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the world’s best
walk this way Chillin’ in Chile
west bengal by boat Sailing the Ganges
the wild, wild west South Dakota’s buffalo drive
heart and seoul
South Korea after hours
beer, beards, Carnage York’s Viking festival
ISSN 1449-3543
antarctica | australia | croatia | ecuador | southern africa | switzerland | thailand
the world’s best
88 Twelve incredible island escapes to help beat the winter blues
48
InDIA
56
ChIlE
Cruise into West Bengal
USA The Wild West lives on in South Dakota
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CroATIA
hiking in remote patagonia
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Enjoy a quieter side by sailing off-season
76
AUSTrAlIA
82
AnTArCTICA
hike up a thirst for wine in victoria’s king valley
navigate an icy wonderland in a tall ship
get in the know Approximately 10 per cent of the earth is covered in glaciers.
contents
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mera, 11 Olympus ca tchel, 17 Hedgren sa ase, 19 Paklite suitc ip, 44 Zanzibar tr
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Festival york CElEBrATES vIkInGS 14 on ThE rADAr
Travel happenings around the globe
19 hAppy SnApS
Send us your photos and win!
20 plACES To STAy The weird and wonderful
22 Top TrIpS
Get going in a group
28 yoU WISh
Trek Switzerland’s Aletsch Glacier
30 GET pACkInG
nineteen days of adventure in southern Africa
32 AFTEr DArk
Where to eat, drink and party when night falls in Seoul
24 hoT FIvE
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like a local ToUr BAnGkok’S ChInAToWn 116 FooD
Wrap your mouth around Ecuadorian pastries
118 phoToGrAphy
122 TrAvEl JoB
Move over mythology, hello professional mermaid
124 BArS
An expert’s guide to taking snaps on the street
Drink it down
121 MUSIC
All the gadgets you’ll need
Meet the Egyptian band singing songs of revolution
126 rEvIEWS
128 ConFESSIonS
A hitchhiker’s divine mission
Movie sets you can visit get in the know All the temples pictured on Thai baht coins are in Bangkok.
ISSUE 49 get lost 7
BEST PHOTO WINNER
B
eing in the galapagos islands is like travelling back in time. it was the very spot Charles darwin set foot, and his observations of this magical place, where the wildlife knows no fear and the landscape is untouched, gave rise to modern evolution theory. this image was taken along the volcanic shores of north seymour, one of the smaller islands of the archipelago. Breathtaking sally lightfoot crabs dotted the dark speckled rocks and i was fortunate enough to be there as storm clouds passed by. the contrasting colours of the scene caught my attention, and the feeling was of pure oneness with nature.
• Canon 5d Mark ii • 24–70mm f/2.8 UsM is lens at 24mm • iso 250, f/5.0, 1/125sec Congratulations to Steve Baker who’s won a lens for entering this incredible shot.
Think you’ve got a winner? send us your best travel photos for a chance to win an olympus oM-d e-M10 Mark ii, valued at aU$999, plus a double-page spread in the magazine! this stylish, compact, interchangeable-lens camera is perfect for travel. it has five-axis image stabilisation, built-in flash and a range of creative in-camera functions. olympus.com.au
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SEOUL When you’re looking for indie music, craft beers and cool kids in the South Korean capital, there’s one neighbourhood that has it all. Dave Hazzan gets down in Hongdae. Photography by Jo Turner and Patrick Murray
The neon lights up when the sun goes down in Hongdae. 32 get lost ISSUE 49
get in the know There are more than 70 universities in Seoul – Hongdae is named after nearby Hongik University.
get in the know Because Koreans drink so much of it, soju is the world’s most popular spirit. Jinro Soju sold 65 million cases in 2013.
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Beer is king at Keg B.
6.45pm
Yeoltan bulgogi at Saemaul Sikdang.
