Your guide to wild Argentina and Chile
T R AV E L M AG A Z I N E www.wanderlust.co.uk April 2016
South-East
Bulgaria
Trekking through over 2,500 years of history
Best country in the world?
ASIA
Readers’ Travel Awards – results revealed!
17 WORLD HERITAGE WONDERS FEATURING:
W i n!
Cambodia ∙ Thailand ∙ Indonesia Laos ∙ Malaysia ∙ Borneo ∙ Vietnam Burma ∙ Singapore
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A trip for tw o to Cambodia people w over £2,000orth ! See page 4
+
♦ New Zealand ♦ Lake District ♦ Hungary ♦ Sulawesi
£3.99
Wanderlust Issue 165 (April 2016) South-East Asia ♦ Patagonia ♦ Bulgaria ♦ Sulawesi, Indonesia ♦ Readers’ Travel Awards ♦ Return to West Africa ♦ Pocket Guides: Christchurch (New Zealand), Lake District & Budapest
Patagonia
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CONTENTS
Issue 165 April 2016
360˚ – NEED TO KNOW
nder 6 Viewfi to know this month... 12GoNeed 14 Eatnow this... 165 minutes with... Julia Bradbury 18 Know your... 20Top 10 tour opsChernobyl 22
Yawning youngsters, hungry whales and an iconic US national park... Does the Yeti really exist? Head to Helsinki for alien architecture and a vast archipelago Discover the home-grown joys of traditional Basque cooking The TV presenter shares her top walks
The infamous site is open for short trips The best tour ops, as voted by you, plus their signature trips
▲ Cover story
56 South-East Asia
Stacked high with ancient treasures, we reveal 17 of South-East Asia’s best UNESCO sites... how many have you visited?
■ Special feature
98 Readers’ Travel Awards
TRAVEL MASTERCLASS
74The masterclass 77Instant expert: Cape Town 80Take better travel photos clinic 82Travel guide to... tunnel 85Traveller’s tents
Know your Emirates? Here’s our lowdown on the UAE – Dubai, Abu Dhabi and beyond... Delve into South Africa’s first European settlement and its chequered history
We share tips on how to combine the northern lights with on-the-ground wonders Dr Jane looks at the Zika virus and – importantly – how to avoid it We test six of the finest two-person tunnel tents to separate the best from the rest
WIN!
“This is the region where I could combine a distillation of the country’s culture with the cream of its hiking.” Martin Symington
A 10-day trip for two to Cambodia worth over £2,000, p72
Cities, countries, airlines, tour ops and more – you rated them and now the results are in for the Wanderlust Readers’ Travel Awards 2016
98
116
“New Zealand’s cycle routes offer a new way of seeing the country’s vast array of landscapes, from icy mountains and lush forests to old gold mines and laid-back cities.”
24
“After traversing mile upon mile of arid steppe and wind-blasted hinterland, the Perito Moreno glacier was the photogenic frozen finale.” Chris Moss
Patagonia, p24
4|
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NEED TO KNOW... Zika virus, p82 FEATURES
FROM THE ROAD
©Outdoor Productions; Dreamstime
24Patagonia
110Your story
Ice fields, rocky peaks, giant lakes and plenty of wildlife – we’ve got this incredible Chilean and Argentine region covered in our handy trip planner Sulawesi Death is everything to the living on this Indonesian island, and their elaborate funerals are an amazing spectacle Return to West Africa As the region recovers from the Ebola outbreak we head to Sierra Leone to see if now is the time to return to the place made famous as ‘paradise’ Bulgaria 2,500 years of history, plenty of homemade liquor and the odd UFO await anyone trekking Bulgaria’s sweeping hills
The winners of our Readers’ Writing Competition share their tales of pedalling through Spain’s mountains and Scotland’s outer reaches Letters In our mailbag: Discovering the best rail routes in Japan; swapping New Scientist for Wanderlust; bigging up the UK’s natural wonders; and discussing the world’s most terrific train journeys...
40 88
114
24 hours: 137 First Christchurch, NZ
One of our favourite cities from your top country: Christchurch is rising from the ’quake rubble five years on with an inspiring blend of old and new
139
Short break: Lake District, UK
It’s still our readers’ UK number one! We find that the Lakes are very much open, with new restaurants, hotels, walking trails and more…
icon: Budapest, 115This month you have been... 141 Travel Hungary
Venturing into tiny San Marino; seeing Botswana’s salty sights; not getting enough of Iceland; gawping at New Zealand’s Tasman Glacier; and much more...
