounding.  Also, there’s the Rosetta Stone, the one unassuming little scribble-covered rock that proved to be the key the translation of heiroglyphics.   If Egypt is your thing, there is more upstairs as well: the actual, flaky, thousand year old Mummies that the statues downstairs once guarded over, all sorts of bones, artifacts and even a mummified cat.  My cat, Cairo, was actually so named because she resembled the statues here, and I’d like to take her into the afterlife with me, assuming she drops the diva act long enough to be mummified.

The Egyptian Sculpture hall leads into the Assyrian halls (I love making a good entrance, and here 2 giant winged human-headed lions are built right into the walls on either side of you, so you can’t help but feel grand), and the Greek halls.  Here you can marvel at the incredibly detailed, life-sized  alabaster people doing everything from throwing a discus to pouring invisible water.  Or, you can play the ”find the statue who’s penis hasn’t been broken off” game.  That’s endless hours of entertainment, let me tell you.  And it’s hard!  The game, not the penis.  Well, I guess a stone one would be, too…  Amidst all the phallus-less warriors are the Elgin Marbles, one of the most famous friezes in history (can you name another?) from the Parthenon.    I guess due to political correctness, they’re now called the “Parthenon Sculptures”, since they were kinda stolen and Greece kinda wants them back, but that doesn’t make them any less cool.  The Greek sculptors are unrivalled in their ability to create perfection, to the point that these people (if they had all the appendages that have broken off over the years reattached) look as if they could stand up and walk away at any time, they’re that realistic.

There are far too many galleries and collections here to list – from Korean to North American to an awesome display of Turkish tiles and Thai Buddhas, there’s even a money display that has some Chinese bills that were used to buy yourself out of Hell – so I’ll stop here, teasing you with the details of the others.  You name it, they have a gallery for it. You can immerse yourself in the history of pretty much everywhere without having to pay for the round-the-world airfare.  And, being such a prestigious institution has it’s benefits, as the limited-engagement displays in the rotating gallery attracts only the best from around the world.  A few years ago they had the first display of Terra Cotta Warriors from Xian outside of China – man, what I would have given to see that, I was just a few months too early.

In short, if you’re in London and you don’t visit the British Museum, shame on you.  If you think you’re not interested, I challenge you to just go in (it’s free, after all) to use the nice and clean bathrooms in the Great Court.  If crossing that white expanse of fabulousness doesn’t inspire you to keep exploring, then you’re not human.

Tags: BlogSherpa, British Museum, cafe, donation, England, free, gift shop, heaven, London, museum, UK

The Importance of Travel Agents

           Welcome to the internet age.  You can now buy a condo, meet your future spouse, learn how to hotwire a car, blog incessantly about your travels, and probably save the world all while still in your pajamas and happy bunny toe socks.  You can also book your next vacation all by yourself.  But just because you can, should you?  Despite having the universe at your fingertips, there is still reason to go to your local Travel Agent and get them to do the work for you. 

         I’m not just saying this because I am one (okay, that’s a teensy part of it), but Travel Agents are still important assets.  We really do have a wealth of information that you’re never going to find online – we talk about popular destinations on a daily basis and/or have probably been there (most tourism offices go to great lengths to get agents to visit so they can better sell their destination).  Even if we haven’t visited ourselves, we  probably know someone (a coworker/past client) who has been recently and can feed off their feedback.  Plus, we sit at computers for a reason, as we have access to a slew of specialized computer programs that can answer most inquiries with just a few clicks or keystrokes.   Think of it this way: one day you want to go to Australia, so you hop online and book a return ticket for Sydney leaving next week.  Seems perfect, right?  But if you didn’t know you needed a Visa to enter Australia (based on Canadian citizenship), the second you got to the immigration counter at Syndey International you’d be denied entry and sent home on the next flight, not getting any of your money refunded.

