Maurice Podbrey shares his backpacking experiences over an award-winning theatre career.

Maurice Podbrey returned from Canada to South Africa 14 years ago after being awarded the Order of Canada for his distinguished theatrical career. Back in SA he formed the Mopo Cultural Trust, which aims to develop new talent.

He is especially proud of his collaboration with Lara Foot and toured her play Tshepang internationally. His work with Vusi Mazibuko and Thami Mbongo in developing and producing A Plague of Heroes has been a highlight – it won the Best of the Ikhwezi Theatre Festival at the Baxter Theatre Centre in 2009.

He is the producer of Did we dance: Ukutshona ko Mendi (The sinking of the Mendi).

When he is not busy in the theatre he travels the world. He shares some of his experiences.

What countries have you visited?

I have visited several countries in Africa – Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland and Morocco. I’ve also travelled extensively in Europe, including the old East Germany, visited a lot of Asia including China, Thailand and Bali, and then the Pacific countries of Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. I’ve also been to the Americas and the Middle East.

What was your favourite place?

I spent time in Istanbul two years ago. It was stunning and I can highly recommend Turkey. The mosques were absolutely beautiful to visit. I was amazed at their beauty and serenity.

What was your worst experience?

I was searched by a young immigration officer in Perth who wouldn’t understand that I was travelling internationally with only a backpack.

“What’s the problem, officer?” I asked.

“People your age don’t travel like this. Are you carrying diamonds?” he asked.

“No,” I replied, “And if I were, do you think I’d tell you?”

Big mistake! Never try to banter with immigration officers. It was after midnight by the time he finished going through my shirt seams and I still had to find my way to a hostel. This certainly didn’t improve my general impression of Australians.

What was your funniest experience?

Encountering subscribers to my Montreal Theatre everywhere I went – we had over 10 000 subscribers. This included an island in Lake Titicaca in Peru, in Rosh Pina, a small Israeli town near the Lebanese border, and walking around an art gallery in Bali, where I was innocently accompanied by two charming Balinese ladies from the place I was staying in… I had to write home straight away.

Your favourite food and restaurant during your travels?

Well, there’s this little Bulgarian restaurant in Odessa on Ikaterinskaya Street that was delectable. The food was exquisitely cooked and the service was outstanding.

What do you avoid during your travels?

I make a point of avoiding hotels with familiar names. Actually, for me it would be most hotels, since I much prefer hostels. They are more interesting and you get to meet far more interesting and diverse people at every level. Of course, they are also cheaper so you can get around to do more exciting things.

Your favourite watering hole?

I’m not much of a “sundowner” type but, if pressed, something overlooking the sea.

What tips would you give fellow travellers?

Try (hard as it may be) to settle for half the luggage you reckon you’ll need and try to avoid having to check it in. Also watch your belongings all the time in Peru and in Prague as well. - Weekend Argus

In recent years, the town of Pueblo Garzon has become a draw for the international jet set looking for peace and quiet.

It is a dusty village of 200 nestled in Uruguay's back country, with no obvious architectural attraction, which most tourists would drive through without a second thought.

But in recent years, the town of Pueblo Garzon, 70 kilometres from the bustling beach resort of Punta del Este, has become a draw for the international jet set looking for peace and quiet along with authenticity and a taste of some unique gastronomy.

The transformation of this modest village began eight years ago when renowned Argentine chef Francis Mallmann opened a hotel and restaurant on a site where a grocery store used to be.

That attracted some well-heeled visitors and started a trend in the village of dirt roads and lush tropical vegetation.

Today, the streets are lined with luxury cars, high-end restaurants and boutiques and plenty of visitors from around the globe willing to spend $170 for lunch or $780 for a hotel room with rustic charm during the high season of December to February.

In the town, which had been a stop for travellers in the mountains and the site of wheat mill, visitors can dine on smashed gigot of lamb, magret of duck with malbec juice and varietal wines from the region.

They can stay overnight in rooms with wood-burning chimneys and other refinements.

“The idea is to allow customers to relax, to take horseback or bicycle rides, to take advantage of nature, silence and good food, and to get away from the city, the beach and the crowds,” said Victoria Ubertone, hotel manager at the Garzon hotel and restaurant.

“The calm is impressive. It is a back country village like a lot of others, but very chic,” says Monica Testoni, an Argentine who was vacationing in Punta del Este and made a trip for lunch to Pueblo Garzon.

Across the town square, another famed Argentine chef, Esteban Aguirre, has recently opened his restaurant and cultural centre called D'Cepa, encouraged by the success of Mallmann and others.

Along with Lucifer, the other upscale restaurant in town, “we are trying to round out our offerings for tourists,” Aguirre says.

