Archive for June, 2010

You’ve made your way through the Met and surveyed the Smithsonian, but now, what? How about gawking at a gallery of parasites in Tokyo or ogling Galileo’s mummified middle finger in Florence? Check out our list of seven curiosity cabinets that you have to see to believe.

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Results from ITB World Travel Trends Report 2010.

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Mumbaikers (as the residents of Mumbai, as Bombay is now known) love to shop. And the city is hyped as having joined the world’s premier shopping destinations. Designer shopping, they say, at bargain prices. Armed with personal shopper Monica Vaziralli, a chauffeur, air-conditioned car and large bag, I am a woman on a discovery mission. Is Mumbai the new Milan, Paris, London or New York?

Monica dispenses with emporiums offering carved elephants, markets selling pirated DVDs and polyester pashminas and shopping malls. Monica, an erstwhile interior decorator turned socialite, doesn’t do street markets and malls. But she does appear to know le tout Mumbai (population 18 million-ish). She also does boutiques and specialist shops and speaks Hindi, an asset in these parts – particularly since our first stop is at a backstreet tailor.

Monica organizes for my clothes to be copied – virtually for the cost of a Sunday newspaper – and picked up within hours. After that we visit art galleries (contemporary Indian art is booming), Indian designer fashion emporiums (think bejewelled gear) antique shops (many products freshly- made) and bookshops. I think we patronize most of Mumbai’s squillion or so shops.

Personal Favourites

After exhaustive research, I know my personal favourites. There’s The Courtyard’s chic shopping arcade in a Colonial building. (Abraham & Thakore jacket for a fiver and Art Karat’s theatrical Mughal-style baubles for more than that.) D Popli & Sons (there are lots of Poplis, so the D is important) selling precious and semi- precious jewellery and mountains of silver ware (which he will engrave gratis). The Neemrana shop with its white embroidered kurtas.

There’s also Kala Niketan where they sell silk and sarees, and 32 metres of ribbon for roughly a pound. Good Earth, a Conran-ish emporium in a converted old textile mill, offering Ayurvedic products and lap- top bags to furniture. And the Oxford Bookstore with its books, chai bar and handmade wrapping -paper.

Exhausted, we stop for lunch at Oh! Calcutta, which celebrates Calcutta’s cuisine. (Delicious curry in banana leaves.) Monica could have fooled me if she’d said it was Mumbai nosh. Either way, Mumbai is now (according to AA Gill) one of the world’s top ten destinations for food. He must have eaten here.

Shopaholic Stride

After lunch we do another million shops. If you require that Bollywood poster or classic Ambassador car, Monica is your lady. I test her. I want only burgundy cow hides, Colonial storm shades and oh, an abstract canvas. She obliges.

 I’m into my shopaholic stride now. But Monica decrees that we should swim – at the Willingdon Club, her private (time-warp) club, where servants with birch switches brush the grass. (‘Spitting and nose blowing in the pool strictly prohibited,’ reads the sign.)After I leave Monica, I sneak off to the Oberoi mall for beaded evening bags (GBP 7) and Emma Hope-style slip-ons (GBP 15 a pair.)

Mumbai is not a premier shopping destination.  And I could have done most of my shopping in Graham and Green and a little in Selfridges. But I’d have missed the extravagant Victorian gothic architecture, doing yoga in a public park, eating thali, the view from the top of the Sheraton and having henna tattoos. Not to mention coming home laden like an Indian buffalo…

See the quickly growing shopping district and book a stay at one of our luxury hotels in Mumbai.

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NEW YORK, N.Y.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Conrad Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Worldwide’s global luxury brand, will raise its flag in New York’s Financial District in the fourth quarter of 2011. The Conrad New York will be the brand’s fifth property to open in the United States and the first Conrad hotel in New York City. Located at the current site of the Embassy Suites New York, situated at 102 North End Avenue (at Vesey Street), the hotel will house 463 luxury rooms in a prime location in the heart of

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Bank of America’s travelers last year spent $1.4 million on ancillary airline fees, more than twice as much as in 2008, but its add-on costs per ticket fell to $28 from $33 thanks…

2010 NBTA Convention & Expo Buy-Learn-Network – The Business Travel Event of the Year. Houston, August 8-11 Learn more

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The “Meeting of the Waters” occurs about 8 miles from Manaus, Brazil, when the “white” Solimoes River meets the “black” Rio Negro, forming the Amazon River. Amazon River (c) Linda Garrison Follow About Cruises on Twitter Be a Fan of About Cruises on Fac… (source: About) – Share on Twitter – Share on Facebook – RSS and RSS Feed on Feedzilla.com

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Information about arrivals, departures, transportation and shopping at Las Vegas McCarran International Airport.

