Get Lost 32

WIN A PEREGRINE ADVENTURE THROUGH MYANMAR

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BORNEO

Kalimantan by boat

SECRETS OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC The ultimate places to stay

SOUTH KOREA

The inside story

THE KOKODA

Are you up for it?

Halloween in

SAN FRANCISCO Sailing the end of the earth

PATAGONIA

ISSN 1449-3543

WADE DAVIS: An interview with the legendary explorer HENRY ROLLINS: The tough guy talks travel BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE: Where do the hotties call home?

CHILE | FRANCE | INDIA | MAURITIUS | SPAIN | VIETNAM

BONUS FEATURE S E C R E T S

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SOUTH PACIFIC

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We uncover the ultimate waterside accommodation across the South Pacific

FEATURES

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BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE

USA

Ever wondered where the most beautiful people in the world are?

INDIA

Get your freak on for Halloween in the Castro, San Francisco.

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INDONESIAN BORNEO

Venture beyond the group tours and immerse yourself in Mekong Delta life. #8 get lost ISSUE #31

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SOUTH KOREA

Slip on your sailing shoes and see Patagonia from the decks of a yacht.

Journey into the heart of South Korea to get the real experience.

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VIETNAM

Dive in the deep end of Delhi and Agra for a whirlwind tour of these Indian cities.

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CHILE

Discover Borneo by boat. Put your feet up and witness Kalimantan the easy way.

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PAPUA NEW GUINEA Prepare yourself for one of the most notorious hikes in the world: the Kokoda Track.

SOLOMON ISLANDS Get back to basics on Tetepare Island – one of the last wild islands in the South Pacific.

get in the know South Africa is sitting on nearly 40% of the world’s platinum reserves.

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124 HOLIDAY IDEAS

Get to know London when the sun goes down.

Montague Island – Australia’s Galápagos.

An African adventure Meet legendary for under A$7,500. explorer and author Wade Davis.

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News, Views & Events The globe uncovered Your Letters & Photos Send in and win Places to Stay The weird and wonderful Top Trips The best we can find

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132 TRAVEL JOB

Retro Travel Travel from yesteryear 28 You Wish Get green with envy 72 Photostory The world in images 126 Food The hungry traveller

get in the know Behind Russia, Canada is the world’s second-largest country by total area.

136 MUSIC

144 CONFESSIONS

An interview with hard-hitting traveller Henry Rollins.

An Australian colony in Paraguay?

128 Photography Expert photo tips 134 Our Shout The world’s best bars 138 Responsible Travel Do the right thing 140 Reviews Gadgets and other goodies ISSUE #31 get lost #9

sCary Canary Chris Blade takes to the skies and goes paragliding above Lanzarote, the easternmost of the Canary Islands.

Photography by Chris Blade

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ere I am, for tHe tHIrd tIme in three years, teetering on the brink of Lanzarote’s infamous famara ridge waiting my turn to launch into the vast uncrowded sky. far below I spy the sea and the cafe we will meet at for a post-flight analysis and cerveza.

Lanzarote is a renowned winter flying destination. The Canary Islands, just off the coast of West Africa, offer the perfect opportunity to grab some winter sun and banish the European winter blues.

On the edge, my mind struggles to retain the information my instructors have pumped into me about wind directions, areas to avoid, thermals, air law, weather and of course landing.

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We wait patiently for the right launching conditions, my heart pounding audibly in my helmet, occasionally interrupted by bursts of excited conversation on my walkie-talkie from my friends soaring 500 feet above me.

The decision is made. The conditions are right and a gentle tug on the lines awakens the docile fabric canopy. It fills with air and rises powerfully above my head, eager to depart. A quick check that all’s okay, a step towards to the edge and I am snatched into the rising air.

No more choice now, I’m off, on an elevator to the sky.

See www.airadventure.co.uk for paragliding at Lanzarote. get in the know Almost 5% of Lanzarote’s population is from Colombia.

you wish | spain

get in the know The emblem of Lanzarote is a demon.

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usa

Halloween in the Castro crush, blazing bright as ever.

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get in the know San Francisco powers its municipal bus and truck fleet on biodiesel that is made from waste grease collected from local restaurants.

andrew Lewis celebrates San Francisco’s oldest, wildest Halloween tradition in the Castro.

Photography by Lucia griggi

get in the know San Francisco outlawed burials in 1901. The Presidio and Mission districts have the city’s only remaining cemeteries.

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London local Nick Boulos gives us the lowdown on a top night out in the Olympic city.

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get in the know The first Paralympics Games, held in London in 1948, involved injured World War II soldiers.

united kingdom

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ith more thaN 7,000 puBs in the great British capital, choosing where to head to once the sun has gone down and the olympians get their rest can be a tough task. But a little local insight always helps uncover the hidden locales.

