Postcard perfect

Place: BRUGES

A quiet corner of charming Brugge

“It's a fairytale town, isn't it? How's a fairytale town not somebody's f***ing thing?” If you’ve seen In Bruges, a noir thriller set in this picturesque town, you will know that the Harry Waters, the person speaking the lines, is a violent crime boss who can’t understand why Ray, his henchman and on the run killer, played by Colin Farrell in arguably one of his best roles, can fail to like this historic town.

A view of Grote Markt, the heart of Bruges. Note the horse carriages and the Gothic architecture of the Provincial Court behind. Roads go out in multiple directions from here. Choose yours

Delights on sidewalks 

Well, forget Ray – he also gets dubbed “the worst tourist in the world” in the film! There’s logic to choosing Bruges, or Brugge, over others in a region known for its overdose of fairytale-pretty architecture and landscape! Now a smallish town in its heyday from the 12th to 15th centuries Bruges was a major centre of trade in western Europe. It possibly had the first stock exchange in the world when its bourse opened in 1309! Trade brought riches and culture, as it became known for its fine spinners – even now you can buy lace of all prices in the shops - and artists who worked here. For fans of history, Bruges is a treasure trove, for centuries of architecture and matching public sculpture make it an open art museum. Its city centre was one of the earliest to be put on UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Old windmills lend character to the town. And they are
beautifully manicured and preserved

What does Bruges have? Medieval Gothic houses, churches, cobbled streets, chocolate shops wherever you turn, a lovely canal with quaint boats that pass under matchingly charming bridges, an occasional horse drawn carriage ride, boat speckled canals with little flower decked stone bridges, old windmills, gardens with stunning fountains, endless fries, a variety of museums – possibly the best in the world... Add your room in the attic, complete with a charming fireplace and snow outside, a book, your favourite beverage, more fries, and you may be forgiven for thinking your must have done some good in life to deserve this slice of heaven.

As if the windows were not pretty
enough, Bruges is also the heart
of laceland

The world also must be full of do gooders much like you. For in Bruges, in a tucked away north western corner of Flanders, the Dutch speaking part of Belgium, tourists come in hordes, especially in summer. If you are not enamoured by crowds, there are enough options, just step away from Markt till it gets quieter. There are enough walkways along the canals, gardens and quiet lanes for you to soak in the refreshing aura of Bruges. Do get your hands on a map once you reach the town, and carry it along, for it will become very simple to navigate the streets that might just be empty - but then that's what you wanted, right? Just you, the cobbled street, the quiet brook, the lonely windmill, beautiful trees, a little nook to rest your limbs on, and well, no one around to ask you why...

Canals were once the economic lifeline of Bruges - now they serve tourists as faithfully!

Who can resist getting tempted to find
the treasures at the end of each lane

Just walk it
As walking (including a boat ride) is simply the best way to see Bruges, you could do it on your own by deciding your itinerary, though there are walking tours available. In this egg shaped town, you can start at the Grote Markt – yes, the great market. That’s the main square, very picturesque, boxed in by medieval Gothic buildings now fronted by cafes and boutiques. Climb up the 13th-century Belfry for a panoramic view. 366 steps, no elevator, but totally worth it! Catch your breath; take a lot of photos, including an FB cover pic.

Street musicians are common here

Historic buildings abound, so plan what you want to see. Many cobbled streets lead out of Markt. Steenstraat has the best shopping, especially for European brands. Begijnhof is traditionally a women only area. Heilige Bloed Basiliek, or the Basilica of the Holy Blood in the majestic Burg square is said to contain Jesus’ blood and dates back to the 12th century. There’s a lot, so make a list of what you want to see.

For those who wish to get an idea of how the city would have looked in medieval times, step outside the tourist zone to areas which physically have hardly changed over centuries. A walk along St Annarei and continuing north to Langerei and then walking along the canal by turning right to the windmills can be magical.

Inside the charming Choco Story, a museum dedicated to chocolate

Museums are fun too!
Museums abound in Bruges. One of the most important collections of art is in the Groeninge Museum. For those with more popular culture inclinations, there the Choco Story, a museum dedicated to chocolates, where you only get an exhaustive take into chocolate’s history and traditions, including about a thousand chocolate related objects, explains owner Cedric Van Belle. No, those early chocolate boxes are not for taking! You do however get to see chocolate being made, and sample some for free! Of course you can buy too. There are about 40 chocolate shops in this tiny town, each with collections guaranteed to dazzle you. Prepare for some heavy duty chocolate shopping – don’t even think faceless airport duty frees – there is no comparison. Here chocolates come in all shapes and sizes and flavours and combos. Many are artisanal, and handcrafted, and cost a lot. Leading brands such as Godiva have boutiques, but try the local ones like Chocolaterie Sukerbuyc or Chocolatier Van Oost if in a mood to splurge, though Stef’s is a popular, and more budget friendly option.

