Sydney may have the iconic Opera house, Mardi Gras glitz, and some celebrity chefs, yet Melbourne can lay claim to Australia’s only inclusion on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants In the World list–Chef Ben Shewry’s avant-garde, farm-to-table hotspot Attica. Melbourne also has the honor of being a repeat title holder of World’s Most Livable City.
The dining scene here is simply incredible, thanks in no small part to the bounty of produce and wines resulting from the Victoria region’s climate (“four seasons in a day,” locals like to say), a burgeoning crop of under-the-radar innovative chefs, a teeming craft coffee culture, and strong multi-cultural influences.
From Melbourne’s downtown (CBD) and its famed, labyrinthine laneways to hipster hoods Fitzroy and Collingwood, amazing new spots are cropping up everywhere. Openings and reboots are routinely chronicled on chic “what’s on” website, Broadsheet, while annual tome The Age Good Food Guide keeps tabs on the best and brightest. A tastings-filled food tour is always a good idea, and the excellent and sassy Monique Bayer’s Walk Melbourne offers superb 3-hour expeditions covering coffee, chocolate, dumplings, rooftop bars, and more from $53-up. You can even try some modern Aussie cuisine from New York or Los Angeles in Qantas’ business class where the menus are by Neil Perry, whose high-profile Rockpool can be found at Melbourne’s Crown casino complex.
By Lawrence Ferber – Full Story at Passport Magazine
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journey to understand and eventually transcend racism in America.We follow his spellbinding life story — from an underprivileged childhood in the ghettos of McKeesport, PA, to teenage experiments with crime and drugs to scholastic achievement and an acting career that lands adult LeLand in situations where he is virtually the only African-American in the room. How he manages to cope with the various psychological effects of consistently being marked The Other is recounted in remarkable and exquisitely moving detail, guaranteed to leave lasting impressions. Charming, self-deprecatingly funny, and linguistically awesome, LeLand Gantt confronts heavy subjects with all the passion and poignancy of a preacher speaking the Gospel. Don’t miss Rhapsody in Black at the Capitol Center for the Arts February 12.
The romantic Glynn House Inn – situated in the heart of New Hampshire’s White Mountains and Lakes Region – offers guests and exceptional experience. A full gluten free breakfast menu is always available. Bring your four-footed canine pal on holiday too. Reserve one of five pet friendly rooms. Venture away from the Inn and enjoy antiquing, art galleries, boating, fine dining, fishing, golf, hiking, historic sites, skiing, snowmobiling, ‘tax free’ shopping and scenic drives along tranquil country roads. Visit the Glynn House website 
“Why should I spend my tourist dollars in a country that wants to throw me in jail?!”
This was our dilemma before setting off for our big travel adventures in Asia – as a gay couple. If it isn’t illegal (like in Sri Lanka, Singapore, the Maldives, Malaysia, India, Myanmar…), then it’s certainly not truly welcomed (think Indonesia, China or Mongolia).
A few (like Nepal and Vietnam) have taken proactive steps to start to protect their LGBT community instead of criminalising them. And some have gone further to not only protect their LGBT community, but to embrace, support them and in addition, actively promote gay tourism: Japan, Thailand, Taiwan and the Philippines.
So as a gay traveller, does that mean you shouldn’t visit countries like India or Myanmar? Are you really under any practical danger visiting a country like Malaysia or the Maldives? Should you take that hard line approach and avoid visiting some of the most beautiful areas of our planet just because of some really archaic, backwards laws?
Dreamy and surreal, we drift in a hot air balloon over the fabled Plains of Bagan where, as far as the eye can see, golden temples and stupas jut skyward, and, in the dawn light, we see the molten sun creep above the distant violet-hued mountains. Floating over a cluster of brick pagodas bordering a field, I turn around in the wicker gondola and below us appears the impressive Dhammayangyi Temple where dozens of early risers enthusiastically wave and point cameras at us as we languidly drift past.
