Lonely Planet Magazine India

!

W NE

S! N !

L IO ER AL CT EV SE AN EW H N LT K! U O SEF LOE U EW R N MO

` 150 October 2013

The

Winter List Our definitive guide to where you should soak up the sun (and snow) this season

Botswana Dusty elephants, cold ones from the swamp, and a black-and-white migration through a great delta

Laos readwhere Copy

Recline among the Buddhas, zip through trees, and shout, “Beer lao!” in Southeast Asia’s most laid-back country PLUS

MAURITIUS

Go beyond the beach into this big, yummy stew of cultures

SNOWY SWITZERLAND

Angelina Jolies (plural), starlit carriage rides - and you!

FOOD IN DELHI Need a happy tummy to go watch F1? We tell you where to binge

BONUS

ACROSS THE PLANET

Celebrating 40 years of Lonely Planet

Win!

A free trip for two to Queensland, Australia worth ` 3 lakh!

Contents Volume 4, Issue 9 | October 2013

Postcards YOur TraVel PhOTOs and The sTOrIes BehInd Them

10

a lion lying in wait and more great images

Our Planet ThIs mOnTh’s TraVel news, VIews and dIscOVerIes

28 Photo Story descend with the appenzeller cows in switzerland 34 Country at a Glance a forgotten migration, the Okavango delta, rock paintings from the beginning of humankind... welcome to Botswana 36 World on your Plate add a touch of France to your sunday brunch with a glass of Kir royale 40 Anything to Declare? Peter Jackson tells us how to channel your inner hobbit and visit middle-earth

5 Easy Trips shOrT BreaKs YOu can TaKe rIghT nOw

48 get wild like never before at the Wilds at Northernhay in Masinagudi, Tamil Nadu 52 Find your inner culture-vulture in Amritsar, Punjab 56 Tap into your inner sloth by the poolside at Mango Beach House in Kihim, Maharashtra 60 Immerse yourself in local wall art at Shekhawati, Rajasthan 64 Indulge in a foodie day out in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh 67 max out the city Jodhpur, Rajasthan

Armchair Traveller TV, BOOKs and aPPs TO Feed YOur PassIOn FOr TraVel

156 discover the best of the month’s travel inspiration to enjoy at home

Mini Guides PhOTOgraPh: © hemIs/ alamY (arOund gsTaad)

Themed guIdes TO Pull OuT and TaKe wITh YOu

160 no matter what your drinking style, there’s a bar with your name on it in the spanish capital of Madrid 162 discover the quaint charm that pervades Old Goa

To subscribe, SMS LPSUB to 58888 or log on to mags.timesgroup.com/lonely-planet.html For more information, turn to p51

Readwhere Copy

Botswana, p98 Postcards, p10

n i W a trip to

Queensland, h australia, wort ` 3 lakh, p164

laos, p70

eating out in delhi, p122

easy Trips, p48

around gstaad, p112

Contents Volume 4, Issue 9 | October 2013

Mauritius, p86

Features ExpErIEnCEs In dEpth tO Add tO yOur wIsh lIst

70 with wars the world didn’t know about, food so good you’ll want it home-delivered and gibbons joining you for tree-top shenanigans, Laos is southeast Asia’s best-kept secret 86 tear yourself away from its stunning beaches and you’ll discover the kaleidoscope of colours, culture and flavours that is Mauritius 98 Botswana’s Okavango delta has made the country’s north a marshy swampland blessed with elephants, birdlife and culture 112 tramping through the snow with tennis racquets strapped to your feet (and Angelina Jolie for company) never looked as appealing as it does when you’re in switzerland’s Gstaad region 122 stuff your face with capital treats while you’re in Delhi for the Grand Prix 132 Channel the spirit behind the lonely planet brand and follow our writers as they cross the planet on an epic journey

Win a trip to Queensland, Australia, worth ` 3 lakh! p164 A five-night, six-day adventure awaits in Australia’s sunshine state

40 years of lonely planet, p132

THE LONELY PLANET MAGAZINE INDIA PROMISE Lonely Planet Magazine India provides trusted, independent travel advice and information that has been gathered without fear or favour.

