Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2020 i Travel + Leisure India & South Asia

AFTER A LONG WAIT, Saudi Arabia opened its doors to non-religious foreign tourists in 2019. And even though the pandemic has made it inaccessible for now, there are many gems in the heart of this magical land waiting to be explored by the discerning traveller. One of them is its commercial capital, Jeddah. The city stands out with its cosmopolitan vibe, cafe culture, and traditions. Often called ‘Bride of the Red Sea’, Jeddah is popular as the gateway to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, but the second largest city in Saudi Arabia also boasts resort hotels, pristine beaches, stunning architecture, bustling souks, and endless adventures. Locals firmly believe and visitors happily agree, ‘Jeddah ghair’, which translates to ‘Jeddah is different’. The historic Al-Balad district, one of the kingdom’s…

DISTILLERY TOURS RANK very high up on the list of Scottish tourist attractions, and collectively saw a total of two million visitors in 2018. Significant investments by major players in building and upgrading their visitor centres have had a big role in driving spending by visitors up by 154 per cent over 2010-18. For the uninitiated, who cannot tell the difference between a Ballantine’s and a Balvenie, the Malt Whisky Trail is a great introduction. Touted as the only one of its kind in the world, it provides a tour of seven well-known working distilleries, one historic distillery, and the Speyside Cooperage—the only working independent cooperage in the UK today. You can make your own itinerary; I chose to visit the distilleries of The Glenlivet, Benromach, Glen Moray, and The…

SCOTLAND’S NOTORIOUSLY FICKLE weather takes a turn for the worse as I arrive at Benromach, the smallest distillery in Speyside. It is pelting down as the soft-spoken Richard Urquhart, a fourth-generation member of the family that owns the distillery, greets us warmly. His pride in his lineage is evident as he leads us through the facility. Starting out as whisky retailers under the family brand Gordon & MacPhail, the family bought Benromach in 1993 and completely refitted it to produce what they call the classic Speyside single malt: elegant, fruity, with a touch of smokiness. Benromach is about as different from The Macallan as chalk from cheese. Entering the visitor centre at The Macallan is like stepping aboard the Starship Enterprise, while entering Benromach is like checking into a B&B.…

1. UNIVERSAL REMOTE OAKTER OAKREMOTE Go all-in on the smart home craze, but on a budget. This smart remote works as an infrared ‘bridge’, letting you control virtually any device or appliance that has an IR remote. Use it to control your DTH, TV, speakers, and air conditioners. There’s inbuilt one-click channel access for TV nuts, and Alexa voice control means easy, no-hands operation. ₹1,499; oakremote.com 2. SPEAKER BOSE HOME SPEAKER 500 Spending a lot of time at home makes you realise the benefits of a smart home setup. Tackle the audio bit first and you’ll have streaming music to accompany your other improvement projects. The Bose Home Speaker 500 is a fantastic choice, thanks to its support for Spotify, Amazon Music, and Apple Music. There’s also Amazon Alexa built…

AS A POSTGRADUATE STUDENT, I lived in Berkeley, California. In those days, travel meant day trips down the coast with a friend, an Afghan exile who evoked his growing days in Kabul with a tenderness that broke my heart. Driving past towns like Bodega Bay in Sonoma County, we reached Sea Ranch on Route 101, flanked by the Pacific Coast on one side and redwood forests on the other. At a bluff, before an expanse of water, we believed we had travelled great distances, not knowing then that we had not even set off on any serious voyage—we were simply far away from our respective homes, confusing dislocation with journey. Sequestered in my home in Goa, memories of past travel flood the heart. In Rome, a few years ago, I…

EVERY DAY, AT EXACTLY 7 PM, New York comes alive as thousands gather on their balconies or fling open their windows and start clapping in chorus. The smattering of people clad in masks and gloves on the sidewalk stop and chime in—a tribute to all healthcare workers and healers on the front line. I usually whip out my smartphone and record my 20-month-old toddler’s gleeful chortles as he joins in the applause, amid the clanging of pots and pans being used as tambourines. I then proceed to send the video to my father in India, a doctor, who is working tirelessly to save lives amid this frenzied pandemic that has crippled most of the world’s economies. For the past month, I’ve become a permanent fixture on the windowsill of my…

