culture

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

A new mission to see Titanic
Four-hundred miles from St Johns, Newfoundland, in the choppy waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, a large industrial vessel swayed from side to side. Onboard, Stockton Rush expressed a vision for the future:
By Sweet Holdeman3 years ago in Wander
The return of Aztec floating farms
It was early on a Sunday morning, and I was in the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco, 28km south of Mexico City's historical centre. The endless maze of canals and waterways was already filling up with colourful trajineras (flat-bottomed boats) packed with day trippers from the Mexican capital. Vendors were selling grilled elotes (corn on the cob) and michelada cocktails, while a band filled the air with festive Mariachi music.
By Sweet Holdeman3 years ago in Wander
The Bahamas' queen of Junkanoo
For two winter days in The Bahamas each year, the main street of the country's capital is transformed into a river of sound and colour. Drums, horns and cow bells permeate the Caribbean air as thousands in elaborately decorated costumes dance down the pavement.
By Sweet Holdeman3 years ago in Wander
The forgotten first people of Singapore
Visits to Asnida Daud's late grand-aunt's flat always promised a mouth-watering spread, with the family sitting cross-legged on the floor and eating with their hands in the customary way. Years after her grand-aunt had been resettled into a one-bedroom flat in Clementi, a residential estate in the south-western part of mainland Singapore that's a far cry from the stilted village on the shores of Pulau Sudong island where she used to live, she continued to make food the only way she knew, evoking a nostalgic longing for the island's white sandy beach and carefree way of life.
By Sweet Holdeman3 years ago in Wander
The man preserving endangered colours
Back home in the village of Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico, Porfirio Gutiérrez is referred to by his indigenous community as "El Maestro". In Ventura, California, where he lives now, and to the contemporary art world that he is courting, he is an artist with a mission. But for Gutiérrez, the job is the same: to conserve, preserve and innovate, when necessary, generations' worth of wisdom and culture associated with the making of one thing that keeps everything interesting – colour.
By Gay3 years ago in Wander
Zimbabwe's contest that celebrates the artistry of women
Peggy Masuku put the finishing touches on the welcome sign to her homestead in south-western Zimbabwe's Matobo district. She surveyed her handiwork, six months of designing and painting her huts in anticipation of an annual competition, My Beautiful Home, which recognises the most beautiful traditionally decorated homes in the district.
By Gay3 years ago in Wander
Taquile: Where manliness is based on knitting
On the tiny Peruvian island of Taquile, a man's worth isn't measured in his ability to hunt or fish, but in his ability to knit.
By Gay3 years ago in Wander
Putrajaya: The capital city you've never heard of
A flock of birds glided below me as I peered down from the wicker basket of a drifting hot air balloon above the Malaysian city of Putrajaya. The creatures gracefully flapped their grey wings as they passed the city’s nest of skyscrapers en route to their nearby habitat at the Putrajaya Wetlands Park, the largest man-made freshwater wetlands in Malaysia.
By Gay3 years ago in Wander
La Digue: The Seychelles' tropical biking paradise
La Digue is arguably one of the most well-known of the 115 islands in the Seychelles. It attracts thousands of tourists each year to Anse Source d'Argent, often called the most photographed beach in the world due to its imposing boulders reminiscent of prehistoric times, an ideal backdrop to Hollywood films and commercials. On a smaller scale, bird watchers from all over come to witness the rare sighting of the Seychelles Black Paradise Flycatcher bird, an endangered species endemic to the Seychelles.
By Di Mo Si3 years ago in Wander
Mawlid Al-Nabi doll...Check out its interesting story
There are numerous types of festivals, religious events and folklore celebrations in the world where each country celebrates differently according to its culture and traditions. Despite ceremonial forms differ from country to another but the most common form is eating candy which is always associated with joy, comfort, love, friendship and family. Candy has played important role in cultural traditions and celebrations worldwide for thousands of years.
By Enas El Nemr 3 years ago in Wander
Visit Bajo el Sol Gallery, Art Bar & Rum Room St. John, USVI
Bajo El Sol Gallery & Art Bar is a hybrid art gallery, bookstore, café, rum & cocktail bar. (c) Jim DeLillo Never mind the little bottles on the airplane. If you want to take a flight, try Bajo El Sol Gallery & Art Bar, a hybrid art gallery, bookstore, café, and rum & cocktail bar. Nestled among the shops at Mongoose Junction is a refined getaway that will give you a taste of rum — the Rum Room on St. John, USVI, where you can try sips to your heart’s content. Offering the largest selection of aged rums in Cruz Bay, it is tucked into the corner of an art gallery.
By Jim DeLillo3 years ago in Wander
The woman reviving Egypt's Nubian heritage
In the opening lines of a forgotten song called Mshkomsy, 70-year-old Haseeba is transported back to her childhood on the banks of the Nile in southern Egypt. Two hundred kilometres north of her drowned ancestral land, Haseeba's daughter Hafsa has asked her to sing something in Kenzi (also known as Mattokki) – one of two Nubian languages spoken in Egypt along with Fadicca – and from somewhere deep in her memory, Haseeba extracts part of the song she loved when she was young.
By Seamons Mahall3 years ago in Wander