transportation Archives - Wandering North

Asia Mongolia-Kuwait-Bahrain trip 2025 South Korea

Hello Kitty to the Rescue: A Layover in Seoul

I don’t know why, but in the last few years my travel planning has become a little bit more chaotic. I used to book my trips many months in advance, and I would spend time refining the itineraries and learning phrases in the local language and getting organized. But more recently I find myself booking the trips with just a few weeks’ notice. I still make a good itinerary, but it all feels a little rushed. I don’t think I can conceive months in advance of actually being able to take time off work, but then something happens and I just need a holiday and then I book it without much planning. This was one of those trips.

I had decided that I needed to go somewhere, and I decided to go to Mongolia. But I didn’t just want to go to Mongolia, I wanted to try to visit a couple of other countries. And that’s what I tried to do on this trip. I decided to go to Mongolia and Kuwait and Bahrain. I’m aware that Mongolia is nowhere near Kuwait and Bahrain, but it made for an interesting itinerary. And it started with an overnight layover in Seoul South Korea.

This was my third or fourth time visiting Seoul, although each of those visits has been on some sort of long layover. I’ve never actually taken a trip just to see South Korea. I probably should, but this would be another layover visit.

I don’t love Seoul. I know that Seoul is very popular but, overall, I am not enamoured with it. It does make for a good layover though. I appreciate its excellent public transportation and its affordable accommodations, and that there’s lots going on day and night to fill your time. As much as I don’t love it, I was happy to be back for my layover this time.

*Arex: the fast train into the city. Of course it has a cute mascot.*

I arrived at 4:00 PM and I would have to leave again at 9:00 in the morning, so I just had an evening. I booked myself into the Hostel Drip & Drop, which is conveniently located in Myeongdong and right by the Euljiro 1(il)-ga metro station. I took the AREX Express train (which is only slightly faster than the other train) into the city with my backpack and walked to the hostel and dropped it off.

Before I say anything else, I have to say how impressed I was with this hostel. I have fantasies of designing the perfect hostel because there are so many of them that just have design flaws, like having no lighting options between pitch black and blinding white or showers in shared bathrooms with no place to take off your clothes or hang them up outside of the soaking wet shower. This hostel was close to perfect.

It had an immaculate sleeping quarter. I opted for the girls’ dorm and it was one of those ones where every bed is a pod with a proper curtain, a shelf, lighting, and a comfy mattress inside. For the first time ever, I had a little bunk with a window in it. This hostel also had an adjoining room where there were lockers to put your backpack and your shoes, so you would take off your shoes and get your pyjamas, or do whatever you needed to do, and then you could either go into the room with the beds or into the shared bathroom. What this meant was there was no possibility of anybody in the sleeping room rummaging around in their bags, or getting dressed, or crinkling plastic bags because all of that happened in another room. I’m sorry if you’re not here to hear about effective hostile design, but I was very excited by this. And it was $56 Canadian per night. Not exactly dirt cheap, but pretty close.

I don’t know why it’s called Drip & Drop except that it has something to do with coffee and they do provide you with a coffee pour-over situation and they had a pour-over station in the common area. I mean, that’s pretty great. The downsides were no kitchen, and the common area was very sterile and didn’t really invite one to hang around, but that’s OK; I wasn’t there for long. I would 1000% stay there again.

Once I was finished admiring my hostel, I set out into the city. I decided to wander along the Cheonggyecheon, which is sort of a man-made urban river that runs through the city lined with pedestrian and bike friendly spaces with benches and sculptures. It’s a really wonderful use of public space and provides some serenity into what a busy city is otherwise.

I meandered around taking exploring the streets. There appeared to be some sort of festival happening geared towards children and there were a lot of inflatable things and children’s activities. I have no idea what was going on but it did make for some fun photos. It was blisteringly hot in Seoul, so, to cool off, I lingered by the fans set up outside next to some inflatable children’s water park set up for the event, until I realized that a single adult lingering near strange children is creepy.

I wanted to visit a cigar lounge before it got too late (and I needed an escape from the weather) and so I went to the Resolver Cigar Lounge. It was walking distance from my hostel in a commercial building. The lounge was a little bit difficult to find and I nearly gave up and left but finally I found it and it was worth the effort as it was a beautiful lounge. Dimly lit with comfortable leather chairs, excellent cigar accessories, and a sophisticated atmosphere. I visited the humidor and picked out a Plasencia Alma Fuerte – a cigar made at the Plasencia factory I had previously visited in Nicaragua. They had a decent selection of Cubans and some non-Cubans but the prices were very high, and this was the cigar that I decided best fit my budget and palate. The only downside of the lounge, if there was one, was that it was very quiet. There were a couple of other groups of men smoking cigars, but it didn’t have a very social atmosphere. I’ve noticed this a lot with cigar lounges in East Asia which is that people don’t really seem that inclined to talk to each other. Everyone seems to kind of keep to themselves.

By the time I left the lounge it was dark, but that did nothing to reduce the heat and humidity. Sweating profusely, I walked back to the area near my hostel to visit the Myeongdong Night Market. I was delighted to have a night market to go to. At first, it was terrific to walk around the area with the market. The neon signs were twinkling, throngs of people were out gawking at the stalls and eating things on sticks and there was food and merchandise for sale throughout the streets. It was a fun atmosphere. Except now not only was it hot, but it was hot and I was walking past stalls frying up food and producing clouds of hot greasy air.

I quickly became very uncomfortable. I also desperately wanted to eat something but, as is always the problem with night markets in Asia in my experience, it’s very difficult to find anything vegetarian; plus, I had forgotten to get cash from the ATM. After a while I just needed some air conditioning and relief from the weather and that’s when I saw it, like a beacon calling to me. My savior. Hello Kitty.

I love Hello Kitty and I’ve been wanting to go to a themed cafe forever. And there it was: a two-story Hello Kitty café, open late and artificially ice cold. While I was thankful for the air conditioning, I will say that the interior of the Hello Kitty cafe was so brightly lit that I felt like I was in some sort of alien spacecraft, but I was happy for it. I bought two food items that I’ve never had before and will certainly never have again which was a dragon fruit iced tea and a mango cake that was shaped like an actual mango inside a hard shell. It was delicious; or maybe I was just hot and famished. I sat by the window by myself, my eyes ringed in smudgy black eyeliner; I was looking goth-adjacent smelling of cigar smoke and thoroughly enjoying my Hello Kitty meal.

After that, I took one last spin around the market and then went back to my hostel for a shower and asleep. In a few short hours I would be up again and heading back to the airport to fly to my next destination: Ulaanbaatar.

*Temple at sunrise. Headed back to the airport*

Canada North America

One Day in Calgary

It was about two months since my trip to Yemen, and I was desperate to go somewhere. I didn’t have enough time to do a proper trip anywhere internationally, but I just felt that urge to get on a plane. And that’s what it occurred to me: I never been to Calgary, Alberta. I also had no desire to go to Calgary, Alberta, but I looked at the flights and there was a flight leaving early in the morning and coming back in the evening for about $100 round trip on Flair Airlines. Without giving it any more thought, I booked the trip. I may have had no interest in Calgary, but surely there would be enough there for me to be entertained for the day.

