Back in 1998 I made my first trip to India. I had been asked by three investors to set up a travel company for them, they had decided on south India and I was despatched to recce with the aim of determining the product, then, writing the brochure and launching the company. At that point…
Hotel Review: Amaryllis Kerala
There is something wonderfully indulgent about doing nothing. It’s something I have to admit being hopeless at and yet, a stay with Victor Bernard Dey and Ranjini Dey renders this avid explorer immobile every time. For eighteen years now I’ve been advocating their hospitality and it is unwavering in its warmth. Their’s has been a…
India, Perception vs Reality
Facebook, as it does, just threw up a post from two years ago. It was a post which at the time, got a lot of response from my friends and colleagues. It was a post which came about as a result of a casual chat with a fellow passenger on a flight to Abu Dhabi….
A Difficult Onam for Kerala
Kerala is where I started my career in India, November 1998 will mark 20 years since my first visit. I knew nothing about India, doubt I could have pointed it out on a map, but I had just secured my first “grown up job” to establish a travel company focusing purely on South India. I…
What I regained from a digital detox.
I had been offered the privilege of spending two weeks in a Naturopathy Detox Spa. I needed it desperately for mind and body, yet even so, I sent frantic messages before accepting, will there be WiFi? You see the state of my mind? It’s all we seem bothered about these days. To be fair, it…
Shedding The Outer Goddess.
It’s not often I go on for the woe is me, me me me, inner peace and finding myself and all that mallarky but right now, facts need to be faced. I arrived back in India three years ago having kicked a three year illness in the ass. This background is not asking for sympathy,…
The Women of INDIA – Lakshmi Menon
In a valiant attempt to battle the scourge of plastic and the menace of disposable pens in particular, Lakshmi Menon set up PURE Living (Products Up-cycled Recycled and Economised), a Kerala-based social enterprise that makes disposable pens from paper, each one having a seed inside that can grow into a tree when disposed of. Not…
Not Often We Say This – Well Done INDIA
A shift is taking place. For years nothing happened except a worsening of a bad situation. I had started to wonder if there was any hope. I love India and have pledged the last 20 years of my life to promoting it far and wide but it was almost too much for me to bear….
Snapshot – India in a Nutshell
A snapshot on India: Sitting in Manchester Airport, the man next to me asks where I am going and grimaces when I say Delhi. The second sentence out of his mouth is, “My wife won’t go there, there is too much poverty.” I reply in all innocence, “Oh, have you been?” He replies, with a…
Snapshots – Cochin
A snapshot – Cochin: It’s rare on a work trip that I get time to myself, given that I have to assess all aspects of hotels and insist on trying every experience before I either ditch or develop it. So it came as a pleasant surprise when I had a couple of hours free in…