Maia Roston

1 month ago | telegraph.co.uk | Michelle Jana Chan |Danielle Demetriou |Maia Roston

No longer a 'dumping ground', travellers can now live in comparative luxury on this iconic hikeI'd always been puzzled by the idea of trying to reach the bottom of a mountain, rather than the top. Yet Everest Base Camp seduces thousands each year. On a mission to understand why, I set out from Lukla. At 2,860m, Lukla is the legendary gateway for trekkers and climbers heading off to sight - and sometimes summit - the highest Himalayan peaks.

1 month ago | telegraph.co.uk | Poonam Binayak |Danielle Demetriou |Maia Roston |Thomas O'Malley

From salt deserts and jungle shrines to tribal villages and high-altitude moonscapes, there's a wilder India out thereOnce, I watched a full moon rise over an empty salt desert. The air was still. The earth glowed silver. There were no selfie-taking tourists, no tour groups, no ticket booths, no glossy brochures. Just silence, and space, and something ancient I couldn't name. Moments like this are why it puzzles me when foreign travellers come all this way only to stick to the well-trodden path.

1 month ago | telegraph.co.uk | Danielle Demetriou |Maia Roston |Thomas O'Malley |Clare Macnaughton

On the very rare occasions I spy someone on their phone on a train, it is clearly some kind of an emergency (or a senior boss who cannot be ignored) - typically their head is apologetically bowed, one hand over their mouth, as they quietly whisper, as far away from other passengers as possible. As a former Londoner raising two daughters in Japan - first in central Tokyo, now in Kyoto - embracing silence hasn't always come easily to me, even after close to 18 years.