In search of the soul survivors
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Gardening Club, London, June 1993
I’m on a dance floor in a crowded sweaty basement. It’s hot; sauna hot. Sweat is dripping from the ceiling and the bare torsos...
Travel Inspiration
Unity Temple
Oak Park, Illinois
As a designer I’m a sucker for good design. I also love Modernist architecture. So here in Chicago, I’m - in a very real sense - spoilt for choice. This is my f...
Homecoming Queen
Madrid, Spain
Madrid is my hometown, but I don’t spend as much time here as I should. It’s been five minutes since I landed in Barajas and already the smell gets to me – I’m ...
Down at The Abbey with Todd Barnes
West Hollywood, California, USA
No trip to West Hollywood would be complete without at least one trip to The Abbey. Situated just off Santa Monica Boulevard, this courtyard-style gay bar ...
The gay gaucho
Corrientes, Argentina
Hugh MacDermott’s escape to Argentina from England was epic. Inspired by the book Tschiffely’s Ride, the story of one long-rider’s 10,000 mile journey from ...
Heart of Illinois
Galena, Illinois, USA
We were both born in the Midwest and though we’ve had the opportunity to travel throughout the country, we can’t think of any better place to live in than Galen...
State of a fair
Springfield, Illinois, USA
The Illinois State Fair is very much a part of the State’s identity – an authentic, annual celebration of rural Midwestern culture.
As a child growing up in Ill...
The Overview Effect
Antarctica
It is New Year’s Eve and I am deep in the middle of a scopolamine disco nap. I had put the anti-nausea patch behind my ear when we sailed past Cape Horn, headed...
Turning Fortunes
Galena, Illinois, USA
Everyone has heard of Chicago. The mere mention of the city conjures pictures of monolithic skyscrapers, gargantuan civic buildings, iconic overhead railway lin...
Snapshots of the city
Tel Aviv, Israel
Martin Perry spends a day with his camera in one of the world’s most photogenic cities....
Art & minds
Madrid, Spain
As an old travelling soul, I thumbed through many a paperback guidebook on Madrid before coming to the Spanish capital. Every single one lists Madrid’s ‘Golden ...
Colonial chic
Chantaburi, Thailand
Just inland from Thailand’s East coast, Chantaburi is best known for its sapphires. In days gone by, this prosperous town was the haven for Chinese merchants, I...
Waterfall chaser
Thung Yai Naresuan, Thailand
You might not find this one on the map, but seek it out by locating the UNESCO protected waterfalls of Tee Lor Su. On the Burmese border you’ll find the Thung Y...
Offshore luxury
Koh Kradan, Thailand
Is a beautiful white sand beach, shared with quite literally no one else just the ticket? Well, let us tell you about Koh Kradan. It’s quite possibly one of the...
The Archipelago Cinema
Koh Yao Noi, Thailand
Pop-up cinemas are all the rage these days, a hipster pastime that has taken the world by storm – from hidden ones, to rooftop experiences with hot-tubs. But no...
GastRo cruising
Bangkok, Thailand
To experience Bangkok is to ride the mighty Chao Phraya River. There are a number of cruise operators offering dining experiences of all kinds on the river, but...
Horse play
Buenos Aires, Argentina
There is no doubt that Argentina and polo go hand in hand. It’s a peculiar thing really, considering the country’s Spanish history, a world away from the green ...
Mind, body and soil
Isla Del Descanso, Delta Tigre, Argentina
Its a clear, warm, spring morning. I’m gliding along the calm waterways in the delta of the Paraná River (also known as the Delta Tigre). The manicured gardens ...
Beachside Bohemia
St. Petersburg , Florida, USA
I’m standing outside the ramshackle house and seemingly unloved yard where beat-generation darling Jack Kerouac died. It’s a self-inflicted moment of melancholy...
Valley inspired
Napa Valley, California, USA
Dawn is breaking over Yountville, Napa. A light, crisp breeze kisses my forehead and wakes me from my sleepwalk. It’s a perfectly clear Napa morning, a ‘microcl...
Floating history
Dead Sea, Israel
On the eastern edge of the Judaean desert, the gigantic temple of Masada sits baking in the oppressive heat. It’s the kind of heat that sends you scurrying for ...
Children of the revolution, Madrid, Spain
The change that Madrid has undergone over the last few decades is evident in its trendy facades of Malasaña. Some call it gentrification and while I can’t deny ...
Walk this way
Manila, The Phillipines
I grew up with Imelda Marcos. Well, not literally – but in my young, gay, Asian eyes she was legendary. It wasn’t until I was older that I understood it was the...
Finding nirvana
Sri Lanka
The sun beams through the grey clouds onto the platform at Badulla station, high in the hills of Sri Lanka’s tea region. Rain is coming, probably the same rain ...
