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Posts from Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Posts from Base Camp

A deeper dive into Round-the-World (RTW) tickets

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

A few weeks ago, I explained how I chose a Round-the-World (RTW) ticket for my upcoming trips to Wales and Australia. This time, I’m providing some tips on planning such a ticket.

Postcard from Carlisle Bay, Bridgetown, Barbados

1. Stick to the main hubs, where possible.

The total cost of the RTW ticket is affected by the number of cities visited. Using major international hubs (Toronto and Montreal, rather than Ottawa) will reduce the number of stopovers…and also reduce the risk of luggage trouble! And it will reduce the total travel time too: you want to spend your time in your international destinations, not airports.

Postcard of Belgrade Fortress (Belgrade, Serbia)

2. Book as early as you can.

The closer you get to your flight dates, the more likely flights will be booked up. This increases the price, reduces the likelihood of a desirable seat, and also increases the risk that you won’t have room in your preferred class (economy, premium economy, or business). That last factor is really important: if you buy a RTW ticket in a higher class, you don’t get a corresponding discount if you end up travelling in a lower class for part of the RTW journey.

Cheesy postcard from the Berner Oberland (Switzerland) – my ancestral home!

3. Think two steps ahead.

I had to fly from London (U.K.) to Melbourne (Australia), but knew I could not fly direct. Alas, this was a logistical nightmare…how many different ways are there to travel between those two cities? It looked like Singapore and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) were positioned relatively well. But this got complicated quickly. Either the London segment or the Melbourne segment just wouldn’t work with those cities.

Postcard of Lake Bohinj, in the Julian Alps of Slovenia

It was time for a rethink. Rather than go through a long list of Asian cities to see if they would work for a stopover, I just asked for itineraries between London and Melbourne. It quickly became clear that the best connections were through cities that I hadn’t previously considered: New Delhi (India) and Bangkok (Thailand). But as we wanted to cover as much ground as possible with the first flight, Bangkok made more sense.

Postcard from Kyiv, Ukraine (received 2011)

4. Travel together, buy together.

It may sound obvious, but it’s worth repeating: if you are travelling with others, buy your tickets at the same time. Even 9 months ahead of departure, it is possible that a one or two day delay between buying the tickets for your companions could force you to travel separately for part of the trip (or at least in different cabin classes).

Postcard from Vietnam (“Valley at Dawn Sapa”)

5. Harvest the frequent flyer points.

This is a unique opportunity to accumulate a lot of frequent flyer points. So, it pays to understand how frequent flyer points will be awarded for each leg of the journey. At a minimum, make sure you have an account for an airline with the particular air alliance you have selected (Star Alliance, Oneworld, or SkyTeam). But seriously consider whether you should also earn even more points by using a credit card for that frequent flyer program.

Some premium frequent flyer credit cards offer a lot of useful benefits. There may be an extra fee, but it could be outweighed by the value of those benefits. Sometimes, the first year fee can be waived (as it was in my case).

Postcard of the Castle of Trenčín (Trenčín, Slovakia)

Stay tuned – the next post may not be from Canada! (Today’s photos are all postcards that I’ve received in the Postcrossing project…for reasons that will soon become clear, the one at the top shows a Swiss International Airlines plane!)

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Assessing the post-breakup albums of the Beatles

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

In my previous post, I ranked the Beatles’ studio albums from least best to best. This time around, I’m looking at the most significant post-break-up releases that you are likely to come across. And I’ll reverse the order, so that I’m starting with the “best”. My criteria is simple: which releases are best for repeated listening?

Past Masters, Volumes One and Two

I could end the list here. These are the only truly essential post-breakup releases. They contain every non-album track (singles, EPs) ever released while the Beatles were together. Volume One is solid, with a slew of classic singles.

But Volume Two is light years beyond. “Day Tripper”, “We Can Work It Out”, “Rain” (the drumming!), “Lady Madonna”, “Hey Jude”, “Revolution”…even the B-sides such as “Old Brown Shoe” and “The Inner Light” still stand up nearly 60 years later. Although it is technically a compilation, I would easily rank this in the top half of the Beatles’ studio albums. It’s hard to believe that they left all of this stuff off their regular albums.

