Time really does slow down on an island, which is hard to comprehend for those of us caught up in the fast paced pressure cooker of modern society, but it’s the single thing I enjoy most about the island life. The smaller the island, the slower the pace, and the first one I visited was also the tiniest I’ve been to, but it was just this smallness that made it such a special place. In the southern Caribbean Ocean, just north of the Central American nation of Honduras are the Bay Islands, a string of three small tropical islands, of which westernmost Utila is the smallest.

Known in backpacker circles as a great, cheap place to get your scuba diving certification, Utila offers little more to do, but plenty to enjoy. Like the other Bay Islands, Utila is reached by a short ferry ride from the mainland coastal city of La Ceiba. Unlike the rest of Honduras, English is more widely spoken than Spanish, and the native inhabitants are primarily Garifuna, descendants of Black Caribs, giving it a much different feel than the rest of the country. Tourism has become the primary source of income, and Honduras recently made Utila a tax-free zone to encourage its further development, as well as standardizing scuba diving rates (read this as get there now before it gets overdeveloped). (more…)

Tags: accommodation, activity, affair, anything, Arriving, backpacker, Baked, bar, barracuda, Bay Islands, beach, beer, beginning, bit, Black, body, breakfast, caribbean ocean, Caribs, Ceiba, Central American, central american nation, certification, challenge, chicken, cinnamon, city, classroom, coast, coastal city, Coco, coconut, comprehend, conch, cooker, country, country tourism, couple, course, Cross Creek, Day, Development, dinner, dirt, dive, dive centers, dive certification, dive courses, dive shops, diving, end, English, evening, everything, excitement, favorite, fellow, ferry, ferry ride, flame, fly, Food, Fresh, gallon, Garifuna, gear, grouper, hammock, hawkers, heat, home, Honduras, hotel, hour, Iguana, income, island, item, La, la ceiba, lack, life, magnet, mainland, master, midday, middle, milk, morning, nation, native inhabitants, north, Northern, offer, pace, PADI, palm, Pan, person, place, plenty, point, prep, pressure, pressure cooker, remainder, research, rest, restaurant, rice, ride, right, road, row, salad, sand, scuba, scuba diving certification, seafood, shack, side, siesta, site, society, source, southern Caribbean Ocean, Southwest, sparse, spiny, station, string, sugar, Taracina, tax free zone, terrace, thing, time, tourism, track, trade, tropical islands, tuna, USD, Utila, vat, volunteer, westernmost, while, woman, world, Xijing, zone

Watch out! Here comes another one. We’re walking down the boardwalk in Oludeniz, Turkey which also doubles as a paragliding landing zone. It’s no wonder people leap from the surrounding mountains and glide down to a soft beach landing, into this bay that’s one of the most photographed areas of the Mediterranean coastline.

Oludeniz means “dead sea” in Turkish. The actual town is named Belcekiz, but if you walk a couple hundred meters down the beach, you reach a peninsula of sand which creates a sheltered lagoon. The still, deep blue water behind this spit of land is the “dead” calm sea.
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Tags: amphitheater, Antalya, bathroom, bay, beach, beautiful beach, bedroom, Belcekiz, boardwalk, breakfast, Bring, bungalow, Butterfly Valley, camper, camper trailer, Campgrounds, caravan, Chimaera, coast, coastline, Comfort, commute, comparison, contour, conversation, country, couple, couple hundred, dead calm sea, deep blue water, destination, dinner, down, electricity, energy, environment, Ephesus, experience, faint of heart, fall, family, Faralya, flag, foot, garden, George House, Hasan, heart, hike, hiking, Hippy, home, host, inn, jockeying, kind, kitchen, lagoon, land, landing, landing zone, Letoon, life, Likya, list, lot, Lycian Way, man, meal, Mediterranean, mediterranean coast, mediterranean coastline, mind, mini, mix, month, Mount Olympos, Muslim, night, olive, Oludeniz, oludeniz turkey, organic foods, owner, pantomime, part, peninsula, picture, place, plateau, position, possibility, private bathroom, quiet places, range, reason, road, Roman, run, sand, sea, section, side, side trip, sight, son, southern Turkey, spit, spring, Start, steep trail, stranger, tent, tile, town, trail, trailer, tree, trek, trip, Turkey, USD, valley, version, Vertical, vertical cliffs, village, Walden, walk, Watch, water, way, world, Xanthos, Yolu, zone

Have you got six months off? Do you fancy a long walk? If so, World Expeditions may have just the holiday for you. They have become the only trekking outfit to offer a guided trip along the first completed section of the Great Himalayan Trail (GHT).

