Travelling with Kate Adie

We regularly organise tours accompanied by well-known figures to destinations in which they have particular expertise or a strong connection. In the past these have included Lord Hurd to Syria, Sandy Gall to Jordan and Roy Hattersley to India. Business Resources Manager Jessica Cater travelled with a group of Cox & Kings clients to Libya, accompanied by Kate Adie, in October last year. Greenbee Specialist Travel is offering another tour of Libya led by Kate Adie this September.

Travelling with Kate Adie wasn’t something I ever thought I would have an opportunity to do, so when I was asked to join the group that she was leading to Libya in October 2006, I jumped at the chance.

On reflection, I did begin to wonder what I had let myself in for. We all remember Kate’s calm, collected reporting from various trouble spots around the world during the 80s and 90s and I was sure her talks throughout the tour would be fascinating, but what would it be like spending time with someone with such an impressive reputation? My answer came the moment I met Kate, who was completely charming, and full of such a wealth of fascinating stories that it was impossible not to enjoy her company. On the first morning of the tour, watching the group absolutely captivated by her while we were waiting for our coach, I realised I could relax.

Our tour was short, only 7 nights, but thanks to the FCO having lifted their ban on using domestic flights within Libya, we were able to take in both Tripoli, our base for visiting Sabratha and Leptis Magna, and Benghazi from where we travelled to Apollonia and visited Cyrene and Ptolmais. Our first excursion was to Sabratha and when someone asked Kate if she had visited the site before, her answer threw a new perspective on things. This was one of the places that the journalists visiting Tripoli in the 80s and 90s had been taken when their ‘minders’ wanted them out of the city. The journalists all knew that when they returned something significant would have taken place in their absence.

Back at the Corinthia Hotel, we had had something significant to look forward to as well - the first talk by Kate. It was fairly informal and we had the opportunity to ask questions before going to dinner together. Our excursions focussed on the classical world, and without Kate’s input it would have been easy to lose sight of the modern country we were visiting. Hearing her describe what Tripoli had been like in the immediate aftermath of the American bombings certainly made me regard the place with fresh eyes when we drove to the airport the next morning for our flight to Benghazi. It’s an unusual experience to drive past Colonel Gadaffi’s home knowing that you are in the company of someone who has visited him there.

This was my first trip to Libya, and it is a beautiful, welcoming country, full of fascinating sites and friendly people, but my experience of the country was enhanced by Kate’s involvement. Not only her talks, but her stories and comments as we visited the different sites, chatted at dinner or mulled over the previous day’s events at breakfast made me think much more carefully about the place I was in, and added an extra dimension to my visit. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend time with her, and given the chance I would eagerly join another expert led tour with a great deal of excitement and no apprehension at all.

Upcoming expert-led tours:
Antiques expert Lars Tharp, China, September 2007
Renowned explorer Colonel John Blashford-Snell, Chile, January 2008

Ooh Aah Devi Garh

Cox & Kings’ Marketing Director, Philip Hamilton-Grierson, has just returned from a trip to Rajasthan in northwest India. Here, he writes about a particularly luxurious haven.

Devi Garh, also sometimes known as Devigarh, is probably the most ‘luxy’ of the many heritage hotels that have emerged from the rubble of crumbling Rajasthani palaces in the last ten years or so. Since opening on Millennium Eve, it has cropped up in many a glossy mag, with its crisper than crisp minimalist marble interiors, its fantasy exterior of cupolas, terraces and balconies, and the odd celebrity guest. But does its allure go deeper than a glamorous exterior and what is it actually like to stay there?

My partner and I spent two nights there recently to find out.

The village of Delwara, where Devi Garh sits amid the ancient Aravali Hills, would be under an hour’s drive from Udaipur’s airport if you didn’t get lost. We did. Our more circuitous route took over twice as long and required several stops for our driver to receive conflicting directions from arm-waving locals. Never mind - road journeys in rural Rajasthan are all part of the fun and the extra hour on the road was sixty minutes of gentle surprises and several bovine obstacles.

Devi Garh certainly has wow factor for the new arrival. A manicured drive leads through a large gate into a long courtyard of neat lawns and fragrant shrubs. Above, the palace looms large and imposing. And then you start the ascent. Devi Garh will delight many people, but not those who are unsure on their pins – there are steps everywhere and from memory almost all of them are going up. There are a couple of lifts but they can take you only so far and they don’t deal with either the lowest or highest reaches of this towering palace.

High up in the main part of the palace are the rather ritzy Aravali Suites and Palace Suites. The more ‘basic’ accommodation is in the Garden Suites in a separate ground level area - but basic isn’t even faintly basic, it’s just relative. You’ll have noticed that there’s nothing so humdrum as a ‘room’, just 39 individually designed, elegant, luxury suites.