The influx of wealthy tourists along with the installation of a food processing plant in 2000 is a godsend for local residents, who had been hoping for a restoration of a rail link that was abandoned when a wheat mill shut down.

“There is a change in the outlook for people,” says local Mayor Fernando Suarez. “The village is finding a new direction.”

With the town's transformation, more people are seeking to build homes, in some cases hiring local residents for upkeep. Some of those investing, according to locals, include British art dealer Martin Summers, Mick Jagger's tailor and a top executive of the New York Times.

This has caused a jump in land prices, so a lot of 400 square meters which used to sell for $1,000 now can go for upwards of $30,000.

Suarez said this is not a problem because “those who come here respect the essence of the village.”

But others like Veronica Deliotti, a restaurant worker, wonders if the small town atmosphere is disappearing.

“Our children's future is changing,” she said. “Sometimes I'm afraid. We don't want to lose this tranquility.” - Sapa-AFP

This winter Majeka House, in the heart of the Stellenbosch winelands, is offering guests tantalising mini-breaks guaranteed to rejuvenate body and soul.

It’s an irresistible offer to anyone who enjoys the finer things in life, particularly gourmet dining and fine wine. This winter Majeka House, the small luxury hotel in the heart of the Stellenbosch winelands, is offering guests tantalising mini-breaks guaranteed to rejuvenate body and soul – from gourmet menus in the hotel’s French-inspired restaurant, Makaron, to an escape at the Majeka House Sanctuary Spa that takes pampering to entirely new heights.

Six enticing ‘Winter Warmer’ packages have been carefully created to satisfy a variety of preferences. The One Day Escape to the Winelands (R1 252 per person sharing) offers a sneak escape for just a night and includes a relaxing session on the Himalayan crystal salt bed, cocktails at the M Bar and three-course tasting menu dinner and wine pairing at Makaron Restaurant. Then overnight in a premier room and enjoy a full- or continental breakfast the next morning.

If you can escape mid-week for a night, the Mid-week Macaroon Desires offer (R1 452 per person sharing) includes a session on the Himalayan crystal salt bed, a macaroon making course hosted in the kitchen, as well as a tasting with cocktail pairing at the M Bar. This is followed by the three course tasting menu dinner in Makaron restaurant, accompanied by a wine pairing. After spending the night in a premier room, a decadent full- or continental breakfast awaits the next morning.

The Winter Warmer Weekend in Stellenbosch (R2 652 per person sharing or R1 326 per person sharing per day) offers a two-night stay in a premier room with full- or continental breakfast served each morning. Also included in the decadent package is a Himalayan crystal salt bed session for two, cocktails at the M Bar, followed by a three course tasting menu dinner for two at Makaron Restaurant along with a wine paring. Also for two, is a hot stone massage treatment as well as in-room dining with a hot cocktail and the DVD or board game of your choice.

Alternatively, if you have two nights to enjoy at Majeka House, book in for the Two Nights of Guilty Pleasures offer (R2 902 per person sharing or R1 451 per person sharing per day). Overnight in a premier room and wake up to a full- or continental breakfast each morning.

Then indulge in a 45-minute Himalayan crystal salt bed session for two and enjoy in-room dining and a hot cocktail. Afterwards, curl up and watch a DVD or play a board game, whichever is your choice. Next day, indulge in the African Signature Journey spa treatment, have a tasty finger lunch at the M Bar and savour a relaxing afternoon before cocktails back at the M bar, followed by a three course tasting menu dinner for two at Makaron – with wine pairing.

If spa treatments are the focus, the Three Day Spa Retreat package (R4 152 per person sharing or R1 384 per person sharing per day) ensures a thorough pampering. Included is three nights’ accommodation in a premier room with full- or continental breakfast every morning. Enjoy the Himalayan crystal salt bed session, a hot stone massage and a Soul to Soul massage – all for two.

The gourmet offerings start with finger lunches and cocktails at the M Bar, followed by a three course tasting menu dinner at Makaron Restaurant along with a wine pairing. There is also a night of in-room dining with a hot cocktail, followed by the DVD or board game of your choice.

On one of the days, enjoy lunch is at Pane e Vino restaurant in Stellenbosch (voucher of R400) and dinner at the restaurant of your choice in Stellenbosch (voucher of R800). All the special winter offers run from May to September 2012.

Let Makaron’s award-winning chef Tanja Kruger, also a member of the South African Culinary Olympic team, delight you with her decadent offerings. She’s a keen follower of the Slow Food Movement, and chooses fresh, locally grown, ethically produced ingredients to inspire her menus. In the tradition of a true French kitchen, Makaron also has its own fresh vegetable and herb garden, which means everything served is both beautiful and wholesome.

So it’s also no surprise that Makaron recently won the Boschendal Style Award at the 2011 Eat Out DSTV Food Network Awards, honouring Makaron as the most stylish restaurant in South Africa.