I
n Korea THere are Two bIg vIces: worK and play. at school and the office, Koreans will routinely put in 14-hour days for weeks at a time. so, in the little time they have free, they ‘play’ – a euphemism for going out and getting drunk with friends. with a population the size of australia, seoul and its suburbs teem with bars and restaurants. but it is Hongdae, in the northwest of the city, that really comes alive at the weekend. artists, clubbers, ravers, craft-beer aficionados, students looking to hook up, office workers blowing off steam… on Friday and saturday nights, they all pile into this neighbourhood near the university after which it’s named for the best time in town.
6pm A recent boom in craft brewing in Korea means beer drinkers are no longer forced to drink the thin yellow piss most common in the country. Small and airy Keg B serves craft beers from Korea, Japan and the USA on tap, and dozens more bottled varieties from the fridge. Gaze from huge open windows on the third floor to the streets below, watching the beautiful young people shop, eat and drink. Blue and white decor gives it a Mediterranean feel, and it’s easy to while away a whole summer day here. Keg b seogang-dong 92-6 34 get lost ISSUE 49
Barbecue is the crowning achievement of Korea’s national cuisine, and the Saemaul Sikdang chain is one of the best places to get your grill on. Waitresses bring great piles of pork and beef to your table – the yeoltan bulgogi (spicy thin pork) is sensational – then you cook it yourself over hot coals. Once it’s done, wrap it up with garlic, kimchi and ssamjang (thick, spicy sauce) in a lettuce leaf and chow down. Also highly recommended is the magnificent seven-minute kimchi jjigae, a spicy stew made of kimchi and pork, cooked over the barbecue grill for those aforementioned seven minutes and devoured with rice. Through it all, you can toss down glass after glass of cheap soju, a clear, vodka-like spirit Koreans throw back like water. Just don’t fill your own glass – no one pours for themselves at a Korean table, you philistine! saemaul sikdang seogyo-dong 367-6 newmaul.com
8pm Think of all the reasons people are hooked by a certain bar: creative drinks, hot DJs, cool staff, somewhere to sit even during busy periods. Well, Vinyl distinguishes itself by serving cheap cocktails in plastic zip-lock bags with a straw. Legend! But even without the little bags, this bar, with its cosy, dim interior, Balearic music and pumpkin-coloured walls covered in gig posters, makes for a great stop on a night out. Plus, if it’s a little too crammed inside, there’s a take-away window where you can get your cocktails to go. vinyl seogyo-dong 411-1
Bag a drink at Vinyl.
after dark: Seoul 9pm The road leading to Bar Da is an alley packed with thousands of fellow party-goers. As you’re being pushed through the masses, the entrance – just a small door with a tiny sign above – can be easy to miss. But climb the stairs and you enter one of Seoul’s most chilled-out and unique bars. There is a brilliant single malt scotch collection, sold by the bottle or glass, and each of them is great with a bowl of peanuts and dried anchovies. Swaddled in its dimly lit, 1920s charm, you can watch the mad alley beneath you. bar Da seogyo-dong 365-5
Bar Da is a tiny gem. Angie of the Wasted Johnny’s rocks Club FF.
10pm
11pm
At Hongdae’s heart is a small park. During the day, children play here and artisans sell their wares in an open-air market. At night, however, it becomes ground zero for Korea’s buskers, including hip-hop acts, pop bands, punk groups and drum circles, all of whom bust out tunes while onlookers mix and flirt. The Goodtime 24 corner store across the street makes a mint flogging cans of beer to the parched, and cocktail vendors often set up stands. Just be sure to watch your belongings – purses have gone missing and, last time I was there, a homeless gentleman relieved me of my beer. Hongdae Playground seogyo-dong 358-36
You’re going down; down into a basement to experience Hongdae’s thriving live music scene. Club FF (apparently that stands for Funky Funky) is one of Seoul’s best and most enduring venues, despite its shocking bathroom. For about AU$11, you can see acts like Wasted Johnny’s, a hard-driving blues rock trio whose singer-guitarist Angie rages like Jimi Hendrix in a miniskirt. You’ve arrived just in time for cocktail hour, too. From 11pm to midnight, rum and Cokes, screwdrivers and gin and tonics are all free. Yes, you read that right. club FF seogyo-dong 407-8 Buskers in Hongdae Playground.
