Travel - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Travel: Coonoor, The Nilgiris

This extract is from Outlook Getaways. COONOOR In the shade of Dodda Betta By Sheila Kumar While just about every hamlet in the Blue Mountains vies for the title of ‘Queen of the Nilgiris’, mist-wrapped Coonoor in season, when the emerald green of the tea bushes is sharply offset by blood-red poinsettia, purple morning glory…

Travel: Montserrat, Spain

Serrated peaks The clouds are thin and swirling, obscuring everything one moment, parting to reveal the curiously shaped stones of the mountain, the next. “I get a lot of this weather back where I live, in the southern hills in India,’’ I tell my fellow coach-travellers, only to meet with much disbelief. Alas, India’s…

Travel: Great Ocean Road, Australia

Their hearts still go on SHEILA KUMAR travels along Australia’s Great Ocean Road and tells the tale of the ill-fated Loch Ard and its two survivors. IT is a spectacular ride by any and every standard. The Great Ocean Road which starts at Geelong, 75 km from Melbourne, and which winds up at Nelson…

Travel: The Mango Tree, Hampi

Idylls of a king The Mango Tree Hampi, Bellary District USP: Hampi-trawlers get to relax beside a river. It’s all co-related. Visitors to the Rome of south India (indeed maybe of all the East), Hampi, know better than to rush through the many ruins and then, rush back to their cities. Those who come to Hampi…

Travel: Tracking the Ganga

A river’s avatars In which I undertake a journey to gaze at the Ganga, all the way up to Badrinath. IT is a somewhat surreal situation. I’m sitting in a small room 3,133 metres above sea level, literally in the lap of snow-capped mountains. A voice, speaking in fluent Hindi laced with a hill patois,…

Travel: Taliparamba, Kerala

Where the bells ring The small town of Taliparamba near Kannur is famous for its many temples Even in a state that throws up one fresh tourist spot after another, the small town of Taliparamba, 20 km north of Kannur, lies a little off the beaten track. Basically a spread of about 47 villages, the…

Travel: Waterford, Ireland

Chasing crystals For all its chequered past, Waterford Crystal still holds all the magic you expect from a legend, writes Sheila Kumar, after a tour of the crystal factory in Ireland. “Why Waterford,” asks Bryan, mine host. “They have fallen on bad times. Most of the products are now made in eastern Europe.” In…

Travel: The Mesquita in Cordoba, Spain

Spain’s secular structure The traveller touring Spain cannot but notice the fact that right across the country, Moorish architecture sits peacefully alongside Roman and Baroque styles. Monuments containing both Islamic and Christian influences are all well maintained and shown off to visitors with much pride. Cordoba, to the south of Spain’s capital Madrid, is…

Travel: Assisi, Italy

A Medieval wonder Assisi, the hometown of St Francis, is the prettiest hill town ever, according to Sheila Kumar. It is a grey day, leaden clouds scudding over dull skies, a threat of rain in the moisture-laden air, the day we visit Assisi, in the Umbrian region of Italy. I refuse to be cowed…

Travel: Khajuraho, all sexed up

All `saxed’ up A woman tourist goes unescorted to Khajuraho and gets a whole new perspective on the place THE guide’s voice is leer-laden, hissy. “Want to see a sax,” he asks me, insistently. I stare at him and contemplate replying, “No thanks, I’ve been rocked enough.” That would have been the god-given truth,…