Stories and reviews crafted in collaboration with select travel brands.
The majority of content on The Urge To Wander features my
personal travel experiences booked and paid for by myself. The occasional
discounted/sponsored stay or trip with a tourist board or travel brand is always
clearly and prominently disclosed. I take pains to ensure I work with brands
that are the right fit for my audience profile and only endorse those brands and
services that I have personally used and can vouch for. I value my readers’
trust most of all and promise integrity in all things I write and share.
For our 40th anniversary last month, (You read right. And ditch the math, I am not quite as old as you are thinking right now!) we consciously decided to give showy sights a miss for a slow savouring of food, wine and languorous coastal villages. And the Basque region came up trumps on all counts. With just the right amount of […]
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Jordan as a destination has typically played second fiddle to its larger neighbours and usually ends up an add-on to a longer itinerary in Egypt or Israel. Last week the Jordan Tourism Board kicked off a mega tourism campaign in an attempt to alter that statistic. Eighty eight international digital influencers from over fifteen countries, along with a few local media persons, were […]
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One of my earliest posts on this blog dealt with my fascination for the ‘people of my places‘: “I find people amusing, fascinating, inspiring. When I travel I enjoy sitting in a cafe, looking out onto a busy street and observing random strangers going about their daily lives. It gives me a feel for their culture. A […]
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The ethnic chic ambience of the Bistro Desert Rose in WelcomHotel Jodhpur, was the perfect setting for our late afternoon lunch date with chef Akshraj Jodha. – The lighting at our table was deemed not ideal for food photography though. So we worked out a solution where Iphone photographer Jack Hollingsworth’s meal was first served at a two seater setting by the window and brought […]
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The magnificent Mehrangarh fort perched 120 metres above the city, is justifiably the main attraction in Jodhpur. It is one of the largest and best preserved of Rajput citadels. And one of the better maintained as well, cared for as it is by the Mehrangarh Museum Trust under the aegis of Maharaja Gaj Singh himself. The interiors are impressive, the […]
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The fusion of traditions at the Jodhpur Flamenco and Gypsy Festival is a visual and emotive exploration of rhythm. Of the passion and pathos of the Cante with the joyous, raucous melodies of the Thar desert. The mellow tones of the acoustic guitar with the shrill keening of the Kamaicha and the Sindhi Sarangi. The power and […]
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Hotel Review: ITC WelcomeHotel Jodhpur.
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Our trip to Southern Spain over a decade ago, followed close on the heels of a fantastic week in Rajasthan. And I remember being struck by how closely the energy and the rhythm of Flamenco resembled the folk performances we had witnessed there. The connection wasn’t just my perception however, but a throwback to the beginnings of the gypsy […]
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After expertly navigating the impossibly clogged route from the airport, our taxi coasted to a halt in front of a colonnaded arcade teeming with what seemed like half the population of Calcutta. “This can’t be it” I muttered to R in dismay, while he peered out with equal skepticism. Then a pair of wrought iron gates […]
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