Beauty Test
Country & Town House | 1 Dec 2018
Facialogy? What’s that? It’s a combo of a blissful Vaishaly Signature Facial with a relaxing, health-promoting reflexology treatment.
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All 2018 articles
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Burmese Days
Harper’s Bazaar | 1 Dec 2018
Tourism to Myanmar is up and the 21st century has barely intruded. There are majestic rivers, thousands of temples and Buddhism is still a way of life. It will be quite unlike any land you know about.
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A passage to India
Country & Town House | 1 Oct 2018
Peeping out above a pine forest, Oberoi’s mountain retreat in the foothills of the Himalayas can’t help but sweep you off your feet. Built on the site of Lord Kitchener’s summer residence, it’s Alpine lodge meets colonial old-world charm. The 85 rooms with marble bathrooms are calm, neutral and cosy with Burmese teak panels, roaring fires and polished parquet floors. Best of all are the floor-to-ceiling windows which max out the spectacular snow-capped view.
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Africa’s jumbo hike! Joining a four-day trek to find Uganda’s CAVE elephants – and they are worth every step
Daily Mail | 29 Sep 2018
Today you’ll climb the ladders and cliffs known as the Wall of Death,’ says Peter, chief warden at Mount Elgon’s National Park office in Uganda. ‘Nobody,’ he adds, ‘has yet died on them.’
My daughter, Anya, 22, and I look at one another. It’s too late to turn back. We’ve already flown eight hours to Nairobi, then another 75 minutes to Entebbe.
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Can a chatterbox learn to shut up on a silent yoga retreat?
The Independent | 19 Jul 2018
I tried it with nuns in Kent once and managed just 24 hours – eight of which I spent sleeping. To be honest, I struggle with it when left to my own devices for the afternoon. Yet I’m determined to do it this time: achieve what folk undergo for years in Himalayan caves.
I’m talking about shutting up. Yes, I’m going on a silent retreat to “refresh my soul” and “cleanse my mind” – but it’s not going to be easy. Words are what I do: writing, talking, talking over people. Can I send texts? Does emailing count as remaining silent? And what about sleep talking? …
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Soukya: the Bangalore health retreat drawing a starry clientele — and interest from the NHS
FT Weekend | 29 Apr 2018
I am lying on a wooden massage bed as two women rub my naked body with hot pouches of cooked rice, milk and medicinal herbs. They massage in tandem my legs, hip joints and up to my neck. A little gloop escapes the poultice bags each time and soon my body is covered with a gluey white residue. This is navarakizhi, a treatment claimed to reduce joint stiffness and relieve depression.
I’m at Soukya, a health retreat outside Bangalore that offers traditional Indian cures for conditions from hay fever to diabetes and strives to “restore the natural balance of your mind, body and spirit”.
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Fire Mountain
Escapism | 29 Jan 2018
All the best trips involve the possibility of dying. The first time this occurs to me is when three soldiers cock their rifles at us outside our hotel in Ataco, El Salvador. (It transpires that the hotel is opposite an army communications mast.) On another occasion, we’re accompanied on a sightseeing trip to Conchagua volcano by two policemen with guns: a precaution because machete-wielding locals once mugged some tourists.
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Paradise for investors
The Sunday Times | 28 Jan 2018
Children play cricket on the beach with a homemade mango-wood bat. Fishing boats of sun-bleached blues and ocean greens rest up on the sand, and enticing smells advertise just-caught crabs and fish coconut curry. Nearby, at the edge of the beach, there’s a gate fashioned from crooked cinnamon branches.
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