https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/rss/6508/feed Adam has lived in Hong Kong since 1988. He briefly managed the demise of the Wanderlust travel bookshop on Hollywood road in the mid 1990s, then worked as Associate Editor on Cathay Pacific’s inflight magazine Discovery for several years. He began writing Travellers’ Checks for Post Magazine in 1998, working for several years under the pseudonym Peter Walbrook. A former contributing editor for the exclusive luxury travel guide NB Review, he has also edited several books, including the first-ever... en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg “The sea passenger service between Britain and the Far East, suspended throughout the war, was reopened today when the P. & O. liner Canton left [Southampton] for Hongkong with 544 passengers,” reported the Hongkong Telegraph on October 18, 1947. Having first arrived in Hong Kong in 1938, RMS Canton had been the latest in a long line of P&O ships connecting Hong Kong with Britain since 1845, and news of her post-war return – and that of P&O – was eagerly anticipated. With her formerly black hull... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3085223/when-hong-kong-welcomed-back-old-friend-po-ocean?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3085223/when-hong-kong-welcomed-back-old-friend-po-ocean?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 26 May 2020 00:30:08 +0000 The much-anticipated Ferry to Hong Kong opened at two local cinemas – the Lee Theatre, in Causeway Bay, and the Astor, in Yau Ma Tei – on New Year’s Eve 1959. Filmed entirely on location in Hong Kong and Macau that same year, the “much discussed comedy-drama” was described by reviewer Anthony Fuller in The China Mail as “rich fare. It has colour, glamour, romance, high tragedy, comedy, and drama”. Six months earlier, after its premiere in London, reviews had been less positive, and Orson Welles’... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3084137/ferry-hong-kong-1959-film-about-stateless-passenger?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3084137/ferry-hong-kong-1959-film-about-stateless-passenger?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 15 May 2020 07:00:13 +0000 Six months ago, anyone boarding a plane and fitting their own seat cover would have likely been looked at with amusement by most fellow passengers and cabin crew. Once commercial aviation gets going again, though, such accoutrements might well become common. Products such as Seat Sitters – a combination pack of reusable seat cover, tray table cover, face mask, wipes and hand sanitiser – did raise a few eyebrows online when first released a couple of years ago at seatsitters.com, but probably not... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3083059/personal-plane-seat-covers-could-they-feature-new?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3083059/personal-plane-seat-covers-could-they-feature-new?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 May 2020 21:00:06 +0000 Encouragingly billed as “The Most Sensational Event in Local History”, the appearance in Hong Kong of The Royal Balinese Dancers, in March 1935, was a great success. Among many VIPs in the opening-night audience at the Queen’s Theatre, in Central, an effusive Phyllis Juby of The China Mail recommended that “the beauty of these dancers, gentle as a shadow on the earth, or warm as the blood of human passions, must be seen by all who love the sunshine and the tenderness of jungles”. Less than a... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3082093/indonesian-island-bali-made-quite-impression-early?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3082093/indonesian-island-bali-made-quite-impression-early?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 30 Apr 2020 18:00:07 +0000 Macau became a popular location for Hollywood films in the 1950s, and the characters who went there arrived – like most tourists in those days – by steam ferry from Hong Kong. Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell, with the help of some movie magic and com­mis­sioned location footage, “arrived” aboard the SS Takshing (above, in Macau in the 50s) in the 1952 film noir Macao. Tony Curtis arrived a year later on the same ferry, in similar fashion, in Forbidden, and Susan Hayward likewise took the... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3081035/macau-showboats-nostalgic-look-back-hollywoods?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3081035/macau-showboats-nostalgic-look-back-hollywoods?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 Apr 2020 06:30:06 +0000 Guidebook publishers are taking a variety of stances in dealing with the shutdown of leisure travel. Lonely Planet’s online shop is still plugging away with a raft of new travel guides and other books such as The Digital Nomad Handbook: Practical tips and inspiration for living and working on the road, and the more lockdown-friendly Global Chocolate Tour. Among the more surprising entries on the site’s top 20 bestsellers for this month are its guides to Italy and Japan. The Fodor’s website has a... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3080008/how-read-travel-guides-time-coronavirus-wanderlust?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3080008/how-read-travel-guides-time-coronavirus-wanderlust?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 17 Apr 2020 06:30:11 +0000 No part of the travel industry has been hit more dramatically in recent months than luxury cruising, with hundreds of ships around the world floating just offshore in quarantine or otherwise indisposed, still filled with crews and, in some cases, passengers. Genting Hong Kong’s World Dream, which was under quarantine at the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal in February, is now laid up in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, her schedule as Hong Kong’s most frequent floating visitor for 2020 looking... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3078935/what-next-luxury-cruising-industry-all-sea-because?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3078935/what-next-luxury-cruising-industry-all-sea-because?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 10 Apr 2020 08:30:07 +0000 At the beginning of 1920 – with the worst of the Spanish flu pandemic over and relieved tourists flocking abroad in full carpe diem mode – Hong Kong’s hotels were full. The Hongkong Hotel, the King Edward Hotel, the Palace and the Carlton were all still advertising in the papers, but vacancies were rare. “The need for hotel accommodation in Hongkong,” declared The Hongkong Daily Press on January 9, “has never been so felt as in the last two days.” The 83-strong Russian Grand Opera Company, it... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3077954/how-hong-kongs-peninsula-hotel-came-be-1920s?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3077954/how-hong-kongs-peninsula-hotel-came-be-1920s?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Apr 2020 11:05:15 +0000 “They have forbidden me to roam around a city, a mere point in space; but they have left me with the whole universe: immen­sity and eternity are mine to command” – Xavier de Maistre, Voyage autour de ma chambre (1794). In the city of Turin in 1790, de Maistre, a French soldier, was confined to his room for six weeks. He was not in quarantine, but under house arrest for having fought a duel. An adventurous man, who had become one of the first air travellers when he flew, briefly, in the new... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3076872/room-travel-voyage-we-can-all-take-during-times?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3076872/room-travel-voyage-we-can-all-take-during-times?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 27 Mar 2020 05:00:06 +0000 The arrival on Christmas Eve, 1929, of the Stella Polaris was eagerly awaited in Hong Kong. “From the illustrations and brochures,” noted the Hong Kong Daily Press on December 14, “the vessel appears to be as luxurious as any ship that has ever steamed into the port [...] with spacious promenade decks and comfortable cabins with the latest Thermotank Punkah ventilating system.” The same paper witnessed her grand arrival at the Kowloon Wharf: “Her graceful yacht-like lines, and gleaming white... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3076645/stella-polaris-when-hong-kong-welcomed-grand-cruise?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3076645/stella-polaris-when-hong-kong-welcomed-grand-cruise?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Mar 2020 03:30:09 +0000 As was noted with interest by more than one Hong Kong newspaper, the RMS Laconia was the first ship to sail completely around the world, “purely for the purposes of pleasure”.  Owned by Britain’s Cunard Line, and chartered for the exclusive 130-day New York-to-New York voyage by the American Express Company, the 2,500-passenger vessel arrived in Victoria Harbour on January 17, 1923, carrying just 400 American tourists. A press agent was also on hand to provide the local press with keenly... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3064974/rms-laconia-worlds-first-cruise-ship-brought?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3064974/rms-laconia-worlds-first-cruise-ship-brought?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Mar 2020 02:00:13 +0000 Had it not been torn down by its owners – Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels – in the 1980s, The Repulse Bay Hotel would be celebrating its centenary this year. Heralded by The Hongkong Telegraph as “a real pleasure resort for the Colony, a hotel without its like in the East”, it was opened on New Year’s Day 1920 by Hong Kong’s new governor, Sir Reginald Stubbs. “From the point of view of the tourist,” he was quoted as saying in his opening speech, it was “a great advantage to have a place of this... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3052395/remembering-hong-kongs-repulse-bay-hotel-where?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3052395/remembering-hong-kongs-repulse-bay-hotel-where?