Getting the flavour of…
Cultures collide in Sarajevo
Its name is “inextricably linked to war and tragedy”, but Sarajevo has been healing itself over the past 20 years, says Hayley Long in The Guardian. The capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina is spectacularly lovely, with a “fascinating” skyline of minarets, onion domes and Romanesque towers surrounded by forested mountains. This clash of “East meets West” is evident on the main pedestrian street, Ferhadija – effectively a “cultural equator”. On one side, AustroHungarian architecture, shops and bars; on the other, a “Turkish bazaar” of hookah shops and not a “drop of alcohol to be found”. Street vendors sell ice cream and Bosnian folk music blares out from cafés. There’s “such a good vibe” that the recent horrors are hard to reconcile. If you want to “discover somewhere remarkable”, Sarajevo is a pretty good bet.
Driving around Cephalonia Cephalonia
is a “deeply unusual island”, says Louise Roddon in The Times. It was largely unaffected by its “Captain Corelli fame”, but the scars of the 1953 earthquake run deep. Ruined houses and “ghost villages” are scattered everywhere, and the “tourist footfall” is comparatively small, despite the pretty beaches that “lace its nibbled coastline”. Its terrain offers some of the most scenic drives you’ll find anywhere – along with “narrow, nausea-inducing bends”. Head inland for “a forbiddingly raw” landscape of limestone peaks. “And oh, the views.” At the summit of Mount Ainos, you can see across to Ithaca. Be sure to stop at the lookout for the Instagram-famous Myrtos Beach: its white shore and turquoise waters are “unutterably fabulous”. F Zeen Retreat (fzeenretreat.com) has rooms from s209 b&b.
Learning Muay Thai in Bangkok
Not so long ago, only “oddball” Westerners went to Thailand to learn Thai boxing, or Muay Thai, says Ben Timberlake in The Independent: “weedy kids who’d watched too many Jean-claude Van Damme films”. But times change: the country has “gone from seedy to upscale”; it’s now a “destination” for fitness holidays, and Muay Thai is “the go-to sport for the beautiful people”. At the Siam hotel in Bangkok, Olympic coach Yin teaches you how to get your “arse kicked”, Thai-style. He is so friendly that amid the sweat, strained muscles and swollen eyes, his broken English makes this “deadly art” sound sweetly innocuous. But “I hit and make you very sleepy”, means a knockout punch. “You go to bed with wheels” refers, ominously, to a hospital gurney. Abercrombie & Kent (abercrombiekent.co.uk) can arrange Muay Thai tours as part of a package.