https://www.scmp.com/rss/506169/feed Ian Lloyd Neubauer is a freelance journalist and photojournalist with 20 years experience covering news, business, property, investigations and travel. His photos of subjects as strange as the smoked corpses of the highlands of Papua New Guinea and places as beautiful as the blue city of Morocco have been published in newspapers, magazines and websites around the world. He's also the author of two books – Getafix (2003) and Maquis (2006). en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Ian Lloyd Neubauer Ian Lloyd Neubauer It’s about the same size as neighbouring Bali, with the same lush green jungles, terraced rice paddies, palm-fringed beaches, volcanoes with lake-filled craters and rich indigenous culture. But unlike Bali, it’s not overburdened by traffic and tourists. Add islets and atolls that wouldn’t look out of place in the Maldives, reefs brimming with turtles, world-class surf breaks and an expanding selection of sophisticated places in which to eat, drink and stay, and you’ll begin to see why Lombok... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3328908/insiders-guide-indonesias-lombok-worthy-new-bali-volcanic-craters-and-horse-drawn-carts?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3328908/insiders-guide-indonesias-lombok-worthy-new-bali-volcanic-craters-and-horse-drawn-carts?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 Oct 2025 04:00:09 +0000 Ian Lloyd Neubauer Ian Lloyd Neubauer When I discovered Goa, a former Portuguese colony on India’s southwest coast, while backpacking around Asia in the mid-1990s, it was still very much a hippie place: makeshift beachfront shacks, vibrant craft markets, dirt-cheap food and accommodation, and parties where one could dance naked on a beach until the sun came up. I lost myself in the multiverse of Goa trance, a psychedelic electronic dance music, and felt free. I stayed for six months but have never really left, not in my mind. I even... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3326072/naked-dancing-beach-what-remains-goas-legendary-hippie-haven?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3326072/naked-dancing-beach-what-remains-goas-legendary-hippie-haven?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Sep 2025 05:15:08 +0000 Ian Lloyd Neubauer Ian Lloyd Neubauer “The Bone Healer can fix anything but a broken heart.” I whisper this to myself over and over as I crawl through the narrow, traffic-choked carriageways that fan out from downtown Denpasar. It takes an hour’s drive to clear Bali’s capital and reach an east-coast highway, where I pick up speed before detouring up a winding road to Besakih. Set in the western foothills of the Mount Agung volcano, the village is home to the Besakih Great Temple, the largest religious site on the Indonesian island.... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3318754/trip-bone-healer-and-different-side-bali?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3318754/trip-bone-healer-and-different-side-bali?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 24 Jul 2025 06:00:13 +0000 Ian Lloyd Neubauer Ian Lloyd Neubauer Canggu in Bali is a 5km-long strip of black sand surf beaches backlit by the biggest and most ostentatious beach clubs in the world. Behind them lies a maze of streets and alleyways lined with an ever-changing smorgasbord of cafes, restaurants, bars, gyms, nightclubs, massage and tattoo parlours, boutiques and boutique hotels. To help us navigate these complex warrens, we asked for tips from three well-connected locals: Theodora Hurustiati, an Indonesian culinary instructor and consultant;... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3310633/insiders-guide-canggu-bali-home-some-hottest-beach-clubs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3310633/insiders-guide-canggu-bali-home-some-hottest-beach-clubs?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 May 2025 03:00:09 +0000 The 1960s was a pivotal decade for Bali, with two Covid-rivalling events having decimated the island’s budding tourism sector: the 1963 eruption of the Mount Agung volcano, which killed 1,600 people; and the extrajudicial killing in 1965/66 of more than 80,000 alleged communists – one in 20 Balinese – following a failed national coup. Things began looking up later in 1966 with the opening of the InterContinental Bali Beach Hotel, the first five-star internationally branded resort on the island.... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3305987/bali-how-60-years-tourism-was-kickstarted-sanur-and-5-star-island-landmark?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3305987/bali-how-60-years-tourism-was-kickstarted-sanur-and-5-star-island-landmark?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 14 Apr 2025 03:00:51 +0000 Bali has more than a dozen zoos and safari parks at which tourists can see iconic Indonesian fauna such as elephants and orangutans. But there is only one place on the island where visitors can see key indigenous species in their natural habitat: West Bali National Park. It was established in 1941 as a nature reserve on the northwestern tip, to protect the Bali tiger. In 1970, management was handed over to the Indonesian government’s forestry department and the area was gazetted as a national... