A guide to the attractions of the port city in British Columbia, Canada, covering attractions, art, food, entertainment, history and culture.

This book can be purchased online from Amazon.com.

"'You might have seen a blind pig here,' says Lenard, leader of the Forbidden Tour which probes Vancouver’s less respectable past. We’re standing at the top of Market Alley, an unsavoury back street strung with electrical cables. What he’s taking about isn’t an animal, but a nickname for the illegal drinking dens which flourished here a century ago. The Prohibition era in 1920s USA is well known, but Vancouver got there first – the Canadian city banned alcoholic drinks between 1917 and 1921..."

Joining a tour detailing a colourful historical era of Vancouver, Canada.

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"Even I have noticed the interior of Vancouver International Airport. There’s something about its blue-green decor, dotted with timber carvings, that relaxes the incoming passenger on the long march to Customs. And I’m not the only passenger who likes the place. In 2017, YVR was named the Best Airport in North America in the Skytrax World Airport Awards. So what’s so good about this airport, and why does it make an attractive alternative entry point to North America?"

Detailing the highlights of Vancouver International Airport, Canada.

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"I’m standing outside the Santa Barbara County Courthouse, and I’m impressed. With its lofty tower and a Spanish inscription carved above its archway, I assume it must be a relic from the 19th century. I later find out it was built in 1929. That’s one of the interesting things about this Californian city; you can never tell how old anything really is. It some ways though, it makes sense that Santa Barbara resembles a Hollywood set..."

Exploring the attractive Spanish-style architecture of Santa Barbara, USA.

"It’s fair to say that LAX has a poor reputation among travellers. For years its long queues, dingy terminal buildings and minimal facilities were an ordeal for those using the Californian airport as their gateway to the USA. It’s while waiting for a flight out of LAX that you notice vast improvements in the passenger experience, courtesy of an $8.5 billion dollar modernisation program which has been underway over the past few years..."

Outlining improvements to the passenger experience at Los Angeles International Airport, USA.

"New York, New York! As the old song says, it’s a hell of a town. But there’s more to explore in the Big Apple than the well-worn tourist trails to the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Central Park and the elevated walkway known as the High Line. At street level Manhattan and in the city’s other boroughs there are boutique tours, quirky sights and great places to eat and drink. After you’ve given your regards to Broadway, here are some other places to check out..."

"Believe it or not, Los Angeles has a Downtown. Though it was the hub of the city before 20th century urban sprawl stretched LA in every direction, many travellers never set foot there. It’s fair to say that Downtown has a reputation. Many assume it’s a dump, and a dangerous dump at that. But that’s increasingly a faded memory of the crime-ridden bad old days. Nowadays the district is a lively place with a great architectural heritage..."

Exploring the highlights of Downtown Los Angeles, USA.

"In my view, a good breakfast is the foundation of a long-distance rail journey. So it’s lucky that Philippe the Original is a short walk from Los Angeles’ Union Station, on the edge of Chinatown. You couldn’t ask for a more genuine slice of Americana before heading on a train journey up the USA’s west coast. I eat a sprawling omelette studded with spinach and onion, on a bed of hash browns; then I walk to the most beautiful railway station I’ve ever seen..."

This book can be purchased online from Amazon.com.

Not available for republication.

[Read the full article here]

"Many travellers think they have Los Angeles figured out. It’s Disneyland on one side and the Pacific coast on the other, Hollywood up top, and lots of freeways in between. Right? It’s true that the combined appeal of Mickey Mouse, beaches and the silver screen isn’t going to fade any time soon. However, in the heart of LA where tourists rarely go, there are attractions around the revived Downtown area which provide new insights into the City of Angels..."

"We’re standing in a dimly-lit street in front of the 1908 Strathcona High School, listening to a macabre story about a labourer entombed in the building’s foundations. Then it happens. As our guide Nadine Bailey relates strange occurrences attributed to the victim’s restless ghost, the silhouette of a man appears in a window high above and leans out on the ledge, as if listening. Seconds later, when I glance up again, he’s gone..."