             Agents have your back.  More than almost anything, that’s the biggest service we provide.   We’re here to support you in booking and planning your dream vacation, but also to help you clean up the mess if something goes wrong.  We have lots of industry contacts who we’ve built up relationships with over the years, and if there’s a glitch in your trip, we can go straight to the source and get it sorted out as smoothly as possible. It’s a symbiotic relationship, we support their product, they do their best to help us (and, consequently, you) out in a crisis.  Plus, my company, at least, has more than 400 agencies across Canada, so they don’t want to make us mad.  We control a nice amount of the selling power across the country, so we wield a little more pursuasive power as the travel companies don’t want to loose our business.  I’ve had cases where suppliers will go above and beyond to get a matter sorted out to the client’s satisfaction solely because I was calling on behalf of my company.  Online, you get none of this.  The classic case is a woman who tried to book herself to London, England and accidentally booked her ticket to London, Ontario (the prices were probably pretty similar!).  She was screwed, and there was no one to blame but her own ignorance.  No online booking site is going to refund any money just because she didn’t read the fine print.  If she had booked with an agent, on the other hand, she would have been going to England correctly in the first place

            Then there’s price.  Travel agencies understand as well as anyone that in these tough economic times price is the bottom line, and that is why we have a vast network of suppliers – suppliers who do not sell to the public – that offer wholesale “bulk” prices and special contract prices just to us.  These are usually better than or at least comparable to anything that could be found online, and without an agent you would have missed out.

             Yes, we charge service fees.  All agencies do it, and if they say they don’t, that’s because they’ve hidden it in the bill and called it a “tax”.   We have to.  No business could stay afloat if all they did was give out information all day and not get paid for it.  And yes, this adds to the price of your vacation.  Think about it, you’re paying for service, booking security and peace of mind.  There is a difference between price and value, and what we offer is definitely valuable.  When you get to Europe and realize you’d accidentally booked yourself into a hotel with one shared bathroom for all the rooms, or come home from the worst all-inclusive vacation ever and want to file a complaint about it, instead of just sitting and fuming, you could contact us and we could help you get it all sorted out while you sit and fume.

              What it all boils down to is this:  I love my job.  I love creating people’s dreams on a daily basis and sharing all I know with my clients.  It’s new and exciting every day, as I don’t know what adventures the day holds.  Don’t get me wrong, dealing with distraught clients, stupid questions and annoying airlines isn’t always sunshine and roses, but at the end of the day there’s nothing better then hearing from an excited passenger that I had just sent them on the best vacation they’d ever had.  So call your local travel agent and let them put their expertise to work on the best trip you’ve ever had

Tags: London, price, service, travel agent, value

I wrote a book! What a novel idea.

Travel agent by day, novelist by night.  For years my routine regularly involves going to work just as Holly, but when I get home I put on my cape and morph into my alter-ego Rocket Girl (or Travel Junkie, or Grammatically Correct Girl, whatever, I haven’t come up with a good Super Hero name yet) and curl up with my laptop and hammer away.  It’s not going to save the world (unless, of course there’s a massive flood and the world needs to use it as a flotation device), but my efforts have finally bore fruit and my novel is finally complete.   You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to say that.  I’ve finally written something that passes my anal-retentive “is this good enough to show other people?” test!  Insert happy dance here.

It’s an action/mystery work of fiction, but, naturally, there’s a giant amount of travel thrown in.  This is me, here.   Here’s the gist (I’m not going to spoil it now!): five years ago a group of people witnessed a brutal murder in a Seattle bar, and the killer was never captured.  In the interim, the witnesses have dispersed all over the globe, either trying to escape bad memories or through job commitments.  When suddenly someone begins unexpectedly hunting down and killing the witnesses, two survivors take it upon themselves to warn the others, but when standard phone calls/e-mails fail, they take to the skies.  Thus begins an international cat-and-mouse game that spans the planet from Seattle to Bangkok, Sydney to London, one where motivation, trust and the truth are put to the ultimate test and a missed connection could leave them permanently delayed.

Ooh, that actually sounds pretty good.  I’ll have to save that.

Anyhow, I’m so crazy-happy-over the moon that it’s finally done, but now I’m entering a whole new phase of the writing process.  The first hurdle is, of course, sucking up that fear that your closest friends and family (or as I like to call them, the “focus group”) are going to read the first draft and hate it (not that they’d actually say that, I do love them for a reason, but still…).  Then there’s the next step of “how the hell am I supposed to get this published?”  This is the new adventure, the research, the nerve-wracking submitting my manuscript for its blind dates in hoping we’ll find the perfect publisher and soon end up on Chapters shelves everywhere.  I’ve had articles published before, but this is a whole different animal, not to mention a hell of a lot more postage to mail.  You know that super-excited-but-scared-to-the-point-of-nearly-loosing-bladder-control feeling?  I’m there.

