November 2011
1 post
Peak of Perfection - The Australian
WE start with an unscheduled stop. “The alternator broke,” explains my driver, Martin. He closes the bonnet and gives me a look of good-natured resignation. I roll down the window and look around. Below us lie verdant valleys, above us are precipitous mountains; and water, water everywhere.
The lush, mountainous flanks of Dominica, an island roughly the size of Manhattan, stream...
October 2011
1 post
Tacos on the Trot in a City of Long Lunches - The...
FOR half a century Montreal has embraced fine dining and rejected street food. But a humble taco truck might just be the first shot fired in a foodie revolution.
Montreal has much in common with New York, barely an hour’s flight due south. Both are celebrated culinary capitals. Both were settled by European immigrants with thick accents and thicker cookbooks. Both are unbearably cold...
September 2011
3 posts
All the Fun of Melbourne's Historic Fair, Luna...
In the age of increasingly realistic computer games, Melbourne’s century-old Luna Park in Melbourne’s St Kilda still draws the crowds.
“Generations of Melbourne families have some of their earliest memories at Luna Park,” shouts Mary Stewart, the park’s CEO, over a chorus of delighted squeals. I’m standing with her, between the Ghost Train and the carousel, attempting to talk about the...
Brazil's Fiery Spirit, Distilled - The Australian
When the first convicts arrived in Australia, the crew toasted their arrival not with sherry, whisky or champagne from arch-foe France, but with an obscure Brazilian drink called cachaca.
Like other flotillas bound for the southern oceans, the First Fleet had stopped in Rio de Janeiro to gather supplies.
The crew would have caused a bloody mutiny had the hold not been filled with the...
Worst Beaches for Shark Attacks - Travel + Leisure
The odds may be slim, but swimming can be a risky business at the world’s worst beaches for shark attacks.
If the ocean is a shark’s vast marine buffet, then humans are the brussels sprouts—we’re far from the favorite. But that’s no consolation to a swimmer like Kori Robertson, who was attacked in early 2011 while wading in the ocean off the coast of Texas. A 12-foot shark took a bite of...
August 2011
2 posts
Game Plan - Symmetry Magazine
With the onset of hi-tech gadgets aimed at keeping young family members amused on road trips, Adam McCulloch wonders if the traditional games of yesteryear are dead.
Are traditional road trip games dead? Even the bleating cry of “When are we going to be there?” is fast being drowned out by the “oohs” and “aahs” of back seat moviegoers, transfixed by mobile plasma screens. How are future...
Earthly Treasures - Symmetry Magazine
As we get caught up in modern-day wonders, Adam McCulloch reminds us that some of the world’s greatest treasures are remarkable ancient trees that have survived everything from time to atomic blasts.
Communing with nature isn’t just for eco-tourists. Throughout history, philosophers, world leaders, prophets and scientists have all sought shade or enlightenment under spreading...
July 2011
7 posts
Cat in the Bag - Symmetry Magazine
Despite the enormous variety of luggage options available, Adam McCulloch wonders why you only ever see the ubiquitous black bag making its way around the carousel.
When you’re standing at the lost luggage counter at the airport, no one asks, “What colour is your bag?” Everyone assumes it’s black. They simply slap a laminated card on the counter and ask you to point to your bag’s closest...
Die Hard - Symmetry Magazine
We’re all aware of extreme sports, but Adam McCulloch has identified a whole new sporting genre - insane sports.
I consider myself fairly fit. I run, eat well, and occasionally lift weights. Yet there’s some endurance sports for which fit enough just ain’t good enough. Insanely fit humans need insanely difficult endurance races. In this world (where the body quite literally consumes...
Adventure Cheats - Symmmetry Magazine
With so-callled adventure companies making it easier to climb mountains and explore the ocean floor, Adam McCulloch asks if we’ve all gone just a little bit soft?
A modern mantra for adventure travel might be “no plane, no gain” – these days, the pain part can be managed thanks to jets, helicopters and a host of mechanical conveniences aimed at making life’s outdoor challenges just that...
Class Distinction - Symmetry Magazine
Travelling comfortably on a flight where economy class doesn’t exist may sound heavenly but the experience, according to Adam McCulloch, is somewhat disconcerting.
Welcome aboard! A flock of new airlines has emerged with planes solely devoted to business class or better. These services offer a rarified atmosphere unpolluted by the resigned sigh of coach-class passengers. Recently I was...
Islands in Idle - Westworld
Off-season delights in the Greek Cyclades.
The cats own Mykonos. They always have. For two millennia, Aegean cats have dispatched mice from what was once the verdant breadbasket of the civilized world. Since then, wheat fields, countries and entire empires have flourished and faded, yet the cats remain.
They greet my wife and me at the ferry in Mykonos, legendary party island in the...
