We’re back in Cambodia at our home in Siem Reap so this isn’t strictly an update from the road. Although I did start writing it in Singapore where I was feeling terribly guilty for having had to neglect poor Grantourismo because we were so busy working on print stories. Terence and I have just returned from … Read more
The best Halong Bay cruise boats range from petite boats with just a few berths that you can hire privately to big gleaming white boats with five-star hotel facilities. We’ve tested many of them over 15 years living in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, where we lived in Hanoi and Hoi An, and these are the … Read more
Halong Bay in northeast Vietnam is a dazzling unspoilt seascape distinguished by clusters of verdant islands, craggy islets, limestone karsts, and schist outcrops that dramatically rise out of jade coloured waters, and cruising Halong Bay is a must when you’re in Vietnam. Immortalised in cinema, poetry, folk tales, myths, and legends, beguiling Halong Bay in … Read more
This is the fourth installment of a series reflecting on the Syria we knew and the Syrians we befriended in the years we travelled to the country before the Civil War. Parts one and two were on the Storyteller Abu Shady and Jazz Duo Rasha Rizk and Ghazwan Zerkli. The Old City of Damascus had … Read more
I wanted to share a moment in time from Damascus in 2009 for the third part of our series reflecting upon Syria and the Syrians we knew before the Civil War. That was the last time we visited Syria, to work on a handful of stories for magazines. We were also developing a book project … Read more