A Singaporean taxi driver first brought the charms of Little India to my attention. “How is your hotel, Sir? Are you receiving satisfaction?” he asked.

I was guarded, knowing where such discussions with taxi drivers can lead. “It’s okay.” It was comfortable, though generic.

“Are you receiving a good breakfast there, Sir?”

“It’s not bad.” Cold scrambled eggs and curly bacon from the bain-marie, filter coffee, canned fruit salad, mini cereal packets.

Cruising down Serangoon Road

I took his advice on my next trip and it turned out very, very well. Breakfast at the 24 hour cafe round the corner was roti prata egg, a thick pancake fried with an egg inside, accompanied by dhal and a generous mug of tey tarik, Malay for ‘pull tea’, thick and sweet, poured spectacularly from jug to jug to mix condensed milk through it. Cost: 2.30 SGD (less than 2 USD) and not a mini cereal packet in sight.

Welcome to Little India. I’ve come to love it. In a city which is so modern and organised that visiting it can feel unadventurous, Little India is one district which feels exotic, lively, exciting and, well, very, very Asian.

Packed into a few streets are the smells, the colours, the turbans, the saris and dhotis, the hawkers, the religious observance, the street food and even a little squalor, rare in 21st century Singapore. Missing is the confronting poverty, the begging and the health risks many travellers to real India find challenging.

The District By Day

Don't eat her last Rolo

The Tekka Market is the main food outlet in the area, and Little India Arcade, the place to look for souvenirs and arts and crafts. It’s mostly junk of course, though interesting to watch the wood carvers at work on the street.

The most spectacular Hindu temple is Sri Veerakaliamman Temple in Serangoon Rd. It’s dedicated to the goddess Kali, she of the six arms, and features spectacularly gruesome statues of the goddess waving around severed heads and eating people’s intestines. I was assured the victims all deserved their fates. If that sounds a bit confronting, visitors are welcome to enter the temple, as long as they remove their shoes and behave respectfully. Discreet photography is permitted.

Shopping is a national sport in Singapore

The Mustafa Centre sells everything, if you can face the crowds. It was recently closed for a week due to breaching fire regulations. Be prepared to have any bags you are carrying sealed as you enter the door – nothing personal; there are shoplifters about.

Exploring By Night

The Tom Cruise of teh tarik

Ananda Bhavan vegetarian restaurants serve excellent dosai meals, and their superb mango lassis (fruit and yoghurt drinks) are a must.

Meanwhile in Dunlop Street, tapas bars and smart little establishments like BarKode have sprung up near the more traditional Star Inn Cafe, where cricket and Premier League football play continuously on the overhead TV screen.

Local Digs

A touch of modernity in the Wanderlust lobby

Santa Grand Hotel Little India is not as grand as it sounds, but neither is it as expensive. Rooms are small but very clean, and breakfast is served at the Curry Restaurant next door (fear not, you don’t have to have curry, but it is Indian food only).

For cheapskates Little India is a well stocked backpacker-land. The InnCrowd Hostel in Dunlop St. has dorm beds (SGD20 including breakfast), friendly staff and a nice bonus is a free kick scooter tour of the area in the afternoons.

My taxi-driver-recommended Hotel 81 Dickson was indeed basic, but as advertised it had a very, very clean bed which fitted perfectly into a very, very small room. The bathroom was not so much a bathroom as a shower cubicle with a toilet inside. A word of advice to beginners – use the toilet before you shower if you prefer a dry seat.

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Charlotte Chu runs private walking tours of Little India for individuals and small groups. Contact charlottechutours@gmail.com. Whilst group walking tours (not tested by your correspondent) of Little India held every Wednesday organised by Journeys.com.sg. Don’t forget to check out Urban Travel Blog’s guide to Singapore for info on the rest of the city!

