On top of the Acropolis hill, the Parthenon temple almost shimmers, sunbeams reflected on its off-white, marble columns. You’ve probably heard of Athens before. It’s this insanely ancient city (its origins dating all the way back to 3200 BC), where the sun refuses to leave and history feels as tangible as it could ever be, … Continue Reading
Welcome to Park City Park City is a hidden gem – this charming little ski town in Utah has a lot to recommend it. It is known for hosting the 2002 Winter Olympics as well as the largest festival in the United States – the Sundance Film Festival. It’s an incredibly wealthy town and unsurprisingly, … Continue Reading
Welcome to Sørkjosen – in search of the Northern Lights Ladies and gentlemen I bring you this post from the deepest darkest reaches of the Arctic Circle. A land of duality – a place where the midnight suns of summer burn in dazzling contrast with the permanent night of Winter – a time when the sun … Continue Reading
I have just devoured platefuls of plane food. Lukewarm perspiring chicken plonked in greasy matrimony with something green broiled beyond recognition. Every soggy mouthful a deliverance (context later). Serge and I are recovering from the first leg of the trip celebrating our marriage. So as I enjoyed the uniquely pungent cocktail that microwaved food and … Continue Reading
Why the Cheval Blanc Paradise in the Indian Ocean was a Huge Disappointment Let’s talk about The Cheval Blanc Randheli Maldives. We have recently returned from this newly opened super-luxe hotel. By nature, I am not prone to harbouring grudges. However, this is not borne of some saintly forbearance on my part. Like any mercurial … Continue Reading
What is Baku Like? Baku – it doesn’t look like much beneath the wing of the plane. A sand coloured shrubless land and a low pale sky, not exactly tourist board porn, if anything it looks like a biblical landscape, old testament. It’s been 18 months and I’ve truly missed it. Sometimes initial impressions belie … Continue Reading
I’m sitting in the Super Class of the TurboJet feeling slightly seasick as I try to figure out why the first class compartment smells like an onion bhaji and how much more lurching my rickety sea legs can withstand before my keyboard plays host to last night’s dim sum. As I’m cruising through the South … Continue Reading
St Petersburg – “Beauty built on bones, classical facades that cradled revolution, summers that lie in the cup of winter” (Helen Dunmore, The Siege). I read this as a 16 year old, quickly scribbled the quote in the back of my history folder promising myself that I would go. It’s been a long wait… But … Continue Reading
Over the years I’ve been fortunate enough to have stayed in a lot of spectacular hotels, from back to basics hostels in breath-taking locations to full-on shrines to luxury. But like a first love, there’s always been that one ultimate hotel before which all others hobble like knights in rusty armor. Yet affections can be uncertain things for there’s a … Continue Reading
Why I stayed at the Grand Hyatt Tokyo I love Bill Murray’s weary maladroit character in Lost in Translation and how he’s seduced by Scarlett’s subdued bosomy softness, against the minimalistic oriental backdrop of grey Tokyo skies and his melancholy loneliness. So it was Lost in Translation that bought me to Japan. And it was … Continue Reading
