https://www.scmp.com/rss/83534/feed Based in Bangkok since 1989 as a freelance writer and photographer, Keith Mundy focuses on travel and culture features and has contributed dozens to the Post Magazine on subjects worldwide, as well as to a wide range of other magazines in Asia and elsewhere. He has been to 97 countries and territories and will see more, as long as there’s a good reason. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Jungle resort, eh? Well, secondary jungle. The primary rainforest in this part of southern Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains was logged out in the free-for-all of the 1990s and 2000s. Shinta Mani Wild lies within Kirirom National Park, on the eastern edge of Southern Cardamom National Park, designated in 2016 to conserve Southeast Asia’s largest unfragmented rainforest. This biodiversity gem contains more than 2,000 species of plants and at least 50 globally threatened species of vertebrates,... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3074616/shinta-mani-wild-cambodias-glamorous-rainforest?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3074616/shinta-mani-wild-cambodias-glamorous-rainforest?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Mar 2020 06:30:09 +0000 Steep hills, dense forests, rushing streams: the Corrèze department, deep in central France, is known for its nature and adventure pursuits. But the obscure verdure also harbours traces of some of France’s most influential women. This sparsely populated, far-from-wealthy county was crucial in the political careers of two recent presidents, François Hollande and Jacques Chirac – you can sit in the former’s favourite cafe in the vertiginous town of Tulle, where he was mayor, or visit the latter’s... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3009456/footsteps-coco-chanel-colette-and-simone-de-beauvoir?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3009456/footsteps-coco-chanel-colette-and-simone-de-beauvoir?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 May 2019 20:00:07 +0000 What’s L’Aventure? The Michelin Adventure is a celebration of the French tyre company, a major force in the develop­ment of road transport since it was founded, in 1889, by two brothers. It is a colourful interactive museum where the journey starts back in the 19th century, bicycling in knicker­bockers, and ends up with hi-tech visions of the motoring future. Hmmm. Is it all for petrolheads? Nope. With the cheery Michelin Man pop­ping up everywhere, descriptions of food courtesy of the Michelin... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2160830/michelin-man-turns-120-what-better-way-celebrate-tyre?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2160830/michelin-man-turns-120-what-better-way-celebrate-tyre?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 Aug 2018 09:15:30 +0000 Swinging off the motorway into Ipoh’s outskirts, we pass massive limestone outcrops jutting skyward. Those are soon blocked from view by colossal hotel and office blocks that seem to have risen as man-made rivals. Further in, though, Malaysia’s third-biggest city turns out to be overwhelmingly low-rise, an orderly grid of two-storey shophouses fronted by that civilised regional speciality, the five-foot way: covered pavements that provide shelter from the sun and rain – and access to an... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2146371/how-ipoh-becoming-new-malaysia-food-destination-rival?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2146371/how-ipoh-becoming-new-malaysia-food-destination-rival?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 20 May 2018 00:45:45 +0000 In The Hague, as the first world war raged elsewhere in Europe, Margaretha Geertruida Zelle would walk from her town house, beside the Smidswater canal, along narrow Jagerstraat alley and into lime-tree-shaded Lange Voorhout, an imposing square lined with embassies. Presiding over The Hague’s diplomatic quarter – as it still does – was the Hotel Des Indes. Better known as Mata Hari, the 39-year-old, wearing a full-length coat and veiled hat, would visit this grand hotel of belle époque opulence... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2114764/exotic-dancer-prostitute-second-rate-spy-mata?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2114764/exotic-dancer-prostitute-second-rate-spy-mata?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Oct 2017 01:45:30 +0000 “You become mesmerised by the work and transported to another place of calm,” says France-Odile Perrin-Crinière. “It’s like a meditation.” A weaver for 30 years, Perrin-Crinière runs the Atelier A2 workshop, in the narrow main street of Aubusson, a small town in the heart of rural France that revels in the title of “the world capital of tapestry”. Next door is an old wrought-iron market hall that is now half antiques store, half charcuterie – aromatic sausages vying for pride of place with musty... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2108932/world-capital-tapestry-frances-aubusson-quaint-quiet?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2108932/world-capital-tapestry-frances-aubusson-quaint-quiet?