Birds in Paradise – Costa Rica
Migrating birds from two hemispheres meet the endemic residents in the middle – in incomparable Costa Rica. Perhaps nowhere else on earth offers you a better opportunity to see birds from both hemispheres in one place. Depending on the time of year that you travel you’ll be immersed in a kaleidoscope of plumage – not only from the colourful endemic species but also by the visitors from each continent – either...
Shades of Shan
This traditional highly colourful and practical rural craft, still practiced in Myanmar today, has its origins steeped in history. In pre-colonial Burma, a white umbrella or ‘hti byu’ was a sign of sovereignty limited exclusively to the Burmese king and his chief queen. It was one of the five articles of coronation regalia and use of a white umbrella by anyone other than the king and his chief queen was seen as a declaration of...
Exploring the mysterious Mekong
The mighty arterial Mekong River in Vietnam provides a fascinating vein through which the lifeblood of Vietnam flows. As we motor along the Mekong, through small villages, between trading barges and floating markets it can only give us a brief insight into the resources concealed within that influence the daily lives and culture of over 60 million people—people who depend on its water for transportation, fishing, trade, manufacture,...
At home in the Muong hills
The Ngoc Son Ngo Luong Nature Reserve in Vietnam not only offers you some of the most stunning scenery you’ll ever see but it also affords some homespun hospitality that’s second to none. We’ve left the lively northern capital of Hanoi and are now driving through lush rice paddy fields on both sides of the road, with coolie hats bobbing up and down as the pickers reap the harvest of this prolific green crop that has now reached...
Do do Vilamendhoo!
If the notion of white-sand barefoot luxury with unparalleled crystal-clear snorkelling turns you on – then Vilamendhoo in the South Ari Atoll of the Maldives is the place for you. Gently lapping water around the stilts of our Jacuzzi Water Villa is the only sound we can hear as we lounge on our deck overlooking the crystal-clear waters of the coral lagoon – a soporific sound broken only by the occasional buzz of a seaplane carrying...
A taste of old Rangoon
Hidden away in corners of Yangon, Myanmar, are memories of the often unwelcome presence of occupying nations. Nevertheless they offer stylish refuges from the modern bustle and clutter of this busy city. Yangon like so many Asian cities is growing faster than it can accommodate in terms of cleanliness, clutter and noise. It’s not one of the most attractive cities we’ve been to, being an amalgam of pagodas, power-lines and pollution...
