The Greatest Show on Earth
Sri Lanka 20.06.2017
August is around the corner, which for Sri Lankans means only one thing: Esala Perahera, a torchlit parade involving more than a hundred decorated elephants. Elephant processions are a speciality of both Sri Lanka and its near neighbour, t…
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Cruising Kerala's Backwaters
India 17.06.2017
India is a land offering diverse experiences, but one that should not be missed is the opportunity to escape the hustle and bustle and cruise the backwaters of Kerala. Some of the best places to stay in Kerala are on houseboats, and travell…
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India’s Sacred Geography: Religious Pilgrimage in the Subcontinent
India 30.05.2017
Over thousands of years, an elaborate network of pilgrimage routes has evolved in India, inter-connecting the great religious centres of the subcontinent. And thanks to the ease of modern travel, these are more popular than ever. The most r…
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A Guide to Myanmar’s Ancient Capital City of Bagan
Myanmar 23.05.2017
Myanmar’s incredible history has made it one of the most unique places to visit on the planet. Invasion, immigration and colonisation have all helped to create a diverse country but it was the Kingdom of Pagan that has had the biggest impac…
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A Lifetime of Discoveries
India 06.05.2017
For aficionados of Indian monuments, architectural historian George Michell and his archaeologist partner, John Fritz, need no introduction. For the past forty years or so, the pair have been documenting ancient sites across the country, an…
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Highlights of Mongolia
Mongolia 17.04.2017
With its vast expanses of steppes, desert and taiga, Mongolia encompasses some of the most pristine wilderness on earth. Landscapes rather than monuments provide the main focus for visitors here. In the north, a band of wild, pine-forested…
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Fighting for Survival: Saving the Orangutan in Borneo
Malaysia 10.04.2017
Orangutans – the ginger-furred ‘Old Man of the Forest’ – number among the rarest mammals on the planet. Only two vestigial populations survive, in remote tropical enclaves on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. Numbers have been decimated in…
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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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