Street side cafes are plentiful and known for their quality cuisine 

Another popular museum is to that other staple of Belgium’s cuisine – fries. Called Frietmuseum, and just a short distance from Markt, Belgians claim they originated here and they still make them the best – so almost every dish comes with helping of fat, succulent, golden fries. For anyone with that rare disorder – need to put on weight fast – this is the place. I can vouch for adding weight part! Also popular are the Lumina Domestica, a museum to lamps and the Diamantmuseum, or diamond museum, though Antwerp, just about an hour away, is the city to go for diamonds!

Flemish stew, cooking in wine and served with
the omnipresent fries and a Reisling! 

If all this has made you hungry and thirsty, succour is around every corner. Try the Bruges special - smoked eel and mussels steamed in Riesling wine with, yes fries. For those who prefer, it comes in lamb or beef options as well. The cuisine is a mix of German/ Dutch staples with French sauces. Almost anywhere is very good, and there are lots of cafes all across, especially in the older areas. Actually, there are multiple restaurants serving Indian, read tandoori meals, but really, that’s what you want? Please tuck into another local offering - the delicious waffles instead.

Lots of local beer on offer

Beer is famous here, and available in great variety, including the Trappist ales, made traditionally by monks. For those who still have the energy, there are excellent bars and clubs – try t' Gulden Vlies or Cambrinus. The Brewery De Halve Maan doubles as a beer museum and is a very popular way to learn about beer making. Especially as it includes quaffing down Brugse Zot or Straffe Hendrik!

In a continent teeming with historic towns, Bruges was lucky enough to escape two major wars almost unscathed, and this along with modern conservation efforts, makes it a town that deserves more than just a few hours. There are any number of hotels, but choose the ones in the old houses. Johan Creytens, owner of the Relais and Chateaux-affiliated Heritage Hotel says hotels catering to every budget available. The entire city is a destination, and you will not regret extending a trip to fairy land. Hadn’t you forgotten Ray already!

Yes, Bruges is known for its roofscapes as well

TRAVEL TIPS
5 must dos: A boat ride in a canal, a ride through Markt in a horse drawn carriage, a visit to Choco Story, buy local chocolates, and lots of walking and eating.

When to go: Summer is far the most popular time to visit, and the city centre is full of tourists. However autumn and winter have their charms too, though they can get quite chilly. Be prepared for sudden showers any time, any day! Also in summer, days are very long, with daylight ending around 10pm!

Reaching there: There are direct flights from Delhi and Mumbai to Belgium’s capital Brussels, which is also connected by air and train with every major European city. From Brussels, it takes about an hour by train. Do not snooze, for you shall otherwise miss the picture perfect Flanders countryside.

Besides chocolates, tea stores are very pretty too

Within Bruges: Within the ‘egg’ or the town’s core, there walking is by far the best option. Even if you dawdle, stop to click photos, point out things to companions, walking to your destination is unlikely to take more than half an hour. Most are within ten minutes of the city’s centre. However public transport, from buses to horse carriages, do ply, though vehicles are discouraged in the city’s centre, and there are many car parks in the area where a car can be kept while you explore Bruges. Cycling is an excellent option, and bike rental stores are everywhere.

Unexpected pleasure included a rally of vintage cars,
complimenting the cobbled streets & period architecture

Language: Is not an issue as most Belgians speak English. If you know Dutch, you can get what the locals think of tourist hordes! Yes, names are long – I stayed on Niklaas Despersstraat, a lane not more than 100 metres in length! Peterseliestraat will lead you to the old windmills – there are four individually named grand specimens – while Snaggaarstraat leads you to quieter areas of Bruges. You wouldn’t want to miss Onze Lieve Vrouwkerk, a stunning church with architecture from the Romanesque era. Lucifernum is not an ode to that jealous archangel, but an excellent bar with an attached art gallery located in the old Freemasons temple. Try saying the names aloud to travelling companions before you try it on locals though!

Buying the chocolates you want is a heart wrenching task -
you obviously want some of all!