IT IS NOT YET 6 am in the port city of Fremantle, Western Australia. I wake up to an eerie silence. But I no longer need to pinch myself to know what this surreal, bottomless silence signifies in a city renowned for its incessant rumble of traffic as much as for its abundance of heritage buildings, cafes, pubs, bars, and international tourists. Yet, I feel compelled to turn on the radio news to remind myself that life as we once knew it is in a weird suspension and may never be the same again. Why do I feel this desperate need to know the daily death tolls and infection rates from cities around the world? A lockdown will do that to you. It is as if some atavistic instinct to…

READ BOOKS AND WRITE A JOURNAL Keep your phone aside, blow the dust off the book that has been lying on your shelf for as long as you can remember, and start reading. Even if you are done with every single book that you possess, there are many other ways to indulge in some serious reading every day. The website of the National Digital Library of India (ndl.iitkgp.ac.in) lets you access 48 million e-books from all over the country. The World Digital Library developed by UNESCO, the Library of Congress that offers access to books from 200 countries, and JSTOR (jstor.org), the world-renowned digital library of over 6,000 e-books and more than 150 journals, are some more avenues. Try penning down your thoughts and start a journal or a blog,…

Design Dialogues, a one-of-its-kind creative interactive discourse on architecture and design, held last month at the Sheraton New Delhi Hotel, revolved around the theme of ‘Technology, Material and Architecture: New Age Design Vocabulary’. This unique platform initiated by Architecture+Design—the premium national journal of architecture, and TATA Pravesh—a one-stop solution for residential and commercial wall openings, instigated a rigorous exchange of ideas, views and opinions amongst the professionals. The event was supported by the IIA Northern Chapter. The pulsated interactive meet with renowned architects and designers in the audience, generated a very warm professional spirit of association. Some very crisp and insightful presentations were made by established architects such as Yatin Pandya, Charanjit Shah, Lalita Tharani, Mujib Ahmed, Sonali Bhagwati and Santha Gour Mattoo. The evening lingered with more dialogues over…

FOCUSSING ON REAL ESTATE development, retail, and other services ranging from healthcare to hospitality, Vingroup is one of the leading multi-sector corporations in Vietnam. But in these unprecedented times, the group has adapted and is responding to the need of the hour. In an example of hospitality responding to the crisis quickly, Vinpearl, the five-star resort and entertainment brand of Vingroup, is taking many preventive measures—from sanitising properties to education and daily temperature checking of employees—to contain the spread of COVID-19. Vingroup has announced that it will manufacture ventilators and body thermometers. On March 30, the leaders of the group convened an emergency meeting and ordered all the research institutes of the group to stop all daily tasks and focus on finding methods to produce breathing equipment. Soon after, Vingroup…

THE ONLY DISTILLERY I visit that is not a part of the trail is The Macallan Estate. With its brand-new world-class visitor centre, I find this exclusion to be a bit curious. But it fits in with The Macallan’s strategy to occupy the higher ground, to be a cut above the other whiskies. In fact, no deals are available on The Macallan whiskies at the duty-free store in the Delhi airport, unlike most of the other popular brands. In terms of sheer numbers, The Macallan sold just over 9,00,000 cases in 2016, putting it in the third place behind Glenfiddich and The Glenlivet. In terms of value, The Macallan is the clear leader. How does it justify its premium pricing? It has created a mystique around its process with its…

OUR LAST STOP IS GLEN MORAY, the newest entrant in the Malt Whisky Trail, located on the banks of the River Lossie amid the mild climate and fertile soil of the Laich of Moray. After imbibing so many ‘wee drams’ through the day, I am feeling slightly buzzed. Charles, my Scottish guide, artfully excuses himself from the proceedings, so I am left to traipse around on my own. My spirits are lifted by the vivacious young guide from Latvia, Leva, who speaks fluent English and offers a fluid explanation. I also bond with Yasunari Kodama, a young Japanese engineer. In broken English, oiled by fumes of Scotch, Kodama and I debate the relative merits of Yamazaki versus The Macallan 18-year-olds and become friends in the process. In terms of production,…