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 03 Sep 2017 01:01:10 +0000 The car stops beside the coastal high­way to Kuala Terengganu. Ismail jumps out and trots up to a tree. He scrapes at the bark and jogs back with a strip of it. “This is gelam bark,” my guide announces. “It’s used to join the planks in boat making here.” The off-white substance has a curious springy texture. Melaka: five ways to see the world in one Malaysian city Within the hour we have rumbled onto a wooded island at the mouth of the Terengganu River and stopped at a boatyard. In an open-sided... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2096365/chinatown-kuala-terengganu-rot-riot-colour-murals?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2096365/chinatown-kuala-terengganu-rot-riot-colour-murals?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 01 Jun 2017 05:00:15 +0000 The old port of St Tropez shimmers in a mosaic of purples, mauves, pale blues and golds as the sun sets in Paul Signac’s Impressionist vision of the Provencal fishing village. But the serenity of L’Annonciade museum – located on the very quayside where Signac painted his view back in 1899 – is suddenly dashed by loud bangs from somewhere in the real town. More construction, maybe that multi-level car park they’re pile-driving in the back streets behind the still picturesque port? Whatever the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2084605/st-tropez-history-even-richer-its-jet-setting?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2084605/st-tropez-history-even-richer-its-jet-setting?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 06 Apr 2017 06:31:11 +0000 Wedged in a window seat for the short hop from Bangkok, I am joined by a maroon-robed monk. “Good, that’ll be calm company,” I think. As the plane taxis away from the gate, however, the holy man begins raucously chanting into his palm-leaf fan. He continues through take-off and up to cruising height. Rallying cry: Cambodia's all-female rock band of ex-garment workers While settling into my Phnom Penh hotel room, Cambodian music videos pop up on the television, songs of lovelorn girls and... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2068771/travel-phnom-penh-dancing-its-own-beats?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2068771/travel-phnom-penh-dancing-its-own-beats?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 08 Feb 2017 03:45:45 +0000 Where is it? Just north of the fishing port of Dungun, on peninsular Malaysia’s east coast, Tanjong Jara Resort occupies 17 hectares of tree-shrouded grounds alongside a crescent of beach (above). Arrive by night and the impression is of infinite calm; in the morning stroll though the greenery to the beach, and you will see deserted sands curving away to distant headlands in both directions. Sounds enticing. Tell us more. This coast is renowned for its beaches, backed by casuarina trees and... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2066473/malaysias-tanjong-jara-resort-ideal-if-youre-looking?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2066473/malaysias-tanjong-jara-resort-ideal-if-youre-looking?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 31 Jan 2017 08:46:53 +0000 Is it really grand? If you are lounging amid the sumptuous furnishings and infinite space of the Royal Suite, or banqueting in the Belle Epoque splendour of the Salon Sauternes, it’s as grand as they come, opulent luxury with French sophistication. And wherever else you go in this historic hostelry, you’ll not want for five-star pampering with a long pedigree. How did it get so grand? It all began back in the 1780s, when Bordeaux – a port city on France’s Atlantic coast – was a trading... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2048654/intercontinental-bordeaux-where-roman-decadence-meets?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2048654/intercontinental-bordeaux-where-roman-decadence-meets?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 25 Nov 2016 08:00:15 +0000 On May 31, the president of France and the mayor of Bordeaux, who may well be the next French leader, clinked champagne glasses at the top of a spectacular new museum: the Cité du Vin (“wine town”). Set beside the River Garonne, its wild­ly curving carapace of alumini­um gleaming in the sun, the Cité du Vin is an iconic motif of Bordeaux’s drive to reinvent itself, and the two politi­cians were there to open it, setting aside any rivalry for the day. Like a string of cities throughout the world,... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/1994983/bordeaux-once-fusty-grime-covered-town-now-beacon?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/1994983/bordeaux-once-fusty-grime-covered-town-now-beacon?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 Jul 2016 09:00:30 +0000 The Loire Valley has many chateaux, so what's special about this one? The gardens. Rather than a park with lawns and woods, which most chateaux have, Villandry boasts an extraordinary arrangement of formal gardens based on medieval and Renaissance designs, with each section having a symbolic significance. The potager, or kitchen garden, planted with serried ranks of perfect vegetables, forms the gardens' lowest level and stands for bodily needs; on the middle level, ornamental gardens formed... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel-leisure/article/1911923/feel-love-chateau-de-villandry-frances-loire?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel-leisure/article/1911923/feel-love-chateau-de-villandry-frances-loire?