National Geographic Traveller India May 2016

M AY 2 0 1 6 • ` 1 5 0 • VO L . 4

ISSUE 11

ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH’S BOTSWANA

Road On the

FAMILY TIME ON A HIMALAYAN DRIVE

RETRACING AMERICA’S ORIGINAL WELLNESS TRAIL DRAWN TO AUSTRALIA’S BOOMERANG ROAD

SOUTH AFRICA INTO THE ZULU KINGDOM • ENGLAND YORKSHIRE’S GOTHIC HAUNTS

Winner

n a t i o n a l g e o g r a p h i c t r av e l l e r i n d i a

of the Travel Storytelling Contest 2015

may 2016

Contents

Page 61

Vol 4 Issue 11

on the road

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74

Apples, Pea Pods, and Black Bears

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Boomerang Road

Australia’s Great Ocean Road curves by koala-filled forests, limestone cliffs, and roadblocks in the form of kangaroos

By Jonathan B. Tourtellot

On a Himalayan drive, young companions open new vistas for a road trip junkie Text and Photographs by Rishad Saam Mehta

The Road to Wellville

Recreating a drive from America’s east coast to the Arizona desert using grandma’s journal as a guide Text by Eric Felten Photographs by Aaron Huey

Journeys

Into the Zulu Kingdom

South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province provides a natural habitat for wildlife, villages, and culturally conscious surfers Text by George W. Stone Photographs by Krista Rossow

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Unfettered Yorkshire

Channel the Brontës and Bram Stoker on this journey around gothic English haunts Text by Raphael Kadushin Photographs by John Kernick

96 iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa

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M AY 2 0 1 6 • ` 1 5 0 • VO L . 4

ISSUE 11

ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH’S BOTSWANA

64 Checking In

English churches turn hallowed hostels by night

22 Tread Softly

The inspiring story of the world’s first privately managed marine protected area

S h o r t B r e a ks Road On the

FAMILY TIME ON A HIMALAYAN DRIVE

24 Clan Rules

A reluctant traveller goes with the flow

n av i g at e

26 People and Places

A stroll through Alexander McCall Smith’s Botswana

Go Now

30

Ritual baths and deliverance at the Kumbh Mela in Ujjain 32 After the 2015 quake, Nepal is ready for travellers to return

33 Bookshelf

RETRACING AMERICA’S ORIGINAL WELLNESS TRAIL DRAWN TO AUSTRALIA’S BOOMERANG ROAD

SOUTH AFRICA INTO THE ZULU KINGDOM • ENGLAND YORKSHIRE’S GOTHIC HAUNTS

On The Cover In this photograph Rishad Saam Mehta captures his young companions on a photo break during their road trip through Himachal Pradesh. Along the route, fields of pink wildflowers punctuate the backdrop of craggy Himalayan peaks.

From Bhopal

116 Discovering the temple town of Ujjain in the footsteps of literary giants Stay

120 Chic and earthy, an off-the-grid experience in Maharashtra’s biodiversity hotspot 32

Insightful accounts from Polynesia to Paris. And a field guide to Indian snakes

38 Heritage

Over 1,000 years of knowledge and art at the Abbey Library of St. Gall in Switzerland

42 Lit Trip

Memories, memorabilia, and murder at Agatha Christie’s holiday home in Devon

48 Family Time

Ten tips for travelling to Greece with children

S MART TRAVELLER

54 Money Manager

The essentials of a weekend trip to Hanoi and Halong Bay in Vietnam

regulars 16 Editor’s Note 18 Notebook 122 Inspire 128 Travel Quiz may 2016 | national Geographic Traveller INDIA

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xpacifica/age photostock/dinodia (couple), Jean-Pierre Lescourret/Encyclopedia/Corbis/imagelibrary (Museum), Feng Wei Photography/Moment/getty images (mountain), rishad saam mehta (cover)

voices

Editor’s Note |

n i lou f e r v en katra m a n

L

our mission

Meeting an animal, however small or large, in the wild is an experience that lasts a lifetime

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ast week I had the great privilege of travelling into the rich, green jungle of Nepal’s Chitwan National Park, and seeing two animals I’d never seen before: the rhino and gharial. I say privileged because it is a great opportunity to actually be in a preserved forest, and see over a dozen endangered one-horned rhinos and two gharials, some as close as 15 feet away.

Every forest I’ve ever been in has been completely different from another. The jungles I’m most familiar with are those of the Western Ghats, close to my home in Mumbai though I’ve been to others, in the Himalayas, in the Adirondacks of North America, in Indonesian Borneo. In Chitwan the forest was distinct. It starts with grassland, a word that I was fooled by until now. What exists here is grass like I’ve never seen before. Elephant grass that can grow upto 20 feet tall, making it possible to camouflage anything from tigers to the rhino, or even an elephant. As we moved from the grassland to the riverine forest, the temperature dropped at least eight degrees. A silence fell over me as the safari vehicle moved deeper into the woods.

Forests have a way on enveloping you in their serenity. Each jungle I’ve ever been in offers a distinctive experience, but there is one commonality.

They draw you in, force your senses to become more alert and tuned-in to the rhythms of the natural world. Driving through Chitwan, I felt my heart rate reduce, my mood lift, quietude settle my mind.

Forests hide all kinds of life, big and small, dangerous and harmless. But as our wilderness areas shrink, the habitat for wildlife dwindles, and more and more animals disappear. The rhino for instance

is an animal from a primeval world that has probably existed on earth for 50 million years, and yet in the last 100 years we have pushed it to the brink of extinction.

On the safari, I watched with happiness a mother and calf grazing in their domain. They were greybrown beasts with thick, armour-like skin folds and yet easily bothered by insects. The rhino mama watched us too. Her immense ear twitched and moved to face us and keep alert in our direction.

When we moved, her ear moved to keep track of us, like a periscope. This enormous vegetarian beast weighs between 1.5 and 3.5 tonnes and can charge and run faster than a human being. Luckily for us, they don’t have great eyesight, so they can’t see us with cameras stuck to our faces, clicking away like maniacs. After this first encounter I settled my camera into the empty seat next to me and tried to click less and enjoy the ride: the cool air, the refreshing ambience of the wild.

Meeting an animal, however small or large, in the wild is an experience that lasts a lifetime. While hiking through a Western Ghats forest a few years ago I recall a fascinating moment though it lasted all of two seconds. As I turned a corner around a boulder on a path, a mouse deer and I totally surprised each other. It charged, ran over my feet, and scrambled into the brush. To this day so many years later, I cherish that chance encounter.

Chitwan is a conservation success story. Yet, I feel somewhat sad when we are reduced to celebrating two years of no poaching. Unfortunately that’s what our world has come to. But increasingly I believe that one way to contribute to the success of preserving forests and the amazing wildlife within them is to engage in responsible wildlife tourism. Quite simply that means visiting a jungle without harming it or its inhabitants. While tourism does cause some animals to get habituated to seeing humans, for me that’s a better proposition than death and extinction—which is where numerous species including this one-horned rhino were headed until recently.