I don’t know how this is going to progress, but I can’t wait!  Of course, I’ll blog about it every step of the way.

Woo hoo!  My book is done!

Tags: Bangkok, Book, fiction, London, published, Seattle, Sydney, travel agent, USA, writer

Deja-Vu-cation

Question: if you’ve been somewhere before on holiday, do you keep going back to the same place, or expand your horizons and try somewhere new?  Should you?  I always want to try exciting different destinations, but the lure of places like London, Disneyland and Costa Rica, places I know I’m going to have a great time and places I know I can afford, keep calling me back.  My memories there are so good, I just want to experience them again.  But the world is such a huge and wondrous place and I want to see it all (get another pin on my map, get it?)…  I don;t know.   So what do you do?  Do you have a tendency to repeat your vacations (deja-vu-cations) or are you an I have been there, seen it, never need to go back person?  Why?

Tags: Been there, Dinseyland, habits, London, question

Grocery stores as a tourist attraction?

              Think about it.  Have you ever walked around your local supermarket and stopped at the ”international food” section, looking at all the different uses for rice or the cool/odd/disgusting/unpronounceable sauces on offer?  It’s fun, right?  Or at the very least, interesting.  Possibly even enlightening.    Multiply that by fifty and you get why I always try to swing by a grocery store in every country I’m in.   

             Doing  a bit of your own cooking (and by “cooking” I mean mainly buying bread and meat and making sandwiches or pouring your own bowl of cereal, unless you have a kitchenette) is always a great way to save money.  Even if it’s just snacks, bringing your own granola bar and water bottle can easily save you $5-$10 a day, depending on your destination and appetite.   That’s valuable souvenir money!  So while you’re at the grocery, you might as well take a few minutes to walk the aisles and see what culinary treasures you can unearth.  You never know if that brand of beer you had once ten years ago and could never find again is hiding around the corner, or if the chili lime chicken bouillon you find in aisle four is going to become the centerpiece for your new signature dish back home.  And when someone asks you where you got it, you can be all mysterious and say “it’s imported.”

           When in London, I’m all about finding the cool flavours of crisps.   We have your standard salt and vinegar, ketchup and nacho cheese in Canada, they have roasted lamb and mint, chargrilled steak, pickled onion, seafood mayonnaise, crispy duck in hoisin sauce, turkey with paxo sage and onion… if you can braise, boil or bake it, they probably have chips to match.  Southeast Asia is also good for this, though they have substantially more seafood options and their packaging usually involves more google-eyed animated characters.  One of my coworkers in Spain said the prawn cocktail is great, though I’ll have to take their word for it.  On one trip I actually kept a list, and found no less than 25 different flavours in one country in the space of a week.  Think I tried two of them.  And these flavours are, for the most part, incredibly accurate.  The chargrilled steak I tried smelled like nothing, but once on the tongue, you were just looking for the side of mashed potatoes and steamed veggies.

            I’m always drawn to snack-type foods, like chips, gum (oooh, there’s this applemint Dentyne in Thailand I loved so much I brought like 10 packs home with me) and candy, mainly because they’re cheap and small, so you can try something really experimental and, if it’s totally revolting, you can throw it out and you’re only out a buck.  Meat always intimidates me (especially since you can’t always read the label), but one day I’ll have a place with a stove in some far-flung destination and I’ll go for it.  It’s all about embracing the local culture.  In Singapore this past march we discovered pea cheezies (for lack of a better comparison).  They were made entirely of peas, green and shaped like a pod,  but puffed up, deep fried and lightly salted to the cheezie consistency.   Sounds strange on paper (hell, it looked strange in the bag, too, that’s why I bought it), but these were surprisingly good.   In Costa Rica, tamarind drink, once you get past it’s industrial-waste brown colour, is incredibly sweet and yummy.  I got all excited here when, on a day trip across the boarder to Seattle, I found some Tamarind Kool-Aid, but when I tried it back home it tasted kind of like cardboard.  Total let down.  Oh well, it’s a reason to go back to Costa Rica! 

            Also in Costa Rica I discovered my beloved coco pops (there is not a breakfast buffet worldwide that doesn’t have coco pops) are endorsed there by a space elephant named Melvin.  That was just funny.

