Denise Slabbert

We’re a nation that drinks more than 45-million litres of brandy a year — so it only makes sense for us to have our own brandy routes. Our love affair with this popular tipple began way back when, according to Pietman Retief, director of the South African Brandy Foundation, "brandy was already available in South Africa before Jan van Riebeeck."

During the month of April, the streets of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand set the scene for a slippery warfare, where the weapons are plastic guns, hosepipes, buckets and just about anything that can be used to carry water. Even the Buddhist nuns are in on the act — drenching unsuspecting tourists with bowls of icy H2O.

Being a grown-up doesn’t mean you’re too old to love the idea of living in a tree house. Knysna’s Phantom Forest Eco-Reserve offers the ultimate tree-house fantasy. Built overlooking the indigenous forest and an estuarine wetland, these elevated luxury tree-house suites offer the perfect weekend playground.

<i>The Sunbird Illustrated Touring Atlas of Southern Africa</i> is a big-scale touring book that has heaps of fantastic information. The highlight is, of course, the stress on "illustrated" as the guide has detailed area maps, just right for the <i>rigting-bedondered</i> (directionally challenged). If you want to head out into distance, there are plenty of travel books to help you on your way.

Salitun Lu in the Chaoyang district is known as Beijing’s "Bar Street". With more than 200 bars to choose from, how do you decide where to go and sip on Tsingtao beer? One suggestion is to flip a coin. Heads means three bars to the right, tails means every third bar to the left. <i>Escape</i> gets a taste of the bar culture that has taken hold of the Chinese capital.