"I’ve only just arrived in Culver City, a suburb wedged between Downtown and the Pacific coast, and I can already see it’s utterly unlike the LA stereotype. Ever since the city lost its railways and tramways in the postwar era, trading them for freeways and suburban sprawl, the car has been king. But in 2012 Culver City was reached by the Expo Line, a light rail route. As a result, a whole new district is available for visitors to explore by rail and on foot..."

"I wish I had a Canadian dollar for every time someone has told me that Toronto reminds them of Melbourne. Looking out the window I can see a long straight street full of scuffed two-storey shopfronts with enticing displays, and trams trundling down the middle every few minutes. It doesn’t take much imagination for 'West Queen West' to remind me of Brunswick Street, Fitzroy..."

"As we walk, Jessica talks about 'Gassy Jack' (John Deighton), the unofficial founder of the township which became the nucleus of Vancouver. Jack opened a saloon here in 1867, to serve nearby loggers and sawmill workers. In typically flamboyant fashion, he persuaded the sawmill workers to build his bar for free, in exchange for as much whisky as they could down in a single sitting..."

"Leaning across the railings, I can see a long, low wooden structure shaped like a miniature house, with a pitched roof and a timber deck. It’s all charmingly amateur in appearance, a pleasing contrast to the austere and ornate parliamentary buildings. I discover later that it’s no coincidence that the cats set up home here; until the 1950s the Parliament kept a group of cats in residence to combat rodents within the buildings..."

"As we approach the Rocky Mountains the landscape grows ever more impressive, high and craggy with snow-capped peaks, until we stop for 90 minutes at Jasper. The mountain town is an attractive blend of both natural and human-made attractions, as all the notable civic buildings around the station have been built in a harmonious style involving stone, timber frames and steep pitched roofs..."

Taking an epic train journey between Vancouver and Toronto, Canada.

"When the architects of Montreal’s underground shopping mall beneath Place Ville-Marie drew up their plans in 1962, they had little idea what they’d started. As newer malls and office buildings were constructed, they were all linked together. Thus the Underground City was born. RÉSO, a play on the French word for network, réseau, is now the largest underground complex in the world..."

"'What’s funny about the cabaret now is that more straight people than gay people come to see our shows. We have boys, girls, groups doing their bachelor parties and birthdays, straight couples coming to see the drag queens, it’s so amaaazing!' It’s easy to be swept up in the enthusiasm of Mado Lamotte, drag queen extraordinaire, as she sits in front of her dressing room mirror in a leopard-print dressing gown and prepares for an evening on stage..."

"Take in some country air at Papa's Pumpkin Patch. Dotted around this site in autumn are bright orange pumpkins and attractions with a farm motif - but you can't beat the trebuchet for sheer crazy fun. This miniature catapult launches pumpkins high into the air at a target a few hundred metres away...'"

This book can be purchased online from Amazon.com.

Not available for republication.

"'In like Flynn!' It's an expression that beautifully sums up Errol Flynn's attitude to life. Not only did the Tasmanian-born actor become one of Hollywood's leading men in a series of action movies in the 1930s, but he also lived the rollicking life of a bad boy star.Then he ended up dead on a slab in Vancouver. I know this because I’m standing in the former autopsy room..."

"Guide Dakota Goodhouse speaks in Mandan, the language of the tribe which once inhabited the village, thanking us for spending time in this place. Then he switches to his native Sioux tongue. He explains that the Sioux message was much the same as the Mandan, except he'd also expressed thanks for spending time with him 'in the home of the enemy'. But he says it with a smile and a twinkle of the eye."

Covering the Native American cultural highlights of North Dakota, USA.
Available for republication (print and Web).
Images available.

[Read the full article here]

"Everything about Montana is big... and up the top of its “big” list are the glaciers and peaks of Glacier National Park, a spectacular spread of craggy mountains, glacial lakes and huge chunks of ancient ice. 'It’s incredible to first timers,' says our driver and tour guide Jana Grindheim. 'People don’t know about Glacier, it’s not as famous as Yellowstone. But it’s like nothing they’ve ever seen, and they’re just amazed at the mountains.'"

