David Ellis BOOK into The Feathers hotel in the historic little English market town of Woodstock, and you’ll find Reception’s in a building that dates back to the 1600s, was a draper’s shop for the first half of the 20th century, and then a butcher’s. And not any butcher: this chap made somewhat of a […]
David Ellis WITH this the 150th year since Bowral and Moss Vale were founded side-by-side in the NSW Southern Highlands in 1863, the folk there reckon they’ve plenty to celebrate. And they’re doing it with twelve months of festivities commemorating memorable Highlands’ “firsts,” and of tales of convicts, characters and explorers, the more nefarious like […]
DELVING INTO THE CHARMS OF HOI AN David Ellis THERE are just two Westerners among 40 or so locals on the ferry, in truth just an open barge, crossing the river from Hoi An’s bustling Old Quarter to Cam Kim, a rural commune where village life still dominates here on Vietnam’s South Central […]
NOW that’s a First Class seat fit for a prince. (Flight Fashion) PRINCELY dining on world’s first private A380. (Flight Fashion) PRINCELY PLAYTHING’S A PERSONAL A380 David Ellis Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed bin Talal will take deliveryof the world’s first customised A380 superjumbo jet next year NEXT time you’re about to get […]
VENTING TRUTH BEHIND BIZARRE SMOKE-SCREENS David Ellis ONE hundred and fifty years ago this month when a small steam engine hauled a handful of VIP-packed rail carriages 5.6km under the streets of London from Paddington to Kings Cross and Farrington Street, it made history as the world’s first-ever underground railway. And so fascinated were Londoners […]
VENTING TRUTH BEHIND BIZARRE SMOKE-SCREENS David Ellis ONE hundred and fifty years ago this month when a small steam engine hauled a handful of VIP-packed rail carriages 5.6km under the streets of London from Paddington to Kings Cross and Farrington Street, it made history as the world’s first-ever underground railway. And so […]
David Ellis BY the time you read this, workmen will have begun ripping up the track and putting aside for the museum and as a plaything for the kids, carriages from one of Australia’s great tourism icons – the near-70 year old Scenic Railway at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. […]
David Ellis A 19TH century whaling ship, Sydney University, today’s Australian Hydrographic Service, a New Zealand museum researcher, and for good measure Google, would appear pretty-much unlikely bedfellows. Now chuck in suggestions of the CIA and it becomes an even less-likely mix. But just such a mix came to light recently when scientists from the […]
David Ellis WE’VE mates in this travel scribbling game who delight in reminiscing about cocktail parties they’ve spilled their way through over the years: The Ritz in London, Raffles in Singapore, with Santa Claus on Finland’s Arctic Circle, and even with Great Train Robber, Ronnie Biggs at his hideaway in Rio, to name a few… […]
David Ellis WHEN America’s Pan American Airways decided in 1937 that the time was right to look to opening-up a commercial flying route from San Francisco across the South Pacific to Sydney in far-off Australia. it’s founder Juan Trippe knew he had just the man to pioneer the route for them. That was his Chief […]