Travel Czars http://www.travelczars.com/ http://www.travelczars.com/feed/ Editorial content from award winning travel journalists with a passion for the story. Retail Therapy in Jakarta http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1088 Southeast Asia's largest city is tagged the Big Durian. Ugly and virtually unloved by globe trotting travellers, it's a shopper's paradise as well as the cultural capital for Indonesia, the world's largest Islamic nation, a place of extremes. This feature story (1,600 words) focuses on Jakarta's shopping scene with added political commentary. It's that kind of place. Story written by Tom Neal Tacker
Keywords: Indonesia+%7C+Cities+%7C+Shopping+%7C+Five-Star+Accommodation

]]> 2011-07-21 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1088 Hunting for truffles in the Piedmont http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1089 Rare Italian white truffles are more valuable than platinum. Unlike black truffles, they don't travel and they don't keep. Immediate consumption is necessary. Finding a white truffle is like finding gourmet Nirvana. Most professional truffle hunters in Italy's Piedmonte region prefer to use well trained dogs. They become valuable family members as Tom Neal Tacker discovers during an evening truffle hunt in a hidden forest at the edge of a Barolo vineyard. Story written by Tom Neal Tacker
Keywords: Italy+%7C+Food+%26+Wine+%7C+Gourmet+Travel+%7C+Off+the+Beaten+Track

]]> 2011-07-20 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1089 Tall tales and true http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1078 The sky is a swathe of black velvet, the sea a lumpy inky blue, and my knuckles are white, so firm is my grip on the wooden wheel as I steer Soren Larsen into the night. I am concentrating hard too, rarely taking my gaze from the compass, a brass-encased beauty, or from the 145 feet (imperial rules) of oak-and-iron under my control. It is exhilarating being at the helm on only the second night of an 18-day tall ship journey through Vanuatu’s northern islands. Slightly unnerving, too, despite the captain’s close supervision. Story written by Melanie Ball
Keywords: +%7C+Cruising+%7C+Island+Escape+%7C+Culture

]]> 2010-11-05 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1078 The Last Resort for 5-Star Frogs http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1076 Tropical Islands are subject to tropical weather, and sometimes that suits the frogs more than travellers. Wet season in the Gulf of Thailand can be a happy place for both however.

"I slide across in the water to get a closer look at my banana-bound tree frog and he suddenly turns shy. With a leap he exits his leafy shelter and lands on the bamboo edging along the villa. The round stalks are hollow and provide the perfect hiding hole for a photo shy frog. He pops his head forward to see what I'm doing, revealing just his nose and eyes while staying at the ready to retreat. I do the same in the pool, soothing my sunburn below the surface of the water." Story written by Ewen Bell
Keywords: Thailand+%7C+Island+Escape+%7C+Luxury+%7C+Five-Star+Accommodation+%7C+Spa+%26+Wellness

]]> 2010-08-12 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1076 Pedalling through Provence http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1075 I checked the maps again, and noted the 250m bump in the topographic map. Not shown on the map was an ever strengthening head-wind. This was no sea breeze, rather a potent climatic event is so strong that the locals gave it a name. “La Mistral” is an unpredictable adversary for cyclists, arriving with little warning and crashing through the countryside like a drunken impressionist. Story written by Ewen Bell
Keywords: France+%7C+Adventure+%7C+Cycling+%7C+Food+%26+Wine

]]> 2010-08-10 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1075 Elusive Enlightenment http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1073 The monk’s face glows in the firelight, the darkness beyond its reach silhouetting lips moving in recitation. As he feeds prayer sticks into the consecrated flames the light flares, revealing two saffron-robed monks beating a drum and bringing cymbals together to his left, and about thirty seated people crowded around the square altar, watching and listening. Some faces in the audience look serene. A few look half asleep, which is understandable given that attending morning prayers in Koyasan, on Japan’s mountainous Kii Peninsula, involves rising from your temple-inn futon before daybreak. Story written by Melanie Ball
Keywords: Japan+%7C++Asia+%7C+Culture+%7C+Historical+%7C+Indigenous+Culture+%7C+Food+%26+Wine

]]> 2010-08-05 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1073 A Piece of Paradise http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1071 The splash as we slide into the water echoes off the cliffs that crown way overhead, book-ending a sky daubed with 3D tufts of cloud. Our laughter bounces back at us too, the only human sounds in a world fashioned in fantastic textures and rich hues. The sky is a vivid, almost enamel blue. Olive rock-shelf shallows darken to bottle green depths carved by millennia of wet seasons. And the precipitous red-rock walls that contain the summer floods, and reflect sun and sound in winter, are samples of extraordinary natural stonemasonry, revealing every step in their tortuous creation. Back on shore, dripping on a towel unrolled in a lazily shifting wedge of shade, I feel like I am an integral part of the remote and rugged country enfolding me. And that is bliss! Story written by Melanie Ball
Keywords: Australia+%7C+Kayaking+%26+Canoeing+%7C+Birdwatching+%7C+Off+the+Beaten+Track+%7C+Wildlife+%26+Nature