Touring the magnificent Glacier National Park in Montana, USA.

This article also appeared in:

• The Courier-Mail (3 April 2010)
  
• The Herald Sun (16 April 2010)

Available for republication (print and Web).
Images available.

"Michele Fromdahl works with a tyrannosaurus rex. She’s cool with that, but some of her visitors aren’t. The gigantic model of the fearsome prehistoric creature is the first thing you see as you step through the door of the Fort Peck Interpretive Centre, lunging towards you with its jaws open for the kill."

"'We've got some live ones on this flight. What are you, British?' When it comes to the sprawling American state of Montana, the fun starts on the flight in. There’s not much space in our snug 50-seater from Denver to Missoula, so the sassy blonde flight attendant is a disciplinarian by necessity. However, the request for tea has thrown her routine into a loop.But you don’t visit Montana for the tea... "

"To visit America for the first time is to encounter the strangely familiar. Like every Australian, I’ve spent a lifetime immersed in the television and film output of the USA, absorbing the nuances of its culture. I even understand why it’s upsetting to have been cast as Benedict Arnold in the school play (thanks, Brady Bunch). Which is why it’s mildly disconcerting to find that America is, in fact, much as it appears on screen."

"La Chascona is charming and colourful, reflecting a man with an extraordinarily creative and active mind. That he also liked to stroll around the house dressed as a sea captain, or even a nun, is neither here nor there - great men must be allowed their little foibles. I suggest to Gonzalo that Neruda could be regarded as eccentrico, and he replies 'Si... or maybe loco.' But he says it with a smile."

Outlining the attractions of Santiago, Chile, with its bohemian Barrio Bellavista quarter.
Available for republication (print and Web).
Images available.

"Salud, dinero y amor! This is no idle toast. Without warning, the pilot sails up to a small iceberg, rams into its flank, and extracts a large chunk with the aid of an ice-pick. A few minutes later we’re milling around, clinking glasses as we toast each other - with 12 year old Scotch containing 50,000 year old ice. Sure, it’s a gimmick - but what a gimmick."

A cruise through the glaciers of Patagonia, in Chile's south.
Available for republication (print and Web).
Images available.

"Sometimes, when you’re travelling, there's a moment so grand and inspiring that you want to crack a joke or laugh, just to bring it down to size and try to fit it inside your head. This is one of those moments. The air is freezing cold, a light rain has started spattering our hats, and in the distance is a massive dirty blue glacier stretching back into the snow-capped mountains."

A cruise through glacier territory in the Magallanes region of Chile.
Available for republication (print and Web).
Images available.

"It may be pushing midnight on a Tuesday, but it's all happening at the Barrio. Barrio Bellavista does a good line in perky black-clad waitresses, along with energetically mad beggars, folk who loom over your outside table or harangue you with a smile as you try to use a public phone. It's all part of the local colour, and we take a tolerant view of their unscripted interventions."

The eclectic highlights of Barrio Bellavista, Santiago's bohemian nightlife district.
Available for republication (print only).
Images available.
* My title

"If you saw this glacier in a movie, you'd assume it was a special effect. Filling our field of vision is a cathedral of ice, ranging from pure white through blue shades to almost indigo depths. Great vertical cracks resemble caves, promontories look like spires. Gigantic cracks hint from where the next giant chunk of ice will fall, as the glacier makes its way down from the heights."

Account of a cruise through the glaciers in Chile's far south.
Available for republication (print and Web).
Images available.

"One of the strangest is the Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota. The statistics are staggering: the museum houses 4,752 cans of Spam from all over the world. As visitors enter, they walk directly beneath a towering wall of Spam constructed from 3,390 cans. And the museum houses a letter from President Eisenhower, about the role the product played during World War II."

Ranges through the world's oddest museums, exhibiting everything from sulphur to Spam.
Available for republication (print only).

[Read the full article here]

I also have a selection of high-quality digital images available, depicting a variety of international locations. 

If you'd like to republish one of these pieces, or would like a new piece written about the same location, please get in touch via the contacts below:

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email:
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