Get: A Bruges Card, which will help you access many museums at a lower price. Also have some Euros in cash, though most stores accept cards, some street side vendors prefer cash.

Keep in mind: Like much of Europe, many shops close by 6pm. Even in summer, restaurants will shut by 10pm.

Important: Get a map, and be conversant in reading it. Away from the centre, there may not enough people to ask direction always! The maps are very precise.

What a wonderful wall mount

Young children: Usually have a great time with fun museums, Boudewijn Theme Park and Dolfinarium, feeding swans, and tucking in.

For those with an eye for detail: Amazing tea shops and cafe, exquisite lace work, Flemish architectural details all around you, the Minnewater (or Love Lake – discover its romantic myth); why Bruges has to keep swans.

A version of this article was carried in the Hindu. Read it here

Kingdom of treasures

A traditional land in tune in with modern times, Jordan’s natural beauty combines spectacularly with historical and cultural legacies

Jerash was an important Roman era city, and a considerable extent of the ancient monuments survive.
Here the Cardo Maxiumus, a long colonnaded street

Place: JORDAN
It’s a destination that catches you by surprise. The West may have been charmed by Petra and the Dead Sea for a long time now, for most Indians, Jordan has been an unknown chapter in the book of West Asia. However the reverse is not true, and the immediate connect that makes the Indians feel at home is the familiarity the average Jordanian citizen has with India, or at least Bollywood. In markets, streets and restaurants, the realization that you are from the land of Amitabh Bachchan and Mithun Chakravarty can immediately create that bond of friendship so needed to make the tourist feel welcomed. 

Well, there is much more that will not only make the Indian traveller feel at home, but feel enriched by the experience. For such a small country – most of its six million people live in a narrow strip along the western border of the country, it has a plethora of riches that satiates even the most demanding of tourists.

Jordan sits at a crossroads of history – and the land is littered with architectural marvels from different eras in history. Cradling the Fertile Cresent, the region was important from before the Greco Roman times. Among the legacies the ancient Nabatean rulers bestowed were the ruins of Petra, today one of the most visited places in the world. Petra’s long lost rock-cut buildings, dating back from the 6thcentury BC, and rediscovered only in the 19th century, still evoke awe and most visitors spend an entire day rediscovering the extents of city once at the centre of human civilization for themselves. Its pink, or more romantically, rose-red monuments figure on most ‘must places to see’ lists, and deservingly so. It is amazing to reflect not just on the technological and architectural skills in building such a massive complex, but also the aesthetics imbued in these buildings, whether a library or an amphitheatre for about 10,000 peple, still in almost perfect condition.

The Madaba Map, a mosiac map made in the floor of the
church in Madaba. This is the oldest surviving map of
the Holy Land

As the birthplace some major revealed religions, Jordan today attracts numerous religious tourists, who have circuits that they can follow. Largely Islamic today, Jordan is also home a number of Biblical sites, including Mount Nebo, from where Moses is said to have shown his followers the promised land. The ancient city of Madaba is home to a famous map, a 6th century mosaic depiction that showed the earliest cartographic locations of the Holy Land. Do not be surprised to see busload of American and European tourists do Christianity related tours.

Nature’s bounty

One of Jordan’s best kept secrets is the dramatic natural landscape, which could well entitle it to be called the Switzerland of the Middle East. Most of the country is desert, but in combination with rocky hills, these deserts, especially Wadi Rum and desert castles to the east of the country, are today tourist magnets. For a true experience, stay at one of the many tented luxury hotels in the desert a reality. Lawrence of Arabia frequented these deserts, without the luxuries, almost a century ago.

Unlike its name, the Dead Sea's azure, sparkling waters a
favourite rejuvenation destination for the entire region

Another great draw is the Dead Sea, which far from being dead or grey, as the name might suggest, is actually an inviting blue sea where visitors love to get mud packs and float on its azure waters. Most of the Jordanian side of the sea is dotted with beaches and hotels, including the top luxury ones, and relaxation and rejuvenation are the main activities provided by a plethora of top global hospitality chains.

The river Jordan connects the Dead Sea to its other sea, the Red Sea. A contrast again, this reddish hued sea is another favourite tourist haunt for its glass bottomed boats, which allow you to marvel at the teeming sea life without getting your feet wet. Of course there are enough pools for you to do that all over the city. South of the Dead Sea is the Rift Valley, whose top is permanently unexpectedly snow covered!

