Indonesia | Cities | Shopping | Five-Star Accommodation
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.
Italy | Food & Wine | Gourmet Travel | Off the Beaten Track
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.
Cruising | Island Escape | Culture |
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.
Thailand | Island Escape | Luxury | Five-Star Accommodation | Spa & Wellness |
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."
France | Adventure | Cycling | Food & Wine |
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.
Vietnam | Asia | Culture | Food & Wine | Cities |
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.
Australia | Kayaking & Canoeing | Birdwatching | Off the Beaten Track | Wildlife & Nature |
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!
India | Culture | Gourmet Travel | Five-Star Accommodation | Historical
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.
India | Cruising | Adventure | Birdwatching | Off the Beaten Track
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.
Ireland | Celebrities | Cities | Shopping | Destinations
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.
Northern Territory | Australia | Culture | Indigenous Culture | Off the Beaten Track |
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."
