Sensually Transmitted Wanderlust

Singapore - the Equatorial Utopia

2009-12-26T17:17:00.053+01:00

I always thought Singapore was a short ride from Kuala Lumpur. An hour flight, it turns out. My first one with AirAsia, a South-East Asian budget airline. In Europe, the airborne cattle-movers easyJet and RyanAir would charge me an arm and a leg for my two hefty bags but here AirAsia ground staff did not blink an eye seeing me schlepping all my luggage into the cabin. It is nice not to worry about extra weight for once - just to sit back and inhail the tantalising smells of nasi lemak and phad thai wafting from the .

Singapore's shiny Changi stops us in our tracks right away. By far and large I share Prince Charles's views on modern architecture (vile and ugly) but this paragon of modern airports: efficient, beautiful and full of hedonistic surprises. For two hours we wonder through its airy spaces past the never-ending rows of hip eateries, whimsically shaped walls, ... It is so huge, the crowds get dispersed here to the point of near imperceptibility. Like primeval Mumbo-Jumbo we gape at newspaper-, can- and battery-shaped recyclable garbage disposal machines. A mere designer gimmick? Perhaps, but they sure don't cost more than the ubiquitous rows of putrid wheelie bins that clutter the vast expanses of London's cityscape.

- Would you like some change? a uniformed lady sneaks up on us as we frisk our pockets for dosh to buy tickets at Changi metro station. She gives us coins in exchange for our banknotes and punches the right buttons on the vending machine. Singapore's Big Brother is already taking a very good care of his visitors.

The metro train is roomy, noiseless and air-conditioned just to the notch where you feel neither heat nor cold. I can't help but to compare it to the rickety rides in the Tube's rat tunnels. I would love Bob Crow and Boris Johnson take a ride here and comment on Britain's former colony beating it with a stick to a clean, cheap and efficient public transportation.

My fellow metro riders' clothes are crying that we are in the First World, real, unashamed about its love for quality, just like in Switzerland and Japan - simple flattering cuts, clean colours and quality fabrics - nothing like the inexplicable Northern European penchant for deliberate grunge and grime in fashion.

I am so glad I'm in Asia again: I don't need to walk more than a couple of minutes for delicious and inexpensive food. My stomach is grunting for a refuel. Right across the road from our hotel in Little India a 24-hour food court is sending aromas of freshly cooked food wafting through the hot humid air. A sudden torrential downpour brings a bit of cool as we tuck in our lunch: orange laksa (seafood and tofu noodles in thick and spicy coconut broth), big pink prawns in a bowl of mee noodles and a classic plate of steamed rice and sides: stir-fried greens, chicken in black bean sauce and what I would describe as a tastier and healthier Chinese version of Yorkshire pudding made from a soft fried tofu shell and flavoured mashed potatoes. The shakes I picked at the juice stall do not get any more exotic: soursop and kedondong. Both are refreshingly sourish sweet and the tall glasses contain enough liquid to quench our flight dehydration.

There is a lot of slagging off Singaporean authorities for being insensitive to architectural heritage. I really do not understand where that comes from. This is perhaps the only city in the region that takes its vernacular architecture seriously: not as a nuisance to modern development but something to cherish as well as make profit from. The brightly painted façades of the ubiquitous Chinese Straits style overlook cleanly swept pavements while restaurants, shops and small company offices are bustling with life and tons of entrepreneurial spirit. Although the standard high-rise apartments blocks are everywhere, the city has its own distinct low-rise face, that is almost invariably neglected in the rest of South-East Asian cities in favour of modern structures.

Blend of old and new is such an overused expression but it works in Singapore. Take Komala's, a South Indian fast food chain: the much emulated McDonald's concept of set menus and getting food at the counter here is combined with eating spicy curries off a banana leaf by hand. A bhattura (puff pastry), a poppadam, a mound of cashew fried rice, a veg curry, a dahl (curried lentils) and raitha (yoghurt-based salad) to be followed by a small cup of clove-flavoured sweet concoction for dessert. No soda, mango juice please - and, voilà, an exotic vegetarian meal for about EUR 3.50!

I spot a lovely sight of two besaried Indian ladies fixing themselves a glass of teh tarek, Malaysia's national drink. They really take their time pouring hot milk tea from one glass into another to make froth. It's a cultural ritual. In this land that, in all likelihood, had never known famines, it is not merely about feeding your face, it's about having oyur food and drink just the way it tastes best.

Happily bupring we walk out into Little India that, true to its name, is a piece of the subcontinent brimming with brash colours, pungent aromas, arrays of flower garlands,and tiers of colourful gods and godesses.

Food, food, food, people are eating everywhere. Streets are plastered with colourful menus luring you with the sights of colourful dishes. They say Chinaman's life revolves around three things: family, money and food and the rest are just props for those three pillars. I kind of understand this philosophy of the folks who have survived close on five millennia of hardship: at the end of the day what matters is your close ones and their well-being. If you can't provide for them and make sure your life continued, you're a failure.

- Liu lian yi ge! - I try my macaronic Chinese on this ice-cream vendor when English communication fails. I want a durian popsicle but it takes me 20 minutes to get it as a whole Chinese family surrounds the stall and outshouts my . Singapore projects a self-image of an English-speaking nation but most people I meet here use Singlish - a local Pidgin variety heavy on dialectal Chinese and Malay borrowings. Singapore's claim for four national langauges - English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil - holds even less water: your average Singaporean Joe Blow from the street will speak a Chinese dialect as a mother tongue, a degree of Singlish and most likely hardly any Malay and definitely no Tamil. But I do like this melange of cultures living their own merry lives quite separately, yet influencing each other in a variety of subtle ways.

I expected Singapore to be a squeaky clean police state where spots of dirt are banished for eternity and chewing gum lovers are caned into pulp right on the pavement. In reality, it has nothing to do with the scarecrow image of a sterile dictatorship that Western media is fond of using. There is just enough of a touch of delightful tropical funk but none of that nasty man-made kind like plastic bags, discarded packaging and

Thailand's top baker's dozen

2009-06-02T00:42:00.026+02:00

"Oh Thailand, it's so boring: the Emerald Buddha, floating markets and massage parlours! How many more times"?" My London-based Russian friend Sergey won't hear about going to the Land of Smiles again. He has obviously fallen victim of mass package tourism and laklustre travel articles in The Telegraph. What a shame.

I understand mass tour operators' rationale : they need to market something accessible to the hoi polloi's percpetion but what's with travel writers? Many Travel & Food hacks remind me of monkeys in the zoo who were taught how to masturbate. They completely forget about normal mating and jack themselves off into exhaustion. It seems like there is nothing else to travel writing but perpetuating stereotypes. Amsterdam = drugs and whores. Moscow = vodka and matryoshka. Inscrutable Orient. Sexy Brazil. Romantic Paris.

As an editor or a PR agency exec, I would have to be held at gunpoint to commission articles to that kind of crap-spinners. If I ruled the universe, I would have their foreheads tattoed for offputting advertisers and sabotaging tourist arrival numbers.

On the other hand, what can you find out about a place on an all-paid press trip with a tight schedule? You are hauled around in an aircon coach on a pre-programmed tour and expected to come up with something punchy by the time your airplane's landing gear hits home soil.

Perhaps, after all there is some social value to writing tips about the beaten sightseeing circle for the first-time visitor. They are in every glossy magazine as well asplastered all over the internet. My mission is entirely different: to share some insider knowledge of the country where I spent six happy years entirely submerged in the local culture. So there we go.

1. Try some durian. I know I am biased, addicted even. But Thais do not call this superbly delicious custard-like fruit King of Fruit for nothing. The reason is because no other fruit tastes better. Thanks to modern farming techniques, durian is available throughout the year. However, the best season for durians is from May to June, closer to the end of the hot season that has let the fruit ripe fully and before the rainy season kicks in, watering down the flavour. Durian is a yang fruit, it gives what in Chinese medicine they call "heat". To counteract that, Thai people always eat mangosteen (mankhud in Thai) after durian. Also known the Queen of Fruit, mangosteen has delicately scented white succulent flesh encapsulated in thick dark purple rind. Tastewise, it is a cross of strawberries, kiwi and melon. As a yin fruit it "cools down" the human body.

Tip: Never wash down durian with alcohol: it will make you really sick, in worst cases it can prove even lethal.

2. Try street hawkers' food. It is safe and superbly tasty. In six years in Thailand, I never got sick a single time. Quite often roadside delicacies taste better than restaurant fare. There are hundreds types of Thai dishes. Try each at least once, it will only set you back half a euro a dish. The chances are you will fall in love with each of them, but if you don't like it you don't have to finish it.

Tip: For the uninitiated air-conditioned food courts in shopping malls may be a safer bet. The heat and din outside need some time to get used to.

Another tip: First few days lean off really spicy food. You can get a run not from the bacteria but from too much chillies that will irritate the lining of your stomach and bowels. A glass of soya milk before the meal can help prevent that.

Yet another tip: If the food burns your mouth, don't drink water, have more rice! Water will remove the protective layer of saliva on your tongue, rice will absorb the spice.

3. Night markets can be fun to shop at but only if you are good at haggling. Otherwise, head out straight to shopping malls and department stores for amazing bargain hunting. Thailand, tagging along the US of A as a sale paradise. Even poshest outlets offer amazing discounts throughout the year. Thai people are fussy dressers and are very apt at fashion design. For clothes and shoes I would recommend MBK Center, Isetan, Zen, Emporium. The clothes sections at Big C department stores often stock good and inexpensive casual clothes. Siam Square is chockablock with hundreds of boutiques.

4. Good seafood is for you to enjoy anywhere in Bangkok, but there is a hidden gem for true connoisseurs of marine life cooked in spices and herbs. If you can drive and know a few words of Thai, try Hat Mae Ramphueng, a long stretch of white-sand beach in Rayong Province strewn with fishing villages, a 2-hour drive from Bangkok. Freshly caught seafood is cooked right there on the beach and costs half what you'd pay in Bangkok. Pick your prey from the big tanks with live fish, crustaceans and shellfish, pay by the kilo, cooking fee is included. Certain ways of cooking suit certain types of seafood better: for example, lock lobsters (kang) are the best stir-fired with toasted garlic, cockles have to be grilled with butter and oyster sauce, fresh-water prawn just needs to be put on charcoals, then gorged upon with lime and chili dip. If you are unsure of how you want yours done, leave to the cook, Thais know best!

5. Thai people adore all things nice, pleasurable and convenient. That is why they invented cut fruit sold in the streets. Ten baht gets you a nice portion of skinned/peeled/stoned fruit, chilled on ice and chopped into bite sizes for your enjoyment. Why buy a whole watermelon and try to finish it all, when you can pick a bit of every favourite fruit and relish it without any fuss?

6. For a real (yet safe and cushy) jungle adventure try elephant trekking. It is very much like regular trekking, only you do it atop an elephant with a mahout (elephant driver), who will also put up your tent and cook your dinner. Elephant trekking is a huge business in Chiang Mai but for the pressed for time Kanchanaburi west of Bangkok is a more convenient choice.

7. Ancient City is a true hidden gem. A humongous safari park just outside Bangkok Proper, it is shaped like Thailand and has a meticulously made life-size copy of every historical building or monument in the country. On top of that, it is a beautifully maintained park with peacocks and deer roaming around sandalwood gazebos, lotus ponds and Chinese rockeries. It can be explored on foot, by bike or by car. I recommend cycling around as it is too big for walking and too fine to wizz around by car.

Tip: The replica of a Thai village on stilts standing in the midst of a large pond is a host to several restaurants serving quite decent grub at reasonable, not tourist prices.

8. The Thai food that most of us are familiar with is Central Thai food. However, Thailand knows three more very distinctive cuisines: Northern, North-Eastern and Southern. Burmese-influenced Northern food hails from what used to be the ancient kingdom of Lanna, it is milder and uses different herbs. Laotian-influenced North-Eastern food originates in the arid plains of Isarn, it is spicier and uses sticky rice instead of jasmine one. Southern cuisine lean towards Malay style of cooking and uses different combinations of herbs and spices. You can try them all in Bangkok but for the authentic experience it is very well worth your while travelling to those regions.

Most representative foods by the region.

Northern: khao soy, khanom jiin nam ngiao, nam prik ong, naem, kaeb muu, muu yor, nam phrik num, kaeng hang lae, kaeng khanun.
Isarn: tam bak hung, larb, nam tok, tom saeb.
Southern: massaman curry, roti, tamarind prawns.

9. You probably won't believe me: real Thai massagehas nothing to do with hanky-panky. In fact, unlike in the West, the massaged even stays dressed in a sort of pyjamas. When I lived in Bangkok, my every (other) weekend I would go to Marble House, a well-established massage parlour for my two hours of mildly masochistic pleasure. It is called differently now but it is still situated in the Silom area, off Surawong Road, next door to Arima Onsen, a rival massage parlour frequented mostly by Japanese expats.

10. Multi-million Bangkok has less than a handful of public parks, so it is a rare treat to have a picnic in the nicely maintained Lumphini Park. The skyscrapers is Silom looming over lush tropical vegetation are a fine backdrop for a sushi bento set I love to buy at Isetan. The swish department store is three bus stops up the road but the made to perfection sushi are well worth the trip. The sushi stall is in the food court right after the checkout counters on the 5th floor, while fantastically fresh sashimi can be found in the very back of the supermarket's fish section.

11. Thailand is not all about carnal pleasures and retail therapy. If you want to discover the real self, learn the art of living, get a glimpse into the nature of things or, perhaps, all of the three, make the time for a 10-day meditation course at one of Vipassana retreats. Non-congregational, they are strictly halal and kosher and won't offend any religious sensitivities. You only learn the technique by which the Buddha attained his Enlightenment. They are run on a voluntary basis, no pre-payment, no donations are extorted, it is up to you whether and how much to give. While by no means a pleasure cruise, Vipassana courses provide a perfect environment for self-discovery.

12. In the evening, dress up and go to the rooftop Vertigo Bar & Restaurant in the Westin Banyan Tree Hotel on South Sathorn. Enjoy a classy vibe to the soft sounds of classic jazz overlooking the lights of Bangkok sprawling at your feet from horizon to horizon.

13. Thai vegetable seeds are available in the fruit and veg sections of most supermarkets. If you are into gardening like my parents, you will appreciate fresh exotic produce straight from your kitchen garden. Water spinach (phak bung), Thai basil (burapha) are easy to grow even in moderate climates.

