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Travel Challenge: A wildlife tour of Borneo

Fri, 25 May 2012 23:00:01 GMT

Each week we invite three companies to give us their best deal for a specific holiday. Today: a 10-day wildlife tour in Borneo. Prices are per person, based on two sharing. Each includes Malaysia Airlines flights from Heathrow via Kuala Lumpur in the first week of July, with transfers, mixed-board hotels, guides and excursions.

Parents of teens killed in Thailand bus crash plea for more warnings

Wed, 23 May 2012 17:00:31 GMT

Parents of three teenagers killed in a horrific coach crash during their gap year in Thailand have called for the Foreign Office to issue more warnings about the dangers of bus travel in the country.

Street treats in Shanghai

Fri, 18 May 2012 11:00:01 GMT

Is any foodstuff as booby-trapped as a xiaolongbao? Here are just a few of the things that can go wrong when you attempt to eat one of these iconic Shanghai pork soup dumplings: first, assuming your xiaolongbao is of the highest quality, its skin will be so thin as to be virtually translucent, and your chopsticks will almost certainly pierce a hole, releasing the piping hot soup into its grass-lined steamer basket, tragically never to be savoured – the catastrophe compounded as the newly pierced hole takes on board an excess of the vinegar-ginger dip. Or perhaps this sublime parcel of porcine perfection will burst en route to your mouth, shooting its contents over your shirt, chin or innocent bystanders. Meanwhile, misjudge their temperature and you risk a quantity of scalding pork soup detonating in your mouth. It's porky Russian roulette, I tell you.

Trail of the unexpected: Kayaking in Vietnam

Fri, 04 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Vietnam has had to put up with more than its fair share of intruders: the US, of course, and the French and Japanese before them. But peer back into history and this beleaguered country was repelling enemies when dragons still roamed the earth.

Singapore: Eat your way around Asia – on one island

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 23:00:01 GMT

It's 10pm on a steamy Singapore evening and I have a date with a chef. I'm early, so I perch on a bar stool in her slick Holland Village establishment and wait. Given the name of the venue – the 2am Dessert Bar – it's no surprise that the bank of deep leather sofas and elegant communal dining tables have yet to be filled. A handful of poised patrons have arranged colt-like limbs over the immaculate white upholstery; nothing here looks like it's ever seen, far less indulged in, a dessert. But this isn't a steamed pudding kind of place.

Spa star treatment of the month: Avocado Hair Masque, Alila Villas Soori, Bali

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Remember when you bleached your hair, then went on holiday and jumped in the pool? Green locks probably weren't what you had in mind.

The Hedonist: Hyderabad

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Once the playground of the world's richest rulers, Hyderabad is historically a hedonistic hideaway. For centuries, the Nizams of Hyderabad ruled over this part of central India known as the Deccan, about the size of Italy. They created a fabulously wealthy cosmopolitan culture based on the mix of Hindu, Mughal and Persian influences during centuries as a major trading centre.

A taste of India

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 23:00:01 GMT

The weekly market at Nelamangala, 30km north-east of Bangalore, is bustling. The main road is choked with slow-moving traffic, each vehicle repeatedly beeping its horn and throwing up clouds of yellow dust. Next to a low wall, fortune-tellers sit with their packs of cards and green parrots. To one side, a rough patchwork of coloured plastic awnings keeps off the worst of the Indian sun. Underneath, stallholders sit cross-legged on the bare earth behind the small mountains of their wares.

On The Road: Swimming with mantas in the Maldives

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:00:01 GMT

I've just sailed into mirror-smooth Hanifaru Lagoon in the Maldives where, so they say, manta rays come to feed en masse. It's a rare event and little understood. Sometimes the mantas are there, sometimes not, but today it seems like they are waiting for me. I see one flapping idly over the sandy bottom; another hovers near the drop off. There's a wing flap in that direction, a dark ripple in the other.

Trail of the unexpected: Hong Kong's rural refuges

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:00:01 GMT

After a heart-pounding struggle up a rock-laden path on Lantau, Hong Kong's largest island, I am greeted by a group of silent, mossy stone cabins. With padlocked doors and shutters, they seem impenetrable. After a moment, a dense mist obscures them. It is really, really foggy here.