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Feb 2020 06:30:15 +0000 One hundred years ago, on Valentine’s Day, 1920, 11 Italian aircraft – a selection of rickety-looking biplanes and one triplane – took off with their two-man crews from Rome, and headed towards Tokyo. Some of the first European fliers to attempt to reach East Asia by air, they were participating in the Raid Roma-Tokyo, an epic aerial endeavour dreamt up by Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio. Of the 11 flight crews, only two made it all the way to Japan, arriving within an hour of each other in... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3051326/when-11-pilots-set-out-fly-rome-tokyo-century-ago?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3051326/when-11-pilots-set-out-fly-rome-tokyo-century-ago?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 21 Feb 2020 07:30:13 +0000 Supposedly the world’s oldest oceangoing cruise ship, the MV Astoria has had quite an eventful life since setting out on her maiden voyage from Gothenburg, Sweden, 72 years ago, on February 21, 1948. Launched as the MS Stockholm, she ploughed her ice-break­ing bow into the side of the SS Andrea Doria in 1956, sending Italy’s new showpiece luxury liner to the bottom of the ocean in thick, North Atlantic fog. A few years later she was sold to an East German trade union and renamed the MS... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3050173/mv-astoria-worlds-oldest-ocean-going-cruise-ship-set?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3050173/mv-astoria-worlds-oldest-ocean-going-cruise-ship-set?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 14 Feb 2020 05:00:14 +0000 “S’pore man flies in a jumbo jet”, announced a headline in the April 28, 1970 issue of The Straits Times. This newsworthy (at least in Singapore) event had taken place two days earlier, when Lufthansa made its first Boeing 747 flight, from Frankfurt to New York, and Dr Shing Mao had become “probably the first Singaporean to fly in a jumbo jet”. Hong Kong, on the other hand, had already welcomed its first scheduled Boeing 747 flight, more than two weeks earlier, on April 11, courtesy of Pan... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3049281/boeing-747-50-how-first-wide-body-airliner-changed?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3049281/boeing-747-50-how-first-wide-body-airliner-changed?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 07 Feb 2020 12:00:10 +0000 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was an unusually well-travelled man. His lifelong thirst for adventure and discovery (both worldly and spiritual) took him from the Arctic to the southern Pacific Ocean, across North America, around Africa, and throughout Europe. In Asia, he visited only Bombay (“not an interesting place for the casual visitor”) and Ceylon (“I could imagine no greater pleasure than to have a clear month to wander over its beauties”) while sailing to and from a five-month... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3047922/sherlock-holmes-authors-extensive-yet-unsung?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3047922/sherlock-holmes-authors-extensive-yet-unsung?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 31 Jan 2020 06:15:14 +0000 Van Lear Black was said to be the world’s most widely travelled air passenger when he landed in Hong Kong on March 20, 1930. His custom-furnished, three-engine Fokker F.VII was reportedly the largest plane ever to have visited what was then called Kai Tack Aerodrome, and the local press were out in force to welcome him. After a brief chat, Black “dressed in a grey suit and wearing kid gloves” left his two pilots to do the talking and “proceeded to his rooms at the Peninsula Hotel”. The arrival... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3046159/van-lear-black-man-who-proved-potential-long-haul?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3046159/van-lear-black-man-who-proved-potential-long-haul?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 17 Jan 2020 06:30:06 +0000 Among the few quality hotels serving visitors to Macau in the 1960s were the grand old Bela Vista (which closed in 1999, to become the residence of the consul general of Portugal) and the nearby Caravela (demolished in the mid-1970s), down by the seafront on Avenida da Republica. The best modern hotel in town, according to the Golden Guide to Hong Kong and Macao (published in 1969 by the late, lamented Far Eastern Economic Review) was the Estoril, located on what is now Tap Seac Square. Opened... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3045132/macaus-old-hotel-lisboa-star-exhibition-featuring?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3045132/macaus-old-hotel-lisboa-star-exhibition-featuring?