Shinta Mani, Siem Reap
From budget boutique bolt-holes to blow-the-budget palaces Siem Reap has it all – in fact it’s hard to imagine a single town in the world with a better selection of stylish places to stay. Here are my top 10 Siem Reap hotels for style on every budget…
This Islamic school was very happy to see some Western visitors
Of all the places in which I’ve travelled no destination has made me wish harder for the invention of the eyeball-implanted camera as The Gambia. Nearly every street scene, vendor, vehicle, market stall and school child has you reaching excitedly for your lens. Here are a selection of my favourite portraits of the Gambian people I encountered on my travels…
No trees were harmed in the taking of this photo. But my pride sure was.
Remember when Britney Spears married backing dancer Kevin Federline and the tabloids nicknamed the wannabe rapper who wooed the pop star and her millions ‘Kevin Fed-Her-A-Line’?
Well, I’m channeling Britney circa 2004 whilst in The Gambia and being fed plenty of lines during my trip, mainly from the omnipresent ‘bumsters’ – smooth-talking local lads who hang around the beaches befriending female tourists.
But despite their best efforts the most memorable line I’m fed all week turns out to be rather more literal than ‘hey beautiful lady, you’re one in a million.’…
As a frequent traveller I do come and go a lot (I’m a member of a pretty cultured club dontchya know). But I’ve never actually missed an international flight before, even though I’ve often deserved to. Let’s just say I’ve always had good flight karma. But today it changed its colours on me.
Just as the only place I’ve been the victim of crime is South London, not Soweto, NW1 not Nicaragua, by George of all the exotic and dramatic factors which could conspire to make me finally miss a plane, it was something as pedestrian as a hapless Network Rail employee burning their Hovis that finally did me in.
But Carrie Bradshaw-style I got to thinking of all the near misses I’ve had, and what better stories they actually make than a drizzly grey morning struggling with shrugging staff at St Pancras, and gridlock on London’s roads.
Here are my top 3 flight fiascoes – and today jumps right in at Number 1:
I often evangelise about the saving grace of apartment rental as opposed to hotel stays for a certain type of trip.
Usually I’m preaching to the converted but some people would need a miracle of water-to-wine proportions before they’d give up 24-hour room service, the breakfast buffet and a decent concierge (though perhaps not the in-room bible).
But even though the hotel versus apartment debate will run and run, and I’ll always worship boutique hotels and quirky B&Bs too, I’ve had something of an epiphany on a recent visit to Brighton: for the perfect large group trip finding the right rental apartment really is like discovering the God Particle…
Canadian Scenery by www.loveandpassport.com
Canada is one of those destinations that has steadily climbed up my wishlist over the years until it reached the very top and flailed its arms around furiously shouting ‘choose me, you have to choose me for your next trip!’
After meeting cool Canadians, working with colleagues from Toronto, travelling with folks from Vancouver and bumping into any number of people who couldn’t shut up about how brilliant Canada was, I finally decided I would spend some quality time there this year, and these are the three activities and places that have stood out for my big Canadian wishlist.
