Tag Archives: Travel

Nov 2 2024

The world’s best bars for 2024 announced

A stylish two-story speakeasy in Mexico City’s trendy Colonia Juarez neighborhood has been crowned the world’s best bar. Handshake Speakeasy snagged the top spot last night in Madrid at the glitzy World’s 50 Best awards ceremony.

This is a massive win for a bar that only opened its (downstairs) doors in 2023. Handshake Speakeasy jumped from third place last year to clinch the title.

A fresh face stole second place: Hong Kong’s Bar Leone, an Italian-style gem championing “cocktail populari” (cocktails for the people), clinched Asia’s best bar title. Meanwhile, Barcelona’s Sips, last year’s top spot, slid into third. This 33-seat wonder, opened in 2021, boasts serious star power—one owner honed his skills at the famed El Bulli and the other at London’s award-winning Artesian.

The rest of the elite list saw mixologists and bar owners flocking from far-flung places like Athens, Tokyo, Sydney, and Lima.

World’s 50 Best Bars voters, a blend of bartenders and drinks writers, describe the list as “a snapshot of the opinions and experiences of 700 bar industry experts across the globe,” with no rigid criteria, only personal judgment.

The world’s 50 best bars for 2024

  1. Handshake Speakeasy, Mexico City
  2. Bar Leone, Hong Kong
  3. Sips, Barcelona
  4. Tayer + Elementary, London
  5. Jigger & Pony, Singapore
  6. Line, Athens
  7. Tres Monos, Buenos Aires
  8. Alquimico, Cartagena
  9. Zest, Seoul
  10. Paradiso, Barcelona
  11. Himkok, Oslo
  12. BKK Social Club, Bangkok
  13. Connaught Bar, London
  14. Double Chicken Please, New York City
  15. Overstory, New York City
  16. Lady Bee, Lima
  17. Baba au Rum, Athens
  18. Coa, Hong Kong
  19. The Cambridge Public House, Paris
  20. Tlecan, Mexico City
  21. Caretaker’s Cottage, Melbourne
  22. CoChinChina, Buenos Aires
  23. Salmon Guru, Madrid
  24. Martiny’s, New York City
  25. Bar Benfiddich, Tokyo
  26. Maybe Sammy, Sydney
  27. Superbueno, New York City
  28. Nutmeg & Clove, Singapore
  29. Satan’s Whiskers, London
  30. Panda & Sons, Edinburgh
  31. Tan Tan, Sao Paulo
  32. Licoreria Limantour, Mexico City
  33. Drink Kong, Rome
  34. Jewel of the South, New Orleans
  35. Byrdi, Melbourne
  36. Locale Firenze, Florence
  37. Scarfes Bar, London
  38. Moebius Milano, Milan
  39. Bar Nouveau, Paris
  40. Mimi Kakushi, Dubai
  41. Bar Us, Bangkok
  42. Virtu, Tokyo
  43. Atlas, Singapore
  44. La Sala de Laura, Bogota
  45. Roda Huset, Stockholm
  46. Floreria Atlantico, Buenos Aires
  47. Analogue Initiative, Singapore
  48. El Gallo Altenero, Guadalajara
  49. Danico, Paris
  50. 1930, Milan
Mar 6 2021

The Tao of Travel: Enlightenments from Lives on the Road

“The wish to travel seems to me characteristically human: the desire to move, to satisfy your curiosity or ease your fears, to change the circumstances of your life, to be a stranger, to make a friend, to experience an exotic landscape, to risk the unknown..”

― Paul Theroux, The Tao of Travel: Enlightenments from Lives on the Road

Paul Edward Theroux is an American travel writer and novelist, whose best known work is The Great Railway Bazaar (1975), a travelogue about a trip he made by train from Great Britain through Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, through South Asia, then South-East Asia, up through East Asia, as far east as Japan, and then back across Russia to his point of origin. 
Nov 7 2020

Travel like Captain Cook

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be loved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never get bored or say ordinary thing. But travel, travel, travel like famous CAPTAIN JAMES COOK (1728-1779), who discovered more of the earth’s surface than any other man and excelled as a scientist, cartographer and surveyor. He was bad-tempered – but He circumnavigated the globe twice, visited all seven continents and crossed the Arctic and Antarctic circles.

