Travel stories, quotes and fun facts

Sri Lanka exports cinnamon

True cinnamon comes almost entirely from Sri Lanka, where bark is hand-peeled and rolled into quills that dry into curls.

Sri Lanka has a rock fortress

Sigiriya's palace sits on a 200-metre granite plug, reached by staircases that pass between the paws of a carved lion.

Baobab road at dusk

Everyone comes for the sunset photograph. Nobody mentions that afterwards, in the dark, ox carts keep coming down the same road for another hour, and that is the better picture.

Maldives is the flattest country

The average natural elevation of the Maldives is about 1.5 metres, making it the lowest-lying country on Earth.

We find after years

We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.

Maldives glows at night

Bioluminescent plankton can turn the shoreline electric blue on dark nights, brightest when the water is disturbed.

Vanilla in the air

The whole town smells of curing vanilla. A farmer showed us pods drying on racks and explained the two years between flower and export. Then he asked what we pay for one pod at home and laughed for a long time.

Thailand was never colonised

Thailand is the only Southeast Asian nation never taken by a European power, partly through skilled 19th-century diplomacy.

The world is a country

The world is a country which nobody ever yet knew by description; one must travel through it one's self to be acquainted with it.

Bangkok has the longest official name

The city's full ceremonial name runs to 168 letters. Locals simply call it Krung Thep.

Fishing with cormorants

An old technique, mostly gone now, demonstrated for us by a man who clearly enjoyed the audience. He said his grandfather had six birds and knew all their names.

Thai new year is a water fight

Songkran began as a gentle blessing with water and has become a nationwide three-day soaking in April, the hottest month.

The oasis at dusk

Salt lakes, date palms and a mud fortress melting slowly in the rain that comes once a decade. We swam in a spring at sunset with four boys who had cycled from the village to show off.

Vietnam grows most of the world's cashews

Vietnam is the largest exporter of processed cashews, and also a leading producer of robusta coffee.

Travel and change of place

Travel and change of place impart new vigour to the mind.

Hanoi has a train street

In the old quarter a working railway runs within arm's reach of house fronts. Residents pull in their chairs twice a day.

Tunis medina navigation

The rule we were given: if a street gets narrower, you are going the wrong way; if it widens, you are heading out. It worked eight times out of nine.

Ha Long Bay has 1,600 islands

Ha Long Bay's limestone karsts number close to 1,600, most of them uninhabited because the cliffs are too steep.

Every day is a journey

Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.

Cambodia's temple is the largest religious monument

Angkor Wat covers about 160 hectares, making it the largest religious structure ever built.

Berber hospitality

We knocked to ask for water and were served lunch. When we tried to pay, our host looked offended, then wrapped bread for us to take up the pass.

Angkor was a megacity

Lidar surveys revealed that medieval Angkor sprawled across roughly 1,000 square kilometres, likely the largest pre-industrial city on Earth.

Do not seek the footsteps

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise; seek what they sought.

Laos is the most bombed country

More than two million tonnes of ordnance fell on Laos between 1964 and 1973, and clearance teams still work today.