116
88
Go behind the Gothic facades as Budapest’s 100-year-old buildings fling open their doors to the public this April. Discover a city with a truly epic history…
“Budapest is a city touched by empires. To walk its streets is to unpick a web of influences.”
“Trees thinned, the rain stopped, and as the clouds parted the beach began to sparkle” Nick Redmayne
Lake District, p139 Budapest, p141
POCKET GUIDES
141
Bulgaria, p116 United Arab Emirates, p74
Sierra Leone, p88
South-East Asia, p56
40 TALKING HEADS Julia Bradbury, p18 “A walk in the Peak District is my favourite because that’s where it all started from. It’s a very personal walk to me.”
“Six albino buffalo headed her cortége followed by black-clothed relatives draped under a lengthy scarlet cloth, symbolically hauling her towards the spirit world.” Mark Stratton
Christchurch, p137
Wanderlust April 2016
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Blowing smoke
Los Cuernos towers above the Salto Grande waterfall and Lago Nordenskjรถld in the Torres del Paine National Park
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PATAGONIA T R I P
P L A N N E R
Glaciers, peaks, whales and Wales: travel through Argentina and Chile to experience South America’s most epic adventure WORDS CHRIS MOSS
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The red tide
Relatives parade under a scarlet veil at the head of a South Sulawesi funeral procession – one of the greatest spectacles of ancestral worship on the planet
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Sulawesi
A funeral in South Sulawesi is a truly unique experience. Visit the Indonesian island to find out more about its rituals and join locals – both dead and alive – on…
THE FINAL JOURNEY
WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHS MARK STRATTON
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Precious procession The elaborate, top-heavy duba-duba (coffin) is carefully carried through the village – at the spectators’ own risk
42 |
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Sulawesi
A
year after passing away, Yohana Sidempa was ready for the afterlife. Under the horned eaves of the Toraja clan house in Malakiri, her rambu solo (funeral ceremony) had commenced. Her mummified body lay within a four-metre-tall duba-duba, a litter gilded with icons of buffalos and roosters around which her encircled clan chanted a rowdy requiem. Six albino buffalo headed her cortége followed by black-clothed relatives draped under a lengthy scarlet cloth, symbolically hauling her towards the spirit world. The atmosphere was fervid; but it was also joyful, not morose. There was mayhem whenever the top-heavy duba-duba threatened to topple over in transit, while handfuls of banknotes were scattered like confetti, prompting money-grabbing free-for-alls. The cortége’s staccato progress was driven by the jingle-jangle rhythm of Javanese dancing horses wearing bells. Don’t think me morbid, but in mountainous Tana Toraja (‘Land of the Toraja’) in South Sulawesi I was actively seeking funerals. The rambu solo is arguably the greatest remaining spectacle of ancestral worship on the planet. Christianity may have tempered Torajan belief in ‘Aluk Todolo’ (‘Way of the Ancestors’), but their culture continues to transcend many taboos regarding death. Deceased relatives can be declared ‘sick’ and remain within the family home for years before burial, while cadavers are sometimes removed from tombs to be washed and given new clothes. Torajan mortal existence, however, is spent preparing for death and paying off outrageously costly funerals that make New Orleans’ internments seem positively sombre. The Toraja are one of many indigenous cultures found on Sulawesi, located among Indonesia’s 17,000-island archipelago, just north-east of Java. Geographically resembling a starfish splattered by an articulated lorry, Sulawesi is the world’s eleventh-largest island, and months would be required to explore its gangling peninsulas. North Sulawesi has a growing reputation for ecotourism while the south-east peninsula offers world-class diving. It was the cultural allure of South Sulawesi that beckoned, taking me around the southwestern leg of this lop-sided cross of an island, before heading up to the central Tana Toraja region for a rendezvous with death and Yohana.
Back in time
It was Ramadan when I arrived in Makassar city. Sulawesi is a majority Muslim country and thundering calls from the Amirul Mukminin Mosque, complete with distinctive blue-checked Fabergé egg-style cupola, scythed through the salty air of the Makassar Strait’s promenade. After dusk the seafront came alive, and its warung (stalls) were soon busy selling fruity iced desserts and sizzling chicken satay. The promenade continues on to Fort Rotterdam, a thick-walled fort architecturally inspired by the first Portuguese arrivals in the 16th century. There, my chain-smoking 59-year-old guide Amier explained that rival ethnic kingdoms ruled South Sulawesi until the Dutch arrived in the 1660s to further their trade interests. ⊲ Wanderlust April 2016
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Wanderlust Issue 165 (April 2016) xxxxxx ♦ xxxxxxxxx ♦ xxxxxxxxxxxxx ♦ xxxxxx ♦ xxxxxxxxx ♦ xxxxxxxxxxxxx ♦ xxxxxxxxx ♦ xxxxxxxxxxxxx ♦ xxxxxx ♦ xxxxxxxxx ♦ xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Patagonia
Your guide to wild Argentina and Chile
T R AV E L M AG A Z I N E www.wanderlust.co.uk April 2016
South-East
ASIA
17 WORLD HERITAGE WONDERS FEATURING:
Cambodia ∙ Thailand ∙ Indonesia Laos ∙ Malaysia ∙ Borneo ∙ Vietnam Burma & Singapore...
