A Lady in London

Cuzco isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Most people that travel in Peru use the city as a quick stopover point on their way to Machu Picchu. Admittedly, I may have been one of those people. But when I arrived in the former capital of the Inca empire, I discovered that there is much more to Cuzco than I ever imagined.

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I’ve been spending a lot of time in the jungle lately. Last month I traveled to Brunei, where I explored the rainforests of Borneo. This month it’s South America, where I just started a trip to Peru with a visit to Puerto Maldonado in the famous Amazon region.

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After my royal weekend in Brighton, I continued my pre-Diamond Jubilee trip with a visit to two of London’s most important sites for the upcoming celebrations: the Queen’s royal barge and Buckingham Palace.

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London is in a sate of anticipation. In less than three months, the city will host celebrations for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, which will commemorate her 60 years on the throne. But London isn’t the only place in the United Kingdom with royal connections, and the Queen herself is set to tour many parts of the country in this jubilee year. Following her example, VisitEngland invited me to Brighton over the weekend to explore the city’s royal past and indulge in a way that would make the royals proud.

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One of my favorite ways to spend a sunny afternoon in London is a trip to Borough Market. The farmers’ market under the railway overpass by London Bridge is one of the best places in the city to buy fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, bread, baked goods, and even prepared meals. From Thursday to Saturday, the market and its surrounding shops buzz with commerce, conviviality, and—best of all—free samples.

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It’s not every day that I leave London for dinner. The capital is so large that I could spend the rest of my life eating at a different restaurant every night and still not try them all. But every once in awhile there’s a place outside of London that piques my interest, and off I go. Last week it was the new CAU restaurant in Guildford.

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After eating my way through Beirut for two days, I needed some exercise for both body and mind. This started off in the form of a walk along The Corniche, Beirut’s famous seaside promenade. The weather was beautiful on Sunday morning, and the whole city was out for a stroll.

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Beirut has been on my list of places to visit for longer than I can remember. The city’s deep and often troubled history, its famous restaurant scene, and its legendary nightlife all lured me to Lebanon. With just over a month left to complete my 90 under 30 Travel Project, I added the country to the list and took off on Friday to travel to Beirut for the weekend.

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2012 is a big year for Britain. We are celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the London 2012 Olympics (and the 400th anniversary of the modern Olympic games), the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic, the 150th anniversary of Alice in Wonderland, and—perhaps most importantly—the 250th birthday of the sandwich. But that’s not all. My favorite London novelist, Charles Dickens, would have turned 200 this year. I have come across a lot of exhibitions and tours dedicated to Dickens in the past two months, and when I was offered a London taxi tour with a Dickens theme, I thought it would be a fitting way to celebrate.

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I haven’t always been a travel addict. Growing up in California, my family took the odd vacation to Mexico or Hawaii, but most of our trips involved visiting relatives in Phoenix or going on painful adolescent road trips to the middle of nowhere. But over the years, certain people and experiences gave me the travel inspiration that led me to start making my way around the world.

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I am the world’s worst cook. As much as I love a good meal, I have never been successful at making one. I came to terms with my lack of culinary skill a few years back, and since then I have eaten most meals out. But recently a friend started working for HelloFresh in London. The company provides subscribers with food and recipes to cook good, simple meals at home. When he asked if I would be interested in testing it out, I decided to dust off my apron and see how I fared.

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I have a rule when I travel: never go to the same place twice. There are so many amazing destinations in the world that it’s a shame to always visit the same ones. I make exceptions for places like Paris and San Francisco, what with the former being my favorite city in the world and the latter being home. Apart from those, I stick to my rule. Well, almost. In January I went to the New Forest for lunch at The Pig and had such a great experience that when I was invited to its sister property, the Lime Wood hotel, I couldn’t pass up the chance to revisit Hampshire.

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There’s a new mall in town. Normally I wouldn’t get excited about something that involves shopping, but when that thing involves food, and I am invited to sample it (all of it), I am willing to lend my attention. That is what happened when I was invited on a restaurant crawl at Boxpark Shoreditch, the world’s first pop-up mall.

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It’s not every day that I wake up in time to see the sunrise. And it’s not every week that I wake up in time to see it twice. But after the spectacular pink sky I saw at Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, I couldn’t turn down an opportunity to see the sunrise over the rainforest in Borneo. Standing atop a 60-meter platform in the middle of the jungle, I was awed by the beauty of the golden disc over the misty mountains in Brunei’s Ulu Temburong National Park.

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Bangkok is bustling. Spending four days in the serenity of the great temples in Siem Reap and Luang Prabang before heading to Thailand threw the intense urbanity of the country’s main metropolis into stark relief. Bangkok is one of my favorite cities in Southeast Asia, and I was exited to let its energy sweep me up and send me off to explore.

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