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3286493/unspoilt-nature-indonesias-west-bali-national-park?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3286493/unspoilt-nature-indonesias-west-bali-national-park?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 14 Nov 2024 09:45:07 +0000 I step out of my hotel in the old city of Barkhor – one of the few parts of Lhasa, Tibet, where foreign tourists are allowed to walk unaccompanied by a guide – and into a bustling faux-medieval bazaar where steam pours from big bubbling cauldrons in tea-houses and rickshaws run amok. The roads are lined with whitewashed terrace buildings built in the traditional style from stone, clay and wood, and embellished with the “endless knot”, the “wheel of life” and other symbols of Tibetan... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3276522/exploring-lhasa-tibets-sky-high-capital-pairs-history-and-modernity-against-striking-plateau?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3276522/exploring-lhasa-tibets-sky-high-capital-pairs-history-and-modernity-against-striking-plateau?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 31 Aug 2024 03:45:09 +0000 A decade ago, Greece was the economic sick man of Europe and its crumbling capital, Athens, was little more than an afterthought for the millions who holidayed on the Greek islands every year. Today, Greece is a poster child for the tough austerity measures introduced to rein in foreign debt and Athens is the country’s most popular tourist destination, having received 7 million international visitors in 2023 – twice as many as a decade ago. Tourism, however, is a double-edged sword. A 2023 study... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3269549/why-athens-its-food-history-and-contemporary-apart-hotels-hasnt-lost-its-charm?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3269549/why-athens-its-food-history-and-contemporary-apart-hotels-hasnt-lost-its-charm?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Jul 2024 08:15:08 +0000 “What’s your religion? Jewish? You are Jewish, aren’t you? You shouldn’t be here. It’s dangerous for you.” It’s May 2024, Gaza is being levelled and the welcome, if one can call it that, sends a chill down my spine as I walk through Bethlehem, 10km (6.2 miles) south of Jerusalem, in the Palestinian-administered area of the West Bank. Revered as the biblical birthplace of Jesus, King David and other figures, Bethlehem has been an important pilgrimage site for Christians, Jews and Muslims for... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3265170/bethlehem-welcome-send-chills-down-spine-any-jew-visiting-jewel-palestinian-tourism-amid-gaza-war?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3265170/bethlehem-welcome-send-chills-down-spine-any-jew-visiting-jewel-palestinian-tourism-amid-gaza-war?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Jun 2024 10:15:08 +0000 Ian Lloyd Neubauer Ian Lloyd Neubauer Israel has been at war since October 7, when Hamas gunmen crossed the border from Gaza and attacked military targets and civilian communities. As many as 1,200 people were killed during the attack and 240 more were abducted by Hamas. Hamas has launched thousands of projectiles at Israel since, while Israel has dropped tens of thousands of bombs on Gaza. And yet, with the exception of a seven-hour window on April 13, when Iran fired 185 “suicide drones”, 36 cruise missiles and at least 110... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3261973/what-flight-israel-tourist-during-war-hamas-cheap-ticket-possible?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3261973/what-flight-israel-tourist-during-war-hamas-cheap-ticket-possible?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 May 2024 08:15:12 +0000 In 2006, German travel magazine Hidden Europe published A Manifesto for Slow Travel – an essay that argues journeys should be “a moment to relax rather than a stressful interlude imposed between home and destination. “Slow travel,” it continues, “re-engineers time, transforming it into a commodity of abundance rather than scarcity. And slow travel also reshapes our relationship with places, encouraging and allowing us to engage more intimately with the communities through which we... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3260743/hidden-thailand-explored-kayaking-trip-countrys-andaman-coast-untamed-nature-and-unique-lodgings-en?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3260743/hidden-thailand-explored-kayaking-trip-countrys-andaman-coast-untamed-nature-and-unique-lodgings-en?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Apr 2024 08:15:11 +0000 Ian Lloyd Neubauer Ian Lloyd Neubauer In India, a rape takes place every 15 minutes, according to government figures. It is so common that many cases go unreported and few make the news. But when a Brazilian-Spanish influencer was gang-raped in India earlier this month while camping during a motorbike trip, it ignited public outrage and debate on social media not seen on the subcontinent since the New Delhi bus gang-rape of 2012, and made headlines around the world. Indian police – known for their inaction over, and even involvement... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3255764/travel-influencer-couple-horror-india-gang-rape-and-taliban-interrogation-during-epic-6-year?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3255764/travel-influencer-couple-horror-india-gang-rape-and-taliban-interrogation-during-epic-6-year?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 Mar 2024 23:15:09 +0000 In the year 2000, a triumvirate of investors from Australia, Indonesia and Britain opened Ku De Ta, a Mediterranean-style beach club in Seminyak, which in those days was just a cluster of rice paddies and fishing hamlets on the southwest coast of Bali in Indonesia. “Back then, all the action in Bali was in Kuta near the airport,” says former Ku De Ta operations manager Justin Smyth. “Whenever someone said, ‘Let’s go to Ku De Ta,’ people would say, ‘That’s miles away, you have to go down dirt... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3254618/move-over-ibiza-beach-clubs-bali-have-gone-little-slice-heaven-middle-nowhere-world-beaters?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3254618/move-over-ibiza-beach-clubs-bali-have-gone-little-slice-heaven-middle-nowhere-world-beaters?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 Mar 2024 04:38:32 +0000 After decades of decline, overnight trains are making a comeback in Europe and the United States as a more sustainable way to travel than flying. But in China, they never went out of vogue. The country has the second largest (after the United States) and busiest railway network in the world, offering a safer, more scenic and comfortable alternative to its highways. But what’s it like spending a night or two on a train in China? Are they clean? Is it easy to get tickets? Is it doable for tourists... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3252986/whats-riding-overnight-train-china-36-hour-journey-chengdu-comfy-cabins-and-friendly-strangers-bad?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3252986/whats-riding-overnight-train-china-36-hour-journey-chengdu-comfy-cabins-and-friendly-strangers-bad?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 Feb 2024 23:15:10 +0000 In the cult British television series Grand Designs, presenter Kevin McCloud followed the progress of high-end construction projects, adding colour and drama by noting the usual hitches, delays and cost overruns. More than a showcase for wow-factor architecture, the series offered insight into the emotional roller coaster owner-builders go through while doggedly pursuing their dreams. In 2021, the then 30-year-old Russian property developer Felix Demin had an idea to build a Grand Designs-worthy... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3249693/it-was-nightmare-why-worlds-first-luxury-villa-plane-bali-was-so-tough-build-according-russian?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3249693/it-was-nightmare-why-worlds-first-luxury-villa-plane-bali-was-so-tough-build-according-russian?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Jan 2024 23:15:09 +0000 The thermometer reads eight degrees below zero Celsius (18 degrees Fahrenheit) and my fingertips are numb. My lips are cracked and dry and my bowels are twisted; I haven’t been to the toilet for a week. The tendons in my shoulders and upper arms feel like they’re about to snap as I draw on my energy reserves to prevent my motorcycle from slipping on ice. And at 5,009 metres (16,434 feet) above sea level, my head pounds from altitude sickness; even breathing is a labour in this snowy windswept... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3248177/hellish-motorbike-tour-through-chinas-heavenly-tibet-region-4300km-hills-and-chills?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3248177/hellish-motorbike-tour-through-chinas-heavenly-tibet-region-4300km-hills-and-chills?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Jan 2024 23:45:13 +0000 I’ve never been a fan of Chinese food. With the exception of the Peking duck sold by speciality shops in the Chinatowns of cities such as Sydney and Bangkok, I find it to be greasy and tasting like wok. A recent road trip from Kunming, in southern China, to the Tibetan capital Lhasa only reinforced my prejudice. From slimy mushrooms to stir-fried pork and chicken dishes full of gristle and bones, to rubbery steamed pork buns that could be used as putty to fill in holes in walls, the food was... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3244335/chengdus-spicy-sichuan-food-so-good-it-converts-self-proclaimed-chinese-food-hater?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3244335/chengdus-spicy-sichuan-food-so-good-it-converts-self-proclaimed-chinese-food-hater?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 10 Dec 2023 03:15:07 +0000 In 2019, a sales director of an internationally branded hotel in Bali, Indonesia, was asked by her boss to travel to Shanghai to meet with travel agents. It took her four attempts to get a visa. “My application was rejected twice,” says the sales director, who asked for her name be withheld as she is not authorised to speak with the press. “The first time was because of my photo – it wasn’t the exact size they asked for. The second and third times were because of tiny mistakes in my paperwork. I... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3242913/how-applying-china-tourist-visa-2023-can-be-very-frustrating-forms-and-photos-person-appointments?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3242913/how-applying-china-tourist-visa-2023-can-be-very-frustrating-forms-and-photos-person-appointments?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 Nov 2023 08:15:11 +0000 According to American psychologist Stanley Plog’s Model of Tourist Behaviour, most are “repeaters”. “They prefer to return to familiar travel destinations where they can relax and know what types of food and activity to expect,” wrote Plog in 1967. Recently I travelled to Lombok in Indonesia, Bali’s slightly smaller sister island, for the third time. On the previous occasions, I visited the small Gili Islands off the northwest coast, which receive 3,500 tourists per day; and the resort town of... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3240083/5-places-beaten-track-lombok-indonesia-desert-islands-eco-resort-countrys-kitesurfing-capital?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3240083/5-places-beaten-track-lombok-indonesia-desert-islands-eco-resort-countrys-kitesurfing-capital?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Nov 2023 05:15:20 +0000 It is the second-largest karst cluster in the world, a place of soaring limestone towers and pinnacles topped by rainforest and sluiced by gushing waterfalls. Hidden within the karsts are 400 caves, “black boxes” of civilisation where archaeologists have found prehistoric jewellery, cutting tools, handprints and a painting of a half-human, half-animal figure estimated to be 44,000 years old – the oldest known painting in the world. Inscribed in 2022, it is also one of the world’s newest Unesco... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3236579/how-unesco-global-geopark-indonesia-could-have-been-destroyed-mining-until-locals-realised-their?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3236579/how-unesco-global-geopark-indonesia-could-have-been-destroyed-mining-until-locals-realised-their?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Oct 2023 23:15:08 +0000 As a nation born from a penal colony, Australia has a long history of colourful and loathed criminals, but few are more reviled than Phuong Canh Ngo, a former Vietnamese refugee who holds the unenviable title of being the country’s first and only convicted political assassin. In June 2001, a supreme court jury found that Ngo had masterminded the murder of John Newman, an MP in the state of New South Wales. Newman was shot dead in front of his fiancée, Lucy Wang, out­side the couple’s home in... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3232124/australian-political-assassin-or-innocent-migrant-community-leader-tale-phuong-canh-ngo?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3232124/australian-political-assassin-or-innocent-migrant-community-leader-tale-phuong-canh-ngo?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 25 Aug 2023 03:15:11 +0000 In June 1988, after a long stint overseas, François Pasquier invited a group of friends to dinner to celebrate his family’s return to Paris, France. However, since he didn’t have enough space to host everyone at his home, he held the event in a public park. And to make it easy for his guests to find each other, he asked everyone to dress in white. The dinner was such a success that Pasquier did it again the following year and the year after that. Eventually, his parties got so big that he turned... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3228226/we-have-make-statement-stargate-themed-white-party-ku-de-ta-bali-challenges-its-creative-director?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3228226/we-have-make-statement-stargate-themed-white-party-ku-de-ta-bali-challenges-its-creative-director?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 21 Jul 2023 03:15:09 +0000 Indonesian cuisine is, by definition, a product of cultural fusion. When Arab ships first made landfall on the archipelago in the 8th century, they brought with them the recipe for sate (satay) – seasoned, skewered meat served with rich, tangy sauces. Chinese traders arriving in the 15th century introduced nasi goreng – Indonesia’s ubiquitous fried rice – and soto, a broth of meat and vegetables. And after the Dutch colonised the archipelago in the 16th century, they added new foods again, such... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/3226222/dishes-weve-never-seen-chefs-take-indonesias-fusion-cuisine-next-level-fusion-recipes-and-cooking?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/food-drink/article/3226222/dishes-weve-never-seen-chefs-take-indonesias-fusion-cuisine-next-level-fusion-recipes-and-cooking?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 02 Jul 2023 03:15:13 +0000 The sky is overcast as I paddle out from a small beach on the morning of my 50th birthday on Day 1 of a two-week, 250km solo kayaking trip around Phang Nga Bay, an aquatic biosphere off the southwest of Thailand, with dramatic islands and limestone karsts that rise like titans hundreds of metres from the sea. I’ve never done anything like this before, but past travels have taught me a bit about problem-solving in remote places and how to pack for survival. I have brought 50kg of supplies, the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3219528/how-two-week-kayaking-adventure-thailand-teaches-you-slow-down-and-enjoy-moment?