2021-03-01 Travel + Leisure India & South Asia

TExperarvel +iLeiseure nces THE DAWN IS NIGH
India & South Asia
T R AV E L L E R S ’ TA L E S , F R O M N E A R A N D FA R Varanasi may be best known for its ethereal ghats and boat rides
on the River Ganga, but its svelte lanes are brimming with
culinary specialties and unique silk saris. On a fine morning,
TARUKA SRIVASTAV samples these and discovers just how
much the pandemic has affected the local businesses.

INDIA INSIDE OUT

FROM LEFT: ROOP DEY/GETTYIMAGES; SHUTTERSTOCK Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat. Left: A boat ride on the
River Ganga in Varanasi is an unmissable experience.

M Y FIRST TRIP AFTER THE lockdown
lifted was a road trip from Lucknow
to the holy city of Varanasi, also
known by its ancient name of Banaras.
Needless to say, I was excited to usher
in ‘Subah-e-Banaras’, the local term
for experiencing ‘morning in Varanasi’,
which starts with the Ganga Aarti at Assi Ghat,
followed by a boat ride on the river considered
holy by Hindus.
The quickest way to immerse yourself in
Varanasi is to sample the local cuisine. Street
food is hard to beat, especially when it is
breakfast time. There are many hotspots around
Assi Ghat, but these aren’t the most accessible
parts of the city. Driving a car is hard work, and
the abruptly ending pavements make the area
less walkable than other parts of the city.
No matter where you are in Varanasi, you are
never too far from a stall of kachori, the city’s
ubiquitous street food. But there is one place that
everyone gets directed to, my guide D K Pandey
tells me. In the bustling market of Luxa Bazaar is
our destination: Deena Chat Bhandar, surrounded
by a gaggle of eager, mask-wearing customers.
Named after its owner, Deena Nath Kesari, who
started selling tamatar chaat in the late 1980s in
a khomcha (a moveable stall), this shop is run by
his grandson Atul Kesari. “The tamatar chaat is the
most popular dish on our menu, and people from
all over the world have praised our preparation.
The recipe is decades old,” boasts Kesari, quickly
adding a clarification over the footfall. “What you
are seeing isn’t even half the number of what we

47T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E I N D I A . I N

INDIA INSIDE OUT From left: Kachori also believed that Varanasi flourished as a textile
CLOCKWISE: SHUTTERSTOCK (2); PRINCE KUMARis a breakfastcentre when it was the capital of the Kingdom of
staple in the holy Kashi, which included Sarnath—the place where
city; Varanasi is Gautam Buddha delivered his first sermon.
famous for serving
lassi with a wide We go deep into the narrow lanes of
range of toppings. Bajardiha, where a large silk weavers’ community
resides. As soon as we enter, we’re surrounded
normally have in our shop; it’s due to COVID-19. Malaiyo, or by a cacophony of looms, their clickety-clack
Thankfully, things are improving and we hope to flavoured milk redolent of train engines and typewriters.
welcome more locals and tourists.” foam, has to be Weaving a Banarasi silk sari is an act of precision,
consumed before skill, and a lot of patience. Weavers work for eight
I sit on a low seat and watch samosas 10 am as it needs to nine hours a day in their pit looms, I’m told.
being plunged into a wok of hot oil. They a cool climate.
are served with sweet tamarind chutney and But even this centuries-old business has been
taste surprisingly good; not as greasy as I had hit badly by the pandemic. “We are just about
expected. After devouring a samosa, I tuck into managing to survive,” says Abdullah, 56, one
the shop’s popular khasta kachori (a fried puffed of the masters of the craft. He was trained by
pastry with fillings) and chooda matar (flattened his father since he was a child. “First it was the
rice with peas and condiments), both of which power looms that were taking away our business,
are specialities of Varanasi. and now it is the pandemic. It is only very
recently that we have started getting orders again
No Banaras breakfast is complete without to make the saris,” he adds.
dessert. And there are few things more indulgent
than the winter speciality of malaiyo. It is
basically flavoured milk foam served in earthen
vessels and garnished with finely chopped
almonds and pistachios. The milk foam is like a
cloud that diffuses in your mouth, leaving behind
a lingering sweetness. But you must eat it before
10 am, while the weather is still cold, because the
foam doesn’t last at higher temperatures.

After the sumptuous breakfast, I dive into
the making of the famous Banarasi silk sari,
which carries a Geographical Indication (GI)
tag. Its origins can be traced to the early 1600s
when a number of skilled weavers migrated to
Banaras and designs from both the Muslim and
Hindu communities intermingled on the canvas
of the city. This is when Banaras became a
popular centre for silk weaving in gold and silver
threads (local brocade called kinkhwab). It is

48 TRAVEL+LE ISURE INDI A & SOUTH ASI A | MARCH 202 1

GETTING THERE
The Lal Bahadur
Shastri International
Airport is well
connected to other
cities of India. The
Varanasi Cantt.
railway station is
within the main city.

STAY
Taj Ganges: This five-
star property offers
an ethereal stay
experience to
travellers, marrying
old-world charm with
modern luxuries.
From `5,300;
tajhotels.com

Brijrama Palace:
Perched on the
river bank, on the
Darbanga Ghat,
Brijrama Palace is
one of the oldest
landmarks in the city.
Tracing its history
back to 1812, the
palace offers a royal
experience to its
guests. From `13,500;
brijrama.com

FROM TOP: ISHA SINGH; PARDEEP SINGH GILL/GETTYIMAGES Traditionally, every weaver household From top: The wake of the pandemic, ODOP is connecting
lives on the first floor of the structure, while weaving industry artisans with shoppers around the world,
the ground floor functions as the workplace of Varanasi is a eliminating the need for middlemen or extensive
(pit looms). It takes 25 to 30 days to weave mishmash of travels. Since the start of the pandemic, there’s
one sari, according to Abdullah. Prices various cultural been one all-consuming question for the weavers
can vary significantly depending on the aesthetics; a man and shop owners of Varanasi: “When are people
intricacy of the design, with more complex weaves silk on a coming back?” With proper precautions in place
patterns like the classic Mughal-inspired foot-powered loom. and the start of vaccination in India, we can now
jangla—with its meticulous zari work and thankfully say, “Soon.”
meena flowers—often costing four times
as much as the simpler ones. You can find
the fabric in the local markets and retail
or wholesale stores anywhere in the city,
but buying directly from the weavers is a
win-win. This way they reap all the
benefits of their hard work, and you are
ensured an authentic silk sari for nearly half
the price (when compared with the market
price). The one I buy for my mother costs
me `15,000.

In 2018, the state government
introduced the ‘One District One Product’
(ODOP) initiative to raise awareness about
handloom weavers and to help them sell
their products online. It has encouraged
traditional craftsmen and a wave of
designers to revive ancient crafts. In the

4 9T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E I N D I A . I N

HOLIDAY WITH
A CONSCIENCE

Celebrating 25 years of sustainable luxury, Soneva Fushi in
the Maldives is equally luxe and endearing. AINDRILA MITRA
finds out on a mother-daughter holiday.

T HIS IS MY THIRD VISIT to the Maldives. But it’s the
first time I am on a mother-daughter trip to the
archipelago. Family holidays are an annual ritual, and
since 2020 kept us grounded, we’re starting January
2021 by diving into what will be one of our most
memorable holidays. Prisha, my nine-year-old, is
chirpy even after a red-eye flight followed by an
hour-long seaplane journey from Malé to Soneva Fushi, which
sits on Kunfunadhoo Island in the pristine Baa Atoll.
Twenty-five years after the resort first opened its gates
to sustainable luxury, we check in to Soneva Fushi’s recently
launched two-bedroom overwater villa—spanning nearly 900
square metres—for our quarantine day. (Soneva mandates that
every guest must take a COVID-19 test and quarantine in their
villa until a negative report, which is ready within 24 hours.)
Our ‘Ms Friday’ (Soneva’s take on the butler concept) for the
day, Chompoo, does a walk-around of the villa, and Prisha
summarises, “You feel like you’re at home, which is in the
ocean and has a slide for fun!” Soneva Fushi prides itself as
a family destination and it has clearly swept my daughter off
her feet. She’s not the only one.
Impeccable service, spacious rooms, and barefoot butlers
make your stay comfortable. It’s a home away from home, with
all the comforts you seek when you are in your comfort zone.

50 TRAVEL+LE ISURE INDI A & SOUTH ASI A | MARCH 202 1

COURTESY OF SONEVA FUSHI have been here since November 1996. Soneva is Clockwise from far
CHECKING INa place where you work, create, and motivate. left: A two-bedroom
There’s no end to learning here… it’s almost like water retreat with
a university, and anyone who joins has to be in slide; Mihiree
training for three-four months.” The servers are Mithaa, the buffet
always jovial, the table setting perfectly executed breakfast destination
by the beach, the butlers always on time, and the at Soneva Fushi;
71 villas well-kept. the resort serves
sundowners on a
My ‘Mr Friday’ for the next 48 hours, Faalih private sandbank.
Abdul Gadir, is a Maldivian who has been with
There’s a sense of familiarity that permeates the Soneva for the last six years. He takes us on a tour
space, probably because the owners of Soneva— of the Eco Centre, a recycling unit that was built
the dynamic Sonu Shivdasani and his wife, eight years ago. Ninety per cent of waste on this
Eva, who reside on the island—do not believe island is recycled—empty glass bottles are used by
in formalities. You walk barefoot on the island, glassblowing artists to create exquisite artefacts,
decide your own pace, and people here offer and organic waste is turned into compost used
everything you need on a vacation. as chemical-free fertiliser for the resort’s organic
garden at Fresh in the Garden. From herbs and
Abhishek Sharma, the general manager, fruits to vegetables and mushrooms, we sample
shares, “It’s not a typical hotel. I came here after the true farm-to-table experience.
working with top luxury brands because Soneva
isn’t just about business. It lives the philosophy of I meet Katarzyna Maria Izydorczyk over an
slow life, sustainability, and CSR, and we are 70 ‘Asian Market’ buffet dinner at Mihiree Mithaa.
per cent local.” No wonder 60 per cent of Soneva A former educator, she is the director of Soneva’s
Fushi’s guests are repeat visitors. latest project Namoona—a partnership with
NGO Common Seas in collaboration with the
Over our buffet breakfast at Mihiree Government of Maldives and three local islands—
Mitha where ‘spoilt for choice’ sounds like an which seeks to reduce waste and prevent plastic
understatement—there are dedicated rooms in the ocean. “Namoona is a CSR project funded
for greens and salads, cheeses and cold cuts, by Soneva Jani and Fushi, and we are also
chocolate and bakery, fresh fruits and cereals—I working with the Ministry of Education to work
catch up with the beverage manager, Regius on green schools in the Maldives,” she informs
Nerojan, who hails from Colombo and has spent me. All Soneva properties are carbon-neutral,
the last 25-odd years with the Soneva group. and sustainability is a way of life with the group.
“Don’t you get bored,” I bluntly ask? He smiles,
“Soneva Fushi launched in October 1995, and I

