Travel Stories

India, Outside the Window

16 Jul 2015 | 9 min read | 1

The three hatchet-faced young men behind the desk at the upmarket hotel made it clear by their haughty indifference they didn't want us there. And frankly -- impressive as their vast, luxurious, light-filled but conspicuously empty lobby was -- I didn't want to be there either. But they were stuck with us. And we were stuck with them in a place which was allegedly Goa . . .... > Read more

Everywhere Elsewhere: These are grave matters

27 Jun 2015 | 3 min read

Last year another of those annoying e-mail arrived, and it wasn't offering subsequent riches from Nigeria. It seems some years ago I subscribed to a newsletter from the Jimi Hendrix estate – and you'd be surprised how much on-going news there is about a man who's been dead for more than 40 years. There are limited edition reissues of albums on vinyl, live concerts remastered... > Read more

Erina, Central Coast Australia: Bottling up the passion

7 Jun 2015 | 3 min read

When a micro-brewery is called Six String and the company logo is a guitar pick you do feel slightly stupid having to ask. “Ah, that’s my business partner Chris,” says amiable Ryan Harris. “He plays six string bass.” Which also explains the tiny stage set up in their small brewery-cum-bar in Erina, just 80km north of Sydney. Opened in 2012, the Six... > Read more

Central Coast NSW, Australia: Just drive, he said

29 Mar 2015 | 3 min read

When you've signed the waivers, strapped on the helmet and given the thumbs-up to eight hearty young men who are raring to go, you can't really put your hand up when the instructor asks, “Is anyone afraid of heights?” In truth, I'm not. Going to top of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai – 124 floors – was one of the highpoints of my life, literally. And when someone... > Read more

Madrid, Spain: Hello, sailors

28 Feb 2015 | 2 min read | 1

Just five minutes walk from the inevitable queues of art enthusiasts and the curious outside the Prado and across the road from the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza which is chock full of classic and contemporary art is another, quite remarkable but less known Spanish museum. It contains among other treasures the oldest existing map, drawn around 1500, which shows the Americas, North and... > Read more

Mumbai, India: When terror called on the Taj

10 Feb 2015 | 3 min read

In many places – notably around the higher end hotels which accommodate foreign tourists, and at popular attractions – Mumbai is a city on lazy high alert. The apparent languor and good humour of many security guards and police doesn’t change the fact most are armed with seriously powerful weapons, stand before impassable barricades and usher people through scanners... > Read more

Buenos Aires, Argentina: A users' guide

12 Dec 2014 | 5 min read

The bronze statue in the museum towers over us. It is twice life-size and the national hero has a hand on his heart, his eyes looking to the distance. At his feet are the faithful, young and old, gathered reverently or taking photographs. In another place, this statue might honour a military leader, statesman or great poet. But here in a museum of futbol (soccer), in the... > Read more

Kuching, Sarawak: A welcome return to cat city

1 Nov 2014 | 4 min read

When the explorer and entrepreneur James Brooke sailed up the Sarawak River in northern Borneo in 1838, he encountered a small village of local people and, if we believe the legend, an unnaturally large number of short-tailed cats. At this point in our story the cats become more important than the people, because the village – which grew into a city of half a million people today... > Read more

Kuching, Sarawak: Location, location, location

18 Oct 2014 | 2 min read

As befits a fine-looking establishment named for the first “White Rajah” of the region, the James Brooke Bistro and Cafe occupies a prime location in Kuching, the capital city of Sarawak. Set back from the popular riverwalk on a well-groomed crop of lawn – with a view to the handsome new parliament building and the old white rajahs' palace on the opposite shore where... > Read more

Morocco: A practical guide

21 Sep 2014 | 4 min read

The deserts and mountains of Morocco have seen a bewildering array of oddities: Egyptian zombies; Carrie, Samantha and the other Sex and the City gals traipsing through the sand; Jesus tortured and flecked with blood; a time-travelling highlander from Scotland trying to return home; a rather camp Alexander the Great . . . But more interesting than these – characters from movies... > Read more

