Open Skies | February 2017

REWILDING IN DENMARK

Editor-in-ChiEf Managing PartnEr & grouP Editor EditoriaL dirECtor grouP Editor SEnior Editor digitaL / Print dESignEr digitaL aniMator VidEo Editor Sub Editor EditoriaL aSSiStant

Obaid Humaid Al Tayer Ian Fairservice Gina Johnson gina@motivate.ae Mark Evans marke@motivate.ae Andrew Nagy andrew.nagy@motivate.ae Rom Francisco rom@motivate.ae Surajit Dutta surajit@motivate.ae Donnie Miguel donnie.miguel@motivate.ae Salil Kumar salil@motivate.ae Londresa Flores londresa@motivate.ae

ContributorS

Jade Bremner, Emma Coiler, Laura Coughlin, Geoff Brokate, Sarah Freeman, Jamie Knights, Paolo Mallari, Kaye Martindale, Matt Mostyn, Michel Parkin (folioart.co.uk), Stacey Siebritz, Sean Williams Cover: Brian Rasmussen – Randers Regnskov

gEnEraL ManagEr ProduCtion S Sunil Kumar ProduCtion ManagEr R Murali Krishnan

ChiEf CoMMErCiaL offiCEr Anthony Milne anthony@motivate.ae

PubLiShEr Jaya Balakrishnan jaya@motivate.ae

grouP SaLES ManagEr SEnior SaLES - intErnationaL ManagEr Michael Underdown Shruti Srivastava michael@motivate.ae shruti.srivastava@motivate.ae

dEPuty SaLES ManagEr Amar Kamath amar@motivate.ae

EditoriaL ConSuLtantS for EMiratES Editor Manna Talib arabiC Editor Hatem Omar dEPuty Editor Catherine Freeman WEbSitE emirates.com

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125,959 copies January – June 2016 Printed by Emirates Printing Press, Dubai, UAE

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nybody who has visited the greener parts of Europe over the past few years, might just have been lucky enough to catch a sight of small herds of bison roaming freely across the landscape.

On the face of it, they would appear really lucky – the species was hunted to extinction on that par ticular continent in the early 20th century. But the reappearance is cour tesy of a rewilding project that could play a critical role in maintaining the ecological community,

print around 26 years ago. However it’s only been in the last few years that the impact has been felt across Europe, and Open Skies was on hand to witness two projects in Denmark that are showing early signs of promise.

One man who undoubtedly appreciates a preserved ecosystem more than most, is the adventurer Ed Stafford. The British former military man firmly believes in the need to explore the planet and last year became the first person to walk the length of the Amazon

THe realiTy is abOuT inTrOduCing animals TO THe land and allOwing naTural prOCesses TO Take OVer as well as help protect the future of endangered species across the globe.

Put simply, rewilding reintroduces top-of-the-food-chain predators to an ecosystem in a bid to preserve functionality and prevent biodiversity loss. While it’s had more than its fair share of Jurassic Park press, the reality couldn’t be further from the truth. This is about introducing animals and allowing natural processes to take over.

The term was coined by the original eco warrior, Dave Foreman (the man behind Earth First! and later The Rewilding Institute) and first appeared in

rewilding in denmark This month’s cover is by Brian Rasmussen, and shows the bison at Denmark’s Randers Zoo in all its glory.

Turn to page 46 to see a rewilding effort that’s in full swing.

River. Head to page 54 for the full story – it’s wor th it for the ‘wrongful arrest for murder’ story alone.

Fresh from the Amazon, we dive headfirst into a jungle of a different sor t on page 40, with a piece on the sprawling urban forest that is Manila.

Our man moves around the Philippines’ capital from day to night, from volcano to dive bar, and not only discovers life in all its forms, but a local music scene that’s on the verge of its own extinction.

Let’s hope it’s no lost cause.

Enjoy the issue.

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40 46 54 Riffing In Manila

Born To Rewild

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BRIEFING

64 70 72 74 76 Emirates News

Inside Emirates

Destination

Comfort

80 82 88 90 UAE Smart Gate

Route Map

Emirates Fleet | 9 |

The Guide

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Carefully curated content focused on unique experiences

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February 22-24

EmiratEs airlinE Dubai Jazz FEstival Dubai, uaE

Listen to the stars headlining this year’s Emirates Airline Dubai Jazz Festival on ice Digital Widescreen – including the Mariah Carey Playlist on Channel 3039 and Tom Jones on Channel 3068. Discover more of the great music on board in the ice guide in your seat pocket.

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E x p E r i E n c E

It’s not just Dubai’s skyline that has changed considerably over the course of the past 15 years.The city’s culture – and the events that contribute to it – has evolved beyond all recognition, too.

Take the Emirates Airline Dubai Jazz Festival, for example. Now in its 15th year, it’s gone from a threeday event with 1,200 people, to a three-day event with in excess of 36,000.

As attendances grew along with the city, so did the profile of the headline acts. In the past 14 years, the stage has seen more than 500 shows, with the likes of Robin Gibb, Jamie Cullum, The Brand New Heavies, John legend, Deep Purple, Kool & The Gang, and Sting all performing.

Not that the earlier artists were any less impressive.

Jazz drummer Bobby Durham, who played the inaugural event in 2003, held the rare distinction of being one of the few people to be sacked by the legendary Duke Ellington. Durham, it turned out, was too much his own man to be confined by the structure of a band – even if it was a free-flowing jazz band.

Understandably, the 15th anniversary is the most high profile yet. Legends are the order of the three-day line-up at Dubai Media City Amphitheatre.Tom Jones headlines the opening night, Mariah Carey plays day two, and Enrique Iglesias closes the whole thing out.

And while the charge occasionally placed against it is that the jazz content is a little diluted, you need only check the full line-up to see that this couldn’t be further from the truth.This year sees performances from NYC blues band The Rad Trads and singer-songwriter guitarist, Raúl Midón – a man who has collaborated with everybody from Herbie Hancock to Stevie Wonder.

Throw in a liberal smattering of food trucks, stalls and an arts and crafts village, and you’ve got a long weekend worth shouting about. dubaijazzfest.com

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iMAGE: GEtty

LEGEnds ArE in town this Month, As thE EMirAtEs AirLinE dubAi JAzz FEstivAL cELEbrAtEs its 15th AnnivErsAry with toM JonEs, MAriAh cArEy And EnriquE iGLEsiAs

E x p E r i E n c E

February 23 – March 11

Dubai FooD Festival Dubai, uaE

Your hunger, this month, comes courtesy of the Dubai Food Festival. But forget what you think you know; 2017 is set to blow all that’s gone before it out of the water.

When a food scene is expanding as rapidly as it is in this city, it stands to reason that an event celebrating it should spread to every nook and cranny. So rather than confine itself to a static seven days with food stands and tired ideas, Dubai Food Festival brings celebrity chefs, food bloggers, vloggers and, of course, some fantastic food to wherever you might be.

Whether it’s romantic desert dining (perfect if you forgot Valentine’s Day earlier in the month) or something urban,

most likely in a crate at Al Quoz; whether you’re heading out after work to the Street Nights food trucks, eating your way around the continents at Eat The World DXB, or simply out for a weekend wander along the Etisalat Beach Canteen, you can expect 17 days of ever-expanding waistbands.

Thankfully, your participation won’t simply begin and end with consumption.

Almost all of the events feature live cooking stations, master-classes, tasting sessions, live music and more.

You’ll also have a chance to dine at some of the city’s top restaurants for less. Miele Dubai Restaurant Week – February 23 to March 4 – has enlisted 15 of the city’s top

venues to offer a three-course set meal for just Dhs199 per person. Take your pick from celebrity chefs Gordon Ramsay, Atul Kochar, Heinz Beck, Jaime Pesaque, Jason Atherton and Gary Rhodes. If you’re an Emirates Skywards member, you can also redeem your Miles for a meal for two at any of the participating restaurants.

“Expect a 17-day menu of incredible dining experiences,” says Issam Kazim, CEO of Dubai Tourism. “Dubai Food Festival is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the city’s rich melting pot of cuisine and put Dubai firmly on the global gastronomy map for the world to see.” dubaifoodfestival.com

Learn more about the food scene in Dubai in the Dubai restaurants podcast on channel 1505 and the TV show Eating Out in Dubai on channel 1279.

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iMAGE: DUBAi FOOD FESTiVAL

iF yOU’rE in DUBAi AT ThE EnD OF ThE MOnTh, ThEn cOME wiTh An EMpTy STOMAch, AnD BE rEADy TO cELEBrATE ThE ciTy’S rEpUTATiOn AS OnE OF ThE FASTEST GrOwinG FOOD ScEnES in ThE wOrLD

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The L.U.C Quattro houses a movement that is chronometer-certified by the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC) and bears the prestigious “Poinçon de Genève” quality hallmark.

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James Gay-Rees We meet the British film producer behind Senna, Amy and Supersonic for tapas at Soho’s Ember Yard WORDS: Kaye MaRtinDale

J

ames Gay-Rees has a job that’s easy to envy. The British film producer has been making documentaries for the past six years that focus on iconic and often misunderstood characters; and he has a subject list that reads like a who’s who of modern-day popular culture.

From 2010’s Bafta-winning Senna, to last year’s highly acclaimed Oasis documentary, Supersonic, by way of the Oscar and Baftawinning Amy, Gay-Rees has a way of elevating his subjects out of their field and into wider consciousness.

He wanders into the packed Ember Yard in Soho with a lo-fi style and carrying a backpack. It offers a glimpse of the indie kid about him and is a little incongruous with his current status in the movie business.

Gay-Rees is hard to pin down. He’s currently working on a project that involves Argentine superstar Diego Maradona, but for once he’s not working. He’s moving swiftly into holiday mode as his two teenage daughters are on a break from school.

No sooner has he sat down, he plunges head-first into a Kerouac-esque stream of consciousness, jumping from the joy at winning awards for Amy to his previous two wins for Senna, the documentary about the legendary Formula One driver.

Considering he only arrived from the US yesterday, he’s remarkably chipper, giving the distinct impression of a man who’s very happy with the way his life is going.

Despite the usually low-key nature of the documentary genre, Amy was a huge success, both at the box office and with critics. The film chooses to focus on the rare talent of the artist, as opposed to the troubled icon depicted and hounded by the media. As you watch, it’s kind of hard not to fall in love with her.

