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Pappardelle at the End of Empire
“A £37 scallop, two-and-a-half miles of corridors, and a building that swapped one kind of secrecy for another.” (Paper Moon Restaurant, Raffles Hotel at The OWO, Whitehall, London) The Old War Office’s entrance, polished wood and clear glass, smoothly delivers me into a high-ceilinged, Baroque marble lobby. I crane my neck skywards. A spectacular…
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Jim Thompson, a Tiger and Me
The Silk King of Thailand vanished into these hills in 1967 — my guide has a different story. (Cameron Highlands Resort, Cameron Highlands, Malaysia) “So,” I say. “Tell me, what really happened to Jim Thompson?” Madi, the naturalist from the Cameron Highlands Resort, is my guide for this morning’s hike along his self-devised Jim…
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A Bell, a Boar and a Bag from Pret
Eight minutes from Parliament, a pub that isn’t quite a pub. (Blue Boar Pub, Conrad London St James) Although the Blue Boar Pub has its own entrance on Tothill Street, I have arranged to meet my fellow diners in the lobby of the Conrad London St James, which it forms part of. It’s a…
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“Britain, Kept”
Afternoon tea, woodsmoke and a colonial past built after independence — Cameron Highlands Resort, Malaysia. I’m already full, but I lean forward to inspect the remaining treats on the three-tiered porcelain cake stand. My wicker chair creaks, the ceiling fan gently wump-wump-wumps and Uncle Stephen, the hotel’s septuagenarian pianist, plays melancholy jazz. I…
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Authenticity Is Not a Product
Thirteen years, one mosque, and the one thing the travel industry cannot sell you Our guide, Mohammed, a confident young Libyan, who has been spraying facts and opinions with the certainty of youth since our tour began, marches us out onto the lush and ornate carpet of the mosque’s main prayer hall. He invites…
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What Kazimierz Remembers.
The Old Jewish Quarter, Kraków It’s early Sunday morning as I peer down into Plac Wolnica. Overhead grey skies are cracking apart and promising a fine day. A school group huddles in one corner taking pictures of the exterior of the Ethnographic Museum with their phones. Middle-aged couples wearing precautionary rain jackets and backpacks…
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Tin, Fire and Reinvention
Hotel Stripes, Kuala Lumpur Rooftop bars can be the most terrible flirts, promising transcendent views, uniquely cultivated cocktails and dishes to elevate your night, if not your entire life. By comparison, Bar Tao Man, at Hotel Stripes Kuala Lumpur, under promises and over delivers. As I climb the dozen steps from the elevator to the level…
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Badly Drawn Postcards and the Mexican One That Didn’t Arrive.
Many industries are romanticised by those on the outside looking in and the travel industry is an exemplar of this. It’s a wildly competitive industry where the grit more than outweighs the glamour. Don’t mistake me, it’s an industry I love deeply, but I suspect my friends’ perception of my former role within it…