In India much wildlife tourism is targeted at seeing tigers and that has similarly helped conserve the tiger’s habitat and increase its numbers.

But spotting wildlife aside, for me, going into a jungle is an elevating experience of its own. It allows me to switch off from the all-encompassing, hyperconnected world I live in and enjoy the stillness of life. I take in the peace it offers and come back feeling refreshed and energised, imbued with an overall sense of wellbeing. If you haven’t ever been in a jungle before, now is as good a time as any other.

National Geographic Traveller India is about immersive travel and authentic storytelling, inspiring readers to create their own journeys and return with amazing stories. Our distinctive yellow rectangle is a window into a world of unparalleled discovery.

national Geographic Traveller INDIA | may 2016

Amos Chapple/Lonely Planet Images/gettyimages

songs from the wood

Notebook |

CONNECT

Siberia, Russia

The Himalayas, India

Little Rann of Kutch, Gujarat

Bandhavgarh National Park, Madhya Pradesh

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Havelock Island, Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Last month, our Instagram account (@natgeotravellerindia) celebrated its 50,000th follower— and we couldn’t have done it without you.

Our page has hundreds of posts: images from the world’s finest photographers, quirky videos from our writers, and snapshots from our reader’s adventures, too.

Together, they make a vibrant mosaic that speaks volumes of our love for travel and our planet.

Catch glimpses of hikes in the handsome Himalayas and dives in sunny Seychelles; meet the curious creatures of the Amazon jungle, and sample traditional flavours from as far away as Costa Rica and as nearby as Madurai. A reminder, that there is no end to the wonders this world has to offer.

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Tanjung Puting National Park, Indonesia

Paulet Island, Antarctica

Aliyev Center, Azerbaijan

Sabarimala temple, Kerala

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may 2016 | national Geographic Traveller INDIA

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DHRITIMAN MUKHERJEE (HIMALAYAS, ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS & MADHYA PRADESH), PORAS CHAUDHARY/IMAGES BANK/GETTY IMAGES (GUJARAT), RISHAD SAAM MEHTA (RUSSIA), MILAN MOUDGILL (SPITI), SUZI ESZTERHAS/GETTY IMAGES (INDONESIA), CHIRODEEP CHAUDHURI (AZERBAIJAN), TIM GAINEY/ALAMY/INDIAPICTURE (KERALA), PATRICK J. ENDRES/ALASKA PHOTOGRAPHY/CORBIS/IMAGELIBRARY (ANTARCTICA)

Namkhan festival, Spiti

navigate 32

go now After the 2015 quake, Nepal is ready for travellers to return

33

bookshelf Insightful accounts from Polynesia to Paris. And a guide to Indian snakes

48

family time Ten tips for travelling to Greece with children

The night sky in the Kalahari Desert is studded with a million stars. It is much like the canopy under which Precious Ramotswe, protagonist of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency books, sat listening to age-old stories of the land.

Botswana Calling

S

itting in the freezing vestry of a Norman church in Lowdham, England, I was talking to the dapper, 67-year-old author of the world-famous No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency books. Affable Alexander McCall Smith was deep into the story of his discovery of Botswana, where he based the series. Listening to him speak, I was transported to that faraway African country—hot, dry, but always vibrant.

“I first started visiting Botswana while living briefly in Swaziland and working at the university there,” he recalled, “Then, I lived and worked in Botswana itself for a year. That’s when I realised

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what a remarkable country it is. I became a regular visitor thereafter. And eventually wrote about it, never thinking I would write more than one book on it.

But Mma Ramotswe has many friends.”

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency turned the soft-spoken Edinburgh professor into a bestselling author, with 20 million copies of his first novel sold around the world. Fifteen Botswana books followed (and more are to come).

This was a series of gentle, almost everyday mysteries in a little-known part of the world with a feisty yet kind African woman protagonist who was a rarity in popular English literature. Both

national Geographic Traveller INDIA | may 2016

the books and its eccentric yet likeable characters became literary legends, a great tourist draw for Botswana and constant companions for many, including me.

Mma Ramotswe’s genial world was one I escaped to whenever I needed to brighten my day. And this was because McCall Smith had invested in her the warmth, nobility, and determination he saw in Botswana itself. “Sub-Saharan Africa,” he said to me, “is usually portrayed negatively. People concentrate on its difficulties. I really wanted to say to them—here’s this remarkable, wonderful country with positive things

juan carlos muÑoz/age fotostock/dinodia

A stroll through Alexander McCall Smith’s Botswana By Shreya Sen Handley

happening in it. There was no explicit agenda, of course. I didn’t want to preach a message. I wanted to tell a story, and how extraordinary Botswana is came out through the story.”

So beloved is Botswana to McCall Smith that in his books, the country is as pivotal to the action as his characters.

In fact, McCall Smith makes the land one of the greatest sources of strength for his protagonist. Precious Ramotswe lost her mother early but her wise father, Obed, taught her to love and identify with the land instead. After he dies, she seeks solace in these childhood memories and in the sights and sounds of Mochudi, the village where she grew up. A real village of nearly 50,000, Mochudi, in southeast Botswana becomes a space Mma Ramotswe drives off to whenever she needs thinking space. McCall Smith writes on his website: “I find Botswana a very interesting and admirable country. I respect the people who live there— they have built up their country very carefully and successfully. I admire their patience and their decency… They lead good lives, with honour and integrity. Mma Ramotswe is one such person. There are many people like her—fine people, people with great gifts of intuition, intelligence, and humour.”

Mma Ramotswe also draws strength from the ancient, endless Kalahari Desert. This vast sweep of barren land with scrub and the occasional acacia tree has been the same for centuries, with

a permanence that is both reassuring and frightening. McCall Smith set some of his lady detective’s most troubling cases involving primitive curses, voodoo, and even murder here. In her very first adventure, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, she grapples with a diabolical Reading List

Alexander McCall Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series recounts the adventures of Mma Precious Ramotswe, a native of Botswana who runs a detective agency in the country’s capital, Gabarone. The lighthearted crime capers incorporate the sights and sounds of Botswana and its people. In The Handsome Man’s Deluxe Café, set in Gabarone, Mma Ramotswe takes up the case of a woman who has lost her memory.

The Good Husband of Zebra Drive sees the gentle detective investigate the mysterious deaths of patients at a Mochudi hospital and showcases her love for the country. Set against the wild, surreal backdrop of the Okavango Delta, The Double Comfort Safari Club is about a trip Ramotswe and her secretary take to a safari camp to investigate a case.

witch doctor and a man-eating crocodile in the Kalahari. Through her, we experience the desert’s mystery, the occasionally sinister air, but also its great serenity.

Botswana’s capital Gaborone too gives Mma Ramotswe the equilibrium and vigour she needs to carry on in the face of obstacles. She zips around the city in her little white van, questioning, observing, and trying to solve mysteries.

Everywhere she goes is marked by the vivid hues of Botswana, from the reds of the earth and the bush tea to the lush greens of the oases and the blues and blacks of desert skies. Precious is a fine example of the flamboyant and colourfully dressed traditional (and traditionally built) Motswana woman, an integral part of the landscape of her country.