World's Most Beautiful Subway Stations - Travel +...
Paris has some. So does Washington, D.C. But gorgeous subway stations aren’t always in the spots you’d expect.
It’s a gallery longer than any in the Louvre—62 miles of art. You can’t hope to see it all in a day. On the cavernous ceiling, a colossal installation by artist Gun Gordillo, consisting of a hundred neon tubes, hums with an otherworldly glow. Elsewhere more works crowd the walls: an...
Ice Cool - Symmetry Magazine
With its unique mix of exquisite natural beauty, life-threatening elements and constant daylight, Iceland makes for a surreal travel experience.
In a remote Icelandic field I was voluntarily being shut in a freezer with a two-ton headless shark. The poisonous flesh reeked of ammonia, causing my eyes to stream and skin to itch. I couldn’t breathe. My host, a Viking whose name literally...
June 2011
6 posts
The World's Most Pristine Forests - Travel +...
Looking for a deep-woods adventure? Get in touch with nature by trekking into the best-preserved forests on the globe.
Forests face an age-old problem: they’re worth more dead than alive. For thousands of years humans have slashed and burned their way through millions of acres of wilderness, turning it into farmland, houses, cooking fuel, ships, and paper. It’s a wonder a single sapling...
America's Strangest Roadside Attractions - Travel...
These odd diversions make for family fun on your all-American summer road trip.
As you squint through the windscreen, the freeway emerges from a heat haze in the lonely heart of the Nevada desert. Amid miles of featureless landscape, a single cottonwood tree suddenly looms. But you do a double take: instead of flowers, thousands of shoes bloom from the branches. This is no mirage: this is the...
The World's Cleanest Air - Travel + Leisure
Where can you go to breathe easier? It may not be where you think.
Take a deep breath. Chances are, the air filling your lungs is far from pure. Even if you live in a clean, ecologically conscious area, you may be inhaling pollutants from faraway, less-pristine locales. Your hometown air may contain microscopic particles of mercury-coated coal dust from China, diesel from Europe, ozone from...
The Full Maui - Fairmont Magazine
I’m standing on a volcano with a dog named Daisy. We’re both scheduled to soar high above the Hawai’ian island of Maui. One of us has chalked up seven paragliding flights to date. The other is, well, me. Maui offers adventure for all-comers and all skill levels: from the top of 10,023-foot-high shield volcano Haleakalā, on whose flank I now stand, to the azure waters below. And I intend to...
An Everyday Miracle in Laos
It was a harsh lesson to watch a young girl learn: tardiness can leave you blind. Ten-year-old Hatsaline had endured a ten-hour bus ride from her village to arrive at the Laotian capital, Vientiane, little more than half an hour late for her doctor’s appointment. She sat alone on a waiting room chair clinging to a stuffed tiger and the slim hope that Dr. Hakin would still examine her. If he...
Diving Deep Down into the Wild Blue Wonder - The...
“You should come and watch me dive tomorrow,” says my newfound friend, Brazilian free-diver Karol Meyer. We both take another sip of tropical blue cocktails the precise color of the lagoon just feet away. “Oh, and I’ll teach you how to free-dive if you like,” she adds casually.
Meyer has come to Bonaire, a tiny speck off the coast of Venezuela, to add a fifth world...
January 2011
34 posts
The Science of Drinking - FHM
Learn to drink like a real man in Newfoundland.
“‘Ha’ nobody screeched yeh in?” came a voice from the next table in the sort of thick brogue that makes it impossible to tell whether the owner is sober or smashed. I was staying at Fishers’ Loft in Port Rexton, Newfoundland, a ruggedly beautiful fishing town where whales and icebergs outnumber tourists. The...
Occidental Journey - Elegant Bride
A trip up California’s Pacific Coast offers incredible luxury and natural beauty.
I left my heart in San Francisco…and a thousand other places along the Californian coast. My wife and I spent our honeymoon five years ago driving the legendary Highway 1, so for our anniversary we decided to retrace our steps, rediscovering a road every bit as romantic as the one we remembered.
...
Working Dogs - Men's Health
Siberian huskies never tire. Believe me, I owned one. On more than one occasion we trailed him along the beach in a car until we got bored. In honor of his memory I leapt at the chance to go dog-sledding at The Resort at Paws Up in Montana, USA.
On arriving at my luxuriously appointed timber villa I discover a crackling fire, rustic furniture hewn from birch logs and animal hides and all the...
Eastern Europe - AAA Horizons
I’m taking a train back in time, crossing what was once the Iron Curtain from Vienna to Budapest.
Having just spent five sunny days in Vienna indulging in fabulous food, art and opera and wowing it up with artists and intellectuals, I’m curious to discover how time has transformed its less fortunate neighbor, Hungary. Both cities were once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire — which, at...