Biking around SF

San Francisco is a stunning, creative, organic, funky and wild city. Gold brought thousands of adventurous souls to create a city which now tweets to the new tech industry. San Francisco has its icons, its landscapes, its architecture but it also has its unique personality. Currently this personality is revealed as you view the people, sipping their organic sustainable, dripped just for you cup of coffee. This personality stops you on the street smiles and asks if you need help. At the same time this personality can be the crazy person talking to no in particular while walking down Market street…

In its past San Francisco has grown from a lust for gold and a desire for a better life. It stood up for equality – an equality not only tolerated but celebrated. This city is still diverse, but changing as money pours into an area that can only grow upwards, which keeps its population under a million. You can eat at one of the city’s revered fine dining establishments one night and spend the next sampling the freshest hole-in-the-wall dim sum; and know that both are tapping into the finest produce California has to offer. Both then and now San Francisco is loud and proud. This personality wears a suit by day and dresses down to attend the urban art galleries by night. You fall in love with San Francisco because of you. Because no matter who you are there is a part of you that can fit in here. It’s a stunningly beautiful city where anything is possible and everyone is accepted.

Best of the Beaten Track

The Golden Gate bridge at night

Everyone who comes to San Francisco thinks of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and Fisherman’s Wharf. These are worth your time but there are many more places to explore. If you want to bark at a sea lion and buy some chatskis check out Pier 39. Oh and do try a bread bowl of clam chowder or eat some crab at Fisherman’s Wharf. Alcatraz lives up to the expectation, its audio tour is world class and you get magnificent views of San Francisco from the water. The Golden Gate Bridge is simply breathtaking. To get a unique perspective go under it and howl at the wind. Climb up for free to the roof of Fort Point and experience the grander end of this iconic landmark.

Do you think that everyone in California is a hippy? Well in the summer of 1967 we almost all were. The Haight Ashbury neighbourhood is still stamped with this era and is a great place to people watch, shop and smell liberal alternative San Francisco. There are many views of San Francisco and if you want some vistas the holy trinity of Coit Tower, Twin Peaks and Alamo Square all live up to expectations. Climb up to Coit Tower via the Filbert Street steps and if you are lucky you will see or hear the flock of wild parrots that make their home here. Twin Peaks is better served by car though one can take public transport as well. Go at dusk and watch the city shimmer as the sun reflects off of the financial district. For a lay in the sun (if you are lucky) and picnic view of the city head to the heart and visit Alamo Square and see the contrast of the 1890s painted ladies Victorians and San Francisco’s skyline today.

Hipster’s Guide

The views from Alamo Square Park

In the last 10 years San Francisco, a city that embraces all and everyone, has started a love affair with hipsters. The Mission District is the unofficial home to hipsters, replete with their vintage threads and fixed gear bikes. If it is sunny go to Dolores Park to start your walking tour. From there, stroll down Valencia Street all the way to 24th street which bring you from the Inner Mission to the Outer Mission. As you go down 24th Street you will see the remaining elements of a once fully Hispanic and Latin American neighbourhood in the throes of gentrification. The beauty and grit of this area has not disappeared and the murals and street art are as vivid as ever. Stop in at Precita Eyes (a non profit showcasing murals in SF) to find out which murals/street art you want to see for yourself. Golden Gate Park is a wonderful place to explore, especially on a Sunday as it’s partly closed to car traffic. It has everything and more, from roller disco, lawn bowling to herd of bison. Go to Nightlifeon Thursday nights at the Academy of Sciences to experience the bliss of holding a drink inside of an epic museum watching penguins or maybe a white albino alligator.

Experience and Events

Saddle up for a San Francisco sortee

It’s touristy and yet still an experience that locals do all the time. Walk down from Fort Mason and go West. Here are sweeping views of the Golden Gate Bridge. Stop to dip your toes into the sand and the Bay water at Crissy Beach. This is something locals do all the time, often with their friendly dogs. The views will take your breath away and don’t forget that you are standing on a beach within one of the most eccentric metropolitan cities in the world. Hop on a bike tour with Streets of San Francisco Bike Tours, a company I co-own, and experience the authentic personality of San Francisco with guides that love and live in the city. Go to a farmers market specifically on Saturday mornings at the Ferry Building and chat to the local farmers. Grab a true San Francisco passion, the burrito, then take the subway to the a Giant’s game, a view and experience that is truly San Francisco. It will not be hard to make some new friends. Visiting in May? Come experience Bay to Breakers. Runners compete with each other for the most imaginative costumes (or go without clothes at all). Gay Pride‘s weeklong festivities (in the last week of June) showcase every type of gender/sexuality in one weeklong celebration of a world which you can experience during your time here. For music come during August for Outsidelands music festival and early October for Hardly Strictly Bluegrassin Golden Gate Park.

