Open Skies | August 2012

the swimmer the remarkable story of diana nyad

True luxury is

sleeping well

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4

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EDITOR'S LETTER M

y memories of water are not good. I remember my twin brother (age two) being able to float in a French swimming pool, while I looked on, afraid to get into the water. I remember nearly drowning in a Portuguese swimming pool at age seven, and being dragged out by an English girl who lay me on my side as I coughed up water. I remember being smashed against rocks on the coast of Cork (age 10) after I had foolishly tried to float out to sea on an inflatable airbed. I remember falling out of my bunk bed on a ferry bringing us from Ireland to France and landing on my sleeping sister who was lying prone on the floor of the cabin. As I grew older, I grew only slightly more comfortable around water and even had a spell as a lifeguard (despite not being able to swim properly).

These days I tend to avoid the sea altogether. So it was with some trepidation I undertook this month’s cover story. Yes, for this issue I bravely went on a Mediterranean cruise, a selfless piece of reportage that took me from Barcelona to Cannes to Rome and back again; a gruelling odyssey I think you will agree. You can read all about this epic journey on page 62. Enjoy the issue.

CONOR@OPENSKIESMAGAZINE.COM

Emirates takes care to ensure that all facts published herein are correct.

In the event of any inaccuracy please contact The Editor. Any opinion expressed is the honest belief of the author based on all available facts. Comments and facts should not be relied upon by the reader in taking commercial, legal, financial or other decisions. Articles are by their nature general and specialist advice should always be consulted before any actions are taken.

PO Box 2331, Dubai, UAE Telephone: (+971 4) 282 4060 Fax:(+971 4) 282 4436 Email: emirates@motivate.ae

89,396 COPIES Printed by Emirates Printing Press, Dubai, UAE

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Obaid Humaid Al Tayer GROUP EDITOR & MANAGING PARTNER Ian Fairservice GROUP SENIOR EDITOR Gina Johnson • gina@motivate.ae SENIOR EDITOR Mark Evans • marke@motivate.ae EDITOR Conor Purcell • conor@motivate.ae DEPUTY EDITOR Gareth Rees • gareth@motivate.ae DESIGNER Roui Francisco • rom@motivate.ae STAFF WRITER Matthew Priest EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Londresa Flores EDITORIAL INTERN Jeric Rodriguez SENIOR PRODUCTION MANAGER S Sunil Kumar PRODUCTION MANAGER C Sudhakar GENERAL MANAGER, GROUP SALES Anthony Milne • anthony@motivate.ae DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Helen Cotton • helenc@motivate.ae GROUP SALES MANAGER Jaya Balakrishnan jaya@motivate.ae ADVERTISEMENT MANAGER Murali Narayanan SENIOR SALES MANAGER Shruti Srivastava EDITORIAL CONSULTANTS FOR EMIRATES: Editor: Siobhan Bardet Arabic Editor: Hatem Omar Deputy Editor: Andy Grant WEBSITE • emirates.com. CONTRIBUTORS: Adam Smith, Anthony Zinonos, Edward McGowan, Noah Davis, Hg2, David McCandless, Gemma Correll, Brian Lopiccolo, Alexander Semenov COVER ILLUSTRATION by Roui Francisco

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES: AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND Okeeffe Media, Kevin O’ Keeffe; Tel + 61 89 447 2734, okeeffekev@bigpond.com.au, BENELUXM.P.S. Benelux; Francesco Sutton; Tel +322 720 9799, Fax +322 725 1522, francesco.sutton@mps-adv.com CHINA Publicitas Advertising; Tel +86 10 5879 5885 FRANCE Intermedia Europe Ltd; Fiona Lockie, Katie Allen, Laura Renault; Tel +33 15 534 9550, Fax +33 15 534 9549, administration@intermedia.europe.com GERMANY IMV International Media Service GmbH, Wolfgang Jäger; Tel +49 89 54 590 738, Fax +49 89 54 590 769, wolfgang.jager@iqm.de HONG KONG/MALAYSIA/ THAILAND Sonney Media Networks, Hemant Sonney; Tel +852 27 230 373, Fax +852 27 391 815, hemant@sonneymedia.com INDIA Media Star, Ravi Lalwani; Tel +91 22 4220 2103, Fax +91 22 2283 9619, ravi@mediastar.co.in ITALY IMM Italia Lucia Colucci; Tel +39 023 653 4433, Fax +39 029 998 1376, lucia.colucci@fastwebnet.it JAPAN Tandem Inc.; Tel + 81 3 3541 4166, Fax +81 3 3541 4748, all@tandem-inc.com NETHERLANDS GIO Media, Giovanni Angiolini; Tel +31 6 2223 8420, giovanni@ gio-media.nl SOUTH AFRICA Ndure Dale Isaac; Tel +27 84 701 2479, dale@ndure.co.za SPAIN IMM International, Nicolas Devos; Tel +331 40 1300 30, n.devos@imminternational.com TURKEY Media Ltd.; Tel: +90 212 275 51 52, mediamarketingtr@medialtd.com.tr UK Spafax Inflight Media, Nick Hopkins, Arnold Green; Tel +44 207 906 2001, Fax +44 207 906 2022, nhopkins@spafax.com USA Totem Brand Stories, Brigitte Baron, Marina Chetner; Tel +212 896 3846, Fax +212 896 3848, brigitte. baron@rtotembrandstories.com

29

Contents Our Man in hOng kOng On the city’s rapidly shrinking harbOur (p38)

we take a spectacular lOOk at One Of aMerica’s MOst stunning landscapes (p56)

•

we chill Out at One Of the Oldest dive shOps On the thai island Of kOh taO (p58)

we lOOk at the unstOppable rise Of the bOttled water industry (p51)

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Contents did jaws kill creative filM-Making? we lOOk at the Original hOllywOOd blOckbuster (p70)

can a 62-year-Old cuban wOMen create swiMMing histOry this MOnth? (p78)

we take an eye-Opening cruise arOund the calM seas Of the Mediterranean (p62)

aMazing underwater phOtOs frOM One Of eurOpe’s MOst reMOte seas (p88)

33

CONTRIBUTORS

ROUI FRANCISCO: Open Skies’ Filipino designer Roui, has lived in Dubai all his life. He spends his time designing, drawing and watching Game of Thrones. He also likes Batman and Catwoman as well as every other superhero (except Superman). He also likes T-shirts.

ADAM SMITH

: A Senior Writer for Empire magazine, he has also written for The Observer, The Times, GQ and FHM. He is also a regular on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row and his first book on film, The Rough Guide to 21st Century Cinema, will be published in October.

ANTHONY ZINONOS

: He is a freelance collage illusrator based in Norwich. He has had his work exhibited everywhere from Paris to Berlin and has had his work used by Men’s Health, Kate Spade, More, London Fashion Week Daily and Ling.

EDWARD MCGOWAN: He is an illustrator from Edinburgh whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Paste Magazine, The Times, Time Out New York and a host of other publications around the world.

ALEXANDER SEMENOV

: He is now Chief Diver at the White Sea Biological Station in northwestern Russia and graduated from Lomonosov’s Moscow State University in the department of Zoology. He has spent the past four years photographing the amazing underwater life there.

34

FUN FOR

THE WHOLE FAMILY

When you hit 240km/h in less than 5 seconds, don’t forget to breathe. At Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, the world’s first Ferrari branded theme park, you finally have the chance to live the racing dream in ways you never imagined possible. Experience the legend like never before, with over 20 rides and attractions in the world’s largest indoor theme park.

ferrariworldabudhabi.com

INTRO P. 38 • HONG KONG’S SHRINKING HARBOUR

P. 46 • BEIRUT MAPPED

P. 51 • THE BOTTLED WATER MYTH

P. 58 • KOH TAO DIVING

37

illustration: Mitch blunt

riginally known as the Fragrant Harbour, Hong Kong’s iconic waterfront is more like the shrinking harbour, as more than half of it is now buried under concrete.

Less than ten years ago, the old Star Ferry Terminal on central district’s bustling and historic waterfront was a popular meeting place. Today, from the same spot, you cannot even see the sea; there is just a grey concrete wall screening a huge building site which is Phase III of the Central & Wan Chai reclamation project.

There is something unstoppable about the incessant flow of ready-mix concrete in this city and until now the harbour has

O

not been spared. While Sydney and Singapore celebrate their waterfronts and put them at the heart of their city’s identity, Hong Kong has never regarded its harbour as much more than water to be filled in for more property development.

Ironically, while Hong Kong only developed so successfully because

Our man in

HOng kOng Is the cIty’s stunnIng harbour about to get the respect It deserves?

Stuart Heaver is a freelance writer and former Royal Navy Navigator living in Hong Kong 38

of its attributes as a sheltered harbour for maritime trade with Canton (now Guangzhou), it is the harbour that is being destroyed in the interests of real estate. And in Asia’s ‘world city’, real estate is king.

To obtain a feel for the scale of the loss, take a trip on one of the iconic green and

TwiTTer

piTcH white Star Ferries, which still transport 30 million people across the harbour every year. In 1888, a local newspaper reported that the ferry ran at all hours on a 40-minute to one hour trip.

The Star Ferry still operates that traditional route from Tsim Sha Tsui on the Kowloon peninsula to Central Pier, though the journey takes only five to eight minutes now. Often it seems to take longer to berth and secure the lines than it does to actually make the crossing.

“The journeys have become shorter but ship-handling for the coxswains can be more challenging as the tides and wave action have increased noticeably” says Coxswain Li, who first

The star ferry route was more than 2km in 1880, today it is only 800 metres joined the Star Ferry company as a junior sailor more than 20 years ago.

The Star Ferry route was more than 2km when it started in 1880. Now it’s 800m at its shortest point. Locals joke that the government will soon just build a footbridge over what’s left of the harbour.

“The present surface area of the harbour is roughly 50 per cent of the original harbour as measured from Sir Edward Belcher’s 1841 chart.” says Dr Stephen Davies of the Hong Kong Maritime Museum.

Yet despite its diminished size, the harbour still provides what must be the most vibrant spectacle of vessel activity anywhere in Asia. You can witness powerful tugs towing heavily laden barges, sleek hydrofoils speeding to-

wards Macau, cruise ships taking gamblers to offshore waters, ferries bound for the outlying islands and sampans bouncing in the wake of the larger ships.

Weekends see Chinese millionaires in superyachts, sailing vessels, pilot launches racing out to meet the container ships in the East Lamma Channel and small fishing boats just bobbing about.

It’s a relentless 24-hour maritime theatre set against a backdrop of stunning architecture and forest covered peaks.

But the city has preferred to turn its back on the entire show and reclamation carried on until November 1995. Then, a group called the Society for Protection of the Harbour was set up by a lawyer, Winston Chu, and for the first time the property developers were on the back foot.

Their campaign eventually led to the Protection of the Harbour Ordinance in June 1997, to protect and preserve the Harbour as a special public asset and natural heritage of Hong Kong.

In June 2010, the Harbour Front Commission was set up to with the aim of delivering a world-class harbour front for public enjoyment with Nicholas Brooke as the chairperson.

“Victoria Harbour is the symbol of our city, and harbour front enhancement is an important investment for the future of Hong Kong,” says Brooke.

After years of abuse and shrinkage, things are finally looking up for the Fragrant Harbour.

The maritime museum is being relocated to the new central ferry pier and letters appear in the South China Morning Post advocating water taxis and new marinas are being built in disused typhoon shelters.

Maybe Hong Kong is ready at last to embrace the asset to which it owes its very existence.

