After reading Climbing the Mango Trees, a memoir of a childhood in India by Madhur Jaffrey, you may want to replicate the experience of picnicking in the Himalayan foothills on meatballs stuffed with raisins and mint tucked into freshly baked spiced pooris. Here, ordinary picnic spots were not enough — they were “picked not only for their natural grandeur but for their inaccessibility in terms of distance or the climbing required.” To read the full story, click here.
Photo Copyright @ 2010 VH Media
It’s considered one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, with one of the most romantic stories behind it. But the Taj Mahal, an elaborate marble mausoleum, is only one of three UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Agra in India’s state of Uttar Pradesh. Here’s a rundown of Agra’s top sites. To read the full story, 
No visit to India is complete without a stop at one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the country, and one of the more adventurous — and daunting — destinations for foreign travelers. It’s chaotic, colourful and overwhelming, but it’s quintessential India. Just come prepared with patience and a sense of humour. To read the full story, 
Aymanam is the village setting of Arundhati Roy’s controversial first novel, The God of Small Things, a story of lost dreams and forbidden love set in 1969. Today, you can sip a cold beverage at the original History House in Roy’s novel, now the Taj Garden Retreat. To read the full story, 
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Perhaps, like me, you’ve found yourself caught in a torrential downpour in the middle of nowhere, and that well-worn “waterproof” jacket you’re wearing isn’t so waterproof anymore. I now carry one of those emergency disposable rain ponchos in my backpack, just in case, but if you don’t want to look like you’re wearing a giant garbage bag, there’s another option. To read the full story, 
When most people think of ancient ruins in Southeast Asia, they think of Angkor Wat in Cambodia — but there’s actually another site that rivals Angkor in scale and scope and is, perhaps, even more impressive. There are literally thousands of temples in Bagan, an ancient city in Myanmar (aka Burma), set in a vast plain along the Irrawaddy River. To read the full story,
Perhaps it’s because I recently saw 
Over the past few decades, Beijing has been intent on tearing down the old and putting up the new, an effort that only increased during the buildup to the 2008 Summer Olympics. Many of the city’s ancient hutongs — narrow alleyways in the city’s centre — were torn down and replaced with modern apartment blocks and roads. The hutongs, however, have defined Beijing culture for hundreds of years and give the city its unique character. To read the full story, 