Love

Whatever you think of the Cirque du Soleil show for which this remix/mash-up was created, this album remains a surprising and thoroughly enjoyable listening experience. The songs are truncated, turned inside-out, and even mashed together with other songs. In my view, those mash-ups are the ones that truly reward repeated listening. The collision of “Drive My Car”, “The Word”, and “What You’re Doing” takes two unheralded tracks, adds a third, and somehow creates a roller-coaster of middle-period magic. The mash-up of “Within You Without You” and “Tomorrow Never Knows” is almost as good.

Let It Be…Naked

The original Let it Be album was a mixed bag. (Very) Overproduced by Phil Spector after the band had called it a day, it frustratingly veers between unpolished “back to basics” tracks like “One After 909” and overproduced goop like “The Long and Winding Road”. Did that simple ballad really need strings, harps, and choirs? Let it Be…Naked seeks to rectify that, by presenting a crisper collection of songs without the overproduction. And it mostly succeeds. It’s no Abbey Road, but it’s a marked improvement on the original Let it Be. (And it’s also better than Get Back, the shelved first attempt at making a listenable album out of the Let it Be-era material).

1962-1966, 1967-1970 , and 1

All of these are perfectly serviceable compilations for the casual listener. The 2023 remixes/expansions of 1962-1966 (the “Red” album) and 1967-1970 (the “Blue” album) get my vote for adding songs that were left out of the original 1973 releases…and in most cases, the additions deserve the inclusion. Some of the remixes are especially good: “You Can’t Do That” and “I Saw Her Standing There” come to mind. But most of these early songs come to life in their newly-demixed/remixed form. Paul McCartney’s bass playing is a particular revelation.

I’m not as enamoured with 1. In part, this is because I don’t think all of the Beatles’ best songs were singles. “A Day in the Life” and “Here Comes the Sun” are just two examples of songs that are absolute classics but were never released as singles when the band was still together. There is also a certain degree of overexposure with the songs on 1 too, as every one of them was (as the title suggests) a chart-topping single. But I’m not the target audience for 1 anyway. It is still a great introduction to the band for those who are less familiar with their work.

Anthology, Volumes 1 to 4

When I first listened to the three Anthology albums released in the mid-1990s, I thought they were great. In addition to the “new” songs “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love”, they contained a bunch of previously unreleased/unknown songs that had only been rumours…or available only on dodgy bootlegs (“Leave My Kitten Alone” was much stronger than a number of songs officially released by the Beatles in 1964). The alternate takes were fascinating. And some of the live tracks were tremendous recordings, full of the energy of the band’s early days.

Over time, however, my opinion has changed. Yes, they are essential listening for serious fans. But, in most cases, the unreleased stuff was in fact inferior to what was released the first time around. as the years go by, I listen to them less and less. I cannot see myself ever needing to upgrade my mid-1990s Anthology CDs to vinyl. And, in a telling gesture, I have yet to acquire a copy of the new Anthology 4 (released in 2025)…which duplicates many tracks from the various “Super Deluxe” editions that have been issued in the recent past.

Live at the BBC (Volumes 1 and 2)

These releases features songs that the Beatles recorded for their BBC appearances in the early years of Beatlemania. In addition to many of their best-known tracks, the two Live at the BBC collections also include songs that the Beatles never released on their albums. For me, those are the treasures of these compilations. And I like how they recreate radio shows of the era, with brief interviews and introductions. But even there, my appreciation of these collections is qualified. For the most part, these recordings can be described as…fine. Without a true audience, there is no urgency. There are no lost classics. Just competent, but quickly recorded, renditions of songs in their repertoire. And given that these albums are both in excess of two hours long, it is hard to get excited about repeat plays.