For table and room reservations or for further information call Majeka House and Makaron Restaurant on (27) (21) 880 1549; email reservations@majekahouse.co.za; or visit www.majekahouse.co.za.

While Euro-bankers swarm into nearby Frankfurt, Mainz is immersed in Fastnacht, the carnival season.

While sober Euro-bankers swarm into nearby Frankfurt, Mainz is immersed in Fastnacht, the carnival season. The city's population of 200,000 more than doubles for an alcohol-propelled fancy-dress street party and the spectacular Rosenmontag parade on February 20, when sweets and other goodies are thrown from floats. In the weeks before, local troupes in elaborate costumes throng the streets, playing piccolos and glockenspiel.

TOUCH DOWN

Mainz railway station is a 25-minute, €4.10 train ride on the S-Bahn (line S8; rmv.de) from Frankfurt-Main airport which is served daily by dozens of flights from the UK. (On the way back to the airport, on the S-Bahn from Mainz, you must not only find the right platform, but the correct section of it.)

GET YOUR BEARINGS

Mainz stretches along the Rhine at its confluence with the River Main. Coloured street signs provide instant orientation: blue for streets parallel to the river, red for those at right angles (it is said to prevent late-night carousers from getting wet). The Old Town extends south of the massive Dom (cathedral) along the attractive pedestrianised Augustinerstrasse that leads to a Roman theatre. The train station is not much more than a kilometre west of the Dom. Quiet cobbled lanes, comical statues of Fastnacht and Virgins peering down from niches reward random explorations on foot.

The tourist office (tel: 00 49 6131 286210; touristik-mainz.de) is on the city side of the footbridge across Rheinstrasse from the Rathaus (city hall). Maps and info can be picked up 9am-6pm weekdays, 10am-4pm Saturdays, and 11am-3pm Sundays.

CHECK IN

The unfussy Hotel Stiftswingert is on a suburban street (Am Stiftswingert 4; tel: 00 49 6131 982 640; hotel-stiftswingert.de) a pleasant 20-minute walk from the centre or a short ride on the 62 or 63 bus. Double rooms are €99, though this can be reduced to €80-€85 online, via agencies such as booking.com. Generous breakfasts are included and front-desk personnel are helpful without being effusive.

Of the several decent hotels across from the main station, discreet Hotel Hammer at Bahnhofplatz 6 (00 49 6131 965 280; hotel- hammer.de) has the most élan. Doubles from €115, including buffet breakfast.

The youth hostel is on a great spot on the edge of the Volkspark overlooking the Rhine (Otto-Brunfels-Schneise 4; 00 49 6131 85332; jugendherbergen.de). It exemplifies the modern take on hostelling with a congenial bar, children's play area and large garden. The normal price of a dorm bed is €21 with breakfast but until mid-March a special price of €36.50 covers bed and all meals for two.

TAKE A VIEW

Because Mainz is built on a hill it is easy to gain elevation to survey the city's roofs and spires, for example from Kupferbergterrasse or the Zitadelle. To appreciate Mainz in its riverside setting, it is best viewed from the railway bridge across the Rhine. Romantics might be tempted to add a 'love lock' to the thousands of inscribed padlocks fastened to the metalwork of the bridge before throwing the key into the river.

WINDOW SHOPPING

A wonderful farmers' market takes place every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday in the shadow of the Dom. It provides the most photogenic food shopping experience. Dozens of varieties of potato and apple are sold, with most labels prefaced 'Deutscher' to indicate home-grown provenance. Long, brown salsifies are piled up next to fat pomegranates, and the egg stall is presided over by a fierce cock. Shopping streets and lanes fan out from Marktplatz. If the cheery chocolateries and novelty shops along Augustinerstrasse are not sufficient, head for the Römerpassage, a small precinct with some trendy shops. Underneath, the artfully lit remains of a Roman temple dedicated to Isis can be visited for free. This was discovered only 12 years ago when the area was being developed.

LUNCH ON THE RUN

The farmers' market has great takeaway vans selling specialities such as Leberkäsweck (meatloaf on a bun), wurst with senf (choice of sweet or spicy mustard) or Fisch Brötchen (herring and bread), from €2. Finish with a pastry topped with toasted hazelnuts from the bakery stall and a coffee or hot chocolate from the converted old Citroën van called Caffee Moguntia.

TAKE A HIKE

Most Mainz residents have walked or cycled the Three Bridges Walk dozens of times. This two-hour circuit heads south from the city centre along the broad riverside path favoured by joggers and cyclists towards the railway bridge. The section on the other side is far from scenic, but grit your teeth, bear left when you come off the bridge and carry on to the second bridge over the Main and into the peaceful neighbourhood of Kostheim.

