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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112 stories from our editors. Filter by part of the world, or page back in time.
Morning between High Street and the harbour
In Jamestown, the morning runs downhill. School uniforms pass along High Street above the coast; below the red-and-white lighthouse, painted wooden canoes, metal pans and folds of net mark the short distance between the neighbourhood and the water.
Europe · Sweden
One Ferry from Gothenburg to Styrsö
At Saltholmen, Göteborg’s land transport stops at the water. One public ferry carries passengers from that useful, unsentimental edge to Styrsö Bratten, where wooden houses, granite slopes and narrow car-free lanes take over.
From Bab Souika to Zitouna, by Bread, Brass and Shade
Bab Souika begins with food: chickpea broth, bread, pastry counters and the heat that slips from a bakery doorway. From its old market streets, the walk passes under vaults and beside copper workshops before reaching the tight knot of souks around the Zitouna Mosque.
From Tilène’s Fabric Stalls to a Médina Tailor
Outside Marché Tilène’s covered halls, cloth begins its short, exacting passage through the Médina. A buyer compares colours at a stall, carries a chosen length along Rue 19, then hands it to a tailor who cuts, stitches, presses and finishes it for a particular occasion.
Asia · Vietnam
Van Long Biên naar een dampende kom op Hàng Khoai
Onder de stalen vakwerken van de Long Biên-brug gaan kisten al van hand tot hand. Zeshonderd meter verder, naast de Đồng Xuân-markt, tilt stoom uit een open pan boven lage plastic tafels en kommen noedels.
South America · Argentina
When Lunch Takes the Counter at San Telmo Market
At Mercado de San Telmo, daylight falls through glass above iron arches and Carrara-marble floors. Fruit and vegetable stalls, butchers, bread sellers and lunch counters work under the same nineteenth-century roof; by midday, the open grill becomes one of the hall’s clearest signs of the day changing.
Central America · Mexico
From Wet Maize to the Comal in Oaxaca
Before sunrise in San Antonio de la Cal, near Oaxaca city, mill motors start and wheelbarrows carry wet nixtamal along the street. By afternoon, that maize has passed through palms, presses and comales, then into the stacks sold at city markets.
From Bolhão Down to Afurada
Fish lies on ice at Mercado do Bolhão as bread warms the air and water slips through the iron grates beneath the stalls. From this busy interior, the route falls through Porto’s granite streets to the Douro, then reaches Afurada, where laundry, charcoal smoke, nets and small boats line the far bank.
Asia · Armenia
From Kond to Republic Square, as the Pink Stone Turns Gold
Late-afternoon light reaches Kond in fragments: a stair edge, a red wall, the rim of a courtyard. The walk from Surp Hovhannes down to Republic Square follows that broken light out of the hill’s narrow lanes and into Yerevan’s broad, rose-coloured centre.
From Blue Boats to Bread Ovens in Essaouira
A fishing boat enters Essaouira’s harbour with gulls wheeling above the load. On shore, crates pass from hand to hand towards the fish market, the charcoal grills and, beyond the sea gate, the narrow streets of the medina.
At Heming Tea House, the Day Begins with a Broom
Before seven, staff sweep the blue-grey paving beneath the trees at Heming Tea House in Chengdu’s People’s Park. Then bamboo chairs shift over stone, copper kettles send up steam, and porcelain lids begin to tap against their bowls.
Copper, Bread and River Water in Sarajevo
Low winter light falls across the Sebilj and the cobbles of Baščaršija before the old bazaar reaches full volume. A short walk passes copper workshops, bakery doors and coffee pots before it ends beside the narrow, fast-moving Miljacka.