It’s clear that Gay-Rees felt that, too, as his easy flowing patter gives way to a sadness-tinged rail against the media. Understandably, having two teenage daughters made Amy’s story even more poignant for him, and he remains visibly affected by her story.

“On a wider level we all made her life intolerable because of the media feeding frenzy. That’s why I spoke out at the Baftas. It’s pretty obvious to anybody that the girl was in real trouble. We probably all said, ‘Oh my God! What a train wreak,’ but to go out of your way to sell more papers or to gain more viewers knowing that girl had a strong

iMaGeS: GeOff BROKate

chance of dying… I don’t care what anybody says, she was exploited by the media for commercial reasons. She wasn’t just having a bad day. She wasn’t putting on an act. It was totally brutal.”

Amy’s hard to watch and was a painful movie to make. Gay-Rees pauses, momentarily contemplating the doubts and difficulties that he and his colleagues went through making the film. In the process of their research the team interviewed more than 100 of Amy’s friends, family members and management, the majority of whom were still processing their role in her journey and death.

Most of those close to Amy felt that the film had captured her essence, yet the most notable opponent of the documentary has been her father, Mitch Winehouse, who describes the film as a “one-dimensional, miserable and misleading portrayal of Amy”. The film paints Mitch in a bad light and points to the fact that there were a select few around the singer who were doing very well out of her success and who, perhaps, dropped the ball in regard to getting her the help that she needed. Despite the backlash, Gay-Rees diplomatically avoids getting drawn further into the row. “I think in many ways he [Mitch] did what he thought was best for her; she was very difficult to manage. I’m not an expert but I believe they say that you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped.”

Unfazed by the negative feedback, Gay-Rees speaks with the unflinching confidence of someone free of self-doubt or guilt. “At the end of the day, any criticism we get doesn’t really bother me ‘cause I know for the large part we’ve opened people’s eyes to her again. Here and in the US she’d become, for the most part, a joke and now people are like, “You know what. That joke wasn’t funny and she was amazing.” The film has re-energised her legacy in the right way, and if certain individuals want to criticise the movie then they aren’t seeing the big picture; because that girl’s seen in a different way now.”

As our food arrives we discuss the difficulties of negotiating egos and expectations when making a documentary. I ask if it’s easier to make a film about someone who’s dead or someone still with us. Without missing a beat he tells me there are pros and cons to both as he throws me a cheeky look and says, “We must be mad, we’re currently dealing with the Gallagher brothers and Diego Maradona: all very well-known and famously challenging people.”

I don’t cArE WhAt AnYBodY SAYS, AmY WAS ExploItEd BY thE mEdIA for commErcIAl rEASonS. ShE WASn’t juSt hAvIng A BAd dAY. It WAS totAllY BrutAl | 17 |

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With the subject of ego firmly on the table, it’s only a matter of time before the subject of Ronaldo comes up – Gay-Rees worked with the Portuguese superstar on the eponymously titled film in 2015. It’s one of his documentaries that hasn’t managed to make the leap from its core audience of football fans to reach a wider public, but Gay-Rees is a firm believer in the subject matter.

“I respect Cristiano because he’s a really nice guy in reality, and the level of sacrifice and amount of pressure he wears from his family, himself, his friends, his team and his country is almost unbearable. To have the exterior toughness and inner strength to take everything that the world throws at him and go out there and deliver unbelievable statistics for 10 seasons in a row is amazing.”

A series of tasty tapas plates have now arrived, and I realise that I’m racing through the food as quickly as Gay-Rees gets through anecdotes. Worried, I check that he remembers that we’re sharing, as I note that I seem to have almost eaten my half of everything while, he, burdened with the task of answering my questions, is taking a considerably time longer. Ember Yard seems to be the kind of place where people like to linger over lunch, however, and I sense no hurry as he insists that adding food to the mix is the perfect way to get him to keep talking.

The unpretentious and down to earth Gay-Rees seems to be the antithesis of Hollywood frippery. The only clue to his level of work is an amazing capacity to speak at extremely high speeds while giving common sense answers and maintaining an impressive level of eloquence. Despite a decidedly English manner and liberal use of an expletive or two, his language is tinged by his time in the US. He has a tendency to finish his sentences with an Americanism or two, and is especially fond of an inflected ‘you know?’.

Senna iS the claSSic icaruS figure, the one who flieS too cloSe to the Sun. he’S Such a romantic hero ‘cauSe it waSn’t about the money… he waS reaching for the StarS In 2010 Gay-Rees set up On The Corner, a London-based independent production company, along with Asif Kapadia, the director of Amy and Senna. After a seven-year stint as a “dogsbody” in New York and Los Angeles, he searched “desperately for a writer, an idea” something that he could produce on his own. He eventually found the project: Exit Through The Gift Shop – a film directed by street artist Banksy – and moved back to London. The freedom of having his own production company put him in the enviable position of being able to make films about people he’s

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passionate about and interested in, the most enigmatic of whom was Ayrton Senna.

A teenage Gay-Rees first became fascinated by Senna through his father, who worked as accounts director for John Player, sponsors of the Lotus car that Senna was driving in the early 1980s. His usually levelheaded father told stories of a mystical character who seemed to operate outside the usual laws of physics.

Ten years after Senna’s death, Gay-Rees read an article commemorating the driver that echoed many of his father’s words and decided to contact the family with a view to making a film about the iconic hero. “They’d turned down a lot of really big Hollywood directors as they were worried about the Hollywoodisation of his story, so the key to unlocking them was to say we’ll do a documentary.” Not having set out to make non-fiction, the fledgling production company found themselves on the path that would establish their brand as makers of serious, high-quality documentaries.

The 2011 film, Senna was a huge success at a time when documentaries weren’t big currency at the box office. Even more surprising was that a film about a sport with little appeal beyond its fanbase could break box office records. The filmmakers had managed to tap into universal themes that chimed with viewers well beyond the world of Formula One. When I reveal my own lack of interest in F1, but how I was enraptured by Senna, he laughs, explaining how, “Women love

emirates serves london nine times daily, with six daily services to london heathrow and three flights a day to london gatwick.

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L u n c h

that movie. If I had a pound for every mum who’d come up to me at the school gates and said, ‘My husband made me watch that movie and now I’ve seen it five times.’ Senna is the classic Icarus figure, the one who flies too close to the sun. He’s such a romantic hero ‘cause it’s not about the money for him… he was reaching for the stars.”

Gay-Rees’ most recent work, Supersonic – a documentary charting British rockers Oasis and their sharp (and notorious) rise to fame in the mid-’90s – has a romantic side to it, too, albeit in the guise of two lunatics from Burnage, Manchester. Noel and Liam Gallagher allegedly still can’t be in the same room together, but both contacted Gay-Rees to document their story, as well as to wonder where all the rock and roll heroes have gone. Supersonic is a call to arms as much as it is a retrospective. It’s a plea for some much-needed personality in the music business. The film opened late last year, and enjoyed instant success.

Gay-Rees is still chasing his own dream, and his stock in Hollywood is now considerably higher – an Oscar, Bafta and big box office will do that for a person. “I can have the meetings now that I couldn’t have as a younger man,” he says. But he’s clearly not satisfied. “Not all the time,” he adds hastily, “but I’m operating from a slight position of strength now rather than being a nobody.”

However, it’s still hard to imagine the affable man in front of me operating in the cutthroat world of movie production, and he admits a love/hate relationship with Hollywood. “As I’ve got a bit older, more experienced and less judgemental, I’ve figured out how it all works. It’s not perfect but if you treat it with respect, it treats you with respect back. That said, as soon as you lose your sense of humour in Hollywood... you’re done.”

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The Bill 1 x Hot smoked butternut squash with ricotta, lemon and grape jam (US$9.42) 1 x Organic leaf salad with chargrilled comice pears and walnuts (US$7.90) 2 x Courgette flower stuffed with monte enebro goat’s cheese and drizzled with honey (US$5.77) 1 x Smoked and slow-cooked beef brisket with pickled shallots and salsa verde (US$12.77) 1 x Smoked crab croquettes with brown crab aioli and lemon (US$9.10) 2 x Blanc de Morgex, Rayon (US$11.55)

Total: US$81.75

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R o o m

Loisaba Laikipia, kenya

Words: sTACEY sIEBrITZ ImAgEs: ElEWAnA HoTEls For the traveller who’d like to tick ‘African safari’ off their bucket list, but wants a more exclusive experience than your average game drive, the Loisaba Conservancy is a must.

Located in Laikipia, the nature reserve is home to a luxury resort set in 56,000 acres of wilderness, populated by 50 species of animals – including four of the Big Five: elephants, leopards, water buffalo and lions.

While the main camp boasts beautiful rooms and a stunning hillside infinity pool, the nearby Loisaba Star Beds are the real showstoppers. Each open-air room has a huge, handcrafted bed raised up on wheels. When night falls, your bed is rolled out onto your private balcony overlooking the Kenyan wilderness. That means you can sleep under the stars with nothing to disturb you, aside from the

occasional stirrings of the hippo family in the waterhole below.

Once you venture outside your room, you’ll find that daytime activities make the most of the area, from twice daily game drives with highly trained local guides to horseback rides through the valley and visits to the local villages to learn about Kenya’s indigenous tribes. loisaba.com

Emirates serves Nairobi twice daily with the Boeing 777-300ER. A third daily will be added from June 1.

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C l a S S i C

Rome CavalieRi R o m e , I t a ly

Words: laura coughlin images: rome cavalieri Walking through the palatial Rome Cavalieri, perched on the leafy hill of Monte Mario, is like walking through one of the world’s best ar t galleries.

Just 15 minutes from Vatican City, the 53-year-old proper ty is more than a luxury hotel; it’s home to a museum-worthy assor tment of masters’ paintings, rare tapestries, French period

furniture, exquisite sculptures and other ar tefacts. Guests can tune into the hotel’s iPod guide and take a leisurely tour through the collection.

Each of the 345 rooms and 25 suites are kingly and beautifully styled with navy and gold-stitched carpets, fresh flowers and marble bathrooms. Opt for an Imperial Rome view room and wake up

with a panorama of The Eternal City in all its glory.