We aim to provide you with options that cover a range of budgets and we reveal the positive and negative of all locations we visit.

Because we believe it is important that our journalists experience first-hand what they’re writing about and because you require comprehensive information from every corner of the world, at times it may be necessary for us to seek assistance from travel providers such as tourist boards, airlines, hotels, national parks, etc. However, when receiving such assistance, we ensure our editorial integrity and independence are not compromised through the following measures:  by publishing information on all appropriate travel suppliers and not just those who provided us with assistance  by never promising to offer anything in return, such as positive coverage.

Disclaimer: All prices, flight and other transport details, contact details and other information have been provided by the respective corporations and/ or verified travel operators and are correct at the time of going to print. All prices listed for international destinations are calculated as per exchange rates prevalent at the time of going to print. Lonely Planet Magazine India and Worldwide Media cannot be held responsible for changes in such details after publishing.

PHOTOGRAPHS: HIMANSHU PANDYA, MAHESH SAGARI, MATT MUNRO

THIS MONTH’S COVER There’s an ancient magic about Africa, something epic and timeless.

This photograph, in Botswana’s Okavango delta, has a grand, serene quality – it puts you in perspective, tells you how large the world is, and how tiny you are in it. Imagine yourself here: the strange, all-pervasive stillness at sunset, the eerie sounds of bird calls over the wetlands, the deep rumble of the elephant, the lap of the water, and try to remember what century you’re in.

PHOTOGRAPH: CORBIS

Please recycle when done with the magazine

Laos feels like a secret that has been kept for far too long

Welcome to the new LPMI At the ripe old age of three-and-a-half, we decided the time was right to grow up and be adults.

I’m delighted to report that we failed miserably.

However, in the process we did consider what we wanted to be when we grew up, and realised that we wanted to be more useful, easier to read – and better looking. We wanted to help you plan your holidays better, give you as many itineraries as we could each month (so all you have to do is take that page across to your travel agent or to your web search engine), we wanted you to simply go and travel without worrying about what you were going to do there. We wanted you to immerse yourself deeper in our world, so we have even better photography, and more of it. We’ve brought you the new Our Planet section, to bring our fascinating – and sometimes weird – world ever closer to you. We’ve brought our advice pages to the front so you can ask us what colour trousers will get you beaten up in Kyrgyzstan (and anything else as well, we don’t restrict ourselves to trousers).

And most of all, we want you to contribute to our magazine: we’re expanding the Postcards section, so you can send us your travel stories (up to 500 words, with photographs if possible), and you’ll be an honorary member of the Lonely Planet Magazine India team.

Also, not to forget, this is our big winter special, shortlisting the best, most intriguing places to go this year-end. We’ve got a wet, glorious Botswana (oh yes), Laos, which is clearly too cool for school, and a host of others. We even have cows – you know you’re interested.

Send us your feedback on the new look, and keep telling us how we can make your (armchair and real) travel better. After all, we do this for you – getting to travel to great places is just something we put up with...

Vardhan Kondvikar, Editor Follow me on Twitter: @vardhan_lpmag

WHAT I’VE LEARNED THIS MONTH

1. That people in Turkey like having signboards (above) telling them where to find tractors (cekicisi) 2. That Bayei tribesmen in the Okavango Delta in Botswana use the swamps as their personal refrigerator to chill cans of beer 3. That in Shekhawati, Rajasthan, the gods don’t tolerate any old form of transport: they prefer a Rolls-Royce

New Section!

The jam-packed new

OUR PLANET section brings you closer to the world through photo features cutaways of famous monuments and museums, interviews with travel buffs (who just happen to be famous!), food and other tidbits, and also offers sage advice in the form of Q&As and news on deals and upcoming events and festivals.

Our new pages include Travel Icon and Anything to Declare?

Our Planet This month’s travel news and discoveries

PHOTOGRAPHS: AFP (AnyTHinG TO declARe), cORBiS (cOunTRy AT A GlAnce)

BOtswana

PHOtO stORY: swiss cOws

32

PG

28

PG

40

PeteR jacKsOn’s middle-eaRtH

PG

KiR ROYale

PG

34

OUR PLANET

New Seri ! es

THE PHOTO STORY

Till the cows come home We travelled to the tiny hamlet of Appenzell in Northeast Switzerland to join a family of farmers for a rather unusual tradition. At the end of summer every year, families – like the Kochs – and their livestock descend from their abode in the alpine pastures to their winter home in the plains. The harmonious sequence of the procession amazed us.