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Leading price comparison site Skyscanner has found that travellers can save as much as 40% on flight prices by flying indirect routes to their destination.

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Visa Reports World Cup Spending Rankings.

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A baboon is trying to break into our luxury tent as we arrive. The manageress shoos him away and calls a guard who arrives with his spear, a few minutes later. She says our primate friend won’t return unless we offer him sweets, which seems good enough reason to ban sugar from Africa. The frisson we feel increases when we learn that guests are only allowed to their tents accompanied by guards. Welcome to the delightful excitements of Naibor Camp, one of the most exclusive tented safari camps in Kenya’s Masai Mara Game Reserve.

The Best Location in the Mara

The camp is hidden in a grove of riverine woodland on the banks of the Talek River, enjoying possibly the best location in the Mara. Captivatingly, hippos bathe in the river at the bottom of its garden and can be seen hauling themselves out in the evening. The area has the region’s highest concentration of leopard. Rhino hang out on the south side of the river. Plus it’s strategically placed for the wildebeest migration, being close to all the major crossing sites on the Mara River. And because it’s in the heart of the Mara, there’s wildlife viewing throughout the year.

There’s a small air-strip 30 minutes away, for landing private planes. (Or for charter ones, if you must.) Or it takes mere seconds to get here if you come in a Lady Lori helicopter, as did the squillionaire who had our tent before us; the celebrity transport of choice, Lady Lori is renowned for accessing the inaccessible – from finding a plant not seen by botanists since the Seventies to offering superlative safaris from the air.

Off the Beaten Plain

But we’re here to enjoy things from the ground. To explore from an open-sided Land Cruiser the rolling open grassland and Safari Wonderland outside our tarpaulin door. Thus intentioned and accompanied by our guide Daudi – wearing Masai suka (blanket) and beaded headdress – we set forth into Animal Disney World. We don’t wish to spend time spotting different strains of the Greater and Lesser Safari Jeep or the hot-air balloons that litter the sky. So Daudi takes us off the beaten plain.

We are soon rewarded with a herd of elephant, including mini Barbars gambolling and frolicking in the sun; a band of mongoose; and enough zebra to make a crossing. Then we see one of the world’s most spectacular sights: thousands of wildebeest and zebra crossing the great Mara River. A crocodile hovers nearby. But I have to admit that, in this instance, there are also other predators in sight: the animals are closely surrounded by bands of Homo sapiens and a troop (is it?) of Four Wheel Drives.

Our next stop is lunch. It’s nothing like the steak and baked pineapple and custard enjoyed by some back at Naibor Camp while, delightfully, overlooking the hippos bathing. Instead we’re served a truly memorable Out of Africa picnic – complete with chairs, table and chest of food – eaten under a tree on the open plain under the wide sky. If it’s specifics you want, then imagine delicious chicken drumsticks with rosemary and honey and potato salad taken under the ’sausage’ fruit tree beloved of rhinos and in which the leopard likes to lie with his kill.

Base Camp

Back at base camp, and done for the day with the wonders of the natural world, it’s hard not to marvel at some man-made wonders. Take the Little Naibor tented suites with their enormous under-lit, low-floating beds on fig-wood bases, Savvanah-sized cream sofas and African wool rugs: contemporary style allied with muted bush colours. And as for the Mess Tent with its rustic fig-wood dining table and chunky bush dining ‘thrones’…well, it’s pure Conran en Afrique. And if such style doesn’t sound like the bush, you should try reflexology in the spa tent…

Naibor Camp is also so eco, it makes you weep and recycle your tears of joy. Everything is solar- run. It has safari showers and charcoal-heated irons. It attracts khaki-heeled guests who want to leave the world a better place, families, people who want luxury in the bush and rich businessmen. It’s also long on honeymooners, sipping sundowners and eating romantic meals privately under the stars. After all, it’s particularly charming at night, candlelit and with gas lanterns lighting the paths. The sounds of hippos, frogs and crickets in the air. Chat about the day’s adventures around that communal table. And a camp fire burning cheerily…

Interested in your own safari? Check out our listings for luxury hotels in Kenya and experience the wildlife.

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