Live at the Hollywood Bowl (2016 version, released with Eight Days a Week movie)

While this remixed collection of concert recordings from 1964 and 1965 sounds better than the 1977 Live at the Hollywood Bowl LP that it replaced, it still suffers from rough sound quality, rather sloppy performances, and less than ideal recording conditions. It definitely has historical interest, and shows just how insane the concert conditions were. However, like the BBC and Anthology recordings, I can go years without playing this record.

This ends my Beatles “mini-series”. I’ll continue to include the occasional music-related post, but the next post will definitely be travel-related!

[The copyrights in the album covers lie with Parlophone/Apple Records. And the photo at the very top of the post is of the famed Abbey Road studios in London, England.]

Posts from Base Camp

Ranking albums by the Beatles

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

One of the most-read posts on this blog was my early 2025 post about my interview with Bob Dylan. While this remains a travel blog, I see no problem with doing the occasional post about music. Especially when I have written related posts in the past, such as the posts about my 2005 visit to Liverpool, my Beatles pilgrimage in 2014, or my broader “Beatles journey.”

So, today, I will take on the difficult task of ranking the Beatles studio albums from “least best” to “best”. I could probably write an entire post about each album, but I’ll keep my comments as short as possible.

13. Yellow Submarine (1969). This album had only one side of Beatles music, and even then only four of those songs were previously unreleased. “Hey Bulldog” is a good song, but these leftovers can’t hope to compete with their other proper albums.

12. Beatles for Sale (1964). Their fourth album in two years sounded tired. They looked tired on the cover. Even their cover version choices seemed uninspired. “Eight Days a Week” and “I’ll Follow the Sun” are highlights, but this will never be a Desert Island Disc for me.

11. Please Please Me (1963). Their debut album contains three incredible performances: “I Saw Her Standing There”, the title track, and “Twist and Shout”. The rest is generally fine, but they haven’t really found their feet yet. It wouldn’t take long: their second release of 1963 would be much better.

10. Help! (1965). When I listen to this album, I think of the word “competent”. They tentatively explored some different directions here, but I still get the feeling that they are in a bit of a holding pattern. “Yesterday” was ultimately overplayed, but who can complain about the melody? “Help!”, “Ticket to Ride”, and “You’re Going to Lose that Girl” are among the other highlights.

9. Let it Be (1970). Millions of words have been written about this trying phase in their career. I will just say this: despite some acknowledged classic singles, I just don’t find this album as enjoyable as the ones ranked above it. It’s a different kind of fatigue from “Beatles For Sale”, but it is fatigue all the same. Some questionable production decisions don’t help. The “Naked” version that came out in 2003 was preferable in that regard.

8. Magical Mystery Tour (1967). Side two, which collected their recent singles, is mostly brilliant. “Penny Lane”/”Strawberry Fields Forever” may be the best single ever released. How could you call either of those a “B”-side? “Hello Goodbye” and “All You Need is Love” also keep the quality high. But side one is a tougher slog, and keeps this from ranking higher.

7. A Hard Day’s Night (1964). An amazingly consistent release, with all 13 songs written by Lennon-McCartney. And pretty much any of them could have been a single. Indeed, some of them became successful singles for others. The title track, “Can’t Buy Me Love”, and “And I Love Her” are justifiably classics. Maybe the lyrics were still simple, but by now they had mastered the musical side of the equation.

6. The Beatles (a.k.a. “The White Album”) (1968). Some people would rank this a lot higher. And I admit, there is a lot here to like. “Back in the U.S.S.R.”, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, “Blackbird”, “Dear Prudence”, and “Helter Skelter” are undoubtedly among their very best. But, as a listening experience, this double album might be just a little too long. I think I would have left “Revolution 9” as a B-side or an EP track, and culled some of the undeveloped fragments. “Hey Jude” and “Revolution” came out as a single around this time: wouldn’t they have made an excellent addition?

