Asia | GlobalSalsa: travel writer Belinda Jackson

Feb

Smoking hot: Volcano tourism

Fascinated by nature’s spectacular fireworks, a breed of adventurers chase volcanic eruptions around the world.

Peering into a chasm into the earth’s crust is the chance to peer into creation – pits of bubbling, boiling lava, deep rumbling voices from our planet’s core, plumes of sulphurous gases and the spectacular, powerful arcs of red-hot, molten lava shooting into a darkened sky.

For some, it’s a glimpse into hell. For others, it’s the perfect holiday.

“I guess we’re like storm chasers and people who want to see solar eclipses – we’re in the same family,” says Belgian geologist Dr Ingrid Smet, a guide for Volcano Adventures (VA).

My piece on volcano tourism was published in Paradise, the inflight magazine of Papua New Guinea’s national airline, Air Nuigini. If you’re not on an Air Nuigini flight any time soon, you can read the full article here.

Jan

The most amazing man-made structures in Asia

Faster, higher, longer and older: there’s no doubt Asia plays the one-upmanship game when it comes to architectural statements.

It’s a tough call, making a list of the top 10 architectural statements in Asia. You could go crazy on weird shopping malls or kooky skyscrapers, or totally old-school with a list of heroic monuments and temples.

I’ve earmarked some of the newest, such as Shanghai Tower and Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay, and sought balance with some of the oldest and (in my eyes) most beautiful, such as Indonesia’s Borobodur and the Bibi-Khanym Mosque in Uzbekistan.

Would love to hear your thoughts on my list, which was first published in the Sydney Morning Herald/The Age newspapers’ Traveller section.

Sunrise at Borobudur temple on Java. Photo: iStock

Oct

Hotel review: Swissotel Resort Phuket, Thailand

With Muay Thai in the gym, a broad sweep of beautiful white-sand beach, poolside kid manicures and Phuket’s cha long liquor at the poolside bar, what’s not to love about this family-friendly hotel?

Set on the broad sweep of Kamala Bay, on Phuket’s west coast, Swissotel Resort Phuket is two minutes’ walk to the beach, within driving distance of most of the island’s attractions, but away from the sin bins of Patong. Ideal for families, it’s the great beach holiday, Thai style.

You can read more about my review of this Phuket family hotel here on the Traveller website. The feature appeared in Sydney’s Sun-Herald and Melbourne’s Sunday Age newspapers.

Poolside at the Swissotel Resort Phuket, Thailand. photo: supplied.

Aug

Where to eat in Shanghai: Chef Jan Van Dyk

Recently, I was in Shanghai for a three-day eat fest. While there, I caught up with chef Jan Van Dyk of the Waldorf Astoria Shanghai on the Bund. The South African born chef calls Australia’s Sunshine Coast home, so we swapped favourite cafes… and settled on a shared fave, Hand of Fatima at the upmarket little cluster of shops at Peregian Beach.

Anyway, Jan was participating in the Waldorf Astoria’s annual hunt for new iconic dishes – this is the hotel group that gave us the Waldorf Salad, Red Velvet cakes and Eggs Benedict.

We caught up over Shanghai suckling pig and ziao long bao (Shanghai dumplings) to talk about best eats in that happening town.

Click here to read the full story, which appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and traveller.com.au

Aug

Lloyd’s Inn review, Singapore


Photo by Lloyd’s Inn, Singapore

It’s woefully easy to drop a bomb on your hotel room in Singapore:
Lloyd’s provides a more budget-friendly alternative that meets the
approval of design-hungry Singaporeans.

If you’re on the lookout for a hotel room in Singapore that doesn’t bust the budget, check out Lloyd’s Inn.

Old hands will know it for a shabby backpackers, but design-hungry Singaporeans know it’s been revamped by so-hot-right-now design studio FARM.