Stretching for 1,700km along the length of Nepal, the GHT will take you a mere 157 days to complete. You’ll see eight of the world’s 14 peaks over 8,000m, including Everest, and cross passes reaching up to 6,000m, climbing a total of 150,000m. That’s a Snowdon every day for half a year. Oh, and it will set you back £20,500. (more…)

Tags: account, Adrian, adventure, agency, aid, animist, Annapurna, annapurna regions, arc, asian countries, Barwa, Bhutan, Canada, Centre, challenge, China, completion, completion date, Continental, continental divide trail, country, cross, date, Day, Development, difference, district, elevation, Everest, Expeditions, focus, Food, footpath, GHT, government, GPS, Great, ground, guidebook, helicopter, Himalaya, Himalayan Trail, holiday, idea, India, Integrated, International, Kathmandu, leisure, length, lot, man, map, money spinner, mountain, Mugu, Namche, Nanga, Nepal, Nicholas Crane, outfit, outlier, Pakistan, Parbat, peak, Pennine Way, presenter, price, Programme, project, region, research, Richard, Robin Boustead, route, section, Snowdon, SNV, source, steroidal, television, thing, Tibet, Tibetan, time, total, tourism, trail, Trans, trans canada, trek, trekker, treks, trip, undertaking, US, version, walk, War, water, week, western Nepal, westernmost, work, world, world expeditions, world food, year

St. Valentine’s Day is noted for roses, but the holiday always reminds me that my wife’s favorite flower is actually the tulip, something that can be hard to come by in a snowy February in Vermont. Planted before the first frost of autumn, they’re quickly forgotten about until they emerge unexpectedly in the sunny warmth of spring. The red, yellow, purple, pink and white heads on single smooth green stalks begin to frame gardens and walkways around the country, reflecting our fascination with this simple and elegant flower from Holland. As a belated gift last spring, I took my wife to one of my favorite Canadian cities, Ottawa, which just happens to host an annual Tulip festival that showcases both the city and this wonderful flower. (more…)

Tags: Alexandra Bridge, annual tulip festival, anything, appreciation, architecture, area, Arts, attention, autumn, average temperature, Azteca, backdrop, Bagel, ball, bank, Beeblebrox, beer, beginning, bisque, bloom, border, ByWard, Café, Calendario, Canadian, canadian cities, canadian tulip festival, capital, capital cities, Centre, Centretown, challenge, cheese, city, Civilization, club, cob, cobblestone, coldest, Commissioner, companion, Continental, contrast, corn, country, crepe, cuisine, Day, display, doesn, Douglas Adams, Dow, downtown, eighteen, elegant flower, end, English, event, extravaganza, Fahrenheit, family, fascination, favorite flower, Feather, February, festival, first frost, flower, Fox, frost, fun, Gallery, gift, Hill Park, hip, holiday, Holland, horticulturist, Huitlacoche, Hull, ice, IMAX, Italia, Italy, journey, juliana of the netherlands, Lake, Leffe, Little, lot, Major, majority, Market, May, meal, melon, Memorial, menu, Mexico, midway, minority, Mint, Montreal, Museum, mushroom, music, National, nightlife, number, official, Ontario, Ottawa, Ottawa River, outdoor markets, pass, picturesque, Planted, pot, Princess Juliana, princess juliana of the netherlands, Pub, Punctuated, Quebec, Québécois, rest, restaurant, risk, river, scenic river, scope, shuttle, side, snack, snowy, something, speaking, specialty, spring, spring and summer, st valentine, street, stunning architecture, style, suburb, summer, sunny warmth, taking, temperature, the Netherlands, Toronto, transportation, Trattoria, tulip, tulip bulbs, Tulip Festival, Valentine, valentine s day, variety, vegetarian, Vermont, walk, War, warmth, water, way, weather, wife, winter, world, world war ii, Zaphod

Everyone in Bali smiles. Big, broad, beaming smiles. And all that’s necessary to evoke it is eye contact. Even when they may be preoccupied with weaving their scooters through traffic or carrying a heavy, flailing pig across the road, you only have to hint at a smile from your own lips and the response is immediate and electrifying.

“Transport?” queried a smiling young man on a sidewalk in Ubud, an artsy town in the south-eastern hills. It’s a frequent offer on the streets of nearly every town in Bali. Everyone with a car will offer you a ride for a small price. You may say “no thank you” seven times on Monkey Forest Road in Ubud. But what’s heart-warming is that you will always receive an enthusiastic “Welcome!” in response. (more…)

Tags: apple, approach, Arung, awe, Bali, Balinese, balinese landscape, bamboo, Big, bike, brown snake, Buddhist, buddhist history, buffet, cacao, car, coast, coffee, coffee beans and tea leaves, combination, compound, contact, conversation, country, countryside, crowd, Culturally, cycle, daytrip, dialogue, dinner, eagerness, economy, edge, end, English, Everyone, everything, exception, excitement, excursion, Exploring, eye, eye contact, family, feast, foreigner, Forest Road, fountain, France, friendliness, fruit, gateway, genuine friendliness, ginger, ginger tea, Group, Hallo, Happiness, heat, heavy, Hindu, history, home, host, Indonesia, indonesian islands, landscape, leftover, life, luxury, man, mangosteen, meal, middle, mixture, Monkey, monkey forest road, Moon, morning, Mount Batur, mountain, mountain bikes, music, Muslim, muslim country, nut, offer, office, orchard, papaya, path, peanut, peanuts, pear, pig, price, pride, response, reward, rice, rice terraces, ride, road, roosters, salak, school, selection, sentence, service, seven times, sidewalk, skin, smile, society, sound, spicy, stop, table, tea, temple, time, Tour, town, traffic, Transport, Ubud, use, van, village, visit, wall, wave, way, Wide-eyed, wind, year, zeal