Sticking close to the water you pass a shallow bay where water birds congregate. Carry on back to the Rhine and pause at the Dom Blick Terrasse & Biergarten for a reviving Bitburger beer or bite to eat. Before climbing up on to the Theodor-Heuss road bridge back to the city centre, look under the bridge for skilled wielders of spray cans who endlessly re-decorate the massive concrete arch with high-quality graffiti.

AN APERITIF

Cosy wine bars offer an impressive selection of local wines, especially rieslings, sold by the (enormous) glass from €2.50. One short street, Jakobsbergstrasse, has three Weinstuben, including dark-panelled Lösch at number 9 (tell: 00 49 6131 220 383; weinstube-loesch.de). Contrary to Anglo-Saxon notions of personal space, Mainz hostelries often feature large shared tables. One of the most convivial is Weinstube RoteKopf at Rotekopfgasse 4 (rotekopf.de) where jolly locals of a certain age will cheerfully budge up to make space for you.

DINING WITH THE LOCALS

In the tranquil upper part of Mainz, the regional kitchen of Heinrichs at Martinsstrasse 10 (tel: 00 49 6131 9300661; heinrichs-die-wirtschaft.com) produces dishes several notches above schnitzel and sauerkraut. Slide into a comfortable banquette in this warmly lit restaurant and, perhaps after asking the waiter's advice, order something from the blackboard such as goose rillettes with gherkins for €9.50 or roast veal in burgundy for €17.

To join a younger, zippier crowd, the brew-pub Eisgrub-Bräu at Weisslilien- gasse 1a (tel: 00 49 6131 221104; eisgrub.de) is the place to sample Mainz specialities such as Spundekäs, a cream cheese, onion and garlic dip, along with a glass of dark or light beer, followed by hearty and good-value dishes.

SUNDAY MORNING: GO TO CHURCH

Like most of the churches in Mainz, St Stephan's with its Gothic cloister was badly damaged by Second World War bombs, then meticulously rebuilt in the 1960s. Stunning stained-glass windows by the Jewish artist Marc Chagall, primarily in shades of blue, lend the church a watery, ethereal light. Comfortably corporeal angels figure in the windows, including one who hovers above the prophet Jeremiah, both reading a book - quite apt in the city of Gutenberg.

A WALK IN THE PARK

The Rosengarten is a pleasant destination, despite the absence of roses in winter. The gardens lie between the ramparts under the Citadel and the somewhat featureless Volkspark, and provide access to the railway bridge walkway.

OUT TO BRUNCH

Try the Café Codex in the Gutenberg Museum at Liebfrauenplatz 5 for Sunday brunch between 10.30am and 3pm. The basic buffet brunch costs €9.50 while the all-you-can-eat Frühstücksbuffet is €13.50. Beyond the buzzing bar, tables for two overlook the attractive museum courtyard where you can adjourn once the temperature climbs. Free Wi-Fi accompanies your Bircher muesli or pancakes with syrup.

CULTURAL AFTERNOON

The Gutenberg Museum (tel: 00 49 6131 122640; gutenberg-museum.de) tells the story of the city's most famous son - Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the printing press - and how movable type revolutionised western culture. Displays on three floors include the precursor of the Kindle, a small portable 'girdle book' carried by medieval pilgrims. The most precious object is one of fewer than 50 surviving Gutenberg bibles, printed in the 1450s. The museum is open 11am-5pm on Sundays, 9am-5pm Tuesday to Saturday; admission is €5.

To delve further back, the free Museum of Ancient Seafaring has painstaking reconstructions of late Roman ships excavated from the Rhine's muddy banks in the 1980s. The museum at Neutorstrasse 2b (tel: 00 49 6131 286630; rgzm.de) is open 10am-6pm daily except Monday.

ICING ON THE CAKE

Catch the half-hourly bus 28 from the Rathaus to the centre of historic Wiesbaden, arch-rival of Mainz and 'on the wrong side of the river'. In its heyday as a 19th-century spa town, grand buildings were erected to house its thermal attractions. Take a swallow of the hot sulphurous water in the Kochbrunnen fountain.

Still in pursuit of Wiesbaden's past glories, take a short ride on the funicular that opened in 1888 and still operates using water as ballast. The reward is an arresting view from the top of the Neroberg hill over trees and red roofs. - Belfast Telegraph

The number of nights spent in Paris hotels hit a record in 2011, according to the latest figures.

The number of nights spent in Paris hotels hit a record in 2011, the Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau said, with a big jump in visits from China.

In total, visitors spent 36.9 million nights in the City of Light last year, a 3.1 percent increase from 2010.

Business visitors and tourists from new markets contributed significantly to the success, the office said.