Five sTylisH and Happening beacH clubs wOrTHy OF yOur FOllOwing

Xl beach club Dubai’s ultimate luxury venue with different shows/parties every night of the week including DJs, live musicians and dance shows. @Xlbeachclub

warung beach club based on the brazilian sands of Praia brava, Warung is the south american temple of electronic music. @warungclub

st yves beach club the hottest parties in cape town this summer with the biggest DJs and live acts. @stYvesbeachclub

Tanjong beach club an amalgamation of restaurant, bar, beach resort and social hot spot, tanjong beach club is the sum of its parts and more. @tbcsentosa

sotavento beach club the best beach club, terrace and restaurant on the barceloneta seafront, with amazing sea views. @sotaventobcn

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room Room

1925

The Chedi

Oman

inTeRneT Speed: 2mB, free pillowS: Two ipod doCk: Yes BURGeR deliveRy Time:

20 minutes ComplimenTARy SnACkS: Water ToileTRy BRAnd: Bulgari dAily newSpApeR: Times of Oman exTRAS: nespresso coffee machine Tv ChAnnelS: 24 view: 3 /5

Nestled on the sweeping sands of the Gulf of Oman coast, with the imposing Al Hajar Mountain range dominating the skyline behind it, The Chedi is every inch the picturesque resort. Housing 158 rooms and suites, and set across 21 acres, the Muscat hideaway is positively tranquil in its approach to relaxation. A huge spa and three swimming pools take centre stage, plus there’s always the option of dippping your toe in the calming waters of the Gulf. There’s not an awful lot to do besides eat, drink and relax, but that’s kind of the point. The service is good, without being obtrusive; the rooms are comfortable without being over the top, and an overall the feeling of calmness wins the day. It’s close enough to Muscat Airport to make it an ideal weekend getaway from Dubai.

RATe: From $350 WWW.ghmhOTeLS.COm

august calendar

Olympic closing ceremony

AUGUST 12

Copenhagen Fashion Week

AUGUST 8 To 12

AUGUST 16

AUGUST 13 To 18

London hosts the world’s greatest sporting event, up until the spectacular closing ceremony.

all eyes turn to the world’s beautiful people as they descend on the Danish capital.

london2012.com

copenhagenfashionweek.com

Catch all the pageantry and tradition of Siena’s centuries old medieval horserace. ilpalio.org

The norwegian capital is packed out with over 70 concerts from local and international musicians www.oslojazz.no

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Palio di Siena

Oslo Jazz Festival

booked

THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA ERNEST HEMINGWAY

This was Hemingway’s last major work of fiction and, arguably, his best. A counterweight to the argument that Hemingway’s writing was too literal to place him among the greats of modern fiction, this novel (although it’s small enough to be considered a short story) is a triumph. It charts the relationship between a fisherman, Santiago, who has not caught a fish for 83 days, and his young apprentice, Manolin, who keeps faith with the old man. The centrepiece of the story is Santiago’s epic three-day battle with a huge marlin that, although delirious with exhaustion, he manages to stab with a harpoon. Santiago’s journey back to port is equally trying, as a number of sharks circle his boat, picking at the marlin draped over the side. By the time he reaches port, the fish is gutted, with only the massive skeleton left. But he makes it, and when he wakes from a deep sleep, he is fêted as a hero, the size of the fish ensuring his place in the small Gulf community. The themes that run through this book are numerous; religion, manhood, dislocation and community, and it is Hemingway’s strength that these themes are never forced, but appear naturally from the prose. A master at work.

Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1952

august calendar

AUGUST 17 To 19 Lowlands festival

Start of the Premiership

AUGUST 18

AUGUST 20

UnTil SepTemBeR 12

holland hosts one of europe’s biggest music festivals, full of bands, including the Foo Fighters.

across europe the football season kicks off again, with the start of the english Premier League.

The muslim world celebrates the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

lowlands.nl

premierleague.com

wikipedia.org/wiki/eid_ul-fitr

The guggenheim in new York exhibits a collection of abstract art from around the world. guggenheim.org

42

eid al-Fitr

International abstract

skYPod JUJU GUiTARiST JUSTin AdAmS GiveS US hiS Top eiGhT woRld mUSiC TRACkS

TINARIWEN – LE CHANT DES FAUVES I’ll never forget first hearing Ibrahim from Tinariwen play this in a tent, with 15 Tuareg sitting around. It’s authentic rebel music, but it’s also personal.

THE CLASH – BANKROBBER For all their modernity, The Clash were based in roots music. They were great at pointing you towards old music to check out, like Leadbelly or Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry.

HOWLIN WOLF – 44 This isn’t standard blues. It has an electric, distorted power, and it sounds kind of african – it has a syncopation, a swing.

ALI FARKA TOURE – TULUMBA When I first heard ali Farka Touré, I couldn’t believe it – that droning, desert blues sound. I saw him play in London when he first came over and I was totally entranced.

43

OUM KASLOUM – ENTA OMRI The grand diva of arabic song. I lived in Cairo for a few years, and it was impossible to overstate what a big star she was. This is a song of yearning and desire.

RIHANNA – PON DE REPLAY I like modern R&B when the production is really tough, when the beat can just knock you flat. It has a dub feel to me, there’s toughness and menace.

OTIS REDDING – THESE ARMS OF MINE One of the first tracks that made me start thinking about how to arrange. It’s stripped down, precise, but with Otis’ amazing voice over the top. It kills me every time.

PJ HARVEY – HANGING IN THE WIRE It reminds me of Brian eno in its minimalism.

She’s found a very english theme – it’s about the First World War, but it also feels very timely.

44

rouI francIsco our designer feels the fear of sea water and does it anyway espite being born in the Philippines, a country with the fourth longest coastline in the world, I grew up with a profound fear of the water. The reasons for this remain unknown to me even now, but my reasoning is easy to remember.

The narrative of my fear was pretty simple: swim in the sea, get caught in some horrific current, be swept further and further away from shore, the sun goes down, be helplessly bobbing about for hours on a black night, be attacked by sea monsters, die.

Part of this fear came from my own brain, and its overactive imagination. I would consistently imagine the worst thing that could happen, and then add some grotesque fictional monsters to the mix. If I heard a noise during the night, I would assume it was not just a burglar, but some form of mutant burglar, a creature with claws, tentacles and five eyes (and a need to steal someone else’s TV). This imagination would serve me well during daylight hours – at school for example, I could draw fantastical creatures to order, and regale classmates with ludicrous stories. I was a weaver of magic lands, distant worlds and implausible situations. This stood me well in my school in Al Qusais, a dusty neighbourhood in Dubai, where my ability to entertain was a prized asset. Move me from my playground to the beach, however, and these skills took on a new form – I would gaze out to sea, and not wonder if the

d

water was cold, but how many undersea monsters were waiting to devour me. Part of this must lie in my affinity with HP Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu, a ‘grimnoir’ novel that involved a huge sea monster.

So, as I evolved from boy to teenager, my fear of the sea remained constant. I often swam in pools, with little adverse reaction, however, I could never make the metaphorical leap into the open water. Devouring (pun intended) movies such as Jaws did not help either, it just added real-life creatures to the list of fictional monsters that could eat me while swimming.

Then one fine September day, I went to Mamzar Beach with a group of friends.

That day, everything changed. As I sat on the beach watching my friends frolic in the sea, I went through the list of demons that prevented me from joining them.

All manner of fantastical creatures reeled through my head, until another fantastical creature stopped me: Batman. What would Batman do? He would tackle this fears and step headlong into the unknown. That’s just how he rolled.

And so, the gentle waves lapping Mamzar’s shore became my personal Gotham City. I stood up and strode towards the sea, and literally (OK, not literally) took a leap of faith. I waded into the water until it got too deep and my legs bobbed up beneath me. I swam towards my friends, who were watching me silently. I had done it – I had felt the fear and embraced it, all thanks to a man in a bat costume.

While the experience was not particularly pleasant (the water was too warm and I thought a plastic bag was a jellyfish), I had beaten my demons, and I was free. The ocean was my playground and I, Roui Francisco, was a free man.

Fashion heaven in London’s most fashionable street.

www.fenwick.co.uk/bondst

MAPPED BEIRUT

american american university university RASRAS BEIRUT BEIRUT

BEIRUT PORT BEIRUT PORT grand grand NEJMEH NEJMEH SERAI SERAI sqrsqr

MARMAR MAROUN MAROUN

SNOUBRA SNOUBRA RAWSHEH RAWSHEH

EL EL ZARIF ZARIF FORN FORN EL EL HAYEK HAYEK

TALLET KHAYAT TALLET KHAYAT

NASRA NASRA ASHRAFIYEH ASHRAFIYEH MAZRAA MAZRAA

beirut pine beirut pine forest forest

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AIN AIN EL EL ROUMMANEH ROUMMANEH BIRBIR HASSAN HASSAN CHIYAH CHIYAH

GHOBEIRY GHOBEIRY 46

beirut

Beirut is a hedonist’s dream. At once both historical and brazenly forwardthinking, Beirut lives and breathes culture. Blessed with a tri-lingual population, the city’s ancient sites and art galleries gel with edgy music festivals and glimmering rooftop nightclubs in a heady mix of yesterday-meetstomorrow. It’s a town to don your hottest outfit and dance the night away under the cool Mediterranean air; to lunch on fusion fare overlooking rebuilt boulevards and to wander the friendly back streets and feel the scars of the past.

DAOURA DAOURA

WWW.HG2.COM

JDeiDEh JDeiDEh

BOURJ BOURJ HAMMOUD HAMMOUD

BAOUCHRIYE BAOUCHRIYE HOTELS 1. Le Gray 2. Phoenicia 3. Albergo 4. Gefinor Rotana

SINSIN EL EL FIL FIL

SADSAD EL EL BAOUCHRIYE BAOUCHRIYE

SABTIYE SABTIYE MKALLES MKALLES TALL TALL El El ZAATAR ZAATAR

RESTAURANTS 5. Centrale 6. Karam Beirut 7. S.T.A.Y. 8.Wadi Walima BARS / CLUBS 9. Element 10. Time out (La Closerie) 11. Skybar 12. Iris GALLERIES 13. Janine Rubeiz Gallery 14. Agial Art Gallery 15. Sursock Museum 16. National Museum

47

mapped beirut

hotels 1 le Gray

One of Beirut’s best hotels, Le Gray boasts views over the Med and Mount Lebanon, a rooftop pool and restaurant, and a 360-degree wraparound bar with dizzying views of the surrounding city.

2 Phoenicia

3

Perfectly located, the Phoenicia overlooks Beirut marina, with views of the sea and the mountains from its tower rooms. All marble columns and glittering chandeliers, this is a (pricey) gem.

hotel de l’euroPe Set in one of the oldest and most fashionable neighbourhoods in Beirut, this converted mansion offers 33 rooms kitted out in French luxe, (think tapestries and Louis XIV dressing tables) with service fit for royalty.

4 Gefinor rotana

s.t.a.y.

The name of this stylish restaurant in the Souks refers to Yannick Alléno, the three times Michelinstarred chef, but it’s really about elegance here, with artful dishes and big flavours. The terrace opens after 6pm.

8

A business hotel set in an historic neighbourhood, the Gefinor competes with the higher-end hotels at a much cheaper rate. The tiki-tiki cocktails at Trader Vic’s bar are a must, but the highlight is its rooftop infinity pool.

restaurants 5 centrale

Tucked away near artsy Saifi Village, Centrale is distinct for its modern design, French fusion menu and Lebanese wines, all set in a traditional house with a covered courtyard. There’s also a great rooftop bar.

6 Karam Beirut

Minimal décor, delicious food and attractive views of a tree-lined square make up for the abundance of tourists at this restaurant. The grilled kebbe balls, lamb kafta, and olives and flat bread are all delicious.