The time it took me to get to the airport in Vancouver was longer than my whole flight to Calgary which was only about an hour and a half. I landed in the morning and took a bus into the city. It was a Saturday and I wasn’t quite sure where to go, but the bus dropped me off in the business district, which was kind of a ghost town on the weekend. I found a nice cafe and had an espresso and came up with sort of a plan.

I went for a bit of a stroll which involved walking down Stephen Avenue, a pedestrian street lined with restaurants and shops. Nothing on the street interested me other than a few statues in the area, but it was good for a wander.

Weirdly, the thing that I was most excited about seeing in Calgary was the public library. It is an impressive modern art building completed in 2015, the work of a Norwegian and American design firm. It has a huge atrium with a lot of light and curved wooden elements. It’s very nice but I have to say that its shape did remind me a bit of a vagina. It’s worth checking out if you are in the area; it has some sculptures outside which are interesting and the building itself is attractive, but also inside there were various art displays and lots of places to sit and relax. But I had no time for relaxing. I was only there for the day.

I spoke to the people at the information desk at the library and they recommended that I check out the National Music Centre. It wasn’t on my radar previously, but it was free on the day that I happened to be there so I figured why not check it out.

This was another knew an impressive building, although unlike the library I didn’t find this one to be that attractive. Nevertheless, it was something to see. They had live music concerts going on and displays about the history of different genres of music in Canada. It was more interesting than I thought actually and I gave it a walk through. Not really giving it the time that it deserved but I got a sense of this thing and it gave me some more appreciation for Canadian musical artists.

From there I had decided to walk to a neighbourhood called Inglewood as I heard that it was sort of the “hipster” kind of neighbourhood of Calgary. It was a beautiful Sunday and a pleasant walk over a little river and into the neighbourhood. This was my favourite area that I saw while I was in Calgary. It had a street lined with lovely shops. Thrift stores, record stores, bookstores, coffee shops, even a vegan bakery. I browsed around, bought a book, and had a bite to eat.

There was also a small art museum called the Esker Foundation on the 4th floor of a commercial building. The art was good and although it was a small space there was a lot to look at. This was also free and, strangely, it didn’t even have anyone working at the information desk. I would have thought that it was closed except the doors were opened and the lights were on. I was delighted with the find.

If I had more time, I think I could have spent more of it in Inglewood just exploring the neighbourhood, but I had two more stops to make.

I called an Uber and I went to Contemporary Calgary, another modern art museum. This one wasn’t free, but it had reasonable admission price which was absolutely worth it. It had some excellent exhibits, including several by American artists dealing with subjects like slavery and immigration that were quite moving.

It was just about 5:00pm and I had my final stop to make on Calgary day tour and this was the thing that I most wanted to do in Calgary. Years before, my mother, whose name is Betty-Lou had told me about her speakeasy bar at Calgary called Betty-Lou’s Library. How could I not visit? I love a speakeasy bar, and my mother loves books, so how could I help visit the bar that seems to be her namesake? It was delightful. It was in the basement of an older building on a residential street just off of a commercial street. You’re supposed to make a reservation, although I’m not sure it’s technically necessary. I had emailed them to make the reservation, and I had gotten the necessary code word. Entering the building, I picked up an old-fashioned phone, and they asked me for the code word which I gave them. (The name of an English author.) And then a bookcase opened and I was let inside. The decor is exactly what you would want in a place like this: vintage furniture, dark with red lighting, and old time jazz. It was wonderful. It was also just after 5:00pm and they had just opened, so I was one of only three people inside but I bet it would be even more fun to go later in the evening when it’s busy.

I sat at the bar and had a cocktail and chatting with the bartender I told her about my mother Betty-Lou and how she loved books, and I showed her the tattoo I have of Betty-Lou’s name on my arm as proof that I wasn’t inventing the story. The bartender told me that the owner had named the bar after his mother whose name is also Betty-Lou and a photo of her was hung above the bar. The owner came out and introduced himself and then my next drink was on the house. I was delighted to have been able to go to this place. (Thanks mom)

And with that, it was time to return to the airport. I called an Uber and arrived just in time for my flight.

I had a thoroughly enjoyable day and would recommend it to people living in Vancouver who have never been to Calgary and need a little travel fix. Would I go back? I don’t think so. I did everything that I wanted to do (and more) but I didn’t like the city enough to warrant a return visit. There’s nothing wrong with it really, I just didn’t really like it. It’s definitely a driving city, not a walking one, and a lot of it just feels very business-y and not that interesting or beautiful, however, I was delighted to have gone.

This trip would tide me over until my Mongolia trip in August.

Asia Yemen Yemen Trip 2025

Yemen – Logistics and Arrival

Planning

I had wanted to go to Yemen ever since I saw pictures of Sanaa and Shibam, but actually getting there seemed like an impossibility. For as long as I have been thinking of going to Yemen the only real way of visiting it seemed to be either to illegally cross the border from Oman and just see a very small part of the country, perhaps for the day, or to visit the island of Socotra. Socotra looked interesting, but I really wanted to see the mainland and had decided to hold out for that. Slowly, some people started to do organized tours into portions of the mainland, but it just seemed so prohibitively expensive for a solo traveler. And then I got a WhatsApp message.

One of the members of my social travel group in Vancouver (we get together periodically and swap travel stories and tips) posted into the group that he was thinking of going to Yemen with a friend of his from the US and he was looking for a third person to join the group. I was walking down the street in Buenos Aires when I got the message and I immediately said I would go. The tour company and the itinerary had already been picked, I just needed to opt in.

At this point in time, it was not possible to visit any part of Yemen without going on a tour. I’m not a tour person, apart from hiring a guide for a day trip and the prospect of joining a group tour never appealed to me, but the person who was going on this trip with someone that I had already gotten along with and I figured that was enough to vouch for his friend. Plus, a group of three seemed more palatable than a larger group of strangers.

The tour was arranged through a fellow named Kais Al Qalisi, who is a well known tour operator in the region It would be six days visiting Seiyun, Mukalla, Wadi Doa’n, Hawfah, Ribad, Al-Hajjarain, Sif, and Shibam with a guide (Radfan) and driver (Mohammed) and a series of armed guards, starting and ending in Seiyun. The itinerary is posted here. The price for each of the three of us was about $1,450 (each), which included all of our meals in our hotels, water, and visa assistance and we did not have to share rooms at any of the hotels. It did not include the flights from Cairo to Seiyun, which could only be done on Yemeni Airways at exorbitant price of 900 U.S. dollars round trip for the six-hour flight. Yemen is not a cheap trip.

We were connected with a woman on WhatsApp who worked at the airline in Cairo; we wired her the money for the trip and she arranged the tickets which we would pick up at the airport.

For the visa, we simply needed to send our guide copies of our passports and personal information as well as a letter from a doctor. This was the trickiest part. For visa to Yemen, at least at this time, you needed a letter from a doctor that confirmed that you had been tested for and were negative for all diseases. I went to the travel clinic, and they looked at me like I was crazy. How could they possibly issue a letter like that? Would it even be possible to test for all diseases? Most of the travelers I talked to said that they had just forged their own letters, which seemed like a reasonable proposition for some, but I’m a lawyer and I just didn’t feel good about that. What I did feel ok about was a doctor that I knew socially who shall remain nameless who wrote the letter for me. While this doctor didn’t use the language that I had been tested for all diseases, they did say that I did not have any communicable diseases, which seemed to satisfy the visa people, to the extent that they even read the letter which I doubt.

