Your Trip Mapped Out China

By StanleySobari

#China’s landscapes and ancient history have been inspiring travelers since the days of marco Polo. Follow our oriental adventure by taxi, plane and bullet train, from the historic streets of the capital Beijing to the riverside splendor of Yanshuo

BEIJING Best for history, Glimpse the capital as it once was, from the imperial splendor of the Forbidden City to the ancient hutongs – a beguiling web of alleyways

JIANKOU Best for the Great Wall, China’s original superhighway is the country’s greatest and most recognized attraction, here snaking beyond the massed tourist hordes

SHANGHAI Best for architecture. A towering vision of an urban future, Shanghai’s mighty skyscrapers grow ever taller and bolder in a myriad of revolutionary designs.

LONGSHENG Best for rice terraces. Rice is grown in China on a massive scale, and yet the ancient farmlands retain a majestic beauty at one with their environment.

YANGSHUO Best for river scenery. Cormorant fishermen continue their age-old tradition beneath the karst pillars that rise above the banks of the Yulong and Li rivers.

Your Trip Mapped Out South Africa

By StanleySobari

#A platform in a Cape Town station is the first step to discovering the riches that lie in the heart of South Africa-from a once-in-a-lifetime train ride, to wildlife safaris, historic battlefields, inspiring mountain treks and blissful isolation on the coast.

The Blue Train-Best for rail journeys : Ride the rails from Cape Town to Pretoria on a train inspired by 1920s glamour, as the mountains of the Cape and the expenses of the Karoo pass by.

Kruger National Park-Best for wildlife : One of the most important wildlife reserves in Africa, the Kruger has the Big Five game animals of safari legend and countless more species besides

Isandlwana &  Rorke’s Drift-Best for Battlefields : The rolling heartland of the Zulu people is dotted with battle sites whose names loom large in the colonial history of the nation.

Drakensberg-Best for hiking : The rooftop of South Africa catches the clouds and sends swift rivers rushing through dramatic gorges that make for prime walking country.

Wild Coast-Best for seclusion :  The surf breaks along a coast that’s far from urban centres, where local life continues largely unchanged among the rondavels (thatched huts).

KRUGER NATIONAL PARK

By StanleySobari

# There are thought to be more than 12,000 elephants in the Kruger National Park.

BEST FOR WILDLIFE ‘Now for me, this is the true privilege of my job.’ Lazarus Mkhonto has parked in the sunset-gilded sands of a dried river bed, but his eyes aren’t on the scenery, nor the refreshments laid artfully across the Land Cruiser’s bonnet, nor even the many representatives of a safari-spotter’s wish list ambling past on all sides: the crazy-paved giraffes nibbling at the tree tops; a multi generational herd of unhurried elephants; two gimlet-eyed rhinos with their ancient flanks tide-marked in basking mud.

Instead, Lazarus is transfixed by a modest, russet-coloured ruminant on the far bank, nervously browsing green shoots thrown up after the first rains of summer. ‘We have more than a million impala here in Kruger National Park,’ he says-a typically healthy population in this bushveld the size of Belgium, home to almost 800 species of reptile, bird and mammal. ‘Most people spot one or two and then stop noticing they’re even there. No-one comes here to see them. Maybe that’s why I’m such a fan. Yesterday I watched one for two hours.’

Passion, Lazarus asserts, is what makes a good ranger. ‘We have people who come here with diplomas and degrees,’ he says, pulling down the brim of his bush hat as the sun goes out in a scarlet blaze of glory, ‘but if they don’t fall in love with this place, they don’t last long.’

Lazarus was raised just outside the park, and began working as a tracker at 14. ‘But I’m still reprised every day.’ He says. ‘See that watering hole?’ he points at a muddy splodge a hundred yards off, as large as an inflatable paddling pool and ringed with coconut cobbles of elephant dung. ‘I went past this morning and could not believe what I found living in it.’ On cue, the improbable cohabitants reveal themselves in a thrashing of brown water: a full-grown crocodile and a monstrous hippo.