7

Wadi Walima A beautiful garden terrace spot that offers an oasis from bustling Hamra. Tucked away in an old Lebanese house, it offers an eclectic menu with local wine and a popular light brunch option.

Bars/cluBs 9 element

The epitome of swanky, don’t even bother if you’re not dressed to impress – the door policy here is ruthless. However, don’t be fooled by the high-fashion crowd; with wallets at the ready, they’re out to have a good night.

10 time out (la closerie)

This tranquil and cosy bar provides the perfect place to chill after a hard day’s work in the office or at the spa. The inside resembles a quiet English country house, and offers plenty of options with which to wash down the fine food.

11 sKyBar

This world-famous outdoor club is a favourite of locals and tourists. It comes at a price, but the sea and mountain views, fireworks, celebrity guests and pumping music make it worth it.

12 iris

This sophisticated rooftop bar has a relaxed vibe, perfect for a summer’s afternoon-cum-evening.

Whether you’re in need of some seafood cuisine or a delicious cocktail, Iris’ offerings are outdone only by the iconic Beirut views.

Galleries 13 Janine ruBeiz Gallery

This gallery showcases works by Lebanese and Arab artists, and has a large selection of local pieces for sale. Started by 1960s cultural icon Janine Rubeiz, it serves as a meeting point for artists and writers to talk, create and argue.

48

14 aGial art Gallery

This gallery, which is owned by a prominent local collector and art dealer, is the place to go for Arab art, with exhibitions from artists such as Syrian Sabhan Adam and Iraqi Shakir Hassan Al Said. Expect a new show every month.

15 sursocK museum

A mix of modern and ancient art set inside a Lebanese-Italian mansion. Permanent exhibits include ancient jars, pottery and icons.

It also hosts modern retrospectives of Lebanese and Arab artists from around the region.

16 national museum

This houses a large and impressive collection of objects that chart the seven millennia of Lebanese history. With walls adorned in the mother of all alphabets – Phoenician – the museum is a trove of artefacts from the region.

Taj. Forever seductive, forever trusted, forever enchanting. From authentic Indian palaces to landmark c it y hot e l s , f r om d a z z l i n g r e s or t pr op e r t ie s t o p a s t or a l s a f a r i lo d ge s , e nj o y a t hou g ht f u l ble nd of t rad it ion a nd moder n it y i n t he d ist i nct ive a nd h ig h ly persona l Taj ma n ner. Fabu lous su ites, splend id d i n i n g , a nd t r a nq u i l Ji v a s p a s a w a it . D i s c ov e r t he Ta j d i f f e r e nc e a t ov e r 10 0 hot e l s a r ou nd t he w or ld .

F o r r e s e r v a t i o n s a n d s p e c i a l o f f e r s p l e a s e v i s i t t a j h o t e l s . c o m , c a l l 1 . 8 6 6 . 9 6 9 .18 2 5 i n t h e U. S . a n d C a n a d a , 1 . 8 0 0 .111 . 8 2 5 i n I n d i a , 8 0 0 . 0 3 5 .7 0 2 . 4 6 7 i n t h e U A E , a n d 0 0 . 8 0 0 . 4 5 8 8 .18 2 5 f r o m a l l ot her cou nt r ies, ema i l reser vat ions @ tajhotels.com or contact you r t ravel consu lta nt.

I nd i a • Ne w Yor k • Bos ton • S a n Fr a nc i s c o • L ondon • C a p e Tow n • Z a mbi a • Ma r r a ke c h • D uba i • Ma ld i v e s • Sr i L a n k a • L a ng k aw i • Bhut a n • Syd ne y

the water riddle T h e ris e of The b oT Tled waTer mar keT is someThing ThaT h as p u z z l ed economisTs and consumers alike. JusT why d o we pay for iT ? and is waTer ever r eally fr ee?

e like to think of ourselves as rational, sane people.

We make decisions, particularly economic decisions, based on sound judgments and well-thought-out arguments. The reality of course, is much the opposite.

We are, more than we like to admit, led by our emotions.

If you want evidence of this, look no further than the bottled water market, worth some $70 billion.

On the face of it, it seems like an absurd market – why pay for something that is free and, at least in the developed world, safe and readily available? Comparing water to other commodities, however, is a mistake. As water expert Stephen J Dunber has pointed out, when we buy bottled water, we are not buying water. We are buying convenience, coldness and branding, as well as some measure of safety reassurance.

W

In the Gulf, we are buying a commodity that is costly to produce locally, with hugely expensive desalination plants needed to convert seawater into drinkable water. Lebanon is a country rich in natural water, and despite a population of less than 5 million people, it has seven major bottled water brands, many which are exported to the GCC. The idea of paying for bottled water is relatively new, and when it first appeared on the market, the media claimed it was a fad. It was the French company Perrier that changed everything in 1974. That was the first time water was marketed as a drink, something that should be paid for. And while the Financial Times claimed the campaign was a waste of time – adding that bottled water would only be drunk by ‘cranks 51

and foreigners’ – the market paid no heed. In 1976 sales of bottled water in Europe hit 3 million litres; this figure had risen to 300 million litres by 1991 in Britain alone.

The branding of water has worked – and the message is the same for all the water companies: bottled water is pure, refreshing, healthy, clean. The subtext is that tap water is not always any of these things; a dubious claim, but one that serves the advertisers well.

However, the backlash against bottled water (led by everyone from environmentalists to economists) has missed one important point – water should not be free in the first place.

Resources that are free are wasted, and people assume the resource is unlimited. Water is not unlimited; it’s not free to

pipe into our taps, yet we don’t (in most cases) have to pay for it.

So why do it? One writer referred to the spelling of Evian backwards (Naïve) to make the point that consumer’s are being bamboozled by false claims and slick marketing. The truth, as always, is slightly more complicated.

The bottled water industry is not immune however, to the rising awareness of global warming and the damaging aspects of plastic production. For some, drinking bottled water is just not an ecologically sound process. A 2001 study noted that 75 per cent of bottled water originates from protected sources such as springs and underground aquifers.

The production and packaging of bottled water is another issue. Many see the entire process as incredibly wasteful,

A BRIEF HISTORY OF PIRATES Blackbeard

1

Blackbeard (Edward Teach) had a short-lived pirate career, lasting less than five years. He was, however, pretty good at plundering, commanding a fleet of four ships and more than 300 pirates. He wreaked havoc in the Caribbean until 1718, when he was killed in a bloody battle with forces from the US state of Virginia.

2 52

One of the least ferocious of our rogue’s gallery, Captain Pugwash was

captain pugwash

sir francis drake

not a successful pirate, despite his entry into the ‘Pirate of the Year’ contest in 1775. In fact, it’s hard to pinpoint one bit of piracy he ever undertook. He was cowardly and rather stupid; although he claimed he was the “bravest buccaneer,” he was nothing of the sort.

3

One man’s Sir is another man’s pirate, at least in the case of Francis Drake, who was revered by the English, but hated by the Spanish. He carried out

lew zealand

the second circumnavigation of the world in 1577 and when not breaking records, he was breaking heads, as he and his fleet invaded numerous foreign ports. He had his comeuppance in 1596, when he died of dysentery.

4

One of the most talented pirates in history, Lew invented the ‘Boomerang Fish’ manoeuvre, in which he could throw a fish and it would spiral back to him. He also can play a ‘fish

particularly given the fact that the ‘same’ product is available without either, via the household tap.

Others point to the dubious claims of the water manufacturers, and indeed many studies have cited cases where tap water was cleaner than bottled water. Blind ‘taste tests’ have also shown that the majority of consumers can’t tell the difference between bottled and tap water. In one experiment on the US breakfast show Good Morning America, New York City tap water was preferred over bottled water brands such as 02, Poland Spring and Evian.

So if tap water tastes as good, and is as safe, why has the bottled water market become so big? Whatever the critics think, the market doesn’t lie, and no one is claiming the

captain hook

long john silver

organ,’ a line of fish that when squeezed, emits a series of gargles. He also played havoc in Muppet Treasure Island, a puppet-based paen to piracy.

5

Peter Pan’s nemesis is also one of the most fearsome pirates in the history of, er, pirates, with a hook for a hand and a penchant for making his enemies ‘walk the plank’. His two fears were the sight of his own blood and a crocodile that ate his hand.

market for bottled water is set to disappear or even diminish.

Well, as Dunber has pointed out, consumers are not buying a commodity in the strictest sense; they are paying for convenience and coldness.

So, whatever the cries for a leaner, more environmentally sound approach to water, it will be very hard to convince the hundreds of millions of people around the world to switch back to tap water.

Indeed, the bottled water market looks set to be worth more than a trillion dollars in the next decade – and no industry that size is going away anytime soon. But, the next time you reach for that bottle of water, be aware that there are other, cheaper, greener solutions.

jack sparrow

6

The most iconic pirate to ever sail the seas, LJS had a pet parrot on his shoulder and a wooden leg. One of the most astute pirates, he was adept at political manoeuvres and financially smart, unlike most of his spendthrift colleagues. He also had a long, prosperous retirement.

7

An amalgamation of Keith Richards and Pepe Le Pew, Captain Jack is the ultimate rock ‘n’

abdul hassan

roll pirate, eyeliner and all. His skill lies in his wits and brain, as he is not particularly brave, or strong. He does have charisma in spades, however.

8

One of the new breed of 21st century pirates, Abdul Hassan is a Somali pirate known as ‘the one who never sleeps’. There are quite a few people who would like him to stay in bed each morning, but he and his men continue to attack passing boats.

53

MY TRAVELLED LIFE CEDELLA MARLEY, DESIGNER, 44

ON MY FATHER

ON CREATIVITY

scale. No one goes to the store to buy a

Dad, and mum, spent a lot of time on the

Whether it’s music or fashion, the creative

wedding dress: a friend will make it. And if

road, so our great aunt looked after us for long

process is all about the vibe. In music, it’s

you look at any Jamaican movie, like Rockers,

periods. When they were home, I remember

about making that vibe a reality through

it has a unique style. There was no wardrobe

spending time on the beach, running, eating

words; in fashion, you sketch it out and

department – people wore what they wanted.

fish and drinking juice – carrot, turnip,

express yourself through fabrics. My father still

all kinds of juices, which dad made. He

influences my work – he told us to be true to

loved juice. I don’t think he achieved true

ourselves, and to try and change things in the

ON CHARITY

superstardom until after he passed away, but

way we think is right. Being Jamaican is also

Giving back is always important – the more

what fame he did have, I wasn’t aware of.

an influence. Jamaicans are independent, we

you give, the more you receive. 1Love [the

don’t let anyone tell us how to run our lives.

Marley family charity] helps us keep dad’s message alive. Working with the charity is

ON MARLEY

something that is part of our DNA.

From what I’ve seen, I think it was a fair

ON JAMAICAN FASHION

reflection of Dad. It humanised him – showed

Jamaica may not have many big names in

Cedella Marley worked with Puma to design

him in a different light. But, to be honest with

fashion, but it has a lot of talented designers

the Olympic wear for the Jamaican Track &

you, I’ve watched less than half of it. Other

– a lot of seamstresses working on a smaller

Field Team. www.puma.com

people should watch it, but for me, there were a lot of things that took place towards the end of his life that I didn’t know, and that it’s tough to learn, even now.

ON TRAVELLING I’m based in Florida sometimes, and in other parts of the world at other times, but in truth, I’m not really a big traveller. Somewhere I really love, though, is Ethiopia, which I visited as part of the celebrations for dad’s 50th birthday. We toured the palace of his Haile Selassie, and saw the lions that he kept in his private zoo. It was one of the most amazing moments in my life.

