As we wander, we wonder
Retreat in Sigirya I recently visited Sigirya with my husband and mother in law and we stayed for 3 nights 4 days in the Aliya Resort and Spa. My main search criteria was for a local brand resort that had an option for 2 bedrooms in one accommodation, and Aliya Resort and Spa hit the […]
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Exotic Luxury Recently, I was in Dubai and didn’t feel like spending my time in shopping malls. I wondered what would be a quintessentially Dubai experience that I couldn’t get anywhere else that would be pleasurable and relaxing. It didn’t take much consideration before I decided on the One and Only Spa in The Palm. […]
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Luxury Boutique We’ve now explored 3 YTL resorts in Malaysia, and even by the first experience at Cameron Highlands Resort, we pretty much knew that this was a brand that is unlikely to let us down. There are only 4 YTL resorts in Malaysia and the most famous one is Pangkor Laut Resort, which is […]
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This is less a travel anecdote but more of a memory lane type of rumination. As I’ve been repeating ad nauseam, my best years were my Ankara years. I lived in the Gaziosmanpasa part of Cankaya and life revolved mainly around 2 roads – Arjantin Cadessi and Filistine Cadessi and all of its accompanying sokak. […]
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Magic of Montreal As I discussed in my snapshot of Ottawa, I am a big fan of Canada. Out of all the trips in 2018, my Canadian experience was my favourite. It was probably the first time I landed on North American territory since more than two decades ago, so it was very much like […]
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Fancy Sunday Brunch at the Ritz Carlton It was one of my best friend’s birthday and when we knew we would coincide in Geneva this winter during her birthday week, there was no other choice but to indulge ourselves a little bit. To be fair, I had done a little bit of research on what […]
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Damansara City, Damansara Heights Technically this is not a ‘Travel Anecdote’ but rather more of a local anecdote. I am proud to say that my neck of the woods has made it to Lonely Planet’s World’s Top 10 Neighbourhoods (though we share the same list with Tooting of South London so am not sure how glamorous […]
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Paradise on Earth I never really paid attention to the different qualities of beaches until we went to Maldives in 2014. I didn’t do that much research before I came, our key words were mainly private beach villas, and put a financial cap on it as it soon became obvious that the prices for their […]
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Ho Chi Minh Thoughts HCM was the last city we visited in Vietnam. After having first arrived into the unique atmosphere of Hanoi, then moved south to the melancholia of Lang Co and the ubiquitous Hoi An, HCM felt somehow closer in temperature and feel to other capital cities of South East Asia with mushrooming […]
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1.) ALEENTA HUA HIN This was located in Pranburi and not Hua Hin as named. Aleenta is approximately 3 hours drive away from central Bangkok and if you leave at about 8 or 9 am on Saturday, you will be there by 11am/12pm to enjoy the property without being too tired. Well starting with the […]
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The Accidental Tourist For various reasons, we landed up in Prague at the eleventh hour. While the week was dedicated to a work meeting elsewhere, the meeting dates shifted and after weighing up a few pros and cons, we decided to spend the week in Prague. Less than 2 hours from London, with Easyjet offering […]
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Bygone Years From the mid 1990’s till 2003, this was my ‘hood’. In fact, there was a time when I didn’t quite get that London didn’t begin at the Baker Street tube station and end at the Bond Street tube station. Back then, even Queensway and Tottenham Court Road were hovering at the edges of […]
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Foodie Friends I have a pretty undeveloped palate – my cooking expeditions are usually strictly regulated by the precise instructions of a cook book and not by my own intuition of say which herbs and type of cheese complements which type of poultry. I am further confounded by what would be the right amount of […]
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10 Days in Paris’s 20th Arrondissement This autumn I found myself ‘stuck’ in Paris for more than a week and what can I say, there are worse things in the world than finding yourself ambling around this captivating haven of chic. As you know, I’ve always been infatuated by this city and country and even […]
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5 General Discoveries on the Maple Tree Country The first thing that hit me about Canada is how supernaturally friendly people were. In a month, I can’t count how many random conversations total strangers have initiated with me in lifts, shopping malls, supermarkets (mainly in Toronto). I naturally compare this to 8 years in London […]
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No Swiss Neutrality I confess – upon arrival to Zurich this autumn, I had no real passion, impression or interest in Zurich. As far as I was concerned, I was there to see a good friend and the city was an irrelevant backdrop. I was sadly still a little underwhelmed with my year in Geneva […]
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Because Bangkok is a city of so much diversity, describing her food scene is probably best done in two themes – trendy dining catered for the urbane crowd and just good wholesome local fare for everyone. The first post will start with her trendy dining outlets. These are 5 of my best experiences. The Blue […]
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Hanoi was the first city we visited in our 1 week trip to Vietnam. It was my second Indochina experience and I initially thought it would be somewhat similar to the cool, relaxed vibe of Siem Reap. Obviously I soon realised that Hanoi and Siem Reap could not be more different. In general, I found […]
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Seminyak is not one of my ultimate favourite spots in Bali but it’s a semi rites-of-passage visit that I somehow feel compelled to arrange for newcomers to Bali. I lump it in the ‘party heaven’ category, beloved by tribes from the Southern Hemisphere and if that is your type of adventure then by all means, […]
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Throwaway descriptions of Cambodia often include ‘Angkor Wat’ ‘Genocide Museum’ and ‘Beautiful People’ and I am no exception. We went there for an extended weekend and were told that we would be mystified by the people and the ambiance. Sure enough once I got into a taxi to head for the hotel, I felt pushed […]
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French Summer, 2017 For us, Cote d’Azur was ravishing in every way. I had always, always wanted to go but never wanted to attempt it as a student because well… it’s the kind of place you want to stroll around romantically with your life partner, no? When you feel more of a grown up, […]
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The Lanna Kingdom is our favourite place in Thailand. It’s what I would describe a Thai version of Ubud + Luang Prabang – an artisan temple town, set on a hilly terrain with much to see and do as you stroll around an old town and within a serene atmosphere. As is always the case […]
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Shanghai was the first city I visited in the mainland of People’s Republic of China and I was completely disarmed by her. Many have told me that Shanghai isn’t perhaps the most accurate reflection of China so I guess I will need to explore other parts of this vast country to understand her better. For […]
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I usually enjoy Paris only for a few days at any given time, so for me, she is always the quintessential ingenue. Flawed but too dreamy to truly offend. 2017 was our Francophile month over the summer. We had gone to attend a lovely friend’s (and somewhat neighbour presently!) wedding in the South of France […]
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It’s trite to love this UNESCO heritage town so much but I guess cliches come from some kernel of truth or at least a repeated sentiment by a collection of observers. For me, it’s definitely my favourite town in the Indo-China strip. It doesn’t have the breathtaking silhouette of Siem Reap’s Angkor Wat or the […]
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My friend A. was thrilled by some of the virginal beaches of the Philippines she had recently visited, so she asked me if we could replicate that experience in Bali. Well I didn’t want to disappoint her as I knew that this was probably not going to happen to the places that we were going […]
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As I mentioned in my first post under this category, I will try to get Bali ‘out of the way’ first because this is the island that I have the most ‘data’ on in my laptop. Other places that I’d like to share of will require a little bit more time in terms of collecting […]
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Looking for The Higher Self 