Friday, November 21, 2025
Home AROUND THE WORLD

AROUND THE WORLD

Discover destinations and places that inspire. Flying Baguette takes you to a dreamy travel adventure around the globe.

Office of Sigmund Freud in Vienna
Vienna allows a traveler to indulge in a waking dream, and there is nothing more real than setting foot in Austria's alluring capital.   Between Vienna’s imposing Parliament Building and its famous university, which dates back to medieval times, there sits a classic newspaper-laden Viennese café that bears the impress of...
One of the many cozy rooms at Hotel Altstadt Vienna
Vienna was Freud's perfect place for his theories on the human psyche. Austria's pulsating capital can also be every traveler's waking dream and art aficionado's nirvana.   Otto Ernst Wiesenthal does not need a palace. He is happy in his thriving cosmos in Vienna’s 7th district, not far from the former...
Carving the duck
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...
Talking Mouths
If old dogs can learn new tricks, what are the chances of an aging Asian auntie learning to speak a foreign language?   By the time I reached the part where a woman starts to lie about her age, I decided to return to school.  I have moved to Spain with one...
Great mountain views seen from one of the rooms at Miramonte Bad Gastein

THE ALPINE CURE

While the temptation of regenerative treatments flow abundantly in the Austrian Alps, visitors look the other way and seek out a new kind of healing.   At age 68, with a voluminous coif in a shade reminiscent of a melting snow, Ike Ikrath is overflowing with energy. So much so that...
Istanbul landscape
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...
Men at work
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...
A theatre scene at the Scala in Milan
There are many ways to discover Italy's powerhouse. In Milan, you take a spade and dig; the odds of uncovering ancient relics are high. You could also take a good pair of shoes, and the odds of discovering the city are as good as the way you strut.   "I would...
Wine and champagne corks

UNCORKING BORDEAUX

The French Wine Country is a fairytale landscape of chateaus and idyllic vineyards. Bordeaux invites everyone to enjoy a tipple and dream altogether.   In many ways a story can always be written and, at times be told. If I have to start mine, I would like to begin in the...
The town of Ronda in Spain
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...