Canada & USA: Nouvelle France & New England Road Trip (Toronto to Quebec & Maine And Back Via the Niagara Falls)

2008-08-21T12:51:00.037+02:00

There is nothing like the kick of poignant nostalgia when travelling in what once used to be mighty empires and awe-inspiring sovereigns nowadays cut to a more modest size. The grandeur of Egyptian pyramids now stranded amidst the desert or Mayan temples overgrown by the jungle makes you wonder of the drive and authority behind their construction. Recognising traces of yesteryear in today’s trivialities can unravel a dramatic historical yarn of rivalry, ambition and bloodshed.

New France stretched in its heyday from the arctic Hudson Bay to sultry New Orleans. But Ancien Régime in metropolitan France scoffed at its own “few acres of snow” in the New World and never gave it much time of the day. Unloved and neglected, a colossal colonial dominion started disintegrating under English and Spanish attacks. Like of a southward drifting iceberg, piece after piece kept breaking off until all left was just St. Pierre and Miquelon, a token speck of the Euro-zone off Newfoundland coast little known even in France.

The rest vanished without a trace steamrolled by a young and energetic American culture. The chance to make coq au vin and crocque monsieur world’s lunch staples was lost to the burger and two veggies gastronomy. Rustic etouffé and delightfully Gallic wrought-iron balconies still survive in central New Orleans but hardly anyone considers France the Old Country there and the language is all but extinct.

Against all odds, the descendants of ‘tall and blond Gauls’ are however alive and well in the St. Lawrence River’s estuary. Besieged on all sides by a continuous Anglo-cultural assault, Canada’s French-speaking province of Quebec sustains a vibrant economy and an active cultural life. There has even been a constant talk of independence last few decades: in the 1995 referendum Quebecois secessionists lost only by a razor-thin margin.

Unlike its northern neighbour, New England broke up up with the Mother Ship and went her own merry way to expand as far as to the South Pacific islands and the Russian Arctic Border. Like an old mother gaping in amazement at her giant son, wondering how ever it came out of her womb, Britain is keen on maintaining a special relationship with its former colonial offspring. France, on the other hand, always seems uneasy to give a hug to her long lost bastard child.

As the global warming is slowly but surely clearing up the Arctic ice, we may be not that far away from the time when gaily lit-up cruise liners will be taking throngs of aloha shirt wearing margarita-swillers on tours around Canadian islands. Until that day or until the Russians build a bridge to Alaska or the Germans resume flying their zeppelins, airplane is the only way to go to Canada. No-frills Air Transat flies straight from major European and American cities to many destinations in Canada. straight to Quebec’s largest city, Montreal. It is a kind of sub-polar Paris with great cuisine, grand French-style buildings, cobbled streets in the historic quarter and 32 kilometres of underground shopping malls to enjoy retail therapy throughout the year.

Tip: If you feel bad about renting cars on your vacations, cycle everywhere when home like yours truly does. It will be your contribution to offsetting China building a power station a day.

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Toronto - Hip And Laid-Back

2008-08-21T12:49:00.018+02:00

Toronto is a sort of laid-back cross of London and New York: skyscrapers mixed with Victorian Gothic, the subway, the urban retail bonanza, the multiethnic mélange in the streets. I am not a big fan of modern architecture but Toronto's skyline is just beautiful. Even the bromide concrete-and-glass boxes of office buildings look friendly. North American generosity with space is married here to British attention to social matters: the streets are wide, clean and free of crime, you can eat well and cheap, you can drive everywhere but you don't have to. Other cities may have more Rolls Royces, casinos and overpriced restaurants, but Toronto has the real quality of life: clean air, good water, safe streets (homicide rate alone 24 times as low as in Washington, D.C), good education, excellent healthcare, cultural diversity and racial tolerance. Just a short ferry ride and you are on the Toronto Islands, a huge recreation area with an official nudist beach - not bad for the city formerly known as the Methodist Rome.

Chinese, Portuguese, Korean, Jamaican, Greek, Filipino, Maltese, Indian, Polish and Vietnamese neighbour- hoods sit cheek by jowl in this cosmopolitan city: 49% percent of the population here were born abroad, in fact, the same percentage as in Amsterdam. And just like there one shall never want for exotic foodstaffs in Toronto as every cuisine of the world is represented, truly my idea of paradise! As an expert in the field, I guarantee that sushi here are none worse than what you get in Japan.

Once your stomach is stuffed with ethnic delicacies, your attention may turn to culture. If you speak enough English, you won't feel deprived. After New York and London, Toronto is the third largest centre for English language theatre in the world. I did not make it to a performance by the Toronto Ballet, Opera or Symphony Orchestra that all were on vacation in June but at least the Ballet must be good even if because it was here that Baryshnikov defected to in 1974 and even before him Nureyev danced here in 1965.

The (formerly) cheaper Canadian dollar, affectionately called the loonie, contributed to Toronto's rise as the fourth largest media centre in North America after LA, NYC and Chicago. A lot of TV and movie productions that we think as quintessentially American were made here. Even in Sex And The City Samantha's hunky boyfriend goes to film on a location in Canada. Toronto routinely 'plays' New York, while parts of Montreal are used for European sets.

Hollywood alone outsourced no fewer than 1,500 movies to Canada lured by the so-called Film Production Services Tax Credit. Essentially it is a 16-percent rebate to any foreigner who would care to shoot a film on the Canadian soil. Smart, isn't it? Even more than you think as it comes with a catch: either the director or the screenwriter and one of the two highest paid actors must be Canadian. Those Canucks are not laid-back and simple as it turns out!

Unlike many other global cities, Toronto is a place where you don't have to be rich to have a good life. It may be Canada's most expensive city to live but here you will not see US-style urban decay and poverty, the deal here is more Western European Canada may have been wise enough to stay under the British Crown after all.

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Ottawa - A Marriage Of Convenience

2008-08-21T12:47:00.011+02:00

A lot of critics lambasting Ottawa's architecture as staid and boring. That is a bit unfair. It may be a somewhat studied attempt to blend Canada’s Anglo and Gallic identities but it belies the city's origins as a compromise for the rivalry between Toronto and Montreal, there is no way of escaping that. A common Canadian identity at least tried to cool down the centuries-old rivalry imported from the Old World. The result, a certain Châteauesque Neo-Gothic does have an attractive gravitas but in terms of establishing a national unity through architecture it proved still-born.

It never went beyond symbolic nor took root outside Ottawa’s central square mile overlooking the sulking Gatineau filled with post-modern monstrosities right across the river in Québec. Hotels de ville in the Québec countryside look straight from the Loire Valley while in the rest of Canada they draw inspiration from the British Isles. Two Canadas are still enjoying quite parallel existences culturally, never learning each other's languages beyond the required school minimum. A lucky exception, Montreal may be happily bilingual but you will only annoy Torontonians if you accost them in French (tried that!) and Québec City is happy to pretend to be thousands miles away from the USA (in fact, a 2-hour drive).

Heritage politics always naturally come up when talking about Canada but such cultural divides aside Ottawa is a very pleasant city. Clean, green and agreeably laid out, its historical neighbourhoods have never been bulldozed. Mercer claims it to be North America's least expensive city to live while Moody gives it a whopping AAA in recognition of the city's long history of smart financial policies. I wish more Americans brought up scared of "the Big Government" would go to see how people live in their neighbour's "bureaucracy-ridden" capital.

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Montreal - Paris Of The Sub-Arctic

2008-08-21T12:45:00.029+02:00

World’s third largest Francophone city after Paris and Kinshasa, Montreal is Quebec’s answer to Toronto. Until the bungled 1976 Olympics got the better of it, it was Canada’s première metropolis, the cultural as well as economic centre. It still puts up a fierce competition spreading to sports, business and contested cultural supremacy. World’s largest inland port, it processes more containers than anywhere else in North America. It is the St. Lawrence River that brings prosperity here. Vast enough to be a major whale playground, in French it is called not a rivière but a fleuve, a waterway rather than simply a river. Somewhere around Trois Pistoles where it takes one and half hours to cross it by ferry, the water that I tasted was definitely salty.

If New York is about pizazz, Toronto – about savvy, Montreal is about panache. Gallic love for beauté and bonne cuisine took strong roots above the 49th latitude. You can dine really well here and the city folks dress smarter than the North American average norm. Trundling on the cobbled streets of Vieux-Montréal it is easy to forget that you are not in France but just a one-hour drive away from the US border.

Spread over one huge island that contains one quarter of Quebec’s population, Montreal's urban jungle consists of the American- style skyscraper overgrowth and the fine Old World architecture undergrowth, an unexpectedly attractive blend. For the pressed for time there is a handy way to appreciate it in just a minute’s span: position yourself in the centre of the Place d’Armes and make a 360-degree turn for an uninterrupted slideshow of Montreal’s architectural history, from the Gothic Revival Notre-Dame Basilica and the Pantheon-like Bank of Montreal Head Office to the Art Deco Aldred Building and the surprisingly congruous in such a setting post-modern style of the 500 Place d'Armes skyscraper.

If that has whetted your appetite for more, in just a few steps there is a line of horse-drawn carriages, les calèches, waiting to take you on an unhurried tour of the Old City. Make sure to make it to the magnificent waterfront that includes an imposing line of fine edifices dominated by the Neo-Classical dome of the Marché Bonsecours and the phantasmagorical rear of the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel with the skyscraping glass-and-concrete gravitas of the Quartier International, Montreal’s business district, looming right behind.

Thence, after tipping your driver generously – or, as seems the custom in Quebec, he will surely remind you if you forget – continue on foot to the Place Jacques-Cartier graced by the Belle Epoche folly of Montreal’s City Hall. It was from its balcony that General de Gaulle delivered his highly controversial Vive le Quebec libre! speech to ecstatic crowds. The terraced cafés here churn out pretty much the same culinary fare as their Parisian cousins. It is a good place to stretch your legs and enjoy moules frites at your leisure while watching street entertainers and sauntering tourist crowd on the square.

Just like Paris, Montreal’s cityscape is planned and built to impress: both far perspectives and close-ups seem calculated to create powerful photo ops for the visitor. Make sure to have a look inside though and be amazed by the interiors of public buildings meant to eternalize la gloire de la France, even two centuries after it ceased to be the sovereign here. Our favourites were the monumental frescoes of French nuns converting Native Americans into Christianity in the Marie-Reine-du-Monde Cathedral.

Montreal, essentially the city of immigrants, is much more cosmopolitan than other Francophone cities that tend to be assertively monocultural. Montrealers switch effortlessly between French and English and the proliferation of ethnic restaurants is a testament to the city's citoyen du monde character.

Ethnic neighbour- hoods here, like the pearls on a necklace, are stringed on the original Anglo-Gallic geographical divide, Boulevard Saint-Laurent. Pedestrian Rue de la Gauchetière hosts Chinatown, also full of Vietnamese and Thai restaurants, Little Portugal is on the corner of Boulevard Saint Laurent and Rue Marie-Anne while Little Italy lies on the same boulevard between Rue Jean-Talon and Rue St. Zotique. Little Greece sits on Avenue Parc between Avenue Mont Royal and Avenue Van Horne.

Chinese restaurants are always a good bet for the traveller on the shoe string, but thanks to the favourable exchange rate you can even pamper yourself a bit without dipping too much in your wallet: two excellent lobster lightly stir-fried with ginger and scallion set us back mere 20 Canadian dollars (that’s 10 quid for the mathematically challenged)! If that still doesn’t seem a bargain, there is indigenous street food to get on by: Montreal bagels, sweet and smoky, and viande fumé, smoked meat, available on every corner.

It is easy to overlook one of Montreal's most staggering landmarks as it is hidden beneath the land surface. Harsh Canadian winters made 32 kilometres of shopping streets dig underground. The corridors of La Ville Souterraine connects 10 metro stations, 2 bus terminals, 1,200 offices, about 2,000 stores including 2 major department stores, approximately 1,600 housing units, 200 restaurants, 40 banks, 40 movie theatres and other entertainment venues, 7 major hotels, the University of Quebec at Montreal campus and the University of Montreal, Olympic Park, Place des Arts, a cathedral, the Bell Centre (home of the Montreal Canadiens), and 3 exhibition halls: the Place Bonaventure, the Convention Centre (Palais des Congrès de Montréal) and the Olympic Centre. Even when the harsh northern winter sets on, you do not need to miss out on la douceur de la vie in these high street catacombs.

Bienvenue à Montréal

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Ode to Canada The Beautiful

2008-08-21T12:42:00.018+02:00

This world would be a much better place if only the US could be more like Canada: safe, clean, socially responsible, environmentally aware, unhurriedly enjoying life rather driving itself into the ground working and playing hard. Leading by example and taking care of its own citizens rather than spending trillions on military power to bully the world.

Canada has the best of North America – a lot space, good system and material comfort, only in Canada wealth is more evenly spread across the population. Freedom of enterprise here however happily coexists with basic needs guaranteed to everyone. Tight arms control, quality education and comprehensive healthcare for everyone, public transportation not limited to airplanes make Canada closer to Western Europe than to its southern neighbour. Never segregated, Canada enjoys the degree of racial harmony unthinkable south of the border. Yet Canadians are more on the move, egalitarian and less bogged in tradition than Europeans. Best of the two worlds, indeed.

Downtown areas in all US cities except a few are deserted after dark - it may be a perceived threat but it is definitely out there. Shuttered windows, bums at the bus stops and litter blown along by the wind is a American US after the sunset. Multi-million luxury condos surrounding New York's Central Park overlook the nightly bumorama and drugapalooza right in the heart of the city. On the Strip in Las Vegas ostentatious luxury sits right next to gun-wielding poverty. Canada could not be more different - it does not know walled communities that are an established lifestyle down south. Downtown in Canada boasts smart shops, restaurants and just nice public areas for urbanites to kick back after work.

The founding fathers did envisage the agri-pastoral pattern for their country: focus on agriculture, civil freedoms and local self-government, no assertive international policies. Many other New World colonist societies followed it: Argentina, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, Brazil and Australia. However for the USA things took a different turn: industrial boom brought hunger for resources, labour and markets and the countries' history became a corporate history: expansion, merger, acquisition, hostile takeover. Uniquely even, US law treats corporations live people.

That said, Canada has certainly benefited from having the USA as their only neighbour but Canadians have also managed to turn it to their best vantage, letting the best in and keeping the worst out.

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Quebec - The Most European City In North America

2008-08-21T12:40:00.012+02:00

Quebec is by far the most European looking and feeling city in North America. And by Europe here, of course, I mean France. The capital of the eponymous province, it is the heart of Quebecois nationalism. For the recent celebration of territory's 400th anniversary it was French Prince Jean, Duc de Vendôme who was invited by the city officials while Queen Elizabeth II was pointedly snubbed.

Politics aside, the city's historical centre was made a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985. Winding cobbled streets lined with very French-looking houses and crowded café terraces will make you forget you are in North America. Picturesque ramparts are the only city fortifications left north of the Rio Grande.

