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A first trek in Pu Luong: pick a route you can manage and walk it responsibly

14/10/2026
4,789

Travel & Backpacking - Tips & sharing - Pu Luong draws people with its terraced fields, valleys and villages, but a good walk has to start from your fitness, the weather and respect for local life. Choose a route by how long it actually t ..

A fair restaurant review: seven questions to answer before you give a score

15/10/2026
5,039

Travel & Backpacking - Restaurant & hotel reviews - One meal that did not suit your taste is not enough to conclude that a restaurant is bad. A fair review answers seven questions about context, food, hygiene, service, timing, cost and how problems w ..

Brazilian feijoada: a pot of black beans, a weekend lunch and a story with many roots

16/10/2026
4,689

World - World food culture - Feijoada is a bean-and-meat stew that takes many forms across the Portuguese-speaking world; in Brazil, the black-bean version is usually tied to a lunch with a lot of people around the table. The s ..

Letters, photographs and keepsakes: learning gratitude for earlier generations through family memory

19/10/2026
4,776

Miscellany - Life around us - Gratitude towards earlier generations usually begins with very small things: a faded photograph, a carefully folded letter, a work notebook or a story told again and again over dinner. Once we ask a ..

Bo Dau banh chung: the green square cake at the crossroads into Thai Nguyen

21/10/2026
4,875

Culture & Cuisine - Regional specialties - Bo Dau banh chung belongs to the Phu Luong area of Thai Nguyen, where these green squares are made all year round and become a gift for anyone passing through the gateway to the tea country. Glutino ..

Persian rice and tahdig: saffron, a crisp bottom layer and the sofreh

21/10/2026
4,709

World - World food culture - In Iranian cooking, long separate grains, the scent of saffron and the crisp bottom layer called tahdig can make a pot of rice the centre of the table. Set on the sofreh beside herbs, bread, stew an ..

Island-hopping by boat in Vietnam on your own: keeping the plan flexible when the sea turns

25/10/2026
4,887

Travel & Backpacking - Tips & sharing - An independent island trip does not begin at the pier; it begins with what you will do if the boat is delayed. Weather at sea can change the schedule both out and back, so tickets, luggage and a buf ..

Jamaican jerk: the scent of pimento, the smoke pit and a community's living heritage

26/10/2026
4,663

World - World food culture - Jerk makes its impression through heat, the scent of allspice and a layer of smoke, but its value does not sit in a bottled sauce. The marinating technique, the wood, the control of the fire and the ..