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Feb 2016 14:30:00 +0000 Out of an azure sea rise sheer cliffs, their clefts woven with tapestries of green and red bushes, and white gulls swoop and soar in the balmy air. As a pleasure boat edges closer, strange rock formations arch up from the lazily lapping Tyrrhenian Sea, and sea caves entice its passengers into the island's mysterious vaults. But what can't be seen is even more powerful in its effect: the legends of antiquity, the aura of famous residents, the gossip and scandals, the works of art created here,... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1848946/capri-magnet-sirens-both-myth-and-silver-screen?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1848946/capri-magnet-sirens-both-myth-and-silver-screen?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Aug 2015 15:34:29 +0000 "Casa" means house, doesn't it? Yes it does, and this hotel began life in 1908 as the most expensive house in Barcelona, the first in the Spanish city to be faced in marble, commanding a position at the top of a new and extremely elegant avenue called Passeig de Gracia. A landmark of Barcelona's industrial-boom days, when the city expanded greatly, Casa Fuster was a prominent example of modernisme. It doesn't look modernist. Well spotted; it's certainly not. Confusingly, " modernisme" is the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1805115/hotel-casa-fuster-once-barcelonas-most-luxurious-residence?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1805115/hotel-casa-fuster-once-barcelonas-most-luxurious-residence?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 May 2015 14:36:08 +0000 Vietnam war obsessives, you surely know it. Sixties design fans, put a new shrine on your list. The Vietnamese authorities perhaps didn't intend it, but their carefully preserved Independence Palace is a gem of period design - modernist political architecture and Goldfinger-era James Bond interiors - pleasing to both aesthetes and nostalgists. Officially, this squat concrete structure is "a national historical and cultural relic, a symbol of the victory that smashed the last stronghold of the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1774166/independence-palace-monument-vietnam-war?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1774166/independence-palace-monument-vietnam-war?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 Apr 2015 10:58:12 +0000 What's in a name? La Mirande refers to an ornate reception room in Avignon's astounding Popes' Palace (below), where the pontiff would greet visiting dignitaries. You see what they're saying: at La Mirande you will be received with honour. What was the Pope doing in Avignon? Running the Vatican, which had moved to the southern French city in 1309, following a conflict between the French monarchy and Rome. He stayed in Avignon until 1377. A string of French popes built an enormous papal palace in... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1747132/avignons-la-mirande-steeped-history-and-luxury?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1747132/avignons-la-mirande-steeped-history-and-luxury?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 28 Mar 2015 14:31:47 +0000 Far in the arid east of Ethiopia, close to the Red Sea, there is an ancient walled city where hyenas prowl by night - and the townsfolk are quite happy for them to do so. Considering the beasts magical beings that can rid the city of djinn, or evil spirits, the people have made holes in the ramparts, allowing the creatures to come and go easily. Each night, packs of hyenas gather outside the walls of Harar - timid despite their savage mien and 90kg bulk - waiting for the humans to go to bed... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1663932/harar-ancient-ethiopian-city-reveres-magical-hyenas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1663932/harar-ancient-ethiopian-city-reveres-magical-hyenas?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Dec 2014 15:51:05 +0000 Artishow? Sounds like an art gallery, or a performance venue. Well, it is. Objets d'art are placed all around the house, every piece of furniture has a design pedigree - chairs by Charles Eames and Philippe Starck, lamps by Arne Jacobsen and Ettore Sottsass - and there are original artworks, including paintings by Victor Vasarely, in all the rooms. The performance comes from the host, Yves de Montigny, an international art dealer and collector who spent many years in New York and an amusing... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1520244/hot-spots-artishow-lisle-sur-la-sorgue-france?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1520244/hot-spots-artishow-lisle-sur-la-sorgue-france?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 31 May 2014 15:58:07 +0000 To discover a new hero is always a good thing; to find one in a remote Himalayan valley is even better. His spirit first touched me on a misty mountain pass at Dochula, the 3,140-metre crest where you stop climbing through blue pine forests and come upon a clump of chortens spread over a hillock. A chorten is a Bhutanese Buddhist stupa, square and whitewashed. At this pass, Bhutan's queen erected 108 of them, an auspicious number, to atone for the loss of life in a military operation in... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1512645/privates-parade-bhutans-frisky-deity?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1512645/privates-parade-bhutans-frisky-deity?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 May 2014 15:00:45 +0000 I want a hotel, not a hostel! It is a hotel, now, a massive one, but it was a hostel and then a hospital for several centuries, having been built by the king and queen of Spain in 1499 right next to the colossal Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela (right). The reputed site of the tomb of St James ("Santiago" in Spanish), who supposedly brought Christianity to Spain, the cathedral is the greatest Christian pilgrimage church in Europe after St Peter's, in Rome. From the Middle Ages through to... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1440178/hot-spots-hostal-dos-reis-catolicos-santiago-de-compostela?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1440178/hot-spots-hostal-dos-reis-catolicos-santiago-de-compostela?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Mar 2014 15:30:45 +0000 Almost within sight of each other, two chateaux in Provence, France, boast virtually the same name but entirely different characters. What they do share is recent reinvention as artistic centres by famous new owners. A medieval castle crowning a rocky hilltop in the Luberon, Chateau de Lacoste was home to the Marquis de Sade and the scene of his most complex erotic experiments. In 2001, it was bought by couturier Pierre Cardin, who has introduced outdoor sculptures and an annual arts festival;... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1298349/kings-castles?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1298349/kings-castles?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Aug 2013 16:00:00 +0000 In Addis Ababa, the 21st century arrived in 2007, according to the Ethiopian calendar, but you wouldn't know it. This is not at all a bad thing, though. Instead of traffic jams, you get the open road. Instead of vehicular roar, you get birdsong. Instead of malls, you get monuments. A strung-out medley of late-20th-century edifices dispersed among pastures and woods where goats and sheep munch, Ethiopia's capital has a rustic languor. Because of its laconic, low-density style, the monuments stand... https://www.scmp.com/article/1005488/monumental-discoveries?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1005488/monumental-discoveries?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 30 Jun 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Tulle? A frou-frou fabric beloved of ballerinas and brides, isn't it? A sort of fancy netting for ballroom dancers? Yes, but it's also a small town in the deep recesses of France, once famed for its fine-point lace, which has suddenly been thrust into the global limelight. When Francois Hollande won the French presidential election on May 6, he was in Tulle. Standing on a stage beneath the towering walls of its medieval cathedral, captured by the cameras of the world's media, he bathed in the... https://www.scmp.com/article/1002034/tulle-tales?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1002034/tulle-tales?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 26 May 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Admirers of fine scenery and nature's glory, the Japanese held a beauty contest several centuries ago and came up with the top three views in their country. Only one of them - the 'floating' torii (gate to a shrine) of Miyajima - is familiar outside Japan. A visit is likely to put it into a few personal top 10s too. Miyajima - 'Shrine Island' - is a mountainous, wooded isle 2km to 3km offshore from southwest Honshu, in the Seto Inland Sea. As the ferry draws near, there rises from the... https://www.scmp.com/article/632666/gateway-heaven?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/632666/gateway-heaven?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:00:00 +0000 Fai Fo was a bustling port in which Chinese and Japanese merchants traded silk, lacquer and porcelain with Indians and Europeans, worshipped at ornate temples and met at clan houses. The streets were filled with traders from east and west, and conical-hatted Vietnamese going about their business. Much money changed hands every day. Hoi An is an old town of narrow streets, lined with chic restaurants and pretty guesthouses, dozens of art dealers and scores of tailors' shops, and highlighted with... https://www.scmp.com/article/629159/vintage-port?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/629159/vintage-port?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Mar 2008 16:00:00 +0000 Visitors to France's valley of castles enter a fairytale world that was once the playground of monarchs. 1. Chateau de Chenonceau (below left) This castle is the epitome of the grace and splendour of the French Renaissance. Known as 'the ladies' chateau', its development was significantly guided by several remarkable women, chief among them King Henry II's mistress, Diane de Poitiers, and his wife, Catherine de Medici. Chenonceau, which was built sometime before the 11th century, is... https://www.scmp.com/article/624431/chateaux-loire?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/624431/chateaux-loire?