5 1T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E I N D I A . I N

CHECKING IN

There are over 400 staffers on the Clockwise from
150-hectare island. Yet, Faalih says, above: The two-
“Soneva is like a family. There are bedroom water
guests who have come here as many retreat offers views
as 15 times, and now their children of the azure sea;
are all grown-up. The staff here are Once Upon A Table
called ‘hosts’, as we host [guests] like seats eight and has
family.” I experience this first-hand been designed as a
when I drop off my daughter at The culinary theatre;
Den, Soneva Fushi’s kids’ area built The Den, Soneva
over 1,300 square metres that includes Fushi’s kids’ area is
a swimming pool, deck, a teenage built over 1,300
area, and kids’ activities rooms. Five square metres.
permanent staffers make sure the
children are safe and entertained while GETTING THERE beach villa priced Germany. The Soneva Villa Ownership
the adult guests enjoy the idyllic island Both IndiGo at `4,00,000 plus programme, the first of its kind in the
life. My daughter is fascinated by the (goindigo.in) and taxes per night; Maldives, offers visitors the chance to
Lego Room, and while she brushes GoAir (goair.in) soneva.com/ own a private residence in a Soneva
up her art skills with her new-found fly to Malé from soneva-fushi resort. At the dinner table, Chef
Russian friend at The Den, I find a Mumbai and Akira prepares some of the tastiest
comfortable perch to work in the Dellhi. Vistara COVID-19 RULES sushi I’ve ever tried—the fish is killed
upper deck of my beach villa. Work (airvistara.com) If you’re travelling employing the Japanese technique of
from Soneva could well be an idea too will run non- from India, make ikejime so there’s no stress caused to
to germinate, especially with work- stop flights from sure to carry the living being, Shivdasani informs
from-home now becoming a norm, Mumbai starting your negative me. We finish up our Burgundy wine
I tell myself. The Wi-Fi is great, the March 3. From RT-PCR report and round off the meal with a sushi
view heavenly, and the variety of food Malé, a seaplane and booking dessert—sweet sushi roll with fruits
titillates the taste buds. flight to Soneva confirmations. wrapped in it—a first for me!
Fushi takes When you’re in
I enjoy a sundowner on a private 50-55 minutes. Malé, Soneva As I soak in my last evening on this
sandbank, So Social on Finolhu. As the Fushi will conduct paradisiacal island, tucking myself and
waves wash my feet, there is a sense of STAY another round my daughter into the soft bed of our
contentment. I see families, couples, Soneva Fushi of testing. You villa, I feel at peace. At a resort that
friends—guests of Soneva Fushi— has 71 villas. The are quarantined embodies and practises conscious
mingling like a happy community, eight overwater within your villa living, with luxury that’s not over
safe in a bubble that seems far from villas are some for 24 hours the top but effortless and barefoot, I
the pandemic. It’s an experience to of the largest in until negative feel a part of a big household. Before
treasure in such uncertain times. the archipelago. test reports are departing, my daughter makes a ‘pinky
Back at the property, I head for a Two-bedroom received. The promise’ of coming back to this island.
sushi dinner at Out of the Blue with water villa priced in-villa dining
a melee of interesting personalities at `10,40,000 plus menu has great
including the owner, Sonu Shivdasani, taxes per night; options to keep
and a villa proprietor in Soneva Jani single-room you satiated.
who has flown in with his wife from

52 TRAVEL+LE ISURE INDI A & SOUTH ASI A | MARCH 202 1

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C U LT U R E FOOD FOR conscious about our choices, and adapting
THOUGHT to the scarcity of essentials. There’s always
more to art than meets the eye.
Singapore is a hub of visual arts that can be accessed
on the streets, in museums, and even on a mobile I am not an art-lover. I do not claim to
phone. JOANNA LOBO experienced this plenitude understand or appreciate it. But whether
just before the pandemic struck last year. you love it or hate it, art has the ability to
make you think about the world differently.
I T WAS A ROOM BUILT for a pandemic-like This is what happened on my maiden
situation. This apartment of the future was visit to Singapore for Singapore Art Week
an indication of what life would look like (SAW; artweek.sg) in January 2020. I saw
200 years from now, with extreme weather spices making a point about the healing
conditions, rising sea levels, economic power of the kitchen in Sunaina Bhalla’s
uncertainty, and scarcity of resources. It was Healing Wall of Spices. I discovered how
a compact, self-sustaining space with no dust can be used to “paint time” in Min
knick-knacks or mementoes but with demarcated areas Thein Sung’s Time: Dust paintings. I saw
to grow food—edible plants and micro-herbs. There how modern civilisation has destroyed
were also books and recipes for cooking insects harmony with nature in Yang Yongliang’s
(roaches). This self-contained Room of Requirement was digital installation, The Departure. That one
part of 2219: Futures Imagined, an exhibit at ArtScience week helped me realise that art doesn’t
Museum in Marina Bay Sands (marinabaysands.com), need to be understood, just experienced.
Singapore. The show was a journey into imaginary With quarantine restrictions still playing
future worlds. Little did I realise, standing in that room, spoilsport with most travel plans, this year’s
that this ‘future’ was a month away: a future where we SAW reached many people around the
would be growing our own food, becoming more world through virtual tours and live events.
It made me look back at the thought-
provoking, and at times prophetic, art
I witnessed last year.

The ArtScience Museum is SHUTTERSTOCK
housed in the integrated

resort of Marina Bay Sands.

VISIONS OF THE FUTURE
The ArtScience Museum is a defining part of Singapore’s
bay landscape; a pristine white blooming lotus. It looks
good from afar, up-close, and in the reflection in Anish
Kapoor’s Sky Mirror, a stainless-steel artwork set in a
pond of lotuses right outside the museum.

It is one of Singapore’s most exciting museums,
blending art, science, and culture in an attractive
package. It is here that I encountered 2219: Futures
Imagined. The exhibit wasn’t limited to self-sustaining
rooms but painted a future focussed on human-led
adaptations: libraries stocked with necessary books,
an architectural plan detailing how Singaporeans can
live underground, new modes of transport, and the
implications of our social and cultural memories. The
interactive installation win><win by German theatre
group Rimini Protokoll offered a window to a future
where jellyfish are the predominant species on the
planet and a threat to all other life. It was telling of the
way humans have destroyed the planet.

MAKING SPACE The exhibit titled 2219: Futures Imagined at the ArtScience Museum looks
Art is everywhere in Singapore: in small museums, 200 years into the future. Below: Story of the Forest at the National Museum
on the walls of homes, in repurposed warehouses, of Singapore brings to life the country’s flora and fauna with 3D animations.
heritage industrial factory spaces, and conserved
FROM TOP: JOANNA LOBO 2 colonial barracks (Gillman Barracks). Each space brings
its own unique identity, and sometimes architecture,
to the art-viewing process. At STPI (stpi.com.sg) by
Robertson Quay, I found a contemporary gallery and
creative workshop space dedicated to printmaking.
The Creative Workshop is a laboratory for artists to
experiment with print and papermaking techniques.
The result is artwork like moss paintings where artist
Melati Suryodarmo moulds and shapes pigmented
wet pulp. Out on the bustling Orchard Road, packed
with high-end stores and malls, a repurposed shipping
container became the space for French artist Lionel
Sabatté to showcase his fantastical beasts made of dust,
ashes, charcoal, dead skin, and tree stumps. In the
streets of Kampong Glam, Singapore’s Muslim Quarter,
I found art painted on or hanging from windows and
walls. Over in Little India, the art was focussed on the
region’s inhabitants. There were the expected peacocks,
elephants, and mogra (jasmine), and also a mural of
traditional occupations of the Indians who first settled
there: dhobis, tiffin-meal businesses, and astrologers.
Unexpectedly alongside was a mural of Rajinikanth.

This sense of identity and cultural representation,
visible all over Little India, finds space at School of the
Arts (SOTA; sota.edu.sg). The annual IMPART Collectors’
Show showcases works from private collections. Here,
I learned how an artist’s identity, history, and culture
can translate itself onto a canvas. Pakistani Adeela
Suleman’s What Dreams May Come had the filigree
tradition of Islamic art imposed on a wooden piece.

5 5T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E I N D I A . I N

Thailand’s Jakkai Siributr used popularC U LT U R EA colourful representation of people of colour and bringing them
iconography of Thai culture and worship CLOCKWISE: NURPHOTO/GETTYIMAGES; JOANNA LOBO (2)mural on theinto the galleries that under-represented them.
to create an embroidered wall piece, Hi- wall of a cafe in
So, bright pink and covered with sequins. Kampong Glam, DIGITAL ART AND THE ARTIST
I’ve Seen an Elephant Fly had Bharti Kher Singapore’s My greatest discovery of the art scene in Singapore
combine two symbols of Indian culture: Muslim Quarter. was the use of augmented reality (AR).
the bindi and the elephant. From left:
Kehinde Wiley’s As part of Singapore’s first public AR walking trail,
Among these pieces, one portrait stood life-size portrait, AR.T Trail, I saw six works of art reimagined using
out, arresting the gaze. It was Kehinde Saint Gregory Facebook’s Spark AR. The one that stood out was
Wiley’s life-size portrait, Saint Gregory the Great; an unassuming tree stump honouring Singapore’s
the Great. The US-based artist is known I’ve Seen an tallest tree. Robert Zhao’s Time Tree is the largest
for his portraits of African Americans—he Elephant Fly by 3D-printed piece in Singapore. It has spirals marking
paints them in proud, aristocratic poses Indian artist its own history, and with AR, the spirals turn into text
against ornate backgrounds, reminiscent Bharti Kher. mentioning important events in Singapore’s history.
of historical masterpieces. It is his way The trail was an attempt by creative technology studio
of questioning the historical under- MeshMinds Foundation to show that street art isn’t for

passive viewing. It can tell a story if we Clockwise from above:
pay attention. Time Tree employs AR
to tell history; French
Telling stories is what Aliwal Arts Centre artist Lionel Sabatté
(aliwalartscentre.sg) at Kampong Glam makes fantastical
does best. As part of SAW, they organised beasts out of dust,
the Urban Arts Festival showcasing visual ashes, charcoal, dead
art, alternative music, dance performances, skin, and tree stumps;
and skateboarding. There, for the first time, a mural of Rajinikanth
I watched skateboarding try-outs, and a in Little India.
dance battle. Yet, it was the street art that
CLOCKWISE: COURTESY OF MESHMINDS; JOANNA LOBO (2) demanded attention. Everything on display GETTING THERE collective, teamLab. Story of the Forest transforms
was meant to answer the question: “What Most major airlines, 69 drawings into 3D animations of Singapore’s flora
if?” For instance, what if graffiti wasn’t like Singapore and fauna. I stood in a darkened, domed room while
allowed on blank walls? On one night, I Airlines (singapore leaves fell all around me, flowers bloomed, and
got the answer to this question. The street air.com), run daily animals bounded about. The exhibit offered me a
art collective Rscls showed me their ‘blank flights to Changi different lens through which I could view history and
wall art’. Faced with a depleting number of Airport from Indian connect Singapore’s colonial past with its present-
blank spaces to showcase their work, the cities. There is an day modernity.
collective had created AR versions of their MRT station that
art accessed through Instagram. takes you into the This room, much like the one in 2219: Futures
city (but requires Imagined, was a perfect representation of my
At the National Design Centre transfers). Bus is the understanding of art in Singapore: something that is
(designsingapore.org/national-design- cheapest option to visually stunning, immersive, imaginative, and that uses
centre), the Atypical Singapore exhibition get around; it allows technology to evoke wonder and spark conversation.
introduced me to another artist playing payment in cash and
with technology. Eugene Soh (‘The Dude’) by card. The MRT is
takes iconic artworks and recreates them quicker. There are
in Singaporean, adding AR for a flourish. tourist passes for
In Food for Thought, an interpretation unlimited travel—
of Raphael’s The School of Athens set at available for one,
the La Pau Sat hawker centre, AR makes two, and three days.
the figures move. Similarly, hawkers at
Maxwell Food Centre have an animated STAY
discussion in The Last Kopitiam, modelled The Fullerton Hotel
on Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper. Singapore offers
views of Singapore
There was a different kind of technology River or Marina Bay.
at play in the National Museum of From `14,988;
Singapore (nhb.gov.sg/nationalmuseum). fullertonhotels.com
There, I walked through a ‘forest’—an Mercure Singapore
interactive installation by Japanese digital on Stevens is a
four-star hotel that’s
centrally located.
From `7,839;
all.accor.com

5 7T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E I N D I A . I N

WA N D E R ON THE WILD SIDE

On the Dominican Republic’s Samaná Peninsula, innovative
eco-lodges are highlighting the region’s untamed natural
bounty. LEBAWIT LILY GIRMA goes on a swing around
one of the country’s less-travelled corners.