Quebec is a true delight to visit. Right from the start it was founded as a permanent settlement and not a trade outpost. The aspiration behind its establishment was asserting la gloire de la France in the New World and as is the case in Spanish America monumental architecture was the order of the day from the very inception. Curiously enough, the most prominent landmark, the Château Frontenac, is a hotel designed by American architect Bruce Price.

Situated on top of the hill overlooking the magnificent St. Lawrence River, Quebec is a typical exampled of Gallic love for scenic locations. As you walk around the city, you realize how well thought through was the layout to provide most beautiful perspectives and sweeping vistas - very much the way Paris' major sightseeing landmarks are lined up.

++++

Quebec's Tipping Point: Change Becomes Unstoppable

2008-08-21T12:38:00.007+02:00

Millions live off tips in the United States, it’s a major source of income for the service workers eking out living on the minimum wage (US$2.13 per hour without the tips). North of the American border, the deal is more European and human-oriented: gun control, universal health insurance and a comprehensive social security are a few nice boons of being reigned by Elizabeth II instead of a bunch of multinationals. Still, the tips are part and parcel of the Anglo-world and the sacrosanct 10% are duly expected on top of nearly every bill.

The Quebecois however take it to a new level : le service is not patiently expected but pro-actively demanded both in speech and in writing. Your lunch may arrive half an hour too late and half raw (an actual example) but the waitress will never fail to cheerfully remind you of the 15% you owe her. Neat envelopes calligraphically signed Service n’est pas compris will demurely await you in every hotel room and lodge. Change from paying for drinks at the bars is routinely kept as if comme il faut. What is it with Quebec and its inhabitants that makes them fight so hard for their tip we never found out.

Down The St. Lawrence - Quebec Countryside

2008-08-21T12:34:00.023+02:00

Cathedrals, monasteries, city walls and vineyards – does not exactly sound like your regular North American road trip. Seldom heard of outside its borders, Québec is a very much alive and prosperous French-speaking territory in Canada. For many Americans it is probably the most affordable foreign destination. A one-day drive from New York and Boston, it is a charming French islands in the Anglo-Saxon ocean.

The mighty St. Lawrence River, a long and vast fjord in fact, dominates the region. It is the trade artery and the hinge of all things Quebecois. Its water is salty and it takes up to two hours to cross it. It is the St. Lawrence that helped Montreal become the world's largest inland and America's largest container port. It also tempers, a to a degree, the climate and allows for intensive agriculture on its flat arable shores.

As you drive eastwards from Montreal, English signposts fade away until you hit the point somewhere right past Quebec City where people act like they have never seen or heard a word in English. Probably, they are not even faking it: with all movies dubbed in French, planefuls of French tourists arriving straight from Paris and French-speaking channels from such Gallic bulwarks as Wallonie and western Swiss cantons, New York and Toronto seem like another planet. Transat flies daily flights from Québec City and Montreal to Guadeloupe and Martinique so that the Québécois stay blissfully unaware that the Caribbean, in fact, is predominantly English-speaking. I see a rationale behind sich foolhardiness: without a certain degree consciously pig-headed there would be now way of withstanding the massive cultural onslaught of the Anglo-Saxons.

The Quebecois may deny it, but there is definitely a strong North-American flavour to their lifestyle. One such trait is the luxury habit, if with a certain French twist – mastodontic cars, huge pillows, large houses, tons of gadgets that make life so comfortable. Quebec is by no means a piece of good old France miraculously transplanted over the ocean, it is a culture in its own right harking back to the Old Country only about as much as the USA relates to England, with reverence and some nostalgia but without epigonic subservience. After 400 years the Quebecois are North American, not European emigres fresh from the boat.

Somehow when crossing oceans, first thing emigrants lose is the variety of cooking of the Old Country. Of all the Italian goodies only Milanesa (batterd steak) and pizza made it to Argentina. You will be hard pressed to find any of the traditional Spanish delicacies there either. Absence of familiar ingredients, harshness of life in a new country, or possibly the fact that new settlers were mostly from families of modest incomes and social background – all those factors contribute to the sharp drop of gastronomic variety in the new country. In its entire 400-year history, Quebec came up with only one cheese, Le Riopelle de l'Isle, that tastes like lean butter vaguely smelling of champignons. I now see why it is easy for the Anglos to govern this country.

Quebec does boast haute cuisine venues; French culinary tradition is upheld by a number of world class chefs in star-studded establishments. That is, however, a recent development purposefully initiated by culturally-aware restaurateurs and hoteliers. On a daily level, there is little of the brasseries and charcuterie sophistication of France. Regular meals stick to the invariable North American choice of pizza, steak and fried chicken. Quebec’s only gastronomical specialty, poutine is a hearty but hardly refined mix of French fries, cheese and sliced meat topped with gravy. There is an up-market version of it with foie gras on which I simply decline to comment. Even the pinnacle of French culinary sophistication, the assiette de fruits de mer got mercilessly bastardised here. And as it goes, Gallic palate does not take easily to ethnic novelties: outside the multicultural melange of Montreal, ethnic eateries are very far and between.

++++

Acadia, New Brunswick

2008-08-21T12:27:00.014+02:00

There was a trend in the colonization of the New World different to wholesale Christianization and ethnic cleansing so characteristic of post-Columbian Americas. Acadians were free settlers of French descend who came to the area now known as New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and the Prince Edward Island starting as early as 1604. They were land-tillers and they learnt fishing and hunting techniques from the natives of the area, the Mi'kmaq people. Their relationship was that of cultural osmosis rather than downright ethnic cleansing that has been so typical for history of the rest of the Americas. in Acadia American natives were included in councils and education while intermarriage was very common. The Acadians and the Mi'kmaq enjoyed a very peaceful co-existence until the takeover by the British who viewed such it as a "heinous misdemeanour". In 1722 British Governor Richard Philipp made it illegal to for Europeans and Indians to convene and associate with each other.

Tip: Leave at least one day for visiting the Village Historique Acadien, an open-air museum recreating the daily life of Acadians before the Great Expulsion.

Acadians were never a part of the Quebec territory and wanted to take no sides in the ongoing Anglo-French squabble for colonial dominance. When the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 delivered them in the hands of the English, they hoped to remain neutral but were demanded to swear allegiance to the British Crown. Acadians refused and were swiftly uprooted and forcefully dispatched to other British dominions , some as far as the Falkland Islands. Their property was burnt or given to Protestant English settlers. American national poet Henry Longfellow wrote a poignant poem Evangeline dedicated to this event. Resettlement ban was effective for next two hundred years. In 2003 Britain recognized the fact of ethnic cleansing but never apologised.

Acadians speak their own version of French with a lot of archaisms dating back to the way the language was spoken before Louis XIV. Your school French will be of limited help there: they will understand you but not necessarily the other way around. Luckily, signs are in Standard French, so that makes things a tad easier.

++++

Nova Scotia - Canada's Ocean Playground

2008-08-21T12:15:00.015+02:00

Nova Scotia – New Scotland was a part of French Acadia lost to the English in the 1765 war. Not before too long, French speakers were evicted, their houses burnt and any sign of their presence destroyed. The peninsula, connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus, was repopulated by Northern European immigrants who eventually make the area look like Denmark with brightly painted wooden plank houses perched on gently sloping granite cliffs.

Nova Scotia’s highly photogenic coastline makes it a popular destination for luxury cruise ships. Some say its handsome ruggedness is reminiscent of Scotland or Norway. It should take months to do justice to this scenic peninsula but in just two days we managed to do the most of the Lighthouse Route with Canada’s star attractions, the Peggy’s Cove and the Mahone Bay.

We also lucked out with visiting Halifax, the provincial capital, and its twin town Dartmouth on the Canada Day when fireworks drew festive crowds from the near and the far alike.

We stayed in Lunenburg, a former fishing settlement. It is very picturesque and well preserved but appears to be hit by the dwindling arrivals of American tourists scared off by the bullish Canadian dollar and high gasoline prices. Very deservedly, Luneneburg is a UNESCO World Heritage site just as the Mahone Bay a short drive away - reputedly the most photographed site in Canada. The area's diet relies heavily on the fruit of the sea but, Anglo-Saxon as they are, Nova Scotians deep-fry the last whiff of marine scent from it.

++++

America's Love Affair With The Automobile

2008-08-21T12:11:00.010+02:00

North America is made for motorists. Just like bicycle paths cover every nook and corner of Holland allowing to reach any place on your bike, America has driveways letting you by, through and around anywhere you want to get to. The whole way the country put together, the layout of its cities and countryside is made for drivers. Except for a few cities, you will have a hard time trying to get around on public transportation.

With so much time spend in the car, it is truly a second home that you only need to leave to overnight in your first one - or even stay there when you've hit the rock bottom. The proliferation of all conceivable gadgets inside American cars makes it more fun. Portable DVD players may have delivered the final coupe de grace to drive-in movie theatres but drive-in ATM's, pharmacies and fast food joints are still very much alive.

The flipside of it is that you need to drive to do just about anything except putting out your garbage. Every single little errand from going out for dinner to buying a pack of toothpicks involves hitting the road on your SUV. Even if you add to the gas you burn doing that the energy cost of shipping that pack of toothpicks from China and then trucking it across the USA to your local pharmacy, the amount of fossil fuel used so that you could pick steak from between your teeth is staggering. But there are also hidden, not obvious costs when you remember how much office work stands behind delivering that hapless little pack - and all the fuel for getting the accountants and shipping officers to their centrally air-conditioned offices and so on and so on. That way America consumes 40% of world’s energy without any signs of quenching the appetite for more and more gas.

And there is hardly hope of turning that around no matter how many millions of hybrid cars your sell: the very carbon footprint of designing and making them easily offsets any environmental benefits of their introduction. The founding fathers of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler had no idea what kind of future they were preparing for their children when they were deliberately buying out and uprooting railroads and city public transportation systems in the 1930s.

The very nature of classic capitalist economy is that without a constant annual growth it chokes and the only way to avoid it is to consume more every year. After a certain point the market saturates: you can only stuff your house with this many plasma TV’s, refrigerators and massage chairs. You cannot eat more than you need even though when you walk down the streets of America you come across a lot of people who seem busy trying to defy even that.

There kicks in the vicious circle: if consumption level falls, the economy stumbles, so if you stop stuffing yourself with twice the food you need and don’t buy a third mobile phone, you might eventually lose your job.

++++

Maine Attraction: Acadia N.P. & Asticou Azalea Garden

2008-08-21T12:07:00.019+02:00

One of "world’s greatest ships" - as the brochure touts it, the CAT lives up to its name. The humongous futuristic hydrofoiler connects Nova Scotia with Bar Harbour, the gateway to one of America’s wonders, the Acadia National Park. The trip is not cheap but it is totally worth the money as it helps beat the grinding 900-km drive as well as the dyspeptic and sometimes even offensive US border check in the barely inhabited hicks of rural Maine. Good thing about hydrofoilers is that they neither rock nor roll: perfect for the seasickness-prone amongst us. A whole industry of restaurant, tours and hotels caters to those who come to admire the pine-grown pink granite shores and deep azure sea here.

America being America, the national park is interspersed with private beaches and upmarket property developments. A highway cuts right through the midst of it. Whole bays are sectioned off from the view of a casual visitor. From Jersey to Sydney the Anglo-Saxon sacrosanct right of private property ensures you get to see the best parts of the seaside only on postcards. But let it not put you off: walking on the pink granite of the Acadia National Park, you will forget you are anywhere close to the inhabited world.

There is a silver lining in every cloud though: while driving around to catch a nice glimpse of a bay we stumbled upon a hidden gem – Japanese- inspired Asticou Azalea Garden. It was established in 1935 with Rockefeller’s money, an example of American capitalist booty spent well. God bless not all money here is wasted on beds made out of Ferrari cars, diamond grills and golden cages for pet pitbulls. There is enough class to American old money.

Carefully landscaped and groomed, the Asticou Azalea cleverly uses trees' natural visual textures and nuanced hues of green with a very agreeable result. It has moss-grown boulders, Karesansui-inspired rockeries and carved stone Shinto altars but it is a truly North American creation, daring in defying horticultural dogmas and open-minded in drawing on all various cultural heritages of the world.

A two-minute drive down the road and a steep walk up the hill through Asticou Terraces bring you to the entrance of another garden, Thuya. It is laid out in an entirely different fashion - semi-formal English, as the promotion brochure claims. I find this style somewhat kitchen-gardenish but the views from the top are spectacular.

++++

Seafood Chasers: Mae Ramphueng Beach, Thailand

2008-08-21T12:06:00.005+02:00

Just a 20-minute drive away from the dazzling neons lights, blaring music and transvestite bacchanalia Pattaya there is an entirely different world, completely unknown to your red-skinned and pot-bellied package tour Joe.

Imagine a balmy tropical night: the dome of the starry sky and palm trees above your head, the warm sea lapping at your feet as you sit on a lounge chair sipping ice-cold beer. Today's catch that fishermen are unloading off their colourful long-tail boats ends up straight on the charcoals: palm-sized prawns, meaty crabs and juicy rock lobsters. Red snappers get promptly steamed in lime juice with chilies, garlic and heaps of fresh coriander. Red shrimp stick out of the earthenware pots with pungently fragrant tom yum. Bright plumes of fire dance underneath the giants woks where smiley Thai ladies stir-fry seafood rice. The clank of kitchen utensils and cooks' cheerful banter mix with the soothingly rhythmic sound of the surf.

This miles-long strand of white sand is virtually unknown to foreigners. The only white face you see here will be in a company of other Thais. This area does not know glitzy hotels and shopping malls like Pattaya but it is a huge hit with middle-class Bangkokians who flock here on weekends for fresh and delicious food, one third of Bangkok's price.

The Mae Ramphueng beach is dotted fishermen's villages who make their sole living from the makeshift seafood restaurant trade.

Amsterdam, NY

2008-08-21T12:05:00.011+02:00

Half way between Maine and the Niagara Falls on the New York Drivethru we could not resist the temptation of visiting the namesake of our home town. Amsterdam, NY has nice historical downtown clearly undergoing a revival programme. Residential neighbourhoods just outside the centre look like a picture-perfect prosperous America of the idyllic 50s with lined with spacious and beautifully maintained New World mansions.

The Amtrak railroad station is big enough to host 15 passengers on a particularly busy day. The only sign of the station master's presence was a flow of heavily air-conditioned air from the slot in the counter window. A cool job, indeed.