First came the Appenzell goats, led by the family’s children, followed by cows, bullocks and calves... even a bull. Towards the end of the parade was the head of the family accompanied by his loyal Bläss (mountain dog), who, though not more than two feet tall, miraculously managed to keep all the animals in order. Also keeping things together were four herdsmen yodelling to the clanging of the humongous bells around the necks of the three leading cows. We had thought it would be a leisurely stroll through the pastures.

We couldn’t have been more wrong! It was more like a marathon, with us dodging cow poop at every corner. Luckily, our inbuilt Indian instinct for dodging all things icky and squishy came to our rescue.

LPMI’s Research Consultant FRIYAN DRIVER and Photo Editor JEREMIAH CHRISTANAND RAO were in Switzerland to see the descent of the Appenzeller cows. Although quite embarrassed at the hanky-panky between some of the cattle on the journey down, Friyan was more excited than Jerry, who had to choose between getting these great photographs and putting his feet into cow poop.

He has since thrown away his shoes.

OUR PLANET TRAVEL ICON

THE LOUVRE, PARIS The new Islamic Wing spans 1,300 years of history

New Seri ! es A TOUCH OF GLASS Since its unveiling in 1989, the Pyramide du Louvre has become part of the Parisian landscape, gaining further fame in The Da Vinci Code, in which it presided over the crypt of Mary Magdalene. It’s not the first time such a claim has been made: churches at Vézelay in Burgundy and Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baumein Provence are both alleged to have housed the saint’s relics.

2

SHROUDED IN MYSTERY One of the most precious exhibits in the Islamic collection is the Shroud of Saint Josse – fragments of a silk textile thought to have originated in 10th-century Iran.

Supposedly brought back from the First Crusade by Étienne de Blois, father of the future King of England, Stephen, the shroud was used to wrap the bones of a seventh-century saint in a Normandy abbey.

1

T

HE Louvre is famous as the home of innumerable European masterpieces – from the haughty marble statues of ancient Greece to the smirking enigma of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Not so well known is its wealth of Islamic art, parts of which have been exhibited here since the French Revolution.

The Louvre’s new Islamic Wing is a purpose-built home for a collection of 18,000-plus items, housed beneath an undulating glass roof designed to resemble a woman’s headscarf – or a magic carpet, depending on whom you ask. Spanning 1,300 years, exhibits represent the entire Muslim world – with ceramics from Moorish Spain, miniatures from Turkey and jewellery from India. Some see it as the latest effort of the French government to establish Paris as a hub for Muslim culture: France has the largest Muslim population of any country in Western Europe.

It plans to export Francophilia to the Arab world with the opening of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, currently scheduled for 2015.

MAKE IT HAPPEN l louvre.fr; entry: ` 1,000 l Learn more about the Louvre in Lonely Planet’s France guide

WHO WAS MONA LISA? Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is the most famous piece of art in the most famous museum in the world. Nonetheless, her identity remains an enigma.

Theories range from Mona being da Vinci’s own mother to his female alter ego. Whoever she was, Mona’s not had the easiest of careers: in the last century, visitors to the Louvre have at various times stolen the painting, attempted to spray it with red paint and pelted it with rocks, teacups and even acid.

5

PEOPLE POWER No painting represents the ebullient French spirit quite like Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People, the artist’s stirring tribute to the Second French Revolution of 1830.

The allegorical figure of ‘Liberty’ was said to be the inspiration for New York’s Statue of Liberty; Delacroix’s painting also features on the cover of Coldplay’s 2008 album Viva La Vida.

6

HIGH CULTURE It’s not only on the walls of the Louvre that you’ll find world-class art – the 400-squaremetre ceiling of the Salle des Bronzes in the Sully Wing was painted a deep blue in 2010 by the late American artist Cy Twombly, in what became one of his final works. Ceiling painting is nothing new to the Louvre: visitors crane their necks to see paintings by Eugène Delacroix and symbolist Georges Braque, all painted on high.