55

place HOOVER DAM •

U N I T E D STAT E S

•

YEAR BUILT: 1936

PHOTO: BRIAN LOPIccOLO

A RC H I T E C T U R E M APPED

56

THIS EID, WE ARE LIGHTING UP THE SKY. EID Festival 2012 at Katara.

In celebration of Eid, Katara is asking you to look up! Experience Eid like never before with a magnificent 15-minute fireworks display that will surely leave you and your family in awe. So join us at the Katara beachfront each night for the four nights of Eid and make this holiday your most memorable Eid yet.

Bank Partner

For more details please visit

store U R BA N C ARTO G RA P H Y

• BIG BLUE

•

side from its pristine white beaches and sparkling blue seas, Koh Tao’s main draw for tourists is its proximity to a huge number of world class dive sites.

The chances are, if you’re heading to this island in the Gulf of Thailand, you’ll come face to face with a turtle (Koh Tao literally means ‘Turtle Island’) or swim alongside an angelfish in a nearby shipwreck or marine park.

Thailand’s premier diving destination is packed full of shacks offering you the chance to pick up a PADI qualification as an alternative to the hard partying offered by nearby islands.

“The appeal of Koh Tao for divers is obvious,” says Jim Donaldson, general manager of Big Blue Diving, perhaps the island’s best known diving resort, as he gestures towards the ocean. “There’s a great atmosphere here and the vibe is very relaxed. The sea is around 29 to 30 degrees all year round and it’s the only place I know with a twelve month season. The wildlife is exceptional too; the water is teeming with whale sharks, turtles, bull sharks and black tips.”

Despite its spectacular diving, the 21 sq km island was only ‘discovered’ in the early 1990s. Before the backpackers headed over in their dreadlocked droves, it lay uninhabited except for a brief period in the 1930s when it was used as a political prison, before being abandoned again in the 1940s. Now it attracts 100,000 visitors every year and its 1,500 or so permanent residents work almost exclusively in the tourism industry.

Big Blue was set up in 1991 to cater for the burgeoning diving market as nearby Koh Samui became a must-visit on the South East Asian backpacker trail. “As Samui became a hot spot for tourism, people would take slow boats over to 58

KOH TAO

•

DIVING

TexT: GABY DOMAN // iMAGe:BiG BLUe DiViNG

Koh Tao for diving trips, stay the night in a beach hut and then head back to Samui,” says Donaldson. “It made sense to set up dive resorts here.”

Big Blue was the second dive company to set up in Koh Tao, which is now packed with dozens of dive schools across the island. Its two beachfront locations have attracted an estimated 50,000 divers.

Focusing on the backpacker market, clients tend to be young, on tight budgets and primarily from Europe or Japan, Donaldson says.

The company offers diving trips to the area’s three best dive spots, Ang Thong, Chumphon Marine National Park and Sail Rock. “This is a great spot for diversity of diving,” says Donaldson. “We can offer cave diving, deep diving, marine parks and wrecks, all within a very short distance from the island. There is, within sight of the dive shack, a World War Two shipwreck 30 metres down.”

The hard work of diving is mixed with plenty of lazing about. Even class time is relaxed, with students learning the theoretical side of diving in large and airy rooms overlooking the beach, with cushions strewn around to recline on.

The practical side takes place in the specially designed split-depth pool, where divers learn to breathe underwater and handle their diving equipment. Big Blue’s dorms and bungalows range cheap sixbedders to mid-range beachside villas which divers stay in for the duration of their courses. Donaldson has plans for expansion, including a newly acquired boat, a second beachfront dive shack and a spa. “I do worry that one day the bubble will burst, but right now Koh Tao has never been more popular.”

Big Blue Diving, Sairee Beach, Koh Tao, (66) 77456 415; www.bigbluediving.com 59

main P. 62 • meditations on a cruise

P. 70 • tHe JaWs eFFect

P. 78 • tHe sWimmer

P. 88• enter tHe Void

61

the cruise 63

A

t 7pm on the evening we leave Barcelona, hailstones the size of walnuts began battering the glass ba lcony of St ate r o om 6660. The skies were a dark grey, the Mediterranean visible for a few metres before swirling mists engulf everything. It was not a very good omen.

By the time the first hailstones had fallen, I had taken part in an emergency muster, had queued for 40 minutes at Guest Services to be told they only had one plug adaptor and they were using it; had seen a man in a medieval performer’s outfit dance past a giant inflatable penguin; I had tried to avoid my Stateroom Attendant (the nautical equivalent of a one-man room service team); and had read the foreword to Dick Cheney’s autobiography, In My

Time in the library on Deck Seven.

I was on a cruise. My first; and a window into a massive chunk of the global travel industry, a sector much maligned, much mocked, but also much appreciated by the 19 million passengers who sailed on cruises last year, contributing to an industry worth more than $30 billion.

I was expecting elderly couples, wizened from years of blue and white-collar toil, enjoying a last hurrah before their hearts, or their wallets, gave way.

But no, this was as demographically wide as travel gets. There were Japanese couples in their thirties, families from Arizona, a couple from China on their honeymoon, groups of women in their forties from Ireland; this was a global clientele.

Earlier, as we waited for the allclear during the emergency muster, I listened to the conversations around me: A man from Flagstaff, Arizona, explaining in great detail the route he took from his home to his office; two 64 the cruise

teenage girls from the North West of England debating the merits of getting an injection to ward off sea sickness; a young American girl asking her mother when they could eat (“not ‘til we unpack” was the answer). It was at this first muster, where everyone had to leave their cabins, and rendezvous at a designated point on the ship, that I realised I could well be the only person traveling alone on the ship.

The ‘ship’ is the Liberty of the Seas, a $800 million, 150,000 tonne, 18-deck monster that can hold 4,000 passengers and nearly 1,500 crew. Travel literature has largely ignored the cruise ship – while there are countless books that celebrate the train, the car, the motorbike, even walking, it is hard to imagine say, Paul Theroux, devoting a book to a cruise journey.

David Foster Wallace, the late American writer, did write about a cruise for Harper’s magazine, but you only had to read the title – A Supposedly Fun Thing I Will Never Do Again – to see how America’s literary elite views the cruise ship industry. Foster Wallace is not the only American heavyweight to experience a cruise; both Jonathan Franzen and Bret Easton Ellis have included cruises in their books. Both writers see the cruise as a slice of American life – focusing on the plaid slacks, the calorific buffets and the soul-crushing small talk. It’s literary shorthand for Americana, a device that allows the writer to travel outside America without ever truly leaving it.

Is this true? Is the cruise ship merely a vast receptacle upon which to transport society’s most unimaginative travelers to historical places of interest. Can you actually ‘see’ Rome in seven hours? And does it matter if you cannot? Certainly no one onboard seemed to know, or care, what America’s literary establishment thought of

them. Indeed, it is tempting to imagine that not much thinking goes on at all.

Everything has already been thought of, so why bother?

To illustrate this, some of the things you can purchase onboard include: a temporary tattoo in the shape of a lizard, a painting, a frapuccino with whipped cream, a ‘his and hers’ watch set, a teeth whitening kit, a man’s Polo shirt, a metabolism report, a stuffed teddy bear, a bottle of champagne.

Some of the things you can do include: take part in an AA meeting, play any one of more than 50 arcade games, pray in the Skylight Chapel, climb a 35-feet outdoor climbing wall. Or, go see Cannes.

The morning after we leave Barcelona, we arrive in Cannes. We disembark in groups; the tenders can only hold around 100 passengers each, and the whole process has the air of a welloiled evacuation. There are no customs or passport checks when we dock, we simply show our Pass cards to the Royal Caribbean officials who wave us

the cruise has long been a form of literary shorthand for American writers through. Is this OK? Does an ‘RC’ card now qualify as an international travel document? Seemingly it does. My fellow passengers are among the more adventurous on the cruise ship – we are not on any of the seven tours offered but have chosen to explore Cannes alone.

The tow n is undeniably beauti-

ful; cream and peach coloured town houses stretch along the shore and up into the hills that ring the town. The sea front is dotted with super yachts, although they all look like dinghies compared to the Liberty.

Yes, the Liberty, docked a half a mile out from the port, looms over the town, mocking the pretensions of the south of France. As men in Patek Philippe watches drink $8 Expressos; men in boardshorts and England jerseys surf on an artificial wave maker, while DJ Bombay plays cartoon theme tunes for toddlers, who dance around giant, colourful toadstools; all oblivious to the impending Film Festival, an event that has the promenade full of trucks, and crates of Evian and Absolut piled high.

A huge poster of Marilyn Monroe blowing out a candle on a birthday cake

hangs over the Palais Des Festivals – there to mark the 65th anniversary of Cannes. A large American woman standing outside the Gucci store (its entrance blocked by a large group of Indians taking photographs of the store windows) wonders aloud which Lindsay Lohan film the poster is promoting.

Th i s pu nc t u r i n g of t he rat he r pompous Hollywood-chic posturing that infects Canne each year is quite satisfying. Although it’s hard to believe there are people in America who don’t know what Marily n Monroe looks like. Blame TMZ. I wander back towards the port and find a restaurant, where, under the watchful gaze of the Liberty, I eat the biggest, most delicious Nicoise salad of my life. I then walk across the road, through the non-existent customs and take a

boat back to the ship. Tuesday 7am: we berth at Livorno, 12km from Pisa, 62km from Florence. I stay behind.

I want to see who stays on the ship.

All the American passengers seem to have left. The multiple swimming pools are surrounded by Irish, English and German passengers, reading newspapers, Dan Brown books and drinking cocktails. A speaker system blasts out dance remixes of pop songs at ever increasing volumes. A band is setting up their equipment across from the main bar. Men in flowery shirts shout out drinks orders – pink margaritas and Fosters in cans are being handed around. A few hundred metres away lies Livorno, bombed to oblivion during the Second World War, it is now a grimly functional port town, happy to divert tourists to the the cruise 65

jewel of Northern Italy: Florence. Why have these people not left the ship?

Even the crew members who present the morning show on the ship’s information channel (the omnipresent James and John) seem perplexed by the notion that anyone would stay on the ship when Michaelangelo’s Statue of David is less than an hour away by coach. “Why would you stay?” groans James, in a rather charming bit of honesty, quickly deflected by his sidekick John: ‘Well, we have a lot to offer today, for those that do want to stay onboard”.

Once docked at port, the Liberty shuts down. No longer in international waters, the electronic payment systems that process the room cards are shut off and

why would you stay on the ship when the statue of david is 60 minutes away? the stores, which hawk everything from cup cakes to handbags are closed, their Duty Free status temporarily revoked.

The Liberty may be a Nassau-registered ship, and the cruise may be through European waters, but this is a very American experience. The ships interior is reminiscent of a Las Vegas hotel – indeed the same passengers have undoubtedly spent time at the Vegas slots. Europe then, seen through American eyes. A large number of the passengers – much more than I expected – are American. And this is a very efficient way of seeing Europe.

Five nights at sea, and you can visit Cannes, Nice, Monte Carlo, Florence, Pisa, Rome and Barcelona.

66 the cruise

The tours. Those large groups of Americans being led through European capitals; all white hair, windcheaters and Nikons – well, there is a good chance at least some of them originated from a ship like the Liberty.

It is hard to know what this all means – is this the future of travel or the past?

Is this the choice of those who are too old or too unimaginative to travel any other way? Or is this the choice of the smart traveler, the one who knows that to attempt the Grand European Tour alone would be a costly, almost impossible task in 2012?

Of course, this only makes sense for those who leave the ship. It is questionable to wonder what sort of mind would take part in a cruise without ever leaving the Liberty.

