Each week, powered by Globalista, we bring you the best of the travel pages.
Almaty, Kazakhstan. Photo credit: Irene
Go east, young man
For centuries, Western writers have been enticed by the East and its exoticism, whether real or imagined – and this weekend’s crop of travel writers are no different. The Independent’s Adrian Mourby claimed that Kazakhstan’s “Almaty and Astana are just out of this world”, while The Telegraph’s John Gimlette explored the world’s largest network of underground cities and towns in his Guide to Cappadocia, Turkey: Kingdom of Caves. “Our own cave looked out over a huge swathe of Cappadocia; a swirling landscape the colour of oatmeal and peaches; gorges full of pinnacles like clusters of spears; the distant cone of Mount Erciyes, lightly powdered in snow.”
Moving Gulf-wards, Tom Yarwood makes a somewhat emotional journey Back to Bahrain in The Guardian: “This island kingdom in the Arabian Gulf was my paradise. I spent two years here and fell in love with its heat and light, its stark, rocky interior and lush palm groves, its ancient monuments and rambling souks. So it is with trepidation that I have returned, fearing the change wrought by development.” Also in The Guardian, Peter Carty discovers Oman’s desert island, Masirah: “Goats and camels foraged in parched scrub and low acacia bushes, often wandering across the road. There’s an interior of barren hills and eerie alien landscapes. Footprints and tyre marks on golden beaches leave black tracks as they penetrate to volcanic sediment below.” And Sara Wheeler takes Tea in the Sahara: a road trip through the Libyan desert: “The road south from Tripoli is a study in desiccation.”
Off the beaten track
Also this week, straying far from the path: The Financial Times’s team of travel writers says, “Forget Paris, have you tried . . . ?” Offering a min-guide to each destination, the paper declares, Forget Venice, try Treviso. Forget Brussels, try Antwerp. Forget Barcelona, try Gijón. Forget Paris, try Marseilles. Forget Prague, try Český Krumlov.
Meanwhile, over in The Guardian, Horatio Clare wonders why there are no tourists in Algiers, north Africa’s white lady. ”With its Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, Barbary pirate and French colonial heritage, Algeria has a hoard to dazzle any enthusiast of culture, architecture, literature, art, design, ornithology, botany or geography.” And The Independent’s Chris Leadbeater recommends that you “Go off the beaten track in Ibiza”: “Faced with a week on the island, my plan is a revolutionary one: to sample both sides of this divide. Nightlife and noise on one hand. The soft alternative of chorizo and churches, manchego and museums on the other.”
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