While scuba diving may be the main attraction for coming to the Banda Islands, the fascinating – and often bloody – history of these famed Spice Islands makes for a fascinating morning land tour – and some excellent food too

Banda Naira is the only habitation of any size amongst the five Banda Islands, and it’s here the colonial remnants of the Dutch and English presence can still be found. The two countries fought bitterly over the right to colonise the Banda Islands as they were the only known place in the world where the spice nutmeg could be found. The demand for nutmeg – erroneously believed to be a cure for the plague – became so great that at one point it was worth more than gold pound for pound.

One Of Banda Naira’s Colonial-Era Buildings

Antique Gramophone In The Banda Museum: It Still Works!

The local Bandanese population was decimated by the fighting between the Dutch and English, and the paintings hanging in the museum depict some of the most gruesome episodes of Banda’s history. The story of the Banda Islands is brilliantly told in the book Nathaniel’s Nutmeg, which also documents the stranger-than-fiction events of how the Banda island of Run was accepted by the Dutch from the British in exchange for the inconsequential island half a world away called Manhattan. (Find Nathaniel’s Nutmeg on Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com).

The Internal Pentagon Courtyard Of Fort Belgica on Banda Naira

View From Fort Belgica On Banda Naira Island

The serenity of the island on walking up to Fort Belgica is a world away from this historical turmoil and gives some excellent views out over the bay. Even in the early morning, the humidity is pretty ferocious.

View From Fort Belgica Over Banda Naira’s Bay. The MSY Seahorse Is In The Distance

After touring the museum and fort, it’s time for breakfast and seeing an array of the spices still grown on the island. Nutmeg and cinnamon prevail, along with taro and numerous others. The nutmeg are hooked off the tree using ingenious basket catchers that let the harvester collect a whole branch’s worth easily.

The Nutmeg Catcher – The Nutmeg Hanging On The Tree Is Hooked Into The Basket

As a breakfast, it’s hard to beat – lightly fried banana and freshly made nutmeg jam and cinnamon tea straight off the tree, along with some taro too

Banda Breakfast: Fried Banana, Cinnamon Tea, Nutmeg Jam,, Taro

MSY Seahorse in the Banda Islands

We were back on board the boat by around 10 am, and ready to go diving around the Banda Islands.

As a whole, Asia is one of the most innovative continents in the world. From the latest in technology to the most unbelievable hotel designs in the world, the Asian continent is, to say the least, one-of-a-kind.

Japan, China, India, and other emerging Asian nations are home to some of the weirdest hotels anywhere in the world. Maybe it’s their imaginative thinking or maybe they just have a more innovative culture? Either way you slice it, Asia has some of the most off-the-wall hotels on the planet. Here are 10 of the most strange and offbeat hotels across the massive continent of Asia.

Safariland Treehouse Resort, India

Safariland Treehouse Resort: Deep in a mountainous jungle region of India, you’ll stumble upon one of weirdest hotels on the planet. This hotel actually consists of 4 treehouses which stand approximately 15 feet off the ground, and each is built out of locally sourced materials such as bamboo. These gigantic treehouses provide awesome views of the mountains and jungle streams below.

Each of the 14 rooms here cost between $150 and $250 per night depending upon the room, and there’s plenty to do for eco-tourists including wildlife treks, mountain hikes, bonfires, elephant rides, and you can even get some good food at the on-site restaurant.

Imperial Boat House, Thailand

Imperial Boat House: Located on the unspoiled Cheong Mon Beach in Thailand, the Imperial Boat House Hotel consists of 34 authentic teakwood rice barges that have been converted into luxurious beachfront suites. The pool here is even in the shape of a large ship. Each one of these converted barges features 91 square meters of living space, a beautiful sundeck, sky-lit bathroom and separate living rooms.

There aren’t many places on earth where you can ride an elephant on the beach as you can do at Imperial Boat House Hotel. These recycled barges are surprisingly comfortable in their design, and they are definitely a unique way to holiday.

