Lyon is a fitting escape for pilgrims in search of culinary delights as well as feeding the hungry soul with the city's cinematic sights.   T here are these moments in Lyon during summer when the heat seems to be far removed, tempered by a cool breeze where the Rhône meets the...

Kuala Lumpur has long been a home to leafy canopies of tropical trees. These days, as skyscrapers dominate its skyline, the drive to reconnect Malaysia’s capital to its green origin is making a comeback.   Kuala Lumpur is going through an identity crisis. For visitors, it is a place that embraces...

There is nowhere in the world quite like Istanbul - spread across two continents, a city exuding with culture and contrast and always on the move.   Everyday mostly at six, old wooden carts pass and move along the narrow cobblestoned alleyways hauling merchandise of freshly picked cucumbers, tomatoes, nuts and...

It’s the scruffiness that turns you off. It’s the realness that turns you on. ‘Berlin ist arm, aber sexy’ as the saying goes, which translates to ‘Berlin is poor but sexy'—and if there’s a neighborhood that best represents that idea, it’s Kreuzberg.   Throughout the years of self-shame and retrospection, Berlin...

Bulgaria's capital is a city steeped in a layered past, a contemporary urban cool with its sights firmly set on the future.   A t magic hour, when cotton clouds roll in and drape a cool shade over the land below, a girl lights a candle at the St. Nedelya Cathedral. Military...

In Malaysia, the country’s cultural diversity and soul is best expressed through its love for food and the makan.   The city train heading to the town center whizzes by fast after halting for a few seconds at Kuala Lumpur Sentral Station. One can still hear its engine, like an ominous...

There aren't many places left in Phuket where travelers can find peaceful retreats. But if you know where to look, the island could be yours.   I n Surin, that raw idyllic stretch, about 7 km of imperceptibly inhabited coastline across the Andaman Sea, which lies on the west coast of Phuket,...

Throw a cat in the air, it will always land on its feet. But what happens when a cat lands on water? I’m that cat in the water. I’ve realized since moving to Spain, no amount of freestyle will keep me afloat when learning the language. Turns out, it...

From a rocky gorge to Spain’s oldest bullfighting ring, Ronda is not just a place to see monumental architecture but also dreams and dramas.   Through the large glass paneled windows blurred by the cold mist of the Andalusian winter, the clip-clop of well-shod hooves from the carriage horses striking the...

Postcard-perfect Lisbon with its dramatic scenes and slopping terrains, there's no better place to experience all that Portugal has to offer than its capital.   Lisbon is in no hurry. It takes its time. The city wakes up when it wants to and sleeps only when it needs to. Slow. Like the...