Bada Bagh, Jaisalmer: India is my soul culture

Immersive Travel column on Travel+Escape

Last month, I started writing a bi-monthly “column” for the new Travel+Escape website — which complements the new Canadian TV channel — about immersive travel. What is immersive travel? It’s travel that takes you deep into a culture and changes you. Immersive travel can be voluntourism, solo travel or long-term travel. It can be embarking on a spiritual path or a going to a health & wellness retreat. Or it can be simply an attitude. It’s about being open to a new culture, learning from it, and letting it change your ideas, beliefs and assumptions about life and the world. If you go on a trip, and see things differently when you get back home — then, you have probably experienced immersive travel. Here’s a synopsis of my first three columns. (more…)

Natural ice sculpture. Niagara Falls was a winter wonderland on Sunday night.

Niagara Falls: From festive winter wonderland to desolate tourist trap

In my last post, Niagara Falls: The Taj Mahal of Canada, I mentioned that I was on an overnight Jaunt — a flash travel deal to Niagara Falls that included:

• a huge, double-room suite at the Hilton Niagara Falls Fallsview Hotel, with jacuzzi, “fireplace” and a spectacular view,
• dinner, lunch and breakfast coupons and
• coupons for the casino spa and a sightseeing tour.

Read on to find out how I experienced both a festive winter wonderland and desolate tourist trap during my short 24-hour Jaunt to Niagara Falls. (more…)

Niagara Falls in winter

People in India are fascinated by Niagara Falls

This weekend I am in Niagara Falls on a Jaunt. Whenever I travel in India, and tell people I’m from Canada, I often hear, “Oh, I would love to go to Niagara Falls!” It’s always been a bit strange to me, as I grew up within driving distance of “the Falls” and never took them all that seriously. When I was in high school, we used to drive to Niagara Falls in the middle of the night for a lark. We thought the place was silly. So to hear people in a far-off country — a country that I always deemed to be the height of “exotic” — say they long to visit Niagara Falls seemed bizarre. But of course perspective is everything. (more…)

Lodhi Garden, New Delhi

Delhi turns 100 as capital of India

The anniversary in Delhi is greeted with mixed feelings, but not by me

When I was getting ready to travel to India the first time, back in 2005, I had several friends warn me: “You won’t like Delhi. It’s crowded, it’s polluted, the people are aggressive, you will be pestered to distraction.” I’d heard lots of stories about Pahar Ganj, the grubby “traveler’s ghetto;” the challenges of buying tickets and arranging any kind of transportation; the scams and the con artists; the crowds and chaos.

However, my first morning in Delhi, I walked out into the warm, December sunshine, on the big, white marble terrace of my friend’s home in South Delhi and was greeted by the family, who offered me breakfast. Later, a man arrived with a huge bundle of gorgeous shawls and fabrics, and I sat on the terrace drinking tea, with the ladies of the family and shopped. It was all very civilized and I felt I had arrived in heaven, not the hell that I was promised. (more…)

Photo courtesy San Sharma

Happy Diwali!

How to enjoy the Festival of Lights

Diwali means “rows of lighted lamps” and it is also called the Festival of Light. It is the most enthusiastically celebrated festival in India — which is saying a lot! Diwali is the equivalent of Christmas — a big, festive celebration that brings families together and is the highlight of the holiday season. There are five days of festivities, each marked with different pujas (prayers) and rituals.

I love Diwali, and though I have only spent one Diwali in India, I remember it fondly. I went shopping with Ajay’s mother for gifts, decorations, flowers and sweets a few days before, and on the morning of Diwali she had me decorating the family mandir before my eyes were completely open. Later, I helped fill hundreds of small diyas with oil and wicks, and then place and light them around the terrace and down the stairs, etc. In the early evening we had a puja in the mandir, which was my favourite part of the entire day. And at night, we joined the millions of other Delhi-ites blasting fireworks and firecrackers into the night sky. It was deafening and created hazardous smog, but I appreciated the gusto with which people were celebrating.

There are lots of other places to celebrate Diwali in India; read on for some suggestions culled from Breathedreamgo  Twitter and Facebook friends. (more…)

Naseeruddin Shah in Michael

Naseeruddin Shah and Kolkata:

The stars of Michael are real, gritty, and riveting

Michael is a new “Hindie” film from India with a powerhouse duo behind it: producer Anurag Kashyap and star Naseeruddin Shah. Directed by first-timer Rubhir Dasgupta, the film follows Shah’s eponymous character on a dark psychological journey through the streets of north Kolkata (Calcutta). Michael is demonized by an action from his past — accidentally shooting a 12-year-old boy while on duty as a police officer — and it’s ramifications on his present. His own son is about to turn 12; and he is terrified that the father of the dead boy is planning to kill his son for revenge.

Rubhir Dasgupta and Guneet Monga on stage at TIFF

The film is a study in karma, and while the storyline is interesting, the naturalistic talent of actor Naseeruddin Shah and the tarnished beauty of Kolkata are the real stars. As he explained after the film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), both actor and location were very deliberately chosen by writer/director Rubhir Dasgupta.