Helga’s Folly, Sri Lanka

Helga’s Folly: The 40 room boutique Helga’s Folly hotel, located on a hillside in dense foliage near the town of Kandy, is more of an experience than just a stay at a hotel. This 1930’s-style hotel features a flamboyant colour scheme and eclectic furnishings. The sound of soft jazz music can be heard throughout this unique hotel, which combined with the interior design and unique setting make for a sensory explosion.

The hotel walls are littered with antique paintings, unique photographs and newspaper clippings from the local area; even the bathrooms are decorated with magazine covers as wallpaper. People who stay here claim that the experience at Helga’s Folly is unlike any other hotel in the world, and they get a feeling of sadness when their stay is over. Rooms start at about $100 per night.

Three Camel Lodge, Mongolia

Three Camel Lodge: A traditionally designed nomadic retreat in the middle of the Gobi desert, the Three Camel Lodge somehow manages to mix weird design, eco-friendly construction, and Mongolian Buddhist architecture. This hotel consists of 30 gers (nomadic tents) which are made from felt and wood without using a single nail to hold it together. This luxurious wilderness camp is also eco-friendly and takes advantage of both wind and solar power.

While these plush tents are small and expensive to stay at (doubles start at $300 per night), how many people can say that they’ve actually stayed in an authentic Mongolian ger in the middle of the desert?

First World Hotel, Malaysia

First World Hotel: This is the second largest hotel in the world behind the MGM Grand in Las Vegas with a total of over 6,000 rooms, and is located in Genting Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia. It’s not so much the interior of this hotel that makes it weird, but rather the exuberant colour scheme of the hotel’s facade which puts it on this list of weird hotels.

The brightly coloured facade is a perfect fit for this entertainment hotspot with a fully-equipped theme park, casinos, lounges and enough shopping to satisfy anyone’s taste. Any trip to the Genting Highlands area is not complete without a visit to the First World Hotel, and believe me, you can’t miss it!

Crazy House Hotel, Vietnam

Crazy House Hotel: It may be officially called Hang Nga Guesthouse, but locals have dubbed this off-the-wall hotel the Crazy House Hotel, and for good reason. This hotel was built in 1990 in Dalat, and has since been added onto numerous times over the years. This treehouse of sorts more resembles a fairytale castle than a hotel with its curvy interior and exterior. There’s also plenty of friendly stone animals surrounding this unique place including a huge giraffe, bear, and spider.

If you don’t wish to fork out $60 to stay the night here, you also have the option of taking a tour of this offbeat hotel for a very small fee.

Love Hotels, Throughout East Asia

Love Hotels: These so-called ‘love hotels’ are scattered throughout Japan, South Korea and parts of China, but they’re not the type of place to go for your honeymoon. These hotels are basically a cheap way for couples to ‘rest’ for a short period of time from 1-3 hours in most cases. There’s also overnight rates, but you can’t reserve your room for the night until after 10:00pm.

Often these odd love hotels take the form of castles, UFOs, and boats to name a few. The interiors can get even weirder with leather-laced rooms, dungeons, plenty of neon, ceiling mirrors, and even rotating beds.

Dotonbori Hotel, Japan

Dotonbori Hotel: One of the weirdest entrances to a hotel in Asia has to be the Dontonbori Hotel in Osaka, Japan. The front of this luxurious hotel right in the heart of the shopping and entertainment area of Shinsaibashi features 4 gigantic pillars that are shaped liked heads. This type of grand, and weird, entrance to a hotel is not something you see everyday!

Flush Hotel, South Korea

Flush Hotel: Maybe the weirdest hotel on the planet, the so-called Flush Hotel is a fitting name for a building shaped like a toilet. The owner, Sim Jae-Duck, built the $1.6 million toilet bowl in order to raise awareness about cleaner sanitation around the world. This live-in restroom is over 400 square meters in size, and is located just south of Seoul, South Korea.