We were shown to an exquisite Aravali Suite, with two enormous balconies complete with resident parakeets. All the suites have a different theme, usually based around one of the semi-precious stones. Ours majored on inlaid mirrored glass and a lot of white. There was an elegant white bedroom, a long white sitting room leading onto the main balcony, a white dressing room leading onto the other balcony and a vast marbly (white) bathroom. Marble is to Rajasthan what ice is to Antarctica and much of it has ended up cladding the walls, floors, ceilings and pools of Devi Garh. The detail in the rooms is superb, from delicate inlay work, to water bowls sprinkled with scented petals and intricately embroidered silk cushions.

So the interiors are undeniably glamorous, but what about the guests? In a place where relaxation is the main activity, high quality people-watching is a necessity. On this score we were not disappointed:

The Poseur: Our trip happily coincided with a two-day fashion photo shoot. The focus, a male model, was an Indian narcissus of such absurd vanity that every movement was contrived to look like a pose. Every minute he was not in front of the lens or a mirror was spent with a mobile phone pressed against his ear. In his wake trailed a small entourage of people carrying clipboards, make-up, huge lamps and white umbrellas.

The Europeans: The British contingent was primarily made up of well-to-do folk of a certain age and the Queen’s vowel sounds. The other Europeans, mostly Germans and French were younger, smart-looking types who were sufficiently hooked on fashion for the absurdity of the poseur to have been lost on them. But they added a bit of boutique chic to the pool-side.

The Japanese: There was a conga of five or six young Japanese, mostly women, who processed round the palace taking lots of pictures and looking rather self-conscious. These were those cool, sulky looking Japanese, rather than the ever-smiling kind. I suspect they might be big news in Japan – maybe a Spice Girls type outfit.

The Noisies: The peace and beauty of dusk viewed from our crow’s nest was briefly shattered by a gaggle of young women, possibly Bombay rich-kids, who started blasting out a series of faded hits by the likes of Pat Benatar and Bryan Adams from a stereo in their private jacuzzi area. Songs that were agony in the ‘80s were insufferable as the sun set on a gorgeous Rajasthan evening. But once they were asked to turn the sound down we never saw or heard from them again.

The Celeb: On the first evening we took dinner on a lofty restaurant terrace overlooking the pool and beyond. We were talking to the waiter about the kind of people who stay at Devi Garh and, indicating the adjacent table, he whispered: “well here we have Mr Eric the Hollywood actor”. Thinking about it, Hollywood Erics are something of a scarcity – Eric Estrada from the ‘70s motorcycle cop show ‘CHIPs’ sprung to mind but not much else. But turning to the left we made out the unmistakable profile of that star of the silver screen, cod (make that ‘sardine’) philosopher and sometime footballer, Monsieur Eric ‘Ooh Aah’ Cantona. That was more than glamour enough for us and confirmed Devi Garh as a people-watching hotspot.

A reminder of what Eric used to do best...






The following night the hotel suggested we try a private dining experience. There are all manner of niches, courtyards and terraces around the hotel where they will set up a table for a romantic dinner. Ours was a splendid room; left untouched since it was excavated, it was covered in faded mirrored tiles, frescoes and stained glass windows. Lit up by candles it made a wonderfully atmospheric setting for an excellent dinner – with the added bonus of our own musician sitting just outside the room who made some delightful tinkling sounds with an instrument that looked to be made of a series of up-turned jam jars. We just pitied the waiter who had to take on those stairs to reach our eyrie from the kitchen every time we felt the need for some more naan bread.

The only question mark about Devi Garh is whether it is too alluring. Attentive but discrete service, spectacular rooms, excellent food (though not quite so excellent if you stray onto the ‘continental’ menu) a glorious deep green pool and a sumptuously appointed spa don’t give the guest much incentive to go out and about to see the sights - and apparently most stay put. This is a place to relax and unwind, and its many charms and high prices might be rather extravagant for those wanting to spend active days visiting Jain temples, Rajput forts and the like.

However, travelling through India provides such a bombardment of the senses that a truly luxurious haven such as Devi Garh as a sanctuary for reflection at the end of an exhilarating journey is an appealing option. Otherwise, you could always go straight there, forget ‘culture’, live it up like a Maharaja and be indulged for a week. Up to you.

Devi Garh features in the luxury version of Cox & Kings’ 12-day Princely India private journey. It can also easily be incorporated in tailor-made itineraries.

Welcome to Sarajevo

Bosnia is currently hot news with British Airways introducing direct flights to the capital Sarajevo in March 2007.

Former BBC War Correspondent and MP Martin Bell, who reported from Sarajevo during the Balkans conflict, is to accompany a tour to Bosnia and Croatia this September for Greenbee Specialist Travel. Greenbee is a selection of direct services offered by the John Lewis Partnership, with Cox & Kings organising the specialist travel arrangements.

