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Violett Rosa, Дніпровська набережна, 12, Kyiv (2026)

19/05/2022

Jamaica’s Port Royal: The wickedest city on Earth?
Now a relatively quiet fishing village, Port Royal was once so notorious that it was considered by many to be ‘the wickedest city on Earth’ – until it sank into the sea.
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At 08:09 on the morning of 20 January 2020, an event took place that many Jamaicans thought they would never see. For the first time in 40 years, a cruise ship docked at Kingston’s historic Port Royal. An innovative new floating pier extended out and welcomed 2,000 smiling guests onto the island, with the vast Marella Discovery 2 dwarfing everything else in sight as they walked off.

18/05/2022

Palau's world-first 'good traveller' incentive
In a world-first initiative, visitors to Palau will be offered exclusive experiences based on how they treat the environment and culture, not by how much they spend.
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Despite being home to fewer than 20,000 residents, the Republic of Palau is making an outsized impact to preserve the planet. Not only did the country – made up of 300-plus islands in the South Pacific – adopt the world's first anti-nuclear constitution in 1979, but it also implemented the Palau Pledge in December 2017, which requires international visitors to sign a pledge stamp in their passports that promises the children of Palau that they will "tread lightly" and "preserve and protect" the islands.

Now, as the archipelago opens up to tourism again after two long years of lockdown, a new programme called Ol'au Palau is offering a world-first initiative of "gamifying" responsible tourism, whereby travellers will be offered exclusive experiences based on how they treat the environment and culture, not by how much they spend.

The programme, managed via a custom app that's launching in the coming months, offers points to those who treat the island nation gently and respectfully by making sustainable decisions like using reef-safe sunscreen, visiting culturally important sites (such as the Belau National Museum and Bai, the oldest in Micronesia) and eating sustainably sourced local food.

Guests can then redeem their points to unlock cultural and nature-based experiences that are normally reserved for Palauans and their close friends, such as taking an unmarked hike, swimming at a secret cave, sharing a meal with locals and elders or casting a reel in a secluded fishing spot. It also promises new experiences that may have once been rare for tourists to partake in, including a first birth ceremony, which is an important cultural event.

16/05/2022

How long-haul travel will change post-Covid
Airlines are rethinking long-haul travel as passengers cautiously return to flying. What’s likely to change?
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Australian flag carrier Qantas made history recently by ferrying passengers nonstop between South America and Australia. The aeroplane – a Boeing 787 Dreamliner – departed Buenos Aires shortly past noon local time. Some 9,300 miles (14.973km) and 17-plus hours later, QF 14 landed in Darwin.

In doing so, the carrier set two internal records: longest distance covered and longest time in the air for a commercial flight. Captain Alex Passerini, who commanded QF 14, later said: "Qantas has always stepped up to a challenge, especially when it comes to long-haul travel, and this flight is an excellent example of the capabilities and attention to detail of our flight planning team."

Contrary to popular belief, flying for so many hours isn't entirely new. In the 1930s, Pan Am jets hopscotched across the Pacific Ocean with regularity. Passengers on board the Honolulu clipper could expect 20-hour flight times when shuttling between Hawaii and the continental United States. Qantas followed suit a decade later. In 1943, the Flying Kangaroo launched service between Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Australia, its flying boats taking up to 33 hours to complete the trip. Passengers who did were subsequently admitted to "The Rare and Secret Order of the Double Sunrise", so named because of the two sunrises they would see during the trip.

The 21st Century has seen the long-haul, nonstop trend continue. In 2004, Singapore Airlines made headlines when it launched service between New York and Singapore; a 9,500-plus mile (15,289km) haul that can – depending on prevailing winds – take up to 19 hours. Less punishing (though not by much) is Qatar Airways’ Doha to Auckland, New Zealand service which clocks in at 9,000 miles (14,484km). Passengers on board the Boeing 777 cross 10 time zones and virtually the entire length of the Indian Ocean, continental Australia, and the Tasman Sea before arriving in the City of Sails. Trip time? 18 hours. Similar feats of flight are expected later this year when United and American Airlines launch services between the United States and India.

12/05/2022

Isso vade: The spicy snack that unites Sri Lanka
These prawn-topped lentil fritters are beloved throughout Sri Lanka, managing to bring together locals across ethnicities, religion and class.
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As the train pulled into Peradeniya Junction station in central Sri Lanka, the man sitting opposite me leapt out of his seat and leaned out of the window, placing his thumb and forefinger in his mouth and whistling loudly. A vade seller soon appeared outside, removed a basket from the top of his head and handed it to the passenger. The man quickly pulled out a fragrant fritter along with a small bag of fiery sambol, leaving money behind, and then passed the basket to other hungry passengers, who did the same before returning the basket back to the seller through the window.

