The legendary hotel on the Bosphorous Strait that harks back to the sultans’ opulence blended with legendary Kempinski luxury […]
The subversive art & life of David Cerny
Meeting the Czech Republic’s enfant terrible, David Cerny, whose bizarre, sometimes offensive sculptures have put Prague on the map of modern art […]
Diving with the turtles of Apo Island
Let me begin by saying that the turtles of Apo Island are as awesome as you’ve seen in pictures and the experience of swimming with them a thousand times more […]
Conrad Manila’s presidential suite is inspired by super yachts
How do you design the presidential suite of a hotel that’s shaped like a ship? Like the interiors of a luxury super yacht of course! The best part of this 1,000-square-meter suite? Stunning views of Manila Bay […]
Chasing Shakespeare—from Stratford to Verona
This was the Bard’s bedroom, this was his desk! Did he write Twelfth Night with a quill? Were his fingers darkened black by the ink? You have to understand…I’ve been a fan of Shakespeare my entire life […]
The Manila Hotel: Built for kings, queens, heads of state & history
It occupies one of the most historic addresses in the country: One Rizal Park, Manila, a stone’s throw away from beloved Luneta and Manila Bay. It’s one of very few places from where you can see the water on one side and the beautiful parts of a reckless city on the other […]
A portrait of Ethiopia
It’s true. Ethiopia is the “Land of Origin,” where humankind and civilization started — and just to perk us up a little, where coffee comes from […]
El Nido’s ‘Island of the Sun’
From the top of a hill in Pangulasian Resort, you can see the sunrise and sunset, its 750-meter stretch of white-sand beach and the clear waters of El Nido. All those “best in the world” lists got it right. El Nido is paradise […]
Raffles Istanbul: Asian hospitality & European timelessness
He brought the pink balloons out on the balcony in the cold November air. “Make a wish and then let them go,” he told me. And so I did. We watched them float, carried by the autumn wind into Istanbul’s skies, until we couldn’t see them anymore […]
Coron: The best of Palawan’s thousand treasures
The gods of our islands and legends are very cruel. But what they take away with a curse and punishment they give back with an embarrassment of riches. In the case of Palawan, they gave it 1,870 islands and a 2,000-kilometer coastline […]
Postcards from Petra
It’s a spectacular sight of rose-colored cliffs rising to meet the skies, and on the sandstone is carved The Treasury, imposing itself onto your senses. I almost cry seeing this.[…]
Big love from Bohol’s Amorita Resort
From sea to table, that’s how Amorita (“small love in Spanish) opened its new tapas bar Tomar. The tapas and pintxos were heavenly! […]
Cappadocia & other Turkish delights
Gliding over Cappadocia is everything that is and more than the pictures you’ve seen on someone else’s vacation […]
Blissful in Bodrum
This is the Bodrum we find ourselves in — at the crossroads of its hedonism and conscience, and these two roads would quickly merge because Turkish people are kind and compassionate. And the sun is always lovely on this peninsula […]
A week in Provence
There is no one else around in this lavender field. In this most gorgeous of hours, in this wildly colorful swath of land in Provence, I want to tell Gautier: This is why we came here.
Falling in love with Japan, one prefecture at a time
Perhaps this the reason why sakura season is so revered in Japan: it lasts only a week, and when the week is over, they begin to fall — never to be seen again until the following year […]
Oh Canadian Rockies, how beautiful you are!
A road trip through Alberta’s spectacular national parks — Banff, Jasper and Waterton — and only one city (Calgary). I feel like a fish out of water […]
Searching for Stalin’s Boots in Budapest
Discovering Budapest through its classical art and contemporary museums, the latter a remembrance of its Cold War past. […]
Santorini without the crowds
For a few days, Santorini was mine. It was like being in on a secret that made me smile — and no one had an idea why. […]
Even in miniature, France is larger than life
Why would I want to see a miniature Paris when I am already here…in life-size Paris, in real France? Because miniatures are so damn cute, that’s why! […]
The Paris I love
Like Hemingway said of Paris, “And then there was the bad weather,” at the beginning of A Moveable Feast, the […]
Istanbul: A story told in two continents
I didn’t fall in love with Istanbul until I was about to leave it. And by then, I was so completely enamored of the place that I would come back two months later […]
Chasing Kafka in Prague
I am standing in front of two men literally having a pissing contest and I cannot look away. By “men,” […]
Two GPS and still lost in Poland
My friend Gautier is on the phone with Andrej, whose flat in Krakow we are renting for the night. He’s […]
Stopover Asia: 5 cities, 5 hours each
What to do when you’re on a long layover in these five Asian cities? Locals guide us through Hong Kong, Singapore, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok […]
Where I’ve been wandering
So, Ethiopia makes it 41 countries I’ve visited so far. This post should really be titled “How I learned to […]
Untangling Bohol
Of all places to plan a trip, we did it in a funeral chapel. It was toward the end of […]
A short post about Hobbits
One Sunday afternoon in September 1998, a New Line Cinema film executive knocked on the door of a farmhouse in […]
Because this is Boracay
In the morning, I open one eye and see my cousin on the bed next to mine reading a book. I don’t know where I am. That is never a good sign for the night before […}
Architecture, love, loss & liberty
Memory is a theme that finds its way into Daniel Libeskind’s architecture. People move on. They rebuild. And one day they are able to look up toward the sky again […]
A journalist’s Warsaw
I have been in a mall in Warsaw for two hours and I haven’t seen a single Asian, either as […]
The 38th Parallel
To this day, when I hear Blind Melon’s No Rain, I think of the 38th parallel — the demilitarized zone […]