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 26 Jan 2008 16:00:00 +0000 Sri Lanka has wonderful beaches, but so do Los Angeles and Cannes. What California and the Cote D'Azur do not have is haunting monuments carved from rock. Down through the ages, throughout the island, the Buddhists of Sri Lanka have created monuments and shrines to their faith, imbuing the landscape with spiritual depth and resonance. Some are among the finest religious art in the world. These works were sculpted from rock that seems to have been brought to life by the hands of the... https://www.scmp.com/article/617897/rock-legends?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/617897/rock-legends?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:00:00 +0000 'Above there is heaven, below there is Suzhou and Hangzhou.' The saying, crafted by a poet several centuries ago, seems to hold true, at least in Hangzhou; according to a poll conducted recently by Oriental Outlook magazine, the capital of Zhejiang province is the happiest mainland city in which to live. What is the secret of these two cities? Situated about 100km from each other in the richly fertile Yangtze River delta, on the Grand Canal connecting them to Beijing, they were once... https://www.scmp.com/article/617060/power-and-glory?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/617060/power-and-glory?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Nov 2007 16:00:00 +0000 'Never in the field of human bathing was so much offered to so many for so little,' might a Churchillian mayor say to promote Budapest, a city brimming with hot springs and the imagination to know what to do with them - plus the restraint to charge a pittance for their enjoyment. The baths of the Hungarian capital are a wonder to behold, an example of municipal munificence unmatched anywhere in the world. Citizens and visitors don't just get a good soak; they get palaces to do it in. The... https://www.scmp.com/article/616077/bathing-beauty?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/616077/bathing-beauty?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Nov 2007 16:00:00 +0000 Two thousand or so towers of jagged limestone have been jutting exquisitely skywards from jade-green seas in the Gulf of Tonkin, just off the coast of northern Vietnam, for 10,000 years, according to geologists. Their creation, however, took about 500 million years, encompassing eruptions, erosions, desiccations and inundations, from the Cambrian period to our own, Holocene epoch. These things take time, but it's been worth the wait. A 'drowned karst landscape' for geomorphologists, a... https://www.scmp.com/article/615152/karst-and-crew?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/615152/karst-and-crew?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Nov 2007 16:00:00 +0000 It's French holiday time, 1951. Monsieur Hulot clatters into the seaside village of St Marc-sur-Mer in his apparently homemade car, a canvas-hooded one-seater on spindly wheels. A dog reclining on the main street is so unfazed by this flimsy excuse for a vehicle that it refuses to budge. Children scoff and jeer. But at least he has a car; hardly anybody else has. Tall, gawky, not so much walking as pirouetting, Hulot negotiates the groaning swing door of the Hotel de la Plage, where the... https://www.scmp.com/article/608007/comic-relief?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/608007/comic-relief?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Sep 2007 16:00:00 +0000 In AD875, Abbas Ibn Firnas, a Moorish Muslim of the city of Cordoba, in the emirate of Al-Andalus, flew from a hillside. So said a couple of witnesses whose accounts survive. That makes him the first documented human aviator. What gives the claim credence is this man's host of other achievements. An astronomer, poet, scientist and inventor, this genius worked at an amazing variety of enterprises, practical and theoretical. He devised a way to make glass from sand and designed a water clock.... https://www.scmp.com/article/606329/rest-history?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/606329/rest-history?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Sep 2007 16:00:00 +0000 The sun is bright. The air is fresh and the views are wonderful. Up the hillsides climb white villas adorned with bougainvillea. Cafe society lounges beside art deco boulevards. But this is a place whose reputation is not for elegance and healthy living but for dirty deals, illicit lust and literary nightmares. Tangiers is a paradox because of its unique, much-coveted position. This is where Africa and the east almost meet Europe, separated by a narrow stretch of water. With Carthaginian... https://www.scmp.com/article/604774/out-shadows?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/604774/out-shadows?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 18 Aug 2007 16:00:00 +0000 Among a host of Che Guevara memorials, Santa Clara - the main city of central Cuba - features two statues: one is huge and heroic, perched high on a tall stone plinth; the other is life-sized, imaginative and humane, standing unfenced on public steps, freely touchable. Each seems to depict a distinctly different person. The big one, brandishing an automatic rifle, is the man of war and revolutionary fervour, the hero who strode the world stage; the small one, carrying a little boy, is the kind... https://www.scmp.com/article/600539/city-revolution?