I seem to be the only person traveling alone on the cruise. Anytime I ask for anything, I am automatically asked if I need two, from lattes to insurance forms. It seems inconceivable to the staff that anyone would travel on the cruise on their own. It is rapidly becoming inconceivable to me too. I sit alone on the tenders as they bring passengers to the ports. I sit alone in the coffee shop. I don’t go to the formal dinners as that would highlight my solitariness. Also I did not bring a suit.

The next day we reach Civitavecchia, a port town 80km northwest of Rome.

Four Liberty staff are dressed up as Roman gladiators, and they attempt to ‘persuade’ disembarking passengers to have their pictures taken. It is only later that I realize these photographs are for sale, beside the casino, for anything from $5 to $24. That explained the grimacing mimes at the port in Cannes.

I have signed up for the Rome by Foot tour, which consists of a train ride to St. Peters’ Train Station, eight hours of free time, and a train back to port. Again, I am the only single person on the train.

Rome is undeniably beautiful, if almost impossible to navigate due to the mass of tourists. The Steps of Rome resembles an outdoor nightclub, with a heaving mass of sweating photographers, touts and scam artists. I escape down some side streets and end up walking 10km around the city, eventually making it back to the train station with an hour to spare, exhausted and sweaty.

The last day of the cruise is at sea.

We pass through the Strait of Bonifacio, a narrow sliver of water that separates Corsica and Sardinia. For the rest of the day there is nothing to see – just water, a cruise ship sailing in the opposite direction and the occasional cargo ship. Around 4pm, a discombob-

It seems inconceivable to the staff that anyone would travel on a cruise alone ulated voice comes over the PA system announcing a whale can be seen on the starboard side of the ship. Shamefully I have to look up ‘Starboard’ on Google, to figure out which side of the ship I should go to. By the time I have done this and reached deck 4, we have passed the whale, although it can be seen in the distance, trashing in the water, sending huge drafts of white spray through the air. Some of the passengers ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’; one man, shirtless, claps wildly for three or four minutes, a massive grin on his face.

The last night of the cruise has an air of celebration about it. Men wander around in tuxedos, clutching plasthe cruise 67

tic cups of beer. Middle-aged women are dressed like they are going to their prom. There is a trivia quiz, a Latin Dance event, a screening of the Zookeeper in Spanish, a ‘Last Chance Lotto Draw’ in the casino, and a ‘Tanzanite & Diamond Sale’.

I sleep early, looking forward to Barcelona, but also sad that this will be my last night in Stateroom 6660. There was a sort of reassurance in the whole experience – that there are places where no one cares who you are, or what you look like; how you dress or what you do. Liberty of the Seas is one such place.

We reach Barcelona just after dawn.

It is a grey day in the Catalan capital and having decided to bring my bags off the ship myself (saving about 3 hours in the process), I am in the centre of the city by 5.30am. The streets are deserted, but its good to back on planet Earth.

68 the cruise

Barcelona is slightly mad; it’s architecture, its people, its food; they all sug-

and maybe this is what travel in the 21st century is all about; not having to choose gest a mild craziness. After five days at sea with thousands of strangers, it’s nice to be back on dry land. I wander around for hours, not really knowing where I am going, or even how to get back to the hotel where I dropped my bags off.

This is a good feeling. But an equally good feeling was ordering steaks with

my remote control on the Liberty and not having to pay for it. And maybe this is what travel in the 21st century is about. The ability not to have to choose. To have it all; to have free steaks delivered to your cabin, but also to see the Colosseum. To gorge on calories and on culture.

Mark Twain – who wrote a famous book about a cruise, The Innocents Abroad – once said that “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness”. It is hard to disagree with that, but I am unsure if my prejudices about the cruise industry have been changed all that much. It all seems rather tacky, rather forced and rather tawdry. Yet, it really doesn’t matter what I think. Or what you think, for that matter. Next year even more people will go on cruises. And they will have the time of their lives. And you can’t argue with that.

How jaws ate Hollywood why the rise of the summer blockbuster destroyed creative american cinema words by adam smith illustration by anthony zinonos

jaws effect

71

I

t was the summer of 1975 and the world, it seemed, had gone shark-crazy. Images of Great Whites were ever y wher e. Ther e wer e the T-shirts, of course, most bearing versions of the almost im mediately iconic movie poster: the extended rectangle, the bottom two-thirds a deep blue, the colour lightning gradually towards the sunlight that dappled the surface of the sea, the whole image dominated by the silhouette of the giant shark’s underside; its gaping, cavernous maw a harsh, dark crescent serrated with razor-sharp teeth, pointing upwards like a kind of ghastly arrow. Above it, a lone, hideously oblivious female swimmer splashes her way across the surface. And above her one word, in bold, blood red Franklin Gothic: JAWS. But as well as the apparel there were beachtowels, and mugs and inflatables that were under no circumstances to be used as floatation aids.

There were bumper-stickers (“Honk if I’m Jawsome!”) action figures and plush toys and pyjamas and pillow cases and baseball caps in all colours and sizes. There were pencil cases, colouring books, lunch boxes and plastic, shatterproof flasks for the kids. International toy company Ideal, detecting the thrilling rumble of a passing bandwagon, hurriedly retooled their popular family game Buckaroo, in which you carefully removed plastic

items from a spring-loaded mule, as a new shark-themed family favourite in which you gingerly extracted pieces of oceanic flotsam: anchors, life-rings, half a chewed ship’s wheel and a human skull from a plastic shark’s open mouth before it snapped shut. “For One Summer Only!” ice-cream flavours appeared in America’s malls and resorts – Jawberry, Sharkalate and for the less adventurous plain old Finilla. In one unedifying brouhaha animal rights activists had to stop one enthusiastic entrepreneur from hawking souvenir bottled shark foetuses pickled in formaldehyde.

Director Steven Spielberg – this c e l lu l o i d L e v i at h a n’s s p i r i t u a l father – had even proposed his own contribution to the merchandising frenzy: he envisioned boxes of little dark chocolate sharks filled with a gloopy cherr y sauce. When you bit into them the crimson goo would have oozed out. It would have looked for all the world like the shark-blood that exploded in a roiling geyster in the movie’s triumphant closing moments when Sheriff Brody puts a bullet in his piscine nemesis; a moment that had audiences across America, hell, across the world, leaping to their feet and cheering. Perhaps chastened by the whole shark-foetus thing Universal declared the confectionery to be in bad taste and demurred.

But there was no doubt that, like the hapless shark itself, Jaws, had exploded. It had become a full-blown cultural phenomenon. In the late summer of ‘75 the Universal Studios’ marketing department, by then no doubt in a state of multi-platform merchandis-

72 THE jaws EffEcT

ing ecstasy, put out yet another print ad in America’s then still thriving daily papers: it was an image of the smorgasboard of the Carcharodon carcharias-related tat that America had gone doolally for. “You know . . . it’s a movie too!” the headline boasted.

It was, and what a movie.

Later and later in that summer, again and again, the crowds flocked to see the giggly skinny-dipping girl run into the water and be yanked violently from side to side before vanishing silently below the waves; to recoil as the Kitner kid and his lilo met a similar, though so much more obvioulsy bloody fate; to yell at the screen in unison as the shark, mouth agape, rears into view behind Roy Schneider’s cop and finally to watch, pulses finally slowing, as our remaining half-drowned heroes swim to shore, the wreckage of their nemesis staining the sea red behind them.

But Jaws’ influence extends far beyond that now long distant summer.

Its unprecedented success and the intensity of the audience’s response to it, altered the course of popular film history. After Spielberg’s movie Hollywood’s idea of what a hit film was, how to conceive and release one, how to market, and sell it to an increasingly jaded public would never be the same. Jaws would certainly help save an industry that was still, even in the mid 70s, reeling from the collapse of the studio system – the network dream factories of the preceding post-war decades powered by stars and watched over by the God-like moguls such as MGM’s Louis B Mayer and Fox’s Daryl F Zanuck. But it would also be the harbinger of the end of a brief, strange, golden age in which directors such as Robert Altman, Hal Ashby, Francis Coppola and Mike

Nichols had used Hollywood as their personal playground and, with films such as The Graduate , Being There , The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, and for a short moment forged a genuinely independent kind of Hollywood movie. So, for good or ill, it signalled the beginning of the Hollywood we recognise today, one dominated by biger and bigger gargantuan franchises, the Batmans and Avengers

for good or ill, jaws signalled the birth of hollywood as we know it that, good as they sometimes are, rely as much on their marketing as on any inherent appeal, ambiguity or originality. One kind of film, then, was dying, about to become an endangered species, to be replaced by another; this was cinematic survival of the fitted in action. For film-lovers then, looking back to what was happening on the cinema screens in the summer of ‘75 is as bittersweet as a dark chocolate shark with a cherry filling.

In the early 1960s, Peter Benchley, an ex-presidential speechwriter, jobbing journalist and aspiring novelist had begun to ponder the idea of a book about a Great White shark that, as he put it, “arrived someplace and wouldn’t go away”. It would be based in part on a

THE jaws EffEcT 73

true event – in 1916 there had been a series of shark attacks on the New Jersey Shore, in which four people had died and which had caused a public panic, a media sensation and the closing of public beaches – and also on the life and exploits of an extraordinary man called Frank Mundus, a big-game fisherman who, aboard his boat the Cricket II, had once harpooned a four and a half thousand pound Great White off Long Island to much local excitement.

(Benchley would transform Mundus into Quint, played in the film with a flinty insanity by Robert Shaw after Lee Marvin turned down the role, while his ramshackle tub become The Orca). Benchley played with the idea for a few years before mentioning it to his agent who, intrigued, but by no means wowed, wrote him a cheque for $1,000 and sent him to a converted turkey coop in Connecticut to start writing a 100-page sample. “ The g reat fi sh moved silent ly through the night water . . .” Benchley began typing. “. . . the eyes were sightless in the black and the other senses 74 THE jaws EffEcT

transmitted nothing extraordinary to the small, primitive brain.” And with those words one of modern culture’s greatest, most frightening monsters was born.

But the story of Jaws the movie, the film that would change Holly wood

jaws had its start on a beach near la where spielberg, scorcese, lucas, coppola and de palma used to hang out and talk forever, that would launch the career of, with the possible exception of Alfred Hitchcock, Holly wood’s most successful and recognised director, had its beginnings, appropriately enough on a SoCal beach where the new young crowd of wannabe actors and directors gathered at the week-

ends. While Benchley got down to charting the adventures of Quint, Brody, and Hooper in Connecticut these kids: Spielberg, his best pal Brian De Palma, Taxi Driver scribe Paul Schrader, George Lucas, Margot Kidder, John Milius and Francis Coppola, would hang out, drink, smoke and plot their respective futures.

Martin Scorsese was another regular, though not one as enthusiastic about the locale. The angst y New Yorker, was terrified of the water and unwilling to take his clothes off, embarrassed by his pasty East Coast physique. “A re you coming in?” a beach-shorted Spielberg once asked his, as usual, fully-clothed friend.

Scorsese peered nervously at the sea where Milius, later to co-write Jaws and direct surf classic Big Wednesday, was splashing away as usual.

“No way,” he said. “You know there’s things in there,” he said, gazing at the glistening Pacific. And then, after pausing he added, “things with teeth.”

Is it too fanciful to think, then, that that’s why when a few months later Spielberg wandered into David Brown and Richard Zanuck’s (who sadly died earlier this year) office – the producers who had taken a gamble on him with his debut The Sugarland Express the year before – and saw a thick screenplay with the single word Jaws on the cover, his friend’s phobia was one of the reasons he swiped it off the desk and took it home for reading? (Though he later said, possibly with tongue lodged in cheek, that he thought it might be a story about a dentist.)