In some ways, arranging all of this seems like kind of a hassle. It’s not as easy as just booking a flight online and showing up at the airport, but it was far easier than some of the other difficult countries I’ve visited like the Congo or Sudan. If you have the money to pay and a person to arrange it for you, you can get the visa.

The Airport

I had flown from Vancouver to London to Cairo and I found myself at the airport in Cairo in a queue at the check in desk to collect my ticket to Yemen. I got to the airport a bit ahead of my two companions and so I stood by myself with about six people ahead of me and a few behind, all of whom had towers of luggage on carts. I had a small backpack. All of them looked at me with a great deal of curiosity. More than one person approached me and asked me if I knew that I was in a queue for a flight to Yemen and I responded with “Yes, I can’t wait to go!” and they thought that was amusing. They laughed and smiled and then seemed genuinely pleased that I was choosing to spend my vacation days in their country.

Finally, I saw a familiar face in the crowd and my friend from Vancouver had arrived with his friend from the United States and our little travel group was united. In the interest of not using their real names (I don’t know if they would object to me using their names but I’m just going to choose to preserve their anonymity), I shall refer to my Canadian friend as John (as in Rambo) and my new American friend as Doc. We picked up our tickets and went to a lounge in the airport, where you could smoke (!) and got to know each other a bit.

The flight from Cairo to Seiyun was unremarkable. It’s always exciting to fly a new airline, but I can’t say that there was anything super unusual about Yemeni Airways. It didn’t have an in-flight entertainment system or Wi-Fi, but it was a standard plane that we boarded from the tarmac and they served us a meal.

And just like that, we landed in Yemen.

Arrival and Shopping

At the airport, we were met by our guide, Radfan who walked us through the visa process, we went to a little room and quickly visa stickers were placed in our passports and without any real questions or fanfare we were led through the airport and to our driver, Mohammed.

We landed at 5:00 PM and by the time we got out of the airport it was probably closer to 6:00 PM and the city was dark but lively. The first order of business was getting appropriate attire. One cannot travel in Yemen, at least at this point, in your normal clothes. You need to wear Yemeni clothing. So we went first to a little shop that sold women’s clothes.

This is probably the number one question that I was asked when I told people that I was going to Yemen, which is what would I have to wear. The answer is you must wear a black abaya, so you are covered from your neck to your ankles and wrists, and you wear hijab to cover your head. The question of whether or not you must also wear a niqab to cover your face seems to be somewhat loose. Our guide did not make me wear the niqab at any point. We did however run into another group with women travelers who are required to wear the niqab at all times. I have absolutely no problem wearing the abaya or the hijab, but I was very thankful that I did not have to wear the niqab as I think I would have found it restrictive and it certainly would have impeded my cigar smoking. The men in the shop helped me pick out a suitable black abaya with some black embroidery around the cuffs. I thought it looks alright. I like wearing all black anyway. For any women who are reading this and are wondering what you wear under the abaya, you can probably wear anything you like but I thought it was most comfortable to wear leggings and a t-shirt. Basically, that is the outfit that I wore every day while I was out and about in Yemen. In the evenings when I was at the hotels I could dress in my own clothes, provided they were reasonably conservative. So, at the hotels, I would wear leggings and a knee-length dress or something similar.

After I was suitably attired, we went to a different store and the gentleman picked out their clothes which were much more interesting. They were these long, wrapped skirts out of patterned and colourful fabric called a futa, a plain colored, short-sleeved button up shirt, and a wrapped headdress called a shemagh.

The clothes were extremely affordable (my ensemble was $22 US) and were one of the only expenses that we had on the trip as everything else was included in the price of the tour.

From there we went to our hotel, the Hawta Palace Hotel in Seiyun. I didn’t know what to expect with regard to the accommodations, but this exceeded any expectations that I had. This place was awesome. It was a couple of two- or three-story buildings in gleaming white Yemeni architecture with the serene courtyard, green gardens, a swimming pool, and flowering trees. It was a bit away from the city and felt quiet and safe. My room was enormous and extremely comfortable if sparsely decorated. We arrived and got sorted and had dinner.

Most of the meals that we had in Yemen, including the one at this hotel, were extensive and quite tasty, if not particularly varied. As a vegetarian, most of my meals consisted of lentil soups and salads, hummus and bread, some fresh fruits and vegetables, yogurt and local honey. It got a bit repetitive, but everything was very tasty. There was also coffee, tea, and water. No alcohol of course. The rest of the group had various types of meat and fish as their main dishes.

We were given Wi-Fi codes at the hotel and technically there was Wi-Fi, but it worked inconsistently. I had been prepared to have no Wi-Fi whatsoever on the trip but most of the hotels had some connectivity in some places at sometimes. It’s not the sort of place that you can go and plan to get a lot of remote work done. In fact, it may be one of the few places in the world where you can still go and be kind of off the grid.

After dinner, everyone else went to bed and I sat up in the courtyard and had a cigar. This became a bit of a ritual on the trip; I would stay up a little later and get up a little earlier than everyone else so that I could enjoy smoking and some time to myself.

John and Doc proved to be excellent travel companions. We seem to be like-minded and share a similar sense of humour and I had an excellent time with them, that said, it was still a bit of a different experience for me to be around people for so much of the time and I needed to have a little time to myself.

Safety

A note about safety. This is probably the second most common question that I was asked about going to Yemen, which was is it safe? Yemen obviously has a bad reputation in terms of safety. They have a long-standing civil war and there were frequently bombings and violence. But as with most countries that face these problems, the war and violence is relegated to certain parts of the country or does not happen all the time. Yemen is large and different parts of the country are controlled by different groups (more on this later) and we would be visiting the parts of the country that were relatively stable, which are in the Hadramaut region or South Yemen. Confusingly, South Yemen is mostly the eastern half of the country in North Yemen is mostly the western part of the country, but it’s this South Yemen part that is relatively safe and the North Yemen part that has the majority of the conflict. The days that we spent in Yemen felt completely safe. I appreciate that that safety may have been created somewhat by the presence of a guide and a guard but there was nothing that we saw that gave me any inklings that our presence would be met with anything other than kindness and hospitality.

I’ve already said so much in this post about what it was like to prepare to go to Yemen and what it was like arriving, that I’ll talk about what we actually saw and did in the next posts. It’s difficult to be brief when talking about a place as unique and fascinating as Yemen.

Read on here.

Africa Egypt Yemen Trip 2025

Cairo Layover: Heliopolis

My flight from London landed in Cairo just after 4:00 AM. I would have about eight hours before my flight to Yemen. Sure, I could have spent my time at the airport enjoying the comforts of a lounge or speed walking on the moving walkways, but I just can’t resist going into a city. Initially I thought to myself that with eight hours in Cairo I could go and visit the new museum which has been high on my list for many years, but I then realized that landing at 4:00 AM meant that nothing would be open for several hours. I didn’t want to risk going into downtown Cairo and getting stuck in traffic, so I decided to stick reasonably close to the airport and just visit the area of Heliopolis. It took a little while to get through immigration, but once I did, I called an Uber to take me to Heliopolis. I just sort of picked a random intersection and had him drop me off there.

Heliopolis was once kind of a suburb of Cairo but is now just a part of the larger city. Most of its older buildings are from about the early 1900s, so it’s a reasonably cosmopolitan area, but with the number of nice mosques and historical buildings.