5. With The Beatles (1963). This starts with the breathless “It Won’t Be Long” and doesn’t let up until “Money (That’s What I Want)”, the fierce closing track. As an album, it is perfectly paced. And despite having six cover versions, they don’t diminish the album at all. Both “Money” and “You’ve Really Got A Hold on Me” achieve the rare feat of dwarfing the Motown originals. And the bass on “All My Loving”…

4. Rubber Soul (1965). This was a significant leap forward from “Help!” and the albums that came before. A couple of soft spots mean that it doesn’t quite make my Top 3, but by and large the songs are outstanding. “In My Life” is a remarkable accomplishment that thankfully hasn’t been overplayed over the years. Any other band would have killed to have this as a single, but the Beatles never bothered.

3. Revolver (1966). My Top 3 is basically interchangeable. If you pitted the individual songs from those albums against each other, I think Revolver might prevail. “Taxman”, “Eleanor Rigby”, “I’m Only Sleeping”, “Here, There and Everywhere”, “She Said She Said”, “Good Day Sunshine”, “And Your Bird Can Sing”, “For No One”, “Got to Get You Into My Life”, and “Tomorrow Never Knows”…all amazing, and also mostly without precedent. The only reason why I don’t rank it higher is the top two albums hold together as albums just a little bit better. But this is really splitting hairs.

2. Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). It’s very hard for me to rate this album objectively, as it contains “A Day in the Life”…my favourite Beatles song, and possibly my favourite song period. Nothing had ever sounded like that before (or since). And tracks as diverse as “She’s Leaving Home” and “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite” push the envelope of popular music too. By virtue of having a theme (for a couple of songs at least), it just sneaks past Revolver.

1. Abbey Road (1969). It’s definitely the best-sounding Beatles album. And even if the songs aren’t as uniformly great as Revolver, I currently think this is the best Beatles album experience. The huge medley that concludes side two is a stunning suite of music, despite being bunged together from a collection of half-finished fragments. And don’t sell the other songs short: “Here Comes the Sun” and “Something” are my two favourites, and are justifiably famous, but “Oh! Darling” and “You Never Give Me Your Money” are two of the many underappreciated and lesser-known tracks. To me, this album sounds like a band knowing it is going to split up, but is still determined to set the standard even higher…just one more time.

[The copyrights in the album covers lie with Parlophone/Apple Records. And the photo at the very top of the post is a photo of me crossing Abbey Road at that zebra crossing.]

Posts from Base Camp

Getting a Round The World ticket!

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Several weeks ago, I mentioned that I would be doing a journey around the world in 2026. However, I had not yet decided exactly how the logistics would work. I now know, and have taken two big steps to make the trip happen.

Sent 2010 from Macau…an interesting duplication of Venice (including a gondolier!)

The first decision was whether to get a series of one-way tickets on various airlines…or take the plunge and get a round-the-world (RTW) ticket with one of the major airline alliances.

Maltese buses (apparently no longer used) – sent from Malta in September 2011

As I had some specific seating requirements and a very rigid itinerary, the choice quickly became clear: a RTW ticket would be less expensive (and much less risky) than buying individual one-way tickets. The question then became: which alliance would I pick? The two main contenders were Star Alliance and OneWorld. And both alliances have some very good airlines.

Flic-en-Flac, Mauritius – sent December 2012

My primary determinant was cost, although another very important factor was wishing to avoid certain countries (even just for airport stopovers). Happily, those factors aligned perfectly for me. The cheaper alliance also let me travel only through countries that I was comfortable with.

Timișoara, Romania – sent from Orsova, Romania (June 2012)

And now, even though my RTW trip is still many months away, I have a great itinerary mapped out. I can now focus on two other vital aspects: accommodation and ground transportation. Actually, I already have a head start on accommodation, as my two competitions also have “host hotels” that I will use during the competitions themselves.

Postcard from Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka – sent April 2017

The second decision was triggered by the RTW trip. Since I would be using the same airline alliance for the entire trip and spending quite a bit of money on it, I stood to accumulate a lot of loyalty (frequent flier) points. It then occurred to me that I might be able to rack up a ton of points if I had a credit card aligned with that airline alliance. So I decided to investigate credit card offers.