The novel had been published by Doubleday in 1973, was a hit and had subsequently been the bait for something of a Hollywood feeding frenzy with Alfred Hitchcock interested at one point as well as Look Who’s Coming To Dinner’s Stanley Kramer and the then

if we had read jaws twice, we would have never made the film. the technical challenges were immense hot The Culpepper Cattle Company director Dick Richards who managed to impress no-one and lose the gig by referring to ‘The Whale’ throughout his pitch meeting. Zanuck and Brown finally paid $175,000 for the property, after reading it over a weekend and both being of the opinion that it would make a great movie.

What they didn’t immediately apprehend were the mammoth technical challenges that bringing it to the screen would entail. “If we’d read that book twice,” Zanuck later remarked, “ we’d never have bought it.”

The shoot itself was an infamous debacle. Having vacillated about the project – a number of writers took runs at the screenplay including John Milius, Pulitzer-winner Howard Sackler, Spielberg himself and T V comedy writer Carl Gottlieb, who appeared in a small role in the film mainly so he could be on set for the numerous lastminute rewrites – Spielberg chose to film on Martha’s Vineyard, a pretty, affluent vacation spot unused to the hurly burly of a movie shoot and less than happy about having a 25-foot polyurethane shark parked in the bay.

In fact Spielberg had carefully chosen his location for technical reasons as well as aesthetic ones. Nine miles out to sea, with land vitally out of the camera’s sight in all directions (in order to increase the audience’s sense

of the crew of The Orca being utterly isolated and beyond help) the water’s depth was still only 30 feet. These were perfect conditions it seemed for the divers and effects technicians to operate ‘Bruce’ the $200,000 shark, or rather three of them, all named after Spielberg’s lawyer, that were being constructed in Los Angeles by effects veteran Robert Mattey who had provided the squid for Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. In fact the saltwater was brutal on Bruce’s hydraulics. On his first outing he flopped around hopelessly for a few minutes before sinking to the bottom of the Atlantic. “We thought our careers were going down with him,” remarked Brown. By the end of the week grips were mordantly referring the the shoot as ‘Flaws’. “All you could hear for months and months were the crew’s radios crackling “the shark’s not working . . . repeat . . . the shark’s not working . . .” remembers Richard Dreyfuss, a relative unknown whom Spielberg had cast as the ichthyologist Hooper, a nervily effective counterbalance to Shaw’s Ahab-like Quint.

Attempts off the coast of Australia to get real-life shark/human attack footage using a midget in a miniature cage were stymied when, after a single attempt, the terrified dwarf locked himself in the ship’s toilet and refused to get back in the water.

Originally budgeted at just over $3 million and set for a 55-day shoot Jaws finally wrapped after 159 filming days, almost half a year, and having burned through $10 million of Universal’s money. Spielberg found himself in a state of near total nervous collapse, a state not helped by his stars badmouthing the film in an interview with Time magazine. “It’ll be the turkey of the year,” Dreyfuss confidently announced, no doubt recalling the weeks of hanging around waiting for Bruce to be raised yet again from the watery depths, or for that matter the incident in which The Orca had almost sunk with him, Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider, and all hands.

“Get the actors off the boat!” various panicked producers had yelled. (John R Carter, the brilliant if somewhat ancient sound man, then up to his waist in seawater, had gallantly held the day’s sound reels over his head and bellowed “Screw the actors, save the sound department.”)

“The damned shark looks plastic and it’s cross-eyed,” sniffed Brian De Palma when a nervous Spielberg first screened footage for his buddies, later describing the screening as being ‘like a wake’. (In fact the notoriously prickly De Palma, a couple of years later to make his own name with the blood-drenched Carrie, would make a habit of castigating his friends’ early efforts. “What is this THE jaws EffEcT 75

piece of crap?” he yelled at George Lucas’s Star Wars, before adding for good measure “May the farts be with you!”).

He was of course right. Bruce never looked particularly convincing, much to Spielberg’s disappointment. But he found his saviour in ace editor Verna Fields, ‘Mother Cutter’, as she was known to the young filmmakers she surrounded herself with with.

By reducing shots of the shark to the bare minimum Field increased the tension, letting the audience’s imagination do the bulk of the heavy lifting.

Her precision editing together with John Williams’ elegant, minimalist but infinitely flexible score left Bruce’s unfortunately unnatural appearance almost completely unnoticed by satisfyingly terrified audiences.

In June 1975 Jaws opened in an almost unprecedented 409 cinemas, backed by a vastly expensive radio and TV campaign (still a novelty even in the mid 1970s). In its first weekend - that nail-biting stretch that would in the years to come become the litmus test of huge success or catastrophic failure, from almost then on in Hollywood recognising nothing in between – had grossed just over $7 million dollars. “I stared at the numbers,” Spielberg remembered, “and I kept waiting for the them to drop off. But weekend after weekend it went up and up.”

By the end of the summer Jaws had become the first movie to pass the

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$100 million mark. There had been hits before of course; the likes of Gone With The Wind which had filled theatres in the 30s and 40s. But there was something ineluctably modern about how Jaws hit its mostly youthful audience; it was the first film to engage an audience with such incredible collectivity, it was impossible to miss. “Movies

by the end of the summer, jaws had become the first movie in history to pass the $100 million mark, an astonishing figure used to be a solitary experience,” David Brown told journalist Tom Shone. “But with Jaws people started to talk back to the screen, and applaud shadows. The whole notion of applauding a movie . . . it would have been ludicrous before . . .”

Jaws had ushered in the age of the blockbuster - the word hadn’t even been used widely in terms of a successful movie before. And by the 80s another new phrase, ‘high concept’ was the buzzword being quoted in Hollywood’s chic executive offices.

Any movie that couldn’t have its essence, its intrinsic audience appeal,

immediately condensed into a short sentence, the fewer words the better, was unlikely to get a meeting let alone a budget. The question to any wannabe screenwriter was could you come up with a concept as brutally efficient, as commercially irresistible as Jaws’ ex post facto log-line - SHARK ATTACK!. Spielberg had provided a template for a new kind of movaie experience, and a new kind of industry grew up to provide it. Even at the time he was ambivalent about the film’s success, and about what it might do to the kind of movies he loved. “Jaws is almost like I’m directing the audience with a cattle prod, it was the simplest movie I had ever seen,” he later said.

After Jaws’ “We’re gonna need a bigger movie!” became Hollywood’s m a nt r a . Now bud get s h ave s o a red past $250 million. Production decisions begin in marketing departments rather than ending there and selling a movie can cost as much, or more than making it. Careers are made and destroyed on whether a film rakes in over a billion dollars in boxoffice takings. With his masterpiece Jaws , still one of the greatest popmovies ever made, Steven Spielberg had certainly helped create a monster, but it was of a kind that even he could hardly have foreseen.

Adam Smith is a film writer based in London who works for Empire Magazine.

the swimmer Diana nyad is a 62-year-old woman whose attempt to swim from cuba to florida is fraught with danger. But, as noah davis explains, this is no ordinary athlete

B

y the time you read these words, Diana Nyad may have successfully swum the treacherous 103-mile stretch of ocean between Havana, Cuba and Key West, Florida, a task that will take her between 60 and 70 hours.

Or she may have failed for the fourth time in her extraordinary life and the third time in the past two years. But if you bear with us for a few paragraphs, you’ll learn that the outcome isn’t the point. Her success or failure doesn’t much matter.

Except first, understand that it really does. It’s a goal the 62-year-old woman has been trying to accomplish since she was 28, a span of time that includes a 31-year stretch in which she says she didn’t swim a stroke.

Nyad, a legend in the world of water, the woman who broke a 45-year-old record for circling Manhattan Island in 1975, has wondered if she could traverse the stretch of open ocean since she was a small child watching her parents salsa at Havana’s Hotel 80 The swimmer

Nacional before the Cuban revolution. She plans to attack the absurdly challenging quest at some point between July and mid-August, waiting for the perfect opportunity to plunge into the balmy water.

So on an individual level, it matters very much whether she drags herself out of the ocean after two and a half days of swimming – just think about that for a second – and collapses onto the Florida sand. It would be a staggering feat of endurance, the most impressive individual achievement in a lifetime spent pushing the limits of the human body.

But in the What Does It All Mean sense, the success or failure of Nyad’s individual quest has little bear-

ing. See, swimming 103 miles is actually the easy part. Virtually no one who knows about these things doubts that Nyad can accomplish the feat.

For one, she’s already done so, swimming 102.5 miles between North Bimini Island, Bahamas and Juno beach, Florida. Sure, that was more than 30 years ago, but open-water marathon swimmers improve with age, as they learn to deal mentally with the hours upon hours of repetitive motion and boredom. For another, Nyad’s success or failure depends upon factors she can’t control, namely the notoriously unreliable weather in the Florida Straits and the box jellyfish. Especially the box jellyfish.

(We’ll get to those deadly animals in

Think about it for a second: two and a half days of straight swimming through shark-infested waters

The swimmer

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a minute). The world watching her quest understands this reality. They know she’s already won a bigger battle: the one against aging. Merely her sexagenarian muscles and tendons, getting arms and legs into the type of shape required to swim 100 miles represents a victory, actual outcome be damned.

“It used to be when your parents were 40, they were wearing highwaisted trousers and lifting their cocktails for curls. The world is a very different place now. I really do think

she’s redefining what life means when you’re supposed to be in the autumn of your lifetime,” says Mel Stewart, a double gold medalist at the 1992 Olympic Games and 14-time US champion in the 200m butterfly. “I think that’s the biggest and most inspiring message of her swim.”

82 The swimmer

Nyad offers a simpler explanation: “It’s been this wake-up call to me. I want to feel empowered at this age and send a message worldwide that 62 is not old. In your 60s, you should still

mother remarried. By the age of nine, the family moved to Fort Lauderdale and frequently travelled to Cuba before the revolution. “I used to look across that ocean and think, ‘It’s right there. I

over the past 30 years there has been a global proliferation of killers - box jellyfish - whose stings can be fatal

be working, you should still be accomplishing and your chi should still be very strong.”

To prove her point, she’s swimming across an ocean. It’s been a long journey to this moment. Nyad was born in 1949 in New York City. Her father passed away when she was three and her

wonder if anyone could ever swim over there,’” she says with enough enthusiasm to remove any questions about whether the memory is apocryphal.

Nyad’s elite swimming career began in earnest at Pine Crest School, where she trained under Hall of Fame coach Jack Nelson. She won state championships in the 100m and 200m backstroke, but turned to marathon swimming in 1970 after meeting International Swimming Hall of Fame director Buck Dawson. Her 1975 swim around Manhattan, a record-breaking feat she accomplished in seven hours and 57 minutes, pushed her into the national spotlight.

Her confidence and charisma did the rest to make her a star. Stewart groups Nyad with Bill Clinton and JFK Jr in terms of personal magnetism.

Three years after circumnavigating the United States’ largest city, Nyad made headlines again when she attempted to swim from Cuba to Florida in a 20’ x 40’ shark cage. After 42 hours in choppy seas, her team pulled her out of the water. After being defeated by currents, wind, and other unfavourable conditions, an emotionally destroyed Nyad wept openly. She wasn’t alone in her grief. “When she didn’t make it in 1978, when they pulled her

out of the water, my parents were emotional. My mom cried. I was ten. These are the things you don’t forget,” Stewart says.