The hard-core white minimalist inn is close to Orchard Road, and breakfast is at the nearby kaya toast institution, Killiney Kopitiam cafe.

To find out more, check out my review in the Traveller section of the Sydney Morning Herald.

Jul

Lloyd’s Inn review, Singapore

It’s woefully easy to drop a bomb on your hotel room in Singapore: Lloyd’s provides a more budget-friendly alternative that meets the approval of design-hungry Singaporeans.

If you’re on the lookout for a hotel room in Singapore that doesn’t bust the budget, check out Lloyd’s Inn.

Old hands will know it for a shabby backpackers, but design-hungry Singaporeans know it’s been revamped by so-hot-right-now design studio FARM.

The hard-core white minimalist inn is close to Orchard Road, and breakfast is at the nearby kaya toast institution, Killiney Kopitiam cafe.

To find out more, check out my review in the Traveller section of the Sydney Morning Herald.

May

Tang: Treasures from the Silk Road capital

If you wanted to brush up on your knowledge of China’s Golden Age,
the Tang Dynasty, you could do worse than regressing to a 1970s
childhood. Grab the beanbags and binge on the campy Japanese kids’ TV
show, Monkey.

Let’s leave aside that the lead character, Monkey, is a celestial
monkey warrior and king of primates who’d conjure up an army from a few
plucked chest hairs, ride a white cloud and could transform himself into
a hornet to irritate and defeat evil: the TV program is rooted in fact.

Monkey is based on the 16th-century Chinese epic Xi You Ji
(Journey to the West), which traces the 17-year pilgrimage of the monk
Xuanzang from China to India, in search of Buddhist scriptures. In Monkey,
which was dubbed hilariously into English, the monk is called
Tripitaka, an honorary title used during the Tang Dynasty for those who
had mastered the Buddhist scriptures.

To read more about the Tang: treasures from the Silk Road capital exhibition, on display at the Art Gallery of NSW until 10 July, click here.

Jun

Great trails, pub grub and shooting on safari : Takeoff travel news

Port Campbell National Park. Photo: Mark Watson

TECH: Talk the walk

Hit the road on foot or by bike
throughout Victoria with a new website that shows 15 great walking,
cycling and mountain-bike routes, ranging from the iconic (Great Ocean
Road or Wilson’s Promontory) to the obscure (Gippsland Plains Rail Trail
or the Goldfields Track). The new website provides GPS data,
interactive mapping, beauty spots, trail descriptions and degrees of
difficulty. You can also click for accommodation, gear hire and, of
course, great restaurants, because trail mix doesn’t always cut it. See greattrailsvictoria.com.au.

FOOD: Best grub for pub lovers

Fight back against the demise of the
great English public house by settling in for lunch at Britain’s oldest
pub, Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, in the Hertfordshire city of St Albans.
The pub’s kitchen is now headed up by chef Ian Baulsh, a St Albans local
recently returned from two years in Australia working with Melbourne
celeb chef Ian Curley.
Founded in the eighth century, the
pub’s signature dishes are freerange, house-made pork sausages and beef
burgers sourced by a master butcher, and a British cheeseboard, all
using local produce. Baulsh has added a summery touch,

with chicken liver pate, pan-roasted
monkfish and chargrilled tuna nicoise. St Alban was Britain’s first
Christian martyr, Oliver Cromwell sank pints in the pub, and it’s been
called home by Stanley Kubrick and Stephen Hawking.
The city is 25 minutes by train from London’s St Pancras station on the Thameslink line. See
visitbritain.org.

AIRLINE: Planes, gains and automobiles

Passengers flying Qantas can now
earn as well as redeem points on car hire with Budget and Avis in
Australia and New Zealand. And in a move that will have points
collectors smiling, travellers also will earn frequent flyer points even
when they are paying with points. ‘‘Members will still continue to earn
points for that booking at the same rate as they would if they were
paying with cash,’’ says the airline. Its rival, Virgin Australia, lets
you earn points with Hertz, Europcar and Thrifty car rentals through its
Velocity Frequent Flyer program, but allows you to use points to book a
car only with Europcar; see
virginaustralia.com.au
. In other news, Qantas is ramping up flights to Hamilton Island,
including a new, twice-weekly Melbourne-Hamilton Island service from
June 27. See
qantas.com.au.

