Paul Chai has been a travel writer for nearly two decades, starting with the Australian launch of US mag Travel + Leisure, a publication that let him travel all over the world from Kenya to Cuba. Chai then took on the role of editor of the inflight magazine for Tigerair, which at the time spanned the whole of Asia and four different titles (Asia, Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines) before becoming a freelance writer whose work is published in the Traveller section of The Age, online at Ellaslist and for various international inflight mags. He has a particular passion for local travel stories whether it is the World Heritage newcomer Budj Bim – with its aquaculture that predates the pyramids – or pitching a tent in the snow in the Victorian alps.
It seems strange to wish for bad weather on a trip, but I’m happy to see a squall heading my way. I am sitting on the back porch of the assistant lighthouse keeper’s cottage at Point Hicks in Gippsland. We are in the middle of a lighthouse road trip across the east of Victoria and the approaching inclement weather seems more in keeping with this epic slice of coastal...
When I first visited the Burmese city of Yangon ten years ago it was far from sleepy. Soon after arrival I found myself tucking into a spicy salad of fermented tea leaves, or laphet, at 4am in the morning in a bustling night market. Returning recently there has been simultaneously great change and yet it looks very similar. Great hopes for democracy may have been...
Swapping the honking of intolerant city drivers for the braying of buffalo on the plains of Africa, Paul Chai takes a two-wheel safari in northern Tanzania. There are a lot of firsts on this Intrepid cycling tour of northern Tanzania. We are the first group allowed to cycle through Arusha National Park, it is the first time I have viewed African wildlife without the...
One minute I am in a modern golf resort surrounded by several sprawling 18-hole courses, the next I am in 1940s Shanghai surrounded by antique signage, hand-painted movie historic posters, and vintage tea exporters. Shop owners flit up and down the street in bright-coloured cheongsams against a backdrop of buildings that have been recreated from historical...