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3219528/how-two-week-kayaking-adventure-thailand-teaches-you-slow-down-and-enjoy-moment?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 May 2023 05:15:07 +0000 In 1936, when American Bob Koke reportedly became the first person to catch a wave off Bali’s Kuta Beach, he inadvertently became the catalyst for mass-market tourism in Indonesia. Surfers are credited with popularising once-hidden coastal gems, from the Bukit Peninsula, in Bali’s deep south, to the sparkling satellite islands of the Nusa Penida archipelago. Now the phenomenon is being replicated on the west coast of Sumbawa, the ninth largest of Indonesia’s more than 17,000 islands. Known as... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/3217853/we-kept-it-natural-sumbawa-indonesia-paradise-unspoilt-beaches-crystal-clear-waters-and-natural?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/3217853/we-kept-it-natural-sumbawa-indonesia-paradise-unspoilt-beaches-crystal-clear-waters-and-natural?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 22 Apr 2023 05:15:17 +0000 Tourism in Bali has roared back to life, with the Indonesian island topping Airbnb’s list of the world’s most popular holiday destinations and many hotels there already fully booked for the end-of-year holiday period. Released in November, Airbnb’s Winter Release Highlights shows that Kuta, a beachside district 10 minutes’ drive from Bali’s international airport, which resembled a ghost town during the pandemic, was the No 1 trending destination for searches worldwide on Airbnb between July and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3201785/tourists-back-bali-force-except-chinese-and-room-prices-rise-hotels-struggle-find-staff?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3201785/tourists-back-bali-force-except-chinese-and-room-prices-rise-hotels-struggle-find-staff?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Dec 2022 05:15:11 +0000 On September 18, 1945, a group of Dutchmen led by WVC Ploegman arrived at the Hotel Yamato, in Surabaya, an ancient seaport that is now the capital of Indonesia’s East Java province. The previous month, the hotel had been occupied by the Imperial Japanese, who had named it after a historical area in their homeland’s Nara prefecture surrounded by yama: mountains. But following Tokyo’s surrender at the end of World War II, the grand whitewashed building had been sequestered by the Allies as a... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3199231/5-star-hotel-indonesia-sparked-bloody-war-against-colonialism?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3199231/5-star-hotel-indonesia-sparked-bloody-war-against-colonialism?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 14 Nov 2022 03:15:12 +0000 Few literary events in the world have endured more calamity than the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival. On October 27 it returns to verdant central Bali for the 19th time, with four days of book launches, film premieres, long-table dinners, panel discussions, workshops, live music and cultural performances. Born from the ashes of the Bali bombings of 2002 as a way to attract foreign tourists back to the island, the festival got off to a fine start in 2004 before terrorists bombed the island again... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3196999/southeast-asias-biggest-literary-festival-bali-back-focus-ukraine-war-after-going-online-during?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3196999/southeast-asias-biggest-literary-festival-bali-back-focus-ukraine-war-after-going-online-during?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Oct 2022 09:15:08 +0000 “I remember the first time I came here, thinking, this is the most beautiful place I have ever seen,” says Australian multimillionaire Ian Gowrie-Smith of the day, 20 years ago, when he decided to buy the Conflict Group of 21 uninhabited islands surrounding a deepwater lagoon in a remote corner of Papua New Guinea (PNG). “It was an impulse buy because, like a lot of people, I always had a hankering to own tropical islands.” Each of the 21 islands is ringed by powder-white sand and capped with... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3194891/us25-million-your-own-private-island-chain-21?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3194891/us25-million-your-own-private-island-chain-21?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Oct 2022 00:15:12 +0000 Two old women sit on a bench in front of their flats in a state of resignation, the ground beneath them littered with shards of glass, bits of wood and metal fragments. Every window in their brutalist Soviet-era building is either cracked or blown out. The front door hangs precipitously from its hinges, waiting to fall. As bad as it is, the damage pales in comparison to that of a charred block of flats down the road, where a cruise missile scored a direct hit in February, soon after Russia... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3192611/what-life-ukraine-right-now-inside-two-very?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3192611/what-life-ukraine-right-now-inside-two-very?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Sep 2022 05:15:11 +0000 What to do about Mary? Some 20 years ago it was the question on the lips of everyone in the town of Kulin, Western Australia, 280km (170 miles) east of Perth, where second-generation wheat farmer Mary Lucchesi began asking friends and neighbours to build sculptures of horses on the road leading from town to her front yard. She’d envisioned the sculptures would help promote the annual Bush Races – Kulin’s biggest social event – hosted every October at the Lucchesi property. Mary’s vision came... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3185394/weird-tourist-attraction-western-australia-draws-visitors?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3185394/weird-tourist-attraction-western-australia-draws-visitors?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 Jul 2022 04:45:19 +0000 Before Russia invaded on February 24, Ukraine’s train network was the sixth largest rail passenger transporter in the world, with international routes connecting neighbouring countries. Flying into Ukraine was easy and many cruise lines included the city of Odesa, a popular summer tourist destination on the Black Sea, on their Eastern European itineraries. But in the first three months of the war, Russian forces destroyed 11 airports and 21 railway stations, and captured four ports, according to... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3183691/what-travel-ukraine-amid-war-my-unusual-trip-odesa?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3183691/what-travel-ukraine-amid-war-my-unusual-trip-odesa?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 04 Jul 2022 04:45:20 +0000 Singapore’s Little India, a former convict enclave where indentured labourers were housed during the British colonial period, has been turned into one of the city state’s most colourful historical districts and attracts millions of tourists over the years. The Hindu temples Sri Veeramakaliamman and Sri Srinivasa are among its biggest draws. By contrast, few people know of the other Little India, an hour’s flight to the northwest of Singapore, in the Indonesian city of Medan. In colonial times... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3175784/little-india-medan-indonesia-hides-its-cultural-roots-well?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3175784/little-india-medan-indonesia-hides-its-cultural-roots-well?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 01 May 2022 08:15:15 +0000 Close your eyes, take a deep breath and forget about Covid-19. You’re sitting on a kayak in an estuary, looking towards a village on the coast in which the only structure of note is a whitewashed temple that soars like an angel over terracotta rooftops. Anchored in front of a sand flat is a fleet of multicoloured fishing boats with elongated headpieces, complex carvings, embroideries, flags and banners. More of these psychedelic vessels pass, heading out to sea as the sun sets over the mouth of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3175225/bali-travel-must-see-fantastical-fishing-boats-perancak?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3175225/bali-travel-must-see-fantastical-fishing-boats-perancak?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 Apr 2022 04:45:24 +0000 From a fine-dining restaurant in India with private booths and an interior inspired by the Maharaja Express luxury train, to a hotel near Stockholm Airport in Sweden with guest rooms in the cockpit, engine bays and wheelhouse room, converting passenger jets into hospitality venues is an almost fail-safe formula for attracting tourists. “Many people still hold on to images of the so-called ‘golden age’ of commercial aviation in the 1960s when planes were not crowded, people dressed to fly,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3169300/flight-meals-ground-luxury-flight-fancy-balis-four?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3169300/flight-meals-ground-luxury-flight-fancy-balis-four?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 06 Mar 2022 03:15:16 +0000 When Indonesia shut its borders to international travellers on April 2, 2020, in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Kuta, Ubud and most of Bali’s other once-thronging tourism hotspots became ghost towns overnight. But there’s one part of the island that has consistently defied the trend. The west coast surfing hub of Canggu has been the residence of choice for tens of thousands of foreigners who have ridden out the pandemic in Bali, and is now the destination of choice for spendthrift... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3160980/bali-travel-guide-5-best-new-places-eat-and-drink-canggu?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3160980/bali-travel-guide-5-best-new-places-eat-and-drink-canggu?