| Grew up on a farm in northern Alberta, Canada. Studied agriculture in college, graduated in '85. Up to then I hadn't been anywhere. Spend the winter working in a restaurant in Banff and skiing in my off hours. Living in the youth hostel, meet a number of travellers from other countries. Thereafter.... |  |
| 1986- Leave for Europe on a one-way ticket in April, don't make it back until mid winter. Spend the first couple weeks in Grandma and Grandpa's house, slowly get braver and and venture out farther and farther. Main aim is to visit relatives, which I do, discovering lots and having a great time, both in England and Germany. Get tired of travelling eventually and work the summer on a farm just north of London. Before heading home do a lightning one month Interrail tour of the continent. |  |
| 1987- After seeing plenty of Europe, feel it is time to see my own country. Buy a motorcycle, learned to drive it and spend the summer traveling across Canada, fromVancouver Island to Newfoundland. Leave coming back to Alberta a little late, get caught in snow north of the Great Lakes. Luckily it melts. With bushboots, skidoo suit, and big mitts, I (barely) make it home before winter sets in for good. The sheer size of the country I live in is not so abstract anymore. |  |
| 1988- A month in Mexico, getting my first taste of travelling in a third world country. Everyone is convinced I may as well take a body bag with me with my parents address on the toe tag. Discover bargaining, markets, and despite getting robbed twice have a great time. Soon after coming back leave again for the summer in England and Ireland. More visiting family, plus discover how enjoyable Ireland and the Irish are. |  |
| 1989 to '90- Back to Mexico for two weeks, then all summer and fall hitch-hiking through Europe. When touring through Yugoslavia have no idea it is all going to go to hell in a short time. Just thought all the different cultures represented on the money showed how tolerant everyone was. With the approach of winter head south.... |  |
| ...ending up in Turkey and the Middle East. Jordanians and Turks enter my list of the 'worlds friendliest people'. I love this photo of Odile and the kids of a Syrian family we stayed with. |  |
| Exhausted, spent the winter working on an Israeli kibbutz just south of Gaza. Working in another country is really a completely different thing for me than traveling through it. |  |
| 1990 to '91- New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Hongkong, China, Trans-Siberian across the (then) Soviet Union, fly back home from London. Fall in love with (and in) New Zealand, have a look at Australia, discover South-East Asia..... |  |
| ....then get the chance to find out why communism doesn't work very well first hand in China and the USSR. Make it onto the Trans-Siberian in Bejing, only to get kicked off the train in Warsaw, as communist block train agreements disappear with communism itself. When back get a job managing a farm research association. It's full time, but I am urged to 'bank' my overtime and take time off in the winter. Oh darn....whatever shall I do. |  |
| 1991 to '92- Back to England to follow up on the New Zealand connection, (which doesn't pan out). Looking for something to do, buy a ticket to Israel and spend the winter exploring it and Egypt. Lounge around in Dahab, go diving off Sharm (bursting an eardrum in the process), do the felucca thing on the Nile. See the pyramids, am impressed. |  |
| 1992 to '93- Spend a couple weeks in Germany and Austria in the summer, then in the winter hit Asia in a big way. Start with a couple expensive but very interesting weeks in Japan, fly from there to Bangkok. Have a great time exploring Bangkok and northern Thailand. Great food, long-tailed boats, chasing around Bangkok in a tuk-tuk, elephants and hill tribes. Narrowly avoid running head-on into a bus when motorcycle touring. Eventually.... |  |
| ....hear Cambodia is possible, while there find backpackers can now travel independently in Vietnam and Laos and therefore make an Indo-china loop. Mountain, paddy, beach, pillars of skulls, the sound of generators in Phnom Phen, all the firecrackers in the world going off in Saigon, standing on the site of Khe San while a limping veteran tells war stories. End recuperating in Bali via Singapore. |  |
| 1993 to '94- England, Nepal and India. Visit England for a couple weeks, then off to Nepal to hike in the mountains by Pokhara. Chaotic India next, Varanasi to Rajastan. India makes an indelible impression. Everything is rated compared to India in future trips. Usually as in, "well things really are not that crazy at the moment, let me tell you what it was like in India...". |  |
| 1994 to '95- spend a couple weeks in the summer near Koln, Germany, then come back again in the fall to spend the whole winter. Get a good idea of what it would be like to live in Germany, spending a couple weeks in Ireland in the bargain. |  |
| 1995 to '96- head to Asia again. This time starting out in Bali and working my way through Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, flying home from Bangkok. |  |
| A major hilight of the trip is a couple of weeks jungle touring on Siberut island. |  |
| 1996 to '97- Back to Bangkok, the 'London' (travel center wise) of south-east Asia. Spend the winter in Thailand, Burma, Singapore and Malaysia. Very impressed with the Burmese people, like the 'Irish of Asia', friendliness-wise. Less impressed with their government. |  |
| 1997 to '98- Fly to Delhi, get a ticket
there for the Trivandrum on the southern tip of India, take a month
to work my way back to Delhi through the Malabar coast, Bombay, Gujarat,
and Rajastan. The toughest part of the trip is arriving in London Christmas
day, with everything shut down and no way to get to Grandma's house for
Christmas dinner. Spend it instead with my ex-girlfriends family and have
a great time.
It's getting so the people at work are convinced I am taking my 'retirement' early as every winter I leave like a snowbird. My relatives in England assume by now I will drop in every year or so. |
 |
| 1998 to '99- Two months split between England and Africa. The last big trip for a while. In the summer spend a couple of weeks in Germany, visiting my former girlfriend. Debate the 'live in Canada or Germany' thing again. Decide to stay in Canada, quit the job I've had for almost 10 years, and go to.... |  |
| .....university, which has slowed the traveling a bit. Had to happen sometime. |  |
| 2002- Apparently the traveling is not over quite yet. Spent five days in England over spring break, using up my airmiles to visit my relatives. Plus (to my great surprise) ended up going to Ethiopia for 6 weeks with the university during the summer, an unexpected but delightful bonus. |  |
|
2003 -10 days touring Minneapolis, Paris and London on another university trip. Finally I get to see Paris. Find the people surprisingly friendly, the food amazing, and the cheap wine truly awful.
|
 |
|
2003 Motorcyle trip to BC.
|
 |
| 2004 Tour of the Rocky Mountains |  |
| 2005 Scotland |  |