Travel - Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Travel: la Rambla, Barcelona

Rambling down La Rambla If Barcelona is an amazing city, la Rambla is its very heartbeat. It is hard to be in Barcelona and not be slack-jawed. There is so much life, living, and vibrant splendour all around. In ways small and large, Spain’s vital port city stands as a tribute to beauty. The blood-red…

Travel: Vellore Fort

Jewel in the city of spears One of the things that hold endless fascination for me is the way life weaves itself around fort towns. For good or bad, dwellings, shops, a bustling marketplace, temples,all spring up around the mammoth granite walls of what hitherto was a place of war. Bells ring from temple courtyards…

Travel: Chartres, France

Catatonic in Chartres The beauty of the ancient cathedral as well as losing her wallet rendered SHEILA KUMAR utterly speechless in Chartres. OK, first things first. The shrine is all it claims to be. The oldest and most beautiful cathedral in Europe, say the guidebooks. On this chilly, late autumn morning, it stands in…

Travel: Hampi, Karnataka

Going around Hampi is a practice session in rock climbing —but the intricate and expansive work around is totally worth the effort. So, there we were, bowling along a fairly good road, on a day that had yet to switch from merely warm to sweltering. We were off to immerse ourselves in…

Travel: Samtse, Bhutan

Samtse symphony A haven in the land of the Thunder Dragon The crossing into Bhutan was made so seamlessly, we were in the Land of the Thunder Dragon (the capital letters add to the mystique!) before we knew it. We entered from the south-western tip, from Siliguri in sub-Himalayan West Bengal, to use the…

Travel: Rome, Italy

A Roman Odyssey Rome isn’t just the Vatican City. Sheila Kumar travels across the heart of the city and still has energy left over to gasp in awe and delight. Our hotel is just across the magnificent Collosseum. Rome that morning, is a balmy 18 degrees Celsius, brilliant sunshine, fluffy white clouds scudding across…

Travel: Cappadocia, Turkey

Just can’t wait to kiss the ground… Sheila Kumar goes hot-air-ballooning in Cappadocia with fear in her heart and a question on her lips. It had rained, the night before. And so, some of us go to bed with a silent plea in our hearts. Those pleas are heard; at 4.30 the…

Travel: Mysterious Ireland

ON THE EMERALD ISLE The entrance to the Newgrange chamber and (below) the Round Tower at Glendalough PHOTOS: SHEILA KUMAR This history is mystery! Ireland’s fascinating ancient monuments conceal more than they reveal, says SHEILA KUMAR W e stand before the large mounds containing the monolithic graves of the Bru na Boinne. Up…

Travel: Singapore`s hawker centre food

A culinary carnival A serious but delicious search for the true taste of Singapore I’M in heaven. This is bliss. I have just bitten into a bright green sweet, with coconut shavings scattered atop it. The sweet has released a spurt of cane sugar. Garry, sitting across from me, smiles knowingly. He knows all…

Travel: Olavipe, Kerala

Backwater idyll They call the homestead Olavipe, `gift of the waves.’ Set in the south of an isle off Kochi, the place is a lotus eater’s delight, says SHEILA KUMAR. FOR a structure supposedly risen from the waves, Olavipe stands rock solid, a sprawling manor in the old Kerala style, naalukettu, tiled roof, fretted gables, stone…