Deep pockets? Pick the presidential suite, detailed with Swarovski, Karl Lagerfeld and Andy Warhol, a huge terrace and Jacuzzi, and private access to La Pergola, Heinz Beck’s three Michelin-starred restaurant. romecavalieri.com

Emirates flies twice daily to Rome. A third daily will commence on March 26, with a single daily A380 and double daily Boeing 777-300ER serving the route.

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Four SeaSonS Hotel, DIFC Dubai, uaE

Words: andreW nagy Images: erIc LaIgneL It’s not just the prime location that marks out the Four Seasons Hotel DIFC as one that should be on your list of must-visits.

While a base at the heart of the city will undoubtedly make you book, it’s Adam D Tihany’s design concept that will make you return. There’s an Art Deco feel to much of the space, as murals and other pieces – by

New York artist Bram Tihany – offer a fluid and consistent feel. The lobby is spectacular, all gold, bronze, and black marble.

Once you make it to your room, you’ll discover a little more minimalism, but it’s a less aggressive push than you might find elsewhere. Here it’s all curved edges and warm colours. It’s comfortable and cool.

This is a boutique hotel, so there aren’t a huge amount of dining options, but what they have they do well – whether it’s the retro cool of 1950s diner, Firebird, or the Luna Sky Bar that’s perfect for a pre-meal cocktail. Failing that, just head to the rooftop pool terrace, grab a cabana, and take it easy. fourseasons.com

A convenient way to visit Dubai’s top attractions is with City Sightseeing’s hop-on hop-off bus. Learn more at citysightseeing-dubai.com

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F o o d

Da’ Vinattieri

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f o o d

A hole in the wall it might be, but this Florentine favourite serves not just a sandwich, but the Italian way of life WORDS ANDREW NAGY IMAGES: FRANCESCO SPIGHI

L

ocated down a small alley in central Florence, Da’ Vinattieri is easy to miss. But then the best places often are. Walk the same route around lunchtime and you’ll instantly recognise it by its queue of locals, snaking out from the small window, along the pathway and out into Piazza del Duomo.

Lampredotto is the speciality here. You probably won’t like the sound of it, but you’ll certainly like the taste. Put simply, this is the Florentine version of tripe (cow’s stomach lining). While regular tripe is a mixture of the full lining, lampredotto is solely made up of the cow’s final stomach.

Although in recent years it’s acquired a sense of cool, this was originally peasant food, and although you’ll now find it on more than a few restaurant menus in Florence, the best way to eat it is at street level. And few do it better in Florence than at Da’ Vinattieri.

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If made poorly, lampredotto can be a little chewy. Here, they cook it slowly – with tomato, onion, parsley and celery – until the texture approaches something like roast beef. After that, they take a crunchy white bread roll, dip it in the broth, add a spicy sauce and pile it high. To live truly like a local, get a small glass of wine, take your sandwich and simply sit on the curb to eat.

It’ll cost you around US$8 in total for the pleasure. If you’re still hungry, we heartily recommend the cocoli – small balls of fried bread stuffed with prosciutto and eaten with soft cheese.

The great thing is that you don’t have to travel far to enjoy all this. Da’ Vinattieri is so centrally placed that, once you’ve eaten, you’re set for all the city’s best attractions.

Santa Margherita dei Cerchi (where Dante met his muse Beatrice) is just next door, while the city’s famous Duomo is only a five-minute walk away. Walking is good after a lampredotto sandwich. We figure five hours around the city should be enough to burn off the calories, so best take some comfortable shoes.

Emirates serves four destinations in Italy – Rome, Milan, Venice and Bologna.

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N e i g h b o u r h o o d

el raval barcelona, spain

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N e i g h b o u r h o o d

Words: Kaye Martindale iMages: geoff BroKate

E

l Raval lies in the heart of Barcelona and forms part of the labyrinth that is known as Ciutat Vella (Old Town). It’s an area bursting at the seams with artists, creative professionals and the city’s more salubrious characters – making up a rich and alluring tapestry for any visitor.

Formed in the 14th Century, Raval was created as an extension of the city. The industrial revolution brought factories to the area and with them high-rise tenement buildings, squalor, vice and high mortality rates. During this time it was one of the most densely populated areas in Europe and the strictly working class neighbourhood was known for its criminal underbelly. In the 1980s, as the city geared up for the Olympics, the government began to clean up the area, making it ready for the eyes of the world.

Now, Raval is known for its nightlife, with bars, cafes and restaurants at every turn. While some of Barcelona’s barrios can feel a bit like tourist ghettos, Raval has managed to maintain its authentic flavour. Part of its charm is the wide spectrum of life that call it home. Traditional Catalan family-owned businesses with dark dusty interiors hold their own against colourful bohemian boutiques and brand new hipster cafes.

As dramatic shafts of sunlight illuminate its cobblestone alleyways and lively street life, you quickly discover that Raval is a wonderful place to wander. Here are some of its highlights. | 31 |

N e i g h b o u r h o o d

In ThE AREA ( S ix -mi nut e wa lk )

EAT + ART

Tallers 76 It’s impossible to pass this intriguing cafe without being drawn inside. The decor is exotic and homely, which, as the owner Masud Naderi explains, “is the perfect reflection of the neighbourhood itself ”.

A musician from Iran, Masud has travelled the world and tells the story of his life through the knickknacks he’s amassed on his journey. It was a labour of love for him to find the right objects to fit his vision and to create a harmony between these disparate elements where anyone, from anywhere, could feel at home.

The cafe has a fantastic collection of teas and offers a daily selection of sweet delicacies and cakes, as well as a full menu of Spanish and Mediterranean-inspired dishes. Open all day and until the early hours of the morning, this makes for a great place for an intimate drink.

Carrer dels Tallers, 76, 08001 Barcelona | +34 93 667 49 00 | tallers-76.com

maCBa

This museum offers a regular selection of changing exhibitions, and was central in the reinvention of Raval from a no-go area to hipster hub.

Plaça dels Àngels, 1, 08001 BaRcelona, +34 93 481 33 68, macBa.caT/en/

Emirates flies twice daily to Barcelona. Until February 6, this route will be served exclusively by a Boeing 777-300ER. From February 7, it will include a daily A380 service.

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( T wo-mi nuT e wa lk )

London Bar The now-legendary London Bar opened in 1910 and was, in its heyday, frequented by stellar characters such as Hemmingway, Dali and Picasso. Although its belle epoch has passed, it’s well worth a visit to soak up the decades of history that are revealed in its faded grandeur and beautiful Art Nouveau decor.

The walls are adorned with newspaper clippings and photos that tell of the pub’s illustrious past, and a trapeze swing above the bar tantalises clientele with a vision of how much of a spectacle the London Bar must have been.

Long since synonymous with live music in the city, over the years this bar has hosted some of Spain’s biggest and best. Although it no longer has the huge stage, it still welcomes bands every night to play to a varied crowd of locals, expats and visitors.

Carrer Nou de la Rambla | 34, 08001 Barcelona | +34 933 18 52 61

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Palau Guell

Palau Guell is one of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi’s greatest masterpieces.

Located just off the city’s main thoroughfare, it’s a must for any itinerary.

CArrer Nou de LA rAmbLA, 3-5, 08001 bArCeLoNA , +34 934 725 771, PALAuGueLL.CAt/eN

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Camino

( F iv e -mi nut e wa lk )

Located on Carrer d’Elisabets, one of Raval’s liveliest streets, is Camino, a sweet and stylish shoe store that’s proud to promote locally made footwear and accessories. The natural tones and materials used to furnish the shop reflect Camino’s focus on craftsmanship along with traditional materials and methods.

As well as selling a tempting array of fashionable, yet durable shoes, Camino offers a selection of bags and clothes. The great thing is that everything you see in store was made in Spain – the majority of it in Barcelona. Their ethical and philosophical ethos is to support craftspeople with an authentic story and unique vision.

In Spanish camino means ‘way’ and the founder, Chad Weidmer, formed Camino with the aim of creating a meeting point for all those people looking for something different; a different way to create, a different way to sell, and a different way to buy.

Carrer Elisabets, 13 | Barcelona 08003 | +34 93 177 15 97 | thecaminostore.com

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Flax and kale

New to Barcelona’s food scene, Flax And Kale is a mostly vegetarian place that’s flourishing – with a constant stream of diners giving it a vibrant atmosphere.

CArrer dels TAllers, 74, 08001 BArCeloNA, +34 933 17 56 64

A collection of stories from around the world Rewilding In Denmark

Riffing In Manila

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The Survivor

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MAIN

Manila

Riffing in

Why getting the blues in the sprawling capital of the Philippines is no bad thing WORDS: Sean Williams IMAGES: PAOLO MALLARI

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Sky Room was a perfect example of Art Deco styling in Manila

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anila is not an easy place to explore. On a recent trip I was told that the huge capital of the Philippines – part of a sprawling metropolitan area home to some 24 million people – is only for “advanced travellers”. They’re at least partly right. For most tourists Manila is a point-of-entry from which they advance to the staggering Filipino countryside: its volcanos, beaches and pulsating wildlife.

But no large city is worth avoiding altogether. Manila may be short on tourist-friendly sights, claustrophobic and gridlocked – with often dystopian levels of traffic – but it’s also a beautifully mad, breathless place that’s chock-full of life in all its craziest forms.

Manila also holds a wide array of exciting and hidden spots, if you’re willing to look for them. From Rizal Park, peppered with historic landmarks from the Philippines’ tumultuous history, to theatres, museums and galleries.

Further afield you’ll find Taal Volcano, a breathtaking natural beauty on the south side of Luzon Island.

Architecturally speaking the city is staggering, and Intramuros, the historic heart of Manila, is a walled masterpiece of Spanish colonial style, with battlements, churches and government buildings that are pleasant for an afternoon stroll.

Unfortunately, Japanese invaders destroyed most of the city during the Second World War, but its restoration has been tasteful.

Manila has plenty for foodies, too.

Street food enthusiasts in particular can enjoy national dishes such as adobo chicken or balut – small, aborted ducks’ eggs that locals often snack on alongside a drink or two. New rooftop bars, like that above the trendy Z Hostel in Makati, cater to a growing local set that enjoys partying long into the night.

