Lara DunstonI asked: what happened to ‘the journey’? Is the process of getting ‘there’ no longer as important as it once was? My friend Greg says: “Get me there as painlessly as possible. That is still important, but airports are airports, and other than the quality of food, and perhaps the entertainment system, planes are planes. … Read more about What happened to the the journey?
It’s the people you meet that makes travel cool for you. Not star sights or great restaurants or lively bars, but it’s the people you meet at those places, the people you meet on your moves, that makes travel so great. These were the results of my ‘what makes travel cool for you?’ poll: 80% … Read more about It’s the people you meet
Not far from Dubai’s gritty Karama and Satwa ‘hoods is Al-Musalla Rd, Bur Dubai, the city’s ‘Little India’. The side streets are lined with Bollywood tape shops and boutiques selling bejewelled and sequinned numbers modelled by kitsch mannequins. There are cheap Pakistani, Azerbaijani and Russian eateries, and Indian sweet shops. There’s a tea shop one … Read more about Dubai: best backstreets vol 2
Travellers to Dubai tend to come for sun, sand and shopping. Few seem interested in exploring anything more than the hotel beach and nearest mall. Yet, like Hong Kong, Dubai’s backstreets are endlessly fascinating. While the city’s critics complain that Dubai has no culture or soul, they only need to get out of their five … Read more about Dubai: best backstreets vol 1
I’ve been thinking about what I love about Hong Kong’s backstreets: dried seafood stores with their just-arrived produce laid out on the pavement; down-to-earth eateries with delicious glazed ducks hanging in their windows; medicinal herbalists selling snake skins, animal tails, herbs, potions, and other oddities we can only guess at; tiny shops carving bespoke wooden, … Read more about Hong Kong: what’s to love about the backstreets