New Zealand - AAA Horizons
On almost any trip to New Zealand you’ll cross the International Date Line, so remember to wind your watch back, say… about 20 years.
Sure it’s a joke but it’s also partially true. The combination of small cities, friendly people, lush farm land and natural beauty makes a trip to New Zealand akin to revisiting an idyllic childhood.
The North Island is more rugged of...
Newfoundland - AAA Horizons
Cold it a relative thing.
To anyone living south of the Canadian border, Newfoundland’s climate could be compared to that of a meat locker. But to adventurer Captain Bob Bartlett – who enabled Admiral Robert Peary to be the first man to reach the North Pole exactly a century ago — Newfoundland represented the last warm glow of civilization before making the big push towards the Arctic...
Dubai - AAA Horizons
In many ways Dubai is a mirage. Founded in 1095 by nomadic Bedouins, this unlikely metropolis grew from the shifting desert sands into an opulent oasis. Like all mirages, Dubai is irresistible to travelers.
I’m in the world’s tallest building in an elevator pulsing with light as it rockets 124 floors towards the observation platform. At 2625 feet (more than twice the height of the Empire State...
New Horizon - Symmetry Magazine
After enduring devestating bushfires just three years ago, the glorious Grampians region of Victoria is fully recovered and is once again bursting with natural splendour.
Fire can purify. After a terrifying bush fire “cleansed” half of the Grampians National Park in 2006, this Victorian wonderland is greener than ever. Eucalyptus trunks sport vibrant new growth as thick as...
Best Barrier Reef Resorts - Elite Traveler
Australia’s aquatic wonderland, The Great Barrier Reef, stretches 1600 miles and encompasses 900 islands, only a few of which are inhabited. With several iconic resorts—and one impressive newcomer—the region deserves its blosoming reputation as a top shelf luxury escape, with amenities and services to rival the world’s best.
BEDARRA ISLAND Beloved by honeymooners and...
Prefab With a View
London-based First Penthouse is developing a new real estate market—the tops of other buildings.
When Swedish businessman Peo Lindholm and his wife Anne-Marie wanted a brand-spanking-new London penthouse, all they could find were draughty, old, dark boxes with leaky roofs and rattly plumbing. When they discovered a company prefabricating modern penthouses off-site and lifting them into...
Come Up Trumps - Men's Health
How to improve your odds when genetics deals you a dud hand.
So you think you’re healthy yet you’re still prone to injury, high cholesterol or worse. Don’t be hard on yourself, there’s someone else to blame: your parents for starters — and their parents and their parents and so on.
The genes passed down from generation to generation determine many things from...
Girl Grease Lightning - Sunday Magazine
They feel the need, the need for speed - and their gender’s not going to stop them. Sure they could be out shopping but they’d rather be out racing with the boys. Adam McCulloch goes along for the ride.
Firstly, let’s get the jokes out of the way. Women don’t motor-race because: they can’t navigate their way to the track; there’s no vanity mirrors;...
Go North - Sunday Magazine
Most people go on holidays to get away from it all and relax. The North Pole is about as far away as it gets, but during Louise Allard’s Arctic Circle break, relaxation was never an option.
Louise Allard didn’t intend to be the first Australian woman to make it to the North Pole. She was just after a nice holiday to remember her 40th birthday by. It wasn’t until four days...
Task Force - Men's Health
What makes a man a man? Try these ten skills for starters.
It used to be that every problem-solving tool a guy needed could be hung on a tool belt. Nowadays sensitive new age gents are expected to bake the ideal airy soufflé, throw the perfect dinner party and (ye Gods) actually be capable of holding a conversation. All this chin-wagging means there’s no time left to practice the arts...
The Water Boy - Sunday Magazine
Born in Germany, living in Sydney and working in Beijing, architect of the moment Chris Bosse is making waves with his revolutionary bubble-based designs.
It’s rather fitting that Sydney architect Chris Bosse says he’s “riding the crest of a wave”. Water, bubbles and all manner of aquatic motifs have become recurring themes in his work and personal life. The 34-year-old...
Pillow Talk - Sunday Magazine
Thread counts, memory foam and $200 pillows make buying bedding a shopper’s nightmare. Does all this choice guarantee a good night’s sleep, asks Adam McCulloch.
The dream goes like this: you walk into your local bedding store to replace a pillow so old that it’s starting to resemble the shroud of Turin. Confronted with a stadium full of fluffy white options you stray deeper...
Budgie Snugglers - Sunday Magazine
Some associate the humble budgerigar with whiskery nannas, but these beauties can be worth up to $10,000 a pair. Adam McCulloch takes a stick beak at one of the world most popular pets.