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/600539/city-revolution?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Jul 2007 16:00:00 +0000 India: rich in culture, odour, history, noise, extraordinary people, vehicular mayhem, magnificent sights, pitiable poverty. Especially in the deep south state of Tamil Nadu, which is steamy, vividly colourful, exuberant, spectacularly templed, teeming with pilgrims, over-the-top in every way. The sensory input can reach overload; there can come a point where all you want to do is sink into a seaside deckchair, but where? The Coromandel Coast presents hundreds of kilometres of sandy beaches... https://www.scmp.com/article/589887/tranquil-tranquebar?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/589887/tranquil-tranquebar?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Apr 2007 16:00:00 +0000 Not much disturbs the sleepy ways of Kamphaeng Phet, a pleasant old town lounging beside the lazy Ping River, the great waterway of northern Thailand. Surrounded by an emerald green plain of lush rice fields, it slumbers in well-fed contentment. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, however, when the city was bordered by great teak forests, this provincial capital was a key part of the timber industry. Elephants were used to drag the logs to the river, to be floated downstream to ... https://www.scmp.com/article/584527/lost-diamond?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/584527/lost-diamond?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Mar 2007 16:00:00 +0000 Madrid is having a makeover. The Pharaoh - as Madrid's visionary mayor is being called - is at work. Buildings are cloaked in screens, monuments shrouded in scaffolding. Streets have been dug up and routes diverted. 'Madrid is currently undertaking the greatest process of urban transformation in its history and one of the most ambitious in Europe,' boasted Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, mayor of Madrid, to reporters recently. Bear with me, he implores the grumbling Madrilenos - disturbed, dust-caked... https://www.scmp.com/article/579004/real-madrid?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/579004/real-madrid?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Jan 2007 16:00:00 +0000 There is a way to see Angkor without going there, downsized for sure but devoid of the crowds. Cruising excellent rural roads and climaxing on a mountain top, there it is; not in Cambodia, but in Thailand. The ancient Khmers created the greatest architectural monuments of Southeast Asia in their capital city, Angkor. In their heyday, a millennium ago, they were the overlords of Indochina, their power extending far and wide, especially on the great plateau that is now northeast Thailand. Masters... https://www.scmp.com/article/573051/road-ruins?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/573051/road-ruins?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 Nov 2006 16:00:00 +0000 Never have potentates been so fabulous and princes so splendid as the hereditary rulers of India. The Hindu rajas and maharajas, the Muslim nizams and nawabs - the supreme images of aristocratic magnificence have been India's ineffably extravagant royalty in recent history. The British never governed the whole of India directly. Even at the least extent of princely rule, during the last century of the British Raj, a third of the subcontinent and a quarter of its people were governed by Indian... https://www.scmp.com/article/572087/maharaja-magic?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/572087/maharaja-magic?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 18 Nov 2006 16:00:00 +0000 Rain is not usually a great attraction; rays regularly receive top billing. But it depends where you live. Saharan nomads, for example, adore a long downpour and a pleasant drizzle will do a Kalahari bushman just fine. Much better than that old devil sun. If you live in the tropics, escape from solar frazzling is no bad thing - but it does pay to choose your moisture wisely. I recommend central Vietnam, Hue in particular, from now until December. As the year draws towards a close, the rains... https://www.scmp.com/article/565962/reign-check?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/565962/reign-check?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 30 Sep 2006 16:00:00 +0000 There is a city built on hills, where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars, and you lose your heart. I go to a different one with even more hills and cable cars and lose my tooth. And almost my life. But I have nothing against Istanbul and rather a lot for it. How can you complain about a place with stunning architecture, stirring sea breezes, kaleidoscopic bazaars and lip-smacking cuisine? A place where seagulls keen, muezzins sing and dervishes whirl? Where you can just as easily... https://www.scmp.com/article/563428/incisors-guide-istanbul?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/563428/incisors-guide-istanbul?