3

4

2 1 6

5

MEDIEVAL REMAINS To the untrained eye, the Louvre may look like it was planned and built all in one go – but this isn’t the case.

The Palais du Louvre complex began life as a fortress in the 12th century – designed to defend Paris from Anglo-Norman invaders – before it was eventually rebuilt as a royal residence in the 16th century.

The best place to get a sense of the original complex is in the Sully Wing basement, where excavations in the 1980s unearthed a medieval moat.

4

HONG KONG

Great stuff for free in Hong Kong

PHOTOGRAPHS: ALAMY, JEFF GILBERT/ ALAMY, MUSEE DU LOUVRE/ ANGELE DEQUIER 2007, STEPHEN ALVAREZ/ NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC STOCK, THE ART ARCHIVE/ ALAMY, EIGHTFISH/ ALAMY, GETTY IMAGES, GIUSEPPE CASTROVILLI / 123RF

3

FREE WORLD

1

T’AI CHI BY THE HARBOUR Get rid of winter blues by learning T’ai chi from a sprightly master against the backdrop of Victoria Harbour – the famous body of water that separates Hong Kong Island from the peninsula of Kowloon (above). The ancient martial art promotes blood circulation and bone health.

Hour-long classes are offered three times a week, courtesy of the Hong Kong Tourism Board (discoverhongkong.com).

2

TEMPLE STREET NIGHT MARKET Browsing is free among the stalls selling knick-knacks and knock-offs at the atmospheric Temple Street Night Market, named after the Tin Hau Temple located within it.

Once you’re done shopping, you can get your fortune read or indulge in mouth-watering local treats. Haggling is a must! (discoverhongkong.com)

3

MUSEUM OF COASTAL DEFENCE All of Hong Kong’s public museums are open for free on Wednesdays. Among them is the Museum of Coastal Defence, housed in a century-old fort that was a battleground during WWII. One of the permanent exhibitions is on the Ming period (1368 – 1644), and includes three Qing armours, a cannon barrel from the Southern Ming period and a model of a Ming period Guangdong war junk, supplemented with graphics (hk.coastaldefence.museum).

4

TAI PO FARMERS’ MARKET Every Sunday, a corner of the leafy Tai Po district plays host to a charming farmers’ market. Trawl the 20-odd stalls for winter harvest, fair-trade chocolates, organic wine and green cosmetics, and enjoy a free sample of Merlot – or perhaps pineapple chutney. Don’t miss the local favourite, tea of fresh roselle – a variety of hibiscus whose flowers are used to make the tart drink (hongkongfarmersmarket.org).

5

FLAGSTAFF HOUSE TEA WARE MUSEUM A visit to Flagstaff House is a must for a glimpse into Hong Kong’s rich colonial past. Formerly the residence of the commander of the British forces in Hong Kong, it now houses the Museum of Tea Ware. As you walk through the many sections of the museum, you will be taken back in time – experience the many tea-drinking practices found across the world (lcsd.gov.hk).

EXPLORE HONG KONG THROUGH A BOOK IN OUR ARMCHAIR TRAVELLER SECTION

OUR PLANET COPENHAGEN’S The Little Mermaid statue was unveiled 100 years ago, inspired by the 1837 fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen. The statue has been decapitated twice, blasted off its base with explosives, and vandalised in numerous other ways.

ANYTHING TO DECLARE?

Peter Jackson Director Peter Jackson filmed The Lord of the Rings trilogy in his native New Zealand.

The country is also the location for his most-recent film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

How you New! can visit Middle-earth Seri

es

I first read The Lord of the Rings when I was 17. Since then, the landscape of New Zealand has been closely tied to Middle-earth in my mind. You can’t help but relate what you read to the places that you know. The North Island was what I was familiar with, so when I was reading the books, I imagined landscapes that I’d seen and driven through.

The locations where I’ve shot the Tolkien films – The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit – are as spectacular as I could ever want. Tolkien saw landscapes as an important part of his stories. He describes them in great detail in his books, so we had a pretty amazing guide for what we had to look for when making The Hobbit, from the plants, and flowers to the landscapes and the weather.

