Memories of river cruises and boat rides

It must be one of the best things to do ever – sitting on a boat, book in hand (or not), feeling the cool breeze on your cheeks, watching life on the banks, watching the sun set in the horizon, watching the birds head back home… It’s definitely one of my favourite things to do ever. And here are some of my fondest such memories.

Bosphorus

Bosphorus absolutely tops the list here – you float past grand mosques, ruined fortresses, seafood restaurants and pretty houses by the water (each of which I desperately want to own). You can float all the way to Anadolu Kavagi, a fishing village close to the Black sea or get off at some point mid way and make your way back to Ortokoy. The latter I recommend especially on a Sunday it is where you can sip on a hot chocolate, tuck into a plump kumpir (jacket potato) and then graze through the Sunday flea market.

Read my story on a Bosphorus cruise – One river, two continents

“It is of this experience that Orhan Pamuk has written, “To travel along the Bosphorus — be it in a ferry, a motor launch or a rowing boat — is to see the city house by house, neighborhood by neighborhood, and also from afar, as a silhouette, an ever-mutating mirage”. The Bosphorus is a strait between the Black Sea and the Marmera and runs through the heart of the city, dividing it into two – Rumelia and Anatolia. For a moment out there, you are straddling two continents. The Bosphorus is everywhere in Istanbul; in many ways it defines the dualism of this city: European and Asian, traditional and modern.”

Nile

The grandest of them all, the Nile and the cruise we took was for four days, all the way from Luxor to Aswan, from where we made a day trip to Abu Simbel. The Nile cruise is an utterly fascinating experience, punctuated as it is by regular stops and excursions to temples and ruins all along the way. At Aswan, we also got into a smaller boat and floated along for an hour late in the evening. Definitely one of my favourite holiday memories.

Seine

What is not to love about a spring evening in Paris? After walking around the city all day, we eagerly looked forward to sitting down and giving our tired feet a break. We again chose a late evening cruise (surely one of the best time to be on water) and watched the lights of Paris twinkle and wave to us as we crossed bridge after beautiful bridge. Especially watch out for the illuminated Eiffel Tower.

Ganga

Nothing to beat an early morning ride on the Ganga – this is the time the ghats come to life and people begin to dip their feet tentatively into the cold water and then immerse themselves totally, getting up with hands folded in supplication. The flower sellers make their way around the devotees, the pandas get busy with their business development activities, local boys nose dive into the river and everyone manages to wear a purposeful look on their faces. This is what I have written about Varanasi – Shortcut to Salvation.

And then, there are those boat rides, not exactly on rivers but wonderful experiences nevertheless:

- an excursion into the floating village on the Tonle Sap lake near Siem Reap – Shifting Shapes

- cruising on the good old backwaters of Kerala, all the way from Alleppey to Kumarakom…

- punting, or rather, being punted on the Cam in Cambridge, past those glorious college buildings and the lucky, lucky young men and women who study there. My first ever published story was on this experience – Apunting we go on the Cam

And finally, a ride on the canals of Amsterdam, easily of my favourite cities in the world – I could easily live there for the rest of my life!

Inside a bhunga

After portraits from Kutch, glimpses into their home, the round huts known as bhunga. These huts are beautifully decorated on the outside and inside, look like living museums. In fact, some villages have taken to making a model bhunga towards the entrance to their village, just as a showcase of their way of life. And in Hudko, I learnt that a few of the villagers had gone to a crafts festival in Leipzig, Germany and recreated a bhunga there.

SO, ladies and gentlemen, the bhunga…

2012: my year in images

Lots of travel for Itchy Feet this year. A quick round-up in images…

Egypt – a week in February covering Cairo, a cruise from Luxor to Aswan and the magnificent Abu Simbel

Australia – Melbourne and Kangaroo Island in March – loved, loved the country and cannot wait to go back to see Sydney and Uluru

Mumbai – to interview and shoot for my story on dabbawalas for the Singapore Airlines’ magazine Silverkris – also visited Dhobi Ghat and Crawford market – in April

Japan – perhaps the most fascinating country I have visited – a few days in June

Mandu and Maheshwar – Mandu has been on my wishlist for ages now – finally managed a few days with friends, in August

Italy – what a country! got to see Milan, Naples, Florence, Pisa and Rome – in September

Chettinadu – for a story – magnificent mansions, great food, friendly people – what is not to like?