At the point at which the Uber driver dropped me off it was still a bit dark outside. I hadn’t really factored this into my layover plans. The interesting thing about getting into the city that early was that there was really nothing going on. The streets were empty, apart from a few dogs and cats wandering around. I walked down the streets and took in the atmosphere, such as it was, thinking wow I’m in Cairo. But it did have a different, apocalyptic feel without seeing any other humans.

Finally I came across a little corner restaurant that was open. No one there spoke English, but I walked up and explained that I wanted something to eat and the serve me a feast of a breakfast. There was foul and falafel and pita bread and hummus some fresh vegetables, and, inexplicably, french fries, as well as coffee and water, all of which cost me about $3.50 Canadian. I couldn’t even finish it all and gave my French fries to some cats that were stalking my table. It was quite nice.

I walked around some more, and I took in some churches and mosques and poked my head into one where there was a service ongoing with beautiful music. It was so early there that, really, very little was open and not much to do, but it was a nice way to see a part of the city that I had never seen before and to get in a bit of exercise before I boarded my third flight.

I wanted to get back to the airport early because I was meeting two friends there for the third flight, So at around 9:00 AM I called an Uber to go back to the airport. I can’t believe I was ever so anti ride sharing; it certainly does cut down on the stress and hassle of catching a taxi in city with Cairo. I arrived back at the airport, cleaned myself off a bit and got ready to check in for my flight for Yemen. More on that in the next post.

Europe United Kingdom Yemen Trip 2025

London Layover: Belgravia

One of my greatest travel joys is having an exciting destination to visit with the bonus of getting a long layover in London on the way there. I say it so often that’s cliched, but London is probably my favourite city. I used to live there, and have visited it many times so for me it is a perfect place to have a day layover as I already know my way around and I’m happy to revisit it.

The way I approach London as a layover is to pick a neighbourhood that I want to visit and generally stick to that neighbourhood. Sometimes it will be because there’s something in particular that I want to do, like visiting a certain museum or a cigar store, and other times it will be just an area that I haven’t been to in a long time or forever. Obviously, the length of my layover somewhat dictates what I do. On my way to Yemen, I had some time in London and decided to base my visit around a cigar lounge.

I smoke cigars a lot in London, and that usually finds me going to Saint James Street, but I had been hearing about a lounge called TomTom and decided to make that my focus. I took the Heathrow Express into Paddington station and switched to the Tube, and took the underground to Sloane Square. From there it was a short walk to the TomTom cigar lounge. But what a walk.

I don’t know the names of all the streets that I walked down, but if you look at a map and you trace the route from Sloane Square to TomTom, you’ll have an idea. I think one of them was Pavilion Road. Anyway, the streets were ridiculously charming. All bricks with Union Jack flags strung up and every door festooned with colourful flowers. It was a charming neighbourhood. It seemed that every second window had delectable looking pastries and the weather was just nice enough that people were starting to sit outside.

Just as I got to the cigar lounge, I noticed a cute pink tea and cake shop across the street and I couldn’t resist. It was called Peggy Porschen cakes. I had never heard of it before, but they certainly did a good job of drawing me in with their pink floral exterior. I went inside settled on a pot of tea and a slice of a cake that I surely didn’t need but was happy to have. I sat outside and enjoyed my delectable treats feeling very girly. Just then the weather turned and I headed over to TomTom.

TomTom is a bit of an odd cigar merchant. They have a walk-in humidor but in the humidor only one of each type of cigar for sale is on display. I’ve never seen anything like it. Normally the merchant will display a box of the cigars that are on sale this one just one of each. It had a very minimalist appeal. Cigars in London can be quite expensive and none of them are cheap, but while there are options that are hundreds of Pounds you can still get a decent high end Cuban cigar for less than $100. I picked one of those.

Had I not known that they had a cigar lounge, I would not have discovered it on my own. The retail portion of the business was quite small and there were a couple of seats outside but nothing to suggest that there was a lounge, however when I asked about it, they led me through a slightly hidden door at the back of the humidor and I went down a flight of stairs into the basement. This is cigar lounge is quite cool. It’s very stylish and has a little bit of a 1970s flavour. Unfortunately, I was the only one in there when I went so it was a bit strange to have it all to myself, but I appreciated the time to relax and enjoy my cigar. I did that before deciding out of an abundance of caution that I should go back to the airport. I probably could have spent another couple of hours, but I had a flight to catch to Egypt and then another one to Yemen, where I was meeting up with people, and I couldn’t risk missing any of my flights.

I wandered back to the Tube station through Belgravia, which honestly doesn’t even sound like a real place. It sounds like something out of a Harry Potter book. I caught the train back to Heathrow, my spirits high and my energy fueled by tea, cake, and tobacco.

Onwards to Cairo.

North America USA

Detroit: A Surprising Weekend in Motor City

Why Detroit?

After my trip to Belize, I wanted to get a Nexus card. For people who don’t live in Canada or the United States, a Nexus card is something that gets approved by the Canadian and American governments that allows you to cross the border by going into express lanes on the freeway and in the airport and without answering a bunch of questions because they’ve already vetted you as a not a security risk. I thought it would be handy to have because sometimes I’m transiting through airports in the United States and I have gotten ensnared in long immigration queues and almost missed my flights. The problem was that you must get an interview done and I had been trying for close to a year to get an interview at the closest place to where I live in Vancouver, but the interview slots were always full. Apparently, this is a common problem. When I looked for alternative interview spots, one place that always had available times was Detroit. I had been a bit curious about Detroit, so I thought this was a good opportunity to do a weekend trip somewhere new and accomplish something practical at the same time. And that’s how I ended up going to Detroit in April 2025.

Initially I thought I would just go for one night do the interview and come back the next day, but I wanted to be able to bring cigars back into Canada, which requires staying out of the country for at least 48 hours, so it became a two-night weekend trip. Of course, I was going to go solo as I basically always do and is my preference.

Not Solo Travel

But then things changed. One of my cigar buddies from my cigar club (we will call him ‘Mariner’ for the purpose of this post) mentioned that the weekend I was going was the season opener for the Detroit Tigers (a baseball team) and he has a dream of visiting every professional baseball stadium in America and he had not been to the one in Detroit. So, he said, maybe he would go the same weekend as me and we could go to the game together. And this is how I got hoodwinked into going to Detroit for a weekend with a cigar buddy. #notsolotravel.

I agreed to it though; it’s not like he ambushed me, but I was a little bit nervous. What if it spoiled the whole weekend? It didn’t. It was certainly a different experience, and I don’t think I would trade in my solo trips for buddy trips very often, but it was a good time. I think traveling with someone easygoing is probably the key and Mariner is good company and easy going.

We landed in Detroit separately. I arrived first and took a taxi directly to the interview station, which is in no man’s land between the United States and Canada. They did the interview in five minutes and sadly did not ask me to recount my travels to far-flung and dangerous locales, and I took the taxi back to my hotel to begin my short holiday. I was a little bit nervous about applying for the Nexus card because I thought, surely, they will never give it to me after I’ve been to so many countries that the United States warns against, but a few months later I received approval for the card.