The books are populated with many Botswanan women, and I ask McCall Smith if this is because they are as vital and resilient as the land itself? “Yes,” he said. “In Africa, strong, independentminded, and intuitive women play a very important role in their nation’s lives. They are very enterprising and interesting people and when writing about Botswana, that’s what I wanted to focus on.” And with that last tribute he disappeared into the dark corridors of the hushed English church.

My stroll through Botswana with McCall Smith was over far too quickly but he had left me with a keen interest in exploring the real thing.

may 2016 | national Geographic Traveller INDIA

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AFP/Getty images (actors), Ulf Andersen/getty images (Alexander McCall Smith), John D. Kisch/Separate Cinema Archive/getty images (poster), photo courtesy: Hachette Book Publishing India Pvt. Ltd. (books)

Precious Ramotswe and her husband J.L.B. Maketoni from the TV show based on The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series (left); A poster from this comedy-drama directed by the late Academy Award-winning director, Anthony Minghella (right); Alexander McCall Smith (centre).

Navigate |

go n ow

A suspension bridge on Nepal’s Annapurna Circuit. Remnants of a statue (bottom) in Kathmandu

High Time for Nepal A year after a deadly natural calamity, the Himalayan nation is ready for travellers to return By AVERY STONICH

I

f the devastating April 2015 earthquake dashed your dreams of visiting Nepal, think again. This mountainous country is welcoming tourists back, hoping to climb to its pre-quake number of eight lakh annual visitors. From shrines to summits, here’s where to go on the top of the world.

GO ON SAFARI The subtropics of

southern Nepal cradle Chitwan National

32

the vitals

Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with 68 mammal species, 544 birds, and 56 reptiles and amphibians. Track rhinos through the forest and canoe rivers in search of gharials, the second largest crocodiles in the world.

TREK THE HIMALAYAs Nepal contains

eight of the globe’s 14 tallest peaks, and the trekking areas around the Everest region and the Annapurna

national Geographic Traveller INDIA | may 2016

Getting There Direct flights to Kathmandu are available from Mumbai and New Delhi. It is also possible to travel to Kathmandu by road in your own car. You can drive with an Indian driver’s licence. Register the vehicle at the border post for the required number of days by paying a fee and carry the permit with you at all times.

More details are available at www. cgibirgunj.org/page/detail/179 Visas Indians don’t need a visa to enter Nepal. However, they will need to show a passport with a validity of at least six months, or an official governmentissued identity card such as a voter’s ID, PAN card, or driver’s licence.

TYLER METCALFE/NGP

SOAK UP CULTURE The Kathmandu Valley, home to the ancient cities of Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhaktapur, features seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites squeezed into less than 60 square kilometres. The Nepali capital is a colourful jumble of ornate temples, carved wooden Newari architecture, and chaotic streets. A number of monuments were destroyed but the country's rich history and culture remains.

Circuit are open again. To escape the hiking crowds, fly to the tiny outpost of Jomsom, north of Pokhara, and explore Upper Mustang, a dry, rocky region that borders Tibet.

BOOKS HEL F

What to Read Now BOOKS SAIL US FROM POLYNESIA TO PARIS

A Polynesian voyaging canoe.

PACIFIC By Simon Winchester (2015)

Mixing history, science, and personal anecdote, Winchester explores the body of water that covers one-third of the globe’s surface, encompasses thousands of islands (including Oahu, in picture) and hundreds of cultures, and connects the U.S. and China.

BLACK DRAGON RIVER

By Dominic Ziegler (2015)

Ziegler recounts a rigorous journey along the rarely visited, 2,824-kilometre-long Amur River, which separates Russia’s wild Far East from China’s economically burgeoning northeast.

RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER

By Sally Andrew (2015)

In this debut mystery novel (and cookbook), protagonist Tannie Maria is a cook turned recipe columnist whose innocent sleuthery uncovers a stew of passion and corruption in her rural South African hometown.

W I LDLIFE

CREEPING, CRAWLING CRITTERS

They petrify most and intrigue some. But for herpetologists Romulus Whitaker and Ashok Captain, snakes are an obsession. Their new book, Snakes of India: The Field Guide is an exhaustive guide to the behaviour and distribution of the 300-odd snake species in India. It also lists the dos and don’ts in case of a snakebite, and touches upon issues like snake laws and snake conservation.

Information and painstaking detail aside, what sets this book apart are its photographs.

When smooth, gleaming scales of fluorescent green, canary yellow, or beetroot-red creatures are spread across pages, it is impossible not to see the reptiles through the fascinated eyes of Whitaker and Captain.

(Snakes of India: The Field Guide by Romulus Whitaker and Ashok Captain, Westland Books, 2015, `1,399.)

—Kareena Gianani

THE ONLY STREET IN PARIS

By Elaine Sciolino (2015)

From a hundred-year-old leftwing bookstore to a greengrocery owned by a Tunisian immigrant, former New York Times Paris bureau chief Sciolino celebrates her favourite street, the Rue des Martyrs. —Don George

Medo pit viper

may MAY 2016 | national NATIONAL Geographic GEOGRAPHIC Traveller TRAVELLER INDIA

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MONTE COSTA/PHOTO RESOURCE HAWAII (BOAT), BECKY HALE/NGS (BOOK), ASHOK CAPTAIN (SNAKE & COVER)

Navigate |

Smart traveller 54

money manager Legends, limestone islands, and cultural offerings in Vietnam

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checking in English churches offer a whole new kind of refuge Come evening, neon signs of bars, restaurants, and hotels light up Hanoi, especially the Old Quarter, the hub of city entertainment and nightlife.

The City and the Dragon The essentials on a weekend trip to Hanoi and HaLong Bay | By Bharati Dutt

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A

city with a 1,000-year-old pagoda sitting in a lily-pad pond, a belief in the legend of a magical turtle, mysterious limestone islands, and a mausoleum to a man revered as much as Mahatma Gandhi—the capital of Vietnam is all things bright and beautiful, without being crass. The pictures of Hanoi I’d seen online before my visit matched the reality of the city—it is every bit as colourful, every bit as vibrant and bustling. And the cross-cultural influences from Southeast Asia, China, and France are abundantly apparent in its language, food, traditions,

national Geographic Traveller INDIA | may 2016

architecture, and yes, the impeccable manners of its people.

GETTING THERE Flying to Hanoi from India requires a layover at a hub like Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur. Wangle a complimentary airport pickup and drop when booking a hotel. At the airport the fixed-price taxi stand is at the exit of Noi Bai International Airport ($15-25/`1,030-1,718 into the city).

VISA Indian travellers to Vietnam

require a visa. Vietnam has recently started the Visa on Arrival facility for Indian passport holders travelling by air.

jimmy tran/shutterstock

This is National Geographic Traveller India’s handy guide to a long weekend in Hanoi and Halong Bay, Vietnam. This holiday includes taking organized tours with established operators to make the most out of a short time in the two places. There are prices for everything, so you can plan and modify your trip depending on your budget and requirements.

