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Austria

 

(The Almeidas on a bridge across the Salzach River with the spires and domes of Salzburg and the ramparts of the Hohensalzburg Fortress rising up behind us)

 There is nothing I dislike about Austria. From the moment I first set eyes on the coutnry, more than twenty years ago, it has occupied a special place in my heart. Just about any corner of Austria could become the subject of a picture postcard or a landscape painting. Almost afraid, it seems ,of asserting its identity in the presence of dominant Germany, its next door neighbor, Austria has been content to take the back seat.

Yet, droves of visitors leave bewitched by its combination of natural beauty and unique contributions to civilization. I mean what’s not to love about Mozart’s “Eine Klein Natchmusik” or a slice of cripsy apfel streudel? And then there’s that legendary Viennese Roast Coffee…and the schnitzel. And the romanticism of the Von Trapp Family Singers and ….there’s so much more to Austria.

I wanted to share it all with Llew and Chriselle. It has helped that  Llew’s own career in Banking long  associated him with the country through his job with Creditanstalt which later became Bank Austria. It made us friends who live in  Vienna and frequently invited us to visit the country in their company. My former neighbor from Bombay, Dinesh Marar, had married an Austrian and had made the country his home. Through Sabine Maringer Poelz and my old friends of over twenty years, Ronald Sturm, his wife Karin and his brother Deiter, we saw Austria through familiar eyes when we visited the country in the summer of 2005 on a tour of Eastern Europe.

Follow us now on our travels around Austria. Let us take you to Salzburg, a city in which my maternal grandmother Valerie Marcks had lived in the years between the two World Wars. She often told me of the beauty of Salzburg when I was a little girl. I felt as if I was walking in her footsteps when I arrived in the city as a backpacker in 1987. Almost twenty years later, I thought of her again when I walked the same streets, this time in the company of Llew and Chriselle who also fell in love with the city.

Then stay close behind  us in Vienna, magnificent capital city of the Hapsburgs, as we see some of the world’s greatest art treasures.

In the gracious spa town of Baden, we shall tread upon cobbled streets that carry strong sulphur scents.

We returned home with a ton of evocative photographs, a special wooden box containing the famous Sachertorte and memories of a warm and friendly people who generously shared the bounty of their land with us.

We’re sure you will love Austria too.

Bon Voyage!

Collisions of Culture

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The golden stupa and chatri of Doi Sutep Temple in Chiang-Mai, Thailand

For most of my life, I lived in Asia–well, South Asia to be exact. India is such a vast part of the continent that it takes almost a whole lifetime to see just that peninsular alone! I was fortunate to have covered a great deal of it while still a child in the company of my parents and brothers on summer vacations. As an adult, I chose to major in Literature in English from the Indian sub-continent–a field that has taken me on several forays into India. After my emigration to the United States and my work at New York Univeristy began, I led travel courses to Asia that included India and Nepal. The courses on South Asian Studies that I teach at NYU today tie in with all the travel experiences I have gleaned as a native of India and as a scholar. In January of 2008, I will be leading a Study Tour to India for the Pequot Library in Southport, Connecticut, where I conducted a series of discussions on Post-Colonial Literature from the Indian sub-continent. This promises to be only the first of several such private tours that I shall lead in the years to come. Please click on the link below to view our Itinerary.

Pequot Library Trip to India, January 2008

Our group will be traveling to India on the Palace on Wheels, a luxurious train that once belonged to a Maharaja of Rajasthan. Superbly equipped with comfortable bedroom suites, each including an attached bath, and two restaurants on board that offer a selection of Indian, Continental and Chinese cuisine, the train ranks as one of the finest in the world. As it traverses the varied terrain of Northern India, it will make stops at the most important sites of tourist interest such as the Taj Mahal in Agra, the Ranthampore Tiger Sanctuary for a safari that will serve the interests of animal lovers, the Keoladev Bird Sanctuary that offers a glimpse of migrant birds from as far away as Siberia, the palaces and forts of the erstwhile Maharajas, bustling cities and rustic village hamlets forrgotten by Time.

To learn more about the Palace on Wheels, please click here.