Tokyo: Sushi, shopping... and 'French' maids

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:00:01 GMT

The tuna auction at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market begins at 5.30am every day, and the queue to be one of 120 tourists permitted to witness it grows well before dawn. One of the best ways to scratch the surface of Japanese life is to consume – to shop, to eat – and Tsukiji is a perfect place to start. But you have to start early. By 6am, the tuna have been sold and are on the slab, where they're sliced and diced into steaks. At Tsukiji's first auction this year, an endangered bluefin sold for an impressive, if ethically dubious, £438,000. Avoid being run down by the zig-zagging electric tare carts, and you'll find an encyclopaedic selection of seafood in the maze of stalls here. By dusk each day, £5m of fish will have changed hands.

Travel Challenge: Hong Kong city break

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:00:01 GMT

Each week we invite three companies to give us their best deal for a specific holiday. Today: a city break in Hong Kong. Prices are per person, based on two sharing. Each package includes flights from Heathrow on 27 April and five nights' room-only accommodation.

The Big Six: Chic Singapore sleeps

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:00:00 GMT

Wanderlust, Little India

Rajasthan: A family adventure in India

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:00:00 GMT

Years ago, my partner and I visited Rajasthan several times as backpackers. Like most travellers who work their way through what is perhaps India's most vibrant state, we were captivated by its colours, clamour and sheer intensity. Who could not be dazzled by Udaipur's Lake Pichola or fine monuments such as Jaipur's City Palace and Jodhpur's Mehrangarh Fort?

Hong Kong: The culinary capital of Asia

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 14:03:08 GMT

Hong Kong is a paradise for food lovers. It uniquely bridges the gap between East and West, so it’s not surprising that fusion food figures highly in its cuisine, with stunning combinations of ingredients and tastes producing unforgettable dining memories.

Hong Kong: A shopper's dream

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 14:03:03 GMT

With its duty-free status, nowhere beats Hong Kong as an international shopping destination. There’s something for everyone, from beautiful Asian crafts to the latest electronics, or international designer labels and bespoke suits to incredible bargains from its numerous markets. Stores are open every day, late into the night, and with summer and winter sales offering discounts of up to 70 per cent, it is practically impossible to leave Hong Kong without buying something!

Win a four-night trip for two to Hong Kong

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 14:03:00 GMT

Hong Kong is a singularly beautiful place, the historic meeting-point between West and East, and a hub of international trade and culture for hundreds of years.

Hong Kong holiday prize draw terms and conditions

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 14:02:56 GMT

In pictures: The beauty of Hong Kong

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:45:14 GMT

They don’t call Hong Kong ‘the pearl of the orient for nothing

In pictures: The beauty of Hong Kong

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:45:14 GMT

It's not for nothing that they call Hong Kong 'the pearl of the orient'.

Tao Garden: Still searching for a healing haven

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:30:00 GMT

Like pretty much every other woman in the Western world, I usually start the year wanting to lose half a stone. I want to get fitter. I want to be healthier. I want to be calmer. And I want to see the sun. So when I heard about a place that seemed to be offering me all of this, and peace, and beauty, and massages, and no deadlines whatsoever, it seemed a good idea to leap on a plane.

You have to get up early to do the Cambodia temple run

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

It's 4am and the rush-hour trail of tuk-tuks is already snaking through the dark towards the sprawling Angkor complex, illuminated only by the roadside bonfires lit by hawkers and itinerant families.

Travel Challenge: Hiking in Nepal

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:30:00 GMT

Each week we invite three companies to offer us their best deal for a specific holiday. Today: a two-week hiking holiday in Nepal.

Giant baby causes a stir in China

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:35:10 GMT

A mother in central China has given birth to a 15.52lb (7.04kg) baby, possibly the largest newborn on record since the country's founding in 1949.

Burma back on the map: Tourism returns to South-east Asia’s forbidden land

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT

I arrived in Yangon – or Rangoon, as the British knew Burma's old capital – half expecting not to make it beyond the airport. I'd heard stories about interrogated journalists and swarms of all-seeing secret police. I had a tourist visa and had listed my profession as "management" but my bag contained a laptop and note pads. A web search of my name would expose me in a second. And I'm a hopeless liar.