++++

Niagara Falls - Big American Disappointment

2008-08-21T12:04:00.013+02:00

I never thought there would come a day when the Niagara Falls left me, well, under- whelmed. Probably there are only so many times in human life when the sight of massive amounts of water falling down from a height can inspire admiration. As you witness more and more thwarted river flows your awe threshold rises, a natural human reaction. That said, I am not jaded to the point I scoff at all waterfalls. It’s just that some are better than other. Height and volume per second do not determine the awe factor: it is about the setting and the variety.

While the setting of lit-up skyscrapers and multicolour floodlights around the Niagara Falls can surely impress the pants off the first-time visitor, there are just four views: askance from the US side, straight from the Canadian side, from behind the water in the … Gallery and through the thick mist from the Lady Of The Mist, the pleasure boat that for 14 bucks gives you the river-level close-up. After a couple of hours (queuing time may double it), it is just the same old water tumbling down, the same sight as the tap water flowing multiplied by a million. Like sex with a repressed religious zealot, it only offers you this much variety.

My idea of stunning beauty is the unadorned and un-hyped spectacularity of the Iguazu Falls in Argentina. Its force of attraction becomes quickly apparent as every few metres of your walk reveal yet another grand view from an unexpected angle. Hundreds of big and small streams flowing off towering rocks covered with lush tropical vegetation can quickly fill up your camera’s memory card no matter how big it is. Kilometres of stairs and gangways, a truly ingenious piece of engineering, take you in front, behind, on top and under every bit of water that passes the falls. And just when you thought you were done, go for a boat ride!

++++

Do You Really Know American Food?

2008-08-21T12:02:00.029+02:00

For many people American food conjures images of McBurgers™ and Coca Cola™ from the infamous Super Size Me documentary. Throngs of rather rotund yankee tourists abroad do not do much good to public's perception of US cuisine. That said, a great purpose of travelling is developing an unblinkered your vision of the world. There may be a certain truth to stereotypes but they often are just a small part of the wide picture.

Americans may stuff their faces with junk food on the run from home to job when they are pressed for time, but for dinner, if they are not too lazy and haven’t yet given up on themselves, they will reward themselves for the trials and tribulations of the past day with nice home cooking or a good frozen imitation of it. If you invest a bit of time and money, you can dine extremely well in the USA: hearty and tasty, all-American favourites are neither overly fancy nor bland and boring: meatloaf, corn on the cob, apple and pumpkin pie, maple syrup pancakes, Hoppin' John, chicken soup, candied yams, clam chowder, roasted turkey, jambalaya.

Classic American steak is a whole platter with steamed vegetables, baked potatoes with sour cream or cheddar and a nice crispy bun to butter or a thick garlic toast. When served with another most expensive items on the menu - with lobster - it is called Surf'n'Turf. Even in the US some frown on such an ostentatious combination: it is featured in the Encyclopaedia of Bad Taste. But no matter how much surf'n'turf may be lampooned by the doily-brandishing upholders of Olde Worlde finery but there is no denying it is a great treat.

With its dominant Anglo-Saxon heritage America belongs to the Anglo- Teutonic axis of ichthyophobes, or fish-haters, who possess a deep mistrust of the gifts of the deep brine. Seafood - a.k.a. them funny critters from the murky waters - gets mercilessly battered and deep-fried. Portions, however, are gargantuan: what you see on the left side is a seafood platter for one: alligator, shrimp, clams, catfish and squid.

Californian wines - I am not talking the Central Valley carton pack drab in your local supermarket - have experienced a tremendous success around the world ever since the (in)famous 1976 blind tasting when they beat best Bordeaux. Hard work and perseverance, so characteristic of the New World inhabitants, propelled American wines from obscurity to the well deserved top ranks. The same drive (motto: "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing"), however, is behind the alarming trend for wines here to become what California is good at, well, overdone. Technologically enhanced, overripe, fruity and heavy on alcohol - they lag behind Pamela Anderson only in silicone content.

In the restaurants for the polite society wines are only considered good when the price tag exceeds 100 dollars per bottle. When you thought it was a bit OTT, there are Napa charity auctions where fierce competition between the producers pushes Cabernet magnums to the $10,000 ballpark.

++++

Cuba - The Pearl of The Caribbean Trapped In An Ugly Shell

2008-08-21T12:00:00.042+02:00

- Tip, sir! - a boxom uniformed woman's face is dead-pan as I exit the toilet at the Havana International Airport. It has been just ten minutes since I paid the whopping 25-euro airport tax - perhaps world's heftiest - and now this again. But after a grinding week here I'm a hardened veteran: I just walk away without batting an eyelash. Let Fidel catch me if he wants more of my cash.

It has taken me no less 3 years after my trip to Cuba to take to pen to write impartially about it impartially. Don't take me wrong, I solemnly believe that Cuba is THE pearl of the Caribbean but it needs to be pried out of its ugly crumbling prickly shell. The beauty, friendliness and cultural exuberance of the island and its people swept me off my feet but still couldn't outweigh the sheer shock of being dunked back into the gloomiest times of Soviet Communism. It was the only time in my life when I had to get an earlier ticket to get my tail out of there.

Not that I did not know what I was buying into, after all I had survived in a similar system. I knew my ways around, or so I thought. Alright, I was reasoning as I was packing my suitcase to board the plane to Varadero, grocery shops may be empty but like in the Soviet Union you can buy anything on the fresh market for a few more pennies. There also must be, like in the olden days of Russian Communism, glossy stores where you can buy anything for hard currency - I don't mind the expense as long as it keeps me alive and gets me around. Bouncing between cheap subsidised goodies and pricey extras you could eke out an almost decent existence.

It turned out I had no idea what a tight ship Fidel was running there. Even Stalin never went that far in adhering to "Marxist" ideals as banning private ownership of anything save personal effects: for example, Cuba knows no private car ownership. Rickety Impalas and smoke-belching LeBarons that might have seen Marilyn Monroe in her halcyon days are handed out by the state to those it (or Fidel himself, perhaps?) considers worthy enough. Farmers are not allowed to buy fertilizer for their plots so the choice of fresh produce in the fresh market is limited to bananas, sweet potatoes and onions. Any other type of fruit in this tropical paradise seems unheard of. The only fruit juice I could find was made from instant powder dissolved in water - and that is on the largest island in the Caribbean next to Florida that feeds half the US with its oranges and bananas!

A hard-nosed foodie as I am, when push comes to shove, I can make do with just anything edible. As long as it is chewable and not contaminated, it fulfils its function of keeping me alive - mission accomplished, I can get on with it. Food in Cuba, however, defies even my limits of acceptance. In the Centro Gallego right in front of Havana's imposing Capitol Building the mucky, gooey paella reeked of chlorine like an old-fashioned swimming pool. Over-fried fish on the Varadero beach consisted solely of heads, bones and skin - as if Fidel has sucked out the flesh before sending it to the kitchen. The only type of edibles we could procure for breakfast in local cafés (forget about supermarkets - they simply do NOT exist!) consisted of three types of grease-dripping pork - bacon, ham and fat cuts - sandwiched between paper-thin slices of bleached bread, six euros a pop. It is perhaps tale-telling that queues to buy ice-cream in Havana's only parlour take up to 3 hours!

Our landlady told us than when the Soviet Union cut the 5-billion-a-year aid in 1991 the foot shortages were so bad that people had to eat popped (like corn) grapefruit skins and ... After that kind of diet, pollo asado - the common-or-garden fried chicken - she said, is a prized delicacy. Prized and quite overpriced: after an hour of queuing to enter the restaurant expect to fork out up to 10 euros for a fried chicken leg unceremoniously shoved in your face by a waitress visibly disgruntled with the ideals of Communism.

That kind of price must be quite out of reach for the local populace who seem to sustain on state-guaranteed dirt-cheap ratios of flour, oil and soya yoghurt. Some lucky ones receive remittances from relatives in Florida. Fidel manages to pinch pennies even from those: no foreign bank or credit cards are accepted and to pay for anything you have to trade your foreign currency for "convertable pesos" at a shameless 20% commission! In the 2-million-strong city of Havana you can do it in about five places that have the most erratic open hours I have ever seen. You snooze, you lose: the door will be slammed right in your face.

If you still to manage inside the exchange office on time, that money won't go a very long way. The grim choice of available services and goods is overpriced out of any proportion: an hour of internetting on a crackling dial-up will set you back a 12 euros! You are allowed that also in about five places in Havana that are open to foreigners and they all close strictly at 5PM - workers' rights protection, no more no less. The only piece of meat I saw on sale was ham at unbelievable 70 euros a kilo!

All that said, how does Cuba ever manage to attract just under two million Western tourists a year? Well, because the place is gorgeous and so are the people.

When other Caribbean nations in the 1960s were busy pulling down their colonial architecture to make way for the trendy concrete-and-glass monstrosities, Cubans could not afford such luxury. Thanks to that, whole barrios - neighbourhoods - are lined with most charming and authentic Spanish casas dating centuries back. Mind you, this being most hard-nosed socialism around, the houses are in the state of most picturesque neglect one can imagine: around 300 of them collapse annually in Havana alone. As you walk you can see people living in houses with crumbled balconies, missing stairs, makeshift roofs and even altogether torn down walls. The sidewalks are just as sorry, looking, where not absent altogether, as if tanks were driving up and down the whole night before.

That is particularly dangerous because you will definitely will gawk in amazement at the people who walk on them as they are about the most attractive bunch that has ever walked this planet. The explosive mix of African and Iberian blood, they may be as gorgeous in Rio but here they all receive excellent education and health care: perfect teeth and and intelligent look in the eyes are a great boon to their beautiful faces and comely bodies. Cubanos -- pronounced Koo-vah-nos -- are also a very peaceful lot: whether it is the tight state control, a natural disposition or the absence of class struggle and capitalist competition, you can walk around flashing your camera, jewellery and credit cards in the darkest areas (government's austerity measures) - the only attention you get is most courteous offers to help you find your way.

That said, the wealth apartheid Fidel created trying to milk tourists for currency did create very bizarre socio-economic dynamics in local society. Teachers and doctors can earn hundreds of times as little as waiters or taxi drivers in hotels for foreigners. Everyone is provided with guaranteed basics but the temptation of Western lifestyle and material goods is, of course, strong. Those coveted extras are only available at prices far exceeding the average local salary of 10 USD a month and jobs with foreign tourists are limited. As a result, many resort to jinterismo, prostitution or, even more often, short-term relationships with foreigners where the Cuban acts as the receiver of services and goods paid for in foreign currency in exchange for companionship and hot Caribbean love. It is hard to blame them: the reality of Cuban economy is such that there are no 100% moral ways to enjoy even some token previews of the lifestyle that Westerners take for granted - and I am talking here things like scented soap bars, basic leather shoes, tape recorders or that horrible pork sandwich in the café that costs half a doctor salary.

- Give me 5 pesos! - asks me a handsome Mulato youth.
-Why? - I am taken aback at this unexpected turn of a relaxed small talk with him and his rum-sipping friends on Havana's iconic Malecón oceanfront embankment.
- Just so, he shrugs good-heartedly.

It feels somehow like talking to a lifetime prison mate: I can fly back to Amsterdam or anywhere else in the world, for that matter, and earn those 5 pesos (about 5 euros) in no time but for him the only chance to make the money would be to hustle himself, sail to Florida on a makeshift raft, risking his life and limb, or just ask a foreigner like me.

I am overcome by the pity for this bright-eyed young man trapped by the system that provides him education, health care and soya milk in exchange for his freedom of choice. I remember myself, just a little younger than him, dreaming of travelling to faraway shores that I knew were out of reach because they just wouldn't let me out. Luckily for me, the system collapsed just a few years later. I can only pray for this youth that Fidel would step down as soon as possible.

I am pretty sure that handing out money to every nice Cuban is no solution for anything: he would just buy more ron - the excellent Havana Club rhum - with that 5 pesos, so I just say 'Sorry, compañero, muy exitos' and walk away. He takes it in stride and goes back to his lassitudal mate banter. I remember how many young able men in the Soviet Union would take to drinking too, for the lack of any outlet for their ambitions and life drive. The system that is supposed to provide for everything takes away the most important -- the exhilarating uncertainty of life full of promise and possibilities. Without it, man is but a shadow of himself, a living corpse.

Neighbouring paradise islands may seem a dream destination but the typical deal of sunning, sailing, wining, dining, diving, gambling and commercial sex in fact has little appeal unless you are an overworked American on your yearly week off, trying to live it big and forget about the cut-throat rat-race back in your concrete jungle. Ironically, Cuba is legally off-limits for those types, or any American citizens at all, unless they fly via Mexico or Canada. Washington just can't seem to get over the loss of Cuban assets after the Revolution - curiously, those that belonged to the mafia barons, but that is another story.

The good news is that Cuba has more to offer than yet another package tour island. It was the first one discovered by Columbus who described it as "the most beautiful place a man eye has ever laid on". The Spanish settled down here with Cuba is also big enough to be culturally diverse. The north of island is more Latin American and formal gravitating towards the administrative capital La Havana while the Caribbean-leaning south centres around the fun-loving African-flavoured Santiago de Cuba that also counts two centuries of French influence from the Haitian refuges. There is also a distinct Chinese community in Havana's Chinatown -- don't miss the curious sight of the Spanish-speaking Chinaman with a Black dude's hip action. |There are also all shades in between - Cuba oficially proclaim racial equality although darker-tinted people are conspicuously absent from the higher echelons of pwoer.

I am leaving Cuba with no regrets though. It has entirely cured me of any nostalgia for the olden Soviet times. They seem to be cozy and warm now as I was but a child then but looking at an opressive regime through adult eyes is another matter. Coming from Russia, I never thought I would ever say this but I will. I will visit Cuba again only when Americans come back to Cuba and put it to rights.

Niagara-on-the-Lake - Possibly The Twee'est Town On Earth

2008-08-21T12:00:00.014+02:00

How come that twee things make our hearts warm? We call them naff and tacky out of shame to be considered un-cool but secretly we all have a place in our hearts for kittens, teddy bears, pinky babies, ivy-covered walls and thatched roofs.

Niagara-on- the-Lake is a Canadian town on the Lake Erie where people convene to indulge in such a carefully hidden penchant. Holland may be world’s flower exporter number one and France may have its Villes Fleuris system, Austria may be smothered with potted geraniums but Niagara-on-the-Falls will give them all a good hard run for their money. Years of travelling to twee’est towns and villages of Europe did not prepare me for mass assault of multi-colour flower beds that adorn the swept and shampooed streets of this posh little town. When North Americans do something they do it on a grand scale. See for yourself.

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Thailand: Ancient City

2008-08-21T11:57:00.028+02:00

Mueang Boraan (Ancient City) is a Thai skansen, an open-air ethnographic museum in suburban Samutprakarn, Thailand. Only an hour or so drive from Bangkok it is a true gem rarely visited by tourists.