Belur Halebidu – a weekend visit to the Hoysala temples early December

Kutch – ending the year with a week in Kutch during the Rann Utsav, with a quick stop at Ahmedabad, including a visit to the Modhera sun temple and the Adalaj stepwell

So, what were your favourite travel moments and memories from 2012? Do share them here. And have a wonderful, peaceful, wanderful new year

When George and Gary came a-calling

I’ve been wanting to write this for so long now. The Masterchef Australia judges were in town a few weeks ago and I got invited for a lunch with them at Caperberry. The restaurant, of course, had pulled out all stops for the two of them and served a most excellent lunch. (All photos on cameraphone and sadly blurred).

At the end of it all, I shamelessly asked for a photo with the two of them and put it up on facebook, to the envy of many many many. People I hadn’t heard from in years called to ask where I had met them and could I get an autograph for their children? I had no idea Masterchef Australia was so popular in India. Apparently, neither did George and Gary. At an event in Mumbai, they found that over a thousand people had turned up just to see them – not meet, say hullo types – just see them.

Gary and George?: Very warm and friendly, in a way that perhaps only Aussies can be. One reason their show is so popular is that they are not harshly critical of the contestants. Not like the bile spewed by other “reality shows” – this should be a lesson that good stuff also gets good TRP; TV need not be controversial and loud. They loved talking about contestants from previous seasons and how they mentored some of them. And the two of them were as friendly with the kids who trooped in for autographs (the moms wanted their own pics with G and G more than the kids did!) as they are on the show.

The conversation?: Everything, from a couple of journalists conducting impromptu interviews even as we all ate and chatted about other things. The show, their best experiences, their take on Indian food – what they liked and didn’t like so much, shopping for jewellery, the story of Gary’s engagement ring (from long long ago). Then the food they had tasted in Delhi and Mumbai, including chaat and dosa. The realization that Indian food is more than a red spicy curry. Advice on good South Indian food and where to taste the best in Bangalore. I ran into Gary at the ITC Dakshin the next day – he had taken our advice and trooped there for his Sunday lunch – and loved it all. And oh, they also mentioned the lack of good Indian restaurants in Australia (here’s the cue for all of you who have dreamed of opening a restaurant).

The food? The chef Abhijit Saha had designed a lovely multicourse meal – a separate menu for vegetarians – each of them light and with subtle flavours (I brought one of the menu cards home with me). The dessert was a choice between Jalebi, which Gary had declared he loved and a New Age Tiramisu (though I didn’t choose to see how new age a classic as Tiramisu could get). My favourite was the Mango & Basil Popsicle in the middle of the meal – what a playful, quirky thing to serve at a formal lunch!

In all, a superb meal and a fantastic experience.

How to write

Since I regularly get emails asking for tips and advice on writing, here is a link to writer Shoba Narayan’s great piece on how to write (yeah, yeah, linking is not the same as blogging – just call me lazy).

Not to scare you but as she says, “No matter what kind of writer you become, realize that it is a painful lonely life.” I agree. Ergo, the discipline – routines, deadlines, timely queries, patient follow ups and such.

And today, Shoba has also linked to an interesting piece from Brain Pickings on routines for writers – I am heading there to read it now. You too?

While on this, here is a longish post I wrote a couple of years ago on breaking into travel writing (yes, that seemingly glamourous profession where you get to cavort across the world, all expenses paid. Not). Have a dekko.

Air travel: then and now

Posting without comment – via Gadling

Happy Deepavali 2012!