You can read a fascinating article by Martin Bell here, who recently travelled to Sarajevo on British Airways' inaugural direct flight and wrote about his experiences for the Daily Telegraph.

Uzbekistan

Thomas Saunders, one of our Middle East/India experts, recently travelled to Uzbekistan, in the heart of central Asia. Here, he writes about his experiences.

12 March
It was only yesterday that I was packing a bag for the beginning of an adventure into Uzbekistan. How far from normal life can an overnight flight take you, I pondered, as I arrived at Tashkent. I was in central Asia, an area of the world I had no expectations of.

In the arrivals area of Tashkent airport I met my driver, Rashid, and my guide for the next 10 days, Marina. Marina spoke excellent English as well as Uzbek, Russian and German.

On leaving the airport I requested we find somewhere for me to change my sterling into local currency. With an exchange rate of 2400 soms to the pound I walked out of the bank with five thick bundles of cash, feeling like a bank robber.

The Fergana valley is a fertile plain surrounded by the Kyrgyzstan Mountains of Chatkal and the Fan Mountains of Tajikistan. To get to this unique part of Uzbekistan we drove high into the snow-capped mountains. The roads twisted and turned as we came close to the Kamchik Pass.

The first city we came to was Kokand, one time capital of Fergana. From 1709 – 1876, Kokand was the capital of Kokand Khanate, a territory that included a large part of present day Uzbekistan, part of southern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and southern China. Kokand is considered to be the second religious centre in Central Asia, after Bukhara. There were 35 madrasahs (Arabic schools) and hundreds of mosques in Kokand city, which were mainly built during the reign of Khudoyar Khan. In Kokand we visited the famous Khudoyar Khan’s Palace, Juma Mosque and Dahmai Shahon (Grave of Kings).

After Kokand and the tiring overnight flight we had a two-hour drive onto Fergana, to the Asia Hotel.

13 March

Andijan is the most strictly Islamic city of Uzbekistan. Here we took lunch at a traditional café, where we sat on what appeared to a bed with a raised table in the middle, rather like a hospital bed, which we sat on, cross-legged. We ate the traditional dish plov. Whilst I thought it was nice and hearty, my guide insisted that Khiva plov was better, not because she is from Khiva but because they use less fat. After lunch we made a brief visit to the small Babur museum. Babur was born in Andijan and was famous for founding the great Moghul Empire in India. You can read a fascinating book retracing Babur’s walk across Afghanistan here.

We then visited a mosque that is now unused and seemed to have a factory placed in the middle of it - a good example of the Uzbek government’s attempts to undermine the Islamic extremism in this area. Opposite the mosque was the lively and fun bazaar. This was the highlight of the day for me; Uzbeks have no shops and do all their shopping for food and clothes in bazaars. As such there is very little commercialism on display in the Fergana Valley. It’s refreshing to be away from advertising hoardings and branded goods.

We drove back to Fergana and found a local restaurant to have dinner. Rashid my driver had brought some marble sized balls of very sour cheese that he insisted would taste nice when eaten with beer. I tried this, but still found them sour and only slightly more palatable.

14 March

Today we headed for a silk factory, a key indication I was on the great silk route. I was treated to a tour of the silk factory and now have a vague understanding of the silk production process. Particularly impressive were the men dipping and turning huge piles of silk into pink dye.

After this we headed back to Fergana to collect our bags before my flight to Tashkent. The plane was miniscule; we entered though the undercarriage, carrying our own luggage on, which we stored on a rack at the back. We all squashed ourselves in and the plane took off. I spent the night at the impressive and very modern Tashkent Palace.

15 March

Today we headed out to the Chimgan mountains that form the foothills of the Tian Shan range, which stretches into China. This is a scenic and popular area of Uzbekistan, where locals visit in the summer to escape the oppressive heat of Tashkent, and in the winter for skiing.


16 March

This morning we began our four hour drive to the UNESCO site of Samarkand. After checking into a hotel bursting with old Uzbek character with intricate woodwork on the doors and ceilings, we headed into Samarkand for an afternoon visit to the Guir Amir Mausoleum, the burial place of the great warrior Timur, who is very much revered in Uzbekistan. This was a very impressive sight and my first chance to gaze upon a blue tiled dome, the like of which I had only seen in brochures and books.

17 March

Today I woke to find Samarkand soaked by rain, and dark rain clouds hung overhead as we started out on our sightseeing. First we visited the Afrosiab, a museum dedicated to old Marakanda, the old name for Samarkand before the mongols destroyed it. Alexander the Great had said “Everything I have heard about Marakanda is true except that it’s more beautiful than I ever imagined”. With these words in mind, it’s a pity nothing remains. Next we visited Uleg Beg’s observatory, or rather what is left of it, which isn’t much. However, the small museum made me appreciate the great scientific works the Muslims in the 15th century had accomplished. Uleg Beg was a great astronomer himself, and gathered the great minds of the Islamic world to Samarkand during a very fruitful time for the city.

