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The Big One: You Can’t Leave Without Visiting the Hermitage

While it's hot here in the States, our special contributor Kate Winick is headed to the cold country of Russia. To St. Petersburg to be more specific, and all this week she'll be sending dispatches from the shadow of many onion domes.

Any reasonably worldly-minded person has probably heard the warning that you can’t see the Louvre or the Hermitage Museum in one day. And well—you can’t. Don’t try. There are several special exhibitions going at any one time, although they’re not always well-advertised, and it’s best to just pick one or two sections of interest so you have time to enjoy the art and the interiors themselves—it’s a combination of grand baroque and spooky decay that just about sums up the indefinable nature of modern Russia.

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Tags: Laos Travel / Luang Prabang Travel / Jaunted Field Trips / → All Tags

Chase Temple Ruins And Hammock Lounging With A Cold Laotian Beer

Even though the recession has hampered exotic travel, there are still those intrepid explorers going all out. All this week, our Cambodian embed Claire will share experiences from her trip to Laos.

Southern Laos more closely resembles its neighbors, with a flatter, rice-paddy covered landscape. Here, main attractions include Wat Phu Champasak, temple ruins in a stunning setting and Si Phan Don, the 4,000 islands, a mid-river delta in the Mekong.

Wat Phu Champasak, an ancient Angkorian temple built into a hillside, is about two hours south of Pakse by sangtheaw. The infrastructure here, and the tourism machine, deteriorates slightly, leaving more options for independent travel alongside Lao people. We rode in a truck with a week’s supply of produce and several old ladies who helped us understand prices and figure out our route, all without any ability to truly speak to each other.

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Dining In St. Petersburg: The Best Spots For Caviar, Vodka And Borscht

While it's hot here in the States, our special contributor Kate Winick is headed to the cold country of Russia. To St. Petersburg to be more specific, and all this week she'll be sending dispatches from the shadow of many onion domes.

"Pectopah" is the one word you need to know if you’re hungry in St. Petersburg. It’s pronounced “restoran,” like “restaurant” with a twist, and is displayed prominently on almost every eating establishment in St. Petersburg.

The cuisine available varies from Moroccan to European to Japanese (sushi is the latest craze with the younger set), but for traditional Russian fare, there are a few experiences a cut above the rest. Three restaurants in particular stand out:

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Stopping By 'Pha That Luang,' Like the Eiffel Tower Of Laos

Even though the recession has hampered exotic travel, there are still those intrepid explorers going all out. All this week, our Cambodian embed Claire will share experiences from her trip to Laos.

Vientiane, the capital on the Thai border, resembles a small, riverside town with wide, empty sidewalks and open boulevards that starkly contrast with the crowded madness of the region’s other capitals in Hanoi, Phnom Penh, and Bangkok. Even the waterfront remains curiously green and serene, with a few food stalls set up serving drinks and food to customers sitting on floor rugs along the river.

The main attraction in Vientiane is Pha That Luang, which symbolizes Laos like Angkor Wat symbolizes Cambodia, the Eiffel Tour symbolizes France or McDonalds’ golden arches symbolize the United States. The curved, golden building shaped like a lotus bud was actually only built in 1931, because Thai and French imperialism destroyed both previous incarnations dating back to 1566.

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Won't You Come Try Laos' Special 'Magic Mushroom Shakes?'

Even though the recession has hampered exotic travel, there are still those intrepid explorers going all out. All this week, our Cambodian embed Claire will share experiences from her trip to Laos.

Veng Vieng, a backpacker ghetto seven hours south of Luang Prabang by bus, is probably the seediest place along the travelers’ route, yet it can be easily skipped by people who don’t consider drinking whiskey and floating down river on an inner tube fun. Nonetheless, it's much beloved by those who do.

As I'm still in my twenties,I feel quite young, but not in Veng Vieng. The town exists for and because of 19-year-old English kids in body paint, faux-hawks and tank tops, so my similarly aged friends and I, when we left Veng Viang all with various illnesses, learned our bodies no longer have the capacity to handle spring break.

The adventure began when the bus from Luang Prabang dropped us off in the middle of the night on an abandoned road outside town. The noise of our conversation awoke angry dogs in warehouses as we walked past in the direction—we believed—of town. Heat lightning struck, knocking out the lights from occasional streetlamps. An hour or so later, we found the town and a guesthouse with an insomniac owner who could let us in.

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Our Beat-The-Jet-Lag Walking Tour Of St. Petersburg

While it's hot here in the States, our special contributor Kate Winick is headed to the cold country of Russia. To St. Petersburg to be more specific, and all this week she'll be sending dispatches from the shadow of many onion domes.

So what do you do first in a country where you don't speak the language and you're still slightly suffering from jet lag? We took a cab into the St. Petersburg city center, down Nevsky Prospect, and this is the best place to start leisurely exploring. As the main street in St. Petersburg, Nevsky Prospect is marked by the Admiralty building with its tall gold spire on the north end (although there are several of these around, it’s the only one you’ll see at the end of the street) and the Nevsky Monastery to the south.