]]> 2010-08-05 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1071 Reunion with a hidden jewel http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1074 Monsieur Folio smiles from beneath his battered raffia hat, its brim shielding his face from the rain falling as he shows us around his verdant Creole garden. A slight man, he wears his 88 years with the same casual grace as his high-buttoned flannelette shirt and cardigan. Originally from the south of Reunion, where his family landed from France about 350 years ago, M. Folio has spent the last forty years in Hell-Bourg, a town high on the cirques (fantastically riven calderas) at Reunion’s heart. His pale, smooth skin suggests an interesting rather than hard life on this volcanic island. Story written by Melanie Ball
Keywords: Indian+Ocean+%7C+Island+Escape+%7C+Culture+%7C+Wildlife+%26+Nature+%7C+Adventure

]]> 2010-08-05 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1074 Light and Shade http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1072 Horror stories rarely live up to their hype, and the road into Purnululu National Park, in Australia's Kimberley region, is not the monster which park notes and friends’ tales had steeled us for. That’s not to say the road is never a beast or that the 53km drive in from the Great Northern Highway can’t take 3 hours, or longer, but it is not as rocky as we expected, has fewer blind corners and drop offs, and only one stretch of sand, and bitumen-to-park takes us just 1h20 minutes. The drive is also more spectacular that we imagined, looping around and through ranges lain like rough-hide reptiles on the cattle stations it traverses. Story written by Melanie Ball
Keywords: Australia+%7C+Off+the+Beaten+Track+%7C+Adventure+%7C+Nature+%7C+Outdoors

]]> 2010-08-05 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1072 Hanoi heartland http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1065 Small and bent with bunions, her feet rest atop black velvet scuffs. Her silver hair is pulled into a bun wrapped in beaded black mesh. A gold-and-jade ring and jade bracelet adorn the bird-like hands with which she removes a plastic box from the drawstring bag between us. As we share a bench beside Hoan Kiem Lake, in the heart of Hanoi, I watch the elderly Vietnamese woman daub red areca nut and white slaked lime on a betel leaf and fold it into a quid. But she doesn’t pop this parcel in her mouth; she puts it aside and prepares more stimulant, adding several threads of tobacco to a chunk of nut in a metal canister, and grinding them to a course paste with a spatula. Hawkers with postcards, gaudy fans and photocopied Lonely Planet guidebooks ply their wares around us as she packs up, finally donning her velvet scuffs and standing. Having folded the square of plastic spread on the bench to protect her black-satin trousers (I just sat down), she smiles at me and moves away, small steps taking her around the lake’s concrete shore. Story written by Melanie Ball
Keywords: Vietnam+%7C++Asia+%7C+Culture+%7C+Food+%26+Wine+%7C+Cities

]]> 2010-08-05 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1065 Star attraction - Dublin http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1069 The Irish are quite blase about megastars, which is why so many descend upon Dublin for some time-out from fans and paparazzi. Lisa Kudrow, Liz Hurley, Andie McDowell, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael Jordan and Robbie Williams – to name but a few – may shop in Grafton Street or dine at local restaurants and no-one bats an eyelid. The hottest celebrity accommodation in downtown Dublin is the Clarence Hotel, owned by U2s Bono and The Edge. Situated on the banks of the Liffey River overlooking the city’s trendy Temple Bar district, the Clarence has 49 rooms including a rooftop penthouse where many a celeb has slumbered; elegant Tea Room Restaurant, and popular Gravity Bar - where you never know who you'll run into. Story written by Sandy Guy
Keywords: Ireland+%7C+Celebrities+%7C+Cities+%7C+Shopping+%7C+Destinations

]]> 2010-08-02 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1069 Tea on High - Darjeeling, India http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1067 When one thinks of India, good scones with jam and cream are probably the last things that come to mind. But in Darjeeling the niceties of English high tea are as much as a staple as a piping-hot curry. The Darjeeling region is home to 87 tea plantations including Glenburn Tea Estate, where the afternoon tea is as good as it gets. Glenburn, a working tea plantation bordering the Himalayan province of Sikkim, has five-star accommodation in the original planter's residence, and grand hillside villas with breathtaking views of the Himalayas. Story written by Sandy Guy
Keywords: India+%7C+Culture+%7C+Gourmet+Travel+%7C+Five-Star+Accommodation+%7C+Historical

