TRAVEL

Travel

From where to cook a banana tree to conquering forts around the city, we bring you the best travel secrets from Mumbai and beyond.

For all you un-jolly folk that want to escape the holiday-party madness of Mumbai this year, we’ve got a plan – come, meat the elves. High on Travel along with the happy campers at Big Red Tent is organising an overnight barbeque festival on Christmas eve, at a lake-side, fully equipped camping ground a couple of hours from Mumbai, off the Mumbai-Pune expressway. Here you’ll find barbeque experts, pitched tents and yes, proper loos. All Grills Attached Guided by not just three but five wise men including Chef Anish Rai, Corporate Chef of the Barbeque Nation chain and his team of four, you’ll begin with marinating veggies, paneer and meats and graduate to not only grilling them but also learning about the different aspects of barbeque, from gauging the amount of charcoal required to achieving the best texture for your Chicken teriyaki, paneer tikka and mutton steak (this apparently goes best with mushroom rosemary sauce, which will also be available at the site). And if despite the expert guidance you end up burning your food, there’s always salad and dips for you to nosh on. Silent Night? Other activities will include hanging out around a big bonfire and crashing in pre-pitched tents big enough to fit Santa in, tricked out with sleeping bags, inflatable pillows and camping mattresses. If you’re feeling particularly enthusiastic, you can even take a trek around the area the next morning. The food and equipment will be provided on site, so all you have to bring along is your overnight change and a bottle (or six) of your favorite wine. Santa hats are optional, but hey, come on, it’s Christmas. Getting there: Visit http://www.highontravel.com/bbq-fest-details/ for details and to book or email info@highontravel.com, Rs 3,500 per adult and Rs 1,500 for kids. Let someone else paint the town red this month. Take your palette and set off instead for Serenity, a work-in-progress eco villa community in Mahagaon, 120 kilometres from Mumbai. Here, artists from around the world will be participating in a three-week Art in Nature residency program starting November 19. On the weekends, you can go up to the green valley and visit, participate in workshops and even stay the night. (S)lumber party! What the Artists Will Do Artist and curator Shilpa Joglekar has picked a bunch of artists from around the world - Tomasz Domanski (Poland), Urs Tewllmann (Switzerland), Ryszard Litwiniuk (Canada) Myriam du Manoir (France), Prashant Jogdand and Raman Adone (India) – who will bunk together and build sustainable art works from locally sourced materials like bamboo, stone and soil. These structures will go on to be permanent fixtures at Serenity, green foot prints left behind by the artists and conservation reminders for guests.    What You Will Do Feeling left out? You can pile on too, for weekend workshops on clay modelling, painting and sculpting taught by abovementioned artists. Meanwhile, they’ll put you up in fun eco-chic tents and feed you locally prepared food. I’ll have one part of art, please. Getting there: Art camp at Serenity Villas, to book call 9820110539 or visit www.serenityvillas.in, Rs 6,000 for a workshop including one night stay and three meals. Bumpy rides in sunny yellow taxis, pineapple pastries from Flury’s for breakfast, civilised screwdrivers and chips at Tolly, pandals strung with a thousand fairy lights: this Scouter caught the tail end of Pujo in Kolkata, when the city shakes off its year-round torpor and is at its dazzling, ripest best. Notes from a weekend in the City of Joy. Special thanks to Ashok and Bharti Haralalka for their time, hospitality and many, many drinks. Eat Despite multiple trips and much gluttony, we’ve barely managed to skim the surface of the culinary cauldron that is Kolkata. These restaurants however, are good places to start if you’re visiting the city: Bhojohari Manna, with its multiple branches and austere vibe, for authentic Bengali food (get luchi, aloo dum, posto, ilesh, chola daal and Rajbhog); Zishaan for kathi rolls; Girish Chandra Dey and Nakuri Nandi for fresh gud (jaggery) sandesh and Floriana at Russell street for a tub of Naturelle Nolen Gud ice cream. Also super delish is hand-churned Cappuccino Crunch ice cream available at the Alipore branch of the legendary Kookie Jar - remember to grab a sinful mocha biscuit and chocolate boats while you’re there.  