“Juan Penn! Juan Penn!” Who is Juan Penn—is he a rock star? And why do these clamorous urchins at Mysore’s Chamundeshwari Temple think I’m him?
It’s 6.30 a.m. in Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital. For factory workers, market traders, and bleary-eyed travelers, a lie-in isn’t an option. Not when what sounds like some seriously-aggrieved army general is barking out the local news over Luong Van Can Street’s public address, Tannoy.
Saigon is the crucible of born-again capitalism. Officially named Ho Chin Minh City, for many—including its seven million-plus inhabitants—Vietnam’s most raffish and cosmopolitan metropolis will forever be Saigon. It’s a frenetic city on the make, but there’s far more to it than wheeling and dealing. Once you get over the traffic anarchy and air pollution, it makes a pulsating start to any Vietnam adventure.
In your October 2006 issue, Steenie told you what she thought of Panama. Her Euro-perspective combined with her straight-from-the-hip style made for eye-opening reading. So we had a thought: What if we sent our Roving Euro-editor back across the Atlantic, this time to little Nicaragua? We report on this country often and thought we knew it well, .but Steenie has helped us see it anew…
If you agree $45,000 for a small apartment with sea views sounds reasonable, hurry across to Europe and the newly-independent country of Crna Gora. Crna Gora? Unless you’re fluent in Serbo-Croat, it doesn’t trip lightly off the tongue. Thankfully the rest of the world uses its more melodious Italian name of Montenegro. Both mean “Black Mountain.”
It’s a late May evening. On Sauli’s restaurant terrace, every table is taken. Local couples...students chatting over beer...three female friends with pierced lips and rattling chains getting stuck into a bottle of red wine.
Sunrise and the Arabian Sea shimmers silver. Waves break gently onto golden sands that seem to stretch into infinity. Although India isn’t generally synonymous with cleanliness, Goan beaches are pristine.
Although not the traditional China of pagodas and pavilions, Shanghai conjures up all the mystery of the Far East. A past of colonial adventurers, shady ladies, and opium dens, it now has a shining future as Asia’s major hub of economy and trade. Many multinationals have already relocated here.
“The river forms a blue silk belt, the mountains are like jade hairpins.” The seductive words of a Chinese poet called Hanyu enticed me to China’s Southeast—to Guangxi province and the mist-shrouded countryside around Guilin and its Li and Peach Blossom rivers.
Granada was the final city to be recaptured from the Moors by the Catholic forces of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. It is home to the Alhambra, Granada’s famous rose-red citadel.