P H OTO G RAP H S BY L EBAW I T L I LY GI R MA

“I T’S SURPRISING THAT in a country so
commercialised, you can still find places
like this,” Noemi Araujo said as we passed
a ‘For Sale’ sign on a fenced, wooded lot.
The owner of Clave Verde Ecolodge
(doubles from `6,557; claveverde.com),
where my partner, Luis, and I were
staying, was also our guide for the two-hour hike down
the uneven road that begins near the hotel and leads to
the stunning shoreline at Playa Morón. Cicadas buzzed
in the thick tropical forest around us, piercing the
humid afternoon air. Seconds later, she told us to look
up: speckled brown palmchats, the national bird of the
Dominican Republic, were flying in and out of their
three-storey nest at the tip of a royal palm.
We saw more goats than people until we reached
a roadside stall, where a couple was selling fresh coco
bread outside their home. We bought two oven-warm
bundles for `91 each. Soon, a shortcut through the
forest led us to the secluded golden beach we’d been
seeking. A handful of teenagers were swimming in
the turquoise water. At the end of the sandy stretch,
a steep, forested trail led to another beach, Playa
Limón—miles of virgin sand lined with coconut trees.
A fisherman dragged his net out of the water as his
canoe approached the shore. Next to a solitary shack,
a woman tended to her fogón, the outdoor hearth
where she would soon prepare the fresh catch for
lunch. The three of us waded into the cool, shallow
waters where the Limón River meets the sea.
Over the past 15 years, I’ve explored more than 20
islands in the Caribbean, but no place grabs me quite
like the over-the-top tropical splendour of the Samaná
Peninsula: scenic coves, craggy cliffs, seemingly endless
coconut groves, just 160 kilometres from my home in
Santo Domingo, where I’ve lived since 2016. Humpback
whales visit Samaná every January to mate and calve.
The area’s beachside resort towns—Las Terrenas and
Las Galeras—are popular escapes from the capital,
both for locals like Luis and me and for travellers in
search of a quieter alternative to Punta Cana.
But the hills and valleys of the peninsula’s interior
were harder to get to know—until now. Dominican-
owned eco-lodges are opening up in these rural
communities, honouring nature with their use of locally

58 TRAVEL+LE ISURE INDI A & SOUTH ASI A | MARCH 202 1

A stroll along Playa
Colorada, a hidden beach
on the Samaná Peninsula,
in the Dominican Republic.

5 9T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E I N D I A . I N

WA N D E R

sourced materials, guided excursions into the From left: The for its beaches. Its party-hard bar scene was once
biodiverse forest, and meals sourced from their Marruecos bungalow the main draw. But now, community members
own permaculture gardens. In a time when we at Casa El Paraíso; and municipal officials are working to create
all want to be away from the crowds—and the the pool at Clave ecotourism experiences that showcase the area’s
Caribbean starts to reopen borders—this part of Verde Ecolodge, natural wealth—like the new Seven Hidden
Samaná is a welcome break. with the Sierra de Beaches trail, which winds past sea caves along
Samaná beyond. the area’s less developed coastline.
One of the pioneers is the campesino-chic Lunch of fried
Clave Verde, where Luis and I stayed on a capit n and We came to the end of Samaná’s sole highway,
weekend trip this fall. Araujo and her husband, tostones at and views of the ocean disappeared as we turned
Jonathan, founded the solar-powered property Candelita, in off at the sign for the village of La Guázuma.
after relocating from Santo Domingo to the the beach town Walking into the seven-key Casa El Paraíso
mountain village of La Barbacoa. The lodge, of Las Terrenas. (doubles from `9,836; casaelparaiso.com), we were
surrounded by forest trails and groves of native
trees like almond, cherry, and acacia, is just a
15-minute drive from Las Terrenas, where Araujo
suggested lunch after our beach hike.

We walked past the fish market to a row of
new open-air restaurants facing the beach. Locals
enjoyed just-caught seafood and Presidente beer,
while a couple danced barefoot to bachata music.
Scanning the chalkboard menus, we settled in at
Candelita (entrées `510–`1,020; Playa Casa Blanca;
1-829-721-6276), where we ordered a typical
Dominican seaside meal: fried capitán, as hogfish
is known here, with a side of tostones and avocado.
When we left two hours later, the cacophonous
motorbike traffic along the beach made us
appreciate Clave Verde’s location in the hills.

The next day, we woke to cows mooing over
the bluffs as if announcing the sun rising over the
village. I stepped onto our balcony and looked out
on the forest canopy as the fresh morning air
filtered into our suite. Breakfast of fried eggs and
mashed green bananas fuelled us for the drive
to Las Galeras, a small fishing town renowned

60 TRAVEL+LE ISURE INDI A & SOUTH ASI A | MARCH 202 1

plunged into a kind of miniature nature reserve,

with fruit trees, palms, and purple Mexican

petunias framing a narrow stone path. Butterflies

circled my legs, and cicadas echoed off the timber

walls. We reached an open-air lounge with

sculptures and Balinese-style wooden furniture

set against the panorama of Samaná Bay.

José Raúl Nova—a respected Santo Domingo

veterinarian who tended to the pets of the late

Oscar de la Renta—initially built the property as a

vacation home. Nova showed us around the

botanical paradise, which he and his wife, Nora

Mejía, transformed into an eco-hotel two years ago.

Its high-ceilinged thatched bungalows were

inspired by the owners’ travels: the nautical Marina,

where de la Renta once stayed; Casita Dominicana,

with furniture made of repurposed wood;

Marruecos, their newest addition, full of custom-

made Moroccan textiles and ceramics. All are open

on one side, with wide views of the bay acting as a

fourth wall. “There are no room keys,” Nova told us.

“Nature herself makes you feel protected here.”

We ordered our dinner to the sandy poolside

lounge, where Chef Mirko Casagrande arrived with

a lionfish tartare. “We want to show that the

DR has a different side,” he said, joining our

conversation. “A rich natural side, with rivers,

beaches, and mountains.” Casagrande hails from The five-bedroom villa at Casa El Paraíso.
Milan, but settled in Las Galeras 20 years ago. His

passion for the country shines in his cooking:

grilled lobster with farro, avocado, and mango; GETTING THERE After morning thunderstorms cancelled our
octopus with honey and ginger; grilled vegetables plans to hike the seven-beach trail, Luis and I opted
from the garden, where free-range chickens United Airlines for a drive to Aventura Rincón Ecolodge (doubles
wander among pumpkins, plantains, and cassava. (united.com) from `3,278; aventurarinconecolodge.com), winding
“My kitchen is 100 per cent sustainable,” explained flies from Delhi past overgrown, palm-dotted fields and pastel
and Mumbai to

the chef, who decided to serve the invasive—and Santo Domingo shacks. This innovative solar-powered property and

highly destructive—lionfish once lobster season via Newark. The organic farm looks like a rambling garden, with five
ended. “For me, serving lionfish is an honour, drive to Samaná cabins inspired by Dominican campo life.
because I’m doing good for the environment.” takes around
2.5 hours. “We promote going back to your roots,” said

Orquídea Susana, who at the time was overseeing

the property’s permaculture initiatives. That means

heirloom seeds, organic methods, and cooking

what’s seasonal. She showed us vanilla, turmeric,

Las Terrenas cacao, taro, and papaya. “We have local varieties
of fruit, like piña pan de azúcar,” Susana told us.

Samaná Peninsula Las Galeras “It tastes like sugar.” Thunder forced us to pick up
D o m i n i c a n R e p u b l i c SAMANÁBAY our pace, though I was tempted to linger among
I LLUST R AT IO N BY LO L I TH T. K . HAITI the tall shoots of cranberry hibiscus.

Our colourful lunch spread included

snapdragon tea and a salad of fresh-picked

mizuna, avocado, and hibiscus, garnished with

Santo Domingo edible flowers. For dessert: slices of the local

sweet pineapple and jalao, a baked coconut

candy. As we walked it all off at nearby Playa

Colorada, we didn’t see a soul.

6 1T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E I N D I A . I N

A sandy beach on the
remote South Pacific

island of Taveuni.

B E A C H H O L I D AY W E STOOD ON THE edge of
SHUTTERSTOCK the day on the remote South
BREATHLESS IN FIJI Pacific island of Taveuni in
the Republic of Fiji. Then,
On an island-hopping tour, GUSTASP & JEROO IRANI strike taking a deep breath, we
a balance between thrills and tranquillity as they go scuba diving, stepped into yesterday.
partake in traditional feasts, zipline over rainforest canopies, A tiny step back, and it
and sing Fijian love songs. was today once more. Time travel was
bafflingly easy as we straddled a deep
62 TRAVEL+LE ISURE INDI A & SOUTH ASI A | MARCH 202 1 channel in Millennium Park. The rocky
outcrop of Taveuni is bisected by the 180°
meridian. Today, the International Date
Line twists around the archipelago
for administrative convenience, but once
upon a time, it did not deviate from the
180° meridian—indicate by the svelte
channel in the park—and Taveuni
experienced two days in one.
To be honest, it did not really matter
what day it was. We had landed in Fiji

in late 2019 with plans of zoning out in a proverbial Clockwise from top In Fiji, they love to show off their
paradise of palm-fringed beaches and deep-blue left: Visitors are panoply of islands, each with landscapes
waters. But the archipelago of 333 dreamy islands given a conch shell so breathtaking that boredom is instantly
scattered in the Koro Sea offered us the opportunity to welcome at the Fiji banished. And so, the next morning, we
punctuate periods of absolute serenity with high jinks. Culture Village in the were ready to play Robinson Crusoe on the
We also got to engage with the beauty of the land and town of Nadi; tread resort’s private island. We tumbled out of a
the rich heritage and culture of its gentle people. forests, muddy yacht wearing snorkelling gear and swam
streams, and cane alongside our guide as he went spearfishing
After touchdown at Nadi International Airport on fields on a quad bike; for our lunch. Fiji has some of the finest
Viti Levu, the largest island, we headed for Nanuku raise a sparkling soft-coral dive sites on the planet. Later,
Auberge Resort on the southern coast. At the 37-villa toast to blue skies at he marinated the catch in fresh coconut
boutique luxury resort, we were greeted with throaty Cloud 9, a two-level milk and grilled it over wood fire as we
cries of “bula” (which means hello or welcome) and floating party zone; lounged under a beach umbrella. We three
drums pounded by warriors with painted faces. Our enjoy fresh coconut were the only souls on the island for the
villa overlooked the arc of a three-kilometre beach water at Malamala day—a luxury few can afford in a world
below and a vast canvas of breezy blues stretching Beach Club. spilling over with tourists. In retrospect,
across the sky and the ocean. At dusk, the resort was it would’ve made the perfect setting for a
GUSTASP & JERO O IRANI 4 lit with tiki torches; the flames flickered in the water post-pandemic holiday.
of an infinity-edge pool as we dined at the resort’s
Kanavata restaurant, where meals were a modern take Island-hopping is the way to go on a Fiji
on the land’s traditional cuisine. holiday, and flying in a 20-seater airplane

