Beijing - More than four million tourists visited China’s Tibet region this year, more than double the number in 2005 before a new railway linked the remote area with the rest of China, state media said on Monday.
The region expects to have received 4,02 million tourists by the end of 2007, an increase of 64 [...]

Three crimson-robed monks chant quietly as they file through the ancient palace, pausing every now and then to pray in the candlelit rooms filled with Buddhist statues and religious murals.
At the Potala Palace, the mountaintop Tibetan landmark where the Dalai Lama lived until he fled to India in 1959 to escape Chinese control, they are [...]

Remove all your clothes now please.” The request came, very softly, from the Thai woman about to administer our treatments in Jordan’s most luxurious spa-hotel.
Unfortunately, there was only one treatment room left. I waited for my new (and platonic) acquaintance, a 108kg Welshman, to explain the situation to her. There was a long pause.
The [...]

Maybe it’s a sign of the times, an apt statement on where modern-day life has gone. But whatever the social commentary involved, the fact is that two fine old Dublin buildings that were once the focus of religious activity in the city have been transformed into luxury hostelries offering accommodation and food.
Somehow, they epitomise [...]

The 2008 Namaqualand daisy tour offers something special for flower fans…
August 22: Depart Joburg and travel south to Bloemfontein. Visit the Women’s Memorial. Drive past the historical buildings. Continue to Colesberg for dinner and overnight at the Colesburg Lodge.
August 23: After breakfast continue south via Beaufort West via the historical town of Matjiesfontein to Worcester [...]

If we are to believe them, everything was always better in our parents’ and grandparents’ days. So when my mother and I travelled to Namaqualand for my first encounter with the famous Namaqualand daisies, to me the display seemed spectacular.
Mom was dismissive. She related how she had seen it as a young girl travelling with [...]

I backpacked alone this December as I could not persuade any of my usual travel companions to join me on an adventure into the heart of Borneo.
While many South Africans visit Malaysia, they usually confine their journeying to such popular destinations as Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Langkawi. The really well-heeled jet to Pangkor [...]

The avuncular park ranger smiled as he entered my name on a booking sheet. “You’re going to enjoy this trek,” he said. “Just be aware that it takes longer than you think. There are lots of little, little hills along the way…” I’d come to Taman Negara, a rainforest park in the “mainland” part of [...]

You can almost draw a line at Cradock where the Karoo suddenly becomes the Eastern Cape. The rolling plains spotted with sparse grass give way to scrubby acacia woodland.
And, as you stand on the heights of the Bankberg mountain range outside Cradock in the Mountain Zebra National Park, you can see the border quite [...]

I like cafes. They start early, and stay open all day.
They’re somewhere you can go for breakfast, a full meal, or for just an early morning espresso. More importantly, they’re a place to relax and linger over the morning paper or ponder the meaning of life - and where they soon know your [...]