India

Come  fly with me into the Asian skies, home of centuries-old history, multiple languages, colorful rituals and cultural traditions, spicy cuisine and astonishing art and architecture. In India, my homeland, you will discover secrets known only to a few. Taste the culinary creations  of the best kebab maker  in all Delhi and pick the most exquisite handwoven carpets in Jaipur without paying a Maharaja’s ransom . Walk with me through the crowded streets of Bombay, the beloved city of my birth, and take in the marvels of its Victorian Gothic monuments including Elphinston College where I was a student and the Victorian Terminus Railway Station where I boarded commuter trains to my home in the suburbs. Let’s explore the Islamic masoleums of Agra and Emperor Akbar’s astounding sandstone city of Fatehpur Sikhri in the north. Let’s peak inside the shore temples of the Pallavas and the Cholas near the Tamilian city of Madras (Chennai) in the South. We shall walk in the holy footsteps of the Buddha at Sarnath and dally by mirror-clear lakes in the frosty Himalayan air of Kashmir. In Goa, we shall revel in the old-world Portuguese ambience of stucco cathedrals, then laze on golden tropical beaches. And don’t let’s forget Rajasthan, celebrated State of Kings with its pink and blue cities and wildly colored textiles. Then, when you have had your fill of the Indian experience, fly further away with me towards the mysteries of East Asia.

South East Asia

In Singapore, we shall pursue colonial British history in a traditional Malay setting. In Thailand, we will traipse around the congested streets of Bangkok in a tuk-tuk only to discover surprisingly quiet retreats in wooden teak houses built on stilts. At the Golden Triangle, we shall rendez-vous at the confluence of three countries on the banks of the legendary Mekong River. In the Lanna regions of Chiang-Mai and Chiang-Rai, we shall enter gigantic Buddhist wats that will take your breath away with their towering golden Buddhas and the lowly humility of their clean-shaven monks. We shall walk on the bridge over the infamous River Kwai-ai and ride the Ghost Train into the emerald-green rice fields of Kanchanburi, clad constantly in gossamer light mists.

Take your pick of the offerings below and speed off to Asia on the wings of  your imagination. Enter the exotic world of Asia where cultures collide.

Tantalizing Tangier, Morocco

 

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(Outside a Moroccan home with a sign showing directions to the city of Tangier)

Darkness had long fallen upon the ancient coastal city of Tangier when Llew and I arrived there. I was visibly excited. Not only was this my first arrival on African soil, but the distinctly Arab influence was evident on the ferry as we crossed the Straits of Gibralta from Tarifa in Spain. Groups of women dressed in flowing robes and men wearing the traditional fez caps chattered away in Arabic during our voyage to the Barbary Coast. I couldn’t wait to find out what Morocco would offer us.

Immediately, upon disembarking at the Port of Tangier, we had the distinct feeling that we had left the order and regulation of Europe behind us as chaos reigned supreme. Taxi drivers milled around the port offering their services. When we did accept, the drivers began to argue among themselves for the privilege of driving us to our hotel. When a decision was ultimately taken and we got into the cab, we discovered that it would not run on meter. We were quoted a flat fee of 5 Euros to get us to our hotel in the medina. Meters were run, our driver informed us, in “small taxis”. Well, we decided to get out of the big taxi and find a smaller one which appeared, miraculously, as if from nowhere. When we did get to our hotel by climbing a steep hair-raising hill on the narrowest of streets, our meter showed 6 dirhams—the equivalent of about half a Euro! We had arrived in the very heart of the ancient souk. My heart skipped a beat…

 

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Hotel Continental  (left) is a gem of a building situated right in the bustling midst of the ancient Muslim medina or medieval town center. Think of the movie Casablanca, of the sets of the hotel in which Sam played his piano as Bogey sipped his cognac through a haze of cigar smoke. Built in 1865 as a private mansion to house a wealthy Moroccan dignitary, its ownership changed hands several times until it was converted into a hotel. Wide corridors completely covered with ceramic tiles, colored glass lamps, an old grandfather clock and an old grand piano were some of the Euro-Islamic elements that greeted us in the reception foyer. Mohammed, our receptionist, was gracious and dignified as he went through the formalities of registering us. What a delight it was for me to discover that we could speak French to him! After days of dealing with sign language in Spain, I was able to have a very comfortable conversation with him as we talked about breakfast arrangements and the prospect of hiring a private taxi to take us on a sightseeing tour of the city (300 dirhams for 3 hours of sight seeing and the services of a chauffeur-guide). It was with happy anticipation that we looked forward to our travels in Tangier and as we ended another eventful day, we were pleased at the possibilities of what lay ahead. The call of the muezzin as he roused the faithful to prayer from the nearby mosque woke us up twice during the early dawn hours as our hotel were located in the Islamic heart of the medieval city.

