Almost exactly 10 years after I first arrived in Beijing in 2007 I found myself back there in March 2017. As has sadly become the norm, the city was shrouded in a thick blanket of smog so we decided to head out of the city for the weekend for a hike in the mountains.
Read more
While all the famous museums in Paris were great, the highlight of my recent trip was visiting the highly eccentric Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (Museum of Hunting and Nature). Read more
I’ve had few opportunities to return to Europe, since moving to East Asia over 10 years ago, so was very happy when I got an excuse to spend a week in Paris this past February. My last visit to the French capital was in 2005 at the ripe age of 21 so I was eager to see the city through my slightly older eyes! Read more
In recent years I’ve discovered the joys of hiking in Japan, where all levels of experience are catered for with well-maintained trails and some of the best mountain huts in the world. Up until this January, I’d never ventured out during the winter and, as this trip proved, I was missing out! Read more
Rising early on our third day in Hanoi, we walked west towards Đống Đa District. Despite being mid-December the air was crisp and it felt like a perfect spring morning. Read more
The sun was shining brightly on the morning of our second day in Hanoi with the trees lining the boulevard casting dappled shadows on the crumbling colonial architecture. Read more
Back in December last year I visited Vietnam for the first time, spending a few days in Hanoi. I had been looking forward to the trip, having seen the likes of Anthony Bourdain and the original Top Gear crew wax lyrical about the capital city on multiple occasions. Read more
A gloriously bright morning greeted me on Day 5, the Kumano-gawa River acting as a perfect mirror to the mountains and sky above. Leaving the ryokan just before 8 am, I walked back to the Hatenashi-toge pass trailhead by way of Yanagimoto-bashi bridge. Read more
It rained hard overnight and the valley was shrouded in mist when I awoke at 5 am to the sound of breakfast cooking in the adjacent kitchen. I dozed off till breakfast at 7 am, another feast of local ingredients. Read more