6 3T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E I N D I A . I N

that glides over palm trees and lands on a runway thatB E A C H H O L I D AYKayaks at In Fiji, our meals were always sprinkled
stops just short of the ocean is a dramatic experience. CLO CKW ISE: GUSTASP & JERO O IRANI (2); TAMMY616/GE T T YIMAGESJean-Michelwith romance. The settings were magical—
From the minimalist shed-like terminal at Savusavu Cousteau Resort dining under the stars at the head of a
Airport, on the northern island of Vanua Levu, we drove on the island of lantern-lit pier at Jean-Michel Cousteau
to the 525-acre Namale Resort and Spa boutique luxury Vanua Levu. Resort on Vanua Levu, and a beachfront
resort. The next day, at the crack of dawn, we set off table-for-two lit by the fire of tiki torches
on a trek to a waterfall armed with a picnic hamper. at Tokoriki Island Resort, located in the
We tramped down a path that traced a sandy beach Mamanuca Islands. We savoured the catch
and then branched off into a rainforest that draped the of the day and fresh ingredients sourced
slopes of a hill. We heard the angry roar of the waterfall from the resorts’ organic gardens. But it
long before we saw its silvery curtain. Breakfast with a was at the Fijian lovo feasts that we really
gentle spray of water in our faces and a ringside view sank our teeth into local flavours. Lovo is
of the land, dropping away and into the embrace of the a Fijian repast comprising different meats,
ocean, was rewarding. seafood, and vegetables slow-cooked on
coal in underground pits. As we waited
Fiji has some of the for the subterranean meal to be dug out
finest soft-coral dive at the Fiji Culture Village, a three-minute
sites on the planet. drive from Nadi town on Viti Levu, a
Below: Cook your troupe of performers regaled us with
own meal in a bamboo legends of the land. Women performers
shoot at Nanuku wore grass skirts and shiny tops with
Auberge Resort.

white frangipani flowers tucked behind their ears, and Outdoor sit-out resorts; we opted for scuba diving. It was an
swayed gracefully to lilting Fijian love songs. The men of a guest bure easy drift dive where we allowed a gentle
looked fierce with their bare chests and painted faces. at Tokoriki current to carry us through an underwater
The performers jumped through flaming hoops and Island Resort. gully teeming with marine life. We
twirled burning bamboo torches. Below: Hurtle greeted three turtles, long-snouted yellow
over river canyons trumpetfish, parrotfish, purple-lip giant
And then, we were invited to participate in the and forests with clams, blue starfish, and other creatures. We
nation’s favourite pastime: the kava ceremony. Kava Zip Fiji Nadi. cruised over coral gardens awash in brilliant
is a local brew concocted from the root of a type of colours, until our air supply touched the
pepper plant. Tribal chiefs once settled disputes over reserve mark. The beauty of the island-
kava bowls. It is a sacred drink, and we had to follow nation took our breath away.
certain rituals when presented with a scoop of the
muddy-brown liquid in a coconut-shell cup. Since it When it was finally time to say goodbye,
is bad form to refuse the first drink, we clapped once we looked down from our aircraft at the
to express our thanks, lifted the cup to our lips and cluster of magical emerald islands in the
downed its contents in a single gulp, and then clapped South Pacific Ocean. We found ourselves
thrice to express our appreciation. humming Isa Lei, a Fijian farewell song for
one’s beloved.
There was no room for doubt or etiquette when
we stood on the first launch platform of Zip Fiji Nadi GETTING THERE and the all-inclusive Namale
on the main island of Viti Levu. The moment called A number of airlines fly from Resort and Spa (price on
for deep resolve: resolve to step out into empty space major cities in India to Hong request; namalefiji.com)
from a height of 25 metres. Suspended in a harness Kong and Singapore, from are on Vanua Levu. Tokoriki
attached to sturdy cables that stretched 50 metres where one can catch a Island Resort (doubles from
across the canopy of a rainforest, we hurtled over river connecting flight on Fiji `₹46,554; tokoriki.com) is
canyons and gaping gullies on a series of ziplines. Airways (fijiairways.com) to located in the Mamanuca
One line even took us through Fiji’s largest cave Nadi International Airport Islands, while Taveuni
(thankfully, it was bat-free). The longest line on the on Viti Levu. Fiji Link, a Island Resort & Spa
16-stage course was 80 metres long! subsidiary of Fiji Airways, (doubles from `₹18,724 per
operates domestic flights. night, 2N minimum;
Ziplining whetted our appetite for thrills, and we One can use taxis, ferries, taveuniislandresort.com)
welcomed the opportunity to tear across the land on and water taxis within Fiji. will reopen in April 2021.
quad bikes—four-wheel beasts with 450cc engines.
We raced through sugarcane plantations, rattled over STAY EAT
mountain trails, sped down deserted beaches, and Most of the international Port Denarau has many
splashed through rivers before leading the devil hotel chains, like Sofitel Fiji waterfront dining options.
bikes back to their lair. Resort & Spa (doubles from Fiji Culture Village, outside
`₹14,500 per night; sofitel- Nadi on Viti Levu, serves a
The best way to cool off in Fiji is to plunge into the fiji.com), are located on the traditional lovo feast along
water. There are a multitude of water sports at the main island of Viti Levu. The with a cultural programme
island also has boutique and a kava ceremony.
FROM TOP : TOKORIK I ISL AND RESORT; GUSTASP & JERO O IRANI resorts like Nanuku Auberge
Resort (from `₹66,030 per UPDATES
night; aubergeresorts.com/ At the time of press, Fiji has
nanuku). The smaller no active cases of COVID-
islands are studded with 19. Borders remain closed
boutique resorts. Jean- to international tourists for
Michel Cousteau Resort now. Flight connectivity and
(from `₹74,570 per night, 3N hotel tariffs should be
minimum; fijiresort.com) verified once borders open.

6 5T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E I N D I A . I N

A DESERT OF N OTHING IS AS it seems in White Sands
DISTINCTION National Park. Its gypsum dunes—
the world’s largest at 1,76,000 acres—
On a trip to White Sands, America’s newest national resemble those of an endless beach,
park, KIERAN DAHL soaks in the awe-inspiring but there’s no ocean in New Mexico.
scenery of southern New Mexico, delving into the From afar, it looks as sterile and sun-
eerie undercurrents of the region’s atomic history. scorched as the surface of a distant
planet. Up close, the luxuriously cool sand teems
with life. Bleached earless lizards, Apache pocket
mice, and sand wolf spiders—all mostly white,
to blend in with their surroundings—skitter
across the dunes. At first, there’s no evidence of
humankind, but investigate the right spot and
you’ll find fossilised footprints within mammoth
and giant-sloth tracks.
In 1933, the area became a national monument,
but in December 2019, it was redesignated as a

A sunset hike on
the gypsum dunes
of White Sands
National Park.

national park. The change expanded its scope byFROM TOP: MARY ROBNETT; HELOVI GETTYIMAGES. OPPOSITE: JEN JUDGEArchival photosMissile Range, where the Manhattan
2,030 acres, and more importantly, increased its HISTORYare displayed atProject’s atomic-bomb test took place,
visibility to tourists. Researchers estimate that the Trinity Site, where are the park’s unusual neighbours.
change in status could contribute about $7 million the world’s first
(`51 crore) in new spending to the local economy atomic detonation I’D NEVER CONSIDERED myself an
and add around 100 jobs. took place. atomic tourist, but my interest was
A bleached piqued while researching the area’s
Once, as part of an epic cross-country road earless lizard, history. Within the 10,360-square-
trip from upstate New York, I hiked to one of the one of several kilometre missile range is Trinity Site,
10 backcountry campsites in White Sands. I species unique where the Atomic Age began in 1945
remember setting up my tent, then scrambling up to White Sands. with the July 16 detonation of the
the nearest dune, carrying the waxed plastic sled world’s first atomic bomb. I learned
I’d ambitiously brought with me. Certain dunes that the range holds public open
were streaked with sled impressions and footprints houses twice a year, and I felt a certain
heading back uphill. Sand-sledding, I found, is as dark yearning to see it for myself.
fun as its winter counterpart. You don’t get cold,
but you do get granules in all the wrong places.

Later that same day, I sat on top of a dune
and watched a crisp blue afternoon turn into a
prismatic twilight streaked with orange, yellow,
and indigo. Halfway through dinner, the sand
began to vibrate. Then, suddenly, an airplane
shot low across the sky, filling my ears with an
industrial roar.

Even deep in an untrammelled wilderness, it
turns out, you can’t escape the US government.
During World War II, the military established a
permanent presence in the surrounding Tularosa
Basin—a part of the Chihuahuan Desert that’s
remote enough for relative secrecy and barren
enough to easily test things that go boom. These
days, Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands

6 7T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E I N D I A . I N

Futuristic picnic Claret cup cacti
shelters at White bloom in White
Sands provide Sands each spring.
built-in shade.

N e w M e x i c oARIZONA

Albuquerque

After all, here was a readily accessible locus of Trinity Site
military history, a source of both national pride and
international dismay. To visit the birthplace of the White F RO M TO P : J EN JUD GE ; MARY RO B N E T T; I LLUST RAT IO N BY LO L I TH T. K .
most consequential weapon in human history, I Sands
didn’t need to train for months or pony up my life National
savings, as one might to enjoy other superlative Park
experiences like the highest-altitude hike or the
priciest bottle of champagne. All I needed was a car TEXAS
and a government-issued ID.
GETTING THERE STAY
So I made plans to attend last October’s 75th
anniversary open house, which was expected to United Airlines You can choose one of the
draw more than 5,000 people. Then, of course, (united.com) and several public and private
the pandemic hit, and the event was cancelled. Air India (airindia.in) campgrounds around the
But on a sweltering Friday that month, John “Drew” offer flights to El Paso national park. Reservation
Hamilton, WSMR’s public-affairs specialist, gave from Delhi and Mumbai, fees for Oliver Lee Memorial
me a private tour. respectively. From the State Park campground,
airport, it takes 4.5 located a half-hour drive
While those involved with the Manhattan hours to reach White away, starts from `1,021 per
Project would have observed a flash brighter than Sands National Park night. newmexicostateparks.
the midday sun and a mushroom cloud billowing (nps.gov/whsa). reserveamerica.com
seven miles into the sky, I saw a slightly concave
dirt lot; at its centre was a 12-foot-tall obelisk

68 TRAVEL+LE ISURE INDI A & SOUTH ASI A | MARCH 202 1

marking ground zero. Around the lot was a chain- being here, at the place where the Camping under HISTORY
link fence, to which black-and-white photos of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the stars in
blast were affixed. As I was shading my face from were made possible? White Sands
the sun, Hamilton poured fragments of glassy National Park.
rock into my free hand. “Ultimately, you have to decide for
yourself what this place means,” he
“This is it,” he said. “Trinitite.” began, diplomatically. “There’s a lot of
The light-green substance was created, he told history here, but also a lot of context
me, when the blast fused sand particles together, that can be very easily lost.”
forming radioactive globules that rained down on
the desert. Wait. Radioactive? Noting the look on Some people consider Trinity Site
my face, Hamilton laughed and assured me it’s to be a monument to the greatest
less harmful to hold than it is to live, as I do, in a peacekeeping science experiment of all
city like New York. The real danger, he said, is the time. But, indeed, context is everything.
desert’s dry heat. Also, rattlesnakes. To view the site only through a scientific
I asked Hamilton a question that had been lens feels like an affront, not so much
on my mind all day: What do people make of to victims of atomic warfare as to nature
itself. It’s a reminder of humankind’s

JEN JUDGE

6 9T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E I N D I A . I N

HISTORY FORM IV
(See Rule 8)
Statement of ownership and other details of the
Magazine Travel+Leisure India & South Asia are:

1. Place of Publication : Delhi

2. Periodicity : Monthly

3. Printer : Puneet Nanda
Nationality : Indian
Address : M – 269, 3rd Floor,

Guru Har Kishan Nagar,
Paschim Vihar,
Delhi – 110087

An obelisk constructed from volcanic rock marks Trinity Site. 4. Publisher’s Name : Puneet Nanda
Nationality : Indian
potential for annihilation, especially given its proximity to Address : M – 269, 3rd Floor,
such a unique national park.
Guru Har Kishan Nagar,
My girlfriend, Diana, had zero interest in visiting a “dusty Paschim Vihar,
military base,” so she’d spent the day working at our motel.
But that afternoon, I picked her up and we drove south Delhi – 110087
to White Sands. After my breathless descriptions of my
previous trip, she wanted to see it for herself as much as 5. Editor’s Name : Aindrila Mitra
she wanted me to shut up about it.
Nationality : Indian
Our initial plan was a staid one. Walk a bit into the dunes.
Hydrate. Take dozens of pictures framed like so: dunes, Address : D4 203 Parsvanath Exotica
subject, dunes, mountains, sky. Hydrate. Repeat variants
of the phrase “This is literally unreal.” Golf Course Road, Sector 53

I knew that White Sands was at its most memorable, Gurgaon-122022
most unreal, when the sun was on the verge of appearing or
disappearing, so I told Diana, “We have to stay until sunset.” 6. Names and addresses of individuals who own the
Then, after cresting one dune, and another, and another,
“We have to go deeper. We have to experience White Sands magazine and partners or shareholders holding
out of sight and earshot of everyone.”
more than one per cent of the total capital:
I don’t have an Instagram account, but I almost created
one after being there with her at sunset. The park is a real- Shareholders : M/s Hubert Burda
life filter, blessing everything in it with aesthetic splendour. Media India Private Limited,
B1 LGF Geetanjali Enclave,
I took a video of Diana dancing on a distant dune, a dark New Delhi-110017
little paint stroke being flung about a huge white canvas.
We made sand angels side by side and watched the sky’s I, Puneet Nanda, hereby declare that the particulars
orange orb drop behind indigo mountains. given above are true to the best of my knowledge
and belief.
Then, as we lay flat on our backs, basking in quietude,
I heard that sound again: a fighter jet flying overhead. Date Signature of publisher MARY ROBNETT
01 March 2021 Sd/Puneet Nanda
These kinds of striking contrasts are inescapable within the
park. It’s hard not to think about all of the ways the power and
ingenuity of mankind—for better or worse—ripples through
the otherworldly, resilient natural landscape. And now, it
seems, the question of balance between those two worlds is
more relevant than ever.