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Once a year, York goes berserk. Pat Kinsella joins the battle during the historic city’s Jorvik Viking Festival, a carnival of carnage, beards and beer. Photography by Pat Kinsella
Let the battle commence. The practice round at Jorvik Viking Festival. 38 get lost ISSUE 49
get in the know In York, it’s still legal to shoot a Scotsman with a bow and arrow if he is found within the city walls. (Except on Sundays. That would be ludicrous.)
England UK
get in the know Vikings didn’t wear horned helmets. They were an invention of the so-called Viking Renaissance in the nineteenth century.
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A
ll day I’ve been resisting the urge to buy a weapon. Everyone else in York seems to be tooled up for the weekend. The ancient city in England’s northeast is celebrating its Viking heritage with a festival of fighting, and people are wandering the gory-storied streets nonchalantly wielding one lethal-looking spiky implement or another. There is, apparently, more to Viking life than violence. During the week-long celebration there’s loads of feasting, beer swilling and browsing to be done, between banquets, pop-up bars and markets selling Scandinavian arts and crafts. There’s also music, history and poetry aplenty to enjoy at performances in various venues around town. But let’s be honest, most people seem to be here for the beards and battles – to the extent that I’m feeling somewhat underdressed with my bare chin and lack of killing apparatus. So when you’re walking home from the pub, with a mind moisturised by mead and other inebriating elixirs of old England, and you discover a double-headed Viking battleaxe just hanging from a church fence… Well, you can’t simply ignore it can you? “If I don’t take this axe,” I reason, “someone even drunker than me will grab it and test it out on another person’s head. I’m performing a public service. And I get to keep a double-headed Viking battleaxe.” It’s a good argument, well made – if I do say so myself – and that’s why, in the wee hours of a Friday night, I’m walking through Whip-Ma-Whop-MaGate, across crooked cobblestones and past the higgledy-piggledy old buildings of the Shambles, carrying a wooden axe and talking to myself. It’s not a great look, but I’m pretty sure these twisted streets have witnessed much scarier sights. Place names in York aren’t just quirky, they’re clues to the city’s history, which entails more violence and a bigger body count than a Game of Thrones box set. The Gate in Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate, for example, comes from the Norse word gata, meaning street, and this was once the site of the city’s whipping post. York has been a powerhouse of northern England for nearly two millennia. The Romans founded the city in AD 71, in the strategically sensible spot where the River Foss joins the River Ouse, granting them a natural defensive barrier on several sides. Times were tough and rough back then, though, and to further shield themselves from the lethal locals, the occupiers built walls around the city, which steadily grew in importance. Two Roman emperors died in York, and one – Constantine the Great, who founded Constantinople and invented Christmas – was hailed as emperor here. By the fourth century, however, things weren’t looking so sweet for the swords and sandals brigade in Britain. Having struggled to keep the barbarians at bay, the Italians eventually scuttled home to Rome, where the very foundations of their once mighty empire were crumbling. 40 get lost ISSUE 49
Amid the chaos and carnage that rushed into the vacuum they left behind, Anglo-Saxons moved in and a Middle Eastern cult called Christianity managed to take hold, with York as its epicenter. Churches began sprouting up across the city, one of them ultimately evolving into the mighty York Minster, which still towers over inhabitants of the modern city like a gorgeous Gothic guilt complex. The church grew wealthy, which attracted a new breed of invader from across the North Sea. Vikings began arriving in 793, to plunder monasteries, pocket gold, steal men, women and children to sell as slaves, and generally create merry hell all over the British Isles. Viking warriors were the Dark Ages’ most formidable fighting force, with fast Even the beers ships, superior weapons and a ruthless are on theme. approach to