It is a meticulously tended safari park with exact replicas of all Thailand's important historical and architectural buildings and monuments. The work is ongoing and every time I visit there are a more and more houses you can enter to admire their painstakingly reconstructed interiors. This park is a veritable time machine, you can find yourself in any period of lovingly recreated Thailand's history.

Deer and peacocks roam freely among the exquisite themed gardens, shady groves and reconstructed villages. Numerous gazebos dotting the premises offer a place for a sweet midday nap in the shade. In the high season, picturesque restaurants serve Thai food at very reasonable prices. One built on stilted wooden platforms amidst a scenic pond with water lilies, eels and gold fish is my favourite.

You can easily spend there a whole day sampling traditional Thai drinks not available any more elsewhere, wandering from a full-size copy of an ancient South China Sea pirate ship to a man-made mountain with a replica of the Preah Vihear temple and sweeping vistas of sprawling residential neighbourhoods and Bangkok's skyscrapers.

Canadian Wine

2008-08-21T11:57:00.020+02:00

You never really get to hear of Canadian wine - I only discovered it for myself in a restaurant in China’s scenic Huang Shan (another serendipitous and fateful sign that meaningfully only on the afterthought connects the warp and woof of the tapestry of my travels). At a price twice the cost of a dinner for two, it naturally was not the most popular booze in the joint.

In fact, there are a few wine-growing areas in Canada and not all of them are of Gallic heritage. The first one we saw on the Loyalist Parkway where colonial Englishmen who stayed loyal to the Crown were resettled after the American Revolution. Another one - in Quebec, on the Isle de Madeleine. The southern shore of the Lake Erie too turns out to be a major wine-making development. Sunny and warm, yet tempered by the lake’s proximity, its 56 listed vineyards yield limited and hence very priced amounts of ice wine. It is very sweet muscat-like wine produced from grapes frozen on the vine - and where else conditions could be better for this technique than in Canada?

Caveat emptor: many a wine bottle that purports to be Canadian actually contain cuvéed wine imported in bulk from Europe. They may be quaffable but really Canadian they are not. Read the fine print!

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Amsterdam Without Prejudice

2008-08-06T12:01:00.064+02:00

Amsterdam is world- renowned as the city of pot, tarts and leather dungeons. Throngs upon throngs of tourists descend upon these balmy shores in search of pleasures forbidden back home. Zonked out on marijuana and cheap booze, many never venture beyond the Red Light District and the Sex Museum. The few enlightened ones quickly skim through the Van Gogh Museum and the tulip fields before leaving after a one-night stay. It is a crying shame because this hip global village has immensely more to offer than major hangovers and commercial sex.

The image of a devil-may-care folk indulging in sexual perversities amongst clouds of cannabis smoke does not sit well with the fact that this is also the capital of a modern post-industrial economy, world's 16th largest, quite an achievement for such a small country. Working hours may be longer and stress levels higher in Japan, Britain or Singapore but few nations create more value per unit of time on this planet. It is the Dutch propensity for planning and organizing that helps strike one of the most harmonious work-fun balances so far known to the humankind.

Amsterdam’s whopping 177 nationalities - ahead even of New York City with its 150 – bring cosmopolitan to a new level. Dutch cuisine may not be a very remarkable fare but with Tibetan, Peruvian, Argentine, Indonesian, Ethiopian, Vietnamese, Romanian, Persian, Surinamese, Moroccan, Korean, Malaysian and Brazilian restaurants among others, this is truly the unsung paradise of nifty ethnic noshing. Nearly every world cuisine is represented here and it won’t cost the earth either. Should it occur to you to whip up something exotic yourself, you’ll not want for kitchen supplies and ingredients from all over the world either, be it fresh Thai durian, Afghani spices, or authentic bacalao. Such cosmopolitan gastronomy is so integrated into daily life that even neighbourhood supermarkets carry tempeh, coconut milk and couscous.

But most of all Amsterdam is a romantic place. There are very few cities more suitable for a lovebirds’ getaway: myriads of atmospheric cafes, sun-lit terraces with heart-warming views, cosy nook and corners. Lovingly preserved and meticulously maintained, central Amsterdam has a gingerhouse quality to it that will make you feel inside a living fairytale. Every terrace has infrared heaters, every restaurant table – a candle and if you are into a little kink – sex in parks is tolerated.

That said, Amsterdam's parklife is mostly about quieter pleasures. The zoning law here guarantees that you are never more than 5 minutes away from an oasis of green. Vondelpark is the most famous, but none less lovely are the city's other 27 parks, carefully landscaped on a limited territory every square meter of which was diligently pried from the sea's hold. The horticultural style of choice here is English - natural appearing and meant for active enjoyment. Befittingly this mutlicultural city, picnic of Portuguese rosé, Spanish tapas and a French fruit salad is an Amsterdam institution while the Turks have brought the barbecuing culture and the Surinamese - hammocks and joints.

And then there’s Amsterdam’s best: the pleasure boats! Forget about the overcrowded tourist-geared monstrosities – you can rent an authentic Dutch plezierboot all for yourself! Take a bottle of delicious wine and some tasty titbits and you’re in for a whale of time! The European inland waterway system allows you to paddle on as far as Paris, Prague or Basel - but I’d rather linger on in Amsterdam, it’s just too good to leave on a bright sunny day! Thanks to the Napoleonic occupation and successive waves of Mediterranean immigrants, Amsterdam has its own version of la dolce vita.

This may be the northernmost city with a thriving café culture: with the first glimpse of sunshine Amsterdammers crawl out in throngs to sip coffee or have full-blown meals outside: in local perception a picturesque or cozy setting is more important than food itself. Even the country’s Labour Law accommodates this kind of lifestyle: you are legally entitled to take half a day off if you see during lunchtime that the weather is looking up! Recent climate changes brought us balmy sunny days in any season, so mosey on over and join us in this life-loving celebration of life!

Culture vultures never go hungry in this city either. In another feat of Dutch organizational efficiency, Amsterdam’s Concert Hall has world’s busiest schedule hosting around 800 performances a year and that is on top of 35 museums, 50 theatres and world-renown opera and ballet houses. Thanks to government strong support of arts, tickets are affordable but quickly booked out. For those on a strict sustenance budget, there is at least one free classical music show on any given day of the year.

Cosmopolitan, romantic, indulgent and cultural – that is the real Amsterdam deal, free of tired stereotypes. You can you enjoy all that urban splendour in one sitting: just bring your sweetheart to share delicious Indonesian gado-gado or Argentine bife de lomo on a sunlit terrace to the accompaniment of the carillon – the melodic bells chiming from a church tower across the city. A quintessential Amsterdam moment!

A Day In Utrecht

2008-07-30T00:49:00.007+02:00

Away from the coastal marshlands of Holland that would take centuries to reclaim much later, Romans founded a fortress. They named it Traiectum (ford) as this is where the Rhine, which used to flow much more northerly in the olden days, was forded. As Romans also decided that this was as far to the north as their empire was going to expand, they put Ultra (the farthest) in front of the name. Many centuries after their empire collapsed, the two words would come to be shortened to simply Utrecht.

There is a big 400-year- long blank in the city's history between the time when the Romans left and its sudden shot to prominence as the centre of Christianity of the Low Lands. Those were the Dark Ages of Europe: while the Japanese were busy blending perfumes and competing in love poetry, in the Western extreme of Eurasia assorted tribes were dragging a beastly existence on the ashes of the Roman Empire. Nothing is known of Utrecht of those days until it erupts with a succession of churches, archbishops and cathedrals starting in the 8th century.

A full-blown city thanks to vibrant trade, Utrecht long remains independent under the rule of its powerful bishops. Their authority however was constantly challenged by the wealthy citizens. When the city was incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire, emperor Charles V had a hard time asserting himself. The castle he built trying to exert his power over of his new unruly subjects was quickly demolished in a revolt. Thus were born traditions of civil liberties that are considered to be the root of European individualism and civil rights.

It is no coincidence that the treaty that put foundation to the later Dutch Republic was signed in Utrecht, the famous Utrecht Union. Nowadays, Utrecht is the central seat of the Old Catholic Church, right in the middle of a staunchly Protestant area. In true adherence to the Utrechter spirit, Old Catholics broke away from Rome outraged by the declaration of the Pope's infallibility.

Unlike canals in other Dutch cities that are actually the remnants of the lakes and marshes left amongst reclaimed land, canals in Utrecht, which always stood on the firm ground, are what is left of the river port: artificial arms of the Rhine. They even look significantly different: former warehouses are on the lower level, they are connected by stairs to the upper, street level where the houses are situated.

The city centre is full of historical buildings. A few modern brutalist monstrosities cannot overshadow the delightful constellation of medieval and Art Deco edifices, of which the Dom Tower is the main star attraction. It stands right on top of the 2000-year-old Roman fort Ultra Traiectum to which Utrecht traces its origins. Coincidentally, this where all distance in the Netherlands are measured from.

Lille - Boulogne-sur-Mer - Brouwershaven

2008-07-23T20:25:00.014+02:00

In these days of oil hysteria driving to France just for groceries would be deemed crass. Even before they started making us feeling guilty about burning fossil fuels we always combined business and pleasure: stocking up on essential foodstuffs and sightseeing.

This time our objective was threefold: shopping in Lille, visiting my school teachers in Zeeland and last but not least a day in Boulogne.

Here is a short photo album of our trip:

Normandy - Brittany - Jersey: La Connection Anglo-Française

2008-05-27T22:49:00.046+02:00

Pro's: "Culture, nature and great food."
Con's: "The more you come, the more you understand you've hardly yet seen anything."
In a nutshell: "The inexhaustible treasure trove of delights for culture vultures and gourmets."

England and France - two major world cultures so common yet so different that love and hate each other so much. The English may envy the hedonistic Gallic lifestyle and excellent healthcare system, the French - the successful Anglo-Saxon world expansionism and infinitely superior rock-n-roll music, but in reality the two nations share more than a centuries-long spirit of rivalry. In April-May 2008 we travelled 2,670 km to see where the twain meet, mix and, on occasion, mate: Normandy, Brittany and Jersey, exploring the best sites in the culturally rich area of Anglo-French contact.

Besides such lofty pursuits like visiting Claude Monet's garden in Giverny, Richard the Lionheart's castle in Les Andelys or Victor Hugo's place of exile on Jersey, we went to admire the natural wonders of Étretat and Côte Emeraude. Brought up on French literature, I derived a gigantic kick from following the footsteps of Flaubert, Maupassant and Verne. We also found a great delight in immersing ourselves in the lowly pleasures of gluttony, for besides numerous historical vestiges the region is justly famous for its abundance of prime quality seafood.

After so many trips to the Northwest of France last few years, I still have a sense of unfinished business. On the way back home, I, in my navigator's seat, am always busy drafting plans for another visit to cover what we had to skip this time. Floyd says it is a form of greed, which is a deadly sin. Mea culpa, but this year I walked to the Mont St. Michel so I'm sure it's been forgiven.

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Highlights of the trip:

* * *

Amsterdam - Lille - Mer-les-Bains - Dieppe - Miromesnil - Roeun - Le Mesnil-Esnard - Giverny - Les Andelys - Fécamp - Étretat - Pont de Normandie - Honfleur - Saint-Quentin-sur-le-Homme - Mont St. Michel - Roz-sur-Couesnon - St. Marcan - St. Broladre - Cherrueix - Mont-Dol - Le Vivier-sur-Mer - Saint-Benoît-des-Ondes - Cancale - Pointe-du-Grouin - St. Malo - Barrage de la Rance - Dinard - St. Lunaire - St. Helier - Grouveille - Gorey - Five Oaks - Amsterdam

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Lille - The Nearest Bit Of France

2008-05-27T20:32:00.015+02:00

If you beat the traffic around Utrecht and Antwerp it takes only 2 and half hours from Amsterdam to the nearest French city in the northernmost corner of the Hexagon. Lille is not big on tourist maps and some people even wrinkle their noses when you mention it but it is beautiful enough to me. The historic centre, the Vieux Lille, is charming, there is a citadel, a maze of cobbled streets with café terraces, grand squares and attractive Flemish Gothic buildings. I also like that in every neighbourhood there is at least one Auchan hypermarket where I can stock up on good quality French groceries in one stop (say, Carrefour, let alone Leclerc, just doesn't cut it).

The city's other name is Rijssel (pronounced 'rice-cell'), which is Flemish: Lille became permanently annexed to France only in the times of Louis XIV. Historically it is part of the Flemish Low Lands and it is obvious from the Belgian-looking architecture and simple hearty food with un-Gallic names like waterzooi, potjevleesch and speculoos. Northerly vegetables like leek, potatoes and chicory as well as fresh sea produce from the coast are featured prominently in the local diet. The drink of choice here is beer, most often the iconic Ch'ti - the Lille area is even referred to as the Ch'ti Land. It makes way even in soup called soupe flamande. Lille forms part of the Moules Frites Belt that extends as far in the north as Dutch Zeeland - steamed mussels with French fries (served with mayonnaise, never ketchup!) here is the answer to American burger-based fast food. Finish those off with typical sweet aromatic wafers and you won't know you're not in Belgium any more.

Paradoxically, just over the Flemish border you will be very hard pressed to find anyone who can understand Dutch. As everywhere else in France, dialects and local languages have been pro-actively uprooted since the 1789 Revolution: there is now just about 80 thousand Flemish speakers left in the area and, as it goes, they are mostly countryside-dwelling grandpas and grannies.

Lille deserves a full report but this time we only spent their a night, so here is a glimpse of night-time Lille.

Tip: Don't order seafood platters in restaurants, don't even buy ready-made one in supermarkets: go to the poissonnier section in Auchan and pick a lobster, a crab, a box of oysters, then shrimp, bulots and amandes half a kilo each, perhaps crevettes grises and bigourneaux if you like those (I do!); then get some lemons, baguettes, mayonnaise and a couple bottles of Muscadet or cidre brut and you have a slap-up seafood dîner for two. Drive on to a scenic location for an additional aesthetic kick.

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Mers-les-Bains - A Bourgeois Seaside Resort Par Excellence

2008-05-27T14:57:00.014+02:00

Little touted outside France, the Ivory and Spice Route takes you around the best attractions of Haute- Normandie – Norman castles, attractive seaside resorts, and numerous chateaux built with money mostly procured from trade in spice, ivory and slaves.

The route starts in Mer-les-Bains where the flat expands of the Low Countries finally give way to the photogenic chalky cliffs of the Côte d'Albâtre, the Alabaster Coast. Mer-les-Bains, a resort town built up with colourful turn-of-the century villas, forms one commune with the cliff-side Le Treport (great seafood restaurants) and the inland Eu (a royal château). Victor Hugo, Jules Verne and Gustav Eiffel used to come here on holidays and just like in their time the area teems with Parisians flocking to the closest beaches from home they can find.

