by Suzanne Wright With its cosmopolitan cities, Roman temples, stunning hotels, and the grandeur of the Sahara, this North African Country holds numerous surprises for visitors. A message has been delivered to my room, in French. With my rusty, rudimentary high school language skills I can’t quite make it out, so I call the front…
by Jaye Beldo During a press conference at the World of Wearable Art (WOW) show, a video camera was pointed at me, one of the journalists there to interview the founder of the highly successful show. “What would be the most desirable thing for tourists to want to come to New Zealand for?” a fairly…
Rich Arabian nights and delicious jasmine days…it’s easy for a Diva to find solace in an Egyptian palace at the foot of the Great Pyramids. As the round, burnt-orange sun falls behind the rolling Egyptian sands, palm trees glow with the reflection of the day’s heat. It is 2004, and the same sun that set…
The lessons I’ve learned by flying solo The morning of my solo check-flight arrived with an unpleasant gusting 18-knot wind. I stood on the tarmac and surveyed the gusts, 2 knots faster would force me to cancel my check flight – the Cessna I flew could not handle 20-knot winds hitting the side of the…
by Kisha Montgomery The other night, I went with a local NGO to warn street children in Durban that the police were planning a raid the next day to sweep about forty of them off the street. Typically, the police will gather the children in vans. They will then either trump up charges and send…
by Eva Kent Picking up the VIA Destinations magazine from the ticket counter at the train station, I saw that the main topic of the September issue was “What Do Men Want?” I realized this would make for painful reading material. The night before I had been stood up by a Canadian guy I really…
by Audrey Mei At 9:30 a.m., Sunday, November 1, 1755, Lisbon was struck by the first of three earthquakes, the third of which succeeded in reducing the bustling town—a center of wealth and culture—to rubble. The stone roofs of the churches came tumbling down onto the thousands of churchgoers who had congregated to worship All…