Average occupancy rates in Paris reached 79.5 percent, up 2.3 percent from 2010, and average income per room, a key industry benchmark, rose 10.3 percent to 126.6 euros, it said.

French visitors accounted for 37 percent of hotel nights in 2011, but the bureau forecast that visits from nationals would drop in 2012 due to the poor economic outlook for France.

International visitors were mostly from the United States (3.6 million nights), Britain (2.4 million) and Italy (1.8 million).

Nights spent in Parisian hotels last year by Chinese visitors jumped by 21.6 percent to 407,000. The increase over two years was 63 percent, the office said. - Sapa-AFP

A luxurious haven in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, Oceana Beach and Wildlife Reserve is the only combined ocean and game reserve in Southern Africa.

A luxurious haven in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, Oceana Beach and Wildlife Reserve is the only combined ocean and game reserve in Southern Africa.

A short drive from the quaint seaside town of Port Alfred and with a seven kilometre stretch of private soft sandy beach on one side and 850 hectares of unspoilt bush on the other, this really is the best of both worlds.

From picnics and horse riding on the beach, to great wildlife viewing and an entertainment room packed with games, there’s something for everyone.

This Easter stay at Oceana Beach & Wildlife Reserve for a minimum of three nights with all your meals, game drives and beach walks included.

The special also includes a pair of Ngwenya Glass serviette rings for you to take home, an Easter egg basket, an optional candlelit private dinner in your room and a bubble bath on your last night with flower petals and a complimentary bottle of chilled Pierre Jordan Brut.

Kids will receive a special kiddies pack on arrival, face painting during your stay and an educational beach or bush walk.

For bookings contact Oceana Beach & Wildlife Reserve Reservations directly by telephone 083 616 0605 or by email reservations@oceanreserve.com

The Great Wall, the Forbidden City – what’s not to like, asks Theresa Taylor.

The man standing at the front of the bus smiles widely. “My name is Robert,” he says. “But you can call me Bruce Lee. Because I am your tour guide, but I’m also your body guard.”

This was our welcome speech from the man who was going to show us some of the most famous of Beijing’s sites. For Robert Ren, six years of working as a tour guide means he has visited the Great Wall over 1 000 times and a sense of humour helps him see it all again with a smile.

Just a day before, we had been welcomed to the People’s Republic of China by the Beijing Capital International Airport, the second busiest passenger airport in the world. On arrival, passengers are herded into an underground train, which bridges the 7km between terminal three and the rest of the airport. It was a high speed welcome to the world’s new superpower.

Ren warned us: it would be hard to balance visiting of some of Beijing’s world famous ancient sites, such as an extremely long wall – said to be the only human-made object visible from space –and a palace with enough room for 2000 concubines.

“Perhaps the men in our group will have the time to see the Forbidden City and Tienanmen Square as they won’t be as busy shopping as the women,” Ren joked.

He wasn’t far off the truth. Somehow I bought three handbags, but missed both the city and the square.

But the 20 million residents of this Chinese capital seem stuck in a similar befuddlement. Beijing is the transport hub of China and the place all major Chinese businesses keep their offices. Two-year-old children in ripoff Ugg boots use iPhones as toys and shiny highrise buildings twist and turn against the frozen sky. The young and up and coming are drawn like moths from other cities into the capital’s high energy streets.

On the streets are bicycles, one of the symbols of China before its industrial revolution, when pedalling was the only affordable mode of transportation. But modern day Chinese bicycles are electric and have tiny engines and heated gloves to protect the hands of their riders. Pedestrians strolling the streets wear Hello Kitty face masks to protect themselves from the pollution caused by the high population.

Despite all these modern day accessories, the highrises remain neighbours with the ancient. I’s as in Taoism, a religion that has a strong influence on Chinese culture, yin must be balanced with yang. As with the sun being balanced by the moon, or meat being balanced by vegetables; in Beijing, modernisation is balanced by remainants of the ancient.

That said, five million cars roam the roads of Beijing. This is a city with crazier traffic than Johannesburg. Although the neat yellow and ever-green taxis are not the dented beasts of our CBD, their driving is just as predatory. Side mirrors are neglected as they swerve in and out between bicycles and buses.

The locals talk about traffic in hushed tones as if it’s some feared demi-god, whose ebbs and flows must be obeyed. And with due merit. A South African living in the city told me that western residents in Beijing hire drivers, as they are too afraid to take to the wheel alone. One of my travel companions reported being brought home from a Beijing night club by a driver so drunk, he was half slumped against the wheel and heaved as he took the corners.

