Residents of Sweden's second city are expert at dodging the winter winds in cosy, sociable cafes

The Swedes have a phrase, "Ska vi fika?", which translates literally as: "Shall we have a coffee break?" But it denotes an awful lot more than that. It's a heartily embraced cultural tradition involving friends, coffee and a cosy corner in a warm cafe.

It's official: Mexican cuisine is so good Unesco has put it on its cultural heritage list. And the best place to try it is Oaxaca, the country's foodie heart

'Would you like to try stone soup?" asked my guide as we drove east out of Oaxaca city along highway 190. I wasn't sure my teeth could take it, but she swung the car off the dusty road and pulled up beside an open-fronted wooden diner, where dozens of tables and benches waited in the shade.

In the north-east of India is a remote state, largely unknown even to Indians. Almost cut off from the world, Nagaland's rich culture thrives in landscapes of startling natural beauty

Remote and largely inaccessible to foreigners, the Indian state of Nagaland is tucked into the far north-eastern corner of the country. It borders the states of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, as well as Burma. Created in 1963, the state is home to some 16 Tibeto-Burmese tribes, or nearly 2 million people, many of whom, cut off from the rest of the world, have been fighting a remote and rarely reported war for independence from India, on and off, since the early 1950s.

Old San Juan is the setting for Hunter S Thompson's The Rum Diary, now a film starring Johnny Depp. We find out whether that rum-sodden 1950s atmosphere survives in the modern capital

There is something about Old San Juan that makes drinking rum at 11am seem a perfectly acceptable activity. Whether it is the lazy fan circling overhead, the warm breeze primed with sea air or the background fuzz of Spanish songs on a crackly radio, it all distils into the perfect atmosphere. So far, so Paul Kemp – the protagonist from Hunter S Thompson's book The Rum Diary who spends most of his time in tiny sweaty bodegas knocking back the finest fermented molasses the city has to offer.