Pillow Talk

In the heart of downtown the Clift is an icon on San Francisco’s Union Square and has a world class bar – the Redwood Room. There’s a cool group of boutique hotels run by a company called Joie de Vivre – each hotel has its own unique feel to it and they are located throughout the city. These include the Phoenix: the original SF rock’n'roll hotel, which is trendy, but in an edgy neighbourhood. Hotel Kabuki is a Japanese-style hotel in Japantown which happens to be very close to the historic jazz Fillmore neighborhood, which has great live music. A less expensive local option near the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood is the Metro, which has simple rooms and a nice, cosy feel to it.

Fork Out

Tacos fantasticos

Local, organic, sustainable and transparent are the key words to San Francisco’s cuisine. The classic Sott O’Mare Oysteria serves up excellent seafood and Italian all in one institution. Go to Foreign Cinema if you want an amazing California meal in the Mission; the vibe and space is fantastic. For wild funky fusion and a wait, go to Mission Chinese Food and try the Ma Po Tofu. You can’t leave SF without eating a burrito (see link in Experiences and Events) or stopping at one of the food trucks – http://offthegridsf.com

Drop In

This city starts early with a lot of day drinking at brunch and heads into the night ready to go. Jazz to world class DJ’s the nightlife is as diverse as the population and can range into every style and experience. Want the underground dance scene? Public Works is an open space used not only for DJ’s but as well as a venue for cutting edge expositions in the wild world of SF art. The best cluster of bars is on Polk street but the neighborhoods of North Beach, Marina, Mission all provide excellent venues for delicious cocktails, local beer and wine. For jazz and blues my favorite spot is Rasselas Jazz Club as they never have a cover and are really down to earth. Café du Nord, a music venue/nightclub/restaurant, has a lot of alternative local sounds.

Getting There

SFO’s airport is now linked via BART to the center of San Francisco. All the major airlines will drop you 25min south of the city. If you are coming from Los Angeles, take Greyhound. You do not need to rent a car to experience San Francisco. In fact to see the local color the city ride the subway, bus and of course the iconic cable car.

More Juice

For food and nightlight check out the free local 7 x 7 magazine which is a fantastic resource. The SF Gate provides an all inclusive overview of the city without being snobby. Check sfist.com for a local blog with a sardonic slant and sf.eater.com for a blog purely on SF food.

Hard Copy

The Little Black Book guide of San Francisco is a great resource and has excellent small maps. To learn about the wild west era read The Barbary Coast Franciso Underworld. Infinite City San Francisco Atlas by Rebecca Solnit has these amazing maps which illuminates the city in a fascinating visual way.

Silver Screen

You have seen San Francisco on TV both currently and with the historic Streets of San Franciso drama which kick-started Michael Douglas’s career. Movies include Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller Vertigo and Bullitt, where Steve McQueen jumps his mustang down the hills of the city.

Soundtrack to the City

Train – Save me San Francisco
Pep Love – Pacific Heights
RBL Posse – Don’t Give Me No Bammer Weed
Eric Burdon & The Animals – San Franciscan Nights
Ashkon – Don’t Stop Believin’ (Giants 2012 Anthem)

Ao Phang Nga is one of the most beautiful and exotic landscapes in Thailand, a bay crowded with enormous limestone spires soaring above the Andaman Sea’s surface. A large section of the bay is part of Ao Phang Nga National Park, and attractions include cave drawings, the famed James Bond Island, and the Ko Panyi floating Muslim village. Half and full-day boat tours run from Krabi and Phuket Town to the bay, with a lunch stop at the floating village, yet the best way to see Ko Panyi is by taking a bus to Phang Nga town and booking through one of the local tour companies at the bus station. These tours let you stay the night at Ko Panyi, avoiding the afternoon crowds and providing an authentic feel for life in the village.