The verdant Riwaka Valley seen from Hawkes Lookout near Motueka, on New Zealand’s South Island

One of the great joys of working on these films is getting in a helicopter and flying around scouting for locations. I’ve seen the country in a way I never would have otherwise. New Zealand may be small, but the landscape varies a lot, certainly on South Island. You can fly over a ridge, and the land on the other side is completely different.

My favourite location is an old gold mining area called Central Otago on South Island. It’s a very dry and barren landscape, with huge rock formations, plains and valleys. It’s where we shot Rohan in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and we also shot a fairly major sequence in The Hobbit there. If had to retire to a small house in the country somewhere, I’d probably choose Otago.

Tolkien was writing a mythology for a Europe, which, in his mind, was around 7,000 years ago. As a primitive landscape with a European feel, New Zealand is perfect for Middle-earth. You can shoot somewhere where there are no power lines, no houses, no farms, no roads – just fantastically wild landscapes as far as the eye can see.

When you’re on location, there’s an element of unpredictability. For the most part, we decided that if it rains, we film in the rain. Again, that’s part of Tolkien. He didn’t write about places that had continuous sun, he wrote about places that had wind and rain and storms. At the same time, I’m a little bit of a hobbit. I don’t want to go anywhere too extreme and struggle to make the film!

INTERVIEW BY OLIVER SMITH & SOPHIE MCGRATH PHOTOGRAPHS: MATT MUNRO, © UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP / DEAGOSTINI, THE PRINT COLLECTOR / ALAMY, © NRMSSPL, AFP

SUMMER CROWDS at Southend-on-Sea in Essex, England, have the run of the longest pleasure pier in the world, at 2.15km. The pier has had several mishaps over the years – in 1986, a tanker crashed through a section of it, narrowly missing a man using the toilets.

One thing we’ve done with these films is enhance the landscape with computer-generated imagery (CGI). If we’re shooting somewhere and we want a waterfall over here or a mountain over there, then we can always add that in later. But no matter how good CGI is, you inherently know if you’re looking at something real or something that has been created on a computer. You can just feel it. There’s an authenticity you get in a real landscape that helps ground the story. What you want in the film – in any film – is to get people to absolutely believe in the story, not to be wondering about what is real or what is fake. In the Tolkien films that we’ve made, we’ve come to the realisation that if you use real landscapes as much as you can, it allows people to feel that these are real people; that their stories

THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT has just scrapped a ban on women wearing trousers, originally brought in following the French Revolution. Despite being ignored for most of its existence, the law remained on the statute books for 214 years.

are real. You want people to enter into the spirit of the story – to forget that these are actors on location and to feel that they themselves, in turn, are in Middle-earth with these people.

The beauty of the Tolkien films that we’ve made is that people want to come and visit the places they’ve seen in the films. They’re just a flight away. It took these films for me to explore these amazing landscapes. You live somewhere but you don’t really explore your country the way that you should – you stick to your particular part of it. You drive to work and you drive back from work. You go to the shops. These films were a joy to make because I got to go to parts of New Zealand I would never have otherwise visited.

New Look!

Our new-look

Easy Trips are more attractive than ever, with easier navigation and vibrant photography.

They continue to be extremely simple to plan and ‘easy’ to do at short notice.

Most are seasonal, and encourage you to

GO NOW!

1

5

2

EASY

TRIPS

3

4

YOU CAN DO NOW

Go wild in Mudumalai, get high on spirituality in Amritsar, chill out in Kihim, gawk at fantastic frescoes and footwear in Shekhawati, and eat your way through Lucknow

t max ou t i the c y

g in Zip-linin

Jodhpur

5

5 EASY TRIPS

NATURE Break

1

The Wilds at Northernhay, Masinagudi, Tamil Nadu FOR THE SEEKER OF SOLITUDE

The Mudumalai Tiger Reserve is wild.

Not wild because you’ll see a lot of wildlife – sure, last year’s government census showed healthy populations of tiger, leopard, elephant, sloth bear and bison, as well as mouse deer, civet cat and flying squirrel, but they can play quite a successful game of hide-andseek within this sanctuary, sheltered by the Singara range in the Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. In fact, you may have more sightings from the paved road than the rutted path – elephant in the shadow of massive bamboo thickets, common langur, jungle fowl, spotted deer, sambar, even a fox streaking before the jeep, faster than the camera can capture it.