The most amazing part about this giant toilet is not the design (surprisingly), but rather how much it costs to stay here for one night: $50,000! It must be said, though, that the proceeds go to provide poor countries with proper sanitation, so at least you know your hard-earned money won’t be going down the crapper!

Capsule Inn Osaka, Japan

Capsule Inn Osaka: This was the first hotel of its kind where each ‘room’ of the hotel was actually a small capsule with cramped 2m x 1m x 1.25m dimensions. The capsules are stacked on top of each other to maximise space, each one consisting of a TV, bed, and a wireless Internet connection which almost seems like a 5-star luxury all things considered. The Capsule Inn Osaka is extremely popular amongst local businessmen who need a place to sleep on long business trips, and it’s also popular to those who need a place to stay after drinking a bit too much sake the night before.

The notion of having a capsule for your hotel room was introduced in 1979 and its popularity has sparked interest by other hotel chains around the world to duplicate its design, including hotels in New York City and London. Nightly rates here are rather inexpensive starting at the equivalent of £15-20.

Once upon a time, in a world far far away, travelling by air was actually enjoyable. Airlines had personalised service, legroom was bountiful and they couldn’t give away enough food and drink during your flight! How things in the airline industry have changed.

For most people travelling by air now involves more stress than a bad week at the office: additional charges for baggage and checkin, fuel surcharges, rigourous security checks, queues – and that’s before you even get onboard! At least the airlines treat their paying customers well, I hear you questionably say. Wrong. If you are unfortunate enough to book with one of these airlines then you’re troubles, my good friend, may have only just begun!

So here, in all their glory, are ten airlines plagued by a litany of overbooking, delays, cancellations and failed safety inspections.

Nepal Airlines, Nepal

Nepal Airlines: This is another one of those airline options that people in the region often choose because it’s cheaper than the competition, however they usually find out that there’s a reason for this since the airline is notorious for delayed and cancelled flights. Reportedly, this airline sends delayed passengers to the airline headquarters to make arrangements for alternative flights rather than just helping them get on another plane since they’re already at the airport. It then ends up costing customers extra money to make those alternative plans.

Additional problems include that the former chairman was put in jail in 2005 for corruption and that the planes for this airline have a history of being grounded for failure to meet safety conditions. On the plus side, the airline is trying to make things better; in 2007, they sacrificed 2 goats in front of a plane in order to please the sky god and resume good flight conditions!

Varig Airlines, Brazil

Varig Airlines: This airline has had a history of problems and recent reports indicate that it remains unreliable despite efforts to improve service. For several years, people anticipated that this airline would go out of business due in no small part to financial issues. It’s a bad sign when the bank shows up at the airport and actually seizes one of your planes since you haven’t paid them!

Throughout 2006 Varig was significantly downsized and was subsequently purchased by another company in 2007. It was hoped that this could turn things around. However, reports from customers in 2008 indicate that the airline remains unreliable; one customer has said ‘the crew try their best but are let down by ancient aircraft, unpunctual flights and seats that are dirty.’ Nice. Oddly Varig is quite efficient when dealing with delays; it has a system in place to email people (often in the middle of the night) to let them know that their planes will be delayed for hours.

Alitalia Airlines, Italy

Alitalia Airlines: This large airline is so notoriously bad that there is an entire website devoted to providing consumers with information about why they should boycott their flights, (a website that Alitalia tried unsuccessfully to have shut down). In 2006, one blog named it the worst airline of the year due to constant strikes, cancelled flights and general ongoing delays and service issues.

Financial problems have caused these same issues to continue on into 2008. In fact, Alitalia just received an emergency loan from the government to help it avoid complete collapse (which the EU is investigating for issues of legality). Either way, many say that the airline’s demise is inevitable.

United Airlines, USA

United Airlines: This airline has regularly been called one of the worst airlines in the world because of constant delays that are compounded by horrible customer service. Just one example of a typical problem with this airline was the case of a woman who was returning from Cancun last year and got stranded in Mexico when United cancelled her flight. The airline basically told her, ‘it’s your problem, not ours’ and it ended up costing her nearly $1,200 to get new tickets on another flight!