Two families from Java founded Ko Panyi in the 18th century and the population has since swelled to about 2,000 people. Fishing still makes up the large part of the village’s income, yet the growing influx of tourists has led residents to increasingly focus on selling goods and food to visitors. After the day crowds head home, the relaxed and entirely novel atmosphere in the village truly shines through: those out working for the day arrive home in long tail boats, children run up and down the winding concrete paths, and the smells of home cooking permeate the complex. Our own included dinner was a fantastic feast of fresh fish, Tom Yum soup, spicy chicken, and stir-fried rice, after which we were taught Thai Poker by the restaurant owner. Don’t expect a nightlife of any kind, for alcohol is outright forbidden, but watching the sun go down over the distant spires as the Muslim call to prayer sounds is the type of cultural experience many travellers yearn for.

Whether you want to sip gin from a teacup at a Prohibition-era speakeasy, take an Edwardian-inspired afternoon tea or turn heads in a freshly-bought swooshy ‘50s skirt, London’s got the goods to fulfil your vintage ambition.

See our ten ways to step back in time in London below…

1.Clothes
Vintage 101 clothes shopping starts at Brick Lane: the two best-stocked and biggest stores round here are Absolute Vintage and Beyond Retro (pieces from the 60s, 80s and increasingly the 90s dominate). For more refined, designer-lead collections, head to Strut on Broadway Market or Notting Hill’s legendary Rellik, beloved of celebs and stylists alike.

2.Antiques
Judy’s Affordable Vintage Fair at York Hall in Bethnal Green is the best place to pick up ‘50s armchairs, Bakelite radios and Ercol on a budget. The fair comes to town three times a year, check with York Hall for dates.

3.Sweets
Got a nostalgic craving for bonbons, coconut ice and sherbet lemons? Hope & Greenwood in Covent Garden sell all these and more, packaged so prettily you almost can’t bring yourself to gobble them (almost, we said).

4.Tea time
Every luxury hotel worth its salt in London puts its own twist on the traditional Edwardian afternoon tea. Nibble on sweetly-crafted Stella McCartney dresses and Mulberry bags in cake form at the Berkeley Fashion Tea, or go even more quirky at the Sanderson’s Alice in Wonderland-inspired tea. Here, there are sandwiches on rainbow-coloured bread and lollies that turn from hot to cold in your mouth.

5.Burlesque
A glamorous yet tongue-in-cheek combination of vaudeville theatre, cabaret and striptease, burlesque performers have taken London by storm in recent years. You can combine watching burlesque girls shake their tail feathers with afternoon tea at Volupté in Holborn, or go for pure cabaret at the Tassel Club in Hoxton.

6.Cocktails
Basement dwellings behind unmarked doors are popular right now for speakeasy-style cocktail drinkin’: the more hard-to-find the bar, the more authentic, the logic goes! Head to the Nightjar on City Road or Bourne and Hollingsworth in Fitzrovia to get your fill.

7.Cinema
Even if you’re seeing the latest popcorn blockbuster, it feels that much more glamorous to go to the cinema if your surroundings are special. London’s oldest cinemas include the 1910-built and beautifully-restored Phoenix in East Finchley, the Ritzy in Brixton and the Edwardian-era Gate cinema in Notting Hill.

8.Dancing
Pop on your victory rollers and dust off your dancing shoes: the Blitz Party promises to be the hottest ticket in town every time the party rolls in (check the Blitz Party website for latest events). Rollicking swing and jazz tunes mean nobody thinks to leave before the all-clear whistle.

9.Exhibitions
The V&A museum in South Kensington provides a comprehensive look at the history of British design in a gorgeous Victorian-era building. Exhibitions include fashion, ceramics, jewels, metalwork, furniture, pottery, sculpture, textiles and paintings through the ages.

10.Festivals
The Chap Olympiad, a kind of school sports day for dandies, takes place every July in the Georgian beauty of Bedford Square. Events include umbrella jousting, iron board surfing and the pipeathon – it almost goes without saying, but in this sporting battle, it’s panache that’s rewarded instead of prowess.

Post by HostelBookers.com; specialists in budget travel advice and accommodation including cheap London hotels.