Brew of Hope IT WAS ONE OF those days when the word ‘self-isolation’ was hitting a bit too hard. Google Earth options had been exhausted, yet that stubborn hankering for travel persisted. It was one of those days when fortune was in dire need of an overhaul. There couldn’t have been a more opportune moment to stumble upon Airbnb Online Experiences. The recently launched venture lets you connect with hosts from around the globe via Zoom and participate in activities like tarot card reading, pasta masterclasses, virtual tours of farms, and meditation with Japanese monks. After scrolling through scores of options, I settled on Turkish Fortune Coffee Reading. Perhaps the host, Uluç Ülgen from New York, had the fortune fix I needed. There were five of us in the 90-minute…

TODAY, I SAW SOME dramatic images of the iconic Piccadilly Circus without a soul in sight—a melancholic reminder of what the world is living through right now. The onslaught of the Novel Coronavirus has changed the way all of us live. Savi and I were supposed to be spending April with our parents in New Delhi but ended up being quarantined in London due to cancellation of international flights and sealing of borders. As full-time travellers and bloggers, we are accustomed to working from home. So, the prospect of staying in a city we have grown to love is not daunting. What is daunting is the state of the travel industry right now. It’s no secret that daily-wage earners everywhere have been badly affected by this pandemic. This is especially…

IT’S BEEN A LONG time since we’ve seen it here in Sweden, but after months of cold, rain, and grey skies, the sun has finally come back to us. I live in Kirseberg, a small area on the outskirts of Malmö, Sweden. As the country’s third biggest city, Malmö is a vibrant town buzzing with life. But as I step out for my daily walk, hoping to soak up the sunlight, I expect the streets to be deserted, the shops to be empty, and the parks to be quiet. These are, after all, very unusual times. I’m proven wrong. In the playground of a local park, a group of children play nonchalantly with their teachers. On the verdant lawn, several groups of people enjoy picnics, music streaming out of portable…

ALOE VERA & ROSEMARY HAIR OIL For that long-overdue deep scalp massage. Ingredients One aloe vera leaf Half a cup of organic coconut oil Six drops of rosemary essential oil Method Cut open the aloe vera leaf into two halves and scoop out the gel in a small bowl. Take half a cup of organic coconut oil in a mixing bowl and add equal proportion of aloe vera gel to it. Mix well and heat the content on low flame for around five minutes. Let it cool down. Add rosemary oil and pour the blend in a dark bottle. Store this in a glass bottle and use it to massage your scalp and roots well. Benefits This homemade hair oil is great for boosting hair growth. It helps prevent hair…

“A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.”— John A. Shedd While travel aphorisms make for great office walls, they do not save lives. A tremendous amount of luck does the job sometimes. When I set off for Germany in the second week of February this year, the novel coronavirus was still very much limited to China, with some clusters of cases just emerging in Europe. All of Germany had merely 16 infections, most of them limited to Bavaria. Nobody could yet see the storm clouds rumbling on the horizon. Baiersbronn WHEN I ARRIVE IN THE sleepy little town of Baiersbronn, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, the contagious disease in the news appears light years away. Even though the state shares a border…

1. CLAIR DE ROSE TUDOR In 2017, Tudor re-imagined the feminine Clair de Rose line in a refined and timeless manner. Available exclusively in steel with mechanical movements, the new models came in three sizes—26 mm, 30 mm, and 34 mm in diameter—and six designs. It presents opaline dials with delicate decorations in relief, punctuated with blue lacquered Roman numerals or diamonds. 2. LADY-DATEJUST 28 ROLEX The same year, Rolex introduced a 904L steel version of its classic Oyster Perpetual Lady-Datejust 28, as well as a white Rolesor version (combining 904L steel and 18K white gold) with a fluted or gem-set bezel in 18K white gold. These new versions were made available with a wide choice of dials. The new watches featured a 28 mm case and a new-generation mechanical…