If you’d rather miss the street food, there are plenty of upscale eating options, so perhaps try Blackbird, an aviation-themed restaurant in upcoming Salcedo Village, Makati. Meanwhile, Quezon City’s Van Gogh Is Bipolar (yes, really) is a frankly bizarre dining experience designed to make you either calm, happy, or a combination of the two.

Emirates flies 18 times weekly to Manila, with the Boeing 777-300ER. There’s also a daily circular service from Dubai to Cebu and Clark.

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Taxi journeys between all of these spots can take upwards of an hour, but few will cost more than US$4.

Many of Metro Manila’s hottest places are clustered around Makati which, despite having a reputation on the wrong side of seedy, has begun to serve up some great food and nightspots. Hooch, The Curator and Bank Bar are geared towards the city’s more monied travellers, while restaurants such as Salt and Bucky’s Poblacion have pounced on the global hipster phenomenon, offering craft ale and US-inspired snacks at reasonable prices.

In the evening, streets dance with frenetic, technicolor bars and clubs.

Inside them, a chance to sample a national music movement that’s rapidly coming under threat.

Filipino, or ‘Pinoy’, blues bands take their lines from the American South. The country’s recent past has included colonial rule by Spain, whose influence is seen everywhere from the brightly-coloured inner-city housing blocks to the national language of Tagalog, which is flecked with Spanish words and phrases.

In 1898 Spain went to war with the US over the island nation. Its loss handed power of the Philippines to Washington, which held control until 1946. It was during this time that the country became a mirror for cultural phenomena in the States. That included its music.

“Every musical development from the profound to the most superficial that originated in the United States was soon reflected in the Philippines,” wrote Paul A Rodell in his book Culture And Customs Of The Philippines. “The music of dance bands, ragtime, blues, jazz, swing, boogie woogie, and, in the post-World War II period, rock and roll, folk, alternative and rap were all mastered

by Filipino composers and musicians.”

In the early days of the Filipino craze for all things American, nightclubs and cabarets popped up all over Manila.

Shows like bodabil, a local approximation of vaudeville, introduced locals to western entertainment. They went hand-in-hand with music and dance.

“By the 1920s, the sarsuela (a type of all-singing, all-dancing stage show) and travelling theatrical companies with their

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The bar@1951; Manila street food

Filipinised versions of European music forms had all but vanished,” added Rodell, “as young musicians seemed more interested in learning new jazz tunes from Chicago than traditional classics.”

Despite independence, the country struggled to find its own cultural identity, and Filipino acts continued to

mirror their American counterparts for decades. Yet if you listen closely, you’ll discover that Pinoy blues has its own sound. There are elements of funk, reggae, ska and even traditional Filipino music thrown in. That makes it faster, and a little dancier, than its counterpart stateside.

At night it’s not uncommon to hear crowds of locals singing karaoke, which

In the early days of the Filipino craze for all things American, nightclubs and cabarets popped up all over Manila | 43 |

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The Roadhouse Manila Bay and 70’s Bistro

has become a national pastime on a par with billiards and basketball. Around the culture a host of entertaining venues have sprung, which are spread out across Manila’s fearsome sprawl.

“Currently the whole world knows that a lot of Filipinos get noticed because of their singing,” explains Mike Mananzala, general manager of The Roadhouse Manila Bay. “They win contests all over the world. It’s part of our culture. If you’re musically inclined you should definitely come to Manila.”

The Philippine Blues Society is a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting the genre. Its director Allan Magturo has sent newcomers as far afield as Memphis for exposure. But Manila has just as beating a musical heart.

It wasn’t until the 1980s, under the leadership of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, that Filipino bands began to rally against Americanisation. The Apo Hiking Society, one of the most successful Pinoy bands of that decade, had their biggest hit with American Junk, a polemic against US neocolonialism. Other bands, like Asin (‘Salt of the Earth’), scored chart entries with songs that celebrated the Philippines’ rich line of local, indigenous music.

But on a visit to Manila, it’s easy to think that almost nobody bought into the song’s politics. Central districts like Malate and Ermita bedazzle with neon lights redolent of mid-century Miami. Food and drink outlets are (all-too) often attempts to mimic their counterparts stateside. Many of the city’s most iconic buildings, such as the grand, ozymandian Metropolitan Theater,

because of the rise of Korean pop and other foreign music, it's sad to say, but Pinoy music is going draw from art deco movements in the US (searching for them provides a fascinating treasure hunt across town).

Manansala is worried: Pinoy acts have fallen down the pecking order in the past few years, as imports from Korea, China and other Asian nations have captured the hearts of the local youth. “Pinoy music in general, not just blues, is slowly dying in Manila,” he says. “Perhaps because of the insurgence of Korean pop and other foreign music, it’s sad to say but slowly Pinoy music is going.”

Local heroes like the Juan de la Cruz Band, who first formed in 1968, and Ray | 44 |

‘Binky’ Lampano, who now resides in Los Angeles, have kept the movement buzzing, but mainstays of the scene such as Manansala feel that the writing could be on the wall. Not that he’s throwing in the towel just yet. “Blues is still Manila’s main music,” he adds, with an air of defiance.

He’s right, too, as any evening out in this amazing city will attest to.

Music should be counted firmly among Manila’s many unsung draws, making it an amazing way to experience one of the world’s most unusual, and truly mind-bending metropolises.

BORN TO REWILD Bison, elks and even elephants could soon be a familiar sight on the Danish landscape, thanks to two pioneering conservation projects in the Jutland Peninsula that are looking to the past to safeguard the future

Words and images: Sarah Freeman Additional image: Brian Rasmussen - Randers Regnskov

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ixteen bison nonchalantly graze in a scene reminiscent of Africa’s wild savannah. But this isn’t in Africa. We’re not even close. We’re 12,000 kilometres away, in the deceptively bucolic region of central Denmark, which is putting itself on the global conservation map with the help of some hairy, hulking beasts.

This motley crew – a bison herd of four bulls, seven cows and five calves, sourced from Polish parks and Danish zoos, are part of a pioneering rewilding project, run by Randers Zoo, which is working to revive the lost ecosystems that flourished here thousands of years ago. Ironic really, that turning back the clock is the cornerstone of rewilding, as it’s a conservation practice so future-orientated that it’s turned heads in environmental and scientific communities around the world.

Fundamental to restoring these habitats to their natural, former states is the reintroduction of native large herbivores like bison and elk that have been absent for millennia. “We aren’t just plonking anything down here” asserts Ole Sommer Bach, curator of Randers Zoo. “The key is using indigenous species that have more connection with this land than the likes of grazing cattle.”

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European bison (quite different from their American cousins) once roved the European landscape. They would run all the way south from France, into Russia and down to the Caucasus, before being hunted to extinction across the continent in 1927.

Surprisingly, wild bison are scarcer than Africa’s black rhinos, so how exactly will Europe’s largest land mammal ‘rewild’ the 119-hectare Vorup Enge water meadow, which lies just 500 metres from the city of Randers? “First of all the bison will keep the landscape’s light open by foraging on both grasses and trees,” Bach explains. “Additionally they will spread seeds, make soil disturbance and other natural dynamics. The idea is not to interfere. We want them to roam freely and let nature, literally, take its course.” Save for providing them with some hay during winter, this hands-off approach, a mainstay of rewilding, seems to be working.

Bison aren’t the only ecological engineers reshaping lands blighted by human activity. In Mauritius, Aldabra giant tortoises have helped disperse ebony tree seeds, Yakutian horses are doing the job woolly mammoths once did in Siberia and wolves in Yellowstone have transformed not only the national park’s ecosystem, but its entire geography – making it one | 48 |

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Ole Sommer Bach, curator at Randers Zoo; relocated bison in Denmark

of the most successful global rewilding projects to date. The Netherlands is also doing its bit by experimenting with species of red deer, Konik ponies and Heck cattle to recreate an ancient grassland ecosystem called Oostvaardersplassen. The trailblazing efforts of conservation initiative Rewilding Europe, whose mission is to rewild a staggering one million hectares over the next decade, is helping to put the continent at the forefront of a rewilding revolution.

Back on Danish turf, the government is upholding its ecocredentials by investing a cool US$23.8m to purchase farmland re-appropriated as nature areas – good news for rewilding.Yet despite their green motives, these large-scale and ambitious projects have courted some controversy amongst farmers and landowners, concerned for their livestock and the wider impact on the rural economy. Bach argues that you really have to look at the bigger picture. “Rewilding is an investment for our future generations.

We are the first generations of humans to know the negative consequences of biodiversity loss. That leaves us with responsibility for coming generations – a global responsibility.” In the wake of recent findings that reveal our planet is facing a sixth mass extinction event, in which 90 per cent of animals could be lost, Bach’s words couldn’t be more poignant.

But there is also the ethical debate. Surely there is an element of playing God when it comes to reintroducing species that have been extinct for thousands, if not millions of years? JensChristian Svenning, professor at the Department Of Bioscience, Aarhus University, makes the point. “Not any more than many other human activities. We now live in the Anthropocene epoch where humans are affecting the whole earth system. Rewilding along with other conservation and restoration approaches are attempts to steer us towards a positive path for the biosphere and hence also for humans.” The Anthropocene era Svenning refers to is the first geological epoch to be defined by humans –

regrettably, it’s not something we should be proud of. Taking over the current Holocene, it’s defined as a new age of highly altered ecosystems, caused by human intervention such as climate change, a mushrooming population and polluted oceans.

So basically, the bison could end up saving us, I broach. “In a way, yes,” chips in Bach. “But it’s not quite as simple as that. The bison are a form of Holocene rewilding, which uses species from around 10,000 years ago, but we need to think bigger than that.” Cue the sound of trumpeting elephants. Bach’s master rewilding plan involves turning the clock back to the close of the last Ice Age, by introducing Asian elephants into the wild. At first it may sound bizarre, but the science is reassuringly bona fide. Africa and Asia may be famous for their megafauna, but elephants also roamed Europe (and North America) for millions of years, before disappearing around 12,000 years ago. Fossil records indicate they once lived in the Middle East and northern China as well. These creatures , along with mastodons and mammoths, had the biggest influence on their environment and their mass extinction led to a colossal loss of biodiversity.

The bottom line – animals such as elephants allows more species to flourish, and are key to recapturing some of the evolutionary potential that was lost in the late Pleistocene.