We then visited Shahr I Zindah, a series of mausoleums from Timur’s time. Despite my guide’s negative attitude to the restoration work I enjoyed this site immensely. Here you could see Persian and Uzbek architecture next to each other and understand the differences in style and technique. Both styles were hugely impressive and I wandered the narrow lane between the mausoleums gazing at the portals, the Uzbek ones in sky blue with geometric patterns and the Persian in dark blue with floral patterns.

After this, we headed to one of the most impressive sites in central Asia, Registan Square. The Square comprises three madrasahs, all facing inwards to create three walls of a room around a large square. Unfortunately at this point the heavens opened and we were forced to take shelter in one of the madrasahs.

18 March

I woke up to a clear sunny day and took another visit to Registan Square, which looked even more impressive bathed in sunlight. Afterwards we headed out of Samarkand and onwards to the town of Bukhara, another UNESCO World Heritage site.


19 March

In Bukhara we took a walking tour and visited nearly all the sites on foot. The first site was Bukhara’s oldest and for me had very interesting links to Zoroastrianism, the 3000-year-old religion that was once dominant in the region but now has fewer than 200,000 follower worldwide.

It was wonderful to walk around Bukhara’s old centre visiting the many mosques and madrasahs, all in varying degrees of restoration and beautifully-built from the old sand coloured mud brick and topped with blue domes. Many of the ruined madrasahs have been turned into souvenir shops, selling beautiful rugs in the classic Bukhara style.


That evening we took dinner in one of the local restaurants where we were served the usual salads, soup, and meat, with a plate of round bread. During dinner, Rashid produced a photograph of his family and explained how his daughter was getting married and that this had been arranged by his wife. Arranged marriages are still very much part of Uzbek culture.

20 March

Today we spent most of the day in the car driving out across the Kyazaklum Desert heading toward Khiva.

The highlight of the day apart from gazing across the vast desert was lunch, taken at a roadside café. Whilst very rustic, the café was near the only river that ran into the desert and as such they had a pool of water with fresh fish. Rashid selected one, which was scooped out and promptly fried for us. We ate this with the fruit and vegetables we had bought yesterday and it made a fantastic meal.

Upon arrival in Khiva the place felt slightly deserted; however, at the back of the hotel, the staff were gathered around a large pot with boiling water. Apparently they were cooking a dish that takes 24 hours to prepare. I was lucky to be there when a group of local dancers and musicians took up a tune and danced opposite the pot.




21 March

Today we drove out to the ruins of Topraq-Qala and Ayaz-Qala. The drive out was most exciting as we crossed a pontoon bridge, that looked like it was in the last stages of dereliction but proved to be strong and a popular way across the mighty Oxus river. The land was dramatically barren with large deposits of salt. Climbing the ruins offered impressive views and I enjoyed the seclusion of these forts. After lunch and a drive back to the hotel, Rashid left us bode me farewell. I was sad to see him go as he had been a great driver and companion on this trip.

22 March

Today we took a full day sightseeing tour of Khiva. Unfortunately for me it rained on and off for most of the day, but despite the rain Khiva still shone through, showing me a glimpse of its one-time magnificence. The huge minaret of Kalta Minor left me wondering how high it would have been had it been finished. Khiva, another UNESCO site, is a town of minarets and domes, spread amongst a collection of old sandstone buildings in the middle of the desert, and one of the best ways to view the town is from a high place. I sought out Islam-Huja Minaret and paid the Uzbek lady sitting at its entrance for the opportunity to climb its stairs to the top. Inside the minaret, the stairs spiralled upwards and in a very small and claustrophobic space I made my way to the top of this high minaret. From the top I was rewarded with great views of the town below.

This evening I took a flight back to Tashkent where I would spend my last day.

23 March

I spent my last day in sun-soaked Tashkent, visiting the city’s lively Bazaar, which was the biggest I had been to and the centre of much activity for bargain hunters. Next we visited a working madrasah before heading to the Islamic Art Museum, home to a range of artefacts from all over Uzbekistan, which offered a nice reminder of all the places I had visited.

After more traditional Uzbek food for lunch I booked tickets for a ballet at the opera house opposite my hotel. Being only 30% full I had a wide choice of seats when I entered. I settled into an enjoyable performance of Tomisi, a ballet set in Persia, and afterwards packed my bag ready for my flight back to the UK.

24 March

I left the hotel happy that I had seen so much of Uzbekistan, and with the feeling that one day I should return to explore more of this fascinating part of the world.

Explore Uzbekistan on Cox & Kings' 8-night Uzbekistan: Heart of Central Aisa tour.