My family trips to the beach used to involve jam sandwiches laid out on plastic plates, a Punch and Judy show and, if we were lucky, an ice cream with a Flake stuck in the top. After the food, we would roll our shorts up and wade into the chilly waters of the English North…
Explore Singapore When you visit most airports, the first thing you look for is the exit sign. However, at Changi Airport in Singapore, they’ve come up with some ingenious ways to keep you there. The Jewel, a 5-minute undercover walk from Terminal 1, is home to an enormous collection of gardens, canopies, shops –…
Imagine you want to make a documentary about Thailand. You would, of course, want to mention the culture, massages and food. But what you really need are ratings. So, we’ll give the cultural stuff a sideways glance and head straight to Patpong, Bangkok’s red-light area for tourists. Then we’ll nip over to Soi Cowboy…
Before kick-off, an elderly man carefully sits in the stands replacing the skins to his drum. A couple of rows behind him, a seven-year-old boy in a white vest grabs his drumsticks and practises a roll on his kit. In the front row, a woman with cropped orange hair pieces a giant flag pole together,…
Whoever put a pair of scales in our hotel bathroom really should be sacked. When you’re in Penang, one of the food capitals of South East Asia, the last thing you want to think about is your weight. So, having shoved the scales to the back of the wardrobe, it was time to step out.…
It’s 5.30am and we’re making our way along a narrow wooden jetty. The owner of a longtail boat shines a flashlight to help us clamber on board his transport. The silence in this pre-dawn moment is broken only by the putt-putt of our modest engine as it starts to weave through the narrow waterway. Before…
Top Five Things to do in Siem Reap 1. Angkor Wat OK, so it’s obvious – but it’s number one for a reason. Angkor Wat is the world’s largest religious monument. It’s also an incredible blend of religion and nature that dates back more than 1,000 years. This is where the Khmer empire packed numerous…
Let’s play a quick game of word association. When we say ‘Bangkok’, what springs to mind? We’ll guess you’re thinking luxury malls, traffic jams and maybe some dubious nightlife. We’ll assume you’re not thinking lotus ponds, grassy cycle paths and ethnic groups. And yet, the latter is exactly what you get at Ko Kret. This…
Oh Poi Market Through the pre-dawn mist, a horn sounds. The man blowing it is perched at the front of a bamboo raft and standing behind him are five monks, their saffron robes contrasting with the verdant riverbank. The monks stand serenely as the raft gently drifts downriver, the first slivers of sunlight peering through…