SAFARI: Ready, set, shoot

Photographers of all abilities will
know the frustration of snapping a safari through sticky windows or
around a badly placed safety pole.
The new safari jeep at South
Africa’s Sabi Sabi private reserve has been customised for photography
tours, with tiered seating and swivel chairs, fixed camera mounts for
additional stability and cut-out side panels. The tours are guided by professional photographers and include tuition on shutter speeds and action shots, held over sundowners

back at the lodge. Would-be lion
paparazzi can also hire additional equipment including the big guns –
such as a 200-400-millimetre lens – to pap the Big Five as they roam the
fence-free range on the edge of the Kruger National Park.
Photography safaris at Sabi Sabi run on

demand, all year round and cost from
$1800, two days, includes photographer and vehicle for up to four
people. Stays at Sabi Sabi’s Bush lodge cost from $1030 a person,
sharing. See sabisabi.com.

AIRPORTS: Flying, beautifully

Life spent in airports is quite
possibly life wasted. Instead, use that time when your flight’s delayed
to become beautiful (within reason) at AMUSE Beauty Studio, which has
opened recently at Sydney Airport. The new store stocks some of the most
desirable names in the industry, including Tom Ford, Jo Malone and
Amouage. It also offers

free beauty quickies for brows and nails, and an express make-up service for that emergency smoky eye.
As well, it’s home to Australia’s first Hermes concept shop-within-a-store, stocking its homewares range, which has

never been available outside its
branded stores. The beauty store, run by the parents of the Newslink
chain, is now open in Sydney Airport’s domestic terminals, T2 and T3,
and comes to Melbourne in August.
See
amusebeauty.com.au.

BOOK: Propaganda paradise

So North Korea’s on your bucket
list? Get a taste for its altered reality with Anna Broinowski’s witty
book, The Director is the Commander. The filmmaker wanted to make a
movie that would stop the creation of a coalseam gas mine near her home,
in Sydney Park, so she

turned to the master of propaganda,
Kim Jong-il, the former leader of North Korea and author of the
manifesto The Cinema and Directing.

The only Western filmmaker in the
world to gain total access to North Korea’s film industry, Broinowski
worked with local directors, actors and crews to create Aim High in
Creation! The Director is the Commander, $32.99,
penguin.com.au. NSW-based Guidepost Tours books
tours of North Korea with British-based Koryo Tours. A five-day tour
(including visa processing) costs from $2000 a person, departing from
Beijing.
See guideposttours.com.au.

May

KNOW IT ALL: Singapore Five essential things to consider before you go…

Haji Lane, Singapore. Photo: Belinda Jackson

KNOW IT ALL: Singapore

1.
Eat cheap on the street: hawker (street food)
stalls are carefully audited by the government and the people – a whiff of grit
or one bad review and they’re toast.

2.
Grab an MRT-bus card and skim the city like a
local. The metro system is super-fast and super-efficient, the only choice in
peak hour.

3.
Forget devil-may-care Asia, it’s all seatbelts
and waiting at the traffic lights. Singaporeans also love a good, orderly
queue

4.
The Singapore Sling turns 100 this year,
appropriate given Singapore is currently in the grip of cocktail fever, with
sleek new bars playing with everything from sake to bourbon. Pack a glossy
outfit, charge up the credit card and hit the chic strips of Ann Siang Hill and
Haji Lane (to name a few)…

5.
…and if you overdo it, the tap water is
perfectly safe to drink.

This article by Belinda Jackson was published in Sydney’s Sun-Herald Traveller section.

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