Ladakh and the Hemis Festival
India 27.03.2017
I’ll never forget the one and only time I’ve ever ridden on the roof of a bus. I was a 21-year-old student, travelling on a shoestring around Kashmir and Ladakh, in India’s northwest Himalaya. The bus in question was crammed to bursting poi…
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If you like India, you will love China
China 20.03.2017
When I was a student back in the 1980s, there were Indophiles and there were Sinophiles, and ne’er the twain would meet. People were either passionate about India, or China. But never both. It was almost as if the two Asian giants were too…
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Tea in China
China 17.03.2017
Wars have been fought over it, and the fortunes of empires decided by its trade. But the humble tea plant, Carmellia sinensis, was for thousands of years an exclusively Chinese commodity, grown, drunk and sold according to rules first set d…
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A guide to the must-see sights in Shimla
India 14.03.2017
The lengths the British were prepared to go to in order to escape the rigours of the Indian summer must have been a source of amazement to their subjects. Each year, the entire administration of the Raj, their families and households, used…
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Kerala’s Real Marigolds
India 15.02.2017
The second series of the BBC’s wonderful Real Marigold Hotel is due to be aired at 9 pm this evening. We loved the first, filmed in the Rajasthani capital Jaipur, and are looking forward to seeing what this new group of celebrities makes of…
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10 of the Best Plantation Stays in India
India 13.02.2017
Imagine waking to the sound of birdsong, a shaft of angled sunlight scything through a gap in your curtains, without a single car horn and diesel engine to disturb the stillness outside. On the veranda of your colonial-era bungalow, your br…
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February Festivals in North India
India 08.02.2017
This month marks the start of India’s ‘shoulder season’ – the period after the Christmas–New Year rush has subsided, when visitor numbers fall and the weather starts to warm up slightly. There’s another good reason to visit India at this t…
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Up the Misty Mountain: Qing Cheng Shan
China 15.12.2016
Travel writer and photographer, David Abram, searches for vestiges of old China amid the forested slopes of a sacred Daoist peak outside Chengdu, Sichuan. A road train seems to me an inauspicious way to approach a holy peak, but this is my…
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Roads Less Travelled
Uzbekistan 09.12.2016
While Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan attract a steady flow of visitors, neighbouring Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan see comparatively few. There’s a simple explanation for this: none hold the poster-piece ancient monuments of the Silk R…
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7 Highlights of Central Asia
Uzbekistan 08.12.2016
Encompassing some of the least explored mountain and desert regions on the planet, the former-Soviet states of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan (collectively known, for obvious reasons, as ‘the Stans’) – have…
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8 of the Best Museums in Southeast Asia
Thailand 01.12.2016
Amidst all the ancient and grand delights of Southeast Asia, museums are often not given a second thought by visitors. You’d be pleasantly surprised at the wealth of antiquities and astonishing tales that lie within the walls of these galle…
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Flowers, Lakes and Mountains: Hokkaido in Summer
Japan 01.12.2016
The island’s fresh, maritime breezes and uplifting scenery offer the perfect escape from Honshu’s heat and humidity in the summer months. Its quiet roads also make it ideal for a self-guided, fly-drive holiday – a great adventure offering a…
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