All is Wellness
Spear’s | 11 Mar 2019
View cutting image View PDF
All articles
View cutting image View PDF
Myanmar is experiencing a gastronomic revolution
Straits Times | 31 Jan 2019
View cutting image View PDF
Elephants Never Forget
Country & Town House | 4 Jan 2019
We’re going to search for cave elephants – the elusive quadruped Babars found ‘tusking’ salt off cave walls. There’s just basic camping on offer. And malaria and yellow fever aren’t a lure either. But I’m a mahout manqué and will do (almost) anything to see elephants. Even hike for four days from a little-explored part of Uganda to Kenya.
That’s why my 22-year-old daughter Anya and I are being driven 165 miles from Entebbe to Mount Elgon in Eastern Uganda. Past Lake Victoria, egrets and bamboo forests.
View cutting image View PDF
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.
View cutting image View PDF
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.
View cutting image View PDF
A bend in the river
Country & Town House | 25 Nov 2018
We’re cruising downstream past majestic mist-tipped mountains, buffalo wallowing at the riverside and long tail ‘taxi’ boats. Beside rubber plantations, banana trees and bamboo stilt houses. Fishermen casting out traditional nets from deserted white beaches. Mahouts bathing their elephants. And locals sieving for gold. The stuff of Asian adventure stories or Oriental fairy tales, perhaps.
View cutting image View PDF
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.
View cutting image View PDF
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.
View cutting image View PDF View Web page
A dog’s life
Country & Town House | 23 Sep 2018
It’s a haunting place, if not haunted. You can almost hear the Tudor hounds and patter of paws past. This is Hales Hall near Norwich, Norfolk, a drop-dead gorgeous medieval estate in formal gardens of topiary, box hedging and lavender avenues. It boasts nine acres of moated meadowland and buttercups with fairytale cottages and a Great Barn (perfect for parties) – offering overall accommodation for 25.
View cutting image View PDF
Our review of trauma therapist Sheryl Close
Queen of Retreats | 20 Aug 2018
The quick read: Sheryl Close offers Somatic Experiencing and Trauma Therapy, and her sessions include an eclectic mixture of skills she’s developed over the years – including psychotherapy, massage therapy, addiction counselling and Gestalt therapy. The focus is primarily on Somatic Experiencing, and Sheryl’s therapy is for anybody who feels stuck in their life, who want to connect more deeply emotionally with him/herself, and who want to release historical destructive patterns. Sheryl can be booked for an individual, hour-long session at private practices in London or Bedfordshire in the UK.
View cutting image View PDF
Escape to Kampala
The Luxury Channel | 10 Aug 2018
Kampala, Uganda. I am sitting in Sparkles Salon, in the Game Mall, sixty minutes into what I’m told will be a marathon four-hour hair-braiding session. Not your usual tourist activity, perhaps. But this isn’t an obvious tourist city. In fact, most visitors give Kampala a miss and rush instead to see the gorillas and big four (for five, the rhino, you need to go to the zoo). But Kampala should be a compulsory stop, a must-see for anyone who likes food, art and African life. About which, more later…
View cutting image View PDF
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? …
View cutting image View PDF View Web page