Not wild, either, because the vegetation is untamed – in fact, there is an eerie symmetry to the baldish teak trees reaching out to the sky, and the sudden stretches of plain dotted with interesting logs and bleached animal skulls and barely discernible tracks.

Wild because when your jeep plunges into the sanctuary, you’re committing yourself to a roller-coaster ride of sorts – one in which the vehicle leaps from one set of rocks to another, pitching itself vertically at times and fording streams that will make you feel as if you’re in an off-road adventure (see Good to Know if you’d like a more staid ride).

The Wilds at Northernhay is also, well, wild. This base, from where you make your foray into the untamed, is in

The Malabar squirrel is a frequent sight on the trees around the property Below: A monitor lizard pops up on the safari through Mudumulai Tiger Reserve

the wilderness. It might be set in a coffee plantation, but it is cut off from the rest of the world by a long rutted path and no fences to demarcate where its boundaries meld into the adjoining Mudumalai National Park.

Wild, too, because it does nothing to discourage the civet cats who feast on its premium coffee beans, the macaques who thunder over its Mangalore-tiled roofs, the bison who stare unblinkingly at you from close by, trampling through the coffee plants with less delicacy than those nocturnal visitors, the elephants, who sometimes nibble its doormats.

Still, if ever you needed a civilised retreat from the world, you would find it here – in this sprawling property that will seem very like the house

1 2

GREAT FROM

Bangalore, Coimbatore, Mysorere

GREAT FOR

Birding, solitude, wildlife

GO NOW

As it gets drier, you’re likely to see more wildlife. of a much-travelled grandaunt, who has brought together a whole lot of quirky pieces from across the world – masks, compasses, vintage souvenir plates, maps, lanterns and compasses – and placed them in rooms, pulling the whole together without any unnecessary compulsion towards consistency.

3

Where the bay windows are draped with old-fashioned lace curtains, yet the bathrooms come with thoughtful modern touches like disposable seat covers for the finicky. Where Salim, the affable young cook, turns out tasty meals, and the staff is always at hand when you need something, but melts away the rest of the time. Where you can be as private as you like, or meet a whole lot of visitors from around the world as you gather by the evening bonfire…

At The Wilds at Northernhay, imbued with the warmth and hospitality of Junaid and Ambareen Seth, who visit often and fuss over their guests’ wellbeing, mobile connectivity is erratic, wi-fi impossible, and there is just one television in the common living room. There is of course,

1. The sprawling extended homestay will take you back to childhood holidays 2. There are elephants aplenty to be seen in Mudumulai Tiger Reserve 3. The rooms at The Wilds are quirky, but always warm – the Sultana comes with a lovely four-poster bed inlaid with motherof-pearl

the promise of those roller-coaster safaris and the treks that showcase the region’s magnificent bird life, and sometimes yield bonus sightings of sloth bears and wild dogs with their kill at just over three arm-lengths’ distance. But that’s it. It works best for travellers who appreciate being able to sink into lovingly-restored old furniture, sip another cup of coffee, or green tea infused with mint, listen to the call of the peacocks or the warning cries of the monkeys that one of Mudumalai’s elusive big cats in on the prowl… and stare out into the greenery, or at that Malabar squirrel on the tree right there.

No, definitely not for the wild at heart. words primrose monteiro-d’souza photographs himanshu pandya

TURN OVER FOR ALL YOU NEED TO GET THERE

All New! Our new-look

Features Our new-look Features are easier to read and use, way cooler, and better looking than ever. In these longer, elaborate stories that get under the skin of a place, we’ve given you more itineraries and more resource information – everything you need to be able to just take the page to your agent and make that trip happen!