On the eve of the last U.S. election I contacted the Pentagon with a trivial research question. Within minutes I was talking to a head of staff. By way of contrast, while researching this story on budgerigars...
World's Messiest Festivals - Lonely Planet
Street fairs can be unruly events. But when the whole purpose of the gathering is to create as much muck as possible, they move into a league of their own.
Food fights are surprisingly common festival activities the world over, and more often than not the weapon of choice is the humble tomato. Each year, on the last Wednesday in August, as many as 30,000 people descend on the small village of...
Subterranean Splash! Mexicos Underground Rivers -...
The Mayan Riviera on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula may look like your typical beachside holiday destination but for spelunkers, cave divers and anyone with a spirit of adventure, its beauty is more than skin deep.
Behind the beachfront resorts, the tropical jungle is home to the longest underground river on earth – all 95 miles (153 kilometers) of it. In places the earth has collapsed into the...
Billionaire Beach Cabanas - Lonely Planet
The beach cabana has become prime holiday real estate.
For the price of the average honeymoon suite, some hotels are providing beach and poolside cabanas with an endless list of high life amenities: butlers, TVs, Evian spritzers…even sunglasses cleaning.
While on the surface it might seem like a private cabana would imply a desire for seclusion, in fact these fabulous follies are all about...
Secret Men's Business - Men's Health
Whether it’s brewing your own beer, collecting stamps or outsmarting a crafty trout, there are solid health reasons for having a hobbby.
The humble shed has always been a symbol of a physical and (more importantly) mental sanctuary for men. Once inside a man was free to pursuit a hobby of any description — no matter how esoteric. Nowadays, with the demands of work, family and...
Fall Foilage a la Carte - Forbes Traveler
No two autumn leaves are the same. Similarly, everyone who loves fall (whether they call themselves a leaf-peeper or not) has their own way of appreciating the most colorful of seasons.
As days shorten and mornings become brisk, it’s time to say one last hurrah to your favorite outdoorsy pursuit before winter sets in. A Sunday afternoon drive may satisfy some, but for others, Fall is...
Moments of Clarity - Surface Magazine
Architects have gone soft with tough fabrics, tranforming the skyline into a softer, cleaner and greener landscape.
The idea isn’t new – think tents, yurts and teepees – but the technology to super-size fabric-clad buildings is. The material most credited with this dramatic change is ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE), a perfectly transparent, self-cleaning plastic. It’s an outstanding...
Cape Crusader - Surface Magazine
An architectural gem in Australia gives “eco-friendly” new meaning with a sculptural design which harmonizes with its surroundings in unexpected ways.
It’s impossible to not think of water when you step inside the Cape Schanck House, located on the Mornington Peninsula, an hour outside of Melbourne, Australia. The property’s centerpiece is a teardrop-shaped rainwater tank that...
Take Off, Stay Fit (10 health pitfalls to avoid...
Rich or poor, no one can actually afford to get ill while traveling. Planes, trains, automobiles — and the destinations they service — are full of potential health hazards.
Just answering the boarding call and observing the fasten-seatbelt sign raises the risk of death by deep vein thrombosis or a killer flu. Of course, not all health pitfalls while traveling will buy you a one-way...
Best Volcano Adventures - Forbes Traveler
When volcanoes erupt most people run away as fast as they possibly can. Volcanologist John Seach does the opposite: he runs towards the 2000 degree lava flows.
For Seach, a self confessed “volcano chaser” who owns an adventure tour company, Volcano Live, there’s nothing better than liquid rock, steaming earth and the sulphurous smell of freshly made land. It turns out he’s not...
25 Exceptional (and Criminally Underrated) Indian...
Consider this: all of India receives just the same number of visitors in a year as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.
According to Mr A.R. Ghanashyam, India’s Deputy Consul General based in New York, India receives just five million international tourists per year, most of them making predictable journeys to tourist icons like the Taj Mahal. It’s fair to say that many of the...
Gut Reactions - Surface Magazine
With its vibrant color scheme, labyrinthine layout, the alimentary architecture of Naoki Terada’s Stomach House both provokes and pleases.
“I’m a little bit twisted,” says 39-year-old Japanese designer Naoki Terada. He’s referring to his way of working with clients, but his comment could easily apply to his first architectural commission, “The Stomach House,”...
Best Whale Watching and When - Forbes Traveler
Thar she blows! Nature lovers armed with cameras are searching the seven seas for the ultimate photograph of earth’s largest mammals.
After being hunted to the brink of extinction, some whale populations almost have their head above water. “The blue whale numbers off California have increased dramatically,” says Bernardo Alps, trips coordinator for the American Cetacean...
Travel + Leisure - Strange Sports →
From pumpkin paddling to the Wall of Death, quirky sporting events that get you a ringside seat into local culture.
Read more.