The idea of bringing back animals from the Ice Age is, understandably, not without opposition. “The biggest challenge facing the introduction of wild elephants here is to convince

The idea is not to interfere. We want them to roam freely and let nature, literally, take its course

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The biggest challenge facing the reintroduction of wild elephants to Europe is to convince people that such a rewilding experiment is not a ticking Jurassic Park bomb

Randers Zoo, home of the rewilding project in Denmark

people that such a rewilding experiment is not a ticking Jurassic Park bomb,” admits Bach. So it’s perhaps a PR problem rather than a logistical one. “We also have to find proper facilities to support the animals during wintry conditions and construct fencing that will not spoil the landscape,” Bach says. He goes on to explain that they would follow the bison model by starting small with just a few elephants and release them into semi-captivity across several hectares, before putting the full rewilding plan into action.

The two-pronged project would not only help rewild the land by letting the elephants coppice trees and spread seeds through their dung (a huge resource for beetles), but would also provide a refuge for the endangered species.

In the next 50 years, the entire population of Asian elephants is on track to be wiped out. It’s estimated that 55 elephants are killed illegally in Africa every day, and despairingly the only place they are safe is in fenced wildlife parks – often too small to accommodate their populations. But rewilding could offer up a two-fold solution and perhaps the only way to protect these species is away from those danger zones? An Australian rewilding project thinks so. It plans to airlift a population of black and white

rhinos from South Africa (where one rhino is killed every six hours) as a radical measure to protect the species.

Close to the city of Aalborg, 60km north of Randers, is Northern Europe’s largest wild bog: Lille Vildmose. Five elks imported from Sweden have been expatriated to help rewild an area of degraded land. A bog may not be as exotic or as beautiful as a rainforest, but in reality, peat wetlands alone store more carbon than rainforests, and are more productive ecosystems than coral reefs. This, now protected, area has been weakened by years of peat extraction, and its future rehabilitation lies in the hands (or rather mouths) of five grass-guzzling giant deer, which are making themselves at home after a 5,000-year hiatus.

Currently overrun with birch trees and thick aspen, the vision for the area is to transform it into marshlands and lakes, alongside natural forests, where the elks integrate with local red deer, wild boar and otters to become part of a self-sustaining ecosystem. “The elks are expert tree trimmers and good at moving in soft and wet ground,” remarks Hans Henrik Henriksen, like a proud father. The city councillor and landscape planner is keen to assert their genetic advantage, explaining that their height and appetite (an adult can consume three to four kilos

Emirates operates a daily A380 service to Copenhagen.

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The biggest challenge facing the reintroduction of wild elephants to Europe is to convince people that such a rewilding experiment is not a ticking Jurassic Park Bomb

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Rewilding is an investment for our future. We are the first generations of humans to know the negative consequences of biodiversity loss Jens-Christian Svenning; elk tracking in Aalborg

of dry plant matter a day) enables them to make a significant bearing on the ecosystem, compared to more vertically challenged animals. And of course there is the economic incentive – elks are a cheaper and more natural alternative to managing the landscape versus manmade tools and machinery.

Originally confined to a small paddock area in semi-captivity for seven months at the close of 2015, the two bulls and three heifer calves are now free to roam in an area of 21 square kilometres – a vast terrain to track five elks, I discover. “The less we see of them the better. It’s not a zoo you know,” mocks Jens Vinge – a former hunter-turned forester (and now elk whisperer). Not words you want to hear on a second visit to try and photograph the elusive

creatures that continue to outsmart me. But he has a valid point – they don’t call this rewilding for nothing. Any interaction with humans, frankly, undermines the project. Despite the odds, curious tourists have descended on Lille Vildmose in their droves, hoping for a glimpse of an antler or two. Maybe they’ll have more luck come March, when the family is set to double with an additional five elks joining the herd.

After countless failed missions trudging through boggy ground in sub-zero temperatures – and thanks to Jen’s elk app, which uses geo-tracking technology developed at Aarhus University – we do manage to get within about 20 metres of two elks for a fleeting couple of minutes. Fittingly, nature has the last word.

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ThE survivor This is Ed sTafford. hE’s ThE firsT pErson To EvEr walk ThE EnTirE lEngTh of ThE amazon rivEr and hE wanTs you To havE an advEnTurE

Words: Jade Bremner

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e’s been held up at gunpoint on his travels. Chased by a man wielding a machete, encountered killer bees, anacondas, piranhas and caimans. Oh, and he was falsely arrested for murder in the jungle, too. “It takes a certain kind of person to commit to a project where you know you are going to suffer,” says Cambridgeshire-born British explorer Ed Stafford, the first person to walk the length of the Amazon River.

Unassisted, with only the help and generosity of strangers along the way, it took Stafford two-and-a-half years (912 days) to walk 6,992km, through dense rainforest, drug trafficking zones and lands occupied by indigenous tribes on the mighty river.

With a shaved head and sturdy stature, Stafford spent four years in the British Army before his epic trek – walking from the Amazon River’s source in Peru to its mouth in Belém, Brazil, on the Atlantic Ocean.Yet appearances can be deceptive. He’s softly spoken, has a calm demeanour and believes that it wasn’t ego that spurred him on, but trauma. “Almost every explorer I’ve met has got that slight

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look in their eyes that tells you they’ve been damaged in some way,” says Stafford, who was adopted as a baby. “When a baby gets removed from its mother it creates trauma in the form of death, and you basically build your character from that day forward. It creates a huge insecurity. I never knew what it was, when I started going on adventures, but I realised I had certain character traits and began delving into it all, it ended up being a fuel.”

Although he’s adamant that anyone who has a desire to go on a big expedition can do it, Stafford believes that it’s often distressing events that spur us on. “For some people it might be abuse, for others it might be their parents dying or getting divorced,” he explains. A little suffering, plus a curiosity about what is outside our modern world can lead us to achieve extraordinary things. “A lot of people’s lives involve waking up with artificial light, getting in a car – driving in a box to go and sit in another box, to go and look at another box. The amount of screen time we have is absurd,” he explains. “To want a bit of adventure, to want to break

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Countries the Amazon and its tributaries run through (Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia and Peru)

6,992

Length of the Amazon River in kilometres

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Indigenous Indian tribes living in the Amazon Rainforest

10 million Species in and around the Amazon River

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Approximate number of piranha species living in the Amazon River

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Tributaries of the Amazon River – 17 of them more than 1,500 kilometres long.

1.7 million Population of Manaus, the largest city along the Amazon River out and reconnect with nature and learn real skills that keep you alive is not surprising. I think it’s a natural reaction in the intangible existence that we have, where everything is laid out for us. Our food comes in plastic wrappers and we can walk to the fridge and get a cold glass of water. We’re so distanced from that reality of what you would need to do in order to live in the wild; that’s what makes survival really fascinating.”

Stafford was awarded a Guinness World Record for his gruelling journey through the Amazon and was recently featured in new hardback tome Great Expeditions: 50 Journeys That Changed Our World, alongside sea voyager Captain James Cook, Everest climber Edmund Hillary and Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton. “It’s nice to be included because I’m proud of the expedition I did, partly because everyone said it was impossible and partly because everyone thought I was daft as a brush,” jokes Stafford, believing there are plenty of other incredible journeys yet to be done. “I came in at the right time,” he modesty

exclaims. “People had slightly run out of imagination when it came to expeditions. I’d decided to walk the length of a river and then Levison Wood decided to walk the length of the Nile, which highlighted the journey I’d done as well. Since then, guys have also walked the Yangtze River, and it’s opened a world of people and way of thinking – it doesn’t have to be a mountain that’s not been climbed before, people can think outside the box and do different and bizarre things.”

Making the wise decision to self-film his journey along the Amazon, Stafford uploaded video and blog entries to his website live en route, which not only resulted in a book deal, but the footage being cut into a two-hour TV series that aired on Britain’s Channel 4, Discovery Channel, and in 2017 it’ll be shown on Quest. He’s since followed Walking The Amazon with Discovery’s Naked And Marooned – in which he survives in the wild with no clothes on – and Into The Unknown, where he goes off the grid and investigates geographical mysteries. Technology has played a

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I was in a constant state of fear, paranoia, frustration and weariness. But when scary things happened it was a welcome break from the monotony big part in his expeditions. At certain moments in the wild it has offered solace. “Literally opening that laptop and reconnecting to the world via a satellite link was extraordinary,” he says. “It would have been impossible 10 years ago, but I consider myself very lucky to do an old-school expedition in the modern world, and to be able to broadcast it live and let so many other people experience it vicariously.”

The journey itself wasn’t without its dangers. “Whenever we passed through an indigenous community, Cho [Stafford’s guide] and I would always make a point of asking for the village chief.This proactive behaviour meant that we were always seen as above board and legit. But each time it would involve lots of customs like drinking

local alcohol and making small talk. So one day we decided we just couldn’t be bothered. We walked out of the jungle and into a village and just kept walking. We left the village and considered ourselves very smart as we’d avoided potentially hours of chatting. Then about an hour later an armed group of men caught up with us and detained us at gunpoint. We were ordered to walk back to the village – also at gunpoint.

Apparently a villager had gone missing the day before and, because I was the first white face ever to just walk through the village, I was under arrest for suspected murder. I was questioned – I’m not exaggerating – for about seven hours. We were held overnight too. Half of me was worried and frustrated by the

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Next month from March 26, Emirates will upgrade its daily Dubai-Sao Paulo service from a Boeing 777-300ER to an A380, making it the first ever scheduled commercial A380 flight to South America, and marking Emirates’ tenth year of operations in Brazil.

Ed Stafford embracing his old-school survival skills

hold-up, half of me found it hilarious. At one point the village chief shouted at me angrily because the Queen hadn’t personally signed my passport. It was crazy. We were eventually released when the real police came by boat the next day and saw me, immediately, as a tourist – not a murderer.

It wasn’t just human contact that had the potential for danger, either. “We encountered hundreds, if not thousands of bees, on the way,” continued Stafford. “There aren’t any ‘killer’ bees any more, as the aggressive strain (that escaped by accident) has now bred itself peaceful again. But they are still bees – and bee stings hurt quite a lot. We would rotate cutting upfront. It was hard, sweaty work and the unavoidable danger was the bees and wasp

nests that form on the underneath of large leaves. You simply can’t see them, and if your machete cuts through then you’re guaranteed at least 20 stings if you’re upfront. It became very amusing if you were walking number two or three as you got to witness someone completely losing their rag and shouting like an idiot. Well, we needed something for entertainment.

