At first glance, Longyearbyen looks like a place straight out of a polar adventure story. Nestled between snow-covered mountains and icy fjords, this remote Arctic settlement is home to colorful houses, breathtaking landscapes, and a population that lives closer to the North Pole than almost anywhere else on Earth. But what truly puts Longyearbyen on […]
There is a saying in Myanmar: “Of all fruit, mango. Of all meat, pork. Of all leaves, lahpet.” That lahpet — fermented tea leaves — sits alongside mango and pork in this folk ranking of the country’s finest things tells you everything you need to know about how seriously Myanmar takes its food. Burmese food […]
Nestled along the picturesque coast of Kerala, Alleppey, officially known as Alappuzha, is often referred to as the “Venice of the East.” Famous for its tranquil backwaters, houseboat cruises, lush green landscapes, and charming villages, the destination offers a perfect blend of nature, culture, and relaxation. Whether you’re planning a romantic getaway, a family vacation, […]
Mark Twain wrote of Banaras: “It is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together.” He was not exaggerating. Varanasi—also known as Kashi and Banaras, three names for the same ancient city on the western bank of the Ganges—is one of the […]
Coorg—officially Kodagu in Karnataka’s administrative records, from the Kodava word meaning “western place”—is the kind of destination that keeps pulling people back. At an average elevation of around 1,000–1,525 meters in the Western Ghats, it is cooler than the surrounding plains year-round. It is India’s most significant coffee-growing region. It is the birthplace of the […]
There are Himalayan treks that take you through the mountains, and there are treks that take you into them. The Kuari Pass trek is the second kind. Named after Lord Curzon — the British Viceroy of India (1899–1905) who explored this route during his tenure and was so moved by what he found that it […]
Nestled in the Eastern Himalayas, Gangtok is a destination where natural beauty, spirituality, adventure, and culture come together effortlessly. As the capital of Sikkim, this charming hill town offers breathtaking mountain views, colorful monasteries, bustling markets, serene lakes, and some of the most spectacular landscapes in Northeast India. Whether you’re a nature lover, adventure enthusiast, […]
Before it was a parade, it was a protest. Before it was a costume, it was a mask worn to mock the people who held power. Before it was soca blasting from a float on a Toronto boulevard, it was the sound of enslaved people finding joy in a world that had stolen almost everything […]
Canada is a country so large that its four time zones barely contain its culinary diversity. From the Atlantic shores where lobster fishermen haul in catches that supply the world’s finest restaurants to the French-Catholic kitchens of Quebec where tourtière has been baked in the same way since the 17th century, to the Ukrainian-influenced prairies […]
Pondicherry — or Puducherry, as it was officially renamed in 2006, from the Tamil Puthu Cheri meaning “new settlement” — is one of India’s most genuinely layered small cities. It has a French Quarter that really does feel like a fragment of southern France dropped into the Coromandel Coast. It has a Tamil Quarter that […]