Dasgupta was at the film, along with one of the other producers of the film, Guneet Monga. These filmmakers are part of the “new age” of Indian cinema. Kashyap wrote and directed That Girl in Yellow Boots, Gulaal and Dev.D, among other films; and wrote the Deepa Mehta film Water (one of my all-time favourite films). Monga was an associate producer on That Girl in Yellow Boots and a co-producer of Trishna.

The movies they make are very different than stereotypical “Bollywood” fare. They do not feature song-and-dance numbers, melodramatic love stories, big-budget productions or mega-stars. Instead, they evoke a sense of naturalism and tell dramatic, personal stories that reveal both psychological truth and modern-day India. (more…)

Tiffin-wallahs, Churchgate Station, Mumbai

Mumbai is mesmerizing

Imagine New York and Hollywood rolled into one, set in the tropics and squeezed onto a peninsula several sizes too small. Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) is one of the biggest and most densely packed cities on earth, India’s economic engine and the home of Bollywood, the glamour factory that makes more movies than anywhere else – more than twice as many as Hollywood. It buzzes, it never sleeps and don’t get in its way! Mumbai is on the move, and you better be too if you want to get on and off trains, cross the street, order food, shop or achieve any kind of success. For this city represents both the future, in the shape of the dreams of millions, and the past, in the streetscape of grand Victorian buildings.

What do you do with two days and two nights in Mumbai? Try these suggestions. (more…)

Uma Paro, Bhutan

Heavenly haven

Imagine my surprise when I arrived in Paro, Bhutan, was met at the airport by two very charming men, Kanchzen (my guide) and David (my driver), driven about 10 minutes up a hill outside of town to the Uma Paro boutique hotel, introduced to my butler Jeewan and shown to my 1,200-square-foot villa. It was a bit like waking up in Oz and seeing everything in Technicolor. Or having an old dress turn into a glittering gown and a pumpkin turn into a gilded carriage. I had to rub my eyes and pinch myself to believe it.

The bedroom in my villa

I really didn’t know what to do first. Explore the delights of my villa: Have a bath in the claw-foot tub? Warm up in front of the wood-burning traditional stove (called a bukhari)? Sit outside on my terrace and use the WiFi service on my laptop? Ask Jeewan to fetch me a fresh fruit smoothie from the hotel’s stellar kitchen? Or just stare out the enormous picture window in my bedroom at the million-dollar view of the Paro Valley and Himalayan peaks?

Or explore the hotel: Eat lunch in the glass enclosed circular dining room, Bukhari? Have a treatment at the COMO Shambhala spa? Swim in the indoor pool and use the steam room in the ladies dressing area? Or sit outside and have a cup of steaming chai?

I opted for lunch in the dining room, knowing that over the course of the next five days I would get a chance to try everything else. And I did. (more…)

Taktshang (Tiger's Nest) Monastery, Paro, Bhutan

Bhutan — Shangri-la 2.0

I almost jumped out of my seat when the pilot announced we were flying over Mount Everest. I was flying from Kathmandu to Bhutan, it was a clear day, and, lucky for me, I was seated on the left side of the plane — the side with the view — when the pilot said those magic words. In fact, we flew over four of the world’s five highest mountains, including Kanchendzonga, the massive five-peaked deity that straddles the border between Nepal and Sikkim. I really felt I was in heaven. Literally.

I have long been fascinated with Everest and drawn to the purity and grandeur of the Himalayas. It was the Himalayas — and the myth of Shangri-la — that drew me to Bhutan. The film (and book) Lost Horizon gave the world the term Shangri-la — and that film made a big impression on me as a child. It’s about a plane carrying several Europeans that crashes in Shangri-la, a Utopia hidden among the Himalayas.

Bhutan is often compared to a modern-day Shangri-la, owing to its pristine location, stable government and carefully preserved Himalayan culture. But it’s a remote, unknown, mysterious country, a country that few people visit, and I really didn’t know what to expect. (more…)

Dining on the rooftop terrace, under the shadow of Garh Palace

I had great expectations for Bundi Vilas. It is the highest rated hotel in Bundi on Trip Advisor, Lonely Planet gives it an excellent write-up and I had met owner JP Sharma in Delhi — and knew him to be an intelligent, professional man with excellent taste and a deep-seated commitment to tourism in Rajasthan. I was not disappointed. From the moment I came out of the twisting narrow alley leading up to the heveli and saw the soaring archway that marks the entrance, I sensed something special. Again, my intuition and India’s magic led me to a very special treasure, the kind of accommodation that is itself a destination.

And, of course, it helps that Bundi Vilas is located deep in the heart of the old city of Bundi — a town filled with fascinating architecture, exquisite art, elaborate stepwells and an ambience that is reminiscent of medieval Europe. You can read about Bundi in my post, Bundi: Exquisite jewel needs polishing. (more…)