The Travel Wire: best travel reads #59

Cathedrals and chapels of Wallis Island, ghost month in Taipei, a train tour of Europe’s cool northern capitals, and more travel reads.

• The monumental cathedrals and chapels of Wallis Island [Shellphone Chronicles]
“Traditional Polynesian culture mixes with the Roman Catholic faith in a big way on this remote island nation.”

• Ghost Month: When the streets of Taipei belongs to the dead [Michael Takes Too Many Pictures]

• A train tour of Europe’s cool northern capitals: from London to Vilnius, via Berlin and Warsaw [The Guardian]

• Paquimé: Mysterious Mexico World Heritage site that still puzzles archeologists [Mexico Soul]

• Not every paradise stays that way [Benthall Slow Travel]
“Belize taught me that beauty never stays still — and as we head to Bali, I’m reminded that memory is its own kind of travel.”

• Is Lombok the new Bali? Some think so – but not everyone’s impressed (archive) [BBC]

• Digging for the deeper story in Yunnan’s “Tibet Disneyland” [Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones]

• Beautiful Brazil is changing me, one samba step at a time [Wander, Wonder, Write]
“On the transformative power of music, dancing, and being together.”

• Christmas Island wants more tourists but luggage is often left behind [ABC]

• A pilgrim route in Norway: Berries, bogs and a Viking king (archive) [NY Times Travel]
“Following one of the nine St. Olav Ways, a photographer trudged with soggy feet through tundras, forests and wetlands. Here’s what she saw.”

• The digital-analog city [A Sense of Wander]
“Welcome to Vienna, where the centuries coexist happily.”

• China’s ‘special forces’-style tourists packing big itineraries in small budgets [ABC]

• Heart And Soul: 8 old friends rekindle a pact to travel together [The Star]