culture

Get the authentic cultural experience on your next foreign jaunt. Wander like a local; here, there, and everywhere.

Singapore's endless pursuit of cleanliness
It hits me every time I step off the plane: the sudden chill of full-blast air con and the distinct scent of orchid-tea fragrance diffuser. Airports can feel nondescript, but arriving at Changi – both today and long before the Covid-19 pandemic – is a uniquely Singaporean experience. On the way to passport control, walking through the perfumed air, you'll see immaculately kempt green walls and tidy water features, teams of janitorial staff (in both human and robot form) and high-tech washrooms with interactive feedback screens.
By Turnell Feliu3 years ago in Wander
Asia's isle of five separate genders
The Indonesian island of Sulawesi sprawls like a drunken starfish in the western Pacific Ocean, its four emerald limbs reaching into the Celebes, Molucca and Flores seas. On its south-western tip sits the smog-choked port city of Makassar, long an important trading post and Indonesia's eastern gateway to the world.
By Copperchaleu3 years ago in Wander
The Swedish law of wanderlust
Swedish ice-climbing instructor Markus Nyman warms up his students with an off-piste ski tour, snaking past pine trees so thick with powder that locals describe them as "snow ghosts". They're only a few minutes' slalom from the main chair lift that takes alpine adventurers to the top of the slopes of Duved, a 17th-Century village 640km north of Stockholm. But soon they're swapping skis for crampons and poles for pickaxes as they prepare to scale a frozen waterfall in the middle of the forest.
By Copperchaleu3 years ago in Wander
Oman's spectacular 'Norway of Arabia'
Hidden among the wild fjords of northern Oman, between the mountains and the sea in a quiet bay, sits the small village of Kumzar. This is the country's northernmost frontier, but Kumzar has a distinct atmosphere from the rest of Oman. In fact, its glorious isolation – the village is accessible only by an hour-long speedboat ride or a 2.5-hour trip on a sailing dhow from the nearest city, Khasab – has led Kumzar to develop a language and culture all of its own.
By Mejra3 years ago in Wander
Europe's language that few speak
When Davis Stalts spoke of his seafaring grandfather, it was with the reverence accorded to a mythical hero. "He had hands this big," he gestured, capping off a large space with his palms. "He said he was made of steel."
By Mejra3 years ago in Wander
How Vienna built a gender equal city
Walk through the Reumannplatz, one of the best-known squares in Austria's capital city, Vienna, and you will probably spot an outdoor platform, prominently labelled Mädchenbühne (girls' stage). The large podium, which can be used by everyone, was requested as a performance space by the girls of the nearby school when asked what they would like from the urban area.
By Copperchaleu3 years ago in Wander
South Africa's language spoken in 45 'clicks'
On the outskirts of Upington, in South Africa's Northern Cape, there lives a queen. The queen is elderly and when she dies it may not just be she who is gone, but an entire realm.
By Mejra3 years ago in Wander
Why wild swimming is Britain's new craze
In between lockdowns, on a miserable, cold January day, I took myself off to Clevedon, a coastal town near me on the Bristol Channel. I wrapped myself in warm clothing and walked to Marine Lake, a seawater pool built onto the natural coastline. To my surprise, I saw a group of giggling women emerging from the ice-cold water. Spluttering and chatting away, they awkwardly changed into their clothes under their towels. I stood and looked on in disbelief: it was freezing, but they were jubilant, defying the weather by going for a swim.
By Copperchaleu3 years ago in Wander
Canada's little-known Russian sect
High on a bluff above Western Canada's Columbia River, just outside the small town of Castlegar, beautiful harmonies filled the air. I was sitting in the garden of the Doukhobor Discovery Centre beneath a statue of the great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, listening to a recording of an a cappella Doukhobor choir singing a haunting psalm. It sounded like a multi-tracked version of Crosby, Stills & Nash rendered in Russian.
By Copperchaleu3 years ago in Wander
The Spanish island that communicates by whistle
In the rugged crags of Barranco de Ávalo, a ravine on the small Canary Island of La Gomera, two local 12-year-olds were practicing their Silbo Gomero, the local whistling language. For an entrancing few minutes, Irún Castillo Perdomo and Angel Manuel Garcia Herrera's lilting warbles reverberated around the barren gorge and soared proudly into the air like eagles in flight.
By Mejra3 years ago in Wander
Adda: The secret to Bengali conviviality
On 22 March 2020, the first day of the countrywide pandemic-induced lockdown in India, labourer Mridul Deb was enjoying a cup of tea with several others at a roadside tea-shack in Kolkata, the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. When another local caught them on camera and asked why they were flouting the lockdown, one of them lashed out, "Amra cha khete eshechi, adda marte na, cha khawa hoegeche bari chole jachi" ("We have come here to drink tea, not to give adda, now we have finished so we are going home").
By Copperchaleu3 years ago in Wander
How Facing my Fears led to Rediscovering my Love
If you had to ask my biggest fear, the crazed, true crime obsessed fourteen year old within me would say talking to strangers. I think she would drop dead upon hearing that I agreed to go hiking for five days, in the middle of nowhere, in a group of people whom most of them I had never met, and the one I had met, invited me on the trip ten minutes after meeting him.
By Tilda Colling3 years ago in Wander