Nearing the ruined walls of Old Bagan, a flock of birds flies below, a shifting breeze nudges us onward. To the West, the broad curve of the Irrawaddy River wends down from the mountains of Kachin State on the China border to the Andaman Sea. Before we gently land near a schoolyard between the trees at the river’s edge, I briefly glimpse the white-and-red-trimmed Belmond Orcaella, the five-star riverboat that will soon become home base after having traveled in Burma for ten days on our own.
Two hours later, my traveling companion, Peter, and I board the Belmond Orcaella where we’re offered cool minty drinks and the staff genially welcomes us for our weeklong cruise through Burma–an exotic country seemingly preserved in time. Now that international sanctions have been lifted, tourism is booming; well over two million visitors arrived in 2014, compared to about 800,000 in 2010. Catering to well-heeled and adventurous travelers, the recently launched Belmond Orcaella (Orient-Express re-branded as Belmond), named after an endangered river dolphin, rises up three decks, is 200 feet long and 40 feet wide, with a shallow four-foot draft enabling it to pass unencumbered over shoals in the dry months.
Periodically we’ll feature one of our properties here to let our readers know about some great gay friendly places to stay.
Rich in history, culture, and tradition, in Myanmar (formerly Burma), a bygone Asia still endures. In fact, it must be among the few countries in the world still beyond the clutches of McDonalds, Coca-Cola, and ATM machines. But modernity is rapidly encroaching, and ever since the military regime began shifting power to civilian leaders in 2011, business people, diplomats, and eager tourists are flocking to the country with Yangon (formerly Rangoon) poised to become Southeast Asia’s next boomtown.
YANGON
Dawn stirs like a sepia-toned fantasy with motes of sunlight streaming through the plantation shutters onto the teak floors, as a chorus of birdsong come from the lavender jacaranda and flaming coral trees. Here, the morning unfolds at a measured, languid pace suited to the tropical climate. Under the twirling ceiling fans on the grand veranda dining room of the restored 1902 mansion, now the Belmond Governor’s Residence, one half expects to glance up from the morning paper and spot the likes of Somerset Maugham or Rudyard Kipling taking tea, or if it’s closer to the cocktail hour, perhaps a shot of Mandalay Rum.
Golden pagodas, colonial-era buildings, traditional shop houses and moldering jazz-age mansions form a low-rise fabric unique to Asia, the whole stitched together by tree-lined avenues swarming with buses and cars. On Yangon’s bustling riverfront boulevard, Strand Road, stately buildings like the Customs House, the Central Post Office, and the British Embassy bear witness to the city’s turn-of-the-century status as one of the British Empire’s key commercial hubs. A haven of tranquility, the Strand Hotel, among Yangon’s best-preserved colonial edifices, has cosseted globetrotters almost continuously since the Armenian Sarkies Brothers, owners of the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, opened it in 1901.
Periodically we’ll feature one of our properties here to let our readers know about some great gay friendly places to stay.
Hey all,
Welcome to our weekly series on the blog and our Facebook travel groups – City Sundays. Each week we’ll select a different LGBT friendly city to talk about, and we’ll invite our innkeeper and travel agent/tour operator friends to come talk with us about it as well.
Ogunquit, is a very LGBT friendly city along the Southern coast of Maine. Filled with gay friendly accommodations, restaurants and bars, it’s an easy getaway from all of New England.
Have you ever been? What did you do while you were there?
Do you wanna go?
Let’s chat! Join the conversation here:
Gay (Men) Travelers: 
Japanese food is hands down one of the best in the world. Even Sebastien, a very proud Frenchman admitted it was his favourite.
But don’t just take our word for it: in December 2013, the Japanese cuisine (called washoko), was added to UNESCO’s list of intangible heritage list. Which other cuisines do you know are UNESCO listed?!! (Sebastien was quick to point out the French cuisine is also in the same UNESCO list).
Proud Frenchman aside, after finding a great deal on Skyscanner, we decided to go to Japan for 2 weeks and visited Tokyo, Takayama, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Okinawa. So, get ready for some serious foodporn in our run down of our 10 favourite traditional food of Japan.
Periodically we’ll feature one of our properties here to let our readers know about some great gay friendly places to stay.