“The whole journey was fairly packed with odd stuff. I walked in rubber wellies two sizes too small for me for two months.

That gave me puss-filled blisters that I’ll, unfortunately, remember forever. I also had an abbott fly living in my head, which is a bit gross but harmless. Some of my expedition members in the past have deliberately left them in there, so they can get back home

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The MoST deAdlY CReATuReS ARound The AMAZon RIveR

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At one point the village chief shouted at me angrily because the Queen hadn’t personally signed my passport. IT WAS CRAZY and squeeze out a maggot from their body in the pub. All good, honest fun.

“I think I had a constant state of fear, paranoia, frustration and weariness combined. But when scary things happened it was a welcome break from the monotony. I’m not trying to be flippant but when the adrenaline started pumping, those were the best bits.The boring monotony was the hardest part of the walk.”

It’s one thing surviving now, with modern resources like electronic water level readings, a laptop to connect with the wider world, and using a camera as a strange kind of therapy in the most isolated of environment. But just how different would it have been 100 years ago? “There were times when I was walking in the Amazon when the camera batteries would run out or the GPS didn’t work, there were weeks on end of no technology and using the sun as a compass, and grass-roots technology. Invariably they were the best times, when you’re experiencing exploration in an old-school way, it was much more enjoyable,” explains Stafford. “That said, I wouldn’t have completed that journey if it weren’t for the satellite communication system that allowed me to put a plea out online and make a video to a Coldplay soundtrack, with a PayPal link next to it.”

In early 2017, Stafford will be filming a new show (which he can’t give details about yet), but he admits his biggest future challenge is being a dad. “The drive to do something for elegiac reasons is getting less,” says Stafford. “The older I get the more balanced life becomes.

Black caiman

Bull shark

Jaguar

Anaconda

Electric eel

Red-bellied piranhas

Pit viper

Assassin bugs

Poison dart frog

Pacu fish

I’m married and have a baby on the way.” Stafford is fully prepared to stay at home if his wife – female adventurer Laura Bingham – heads off on an expedition of her own. “In terms of physical endurance women have a far greater capacity,” explains Stafford. “When you go past 100 miles, in whatever sport you’re doing, women don’t only catch up with men, but often exceed us. If you look back in history when we were long distance hunters, tracking animals for days on end, women quite often had to do that pregnant or with a child in tow. Laura is fiercely determined to make something of her own adventure career and she’s prepared to suffer like a lot of us to achieve that – I will do anything I can to support her.”

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Essential news and information from Emirates New A380 service to Casablanca

Inside Emirates

Route Map

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EmiratEs airlinE fEstival of litEraturE Clockwise from left: Jeffrey Archer, Khaled Bin Hamad, Jon Ronson, Nadiya Hussain

Book lovers can now secure their place at one of the world’s most beloved literature events.

The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature is the Middle East’s largest celebration of the written and spoken word and tickets

are now on sale. In just nine short years the festival has grown into the UAE’s premier literary event, hosting international and regional writers, poets, thinkers and speakers from around the world.

The 2017 edition will be held from

March 3 to 11, and will see 160 authors from more than 30 countries conducting 250 sessions.

High-profile attendees include Jeffrey Archer, Kathy Reichs, Hamad Al Hammady and Mourid Barghouti.

Among the featured events this year are the Residential Creative Writing Course, Pimp My Rice: Lunch With Nisha Katona, Murder Mystery Dinner: The Fatal Festival, and the The Great British Afternoon Tea: With Nadiya Hussain – winner of the BBC’s The Great British Bake Off in 2015.

You can learn more about the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in the podcast on Channel 1503, and watch festival guest Nadiya Hussain in her show The Chronicles of Nadiya in Lifestyle TV on ice.

You can also stay up to date online, with #DubaiLitFest on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, as well as get year-round news of #ELFDubai on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.

EmiratEs’ cuddly family Expands Young travellers will be delighted to see four new additions to the much-loved Emirates’ Fly With Me Animals family.

Each character represents different parts of the world, and has their own story to inspire tomorrow’s explorers to discover the regions and cultures of destinations on the Emirates network.

The new additions – taking the total to 12 – are Carlos the macaw from the rainforests of Central and South America; Ernie the penguin from the Antarctic ice shelf; Eve the reindeer from the snowy forests of North America; and Fudo the tiger from the jungles of Southeast Asia.

These characters are now onboard, but collectors who would like to get

their hands on the first eight can visit the Emirates Official Store online, which ships worldwide.

The animals are featured across three product lines: the Travel Buddy, which | 64 |

comes with a plastic toggle allowing the toy to be hung in the car, on a pram or in the cot; the Carry Buddy, a dual-purpose toy and blanket; and the Magnetic Sketcher. emiratesofficialstore.com

Smile all the stay.

All our hotels are in dreamlike settings, but if we can go the extra step, rest assured that we have what it takes to surprise you, over and over again, so you’ll keep wondering what’s next?

MAURITIUS

•

RÉUNION

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MALDIVES

•

CHINA

•

TURKEY

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VIETNAM

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U.A.E

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The mosT comforTable flighT of your life Flying with Emirates is set to become even more luxurious, thanks to a host of exclusive products available in the First and Business Class cabins.

The stylish extras include First Class lounge wear, luxury blankets, skincare from VOYA and a new range of amenity kits from Bulgari.

Ensuring a peaceful night’s sleep onboard, Emirates has introduced the world’s first moisturising loungewear designed for an airline. In partnership with Matrix, the suits use Hydra Active Microcapsule Technology designed to keep skin hydrated during the flight. The patented technology uses billions of capsules applied

to the fabric, which gently release naturally moisturising sea kelp during movement.

You can also find a plush, faux sheepskin blanket in First Class, while Business Class customers can also look forward to newly-introduced soft duvets in charcoal grey on their next flight.

Emirates has partnered with Bulgari to design its exclusive kit bags, and complete the experience with a new range of luxury spa products, now available both onboard and on the ground, from award-winning Irish brand VOYA.

susTainabiliTy in The skies as part of its continued commitment to product innovation and sustainability, Emirates has introduced environmentallyfriendly blankets for its Economy Class passengers.

Made with ecoTHREAD™ innovation, it will be the largest onboard sustainable blanket programme in the airline industry. Each blanket is made from 28 recycled plastic bottles, which have been transformed into a fine thread and

woven into a soft blanket. They’re warm, comfortable and made from 100 per cent recycled plastic bottles.

By the end of 2019, the Emirates blanket programme will have collected 88 million plastic bottles from landfills to create the blankets that are the equivalent weight of 44 A380 aircraft.

Leonard Hamersfeld, Director at Buzz, the partner of Emirates in delivering sustainable products, said the company | 66 |

“strived to develop a product for our airline partners to help reduce their environmental impact”.

The new blankets were introduced onboard all long-haul Economy Class flights in December 2016.

Emirates already runs a green programme on board recycling aluminum cans, plastic and glass bottles, and clean paper products where possible.

YOUR LAST CHANCE FOR FAST-TRACK PERMANENT EU RESIDENCY Fulfill your dreams of living in Europe This could be your very last chance to tap into the best, most cost-effective way to acquire permanent residency in Europe, to make a second home for you and the members of your family that is fun, safe and full of opportunity in a beautiful little country with favorable taxation and a low cost of living that offers a high lifestyle.

Just days ago, the Hungarian government announced that 30 March 2017 as the cutoff date for those interested in purchasing the Hungarian Residency Bond, which entitles holders and their families to live and work in Europe’s Schengen Zone.

Imagining a bright future In our complicated world, having a second option for you and your family is important.

With permanent residency in Hungary, you and your loved ones will be able to travel freely, protect your financial assets, send your kids to the finest universities, or even maintain a second home in Europe.

Our specialists are experts in this field, know all of the ins and outs and only provide first-hand information, so at the end of the day you and your family get your residency quickly and with fewer hassles. Call Arton Capital Hungary now!

Program applicants who decide to pursue citizenship will receive Hungarian passports that entitle them to travel freely to 157 countries across the globe.

+36 1 321 04 34 | +36 30 539 29 24 Hajós utca 25 Budapest, 1065, Hungary eubond.org

ARTON CAPITAL HUNGARY

E m i r a t E s

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RetuRn to naRita

As part of the growing demand for travel between Japan and the UAE, Emirates will resume its flagship A380 service between Dubai and Narita from March 26.

Narita will join more than 40 destinations on Emirates’ extensive global network served by its highly popular A380 aircraft.

Currently operating a three-class Boeing 777-300ER aircraft on its daily flights between Narita and Dubai, the deployment of Emirates’ three-class A380 on the Narita route will provide a total of 489 seats, with 14 private suites in First Class, 76 mini pods with flat bed seats in Business Class and 399 spacious seats in Economy Class.

Flight EK318 will depart Dubai at 2.40am and arrive in Narita at 5.35pm daily. Return flight EK319 will depart Narita on Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 10pm and arrive in Dubai at 4.15am the next day, while on Tuesday and Wednesday it will depart Narita at 9.20pm and arrive in Dubai at 3.35am the next day.

Visiting the airline’s home of Dubai for leisure or business, in a choice of three different cabins on a modern, wide-body aircraft, is now a viable option, while onward travel to Shanghai, Beijing, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, or Sydney, Melbourne, Maldives, Seychelles and Sri

Lanka is possible with less than four hours’ transit time.

Flight EK129 departs Dubai at 8.15am and arrives in Zagreb at 12.20pm local time, and the return flight EK130 departs Zagreb at 3.35pm and arrives in Dubai at 11.05pm.

new Route to zagReb From June 1, Emirates will expand its European network with a daily flight from Dubai to Zagreb.

The route will be served by an Emirates Boeing 777-300, making it the only widebody service operating to and from Croatia’s capital city.

The new Zagreb flight opens an exciting opportunity for Emirates’ passengers to explore a city that’s steeped in culture and history. However, the new flights will not only benefit travellers in Croatia, but also those in neighbouring Slovenia and even the southern regions of Hungary and Austria, making it more convenient to travel with Emirates to Dubai and beyond.