Here is to a wonderful Deepavali and a year filled with moments of brightness, lightness and joy ahead…

Chettinadu saapadu

“You are vegetarian?” Everyone’s face falls, some shake their heads in disapproval or dismay. But there I am, exploring Chettinad and wanting to eat authentic local food as part of the overall experience. The Chettiar community has been known for its fiery cuisine and that notion has somehow attached itself firmly to cooking from that region. But the truth is that their food is not much spicy as it is flavourful. Each meal is a delicate mix of different subtle tastes.

Just to give an idea on what I ate there (vegetarians have enough options there; surprise, surprise!)

This is breakfast at the beautifully restored Visalam – dosa with three varieties of chutney (coconut, coriander and tomato), paniyarams (in some places it is also called appam) and idiappam (string hoppers) eaten with slightly sweet coconut milk.

And this, lunch at The Bangala, the first of the Chettinad mansion hotels. The meal served on banana leaves is a huge spread, against a play of various flavours and the badam halwa (almonds) is to die for. And they feed till you beg them to stop.

I am working on a larger piece on Chettinad – will update here when it appears…

All about Aloft

When I wrote the story on Bangalore must-dos for the Singapore Airlines magazine, one the the things I remarked on was the sudden appearance of stylish hotels with contemporary decor in the city. Minimalism is a design concept not well known or welcome in India, especially when it comes to hotels. There, the song seems to be, the plusher the better.

So it was a nice surprise to walk into Aloft hotel and see all that space in front of me. The reception / check-in area is an open circle in the middle of the room and the staff welcome you with a smile. Of course, it is not all white and bereft of colour and character – the lounge adjoining the reception area – Recharge – is filled with comfortable chairs you can sink into, each in a different colour. And on the other side of the reception circle is a small grab as you go counter of easy to buy and consume packed foods and drinks. The ground floor also has a bar, wxyz – again with a variety of seating options.

In fact, this is one of the things that struck me about the hotel, the number of nooks and spaces where there are seats and chairs to plonk into, and each of them slightly unusual, even quirky in form. I guess this makes sense given that Aloft is located in Whitefield, bang in the middle of the ITPL (International Tech Park Limited) and the hotel is used regularly by IT professionals and their guests. In fact, someone there mentioned that the hotel is much busier in the week than in the weekends.

I saw evidence of that in the night when I went for dinner at Estia, their Mediterranean specialty restaurant. The muted blue and creams of the room perfectly complement the riot of colours on the cushions strewn all over the sofa seating options. What I found particularly interesting was the common table in the middle of the room – a space for single guests to sit together – what a change from the dreary idea of having to eat all alone or order room service. The food was excellent and chef had a light hand when it came to the mild spices of the region.

The large swimming pool is also on the same floor; one of the little things I found jarring. The pool looks out on concrete constructions in the neighbourhood. Perhaps nothing can be done about it – or perhaps a low glass wall will make it better. It just didn’t feel right. Other than that, the afore-mentioned quirky seats were in attendance here too, large coves into which to lie back, sipping on a cold drink on a warm Sunday morning.

The hotel has clearly been designed to cater to the business traveller in every possible way – there is a convention center, a well-equipped gym and soon, a spa. Some of the restaurant staff were in jeans and t-shirts – I found that very refreshing for a high end hotel. It matched perfectly their attitude of polite and friendly behaviour towards guests. If you are in that area, drop into Estia for a meal or try their lavish Sunday brunch buffet.

Posters from the golden age of travel

A bunch of lovely travel posters from the days when travel was still an adventure, a journey into the unknown.

From this flickr set:

The Boston Public Library’s Print Department is home to more than 350 vintage travel posters, most dating from the 1920s-1940s, the “Golden Age of Travel.”

Railways opened up America and Europe, luxe ocean liners introduced elegance into
overseas voyages, and drivers took to the road in record numbers in their new automobiles. By the mid-1940s, new airlines crisscrossed the globe, winging adventure-seekers to far-flung destinations.

Travel agents and ticket offices during this period were festooned with vivid, eye-catching posters, all designed to capture the beauty, excitement and adventure of travel and to promote a world of enticing destinations and new modes of transportation. Individual artists gained fame for their distinctive graphic styles and iconic imagery, and many posters from this era still remain important works of art long after their original advertising purposes have faded.

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