Nov 7 2020

Oblivion

Those who travel to mountain-tops are half in love with themselves, and half in love with oblivion. And if these mountains had eyes, they would wake to find two strangers in their fences.

Somewhere in Himalayas on my motorcycle
Nov 5 2020

Safdarjung Tomb : Photo Essay

The structure is made of marble and and red sandstone quite pleasing in appearance.

The  Safdarjung Tomb is dedicated to Mirza Muqeem Abul-Mansur Khan, who was also known as Safdarjung. The tomb was built by his son in 1754 and is special because it was the last building to be constructed in the same fashion as Humayun’s Tomb.

It stands in the middle of a large garden and is divided in a square shaped pattern–quite like a char-bagh. 

The tomb has tanks and fountains dotting the central pathway. It has a gate on the east and is surrounded by pavilions on its other three sides. It is a double storied square structure built on a platform of a raised terrace.

Jun 16 2019

Dhanushkodi – The Ghost Town

“For those fortunate souls who constantly and directly see the beautiful form of Rama , crores of holy rivers are present at Dhanushkoti (the tip of Rama’s bow) itself, rivers like Ganga with its sources at the Lord’s feet and the Kaveri deriving its glory from shri Ranganatha; why should one wander from place to place (on tirtha yatra)?”

Dhanushkodi, a place 20 km away from the main town of Rameshwaram, is the place where you can see the Ram Setu. Dhanushkodi is the place where the wonders of nature and man become one. A place surrounded with mystery, ghost stories and myths.

Way to Dhanuskodi from Rameshwaram
Meeting point of Bay Of Bengal & Indian Ocean

The town is stark and empty – stripped of life and the barrenness. It was the 21st of December, 1964. 55 years ago, a disaster hit the little port town of Dhanushkodi swallowing the town and taking many lives. The Pamban Dhanushkodi Passenger train which left Pamban with 110 passengers and 5 members of the railway staff was hit by the high tidal waves and the whole train got submerged under water killing all 115 passengers. As a result, the little town which was once a tourist spot with several pilgrims and fishermen, was reduced to ruins. Skeletal remains of a church and a temple along with some crumbled  walls of homes lie scattered on the sands. There is hardly any ruin in the town – just some broken and fragmented bricks.

 

 

 

 

Jun 15 2019

Random Shots

When we fall in love with someone there’s a moment when we take a picture of that person, an emotional snapshot, that we carry with us forever. If we’re lucky, if we’re very, very lucky, the person we fall in love with will always resemble that snapshot.

Mar 29 2015

Road to Leh – Kargil War Memorial, Dras

kargil

The then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee declared Operation Vijay (Kargil War) a success and by July 26, 1999 Kargil War officially came to an end as the Indian Army announced complete eviction of Pakistani intruders.

Every year, special functions are organised at Kargil and Drass in Jammu and Kashmir to pay tribute and homage to the 527 slain Indian soldiers, the Kargil War’s heroes.

The special thing about the War memorial is that it has been built on the theme of the India Gate.

The briefing at the Kargil War Memorial. Listening to the stories about operation Vijay and the brave Army men one wants to be a solider right away. A must stop when traveling from Srinagar to Leh. Do stop and pay your respects. …

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kargil

mig

With : Harish Bhargava, Letsleh

Mar 28 2015

Road to Leh – Lamayuru

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Lamayuru, the first view as you approach from Kargil on NH1 towards Leh.

While Manali Leh highway is adventurous. The Srinagar to Leh road is scenic, has a better support system, great stay options and is easier in terms of acclimatize.

With : Harish Bhargava & LetsLeh