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 10 Jan 2020 10:00:17 +0000 Long gone, it seems, are the days when getting a tattoo in Thailand meant downing a few Singha beers then heading for Mr Boy’s Magic Tattoo Paradise for a quick “carpe diem”, butterfly, dolphin or dragon. Now it has to be a hand-tapped sak yant (or bamboo tattoo), involving a consultation with a master (or ajarn), sacred geometric designs and a list of future guidelines – words to live by – for best results. One of the most famous sak yant bearers is Angelina Jolie, and she is mentioned up... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3044449/traditional-thai-tattoos-offer-anantara-siam-bangkok?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3044449/traditional-thai-tattoos-offer-anantara-siam-bangkok?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Jan 2020 06:30:15 +0000 The December 25, 1946 issue of The China Mail contained two news items highlighting the hazards of commercial air travel. On December 23, a Pan American Airways Clipper flight carrying two dozen British “GI brides” and their children from London to the United States, to reunite with their American husbands and fathers, had been forced to turn back due to thick Atlantic fog. That same day, bad weather had caused an Argentinian airliner heading from London to Buenos Aires, via Brazil, to hit a... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3042569/shanghais-westbund-hotel-open-location-greatest-air?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3042569/shanghais-westbund-hotel-open-location-greatest-air?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Dec 2019 06:30:07 +0000 One of next year’s more interesting hotel openings will actually be a reopening, when The Century Plaza Hotel, in Los Angeles, emerges from a four-year closure and extensive renovations in April. Now with two new towers, and renamed the Fairmont Century Plaza, the hotel first opened in 1966 and is said to have been the first in the world to provide a colour television in every room. It was designed by Minoru Yamasaki, the American architect behind the ill-fated World Trade Centre, in Manhattan.... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3041549/top-15-hotel-openings-look-forward-2020?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3041549/top-15-hotel-openings-look-forward-2020?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Dec 2019 10:45:09 +0000 After featuring the Hong Kong MTR’s West Rail Line (“from the urban canyons of Kowloon to the coastal suburb of Tuen Mun”) as an unlikely must-do in last year’s Amazing Train Journeys, Lonely Planet this year offers the Star Ferry as a more obvious entry in its new coffee-table book, Amazing Boat Journeys. Other recommended locations include the Yangtze, Mekong, Thames, Danube and Nile rivers, as well as distant islands such as Pitcairn, the Galapagos and the Marquesas. Both books can be... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3040393/hong-kongs-star-ferry-makes-it-lonely-planets?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3040393/hong-kongs-star-ferry-makes-it-lonely-planets?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Dec 2019 23:00:10 +0000 Backpackers travelling across Asia in the 1980s could often be found with their noses buried in one of a fairly predictable selection of books – usually bought or traded in second-hand bookshops and street stalls scattered along what used to be known as the hippie trail. Required reading back then included the likes of Midnight Express (1977) when in Turkey, Heat and Dust (1975), Midnight’s Children (1981) and City of Joy (1985) while on the Indian subcontinent and Saint Jack (1973), The Year of... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3039521/bikini-killer-serial-murderer-charles-sobhraj-be?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3039521/bikini-killer-serial-murderer-charles-sobhraj-be?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 29 Nov 2019 02:30:15 +0000 The first undisputed visit to the North Pole was made by airship in May 1926. Among several scientists and crew on-board were the famed Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen, his American financial backer Lincoln Ellsworth and the Italian aviator and engineer Umberto Nobile. Flags of all three countries were dropped onto the ice below before the Norge continued on her journey from Norway to Alaska. Amundsen, who had become the first man to reach the South Pole 15 years earlier, and Nobile fell... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3038705/retrace-1926-amundsen-flight-north-pole-luxury?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3038705/retrace-1926-amundsen-flight-north-pole-luxury?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 22 Nov 2019 08:38:56 +0000 The first flight to carry airmail from England to Hong Kong – which The China Mail described as “epoch-making” and The Hongkong Telegraph as “a milestone in the history of aviation in Hongkong” – arrived here on March 24, 1936. The Imperial Airways de Havilland DH86, named Dorado (pictured above, at Kai Tak airport), had set out from Penang, in what was then Malaya, the previous day, and flown in that morning (with only one passenger) from the town of Tourane, on the east coast of French... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3037394/flying-hong-kong-da-nang-once-took-almost-six-hours?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3037394/flying-hong-kong-da-nang-once-took-almost-six-hours?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 15 Nov 2019 07:30:13 +0000 Hyatt recently launched the BEI Zhaolong Hotel in Beijing’s Sanlitun district, following an extensive renovation of what its opening press release describes as the “legendary” Zhaolong Hotel. The property was one of communist China’s first luxury hotels when it opened, in October 1985, a few months after Sheraton took over the running of the loss-making, state-managed Great Wall Hotel, just up the road. The Zhaolong Hotel was paid for by Hong Kong shipping supremo Pao Yue-kongand was named after... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3036721/one-communist-chinas-first-luxury-hotels-reopens?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3036721/one-communist-chinas-first-luxury-hotels-reopens?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 08 Nov 2019 07:30:08 +0000 The first direct commercial flights between London and Hong Kong began 70 years ago – on August 23, 1949 – with the launch of a British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) service from Heathrow. BOAC flying boats were already coming out from Southampton, but the airline’s new four-engine Canadair Argo­naut aircraft had pressurised cabins, allowing them to operate at twice the speed and altitude of their compar­atively cumbersome counterparts. They could also fly much further without refuelling,... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3035455/first-direct-london-hong-kong-flight-70-years-ago?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3035455/first-direct-london-hong-kong-flight-70-years-ago?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 01 Nov 2019 06:15:35 +0000 About 3,000km southeast of Hong Kong lies New Guinea, the world’s second-largest island, after Greenland. Equally divided between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, more than twice the size of Japan, yet mostly unspoilt by tourism, it still largely lives up to its old sobriquet – The Last Unknown. Getting there from here is easy enough – Air Niugini flies from Hong Kong to the Papua New Guinean capital, Port Moresby, three times a week – but getting around New Guinea itself is anything but. Paved... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3034134/new-guinea-australian-cruise-offers-chance-explore?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3034134/new-guinea-australian-cruise-offers-chance-explore?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 25 Oct 2019 07:30:13 +0000 Before the advent of commercial aviation, the occasional arrival of new and ever-more luxurious cruise ships was always big news in relatively remote Hong Kong. Three of the last luxury liners to debut here before Imperial Airways and Pan American Airways aircraft first touched down at Kai Tak in 1936 were NYK Line’s Asama Maru, Chichibu Maru and Tatsuta Maru. The Asama Maru’s arrival, in December 1929, was front-page news, and her similar sister ships were keenly reported when they dropped in a... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3033326/ms-world-largest-residential-private-yacht-earth?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3033326/ms-world-largest-residential-private-yacht-earth?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 Oct 2019 03:00:11 +0000 Low-cost carrier Norwegian has added the city of Ushuaia, in southern Patagonia, to its network, and so now serves the most southerly and northerly international airports in the world. A connecting trip can be made with four flights from Svalbard Airport, Longyear, in Arctic Norway, down to the capital Oslo, across to London’s Gatwick, over the Atlantic to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and then down to Ushuaia. Total flying time is about 25 hours, which should be long enough to get through Lucas... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3032161/instagram-shattering-10-flight-trip-takes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3032161/instagram-shattering-10-flight-trip-takes?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 11 Oct 2019 03:00:13 +0000 Air travellers old enough to recall the thrill of landing on the Runway 13 approach to Kai Tak might enjoy a similarly hair-raising arrival at Madeira International Airport Cristiano Ronaldo. Sometimes called the Kai Tak of Europe, and a regular feature of scary-runway lists and videos featuring precarious and aborted landings, the Atlantic island airport’s unpredictable crosswinds and precipitous location make for alarming viewing. Despite this, thousands of visitors arrive, by the... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3031182/why-madeiras-cristiano-ronaldo-airport-portugal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3031182/why-madeiras-cristiano-ronaldo-airport-portugal?