In one set of reviews from a site that ranks airlines based on comfort, customer service and delays, the highest rank for United was in the area of on-time flights and that was only a 4 out of 10. It is believed that the problems are at least partly due to the nearly constant financial issues the airline faces, a problem that they’ve tried to remedy by overselling seats which sometimes leads to delays of more than seven hours for customers on their flights.

Aeromexico, Mexico

Aeromexico: This airline operates over six hundred daily flights, which is apparently too much for them to handle because they’re constantly receiving complaints about delays, poor customer service and lost baggage.

For example, one customer reported an incident a few months ago in which she had taken three students on a Spring Break trip from the USA to Nicaragua that was supposed to have a one night sleepover in Mexico City. When they arrived in Mexico City, the airline told them that the flight to Nicaragua had been delayed and that it would be eight days before they could get a new flight. The group decided to just return back to the USA; however Aeromexico couldn’t get them back there for another five days so they were stuck hanging out in Mexico City for almost a full week on their own tab.

Air India, India

Air India: The one thing that can be said for this airline is that it gets some points for consistency; unfortunately they’re awarded that honour only because they are consistently delayed. In 2005, customers experienced long periods of time just sitting on planes that pilots refused to fly because of safety concerns. In 2006, one customer reported that a flight was cancelled because there were too few people on it to make flying profitable so they were delayed to the point of needing to purchase a ticket on another airline.

In 2007, there was a day on which five flights were cancelled leaving approximately one thousand people stranded for as long as 24 hours. Air India’s problems continued into 2008 with numerous complaints of overbooking, sitting in cabins without food for up to six hours and regular delays.

Ariana Afghan Airlines, Afghanistan

Ariana Afghan Airlines: This airline is so bad that the EU has banned all but one of its planes from flying in Europe due to concerns about safety. One report states that Ariana Afghan Airlines have crashed more planes than are currently working in their fleet.

The airline is notorious for taking bribes; one customer reported that $50 would get you on a flight despite an announcement that the flight was delayed. However, the real concern comes from more recent reports that $500 will get you a pilot’s license to fly with Ariana! Some hope that increased political stability in this part of the world could ultimately lead to positive changes for this airline but for now it’s not one that you want to fly with.

Cebu Pacific, Philippines

Cebu Pacific: This small airline doesn’t have a huge itinerary of daily flights to manage so you would think that they could operate the ones they do have scheduled, but that’s not the case since they’re legendary for constant problems with delays. Currently a domestic airline, Cebu Pacific have ambitious plants to add scheduled international flights. Don’t let optimistic ambition blind you from reality: one set of industry reviews has them ranked only 2 out of a possible 10 for on time flights.

Recent complaints focus on the fact that flights are frequently several hours late on both the outgoing and incoming legs, often requiring passengers to wait inside uncomfortable planes for long periods of time while problems are sorted out. Cebu Pacific are also fond of the travellers worst nightmare – additional hidden charges.

Southwest Airlines, USA

Southwest Airlines: Many people in the United States love Southwest Airlines because it offers low prices on many flights. Unfortunately, this is often a case of ‘you get what you pay for’ as flying with Southwest has been notoriously problematic over the past few years.

There are the typical delays, of course, due to things like weather. It makes sense that Southwest is particularly concerned about weather issues since there was a case back in 2005 in which a Southwest plane mistakenly landed on an icy runway, skidding off of the track and killing a 6 year old boy. In fairness to the airline, it was said that the problem could have been the fault of the air traffic controller there but it put the airline on edge and made it so that weather-related delays were more frequent than necessary.

The following year, Southwest pulled its service out of airports where weather was often a problem, like in San Francisco (although they recently decided to return to servicing that airport this year). Things were good for the airline for a short time until early 2008 when over 40 planes were grounded because of the airline’s failure to meet inspection requirements causing widespread delays and cancellations.