Where I stayed in Detroit

I had selected the Siren Hotel. I looked at all the hotels in downtown Detroit and most of them were way too expensive, especially considering the Canadian / U.S. dollar exchange. I wanted to stay somewhere central and there were a couple that were less expensive but did not look very appealing. I picked The Siren because it was just barely in my budget and it was oozing historical charm. It was designed by architect Robert Finn in 1926 as the headquarters for the Wurlitzer organ company, and then it was recently almost torn down but was saved and turned into this hotel. They’ve embraced the historical design of the building, and it is picturesque at every corner. The rooms are a little more basic but still cozy. I absolutely loved it; I think it might have been a step down for Mariner, but he could have stayed somewhere else.

Art and Protest

The first thing I decided to do, because I didn’t think that Mariner would have any interest in it, was I went to the Detroit Institute of the Arts.

I walked there and paid a small fee. The museum is fantastic. Like, it’s New York or London fantastic. It has historical paintings and portraits as well as 20th century works of art that are significant. It’s probably most famous for having the Diego Rivera paintings called The Detroit Industry Murals (1932–1933), which are impressive depictions of early 20^th Century industry, but I liked the most some of the very modern works of art by black artists. It was just excellent and exceeded any expectations that I had.

*one wall of the* *Detroit Industry Murals (1932–1933)*

When I left the building, outside there was a massive protest against Donald Trump. I was in the USA and happy to see that people were exercising their civil liberties. I had been a little bit nervous about going to the States at this point because I had heard so many terrible things about the border and because relations between Canada and the United States had taken a surprising downward turn, but I will say that everyone I interacted with on that weekend, including the border officers, were incredibly friendly. In fact, many people that I talked to, when they found out I was from Canada, actually thanked me for coming down and apologized for their president. Certainly, they didn’t have to do that, but it was nice to feel so welcome.

Leaving the art gallery, I decided to take public transit back to my hotel. There was a streetcar that was headed in that direction. I sat at the stop and chatted with a couple of older ladies that had just left the protest. And on board, the two ladies and everyone seemed to be chatting with everyone else. Say which will about the US, but I find the people to be extremely friendly. The incredible thing about the streetcar was that it was free. In fact, all public transportation in Detroit is free. If I want to take the bus for two blocks in Vancouver it cost me over $3. This was great. Downtown Detroit also has a monorail (Monorail!) which I rode at one point just for the views of the city and, again, it’s free so why not?

Cathedrals of Industry and Finance

Back at the hotel, I met up with Mariner, and we went out for tacos and strolled around. We had two major objectives, apart from my Nexus interview, on this trip; one was to visit all of the cigar stores and lounges and the other was to go to the baseball game. More on the baseball game later. But we also wanted to check out Detroit, so we walked around the downtown core to take in the vibe and the architecture. It was Saturday, so maybe it was quieter than it would be during a weekday, but the city felt almost deserted. It was a little bit unsettling. Where were all the people? I had heard that Detroit was unsafe and there was no part of it that felt unsafe to me, but it did feel strange that it was so quiet. Maybe it is partly due to people driving their cars and not walking very much so it leads to quieter sidewalks? I never did get the answer, but I didn’t love the vibes of downtown Detroit; that said, there are a lot of beautiful things to look at in downtown Detroit; some interesting sculptures and some murals, but what it really shines for are the buildings.

Detroit was one of the major cities in the United States in about the 1920s as it was the centre of automobile manufacturing, giving it the nickname ‘Motor City’ and it became extremely wealthy. This is obvious as you walk around because there are many tall and beautiful buildings all built in around that period. The terrific thing is their lobbies seem to be open all the time so you can just walk in and appreciate the architecture, which we did. Some of them are truly extraordinary, incorporating with elaborate church-like arches, painted ceilings, and glittering mosaics. Really inspiring stuff. The best downtown one was definitely the Guardian (500 Griswold Street), built in 1928-1929 it has an art deco style with Aztec Designs. It is amazing.

We hit up a cigar lounge, again more on that in the next post, and went to the baseball game.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

I am not a sports person. I enjoy a bit of boxing and American football at my cigar club because it is on a lot, but I don’t follow any sports and I think it’s all a bit silly, but I am always up for new experiences, so I agreed to go to the baseball game. Mariner is a baseball fanatic. Like a savant. He knows every statistic, every player, every mote of history and trivia. He was excited to be at the game, but maybe not as excited as I was once I walked into the arena and saw how much of a spectacle it was. All around the stadium there were festivities. Buskers playing music. Vendors selling disgusting foods. People dressed up in jerseys and costumes. Inside, there were even games and best of all, a Ferris wheel where each of the little compartments was shaped like a baseball. Of course, I insisted that we ride on it and we were the only adults on board without any children to accompany us. It was excellent. But then came the time to watch the actual baseball. I have watched baseball on TV and it is extremely boring. Watching baseball at the stadium though was pretty good. It was a sunny day, and we had excellent seats and it wasn’t loud and obnoxious like a hockey game. Everybody was chill and no one tried to high-five me. I liked reading about the players on the big screen and analyzing the walkout songs that they played for each hitter. Did I really pay attention to the game? No, not really, but I had popcorn and I was enjoying being there. I don’t remember who they were playing and I don’t remember who won. We left after the 8th inning. I’m not entirely sure why, but Mariner just said he had seen enough so we left and we went for more cigars and dinner.

*Comerica Park-Home of the Detroit Tigers*

We went for dinner at the London Chop House. We picked it because it was a fancy steakhouse, and Mariner likes fancy steaks, but also because it is one of those classic old school steak houses where everything is rich brown woods and leathers with dim lighting and live jazz. It was actually a person I met at a cigar lounge in San Pedro Belize who recommended this cigar spot in Detroit. Anyway, it was a perfect place. The average age of the band members must have been about 75 and they were terrific. It was just the right atmosphere. I had salad and a martini. We then went upstairs to enjoy cigars in the lounge, which lacked a bit in atmosphere, but a leather sofa, a cigar, and a cocktail was enough to bring me happiness.

After that it was late and Mariner tapped out and went back to the hotel to sleep. I carried onto the third cigar lounge of the trip.

(More on these and the other cigar lounges we visited in this post: Where to Smoke Cigars in Detroit.)

Street Walking in Nostalgic Detroit

The good thing about traveling with Mariner was that he was not keen to get up and do anything right away in the morning, while I was. So I left him to read the newspaper and sleep in and eat eggs or whatever people do, and I went off exploring. I walked countless blocks in a different direction with the goal of seeing a particular building that I was interested in seeing and a mural that I had heard about that had both Axel Foley from Beverly Hills Cop and Tom Selleck from Magnum PI painted on it, as well as RoboCop.

While Detroit might be famous for its baseball team or its car manufacturing history or its tradition of gun violence, to me Detroit will forever be the city that Axel Foley was from in the movie Beverly Hills Cop. My favourite comedy of all time. That opening scene in Beverly Hills Cop where it shows the people of Detroit as Glenn Frey’s “The Heat is On” plays is burned in my brain forever, and as I walked around on that morning I listened to that song on my headphones and the city really came alive. Especially as I walked around the more economically depressed areas. Why not create my own soundtrack for movies for cities that I’m visiting? You can’t do that when you’re walking around with someone else. I found the mural and took some pictures of it. I know that RoboCop was set in Detroit and I’ve seen it but I’m not a big RoboCop person but I was excited to see Axel Foley and also Tom Selleck dressed as Magnum Pi, another of my favourite TV shows. Tom Selleck is a native of Detroit which is why he wore a Detroit Tiger baseball cap in the show.