70 TRAVEL+LE ISURE INDI A & SOUTH ASI A | MARCH 202 1

&WESLLPNAESSS

E X PER IENCEHEALING IN MUKTESHWAR

p. 72

PERSPECTI V ESOAK UP NATURE IN NORWAY

p. 74

BE AU T YORGANIC SKINCARE

p. 76

I S I T S H A R P/GE T T Y IM AGE S

Wellness
& Spas

EXPERIENCE

A HOME IN THE HILLS
At Uttarakhand’s jüSTa Mukteshwar Retreat & Spa, nature and a wide
range of therapies join forces to nourish your soul. BY BAYAR JAIN

M Y TRIP TO Mukteshwar in the state The Himalayan horizon. Inside the room, wooden flooring typical
of Uttarakhand is a first in many View rooms at the to mountain homes is paired with exquisite wall
ways: my first trip in 11 months; property offer paintings and plush furnishings.
my first experience of sub-zero views of rolling
temperature; and my first daughter- green hills and Art is integral to all jüSTa properties. The
mother holiday. the Himalayan brand, I’m told, has collaborated with fashion
With luggage full of sweaters and peaks of Trishul, designer Deepika Govind to set up an art
jackets, and countless munchies, mum and I reach Nanda Devi, and collective and residency, Chitrashaala
Uttarakhand’s jüSTa Mukteshwar Retreat & Spa Panchachuli. (chitrashaala.com). The initiative aims to connect
after a bumpy eight-hour-long road journey. The with artists across ages and geographies and
property’s bright yellow interiors contoured with Ekam Spa offers spruce up all the properties. For my artist mother,
dense green surroundings set the tone for the a wide range Mukteshwar is already shaping up to be a muse.
weekend, and a face mask-clad team at the of therapies.
reception alleviates our pandemic fears. Determined to elevate mum’s experience
Spread over two acres, this hilltop retreat is further, I book us a couple’s massage at the
splattered with colours. Picture yellow cottages
interspersed with multi-hued flowers set amid OURTESY OF JÜSTA MUKTESHWAR RE TRE AT & SPA (2)
towering pines. A kafal tree, which bears the state
fruit of the same name, steals the spotlight as it
soars up to greet the clear blue sky. With a heated
swimming pool, garden seating, brick pathways,
and an upcoming open-air live bakery, the retreat
is designed to put your mind at ease.
The 35 cottage-style accommodations are split
into Valley View and Himalayan View rooms; we
pick one of the latter. A stone staircase flanked by
Buddha statues leads us to our abode, which lives
up to its name. I open the drapes to be confronted
by panoramic views of rolling hills leading to the
imposing Himalayas—including the distinct peaks
of Trishul, Panchachuli, and Nanda Devi—at the

72 TRAVEL+LE ISURE INDI A & SOUTH ASI A | MARCH 202 1

Clockwise from left: The resort features bright yellow
cottage-style rooms; the heated swimming pool comes with
beautiful views; the rooms are comfy with wooden flooring.

C LO C KW I S E: B AYAR JA I N ; O URT E SY O F JÜSTA MUKTE S HWAR RE T RE AT & S PA ( 2) property’s Ekam Spa. However, zeroing down on GETTING THERE Shokender. “This is an apricot tree... Look, fresh
the therapy proves to be tough. The spa menu blood oranges!... This gahat plant is a great cure
offers face treatments, skin refinements, body Mukteshwar lies for kidney stones!” the two exclaim as mum and I
envelopments, and curated spa packages. “Let’s at a distance carefully follow their footsteps through the pine
get a 90-minute deep-tissue therapy,” chirps of 341 km from forest. Every now and then, we stop in our tracks
mum excitedly. Delhi; an 81/2-hour to marvel at a run-down temple, quench our thirst
drive from the from a clear stream, and take a closer look at sap
The couple’s room comes equipped with two capital. You can oozing out of trees. In the distance, bird calls
beds, wooden flooring, and a heater to combat the also fly from Delhi echo. A blue whistling thrush sweeps over the
winter chill. As we slip into our robes, we can’t to Pantnagar river water to catch some grub. We take the cue
resist gushing at the expansive valley view visible Airport, which and perch on a rock under a waterfall. Ramesh
through a window. Most of the other rooms is approximately brews a cup of tea on a twig chulha. Sipping on
feature floor-to-ceiling glass on three sides. three hours away the hot brew, I realise I’m living another first:
from the resort. forest bathing with both, Mother and Earth.
As nature-inspired tunes fill the room, the justahotels.com
therapy begins with a tug and pull of my joints,
starting with my arms, legs, and back. The
masseuse kneads my aching muscles, squeezing
the journey-induced pain out of my body.
Complying with my request, she pays extra
attention to my back, pressing down harder as she
travels up the spine. Oils soon follow. Soothing
herbal aroma fills the room as I flip over and lie
supine. As she gently slathers the concoction onto
my skin, applying pressure with each stroke, I find
myself slipping into zen. By the end of the session,
my body feels light as a feather. Mum simply nods
in silent agreement, basking in the tranquillity.

The following morning sings similar serene
notes, courtesy of a scrumptious meal at SABOR,
the property’s restaurant. Although dishes like
spaghetti aglio e olio, tomato shorba, and ragi
dosa compel us to shower compliments on the
chef, it’s local dishes like mandua roti, aloo ke
gutke, and bichhoo booti ka saag that steal our
hearts. Knowing all the ingredients have been
sourced locally only makes the meal taste better.

With renewed energy, we head out on a five-
kilometre trek with our guides, Ramesh and

7 3T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E I N D I A . I N

Wellness
& Spas

PERSPECTIVE

A BREATH OF
FRESH AIR

On a trip to Norway, ANNIE DALY finds a
wellness culture that prizes casual, everyday
encounters with nature—no pricey gear or
hard-charging adventures required.

D ON’T YOU WANT to put on your raincoat?” my new
Norwegian friend, Marie, asked me with a puzzled
look on her face.
We had just finished a lakeside picnic lunch
with some of her friends in Sogndal, a small
university town in western Norway, and it had
started to drizzle. I’d begun packing my bag to
head back to the car, but as I was securing the top on my
water bottle, I looked around and realised that no one else
was making moves to go home. Undeterred by the weather,

74 T R A V E L + L E I S U R E I N D I A & S O U T H A S I A | M A R C H 2 0 2 1

ILLUSTRAT ION BY ANNABEL BRIENS they had all thrown on windbreakers and rain meaningful ideas of well-being—which is how I
pants in a matter of minutes, ready to found myself on a mountain in Norway, eating
continue chilling outside for hours more. reindeer meat in the rain in the name of friluftsliv.
There was no discussion, none of the “should
we stay or should we go” rigamarole that In the days leading up to that drizzly picnic, I’d
often accompanies inclement weather. The spent more time outdoors than I had in years. I’d
matter was not up for debate. hiked along bold-turquoise fjords that made me
question why I live in a concrete jungle. I’d strolled
This approach was precisely why I’d come the waterfront in Bergen, where I fell in love with
to Norway. This was the friluftsliv way. the colourful row houses and narrow alleyways
behind them. I’d even foraged for wild mushrooms
Friluftsliv—which translates to “the free with Marie and her friends, zigzagging through
air life”—is a word for the distinctly mossy, pine-scented forests so quiet we could hear
Norwegian idea that humans are happiest every twig crack.
outside, no matter the conditions. My friend
Andrea, who grew up in Bergen, introduced But each time I told a local about my wellness
me to the concept over dinner in Brooklyn quest, I would hear whispers of another place:
one night, and I was hooked. Like many Øytun. In Norway’s remote north, this school
Americans, I’d become familiar with the for young adults is dedicated entirely to
charmingly specific Scandinavian vocabulary friluftsliv, with classes on nature photography,
for emotions and cravings—hygge for a rock climbing, backcountry skiing, even dog-
sledding. “You cannot write about this idea
I associated nature with without visiting Øytun,” Andrea’s sister, Signy,
being an Outdoor Person— had told me, “because Øytun is friluftsliv—it’s
the kind who lives for the epicentre of the entire philosophy.”
GoPro-worthy adventures.
But my companions knew My first morning in Øytun, I awoke to a
that simply spending time sky that was clear and blue, and I could see
outside is good for the soul. mountains in the distance that stretched on for
miles. The headmaster had arranged for me to
mood of cosiness; lagom for the art of accompany a group of students on a weekend
balanced living—and I was happy to add expedition to photograph the Northern Lights.
friluftsliv (pronounced free-loofts-liv) to To reach our camping spot, we hiked through
my lexicon. Andrea described it as an the Finnmark Plateau, a vast, marshy area with
inescapable longing to be in nature. gentle hills, serene rivers and lakes, and fields
“We just don’t feel like our best selves until dotted red and orange with wildflowers. It was a
we’ve gotten a bit of a rosy glow in our gorgeous off-grid journey, a true deep-nature
cheeks,” she explained. Despite Norway’s experience. That night, I used my camera lens to
often-frigid temperatures, the country has see bright-green glimpses of the aurora, invisible
devoted itself to the friluftsliv cause, with to the naked eye.
outdoor schools and organisations—even
entire university departments—dedicated In the end, though, it was the afternoon before
to promoting the philosophy. the midnight viewing session that taught me
the most about friluftsliv. I had long associated
After more than a decade as a health nature with being an Outdoor Person—the kind
journalist in New York City, I’d grown who lives for adrenaline-fuelled, GoPro-worthy
disillusioned with the industry’s $80 (`5,790) adventures. But my Norwegian companions knew
quartz-crystal water bottles and $120 (`8,690) that simply spending time outside, regardless of
“bio-frequency” healing stickers. I wanted a new fancy equipment or athletic ability, is good for the
definition of wellness, one that wasn’t reserved soul. All you need is a willingness to treat Mother
for the wealthy few, and I couldn’t get Andrea’s Nature like the healer she is.
talk of rosy cheeks and fresh air out of my head.
I decided to set out on a global search for more We set up our tents, then plopped ourselves
on a grassy hill and proceeded to do a whole
bunch of nothing. A couple of the students built
a campfire, and we toasted gooey cheese
sandwiches over the flames. Then it was back to
stretching out on the ground, gazing up at the
wide-open sky, breathing the crisp Norwegian
air. My cheeks had never been rosier.