On the basis of this itinerary, the cost for a three-day holiday in Vietnam for two adults is `31,000 for a budget trip and `50,000 for a more comfortable mid-range trip on your own.

Applications can be filled and submitted online and approval letters come in two working days (www.vietnameseembassy. org/vietnam+visa.html; Visa on Arrival fee $25/`1,712; does not include stamp fee, an additional $25/`1712 paid on arrival in Vietnam).

NEED TO KNOW The Vietnamese Dong

(VND) is the currency of Vietnam.

Because the currency has been devalued many times, everything is in tens of thousands and sometimes millions. It can be hard to navigate and calculate costs unless you figure out a ready method in advance. One Indian rupee gives VND326. US dollars are accepted and preferred everywhere, but when paying in USD it is important to have small change handy since the conversion rate is approximately VND22,000 to the dollar.

GETTING AROUND Get a hotel in the Old Quarter since all major sightseeing spots are within a three-kilometre walk of this neighbourhood. If it’s too hot to

15% stay

64%

17%

Activities

food

4%

Travel

Budget

Mid-Range

Expensive

Your Expense Stats You can cover this itinerary for as cheap as `31,000 for two if you book tours and a B&B through a single tour operator and avail discounts. Alternatively, you can explore Hanoi on your own, stay in a better, mid-range hotel, and book the Chinese junk boat cruise separately.

This will cost about `50,000 for two.

23% stay

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food

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walk (May to mid-Oct), rent a cyclo.

These are just like the cycle rickshaws of Kolkata, only more comfortable (VND1,00,000/`307 for a 40-minute ride, plus a $2/`137 tip recommended).

For the farther reaches of the city hire a cab. The hotel should be able to provide an estimate of what a ten-kilometre drive costs before booking. Metered taxis are also available, but some guides say that they are often rigged and drivers invariably take a longer route.

STAY Apricot Hotel is worth the price only for its location in the Old Quarter.

This neoclassical, five-star hotel with Vietnamese flavour overlooks Hoan Kiem lake and is close to major city sights (+84-4-38289595; www. apricothotels.com, doubles from $111/`7,601). For a less expensive alternative, try the Hilton Garden Inn Hanoi, a ten-minute walk from the magnificent opera house (+84-439330500, www3.hilton.com; doubles from $76/`5,204). Interestingly, American prisoners of war who were

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catherine karnow/encyclopedia/corbis/imagelibrary (masks), Chirodeep Chaudhuri (chess), john bill/shutterstock (cycle), richard I’anson/lonely planet images/getty images (sign), ron watts/encyclopedia/corbis/imagelibrary (vendor)

In Hanoi’s Old Quarter, shops sell traditional handicrafts, and entire streets are dedicated to paper and silk products (left). Old men congregate to chat or play a board game along its bustling lanes (top right); Cyclos allow an intimate experience of the tiny, atmospheric lanes (bottom right).

M o n ey m a n ager

held in the infamous Hỏa Lò Prison in Hanoi during the Vietnam war, used to call the prison the Hanoi Hilton. Budget travellers can try Hanoi L’Heritage Hotel, located in the Old Quarter at Hang Ga Street. It serves a mean breakfast (try the goat soup). The rooms are small but spanking clean and the staff is eager to please without expecting a tip (+84-462993666, www.hanoilegacyhotel.com/ hanoi-l-heritage-hotel; doubles from $48/`3,287).

TOURS For a convenient and costeffective way of exploring Hanoi, book a Hanoi city tour and a Halong Bay tour (discounted if booked through the same operator). We booked through www.vietnamuniquetours.com and paid approximately $190/`13,057 per head for a 2-night B&B hotel in Hanoi, one-day city tour, one night on board a Chinese junk boat at Halong Bay, and an airport pickup.

Day 1 Explore Hanoi

In the early 1970s, I spent summer

holidays with my grandparents in Kolkata. Apart from load shedding, palm leaf hand fans, and cooling rainstorms, I remember my uncles and aunts, granduncles and grandmoms arguing over the Vietnam War. I recall going to Harrington Street and abandoning our taxi when it got stuck in a sea of anti-Vietnam war protestors.

I remember my parents laughing when Harrington Street was rechristened Ho Chi Minh Sarani. I understood the delicious irony only years later: the U.S. consulate happened to be on the street named after its arch enemy.

So, it was a special moment when I visited Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum in Hanoi. Uncle Ho, as he is fondly called, lies embalmed, in the manner of Lenin or Stalin, inside the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. The atmosphere within the shrine is reverential, and even large, normally boisterous groups of Vietnamese students tend to be quiet.

The austere shrine was built at the centre of Ba Dinh Square, a miniature of Tiananmen Square, and as sombre.

It was from this courtyard that Ho

Chi Minh delivered the Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945, following the surrender of the Japanese. (Open 7.30-10.30 a.m. May-Oct, and 8-11 a.m. Nov-Apr. Closed Monday and Friday. The body is taken to Russia for maintenance for a couple of months each year, usually between September and November. Check with your tour operator before booking. Wearing shorts and tank tops is not permitted. Entry free.)

To the right of the mausoleum in the Ho Chi Minh Complex, is a former governor’s palace, now known as the Presidential Palace. The opulence of the yellow French colonial building is in stark contrast to Ho Chi Minh’s House on Stilts, located inside the palace grounds, where the nationalist leader lived from 1954 until his death in 1969.

Look sharp for his desk, spectacles, clothes, cars, and other personal memorabilia. The glass-fronted house sits pretty along a pond filled with bright orange carp, in a tiny but tranquil wooded park (open 7.30-11 a.m. and 2-4 p.m. May-Oct, 8-11 a.m. and

The iconic, much-photographed Huc Bridge, or the Rising Sun Bridge, connects Jade Island to the shore of Hoan Kiem Lake.

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luis davilla/age fotostock/dinodia

Smart Traveller |

1.30-4 p.m. Nov-Apr. Closed Monday and Friday afternoons). Also in the Ho Chi Minh Complex is the One Pillar Pagoda, so named because the shrine sits atop a single massive pedestal.

What visitors see today was rebuilt by the Vietnam government. In a final act of vengeance, just before they left the country in 1954, the French had destroyed the original pagoda.

Our next stop is the Temple of Literature—the first university in the country—founded in 1070. It’s a tourist spot now, with frangipani trees, lotus pools, and a courtyard with stone tablets with the names of graduates inscribed on the backs of stone tortoises. Quite fittingly, the place is also used for graduation ceremonies. At the gates we spotted young girls in traditional ao dais (tunics) and boys in suits and graduation caps, primping before cameras (entry VND40,000/`122; open 8.30-11.30 a.m. and 1.30-4.30 p.m., Tuesday to Sunday).

For lunch, try 69 Bar-Restaurant, located in an atmospheric, renovated old house. A three-course meal of pho bo noodle soup, cucumber-carrot salad, and stir-fried prawns in black pepper sauce served with rice is highly recommended.

The portions were a little small, but the taste made up for it (69 Ma May, Hoan Kiem District; meal for two around $15/`1,030).

