Arrivals & Departures Weekly Travel News & Views 15 April 2025

TASTE OF MOROCCO

I’m looking forward to being back in Morocco later this year — and with readers alongside. They will have already been to Spain and Portugal and I’m joining them on the last leg of our tour, which is in partnership with Intrepid. We’ll travel to the blue city of Chefchaouen (an intriguing place that sort of brands itself into you) and Marrakech. There are just 16 places on the trip, with full details here.

SEVILLE SECRET

… and it’s a fitting moment to mention that we have a guide to spending two super days in Seville in this edition. NO8DO is inscribed in spots across Seville, and is even on the city’s coat of arms (pictured left). Its story begins in the 1280s, when King Alfonso X the Wise ruled the area of Castile. His leadership crashed the economy (familiar this week), and his son, Don Sancho, rose against him. But the people of Seville didn’t recognise Don Sancho as monarch and King Alfonso took refuge in Seville until his death, leaving the motto NO8DO. The eight symbolises a skein of yarn. The Spanish word for skein is “madeja”. Replace the eight with madeja and you have “no madeja do” which translates to “it has not left me”, signifying the city’s loyalty to the old king.

WEAVING TRIBUTES

To mark the 70th anniversary of J.R.R. Tolkien’s book The Lord Of The Rings, until May 18, 2025, the College des Bernardins in Paris has an exhibition of 15 rugs and tapestries inspired by the author’s work. They took the workshops of the International City of Tapestry in Aubusson seven years to complete. The show, Aubusson Weaves Tolkien, is a big moment for the International City of Tapestry in Aubusson. College des Bernardins, a former Cistercian college, is at 20 Rue de Poissy in the 5th arrondissement of Paris.

INDIA’S SOUTH

Long before Morocco, I’ll be in India again, to familiar places in Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, but also sailing out of Kolkata on Uniworld’s river cruise ship on the River Ganges. But in this week’s episode of The Pod Well Travelled, we are way south, with a guide to Kerala — and specifically Thiruvananthapuram, the Kerala Backwaters and Kochi. It will help listeners to plan, and there are tips for staying well in India. Subscribe where you get your podcasts.

MERCURY IN RETROGRADE

My Indian friends still live with astrology in their lives every day, and I am reliably informed that Mercury being in retrograde is causing all sorts of unease. This is when Mercury is closest to Earth during its orbit around the Sun. It is associated with misadventures, accidents, trouble and tomfoolery.

EXCHANGE WAIT

We can only wait and watch how US President Donald Trump’s shakeup of the world’s financial stability plays out, and its effect on the exchange rate for the Australian dollar (and on superannuation funds, of course). For many destinations, overseas is already more expensive. It even lost value against the Indian rupee this week. One trick is to load a travel card with currency at a favourable moment.

LOTUS PACKAGE

Season three of The White Lotus TV series has come to its twisty, murderous conclusion, but Thailand is still basking in its spotlight. But while Koh Samui was the stage, the team at the 137 Pillars Hotels & Resorts group is encouraging visitors to combine the buzz of Bangkok with the charm of Chiang Mai, in the north. They have a 137 Pillars Hotels & Resorts Tale of Two Thai Cities the Land of Lotus package. The 30-suite 137 Pillars hotel in Chiang Mai has a swimming pool adjacent to a living wall of over 20,000 plants. Its centrepiece is a restored colonial teak homestead built in the late 1800s. In Bangkok, the 137 Pillars Suites and Residences is in Sukhumvit and has an infinity rooftop pool open 24 hours. The package gives a 30 per cent discount on direct bookings in Bangkok and 25 per cent discount in Chiang Mai and requires a minimum two-night stay for two people in each. That would mean about $2520 for two people for four nights. 137pillarshotels.com

VISITOR VISA

Thailand has become the latest Asian country to introduce an electronic visitor visa system. From May 1, 2025, all visitors will have to complete a Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC). It has to be submitted online within three days before a visitor enters the country.

BIRDS RANKED

The Aussie Bird Count results are in and rainbow lorikeets are the most numerous birds counted in WA. They are followed by New Holland honeyeaters, galahs, Australian ravens (no, they’re not “crows”) and red wattlebirds, in that order. The count, run by BirdLife Australia, is Australia’s biggest citizen science event. More than 57,000 participants counted 4.1 million birds as part of the week-long national event in October last year. aussiebirdcount.org.au

Rainbow lorikeets are “Eastern Staters”. (I call them “rats of the sky”.) Perth folklore says today’s screechy mob are all descended from birds that escaped from Perth Zoo when an aviary was damaged by a storm. But that’s not true, according to former MP Bernie Masters. During the second reading of the Zoological Parks Authority Bill in the WA Parliament in 2001, Bernie said: “Rainbow lorikeets did not escape from the South Perth Zoo. They escaped from privately owned aviaries in the 1960s.”

WELCOME JESSIE

And finally, as regular readers will know, last week we (temporarily) farewelled Penny Thomas, who is now on maternity leave. This week we welcome Jessie Stoelwinder. Jessie’s an “old friend”, having worked here before.