https://www.scmp.com/rss/10252/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com What is it? A number of scattered Hydro-Electric Commission buildings by and on Lake St Clair - a 200-metre-deep glacial lake in the Central Highlands region of Tasmania, Australia - that have recently been converted into a hotel. Built between 1934 and 1940, the two brick and stucco buildings that make up the guest quarters, known as the Shorehouse and Pumphouse - the latter standing over water, at the end of a long walkway known as the flume (above) - were designed to pump water from the lake... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1796250/tasmanian-wilderness-hideaway-pumphouse-point-former-hydro?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1796250/tasmanian-wilderness-hideaway-pumphouse-point-former-hydro?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 16 May 2015 14:50:58 +0000 Rain falls softly on Sarajevo, the sombre, almost melancholic capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Winter has set in and it's bleak, grey and cold. Sarajevans huddle inside the bars and cafés of Stari Grad (Old Town), a checkerboard of low-slung wooden and stone buildings separated by cobbled pathways that were built by Turkish traders in the 16th century. Rebuilt and slightly gentrified after the Yugoslav wars, fought between 1991 and 2001, the former trading stores are now packed with... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1760196/see-balkans-train-railbookers-balkan-explorer?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1760196/see-balkans-train-railbookers-balkan-explorer?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Apr 2015 11:30:45 +0000 What is it? Located in the village of Alacati (top), in western Turkey, Alancha (below) is the ambitious year-old restaurant of chef Kemal Demirasal, a Bosnian Turk who uses lesser known ingredients from the Cesme Peninsula to cleverly divulge the history of Anatolia in nightly degustation menus. He uses wild herbs foraged from hilltop forests, tart cheeses made from the milk of hardy mountain goats, nutty olive oils from 1,000-year-old trees and an abundance of fish from the cobalt-blue Aegean... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1583786/hot-spots-alancha-alacati?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1583786/hot-spots-alancha-alacati?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Sep 2014 14:50:58 +0000 It's a little after 10am when Eric Sinnaya and I set off on Langkawi's Kilim River. The water, made deep green and glassy by the sun, gently ripples as the blue and white wooden dinghy slices through it. Mangrove trees, their blackened roots like the frames of old-fashioned hoop skirts, crowd the riverbank. Beyond, clusters of limestone outcrops gather along the horizon, their sheer sides sprouting rare white orchids and Cycas clivicola trees, which nestle into cracks in the rocks and feed off... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1577608/langkawi-victim-its-own-success?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1577608/langkawi-victim-its-own-success?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Aug 2014 15:15:45 +0000 When vignerons Stuart Bryce and Andrew Hood walked into Tasmania's Department of Primary Industries 20 years ago to propose planting vines, they were made a laughing stock. 'Plant maize,' said the government, 'there's no future in grapes.' One of the planet's most southerly islands, Tasmania has long been known for its isolation, wilderness and ability to produce four seasons in one day. But Bryce and Hood were convinced grapes could flourish and vowed to follow their dreams, the fruits of... https://www.scmp.com/article/504994/one-road?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/504994/one-road?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 18 Jun 2005 16:00:00 +0000 Pitak Srichan's tom yum kung narm khon (spicy prawn soup with fresh milk, above) Keeping the traditional flavours of tom yum intact, chef Pitak offers a variation using milk instead of coconut cream. It might sound strange, but the new ingredient adds creaminess and texture. 500g medium-sized uncooked prawns, peeled and de-veined 100 straw mushrooms, washed Half a handful of fresh bird's- eye chillies 4 sticks lemongrass 1 tbsp galangal 1 tbsp fish sauce 1 tbsp lime juice 1 tbsp Thai... https://www.scmp.com/article/488982/tom-yum-twist?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/488982/tom-yum-twist?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 14 Feb 2005 16:00:00 +0000 THAILAND IS A nation of gastronomic wonders guaranteed to delight travellers to the land of smiles. Sweet, sour, spicy, garlicky, lemony, whether it be a simple tom ka (coconut soup) gently infused with lemongrass and intensified with green chilly, or yam som o, a refreshing flavour sensation mixing pomelo with chicken and prawn, Thai food has long fascinated lovers of Oriental cuisine. Employing some of the best chefs in the country, every hotel worth its rock salt is joining in the cooking... https://www.scmp.com/article/488983/school-wok?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/488983/school-wok?