Onward to the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. Even those who aren’t keen on museums will find this place worth the two hours or so it takes to explore the various exhibits of clothes, jewellery, pottery, bullock carts, musical instruments, and more, of the 54 ethnic groups of Vietnam. Don’t skip the open-air exhibition of life-size houses of some of the ethnic groups, especially the Jarai tomb houses. If you have kids with you, brace yourself for questions on the copulating statues around the house (www.vme.org.vn; open 8.30

a.m.-5.30 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday, VND40,000/`122).

The tour ends at Hoan Kiem lake.

This is to Hanoi what Naini Lake is to Nainital, the epicentre of life in the city. It is a tranquil lake with the tiny red wooden bridge across it that features in every single brochure on Hanoi. Come here during different times of the day to see its different moods. In the two days that we spent in Hanoi, we saw a badminton match at the lake; early morning t’ai chi classes and bare-chested sprightly Vietnamese joggers; and in the evenings—romancing couples, locals playing chess, and tourists taking pictures. It’s a vibrant, noisy, and happy place. Walk down the red bridge to the 13th-century Ngoc Son Pagoda in the middle of the lake. There are two ornate sanctuaries inside, one dedicated to a brave general and another to a Confucian scholar. The view of the

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worapan kong/shutterstock (Kayakers), josÉ fuste raga/age fotostock/dinodia (Cave)

Kayakers make their way around limestone stacks and forested islets rising out of Halong Bay (left); Visitors explore the magnificent stalactite formations inside Sung Sot Cave or Cave of Surprises, at the centre of the bay on Bo Hon Island (right).

M o n ey m a n ager

other side of the lake with its weeping willows is rather lovely (entry free).

Day 2 HaLong Bay cruise

Leaving Hanoi without a visit to Halong Bay is like visiting Agra without seeing the Taj Mahal. And like the Taj, it is spectacular. The bay is an archipelago of about 1,600 islands, all limestone karsts, some inhabited. Large areas of the bay are barred from development and in 1994 it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It’s a four-hour drive to Halong city from Hanoi, past rice fields tended by women in conical bamboo hats, and from there another ten-minute drive to Halong Bay. As the motorboat leaves Hon Gai Ferry Pier for the ship, the islands topped by dense green foliage embrace you. Halong means “where the dragon descends into the sea” and the islands are believed to be parts of the dragon’s tail. They look stunning, rising from the azure sea and up-close the place was even

more dramatic than its photographs.

Cruise ships at Halong Bay are Chinese junks with sails, and embrace a traditional design. They can accommodate between 30 to 75 passengers. The en-suite room I had was lovely, with wooden floorboards, large bay windows, and a deliciously private balcony with deckchairs. It smelt faintly of varnish and lavender, the bed was soft, the linen spotless, white, and inviting.

Set meals are served in the dining room and every meal is a ten-course, wholly Vietnamese event that begins with a salad and ends with fruit. Vegetables, pork, beef, chicken, fish, squid, and tiger prawns drop by at our table.

The meals are exceptionally tasty, with light, delicate flavours—they are the best prologue to Vietnamese food if you’ve not had a chance to taste it in Hanoi.

Many guests stay on board to sleep off the lunch. I suggest hopping on to a small boat for an hour-long journey through the Dark and Light Tunnels that are part of Cat Ba National Park. Our

boat was rowed by a woman, who deftly weaved in and out of the limestone karsts (duck when told or you will bang your head on the cave roof ) with a single oar. Don’t skip this for it is the closest visitors can get to the islands without actually landing on them. After dinner (again a ten-course meal), most cruises offer squid fishing. Squids were aplenty, just a few inches below the surface, but way too smart to take the bait. At night, most of the junk boats drop anchor in comforting proximity of each other.

Through the port hole, within easy swimming distance, the outlines of the islands appeared dark and mysterious.

I walked out to the little veranda and watched the lights of Halong city twinkling in the distance and tried to push sleep away as long as I could.

In the morning, there was t’ai chi on the upper deck. As the sun rose so did the mists enveloping the islands. It’s one of those rare moments when you say a silent thanks to have witnessed such beauty.

After a light breakfast, a boat takes travellers to the Cave of Surprises or

Day-long tours and leisurely cruises aboard Chinese junks fitted with five-star amenities are some of the ways to explore Halong Bay.

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m yousuf tushar/photo bangla/dinodia

Smart Traveller |

the Hang Sung Sot. It was discovered in 1901 by the French, though it had its first visitors as late as 1993. The entrance to the caves is high above the bay on Bo Hon Island and accessed via a narrow flight of stairs hewn from rock. Visitors cannot enter without a guide. Inside are three grottos with extraordinary stalactite and stalagmite formations, aesthetically and discreetly lit. Watch your step and keep in mind that it can be oppressively hot inside between April and October. (All meals, except beverages and activities unless otherwise mentioned in the tour, are part of the package cost. Prices range from $125-344/`10,243-23,650 per person per day for a one-night cruise.

Some cruises include a pick up and drop from the hotel in Hanoi, some charge extra for transfers—$40/`2,750 per person each way in a coach.

Carry your passport and visa.

An overnight cruise is just enough to get a feel of the place, though there are two or threenight cruises as well. Rooms with verandas are rare but cost the same as other rooms, so do request one while booking).

Day 3 farewell feast

The third day is a time for indulgences. First up, a bánh

mì breakfast at the eponymous Banh Mi 25. These are sandwiches made in fresh, crisp baguettes, introduced to Vietnam by the French. The fillings include pork, ham, veggies, with a generous dollop of tangy sauce. Pâté is normally used in a bánh mì, but if you find it smelly opt out. It was the most incredible sub I’d ever had. To accompany it, get a cup of strong, rich, and fragrant Vietnamese coffee. (25 Hang Ca Street, Old Quarter; VND24,000/`74 for the baguette; VND11,000/`34 for a coffee; 100 gm of filter coffee costs VND40,000/`122).

Devote the next few hours to rambling around Hanoi’s Old Quarter. The area has been lived in for at least a thousand years and is shaped like a triangle, with streets named after the goods sold in them. So Hang Gai means Street of Silk, while Hang Ma means Street of Paper. The area is great for handicraft shopping since it is inexpensive. I came back with a beautiful hand-painted lacquer bowl for VND80,000/`245, an intricately embroidered bag VND1,00,000/`307, fridge magnets VND20,000/`61 each, silk embroidered wall hanging VND85,000/`261, lacquer wall plaque VND1,00,000/`307.

Bargain hard and without embarrassment.

Then head to Pho Bat Dan restaurant which serves ecstasy

for lunch in the form of pho ga. This is a clear, fragrant, delicious soup with spring onions, barbecued chicken strips, chillies, and flat noodles. Also try gỏi cuốn, which is Vietnamese spring rolls— rice paper stuffed with minced pork, glass noodles, and spring onions that are fried and served with a sweet and chilli soy sauce dip. Sound like Chinese spring rolls? They’re similar but taste infinitely better (49 Bat Dan street; meal for two VND1,60,000/`492).