Before you arrive in the capital shake off any pre-conceived notions of Germans and Germany. You’re not dealing with lederhosen or industrious, hard working, upper class people here. This is Berlin and these are the Berliners. The Berlin Burgermeister himself (no doubt after a shot of Jagermeister) proclaimed the now famous Berlin anthem: “Berlin: Poor. But sexy.” The clarion call rang out loud and clear: get your poor, sexy, artistic booty to Berlin. And shake it. And they came. In droves. The city of Berlin is one giant sea of eclectic, swirling, shaking, skint neighborhoods surrounding one dull, boring, bombed-out-and-rebuilt-in-commie-concrete centre. Artists and students came for the cheap rent, developers came for the quick buck and whilst gentrification is slowly creeping in, you will still discover the beating heart of Berlin in the districts of Kreuzberg, Friedrichshain, Prenzlauer Berg and Neukölln.

One fine day in Friedrichshain

Best of the Beaten Track

The Reichstag is bustling with tourists almost year round, owing in no small part to its cleverly-redesigned dome, a glass-and-steel, post-modern air aquarium which sits in place of the original Russian-bombed stone dome. On any given day you can see tourist ants spiralling up and down the suspended metal walkways inside the gleaming structure. A nice stretch of the legs will take you from Reichstag through the Brandenburg Gate into Tiergarten, the centre of which boasts the roundabout with the Siegessäule, or Victory Column, or as I like to call it, the ‘Chick on a Stick.’ Fans of Wim Wenders’ Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire) will appreciate the golden angel perched on the granite column. While strolling around Tiergarten, do drop in to one of the biergartens to have a cold one.

Pucker up

Berlin boasts more waterways, lakes, rivers and canals than Venice. Jump on one of the many tour boats (Reederei) and suck up the sights and some suds on the sunny deck. I recommend the tours which start in Treptower Park, Friedrichshain, East Berlin. Every few hours a boat launches from one of the docks and ploughs through East Berlin, through the centre and winds up somewhere West of Tiergarten.

A trip to Berlin wouldn’t be complete without a walk along the longest remaining section of the Berlin Wall, The Eastside Gallery, near Ostbahnhof in Friedrichshain. This open air, concrete canvas art gallery was completely renovated in 2010 for the 20 year anniversary of the Mauerfall (Fall of the Berlin Wall). Many of the international artists who had originally splashed the wall with murals of freedom were invited back to repaint their faded work.

Hipster’s Guide

A large light banner splashed onto the Brandenburg Gate during the Berlin Festival of Lights (see ‘Experience & Events’ below) simply stated “Be Berlin.” You too can Be Berlin if you:

Determined to stay poor and sexy

- Avoid the centre and stay in überhip areas like Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg.
- Carry a bottle of beer in your hand. Everywhere. In F’hain or Xberg, make it a Sternburg.
- Stay a year and study something. Anything. Half of the non-Berliner residents list study as their official reason to stay.
- Get a beat up black bike and ride it faster than necessary. Yell at people who stray into the bike lane; the older and slower the people in the bike lane, the better.
- Be creative. Berlin is choking on creative types who compete for scraps of meat thrown in the gladiatorial ring. Most of them are not very good at it. But that shouldn’t stop someone from trying. Creativity is its own reward.
- Adopt the attitude. ‘Berliner Schnauze’ is what Berliners call their dialect. It is comprised of a mixture of dark humor and creative expressions. Berlin’s many beach bars are a great physical manifestation of Berliner Schnauze humour. A land-locked city shouldn’t have sandy beaches, palm trees and cocktails served with views of abandoned factories and graffiti-ridden urban decay. But Berlin rolls like that. (Caveat: due to the generally dismal weather in Berlin, these beach bars operate mainly between May and September).

Experience & Events

For the alternative adventure traveller, urban exploration (urbex for short) is the act of entering abandoned buildings and taking photos. The best urbex experiences are had where history halts suddenly and buildings are left in a state of slow decay. Berlin and its surrounding areas offer dozens of abandoned military sites, disused breweries and empty sanatoriums for the intrepid explorer. And nowhere else but Berlin can you see fading murals of hammers and sickles and a tile-studded mosaic of a Nazi eagle—in the same site. Urbex is technically verboten in most sites, so you are best advised to join a growing list of sites which include paid tours of closed/abandoned sites. Such locations include the disused airfield Templehof, Teufelsberg (cold war spy listening post) and the abandoned Spreepark Plänterwald Amusement Park.

