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Adam Nebbs
Adam Nebbs
Adam has lived in Hong Kong since 1988. He briefly managed the demise of the Wanderlust travel bookshop on Hollywood road in the mid 1990s, then worked as Associate Editor on Cathay Pacific’s inflight magazine Discovery for several years. He began writing Travellers’ Checks for Post Magazine in 1998, working for several years under the pseudonym Peter Walbrook. A former contributing editor for the exclusive luxury travel guide NB Review, he has also edited several books, including the first-ever travel guide to Uzbekistan in 1996, and 'The Amazing Adventures of Betsy And Niki' (2008) by Captain Charles “Chic” Eather. His non-fiction book 'The Great Fire of Hong Kong', was published in 2010.
The RMS Canton liner in 1947.

When P&O ocean liner the RMS Canton sailed into Victoria Harbour in 1947, it marked the resumption of passenger services from Britain after the war.

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The poster for Ferry to Hong Kong, a 1959 film directed by Lewis Gilbert. Photo: Handout

Directed by Lewis Gilbert, the movie tells the real-life tale of Steven Ragan, a drifter who was stuck sailing between Hong Kong and Macau.

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Personal, portable seat covers could become the norm on flights in a post-coronavirus world. Photo: Handout

Seat Sitters, Fresh Flight are just some of the companies selling reusable and disposable seat covers, with face masks and wipes thrown in for good measure.

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A map of Bali, Indonesia, from the 1930s. Photo: Handout

Hongkongers who wished to travel to the Island of the Gods in the 1930s would have had to sail there, a voyage that took just over a week. Those without the time or money to go made do with lectures given by those who had recently returned.

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The SS Takshing, in Macau, in the 1950s. Photo: Handout

In the 1950s, A-list actors travelled between Hong Kong and Macau aboard now-retired steamliners, albeit some purely thanks to the magic of the movies.

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Travel guides have been struggling to remain relevant for some time. How do they adapt when no one is travelling at all? Photo: Shutterstock

Lonely Planet, Fodor’s, Bradt, et al, are making a suitable case for travel-inspired locked-down reading.

The self-proclaimed “largest residential private yacht on earth”, the MS World, in Hong Kong, in November. Photo: Kae Sunyawonge

Hundreds of ships around the world are floating offshore, in quarantine or otherwise indisposed.

The Peninsula Hotel, in Hong Kong, in the 1920s. Photo: SCMP

In 1921, plans for a property where each room would have its own bathroom with ‘modern plumbing’ were drawn up. It eventually opened, in 1928, as The Peninsula.

‘I have just completed a 42-day voyage around my room,’ Xavier de Maistre begins in Voyage Around My Room, a memoir of isolation published in 1794.

French soldier Xovier de Maistre invented the niche literary genre while confined to his room for six weeks.

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The Stella Polaris, in 1954.

One of the world’s first purpose-built luxury cruise ships, the Stella also carried writer Evelyn Waugh around the Mediterranean.

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The RMS Laconia, the first ship to sail around the world ‘purely for the purposes of pleasure’.

The 130-day voyage carried 400 passengers from New York to New York via various ports, and all but two made the journey home.

The Repulse Bay Hotel, in Hong Kong, in 1971.

The heritage property, which was demolished in 1982, would have celebrated its centenary this year.

Pilot Arturo Ferrarin, who was the first person to fly from Europe to Japan, in a kimono given to him at the end of the Rome to Tokyo race.

It took the successful crews more than three months to reach their destination, where they received heroes welcomes.

Handout image shows the MS Stockholm (now the MV Astoria) in New York after a collision with the SS Andrea Doria.

The former MS Stockholm is expected to be retired after an eventful, storied 72 years at sea.

A first-generation Boeing 747-100. Photo: Aldo Bidini

Hong Kong welcomed its first Boeing 747 flight, a Pan Am, on April 11, 1970. When a Singaporean flew on one of the revolutionary wide-body jets a few weeks later, it was headline news in the Southeast Asian country.

The Sherlock Holmes Creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in 1922. Photo: AP

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was an unusually well-travelled man, although few of his explorations have been published.

A three-engine Fokker F.VII chartered by Van Lear Black.

When Van Lear Black landed in Hong Kong, on a stopover from London to Tokyo in 1930, he was said to be the world’s most widely travelled air passenger.

Macau’s Hotel Lisboa is the subject of a photography exhibition, featuring images captured by those who know its space-age-birdcage design best.

Nostalgia for its striking birdcage design is born from a contrast to its ugly sister, the Grand Lisboa, next door.

The Anantara Siam Bangkok Hotel is offering an in-house sak yant session with traditional Thai tattoo artist Ajarn Neng Onnut, who has inked Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.

The Anantara Siam Bangkok Hotel namechecks Angelina Jolie, Ryan Phillippe and Brooke Shields as sak yant recipients.

The Westbund Hotel opens next year at the West Bund development, which occupies the site of the Shanghai’s former Lunghwa airport.

On December 25, 1946, three aircraft crashed trying to locate Shanghai’s Lunghwa Airport in thick fog. It closed to airlines in 1966 and has been redeveloped into art galleries, museums and upmarket hotels.

The Park Hyatt Niseko Hanazono, in Hokkaido, Japan.

In Asia, the ones to watch out include the Capella Bangkok – finally – and Six Senses’ property near Jaipur

A Star Ferry crosses Victoria Harbour. Photo: Edward Wong

The 10-minute, 28 US cent trip across Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour features in Lonely Planet’s new book Amazing Boat Journeys alongside Yangtze, Mekong and Nile river cruises and sailing around the Galapagos islands.

Convicted serial killer Charles Sobhraj leaves a New Delhi court in 1997 after an Indian judge ordered that he be released from prison on bail. Photo: Reuters

Murderer, 75, who terrorised Asia in 1970s remains behind bars in Nepal.

Swedish company OceanSky Cruises is offering trips to the North Pole aboard the Airlander 10, aka “The Flying Bum”.

A two-bed cabin for the 36-hour voyage will set you back just under US$64,000.

The Imperial Airways de Havilland DH86, named Dorado, at Kai Tak, in Hong Kong, which completed the in 1936. Photo: Handout

These days the popular route can be covered in less than 90 minutes, and with the Vietnamese destination growing in popularity, there are now more than 30 flights operating between the two cities.

The recently opened BEI Zhaolong Hotel, in Beijing, China.

First opened in 1985, the ‘legendary’ Zhaolong Hotel was named after the father of Hong Kong shipping tycoon Pao Yue-kong.

A BOAC Argonaut Speedbird poster from 1952.

The BOAC Argonaut had pressurised cabins, allowing it to operate at twice the speed and altitude of its compar­atively cumbersome counterparts.

The new 120-passenger Coral Adventurer will sail from Darwin, Australia, and circumnavigate the island of New Guinea, on a unique cruise departing in October next year.

The 35-night voyage starts and ends in Darwin and, at US$17,000 per person, does not come cheap.

MS The World, the largest privately owned residential yacht in the world, is expected to drop anchor in Hong Kong soon. Photo: Alamy

Arrival to hark back to days before aviation took off in Hong Kong, when elegant cruise ships, such as the Asama Maru and her two sister ships, made front-pages news.

Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. Photo: Shutterstock

Norwegian has added Ushuaia, in Patagonia, to its network, allowing a journey from world’s most northerly international airport, in Svalbard, to its most southerly. Hongkongers can turn this into a round-the-world journey.