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Live it like a local

31 Aug 2014 | 5 min read

The view across Kuala Lumpur at sunset from here – 35 storeys up – is spectacular. Over there, glistening gold in the last sun-flecked flickers of this typically humid day, is the chandelier-like Petronas Towers which are the most obvious eye-catchers. But in any direction the cityscape of office blocks, apartments, domes of mosques and distant hills seem gloriously romantic... > Read more

Far North Queensland, Australia: The writing's on the wall

17 Aug 2014 | 3 min read

If you're heading south on the Mulligan Highway from Cooktown in Australia's Far North and turn off onto Shiptons Flat Rd towards Lion's Den Hotel, chance are you're going to the Lion's Den Hotel. Because beyond that the road is an endurance test unless you have a four-wheel drive, an iron constitution able to withstand the rugged terrain and nerves of steel when you come to the Jump Up... > Read more

Buntal, Sarawak: The small things in life

10 Aug 2014 | 3 min read

If they were brutally honest, most people would concede there's not a lot to recommend the small fishing village of Buntal in Sarawak, about 20 minutes drive from the capital city of Kuching. Understandably then the place is not on many people's radar and even just an amble around its few streets reveals a small, clean town with a nice mosque and some quaint little houses tucked away,... > Read more

India: A nation on steel wheels

6 Jul 2014 | 4 min read

Look through any window . . . For the past couple of decades I've taken a quick and unfiltered photo out the window of every room I've stayed in, if there's been a window. The views are inevitably varied: a dramatic sweep of deserted beach in remote Australia; car-clogged streets in China; and a filthy brick wall in filthy rich Brunei. Traveling by train in India meant every day... > Read more

Thiruneeril

Maharashtra state, India: The Taj Mahal that isn't

28 Jun 2014 | 2 min read

Among the many thousands of photos taken of the late Princess Diana a few stand out, mostly for the weight of emotional meaning imposed on them. One of the most notable – taken on her 1992 trip to India with her husband Charles while their marriage was in tatters – shows her seated alone and pensive at the Taj Mahal. Here, at the great monument of... > Read more

Oru Magumai Nindru

Niue, South Pacific: Front seat storyteller

29 May 2014 | 4 min read

About 90 minutes into our drive around the island – during which he has kept up a running commentary full of digressions into local history and politics, fishing, geology and much more -- Hima Douglas happens to mention he was once assistant finance minister in the Niue government. Then he laughs and says, “Now you're going to ask what I haven't bloody been!”... > Read more

Niue, South Pacific: Paradise with a smile

11 May 2014 | 4 min read

As with most people, I neither want, nor expect, to be held up at Immigration. But on Niue – a charming, tiny tropical dot of elevated limestone in the Pacific about three hours from Auckland – I was stopped. For a chat. Niue is different like that. In the Customs and Immigration hall musicians and dancers greet family, friends and guests, and at Immigration the big guy... > Read more

South East England: What's the deal with Deal?

11 May 2014 | 3 min read

The chatty lady at the Canterbury Tales Museum is surprised when I tell her where I'm going after leaving historic Canterbury with its famous cathedral and fascinating history which starts at pagan Britain and moves through Roman occupation. “Deal?” she says. “What do you want to go there for? There's nothing at Deal, love.” She's not the first to express... > Read more

Stockholm, Sweden: If the spirit moves you

27 Apr 2014 | 2 min read

The song on the sound system couldn't have been more appropriate. Or more inappropriate. Playing quietly in the restaurant-cum-bar is the Pogues' boozy and woozy Fairytale of New York which may seem appropriate in Stockholm's Museum of Spirits which documents Sweden's encounters with alcohol. But in the elegantly designed room where patrons dine on beautifully prepared dishes and... > Read more

Jordan: The country at the crossroads of history

20 Apr 2014 | 5 min read | 1

Far below us a camel train makes its way slowly across the bone-dry dirt of the valley floor carrying its precious cargo. In times past this burden would have meant silk, spices, fruits and pottery from distance places. But today, here at the ruins of Petra in southern Jordan – where the Nabatean civilisation pre-dated their Roman conquerors in this long hidden place – the... > Read more