Anyone who’s reading this and is under the age of 40 probably has no idea what I’m talking about and that’s fine. This part isn’t for you.

In that area were other impressive murals and appealing old houses.

I walked over to the Fisher Building and admired its stunning lobbies. There’s a theatre there as well, which I couldn’t get into, but I bet it’s stunning. I went for coffee at a charming little spot called Café Sous Terre and then I caught an Uber over to a different neighbourhood to visit a couple of businesses.

I kept reading about how Shinola was this famous Detroit store and that it was a must see kind of thing and so I decided to go to that store and I guess it is historic and everything they make in there is from Detroit and all the leather goods and watches seem nice but it really was of no interest to me; however, next door was Third Man Records. A record shop owned by Jack White of the White Stripes who is also from Detroit. It’s super cool and I thought it was worth the visit, unfortunately on the weekends the record manufacturing part of it wasn’t in operation but you could see it through a window. If you go at the right times during the week, you could take a little tour and watch them making records. I would have loved to have seen that. But in the record shop itself it was neat there was lots of music memorabilia and vinyl for sale and books and it just had a really cool vibe. Sometimes they have concerts. I left there and meandered my way back to the hotel to meet up with Mariner.

After that, we went for a cigar at a lounge and just sort of ambled about the city. Had a tasty dinner at Standby, where I had a cocktail made with roasted leeks (interesting but not amazing), followed by more cigars and then sleep.

The next morning, we flew home separately via Toronto.

It was a delightful trip to Detroit. I think if you are in North America and want an unusual city break weekend, it is a good choice, but if you are into cigars I would definitely recommend it.

I go into more detail about the cigar lounges in this post.

And I write about my brief layover visit to Toronto in this post.

Belize Central America / Caribbean North America

24 hours in Belize City

I left the island paradise of San Pedro not the way I arrived, on a tiny plane, but by ferry. I wanted to have both experiences: one flying above the technicolor blue waters and the other skimming on top of them. I preferred the plane, but the ferry was cheap (about $30 US) and convenient.

I boarded at the San Pedro Ferry Express terminal on San Pedro Island. I bought my ticket online ahead of time for the 7am departure and picked it up in person. I queued up with the other travellers. The boat was close to sold out and the seating was first come first serve and if you end up in the back of the queue you might end up on the upper deck or on the sides, in which case you would be in the sun the entire time. Not fancying melanoma, I got a seat in the middle. (It looks like there might be different types of boats, but the one I was on had two levels and was open on the sides and on top.) It isn’t particularly comfortable; just a hard seat to sit in for the 90 minute journey. The sea air was nice, but there wasn’t much to see and it was loud. The plane was more fun, but I was very happy to arrive at the ferry terminal in downtown Belize City. No need of taxis or buses, I was able to walk to my accommodations.

But first a breakfast by the water.

I walked to my hotel, the charming One South Place Hotel. It is in an old house just steps from the water, and I had a room on the top floor with a private patio and view of the sunrise. I would only be there for one night, but it was a nice place to spend time.

*My accommodations and me on the street out front*

I had only about 24 hours, so I had to make the most of it. I started walking. Reading about Belize City there really were not any major attractions I wanted to see. There weren’t even any minor ones. But the day started out promising. I walked through my neighbourhood back to the downtown centre. It was sunny and I was in a good mood. On the way I was delighted by the large sea-worn houses with accents and showing the ravages of time. The streets were pretty. Flowering bushes. Cats and dogs.

The closer I got to the centre of the city, the buildings became a little grander and there were statues of people that I was unfamiliar with. It also got busier. Belize City feels a bit like a poor city. There is no fancy or modern downtown core. The whole place feels a little bit rough, but lively during the day. I walked past people playing checkers and groups of people buying food from street vendors and sitting in parks passing the time. I visited a cute little bookstore slash café (Bricks & Books), how could I resist that? Even if Belize City was not postcard pretty, it was colourful.

Belize City, with a population of just under 65,000 people, is the biggest city in the country. It was founded in the 1600s by the British. I assume there were already people living there. Although Belize City is the largest city in the country, it is not the capital. That honour goes to a small city called Belmopan, more in the centre of Belize and with only about 20,000 residents. Apparently it was some planned community from the 1970s. Being the biggest municipality, Belize City should Have a little more going on than it seemed to. It was, in my opinion, a bit sleepy. Maybe it’s because I was there on the weekend, but it felt very quiet.

I made my way over to the Museum of Belize, which was the only attraction that I had planned to go to. If you’re in Belize City and passing time, the museum is worth a visit – but just barely. It’s small and not particularly interesting. It did not have too much on display and I was a bit disappointed, but still there are some nice and interesting things to look at and it was good to be out of the heat for a short time.

I walked around the neighbourhoods more. The thing that I did like about Belize City was all of the dilapidated buildings. You could see that a lot of them were quite lovely at one point in time. For example, one had balcony railings with swans carved into them and others had delicate wooden trim around the rooftops like gingerbread houses, but they were all in pretty poor repair, some of them maybe even abandoned. They still had a certain beauty. I also liked all the various colourful end differently designed breeze-blocks that added interest to even basic buildings. Essential in a climate like this.

After several hours of mostly aimless wandering, I really had nothing else that I wanted to do, except that Carlos at the Havana Cigars store in San Pedro had told me about a good place to enjoy a cigar on a patio, and so that is where I went next. The Cork Street Whisky Bar might be my new favourite place, at least in Belize City. It was in what I can only assume was once a mansion just across the street from the sea, set on a green yard with a big patio. The inside was beautiful like an old library or a men’s club; all outfitted in leather and mahogany. But I had my sights set on the patio, which was sheltered from the sun and off the ground and had lots of comfortable seating options. I settled into a wicker chair and had two cocktails and two cigars and watched the waves crash in. Very relaxing.

I went back to my hotel room for a bit and then decided that I was starving and I wanted to get something to eat. I was a little bit nervous because I had heard nothing but bad things about the safety situation in Belize City. It felt fine during the day, but night was a different question and I wasn’t exactly right in the centre. I decided to go out but just to stick to the main streets; and it did seem fine although the streets were quite empty. I walked a little ways until I found a restaurant that was open and I had a completely uninspiring vegetarian burrito sitting by the canal where they wouldn’t let me smoke a cigar because they said people would complain, notwithstanding that everyone else was smoking cigarettes.

I walked back to my room, passing some particularly interesting murals along the way.

*Murals, the last one with a voodoo theme?*

The next morning, I had a little bit of time before I had to head to the airport, and so I went out for a nice breakfast and a walk.

Belize City is barely worth a visit. I hate to say that. I hate to be mean but, it was not that interesting. Spending a day and a night there was perfect; any longer and I would have struggled to find things to do. I am glad that I visited it as I think it would have been a shame if all I saw of Belize was San Pedro. I wouldn’t object to going back to Belize and seeing some of its jungles or Mayan ruins, but it is not high on my list; San Pedro however will continue to live in my memory fondly.

And so ended my workation to Belize.

My next trip would be just a couple of weeks later and will keep me closer to home. A cigar weekend in Detroit.

