The Travel Wire: best travel reads #58

Vietnam’s ‘Happiness Road’, Iceland, one fine day in the high Himalayas, Jeju, and more travel reads.

Travel reads

• A pulse-revving motorcycle journey on Vietnam’s ‘Happiness Road’ (archive)[NY Times Travel]
“The roughly 230-mile Ha Giang Loop, six hours north of Hanoi, thrills riders with breathtaking views, cultural wonders, and plenty of twists and turns.”

• It’s cold, rainy, hideously expensive and everyone wants to go there [Marklands]
“Iceland is trying to keep its tourist numbers down. Here’s why they didn’t succeed in my case.”

• One fine day in the high Himalayas [A Mind on the Move]
“Adventure, altitude, and avalanches on the trail to Manaslu Base Camp.”

• Jeju – my ultimate Korean dolce vita [Travel Mishmash]

• It’s a state of mind [The Perennial Nomad]
“I have been pondering how nomadic travel has changed over the decades since I first hit the road.”

• You can never return to the same place [Scott Monaco]
“Because you can never return to who you were the first time.”

• If you can’t find beauty here, that’s not the city’s fault [Benthall Slow Travel]

• Busing + boating Kerala’s backwaters [and by the way]

• Sardinia’s sacred Neolithic ‘fairy houses’ (archive) [BBC Travel]
“Throughout Sardinia, these newly Unesco-inscribed stone necropolises tell the story of the island’s pre-Roman funerary customs. But for locals, they’re the enchanted homes of fairies.”

• How we always fail Paris [The Daily Grog]
“On French police sirens and a brief rant about travel content.”

• Instagram made me do it: When ‘hidden gems’ stop being hidden [Awakened Voyages]
“On how discovery becomes destruction and the dilemma of sharing secret spots.”