The new guests
Penang, Malaysia
All the best stories involve intrigue – and my own certainly does – worthy of the Chinese TV period dramas that my grandmother is glued to. I have very fond mem...
Secret shopper
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Shopping in Buenos Aires has always come high on my to-do list. That probably goes for every worldly, stylish traveller, I’m sure. From its hipster Palermo Soho...
Grape day out
Hua Hin, Thailand
I’m one of the most open-minded people I know – yet I find the concept of wine production in Thailand somewhat strange. Everything points at the impossible – fr...
Water park
Iguazu, Argentina
An auspicious occasion brought me here and helped me check something off my life bucket list. My visit marked the 82nd birthday of when Iguazú Falls and its sur...
Beating of the wave
Ralf Obergfell
I was out in the Andaman Sea, in the waters just close to the Malaysian maritime border, when the Tsunami struck. I was visiting Koh Lipe as a tourist and had b...
Earthly delight
Madrid, Spain
Uwern Jong uncovers the recent social history of the Spanish capital to understand what makes it so proud.
The central panel of Bosch’s triptych, en...
Of Gods, Roosters and Rabbits
Taipei, Taiwan
Today, I returned home to my motherland – like billions of other people of Chinese descent across the world – to celebrate the arrival of the year of the Rooste...
A new dawn
Mandalay, Myanmar
It’s 4:30am. It’s dark but the warmth of the air hugs me like an overbearing aunt who hasn’t seen you for years and still treats you like the little boy she rem...
Howdy cowboy
Graham, Texas, USA
A jagged scar runs through a town called Cool, the trail of destruction left by a twister that touched down here a couple of months back. The town itself is lit...
Seoul food
Seoul, South Korea
It was a meeting of minds, to join Joe McPherson, the award-winning Korean food writer and blogger of Seoul foodie-musings, ZenKimchi, on his local food tour. W...
Greek love
Athens, Greece
The 2006 movie 300 – an explosion of CGI bloodshed and homoeroticism set in ancient Greece – contains a line of dialogue that caused a minor furore at the time....
Time to travel
Venice, Italy
It’s a dark, moonless night, but that doesn’t seem to bother our pilot, as he drives at break-neck speed, across the open stretch of black water towards the twi...
Kings of the road
Manila, The Philippines
In a sprawling metropolis like Manila, where rapid modernisation gives little precedence to heritage, a somewhat humble mode of transportation prevails as the c...
Art and optimism
Athens, Greece
Athens, more than any city I’ve visited, is a patchwork of the old and the new. Walk up any perfectly modern side street and you’ll happen upon a chunk of the O...
Dionysian legacy
Athens, Greece
Like almost all Athenian stories, this one inevitably starts with some mythology. The God Dionysis was the son of Zeus and clearly, nepotism was rife on Mount O...
On the road
Jujuy & Cafayate, Argentina
Too often these days, the journey itself is seen as the tedious bit; the no man’s land between where you are and where you want to be. But not in Argentina. Nev...
Amazing race
Salta, Argentina
I’m doing thirty on a moped, weaving through people, cars and market stalls on a narrow road. A Peruvian-American blogger is clutching onto my waist tightly as ...
Kyoto rules
Kyoto, Japan
As we descended from the charming speakeasy in Gion, a quintessentially filmic, Kyoto scene unfurled. Through the mist and drizzle on the lantern-lit, cobbled s...
Ink credible
Hong Kong, China
Sometimes in life you travel to places for a larger reason, unbeknownst to you. It was on one such trip that I finally satisfied a long-held desire to get a tat...
Manila-Namnam
Manila, Philippines
Anu’Man Kitchen & Pub is a cute and relatively new bar and restaurant in Manila’s Kapitolyo, a neighbourhood distinguished in recent years by a hipster dini...
Dalmatia 101
Dalmatian Coast, Croatia
It was an invasion-by-sea, when I first set my eyes on Dubrovnik. Having sailed stealthily overnight, we anchored our ship as the sun rose slowly over the azure...
It’s the climb
Railay, Thailand
Stepping off the plane into the midday heat of Krabi was like a kick in the chest. By the time my feet hit tarmac, my previously crisp shirt look...
How green is my valley?
Slovenia
I’m chagrined to admit that at first I found it a challenge to locate Slovenia on a map. In my somewhat limited experience of Central Europe, Slovenia was one o...
Writing’s on the wall
Buenos Aires, Argentina
It really is a small world.
I travel all the way to Latin America's southern-most capital city, Buenos Aires – the "Paris of South America" – and end up on a...
Food for thought
Toronto, Canada
What exactly is Canadian food? It’s hard to get past the stereotypes of crispy bacon and maple syrup – after that I’m stumped when it comes to deciphering Canuc...
Take a hike
Bariloche, Argentina
I blinked hard and rubbed my eyes. I had just woken from a cat nap in the car just as we pulled into the Patagonian town of Bariloche. Had I somehow teleported ...