AirTran Airways, USA

AirTran Airways: This small airline receives various customer complaints but the main one seems to be a result of the company’s practice of denying boarding rights to passengers who arrive late at the gate (even though the plane hasn’t even been readied to leave yet). It doesn’t seem to matter that the passengers are late because of delays in their connecting flights, delays frequently caused by the airlines themselves; passengers are often left idly at the gate watching the plane as it sits on the runway.

AirTran planes apparently like to just sit at those same gates for a while, with some passengers reporting that they’ve been stuck sitting on a stationary plane for up to five hours.

Have some food. Jersey is close to the French coast, so there is a lot of influence.  Seafood is a big part of the cuisine, especially mussels and crabs.  As you can imagine, it’s all fresh and tasty.  My favourite treat though is Jersey wonders, or mèrvelles, which is a fried dough.   If you live in the UK you’ll no doubt be familiar with Jersey cheese, but did you know it even has its own Cheese Festival?  And you’ll have to try Jersey fudge, made with the same milk.

Check out the beaches.  With loads of sun and mild weather, Brits love to hang out along the Jersey shore. (Pun on similar-sounding place in America is intentional.)   I’ve been told that Grouville is a good off-the-beaten-path recommendation, but I can’t attest to it first hand.    Regardless, if you want some ocean views they’re not difficult to be had.

Soak up some history. Jersey was the only portion of British soil to be occupied by Germany in WWII.  But there’s loads of strange and interesting history here.  Start with the Jersey War Tunnels for the most comprehensive view of recent history.  Then go way, way back in time at La Hougue Bie, a neolithic burial chamber.  It doesn’t end there… amongst castles and other interesting sights, check out this tale of folklore courtesy of the BBC.

If You Go:  The easiest way is via flight from Ireland or the UK mainland – low cost carriers offer cheap flights from a number of airports.  Once you’re there, it’s easy to get around but keep in mind the bus service doesn’t run late and taxis can be quite expensive!

Photo by tompagenet

The Brewers Fayre restaurant near Stirling, called the the Pirnhall Inn is a couple of minutes drive from the services roundabout at Stirling, following the signs for Bannockburn. So if you need to stop in the Stirling area, you’ll get a much better ambience and value for money at Brewers Fayre than at the services restaurant. The Pirnhall has a kids outdoor play area.

This offer is available from 12.00 – 18.30 Monday to Friday. There are fourteen main courses on the offer menu. We ordered the Steak Pie and Chicken Tikka Masala. At Brewers Fayre you order and pay at the cash desk and your order is brought to your table.

Our meals arived within ten minutes. The servings were generous and the food was pretty good. The Steak Pie was made with shortcrust pastry, I prefer puff pastry but I imagine shortcrust stores and heats up better. There was no gristle or fat in the beef.  However the meal was served with a tiny portion of peas, I’d have liked more peas or preferably two veg. The Tikka Masala was served with a small nan bread and two poppadoms.

Unfortunately I only thought that I should write a blog post about the offer once we’d eaten our food, so I’m using a Brewers Fayre photo in this post. Sometimes I just act like a “normal person” and eat my food when it arrives without thinking about taking photos and writing blog posts.

I asked Brewers Fayre how long the offer is scheduled to run and was informed “for the forseeable future”, so it’s probably a good idea to contact the restaurant before you visit to check that the 2 for £9 offer is still available.

Overall I say the 2 main meals for £9 is good value if you want a cheap meal in pleasant surroundings. Brewers Fayre have restaurants all over the UK.

Introduction

Whether you’re on a romantic break, hoovering up the art and culture or trying to keep the kids amused, there are plenty of things to do for free in London. Yes, free. And if you have to splash the cash, there are savings to be made if you know where to look.

View to Big Ben from Trafalgar Square by ianbruce

Self-guided walks

Whether you fancy a stroll around famous landmarks or want to find a quieter part of town, self-guided walks are a great way to discover the city and prise the kids off the sofa. To get away from the bustle of the city centre check out some of the walks along London’s canals. A two and a half hour circular walk from Little Venice takes in the colourful flower-decked narrowboats moored along the Regent’s Canal, the busy market at Camden Lock and the panoramic views from Primrose Hill. For this and other waterside walks go to Waterscape.