Come on baby light my spire

Another off season favourite is the Berlin Festival of Lights. For a dozen nights in October of each year you can trip the light fandango as Berlin lights up in a dazzling display of light projections and colourful illuminations. The Berlin Festival of Lights kicks off with a grand ceremony on the first night, followed by different light artist groups splashing their glowing wares onto scores of the greatest monuments of Berlin. The massive, gothic girth of the imposing Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) on Museum Island gets a light makeover with psychedelic paisley projections, the stone chariots atop Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate) sit aloft in fiery pillars of glowing light, and riverboats cast colourful beams of light on everything in their wake.

Pillow Talk

Why stay in a normal hotel when you can stay in the Eastern Comfort boatel/hostel on the river? Or eschew modern design and revel in the retro DDR décor of the Ostel? Better yet: get a gang of your friends and rent an apartment in an uberhip area like Kreuzberg or Friedrichshain. Think of all the expensive cab fares saved and the embarrassing drunken-lost-on-the-U-bahn moments you can avoid?

Fork Out

The Berliner currywurst and the Berliner jelly donut are the official foods of Berlin. In third place is the non-native kebab, served everywhere in Berlin at all hours of the day and night. I am here to shatter the cult status of the Berliner currywurst: it’s just a hot dog with ketchup and a tiny smidgen of mild curry powder on top. On a sweeter note, Kennedy’s famous ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ speech has cemented the Berliner jelly donut on the political map for eternity. Only they don’t always call them Berliners here. Pfannkuchen is how you order them up. Siebert Konditorei on Schoenfliesser strasse in Prenzlauer Berg has the best Berliner jelly donuts with cherry filling on the planet. Hit up Kreuzberg or Neukoelln for all of your kebab cravings. After growing bored with all of the ubiquitous, unhealthy fast food on offer, I once asked a Berlin fast food employee where I could get actual German food in Berlin. She laughed out loud and said: “German food in BERLIN? I don’t know! Try Bavaria?” So instead I can only recommend an Elvis burger (“Eat this burger tonight, fart like the King tomorrow”) and a pile of “fuck you fries” at White Trash Fast Food, where live bands play 7 nights a week. Vegetarians are well catered for at least, and the highly-rated Rootz might even convert a meat-eater for a meal or two.

Drop In

Kreuzing around town

Getting There

Berlin is easily reached by air via most major cities in the world. The soon-to-be-opened Berlin Brandenburg Airport will replace outdated Berlin airports Tegel and Schoenefeld, and will serve as a major hub for carriers Easyjet, Lufthansa, German Wings and Air Berlin. Plan well in advance and airfare to and from Berlin is cheaper than trains and buses in almost every case. Deutsche Bahn offers various train ticket specials between European Capital cities for reasonable prices. Use their online form to find these bargains. Once again, book early for the best deals.

More Juice

Exberliner.com has the low-down on major goings on in Berlin. The Berlinale (Berlin Film Festival) schedule issue, trends and columns—including the occasional snarky hipster columnist in a G.I. Joe hat and thick glasses thrown in to boot. You can pick up hard copies in various expatriate joints in the city. The Local features Germany’s news in English.

Hard Copy

In the first week in my new flat in Berlin I found a row of English language paperback books lined up in the windowsill of a closed storefront. The one at the front of the row was Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood. It is the story of a writer witnessing the end of an era in pre-Nazi 1930s Berlin. It told of a Berlin full of wild characters, roaring cabarets and clandestine communist meetings. When I leave Berlin, I plan to place that book in the same windowsill—if only as a reminder that Berlin changes, people change and move on, finally.

Silver Screen

Treat yourself to a brief history of 20th Century Berlin, by watching Cabaret, Valkyrie, The Lives of Others and Goodbye Lenin in that order… four very different films that span the roaring 30s to the fall of Communism.

Soundtrack to the City

David Hasselhof – Looking for Freedom
David Bowie – Heroes/Helden
U2 -Zoo Station
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – From Her to Eternity
Slope – Komputa Groove