Travel - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Travel: Scotland`s Lochs

SCOTLAND Water world Scotland’s lochs offer some of the most beautiful bounties of nature I am standing at the edge of Loch Ness. It is a dark and stormy afternoon; the huge mass of glowering thundercloud gathered above echoes the slate colour of the roiling waters. It is fascinating weather in which to gaze upon…

Travel: The places and pottery connect

As I pottered about A milk jug, a saucer, ordinary pieces of earthenware but each carrying the memory of a place visited, a friendship made….. Each piece of pottery is an interesting chip in the mosaic of my travel history. I’ve been at it for so many peripatetic years now it no longer…

Travel: The Lantau Buddha

When big really is beautiful Lantau Island A trip to gaze at the Lantau Buddha You glimpse him from a fair distance away. It`s a hazy day and on high in the cable car coming up from the Ngong Ping 360 cable car station, the first sighting of the seated figure, majestic in its very…

Travel: Chinese Checkers

Chinese checkers It took a 20-day trip for me to ascertain some things about China All the literature I had read, which, admittedly, was of China of the old, not the modern glitzy country I saw, had led me to believe that it was not the cleanest of places. Not true. Not true at all….

Travel: China Diary

China Diary The overarching impression is of a country where everyone has turned consumer with a vengeance. The Mao suit is grey I am in Beijing a week after the PLA parade commemorating the 70th anniversary of China’s war against Japan. On subway trains, the TV screens are beaming the visuals in a loop:…

Travel: The Legend of Kung Fu, a Beijing Show

Broadway Style Ballet in Beijing I promise you: you could hear a pin drop. This is Beijing’s Red Theatre, with a façade so red that it hurts the eye! And this evening, the compact auditorium is silent but packed to the gills. Those waiting for the curtains to lift on The Legend of Kung…

Travel: Sirince, Turkey

SIRINCE On top of the world Sheila Kumar happens upon Sirince atop a modest-sized mountain in Turkey, and comes away charmed This place was not on my list. I mean the list I drew up before embarking on a trip to Turkey. There was glorious Istanbul, a boat ride on the mesmeric Bosporus, a day…

Travel: Sun Temple in Katarmal

All hail the Sun King! In all of my admittedly peripatetic life, I have learned two things: one, to go with the flow du jour; and second, to quickly sit up and grab every hint of opportunity that floats past me. So it was one unseasonably hot morning, just as we were passing the…

Travel: Araku Valley, Andhra Pradesh

The notional vacation In Hudhud`s wake It’s been more than six months since cyclone Hudhud tore through these parts, but the traces of devastation still haven’t been completely wiped out — at least not in Vizag and its surroundings. Trees stand curiously aslant, like drunk sentinels, but with new green shoots emerging tentatively. In the…

Travel: In Brughes

In Bruges This Flemish town is easily one of the most picturesque spots in Europe. To say I was charmed is putting it mildly. My boutique hotel stood next to the huge St. Salvatore Cathedral. Every time I opened the curtains, the dun-coloured stone of the church walls took on a new hue; partly…