Take a cyclo tour (cycle rickshaw) of the rest of the Old Quarter. Finish up at Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre across the street from Hoan Kiem lake. Here, scenes from Vietnamese rural life, folklore, history, and battles are performed by colourful lacquered puppets in an indoor pond, accompanied by traditional Vietnamese folk music. Sounds like just the kind of thing one would skip for some beer, right? Don’t. (57 Dinh Tien Hoang St; www.thanglongwaterpuppet.org; tickets VND60,000-1,00,000/`185-307; 1 hr; take front seats only if you don’t mind getting splashed.)

By the time we were done, the sun had set and the lights were out at the tranquil Hoan Kiem Lake. All around the promenade was a canopy of fairy lights. The little red bridge was lit up and the trees strung with green lights. Uncle Ho was bidding farewell in style.

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shulyndina liza/shutterstock (pagoda), lonely planet/lonely planet images/getty images (food stall), kimberly coole/lonely planet images/getty images (statue)

One Pillar Pagoda in Hanoi is an important shrine dedicated to Quan Am, the Buddhist deity of mercy (left); Street food stalls in the Old Quarter rustle up varieties of pho, fried noodles, and bánh mì. End with a special egg coffee (right); A souvenir from the Temple of Literature (bottom).

In Focus | Road Tr i p

Apples,

Pea Pods, Black Bears

&

young companions open up New vistas for a road trip junkie Text & Photographs

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by Rishad Saam Mehta

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■ H I M AC H AL PRades h

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Stone walls mark the boundaries of green pea fields in Chitkul, the last inhabited village in Himachal’s Kinnaur district, before the Indo-China border.

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In Focus | Road Tr i p

For years,

I regaled my cousin’s

children, who live in the U.K., with tales about the marvels of the Himalayas.

From the umpteen drives I have taken along the Chandigarh–Shimla– Thanedar–Sangla circuit in Himachal Pradesh, I would describe to eightyear-old Friya and eleven-year-old Zahan the wonder of the snow-capped Himalayas. Finally, last summer, I was able to plan a road trip for them and their parents through what I consider one of the most beautiful and accessible mountainous areas of the country.

Sangla Valley is full of stunning sights, from forests of towering pines to fields of pink wildflowers by the Bapsa River; Apple orchards (facing page), introduced to the region over a century ago, cover the slopes around Thanedar and Kotgarh.

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■ H I M AC H AL PRades h

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In Focus | Road Tr i p

“

I had an amused and slightly anxious sense that it was the kids who were showing me the wonders of the mountains rather than the other way around

”

The joys of hiking in the Sangla Valley include a gift of apricots fresh off the tree from a farmer, spotting different kinds of wild mushrooms, and bushes of vibrant flowers.

Our first overnight stop from Chandigarh was Thanedar, a little village 80 kilometres northeast of Shimla, where Red Delicious and Golden Delicious apples were first grown in India, in the 1920s. The hotel we were staying at looked out at the Sutlej Valley, thousands of feet below, and had an oblique view of the white peaks of the Kinner Kailash range thousands of feet above.

Spread below the resort are their apple orchards, which, despite 14 years of travelling through the region, I had never visited.

That changed a few minutes after we had checked in. Sharmaji, the major-domo of the retreat who, in my long acquaintance with him, has never once lost his composure, came rushing into my log hut, all flustered. “Sir,” he said, “the children have made friends with the fruit pickers and are high up an apple tree. I am worried that they might fall.”

We went down to the orchard quickly, and sure enough, the kids were perched atop a flimsy apple tree. Zahan studiously dropped ripe apples into a basket as instructed, while Friya comfortably lounged on a branch, crunching a ripe one. A shy girl in her twenties was showing them how to determine whether the fruit was ripe and ready to be plucked. I had never even met the pickers, though I had often been here during the harvest; Friya and Zahan had charmed them within ten minutes of our arrival.

The same kind of thing happened during a walk along the ridge that runs from Thanedar to the next village of Kotgarh. On my previous strolls along this ridge, I always focused on views of the mountains. With the kids, it was so refreshingly different that it felt as if I was doing this walk for the first time. They delighted in

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the beetles and billy goats we came across, and followed a stream rushing across a road to the waterfall that was feeding it. Zahan had read that the Himalayas are known for black bears, and he investigated every rustle in the shrubbery with enthusiasm and trepidation. Often this yielded a grazing cow.

We were just one day into the trip, but I already had an amused and slightly anxious sense that it was the kids who were showing me the wonders of the mountains rather than the other way around. Because of their enthusiasm to explore every nook and cranny along the walk, we stumbled upon grassy knolls behind waterfalls, and picnic spots besides gurgling streams that I never knew existed, despite treading this path often. One such foray brought us to a lovely natural swimming hole, which unfortunately was just too cold to swim in at that time of year.

The next day we drove through the Kinnaur region towards Sangla, a village in the Baspa Valley. A large part of the road goes along the muddy Sutlej River. I had learned to expect questions from the young crew in the car, and sure enough one popped up: “Why is the river brown?” I explained that the colour was due to the hydroelectric projects built on the river. The answer would have satisfied an adult, but it opened a floodgate of questions from the kids about how water can generate electricity. It was a fun mental workout for me to try and give them answers that they could understand. I had to draw on my elementary education, my engineering background, and my language skills to explain to these inquisitive young minds how the potential energy of running water is harnessed to create the

â– H I M AC H AL PRades h

Sangla (top) sits pretty in the valley, surrounded by tall peaks. In late August, flowers bloom, the frothy Baspa River is in full flow, and days are cloudless. Once you reach Sangla, the car is only useful for getting to the trailhead to begin another day of hiking through the Baspa Valley (bottom).

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In Focus | Road Tr i p

Boomerang Road Australia’s Great Ocean Road aims to pull you back again and again

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By J o n at h a n B . To u rt e l lot

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The limestone stacks known as the Twelve Apostles rise along Australia’s dramatic southern coast. may 2016 | national Geographic Traveller INDIA

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Roberto Seba/Visions of Victoria

■ AUSTRALIA

In Focus | Road Tr i p

a mob of kangaroos

undeterred by 10°C winter breezes. This is the Surf Coast, its waves whipped up across 3,218 kilometres of unobstructed fetch from grazes in a chilly pasture, then flees in front of an approachAntarctica, delighting international waveriders and tearing the hell out of the cliffs ing pickup truck. The herd looks like a bunch of deer on pogo west of Cape Otway. sticks. The scene is unfolding outside the ecolodge window The smooth two-lane GOR winds onward below green coastal hills, a far cry from the I’m peering from on this early winter morning in August. It’s one-lane dirt road that first opened along my second day on Australia’s Great Ocean Road (GOR), a this previously inaccessible coast. Inspired scenic highway that follows the coastline west of Melbourne by the early 20th-century growth of national park tourism in the United States, visionary for 242 kilometres through Victoria. Admittedly, I harbour Geelong mayor Howard Hitchcock champisome scepticism of this legendary road, wondering how the oned the new highway.