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The next morning, we were served continental breakfast by liveried wait staff in the ornate dining hall of the hotel where mujedar decoration that we easily recognized after our visit to the Al-Hambra Palace in Granada, Spain, was everywhere. As we sipped excellent coffee and munched on pain de chocolat and brioche, light pouring in from a cloudless sky, warmed us as we opted to eat on the sun-drenched terrace with its wrought-iron railings and marble tables.

At 9 am sharp, as arranged the previous evening, our chauffeur Mohammed arrived to pick us up from our hotel and take us on a sightseeing tour of the city. Into the bustle of the commercial area (which reminded us very much of Bombay’s Flora Fountain) and the tiny winding alleyways of the casbah (which reminded us of Bombay’s Bhendi Bazaar), we received an immediate insight into the old-world charms of the Moroccan lifestyle. While people went about their business purposefully, there was nothing of the rough and tumble of a hectic pace. Despite the traffic being heavy, it moved in an orderly fashion around the many rotaries. Moroccan’s colonial French influence was evident in the use of the French language on street signs, the uniforms worn by traffic policemen and the solidity of official buildings.

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Leaving the city behind us, we drove up into the surrounding mountains to Cap Spartel (left) where a lighthouse marked the point of confluence of two great bodies of water: the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. At Café Haffa, we were able to look out upon the blue waters of the sea as far as the shores of Spain that lay just across Tangier Bay. One of the most famous sites for tourists is the Grotte D’Hercule or Hercules’ Cave, a natural rock formation whose granite sides were used for centuries to make millstones to grind wheat and olives for oil. The far end of the rock intriguingly forms the perfect silhouette of the map of Africa (below right).

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A huge treat awaited us at the cliffs whose sides plunged sharply down to the Atlantic Ocean. Camels tethered to stakes waited patiently to take visitors for a lazy romp along the sandy promontory that jutted out into the water. A bit unnerved at first, Llew and I soon eased ourselves into the thrills of the unusual experience. The most scary parts were the mounting and dismounting as camels have a strange way of lurching forward and back as they raise their tall bulk off the ground. A few minutes into our ride, once we were calmed by the rhythmic motion of the aminal’s ungainly movements, we actually began to enjoy it (below left).

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Mohammed then drove us back to the city past the main mosque whose minaret rose high above the city, completely covered with faiance tiles in a very bright and vivid geometric pattern. In the casbah, whose walls were blindingly white washed to deflect the dazzling Mediterranean sun, we saw the Casbah Museum (below left).

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In all of these locales, time seemed to have stood still. We could have been in the 8th century. Mohammed even included a camel ride that took us to the very edge of a rocky promontory that dipped down sharply into the Atlantic Ocean. What an interesting experience that was! Then, we drove through “California” (above right), the more recently developed part of the city where the elite and the affluent have congregated on the hillsides and built mansions that face the azure waters. New beach resorts are mushrooming all over the city as developers take advantage of tourist desires for sandy beaches and relaxing waters.

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We loved Morocco and its mélange of old and new. Camels still play in the desert but phones and digital cameras were everywhere—Morocco has entered the Modern Era all right, but it retains its magical medieval charm and its headiness casts a strange spell upon you. We enjoyed every minute of our time in Tangier and were only sorry that our visit was so short.

Though we made one brave attempt to get the mid-afternoon ferry, we missed it by a hair’s breath (above) and had to sit out the three hours till the next one left. Finding lunches of barbecued meats and yoghurt sauced salads in the port’s cafetaria, we passed our time observing our companions as the city of Tangier lay just beyond us, its colorful minaret rising high into the sky (below).

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When we did arrive back in Spain, we lost no time picking up our car from the car park in Tarifa and driving north to the bull-fighting city of Seville which lies on the banks of the River Guadalquivir.

