Hyde Park, London.

I was living in a backpackers in Bayswater, London, England in my early 20s. It was close to Hyde Park, so one morning, very early (6 am I think), I got up and went to the park in search of photos. I met this man and we had a very long conversation until another homeless man came with a bottle of vodka and some orange juice. I moved on when they both got too drunk and weren't fun anymore.

Another time, years later, this time living in Notting Hill, my friend and I were crossing the park twice a day to go to work. (At a very expensive and posh retail store called "Harrod's") We crossed it because it was about 30 minutes shorter than if we went around it. It was a bit scary on those foggy mornings when we could see nothing in front of us.

Scarier still was when we almost got caught by bobbies (cops)! It was closed after dark so we had to hop over the fence. Sometimes an English girl accompanied us. This time we got chased by Bobbies (cops) and we just managed to hop over the fence to freedom...well all 2 of us except the English lass!

The scariest was when I was crossing alone at night and a guard with a dog spotted me. I decided it was foolish to run so I waited. I put on a very thick French accent (not hard since I'm a French-speaking Canadian.) and pretended I could hardly understand what the man said. The English being so polite, the guard spoke r-e-a-l-l-y  s-l-o-w and showed me the quickest way out. Of course as soon as he had disappeared I continued on.

I was young and foolish.

Ruby-in-the-Dust

RITD was owned by Anton, a friend of mine, met years previously in a London backpackers and it was the coolest musie venue/pool bar/pizza joint in Capetown in the late 90s!

I worked for him some nights behind the bar in the downstairs music venue, where local bands played. (some great, others not-so great) It was THE place to hear the local talent and the beginning place of many bands.

Other nights I worked in the late-night pizza joint. It was rudimentary but I made the best pizzas, so I was told. Many people would come on my off night asking for a "Helen special"! LOL!
The Helen special was garlic, pineapple, hot peppers, mushrooms and onions, if I remember correctly.

As far as I knew it was the only place (in the late 90s.) where all people of different walks of life would mingle mostly in harmony.

This is a photo of the main cleaner, Nohoko, after a night of "spring cleaning"!

I was a pool shark for 1 game!

It happened in South Africa, in Ficksburg to be more precise, near the Maluti Mountains of Lesotho.
I had been travelling all day by mini-bus (local buses) from Durban via PieterMaritzburg, Ladysmith, Harrismith, Kwakwa to arrived in Ficksburg after sundown. I was a bit uneasy because it was in the "African" part of town and I had no idea where to go. I needed worry because as soon as I step out of the bus, several people wanted to help me.
Eventually, a Lesotho taxi driver took care of me. He brought me to a local 24h fast food joint-TV-with pool tables bar owned by a white man.
I ended up playing a few games of pool, whiling the time away. The first game I played against Louie, the owner, and I played like I was a shark-pool! I couldn't believe it! I won that game and after that all the men wanted to play against me but my shark-pool luck at run out and I was playing badly again.
Nonetheless it made me very proud to win 1 game and with such "wizardry", while many Lesotho men wrapped in their local blankets watched me on. A night I won't forget so soon.
This photo was taken at a music venue-pool bar in Capetown. Sadly I have no physical memories of that night in Ficksburg.

Peter Gabriel

This time I will derail from talking about my travel stories to talk about the artist that influenced my youth.

I think I was 13 or 14 years old when I first saw HIM in concert, on the insistence of my cousin. I did not know much of Peter Gabriel's music being an avid fan of "old" Genesis.

I remember during that first concert (his 2nd solo-meaning sin-Genesis.) during the song "Lay your hands on me", he dropped onto the crowd outstretched hands, and was carried above the crowd for about 15 minutes. The last song was "Biko", very emotional with its heavy drum beat. I was under the spell....still am to this day.

I have seen him in concert about 8 times, twice were in London, England.
When one experience one of his concert, it is not just for the ears but it's also very visual. It's like a play for every song. One never knows what to expect with him. ...and it doesn't mean he will start the concert from the stage, he might as well pass next to you, coming from the back!