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Bulgaria
Trekking through over 2,500 years of history
Best country in the world?
The results of our reader travel awards – revealed!
W i n!
A trip for tw o to Cambodia people w over £2,000orth ! See page 4
+
♦ New Zealand ♦ Lake District ♦ Hungary ♦ Sulawesi
26/2/16 17:09:18
1/3/16 12:24:57
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17
world heritage wonders in
South-east Asia
Packed with wild parks, natural wonders and ancient temples – it is amazing that South-East Asia has so few (just 37) UNESCO World Heritage Sites. We pick our favourites, plus some must-see sights yet to gain recognition
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South-East Asia TIBET NEPAL
INDIA BANGLADESH
6
TAIWAN
1
3
INDIA Bay of Bengal
East China Sea
C H I N A
BHUTAN
MYANMAR (BURMA)
17
LAOS 10
5
THAILAND
12
Mariana Islands
8 VIETNAM
CAMBODIA
South China Sea
Andaman Andaman Is. Sea (India)
SRI LANKA
14
OCEAN
7 15
13
M A L A Y S I A
Sulu Sea
BRUNEI
MICRO
Celebes Sea
4
Sulawesi
I N D O N E S I A
2
OCEAN
PHILIPPINES
11
SINGAPORE
INDIAN
PACIFIC
HONG KONG
(Special Admin. Region, China)
Java Sea 16
PAPUA NEW GUIN
9 Arafura Sea Timor Sea
AUSTRALIA
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Sierra Leone
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Empty shores …for now
It’s a slow process but travellers are beginning to consider West Africa and its beautiful beaches
RETURN TO WEST AFRICA
As West Africa recovers from the Ebola epidemic we head to Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, where handfuls of intrepid travellers are starting to return... WORDS NICK REDMAYNE
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THE WINNERS As the only travel awards where winners are chosen on satisfaction rating rather than number of votes, you can be sure that these airlines, countries, cities and companies really are the very best‌
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TOP AIRLINE EMIRATES AIRLINE Recently named the world’s most valuable airline, priced at an eye-watering US$7.5bn, it seems Emirates is also quite valuable to you, our readers, as it pips regular winner Singapore Airlines to top spot. It’s also the proud owner of the globe’s longest regular non-stop flight, from Dubai to Panama – over 14,000km and 17 hours! This list is usually dominated by Asian airlines, so its good to see highly-rated budget airline Norwegian and Australia’s Qantas return to the top ten alongside slick British-owned Virgin. RANKING 1. Emirates Airline 2. Singapore Airlines 3. Qatar Airways 4. Malaysia Airlines 5. Norwegian 6. Turkish Airlines 7. Virgin 8. Etihad Airways 9. KLM 10. Qantas
% 89.77% 89.52% 87.88% 87.14% 86.43% 85.38% 85.31% 85.16% 85.05% 84.76%
TOP TOUR OPERATOR LLAMA TRAVEL
Alamy; Dreamstime
Llama Travel has stolen the show this year with a 99%-plus rating – its focus on value-for-money trips to South America has won you over from Asia specialists Bamboo Travel and Selective Asia. Adventure tour operator Undiscovered Destinations returns to the top ten after a one-year break, while trekking experts Walks Worldwide makes its debut. All-rounders Wexas Travel make the list for the first time too – call it a late birthday gift from you, after it celebrated its 45th anniversary in 2015. RANKING 1. Llama Travel 2. Bamboo Travel 3. Selective Asia 4. Undiscovered Destinations 5. Wild Frontiers 6. Walks Worldwide 7. Wexas Travel 8. Holiday Architects 9. Trailfinders 10. Audley Travel
% 99.39% 99.26% 98.82% 98.75% 98.13% 97.98% 97.19% 97.14% 95.56% 93.56%
Wanderlust April 2016
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Bulgaria
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Magical HISTORY tour
Fully tooled and rakiya-fuelled, we discover that a short trek through Bulgaria’s south-east mountains is a journey through 2,500 years of Eastern European culture
WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHS MARTIN SYMINGTON
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