Europe

With Llew on Carlovy Most–Charles Bridge–in Prague, Czech Republic

My Favorite Continent

If there is one continent in the world to which I return with repeated delight it is Europe. I find every facet of it endlessly fascinating. My very first travels overseas took me to Europe. I can recall, as if it were yesterday, the anticipation I experienced when my flight touched down into Charles de Gaule airport in Paris twenty years ago. With my head plastered to the window, I could see a blond-haired man handle the baggage carts near the cargo hold. I was in Europe, I told myself, pinching my arm hard if only to make the moment more concrete, more believable.

That was two decades ago. Since then, I have wandered through most of the corners of Western and Central Europe using every conceivable mode of transportation… from the backpacking convenience of Eurail which I used as I traveled alone while a grad student, to barges that sailed languidly along the River Rhine. In more recent years, driving in Europe in rented cars has provided Llew, Chriselle and me with some of the most exciting memories and some of our more amusing family anecdotes.

Our trips are memorable because we plan them differently. We could easily jump on to package tours but then we would never cover half the things on our itinerary. Our endless sightseeing, climbing and exploring have left us deeply fatigued. We were frightfully foot sore at the end of each day, but our appetite for discovery remained unabated.

Very farsightedly, I read many tourist guidebooks before I leave on our journeys, carefully photocopying the pages I need to carry along. Since many of these places do not have guided tours in English, it was these books that helped us take self-guided tours everywhere, bringing a whole new dimension to our enjoyment and appreciation of each venue. In particular, I would like to recommend the Eyewitness Series published by Dorking-Kinderley which almost every tourist has in hand in a multitude of different languages and, of course, the Lonely Planet series that needs no introduction or publicity.

Interacting with the common folk, dining in the eateries that they frequent, tasting the local brew and using public transportation everywhere has exposed us to the true lifestyle of ordinary Europeans and has provided experiences that we could never have garnered had we seen these lands through the tinted window panes of an air-conditioned bus. We also learned to say rudimentary words in several different languages especially the words “Please” and “Thank-you”.

We’ve always expected to see many wondrous sights on our travels. But even we will have to admit that by the end of each one, we are “castled-out” and “cathedral-ed out” because there are always just so many to see. Indeed, on our travels in Central Europe in 2004, we visited a total of 34 churches in two weeks! Chriselle says that she prayed more on this trip than she had done in her entire life!

Everywhere the indefatigable spirit of the Slavic people of Central Europe impressed us fully. Several decades of Communism have not blunted their enjoyment of life. While they are poised on the cusp of the twentieth-first century, they seem to have retained fully the old-fashioned values of a previous millennium. Their graciousness, their docility, their friendliness, were very pleasurable to experience. We were often happy to be the objects of their interest and curiosity as they clearly do not see many South Asians or indeed any ethnic people. These countries are singularly mono-racial and mono-cultural and while this may change in time to come, for the present, we are still rare in these parts of the globe. No doubt, their entry into the European Union will bring many changes to these nations; but we’re glad that we had the opportunity to visit a very unique part of Europe even if on a whirlwind tour.

Bon Voyage!

Bon Voyage!


The World I've Visited

 (The red portions of this map show all the parts of the world that I have visited. To create a similar map for yourself, click on the link below and follow the prompts.)

Countries Visited Map

Where on earth would you like to go?

Would you like to stand on the edge of the Grand Canyon? Or would you prefer to watch a Shakespearean play performed in his birthplace on the Banks of River Avon? How do you feel about roaming through the exotic Grand Palaces of Thailand or bargaining for handicrafts in the mystic medinas of Morocco?

If the idea of packing your bags at short notice to explore the furthest reaches of our planet excites you, then come with me. We’re kindred spirits on a similar quest–to uncover the mysteries of our Earth and to become one with the diversity of her spirit.

The thirst for exploration has kept me constantly fascinated, perpetually awed and eternally eager to learn. Let me share with you some of my own close observations and interesting experiences of the world as it has revealed itself to me over the years in its endless guises.

Take your pick of the offerings below. Then, after you have become my traveling companion on this journey of discovery, share with me the accounts of your own travels. We do not need to pack up our passports to be armchair travelers. All we need is to take flight on the wings of our imaginations. If you are willing, we can travel together into exciting realms that are virginal and just waiting to be discovered.

Bon Voyage!

This entry was posted on January 1, 2005, in Bon Voyage!.