Naeba ski resort – sent November 2013 from Kasugai (Aichi), Japan

I found a credit card associated with my chosen alliance that would let me accumulate points at an significantly accelerated rate…and with some helpful perks (baggage privileges, various forms of insurance) that would otherwise add a lot of costs to the trip. So, I waited until I had the new card in hand before actually buying the RTW ticket. And now I can accumulate points for the next trip while I am enjoying this one!

Cossacks from Ukraine – sent June 2011

The pictures for today’s post are all postcards that I received during my participation in the Postcrossing Project. I profiled Postcrossing in last week’s post. As with that post, I tried to select postcards from countries that were less familiar to me at the time. The postcard at the very top is from Taiwan!

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The Postcrossing Project

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

In the years leading up to my nearly year-long travel sabbatical in 2014, I found that my regular vacations weren’t quite enough to quench my growing thirst for travel. I had some great summer trips: Iceland in 2008, the Canadian Maritimes in 2009, Norway in 2010, and Sweden, Finland, and Estonia in 2012. And also some great skiing trips, to places like Zermatt, Andermatt, St. Moritz, Wengen, and Val Gardena.

January 2013 – postcard received from Armenia

To satisfy that thirst, I became part of the Postcrossing Project. It was a great way to see more of the world while still maintaining a full-time job.

April 2011 – postcard from Vitebsk, Belarus, showing the skating rink in that city

How does it work? You sign up, and then request an address. You get sent a random address of another Postcrossing member somewhere in the world. You send a postcard to that member and, when they register it upon receipt, your address then becomes the next one to be randomly given out to another member.

February 2011 – postcard of Iguazu Falls on the Brazil/Argentina border (sent from Sao Paulo, Brazil)

In 2010, I sent my first card to somebody in Czechia. The recipient registered it 6 days later, and 8 days after that I received my first postcard…from Utrecht in the Netherlands! You can have multiple postcards travelling at once, and I eventually sent (and received) about 1000 postcards by 2014.

February 2011 – postcard from Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina (sent from Tuzla). A couple of years later, I visited Mostar!

There are variations as well – I did “direct swaps” with some people, and you can also join special groups. We even met a Postcrosser once in Estonia. But it was the most fun to just do the random thing – get a random address, and then get a surprise from someone else in the world a few weeks later. Our mailman loved it – we still had mail delivered to our house, and he told us that our mail was fascinating.

May 2013 – postcard of Arenal Volcano National Park in Costa Rica (sent from San José) . Just over a year later, I visited this very place!

The project is worldwide, although the odds of getting a card from Europe, North America, and east Asia are higher because those regions have more members. When I was active (up to 2014) I received the most cards from Germany, the Netherlands, the U.S.A., Russia, Finland, Taiwan, China, Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine.

August 2013 – postcard from McLeod Ganj, India – home of the Dalai Lama

I’m sure that the most active countries have changed in the intervening 10 years. But you do learn that most people (especially those in a project like this one) are usually very different from their political leaders.

November 2011 – postcard from Jakarta, Indonesia, showing a swimming pool with “whale mouth” entrances.

My 2014 year of travel made it more difficult to stay on top of my Postcrossing, and the increasingly high cost of international stamps in Canada was also a factor in scaling down my involvement. I’ve only sent a handful of cards since then. But Postcrossing is still a very active community today, and you end up learning a lot about the world and its people.

September 2011 – postcard of Trakai Island Castle, Lithuania (sent from Kėdainiai)

Today’s blog entry features postcards from some of the countries that were less familiar to me at the time (the card at the very top is from Jerusalem, Israel). Some of them I even ended up visiting! In fact, I’ve found a lot of interesting things in my Postcrossing files…maybe I’ll share some more in my next post.

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Ontario food experiences in late 2025

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

As we near the end of 2025, I’d like to share some of my local food experiences (and a concert) over the past few months.

