Want to have a look round the site of some of Canada’s TOP-SECRET communications throughout the Cold War? Well, you can, at The Diefenbunker, one of the country’s most unusual and fascinating visitor attractions, just 20 miles outside Ottawa. Last year I stayed in the capital to celebrate Canada’s 150th Birthday. During...

Love medieval castles? Then you’ll be in seventh heaven in North East Wales. There’s a castle round every corner, testimony to the region’s strategic significance in the power battle between the English and Welsh. I’ve been going to North Wales since childhood and am familiar with the big boys – ie Conwy...

‘Stand still and this policeman will arrange the sash.’ Possibly one of strangest instructions I have ever been given, but somehow in keeping with the surreal experience of taking part in Bun Pha Wet Fair. It’s one of Thailand’s lesser-known and very colourful festivals and happens every year in Roi Et...

Rain drifts gently down from a milky grey sky. There’s not a breath of wind and the sound of footsteps is all that can be heard. Ahead loom two huge pillars thrusting upwards through the drizzle. a standing figure gradually comes into focus between the pillars, resting like Samson against...

Carriage horses on Church Street The children squeal with delight as a piglet clambers over the back of its brother to get a better place in the sun.  A huge sow slowly rolls over in the gloopy mud, grunts and flops back into contented slumber. A tussle breaks out as...

Ottawa celebrates Canada 150 On 1st July, 1867 Confederation united the country’s first three provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Canada (including Ontario and Quebec) into a federation known as the Dominion of Canada. Now, a hundred and fifty years later, the country is celebrating that date with a year...

The Scottish city of Dundee is said to be built on ‘Jam, Jute and Journalism’ and a visit to Verdant Works Jute Museum introduced me to the Jute industry, about which I knew nothing.  Housed in a former jute mill in the Blackness area of Dundee, it was opened in 1996 as...