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YOUR LAST CHANCE FOR FAST-TRACK PERMANENT EU RESIDENCY The best permanent residency in Europe: a safe and secure investment

Arton Capital Hungary: Your direct contact for Hungarian residency

The basic investment in the Hungarian Residency Bond Program is a 5-year tenure of EUR 300,000 in a Hungarian government bond, plus an application fee of EUR 60,000 which covers associated administrative and legal costs for the entire 5-year period. As the investment amount will be returned after the bond tenure period, the application fee is the only cost of the program, making it a truly economical choice. Arton Capital Hungary also offers financing options to help cover the investment amount. Please contact us for more details.

There is still time for you to make sure that you and the members of your family can enjoy all the benefits of permanent European residency with no minimum stay requirement.

Get more information on the Hungarian Residency Bond Program by making direct contact with Arton Capital Hungary, a company officially licensed by the Hungarian government to administer the Residency Bond.

+36 1 321 04 34 | +36 30 539 29 24 Hajós utca 25 Budapest, 1065, Hungary eubond.org

ARTON CAPITAL HUNGARY

I n s I d e

e m I r a t e s

ACCESS ALL AREAS

Emirates has the largest network of airport lounges in the world, and with a brand new lounge making it seven for Dubai alone, it seems that your flying experience just got a whole lot more relaxing WORDs: Matt MOstyn

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any savvy traveller will tell you that an airport lounge is the best way to avoid a noisy, chaotic departure terminal and enjoy a more comfortable environment in which to wait for your flight.

At Dubai International Airport, Emirates now has seven lounges located in its flagship Terminal 3. With three concourses available, you’ll find a First Class lounge and a Business Class lounge located in each (A,B and C) – as well as a brand new lounge in Concourse C that caters to both First and Business Class customers.

Once you’ve left Dubai, you’ll discover 33 other lounges across the globe, giving Emirates the largest network in the world. But this isn’t simply a numbers game – quality comes with the quantity.

All lounges are equipped with the services you’d expect, such as a business centre, food, drink, comfy sofas and shower facilities, but at Dubai you’ll also find a health spa, wine cellar, a dedicated children’s play area and an a la carte menu in the First Class lounges, as well as a premium cigar lounge and shoe shining services.

A recent US$11 million upgrade to the Emirates Business Class lounge in Concourse B took two years to complete and is a real show-stopper. It’s part of the airline’s commitment to improve and upgrade its services for a more seamless and enjoyable travel experience.

Besides the range of gourmet cuisine – prepared by on-site chefs – and complimentary full bar service, guests at the refurbished lounge will enjoy a brand new standard of hospitality.This comes in the shape of three new distinct areas, containing food and beverage concepts that cater to diverse tastes.They include a barista experience in partnership with Costa Coffee, a health hub in partnership with fashionable bottled water brand Voss, and an exclusive Moët & Chandon champagne lounge, created exclusively for Emirates and serving four of Moët & Chandon’s finest champagnes in one place.

This first-of-its-kind lounge reflects Emirates and Moët Hennessy’s longstanding partnership of over 25 years.To complement each champagne, chefs from Emirates flight catering and the in-house lounge product teams have collaborated with Moët & Chandon to create a unique selection of sweet and savoury canapés. Menus are changed monthly and will include delicacies such as smoked salmon wrapped in nori with wasabi mayonnaise (to complement the Moët & Chandon Grand Vintage 2006), and passion fruit and jasmine tea macaroons (to be paired with Moët Nectar Impérial).

Meanwhile, the new champagne bar’s surroundings are no less impressive, and in true Dubai style, guests will be able to enjoy

their drinks at a glamorous bar featuring a golden wave design, adorned with 2,400 handcrafted intricate gold leaves.

In addition to the new refreshment stations, the children’s play area (featuring arcade quality games) has been doubled in size, and the lounge’s Timeless Spa has been renovated, and now offers hair, beauty and therapy treatments. Lounge guests can also refresh with a shower, unwind at designated quiet areas, keep up to date with the latest news and live sports, and stay connected with complimentary Wi-Fi. Space is also a key feature, and the newly designed lounge measures close to 9,209 square metres.That means it’s able to accommodate more than 1,500 travellers – a 40 per cent increase in capacity.

Over in Concourse C, the newly opened Emirates’ Lounge caters to both First and Business Class passengers, along with Silver, Gold and Platinum Skywards members. It’s a first for Dubai, as the remaining six are dedicated to either First Class or Business Class customers.

The lounge measures an impressive 1,308 square metres with seating for 262, providing a much more relaxed and comfortable waiting experience.You’ll find two dedicated dining areas with buffet service, two other locations offering an extensive range of drinks, a state-of-the-art business centre, complimentary unlimited Wi-Fi, shower spas and more.

It all adds up to an impressive collection, both in Dubai and beyond. With forty dedicated lounges in airports around the world – as well as various partner lounges across six continents – it means your journey with Emirates starts long before you get on the plane.

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D e s t i n a t i o n

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D E S T I N A T I O N

CASABLANCA Next month, Emirates starts daily A380 service to Casablanca, making it the first commercial Airbus A380 operating to North Africa. So enjoy our guide to this vibrant destination Ask someone who hasn’t been to Morocco for their thoughts on Casablanca, and you’ll more than likely get film references, and words on ancient bazaars and exotic spices in reply. While this is certainly the case in certain parts of the country, the port city is very much the modern heartbeat of the country.

You’ll find some colonial French charm, not to mention one of the most magnificent mosques in the world. But the historic city perched on the Atlantic coast is also home to young, ambitious Moroccans working in a host of new and creative industries.

To cater to this contemporary crowd, there are a multitude of places to unwind and party, lots of exciting restaurants and cafes,

as well as the major global retail brands you would expect of any modern city worth its salt.

A city in transition, cranes are dotted across the skyline in an attempt to keep up with the demand for modern buildings and facilities. It’s a sure sign of progress. Then, of course, there’s the coastline, resplendent with beaches that are perfect for relaxing or tackling the waves at one of the many surf schools.

Morocco is a country turning any and all preconceptions on their head, and its offering gets more interesting and diverse with every passing month. Here’s what to look for in a trip to Casablanca and beyond.

EAT

STAY

DO

LE RELAIS DE PARIS With its wonderful French classics and panoramic views of the sea, it’s easy to see why Le Relais de Paris is regarded as a jewel of Casablanca’s restaurant scene. Start with the rich fish bouillabaisse-style soup before diving into the steak tartare with frites. villablanca.ma

SURF GLOBE SCHOOL Fancy learning to surf while in Morocco?

This camp is located 20km south of Casablanca and has all the equipment needed to earn your stripes in the water.

Up to 10 people can make use of the single and double bedrooms, while visits to nearby attractions and towns are readily available. surfglobeschool.com

VISIT HASSAN II MOSQUE This stunning mosque is Africa’s largest and is definitely worth visiting, even if you’re only admiring it from the outside. Set against the backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean, it’s Casablanca’s standout architectural landmark. Tours of the interior are limited and at set times, so check before travelling.

PORT DE PÊCHE An institution at the heart of the biggest fishing harbour in North Africa, this is the place for the freshest seafood imaginable. It’s a throbbing hub of locals and visitors.

Inexpensive, full of atmosphere, and the scale of the operation is almost as impressive as the food. +212 5223 18561

HOTEL & SPA LE DOGE The rooms of this charming boutique hotel boast high ceilings, while art deco touches flow throughout. Ask for a room with a balcony overlooking the courtyard and check out the restaurant, which serves a great breakfast. hotelledoge.com

SHOP AT MOROCCO MALL With shops and activities to suit all budgets, Morocco Mall makes for an easy family day out. While similar to most modern malls found around the world, some nice features include the central aquarium and the amount of natural daylight that floods in from the large windows overlooking the ocean. moroccomall.ma

LE RESTAURANT AT LA MAISON ARABE If your travels take you to Marrakech – a 50-minute flight from Casablanca – book a table at this magnificent restaurant. Traditional music and authentic cuisine combine to create an exotic atmosphere under flickering lantern lights. lamaisonarabe.com

GRAY BOUTIQUE HOTEL & SPA In stark contrast to the multitude of traditional properties, this five-star boutique hotel is modern, stylish and full of all the amenities needed for a rewarding city stay.

Situated in the Triangle d’Or, access to premium jewellery designers and luxury fashion boutiques is on your doorstep. grayhotelandspa.com

DIP IN THE ATLANTIC While the beachfront is currently undergoing huge amounts of regeneration, much like the rest of the city, it remains a great place to frolic in the Atlantic or soak up some sun. It has a surprisingly Mediterranean feel, and once the works are complete this will be the city’s prime spot.

EMIRATES STAFF TIPS Khadija Lahouiri SENIOR ACCOUNTS ASSISTANT

GET ACTIVE

Sign up for a horse riding session at the Club LeBarry, or a round of golf at the Tony Jacklin Prestigia course.

Nadia Riah AIRPORT SERVICES MANAGER

GET SEEN Explore Casablanca Corniche – it’s the best place for those who want to see and be seen.

From March 26, EK751 will become an A380 flight, leaving Dubai at 7.25am and arriving in Casablanca at 12.55pm. EK752 departs Casablanca at 2.55pm and lands in Dubai at 1.25am the next morning.

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C O M F O R T

COMFORT IN THE AIR 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 enjoy your journey and time onboard with Emirates today.

SMART TRAVELLER

DRINK PLENTY OF WATER Rehydrate with water or juices frequently. Drink tea and coffee in moderation.

TRAVEL LIGHTLY

WEAR GLASSES

USE SKIN MOISTURISER

KEEP MOVING

Carry only the essential items that you will need during your flight.

Cabin air is drier than normal, therefore swap your contact lenses for glasses.

Apply a good quality moisturiser to ensure your skin doesn’t dry out.

Exercise your lower legs and calf muscles.

This encourages blood flow.

BEFORE YOUR JOURNEY Consult your doctor before travelling if you have any medical concerns about making a long journey, or if you suffer from a respiratory or cardiovascular condition.

Plan for the destination – will you need any vaccinations or special medications?

Get a good night’s rest before the flight.

Eat lightly and sensibly.

AT THE AIRPORT

MAKE YOURSELF COMFORTABLE Loosen clothing, remove jacket and avoid anything pressing against your body.