I'm such a huge fan that I made it to his Real World studio in Box, a village near Bath, England, wanting to meet him but was told that he was out of the country at the time.

I could speak about him for hours but the best and only way to understand is to experience him live.

This photo was taken in the mid 80s, during the song "Biko", with Youssou Ndour and the Stars of Dakar accompanying him.

Amal Kabli

This is one of THE most incredible travel experiences of my short life!!! (ok not that short anymore!)

Sara & I were in the beginning of a 3 month stay in her uncle's "villa" in sunny Andalucia. We soon got bored with lounging around and decided to go to Portugal. Because we had no money, we decided to hitch-hike there.

After a cold February night in '90 sleeping on a beach (remember we had no money to spare for a room somewhere.) in Southern Spain, Sara and I started hitch-hiking again on the main road.

Soon two cars stopped. We hopped on the one with the two Spaniards; the other car had four Moroccans in it. What we didn't realized is that they were all together, on their way to a business meeting in Cadiz. One of them was Amal Kabli, a millionaire who owned a big fishing company. He invited us to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. After some hesitations and doubts, we went.

We had our own hotel room, 300 meters from the beach. After work, him and his bodyguard Zazi would pick us up at the hotel for dinner at a nice restaurant of our choice. Sometimes we'd finished the evening at the local disco or an outdoor cafe. Whatever we'd do we would always have a good laugh together.

Getting bored fast, we took 3-4 days to hitch-hike around the island. After three weeks, we being restless, he sadly put us on a two day cruise ship back to mainland Spain. Amal was a kind, generous, workaholic and laid back man. Zazi, his bodyguard was kind and humorous. In the end we never made it to Portugal but it was the most incredible three weeks we've had so far.

Because we returned to "our" villa (appartement in English) with more money than when we had started 3 weeks earlier, we decided to go to Morocco!

After 7 days of incredible adventures in Morocco, we returned to mainland Spain completely broke. We were planning to hitch our way back to England but still needed some money for food, so we called Amal to the rescue. He sent us some money for our return to London.

This is a drawing I made of Amal while lounging on the closest beach to our hotel room.

The Fairstar.

"...the funship, so much fun on the one ship...."

It started when in Sydney, Australia. Sara and I were looking for a way to return to Fiji. We answered an ad and started working on the Fairstar on its next voyage.

The ship had 5 bars, a hairdressing shop, a shop, a pool, 2 dinning rooms, a discotheque and I'm forgetting what else. Sounds exotic and fun? Probably was for the passengers. Being a cocktail stewardess (fancy word for waitress) meant working days of 9 to 11 hours depending on weather you were on early or late shift, and that everyday the ship was at sea. A day off meant working 7 to 9 hours.

Working on the ship meant free lodging ( in a room with bunk beds) and free food and was a good way of seing some of the magnificient South Pacific islands. So the advantages were worth the slave labour. Although we worked hard , we (the cocktail waitresses) managed to have some fun. When it was all getting too much, a bunch of us would sneek in the disco at night. Or on rare overnights in a harbour, we'd hit the local "club" after work. And of course visiting those amazing islands often, meant that I could make some "local" friends.

Some of the islands we went to: Vanuatu, Fiji, New-Caledonia ( with the Isle of Pines being the most beautiful island I've ever seen!), Solomon islands and Papua/New Guinea.

This photo of me and some coworkers (I'm on the far right) was taken in the Lower Zodiac bar- the family bar with live entertainement.

My first castle ever!

It was on my first trip to Europe that I encountered my first castle: the Dover castle in England.

I arrived in England by boat. My first view was of the white cliffs of Dover. I remember a man (bloke) gave me a lift from the pier to the town and he had a good laugh when I wanted to get in the car on the wrong side. I had forgotten that in England, everything was on "the other side".

I was staying in a B&B and when I asked how far is the castle from here, I was told : "Not far, about 400 yards.". ???? 400 yards? To me of the metric system, it sounded very far but it took me only 15 minutes walk to get there.

To make the event even more special, I happened to go when it was reenactment day. There was all these men with swords in mocking fights and inside the castle, I encountered women in period dresses.

For a North American, it was a big deal.