EXCLUSIVE: ACROSS THE PLANET A series following Tony and Maureen Wheeler’s iconic journey that led to the Lonely Planet phenomenon

PhotograPh: himanshu Pandya

Features

Laos Mauritius Botswana Around Gstaad Eating out in Delhi bonus 40 years of Lonely Planet

p 70 p 86 p 98 p 112 p 122 p 132

kingdom The invisible Laos is a mysterious, laidback land just waiting to be uncovered, with secret wars, incredible food and treehouses worthy of childhood dreams

PHOTOGRAPHS: LONELY PLANET IMAGES, ALAMY

WORDS KRUTTIKA NADIG | PHOTOGRAPHS HIMANSHU PANDYA

PHOTOGRAPHS: LONELY MAYANK SONI

Monks make their morning rounds or Tak Bat, collecting alms from locals who line the streets with offerings at dawn

1. Resort Angsana Balaclava in secluded Turtle Bay 2. Seafood at Angsana’s beachside grill 3. Girls at a Hindu firewalking ceremony 4. A frangipani flower in bloom

1

2

3

4

PHOTOGRAPHS: LONELY PLANET IMAGES, ALAMY

Facing page: Men fishing in the bay at Le Morne Peninsula, on the south-west coast

A Recipe for Success Author Mark Twain wrote that ‘Heaven was copied after Mauritius’, but there’s more to this island than palmy good looks. Stray from the beach to explore how centuries of immigration have created a diverse culture, a relaxed prosperity and a richly mixed cuisine

PHOTOGRAPHS: LONELY MAYANK SONI

WORDS ROFF SMITH | PHOTOGRAPHS MARK READ

Trails of the delta The Okavango is a river that never finds the sea.

It overflows into a vast delta, turning northern Botswana into a miraculous wetland in which human life is delicately balanced with the wild

The elephant herd from Abu Camp marches through a lagoon. The herd is made up of rescued African elephants

PHOTOGRAPHS: LONELY PLANET IMAGES, ALAMY

WORDS MATT BOLTON | PHOTOGRAPHS PHILIP LEE HARVEY

PHOTOGRAPHS: LONELY MAYANK SONI

Men fishing in the bay at Le Morne Peninsula, on the southwest coast

THE WINTER LIST DESTINATION

Snow

BIG

deal

Looking for a winter holiday destination?

Head to the Swiss Alps! You might not feel your fingers or your nose after a while, but there are walks in a quaint village, snowshoeing, and unreasonable amounts of fondue to be had as compensation WORDS SONIA NAZARETH

PHOTOGRAPHS: LONELY PLANET IMAGES, ALAMY

The team races through the Bosnian countryside on its way from Mostar to the Serbian border

ACROSS THE PLANET

Excl usiv e

Join our writers Christa Larwood and Oliver Smith as they tell the tale of the most ambitious trip we’ve ever planned, taking them from London to Sydney in search of 40 original travel experiences. Their mission was to recreate the spirit of the journey that led to the birth of Lonely Planet 40 years ago, and this first instalment carries them across Europe from London to the edge of Asia in Istanbul

PHOTOGRAPHS: LONELY MAYANK SONI

WORDS CHRISTA LARWOOD, OLIVER SMITH | PHOTOGRAPHS MATT MUNRO

Traveller Armchair

! w NeLook All

WATCH OUT FOR The squirminducing toast from the groom’s aunt

Can’t get away?

Check out the latest TV, apps, books and movies to keep you exploring The town of Sorrento overlooks the Bay of Naples Below: Pierce Brosnan and Trine Dyrholm in Love Is All You Need

MOVIES

Love Is All You Need If the name of this film sets off the schmaltz alarms, consider that its Danish title (the film is a Danish production, partly in English) translates as ‘The Bald Hairdresser’. Ida (Trine Dyrholm), said hairdresser, is recovering from both cancer treatment and the discovery of her husband’s affair when she drives to Copenhagen airport to fly into Italy, where her daughter is soon to be married.

Distracted, she reverses into a car, whose driver turns out to be Philip (the prickly businessman father of the groom), played by Pierce Brosnan. From this unpromising

The vinedraped balustrades and isolated coves of the Italy’s Sorrento coast provide a suitably evocative backdrop to the unusual love story in Love Is All You Need

start, and an awkward taxi ride together, both begin to reassess their first impressions among the vertiginous cliffs of the Bay of Naples where the wedding is to take place. There’s plenty of humour and charm, while

the vine-draped balustrades and isolated coves of the Sorrento coast provide a suitably evocative backdrop, and a contrast to the scenes set in Danish suburbia.

