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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153 stories from our editors. Filter by part of the world, or page back in time.
Europe · Spain · Asturias
Raised Bottles and Shared Plates in Oviedo’s Cider Houses
On Calle Gascona, a server raises a green bottle over one shoulder and sends a thin stream of cider onto the rim of a broad glass held low by the hip. The quick splash begins another round in Oviedo’s best-known street of sidrerías, where cider arrives by the bottle and each person receives a small pour.
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.
South America · Peru · Cebollapampa
The High Path from Cebollapampa to Laguna 69
At Cebollapampa, the trail follows a stream across the green floor of a glacial valley. The hard climbing comes later, when grass gives way to loose rock and Laguna 69 waits above a second wall of switchbacks.
Europe · Netherlands · Hegebeintum
High Ground, Open Water
Hegebeintum rises sharply above flat clay fields. Wierum stands where a village mound, a sea wall and the Wadden Sea lie close together. Walking between them shows how Frisian communities raised their homes above the tide long before continuous dikes fixed a boundary between land and sea.
Europe · United Kingdom
Levuka, between the wharf and the hills
Beach Street occupies a narrow strip between Levuka’s seawall and Ovalau’s steep volcanic slopes. Fiji’s former capital still carries its nineteenth-century port history, but residents use its shops, schools, churches, market and wharf every day.
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.
Oceania
New Hands in Oamaru’s Old Warehouses
Oamaru’s Victorian Precinct grew beside a working port, not as a historical stage set. Grain and wool once filled its pale limestone warehouses; galleries, studios, a brewery and other small businesses now use their loading spaces and heavy floors.
Under Upolu’s High Roof
A Samoan fale has no fixed walls, but it has firm boundaries. On Upolu, timber, coconut-fibre cord and woven screens form a practical tropical building and a place where family rank, duty and hospitality take visible form.
How Bonwire’s Weavers Build a Kente Cloth
A Bonwire loom does not produce a broad ceremonial wrapper in one piece. It produces a narrow woven band, built thread by thread by makers who hold the technical and cultural knowledge behind the finished cloth.
Oceania
Where Wellington’s Native Birds Return
A double gate separates suburban Wellington from a valley where kākā tear at bark, tīeke search the leaf litter and takahē graze beside old reservoirs. Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne has turned a former water catchment into a breeding ground for native wildlife, with birds now moving beyond its fence.
South America · Colombia · Medellín
What Comuna 13’s escalators changed on Medellín’s hillside
In Las Independencias, six pairs of public outdoor escalators cut through one of Comuna 13’s steepest residential slopes. They eased the climb home for people carrying groceries, heading to school or returning from work, then became part of a crowded route of murals, guides, music and small businesses.
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.