Tag Archive: sights

Aug
25

Ho Chi Minh City, the City Still Known As Saigon

Perhaps for the same nostalgic reasons that Mumbai’s locals prefer to call their city Bombay, Ho Chi Minh City, as it was renamed in 1975 after the fall of Saigon, is, we quickly discovered, still fondly referred to as Saigon by the locals. We don’t care what it’s called – we loved it. Although I’m not …

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Aug
18

Exploring the Isaan: the Lovely Backroads to Loie

From Khon Kaen, where we explored gleaming gold temples, ambled about the town with an affable monk, strolled by the scenic lake, people-watched at the waterfront hipster market, and savoured the aromas of Isaan food sizzling away at the night markets, we drove in a north-westerly direction through the Loie province. We’d had a busy …

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Jul
05

Exploring the Isaan: the Khmer Temple of Prasat Hin Phimai

It was a scorcher of a day. We’d tried hard to time our arrival at the ruins of the Khmer temple of Prasat Hin Phimai, slap bang in the centre of the small town of Phimai in Thailand’s northeastern Isaan region, for the late afternoon. But somehow we’d still arrived early in the afternoon and …

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Dec
14

Our Home Away from Home in Istanbul

Home to Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman treasures, Sultanahmet, Istanbul’s ‘old city’, on the European side of the Golden Horn, is where first-time travellers to Istanbul usually stay. It’s where we stayed when we first visited the city many years ago. But once you’ve seen Old Istanbul’s star attractions, Hagia Sophia (Aya Sofya), the Blue Mosque …

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Mar
30

Ways of Seeing Barcelona

Most visitors to Barcelona are intent on seeing the city’s sights – Las Ramblas, La Sagrada Familia, Park Güell, La Pedrera and all of the other Gaudi buildings, the Picasso Museum, Miró museum, Barcelona Cathedral, and so on. We know we were the first couple of times we visited – and they are worth seeing. …

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