travel - Comfortably Numb

Column: From Austria without much love

From Austria, without much love The first indication that things were going to go off the beaten track came while I was prepping for a trip to Austria. I`d asked my TA to find me a day trip to Hallstatt, the postcard-pretty Alpine village. My TA, bless her, got to work but kept reporting that…

Travel: The tigers of Tadoba

Tadoba`s family tigers Tiger-spotting is serious business at the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve. On any given evening, as the visitor is about to dig into dinner after a long day of morning and evening safaris, eavesdropping becomes a fun sport. “Raka`s back,” announces one tiger-spotter, a satisfied smile hovering about his mouth. “He`s a…

Travel: Hoi An, land of the lanterns

It`s the lanterns that catch the eye first. Bamboo and silk structures swaying in the gentle breeze of the daytime, lit by lamps to cast a luminous glow in the balmy nights. Lanterns of lacquer red, royal purple, azure blue, fuchsia pink, molten gold…and pristine white. They hang all over the town of Hoi An…

Travel: Castlerigg Stone Circle in England`s Lake District

Circle of enigma The stone circle at Castlerigg in England`s Lake District is believed to be the earliest of its kind in all Europe. Last night, I dreamt I went to Castlerigg again. These, of course, are the wistful dreams engendered by the times we are living in, but Castlerigg is one place I really…

Travel: SwaSwara 2.0 in Gokarna

The jewel in Gokarna`s crown SwaSwara in Gokarna, is a wonderful way to run away from the pandemic for a while. It`s been an open secret for ages now: SwaSwara, the CGHEarth property in Karnataka`s coastal town of Gokarna, is quite the gold standard for Ayurvedic resorts. Now, the wildly popular resort has revamped itself…

Guest column: If we must travel…

Even as we clip our wings and stay hunkered down, our imagination is already soaring. In the proofreading manual we editors turn to, we have a term called `stet,` which mean to let things stand, to ignore any attempt to make a change. That stet is what I am afraid of when it comes time…

Photo Feature: Picture Postcards

All photos by Sheila Kumar and subject to copyright. The Alexandra Book Café in Budapest is one of the most ornate coffee shops I`ve been to. All that Baroque gilded moldings, the glittering chandeliers, the striking…

Travel: Lennon Wall in Prague

All you need is love… The John Lennon Wall in Prague is a wall with a storied history In a city filled with stunningly beautiful monuments, a Gothic bridge of much atmospheric antiquity, a languid river, a sprawling Palace complex, the John Lennon Wall is a bit of an anomaly. But there is…

Travel: To Sakleshpur in a camper

We are off to Sakleshpur by the Hemavati river, in a camper, all set to have much fun. Chandrakanth R, CEO of Camper Trails, gently warns us that it might be a bumpy ride to Sakleshpur. The vehicle, he points out, was made for American roads. He adds comfortingly, “We have added leaf springs…

Travel: Travel Travails

Who wants my passport? Or why anyone who wants to break the travel jinx must travel more. Put simply, something not-so-good happens on every trip I take abroad, which quickly turns the vacation into a not-so-good trip. It took a while for me to see the pattern; now I brace myself for the jinx. Circa…