A slow train to ‘nowhere’
This sleepy ponderous train ride gives us a sense of overall fulfillment when visiting the old British Burma colonial hill-station of Kalaw. Boarding the train at Shwe Nyaung station, near Inle Lake, we’re struck immediately by the Spartan and somewhat grubby nature of the Upper Class carriages we’re to travel in. The curtains look as if they’ve doubled up as cleaning cloths and the seats as footrests, so we’re under no illusion that...
Wat – no Croft or Jones?
The temples of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat complex are a fascinating insight into ancient kingdoms that now appear to owe as much to Indiana Jones and Lara Croft for their fame as any factual history. If we were under any illusion that Angkor Wat would be a quiet exploration through tumbling vine-clad stones in an impenetrable jungle, we were much mistaken. Our visit to Siem Reap, site of the Angkor Wat complex, coincides with a major...
Do do Vilamendhoo!
If the notion of white-sand barefoot luxury with unparalleled crystal-clear snorkelling turns you on – then Vilamendhoo in the South Ari Atoll of the Maldives is the place for you. Gently lapping water around the stilts of our Jacuzzi Water Villa is the only sound we can hear as we lounge on our deck overlooking the crystal-clear waters of the coral lagoon – a soporific sound broken only by the occasional buzz of a seaplane carrying...
A taste of old Rangoon
Hidden away in corners of Yangon, Myanmar, are memories of the often unwelcome presence of occupying nations. Nevertheless they offer stylish refuges from the modern bustle and clutter of this busy city. Yangon like so many Asian cities is growing faster than it can accommodate in terms of cleanliness, clutter and noise. It’s not one of the most attractive cities we’ve been to, being an amalgam of pagodas, power-lines and pollution...
Ha Long? About two days.
We find that high expectations are often disappointed, whereas greater pleasures can be derived from the unexpected. Ha Long Bay seems to fulfill both. Ha Long is the most visited location in Vietnam, if not Southeast Asia. Little surprise therefore that we aren’t going to have the place to ourselves. What we don’t expect however is the sheer volume of tourist traffic at this time of year, in the period between the rains and the high...