Construction started in 1919 as a project GOR could possibly rival my favourite U.S. coastal drive: the for soldiers newly returned from WWI. It long, winding, two-lane sections of California State Route 1. took 13 years to complete and is dedicated to those who did not return. It is said to be the These two drives are probably the only ones in the world that longest war memorial in the world. can claim the same mix: rugged scenery, some of Earth’s tallest At each scenic pull-off, of which there is an abundance, plaques share insights into trees, sea stacks of towering rock, and surfers. But marsupial area history and nature. One plaque urges wildlife as pre-breakfast comic relief? Well played, Australia. protection for local hooded plovers. The visitors centre at the Erskine River portrays 50-plus species of local orchids. Another, farther west, reads OF COURSE, I expected to encounter native flora and fauna like a line from Lewis Carroll’s poem, “Jabberwocky”: “southern on this road. What I hadn’t anticipated was how much I brown bandicoots, short-beaked echidnas, swamp wallabies.” would also learn about local history and the refreshingly easyAnd how can you not love a bird called the superb fairy wren? going Aussies themselves, exemplified by my guide and travel companion, Geoff Reynolds.

DRIVING INTO THE RESORT TOWN of Apollo Bay, We begin our Great Ocean Road explorations as most Reynolds happily enumerates for me his various injuries do, leaving the town of Geelong, about an hour outside of acquired during his years playing for the Geelong Cats, an Melbourne, and heading westward through a commercial strip Aussie-rules football team. I find I’m counting on him to be my that looks like the outskirts of any U.S. city. But beyond the window to Australian society. generic line-up of McDonald’s, Domino’s, and KFC, something At our lunch stop, for instance, I pop into the restaurant’s more intriguing appears: the sign for Narana Creations, restroom and encounter a cross-cultural mystery. An displaying an Aboriginal-looking painting of a lizard. advertisement posted on the wall catches my eye; the poster Narana turns out to be a craft shop and Aboriginal commufeatures a happy-looking bloke standing in front of some kind nity centre. It’s a fitting first stop, dedicated to the people whose of carpentry project, urging me to join “the Australian Men’s ancestors predated European arrivals by millennia.

Shed Association.”

Cultural interpreter Ian Kirby, of the Wathaurong tribe, pulls “What’s a shed? Why an association?” I demand of Reynolds me away from an engrossing map showing the continent’s forwhen I return to our table. mer tribal territories to demonstrate a didgeridoo. Then he He lights up: “Ah, the Shed!” and launches into a descriptakes us out back for boomerang practice. tion of this apparently glorious institution. Yes, it would indeed “Hold it at the one o’clock position and get a wrist snap into be in the backyard, and yes, you would work with power tools the throw,” he counsels. My boomerang does come back—sort there. But that’s beside the point. of. Like, over there. Better than Reynolds’s anyway, which “There’s a television, and several stools so your mates can whirls off at a right angle. come around and watch the game,” he says. “It’s got a refrigeraA bit later, in the town of Torquay—the official start of the tor, and it holds only one thing: beer.” designated highway—we get our first look at the circumpolar Clearly this is the man cave raised to an exalted level. Funded sea known as the Southern Ocean. At Bells Beach we pause to by the federal government, chapters of the association organize watch a few wet-suited surfers tackling some eight-foot waves,

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â– AUSTRALIA

Anson Smart (surfers), bob charlton/lonely planet images/getty images (lighthouse), Marc Dozier/Corbis (harbour)

The wild coast of the Great Ocean Road is legendary among surfers (top); The lighthouse (right) at Cape Otway is the oldest surviving one in Australia and offers stunning vistas of the choppy, azure waters of the Bass Strait meeting the Southern Ocean; Warrnambool’s historic harbour (bottom) preserves the charm and lore of its maritime past.

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short breaks 116

from bhopal Retracing the journeys of Kalidas and E.M. Forster in Ujjain

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stay An off-the-grid experience in Maharashtra’s biodiversity hotspot

Once Upon a Golden Age Discovering Ujjain through the eyes of literary giants | By Zac O’Yeah

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Even though Ujjain by then had clocked in a history of two and a half millennia, making it as old as Rome, Forster was told that there were no antique structures dating from Kalidas’s days. In fact, the Scindia royal family had undertaken much restoration and modernization around that time—which means that today, a hundred years later, the city sports delightful squares which we might now consider old. The most spacious square is centred on a grand clock tower which must have been brand new when Forster dropped by.

Numerous bathing ghats that line the River Shipra in Ujjain swarm with devotees during the Kumbh Mela.

The two oldest ghats, Ram and Narsingha, are very popular.

Riverside Palace

Making enquiries, Forster relates that he heard rumours about one palace ruin and hired a tonga to take him there. The tongawalla tried to palm off every ramshackle structure along the road as old. Forster insisted they go on until finally, arriving at the River Shipra, he found a ruined palace on a tiny island, surrounded by

dinodia

S

itting in a taxi I watch the landscape roll by. I’m on the outskirts of the city of Ujjain in western Madhya Pradesh on a pilgrimage of sorts— tracing the footsteps of two of my favourite writers.

Kalidas, sometimes referred to as the “Shakespeare of India,” lived hereabouts. But I’m not the first to come here in search of him. The same road, which winds through villages on the west bank of the Shipra River, was probably taken by novelist E.M. Forster, who toured this area in a tonga in about 1913-14.

At that time, Forster had started planning A Passage to India, which would become his most famous novel.

According to Forster’s travel essay, The Nine Gems of Ujjain, he learnt that Kalidas had been a court poet of the Guptas, an empire that marked something of a golden age in fifth-century India, and that one of their capitals was at Ujjain. That’s when he decided to go check it out.

beautiful if desolate pavilions. He assumed it was the Gupta court and returned feeling somewhat satisfied.

Making my way to that very island, I find the road crosses a charming stone bridge. On the island is a handsome red sandstone structure—known today as Kaliadeh Palace—with very Islamic-looking cupolas, meaning it is probably less than a thousand years old. It is not quite a ruin—so Forster exaggerated a bit. Visitors can walk through the arches into highceilinged cob-webbed halls provided they remove their shoes at the entrance as instructed by the watchman.

As it turns out, the Muslim era palace built by a Malwa Sultan circa A.D. 1485 is now a temple dedicated to Surya, the sun god. There aren’t any pilgrims around, though. The watchman explains that this remote spot used to be the hangout for bandits, but after it was consecrated a couple of years ago, and guards employed, the bad men vamoosed.

I go around the ground floor, my socks wiping a snail’s trail on the dusty stone floors. Adjacent to the palace, I walk into an unlocked guest house built by the Scindias. It is in bad shape—windows broken, doors missing, walls covered in graffiti, floors waterlogged, and monkeys cavorting.

Textile and Tipple

Leaving the palace island, I begin my hunt for some-

2+

Bhopal

192 km

Ujjain

D ay s

The 15th-century palace (top left) that E.M. Forster found while looking for the Gupta court still stands on an island on the River Shipra; Many of Ujjain’s sacred spots (top right) trace their histories back hundreds of years; Ujjain’s bazaars are colourful and fun, with bangle sellers (bottom left) and gaily attired horses (bottom right).

thing that could actually date back to Gupta times— anything that Kalidas might have seen with his own eyes. Perhaps there’s something that Forster missed.