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 14 Feb 2005 16:00:00 +0000 Where? Ever wanted to sip champagne with the stars? The 61st floor of Bangkok's Banyan Tree is a good start: its roof-top restaurant Vertigo and Moon Bar are fittingly named. Forget sub-zero air conditioning and think the ultimate in alfresco: 360 degrees of the cityscape from every white linen table top, with a light breeze ruffling your hair and little more than a flimsy rail separating you from the abyss. Have I heard of it? Perhaps not. Better known for splendid spas and swanky... https://www.scmp.com/article/482863/vertigo-and-moon-bar-bangkok?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/482863/vertigo-and-moon-bar-bangkok?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 Dec 2004 16:00:00 +0000 IT'S A TYPICAL Sunday afternoon at the Bashu Theatre. Every seat in the first 20 rows is filled with elderly Sichuanese wrapped in synthetic fur and clutching cups of green tea as they gossip and wait for the show to begin. In a bare room backstage, Zhang Juhua applies the final touches to her elaborately painted face: snow-white skin lit up by thick black lines outlining almond eyes and a mass of ruby red smudged in-between. Zhang is about to play a concubine in the rendition of Iron Dragon... https://www.scmp.com/article/450090/disappearing-act?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/450090/disappearing-act?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Mar 2004 16:00:00 +0000 'Flaming bays of fire!' exclaimed British explorer Captain James Cook when in 1770 he and his crew first spied the far northeast coast of Tasmania. The leafy green heath, speckled with wildflowers and lining a series of crescent-moon bays, was ablaze with fires set as part of a passive primeval land-management programme designed and implemented by the indigenous Aborigines to help regenerate vegetation. More than 200 years later, the Bay of Fires, as it became known, remains almost as... https://www.scmp.com/article/445422/beauty-beach?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/445422/beauty-beach?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Take a stroll Walk down tree-lined avenues studded with more than a thousand rustic colonial villas that roll over the gently sloping hills of Vietnam's Central Highlands. The town was established by French colonials in 1912 as a sanatorium for aristocrats hoping to escape the steamy plains of Saigon. Cool, breezy and beautiful, Dalat became known as 'le Petit Paris'. The creme de la creme of the villas is Bao Dai's Summer Palace (open daily 9am-5pm), an art deco manor built in 1933 that was... https://www.scmp.com/article/439997/six-best-french-flavoured-things-do-dalat?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/439997/six-best-french-flavoured-things-do-dalat?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Jan 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Thailand loves its food. The country is a gastronomic wonderland of fiery, sour, sweet, gingery, garlicky delectables. Food is available on every second street corner and fills every market, whether it is a plate of pad thai (stir-fried noodles), spicy green papaya salad, a quick satay or tantalising treats for a sweet tooth, it is never hard to find something to eat. Fine Thai dining, however, isn't in abundance. Enter the Blue Elephant, a European restaurant group and guardian of royal ... https://www.scmp.com/article/437409/detours?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/437409/detours?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Dec 2003 16:00:00 +0000 THE 740-YEAR-OLD monastery of Deng Gompa, located in the Tibetan town of Ganzi, was reportedly commissioned by Mongol emperor Kublai Khan to help spread the word of Buddhism in the former Tibetan kingdom of Kham. It still stands today, covered with murals depicting scenes of 13th-century religious devotion: life-sized Buddhist deities, pilgrims travelling to distant temples, disciples praying under trees and images from the wheel of life. Once considered to be of little significance, Deng... https://www.scmp.com/article/436377/painting-over-cracks?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/436377/painting-over-cracks?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 29 Nov 2003 16:00:00 +0000 Ayurveda, an Indian health philosophy more than 5,000 years old, is in the midst of a renaissance. Ayurveda seeks to balance mind, body and spirit through food, yoga, meditation and treatments. Reinvented by the current explosion in spa and health tourism, its potions, decoctions and cures can be found almost anywhere, from the shelves of the Body Shop to a beach resort in Mexico. But it is in Kerala, a long strip of tropical lushness at the base of the Indian landmass, that the real revival is... https://www.scmp.com/article/434804/therapy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/434804/therapy?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Nov 2003 16:00:00 +0000 The sun creeps over a mountain-filled horizon to reveal more than 1,000 horsemen lined up on their steeds on a dusty Serxu street. Dressed in knee-length fox-skin coats, with flintlock guns tucked conspicuously into the sides and stetson hats hanging stylishly over an ear, they wait, poised: proud and ready for war. A whistle sounds and the horses shiver, frothing at the mouth as the horsemen's battle cry, 'Ki-hi-hi!' choruses though the streets and across open plains. Straddling small Tibetan... https://www.scmp.com/article/418610/high-plains-drifters?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/418610/high-plains-drifters?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Jun 2003 16:00:00 +0000