Unexpected is perhaps the best way to describe Jordan. In an area of geopolitical sensitivity, Jordan has consciously striven to modernize itself over the last few decades. Bereft of major oil revenues, tourism instead has become an important contributor to its GDP, contributing well over 10 per cent. Creditably, all the attendant infrastructure required for it – good connectivity, rule of law, security, great hotels, extensive retail, including traditional crafts, finger licking mezzes and kabab platters – and other global cuisines as well, helpful people, are all in place, making it already the place where the entire Middle east is holidaying. And it’s ready for the rest of the world to join the party. As noted, Indians seem to be specially welcome. If you seen a few Mithun movies, your shopping might just get free in local markets!

A bird on the tree...

.. is worth many in the hand.

Place: BHARATPUR 

It was an unusual time to go to Bharatpur. However a visit to the sanctuary has been always rewarding for me. The solitude, the flora and fauna, like a visit to any other forest, it is such a blissful getaway. Not just in the negative sense of escaping the city, but also for the sheer joy of being a place of calmness, where nature rules, albeit with some help from activists and forest officials.

This is a view from the main road that leads straight inside the sanctuary. The water, once naturally available but now artificially maintained, is the reason why birds continue to flock here. 

Riverside stroll

The Kolkata skyline with the Hugli in the foreground. You can just about make out the lights of
Eden Gardens on the right

Place: KOLKATA

The Kolkata skyline seen from across the Hugli. This afternoon pic is taken from the Howrah side of the river, just south of the famous Howrah railway station.

A building in Bhawanipur, central
Kolkata. Note the hand drawn
rickshaws, outlawed years ago,
but still plying!

Kolkata, once the political capital of the British empire in India, has been a city in almost continuous decline ever since independence. Yet, as this pic indicates, it is a city that has potential. Though not visible from in this pic, it has an enormous treasure house of architectural riches. But years of apathy means most old buildings have little or no maintenance and are crumbling, the roads are chokingly full of largely obsolete traffic, there is little modicum of order and very little to suggest that at this time even a century, it was south Asia's leading city and fount of ideas.

The Hugli, part of the Ganga, is an integral part of the city's life stream, and thousands cross the river by boats and ferries on their way to work. There are still some ghats where a stroll is a pleasant experience and totally warranted. Try that, or a ferry ride upstream to Belur to feel the beauty of the city that has lost in decades of apathy.

The city has begun to show some signs of revival, though there is an enormously long way to go. 

Sentosa straits

A view of the Singapore Straits. You can just about make out
the circumference of the Earth! 

Place: SENTOSA

Looking out to the Singapore Straits from my room at the Rasa Sentosa hotel on Singapore's Sentosa island.

This relatively small body of water separates Singapore from Indonesia. But the separation seems to be more on paper as I was told there are many men crossing frequently to satisfy certain needs!

It is also a a main channel to the Straits of Malacca. It is busy all the time, and ships and boats crowd this water body along with small sandy islands. Good for a leisurely boat ride. 

Tranquility

Place: CHIKMAGALUR

A view the Serai resort in Karnataka's Chikmagalur district.

The Serai consists of a number of individual villas and overlooks the ghats. It's a spectacular site in the middle of the coffee growing region. Water is an important facet in this Cafe Coffee Day owned resort, and a central channel flows right through.

This is an early morning shot over the central pool.  

Room with a view

If you think this is blue, step towards the ocean

Place: NUSA DUA

That's the view I had from my room at The Laguna, Bali.

This was during a very short visit - any visit to Bali feels short, but this truly was a quick four day thing. This is of course water at the pool.

To see the real stuff, one had to go to the hotel beach, where a spectacularly beautiful blue sea laps your feet. And stretches much beyond you can see - well Australia is on the other, and not that far! 

A drop of heaven

Place: BHIMTAL

A visit to Bhimtal in May 2009 was wonderful weekend break. Highly recommended.

As is apparent, Bhimtal is sublime. You can just sit  in the midst of its tranquil shores, for the most part and enjoy sunrise, sunset and the myriad moods the day has on offer

It is situated in the 'lake district' of India, about 22 kilometres from Nainital. Less crowded that Nainital, it still retains an old world charm. The lake is circled by roads on all sides, and a leisurely walk around, with stops to take in the freshness of the hills and forests, the four odd shops where there is nothing touristy to buy, a little temple, an island to visit, the ducks swimming in a line to admire, the beautiful trees....