Let us just state it explicitly and declare it for the record: Hong Kong is probably the most phenomenal food city in the world. Granted, this may not strike all as controversial, especially those who have had a chance to dine, graze and nosh in the Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. … More

Cancun, the tourist wellspring of the Riviera Maya corridor, is a busy, on-the-go city that now envelops some 630,000 people. Almost implausible, when you reflect on the fact that before 1970, Cancun did not even exist. The then objective, presumably, of the 30-year plan to transform the barrier island into a scalable purpose-built resort area … More

The Seoul Metropolitan Subway is a behemoth. Easily one of the most thorough and pervasive rapid transit systems on the planet, the lifeblood of the national capital of South Korea services a colossal total of 546 stops and as many as 7 million passengers a day. Over 8 million trips, in fact, is the gargantuan … More

How lucky is Spain? The country is not only home to Barcelona and Madrid, a dynamic duo of culture, arts and nightlife prowess but also boasts a tremendous support cast in the likes of Seville, Valencia, Salamanca and San Sebastian, to name but several. And then you have the Mediterranean and the idylls of the … More

The excellent 2011 documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, about 85-year-old sushi master and Michelin 3-star chef Jiro Ono, has many takeaway lessons. One that explicitly emerges, however, is the single-minded meticulousness of purpose that seems to drive Japanese artisanship and craftsmanship. It is a national and cultural sensibility that fetishises delicacy, refinement and the pursuit … More

How can a building ever be the “best”? Can such a loaded word ever universally apply to a single human-made structure (or anything for that matter, as in, this gelato is the best)? Example. The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is the most dominant skyscraper on the planet – by far – but is it the … More