How to spend a weekend in Bangladesh’s thriving capital
Most tourists skip Dhaka, Bangladesh’s hectic capital, in favour of tiger-spotting in the Sundarbans mangrove forest or Sylhet’s sculpted tea gardens. But the ‘city of mosques’ is a dizzying blend of rickshaws, garment shops and imposing architecture, home to a grassroots arts scene
The 15 best vegan holiday destinations: from Goa to Ho Chi Minh
Not all holiday destinations are created equal when it comes to plant-based food. Gone are the days where being vegetarian – let alone vegan – meant sandwiches and limp salads on holiday. From Cape Town to Berlin, here are the best places for vegan travel
How to spend
a weekend in Bangladesh’s
thriving capital
inews, March 2020
Claire McQue
Most tourists skip Dhaka, Bangladesh’s hectic capital, in favour of tiger-spotting in the Sundarbans mangrove forest or Sylhet’s sculpted tea gardens. But the ‘city of mosques’ is a dizzying blend of rickshaws, garment shops and imposing architecture, as well as a grassroots arts scene
Not all holiday destinations are created equal when it comes to plant-based food. Gone are the days where being vegetarian – let alone vegan – meant sandwiches and limp salads on holiday. From Cape Town to Berlin, here are the best places for vegan travel
The 15 best vegan holiday destinations – from Goa to Ho Chi Minh
inews, November 2018
Claire McQue
Snapshots from Gurgaon, India: monsoons and monkeys
Claire McQue
Claire McQue
DLF Phase III, Gurgaon, India
A walk along the street where I used to live in India after a night of torrential rain. A chipmunk skitters across my path, his striped body a blur against the ochre-coloured ground. He reaches his destination and bounds up the bark of a tiare tree, one of many crowding the edges of the path. The creamy white petals of the tiare flowers look as if as they have been dipped in honey at the centre.
Underneath my own sandals, thick brown mud squelches out. Overnight, swollen raindrops have transformed the entire road from dusty track to river of mud. Puddles of water fill the track. The difference is that here, there are no toddlers splashing around in rubber boots. People gingerly step on thoughtfully placed stones or follow flattened car tracks to avoid muddying the hems of their rainbow-coloured clothing.
Hefting his wagon, one fruitseller marches boldly through the water, confident in rubber flip flops and clearly accustomed to not letting a monsoon downpour slow his day. The daily commute of Nathapur, a small village on the outskirts of Gurgaon, India continues despite the flooding.
Appearances are deceiving: this was a worryingly dry monsoon season.