Rayhoon Persian Eatery, in Burlington, Ontario

Every time I’m in Burlington, I make sure that I visit its vibrant downtown core. It’s always very busy and there are many dining options. One of my favourites is the Rayhoon restaurant, which specializes in Persian cuisine. It also has a great location in the “Village Square”. On this occasion, I ordered Fesenjoon, which is a rich stew featuring chicken, butternut squash, pomegranate molasses and ground walnut. I like the sweet and sour contrast…definitely more sour than the typical “sweet and sour” you find in Canada.

Very rich and tasty Fesenjoon, at Rayhoon in Burlington, Ontario

In September, I had some al pastor tacos at Chúuk in Pickering. If you like pineapple, this is the taco for you. And it’s not the only Mexican option in suburban Pickering. I loved the pollo con mole at Cielito Lindo.

Al pastor tacos, at Chúuk in Pickering, Ontario

Back home in Kingston, I saw The Grapes of Wrath perform an acoustic concert at the intimate Broom Factory. They were very popular in Canada through the late 1980s and early 1990s, so it was nice to see them in such a cozy venue. I had interviewed the two other members of the group in the mid 1990s (when they were in an offshoot band called Ginger), so I think the circle is now complete!

The Grapes of Wrath at the Broom Factory in Kingston

I lived 11 months of my life in Brockville, so I feel somewhat more connected to it than other similarly-sized Ontario towns. It doesn’t seem to have changed very much since my last visit, but I was happy to see some interesting food options on King Street.

Pho Hut on King Street in downtown Brockville, Ontario

We had intended to visit another restaurant, but it was closed on Mondays and we ended up at the Pho Hut instead. Their menu was quite large, so I can’t really tell you what I had…the picture below will have to do.

My main course at Pho Hut in Brockville, Ontario

From Brockville, we moved on to Ottawa again. Blog regulars will know that I find myself in Ottawa quite a bit. This is not the first time that the Chateau Laurier hotel features at the top of one of my posts. Anyway, on this trip, we went to an old favourite for dinner: Khao Thai, on Murray Street in the Byward Market district. It is a little more upscale than your typical Thai eatery, and the quality of the food has always been excellent.

My main course at Khao Thai in Ottawa

Not every Ottawa dining experience has been exquisite. Before leaving the city, we had lunch at a fairly well-known diner. The Reuben sandwich was fine, but a bit more balance between the sandwich and the fries would have been appreciated. Seriously, what’s with the grotesque amount of fries?

French fries, with a side of sandwich, at an unnamed Ottawa diner

Coming up next on the blog: an interesting hobby that can (and did) scratch the travel itch…at least for a little while…

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Around the World!

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

As the travel industry continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are getting close to their pre-pandemic travel levels. I don’t think I’ll ever have another travel year like 2014, but 2026 is still shaping up to be something special.

Saloon in Skagway, Alaska (2003)

I’ve recently learned that I will need to combine two special trips next year. After flying to Europe for a competition, I will then continue east to Australia (via Asia) for another competition immediately afterwards. And then the shortest route home from Australia is to travel east again to Canada. In short, I’ll be undertaking that rarest of travel experiences: a true around-the world trip!

Jefferson Smith’s Parlor, in downtown Skagway, Alaska (2003)

Not only will I travel around the entire globe, I will be on the road for longer than I have ever been in the past. And in addition to taking in two continents and several countries that I’ve never previously visited, my trip will also cover considerable territory in both the northern and southern hemispheres…where the seasons are reversed!

Hiking in the Dewey Lakes area, just above Skagway, Alaska (2003)

As you can imagine, this will require a lot of preparation. I may end up buying an around-the-world ticket, rather than a series of one-way tickets. But I’ll have to cost out both of those options before making a final decision. The financial stakes are pretty high! But even mundane matters, such as what to pack, will also require a lot of research. Among other things, I’ll need to figure out a global laundry strategy!

Uspenski Cathedral in Helsinki (2012)

On a less serious note, this upcoming trip also made me think about how far I’ve travelled in each compass direction. In 2026, I don’t think I’ll make it farther north than my trip beyond the Arctic Circle on the remote island of Grímsey, Iceland. There is a chance that I’ll make it further south than Puerto Montt, Chile, but that will depend on the exact route I take home from Australia.