A year later, Nyad set the world record for distance swimming by going from the Bahamas to Florida, a much easier stretch of water that took her just 27 and a half hours. Then she walked away from competition, choosing to focus on other aspects of her life. She reported for Wide World of Sports, covered multiple Olympic Games, hosted a show on CNBC and even wrote a biography of National Football League star Keyshawn Johnson. Getting in the water and swimming couldn’t have been further from her mind.

That changed when she turned 60.

Nyad felt unfulfilled and start thinking about the ocean and her failure three decades before. She decided to give it another go. This time, however, it wasn’t just about her. She had a greater calling. Nyad was swimming for people her age or who would become her age. She was swimming for all of us. “In the 70s, it was all about who could swim 100 miles. Who could do it the fastest? Who could win? I did the Bahamas. I did Manhattan Island.

And those are fond memories, but they are all part of sport. This swim 84 The swimmer

has never been sport. It’s cultural,” she says. “When this swim is over, I’m not doing any more swims. I don’t care about swims. To me, this isn’t a swim; it’s a life force.”

In late 2009, Nyad quietly slipped back into a pool and started training.

She built up her strength and gath-

sometimes even fatal to humans, and the invertebrates represent the single biggest challenge to Nyad (or any ocean swimmer’s) success. “When inexperienced people ask me about open-water swims, the first question they ask is ‘How far?’ The second: ‘What is the water temperature?’

when this swim is over i am not doing any more.

I don't care about swims.

This is a life force ered a team. She wanted to make an attempt in the late summer of 2010, but the weather conspired against her and pushed the plans back a year.

Nyad tried twice in 2011, stymied by a 12-hour-long asthma attack in August and a series of box jellyfish stings in September.

Ah yes, the jellyfish. In 1978, Nyad didn’t have to worry about the deadly, venomous animals. Over the past three decades, however, there has been what open-water swimming expert Steven Munatones calls a “global proliferation” of the killers. Box jellyfish stings are incredibly painful,

Then, ‘Are there sharks?’ Usually the questions stop there, Munatones, who has been advising Nyad, says. “The questions experienced people ask are 1. ‘Are there jellyfish?’ 2. ‘What are the currents and conditions?’ And 3.

‘What is the distance?’”

“In 2009, Diana wasn’t asking that important first question.”

She is now. After suffering the stings in 2011, Nyad knew she needed something more to protect her, since the two divers tasked with keeping the jellyfish away were insufficient. (She also has a pair of people – one in the water and one on the boat – looking out

for sharks. In total, her support team numbers 33 people). Nyad consulted with a team of jellyfish experts and worked with textile specialists to create a suit that’s light, thin and doesn’t hinder her strokes. “It’s been an outrageous research project,” she says.

There is no guarantee the result will blunt a sting, since she was unable to test it with live box jellyfish, but she and her team are hopeful. If their solution doesn’t work, nothing will.

Potentially lethal stings are the most concerning aspect of the swim, but they are hardly the only difficult part. Another issue is water temperature. The Gulf of Mexico will be around 30C (86F) when Nyad attempts her swim, which is quite warm, but it’s seven degrees cooler than the human body. “After 12 hours in the water, you’ll think it’s hot. After 24 hours, you start thinking it’s a little chilly. After 48 hours, you literally can go into hypothermia,” Munatones, a former head coach of the US Open Water Swimming Team, says.

There’s also the issue of the Gulf Stream, a stretch of eastward flowing water about 50 miles off the coast of Cuba. Its width fluctuates between a few hundred feet and three or four miles. Marine biologists cannot predict

how large it will be at any moment. As Nyad swims through the Gulf Stream, she will be pushed to the northeast.

She needs to cross it relatively quickly in order to stay on track to hit Florida.

Nyad was swimming so slowly after the box jellyfish sting in the September, 2011 attempt that the Gulf Stream dragged her miles and miles out to sea.

When the team pulled the plug after 42 hours of swimming, she was 93 miles from the closest land: The Bahamas.

The obstacles in Nyad’s way are significant, but her fitness is not a major concern. She began preparing for the journey with heavy pool work after

by may nyad was in the swimming pool training for 20 hours a day her setback in September. Training swims reached 10 or 11 hours by the end of January, 15 hours by March and between 18 and 20 hours in April and May. After a 24-hour swim in June, Nyad felt ready for the 60- to 70-hour ordeal. She says she’s in the best shape of her life, although her friends and confidants offer a slightly different narrative. “She is arguably the most fit 62 year old on the planet, but that’s like saying I’m the tallest guy in my son’s elementary school. Psychologically, she can say to herself that she’s more fit now than she was at 28 or 18, but physiologically, if we look at her cells, if we look at her cardiovascular condition, that is not the case. It’s just

not,” Munatones says. “What she really means by being more fit is that her mind, her mental ability to withstand is better. In open-water swimming, having a strong mind and having the ability to swim for 24, 48, 72 hours is enhanced the older you get.”

Marathon swimming is a battle with the brain more than the body.

After training swims, members of her training staff will ask Nyad if she saw sites like a pod of pilot whales, passing sea turtles, or an amazing sailboat but she is in her own world.

“I see the boat next to me and nothing else,” she says. To stay present, Nyad sings to herself, repeating numbers like “It Ain’t Me, Babe” by Bob Dylan ad nauseam. Or she counts to herself, first in English, then German, followed by Spanish and finally French.

But what she enjoys most are the hallucinations. “It’s the ultimate in sensory deprivation. I miss out on what they see in the boat, but my brain is tripping out. The brain isn’t built to focus on something concrete for that long,” the swimmer admits. “I have all these disciplines that keep me in it, keep me motivated, keep me on track, but really, I kind of look forward to the hallucinations about the structure of the cosmos and the meaning of life after that. That’s what I’m busy with. I don’t see much, but I think a lot.”

“You need to get up above 20 straight hours of swimming to really get a good hallucination going.”

While Nyad doesn’t see her surroundings when she’s swimming, she appreciates the history and importance of the expanse. “I have a minor fantasy that this will become a new era English Channel,” she says, calling the stretch of ocean between Florida and Cuba the “most famous body of water in the world today.”

The swimmer 85

Nyad isn’t naïve enough to think her quest will magically solve relations between the two countries, and she recognises the “terrible irony” of trying to swim across a 100-mile bit of the world where so many Cubans have died while attempting to flee the Communist regime, but she does believe the media attention will help bring some of the issues into focus.

At some point this summer, Nyad will stand on the shore and prepare to slip into the water where – bestcase scenario – she will spend two and a half days performing the same repetitive task. “It’s the worst part,” she says of that initial plunge. “Your nerves are out of control. Your adrenaline is flowing off the charts. When I’m in Cuba, I’m feeling the pres86 The swimmer

sure. And this time I’m going to feel it much more. This is the time. You jump off those rocks and you exhale.”

She’s prepared. She can’t do anything else other than wait, then leap and breathe and swim. Florida is just over the horizon. She won’t be the first to complete the swim – Susie Maroney did so in a shark cage in 1997 and Penny Palfrey, who is younger and faster, will attempt it earlier in July – but this journey was never about the swim.

“The fact that she’s 62 and even considering doing this is beyond my comprehension,” Munatones says.

Or there’s Stewart’s take: “It’s so astounding to even attempt. Let’s say there are 500 people on the planet who can do that swim. Maybe it’s 100. God, would you want to? She’s got it. No, it’s

not about the accomplishment. It’s always about the process for any athlete, and she’s not afraid of that process.”

So no, it doesn’t really matter if Nyad recently swam 103 miles or swims that distance in the near future. She’s already succeeded. “It’s you. And you’re inside your head. And you’re just trying to do something you’ve never done before. That’s what it’s about,” Stewart says. Nyad has already defied age, helped alter the limits of the human body, and kept her smile throughout.

The result of the swim is, extraordinarily, just that: extra. But it would be pretty incredible if she made it that 103 miles, wouldn’t it?

Noah Davis is a freelance writer based in New York City

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enter the void AlexAnder semAnov’s photogrAphs cApture the mAgic of life deep beneAth russiA’s white seA

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Amphipds A small but bright amphipod crustacean, Gonionemus vertens are the most common inhabitants of the sea; they feed on dead fish and other organic matter, so they are natural ‘cleaners’ of the ocean.

There are hundreds of thousand of species of them. In the White Sea, for example, there are more than 230 species, and in Lake Baikal there are 230 completely different species. This one is from the White Sea and is less than 1cm in size. This photo was taken 15 metres below the surface of the sea.

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lion’s mane The Cyanea capillata or Lion’s Mane is the world’s largest jellyfish. Its dome can grow up to 2.3 metres in diameter and its tentacles can reach more than 36 metres in length. The average size of the adult jellyfish in the White Sea is a 50cm dome with 7 to 8 metre-long tentacles. The really huge ones are found in the Sea of Japan. Their tentacles are very dangerous and will burn you if you touch them.

Also, the tentacles are almost invisible when they are stretched to their maximum length.

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sea Angel The Clione limacina is a unique pteropod mollusc that lives in plankton. It is a snail that lost its shell in the evolution process, but it’s larvae still has it.

Sea angels feed exclusively on another pteropod mollusc – the sea butterfly or Limacina helicina – a small black swimming snail. The sea angel is a very mysterious animal; it’s seen in the sea for only two weeks of the year and then it just disappears, so no one knows its full life cycle.

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hyperia galbA Hyperia galba is parasite that lives off jellyfish. It’s a small amphipod crustacean with very sharp legs and huge eyes. It lives inside the tissues of the jellyfish where it makes holes and feeds. Because jellyfish are mostly water, Hyperiids love to eat their reproductive system, as it is the most protein-rich area. In one big jellyfish there can be hundreds of Hyperiids, with 10 to 20 elder ones, and 100 to 300 crustacean kids. When they finish eating their jelly house, they swim through the plankton searching another for another jellyfish to live in.

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mon Jely The Aurelia aurita is a very common jellyfish that lives in almost every sea around the world. They can grow up to 60 to 80cm in diameter; some seasons they form a huge mass of moving jellyfish that cover entire square kilometres of water. They are not dangerous at all, as they have short tentacles with very weak poisonous cells that are deadly to small plankton, but not to humans.

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briefing p. 98 • Terminal 3 expands

P. 99 • erBil rOUTe TO sTarT

p. 106 • rOUTe map

lOUngres leadens nEw

opE EmiratEs in istanbul s E g loun colombo d an

p99

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dubai airport expands The Dubai International Airport extension is set to open next year. We look at the facts and figures that will make the new concourse tick

$3 billion The construction budget for the new concourse.

528,000m2 The area of the new concourse.

The size of 88 football pitches

19 million

additional passengers per year

700

20

the number of departure contact gates added

new staff members

Perfect timing.

Don’t miss your next Emirates flight.

Be at your departure gate no later than 35 minutes before your flight departs.

Passengers reporting late at the departure gate may not be accepted for travel.

98 emi rates briefing

news

32

rooms in the 5-star hotel

ready to iraQ From August 12, Emirates will be launching its new passenger service to the Iraqi city of Erbil. The airline will run daily services from September 1. Here’s our pick of places to visit:

1 the erbil Citadel Based right in the centre of the city, the Citadel’s walls house the old town – which is rumoured to date back to 5,000BC. Perched on a hill overlooking the city the views are impressive, and it has also been put forward as a potential UNESCO World Heritage Site.

2 the Mound of Qalich agha Situated in the Museum of Civilisation, the Mound of Qalich Agha is an archeological site where artifacts from the 6th and 7th century BC have been found. illustration: edward mcgowan

3 sami adbul rahman park At over 100 acres, this is the biggest and greenest of Erbil’s parks. What was formerly a large military complex has now been converted into a popular spot for family picnics.