Belize Central America / Caribbean North America

Island Life in San Pedro, Belize

One of the perks of my job, in addition to my vacation time, is that every year for the past three years I get to take a week and work remotely. I can travel anywhere, but I stay in North America to remain in similar time zones for work availability. So far, I’ve done these ‘workations’ in Antigua, Guatemala and Estelí, Nicaragua. This year, I decided to try something a bit more tropical and go to San Pedro, Belize. I had never been to Belize, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Last Night I dreamt of San Pedro

Belize is, of course, the tiny country clinging to the east side of Guatemala and just below the tip of Mexico, on the Caribbean Sea. Its mainland has jungles and Mayan ruins, but what I wanted to visit was one of its many islands: San Pedro. Why did I pick San Pedro? One reason was just that I wanted to try a tropical island vacation, which I don’t think I’ve ever done (Cuba doesn’t count); but I specifically picked San Pedro because I saw that it had several cigar stores and because it is the island that Madonna sang about in her song La Isla Bonita. Honestly, the Madonna thing was really the reason that I chose it, but the cigar stores made it definitive. I was a huge Madonna fan as a kid and I’m sure I sang “Last night I dreamt of San Pedro” a million times, so why not visit the island itself?

Getting There

I flew to Belize City and then caught a tiny little plane on an airline called Tropic Air to fly the 15-minute flight to San Pedro. There are two options for getting from Belize City to San Pedro: one is the short flight and the other is a ferry. I decided to take the flight there and the ferry back because I wanted to have both experiences. (I wrote about the ferry trip in my post about Belize City.) The plane was super cool. It was tiny and it flew over shockingly turquoise waters and tiny little islands. It was amazing. And the airport, if you can call it an airport, is right in downtown San Pedro and it was about a two-minute walk from where I was staying.

Where I stayed: A Trailer by the Sea

Accommodations for workations are a little bit different than what I would book if I was on holiday. Since I am going to be in the place for about a week or more, I need to make sure that I have a suitable space for working and strong Wi-Fi. It has to be comfortable enough and I need a place where I can enjoy a cigar. I couldn’t afford a resort and the central hotels looked lacklustre, but I found this terrific little Airbnb. It was a bit weird. It was a trailer that had a little bit of an extra space added onto it (to add width to the kitchen and put in doors that open onto a wooden patio. It sat on the beach in downtown San Pedro and was painted blue and it looks very cute. It also might look a little trailer trash to some people, but I spent my early years in a trailer, so I was right at home. Really, the whole thing was bigger than my apartment and I thought what would be better than waking up in the morning and having my coffee on my own private patio looking at the beach or spending the evening in a hammock with a cigar.

*i know, it is not fancy, but very cozy*

It was an awesome place to stay. I loved it. I had all my needs met. I even had a trio of cats that came to keep me company on the patio each morning. The only downside was that there was a boat that was parked on the beach in front of the Airbnb and there was a homeless man that was living in the boat. For the most part, it wasn’t a problem; I didn’t see him or he was just doing things around the boat. To be clear it wasn’t his boat; he was just squatting in it. I am sure he was harmless, but I felt a little bit creeped out at night staying in the trailer with its big glass patio doors that didn’t have a curtain, meaning that anyone could just walk by and peer in, but I never felt unsafe. I live in a high-rise so ground level accommodations always feel a little weird to me. But, hey, this is island life; there are no highrises.

How I Spent Time

I was in San Pedro for exactly a week. I arrived on the weekend, so I had time to explore before I started working. San Pedro is small. During my time there I walked the length of the island a few times. But for the most part I stuck to the centre where most of the businesses were. You’re never more than a blocks from the beach in San Pedro.

Anyone who reads my blog regularly knows that I don’t like the beach, but I can’t deny that it was beautiful to look at. Fortunately, the downtown area of San Pedro has a string of restaurants and cafes all of which have beach-side seating. So I got to enjoy a lot of coffees, cocktails, and cigars looking out at the waves and the swaying palm trees.

San Pedro was a great destination for my workation because, while it was very beautiful, there’s not much to do. In a day and a half, I felt like I had explored the island and seen what I wanted to see, so when Monday came and it was time for me to settle into work I didn’t feel distracted things that I wanted to enjoy. The island is mostly beaches and resorts and beach bars and beach restaurants and shops selling hammocks and flip flops and souvenirs. Away from the very touristy areas it was interesting to see the neighbourhoods where people lived and the little food kiosks they shopped at and some local cafes and bars. A lot of the houses were still brightly coloured and adorable.

It is all completely pleasant. One of the neat things about the island is that there are no cars. Except for a few delivery vehicles, everyone gets around by golf carts. And there are a lot of golf carts. Tourists rent them and they seem to drive them everywhere, even if it would be faster for them to walk. The streets are positively clogged with them and if I was driving, I think it would be very annoying, but as a pedestrian I wasn’t bothered by it. It was just charming and quaint.

Speaking of tourists, while I had visions of myself going to some of these popular beach bars and enjoying my evening cigar, that idea went away quickly once I visited a couple of these spots. The tourists that were at these locations were probably nice people but not people that I really wanted to hang around with. A lot of conservative politics and alcohol. A little too loud and just not my crowd; so after that, I picked quieter spots where I could simply listen to the waves or enjoy a book or a podcast with my cigar.

So, I walked and I took in the views of turquoise waters and palm trees, white sands and colourful buildings and little glimpses into the lives of people that made this island their home. Many of which were immigrants or expats from other countries.

One thing that was a little bit of a drawback for having San Pedro as my location destination, as opposed to when I went to Guatemala and Nicaragua, was that San Pedro was expensive. My Airbnb was a very good deal, but going out for food and drinks was pricey. Everything was priced similarly to how it would be priced at home in Canada except it was priced in American dollars so for me that meant that everything was about 40% more expensive. It wasn’t prohibitive, but it certainly wasn’t a bargain. What was shockingly expensive was groceries. On the first weekend I went to a local supermarket and bought some supplies for the week. Coffee, yogurt, fruits, that sort of thing, and I couldn’t believe how much it was. I think I found a can of chickpeas that was about $7.00 US and a package of four yellow peppers that was $14.00 US. I guess this is part of the problem of island life.

Once my work week kicked into gear. I started each day with a walk somewhere nearby to grab a coffee and get a bit of exercise and then I worked until about 5:00 PM and then went out for dinner and a cigar. There were lots of appealing restaurants to choose from in San Pedro and most of them had at least one vegetarian dish – usually a delicious coconut curry. Most nights I had a virgin piña colada or some other tropical drink sans alcohol. Sitting on a patio with a cigar and listening to some music was very relaxing.

Smoking Cigars in San Pedro

As I said, one of the reasons that I chose San Pedro was because it had cigar stores. There were three, two of which had proper lounges and one that had a little patio for smoking. Smoking on patios and Belize was not a problem, but it’s still nice to go to a lounge to visit with other cigar smokers. On my first day I went to all three lounges.

One was called Saul’s Cigar & Coffee House. They had some of their own cigars and some other brands that they sold including some Cubans although the Cubans were, in my estimation, fake. I bought some of the cigars they rolled themselves to try and sat on their narrow front patio and watch the traffic roll by. Their cigars were OK but a bit expensive, although the staff was very nice and it was a pleasant place to sit.