]]> 2010-08-02 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1067 Slow boat from Guwahati http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1068 The sun might sun blaze across India's Assam province, but it’s cool beneath the deck awning of the RV Charaidew, which cruises the mighty Brahmaputra River - up to 30 kilometres wide in places - from Guwahati, Tezpur or Jorhat. A journey on the rustic Charaidew, which has 12 comfortable cabins, offers a fascinating insight into rural India, with visits to temples, remote villages and national parks including the remarkable Kaziranga National Park, home to the rare one-horned Indian rhinoceros. Story written by Sandy Guy
Keywords: India+%7C+Cruising+%7C+Adventure+%7C+Birdwatching+%7C+Off+the+Beaten+Track

]]> 2010-08-02 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1068 Fly Faraway Across Australia http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1070 In the space of a fortnight I saw more of the Australian landscape than I had seen in 35 years. Anyone can buy a 4WD and drive across the country, but most of us never will. Most of us will never see the pristine colours of the Kimberley Coast, the endless horizon at Coober Pedy or the wildlife bonanza in Kakadu and the Top End. Even the magnificent Uluru is indelibly familiar to us as an icon rather than a reality. One trip can change all that, hurtling through the sky in a twin-engine light aircraft that is big enough to meet new friends and small enough to land on a dirt track in the middle of nowhere. Story written by Ewen Bell
Keywords: Australia+%7C+Adventure+%7C+Wildlife+%26+Nature+%7C+Off+the+Beaten+Track

]]> 2010-08-01 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1070 Time Travel in Arnhem Land http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1066 An indigenous community in Arnhem Land welcomes visitors to listen closely to the wisdom of their ancestors. Hidden in the landscape itself are simple ochre and ash paintings, and hidden within those paintings are stories that have travelled through time.

"Wilfred shares his treasures with great care, revealing details that the untrained eye can easily overlook and earning your respect with his affection for the hill. Wilfred and Injaluk get along like two old friends, each revealing something of other, and I get to know Wilfred as I get to know his ancestors. He is typical of the people from Arnhem Land, a place where respect is cultivated from one generation to the next." Story written by Ewen Bell
Keywords: Northern+Territory+%7C++Australia+%7C+Culture+%7C+Indigenous+Culture+%7C+Off+the+Beaten+Track

]]> 2010-08-01 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1066 Pearl and the Coconut http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1024 We wave the boat to come collect us, and they load the umbrella and trimming back into the launch. I was a little careless with my bubbly and as the boat pulled back from the beach a small wave rocked my glass into the water. I saw the champagne glass momentarily float at the surface before plumetting down below to join the coral. Story written by Ewen Bell
Keywords: Fiji+%7C+Island+Escape+%7C+Five-Star+Accommodation+%7C+Wildlife+%26+Nature+%7C+Luxury

]]> 2010-07-28 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1024 Wat's New in Angkor http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1030 Hidden away in the jungles of northern Cambodia are the ancient ruins of Angkor. Temples carved from stone were the lasting testament of Khmer kingdoms dating back as far as the 9th century. With the arrival of each new kingdom came new monuments, each grander and more ornate than the last. Story written by Ewen Bell
Keywords: Cambodia+%7C++South-East+Asia+%7C+Historical+%7C+Culture+%7C+Cycling+%7C+Adventure

]]> 2010-05-12 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1030 A Cabin Less Ordinary http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1064 There's a perfectly good lodge that looks down on Lake Torne, complete with Scandinavian grade heating, warm beds and a dining room that cooks up organic meals three times a day. Real northerners have more basic needs, like a timber cabin the size of a husky kennel that can be dragged into the centre of the lake. They drill a hole in the ice, sink a few lines and enjoy their time at one with nature. A few reindeer skins and a boiling kettle are all they need to keep warm for several days. Story written by Ewen Bell
Keywords: Sweden+%7C++Scandinavia+%7C+Wildlife+%26+Nature+%7C+Off+the+Beaten+Track+%7C+Outdoors+%7C+Kayaking+%26+Canoeing

]]> 2010-01-16 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1064 Panda Secrets http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=888 Giant Pandas have strong personalities and expressive behaviours. The first time you see pandas mucking around it's surreal, as if someone has dressed a bunch of children in black and white teddy bear costumes and set them in slow motion. Wilfully and patiently they dismember stalks of bamboo, push their friends down hills and act up for the cameras. Surprisingly few pandas are kung-fu masters, and even fewer have any Olympic ability to speak of. So here's a few facts about the most adorable creatures ever to lunch on bamboo. Story written by Ewen Bell
Keywords: China+%7C+Wildlife+%26+Nature+%7C+Responsible+Travel