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 Sep 2006 16:00:00 +0000 The US started it. Then, not so long ago, it was East Asia - Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore - that dazzled the world with futuristic cityscapes. Now all the buzz seems to be coming from the Arabian Gulf, particularly Dubai. But another Gulf state, Qatar, is suddenly waking up and making waves, too. Seventy years ago, Qatar was a place of poor fishermen and pearl divers. A mere thumb of land sticking out from the vastness of Arabia into the shallow waters of the Gulf, Qatar was an unadorned... https://www.scmp.com/article/560162/pearl-arabia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/560162/pearl-arabia?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Aug 2006 16:00:00 +0000 This day, 61 years ago, was the single most destructive day in human history. On August 6, 1945, at 8.16am, an atomic bomb exploded 600 metres above Hiroshima. An intense sun-like energy carbonised and flattened the city centre and tens of thousands of people died in an instant. You arrive in the city knowing some of this. You leave knowing a lot more. But in between, it's mostly as if the bomb was never dropped. For Hiroshima is a pleasant, modern and prosperous city, surrounded by mountains... https://www.scmp.com/article/559255/tale-two-cities?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/559255/tale-two-cities?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 Aug 2006 16:00:00 +0000 Moscow is the Kremlin and Red Square, St Basil's Cathedral and the Bolshoi Ballet. Yes, don't miss them. But for anyone with a penchant for the weird, the wonderful and the woeful, or a fascination with the unique mixture of appalling abuses and extraordinary achievements that was the Soviet Union, Moscow has many other treasures. The USSR revelled in monstrous monuments, stupendous statuary and ubiquitous hammer-and-sickle heraldry. The state was the only organ that was allowed to make public... https://www.scmp.com/article/558424/relics-revolution?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/558424/relics-revolution?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 29 Jul 2006 16:00:00 +0000 When you approach the majestic monument of Angkor Wat, crossing the 190-metre-wide moat via the enormous stone causeway, you see the big picture - and mighty it is: a temple whose outer walls run for almost 4km and whose huge central sanctuary climbs skywards to imitate the sacred Mount Meru, with four lower tower 'peaks' at each corner and a middle summit tower of pine-cone-like beauty soaring 65 metres towards the heavens. At the main gateway, you marvel at the chutzpah of its ancient Khmer... https://www.scmp.com/article/546894/heavenly-bodies?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/546894/heavenly-bodies?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 29 Apr 2006 16:00:00 +0000 When England played in their first football World Cup finals in Europe, in Switzerland in 1954, they stayed in accommodation of a frugal nature. English footballers earned a maximum of GBP20 a week at that time and football was not associated with glamour. Now, the top players earn thousands of times that amount and for this year's finals, England's finest will be staying in one of Germany's most exclusive and prestigious hostelries, the Schlosshotel Buhlerhohe. 'I am thrilled by this... https://www.scmp.com/article/536975/black-forest-chateau?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/536975/black-forest-chateau?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 18 Feb 2006 16:00:00 +0000 'Nothing will ever become of you, Einstein!' said a Munich high-school teacher to his awkward pupil. A decade later, deep in Switzerland, Einstein was a clerk in the patent office and working at night on the problems of physics. In 1905, he published some papers. Historians refer to the year as Einstein's annus mirabilis, 'the miracle year', when he put out major works on the special theory of relativity, quantum theory and the theory of Brownian motion, five extraordinary papers that... https://www.scmp.com/article/526671/relatively-speaking?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/526671/relatively-speaking?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 26 Nov 2005 16:00:00 +0000 The plan is to see what relics of Brussels' brilliant art nouveau constitution we can discover. And worm our way inside if possible. We have gathered some details from art and design books. The most beautiful place, and the first great art nouveau project, is clearly Hotel Tassel. Which is not a hotel. 'Hotel' in French can mean mansion or town house. In our friend's flat, we take out the map. No, surely not! It is in the next street. Not only that, as we rush to the window to look out over... https://www.scmp.com/article/525642/art-street?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/525642/art-street?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 19 Nov 2005 16:00:00 +0000 How does one make sense of it? An Arizona western movie location adorned with ancient Hindu temples arranged by an abstract sculptor? Who put those finely formed boulders on top of each other so cleverly, so artfully? Surely this is no accident? When Jackie Chan's The Myth hits screens on Friday, a lot of people will be asking: 'Where the hell is that backdrop?' It could be a brilliant special-effects exercise, but it isn't. Which doesn't mean the place is believable, even when you're... https://www.scmp.com/article/516672/road-ruins?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/516672/road-ruins?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Sep 2005 16:00:00 +0000