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Category: Asia

January 23, 2025

The Case of The Bookworm and The Travel Bug: Istanbul 2022

The Mysterious Mannequin was the first Nancy Drew story my mother had given me. It had a bright yellow spine, a cover intriguing enough for the exotic tale of Istanbul it spun, a disappearance in the Grand Bazaar and a confrontation in the Basilica Cistern, messages concealed in a carpet, and throwaway descriptions of baklava and moussaka within.

August 27, 2024

Sri Lanka: Nuwara Eliya’s green gold

Today we are onboard the iconic sky blue train as it puffs stoically up the highlands. Malachite forests roll serenely past, gradually making way for the sweeping tea-bush laden hills of the fabled gardens rising out of the grey mist. It truly is one of the world's great train journeys.

June 20, 2024

Sri Lanka: Kandy, the city on the hill

Kandy Lake lies just outside, wearing a soft fine mist over its silvery surface and a rippling parapet wall curving around it like a cloud. A royal bathing pavilion on the shore had been built for Kandyan queens, and has found a second life as a much more prosaic police post.

December 10, 2021

Cà phê sữa đá and vibes (part 3)

I'm not the same, not after you was the refrain of the song that soundtracked my last week; not after life in this town, not after the friends made, and certainly not after those unexpected connections, some so last-minute they were very nearly missed.