]]> 2009-12-10 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=888 Summit meeting http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1063 Summit bagging is a foolish pursuit. Granted, the views from mountain tops can take your breath; but so can the effort to get there. And the nature of their hobby means that summit baggers focus more on destination than journey and rarely stop to smell the flowers that often delay me. So I am slightly embarrassed to admit bagging four summits in one day. That none would appear on any self respecting mountaineer’s to-do list, and all rise from a plateau that contributes much of their height, is mere detail; I still tick off Mounts Baw Baw, Erica, St Phillack and Talbot Peak on the first day of the three-day guided Great Walhalla Alpine Trail. Story written by Melanie Ball
Keywords: Australia+%7C+Trekking+%7C+Off+the+Beaten+Track+%7C+Adventure+%7C+Nature

]]> 2009-12-07 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1063 A Blast of Religion http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1061 A barrage of noise blasts me from unconsciousness and propels me from tangled sheets to a tiny window. Its decorative iron grill frames dozens of figures engulfed in smoke, their blurred shapes illuminated by the glow of hand-held candles. Another volley of fire crackers moves the crowd slowly up the cobbled lane, and chases me downstairs to join them in the early morning darkness. For the next two hours I tread the backstreets of Antigua, in Guatemala, as the Month of the Rosary (October) procession makes a curlicue loop back to its starting point at 16th-century Iglesia De La Merced (Church of the Mercy). It's a noisy, smoky and moving way - even for an agnostic – to see in the dawn of another day in this beautiful colonial city. Story written by Melanie Ball
Keywords: Guatemala+%7C++Central+America+%7C+Culture+%7C+Historical+%7C+Gourmet+Travel

]]> 2009-12-01 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1061 The Cuisine of Cornwall http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1042 The emphasis on fresh seasonal produce, so entrenched in countries like Italy, France and Spain, is gaining momentum across Britain, and nowhere is this more in evidence than Cornwall. Cornwall's epicurean renaissance is largely thanks to Britain's favourite fishmeister, Rick Stein, who taught the British to enjoy eating fresh fish in his hugely popular television shows and series of cookery books, the first published in 1988. Sandy Guy visits Stein at his flagship Seafood restaurant in the historic seaside port of Padstow, and savours more bounty from the seas at Jamie Oliver's new Fifteen Cornwall at Watergate Bay, a glorious runway-sized sweep of sands near Newquay. Story written by Sandy Guy
Keywords: Great+Britain+%7C+Gourmet+Travel+%7C+Food+%26+Wine+%7C+Celebrities+%7C+Destinations

]]> 2009-05-31 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1042 Papua New Guinea in style http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1015 Orion’s Melanesian Cultures voyage is not just a five-star holiday, it’s an exceptionally well-researched journey into one of the world’s most remote and underdeveloped regions. Story written by Sandy Guy
Keywords: Papua+New+Guinea+%7C++Western+Solomon+Islands+%7C+Cruising+%7C+Indigenous+Culture+%7C+Off+the+Beaten+Track+%7C+Island+Escape

]]> 2009-03-11 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=1015 Pubs of the Australian Goldfields http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=946 Pubs have been a colourful part of Australian culture for more than 200 years, from makeshift goldfields grog shanties to rough-and-tumble bush pubs to tiled male-only bars of the “six o’clock swill” era (1916 – 1966), to the architect-designed bars, gastro pubs and mini-casinos of the 21st century. Story written by Sandy Guy
Keywords: Australia+%7C+Historical+%7C+Food+%26+Wine+%7C+Off+the+Beaten+Track+%7C+Culture

]]> 2009-03-11 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=946 Sailing into History http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=902 Scores of “pyramid people” – as the Bedouin nomads who camp around the great pyramids of Giza are called – rush in our direction, foisting postcards, wooden cats and tiny glass pyramids towards us as we step from the tour bus. The pyramids of Giza are the last in an unforgettable array of ancient sites we have visited since departing Civitavecchia, around 60 miles north of Rome, on the Costa Condordia, a cruise ship of almost as massive proportions as the pyramids. Story written by Sandy Guy
Keywords: Italy+%7C++Greek+Islands+%7C++Cyprus+%7C++Turkey+%7C++Egypt+%7C+Family+Friendly+%7C+Cruising+%7C+Culture+%7C+Destinations

]]> 2009-03-11 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=902 London's best afternoon teas http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=947 Anna, the 7th Duchess of Bedford, made the British tradition of afternoon tea ever so fashionable back in the early 1800s. Over the past decade Londoners have rediscovered afternoon tea, now one of the city’s trendiest culinary events. Story written by Sandy Guy
Keywords: United+Kingdom+%7C++Great+Britain+%7C+Food+%26+Wine+%7C+Gourmet+Travel+%7C+Cities+%7C+Luxury

]]> 2009-03-11 - http://travelczars.com/article.php?story=947