7 5T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E I N D I A . I N

Wellness
& Spas

BEAUTY

CELEBRATE
YOURSELF

From organic coconut oil to wine-infused lip balms,
here are the top beauty buys for women on the go.

BY P RIYANKA CHAKRABART I

24K Gold Face Scrub, Pamper your skin with these indulgent products.
St. Botanica, `3,499

(50 gm); amazon.in

Red Vine Lip Balm, Concentrated Ginseng
Pilgrim, `325 (8 gm);
Renewing Cream, Sulwhasoo,
discoverpilgrim.com `17,000 (60 ml); sulwhasoo.com

Botanical Repair

Strengthening

Shampoo, Aveda,
`2,350 (200 ml);

aveda.com

Skin Relief Pre- Hair Moisturiser,
The Earth Collective,
Mask Face Gel, Kaya `900 (100 ml);
Youth, `499 (50 gm); theearthcollective.in

kayayouth.com Advanced Vitamin C
Under Eye Treatment,
Anveya, `1,295 (30 ml);

anveya.com

Urban Rani Facial Serum,
Nourish Mantra, `2,450

(25 ml); nourishmantra.in

Organic Virgin la vie en rosehip SHUTTERSTOCK

Coconut Oil, Iremia, Overnight Face
`550 (250 gm);
Butter, The Switch
iremiaoils.com Fix, `599 (100 gm);

theswitchfix.co

76 TRAVEL+LE ISURE INDI A & SOUTH ASI A | MARCH 202 1

WILLIAM CRAIG MOYES Travel + Leisure

India & South Asia

MARCH 2021
FRANCE HIGH-WATER MARK P. 78
FINLAND THE BIG CHILL P. 88

The Hospices de Beaune in Burgundy, France.

78 TRAVEL+LE ISURE INDI A & SOUTH ASI A | MARCH 202 1

The Belmond Amaryllis
moored on the

Burgundy Canal near
Longecourt-en-Plaine.

High-Water Mark

I S T H E R E A B E T T E R WAY T O S E E B U R G U N DY T H A N O N A
P R I VAT E C A N A L C R U I S E ? N I N A C A P L A N A N D H E R H U S B A N D ,
PHOTOGRAPHER WILLIAM CRAIG MOYES, BOARD A LUXURIOUS
BARGE AND EMBARK ON A SLOW, SYBAR I T IC JOURNEY—WHIL E

SAMPLING THE REGION’S LEGENDARY GRANDS CRUS.

The women and children combustion engine. The trip was so
who once worked the smooth that the gently steaming pool
barges along the canals of water never so much as splashed.
France would probably
sigh with wonder to hear Belmond, which owns and operates
that this form of travel is several other luxury barges in France,
now a luxury activity. usually sends a car to meet guests at
Those lacking horses or the airport, but my husband, Craig, and
mules were sent down the I had left London months before to ride
towpath with canvas strips out the pandemic in France. We split
across their chests to pull our time between the two locations, as
the shallow boats, piled my stepchildren are enrolled in French
high with commercial goods, using schools—which meant they were able
muscle and willpower. Sometimes the to join us for our first evening aboard.
men joined them, but usually, they
stayed aboard to steer. On a late summer evening, our
guide, Jonathan Forscini, picked us
That was more than a century ago, up at our home in the Burgundy village
and things have changed. How they of Vitteaux and drove us south over
have changed! On the Belmond wooded hills and through toasted
Amaryllis, a private-charter barge with fields towards the medieval town of
four en suite cabins, a living room, and Beaune. After a while, the slopes began
a small but perfectly formed heated to sprout rows of vines. I glimpsed the
swimming pool on deck, we rolled hill of Corton, a legendary name to
along effortlessly, thanks to a very quiet wine lovers, and craned to see the
vines of the celebrated Corton and

Nora (left) and Corton-Charlemagne grands crus
Ishbel, two of before the roadside trees intervened.
the author’s The children couldn’t wait to reach the
stepdaughters, pool, and I felt the same about the
on board the chance to dive into this world-famous
Amaryllis. wine region.

At Seurre, the six staff members
of the Amaryllis were lined up to
welcome us, including Richard
Fletcher, our pilot; Neil Churchill, the
chef; and Beverly Brennan, our host.
For this week they were at our service,
and we were encouraged to treat the
barge as our home—a luxurious form of
isolation that was particularly welcome
in the middle of a pandemic, as was the
L’Occitane verbena hand sanitiser and
the pile of disposable masks placed
discreetly in our room. (The staff wore
masks and stayed nearby but never
too close; for us passengers, wearing
masks was discretionary.) The living
room was styled in a gentler version
of Louis XVI—lots of wood, gilt lamps,
and sofas upholstered in shades of
taupe. Canapés, champagne, and
sodas were waiting.

80 TRAVEL+LE ISURE INDI A & SOUTH ASI A | MARCH 202 1

The town of
St.-Jean-de-Losne,
as seen from
the barge.

On the deck, the pool shone the need to squeeze through the inch
turquoise against the darkening canal. of space around the bed, but the cabins
France’s first major man-made on the Amaryllis had room for
waterway was the Briare Canal, which wardrobes and desks. The beds were
joined the Seine and Loire rivers in high enough to suit a French monarch:
1642. (Construction had been delayed I could imagine looking regally down
by the assassination of the king in on my courtiers, before demanding
1610.) Many others followed, but the help to reach the floor. That’s about the
Burgundy Canal, completed in 1832, only service Beverly and her team
was one of the most important: a vital didn’t provide, but it was worth the
conduit between the Seine, the river of scramble up and down to lie in bed,
Paris, and the great Rhône, which flows gazing out of windows flush with the
through Lyon to the Mediterranean; it water, with a duck’s-eye view of
connects northern France to the south. Burgundy skimming past.
All sorts of goods were conveyed via
these marvels of engineering, but one The children weren’t interested in
of the most important was wine. Burgundy. Once done with the pool,
their focus was dinner. The canapés had
I’ve taken cruises where the waist- piqued their expectations. “I can tell the
expanding dinners were at odds with chef is going to be really good,” Nora,

Passing through a lock near Brazey-en-Plaine.

A rosé from the The restaurant at
Drouhin-Laroze Abbaye de la
vineyards on board
the Amaryllis. Bussière, a hotel in a
12th-century abbey.

aged 11, whispered to me, and she was
right. At a table strewn with faceted
beads that caught the candlelight and
made it flicker onto the bucolic mural,
pea velouté with mascarpone and
drizzled truffle oil was followed by cod
wrapped in delicately flavoured
pancetta, topped with a tangle of herbs
and radishes. The nightly cheese
selection was mostly Burgundian,
always French. Much of it probably
contravenes US pasteurisation rules, so
this would be a chance to really indulge.
Individual crème brûlées, decorated
with strawberries, were delicious but
the size of a plate. I was the only person
not to finish mine.

Food was sourced locally every
other day. Given that the boat travelled
only in the mornings, at less than five
kilometres an hour, that meant really
local. One of France’s greatest joys is
the boulangerie. There are so many
bakeries that most French people keep
a map of the best ones in their heads,
and the Amaryllis staff, who used a
different one each time we stopped,
clearly did, too. Jonathan, a career
bargeman who even met his wife on
the boats, laughed when I remarked
that he seemed continually to be
running off to market. “You think you’re
signing up to be a guide,” he said. “But
the job is 60 per cent food shopping!”

82 TRAVEL+LE ISURE INDI A & SOUTH ASI A | MARCH 202 1

Our first full day began sadly, with for barge geeks, with models of boats contrary. There are no steep bike paths
a farewell to the girls. Swanning through the decades, including a fishing in this area, because those hills aren’t
around on a luxury barge was all very barge that used to ride the river from just breathtakingly pretty; they are
well, but school was due to start that village to village selling its live catch some of the most valuable farmland in
week. Craig and I took our melancholy along the way, and a metal diving suit, the world. Vines like poor, stony soils:
across the river Saône into St.-Jean- complete with bubble helmet and lead- the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes
de-Losne, a sweet village that has seen capped boots, for underwater boat that grow on the flatter, more fertile
its fair share of trouble. In the 17th repairs. “It weighs about 220 pounds— land are much less valuable. So, guess
century, it was besieged by the you couldn’t get out of the water alone,” where they put the cyclists?
Imperial army, led by drunken general the docent told me. We tend to believe
Matthias Gallas; the villagers fended that faster is better, but the information We pedalled past the lower
them off with the help of the river, that a barge can carry about 425 tons extremities of Clos de Vougeot
which obligingly flooded and washed made me wonder whether we aren’t (closdevougeot.fr), a world-famous
away the enemy’s encampment. It was missing something. That’s more than vineyard whose 125 acres are enclosed
surprising how many times these 10 times a standard truck’s load. by a stone wall; past vines worth
waterways flowed into the stories I thousands of euros per bottle growing
heard, but perhaps it shouldn’t have The Amaryllis stayed put in the next to vines worth hundreds, although
been. In landlocked Burgundy, they afternoons, but we didn’t. “Next stop, no amateur on a bicycle could tell the
were once the essence of life. Romanée-Conti!” Jonathan cried difference. Harvesting had begun. At
cheerily, naming the most prestigious Chambolle-Musigny we spotted a grape
Beyond the imposing riverside estate in Burgundy as he ushered us fight, the young harvesters pelting one
church, with its stone arches and classic and a trio of bikes into the van. This another with expensive missiles. We
Burgundian roof of multicoloured tiles, was our starting point for a tour of paused to admire the patchwork of
we stopped at a rickety 15th-century Burgundy’s top vineyards, the grands vines cascading scenically down the
house that is now a pleasingly peculiar crus. Every Belmond boat trip is slope from the hilltop village of Morey-
museum. The Musée de la Batellerie carefully tailored to suit the guests’ St.-Denis, then sped on to Gevrey-
(musee-batellerie-conflans.fr), or Canal interests. I love cycling in Burgundy, Chambertin, where something better
Transport Museum, is a little paradise not because I’m sporty—quite the awaited: a chance to taste the wines.

Harvesting grapes
at Domaine
Drouhin-Laroze.

8 3T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E I N D I A . I N

A table set for a From left:
picnic at Château The Hospices
de Longecourt, de Beaune;
a ducal hunting a tapestry within
lodge turned hotel the medieval
in Longecourt- hospital.
en-Plaine.

A barge breakfast Christine Drouhin was welcoming that child will become the seventh
of poached egg on but tired. With her husband, Philippe, generation; by now, almost half the
avocado toast. she manages Domaine Drouhin-Laroze family’s land is grand cru.
(drouhin-laroze.com), and during
harvest, she personally makes the Christine opened three 2015s for us
workers three meals a day—with wine, to try: En Champs, from grapes that
naturally. “We were born into this grow next to premier cru land; an
tradition,” she told us. “We sell our especially delicious premier cru, Au
wines at a certain price, so we can feed Closeau; and Clos de Bèze, a Chambertin
our workers, and we do.” Her choice is grand cru. But we didn’t fret unduly over
clearly a popular one: the same people the quality designations. One of the
return each year. “Our oldest harvester delights of this trip was the excellence of
is 81! He’s the first to arrive each the wine, each night at dinner and,
morning. There he is at 7 am, drinking ahem, at lunchtime. Never mind
his coffee.” We had passed Drouhin’s studying the impossibly complicated
daughter, Caroline, picking with the geography. The best way to appreciate
team; her son, Nicolas, was in the Burgundy is to drink good Burgundy, at
winery, overseeing the arrival of the all levels, from village to grand cru. And
grapes. Walking through the grounds, with Jonathan’s help (he was also our
she gestured to her old house, where sommelier), we certainly did that.
Caroline now lives with her own
children, one of whom, a tiny girl, We returned to the barge just in
toddled past us. “The next generation time for the apéro: the pre-dinner
of winemakers!” her grandmother drink that, in my view, is the best part
cried. If she turns out to be right, of any good day. Beverly served a plate
of gougères, the Burgundian cheese
puffs, accompanied by a bottle of
Christine and Philippe’s Chardonnay,
and we relaxed as the sun sank towards
the emerald water.

