Hamba Travel Magazine
Stories
From a detour close to home to a long road through East Africa. Pick a part of the world, or read them in order.
All stories
Stories about Asia
35 stories from our editors. Filter by part of the world, or page back in time.
Newest story
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.
Europe · Plaça Reial · Piazza Santo Spirito
Ten Squares That Change After Dark
At sunset, restaurant stalls fill Jemaa el-Fna and listeners close around storytellers who adjust each performance to the crowd. Elsewhere, evening brings aperitivo tables, commuter tides, street food, ceremonies and concert audiences to public ground.
South America · Europe · Middle East
Eight mineral landscapes shaped by salt, iron and hot water
On Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni, a hard white crust runs towards an empty horizon. Elsewhere, iron colours whole mountains red, hot springs build terraces, and Roman miners have left cliffs behind.
Europe · Asia · Netherlands
Eight islands for taking the long way round
On Schiermonnikoog, low tide exposes the mudflats. On Yakushima, rain feeds cedar forest above the ferry ports. These eight islands suit travellers who would rather follow a path, a shore or a working harbour than race between sights.
Europe · Asia · North America
Eight deltas shaped by water and work
From Botswana’s inland floodplains to Argentina’s tidal islands, eight deltas show rivers at work in very different ways: feeding fields, carrying boats, building marshes and supporting communities at the water’s edge.
Myrdal · Flåm · Bernina Pass
Eight Journeys Where the Way There Is the Point
At Myrdal, the Flåm Railway leaves Norway’s main line and begins an 866-metre descent towards the fjord. Tunnels, ledges and tight curves make the movement downhill more compelling than the arrival.
Europe · Asia · Central America
Eight cultivated landscapes, from Douro vines to Kericho tea
A dry-stone wall in Portugal holds vines to a schist slope. On Bali, water runs from mountain channels through temples and down a chain of rice fields. Below the Andes, old irrigation ditches carry meltwater to Malbec vines. These eight regions show farming not as a backdrop but in the walls, canals, food and daily work that give each landscape its form.
Asia · Europe · Middle East
Eight cities where cultures still share the street
A Hindu temple and a mosque stand among the shophouses of Singapore’s Chinatown. In Sarajevo, a short walk runs from an Ottoman bazaar to Habsburg-era façades. In these eight cities, history still shapes worship, trade, food and ordinary street life.