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 03 Oct 2019 06:00:12 +0000 On a restaurant wall, on the 26th floor of the Club Lusitano building on Ice House Street, in Central, hangs a broken aeroplane propeller. It is a relic of the first-ever flight from Portugal to Macau. Or at least what was supposed to have been. Portuguese pilots José Manuel Sarmento de Beires and António Jacinto da Silva Brito Paes, and engineer Manuel António Gouveia, left Lisbon in a French three-seater Breguet biplane on April 2, 1924, hoping to “bring news from the Motherland to old Macao... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3030453/how-ill-fated-first-flight-portugal-macau-ended?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3030453/how-ill-fated-first-flight-portugal-macau-ended?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 27 Sep 2019 06:30:11 +0000 The first hotel in The Unbound Collection by Hyatt to open in Britain, the Great Scotland Yard occupies a location famous for being the original headquarters of London’s Metropolitan Police. Due to open next month, the luxurious 152-room property will pay tribute to the criminal underworld with The Forty Elephants, a lounge bar named after a gang of female thieves that operated in London and across England from as early as the late 1700s to the mid-20th century. The Indian-owned hotel will also... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3027646/inside-londons-great-scotland-yard-hotel-once-home?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3027646/inside-londons-great-scotland-yard-hotel-once-home?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Sep 2019 09:30:08 +0000 The charming old two-star Palace Hotel on the popular Croatian island of Hvar has reopened after a long renovation as the five-star Palace Elisabeth, Hvar Heritage Hotel. Recalling Empress Elisabeth of Austria, who financed its construction in the late 19th century, the hotel has had its room count lowered from 78 to 45 and been tastefully refitted and refurnished. Another former Croatian “palace” hotel, which is unlikely to be making a return, is the Haludovo Palace Hotel, further up the... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3026657/croatias-instagram-friendly-abandoned-luxury-hotels?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3026657/croatias-instagram-friendly-abandoned-luxury-hotels?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 13 Sep 2019 08:15:08 +0000 Published from 1946 to 1977, Holiday magazine gave millions of Americans a vividly inspiring intro­duction to the outside world. In its heyday, under editor Ted Patrick and art director Frank Zachary, it promoted the intellectually and spiritually enriching aspects of travel, rather than the five-star luxury constantly peddled today (foreign travel still being a luxury in itself for the average American at the time). A healthy monthly circulation paid for bylines such as James Michener, John... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3025975/why-holiday-was-best-travel-magazine-ever-was?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3025975/why-holiday-was-best-travel-magazine-ever-was?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 08 Sep 2019 03:45:11 +0000 Flying from Hong Kong to Cathay Pacific’s three destinations in the Crown Colony of North Borneo in the early 1950s must have been quite an adventure. A flight left Kai Tak airport every Wednesday at 6.30am, arrived in Manila at 9.45am, then took off again at 11am, crossing the Sulu Sea and arriving in Sandakan – once known as Little Hong Kong, due to its large Cantonese-speaking population – at 2.45pm. By 3.30pm, the twin-engined DC-3 was wheels-up and heading west over the vast Borneo jungle,... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/article/3024656/hong-kong-kota-kinabalu-when-it-took-cathay-pacific-nearly?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/article/3024656/hong-kong-kota-kinabalu-when-it-took-cathay-pacific-nearly?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 30 Aug 2019 06:00:06 +0000 While it might have impressed early tourists with “a large number of palace-like houses built of stone”, Hong Kong struggled to retain longer-term residents – at least according to Ida Pfeiffer, who visited the colony in the summer of 1847. “The Europeans who have settled here, and who are not more than two or three hundred in number, are far from being contented,” the Austrian writer reported. “Many of them erected, as I before mentioned, splendid edifices, which they would now be glad to sell... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3023684/when-first-female-solo-traveller-ida-pfeiffer?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3023684/when-first-female-solo-traveller-ida-pfeiffer?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 23 Aug 2019 06:45:09 +0000 Singapore’s Raffles Hotel has finally reopened this month after an extensive renovation that was originally due to be completed sometime in the middle of last year. With 115 suites and three new restaurants (which are yet to open) joining the restored Long Bar and Tiffin Room, the hotel is offering a Raffles Opening Package that adds a few extras, such as breakfast in the Tiffin Lounge, a 3pm checkout and a S$100 (US$72) “experiential credit”, for an additional S$120 on room rates. Visit... