Category Archives for "South Asia"

In the beginning, there was…

A dragon. Well, at least a dragon king from the sea. I’m not quite sure what the difference is but since there’s a dragon involved (and a king – my name!) I’m not going to ask questions, I’m just going to get on with the story.

In the beginning, there was a dragon king who lived in the sea.

Hanoi packs a punch in a pretty small area when it comes to flavoursome food. Raucous street food eateries? Check. Refined, French-inspired delicacies? Check. Lakeside views, reminders of “that” war, and contemporary, charitable enterprises with an antipodean twist? Check, check, check.

Eating Out in Hong Kong Hong Kong and eating. Simply, where do you start? With over 4000 restaurants in one gleaming cosmopolitan city, not to mention a labyrinth of street food stalls, markets and strange looking slippery things in tanks, Hong Kong diners could stay here for years and still not stumble across everything there […]

Playing Golf in Borneo Malaysia Today’s travel article comes from @Mrtravellab. My golf isn’t good enough to play at night. Or during the day, come to think of it…But, as one consultant surgeon I worked for used to say, “I can’t be the best at everything!” Bwaha! So, let’s talk about playing golf in Borneo. Beware! Crocodile […]

Cooking in Malaysia Let’s get one or two things clear right from the start. I love cooking but I’m hardly a chef. I love food but I’m hardly a connoisseur (I still can’t tell my kaffir from my Persian when it comes to types of limes and I’ve long since abandoned knowing my Jersey Royal […]

From sweaty, syrupy coffee houses to pyramids of spice and semi-precious stone, Singapore squeezes flavour, colour and character into every other street corner. With an unbelievable amount of things to do in Singapore at night (and by day) here are some of the highlights. Things to Do in Singapore at Night According to many, Singapore […]

Searching for Beautiful Places to Stay in Sabah, Borneo Malaysia Perfect for Honeymoons and Anniversaries When looking for beautiful places to stay in Sabah, you don’t need to look far. Sabah, a region across the water from mainland Malaysia and sitting within Borneo, is developing something of a reputation for honeymooners and anniversarians (#ifitsnotawordnowitsoonwillbe.) It’s […]

Visiting a Borneo Orangutan Sanctuary   The Borneo rainforest is one of the few places where orangutans live in the wild.   He loiters. He lurches. Legs bent squat and arms stretched wide, far so, ever so, ridiculously wide…he swings, then swivels, swings, then swivels. Front, back, front, back, lurch, linger, lurch linger like a […]

Following the herd A cow wanders past the spices beneath glowing fluorescent sabres. I follow it through the shadows into the light. It stops, blocked by a staircase that overflows with tangerine petals, then turns as though lost in thought on a Sunday afternoon, and returns to the land of darting hands and looped jasmine. It’s […]

Brunei: One of the Richest Countries in the World The small nation of Brunei is one of the richest countries in the world, tucked between the rainforests of Malaysia’s Sarawak state and the South China Sea. It’s an intriguing place to visit, and easier than many realise as it makes a great stopping point for […]

Hong Kong excels at two levels: on the ground amid the colours, the chaos, and the sizzling, spitting, shuffle of human activity and then again on high, suspended in skyscraper glass, as miniature Star Ferries chug across Victoria Harbour. The Upper House whisks you from one level to the other and does so with an […]

The Sofitel Hanoi:  A Luxury Hotel and Historic Treasure The Sofitel Hanoi on Ngo Quyen Street is not a beautiful hotel. At least, that’s not all it is. Inside, it’s a living museum of literary and music history. Not mention something of a time capsule of a bygone age. Related: Where to Eat in Hanoi […]

  Is it Burma or Myanmar? I arrived under cover of darkness. Deep, night, darkness. I queued. I waited. And then, breathless, I rushed through the silent, thick, lilting, lightless night air. Blackness. Darkness. And then a crescendo, a tower of resplendent, luminescent, incandescent gold: the spire of the Shwedagon Pagoda. I was in Burma. […]

Twice I arrived at the Mira, expecting it to be empty; twice I met a stylish party scene instead. The Mira Hong Kong Review Just opposite the shopaholic’s paradise the Mira Mall, the Mira Hotel Hong Kong doesn’t draw attention to itself on the outside. It’s far too cool for that. It’s only once you’re […]

In Myanmar/Burma, people use thanaka on their cheeks to stay beautiful and to protect against the powerful sun. I didn’t get to try it myself although I did spot some of the raw brown sticks bound together for sale at the market. Locals grind this bark into a buttercup yellow and white paste before smearing […]

Finding the Right Halong Bay Cruise Halong Bay showcases the dual nature of travel today: the absolute thrill of finding an icon (in this case, the hazy outline of those towering limestone peaks) and the dismay that everybody and his dog found it first and that the overwhelming tourist machinery will crush the magic spell. […]

Bogyoke Aung San Market Sunlight shifts over gold, silver and sapphires in the ordered, sheltered aisles of the covered Bogyoke Aung San Market in Yangon/Rangoon. Fabric folds and hand carved fans scent the air with jasmine, bringing a sense of quiet and relative wealth to the covered Scott’s Market area. But that’s not the only […]

Around the corner is the Old Quarter. Around the corner is the vision of Hanoi I expected to see: the fuel-filled crammed corners of Asia with chickens underfoot, wires overhead, clattering and chattering and shouting all around amid a cocktail of scooters, food stalls and silk embroidered cloth flowing at the edges of my vision. […]

It was just before midnight. Our slow procession blinked past the checkpoint, wisps of hair clinging to my cheek, the only blonde ponytail in a sea of brown-black. London, where my passport finally found the visa for this country, lay beyond the reach of reality’s memory. We shuffled forwards. Burma – or Myanmar as the […]

Arriving in the Maldives Islands: Approaching the W Retreat & Spa It’s hard to imagine a better approach to a hotel then to skim and skip across the teardrop-shaped islets that rise up from the Indian Ocean around the Maldives Islands. As the sea-plane touched down, dancing spray against the windows, a man raced barefoot to open the […]

Sometimes, you have to work hard to see wildlife. And when I say sometimes, I mean most of the time. You have to creep past snakes in the darkness and risk frostbite to glimpse a tiger. You have to play basketball with the base of your spine along a rickety dirt track to see a […]