Rory Goulding

PHOTOGRAPHS: HIMANSHU PANDYA, GETTY IMAGES, CORBIS

Romance set among the fragrant lemon groves of southern Italy

ONLINE EXHIBIT The Wind Map currently showing at New York’s MoMA museum can now be viewed online.

Using live data from the National Digital Forecast, flowing patterns resembling a Van Gogh painting are plotted and put into motion over a map of the USA. The ‘Windy City’ of Chicago doesn’t stand out though, sadly – the epithet actually refers to the famously filibustering local politicians (hint.fm/wind).

TV PREVIEW

Singapore On Screen This month, BBC World News celebrates Singapore’s 50th year of independence Working Lives has BBC’s Chief Correspondent Linda Yueh exploring what it is like to live and work in Singapore – through the characters

GET IT ON DVD

who define the country (Oct 26: 1.40pm; Oct 27: 6.40am, 7.40pm).

Delving into the growing tourism market, visiting neighbourhoods,

sampling the food and visiting an island off the coast, Rajan Datar in Fast Track analyses how the city state has reinvented itself over the last five years to become one of the most popular destinations in Asia (Oct 26: 8am, 6pm, 11pm; Oct 27: 11am).

In Click, presenter Spencer Kelly discovers how Singapore’s ultra-connected community interacts with technology in everyday life and how this small city works as an ideal testing ground for trying out mobile technology (Oct 26: 11am; Oct 27: 8am, 6pm).

Anthony Chen, the first Singaporean filmmaker to win a prize at the Cannes Film Festival for Ilo Ilo this year, is at the forefront of a new generation of young directors telling stories of local life.

He, top-grossing director Jack Neo and comedy actress Michelle Chong, who is now one of Singapore’s prominent female directors, feature in Talking Movies, which explores the latest developments in cinema, censorship and two visual effects facilities that are part of an emerging Hollywood back-room operation (Oct 27: 12pm).

APP REVIEW

BBC Earth Wonders

The BBC brings its natural history broadcasting clout to a decidedly smaller screen with this new app – a multimedia tour of some of the planet’s most captivating creatures and locations.

Arranged around a spinning globe, entries are as diverse as the Northern Lights and jellyfish.

Clicking on them might yield pictures from top wildlife photographers or excerpts from BBC series such as Frozen Planet. The clips are absorbing – but be warned, they can take up a lot of storage. (iPhone/ iPad edition; ` 55)

MOVIES

Everybody Has A Plan Seeing double in Buenos Aires’s atmospheric backwaters First Sigmund Freud in A Dangerous Method and now identical twins in Argentinian director Ana Piterbarg’s identity-swap film noir, set in Buenos Aires and the labyrinthine waterways of the nearby Tigre Delta (left); Viggo Mortensen (right) plays Agustín, a disillusioned doctor in the city, and his twin, Pedro, an island-dwelling beekeeper and low-level criminal preying on wealthy second-homers.

A shocking development

ends with Agustín assuming his brother’s identity and relocating to the starkly beautiful delta, with a predictable escalation in tension.

Everybody Has A Plan (Todos Tenemos Un Plan) is conducted in Spanish, giving Mortensen the opportunity to showcase a language learned during his childhood years in Argentina. His acting range is less in demand here – neither brother strays far from broodily taciturn – but the film is hauntingly compelling nonetheless.

watch out for Seamless scenes featuring ‘both’ brothers Duncan Craig

Free

With this Issue

&

Great Wedding

Honeymoon

Destinations

TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY GUIDE

PART II

001-015-PB-Supplement 2-Anant.indd 1

20/09/13 6:54 PM

DESTINATION WEDDINGS: FUN, EXOTIC AND INTIMATE PLACES TO GET MARRIED GREAT HONEYMOON DESTINATIONS… ON THE BEACH, IN THE MOUNTAINS, IN THE WILD MAX OUT YOUR TIME TOGETHER RESORT WEAR TO LOOK YOUR STUNNING BEST

honeymoon special_Cover_R2.indd 1

iipnto!

W A Tr

Australhia wort `3 lakh!

20/09/13 2:45 PM