The Chinese have a saying: “When Beijing is safe, the whole of China is safe”, because it is the city’s capital. Nine hundred years ago, Beijing was choosen as the country’s capital in part because of it being strategically placed to keep out enemies. Thus it is very close to the Great Wall of China, built for protection of China’s northern border. Ironically, that which once kept enemies out, now draws tourists in. Stretching almost 9 000km, its construction goes back to the 5th century BC and it was completed at the end of the Ming dynasty in the 16th century.

Countless Chinese died while building the wall and it became a symbol of war and death for families that were broken up as their husbands and sons were sent to the wall for years at end. The bodies of the dead were simply used as extra building material for the wall.

Although parts of the wall have decayed, it is still mighty and powerful. No one in our group was prepared for its steepness. So steep, in fact, it should be renamed the Great Stairs of China. It’s potentially the best workout of your life, as each time you reach a milestone you just want to keep climbing and climbing. Take a picnic lunch and flat shoes.

But the wall is not the only example of ambitious Chinese building. The Ming Dynasty Tombs, which contain the 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty, are large underground temples, all built by human hands between the 14th and the 17th centuries. Only one tomb has been opened, Emperor Dingling’s tomb, with some controversy because during the Cultural Revolution which started in 1966, Chinese leader Mao Zedong ordered the destruction of many of the tomb’s precious artifacts and burning of the emperor and his empress’s bodies. The tomb remains an architectural feat, beginning 27m underground ... but proposals to excavate further tombs remain unapproved.

Also a product of the Ming Dynasty is the biggest imperial palace in the world, the Forbidden City. It is reputed to have 9 999.5 rooms and space for 2 000 concubines.

“With 2000 concubines you can’t remember their names,” Ren pauses, holding back a laugh, “only their numbers.”

According to Chinese legend, when the palace was built the emperor built 10 000 rooms. But the Jade Emperor, an important Taoist god, told the emperor that his own palace in heaven had 10 000 rooms, and an emporer was not allowed to have the same number of rooms in his palace as God. So the emporer removed one room and replaced it with a half room. But how does one create half a room? Simple. A room has four pillars. A room with six pillars is one and a half rooms.

As famous as China’s ancient architecture, is the country’s jade and silk. Jade is sacred and virtuous, a thing of beauty and purity in Chinese culture. For the Chinese, while metals like gold can be given a value, jade is invaluable and they wear pendants and bracelets of the stone and adorn their homes with jade statues.

Trade in silk from China has stretched across centuries. The string from a single silk worm can be up to 1 600m long – and is the backbone of the original “made in China” product, silk. Little changed since the days os the ancient Silk Route, silk fabrics, duvets and sheets continue to be produced and, at the model silk factory in Beijing, you receive a lively demonstration of how the process works.

The only potential disappointment in Beijing is the food. Famed for its Peking Duck, don’t go to Beijing expecting traditional Chinese food to taste like the Chow Mein (which is an American-Chinese dish) from your local Kung Fo Kitchen. Many of the dishes are unrecognisable to the non-Asian eye. We were served fish, so thickly coated in a brown sauce that it looked like it was killed in a nuclear disaster. Odd gelatin cubes floated in a yellow liquids, indistinguishable meats swam in sauces and a greasy crab cried for help from its fried enclosure. Also, in traditional Chinese food, there are no separate courses so you can pick up a pastry covered ball, assuming it's a savory pie only to have a sickly sweet surprise.

At lunch, one of the ladies pointed out a meat slice covered by a fatty looking substance. “What's that?” she asked Ren. He replied, “Pork.” “It doesn't look like pork,” she said. “Well its a mixture of pork and beef,” he said. After a few gasps and whispers of “Maybe it's dog” Ren confessed. “The truth is I don't like Chinese food,” he said, “I prefer McDonald’s.”

If You Go...

Since last month SAA does three direct flights weekly between Johannesburg and Beijing. Flights take 14 and a half hours and range in price depending on the season.

Within the CBD signs are demarcated in Mandarin and English, however language can be a problem as many residents do not speak English. Keep a piece of paper on you with the address of your hotel wirtten in Mandarin incase you get lost.

Taxi's are cheap and the recommended method of transport for tourists as public transport is difficult to navigate without Mandarin

Weather is extreme and will average at 30C in summer and can go as low as -15C in winter. - Saturday Star

Author Charles Dickens was very good at taking a holiday. But where did he choose to go?

In 1842, Charles Dickens spent six months in exotic America – a trip that took him and his wife, Catherine, from a log house in Pennsylvania to a steamboat along the Mississippi. The next year, he took his family away for the summer from his London home opposite Regent’s Park to… Finchley, north London.

Nowadays, a plaque on 70 Queen’s Avenue marks the spot. Then, it was the “sequestered farmhouse” of Cobley’s Farm, his “Arcadian retreat” of “green lanes” where on long walks Dickens devised Mrs Gamp while writing Martin Chuzzlewit.