Whether you want a chic hangout or a good ol’ fashioned boozer, London is the place to be.

It’s hard to beat a British boozer for cosiness.

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5.00pm

Get off to a flying start in one of the oldest pubs in London, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. This place has been welcoming an illustrious clientele since 1538. Over the years it’s been the drinking den of choice for the likes of authors Charles Dickens, Oliver Goldsmith, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and, thanks to its Fleet Street location, a whole generation of newspaper hacks.

Step back in time in this historic pub (rebuilt in 1667 after the Great Fire) with its network of darkened rooms and working fireplaces, old oak tables, vaulted cellars and creaking floorboards.

The beer’s pretty good, too.

Ye olde Cheshire Cheese 145 Fleet street

6.00pm

Tucked between two fairly ordinary cafes near Shoreditch is an innocuous doorway, the kind you’d walk past without giving it a second glance. But dive inside and your curiosity will be rewarded.

Deep underground sits Nightjar, a prohibition-style bar that’s a throwback

And why not enjoy a pre-dinner snack?

The tapas-style pan-fried brochettes of cecina, mozzarella and tomato are especially good.

Nightjar 129 City road www.barnightjar.com

to the glamorous 1920s. The live band plays swing and jazz. Couples sit at the candlelit wooden tables as exotic cocktails, exquisitely decorated and boasting the finest ingredients, are ferried across the intimate bar.

Choosing between the 36 ‘rare, revived and original’ tipples is not easy. But the secret cocktail – a refreshing blend of Tanqueray gin, Calvados Père Magloire, fresh lemon and homemade grenadine (served on the side in an eggshell no less) – is a popular favourite.

Blessed with one of the most iconic skylines in the world, London demands to be seen from a lofty vantage point.

As the city starts to twinkle, head to Vertigo 42, located more than 40 storeys above the busy streets atop the gleaming Tower 42 building. Overlooking St Paul’s Cathedral, the Gherkin and beyond, this trendy lounge setting serves 39 types of champagne, while the new dedicated Bellini menu includes fruity and seasonal twists like passionfruit and plum. More importantly, the floor-to-ceiling windows ensure great views for all.

Vertigo 42 tower 42, 25 old Broad street www.vertigo42.co.uk

8.00pm

Sprint to the hottest ticket in town: Dinner, the new restaurant by celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal – the man behind egg-and-bacon ice cream and snail porridge.

Located in the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in up-market Knightsbridge, the restaurant’s dining room – ivory walls decorated with porcelain – is as sophisticated as the food, which has

Nightjar in full swing.

get in the know It’s been suggested that the London Olympics 2012 logo resembles the cartoon character Lisa Simpson performing fellatio.

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india

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get in the know To help reduce air pollution, in 2004 the Delhi government made it mandatory for all city buses and auto rickshaws to run on compressed natural gas.

kelly Irving surrenders to the deluge of Delhi and Agra on a whirlwind trip to India.

Photography by kelly Irving and simon Bracken

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ndIa Is, lIke, full of everythIng!” yells Badam, grabbing my arm and yanking me off the road before a rickshaw runs over my foot. I hurry after him, down an alley, through a cloud of dust, over a puddle of muck. old delhi screams at me from every direction – bikes, scooters, taxis, tuk-tuks, cars, cows and people pulling carts. “hello, hello!” “you want?” “money please!” fumes, heat and dirt clog my pores. spaghetti-like power lines block my path.

I’ve hit Delhi; or rather, Delhi has hit me. Now I get why thousands descend on the city each year looking for some sort of spiritual enlightenment, then flee, feeling anything but enlightened. I feel a tad relieved to be spending three days in two of India’s craziest cities, Delhi and Agra, with Badam, a seasoned local and guide for some urban-adventure city tours that I’ve joined. But these tours, unlike other yawn-inducing day trips, are designed to give travellers an insider’s look at each place, and they won’t wrap you up in cottonwool while doing so.

I start to prep myself mentally for the challenge that lies ahead.

Patience. Check. Perseverance. Check. A sense of humour, an open mind. Check and check.

Old Delhi hits me headfirst yet again – cars, scooters, bikes, beeping and all. I follow Badam as he weaves in and out of back alleys and bizarre bazaars dedicated to different themes: Dariba Kalan for jewellery, Kinari Bazar for bridal paraphernalia.

Women in red and aqua saris whiz past on the back of motorbikes; a young boy follows us around spoon-feeding his bare-bottomed baby brother.

I finally catch a long-overdue breath at the top of a minaret of the Jama Masjid, India’s largest mosque, overlooking Chandni Chowk, the area’s oldest market. Looking out toward the street procession of pigeons and paan-chewing customers, my

get in the know Jainism is an Indian religion that preaches vegetarianism and non-violence to all living things.

