I have a confession while on a food tour in Manila. My attention isn’t entirely focused on the food on the Big Binondo Food Wok Tour through Manila’s Chinatown. For starters, I’m a little bit star-struck and secondly, it’s so hot that I wonder if I might morph into one of Manila’s sidewalk woks or satay grills.
There are 7,000 islands in the Philippines but not all of them are famed for their beaches. On Cebu, Magellan’s Cross looms above, a larger than life relic to Christianity, but forget about the stoic tradition of Catholicism as this island applies as much vibrance to its religious rituals as it does to its jeepneys, cuisine and broad smiles.
It’s a wild ride to West Bali. Invigorating is another way to describe the four-hour drive from Denpasar. As trucks and motorbikes play dodgems, I put all my faith in our trusty driver and concentrate on the spectacular scenery on the way to West Bali.
During Sri Lanka’s Galle Literary Festival in 2011, I was thrilled to meet Candace Bushnell, the author of Sex and the City. To arrive at her Sex in a Sarong party on Taprobane Island, I waded through water – it certainly wasn’t the entrance I had planned for a soiree with the best-selling author during the Galle Literary Festival.
It’s been a while since many of us have had the opportunity to travel to Ubud, Bali.
With a staggering coastline and spectacular vistas galore and with the nearby Gili Islands, Lombok is the ultimate tropical playground in Indonesia.
Escaping India’s chaos and eye-watering smog, we set sail aboard a houseboat on an Alleppey backwater cruise in Kerala. Located in the southwest corner of India and covering the Kollam, Kottayam, Alappuzha and Kochi districts, the waterways snake for 900 kilometres. As the Arabian Sea washes ashore, you’re about as far away from the manic pace of India as you can get without leaving the country.