            International grocery shopping can be a fun thing to do if you’re traveling with kids, too.  While you’re picking up the necessities, you can challenge young Jimmy to find the craziest looking fish in the seafood department or weirdest-sounding product name (this one can be particularly fun if you can’t speak the language).  Kids usually seem to gravitate to the gross, or what they think is gross, anyway, and this is where the cheaper options like candy come in handy.  Treat them to one small thing, but make it the grossest they can find, and hear the giggles start.  This can also be done locally, just check out the various ethnic food stores around your area and keep the kids entertained on a rainy afternoon.

          For me, I think this all stems back to my Grandparent’s travels when I was a little kid.  When they’d come back from driving across the US or touring Europe they’d bring me something we couldn’t get in Canada, like Barbie breakfast cereal, or Swiss cow-shaped chocolate, so now I always want to see what other surprises the world has to offer.  This can also be a good way to buy a gift for that impossible-to-shop-for person on your list.  Nobody ever turns down food, especially if it was brought into the country especially for them and you know it’s something they’ll like.  The one exception to this was when my BF got a bag of dried bean and anchovy trail mix from Hong Kong.  It’s been months and that’s still sitting unopened on his desk, but I can’t really blame him, the fish are dried whole in there, complete with the little dried heads and eyes.  But still, because we got it at a grocery store as opposed to a souvenir place, the cost was low enough that I don’t give him a hard time about *sniff* rejecting one of my gifts.

            Ever found anything spectacular/weird/memorable in the food aisle when on vacation?  Let me know.  But if not, try spending an hour of your next vacation at the supermercado and see how much culinary trouble you can get into!

Tags: Asia, BlogSherpa, budget, chips, coco pops, cooking, Costa Rica, Food, grocery stores, Hong Kong, kids, London, odd, souvenirs, Spain, tamarind

London – Shopper’s paradise. New wardrobe anyone?

              I buy almost all my clothes while on vacation.  Mainly this is due to the fact that when I’m home I’m saving up to pay for that vacation, but there is something really cool about going through my closet and being like, ”not that Bangkok shirt, the pink one” (and before you ask, no, all my clothes do not have the tacky ”I went to LA and bought this shirt” slogans on them, though I do love my tacky souvenirs).  I have this theory about ”vacation money” : anything you spend in the local currency while on a trip is free money, more like trade really, as you’ve already spent the Canadian money by buying the foreign currency.  I’ve allocated that much money for spending, and if I burn through every penny, it’s fine.   As long as I don’t go over budget and dip into the credit cards (unless it’s really, really, really incredible and worth it), it’s game on.  And when I go to London, I know I have to make sure I budget enough, because, while I can shop anywhere, London fashion and I just click.  We’re talking pack-an-empty-suitcase good shopping here!

               The biggest thing I love about London shopping is that their “high street” (mass market) stores have great styles at great prices.  It’s as if the English approach to shopping in general is to make sure it’s accessible to the masses.  Affordable and easy to find.  Now you’re talking my language.    You’ll also notice here I’m not going to talk about Harrod’s or Selfridge’s, London’s uber-famous and uber-expensive department stores.  This is because, honestly, regular people do not go there to buy.  They go for the spectacle of it.  I always go and look at the GBP$10 000.00 dresses, entire rooms full of nothing but purses and Egyptian-themed escalators, but the only thing’s I’ve ever bought there are magazines, because they have the prices printed right on them, so they’re the same price there as they are at the corner newsagents.  But I still got the cool Harrod’s bag to wave around.

              Naturally, the place to start is Oxford street, otherwise known as the big awesome and freaking crowded street of all things good and wonderful.  You can’t throw a stick without hitting a clothing store.  But all of these stores are pretty much everywhere around the country, so if you don’t want to battle the crowds, it’s not hard to still find great fashion.  The suburban shopping malls offer huge selection without having to face the weather running from store to store.  Smack in the middle of Oxford St. is the English institution that is Marks and Spencer’s, where you can get pretty much anything, the focus being wardrobe basics and career wear.  They’re a touch on the pricey (for this focus-on-cheap blog, not compared to DKNY) and middle-aged side, but everyone can usually find something there.   Oh, and you can’t miss their awesome food hall, where you can pick up a great selection of groceries or ready meals for good prices.   Love their wine gums.