We awoke the next day to the
engines revving, and the vexed question
of whether to stay aboard or walk
alongside, keeping pace with our
floating home from lock to lock. Lunch
would be a picnic, said Jonathan, and I
had vague visions of rugs spread on the
grass, paper plates, and flies in my wine.

Not exactly. The Château de
Longecourt is an enormous turreted
castle, built in 1475. Stuccoed for a
grand wedding in the 18th century, it
now has a peeling exterior that doesn’t
detract from its imposing charm. On
the bridge over the moat, lunch was
spread across linen-covered tables, and
Beverly waited with a chilled bottle of
champagne. This fantasy of castle life

84 TRAVEL+LE ISURE INDI A & SOUTH ASI A | MARCH 202 1

Burgundy was only slightly punctured when we
spotted a man in his 60s, casually
Dijon debonair in a T-shirt and jeans, leaning
from the kitchen window, throwing
Beaune St.-Jean-de-Losne scraps to the swans and enormous fish.
Seurre Although his family has owned the
château for hundreds of years. Roland,
I LLUST R AT IO N BY LO L I TH T. K . France B u r g u n d y the Count of St.-Seine, does everything
“from polishing the brass to cutting the
topiary,” he informed us as we toured
airy rooms stuffed with treasures.
(How many bedrooms? “I’m not sure.
20? 30? It’s really not so big.”) We
finished with a peek at the delightful
cartoons (anti-Hitler jibes; cheeky,
well-drawn mice) graffitied on the barn
walls by American airmen billeted
there during World War II.

This wasn’t our only encounter
with Occupied France. In Beaune, in
the vast underground cellars where
Maison Joseph Drouhin and others
store millions of bottles of its wine, we
were shown the space that Maurice
Drouhin, who presided over the estate
during the war, disguised with an
artificial wall, so the thirsty Nazis
wouldn’t find his best cuvées. There is
no connection between the Drouhin
and Drouhin-Laroze wineries, but the
confusion is very Burgundian, where
everyone seems to have one of a
handful of surnames.

8 5T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E I N D I A . I N

From top:
Claus Sluter’s
14th-century
Well of Moses, in
Dijon; the city’s
food market.

Beaune is beautiful: a town of
creamy stone amid the vineyards, still
encircled by the walls that protected it
from aggressors for centuries. There
are good restaurants and bars, old
churches, and, of course, wineries. But
Beaune also shelters one of the most
extraordinary paintings I’ve ever seen,
within a building that would still be
worth the price of entry without it.
The Hospices de Beaune was founded
by Nicolas Rolin and his wife in 1443,
when he belatedly realised that a
career as the Duke of Burgundy’s
chancellor might not be the best
route to a blissful afterlife.

The hospital is now elsewhere,
but the building is amazing, a Gothic
marvel with sumptuous decorations
glorifying those wealthy benefactors
and a roof gaudy with Burgundian
glazed tiles. In a specially darkened
room, Rogier van der Weyden’s Last
Judgment would give the most
dedicated unbeliever pause: a gigantic,
glowing, multi-panelled painting
where, beneath the saints, ordinary
people slink off to hell or trip lightly
towards heaven. Theoretically, the
giant electronic magnifying glass is out
of action due to the pandemic. But we
waited for the room to empty and
then the attendant obliged, sending
it gliding across the panels to
illuminate their incredible detail.

August slipped into September, and
at some point, I stopped the usual
obsessive flicking on my phone and
turned my full attention outwards, to
where the grass-bordered towpath
unscrolled beneath trembling leaves
and the sunshine glinted off the slow-
moving water. I paddled in the pool as
we went through a lock, marvelling at
Richard’s ability, from the back of a

86 TRAVEL+LE ISURE INDI A & SOUTH ASI A | MARCH 202 1

39-metre barge, to guide the nose drinking took priority. We’d even delicious food were predictable. The
exactly into place, with just a few inches ventured off-barge, to William Frachot, poolside lunches were glorious; lobster
to spare on either side, while Aaron a Michelin two-starred restaurant in accompanied by an excellent Meursault
Belaga, a crew member, hovered, Dijon, where we tried witty, modern was a particular highlight. Our final
waiting to lasso a bollard with his rope. takes on classic Burgundian dishes, dinner was a tour de force: oysters,
And I enjoyed the quiet drama of the such as a garlic mousse shielding a dressed crab with Indian spices, duck
darkened interiors brightening as the snail, a puréed version of a gougère, with Burgundy truffle, and an
lock attendant winched open the and roast chicken with Dijon carrots incredible tower of profiteroles to
sluices, the water levels rose, the served in the smallest saucepan I’ve finish. Jonathan also outdid himself,
mooring rope tightened, and we ever seen. (A word on snails: the serving a Clos des Mouches, one of
levitated toward ground level. American food writer Waverley Root Maison Drouhin’s great white wines,
noted that his compatriots “consider named for the bees, or ‘honey flies’
The bikes never again left the hold, the eating of snails a curious custom,” (mouches à miel), that love the grapes,
but we weren’t entirely lazy. There but Burgundy snails are the ideal sop and a superb Corton grand cru.
were pool dips, and forest-fringed for garlicky butter, and served with
towpath strolls, and a private lakeside Burgundian wine, they represent a As a farewell present, I’d asked
yoga session on the smooth lawn of the form of poetic justice. Having grown Jonathan to show us something we
Abbaye de la Bussière, a hotel that still plump on the leaves of grapes, they are would never find alone. He obliged,
looks like the 12th-century Cistercian consumed with the juice of their taking us, via Dijon’s bustling food
abbey it once was. And we hiked former dinner as accompaniment.) market, into the unglamorous grounds
around and through the hilltop village of a psychiatric hospital, where a tiny
of Châteauneuf-en-Auxois, admiring But really, we were perfectly happy building shields an extraordinary
the picturesque Ouche Valley that on the Amaryllis. Neil never repeated sculpture. The Well of Moses was carved
unfolded below us. Still, eating and himself; only the quantities of his by Dutch artist Claus Sluter at the end
of the 14th century, when Burgundy was
The medieval village of Châteauneuf-en-Auxois. a duchy at least as powerful as the
neighbouring kingdom of France and
this now-central hospital was a
monastery outside the city. Its location
wasn’t the greatest oddity, though:
thanks to an early mistranslation of
qaran, the Hebrew word for radiant,
as qeren, or horned, Moses has distinct
horns bulging from his forehead. It was
a suitably eccentric end to a trip full of
novelties. And beneath Moses, filling
the well, ran the Ouche River: our last
faint contact with a Burgundian
waterway, as we returned reluctantly
to life on land.

Booking a
Canal Cruise

The Amaryllis is one of seven
fully-staffed private barges that
make up the Belmond Afloat in
France fleet. Rates for a six-night
cruise for eight guests begin at
`4,33,563 per guest,
all-inclusive. Round-trip
transfers from Paris to the barge
are provided. Both Delhi and
Mumbai have non-stop and
connecting flights to Paris. The
Amaryllis runs between March
and October. belmond.com

8 7T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E I N D I A . I N

Dog-sledding at
Kakslauttanen
Arctic Resort, in
Finnish Lapland.

Sleighs. Reindeer.
Crystallised pines
and an endless blanket
of powdery snow. In
Finnish Lapland, you’ll
find the classic cues
of winter at every turn.
But there’s more
beneath the frozen
surface, as PETER JON
LINDBERG learns from
enterprising locals
putting their own spin
on the far north.
PHOTOGRAPHS
BY SIMON ROBERTS

8 9T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E I N D I A . I N

P AYTYRRR, WAKE UP!!! No time for pants— Time indeed. I grabbed the only clothing in
let’s go!!!” Janne’s mittened fist came thumping reach and bolted for the door.
on my door like John Bonham on a floor tom,
boomp boomp boomp boomp boomp. How long Which is how I came to be standing knee-
had I been asleep? What time was it? Where deep in snow, wearing only a sweater, socks,
and long underwear, confounded by the most
were my pants, anyway? implausible sky. It was 2 am in February in
Finnish Lapland, yet with all that was unfolding
Oh right: I’d left them in the mudroom above me, I hardly noticed the cold.

before bed, along with my boots and five layers of Lycra and TRAVELLERS COME TO LAPLAND to learn
how insanely fun winter can be, and to see
wet wool. After a rowdy welcome dinner of fish soup and for themselves what the earth’s sky can do.
Which is to say, far more than they imagined.
grilled reindeer steak, Janne Honkanen, my host, had coaxed Not only after dark, when the aurora borealis
sometimes emerges, but throughout the day,
me out for a midnight hike across fields of moonlit snow, as its crystalline dome shifts from violet to deep
blue and back again, while a low-hanging sun
followed by a soak in the hot tub, where he regaled me with sets the snow glittering like phosphorescence.

tales of hunting trophies and youthful indiscretions. There There’s no finer place to watch it all
transpire than at Octola, an exclusive resort
had been many of both. Eventually I begged off to bed, that has, until now, been kept largely under
wraps. The 10-room chalet sits on a hilltop
overcome by hot bubbles and jet lag—but Janne, tireless, overlooking 740 acres of privately owned
forest, not far from Rovaniemi, the capital of
pressed on. Last I saw him he was headed for the forest Finnish Lapland. The Arctic Circle cuts right
through this corner of Finland. And while the
sauna, bottle of beer tucked into his sealskin parka. Now he

was at my bedroom door, giddily shouting me awake.

“It’s time, Paytyrr! Au-ROOAAR-aaa is here!!!” Aurora!

90 TRAVEL+LE ISURE INDI A & SOUTH ASI A | MARCH 202 1

Clockwise from top: in tricked-out igloos near the North Pole.
A guest takes in Octola was the brand’s first proper resort. Since
the Northern Lights
from a bed at he opened it in 2018, Janne has relied on word of
Kakslauttanen; mouth among an elite clientele, who typically buy
whitefish with the place out for hundreds of thousands of dollars a
quinoa, cauliflower, week. (A new two-bedroom villa, opening in
bok choy, and December, will be available for a more modest
chanterelle cream sum.) Most are repeat guests, among them a
at Octola, a luxury number of royals. Janne makes it clear Octola isn’t
lodge in Finnish for everyone. Last year he turned down an inquiry
Lapland; the lounge from an American reality-TV family. (“I want people
at Octola. who can respect the power of our wilderness.”)

region has plenty of mass-market hotels, Octola is one of the Having passed Janne’s vetting, my photographer
rare grown-up entries, its design a tasteful fusion of friend Simon Roberts and I arrived at Octola last
Modernist glass house and rustic wilderness lodge, with February. Janne stood waiting outside the lodge
geothermally heated floors, vast picture windows, rough- when we pulled up. He was dressed head to toe in
hewn pine walls, and artfully tossed reindeer-hide throws. spectacular seal fur—sealskin pants, sealskin parka,
sealskin cap with fuzzy earflaps—looking like a
The whole operation was created by 40-year-old Janne cuddly Visigoth. Sealskin, Janne told us, is second
Honkanen, whose story is as improbable as the Nordic sky. only to reindeer hide in warmth. Actually, he
If you happen to follow hardcore snowmobile racing, you clarified, polar bear fur is the warmest, but that’s
may know the name: Janne was a teen racing phenom before illegal in this part of the world. “Except in
a near-fatal crash derailed his career at 19. Three years later, Greenland,” he added. (You just know he owns a
Janne nearly died again, when doctors discovered a tumour polar-bear coat.)
on his brain. After surgery and a long recovery, in 2009 Janne
created Luxury Action, an adventure-travel company that Janne grew up in Finnish Lapland and speaks
arranges experiences across the Arctic region, including stays with a rrrrrrolling-R accent, pronouncing my
name like my Swedish grandfather used to, but
much louder. Janne is nothing if not voluble.
I liked him immediately.