These days there is sold more seafood than caught and the ports that used to be the launchpads for great expeditions to faraway shores have changed their trade to restaurant business. Mers-les-Bains has never been one of those. It shot to prominence in the 1860s when bourgeoisie discovered that railway travel made a weekend getaway to the sea possible and affordable to middle-class families. The benefits of inhaling iodised air became whole-heartedly adopted in the trail of trend-setting Empress Eugenie. In recognition of that, the town's coats of arms is emblazoned with the motto "In littore floreo" - On the shore, I flourish.

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Dieppe - Maps, Ivory And Scallops

2008-05-27T14:22:00.006+02:00

Famous for its scallops and the tragically botched Dieppe Operation during WWII, these days Dieppe is a pretty seaside town with the nearest beach to Paris and a photogenic marina typical for Normandy.

Its name derives from the Norse word djepp, deap, for its haven was such allowing it to become an important sea port: the expedition to found the Nouvelle France, French Canada set out from here. Owing to a rich maritime tradition and good connections with Portuguese explorers, Dieppe was home to Europe’s most famous cartographical school of the 16th century, renowned for its ornate, luxury-edition maps that mysteriously featured Australia before its “official” discovery in 1776 by Captain Cook.

Château de Dieppe sitting on the hill that overlooks the city houses a collection of ivory artefacts, a reminder of the city’s once prosperous trade with Africa. At one time there was even a French colony of Petit-Dieppe on the coast of the Gambia that supplied its big sister in Europe with elephant tusks.

Apart from the scallops, Dieppe’s trademark delicacy is the marmite dieppoise: fish and seafood stewed in cream, cider and onions, lightly flavoured with spices. Mussels and shrimp need to be featured prominently to classify for the appellation.

A few kilometres inland from Dieppe is the Château de Miromesnil – the likeliest birthplace of Guy de Maupassant, the scandalous author, whose books, in my childhood, were the equivalent of the modern-time Internet porn – something that parents wanted to keep as far away as possible from their children. They normally occupied the upper book shelves so that we could only reach them after a certain age. A vain precaution as we were smart enough to use chairs for that purpose.

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Fécamp - Liqueur, Seafood & Norman Vestiges

2008-05-27T14:14:00.006+02:00

Home to the Norman dukes’ castle from whence Wilhelm the Conqueror launched his invasion of Britain, Fécamp is now mostly famous for Bénédictine – a sweet concoction of 27 herbs, sugar and alcohol created in late 19th century on the wave of a developing consumerist culture and interest towards all things “traditional and historical”, its name evoking images of medieval monks brewing healing potions. However, just like the pseudo-Renaissance folly of the Palais Benedictine where it is produced, it is a purely commercial creation, a nifty marriage of nostalgia for good old times and mass production technology.

To thank the monks of Fécamp who sided with him during his conquest of England, Wilhelm and his wife Matilda commissioned the construction of a colossal cathedral, making the previously insignificant town a bishopric and rank-of-the-file monks senior clerics. An imposing and lofty example of Norman Gothic, its princely nave majestically towering over the town still impresses eight centuries after its construction. The cathedral stands right behind Fécamp’s town hall, asserting a modern civil authority with an ages-old symbol of power.

Next to Fécamp’s marina is a line of fine seafood restaurants, highly popular with both locals and visitors. That’s probably all that is left from the town’s long and illustrious past as a major fishing port. If you are budget-conscious but still want to savour classic local fish dishes without compromising the quality of your experience, go for set menus - les formulas – to enjoy maquereaux à la fécampoise – mackerel baked in cider with a mussel sauce and moules à la fecampoise – mussels boiled in fresh cream with dried parsley and scallions.

Huge seafood platters – assiettes des fruits de mer – may set you back a little but make for an unforgettable hours-long enjoyment of lobster, crab, prawn, oysters, various shrimp and shellfish picturesquely arranged on bed of crushed ice and edible seaweed. Dry, flinty Muscadet from Nantes is considered the best to complement the delicate flavours of fresh sea produce, oysters in particular.

A local route – D940 – follows the original Roman road and takes you to the next jewel of Haute-Normandie.

The Limestone Arches Of Étretat

2008-05-27T14:11:00.010+02:00

The busy seaside village of Étretat draws huge crowds thanks to the Falaises d’Étretat –gigantic limestone arches protruding into the sea. In the classic Normandy way, the top of them is lush green and flat and as always the contrast is quite dramatic.

The 70-metre-tall natural wonders won admiration of such grands as Gustave Flaubert and two Spanish Queens, Marie- Christine and Isabella II, who set a summer residence here. The arches resembling elephants dipping their trunks in the sea became featured on paintings by Eugène Boudin, Gustave Courbet and ubiquitous Claude Monet.

Guy de Maupassant spent his childhood in the area: it was here that, in an infamous incident, he ate a roast monkey with Algernon Charles Swinburne, a decadent Victorian poet famous for his depiction of sadomasochism, Sapphic love and bestiality.

A good example of the aristocratic excesses that provoked the French Revolution, the Oyster Park – a series of stone basins – was built here for Marie- Antoinette of the “let them eat cake” fame. Two sloops were in charge of carrying oysters from Cancale in Brittany for a several months of affinage: soaking alternatively in salty sea water and fresh water from the underground springs to acquire a particularly delicate taste. Then they were carted away to Versailles. Right was Talleyrand saying that "those who have not known the Ancien régime will never know how sweet life can be".

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Rouen - The Duck, The Pots & The Cathedral

2008-05-27T14:07:00.013+02:00

The city of Madame Bovary and Monet’s Cathédrale series, Rouen has an appealing historical centre painstakingly restored from the heavy destruction of WWII. The very scale of restoration only dawns on you when you see the pictures of post-bombardment Rouen. Still, here and there in the city are left devastated pieces of what used to be magnificent buildings, preserved so as mementos of how senseless and barbarous wars are.

A reminder that Rouen once was the capital of the Norman Duchy is the imposing Gothic Palais de Justice which used to housed Normandy's parliament. Scores of half-timbered houses are turned nowadays into restaurants and smart shops, some of which deal in Rouen faïence – colourful glazed crockery.

On Place du Vieaux Macrhé, the symbolic centre of the city, one can find La Couronne, France's oldest inn established in 1345. Considered the star-studded guest list, it is quite reasonably priced and promises the best of Norman culinary delights in a historic setting. On the same square French national heroine Jeanne d'Arc was burnt at stake accused of witchcraft at the age of 18. A Post-Modern monstrosity of a monument was erected here during Valéry Giscard D'Estaing's reign to commemorate or rather commiserate the fact.

The city’s gastronomic claim for fame is by virtue of the savage recipe of canard rouennais – Duclair ducks are strangled, roasted, jointed, the carcass is crushed in a special press and the juices are mixed into a blood-based sauce. I strongly suspect that this recipe was invented specifically to give vegans severe nervous breakdowns.

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Richard the Lionheart's Château Gaillard

2008-05-27T14:03:00.010+02:00

Set on the most picturesque curve of the Seine one can find, the ruins of Château Gaillard are a crumbling monument to the aesthetic sense and unbridled ambitions of England’s allegedly homosexual king, Richard the Lionheart.

Richard was a notable example of early European integration: a French-speaking Norwegian king of England who married a Spanish princess in Cyprus on the way to a military adventure in the Middle East. He is suspected to be on more chummy terms with the princess’s brother though and, like some expats today, he preferred to live in France whilst running business in England, stating the horrible weather and food in his dominion as reasons of his choice.

A valiant knight and an insatiable adventurer, he commissioned the castle to assert his right for his continental possessions before the French King Philippe August. It took just one year and an extravagant expense to erect the fortifications. Upon seeing the finished castle, Richard is known to have exclaimed: “Quel gaillard tu es!” – “Aren’t you jolly pretty!” thus giving it its name.

Next year he was killed by a lance in the siege of a fortress and four years later Château Gaillard was successfully sacked by French forces. Just over one century later, Marguerite of Burgundy, Louis X’s adulterous wife, was first incarcerated here and then strangled to death with her own hair.

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Monet's Japanese Garden in Giverny

2008-05-27T14:00:00.003+02:00

In 1883, four years after his wife's tragic death, grief-stricken Monet noticed the village of Giverny while looking out of the train window. He moved there almost immediately and when he had enough money to buy out an estate, he started a magnificent garden of which he made many famous paintings. The famous water lily pond with a Japanese bridge are also in this garden.

I am definitely not into florid affected exaggerations but the garden rather does look like an Impressionist painting. It seems to consist of bright, vibrant jabs of oil paint and the colour scheme of the vegetation begs to be painted.

Monet former house is full of his beloved Japanese prints so it is quite clear where he drew his inspiration for this garden: in a true Japanese fashion it is nonchalant and magnificent at the same time.

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Honfleur - A Picture-Perfect Port

2008-05-27T13:55:00.008+02:00

The slate-covered façades of the houses lining the waterfront are the most celebrated feature of the port of Honfleur but it is the characteristic quality of light in the harbour that earned it a string of painting admirers. Among others they included the founder of Realism Gustave Courbet of the Origin of the World fame, precursors of Impressionism Johan Jongkind and Eugène Boudin, and what would we do without Claude Monet.

Other proud Honfleuraises included Erik Satie mostly famous for composing the first example of purposely written background music Gymnopédies, Samuel de Champlain - the founder of Québec City and Charles Baudelaire, symbolist poet of the Le fleurs du mal fame

Honfleur’s – pronounced ‘hronfieu’- present appearance of a hedonistic coastal resort town in no way betrays its past as a major slave trade port. In a light-hearted bid to celebrate its lifeline as a fishing port, every October Honfleur forget itself in the abandon of the Fête de La Crevette - the Shrimp Festival.

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Mont St.Michel - The Marvel Abbey

2008-05-27T13:44:00.010+02:00

Second most visited tourist attraction in France after Paris, this tiny, densely built-up island manages to let through over 12 millions visitors a year - and that is probably why they call it the Marvel Abbey.

In 1996 the tourist influx made the resident Benedictine monks abandon the abbey as unfit for pursuits of solitude and meditation. Presently, it's a co-ed community of monastics that stages daily masses in the ancient cathedral to the tourist audience.

The Marvel Abbey, a World Heritage site and France’s second most visited destination after Paris, is not what it used to be. Centuries of human activities have brought about severe silting of the bay where the famous islet is situated. First, the area around was polderised to create pastures that produce the famous agneau de pré salé, deliciously flavourful lamb meat. Then the Couesnon River became canalised, thus reducing the amount of water flowing into the bay. To top it all off, in 1879 the natural isthmus connecting the island to the mainland was transformed into a full-blown causeway. As a result, the onset of the tidal water that was said to be “quicker than a galloping horse” nowadays is just a languid splash of shallow water over a vast expanse of salt marshes. Historically, the Mont used to be over four kilometres away in the sea. These days, it is an island only in the name.

Two years ago French government launched a 150-million-euro project to give the famous landmark its insular character back. The new high-tech dam will allow the river and tide water to naturally swirl around the Mont St. Michel thus flushing out the built up silt into the sea. According to the project’s contractor, the Syndicat Mixte Baie du Mont-Saint-Michel, once the dam is ready it will take about 2 years to clear half the sediment in the bay.

The beauty of the project is that it aims to restore the original ecological balance while keeping the human intervention as low profile as possible. The developers promise that once all the sluices are open, the dam will be barely noticeable. The plans also include the removal of the unsightly parking lot next to the abbey. Good news for the visitor: throughout the construction period the Mont St. Michel will remain open. So if you wondered where your 12-euro admission fee would go to, now you know: to move the abbey back to the sea.

Peculiarly enough, there is a very similar island with a similar looking abbey just off the coast of Cornwall and it's called - surprise - St. Michael's Mount. In my eyes, this proves the mysterious connection anglo-française that I went exploring on this trip.

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Côte Emeraude - Brittany's Emerald Coast

2008-05-27T13:38:00.008+02:00

Why is it that in Celtic countries even the rocks look like they have souls? Is it a vestige of the druidic worship of moss-grown boulders dotting the wind-swept heather meadows of Ireland, Scotland or Cornwall? The feature that unites all Celtic lands is a mysterious, meaningful air about their understated weather-worn beauty.

Just turn around the curve of the Mont St. Michel Bay and the scenery, architecture and the very vibe of the area change: you are on the territory of the ancient Duchy of Brittany. Called Little Britain in the Middle Ages to distinguish it from Great Britain across the water, this Celtic principality was an advanced little country: first book in Breton predates the first book in French by 50 years and it got its parliament, États de Bretagne, as early as 1352. The first Breton dictionary – the fact that usually symbolizes the status of a language as established and developed - was also the first French one.

Brittany fiercely fought for its cultural and political independence well until the 16th century when it became annexed into the Kingdom of France through the not quite willing marriage of its Duchess Anne to the French King Louis XII. Strangely enough, the final blow that erased the last traces of Brittany’s autonomy was delivered by the French Revolution in 1789: all feudal privileges were abolished and down went Breton Parliament, the status of the language and cultural autonomy.

A nation of seafarers and fishermen, Brittany is big on fish and seafood. The local way to cook it is called à l’armoricaine – after the Latin name of the Breton seashore – with tomatoes, onions, garlic, herbs (tarragon and/or parsley) and a dash of cognac. Most famously, lobster is served that way for a 5-star gourmet experience. Meat and not only can be served à la bretonne: with tomatoes, haricot beans and garlic. Fishermen’s staple cotriade – is a simple but nonetheless fragrant soup (or stew if you will) of the daily catch with onions and potatoes, identical to its Russian equivalent ukha except for the way the potatoes are chopped. Shellfish and crabs often seem to end up in cream and bread crumbs here.

The village of Cancale situated between the Mont St. Michel and St. Malo is particularly famous for its oysters - les plates de Cancale - that have been farmed here since the Roman times. The proliferation of seafood restaurants on Cancale's seaside almost guarantees that you won't be able to find a place to park your car so arrive well before you start feeling the first pangs of hunger.

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St. Malo - The Granite Jewel of Brittany

2008-05-27T13:35:00.008+02:00

Brittany's most visited place, St. Malo is a stark grey jewel - its austere elegance is very Breton. It may look inhospitable from the outside but inside the granite walls there is reputedly the highest concentration of seafood restaurants in France. On a sunny day St. Malo's beaches are teeming with tourist crowds. Skimpily dressed sunbathers form quite a contrast with the steep and mighty fortification walls towering over them.

