depART Archives - pARTicipate

Amused Bouche: The Farm Stall At Halls, Mbombela, Mpumalanga

By BRUCE DENNILL The Farm Stall at Halls, N4 Halls Gateway, Mbombela. Carte: Separate food and drinks menus, with plenty of choice - reflecting a pleasing combination of imagination and a lack of pretence - on both. Smart: A...

Travel: Koh Samui – Bustle And Bliss, Or Delicious Diversions

By EUGENE YIGA After a short flight from Bangkok to Koh Samui, it was good to escape the heat and humidity with two things that became essentials during our stay: air-conditioned vans and cold towels. Indeed, as much as I...

Travel: New Horizons, Or A Jewel In The Rough

By EUGENE YIGA Everyone has a story. And one of the most moving stories I came across in my trip to Kenya was that of a Maasai tribeswoman. “My name is Peris,” she says. “I’m the mother of five children....

Culture: Re-building Al-Nouri Mosque, Or Courtyards Dialogue

An international jury recently announced that an entry by eight Egyptian architects won the international competition for the reconstruction of the historic Al-Nouri Mosque complex in Mosul, Iraq, a major component of UNESCO’s ambitious project for the rehabilitation of the...

Travel: UNESCO Geoparks, Or As Things Were And Will Be

UNESCO’s Executive Board has approved the designation of eight new UNESCO Global Geoparks, which brings the number of sites participating in the Global Geoparks Network to 169 in 44 countries. Due to COVID-19, no new applications could be evaluated, and the...

Book Reviews: Secret Cities, Or Getting Lost With Gusto

By BRUCE DENNILL Secret Brooklyn by Michelle Young and Augustin Pasquet Secret Edinburgh: An Unusual Guide by Hanna Robinson Secret Naples by Valerio Ceva Grimaldi, Maria Franchini and Fernando Pisacane There are those travellers who are happy to simply...

Travel: 2022 World Book Capital, Or Guadala-iterature

Guadalajara in Mexico was named World Book Capital for the year 2022 by the Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, on the recommendation of the World Book Capital Advisory Committee. The city was selected for its comprehensive plan for policies around the...

Travel: Boosting The Biosphere, Or A Stake In Species

At the end of October, UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) programme added 25 new sites, one of them transboundary, in 18 countries to the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, which now numbers 714 biosphere reserves in 129 countries around...

Food: Feeling Desserted, Or Experiments On Ice

It seems that plain vanilla ice cream might soon come out of fashion in Lithuania, where chefs are experimenting with natural flavours: fresh vegetables, flowers, and even stinging nettle. Chefs around the world are experimenting with flavours and each country...

Architecture: Performance Hall At The Taipei Music Center, Or Pop Providence

Designed by New York-based RUR Architecture, the 756,000-sqft Performance Hall at the Taipei Music Center (TMC) officially opened with its first concert on September 5 (including strict measures for public safety, including temperature checks and the wearing of masks). Located in...

Amused Bouche: Lekker Bistro, Parys, Free State

By BRUCE DENNILL Lekker Bistro, 60 Bree Street, Parys. Carte: The menu’s written out on a chalkboard, which is brought to your table and balanced on a chair. The basics – chicken, steak, fish – but prepared with equal parts...

Travel: Love In Lithuania, Or Connubial Capers

Forest resort, Lithuania © Forest Heaven Honeymoon coming up? Lithuania may be an unexpected alternative for adventurous couples. The country caters to all ideas of refined romance. A recent survey indicated that almost 40% of couples describe their honeymoon as...

Travel: Forgotten Footsteps, Or No Size Fits All

By OBIE OBERHOLZER Oman. 2014. Sometimes I do odd things in strange places. As a chaser of line and light, I slowly walk into another mud village in Oman. Each time on entering, I whisper an Islamic greeting. At the...

Travel: A-Spire To Legend, Or A Tall Tale Told

By BRUCE DENNILL “Let’s go and see the devil.” “Pardon?” It is the final night of a trip to the venerable Karoo capital of Graaff-Reinet, and with the end of dinner, the official itinerary is complete. Some of our...

Travel: Hale Family Not Quite Met, Or An Agent Of Change On Sail

By BRUCE DENNILL We were on a mission. Final day in New York. Final day in the US. Final day of a long-planned trip abroad. Who knew when or if another one would be possible? We had to get to...

Travel: Wading In Wekiwa, Or The Joys Of The Spring

By BRUCE DENNILL Figuring out the highway system in Orlando, Florida becomes, for an out-of-towner, a necessary short-term hobby. In many (sensible) countries, a major road goes to, or through, a destination, and at that point there is a off-ramp...

Travel: San Francisco – A City With Its Faults, Or Has The Bay Lost Its Way?

By JOE DAVID For many years, I have been travelling west to pay homage to San Francisco and to close members of the family who still insist on living in the Bay Area. Sadly, I discovered during my recent trip...

Travel: Borderline Edginess, Or Taken For A Ride By Hitler

By BRUCE DENNILL Donkeys are a regular sight in the Northern Cape. They’re exceptionally hardy creatures, which is useful when there’s not much to eat in the semi-desert scrub of the Kgalagadi, and when there are temperature variances of as...

Travel: Fantasy And Fabergé, Or Russian To See New Exhibit

On 7 February 2020 at 3pm, the new, permanent treasury at the Amalienborg Museum will be revealed. On display will be Russian jewellery from the period 1860-1917, with a focus on the close ties between the Danish and Russian monarchies....