AFTER A SPELLBOUND HOUR gazing at the
Northern Lights in my long johns, followed by
less than three hours of sleep, I awoke the next
morning to snow-reflected sunlight and the
strong smell of coffee. (Finns, it is said, drink
more coffee than any other people on earth,
and theirs is almost uniformly delicious.) In the
dining room I found Janne wide awake, glugging
down a tall glass of…was that milk?

“When I don’t drink beer, I drink milk!” he said
proudly. I laughed, but he wasn’t joking. Sonny
Rollins’s sax warbled while a fire crackled in the
hearth. The table was laid with Pentik tableware,
a pitcher of passion-fruit-and-sea-buckthorn juice,
and a basket of croissants and rye flatbread. On the
stove was an earthenware crockpot of overnight
oats topped with cloudberries. If this wasn’t the
definition of hygge, I don’t know what is.

Aleksi Kärkkäinen, the resident chef, appeared
with a platter of smoked salmon and lacy fried
eggs. Janne introduced our guide, Timo Haapa-
aro, a Luxury Action veteran clearly in love with
his home and the outdoors. Nourished by our
epic breakfast, Timo, Simon, and I set off to meet
the huskies.

9 1T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E I N D I A . I N

Coffee and Finnish pancakes,
cooked over a fire and served with
lingonberries and cream, at Octola.

A mad wolf chorus greeted us as we stepped out of the given the remarkably low population density
SUV. Husky trainer Pekka Syrjänen’s pack is relatively small— (nearly one-third of Finland’s land area with
only 43 dogs—but if you’ve ever heard 43 dogs howling at just over three per cent of its people), it’s also
once, you know it might as well be 500. They were comically incredibly peaceful, possessed of almost eerie
excited to see us, licking our fur-framed faces, sky-blue eyes silence and stillness.
wide with anticipation.
Our second morning at Octola found us on a
In winter, racing dogs can run up to 201 kilometres a three-kilometre snowmobile safari, with Janne
day. These dogs need to run; the only time they calm down recapturing his teenage glory by driving at absurd
is when they’re hurtling headlong down a snowy track, speeds while popping exuberant wheelies. My bones
focussed on whatever’s ahead. Suddenly their yapping were still vibrating hours later. That afternoon, Timo
ceases and the world goes quiet, save for the scrape of steel took us onto the frozen Ounasjoki River for a three-
rails on ice—and barrelling along on a primitive wooden hour meditation session masquerading as an ice-
sled feels strangely peaceful. fishing trip. (No fish, but I did get a sunburn, and
some peace of mind.)
We took turns driving. Leading my team were two sturdy
Siberian huskies named Darth Vader and Johnnie Walker. Lapland has become a pioneer in the madcap
They seemed reliable enough. I was more worried about the sport of ‘ice racing’, which involves glorified dune
two hyperactive “wheel dogs” in back, who spent the ride buggies circling a frozen track at breakneck
nipping at each other until their reins got all entangled. But speeds. Janne, no surprise, is crazy for this. He
they were adorable, and their energy was a plus: within designed his own quarter-mile course, carved into
minutes I was way out ahead of the others, with Pekka snowdrifts on the river, where guests can unleash
waving at me to slow down. their inner rally driver using 100-horsepower
Can-Am Maverick ATVs. After a few test laps,
We raced across a snowscape that looked like a blown-out Simon and I felt confident in our buggy, and soon
photograph. Light seemed to emanate from every object, like we were swerving, spinning out, and slamming
a million tiny suns. Every branch and twig was encased in ice, (harmlessly) into walls of soft packed snow,
as if the trees were made of glass. laughing all the way.

I slowed to a stop, intent on a photograph. My team lay There was also snowshoeing across infinite
down for a rest, tongues lapping at the snow. But, while fields; hikes in search of the elusive Arctic fox (we
fiddling with my aperture, I inadvertently let up on the brake. spotted two); more hijinks with the dogs; and at
This was their cue. The pack burst into motion before I even the end of each day, a rejuvenating turn in one of
clocked it, sending me tumbling off, camera flying. Within Octola’s wood-fired saunas.
seconds the dogs were 100 yards up the track. Pekka’s sled
whizzed past in pursuit. After a wild chase he managed to And there was Aleksi’s simple, assured cooking:
catch the runaways. They weren’t even breathing heavily. sautéed chanterelles, a velvety pumpkin soup with
kale fritters, pan-seared trout from the river down
TRAVELLING IN LAPLAND is a constant back-and-forth between the hill. Even the reindeer—which can be tough
moving very, very fast and sitting very, very still. With seven and gamy—was sensational, grilled low and slow
months of snow covering endless forests and frozen rivers like a buttery rib eye.
and lakes, the region has become a playground for extreme
winter sports, from snowboarding to ice-climbing. But, On our final day, we rode to the far corner of
the property for lunch inside a handsome lavvu,
the log-framed tepee used by the native Sámi
people. Aleksi set to work building a fire in the
stove, and the aroma of butter and woodsmoke
soon filled the tent. From his cast-iron skillet came
crêpe-like Finnish pancakes, which we ladled with
lingonberries and clotted cream. There was more
coffee—always—and a steaming wild-berry tisane,
or what the Finns simply call “hot juice.”

THE SÁMI, now scattered throughout northern
Scandinavia, Finland, and Russia, are among the
oldest indigenous peoples still in Europe, having
settled this region some 3,500 years ago. While
their population now numbers less than 1,00,000,
with just 10 per cent living in Finland, interest in

92 TRAVEL+LE ISURE INDI A & SOUTH ASI A | MARCH 202 1

Exploring the property on
Octola’s fleet of snowmobiles.

Reindeer getting Sámi culture has grown, especially when it comes
ready for sleighing, to the strange, beguiling music known as joik.
a popular activity
at Kakslauttanen. “It started as a way to keep yourself company,
singing to your herd when you were alone in the
woods,” Henry Valle told us. A fourth-generation
reindeer herder, Henry joined us for lunch to
share insights on his Sámi heritage, including joik,
of which he is a skilled practitioner. In flickering
firelight, we sat transfixed as he sang us a haunting
melody—a sound somewhere between yodelling
and throat-singing, with curious, almost Middle
Eastern flourishes.

Joik may have originated among lonely herders,
but those wordless melodies soon became a
means of storytelling for a people who lacked a
written language. As Henry explained, a joik song
is performed to honour something or someone, be
it a lover, an ancestor, or the wilderness itself. One
does not joik ‘about’ something, but rather joiks
that which they’re celebrating. Each recitation is
different, for a joik is not composed so much as
conjured, like free-form jazz.

There are two schools of joik: the traditional,
‘mumbling’ style, which Henry sang to us, is
largely improvised off a pentatonic scale; the
contemporary iteration is more dramatic and
crafted for performance. Joik-inspired singers
have made respectable showings in the
Eurovision Song Contest, and there’s even a
competition devoted entirely to joik, called
(no joke) the Sámi Grand Prix.

IF OCTOLA IS the brash, next-gen upstart, pushing
Lapland’s definition of luxury, then Kakslauttanen
Arctic Resort is the originator—and a fitting
complement to its younger, pricier rival. A three-
hour drive north of Octola, about 241 kilometres
above the Arctic Circle and a snowball’s throw
from the Russian border, this is one of Finland’s
largest, most popular resorts, drawing guests from
as far afield as India, Taiwan, Bahrain, and Brazil.

When Kakslauttanen opened in 1974, it, too,
had just 10 rooms. The previous year, owner Jussi
Eiramo had been driving home from a fishing trip
when, in the middle of nowhere, he ran out of gas
and was forced to camp for the night. Captivated
by the beauty of the place, he acquired a parcel
of land and set up a small roadside cafe and
guesthouse. Today Kakslauttanen has expanded
to 1,200 acres and 450 beds, some of them in the
famous ‘glass igloos’ that Eiramo pioneered and
that have since been copied across Scandinavia.
(I found the igloos too cramped for comfort, but
no doubt honeymooners will book them anyway.

9 3T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E I N D I A . I N

They are great for aurora-gazing, with just a glass metre-thick ice, until I was up to my neck in what felt like a
roof and a cosy reindeer throw between you and blenderful of frozen margaritas. Within seconds I couldn’t feel a
the night sky.) thing. This made it much more pleasant.

Half a century in, the resort is a well-oiled HONESTLY, I’M NOT GOING to tell you much about the Northern
machine, thanks to its owner’s tireless Lights. I could try, and fail, and neither of us would be satisfied.
improvements and innovations. As large and I’ll just say that, as a reasonably jaded 49-year-old, I didn’t expect
slickly run as it is, there’s still something the aurora to move me as much as it did. But only a corpse would
reassuringly homespun about Kakslauttanen, with fail to feel that tingle down the neck, that pounding of the heart,
its folksy bric-a-brac and abundant Santa Claus that momentary sense of panic while standing dumbstruck,
kitsch. While Octola channels an architecture watching the sky set itself on fire.
magazine shoot, much of Kakslauttanen still
manages to look like a cosy Finnish B&B. Then Our first sighting would have been enough. But incredibly, we
again, you’re not there for the decor. got an even better view the next night, and another the night
after that, for a total of five spectacular showings. Simon and I
Kakslauttanen is all about unbridled playtime. couldn’t believe our luck: we met guests who’d been in Lapland
(Or bridled! Nothing beats riding a horse across for two weeks but hadn’t yet caught a glimpse.
fresh powder.) Simon and I ran the full gamut of
activities during our three-night stay, from Each night brought a whole new set of colours, spectral flares,
reindeer safaris to husky sledding, Nordic skiing and undulating shapes. Our final night at Kakslauttanen was
to fireside joik recitals, and the obligatory nightly perhaps the best, since by then we had the hang of it. No more
sauna. Most energising of all was a post-sauna panic, no more jet lag, no more trying in vain to shoot with an
plunge in the lake—racing down the icy path from iPhone. Now we could relax. All we had to do was step out into
the spa in stocking feet (so as not to slip) and the silent night, flop down spread-eagled in the snow, adjust our
lowering myself into a manhole-sized opening in eyes to the chilly dark, and let the show begin.

A view of the
Northern Lights
from the terrace
at Octola.

The author, Ice fishing on the
left, and Janne Ounasjoki River
Honkanen, near Octola.
owner of Octola.

Finland’s Winter Wonders

Getting There address. The main NORWAY RUSSIA
lodge is divided into Saariselkä
Emirates (emirates. two sections—one
com) has flights from with four bedrooms SWEDEN LAPLAND
Delhi to Helsinki via and one with six—or Rovaniemi
Dubai. It’s a good you can book the
idea to spend at whole thing. A new Finland
least one night in two-bedroom villa
ILLUSTRAT ION BY MAY PAR SE Y the city to break up is set to open for Helsinki
the journey. Stay smaller parties.
at the buzzy Hotel 9 5T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E I N D I A . I N
St. George (doubles Saariselkä
from `15,738;
stgeorgehelsinki. From Rovaniemi, the
com), a former drive north to this
printing house with resort village takes
a 300-piece art about three hours.
collection, or at Kakslauttanen Arctic
Hotel Kämp (doubles Resort (doubles from
from `26,595; `42,843, including
hotelkamp.com), breakfast and dinner;
Helsinki’s ultimate kakslauttanen.fi),
grande dame. a massive, family-
friendly operation,
Rovaniemi recently launched a
new accommodation
It’s a 90-minute option: roomy
flight to Lapland’s chalets built with
administrative kelo, a kind of
capital. From there, pinewood, with a
take a private glass dome over
transfer to the the bedroom and a
ultra-luxe, all- private sauna. It’s
inclusive Octola a half-hour’s drive
(from `12,70,741 per from Ivalo Airport,
night; octola.com)— where you can catch
it’s so exclusive, your flight back
not even cabbies to Helsinki.
know its real