Faiza-Ifrah's VirtualTourist Home Page

I have uploaded some pictures of my road trip for Fall Colours in an album on this page, along with my selection of some great quotes. These pictures were taken by my son, who is now honing his skills of photography :-)

The picture above shows a kayaker on Price Lake which is located on milepost 296.4 on Blue Ridge Parkway very close to its Boone entrance. We covered overlooks, picnic areas, hiking trails and waterfalls on about 80 miles of the Parkway north and south of Boone, North Carolina.

My family and I travelled extensively during the summer. Recent excursions have been into Fathom Five National Marine Park, the neighbouring Bruce Penninsula National Park, Spencer Gorge / Webster's Falls Conservation Areas near Hamilton, Honey Harbour and Port Severn near Muskoka (all in Ontario), and hiking and trekking in upstate New York. We ended our summers with a 10 day long trip to the High Country of Boone, North Carolina and Blue Ridge Parkway, where we drove, hiked, canoed, kayaked, and shopped our hearts out. I have now built my pages on our adventures in the High Country.

Please enjoy our travel reports and photographs of deserts, forests, lakes, vales and mountains bashing mini-adventures in 10 countries that we have visited to-date.

This is a picture of Flowerpot rock formations that was taken at Fathom Five National Marine Park. This park has unique geology and ecology and offers scuba diving for many shipwrecks in its waters.

We love national parks, state parks, provincial parks and other conservation parks. Our tips on these pages are mostly about vacationing for or day tripping into conservation areas of all kinds.

Recently visited national / state / provincial parks:

1. Blue Ridge Parkway: covered under Boone, North Carolina page
2. Fathom Five National Marine Park: covered under Tobermory, Ontario page
3. Bruce Peninsula National Park: covered under Bruce Peninsula National Park page
4. Niagara Falls State Park: to be constructed
5. Shenandoah National Park: covered under Virginia page.

"A tourist visits to confirm what he already believes of the world. A traveler journeys to challenge the unknown. A family traveler takes a mid-route - going off the beaten path."

Our pages cover destinations that are less visited, but offer equal or more fun and learning, especially for women and children. Moreover, you will notice that our travels are done with family and family friends. There is more fun in numbers, even though they say that two is company and three is a crowd.

We have found that visiting museums, memorials, and historical places has been a good way to increase our awareness and to educate our children on world cultures, religions and environment.

Our memorable trips for family education can be found on the following pages:

1. Museums and historical gardens: covered under Boone, North Carolina page
2. Ontario Science Centre: to be constructed
3. Shakers Village, Berkshire Museum and Chesterwood: covered under Massachusetts page
4. Many memorials under Washington, DC page

Whether it is airboating in Florida, canoeing in the lakes and rivers of Canada or pontoon boating in Massacusetts, we like it all.

Canoeing and kayaking are the best ways to enjoy wildlife and is exciting activity on its own. All 4 of us have been involved in minor accidents when it comes to canoeing, but none of us would give it up.

Canoeing and boating appear prominently in our vacation trips.

Some memorable boating, canoeing and kayaking trips have been on:

1. New River: covered under Boone, North Carolina page
2. Pontoosuc Lake and Oneonta Lake: covered under Massachusetts page
3. Diable River, Lac Tremblant and Lac Moore: covered under Mont-Tremblant page

We love aquariums, wildlife conservation parks, zoological and botanical gardens, museums of natural history, and observing fauna and flora in National and other conservation parks.

In the picture here, a Chicadee is seen busy collecting seeds just before the Fall migration starts. Two fallen leaves on the bush show red colours of Fall season.

Yes, we are family travellers and also wildlife lovers. This does not mean that we would go adventure travelling into the rain forests of Brazil to see how Jaguars live, but would certainly take any opportunity that comes our way to enjoy nature.

VT is a good place to make friends and meet them. Here, I am standing with two VT friends Catherine (Drolkar on VT) and Gianluca (janchan on VT) outside a restaurant in Dubai. The two made a brief stay while on their way to Afghanistan. My family loves this dynamic duo on all kinds of social work that they are doing across the globe. My external page will take you to their impressive website.

Dubai itself has blossomed as a tourist destination and is considered hot. But then why hangout in Dubai only. Venture out with us into the deserts and valleys on our UAE pages.

A trip to Malaysia would be incomplete without a rain forest experience. Here, Razali, the Elephant Man (banditLeader on VT) chats with his favourite elephant in a sanctuary devoted to the protection of Malaysian elephants. More recently, Razali, who loves elephants and was brutally gored by a wild elephant during a rescue effort, gor married to a beautiful girl at Malaysian High Commission in the UK.

Discover the road less traveled and go off the beaten track with us on our Malaysia pages.

These page have been created by our mother and daughter team. The pages are maintained by me, pictures are selected and uploaded by my daughter. My husband used to take most of the shots before my son got his digital camera as a Christmas gift. My husband also helps me in writing the tip on word document that I cut and paste ;-), which also explains why my daughter and I take so much time in putting our tips on the VT. Finally, my son reviews critically, whatever that means :-)

The picture shows Scarlet Ibis, national Birds of Trinidad and Tobago, which is on our list for visiting.