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3022778/singapores-raffles-hotel-finally-reopens-after-major?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3022778/singapores-raffles-hotel-finally-reopens-after-major?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Aug 2019 00:45:29 +0000 Hongkongers had their first glimpse of air travel in the late 19th century, with occasional performances by visiting aeronauts and their hot-air balloons. Among the first were the Baldwin brothers from America, who on Saturday, January 3, 1891, put on a display at the Happy Valley racecourse. In a newspaper advertisement proclaiming themselves “The Leading Aeronauts of the World”, they promised a “Grand Balloon Ascension”, the highlight of which would be Thomas Baldwin’s descent by a para­chute... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3022102/eddie-redmayne-film-aeronauts-recalls-early-days-air?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3022102/eddie-redmayne-film-aeronauts-recalls-early-days-air?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Aug 2019 06:30:09 +0000 The rather unappealing portmanteau word “glamping” was officially adopted by the Oxford English Dictionary in 2016, and described as a blend of either glamour or glamorous, and camping. A February 2005 report in the The Guardian newspaper was given as the earliest example of its usage: “These days it’s more ‘glamping’ than camping, with the best companies offering state-of-the-art pre-erected tents and luxe mobile homes with ensuite bathrooms that feel like an Oscar-winner’s trailer.” Luxury... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3020820/marriott-enters-glamping-arena-tent-resort-bintan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3020820/marriott-enters-glamping-arena-tent-resort-bintan?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Aug 2019 02:45:11 +0000 Chinese visitors should feel at home in a new hotel being built in the small city of Iqaluit, in Canada’s largest and northernmost territory, Nunavut. That’s because its guest rooms have been prefabricated in China and are being delivered from Shanghai this month, complete with furniture, television sets and other fixtures and fittings. The hotel, which broke ground last year and has yet to be named, is due to open next spring. Prefabricated hotels seem to be catching on with larger hotel... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3019910/canada-gets-delivery-chinese-built-modular-hotel?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3019910/canada-gets-delivery-chinese-built-modular-hotel?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Jul 2019 23:00:04 +0000 Raffles Grand Hotel D’Angkor closed for renovations in April but is due to reopen on October 1, and is now accepting reservations from that date. First opened in the early 1930s and now considered something of a grand dame, the hotel was originally seen as rather incongruous by some, sitting, as it did, so close to the divine ruins of Angkor. In her well-received book Cambodian glory: The Mystery of the Deserted Khmer Cities and Their Vanished Splendour (1936), writer H.W. Ponder described it as... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3018962/angkor-eye-siem-reap-gets-ferris-wheel-help-promote?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3018962/angkor-eye-siem-reap-gets-ferris-wheel-help-promote?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Jul 2019 02:45:04 +0000 Indian low-cost airline SpiceJet will begin daily non-stop flights between Hong Kong and Mumbai on July 31, bringing some much needed competition back to a route dropped by the country’s Jet Airways in April. SpiceJet, which launched a Hong Kong-Delhi service last November, will be operating a two-class, 168-seat Boeing 737-800, at least until its grounded Boeing 737 MAX 8 fleet, along with those of many other airlines, is allowed back in the air. Boeing reportedly told SpiceJet last April that... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3017985/indian-budget-airline-spicejet-start-daily-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3017985/indian-budget-airline-spicejet-start-daily-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Jul 2019 02:45:11 +0000 Back in the 1980s, advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather created an unusual campaign for Air Canada. One television commercial showed puzzled airport staff looking at a planeload of unclaim­ed suitcases on the baggage carousel while their owners continued to party on board the aircraft. Another showed a milkman delivering to the plane, presumably the next morning, and receiving a note requesting “217 extra pints please” for the sleeping passengers. Both commercials ended with the unconvincing... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3017127/case-woman-who-woke-alone-air-canada-flight-odd?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3017127/case-woman-who-woke-alone-air-canada-flight-odd?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 Jul 2019 14:00:12 +0000 One of the biggest travel-trade talking points of the recent Paris Air Show was Cebu Pacific signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to buy 31 Airbus planes – 16 of which will be A330-900s, with 460 seats in an all-economy configuration squeezed into each. Fellow budget airline AirAsia, by comparison, unveiled its first A330-900 (aka the A330neo) at the show, with 377 seats in two classes, while the plane’s launch customer, TAP Air Portugal, began operating with 289 seats in three classes... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3016084/asian-airline-plans-squeeze-more-seats-economy-bad?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3016084/asian-airline-plans-squeeze-more-seats-economy-bad?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Jun 2019 03:00:11 +0000 “Just after six p.m. yesterday,” announced The Hongkong Daily Press on July 1, 1924, “three men, stalwart and sunburned, in weather-stained khaki shirts and shorts, and whose unshaved cheeks and unkempt hair told the tale of arduous travel, walked off Blake Pier and along the Praya to the Hongkong Club.” Some weeks behind schedule, these celebrated airmen, led by Squadron Leader Archibald Stuart-MacLaren, were attempting the first flight around the globe, and their arrival in Hong Kong from... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3015142/how-hong-kong-welcomed-three-intrepid-british?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3015142/how-hong-kong-welcomed-three-intrepid-british?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 21 Jun 2019 06:15:11 +0000 Europe-based Airbus recently began selling furniture and home accessories made from upcycled aircraft parts through a website called A Piece of Sky. With delivery scheduled for January, limited-edition items range from lamps and side tables made from A320 windows for €830 (US$935) each to the Calipso sideboard (€6,300), which is built out of A320 fuselage panels. While there are some attractive, if rather sober pieces on offer at A Piece of Sky, much more imaginative examples of such reclamation... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3014324/own-piece-airbus-furniture-made-upcycled-parts-take?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3014324/own-piece-airbus-furniture-made-upcycled-parts-take?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Jun 2019 04:15:22 +0000 Compared with British Airways’ rather contrived “centenary” celeb­rations this year, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines appears to be taking a low-key approach to its 100th anniversary. Founded in October 1919 – making it the world’s oldest airline, British Airways’ claims aside – KLM was soon looking to the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and planning the world’s first long-haul commercial air route. A test flight took off from Amsterdam on October 1, 1924. This was a bold move for the airline. The... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3013213/klm-worlds-oldest-airline-has-come-long-way-100?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3013213/klm-worlds-oldest-airline-has-come-long-way-100?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 07 Jun 2019 05:15:05 +0000 Two impressive and very different cold war-era hotels will turn 65 this year. Opened in Miami Beach, Florida, in 1954, the seductively curved Fontainebleau was the first and most famous hotel designed by the flamboyant Morris Lapidus. With its extravagant interiors, oversized pool and swanky nightclub featuring the likes of Frank Sinatra, who shot several films and television shows on the premises, it was a beacon of American post-war excess and capitalist decadence. The first post-credit scene... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3012238/monuments-waste-and-bad-taste-moscow-and-miami?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3012238/monuments-waste-and-bad-taste-moscow-and-miami?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 31 May 2019 11:30:07 +0000 Railbookers has launched an ambitious round-the-world railway journey that spans four continents on an eight-week itinerary. Depending on which Railbookers website you use – United Kingdom, Australia or the United States – you can begin this epic adventure in London, Sydney or Chicago. From London, the route runs down to Venice, via Paris, Geneva and Rome, then it’s back up through central Europe to Scandinavia, and over to Moscow to catch the Trans-Siberian Railway to Mongolia. From there the... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3011139/round-world-railway-journey-spans-four-continents?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3011139/round-world-railway-journey-spans-four-continents?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 May 2019 09:45:09 +0000