Monument to Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (Helsinki, 2012)

However, my 2026 trip will make the two other compass directions irrelevant for me. If I travel so far east that I end up home again, then I could hardly claim to have an easternmost destination anymore. And I think it would also be meaningless to say that I still had a westernmost destination.

View from the top of the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki (2012)

Looking east, the farthest I’ve been so far is Helsinki, Finland…even though I always thought Tallinn, Estonia, was just a little farther east! And the farthest west I’ve been so far is Skagway, Alaska. To commemorate their upcoming loss of status, all of the photos in today’s post are from Alaska and Finland – the photo at the very top is the Helsinki Cathedral.

Helsinki’s waterfront (2012)

I will share more details on my around-the-world adventure as the preparations progress. And I’m sure 2026 will have some other surprises too…

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Unusual postcards from my friends (Volume 3)

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

I recently posted two blog entries (#1 here, and #2 here) about unusual postcards that I received from my friends. Those entries covered the 1988 to 1998 period. But there is more…a lot more! Today’s post includes postcards from 2004 to 2018.

Chairman Mao inspecting produce – sent from Beijing on May 24, 2008

This time, the Communist postcards focused on East Asian leaders of the 20th century. Here we have Mao Tse-Tung inspecting produce in China, and Ho Chi Minh sharing some stories in Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh regaling his followers – sent from Ben Thanh on October 14, 2007

Speaking of inspecting food, there appear to be some fairly stringent registration requirements for today’s cover photo…which naturally features a tuna vendor at a souq in Oman. The neighbouring stall specializes in mutton, but this fellow is definitely offering tuna.

My friend only made it to Santa Fe, New Mexico, but sent this card anyway on September 14, 2016

I’ve never been to New Mexico, although I had planned a ski trip to Taos (the premier ski area in New Mexico) at one time. And Colorado has always held a fascination for me, given its mountains and the “rocky” history of the NHL’s Colorado Rockies in the late 1970s. So, I’m happy to share two postcards from New Mexico and Colorado that display some synchronicity.

Colorado Corporate Culture card – sent from Denver, Colorado, on April 23, 2018

The card from Roswell reflects that town’s association with unexplained space events…although the aliens depicted there are somewhat stereotypical. I suspect any alien life forms would look quite different. Perhaps they would have the head of a deer, the body of a human, and small roller skis on their feet?

??? – Sent from Ontario’s Georgian Bay region on July 3, 2017

Finally, here is yet another postcard featuring sheep. While the last one was from New Zealand, this one is from Cyprus. Cyprus is a small island just south of Turkiye in the far eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea. This is the first time I’ve mentioned Cyprus in this blog…but will it be the last?

Foreshadowing? This was sent from Cyprus in March 2018 (although the postcard was printed in Ireland!)

Next year is shaping up to be an exceptionally interesting one for travel. I’ll have some more details in upcoming posts!

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Unusual postcards from my friends (Volume 2)

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

My previous post featured a bunch of unusual postcards sent to me by friends between 1988 and 1998. As I had so many, this post also features cards sent to me in the late 20th century!

Four postcards for the price of one, from Northern Ontario

While there really isn’t a unifying theme for all of the postcards, there are at least a couple each in the categories of bones, communism. and the Netherlands. The 1998 postcard at the very top of this post shows an ossuary in Rome, Italy. Kind of creepy, yes. But not as creepy, I think, as the inclusion of such bones in the postcard at the very bottom of this post!

The card says New Zealand has more than 50 million sheep! (1999)

First, though, are a couple of old reliable subjects. In many Canadian small towns, you will find the biggest something or other. In Mundare, Alberta, you can see a giant sausage. In Vegreville, Alberta, you will find a giant Ukrainian Easter Egg. And so it is not surprising that the postcard from Wawa, Ontario, includes a giant Canada Goose (a.k.a. cobra chicken). And I suppose sheep farming is a fair topic for a New Zealand postcard.