Worth stopping for a look outside are the Kazan Cathedral, the Dom Knigi bookstore (an Art Deco confection that formerly housed the Singer sewing maching company), the Russian National Library, monuments to Catherine the Great and more field marshals than you can shake a stick at, and the Anichkov Bridge, with its four famed equestrian statues. It’s also the central street for shopping, restaurants, etc., with the Gostiny Dvor, the city’s largest department store, on one side of the street, across from the Grand Palace luxury complex.

Even though Russia is no known for its love of luxury, St. Petersburg isn’t a shopping city—high prices and limited selection means that most wealthy Russians do their shopping on vacations in the rest of Europe or America.

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Negotiating A Flight From The US To St. Petersburg, And We Mean Russia

While it's hot here in the States, our special contributor Kate Winick is headed to the cold country of Russia. To St. Petersburg to be more specific, and all this week she'll be sending dispatches from the shadow of many onion domes.

You’ll have to pick your poison flying from the United States to St. Petersburg—direct flights are available mainly to Moscow, although finding a connection there is simple. On the other hand, you’ll get to pass through a hub that isn’t Atlanta. Finnair connects through Helsinki, KLM through Amsterdam, Alitalia through Rome, etc.

We chose to fly Lufthansa’s business class through Frankfurt, and were grateful to have the option of a lounge in which to pass out at 5:30 in the morning, after a not-long-enough rest on the flat seats.

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Buffalo Slim Jims And Waterfall Swims In Laos

Even though the recession has hampered exotic travel, there are still those intrepid explorers going all out. All this week, our Cambodian embed Claire will share experiences from her trip to Laos.

When we arrived in Luang Prabang, we wondered if the plane had changed course somewhere and instead landed in a small town on the coast of Maine. Only the occasional Lao and the mountains in the distance told me otherwise.

Though considered the cultural capital of Laos, Luang Prabang is also called “falang city” by Lao people because of the ubiquity of tourists there. "Falang" means French, which thanks to colonialism is the ascribed nationality of all foreigners in this part of the world. And perhaps only through sheer Communist might does it still manage to retain its quiet charm, with an 11pm curfew staving off any debauchery.

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Finding an Oasis in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia

Every good mountain range needs a big town for a base, and the Flinders Ranges of South Australia have theirs in Port Augusta. Situated exactly two hundred miles north of Adelaide, Port Augusta likes to think it's a crossroads town because those crazy enough to drive across Australia from east to west are almost obligated to stop by.

Up until recently, Port August has been relatively devoid of such travelers, but the last decade or so has seen the town jumping on the tourism bandwagon to reinvigorate itself. A highlight of the image renovation is the Wadlata Outback Centre, a multimedia museum explaining all about life in the South Australian outback.

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Finding the Flinders Ranges in Outback South Australia

The lower-central Aussie state of South Australia might get dwarfed by the fame of its city cousins Sydney and Melbourne and pushed aside by the brash outback of Uluru, but it really should not be so overlooked. The Flinders Ranges are reason enough to visit South Australia, with the whole dramatic outback beauty thing combining with a majestic mountain range and a location not all that far from civilization.

Head a couple of hundred miles north of capital city Adelaide, and you're well and truly in the thick of the Flinders Ranges. We recommend beginning any exploration in the southern part of the Ranges, around Mount Remarkable National Park which absolutely lives up to its name, and either take a gentle hike from there or check out the local wineries.

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Eats in Tel Aviv: Pasha

Today we wrap up Jaunted contributor Sedona's culinary trek through Tel Aviv. Don't worry, she is still hitting the gym to work it all off! We hope her recommendations have inspired your tastebuds.

Try Turkish in Tel Aviv? It sounded like a tongue twister to us, but we jumped on the opportunity to sit down to the swankiest version of Kosher Turkish food in town at Pasha. One of a two-restaurant chain (the other, original branch is in Jerusalem), Pasha is decked out in Asian decor, but serves authentic Turkish dishes. It's family style, so sit back and down kebobs of all kinds mixed with rices, soups, dips, and veggies that continue to keep coming. The eggplant dip is deliciously smoky and the koftes (meat dumplings) were spiced and perfectly shaped.

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Eats in Tel Aviv: Dr Shakshuka's

Jaunted contributor Sedona recently spent a week in Tel Aviv, and happily ate her way through the city so she could share her picks with you.

After a morning walk through the extensive flea markets of Tel Aviv's port city, Jaffa, don't shortchange yourself with a standard falafel that's easily gettable at any nearby stand. Instead, head to the Doctor's--Dr. Shakshuka's that is.

Serving traditional (Kosher) Libyan and Moroccan cuisine, Dr. Shakshuka's is like stepping into a family's house for a meal. Long wooden tables line the indoor and outdoor eating areas and guests are encouraged fill them, mingle and try everything.

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