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Happy times on the Amandit River.

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The mangosteen is often called the ‘queen of fruits’ because Queen Victoria supposedly offered £100 to anyone who could bring her a perfectly ripe one.

indonesia

Tom Perry discovers the best way to see Indonesian Borneo is by taking the slow boat.

Photography by Tom Perry

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ihaT Lah orang sePerTi melihat buah manggis’ (meaning: ‘look at people like you look at the mangosteen’) is the indonesian equivalent of ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’. The expression comes from the fact that the mangosteen, a small awkward-looking tropical fruit with flesh that resembles garlic and skin that stains like beetroot, is actually gloriously sweet.

As I tuck into my tenth mangosteen (I’d developed a mild obsession for them over the last 10 days) on my final morning in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo, I watch the organised chaos of the Banjarmasin floating markets. Hundreds of women in canoes chat, bargain, jostle and exchange huge piles of fruit and vegetables in the middle of the Barito River. I make a note in my travel journal that the mangosteen expression could just as well reflect my time in Kalimantan as a whole.

Having arrived intent on coming face-toface with orangutans, after 10 days in this unspoilt part of Indonesia I’d discovered there was far more to Kalimantan than just its red-haired primate inhabitants. By taking

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Kalimantan’s orangutans.

Travelling by boat is, without doubt, the best way to see this part of the world. The large, 10-metre-long wooden boats (known locally as klotoks) offer the chance to plonk your deckchair or mattress on the

Bobo stands up in response, staring down his rival before grabbing a piece of bamboo and breaking it in a show of strength. orangutans are seriously powerful

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life in at the slow pace of a riverboat, I had seen beyond the trees, the water and the wildlife, and instead experienced the complexity of the lives that revolve around them.

deck, kick back and just soak up life on the river. And when you’re keen to explore deeper into the jungle, you hop aboard one of the thousands of smaller alkons – each less than half a metre wide and

get in the know Kalimantan makes up about 73% of Borneo by area.

sitting just centimetres out of the water – and move deftly through the countless creeks, swamps and low-hanging riverside trees that are spread across thousands of kilometres of waterways.

Ten days earlier. My first introduction to river life in Kalimantan was unexpectedly luxurious. On arrival in Palangkaraya, an hour’s flight from Jakarta, my travelling partner and I head to the dock to board our first boat, a two-storey, 20-metrelong ‘super klotok’ known as the Rahai’i Pangun. It’s been rebuilt from the shell of a cargo boat and now includes deluxe double cabins and a huge deck, and has a style that melds into the tough environment around it. It’s clear that a lot of thought has gone into its design.

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chile

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get in the know Chile is 4,300 kilometres long but on average only 175 kilometres wide.

Cam Cope ventures to the south of South America and explores Chile’s magnificent fjords by boat.

Photography by Cam Cope

A stern view of Chile’s fjords.

get in the know Chile has about 78,000 kilometres of coastline, almost twice as much as Australia.

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south korea

Flash Parker heads to the cultural core of South Korea’s oldest empire.

Photography by Flash Parker

The Great Unification Buddha looks out over Seoraksan and the Taebaek mountain range from his seat near Sinheungsa, the oldest Zen temple in the world.

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get in the know Taekwondo is South Korea’s national sport. Most Koreans have at least some formal training, but few will try and kick you in public.

get in the know In 1962 Seokguram Grotto was designated the 24th national treasure of South Korea.

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papua new guinea

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get in the know The Kokoda Track is 96 kilometres long.

Luke Wright takes on the legendary Kokoda Track.

Photography by Luke Wright

get in the know The highest point on the Kokoda Track is 2,190 metres above sea level.

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PAPUA NEW GUINEA | SOLOMON ISLANDS | VANUATU | TONGA | BEST OF THE REST

We’ve searched the South Pacific for the most remote, rustic, boutique and beautiful independent resorts and bungalows in the region. It was a tough job, but it had to be done. If you prefer to avoid the crowds and the generic tourist traps, then you’re in for a treat. It’s our humble opinion that all the places to stay found on the following pages typify what authentic travel is all about. #96 get lost ISSUE #32

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SOLOMON ISLANDS SAMOA PAPUA NEW GUINEA

NIUE

FIJI

VANUATU

FRENCH POLYNESIA COOK ISLANDS

TONGA

Australia

New Zealand

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Travelling by road, by air and on water, you will see firsthand why Myanmar (also known as Burma) is a fabled land. Discover ancient temples, explore winding rivers, enjoy lovely hospitality and unwind on deserted beaches. This fantastic trip for two is a once-in-alifetime experience.

This fantastic prize is made possible by Peregrine Adventures www.peregrineadventures.com

All flights are courtesy of Vietnam Airlines www.vietnamairlines.com