Dubai is one strange city. Good strange or bad strange seems to depend on your mood and what you're looking at. Because of oil revenues, a large modern city exists where none should exist- on the edge of an Arabian desert. And because Dubai is the one city state within the UAE that is actually running out of oil, it is rapidly trying to diversify into a financial centre, airline hub, tech centre, and just about anything else it thinks might guarantee the fut...

Since we have until March to make our way back for our audience with the boys at Revenue Canada, we've decided to take a less than direct route back. Since many of the flights from South Asia make connecting stops in the Gulf area, we decided it might be nice to get a small taste of Arabia. Since DH refused my suggestion of wearing a head-to-toe black burka and following 10 steps behind me, we had to eliminate the mystical state of Saudi Arabia. And the membe...

Perhaps the biggest worry we had as we planned for our World Odyssey was our health care coverage (although DH might argue that spending 24 hours a day with me was actually her biggest worry). We did test the medical facilities in a couple of countries and came away pleasantly surprised- high quality medical care in relatively modern hospitals, and at a very inexpensive prices (in Sumatra??). Better than anything we could have expected in Canada!!And then came Po...

DH (where the D stands for Don't Stop The Music) was keen on finding a place in our immediate geographic neighbourhood that was likely to have a raucous New Years Eve (this from a woman who hasn't seen midnight in over ten years??). Kathmandu seemed to fit the bill- it was something of a legendary centre for hippie wanna-be's back in the 70's and more recently a backpackers party place. We had been in Nepal some years ago and had really enjoyed th...

For a couple who haven't celebrated Xmas in a number of years, Bhutan is the place to be. There's not a hint of Santa Claus to be found anywhere and that's surprisingly refreshing- even their new year is on a different date so there's no sense that a holiday season and inexplicable shopping frenzy is underway in much of the rest of the world.We were in Paro for two reasons. First the only international airport in Bhutan is in Paro so if we wanted ...