So I prepare to travel further back in time. The bazaars of Ujjain are evocative, and in the many garment shops the beautifully printed Behrugarh cotton cloth is sold.

Already 2,000 years ago Behrugarh cloth was exported to Rome—whose citizens knew of Ujjain as “Ozene,” the place from where one imported onyx, porcelain, and “mallow-tinted cotton” as mentioned in the Periplus Maris Erythraei (Circumnavigation of the Red Sea, a Greek travel guide dating to A.D. 80 written for traders crossing the Indian Ocean).

I ask my taxi driver to take me to Behrugarh (also spelt as Bhairogarh), which turns out to be a small hamlet right across the river from Ujjain. Its name appears to stem from the Kal Bhairav Temple, which was first mentioned in the Skanda Purana (an ancient text quite possibly written at the Gupta court). The temple is within walking distance of the district jail where I spot a few felons in white prison uniforms fixing a clogged ditch by the high prison walls.

I’ve heard a lot about Bhairav. When I first set foot in Ujjain, one enthusiastic policeman at the railway station—who took it upon himself to offer free advice—told me the temple is a must-see. He called Bhairav “the beer drinking god.” Anybody who drinks may 2016 | national Geographic Traveller INDIA

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Zac O’Yeah (palace), dinodia (temple & painting), india picture/encyclopedia/corbis/imagelibrary (bangles), atlantide phototravel/terra/corbis/imagelibrary (horse)

Heritage Holiday

Short Breaks |

stay

At Home in the Trees Chic and earthy, an off-the-grid experience in a biodiversity hotspot

By Niloufer Venkatraman

Liberal use of glass lets plenty of natural light into the rustic-chic bedrooms of The Machan.

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balcony. It seems like the perfect room for children accompanying parents. But I like it too. It’s just the kind of space in which I could happily lie in bed reading, writing—enjoying the gorgeous setting.

Our Jungle Machan Plus is a spacious room that is built 40 feet above ground, literally in the trees.

Beside the four-poster bed in the main bedroom, the windows look out onto healthy foliage. The high gable-roofed ceiling, chic hardwood floors, and two walls of glass make the room open, airy, one with the environment. We have a three-part bathroom. The wood panelled first room includes a toilet and washbasin, with an enormous branch of a tree growing inside. Just behind it is an openair bathtub and shower area. Finally, there’s a steam room, but it isn’t functional during our visit.

That evening we take a jungle walk with a local, organized by the property. Our guide identifies native plant life, particularly medicinal plants that the indigenous people of the area use for various ailments. I am particularly amused by the “daant tod” plant—allegedly, if you chew the leaves your

nature

relaxation

photo courtesy: the machan

F

rom my vantage point high in the canopy of a Western Ghats forest, I survey a spectacular sight: undulating green hills as far as the eye can see. The scene stretches in every direction from the wooden deck of my room at The Machan, a short 17 kilometres from the bustling hill station of Lonavla near Mumbai.

The terrace I’m standing on has an inviting hammock that my daughter flopped into the moment we got here. She suddenly spots a wooden spiral staircase inside the bedroom through the glass wall, and rushes back in through the screen doors. By the time I’ve enjoyed five minutes of the view, she has already dashed up and down the stairs several times, calling out excitedly for me to come and see “her room.” Up the short flight, I find myself in the cosiest of loft bedrooms. It’s a small space with an attached bathroom, and a modest double bed facing a glass wall. In full view are the biodiverse forests of the Sahyadris sprawling to the horizon, particularly verdant in the post-monsoon season when I visit. The loft also has a small

■ m aharas htra room service nor Internet or TV (which are absent as well); you only need the mindset to soak in the quiet, relaxed atmosphere, the joy of the outdoors.

Two windmills whir on the property and solar panels absorbs the sunshine to generate electricity.

Though off the grid, the resort does not generate enough wind or solar power to meet all its needs, so a diesel generator is in use as well. Rooms are without air-conditioning, but they are well ventilated and cool at night. If you happen to take an afternoon nap in the summer though, I’d suggest taking it on the lovely hammock on the veranda (if your room has one) rather than in the room, which could get a little warm. A gentle breeze, bird call, and the light buzz of insects from deep in the jungle were enough to lull me to deep sleep.

The Machan’s USP is that it is an aesthetic delight. Rooms embrace the rustic with the modern, and feel inviting, warm, and stylish all at once. The harmony of the indoor and outdoor spaces, the forest amidst the natural environment— this is what I could come back for repeatedly. It is, I feel, a glorious place for getting off the grid and connecting with family and loved ones, as well as with the wonderful biodiversity of our land.

Mumbai ìThe Machan

the vitals Getting There From Mumbai drive to Lonvala (100 km/2 hr) and follow directions to Aamby Valley/INS Shivaji, then to Cloud 9 Resort/Essar Agrotech, and finally to Jambulne (17 km/30 min) where The Machan is located (www.themachan.com).

Accommodation Machan rooms are built in the trees 25-40 feet above the ground.

The Heritage Machan accommodates six (`25,000 per night).

There are Jungle, Canopy, Sunset, and Forest Machans (doubles from `12,000`22,000, including breakfast; `4,000 for each extra person/ child). Not all rooms have canopy views.

Some are on a lower level and look into the forest. There are three cabins at ground level (`8,000 per night).

Weekend reservations (Fri-Sun) must be for minimum two nights and cost an extra `2,000-5,000. Prices don’t include taxes.

A spiral staircase (top left) leads to a cosy loft bedroom with stunning views of the Sahyadri forests; A tree-shaded grassy area (top right) makes for a perfect breakfast spot; Guests end up spending most of their time on the hardwood deck when staying in the Forest Machan suites (bottom). may 2016 | national Geographic Traveller INDIA

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niloufer venkatraman (staircase, people), photo courtesy: the machan (machan)

teeth will fall out. No one I know is willing to test the veracity of this claim, but it’s something to keep in mind as ammunition if you have enemies.

Most meals are served outdoors, except lunch which is sometimes in the restaurant, in a huge machan. Dinner is on a grassy patch amidst candle-lit tables and the hushed voices of families enjoying the meal, ambience, and each other.

Post-dinner, we spend some quiet family time chit-chatting on the deck and enjoying the stars and the cool night air before going to sleep. I wake up in the middle of the night and walk onto the deck; it is like stepping into a jungle. A splendid sky filled with a billion stars lies above, the sounds and smells of the forest are all around. I creep up the stairs and fall asleep on the child’s bed. I know I want to wake up to that spectacular carpet of rolling green hills right in front of me.

We enjoy our breakfast at a glass-topped wooden picnic table amidst shady trees. All meals at The Machan are served buffet-style and consist of a mix of local staples and north Indian fare cooked home-style, which essentially means it isn’t loaded with oil or fiery masalas. Room service is slow at best, but when you are here, you need neither