The city’s past as the seat of corsairs terrorizing the passing ships inspired an opera by Cèsar Cui, a Russian composer of French-Lithuanian parentage. At one point of time, the pirates even established a short-lived republic that bowed neither to the Breton duke nor to the French king. St. Malo’s most famous son, Jacques Cartier set sail from here in 1545 to found what is now known as Québec or French Canada.

Between St. Malo and Dinard lies the Barrage de la Rance – the first tidal power station in the world. Apart from being the bottleneck causing constant traffic jams on the road that runs on top of it, it is also a testimony to the French engineering genius: in 1967 it became the first power station to harness the energy of ocean tides.

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Dinard & St. Lunaire - Hangouts Of The Rich

2008-05-27T13:30:00.011+02:00

Also known as the Cannes of the North, Dinard (Dinarzh or “Arthur’s Fort” in Breton) is a posh seaside resort with a vaguely Mediterranean feel. The rich and famous from both sides of the Channel occupy 407 listed Belle Epoque villas in Dinard. Tropical palms and trees line the romantic Promenade du Claire de Lune and sweet smell of rhododendron wafts in the air warmed up by the
nearby Gulf Stream.

St. Lunaire, a short drive from Dinard, is another laid back and posh seaside village inhabited mostly by rich people and those who make a living serving them.

A rich Haitian and a PR genius Sylla Laraque promoted St. Lunaire into fame in late 19th century by building here a luxury casino, an electric heated pool and a superb tennis court renown to this day. He managed to lure the Queen of Romania and scores of French celebrities of the day into building magnificent residences that now make a big part of the town appeal – the other part owes it to the magnificent views and a beautiful haven.

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Jersey - The Bulwark Of Englishness

2008-05-27T11:39:00.011+02:00

Jersey is a mere one-hour speed ferry ride away from Brittany but such proximity did not rub any Frenchiness off on it. It could just be yet another Torquay or Townsend-on-Sea transplanted right next to the French coast. In a very endearing way it is a Fawlty Towers kind of experience, complete with dainty English ladies served rack of lamb by swarthy waiters speaking macaronic English in tweed hotels faintly smelling of fish and chips, overlooking rain-drenched expanses of sandy beaches. It is so strictly British in fact that no tourist brochure about the island mentions its most famous resident, Victor Hugo who was unlucky enough to be French.

Even the very way the seafront is developed, rooted in the sacred right of private property, is unmistakeably Anglo-Saxon, uniform from Florida to Brisbane. Whole stretches of beach are made private with only occasional access for outsiders. In St. Helier you can only see the jolly façades of the waterside property (mind you, invariably guarded by CCTV or fierce-looking mutts), if you are friends with somebody owning a house there. Otherwise, it’s just the tree-shadowed driveways in the back for you to admire.

It is quite different on the mainland. The French ancien régime passion for beauty and pleasure is tempered by the Republican ideas of egalitè. The bloodshed and terror of the Revolution forced the French rich and mighty to make concessions and the gory lesson is still remembered until this day. The exuberant beauty of waterfront mansions in Trouville or St. Lunaire is for everyone to enjoy, just like the beaches that remain strictly public. The majority of French chateaux welcome you, for a consideration, to gawk at their wealth of historical vestiges and their owners’ refined lifestyles.

German, Dutch, English or Danish coastal resort towns may be all clean, twee and well-run but even the very expressions la douceur de la vie as well as la dolce vita are used as is in Northern European languages. It will hardly occur to you, and for a good reason, to visit Bristol, Zandvoort or Abernaa on a gourmet trip. The English and the Dutch escape to the sea just to get away from it all, but in France it is a more sophisticated affair that involves titillating all your senses. Ichthyophobic Northerners seem to mistrust the gifts from the sea and prefer their whiting thoroughly deep-fried and smothered in sauce. The French seafood platter, consumed raw with the lightest of condiments, celebrates the whole-hearted acceptance of whatever the deep brine has to offer.

* * *

Keukenhof 2008 - Floral Letdown Of The Year

2008-04-26T09:58:00.018+02:00

Have you ever heard of those flesh-eating tropical flowers that use attractive smells to lure unsuspecting insects and then trap them in a sticky juice that also functions as a digesting liquid? Keukenhof is a huge contriving plant that uses cunning marketing techniques and millions of flowers to draw busloads of naïve tourists into its money-sucking facilities.

Keukenhof is something like "kitchen garden" in Dutch. But seriously, my Mother's kitchen garden is a considerably more imaginative than the hyped tourist attraction. A bunch of flowerbeds spread out over quite a vast surface, without any coherence or theme, are there clearly just to lure people into buying tulip bulbs from the souvenir shops and keep the shamelessly overpriced cafeteria in business.

Without a single photogenic view in sight, I ended up photographing the plants, some of which are very lovely, but so are artichokes and amaranths that my Mother grows for food and she does not charge a EUR13.50 entrance fee and 50 cent every time you take a pee.

If you are a big tulip buff, you will definitely get a much bigger kick driving around sprawling tulip fields in the area. Vibrantly multicoloured under the relentlessly blue Dutch sky, they are the real beauty and best kept secret of Holland. And you are free to pee around anywhere, no fee charged.

P.S. My idea of a tastefully laid out garden that makes you want to linger on and on and on before you even know it is Monet's Japanese Garden in Giverny of the water-lily pond fame. Technically there is not much Japanese about it at all, it is more of an essence of the Japanese aesthetics shining through a French Impressionist prism.

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Previous page: Grand Tour of China - Much More Than You Ever Expected

Grand Tour of China 2007

2008-02-12T00:13:00.034+01:00

Con's: "Can't rent a car."
Pro's: "A full-package deal that hits all your spots."
In a nutshell: "More than you can see in a lifetime."

Beijing - Badaling - Pingyao - Xi'an - Nanjing -Yangzhou - Suzhou -
Tongli - Tunxi - Huangshan - Hongcun - Shanghai - Beijing

Autumn is a great time to travel to China.

Lush foliage colours go together well with both understated monochrome Ming architecture and the flamboyant palette of Qing eaves. In autumn, the lakes in China are at their serenest and the mountains at their most enchanting. The heart-warming orange colour of the seasonal fruit - persimmons and mandarins - looks strikingly good against the clear blue sky.

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In many ways, China exceeded any of my expectations - it's bigger, brasher, cleaner, friendlier, more modern, more expensive, more culturally diverse and has more to offer to the traveller than one could ever imagine. It both defies and confirms the many stereotypes in the most enjoyable manner. And it also does deserve all the superlatives and ecstatic epithets you will come across below.

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It is a known fact that China is one of the oldest continuous civilizations of the world, but it may be hard to fathom that before arrival just how much build-up has occurred here during the last few millennia, and how much is still left of it, despite all the wars and destruction. Before your brain gets blocked in information overflow -- mine did on a daily basis -- give in to the serendipity of it all and enjoy whatever wonders you may stumble on as you elbow your way through jostling crowds.

Your next culture shock will come from... >>>

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Beijing - Badaling - Pingyao - Xi'an - Nanjing -Yangzhou - Suzhou - Tongli - Tunxi - Huangshan - Hongcun - Shanghai - Beijing

Grand Tour of China 2007 - II

2008-02-12T00:12:00.015+01:00

Your next culture shock may come from the sheer scale of everything.

After New York, Tokyo or London, Chinese cities will not seem that much more crowded or busy, but the actual grandeur starts dawning on you as you start travelling across the country from one city to another, each the size of a midrange European nation. And then you remember that it is still a mostly agricultural nation, so the majority lives in the countryside. As the never-ending fields, rice-paddies and villages unfold in front of you as your train chugs along, the realization of just how much grander this all is compared to anything you are used to, will give you a chill down the spine. It did to me.

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It has been my belief that the country of China roughly corresponds to the continent of Europe in terms of climatic, ethnic and cultural variety. What we perceive as one nation is, in fact, a unified block of many, somewhat along the lines of what the European Union is striving to achieve and the Soviet Union finally failed in.

Just like Europe, the Chinese subcontinent - we can rightly call it so - has also experienced massive foreign invasions, times of unity and times of great division, flourishing and decline of religions. The point of cohesion, among others, for China's many peoples is the script - the regional dialects are very often mutually unintelligible, unless when written in Chinese characters. In Europe, with all its genetic and cultural diversity, Christianity is the hinge.

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With the population closing in on 1,5 billion people, it is nothing short of amazing that things still actually work here. But they do. Queues in ticket offices are organized by way of steel railing and every underground crossing will have a couple of policemen on patrol, but it is so much safer than you thought it would be and the literal myriads of trains and buses across the country are well maintained, clean and more often than not arrive on time. The much slagged-off public toilets are on every corner and are none dirtier than anywhere else in Europe.

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Another surprise is how little... >>>

Grand Tour of China 2007 - III

2008-02-11T02:49:00.020+01:00

Another surprise is how little of that Communist feel and visual vestiges of the ideology China has - save the obligatory Mao portraits here and there.

Capitalism has been embraced here whole- heartedly and on a grand scale. Sprawling shopping malls spring up everywhere and the supermarkets carry anything one could wish for, down to four sorts of edible turtles and fresh crocodile meat in your brand spanking new Wal-Mart branch. Forty years of Communism could not have possibly beat five thousand years of free entrepreneurship. The customer service attitude would put most businesses in Continental Europe to shame. Outside the two major public holidays, the Chinese New Year and October the 1st, you can just walk in any hotel and get a discount on any room, no booking required. Try that in Normandy or Barcelona.

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The variety of food is astounding. As you travel through China's regions, save for a few classic basics, not a single same dish gets to appear on your table. If your idea of Chinese cuisine is based on the MSG-laden kungpao chicken and greasy fried rice from your local takeaway, it will be interesting to know that regional varieties across this country vary as much as, say, Swedish and Greek in Europe. Yes, they do eat dogs, frogs and snakes in China, but there are also thousands of less exotic yet scrumptious dishes to choose from.

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And as is the case across Asia, simple grub from a roadside stall can be as delicious as more fanciful dishes served in posh restaurants. In fact, you can keep your tummy full without ever entering a restaurant thanks to xiao chi - savoury and sweet snacks sold virtually round-the-clock in the streets. The comprehensive spectrum ranges from your common- or-garden steamed dumplings to skewered seahorses.

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With all that cultural abundance, China still has a sort of image problem abroad, caused mostly by biased media coverage, lingering Orientalist attitudes and occasional substandard imports. Envious and fearful of China's unstoppable progress Western upstarts try to check it by massive anti-Chinese propaganda. My fancy, however, was completely taken by the refined aesthetic sense developed by this ancient civilization. In fact, it even made me cool down towards my first love, Japan, when I realized just how much the Japanese borrowed from their big sister China.

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There is so much subtlety in both sprawling landscapes and close-ups: the gentle undulating countryside, laborious stone carvings full of profound allegories and historical allusions; quaint villages with whimsical roofs against the backdrop of misty mountains; exuberant eaves and fantasmagoric railings. I have come to greatly admire the maniacal yet discerning attention to detail, the daring yet harmonious colour combinations, the sensitivity to seasonal changes and flavours.

Chinese ground principles of harmony, cohesiveness and balance in policy-making seem more attractive than Western short-sighted obsession with profit, bottomline efficiency and sanctimonious hypocrisy. Having barely achieved acceptable standards of living and social equality in last few decades, West assumes a high moral ground to teach the rest of the world on how to live their lives. Visiting China gives you an eye-opening perspective on such false claims by the same people who hunted Native American and Aborigines like wild animals, starved millions Irish farmers to death, had separate water fountains, bus seats and schools for Blacks and Whites, burnt with napalm and sprayed with Agent Orange whole areas of Vietnam, bombed Serbian civilians with cluster bombs and depleted uranium and keep economic abuse and plundering of developing nations.

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One proverb kept coming to my mind during my 3-and-half-week journey, "The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on". According to The Economist (Sep 14th 2006) China had been world's largest economy up to the 18th century when the Industrial Revolution and colonialism brought Western Europe to the forefront. This day and age, we are witnessing how China is regaining its rightful position among other nations at an awe-inspiring pace.

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Beijing - Grandeur, Rusticity & Russiatown>>>

Beijing - Grandeur, Rusticity & Russiatown

2008-02-11T02:47:00.019+01:00

The capital of China is an overwhelmingly gigantic imperial city with vast avenues and grandiose public spaces but just a few minutes away from the Tiananmen Square it can be surprisingly cozy and intimate, even rustic.

The traditional hutong quarters have a very neighbourly feel, before you know shop vendors start saying hello to you in a very personal way. Yet the distances are huge, and walking is sure an option but not for the physically unfit.

Naturally for the capital of such a large and diverse country, Beijing is a mix of different cultures and influences. There are restaurants for every cuisine of China, and attractions range from the traditional Peking Opera to Catholic cathedrals.

Yabaolu is an odd curiosity in Beijing. Founded in the 17th century by Russian Cossacks fleeing the Tsar's rule, it is still a thriving community focussed around a large market. Ethnic Russians in China are significant enough to be officially recognized as one of the 56 ethnic groups by the People's Republic of China.

After a long chill after the breakup between Mao and Stalin, last 15 years Russo-Chinese trade has been booming. The third wave of Russian immigration (the second one was White Guard emigrés and Chinese Eastern Railways staff) has given the area a major boost in activity. They may not be eyeing a permanent residency but New Russians are commercially minded and hedonistically inclined. Numerous Russian restaurants, night clubs, trade companies and travel agencies vie for visitor's attention with bright Cyrillic neon signs. The Elephant Restaurant (named so after an eatery featured in a famous Russian spy TV series) has gone to great lengths to recreate the nostalgic abandon of the 1920s, from Old World lamp-shades over the tables to the uniforms of the Russian-fluent Chinese waiters. The place is full, mostly with Russians: the combination of an extensive choice of well cooked Russian favourites and the atmosphere of a period drama is understandably irresistible. The show is just as traditional, marrying Gypsy-style boisterous exuberance and barely legal eroticism. Another typically Russian touch: tipsy dancing to the live band. It feels oddly more home than back home.

Beijing Opera is acquired taste, but none more odd than its European counterpart with its contrived manner of singing and ritualistic conventions. Catchy rhythms, spectacular costumes and on-stage acrobatics make it entertaining for the connoisseur fan and the uninitiated tourist alike.

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Great Wall In Autumn Hues>>>

Great Wall In Autumn Hues

2008-02-11T02:46:00.009+01:00

The Badaling section of the Great Wall is derided by some as the Chinese Disneyland for the level of restoration work it underwent. In my eyes, there is nothing wrong with that - instead of the impeccably maintained gangways we could have had to risk our life and limb on crumbled stairs and dilapidated watchtowers.

And the scenery is nothing short of dramatic - a menacing-looking mighty fortification line meandering away to the horizon amidst the misty autumn-hewn hills.

