TRAVEL WRITING

My mission to smoke out Castro

'Spying is a career I've always fancied. Not for the world travel or great tailoring, but because those super-cool special agents never seem to get aggravation at check-in, despite carrying 32 kilos of nuclear weaponry in their hand luggage...'

The fast lady of Sonoma

'Since watching The Italian Job - the good one - I've been convinced I was a natural speed racer, born to drive at 100mph in somebody else's car, preferably wearing a really cool boiler suit...'

Forget the hype, Bangkok's hip

'The Thai capital is trendy again. Jane Bussmann joins the 'groovy travellers' who are flocking back...'

Trunk road to the Golden Triangle

'The Golden Triangle of Chiang Rai, Northern Thailand, has three natural resources - and two of them are legal...'

LA à la carte

'Los Angeles restaurants must be full of struggling actors thinking: 'When I make it, I'm going to buy this place so these fine customers can get the food and music they really deserve...'

Meet the Sundance Kids

'Every winter, film-makers gather to screen their work at the Sundance Film Festival in the Rockies resort of Park City. Jane Bussmann gets all starry-eyed...'

Zambia: The hippo hippy trai

'I've heard some snoring in my time. Take my brother, who would rattle even when hot chips were stuffed up his nose. Memorably there was my mother, whinnying through Anthony Sher's feted performance as Richard III...'