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 26 Dec 2021 02:15:14 +0000 Bali is now open to tourists from China and 18 other countries, although Indonesia’s entry requirements, which include five days’ quarantine, mean few international tourists are expected to visit for now. Thanks to a raft of new books, though, fans of Bali can recreate the island’s flavours and aromas at home. Cherished Recipes from my Childhood tells the rags-to-riches story, through traditional Balinese recipes, of Wayan Sutariawan, executive chef at the Four Seasons Resort Bali at Sayan, on... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3153972/i-will-bring-bali-you-chefs-and-coffee-aficionado-help-you?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3153972/i-will-bring-bali-you-chefs-and-coffee-aficionado-help-you?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 31 Oct 2021 05:15:11 +0000 The sun is still rising as Gidday Sudita drives out of his family compound on a beach in Bali’s far west, towards a plateau of mustard-yellow rice fields. It’s September and the air is tainted with smoke and embers as farmers burn off the crop residue in their fields, as they always do at this time of the year. But there’s something else in the air, something that’s been absent in Bali since the start of the pandemic: a faint whiff of hope that the virus, which has hammered the island’s... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3152471/coronavirus-crisis-eases-bull-racing-returns-bali-jockeys?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3152471/coronavirus-crisis-eases-bull-racing-returns-bali-jockeys?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 16 Oct 2021 11:45:14 +0000 In the great pantheon of Balinese folklore, few stories are more endearing – or have greater geopolitical significance – than that of King Jayapangus and his wife, Kang Ching Wie. According to inscriptions, the king became infatuated with the Chinese beauty after she arrived on the Indonesian island aboard a merchant ship owned by her father sometime in the 12th century. Despite objections from priests whose role it was to uphold traditions and who warned the relationship would turn sour, the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3148108/balis-chinese-temples-and-tragic-love-story-behind?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3148108/balis-chinese-temples-and-tragic-love-story-behind?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Sep 2021 05:15:08 +0000 With investments in property, building supplies, phone gadgets, dotcom start-ups, city hotels, fashion and celebrity lifestyle brands, Miami-based financier Chris Burch enjoyed a winning streak in business that earned him a seat at the billionaires’ club in 2012. But when he bought Nihiwatu, a high-end surf resort on Sumba Island, 800km east of Bali, for US$30 million in the same year and began sinking millions more into expanding it into a family-friendly ultra-luxury hotel, the consensus was... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3143177/indonesian-instagram-influencers-swimming-horses?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3143177/indonesian-instagram-influencers-swimming-horses?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 31 Jul 2021 06:15:14 +0000 Asia’s two most popular resort islands, Phuket in Thailand and Indonesia’s Bali, have been in a race to see which would reopen to international tourists first. Phuket, which on July 1 launched its much anticipated “sandbox” scheme, has won that particular race. The scheme uses vaccines, testing and tracing apps to welcome back travellers from low-risk countries – such as China and the United States – without a need for hotel quarantine. “This is the perfect place to just relax and clean our... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3141341/bali-and-phukets-race-reopen-tourists-will-it-be-case?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3141341/bali-and-phukets-race-reopen-tourists-will-it-be-case?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Jul 2021 04:15:18 +0000 Whale sharks, the largest of all the sharks and the largest non-mammalian vertebrate in the world, can grow up to 18 metres (59 feet) in length and live for as long as 150 years. Unlike great white sharks, which can make mincemeat of just about anything that crosses their path, whale sharks are filter feeders that eat mostly plankton and are harmless to humans. I once spent three days in a boat in the Maldives looking for whale sharks with no luck. The same thing transpired on a cruise in the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3139324/best-place-swim-whale-sharks-saleh-bay-sumbawa?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3139324/best-place-swim-whale-sharks-saleh-bay-sumbawa?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Jul 2021 05:15:20 +0000 Before the coronavirus pandemic, I wouldn’t have got on a bicycle in Bali for a billion dollars. The island’s grinding traffic – the result of narrow winding roads and tourist numbers that surpassed 16 million arrivals in 2019 – made the proposition a game of Russian roulette. But when an international travel ban was introduced in April last year, traffic was reduced to a trickle and thousands in Bali, like millions all over the world, dusted off rusty bikes or invested in new ones and reclaimed... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3134376/silver-lining-pandemic-hit-bali-no-tourists-cycling-roads?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3134376/silver-lining-pandemic-hit-bali-no-tourists-cycling-roads?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 23 May 2021 09:45:12 +0000 Seeing their businesses decimated by the coronavirus pandemic, entrepreneurs in Asia have launched new products and services. Others have become “philanthropreneurs”, leveraging their business know-how and assets to help mitigate social problems like mass unemployment. Jos Dharmawan has done both. After graduating from law school in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, the 63-year-old spent the first two decades of his career working in event management, renting sound systems for weddings and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3126876/ford-v-8-hot-rod-chevy-impala-60-bali-museum-shows?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3126876/ford-v-8-hot-rod-chevy-impala-60-bali-museum-shows?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Mar 2021 09:15:14 +0000 It’s 1am on a moonless night at the Pasar Agung temple, on the southern flank of the volcano, and the wind is howling. My plan is to climb to the rim of the crater, but Mount Agung has plans of its own.“Experience tells me if the wind is this strong down here, it will be much stronger at the top. So if you want to cancel, do it now. I won’t charge you if you do,” says Wayan Dartha, a local guide who has led tourists up the active strata-volcano that dominates Bali’s east since 2005. (He charges... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3124212/views-bali-high-prayer-shiva-ensures-climb-mount-agung?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3124212/views-bali-high-prayer-shiva-ensures-climb-mount-agung?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Mar 2021 09:45:08 +0000 From the moment I first laid eyes on him, in 2009, I knew he was unlike the few other Westerners on the ship. Slowly, steadily, he made his way through the crowd, stopping as local people took his hand and touched it against their foreheads – a traditional sign of veneration for men of the cloth. Yet this old man seemed anything but missionary-like, dressed down in a polo shirt and an old baseball hat, with small stumpy teeth stained red from chewing betel nut. Later in the evening, I saw him... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3119775/east-timor-self-professed-paedophile-and-former?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3119775/east-timor-self-professed-paedophile-and-former?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 29 Jan 2021 21:15:07 +0000 Although international travel remains rare in the Asia-Pacific region, domestic tourism in some countries has been booming for months. In Thailand, Phuket saw a huge uptick in visitor numbers for the Vegetarian Festival, in October, with hotels booked out for the first time since last March. Australia is enjoying its biggest holiday boom since the 1970s, with summer bookings at popular east coast holiday towns up by two or three times compared with 2019. And a recent on-site assessment by the UN... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3117525/covid-19-foils-our-journey-down-amazon-asia-kapuas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3117525/covid-19-foils-our-journey-down-amazon-asia-kapuas?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 16 Jan 2021 06:15:19 +0000 Generous beginnings: I was born in 1948 into a middle-class Jewish family in Leeds, in the UK. My mother was a concert pianist and organised fundraising concerts in the city. My father was a successful manufacturer who used all his wealth to buy a huge tract of land in Leeds where he built various sports centres and facilities for the public that are still there today; it’s known as the Prince Philip Playing Fields. When my dad died, Prince Philip sent a handwritten letter to my mother saying... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3109530/how-british-former-fashion-executive-working-end?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3109530/how-british-former-fashion-executive-working-end?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Nov 2020 06:30:16 +0000 In 1968, the Beatles went to Rishikesh, an ancient pilgrimage site in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas, to practise yoga and meditate under the guidance of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the Transcendental Meditation technique. The visit marked the band’s most productive – and psychedelic – period of songwriting and is credited with kick-starting wellness tourism. Millions of travellers followed in their wake, transforming Rishikesh from an obscure spiritual hideaway into the yoga... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3087513/teaching-yoga-bali-has-never-been-more-popular?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3087513/teaching-yoga-bali-has-never-been-more-popular?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 Jun 2020 01:30:13 +0000