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Remote Lands is once again pleased to be nominated for Travel + Leisure World's Best Awards 2019, an award for the absolute best in the sphere of luxury travel. Among some of the biggest names in the industry, Remote Lands is honored to be considered in such august company for the Tour Operator and Safari Outfitters category.
Readers and industry professionals can vote in the Travel + Leisure World's Best Awards 2019 at this link. Voters who complete the survey will be entered into a T+L giveaway for a chance to win a trip worth $10,000, and three winners will receive $1,000. Travelers can take this opportunity to tell the travel and lifestyle trendsetters what they think of their favorite luxury hotels, destinations, and even airports.
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“Kyrgyzstan will win,” says Gulmira, a local volunteer.
“The Uzbeks, they are too Russian,” she claims. “Kyrgyz people, they are much better nomads.”
The culmination of the World Nomad Games was about to begin. Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan were trotting their horses onto the pitch at the Hippodrome, waving their national flags while the crowd worked itself into a frenzy.
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Where else but Bali? With cascading waterfalls, pristine beaches, luxury resorts, and intricate temples galore, this haven for snap-happy photographers is one of a kind. Combine all the unique elements of a Balinese experience with tropical weather and some of the most delicious and healthy food on the planet, and you’ve really got a winner. Myself and my partner were fortunate enough to make Bali our home earlier this year, exploring the island inside and out.
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Papua New Guinea was a key Japanese base of operations during WWII. Rabaul was especially well suited for a naval base as it has a large harbor protected by a string of volcanoes. Ships would travel from Japan and Chuuk Lagoon to Rabaul and then onward to the Solomon Islands and other parts of Papua New Guinea. Perhaps one of the most intriguing sites in Rabaul is the base of Admiral Yamamoto, the architect of the Pearl Harbor attack. The wreckage of Yamamoto’s plane can still be found in the jungles of Buin on Bougainville Island.
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From the colorful city lights of Kowloon to the breathtaking hikes on Lantau Island, Hong Kong is much more than an urban jungle. In fact, 40 percent of the land in Hong Kong is made up of country parks and nature reserves across 263 islands in the territory. With its combination of angular skyscrapers and lush greenery, Hong Kong has become increasingly popular in the photography community; you’d be hard pressed to go on Instagram without seeing professional photos of this unique world city. With its relatively small area and fantastic public transport network, Hong Kong is the Instagrammer’s paradise.
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“If one had salt or tea, one was rich, one could live.” These words, spoken slowly come out of a lined and haunted face, the mouth barely moving. It is a face that is worn and enlightened by eight decades in the full of Mother Nature’ whims, at close to five kilometers above sea level. Wangdu’s long hands smoothly work their way through the 108 beads on a japa mala (Buddhist rosary) as he speaks. We sit tucked away near Darlag in south-western Qinghai province, in a hut that reverberates with wind that rips. Wangdu has a kind of languid elegance to his still-powerful body and he gazes somewhere above me as he searches his memory.
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Novelist, composer, and prestigious polymath extraordinaire Anthony Burgess set sail from Southampton bound to Singapore aboard the Dutch Passenger liner Willem Ruys on the 5th August 1954. His wife Lynn enjoyed endless gin and tonics on deck while the Siamese family cat, Lalage, established her sea legs chasing the odd stow-away rodent below deck. Burgess, ever the linguist, set about expanding his Malay vocabulary, and in the evenings, the budding wordsmith aged 37, the son of a Moss Side tobacconist, and an all-round literary ragamuffin, dressed for dinner.
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Some 1,000 kilometers from the famed Taj Mahal and the cities of Rajasthan and bustle of Delhi, exists an Indian state few know well. Arunachal Pradesh is home to some of India’s highest mountains, a huge range of tribal cultures, and a variety of religious practices. You’ll find few sari’s, Ganesh statues, or chapati’s here, but instead a different kind of India. Nestled in a corner of Arunachal is Tawang. Not only does it take two days to drive here from Gauhati, the nearest airport, but in order to reach Tawang, you have to cross the Sela Pass at 4,170 meters, one of the highest roads in the world.
Tawang is a place which could be one of India’s premier attractions, but because of its location, it remains the country’s best-kept secret. For those who do make the journey, one of the world’s largest Buddhist monasteries, a unique tribal culture, and breathtaking nature are waiting.
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Twenty-five years ago, an airline strike forced my wife Nazima and I to undertake a 68-hour bus drive to reach Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya, the 21st state of India. Our journey from Siliguri in North Bengal, the gateway to North East India, turned into an accident-prone nightmare, bordering on torture. Aboard our third rattletrap bus, with seats as hard and unforgiving as fossilized wood, our drunk driver inconveniently forgot to fill up his petrol tank, stranding us in the middle of nowhere. In the dead of a pitch-dark night, knee-deep in muck, all the passengers had to get out and push. Luckily, the handiboy discovered some kerosene, enough to get us to the next petrol station in an inebriated state due to the mind-bending fumes. Finally, with a straining of gears, our bus escaped the heat, dust, and pollution of the plains.
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