LOCKDOWN, QUARANTINE, SELF-ISOLATION, social distancing—this glossary of dystopian terms has oft been repeated since the COVID-19 outbreak brought life to a screeching halt across the world. Towns, cities, and even entire countries have been forced to retreat indoors. Nothing quite drives home the extent of the pandemic than images of the world’s busiest landmarks—now strikingly desolate. Never before have we seen, and hopefully never again will we see, such poignant frames of solitude. From a deserted Eiffel Tower in Paris to the Taj Mahal watched over by armed guards, these photographs from around the world paint a vivid, and stark, picture of the impact a tiny microorganism has had on the entire planet. But where there is despair, there is also hope. When pianist Alberto Gestoso and saxophonist Alexander Lebron…

WITHIN HOURS OF THE World Health Organisation’s classification of COVID-19 as a pandemic on March 11, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced that Denmark would be closing down its borders and placing restrictions on its people. It was a sunny spring morning, and it seemed like the Ides of March had arrived early. I live in a student dorm in the port city of Aarhus, a well-known university town located on the Jylland Peninsula. Since the lockdown came into effect, online classes have taken over. Common spaces like the kitchen and dining area expose us to one another, and maintaining social distancing has been a challenge. Outside, the streets remain empty. The few apothecaries and supermarkets that are open for essentials don large posters warning people to “Wash Hands, Maintain Distance,…

LIKE A PILGRIM BOUND by an ancient ritual, every tourist in Ireland is compelled to visit the Temple Bar area at least once during their stay. It lies in the heart of Dublin city, framed by the mighty River Liffey on one side, the Trinity College and the commercialised Grafton Street on the other. Once there, you can’t help but crawl from one pub to another, sing loudly (and drunkenly) on the streets with friends, and stand enraptured around street performers and their many tricks. It is an experience that only grows in intensity as St Patrick’s Day, held usually on the 17th of March every year, grows near. Nothing can stop you from getting swept away by the festivities. Nothing, that is, except COVID-19. This year, five days before…

WHILE THE WORLD tries to heal itself from a raging pandemic, switching our focus inward and working on ourselves is key right now. However, with health and wellness centres shutting down temporarily, the challenge of maintaining well-being increases two fold. As a solution to this dilemma, some hotels have taken the digital route and rolled out virtual workouts for fitness fanatics to practise at home. InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown When at InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown (dtla.intercontinental.com), you can sweat it out at Attitude—their fitness centre located on the seventh floor. The space is known to stay abreast with the latest workout trends. Naturally then, it has amped up its offerings to help you stay fit in self-isolation. The hotel’s certified trainers have filmed a range of workouts for a video…

Getting There The international airport closest to Baiersbronn is in Stuttgart (90 km). Many airlines like SWISS (swiss. com), Turkish Airlines (turkishairlines.com), and Lufthansa (lufthansa. com) serve the airport from Indian metros. Baden-Baden is about an hour-long drive from Baiersbronn. Alternatively, the Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport serves the spa town directly. Stay Hotel Traube Tonbach is an icon of tradition and luxury in Baiersbronn. It plans to reopen its legendary restaurants, Schwarzwaldstube and Köhlerstube, in a temporaire. traubetonbach.de/en Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa is a wellness haven in Baden-Baden with soothing views of the Lichtentaler Allee. A 10-minute stroll on leafy lanes takes you into the centre of town. oetkercollection.com Distillery Tour The Monkey 47 distillery in Schaberhof conducts tours by appointment only on Saturdays, and limits the group size to 25. As…

Getting There Singapore Airlines (singaporeair.com) offers connecting flights from Delhi and Mumbai to Tokyo Narita, the main airport. Vistara (airvistara.com) offers nonstop flights from Delhi to Haneda, just 15 minutes from downtown.The Japan Rail Pass (from ₹20,568; japanrailpass. net) gives discounted access on rail travel throughout the country. Tokyo We stayed at the 508-room Okura Tokyo (doubles from ₹49,136; theokuratokyo.jp), which recently replaced the iconic 1962 Hotel Okura. Another option is the new Trunk House (from ₹3,42,844; trunk-house.com ), a former geisha house that can be reserved for groups. I loved a tiny izakaya on Drunkards’ Alley called Enoki (dinner ₹2,286–₹3,047; nonbei. tokyo/shop/enoki ), which seats eight only. Koshu Take the train from Tokyo to this gateway to Japan’s wine region. Here, we visited wineries including Lumière (lumiere.jp), Katsunuma Jyozo (katsunumawinery.com), and…