Traveling Tales Latest Travel Stories and Features http://www.travelingtales.com/feed.xml en-US Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:40:06 -0400 As was the practice of the time, Japanese immigrant workers chose a bride from a picture, and then worked via a matchmaker to arrange her passage to Canada. Refusing to wed this troll-like man, Asayo was obligated to pay back the $250 it cost to bring her to the fishing village of Steveston, British Columbia, which she did by working in a salmon cannery for two years. http://www.travelingtales.com/butler/steveston.htm A few kilometers past Acapulco Airport, the beach at Barra Vieja looked deserted when our group of seven stepped out of the van as it halted at the mouth of Tres Palos Lagoon. Wading through a few feet of water we climbed aboard a tourist boat moored on the sands and began our sail up the Lagoon. http://www.travelingtales.com/salloum/acapulco.htm Wondering where you'd like to spend your summer vacation this year? Try B.C.'s scenic coastal attractions. Enjoy a leisurely family trip, cuddle up in romantic hideaways with your sweetheart, or explore the highways and by-ways in the company of a good friend. http://www.travelingtales.com/deefholts/circle-bc.htm Santa Fe, at an elevation of 2,134 meters (7,000 feet), boasts 300 days of annual sunshine and only 14 inches of precipitation. What were the odds we'd be rained on let alone see snow during our visit to this New Mexico destination? http://www.travelingtales.com/cassie/santafe.htm We learned the "hows" of wine and the manner in which soil, climate, and grape variety give wines a distinctive personality. http://www.travelingtales.com/perenich/california-wine.htm Romance and Fine Dining on the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia, Canada http://www.travelingtales.com/thiessen/sunshine-coast.htm The exhibition covers nearly one-and-a-half million years of human history and spans seven geographic regions, each with its own cultural identity. http://www.travelingtales.com/deefholts/museum.htm I set off on a sheep track that winds its way over the moor and along the ragged coastal cliff-tops. It is sheer beauty, and peaceful, a silence broken only by the stirring of wind, the crash of waves and the cry of the kittiwakes. http://www.travelingtales.com/ross/shetland.htm Below a boulder-sized brain coral hosts tubeworms filtering micro-tidbits into their feathery red, blue, and yellow heads. A lavender-lipped giant clam is wedged below in rubble. Among branching pink corals I discover "Nemo" hovering with his mate above their anemone home http://www.travelingtales.com/millikan/bula/index.html Fringed by a jungle of palm trees on one side and the Pacific surf on the other, and intersected by numerous rivers, Ostinal Beach on Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula is one of the world's most famed "arribadas" beaches. http://www.travelingtales.com/thiessen/costarica/index.html In Buri Ram Province our highlight was Phanom Rung Historical Park. A restored pink sandstone and laterite Khmer temple crowns the summit of a 200-metre-high spent volcano. http://www.travelingtales.com/butler/isan/index.html "This main road goes from one end of our island to the other. It's in pretty good shape, but if you go off, it's so rough you need a four-wheel drive." Past crystal turquoise waters lapping pretty beaches, and laundry dancing in the breezes outside rainbow-colored houses, we arrive at Gumbalimba Park. http://travelingtales.com/millikan/roatan/index.html The men whose days were lived out on these streets. It was a hard scrabble life, but even so, better than their prospects in China. So they hung on, tending their modest backyard vegetable gardens, and selling their produce at street stalls. Many found employment as seasonal cooks at logging camps, or toiled behind the steamy rush of a laundry tub. http://travelingtales.com/deefholts/chinatown/index.html For a step back in time, stroll the cobblestone streets of Pioneer Square, where an iron pergola, Tlingit totem pole, and Romanesque brick buildings are remnants of Seattle's past. Check out art galleries, cafes, antique shops - the eclectic area definitely encourages lots of hand-holding. http://travelingtales.com/cassie/sweetheart/index.html the Sunshine Coast is dotted with places to pitch a tent, when it comes to doing the 'camp thing' my husband and I don't quite jive. He'd be quite content to cuddle in a mummy bag of eiderdown, but my spine goes into spasm after sleeping on a mattress of earthy rough stuff. Thanks to our posh eco-style accommodations along the way, more on my wish list is granted. http://travelingtales.com/cassie/coast/index.html Everything is made of reeds - houses, furniture, and Viking-like dragonhead boats. We test out a reed bench while the village leader demonstrates how the island's base is built. http://travelingtales.com/butler/titicaca/index.html Today, in the drawing room on the entrance floor, a small girl, her eyes round with wonder, surveys a Christmas tree surrounded by antique toys, its branches arrayed in red ribbons, bows and silver ornaments. http://travelingtales.com/deefholts/victoria/index.html From the air, the mosque, dominating the city, adds a new and inviting dimension to this ultra modern wealthy city with a population of around 5,000,000. Filled with wide tree-lined boulevards, ritzy shops, splendid villas, dazzling white buildings and http://travelingtales.com/salloum/casablanca/index.html Every rainy season this small town transforms into a watery Venice. Motorbikes are replaced with wooden dories or bicycles, the tantalizing aroma of frying fish takes over from the choking smell of two stroke and the only sounds competing for attention are the lapping of water and the excited chat of uniformed children on their way to school. http://travelingtales.com/lane/vietnam/index.html The wicked looking horns, the throaty bellowing and the pawing of the ground beneath the hooves of these specially bred Hérens cattle would make the casual visitor think of the running of the bulls in Pamplona or a bloody corrida between matador and El Toro in Madrid. http://travelingtales.com/douglas/swiss/index.html The street here is paved with wood. He points to the elegant facade across the street. The bedrooms of the Governor and his wife were just up there. So as not to offend their ears with the sound of horses' hooves and cart wheels, they installed the wooden cobblestones to dampen the sound. http://travelingtales.com/sdeefholts/havana/index.html