Sherlock Holmes author’s extensive yet unsung adventures to feature in new travelogue
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was an unusually well-travelled man, although few of his explorations have been published
- Plus, Nintendo’s mid-20th century headquarters to become a boutique Kyoto hotel
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was an unusually well-travelled man. His lifelong thirst for adventure and discovery (both worldly and spiritual) took him from the Arctic to the southern Pacific Ocean, across North America, around Africa, and throughout Europe. In Asia, he visited only Bombay (“not an interesting place for the casual visitor”) and Ceylon (“I could imagine no greater pleasure than to have a clear month to wander over its beauties”) while sailing to and from a five-month speaking tour of Australia and New Zealand in the early 1920s.
Although a most prolific author, his travel writing was relatively sparse for one who ventured so far afield over more than half a century. The Wanderings of a Spiritualist (1921), Our American Adventure (1923) and Our Winter in Africa (1929) are among the few books to cover his trips, along with his autobiography, Memories and Adventures (1924). Conan Doyle designed and ordered an ingenious portable writing desk from Parisian trunk maker Goyard in 1925, which might have encouraged further output were his travels not nearing their end at that time. (This, incidentally, was also the year that the screen adaptation of his 1912 novel The Lost World became the first feature film to be shown on an aeroplane, during an Imperial Airways flight from London to Paris).
A new book featuring selections of Conan Doyle’s travel writing, compiled and annotated by biographer Andrew Lycett (Conan Doyle: The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes, 2007) is published this month. As noted in the introduction to Conan Doyle’s Wide World: Sherlock Holmes and Beyond, this is the first time the author’s travelogues (“full of insight, humour and exceptional evocations of place”) have been gathered together.
Nintendo’s former Kyoto headquarters to become boutique hotel
While the name Nintendo might have a modern ring to it, the Japanese company that gave the world the Game Boy, the Wii, Donkey Kong, Mario, Pokemon and others was, in fact, founded in the 19th century. Nintendo Koppai started out in 1889 as a manufacturer of hand-painted hanafuda playing cards, and, later on, Western-style cards.
In the 1960s, before finding its feet in the toy industry, the company tried its hand at the taxi trade and, so it is said, the love-hotel business. Specific locations and names for these establishments no longer seem to be known, but the company’s former mid-20th century Kyoto headquarters will next year be opened as a boutique hotel. Located one block west of the Kamo River, near the Shosei-en Garden, the hotel, which is yet to be officially named, will contain 20 guest rooms and a small restaurant.
Whether it will become a Nintendo-themed hotel remains to be seen, but the property is reportedly still owned by the family of Nintendo founder Fusajiro Yamauchi, so some kind of tribute seems likely.
Hainan Airlines closes its Las Vegas route
This leaves Korean Air as the only airline offering direct flights from anywhere in Asia to Sin City, with several weekly departures from Seoul’s Incheon International Airport.
Deal of the Week – three nights in Siem Reap, Cambodia
Jebsen Holidays is offering a three-night package to Siem Reap, in Cambodia, with a full-day private tour of the Angkor complex from HK$6,390 per person (twin share) until March 31, and HK$5,490 from April 1 to October 31.