             If you’re angling for something on-trend while not being too “oh my God, is she wearing a duck on her head?” over the top, some of my favorites are:

 Dorothy Perkins - Aside from the adorable designs, their 2-for tank top deals will be my wardrobe staples forever.  Their “tall” line, aimed at those of us over 5 foot 7, keeps the fashion world open to everyone.  Their shoes and accessories are hot for a steal, and they have a new organic/free trade/eco-chic line geared for the environmentally conscious amongst us.

New Look – Bright colours and wild patterns mark this store as probably the most funky on the list, but don’t let that scare you, they have everything from sexy/sweet dresses to career wear to teeny-bopper tween styles.  I got one of my most professional looking dresses (that I just so happen to be wearing today) there for under GBP$30.00.

Next – More classic and stylish while not being old or boring, this is a great mix of business casual and weekend chic.  Not too over the top, but far from boring.  Also with an excellent denim section – lots of cuts in tons of lengths.  One of my favorite pairs of jeans is their bootcut.

Topshop – More pricey than the other three, this is where you go for trends.  On occasion, they do have the “oh my God, is that a duck on her head?” over the top styles, and they wear them with pride.  Partnerships with top designers and exclusive lines from the likes of Kate Moss makes sure they are always on the cutting edge.

             And then there’s Primark.  You want cheap, shop here.  Period.  End of story.  For what you’re paying (GBP$6 for a hoodie? Sweet.) the materials are not top of the line, but they look way more expensive than they are, and the quality is better than average. The aforementioned hoodie I’ve lived in for three years, and it still looks perfect.  Be prepared to carry a big bag, because with their prices, you’re not getting out of there with just one item.

            When traveling to London, make sure you have some room in your suitcase, are under your luggage allowance and have time to shop, because you’re gonna need it!  Last time I had to leave some things behind in order to squeeze all my new purchases in!  And it’s soooo worth it.

Tags: BlogSherpa, budget, Dorothy Perkins, exchange rate, London, Marks and Spencer's, money, New Look, Next, Primark, shopping, Topshop

London Baby!

        London calling.  The Clash were definitely on to something when they said that, as London didn’t just call me, it left an indelible mark on my soul.  Initially I was hesitant about traveling someplace so old, concerned that a twenty year old like me would not find enough to do that didn’t involve graves.  Let me just state in writing that I was wrong.

              As this was my innaugral time across the pond, I began my trip actively searching out all the cliches: red phone boxes, med dressed like John Steed from The Avengers (bowler hat and ever-present umbrella) and fog.  The first one came before even touching down at Heathrow, with the plane breaking through the late-September clouds to reveal double-decker busses roaming the streets!  I was giddy with delight.  But it only got better from there.  Having alighted at the Charing Cross tube station (God bless the tube, it got me effortlessly around all of London for 4.10 a day and taught me the meaning of the word ‘alighted’) just after 8am on a Sunday, I found myself standing virtually alone in the middle of Trafalgar Square, Nelson’s Column at my feet, the National Gallery over my shoulder, staring at the top of the tower housing Big Ben peeking over the rooftops.  It gave me shivers and made me feel, deep down, that I was truly in London.  Absolutely charming.  I mean, where else in the world do they paint “look left” or “look right” directly on the road to prevent people from being hit while crossing?

              In my four days in London I managed to squeeze in the famous British Museum, Natural History Museum, Speaker’s Corner at Hyde Park, the Changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, Harrod’s (heaven!), and St. Paul’s Cathedral, just to name a few.  On my last full day I met up with some local friends and we explored the left bank of the Thames, taking a flight on the London Eye, having “elevensies” tea at Royal Festival Hall, seeing Shakespeare’s Globe theatre and the Tate Modern, and eating at the Anchor Pub (built more than 200 years before the British North American Act created Canada!).  Then we took the ferry to Greenwich, past the spectacular Tower Bridge and David Blaine in his suspended terrarium, and up to the meridian where time begins.

               London is a vibrant city, with it’s old-world charm juxtaposed against a multi-coloured modernity, that I couldn’t help but feel comfortable.  I just wanted to buy a flat and stay forever.  From there I moved on to Paris, one of the most exciting cities in the world, but some of it’s attraction was lost in the  sadness that I was leaving London behind.  But not for long.  I know I’ll be back.

Originally published in the Vancouver Province newspaper.

Tags: BlogSherpa, British Museum, Buckingham Palace, Harrod's, Hyde Park, London, London Eye, Natural History Museum, pub, public transportation, published, Trafalgar Square