Travel & Leisure

1. Follow a South African safari from the comfort of your home every day in April

   “Oh good, now I have time to see some of the world,” is probably not how most people will have greeted the prospect of lockdown or quarantine, but as more national parks, galleries, museums and theatres put their rugged beauty, exhibitions and shows online in response to restrictive coronavirus measures, so there’s more to visit from the comfort of your favourite armchair.And hang on to that seat, because now you can go on safari, too.Luxury travel company andBeyond and wildlife broadcaster…

2. The return of South Africa’s sea turtles is a conservation success story

   During the eerie calm that settles just after midnight we spot her. A large, dark shape, flecked white by moonlight, lugs itself from the waves, leaving a wake of two-metre-wide tractor-like tracks. She is fully lit fleetingly by the routine swirl of KwaZulu-Natal’s Sodwana Bay lighthouse: a leatherback turtle, the second-largest reptile species in the world.To find her, it took two hours of scouting the nocturnal shoreline with guide Pete Jacobs, of Ufudu Turtle Tours, in a safari-style 4x4…

3. Lost treasures emerge in Cambodia’s hunt for historic sites as locals dream of tourist dollars

   Stories of a large rock-face carving of the Buddha on Kangva hill, in Cambodia’s Pursat province, had long been told in the village at the foot of the hill, but no one alive remembered seeing it. Local legends of giant snakes and earth spirits, or neak ta, had largely kept villagers away from the low hills that straddle the border of Pursat and Kampong Chhnang provinces, on the western banks of Tonle Sap lake. That changed last year on the morning of November 27. “Bun Sopheap was scrambling…

4. Edit, back up, share: how to organise your travel photos while you’re stuck at home – seven pro tips

   Are you making the best of your travel history? For once, we all have plenty of time on our hands to step back and consider it.Many of us have had incredible experiences abroad and will have the photos – thousands of them – to prove it. But chances are your travel photography files are in a mess, so what better time to sort them out and enjoy reminiscing over your favourite past adventures while you do?1. How to edit your travel photosWe all have too many travel photos. Whether you have got SD…

5. How Chinese in Russia pried the China tourism trade from Russian companies’ hands, and why tour guides don’t miss their absence amid coronavirus

   Until a few months ago, roughly half of all foreign tourists in Russia were Chinese. Then, in January, Chinese tour groups vanished from the streets of Moscow and St Petersburg after Russia banned the entry of Chinese citizens following the coronavirus outbreak. The introduction of visa-free entry for Chinese tour groups in 2015 set off an explosion of Chinese tourism in Russia, their number surpassing two million visitors in 2018, according to the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism. …

6. Secret Hong Kong marine police collection tells stories of piracy, war, crime – and could soon be seen by the public

   Concealed behind the metal security gates of Hong Kong’s Marine Police Headquarters is a unique collection of artefacts that tell colourful tales of piracy, war, kidnappings, smuggling and crime from 178 years of marine law enforcement in the city. The more than 400 historical items in the building in Sai Wan Ho, on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island, include photographs, navigational instruments, machine guns, swords, model ships, flags, bells and cannons. Very few people have had the…

7. Coronavirus: 10 travel books for home quarantine or lockdown – be transported to world’s most fascinating places

   Despite travel bans and self-isolating, there is still a way to feed our wanderlust and explore the world beyond our living room.We’re talking about travelogues, books that transcend time and place and bring the experience of travelling to the reader.Tag-along with fellow travellers or spend time with ex-pats chronicling their own experiences visiting and living in popular tourist destinations as well as out-of-the-way places.We have rounded up a selection of travel books to transport you to…

8. Room travel – a voyage we can all take during times of coronavirus quarantine and lockdown

   “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…

9. The Maldives could reopen to tourists from China, Japan and South Korea as early as April

   The Maldives, hard hit by the freeze on travel because of the Covid-19 pandemic, is preparing to welcome back business, according to the president – at least business from China and elsewhere in Asia. Ibrahim Mohamed Solih stated that, “under certain circumstances”, the tourism-dependent country could be reopened to Chinese, South Korean and Japanese markets by the end of April, reported Maldivian news website SunOnline, on March 25. Those circumstances include there being no known active…

10. Ignoring medical advice, Indonesians throng ‘jamu’ herbal drink parlours, believing concoctions protect against coronavirus

    It has been raining since morning but the air feels hot and balmy at Jamu Bukti Mentjos, a jamu parlour in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta. Despite a recent surge in coronavirus cases in Indonesia, customers sit almost shoulder to shoulder at the parlour, which occupies the front part of a house on Salemba Tengah street. Standing behind them are food-delivery drivers, waving their phones and scraps of paper containing orders. The handful of staff manning the bar look rather overwhelmed. Two…