There was also the newly opened La Casa del Habano Belize which was gleaming and pristine. It was a beautiful store with a well-stocked humidor selling all Cuban cigars. In wonderful condition and with OK prices compared to Canada. I went there twice and both times I got a cigar and sat in the air-conditioned environment in a leather chair enjoying an espresso and chatting with the women that work there. They were very nice, but they weren’t cigar smokers and were still learning about cigars. I just chatted with the staff or did a bit of work on my computer. It wasn’t my favorite place to go but I can’t deny that it was a nice place for a cigar.

My favourite place, and the place that I went nearly every day that I was in San Pedro is a cigar store called Havana Cigars. It is owned by a fellow who lives in San Pedro and has for many years, but he is originally from Havana. Nearly every time I went in there were other people, locals and tourists, stopping in to buy or smoke cigars. It had just the right atmosphere. I felt like I was a local almost from the first time that I went in and everyone went in was up for chatting. He was a great host and I enjoyed chatting with him. Particularly I got the scoop on local politics in San Pedro and we talked about the situation in Cuba. I won’t recount the stories that he told me, but he told me some incredible tales about his life in Havana and how he left on a small boat bound for Miami. I’d never really heard anyone tell me their story of fleeing Cuba and it was fascinating and emotional. It’s his story to tell, but I feel lucky for having heard it.

i think a third of my camera roll was cigar pictures.
And, yes, i did travel to Belize with an ashtray from my law firm. That’s normal, right? (Bottom right)

Looking Back

San Pedro was great. I would recommend it to pretty much anyone who wanted that sort of a beachy, chill trip. In addition to the cigar smoking and staring at the waves experience that I had, there are beaches to visit and stingrays and to swim with and other similar activities. I had planned to take a short flight over the Blue Hole (one of the main activities) but it was exorbitantly expensive and so I scrapped that idea. If I had not been in San Pedro working I think it would have been perfect for me as a two-day trip because I would have been bored after that; but it was wonderful to be there on this slower pace where I could keep busy with work and in my off hours I could just enjoy the island vibes. It was a special experience.

Onwards

After my week in San Pedro, I still had about two days before I had to be back at work (one of which would be taken up with flying, so I decided to spend a day and a night visiting Belize city before returning home. More on that in the next post (here).

Argentina Argentina/Uruguay/Paraguay trip 2025 South America Uruguay

From Buenos Aires to Montevideo

From Buenos Aires, Argentina, I was heading to Montevideo, Uruguay. Flying was an option, but I decided to go by ferry. The two capital cities are separated by a large estuary called the Río de la Plata. Flights are only about 50 minutes but factoring in the hassle of going to and from airports against the relative pleasure of riding a boat, it was an easy decision.

There are lots of ferry options between the two cities, many of them were slow ferries, stopping along the way, taking up to 7 hours. The express ferry takes 2.5 hours and is direct. That was the one that I decided to take, operated by Buquebus. I booked in advance, which based on the crowds on the ferry, I think was a good idea.

I booked the earliest ferry I could find online (departing at 7:15am and arriving 9:45am), and on the morning of my departure I walked from my hostel in Buenos Aires to the ferry terminal. Part of the reason I had picked the hostel I did was because it was walking distance to the ferry terminal. I arrived early and there was a large crowd waiting to pick up their tickets. Even though I had booked online and had no luggage to check, I still had to pick up a paper ticket. The ferry terminal is new and modern and has a cafe and Wi-Fi, so it wasn’t a bad place to pass the time.

I picked up my ticket and boarded the ferry.

There are four classes of ticket for walk on passengers and they range from about $80 to $150 US. Normally I would get the cheapest, but in this case, I decided to get the first-class ticket. In hindsight that was a good decision. I think at the time it was the only class that offered free Wi-Fi, which was part of the reason that I selected it. It allows priority check in and boarding, but it also meant that I got to exit the boat first which was a huge time saver or given how busy the ship was and how slow it appeared people were disembarking. I had access to a lounge with free drinks and snacks prior to departure.

On board, there the first-class seating was comfortable and on the top of the ship. It had kind of a weird 60s décor, but the seats were very comfortable and there was free Wi-Fi and charging ports and some complimentary beverages. Most importantly it was very calm. The other cabins when I walked through them as I was leaving were absolutely packed and full of lots of noisy families and they just didn’t seem as appealing. I found the journey incredibly tranquil.

The business class seating looked pretty nice too, but they didn’t offer the free Wi-Fi.

As they had checked my passport when I was boarding the ship, when I exited, I just walked into Montevideo and was steps away from the city centre. There was none of the hassle of airports and taxis. It was maybe 1 of the easiest non-European border crossings I’ve ever had.

And just like that, I was in a new country and ready to explore Montevideo, Uruguay.

Cyprus Christmas trip 2024 Europe Germany

Night Lights: Overnight in Munich at Christmastime

I left Nicosia and flew out of Larnaca, Cyprus, headed home to Vancouver, but first I had a layover in Munich. I was to arrive at about 8pm and leave the next day at about 11:30am. I booked myself a night at the Wombat’s City Hostel Munich Hauptbahnhof in a six-bed girls’ dorm.

Unfortunately, my flight was delayed so I didn’t arrive in Munich until about 11:00pm. I took the S-Bahn train (line 1 and 8 run every 10 minutes or so into the city centre and the trip is about 40 minutes).

I walked out of the train station and into the night air. It was dark. It was cold. The streets were empty, but they were festive. It was beautiful to see Christmas trees and Christmas lights, and with the cold night air it felt so festive. Even the regular buildings that were not decorated were illuminated in some way and it just felt a little bit surreal. I could have taken the metro a couple of stops to get closer to my hostel, but I was so happy to be outside that I decided to walk. Everything was closed unfortunately and I saw only a few people walking around. I got to my hostel and went to my room. And forgive me as I go on a bit of a hostel rant.

Some hostels are well designed. They have dorms with soft blue lighting that won’t wake other sleepers when you come in, they have beds with curtains so that people have privacy and more darkness at night. They have lockers and cubbyholes where people put their items. This was not one of those hostels – or if they did have those things no one chose to use them as their stuff was all over the floor. I walked into the hostel dorm, and it was pitch black. There was no gentle motion light, and the only options I had was to stumble around in the dark or turn on the overhead light. I wasn’t about to turn on the overhead light and wake everyone up, so I decided to let my eyes adjust for a second and then try to make my way to my bunk bed. But because there was no place to store luggage properly, people had bags and suitcases and shoes all strewn about on the floor and I tripped over things multiple times as I tried to find my bunk. Also, trying to find your bunk in a pitch-black room that you’ve never been to before is extremely challenging. I finally found it and it was one of those ones where they don’t put the sheets on the mattress or the cover on the duvet or pillowcase and you have to do it yourself. I wasn’t about to fiddle around with that in the middle of the night on a top bunk so I just slept in my clothes on top of the plasticky mattress covered with naked duvet cover. I fell asleep quickly. Unfortunately for the people that I was sharing the room with, I wasn’t only the last person to bed, but I was the first person awake. I got up a few hours later showered and dressed and left again. I walked back to the main train station and went back to the airport. I stopped for a little breakfast on the way, but the city didn’t feel as magical as it had the night before.

If I was doing it over again, I think I would have booked a better hostel or a private room for that one night, but it’s hard to argue with the price of a hostel dorm. So, I didn’t get to do a lot in Munich on my layover, but I really enjoyed being there, even briefly. And so ended my Christmas trip to Cyprus and my final trip 2024.

I would be homebound for about two weeks and then I would be off to Miami.

Tag: transportation