At first look, aside from the 14 coffins that lie in its courtyard, Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum could still pass for the Phnom Penh high school it once was. In the mid 70s the Khmer Rouge took it over and turned the school into a vicious interrogation centre. Water boarding, whipping, electric shock treatments (with pain the only purpose), coffin drowning, and one that really makes me cringe: hanging prisoners from a cross-beam by their hands which were tied beh...

We arrived home today on a Porter flight from Boston that originated in Fort Lauderdale. We'd been on a two month journey that took us to Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Croatia, Montenegro, and some islands between Italy and the New World.Notes only: 

We got off the cruise ship and headed straight for our pre-booked motel, the Lafayette, in Fort Lauderdale. Three days of good food, beach and sunset cocktails. When we got there I almost immediately started humming the old "Meat Loaf" tune "Two out of Three ain't Bad" to myself. There was a beach, but restaurants, cocktail bars and stores of any kind were few and far between. Heading south from the Lafayette Motel, it's about a 3 - 5 kilometre walk to th...

  Our cruise ship stopped bright and early this morning so we could enjoy a beach-day on the island of Haiti, one of the planet's most impoverished nations. And some of us still say, "What's the world coming to?" The idea of such a beach stop feels tremendously rude and inconsiderate.

When you walk by a place with a name like Amsterdam Cheese and Liquor Store how could you not want to go in? For a buck they'll serve you up a beer and even give you a chair to sit on out in front of the store. Liquor prices ... by the bottle of course, are far less expensive than the so-called duty free prices you'll find on the cruise ships, and the cheese is good too.The Amsterdam Cheese and Liquor Store is a 10 minute walk from where the cruise ships ...