We’ve returned from holiday having stayed in some pretty expensive hotels. Marble bathrooms and toilets and all that. Everything was perfect from the pressure in the showers to the six unnecessary towels each. But as usual there was a lack,…

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Though we had been to Bali before, we had never visited the east of the island, which forms the regency of Karangasem. This time we went, and I am so glad we did. Less crowded and touristy than the south…

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Arlington National Cemetery is one of the most visited tourist sites in the Washington, D.C. area, with around four million visitors every year. The evidence is all too clear as you stand at the information desk inside the bright, airy…

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A visit to China gets N talking about her culinary experiences - right from streetfood to barely-cooked seafood.

All the food is placed on a rotating glass top at the centre of the table and everybody gets a set of chopsticks. As the glass top is rotated slowly, you can reach in and pluck out of a bowl whatever you want. Only if the dish absolutely demands it do you serve food in a plate of your own. Otherwise the glass top keeps rotating and you keep picking.

Here is the notable thing. Tuk, the cabbie, ying-ying, the canoeists, the floating restautant – none of these people were officially a part of the company that operated the trip. However, every person performed their role to perfection and with complete predictability. We did not have to call or talk to anyone to co-ordinate anything. Imagine the same thing in India – the likelihood of one of these pieces not working seamlessly would have been very high.

Hari Nair recently visited Phuket and writes about some lessons he hearned from Thailand’s tourism.

Brouhaha on the election trail, picks up a number of interesting images of places, people and experiences.

Belying his age this toddy-sapper in Jammikunta near Warangal is about to reach dizzying heights as he takes to a palm tree. 

There was a small English bookshop next to the hotel we were staying at in Milan. On the evening of our second day, after a round of shopping and walking in the city, I decided to visit the shop. When…

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The funniest and saddest thing about India’s uncertainnial election seasons is the party manifestos and promisory documentation that precedes any last minute voting booth strategies. Unlike the other great democracy, Indian voters hardly get enough time to think over the…

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I had expected to see a small medieval town in the city centre, but what surprised me was the size of the old city. It is huge. I wanted to see the Piazza del Campo, the famous square where the annual Palio horse race takes place. As we walked on and on, there was no sign of this square but arrows on the streets indicated that it was further ahead. Finally when we did come to it, it was one of those “A-ha” moments that you never forget in your life.

Urban planners call it the explosion of space. Sunil travels to the Vinci, the birthplace of (duh!) Leonardo Da Vinci and Siena in the Tuscany region of Italy.

In another hour or so, the Nano, Tata’s people’s car, the $2000 automotive wonder, opens for sale at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai. For the Tatas to pull this off is a remarkable testament to the Indian auto giant and…

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