Hamba Travel Magazine
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From a detour close to home to a long road through East Africa. Pick a part of the world, or read them in order.
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Stories about Asia
42 stories from our editors. Filter by part of the world, or page back in time.
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Three Southeast Asian Cities Worth Staying For
Before dawn, Bangkok’s Pak Khlong Talat belongs to flower carts, garland makers and wet loading floors. After sunrise, sellers arrange stalls as flowers move from wholesale bundles towards temples and household shrines.
Asia · South Korea · Jeju
One Breath at a Time: Jeju’s Haenyeo at Work
Jeju’s haenyeo enter the sea without air tanks, guided by wind, tide and knowledge passed between working divers. Their long, whistling breath at the surface belongs to hard, uncertain work, not a performance along the island’s basalt coast.
Asia · India · Gujarat
Durban, Served in a Loaf
At Victoria Street Market, turmeric, cumin, coriander, ginger, garlic and chilli sit in sacks, packets and spice blends. Several spice stalls have passed through three or four generations of the same families.
Asia · Japan · Kanazawa
Gold Between Paper
In Kanazawa, gold passes through fire, rollers, hammers and specialist hands before it reaches a Buddhist altar, a lacquer box or the top of a soft-serve cone. The city produces more than 98 per cent of Japan’s gold leaf, yet its finest sheets still rely on bamboo tools, carefully prepared paper and close judgement at every stage.
Asia · Vietnam · Huế
Bowls, Banana Leaves and Peacock Feathers
At Đông Ba Market, Huế’s imperial past sits close to breakfast. Pots of fermented shrimp paste and strings of lotus seeds supply a cuisine that runs from forceful noodle soup to the measured display of a royal-style banquet.
Asia · Sri Lanka · Jaffna
Jaffna, from Palmyra Palm to Curry Pot
At Jaffna’s municipal market, palmyra tubers sit near lagoon crabs, dried chillies and bunches of moringa leaves. These ingredients trace the dry northern peninsula and lead straight into its Tamil kitchens.
Asia · India · Pakistan
Indigo, Iron and Water in Ajrakhpur
In Ajrakhpur, iron in a bucket of wash water can mark pale cotton with black spots before its full pattern appears. Khatri printers built this village after an earthquake destroyed their former workshops, but their work still depends on water that leaves indigo blue, madder red and reserved cotton clean.
Europe · Asia · Pont du Gard
The world’s ten greatest bridges, ranked
These ten bridges are ranked by three things: the force of their design, the history held in their fabric, and the precision with which they meet their river, strait, valley or city. Pont du Gard starts the list; Stari Most finishes it above the Neretva.
Europe · Venice · Rio de Janeiro
The 10 Cities Best Understood from the Water
A fine skyline is not enough. In these ten cities, a ferry or small boat reveals how trade, terrain, buildings and daily travel grew around a river, canal or bay.
Tallinn · Tromsø · Kyoto
Eight cities where winter changes the streets
Tallinn’s medieval lanes, Tromsø’s blue midday twilight and Kyoto’s frost-bright temple steps belong to the cold months. In these eight cities, winter changes how public spaces look, how residents use them and what visitors can see.
Europe · South America · Venice
Ten trading cities where the old streets still work
At Venice’s Rialto market, fishers and wholesalers still sell the morning catch beside open-air fruit and vegetable stalls. Across ten old trading cities, quays, lanes, workshops and fortifications still show how goods once moved and how people use these places now.
Murgia · Altamura · Tbilisi
Ten places where local bread is still made by hand
Bread shows the daily work behind a neighbourhood meal: a household’s marked dough at a Marrakesh communal oven, dark rye beside sourdough in Copenhagen, and bolillos from brick ovens in Mexico City. These ten working addresses and market settings sell local bread made through distinct local practices.