4 the Minaret At 36 metres high, the Mudhafaria Minaret is an obvious landmark. Located in Minaret Park, it was built in 1200AD used as the residence of the then king Muzaffar Al-Din Abu Sa’eed Al-Kawkaboori.

5 shar Garden square This recently constructed esplanade is teeming with nightlife and has plenty of cafes, teashops and fountains. There is even a clock tower that was modeled on London’s Big Ben.

two new lounGes open EmiratEs has expanded the number of

Both the new lounges are fitted with all

its lounges around the world to 30, with the

the amenities of other Emirates Lounges

recent opening of lounges in Istanbul and

including an extensive range of food,

Colombo, Sri Lanka.

as well as a complimentary full-bar

The two new lounges in Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport and the Bandaranaike

service that includes premium wine, spirits and champagne.

International Airport, just north of

The Emirates Lounge also offers services

Colombo, are open to all Emirates First

such as a fully equipped business centre

Class and Business Class passengers as

with Wi-Fi connectivity, TV and reading

well as Skywards Gold members.

areas, shower facilities and a prayer room. news

emirates briefing 99

Fuelless Flights

uAe’s green Future dubai has revealed plans to develop a US$3 billion solar energy project that the world’s first solar-powered

will be part of the emirate’s plan to reduce

aircraft, Solar Impulse, continues to

its dependency on oil and gas.

The planned 48-square kilometre solar

push the boundaries of aviation having

park will have a capacity to generate 1,000

completed its latest set of flights.

Last month, the Swiss-made fuel-less

megawatts (MW) of power according to

aircraft returned back to its home in

Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy 2030, which demonstrates its commitment

a successful 5,000km round flight to

iFlex-ibility For All

Morocco via the Spanish capital, Madrid.

New efforts by Emirates to introduce

energy practices.

Payerne, Switzerland, after completing

to developing environmentally-sound

The prototype aircraft – piloted by

four new airspace routes to South America

Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital, is also

the Swiss explorer and aviator Bertrand

and Western Africa could save as much as

focusing on renewable energy, having

Piccault – only weighs 1,600 kilos but

4,200 tonnes of fuel and 13,200 tonnes of

committed to a ten-year plan to generate

has the same wingspan as an Airbus

CO2 annually.

1,500MW of power from renewable

A340 (approx 60m), making its flights dependent on winds and air currents.

Under the International Air Transport

energy sources. Plans have already

Association’s (IATA) iFlex initiative,

been approved to start work on multiple

The flight between Rabat in the north

Emirates has now negotiated the opening

projects including a US$740 million solar

of Morocco and Ouarzazate in the south

of 25 low-density flexible airspace

power plant, as well as another 100MW PV

was Solar Impulse’s most difficult trip to

routes over Africa and the South Atlantic

solar project.

date, due to the hot and arid desert climate,

that will cut levels of fuel, CO2 and save

turbulence and high wind speed.

travel time.

Strong demand for electricity and rapidly rising water consumption has

Solar Impulse made its first trial flight

The iFlex programme, committed

spurred on investment in the region, with

in 2009, and a year later made its first

to by 34 countries and their air traffic

the UAE alone initiating projects valued at

manned flight, spending over 26 hours in

and regulatory bodies, looks to direct

$1.5bn this year.

the air without using any kind of fuel.

long-haul flights through less busy

70%

airspace after it it was clear that there

Jet aircraft in service today are over 70 per cent more fuel efficient per passenger kilometre that the first jets in the 1960s

100 emi rates briefing

environment

was a growing demand for passengers travelling between destinations in Africa and South America.

As of April 2012, Emirates has already

3 litres

witnessed a savings of 1,600kg of

the new Airbus A380, Boeing 787, Atr-600

fuel per flight for its South American

and Bombardier CSeries aircraft are capable

operations; and a weekly savings of

of using less than 3 litres of jet fuel per 100

approximately 3.5 tonnes of fuel and 11

passenger kilometres. this matches the

tonnes of CO2 emissions.

efficiency of most modern compact cars

Before Your JourneY Consult your doCtor before travelling if you have any mediCal ConCerns about making a long journey, or if you

in the air

suffer from a respiratory or CardiovasCular Condition. plan for the destination – will

To help you arrive at your destination feeling relaxed and refreshed, Emirates has developed this collection of helpful travel tips.

Regardless of whether you need to

rejuvenate for your holiday or be effective at achieving your goals on a business trip, these simple tips will help you to enjoy your journey and time on board with Emirates today.

speCial mediCations? get a good night’s rest before the flight. eat lightly and sensibly.

at the airport

smart traveller dRink plenty of wateR

you need any vaCCinations or

allow yourself plenty of time for CheCk-in.

tRavel lightly

avoid Carrying heavy bags through the airport and onto the flight as this Can plaCe the body under Considerable stress. onCe through to departures try and relax as muCh as possible.

RehydRate with wateR oR juices fRequently.

caRRy only the essential items that

dRink tea and coffee in modeRation.

you will need duRing youR flight.

make youRself comfoRtable

During the flight Chewing and swallowing will help equalise your ear pressure

keep moving

during asCent and desCent. babies and young passengers may suffer more aCutely with popping ears, therefore Consider providing a dummy.

loosen clothing, Remove jacket and

exeRcise youR loweR legs and calf

get as Comfortable as

avoid anything pRessing against youR body.

muscles. this encouRages blood flow.

possible when resting and turn frequently.

weaR glasses

use skin moistuRiseR

avoid sleeping for long periods in the same position.

When You arrive try some light exerCise or read if you Can’t sleep after arrival.

cabin aiR is dRieR than noRmal theRefoRe

apply a good quality moistuRiseR to

swap youR contact lenses foR glasses.

ensuRe youR skin doesn’t dRy out.

102 emi rates briefing

COMFORT

CAbIn l bE CREw wIl lp hE hAppy To D E If yoU nE

e c n a t s i s s a pleting com the forms

to Us cUstoms & immigration forms Whether you’re travelling to, or through, the United States today, this simple guide to completing the US customs and immigration forms will help to ensure that your journey is

as hassle free as possible. The Cabin Crew will offer you two forms when you are nearing your destination. we provide guidelines below, so you can correctly complete the forms.

customs declaration form

immigration form All passengers arriving into the US need to complete a Customs DeClaration Form. If you are travelling as a family this should be completed by one member only. The form must be completed in English, in capital letters, and must be signed where indicated.

The immigration Form I-94 (Arrival / Departure Record) should be completed if you are a non-US citizen in possession of a valid US visa and your final destination is the US or if you are in transit to a country outside the US. A separate form must be completed for each person, including children travelling on their parents’ passport. The form includes a Departure Record which must be kept safe and given to your airline when you leave the US. If you hold a US or Canadian passport, US Alien Resident Visa (Green Card), US Immigrant Visa or a valid ESTA (right), you are not required to complete an immigration form.

104 emi rates briefing

customs & VIsAs

eleCtroniC system For

wIll ExpIRE AlonG wITh

travel authorisation (esta)

yoUR pASSpoRT.

If yoU ARE An InTERnATIonAl

Apply online At www.cbp.gov/estA

TRAVEllER wIShInG To EnTER ThE UnITED STATES UnDER ThE

nationalities eligible

VISA wAIVER pRoGRAmmE,

For the visa Waiver *:

yoU mUST Apply foR

AnDoRRA, AUSTRAlIA,

ElECTRonIC AUThoRISATIon

AUSTRIA, bElGIUm, bRUnEI,

(ESTA) Up To 72 hoURS pRIoR

CzECh REpUblIC, DEnmARk,

To yoUR DEpARTURE.

ESTonIA, fInlAnD, fRAnCE, GERmAny, hUnGARy, ICElAnD,

esta FaCts:

IRElAnD, ITAly, JApAn, lATVIA,

ChIlDREn AnD

lIEChTEnSTEIn, lIThUAnIA,

InfAnTS REqUIRE An

lUxEmbURG, mAlTA, monACo,

InDIVIDUAl ESTA.

ThE nEThERlAnDS, nEw

ThE onlInE ESTA SySTEm

zEAlAnD, noRwAy, poRTUGAl,

wIll InfoRm yoU whEThER

SAn mARIno, SInGApoRE,

yoUR ApplICATIon hAS bEEn

SloVAkIA, SloVEnIA, SoUTh

AUThoRISED, noT AUThoRISED

koREA, SpAIn, SwEDEn,

oR If AUThoRISATIon

SwITzERlAnD AnD ThE

IS pEnDInG.

UnITED kInGDom**.

A SUCCESSfUl ESTA

*

ApplICATIon IS VAlID

** only british citizens quAlify under the visA wAiver progrAmme.

foR Two yEARS, howEVER

subject to chAnge

ThIS mAy bE REVokED oR

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emirates briefing 105

106 EMI RATES BRIEFING

ROUTE MAP

ROUTE MAP

EMIRATES BRIEFING 107

108 emi rates briefing

route map

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emirates briefing 109

et ins e l f the nta

cO Of leet ade up f r s Ou es. M plane lan r e p s 4 g e 8 n 1 n asse gO pla 176 p r a 8c and

Boeing 777-300ER Number of Aircraft: 77 Capacity: 354-442 Range: 14,594km Length: 73.9m Wingspan: 64.8m

Boeing 777-300 Number of Aircraft: 12 Capacity: 364 Range: 11,029km Length: 73.9m Wingspan: 60.9m

Boeing 777-200LR Number of Aircraft: 10 Capacity: 266 Range: 17,446km Length: 63.7m Wingspan: 64.8m

Boeing 777-200 Number of Aircraft: 9 Capacity: 274-346 Range: 9,649km Length: 63.7m Wingspan: 60.9m

Boeing 777F Number of Aircraft: 4 Range: 9,260km Length: 63.7m Wingspan: 64.8m 110 emi rates briefing

fleet guide

For more inFormation: www.emirates.com/ourFleet

Airbus A380-800 Number of Aircraft: 24 Capacity: 489-517 Range: 15,000km Length: 72.7m Wingspan: 79.8m

Airbus A340-500 Number of Aircraft: 10 Capacity: 258 Range: 16,050km Length: 67.9m Wingspan: 63.4m

Airbus A340-300 Number of Aircraft: 8 Capacity: 267 Range: 13,350km Length: 63.6m Wingspan: 60.3m

Airbus A330-200 Number of Aircraft: 26 Capacity: 237-278 Range: 12,200km Length: 58.8m Wingspan: 60.3m

Boeing 747-400F/747-400ERF Number of Aircraft: 2/2 Range: 8,232km/9,204km Length: 70.6m Wingspan: 64.4m ai rcraFt n umbers as oF 3 1/ 0 8 / 2 0 1 2

fleet guide

emirates briefing 111

N

NEXT MONTH

ext month, we are celebrating La Dolce Vita as we devote our issue to Italy.

One of Europe’s best football writers examines the rise of one of the greatest football teams Europe has ever seen: AC Milan. We take a look at one of the most interesting – and unexamined – cities in the world: Naples. The Spaghetti Western has become one of the classic film genres; we look at the man behind this most unusual American-Italian phenomenon. And we take a look at the people who make Milan tick; the models, designers, architects and entrepreneurs who make the city a fashion and business hub.

112

Amazing camera.

Authentic sound.

Shot on Nick’s HTC One X while free falling at 126 miles per hour

As recommended by Nick Jojola Freefall fashion photographer

Watch Nick’s personal experience at htc.com

| Capture HD video and photos at the same time | | Includes HTC Sense |

XXX OLYMPIAD

LONDON

2012 OMEGA has been the Official Timekeeper at 25 Olympic Games. A partnership forged on the shared desire to record for future generations the valiant attempts of the young men and women of the world to go faster, reach higher and be stronger.

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