Be still, my eating heart. Other favourites: Flury’s for puffs, above mentioned pineapple pastries and old world charm; Fire & Ice for thin crust pizza; Chinese at Red Hot Chilli Pepper and Zen; Bistro By The Park for iPad menus. Bhojohori Manna, Plot No. X, Block EP & GP, Sector 5, Salt Lake City, call 03340011211; Zishaan, near Park Circus Tram Depot, Sayed Amir Ali Ave, Circus Avenue, call 03366343397; Girish Chandra Dey, Ramdulal Sircar Street, Shyambazar, call 03322410048; Floriana, 13D, Russel Street, opposite Bengal Club, call 03322293531; Kookie Jar, Enclave No. 17, Belvedere Road, Alipore, call 03324490863. Still hungry? Find more Kolkata cuisine recommendations here. Shop Wheels of Fortune Make keg room for more beer in your inbox as we bring news of another Oktoberfest party. This one’s on a bus going from Mumbai to Pune’s Doolally micro-brewery (and back) where the journey will count as much as the destination. Bond voyage? The idea, organiser Regan Rodricks of Blue Bulb tells us, is to get Mumbai’s beer lovers to visit this brewery and ensure they don’t have to drive back to the city drunk. The Beer Wagen or “party bus” leaves Mumbai on October 15 and 16 with various pick up points across the city based on its passengers’ addresses. So you can either opt for a day trip (Rs 1,200 including bus ride and Rs 1,000 cover charge) or spend the night at Fortune Inn, a partner hotel that’s giving passengers special rates with shuttle service to Doolally. The Butterfly (Stroke) Effect While studying architecture and journalism in Manipal, Tushar Pathiyan and Ishita Malaviya developed an odd extra-curricular activity, one that has seldom been seen around these parts – surfing. “We got into it and were stoked right away,” explains Tushar, who talks (and we hope, looks) like the quintessential surfer boy. After a couple of years of exploring the sport, they began to offer friends lessons, and the great response they received led to the Shaka Surf Club Surf Shack, which formally opens for business this season. Wave hello! What Do You Sink? Now, Tushar and Ishita offer surfing lessons to anyone interested in the sport; in fact, the beach that they operate out of, located about 20 minutes from Manipal, is ideal for beginners – the waves are gentle, and there are no rocks or reef, so even if you take a tumble, chances that you’ll hurt yourself are slim. “Surfing is not dangerous, as long as you understand your skill level and stick with what you can handle,” explains Tushar. Still, even beginners need to have certain skills, like knowing how to swim and being comfortable in the water. “We don’t work with non-swimmers,” Tushar says firmly. And although they concentrate on training beginners, The Shaka Surf Club holds advanced-level courses as well, conducted by experienced international surfers travelling to India. The Formula 1 Grand Prix zooms into Singapore this weekend, (hopefully) bringing some much needed chaos to this uber-organised city. We dig up notes from a recent holiday for your racy trip east. Get, set, go! Special thanks to Singapore residents Yeshwant Holkar and Insiyah Imani for their hospitality and recommendations. Eat If there was one time we would use the much-overdone word “foodie”, it would be to describe Singapore. The restaurant scene here is diverse, extensive and top notch, with every local touting one (or five) recommendations for the best places to eat at. Prepare for gluttony. If you’re amongst the carnivores that routinely bemoan the lack of good steak in Mumbai, head first to Cut (we did), Wolfgang Puck’s swanky steakhouse at Marina Bay Sands. Also check out Min Jiang in Rochester Park, a Chinese restaurant that serves up super crispy duck, Shanghai dumplings and lots of vegetarian dishes; and Wild Honey for breakfast - mean egg burritos and gorgeous waffles stuffed with grilled mangos. Other good options: Chili and pepper crabs at Jumbo, Dempsey; barbequed sting ray and more street  food at Newton Circus or Makansutra at Esplanade; Margarita’s at Dempsey for Mexican fare. Getting there: Cut, Marina Bay Sands, 1 Bayfront Avenue, call +65 6688 8517; Min Jiang, Goodwood Park Hotel, call +65 67301704; Wild Honey, Mandarin Gallery 333 Orchard Road, call +65 6235 3900. Drink