As we wander, we wonder
By now, Kayra in Bangsar Village is a recommended staple in most KL foodie’s guidebook. Listed as a KL recommendation in the Michelin Guide’s Restaurants and awarded as a Top 20 restaurant in Tatler Asia’s Dining Guide for multiple years, the reviews for Kayra has been consistently glowing. Whether it’s the sophisticated critique of food […]
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Going online to search for best things to do in Dubai can be quite overwhelming – there are multiple options, websites, blogs, advertised travelogues etc. and the best things to do differs from one type of traveller to another. I usually recommend first timers in Dubai to book themselves a hotel or apartment at JBR […]
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We completed our 2023 adventure safe and sound and left the city of Amman feeling enriched, humbled and as always with any stint in any place in the world, more inspired by life. It certainly was not long enough a time to truly understand the deeper face of the city and country, but it was […]
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Sicilia was everything we hoped it would be, and even in that week we knew in our bones that it’s a place we would love to come back to multiple times. We don’t necessarily feel this way about many places, even spectacular ones, but something about this rich, diverse, sultry, salt of the earth island […]
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Italy is one of, if not my very favourite country in Europe and earmarking her as our summer spot this year was an excitement like no other. We started out in the Naples region. The choice to stay at Vico Equense, a sweet clifftop town about 4 train stops away from Sorrento was based entirely […]
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We’ve dined twice in this extremely popular restaurant in Amman and a visit is a must at least for its rustic ambiance. It was also featured in MENA’s 50 Best Restaurants so it’s always recommended for Amman newbies. We had a meal together last winter and were seated inside, and another time with friends during […]
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During my two month stay in Dubai last summer, I realised that so much more had happened to the city’s dining scene then when I last enjoyed it almost a decade ago. I also realised how the quality of dining out in this glitzy Gulf megalopolis was a cut above the rest- so many restaurants […]
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Portugal feels like it’s currently having its ‘It’ moment for the past five years or so and will continue to be the defining place for new generations to come and for good reason to. Good weather, progressive government, multilingual and educated population, gorgeous architecture, interesting sea-faring history.. the list goes on. As for us, the […]
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La Villa Bleu was captivating in a way that a St. Regis could never understand. Drenched in originality, covered with the most charismatic patina and perched over Mediterranean mysteries. My only regret was staying here for only two nights. It was dreamy, romantic, unique, melancholic. Here, I had cigarettes over coffee, washed my gaze with […]
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I selected Hotel Palacio de Santa Paula in Granada ultimately because it was a Marriott Bonvoy property, and well we are trying hard to crack on those points to achieve lifetime platinum membership. Other bonuses included the fact that it was a historical property, and perfectly situated between the Old Town of Albaysin and in […]
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My visits to the desert are few and far between, but every time it happens, it confirms my affinity for this specific terrain. It brings a unique silence, a potent moment for meditation, and an aesthetic magnetism that transcends the beauty of the sea or the mountains. Maybe it’s the way the sky converges with […]
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It was the beginning of a hot gulf summer, and we decided to take a short weekend trip to Saadiyat Island from Dubai. The selection criteria were – outside of Dubai but within less than 2 hours from Dubai, a hotel on a beach, and preferably a Marriot Bonvoy property so I could collect some […]
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Hot yoga has been around since the 70s but it only slipped into my radar about a decade ago. Friends who have tried said it was satisfying to perspire that much, but no one could really confirm if it had added health benefits to other forms of yoga. Still, the novelty factor got me intrigued […]
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For anyone who has been following me, I can only apologise for the state of this blog since April this year. It’s just been such madness and sadness of a year and writing wasn’t something I could really commit to. There’s also always this tendency for wanting things to follow a specific system and order […]
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I had dinner here twice circa October last year. My friend read a good review and initiated us to give it a try. I loved how it looked from the outside – something different, fresh, inter-galactic. I felt like I was transported somewhere else, another city, another country, another time in a zeitgeist quantum of […]
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Recently, in order to break away from the nauseating routine of our days at home, we stayed for a night in town at the Ritz Carlton. There was a really good promotion on offer and being a Marriott Bonvoy point collector, it seemed like a lovely opportunity to collect some points and not face the […]
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We popped by here spontaneously one evening. For obvious reasons, my other half is a Mughal Indian food snob. Nothing quite meets the bar here in KL, apparently. I struggle to recommend any good authentic biryanis here in Malaysia, is a constant lament. And the posher a place looked, the more he disdains, certain that […]
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It’s been a challenging year, and it is shocking that we’re about to enter the last quarter of it. We organised this getaway for my parents, and mother in law to just remove ourselves from the daily routine of being trapped in a limited routine for months on end, and at the last minute my […]
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THIRTY8 is the eminent restaurant located on yes, you guessed it the 38th Floor of the Grand Hyatt in KL. It’s located right behind the KLCC Twin Towers, so a great place to ogle this engineering accomplishment, which I think is a big part of this hotels’ appeal. It has an extensive set dinner and […]
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We came here on a whim one evening and kind of liked the cosy setting and simple food. Then we came again with my mother-in-law who is pretty much vegetarian and allergic to a whole host of food groups but managed to heartily tuck in all the different dishes. We concluded that this place was […]
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We’ve never had a bad experience at this delightful Italian offering. It’s the kind of place where weeks later, the aftertaste of their perfectly baked rosemary bread, caramelised basil and melted cheese still linger on your palate. It’s on the expensive side for local standards so this is not our regular go to by any […]
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My affection for India goes through various fluctuations but can never really dissipate. Our annual visit though seems so vague in the cards with the virus infections soaring relentlessly, compounded with their lack of medical infrastructure to stymie this phenomenon. I content myself with some memories of those earlier days of discovering this city of […]
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This was a big family trip taken in 2016 to celebrate my parents 75th and 80th birthday. We had been planning this family holiday and exchanged multiple emails with Starwood for various months then but true hospitality and service only began once we started to directly contact Westin Langkawi. Special thanks to Mr Zureimi and […]
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I stayed here just before starting a work deployment back in 2016. It looked cute from the outside with its white colonial shutters and we always passed it on the BTS. Positives-location is 1 BTS/walking distance to the Siam malls. Alot of effort is invested into the prettiness of the drama and ambience (vintage Thai […]
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Yet another one of those snapshot of memories from five years ago. At the time I was living in Jakarta and wanted to try some local islands with friends. They had overdosed on Bali trips and Lombok had become the latest haunt. I didn’t really know what to expect apart from a tropical beach but […]
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Throughout the Covid lockdown, my travel repertoire backdates to a time when I was not consciously recording our experiences, so apologies in advance for the unflattering photos. But I had a nice memory of a birthday dinner here back in 2015 and thought might be worth a share. We had just recently started getting into […]
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During these Covid lockdown days, I’ve been stuck indoors going through my old hotel reviews and came across my memories of Istanbul which is without a doubt, one of my favourite cities in the world. It is utterly unique, a cross between East and West, enchanting architectural relics of the significant empires of the past, […]
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Looking for The Higher Self 