The 200th anniversary of the birth of this most prolific of Victorian novelists was marked earlier this month with a wreath-laying at Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey – and this bicentennial year offers a frantic itinerary of ways to honour the great man (see dickens2012.org).

Dickens himself was very good at taking a holiday. A summer home was always important to him, though he usually went further than Finchley. Broadstairs, for example, a favourite for many years, was his “home from home”.

Back then, travel to Broadstairs was generally by river and sea from the wharf at London Bridge. Once established, he sent invitations to friends with instructions about boarding the Ramsgate steamer.

The Royal Albion, now somewhat removed from the jolly “Albion Hotel” where Dickens spent “merry nights”, still offers the same wide views of the sea that so enticed him: for three years his summer home was next door, a house later absorbed into the hotel.

On Saturdays there is walking tour which includes a visit to Bleak House, formerly Fort House – the holiday home Dickens aspired to during his years here.

His first stay, in 1837, was in lodgings overlooking High Street. It was here that he finished The Pickwick Papers.

It was always important to Dickens to be close to the sea. The town has lovely beaches and he spent much time on them, with his children, with his friends, and swimming. Of course, he was also writing all the time. He started books here and finished books here.

The Dickens House Museum, also in Broadstairs, despite the name, is one house he did not stay in. It was the home of Mary Pearson Strong, the inspiration for Betsey Trotwood, the magnificent aunt of David Copperfield. Today, it is an interesting little museum where Betsey’s parlour has been recreated as described in the book and there’s Dickens memorabilia, including letters. – The Independent

Tourist numbers to the ancient Khmer ruins of Angkor are rocketing, so a successful visit is all about timing. Sarah Barrell sets her alarm clock.

It’s 4am and the rush-hour trail of tuk-tuks is already snaking through the dark towards the sprawling Angkor complex, illuminated only by the roadside bonfires lit by hawkers and itinerant families.

At this hour, when the sun has yet to cast silhouettes of temple towers against the sky, it’s surprisingly chilly. The sweet smell of wood smoke and sticky rice fills the air. My guide sniffs, smiles and pulls his cotton patterned krama scarf up around his face.

The traffic goes two ways. Scarf-wrapped tourists head towards Angkor Wat and the surrounding complex of temples; hotel staff and construction workers flow the other way, into the boom town that is Siem Reap, 15 minutes from the ancient wats (Buddhist monasteries) along a jungle-fringed road. Two to a bike, four to a scooter, men wear oversized leather jackets, babies balance on their mothers’ laps, wearing woolly bonnets.

We bump off the main drag, the buzz fading behind us in the dark. It’s dry season in Cambodia, when humidity drops and tourist numbers soar – a time when the resourceful guide will try to flee the crowds and find a novel route into the temples. With visitor numbers to the Angkor temples rising, these days a successful visit is all about timing.

I’m in Siem Reap to see the newly restored 11th-century site of Baphuon, a treasure of the Ankgor complex that has just reopened to the public after a 50-year restoration project. But that’s best seen, I am reliably advised, in the afternoon when the tide of tourists recedes from the temples to elbow each other up the sacred hill of Phnom Bakheng for a noisy sunset ritual and panoramic photo op across Siem Reap.

This morning, I’m avoiding Siem Reap’s main act, the traditional sunrise stampede for a position at Angkor Wat. This immaculately restored 12th-century temple is seen as the zenith of Khmer architecture and represents Cambodia itself for many visitors, who gun for it straight off the plane. Instead I favour a visit to the neighbouring “jungle temple” of Ta Prohm.

We make our stealthy entrance at its outer eastern gate where we hope to have the place to ourselves for a while, moving in against the stream of sightseers that will come in from the west gate.

The sun is skirting the trees as we walk towards the inner sanctum of the “Tomb Raider Temple” (known as such since 2001 when Angelina Jolie filmed the first Lara Croft movie here), taking a broad sandy track.

Here, at this back door of sorts, the only other people we encounter are a couple of sleepy souvenir sellers yet to display their krama, tribal drums and origami animals.

The path is devoid of the untamed jungly overgrowth that makes Ta Prohm unique; this is one of the few Angkor temples where the jungle has been left to its own devices. But further in we find the postcard scene: kapok trees growing antler-like from temple walls, strangler figs winding in and out of brickwork like mortar-eating snakes.

Eruptions of tree roots penetrate the temple’s concentric stone galleries and intricately carved pillars, a woody web over and under which we clamber, snapping pictures of Apsara (celestial dancing girls of Hindu mythology) framed by keyhole gaps in gnarly tree trunks. It’s at least half an hour before we meet the crowds coming the other way.