One weekend in Singapore, and our livers demanded a divorce. Prepare for the debauchery to  come  with a nice, civilized drink at the pretty courtyard bar at Raffles Hotel, or go up to the less pleasant and more touristy Long Bar,  where the Singapore  Sling was invented  - get one if you must, but know that they are overtly sweet and generally undrinkable. For a more rowdy scene head to Kinki, a rooftop bar where we were introduced to evil Japanese Bomb shots and randomly reunited with old friends – or go across the street to Lantern, rooftop bar at the Fullerton Bay Hotel. Also fun is Chinatown, with a line of small, fun bars we dimly remember spending a margarita-soaked evening in. Auto Pilot “Ay Auto!” When MBA students Vikas Menon, Gopi Arvind and Shreyas Parekh shouted these two words on the desolate night street outside their campus, no black and yellow came. This happened numerous times and then desperate times called for desperate measures. The trio put their heads together and came up with something to make the lives of every Punekar easier: Ay Auto, a week-old dial-a-rickshaw service that operates from 7 pm to 7 am. What: “Slow Travel” vacations at High On Travel, click here for membership to their exclusive Travelers Club (specially for bpb subscribers!), Rs 1,250 for a craft and cuisine tour of the Jaipur bazaar. Why: Built by an IIT Bombay graduate, this cool new website curates tours, hotels and activities that allow visitors to “connect with the location and its people”. Currently on the roster is a home stay in Wayanad, Kerala; visits to Batalik villages, where the entire population has descended from Alexander the Great; and a walk through hidden lanes of Jaipur. High On Travel also has an exclusive club where members are offered freebies and add-ons to a rotating selection of trips. Currently on the cards – 25% off a trip to Cunoor, including tea appreciation at Tenerife Hill and a cheese-making holiday at Acres Wild. When: You want to experience jet lag. The sex monkey has a twin, and this one wants to get you high on adrenaline rather than alcohol: all hail the entrance of Bonobo Adventures, a travel company by the same guys behind Bandra’s beloved bar, designed to introduce amateurs (yes, I’m talking to you) to the great outdoors. What’s the connection between a bar and a vacation planner, you may ask, and rightly so – they seem like two different animals. But according to Sahil Timbadia, a partner at Bonobo, they are actually the same species. “Running Bonobo, we’ve learnt what people need to have a good time,” he explains. “We know what they want, and we know how to deliver it. A lot of those can be applied to the tourism industry. Plus, internationally, pubs often organize trips for their patrons and we wanted to do something similar at Bonobo.” The Ape of Good Hope Timbadia is an adventure junkie himself, and one of the key players behind Bonobo Adventures. During his multiple mountaineering, rafting, kite surfing and don’t-even-ask trips, he has built a repertoire of knowledge and personal relationships with major travel agencies, both of which he plans to leverage for his new venture. “I know all the major tourism players personally, so they’ll give me flexibility and deals that are otherwise impossible to get,” he told us. Plus, Bonobo Adventures promises to monitor each stage of the trip closely, making sure all of their 15 to 30 travellers are well served. Refugee and immigration lawyer Aurina Chatterji does a fair bit of travel. Born in Mumbai, studied in London and Montreal, currently working in Toronto, she recently returned from a holiday in Laos with a doggie bag for bpb. No awkward paws, please. When we told people we were travelling to Laos for a vacation. we were often met with blank stares: "But....why?" People enquired with gentle bewilderment. "I hear it's lovely," we often sputtered, unable to articulate the allure of this little Asian country.  Surrounded by stalwarts of tourism, Laos still remains curiously off-the-beaten path for most non-backpackers, an emerald wonder still navigating its way to the 21st century. Technically still a communist state, Laos has little to offer in the way of shopping, but compensates with its gorgeous wats (pagodas), superbly maintained colonial architecture, 85% forest cover, the rusty Mekong and much to everyone's surprise - its food.