Vast yet often seemingly crowded, the Kruger can both overwhelm and disappoint. Visitors must stick to the roads, meaning their every encounter with nature’s raw majesty is diluted by the background presence of tarmac, tour buses and the whirr of cameras. Most visitors, anyway: the jock Safari Lodge, where Lazarus works as a ranger manager, offers an entirely more natural experience. The oldest of a handful of private lodges within the park, the Jock is set in 6,000 exclusive hectares. ‘We can go anywhere we like,’ says Lazarus, gesturing at the dusk-bound river bed, the tall jackalberry trees full of balloons shrieking against the dying of the light, the low, orange hills strewn with Flinstones stacks of bare boulders. ‘People come to Kruger for wildlife, but you know: this is really wild, man,’ He smiles hugely. ‘And it’s my office.’

Each of the 12 straw-roofed guest cottages has a private plunge pool. Barbecues and other meals are served on a panoramic deck (including all meals and two game drives; jocksafarilodge.com).

The Perfect Trip – South Africa

By StanleySobari

#The mighty Amphitheatre at the heart of the Drakensberg is  also rich with dinosaur foosils and prehistoric cave art.

Beyond Cape Town and the Garden Route, discover the north and east of this land of soaring mountains, unspoiled coasts and rich wildlife

The Blue Train

By StanleySobari

BEST FOR RAILWAYS JOURNEYS Rose gardens, pigeons and the vinegar whiff of fish and chips: the ambience that lingers in the avenues just beyond Cape Town station would have seemed familiar to a past generation of British-born colonials, reacclimatising en route to motherland. The forecourt itself, though, is a tribute to modern South Africa, log-jammed with taxi drivers and snack merchants loudly appealing to a new breed of commuter.

This clamour fades beyond the blue rope that cordons off a private platform, home to a quarter-mile of gleaming azure metal. The Blue Train is a luxury sleeper service that began life in the 1920s, and its current incarnation is a happy marriage of vintage opulence and contemporary comfort. Double-size compartments eliminate the yogic contortions demanded aboard a more typical sleeper train, and are furnished with geometric brocade and dark marquetry in homage to this mode of transport’s Agatha Christie heyday. Best of all, there’s a yawning, gold-tinted picture window showing this magnificent country slide by.

Table Mountain is left behind swirled in its mist, slipshod suburbs give way to flamingo-dotted lakes and then it’s out into a rolling enormity of vineyards and orchards.

Amongst the waistcoat ted butlers in the lounge car is Frits van Helden, who at 56 has been swaying down the Blue Train’s thickly carpeted corridors for 39 years. ‘Everyone who worked on the railways wanted a job on this train,’ he says. ‘We were all hand picked.’ The trains have evolved since then – ‘we ran steam locos well into the ‘80s, and our best suite took up half a carriage’ – but the view is ageless. ‘It’s a thousand miles to Pretoria,’ says Frits, looking out at the Hex Valley’s snow-dappled crags,’ and I know every one of them like an old friend.’

Lunch, dispatched amid a festival of linen and crystal, is parsley-crusted rack of lamb with many toothsome courses either side of it. Between the dessert wine and the cheese board the train is swallowed by a long series of tunnels; the last opens into the Karoo, a coppered scrubland that covers a third of South Africa and most of the voyage.

The Blue Train pitches itself as ‘a window to the soul of Africa’, a maxim that isn’t confined to the scenery. If Dutch-born Frits is the oldest hand aboard, then Takunda Mposhi is the youngest – a 24-year-old in his third month of service. ‘Our country has seen great changes in my lifetime,’ He says performing the deft mechanical original that converts a compartment’s armchairs into a wonderfully plump bed. ‘On this train, people from every background and of every colour work together and play together. When we get back to Cape Town we will all go down to the beach.’

Suites are butler-serviced and include digital entertainment systems and marble-fitted en suite bathrooms with baths. The dining car specializes in native produce such as Karoo lamb and Knysna oysters (including all meals and drinks; bluetrain.co.za).