At the tree-strangled stone doorway featured in the Tomb Raider movie, several tour groups are queuing for a picture while their guides bid them: “Say Angeliiiiina!” The sandstone brick dust kicks up from the floor, mingling with incense smoke that weaves in ribbons from shrines dotted around the collapsed temple towers.

For all the photos taken at Ta Prohm and the numerous other ruins that make up what is loosely known as “the temples of Angkor”, it’s hard to get a clear picture of the place.

First, it’s massive. The Unesco-protected site alone is spread over 400km2, with sites spanning six centuries. And the “temples” often aren’t temples at all, many of them shrines, royal palaces, walled cities and monasteries – integral parts of ancient Khmer capitals that see-sawed over time between Buddhist and Hindu faith, as diverse as the 30 or more kings who built them.

It’s a complicated place that, for visitors at least, sits somewhere between archaeological adventure playground and vaguely defined spiritual retreat.

“The classic view of Angkor is that it’s a bunch of temples,” explains Roland Fletcher when I join him for lunch the next day at the Amansara hotel. “Angkor is no more a bunch of temples than London or New York.”

Fletcher, a lively sexagenarian, is an Asian archaeology expert at the University of Sydney. The annual Scholar in Residence at the Amansara Hotel, he’s also co-director of the Greater Angkor Project, a multinational research programme focused on what has been considered the mysterious decline of Angkor’s settlements.

We lunch on Amansara’s sunny patio, flipping through sepia photos that reveal the hotel’s former incarnation as the 1960s guest villa of Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihanouk. It’s a recent history that Fletcher clearly gets a kick out of, but this afternoon we are due to head back to the 11th century, on one of Fletcher’s tour groups to Baphuon.

This treasured temple was recently re-opened to the public after a mammoth rebuilding project that took over half a century.

Working with the few records spared by the Khmer Rouge after Cambodia’s civil war in the 1970s, a French-led team of archaeologists has managed to piece together 300 000 sandstone blocks to recreate Baphuon, a three-tier “temple mountain” that is one of Angkor’s largest structures. The pioneering restoration is all the more impressive when you consider that each piece in this giant, picture-less puzzle is unique. Angkor’s temples were created without mortar, the sandstone blocks chiselled so each slotted into a specific position.

“Just one millimetre out would have made a difference,” Fletcher tells me. “It’s a vast piece of geometry that, even with modern mechanics, still relied on the eye of Khmer workmen.”

It’s clear that Fletcher’s passion lies with people, not puzzles. For him, Angkor’s temples are not a study in ascetic worship, but centres of rude life.

“The fascinating stuff is the civilisation,” he says, giving the example of Ta Prohm, a working monastery that housed 12 000 people with a further 80 000 workers drawn from surrounding villages. “There were 615 royal dancers alone. The clergy had no real power; Angkor is not about religious fluff.”

Before the building of Baphuon, one of the greatest political changes of Angkor took place. After the construction of Baphuon’s predecessor temple, Ta Keo, King Suryavarman I, the great conqueror, took control of Angkor, carving inscriptions on walls that showed he brokered no argument. “His oath that his enemies would be ‘fried, sliced and diced in hell for the remainder of history’ showed that these kings played a very tough version of family politics,” Fletcher recounts.

I travel half an hour from Siem Reap with Fletcher to West Baray, a more logical place for Angkor tours to begin. Under Suryavarman I’s rule, this massive reservoir took six years and 200 000 people to dig. It was the key to a system of irrigation that fed Angkor’s sprawling capitals.

Fletcher calls it “the largest single engineering project in the pre-industrial world”. Yet it is barely visited by tourists. It is now a popular spot for Cambodians to fish and picnic. Yet its waters were once responsible for the success and, Fletcher believes, eventual decline of the Khmer empire. The management of water still looms large for Siem Reap, a town that’s growing hotels quicker than it does rice.

With a new international airport slated for imminent development, the burden that tourism puts on the infrastructure of this little town continues to increase, as does the intense footfall around the small group of favoured temples.

Elsewhere in Cambodia, the tourism sector is also growing at pace. Resort development on its slender stretch of coast and idyllic archipelago should flourish with the launch two months ago of internal flights between Siem Reap and coastal Sihanoukville. Add to this a Chinese-funded network of highways being built and the revitalisation of Cambodia’s railways by an Australian company, and perhaps the country will rediscover a pre-war affluence that saw its coastal resorts compete with Cannes for glamour.

On my final night I take a walk along Siem Reap’s “pub street” where an entrepreneurial revolution seems to be taking place, led by retro cocktail bars, “fish pedicure” spas and boutiques filled by the work of young Cambodian designers.

Equivalent streets are popping up in other cities such as Phnom Penh and Battambang – it’s brash, noisy and full of life. Cambodia’s tourism may have grown up around Angkor’s ancient temples but it seems that its future is far from set in stone. – The Independent.