As the train chugged away, everyone settled back in to their seats and contentedly crunched on what I'd later learn were isso vade: lentil patties topped with fresh prawns and deep-fried to create one of the most delicious street foods you could ever find on an island.

Isso (prawn) vade (pattie) are beloved throughout Sri Lanka, and their popularity can perhaps be attributed to their deeply familiar and simple ingredients: lentils and prawns, along with onions and curry leaves. Topped with a spicy sambol – made of chopped onions, tomatoes, green chillies and lime juice – plus chilli sauce for extra punch, each fritter has the perfect balance of crispy texture, zesty aroma and spicy flavour. And at Rs 50 to 70 (12p to 18p) each, they are an inexpensive, tasty treat for the masses.

The most famous isso vade are sold from carts along Galle Face, a seafront promenade in Colombo. Each evening, when the gentle breeze, which has travelled for miles over the Indian Ocean, finally encounters land and cools the city, thousands gather here to spend time with family and friends. They walk up and down the promenade, sizing up each isso vade seller to decide which one has the best offering – usually the one with the largest crowd.

11/05/2022

The rebirth of Tasmanian indigenous culture
Although many people believe that this ancient culture and people were lost, recent years have seen a seismic shift in recognition for indigenous Tasmanians.
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Among the sand dunes that line Tasmania's north-east coast, a campfire burns. Carleeta Thomas stands beside the fire, tending the muttonbird that cooks in the flames, surrounded by a series of wooden sleeping pods dotted through the scrub.

The oily muttonbird, or short-tailed shearwater, has been a traditional palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) food for as long as anyone knows, and these sleeping pods have been designed to replicate palawa huts found on Tasmania's west coast.

Today, they're an immersive piece of the wukalina Walk, a guided hike along the larapuna/Bay of Fires coast that is the first tourism business owned and operated by the palawa community. They're an expression of an ancient culture and people that even someone as young as 21-year-old Thomas, wukalina Walk's head guide, has often been told was dead.

"When I went to high school, there were still people that were saying 'I swear Truganini was the last Tasmanian Aboriginal'," she said. "I didn't really know how to respond to that. I knew I was Aboriginal."

The myth that Bruny Island woman Truganini was the last Aboriginal Tasmanian has persisted since her death in 1876, less than 80 years after Tasmania was settled by Europeans. In those early decades, palawa suffered a series of atrocities, from being forced into missions by the state's so-called Chief Protector of Aborginals, George Augustus Robinson, to be "civilised and Christianised", to the Black Line of 1830, when settlers formed a moving human chain across the island to try to capture the remaining Aboriginal population. The settlers were outsmarted: only two palawa were reported as captured.

The treatment of the palawa has been described as a genocide, though the lineage survived, with some palawa women taken to Bass Strait islands off the north coast of Tasmania by British and American sealers.

07/05/2022

The world's most dangerous road
A drive down Bolivia's infamous "Death Road" takes travellers into a world where two resources have provoked fascination, misunderstanding and controversy for centuries: coca and gold.
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After cresting the 4,800m Cumbre pass, the trufi (shared taxi) plunged into a cloud of swirling mist. Inside the vehicle it felt strangely peaceful, as if we were trapped in a bubble, which was perhaps for the best given we were travelling along the "Camino de la Muerte", or Death Road.

Running from the high-altitude Andean city of La Paz to the subtropical Yungas valleys and the Amazonian lowlands beyond, the 64km Yungas Road involves a sharp 3,500m descent. Parts of the highway are only 3m wide; there is a series of sharp turns and blind corners; and mini waterfalls splash down the surrounding rockface. Safety barriers make only a rare appearance – far more common are roadside shrines: white crosses, bunches of flowers, yellowing photos.

During the 1990s, so many people died in accidents on the highway – built by Paraguayan prisoners of war following the catastrophic Chaco War (1932-35) – that the Inter-American Development Bank described it as "the world's most dangerous road".

The trufi slowed to a crawl and the driver hunched forward, peering intently over the steering wheel as if at an eye test, before we suddenly emerged into the sunshine. Outside my window was a near-vertical 1,000m drop, while on the opposite side a motorbike whizzed past, clipping our wing mirror. Just ahead, a trio of cyclists gingerly navigated a crater-sized pothole: although a bypass has been built around the most perilous stretch, the road's macabre reputation has made it something of a tourist attraction and it attracts a steady stream of travellers eager to ride down it.

The route is also the gateway to an overlooked region with powerful associations. The Yungas ("warm lands" in the indigenous language of Aymara, spoken by around 1.7 million Bolivians) are a fertile, remarkably biodiverse transition zone between the Andes and the Amazon, closely linked to two resources that have provoked fascination and reverence, misunderstanding and controversy: coca and gold.

Violett Rosa

19/05/2022

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