There are also plenty of walks to choose from with the kids in mind. Thames themed walks can be found in the Walk this Way series with a couple of young persons’ guides focusing on the bridges, buildings and sights above the Thames – including the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, St Paul’s Cathedral and Shakespeare’s Globe – as well as lost rivers and wildlife that can be seen in the area.

London Eye at night

Parks

The big hitters are London’s eight Royal Parks which can all be visited for free. With a diverse range of plants, animals, buildings and memorials they are the perfect place to take a walk, have a picnic or catch some of the free events like the bandstand concerts or wildlife guided walks. Richmond, Greenwich and Bushy still have deer, Regent’s Park has a large boating lake and an open air theatre while Kensington Gardens has its famous statue of Peter Pan and the impressive Albert Memorial.

Peter Pan statue, Kensington Gardens, London by amamdabhslater

From the wilds of Hampstead Heath to the local rec there’s bound to be a green space nearby wherever you are in London. There are around 140 sites of metropolitan importance that are home to rare species, as well as pocket parks, commons, community gardens and other small wildlife sites across the capital. To find the nearest parks, woodlands or wetland near you, go to Wild Web where you can search by postcode or borough.

Gallery highlight tours

Most galleries and museums offer a free tour you can just turn up and join. These usually last about an hour and will concentrate on four or five selected paintings or objects from a collection chosen by the guide. For example at Tate Britain Mon-Friday there are talks at 11am art from 1500-1800, 12.00 art from 1800-1900, 14.00 Turner and at 15.00 art from 1900. The National Gallery also has a host of free events. There are free guided tours daily at 11.30am and 2.30pm as well as lunchtime talks, 10 minute talks and family workshops at other times of the week. At the Victoria and Albert Museum free tours run every day on the half hour from 10.30 to 3.30pm which give a short history of the V&A and introduce a selection of treasures.

Glass sculpture, Victorian & Albert Museum, London by wedesoft

Family trips

Days out are notoriously expensive but planning ahead can ensure that there’s plenty to interest your family and save you money. Here are a few top tips to help you.

Always do a quick tally of overall cost so you don’t get a nasty surprise at the end of the day. Include travel/fuel, ticket prices, any additional activities and food costs to get a full picture of what the day out is costing. Ask if family tickets are available. This can save money for larger family groups. Plan ahead and check the websites to ensure there is enough to interest your family. Most attractions have extensive websites that detail costs, age restrictions and suitability and any possible closures or changes that might affect your visit. Some events may be free but require booking in advance.

Regional tourist websites can also be a great source of money off offers. The West Midlands has plenty of attractions from Cadbury World and Alton Towers to Warwick Castle. Or, if you’re getting the train to London and the south east Days out Guide has details of off-peak fares and special offers and 2for1 deals when you travel by train.

Spinball Whizzer rollercoaster, Alton Towers by gnislew

Find out where kids go free. For example, at Kew Gardens children under 17 get in free when accompanied by a paying adult. (Adult £13) There’s the new Rhizotron and Xstrata Treetop walkway to see as well as kids trails and a special parents’ visitors guide on the website to help you make the most of your visit. Don’t assume that the popular attractions will cost a fortune. Even the latest blockbuster exhibitions at The British Museum have free entry for under16s when accompanied by a paying adult or offer family tickets that can provide greater savings. Of course, apart from special exhibitions, the British Museum is free to visit.

In some instances, membership of an organisation might be a useful option. For example, an adult membership of English Heritage is £43 a year which includes free entry for up to 6 accompanying children (under 19) within your family group. With over 400 properties throughout England, whether it’s castles, stately homes or rambling over romantic ruins that your family enjoys it could save you money in the long run.

Even places that usually charge may have free or reduced charges on certain days or times. For instance, the Courtauld Gallery with its extensive collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist work has free entry on Mondays from 10am until 2pm (excluding public holidays) – usual adult charge £5 – and has free admission for under 18s.