battle. Their arrival was like a tsunami of terror that hit the coast and washed right across the country. Led by men with names like Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye, Ivar the Boneless, Halfdan Ragnarsson, Sweyn Forkbeard and Eric Bloodaxe, these flaxen-haired hard nuts soon controlled most of England. York – or Jórvík as they called it – was their main base. It didn’t always go the Viking’s way. In 954, Eric Bloodaxe was driven from York and killed, and the city was reclaimed by the Anglo-Saxons. The Vikings, however, soon bounced back, setting the scene for an almighty dust-up that took place exactly 1000 years ago. It forms the theme for this year’s festival. The Battle of Assandun was fought between Danish King Canute – aka Cnut the Great – and England’s King Edmund Ironside in 1016. As the weekend gets going, scenes in pubs across York’s city centre become surreal. Young women on hens’ nights, wearing skirts that barely pass their waists, mingle with rugged old Vikings sporting beards to their knees. In fact, between hipsters on bucks’ parties and men dressed as Vikings, I’m virtually the only beardless bloke in town, and I’m starting to feel slightly self-conscious. Predictably, this only gets worse during Saturday’s best beard contest, which draws a huge crowd of hirsute heroes and hairy hangers-on to the City Camp in Parliament Street. Shamed by my lack of face foliage, I soon decamp to the toughest Viking competition, the Brawl in the Guildhall, which is a little like American wrestling meets World’s Strongest Man with some axes thrown in for good measure. Alongside a boisterous crowd, I watch as four wannabe warriors take on a series of brawn-based challenges, such as running around with logs on their shoulders, before squaring up for various bouts of fighting.
get in the know Lancelot Blackburne, who became Archbishop of York in 1724, led a previous life as a pirate.
England UK
Preparing for the main event. Viking combatants.
Fireworks exploding from Clifford’s Tower.
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Adrift on the
Ganges While most visitors tend to focus on the Golden Triangle of Delhi, the Taj Mahal and Jaipur, West Bengal seems to have remained almost totally overlooked. Mark Eveleigh sets sail for a fresh insight into India. Photography by Mark Eveleigh
The Ganges Voyager as she lies at anchor in the Hooghly River. 48 get lost ISSUE 49
get in the know The monsoons carry at least half a billion tonnes of sediment and lay it on the banks of the Ganges in mud about 1.5 kilometres deep.
IndIa Italy
get in the know Thousands of people lose their houses to river erosion each year and many believe boat operators need to address the issue.
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Image: Dan Slater
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get in the know The word Patagonia comes from patagรณn, used by Magellan to describe the local people his expedition thought were giants.
CHILE
A seldom-followed path through the Chilean Lake District gives Dan Slater the opportunity to find himself alone.
Guide Mauricio watches over the drowned forest near the Alerces mountain cabin. get in the know The Mapuche people are indigenous to Patagonia. They have varying ethnicity, but common social and cultural traditions and share a language.
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Skirting around islands aboard the catamaran Tom Sawyer. Caption 62 get lost ISSUE 49
croatia
The upside is a complete lack of crowds. On the other hand, the weather can be a little unpredictable. Danika Porter sails from Dubrovnik out of season and discovers a charming coastline dotted with idyllic islands. Photography by Danika Porter
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Paradise, Panama style. The remote San Blas Islands. 88 get lost ISSUE 49
get in the know The bikini swimsuit was named after the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific, where more than 20 nuclear weapons have been tested.
the world’s best
Play the castaway, take to emerald waters, surf a deserted break or encounter completely different ways of life on an island adventure. From Spain to the Solomons, there’s a hot spot for every kind of traveller.
get in the know In 1963, an underwater volcanic explosion created the island of Surtsey off the coast of Iceland.
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