Travel: Mindful In Madikwe, Or Winning (For) The Game

By DAVID ALSTON The evening game drive started quietly enough, with a pair of Spotted Eagle Owls staring benevolently down on us as we passed a pan on our way to look for Wild Dog, always elusive because of...

Travel: Wild Coast Meander – Several Rivers Run Through It, Or Don’t Have A Kei, Man

By DAVID ALSTON After careful surveillance by our tour organiser, our group of 14 golden oldies were sternly admonished to ‘keep the sea on our left’ before we left East London by kombi after a reunion at the Meander...

Travel: More And Moraingy In Madagascar, Or Boxed In By Culture

By BRUCE DENNILL We pull over on the side of Route de L’Ouest, the main street that runs through Dzamandzar, a small town on the west coast of Nosy Be. It’s the biggest thoroughfare in the area, but...

Travel: In The Footsteps Of Anne Frank, Or A Spirit Endures

By BRYAN ANDREWS Most people who have heard the story of Anne Frank, or who have read even a part of her diary, have the impression that she was an unfortunate young girl destroyed by the Nazis. I was...

Travel: Boldly Barefoot, Or Shell-Shocked By History

By BRYAN ANDREWS Invoking a totally different set of emotions to those I experienced on the Via Dolorosa and in Hezekiah’s Tunnel was my visit to Yad Vashem – Israel’s Holocaust Museum. In one word, it was harrowing. Our...

Advertorial: Private lodge shareholding ownership opportunity – Dopotta Game Reserve, Tuli Block, Botswana

ADVERTORIAL Copyright DW BAILEY The Tuli Block of Botswana is a land of contrast. It is also known as the Land of the Giants due to its extremes, including massive Baobab trees, numerous herds of elephants, the largest recorded...

Travel: Boldly Barefoot, Or Through A Tunnel Darkly

By BRYAN ANDREWS The Via Dolorosa was my first barefoot experience in Jerusalem but it certainly wasn’t my last. One of the more notable ones - because it forced me to tackle one of my fears head on -...

Travel: Boldly Barefoot, Or Almost Via Dolorosa

By BRYAN ANDREWS Probably my most meaningful barefoot walk was in Jerusalem. I was one of those people who never wanted to go to Israel. I didn’t want my picture of the Holy Land to be shattered by reality, so...

Travel: Boldly Barefoot, Or Ambulating In Athens

By BRYAN ANDREWS My introduction to barefoot travel was by accident…well, almost by accident. It was 2003 and my wife and I were on a visit to Greece. On our first morning in Athens, we did what I recommend...

Travel: Palace Pause, Or The Hermitage On Hold

By BRUCE DENNILL There’s a queue. For a museum. That’s a good thing. Speaks of an appreciation of history and culture, and the value of intellect over addictions to social media and gossip. So, on principle, it’s a queue...

Picture Essay: Up Close In Istanbul, Or The Djinn Is In The Detail

Travel: Assignment Ass-essment, Or Bringing Up The Rear

By BRUCE DENNILL Visiting an island engages many parts of a tourist’s body. There is the feel on your skin of the thick-as-a-blanket humidity as you step out of a plane that came from somewhere with breathable air. There...

Travel: Confirmed Identity, Or En Route To Empathy

By BRUCE DENNILL It's a routine stopover for us, pulling off the highway to the coast and parking outside a rural supermarket selling sweets, braai meat and local artisanal bits and pieces of all kinds (edible, wearable and all...

Travel: In Tent City, Or Bright Lights, Small Cultural Festival

By BRUCE DENNILL The 2014 Kalahari Desert Festival was held from 21-23 March at Witdraai near Askham (essentially, head north out of Upington and look for the signs on the left; if you hit Namibia, you've gone too far)....

Travel: In Through The Out Door, or Secret Eldest Child And The Missing Keys

By BRUCE DENNILL It’s an ideal way to end a Friday afternoon. Done with work and arrived at a self-catering cottage on a small farm out in the country with the sun still high enough to encourage all of us...

Travel: Sweetness Of The Swiss, Or A Rich Chocolate History

By GREG VORSTER Elsewhere on this site, a trip to Switzerland nearly ended in disaster no thanks to a milkshake and the mistaken notion that placing it in carry-on luggage was a good idea. Treats have their moments, though, with some...

Opinion: Home Is Where The Five-Star Is

By BRUCE DENNILL Ah, luxury. It’s always pretty special when you open the door to a lavish hotel suite and are greeted for the first time by a fresh, pristine layout, furnished with the very latest in plush carpets...

Travel: Vanilla Is A Neutral Flavour or How A Milkshake Almost Destroyed Switzerland

By BRUCE DENNILL I should never have taken the milkshake. I had just flown business class for the first time, and there was free stuff in the arrivals lounge at Zurich Airport. I had just had a shower in…

Travel: Tea And Sympathy (For Bears), Or To Coin A Phase

By BRUCE DENNILL The hotel we’re in for the junket is lovely. But it’s miles from anywhere, a round of golf costs five hundred million dirham and there’s only so much of the course you can walk around, simply...

Travel: Restless In Reykjavik, Or Searching For A Hemingway Moment And Finding The Travel Channel

By BEN WRIGHT “Yes, there are a lot of tourists in Iceland now, perhaps too many,” said Silvia, in perfect English and with no irony. Her daughters, who spoke English too, as well as Icelandic and Zulu, were playing…

Travel: Toy Story, Or The Art Of Exploration

By BRUCE DENNILL Istanbul. Home to the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Golden Horn, the Grand Bazaar, the Topkapi Palace and dozens of other world-famous tourist attractions, it’s also riddled with side roads; non-descript, non-guidebook diversions that are…

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