Greetings from Restaurant Puri Mas in Amsterdam! (1998)

I’m always wary of businesses that promise something “you will never forget.” For example, I will never forget the food poisoning I suffered in Glasgow, Scotland, that necessitated a visit to the Emergency Department. But my friend assured me that this Indonesian restaurant in Amsterdam was very good.

“I arrived by boat, and as it turns out, I’ll be staying in Groningen for a while. Everything else is fine.” (1995)

Speaking of the Netherlands, it seems that one of my friends ended up spending more time in Groningen than originally anticipated. As you can see, the boat has not moved in quite some time.

The (extensive) information on the back of this Soviet-era postcard is entirely in French

This postcard from “Kiev” is from the days of the U.S.S.R. But my friend did not get this card in Kyiv (a preferred Ukrainian transliteration)…or even Europe. Instead, he found a shop in Laos (!) that seemed to specialize in postcards from the Communist world. This seemed to be a theme in Southeast Asia, as the card below from Singapore was also concerned with communism.

“Communist-inspired riots” occurred on May 12, 1955 in Singapore (1992)

And then there’s this card from Bali, Indonesia. For a place that is often described as a paradise, it was unsettling to see the skulls and uncrossed bones adorning this otherwise peaceful card. There’s even a guy waving in a friendly way! Is it for real, or is it just an act to lull us into a false sense of security?

Bali, Indonesia – a tropical paradise? (1994)

Do I have more unusual postcards? Of course! I will share some of them in the weeks ahead. But first, watch for a fun Toronto adventure that I didn’t expect to have…

Posts from Base Camp

Unusual postcards from my friends (Volume 1)

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

I’ve been doing some cleaning and sorting, after doing some home renovations. What struck me was how many interesting and…unusual postcards I have received from friends over the years. It’s partly my fault: I try to send interesting things to my friends too.

Agadir, Morocco – where you can find the biggest couscous in the world! (1998)

This post, and several more to come in the near future, will include some of the more unusual postcards I’ve received. The first two posts are entirely from the late 1980s and the 1990s. In a nod to Spinal Tap, the photo at the very top shows (of course) Druids at Stonehenge (1997).

Azrou, Morocco – where you can find a police station! (1997)

One of my favourite travel experiences was visiting friends in Morocco for two weeks at the end of 1996 and the beginning of 1997. I even managed to ski while there! But I only had time to see a tiny fraction of what that country had to offer. Fortunately, as you will see, a steady stream of postcards allowed me to see other aspects of Morocco.

Another card from Morocco – but I can’t speculate on who these people are, as my friend taped a Moroccan highway toll receipt over the explanation on the back! (1998)

It is impossible to see everything in the world, but having friends send along some highlights and personal impressions is certainly a cost-effective and interesting way to cover places I’ve missed. And in some cases, I received postcards from places that I ended up visiting later.

The card says this is a “Typical Moroccan Souk” – not sure I agree, as I never saw a single watermelon at any of the Moroccan souks I visited! (1997)

I’m not going to name my friends in these posts. But I know many of them read this blog, so it will be interesting to see if these postcards tweak any memories (actual or misremembered) about sending them! I say “misremembered” because sometimes more than one of my friends has been to a particular place. I’m looking at you, Rome and Berlin!

“Attention! You are now leaving West Berlin!” And the card quite rightly asks…”Well…how?” (1988)

As we advance further and further into the digital age, postcards are becoming more and more rare. But I still receive them regularly: a few of my friends share my affinity for postcards, and make a point of sending the odd and the incongruous whenever they travel. They even apologize when the only offerings are generic and conventional. (Or they don’t – see below).

No apology on this one (1988).

Due to this quest for quirks, I suspect that my postcard collection is getting progressively stranger even though postcards are harder to find these days!

Dhahran, Saudi Arabia – one of the few hotels that offers “Noble Lodging” (1998)

Finally…if postcards aren’t quite your thing and you would prefer some more conventional travel content, I will try to include links to previous posts that cover the same territory or theme as the postcards.