London double decker buses by salimvirjl

Travelling around is one of the main considerations when in London. At Transport for London you’ll find details of how to make savings on with Oyster cards, freedom passes and details of children’s fares on tube DLR and overground services. Free and discounted travel is available for under-18s.

Go prepared. It might be a faff and stating the obvious but bringing your own drinks and snacks can save a small fortune.

Keep up to date with all the free events (and some which cost less than a fiver) in London from local arts festivals to markets and fairs at Free London Listings.

At the heart of the Riviera is the town of Makarska. And much of Makarska can be found along its Riva. The promenade of this once Roman settlement is lined with palm trees, Dalmatian eateries and souvenir stalls. Along the waterfront, ferries and fishing boats host dinners and embark on night cruises.

On dry land, Makarska’s town centre is a patchwork of old stone and churches. The main sight here is the fifteenth century Franciscan monastery. Weirdly, it is known for its collection of snails, shells, mussels, and fossils from the region.

Like Makarska, the Riviera is full of small towns and fishing villages where you can soak up the magic of the Adriatic. If you plan your trip right you could make it for some of the summer fiestas, the most popular of which is the fishermen’s nights. Celebrations are fuelled by folk music, traditional costumes and local food.

The Riviera’s most prominent feature, of course, is its coastline and the many sunny beaches that line up along the water. Tourists and locals alike can be found here all day, lounging on the beach, swimming, fishing, diving and parasailing. And given the long of hours of sunshine, the clean waters and peaceful surroundings, who can really blame them?

Chillies West End, Glasgow

The restaurant is billed as a contemporary Indian restaurant serving “small portions of exquisite food”. The idea is that you can sample a wide variety of dishes. You should be aware that the restaurant operates a no alcohol policy.

Between 12.00 to 15.00 and 17.00 – 18.30 (tables must be vacated by 19.30), there is the option to select three little dishes from the day menu for £9 to include either nan bread, rice or a tandoori roll. We chose:

1 Machil Nariyal Masalah – mixed seafood

2 Gosht with Mint & Yoghurt – lamb

3 Chooza Goan – chicken with honey

4 Tarka Dall – lentils

5 Saag Paneer – spinach with cheese

6 Gosht Karachi – lamb with peppers

Chillies West End, Glasgow

Chillies West End did live up to its promise of exquisite food. The dishes were much lighter than you often find in a Indian restaurant, with subtle flavours. The restaurant has a pleasant ambience, with dark wood tables and red chairs to echo the chilli theme. The toilets are very clean and had lovely scented soap.

I’d recommend the restaurant, especially at lunch time or early evening, when it’s excellent value for money.

Midsummer is an official holiday in Sweden. It is not necessarily celebrated on the day of the summer solstice but the Friday and Saturday of the summer solstice weekend. It is a celebration focused on tradition. Everything from what songs to sing, dances to dance, foods to eat, and clothes to wear.

I have spent a few Midsummer’s in Sweden now. Each one has been a bit different. But this year was one of the more traditional ones. Mostly because I found myself in Järvsö, Sweden. A small little town about 300 km north of Stockholm near the eastern coast of Sweden.

Järvsö is right in the middle of the Hälsingland region, a region that seems to pride itself on nature and of course its folk costumes and folk dancing. And there is no better time to see traditional Swedish folk dancing than at Midsummer. Swedes dance around the May pole holding hands, singing along to classic songs about cleaning the home or small frogs (a traditional song whose meaning still escapes me). All in all, Midsummer is a time to enjoy the daylight. Even if it might be raining, as it was in many parts of Sweden this year.

Sweden tends to be one of those countries that most people visit during the summer. The winter months, while charming in my opinion, don’t always appeal to everyone. So if you find yourself traveling to Sweden, aim for the summer solstice. Spend your vacation up north with nearly 20 hours of daylight while dancing around a May pole singing about small frogs.