culture

Get the authentic cultural experience on your next foreign jaunt. Wander like a local; here, there, and everywhere.

Adda: The secret to Bengali conviviality
On 22 March 2020, the first day of the countrywide pandemic-induced lockdown in India, labourer Mridul Deb was enjoying a cup of tea with several others at a roadside tea-shack in Kolkata, the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. When another local caught them on camera and asked why they were flouting the lockdown, one of them lashed out, "Amra cha khete eshechi, adda marte na, cha khawa hoegeche bari chole jachi" ("We have come here to drink tea, not to give adda, now we have finished so we are going home").
By Copperchaleu3 years ago in Wander
How Facing my Fears led to Rediscovering my Love
If you had to ask my biggest fear, the crazed, true crime obsessed fourteen year old within me would say talking to strangers. I think she would drop dead upon hearing that I agreed to go hiking for five days, in the middle of nowhere, in a group of people whom most of them I had never met, and the one I had met, invited me on the trip ten minutes after meeting him.
By Tilda Colling3 years ago in Wander
A new mission to see Titanic
Four-hundred miles from St Johns, Newfoundland, in the choppy waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, a large industrial vessel swayed from side to side. Onboard, Stockton Rush expressed a vision for the future:
By Sweet Holdeman3 years ago in Wander
The return of Aztec floating farms
It was early on a Sunday morning, and I was in the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco, 28km south of Mexico City's historical centre. The endless maze of canals and waterways was already filling up with colourful trajineras (flat-bottomed boats) packed with day trippers from the Mexican capital. Vendors were selling grilled elotes (corn on the cob) and michelada cocktails, while a band filled the air with festive Mariachi music.
By Sweet Holdeman3 years ago in Wander
The Bahamas' queen of Junkanoo
For two winter days in The Bahamas each year, the main street of the country's capital is transformed into a river of sound and colour. Drums, horns and cow bells permeate the Caribbean air as thousands in elaborately decorated costumes dance down the pavement.
By Sweet Holdeman3 years ago in Wander
The forgotten first people of Singapore
Visits to Asnida Daud's late grand-aunt's flat always promised a mouth-watering spread, with the family sitting cross-legged on the floor and eating with their hands in the customary way. Years after her grand-aunt had been resettled into a one-bedroom flat in Clementi, a residential estate in the south-western part of mainland Singapore that's a far cry from the stilted village on the shores of Pulau Sudong island where she used to live, she continued to make food the only way she knew, evoking a nostalgic longing for the island's white sandy beach and carefree way of life.
By Sweet Holdeman3 years ago in Wander
The man preserving endangered colours
Back home in the village of Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico, Porfirio Gutiérrez is referred to by his indigenous community as "El Maestro". In Ventura, California, where he lives now, and to the contemporary art world that he is courting, he is an artist with a mission. But for Gutiérrez, the job is the same: to conserve, preserve and innovate, when necessary, generations' worth of wisdom and culture associated with the making of one thing that keeps everything interesting – colour.
By Gay3 years ago in Wander
Zimbabwe's contest that celebrates the artistry of women
Peggy Masuku put the finishing touches on the welcome sign to her homestead in south-western Zimbabwe's Matobo district. She surveyed her handiwork, six months of designing and painting her huts in anticipation of an annual competition, My Beautiful Home, which recognises the most beautiful traditionally decorated homes in the district.
By Gay3 years ago in Wander
Taquile: Where manliness is based on knitting
On the tiny Peruvian island of Taquile, a man's worth isn't measured in his ability to hunt or fish, but in his ability to knit.
By Gay3 years ago in Wander
Putrajaya: The capital city you've never heard of
A flock of birds glided below me as I peered down from the wicker basket of a drifting hot air balloon above the Malaysian city of Putrajaya. The creatures gracefully flapped their grey wings as they passed the city’s nest of skyscrapers en route to their nearby habitat at the Putrajaya Wetlands Park, the largest man-made freshwater wetlands in Malaysia.
By Gay3 years ago in Wander
La Digue: The Seychelles' tropical biking paradise
La Digue is arguably one of the most well-known of the 115 islands in the Seychelles. It attracts thousands of tourists each year to Anse Source d'Argent, often called the most photographed beach in the world due to its imposing boulders reminiscent of prehistoric times, an ideal backdrop to Hollywood films and commercials. On a smaller scale, bird watchers from all over come to witness the rare sighting of the Seychelles Black Paradise Flycatcher bird, an endangered species endemic to the Seychelles.
By Di Mo Si3 years ago in Wander
Mawlid Al-Nabi doll...Check out its interesting story
There are numerous types of festivals, religious events and folklore celebrations in the world where each country celebrates differently according to its culture and traditions. Despite ceremonial forms differ from country to another but the most common form is eating candy which is always associated with joy, comfort, love, friendship and family. Candy has played important role in cultural traditions and celebrations worldwide for thousands of years.
By Enas El Nemr 3 years ago in Wander