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Pingyao - A Feel Of The Days Long Gone By >>>

Pingyao - A Feel Of The Days Long Gone By

2008-02-11T02:45:00.019+01:00

Once the banking capital of the Qing China, Pingyao was abandoned in favour of Shanghai and Hong Kong. Left behind the industrialization and other novel fads, it has preserved an almost unnatural museum-like feel to it. Painstakingly maintained nowadays, it offers an amazing plethora of sightseeing spots tucked away in unassuming nooks and corners. Most guidebooks merit the town only as a night-over destination, probably because the best sights are not so obvious and take time and patience to discover.

Stately rows of 19th- century shops and mansions line mostly pedestrianized streets. I became simply infatuated with the hand-carved eaves elaborately decorated with exquisite paintings and lanterns - a sort of Qing nouveau-riche chic, even if nouveau here refers to the dust-covered 1850s. Enter one of the vintage townhouses to see the understated luxury that surrounded the high and mighty financial tycoons of the yesteryear.

Or, you can choose to see it all from the above - on a walk along the 8-mile-long mint-condition city wall affording you a peek in people's yards or sweeping vistas looking like an antique painting. Every cobblestone on the wall wide enough for a squadron to march on bears an engraved seal of the maker - what a feat of industriousness!

There are many more star attractions apart from the Banking Museum touted in most guidebooks as the only tourist draw. The supremely photogenic Taoist temple is still in a very active use. Right across the street, the Confucian temple is the proverbial oasis of tranquillity with cypress trees said to be 1,500 years old. Its flamboyantly ornate entrance gate is well worth admiring for a while. For a few coins, you are allowed to toll the bell or bang the ceremonial drum - all supposed to bring certain types of luck, depending on the number of strokes you make.

Pingyao also boasts a superbly restored traditional city hall - a whole executive compound in fact, complete with a gaol, dressed up attendants and stagings of Qing court hearings. Traditional theatrical performances in a beautifully decorated pavilion could be of great interest to a foreign tourist but are advertised only in Chinese. The town derives most of its tourist traffic domestically and the Chinese must probably think that Western tourist do not care for quaint old-fashioned Oriental towns that look straight from a 19-century travel magazine. What a fallacy!

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Xi'an - Terracotta Army, Hot Springs And Mosques>>>

Xi'an - Terracotta Army, Hot Springs & Mosques

2008-02-11T02:44:00.017+01:00

"Rome in the West, X'i'an in the East." The starting point of the legendary Silk Road, Xi'an is one of the most ancient continuously inhabited cities in China. In fact, it has been a royal capital for 11 dynasties since its semi-mythical beginnings some time around BC 2200. Both Nara and Kyoto, the original imperial capitals of Japan were styled after Xi'an.

Most visitors come here for the UNESCO World Heritage Terracotta Warriors, but there is infinitely more to the city and it surroundings than that. The lofty Ming walls - ones of the few remained in China - surround the inner city and you can have a walk on top of them around the whole city without ever having to climb down. The Forest of Stelae Museum houses a large array of stones with ancient engravings - best enjoyed with some initial knowledge Chinese history and calligraphy, yet quite impressive with a good explanation by a knowledgeable guide.

In the heyday of the Silk Road Xi'an was the proverbial melting pot of nations. Islam arrived here at a very tender age in 650 with Prophet Mohammed's uncle. Nestorianism - a heretical Christian school - made its début there even earlier, in 635, inspiring the later medieval tales of the Prester John's mythical Christian kingdom in the East. Its only vestige nowadays is the Nestorian Stele, but Islam is well established and thriving.

For a very "un-Chinese" experience, stroll through the Moslem Quarter and sample the delicious lamb skewers, roasted carp and mutton bread soup - heavy on tangy herbs and ground coriander seeds, delicious but nothing like Chinese food you would expect. In the market you can find another local speciality famous throughout China - various dried fruit and exotic nuts galore.

For a time of peace and serenity linger on in the tranquil Great Mosque that looks very little like a mosque. Its garden is full of exquisite stone carvings that, in break with the Islamic teachings, are not shy of animal motifs. Foreign concepts need to be translated into Chinese by way of explanation, and very often the Chinese renditions grab the essence of their subject sharply and succinctly. Islam in Chinese is Pure Religion, describing concisely the purest form of modern monotheism.

To get the biggest possible kick from the Terracotta Army, you need to read on its historical background. It is a very poignant story of the country's mightiest man who was scared of death and thousands of his subjects who slaved decades to build his tomb only to be all slaughtered so as the secret of their ruler's grave remained hidden. And it very well did for over 2 thousand years, until not such a long time ago. Even now, the emperor's tomb itself - said to contain mercury rivers and gemmed ceilings - is yet to be excavated.

Apart from the Terracotta Warriors, there are many more worthy sites in the vicinity - like the palatial Huaqing Hot Springs, the place where back in the 7th century Tang emperors indulged in sensuous luxury with their concubines and where centuries later in 1936 the course of modern Chinese history was turned around in the infamous Xi'an Accident. These days, it is a venue for grand costume performances harking back to the dynasties of the yesteryear.

On the way to the magnificent Hua Shan, one of the 4 most important mountains in Taoism and reputedly gods' favourite abode, there is the unjustly overlooked Xiyue Temple. Built for exclusive avail by the Imperial Court for important Taoist sacrifices and ceremonies, it uses the breath-taking backdrop of the Hua Shan Mount in the Chinese technique of "borrowed landscape" - with a truly ravishing result.

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Nanjing - The Swanky Capital of The South >>>

Nanjing - The Swanky Capital Of South

2008-02-11T02:43:00.007+01:00

Nanjing - the Southern Capital, as opposed to Beijing - the Northern Capital - combines antiquity and modernity with a panache. This happy marriage is perhaps best epitomised by the ... Scenic Spot - a tiny if nicely laid out park, with fine Ming-style tea pavilion-come restaurant, set amidst the looming skyscrapers of Beijing Road.

Nanjing's modern avenues are broad, clean and nicely laid out, with a very human-friendly atmosphere rare in world's big cities. The shiny clean ultra-modern metro - if still with only one line - beats mass transit systems of most Western cities.

City's entertainment hub - the Fuzimiao Area - is clearly geared towards tourists with gilded dragon-shaped boats and scores of souvenir shops. It is, however, a very lovely place to hang around as it is in authentic Ming-style quarters full of very picturesque sights. Sample a piece from each of the food stalls dealing in tasty Chinese titbits and you will not need a dinner.

One of the most dramatic points of Nanjing's turbulent history is presented just around the corner in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom History Museum. The Taiping rebellion - one of the deadliest conflicts in human history - was a reaction to China's humiliation by Western powers in the mid-19th century. Peasant rebels with Utopian ideology aimed at creating an egalitarian society only to create their own elaborate hierarchy an get bogged down in inner strife for power. Arguably, it was world's first Socialist state and Nanjing was its capital.

Less known is the fact that until 2002 Nanjing was also the official - if on paper only - capital of Taiwan, the Republic of China. When the Kuomintang Government had to escape to Taiwan, they never left the hope of coming back with vengeance and thus Taipei was regarded as only the provisional capital.

The much touted Xuanwu Lake area is a sprawling city park set on five connected islands encircled by the city walls - world's longest. It offers great views of Nanjing's modern skyline across the water but apart from a few historic rocks is of little interest for a foreign visitor.

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Yangzhou - The Treasure Box Garden >>>

Suzhou - The Silk Capital Of China

2008-02-11T02:42:00.019+01:00

Suzhou's heyday as a silk trade centre has left behind a several nice sights scattered around the city. We used the city as the hub for travelling in the area and our short stay did not justice to the Silk Capital of China. I hope to spend more time there some time soon.

Just a side note: the much touted Humble Administrator's Garden is rather bleak compared with what you find elsewhere in China but I hear many other gardens in the city are very beautiful.

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Tongli - The Water Village >>>

Yangzhou - The Treasure Box Garden

2008-02-11T02:42:00.016+01:00

Yangzhou is worth visiting if only for the tremendous Slender West Lake Garden. It is huge, so reserve a whole day for your visit. Despite its size, it's so exquisitely planned and executed, you feel yourself inside a jewellery box - every inch is finely tended, every few steps provide a view to yet another haunting vista with arched bridges, toy-like tea pavilions, elaborate rockeries and quizzical ponds full of turtles and brightly-coloured carps.

Unfortunately, the ungainly colourful night lighting turns this amazing feat of horticulture into a gaudy monstrosity so make sure to leave before the dark lest the magic is rudely destroyed.

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Suzhou - The Silk Capital Of China>>>

Tongli - The Water Village

2008-02-11T02:39:00.015+01:00

Tongli is a twee fishing village on the Tai Lake criss-crossed by cutesy canals lined with characteristic houses and crossed by picturesque bridges. In fact, the whole setting so photogenic that it could have very well been set up on purpose as a tourist bait but in fact the village is authentic. Once a fishermen's settlement, nowadays it derives most of its income - surprise surprise - from tourism as well as serving the daily catch in the numerous canal-side restaurants. Its status, deservedly so, is so close to an open-air museum that you cannot even enter without a ticket, that fortunately includes entrance to all the museums - except for the intriguingly named Chinese Sexual History Museum.

As seems the order of the day in all canal cities, take Venice or Amsterdam, the food turned out universally bland and overpriced but Tongli is nevertheless a very pleasant and laid back place, well worth at least an overnight stay . Most tourists seem to come on a day tour, so you will be spoilt for choice of available accommodation. The best bet then would be the museum-come-hotel furnished with authentic period furniture and overlooking a charming garden with carp-filled ponds.

Surprisingly affordable, it is adjacent to the Wooden Carving Museum brimming with truly astonishing carvings featuring famous Chinese tales and historical episodes, many with very handy English explanations that allow you to appreciate just how rich, diverse and much more ancient than anything you have encountered Chinese civilisation is. Another star attraction in the museum are hand-made Ming canopied beds assembled from thousands of separate pieces of redwood and mother of pearl in a mind-boggling feat of craftsmanship.

Another worthy tourist stop is the Dendrite Museum, where fanciful dendrite cuts are arranged according to the themes - Seasons, Poetry, Life, Natural Disasters, etc. They were collected over many decades by a couple of aesthetically inclined railway construction engineers and finally donated to the nation to establish this museum. Many of the captions are beautiful quotes from ancient Chinese poetry that greatly augment the overall experience, provided your mastery of Chinese has reached a certain level.

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Tunxi - The Breezy Gateway to Huangshan >>>

Tunxi - Breezy Gateway to Huangshan

2008-02-11T02:38:00.009+01:00

The modern and pleasantly laid town of Tunxi is more widely known as Huangshan City, named so after the major tourist attraction to which it serves as a transportation and accommodation hub. It has a very well restored old quarter, which in fact is a very long pedestrianised street with scores of back lanes lined with fine local Anhui style houses and all sorts of craft, curios and tea shops.

Many of them specialise in calligraphic scrolls and related paraphernalia for Tunxi City has been since long ago widely renown in China for its skilled calligraphers. It comes as no surprise that world's largest inkstone, weighing over 12 metric tons, is housed in a museum here.

Another merchandise prominently featured in the Old Town is fine green tea grown in the adjacent mountains. Some sorts are so prized that jars of those are used as state gifts to foreign dignitaries. We bought a bag of the same tea that Chinese President presented to Vladimir Putin on his state visit. Local tea is equally popular with more regular folks - from dawn till very late busloads upon busloads of Chinese tourists descend upon the street all walking away with shopping bags full of tea tins.

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Huangshan - Mountain Range From A Classical Chinese Poem >>>

Huangshan - Mountain Range From A Classical Chinese Poem

2008-02-11T02:37:00.013+01:00

The beauty of this mountain range is of an epic level and defies any camera or verbal description. A 10-minute cable car ride - or a 6-km walk up the steep stairs - whisks you inside a classical Chinese poem painted in ink on silk paper. Precarious looking if sturdy walkways clinging to the sides of precipitous cliffs lead you from one to another stunning view of exquisitely shaped lofty peaks most aesthetically covered with twisted pine trees.

With a bit of luck, you can see the famed yunhai - "the sea of clouds" - spreading beneath your feet to the horizon with fairytale-like rocks protruding from below like islands in the ocean. If that view was not breathtaking enough, wait for the sunset!

Everything at the top - from water and food to laundry and souvenirs - is hauled on the shoulders of sinewy porters who climb up and down the exhausting thousands of steep steps a few times a day, never without a load. Their labour, close to human right abuse in the presence of the ultra-modern cable car whizzing over their heads, is largely underappreciated, yet makes possible your poetic pleasures of nature appreciation. Please eat up every bit on your plate when yo are there as a gesture of respect!

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Hongcun - Water Buffalo Shaped Village >>>

Hongcun - Water Buffalo Shaped Village

2008-02-11T02:36:00.014+01:00

Known as a "village in a Chinese painting", Hongcun is another UNESCO World Heritage site. It has gained gained international fame as a location for the martial arts epic "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

The village is laid out in the shape of a water buffalo. A nearby hill is interpreted as the head, and two large trees standing on it mark the horns. Four bridges across the stream can be seen as the legs and the houses of the village form the body. Inside the “body”, the many small canals can be seen as the intestines and the moon-shaped ponds as the stomachs.

Hongcun's 150 or so houses are the famous fortified Huizhou courtyard houses. Built to withstand earthquakes as well as attacks by bandits, the tall whitewashed walls with high windows protect the fine carved wood interiors.

Hongcun has a nice dreamy quality about it and its gentle beauty attracts hundreds of Chinese art students who clutter every walkway and open space honing their en plein air sketching skills. A few kilometres away, there is a Painters' Village where artists from all over China are gathered to supply Western hotel chains with industrial quantities of masterly copies of famous European paintings.

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Shanghai - Carnival Of Life >>>

Shanghai - Carnival Of Life

2008-02-11T02:32:00.011+01:00

Brash and bold, China's second biggest city has always been about money. It sprang up to sudden fame as a concession port in the 19th century and by the 1930s it became world's third largest financial centre. Its re-birth in 1990 as a Special Economic Zone, brought it back to the ranks of major international cities.

The two banks of the river are testament to Shanghai's two highest historical peaks. The Bund side, the heart of colonial Shanghai, is rich in nostalgic European splendour of grand Art Deco buildings. Across the river, Pudong is an ethereal city of the future, looking more like computer graphics.

As is the case with material success oriented cities, like New York, Hong Kong, Casablanca or Moscow, the atmosphere in Shanghai is electrifying. And as ever, in a truly miraculous way, on the rich soil of greed, ambition and vanity grow fine flowers of creativity, innovation and independent thinking.

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