Tobolsk was once Siberia’s capital and remains its most memorable city. Highlights are its handsome kremlin and a charmingly decrepit old town. Tobolsk is off the trans-Siberian mainline but direct overnight trains to both Yekaterinburg and Omsk make stopping here a perfectly viable option when crossing Russia.
Tiruchirappalli, universally known as Trichy, is a sprawling but extremely enjoyable city with two extraordinary temples – one perched high above the town on a rocky mount – and many travellers find Trichy more enjoyable than the clamour of the more renowned Madurai. It’s a well-serviced regional transport centre, always busy with locals especially during auspicious marriage seasons when gorgeously clothed families abound in every hotel.
Situated on the Larapinta Drive, 130 kilometres south west of Alice Springs, lies Hermannsburg, the birthplace of famous Aboriginal painter Albert Namatjira. Hermannsburg was the German name chosen by the Lutheran pastors who established a small mission for the Aranda Aboriginals here in the 1880s. The mission centred around an old stone church and schoolhouse that are today open to visitors, offering a unique insight into the controversial missionary movement that took place throughout the Northern Territory in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By all reports, the Hermannsburg mission was one of the more enlightened. Pastors learned the Aranda language, and while the Aboriginal community studied German and Christianity, they managed to retain their own cultural values. Hermannsburg’s most famous resident, Australia’s best known Aboriginal painter Albert Namatjira, painted with watercolours in the European style taught to him by the missionaries. His works were infused with a distinctly Aboriginal take on the landscape. Namatjira died in 1959, but his house is located three kilometres west of Hermannsburg on the Areyonga Road and is open to visitors. Several of his grandchildren now carry on his artistic tradition.
Hebel was established in 1889 under the name Kelly’s Point. It has been claimed Dan Kelly and Steve Hart, members of the infamous Kelly gang resided in the Hebel area under assumed names. The name was changed to Hebel in the early 1890’s. There has been a suggestion that when the name was changed, there was a family of German people residing in the town whose surname, or the Christian name of the father was Hebel. They were responsible apparently, for the title the town has carried over a century. The Hebel Store established in 1897 today stands as two buildings, the original store and the Hebel Dance Hall built around the same date. Visitors to the store need to watch their step as the old dance floor moves, telling a tale of the bygone era. The Hebel Store sells local arts, crafts and history books. The distinctive Hebel Hotel was originally a Cobb & Co stopover, which opened in 1894. This wonderful hotel has a colourful history and cannot be missed on a visit to Hebel. Another place that must be visited is The Crafty Yum Yum Cottage. This is a surprising gourmet delight in this isolated community.
Situated 15kms South from Penrith along Mulgoa Road this area was among the first outside Sydney to be settled by Europeans but it had been home to the Aboriginal Dharug tribe for thousands of years prior to settlement. Amongst the first European settlers were the Cox family, known for building the first road across the Blue Mountains. The historic homes ‘Winbourne’, ‘Fernhill’, ‘Glenmore’ and ‘Fairlight’. Please note: These establishments are privately owned and public viewing is seldom allowed. Enquire at the Penrith Valley Visitor Information Centre for maps and further information. Highlights of the valley are: * The Rock Lookout * Rileys Mountain lookout (40 mins loop walk from the Rock lookout) * The Peppercorn Cafe * Settlers Receptions and Functions * Li’l Treasures Homewares Gifts and Antiques * Mt Schoenstatt Shrine (replica of a German Chapel) * St Thomas Church and pioneer cemetery consecrated in 1838 * Mulgoa school building built 1883 * Glenmore Heritage Valley Country Club * a slab cottage built 1870 * Gate to ‘Regentville’, destroyed by bushfire in 1864 * ‘Glenleigh’ built in 1887 * ‘Glenmore’ built 1825 * ‘Fernhill’ built in 1842 * St James Church and cemetery * Winbourne – original home of William Cox and now a conference centre run by the Christian Brothers
While the rest of Kerala has its fair share of celebrations, Thrissur remains the cultural cherry on the festival cake. With a list of brash festivals as long as a temple elephant’s trunk, the whole region supports multiple institutions that are nursing the dying classical Keralan performing arts back to health. It is a busy, bustling place, home to a community of Nestorian Christians, whose denomination dates back to the 3rd century AD. The popular Sri Krishna Temple (33km northeast of Thrissur) and performing-arts school Kerala Kalamandalam are nearby. Plan to get here during the rambunctious festival season (November to mid-May).
The port town of Ende is an important transport hub, with good sea and air connections to the other islands in Nusa Tenggara, though there’s little to see in the town itself. Nevertheless, some fine mountain scenery surrounds the town, including the cones of Gunung Meja (661m) near the airport and larger Gunung Iya, occupying a promontory to the south.
You might have to pinch yourself upon arriving in Berastagi: the town is too busy with daily life to pounce on tourists. What a blissful relief from the guide overload you’ll find elsewhere in Sumatra.
A string of perfect volcanic cone islands lurk off the western coast of crazy-K shaped Pulau Halmahera. Of these, Pulau Ternate and its neighbour Pulau Tidore are the most populous, visually dramatic and historically significant. Both islands are ancient Islamic sultanates with a long history of bitter rivalry. As the world’s only major producers of a globally important product (cloves), their sultans became the most powerful rulers in the medieval Indies, wasting much of their wealth fighting each other. At certain times both sultans could claim nominal influence that spread as far afield as Ambon, Sulawesi and Papua.
The Baliem Valley is the most accessible gateway to tribal Papua. It’s a place where koteka (penis gourds) are not yet out of fashion, pigs can buy love, sex or both, and the hills bloom with flowers and deep purple sweet-potato fields. Unless you land here during the August high season, when Wamena and nearby villages host a spectacular festival with pig feasts, mock wars and traditional dancing to attract the tourism buck, you will be outnumbered by Christian missionaries (a constant presence since the valley’s ‘discovery’ in 1938) and Javanese transmigrasi. You may also be startled by blatant evidence of Indonesia’s neocolonisation of Papua, but mostly you will marvel at the mountain views, roaring rivers, tribal villages and at the tough but sweet spirit of the warm Dani people (for more on visiting the tribal interior, see boxed text, below).