DURING THE FLIGHT

Allow yourself plenty of time for check-in.

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.

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Chewing and swallowing will help equalise your ear pressure during ascent and descent.

Babies and young passengers may suffer more acutely with popping ears, therefore consider providing a dummy.

Get as comfortable as possible when resting and turn frequently.

Avoid sleeping for long periods in the same position.

SHARPS BOXES Sharps boxes are available onboard all Emirates flights for safe disposal of medical equipment. Please ask a member of your cabin crew for more information.

WHEN YOU ARRIVE Try some light exercise, or read if you can’t sleep after arrival.

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Guide to us customs & immiGration Whether you’re travelling to, or through, the United States today, this simple guide to completing the US customs form will help to ensure that your journey is as hassle-free as possible.

CUSToMS DECLARATIoN 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.

ElEctronic SyStEm for travEl authoriSation (ESta) If you are an international traveller wishing to enter the United States under the Visa Waiver Program, you must apply for electronic authorisation (ESTA) up to 72 hours prior to your departure.

ESta factS: Children and infants require an individual ESTA. The online ESTA system will inform you whether your application has been authorised, not authorised or if authorisation is pending.

A successful ESTA application is valid for two years. However, this may be revoked or will expire along with your passport. apply onlinE at www.cbp.gov/ESta nationalitiES EligiblE for thE viSa waivEr*: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Monaco, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom** * SubjEct to changE ** only britiSh citizEnS qualify undEr thE viSa waivEr program. | 76 |

The suites at Bupa Cromwell Hospital (Just what the doctor ordered)

The Royal Suite

When it comes to your health, compromise is not an option.

To find out more about our exclusive Royal and Presidential suites, and to talk about your healthcare requirements, contact our dedicated team on +44 (0)7809 316 205 or email thesuites@cromwellhospital.com.

Bupa Cromwell Hospital, 164-178 Cromwell Road, London SW5 0TU Expect the exceptional.

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Cut the queue at JFK with quiCK ConneCt If you’re connecting through New York JFK, you can avoid long waiting times in US immigration and queues for connecting flights with the Quick Connect service. The US Customs And Border Protection agency created the special service for passengers who have a connecting flight within three hours of arrival at New York JFK.

Follow TheSe STePS:

1

2

3

4

have your boarding card or ticket for your connecting flight ready for the ground staff as you exit.

You’ll be given a Quick Connect card. Continue to the Quick Connect queue in the Arrivals hall.

After passport clearance, claim your baggage and clear US customs, regardless of your final destination.

If your bag is tagged to your final destination, hand it to emirates staff at the transfer counter for your onward flight.

quarantine in australia Australia has strict biosecurity laws, so when you arrive you’ll need to declare certain food, plant or animal items on your Incoming Passenger Card.

You also need to declare equipment or shoes used in rivers and lakes or with soil attached. All aircraft food must be left onboard. Please take particular care when you complete your Incoming Passenger Card – it's a legal document and false declarations may result in a penalty.

quarantine in Japan Japan has strict rules around exposure to livestock and bringing in livestock items.

You will need to go to the Animal Quarantine Counter if: • you have recently been to a livestock farm • are bringing livestock products into Japan • your visit to Japan will involve contact with livestock The counter is in the baggage claim area. If you’re bringing meat and livestock products into Japan without an import certificate, you must see the animal quarantine officer. | 78 |

This image is for advertising purposes.

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EXPERTISE YOU CAN TRUST. UAE • SOUTH AFRICA • NAMIBIA • SWITZERLAND www.mediclinic.ae

U A E

S M A R T

G A T E

BE SMART! USE UAE SMART GATE AT DUBAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

NATIONALITIES THAT CAN USE UAE SMART GATES

UAE

Andorra

Australia

Austria

Bahrain

Belgium

Brunei

Canada

Denmark

Finland

France

Germany

Greece

Iceland

Ireland

Italy

Japan

Kuwait

Liechtenstein

Luxembourg

Malaysia

Monaco

Netherlands

New Zealand

Norway

Oman

Portugal

Qatar

San Marino

Saudi Arabia

Singapore

South Korea

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

*UK

USA

GO THROUGH IMMIGRATION IN SECONDS AND GET YOUR VISIT TO DUBAI OFF TO A FLYING START Citizens of the countries listed on the right and UAE residents can speed through Dubai International by using UAE Smart Gate.

If you hold a machine-readable passport or E-Gate card you can check in and out of the airport within seconds.

Just look out for signs that will direct you to the many UAE Smart Gates found on either side of the Immigration Hall at Dubai International Airport.

USING UAE SMART GATE IS EASY

1

Have your E-Gate card or machinereadable passport ready to be scanned

2

Place your passport photo page on the scanner. If you are a UAE resident, place your E-Gate card into the E-Gate slot

OK!

3

Go through the open gate, stand in the blue footprint guide on the floor, face the camera straight-on and stand still for your iris scan.

When finished, the next set of gates will open and you can continue to baggage claim

*UK citizens only (UK overseas citizens still require a visa)

REGISTERING FOR UAE SMART GATE IS EASY To register, just follow the above process and then spend a few moments having your details validated by an immigration officer. That’s it! Every time you fly to Dubai in future, you will be out of the airport and on your way just minutes after you landed. | 80 |

UAE SMART GATE CAN BE USED BY:

• Machine-readable passports from the above countries • E-Gate cards

Massachusetts General Hospital named among America’s Top Hospitals To request an appointment, visit massgeneral.org/international Ranked as one of the top three hospitals by U.S. News & World Report, Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, Massachusetts, USA) is the only hospital in America to be ranked across all 16 specialties.

R O U T E

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M A P

R O U T E

M A P

NEW ROUTES: Zagreb: daily service starts June 1 Newark: daily service via Athens starts March 12

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R O U T E

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M A P

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DUBAI

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R O U T E

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M A P

OPEN SKIES FOR IPAD

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EMIRATES FLEET

Our fleet of 260 aircraft includes 245 passenger aircraft and 15 SkyCargo aircraft

AIRBUS A380-800 This month:

up to

1 arriving

2500+ 16% All Emirates A380 aircraft are fitted with Wi-Fi, Mobile Phone and Data Roaming services. 15 (16%) of the A380s are now equipped with Live Television, with more coming soon.

94 in fleet. Up to 489-615 passengers. Range of 15,000km. L 72.7m x W 79.8m

BOEING 777-300ER This month: up to

2500+ 76% 99 (76%) of Emirates Boeing 777-300ERs are equipped with Live Television, Wi-Fi, Mobile Phone and Data Roaming services, with more coming soon.

130 in fleet. Up to 354-442 passengers. Range of 14,594km. L 73.9m x W 64.8m

BOEING 777-200LR 2500+

10 in fleet. Up to 266 passengers. Range of 17,446km. L 63.7m x W 64.8m

EMIRATES SKYCARGO

BOEING 777F

The most environmentally-friendly freighter operated today, with the lowest fuel burn of any comparably-sized cargo aircraft. Along with its wide main-deck cargo door which can accommodate oversized consignments, it is also capable of carrying up to 103 tonnes of cargo non-stop on 10-hour sector lengths.

13 in fleet. Range of 9,260km. L 63.7m x W 64.8m

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1 arriving

CONNECTIVITY AND ENTERTAINMENT SERVICES AVAILABLE

# Live Television

Wi-Fi

Mobile Phone GSM

For more information: emirates.com/ourfleet

Data Roaming GPRS

Channels of inflight entertainment

Aircraft numbers accurate at the time of going to press

BOEING 777-300 1500+

10 in fleet. Up to 364 passengers. Range of 11,029km. L 73.9m x W 60.9m

AIRBUS A319 550+

1 in fleet. Up to 19 passengers. Range of 7,000km. L 33.84m x W 34.1m

The Emirates Executive Private Jet takes our exceptional service to the highest level to fly you personally around the world. Fly up to 19 guests in the utmost comfort of our customised A319 aircraft with the flexibility of private jet travel. Further information at emirates-executive.com

EMIRATES SKYCARGO

BOEING 747 ERF

This aircraft is capable of carrying up to 117 tonnes. The deck-side cargo door, with a height of approximately three metres, allows the uplift of oversized shipments that cannot be accommodated in the belly-hold of passenger aircraft. The nose door allows the carriage of long pieces.

2 in fleet. Range of 9,204km. L 70.6m x W 64.4m

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K n o w l e d g e

the Guide

A-list opinions on the world’s greatest destinations.

This month: Grammy Award winning superstar, Rihanna, talks Barbados

when i’m back home, no day is really Typical So much of my time back there is obviously taken up by seeing friends and family, but otherwise: eat, drink, beach, dance, repeat. if you’re looking for greaT beaches Sandy Lane Beach is absolutely beautiful – and some of the nicest hotels on the island are located there too – so I would absolutely recommend staying in that area.

There’s only one place To go for a nighT ouT Head for the St Lawrence Gap area and you’ll have a great time, and make sure you check out some reggae bars while you’re there.

The BeAches ARe AmAzinG, The food fAnTAsTic, And life fAlls inTo A pATTeRn of eAT, dRink, BeAch, dAnce, RepeAT you surely don’T need To ask me abouT The local drink?

I’m Bajan, seriously, what else am I going to say apart from rum punch? To me, there isn’t anywhere more beautiful in the world than Barbados to watch the sun set over the ocean.

My advice is: wherever you’re drinking your rum punch, make sure you have a sea view.

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one of The besT Things To do is Shopping in Bridgetown – it’s one of my favourite places. There are great little independent shops that sell a lot of handmade jewellery and trinkets. Once you’re done shopping it’s one of the best places to grab a drink and some dinner – there’s so much choice.

if you’ve goT jusT one day in barbados That’s tricky, you have to come for longer. But if we’re sticking to 24 hours, then make sure that it’s Kadooment Day (the first Monday of August). You’ll experience the most amazing carnival ever. There are party trucks that drive down the streets with incredible live music and DJs – it’s literally the most fun ever. It’s one of those things everybody should try and experience once in their life.

The besT advice i can give you is This I can tell you all about Barbados, but you’ll discover when you arrive how beautiful this place is, and how much it has to offer. The key is to leave your worries at home.

Barbados is a little bit of paradise, so come and enjoy it. Life can wait for a week.

As Told To: emmA coileR; illusTRATion: michAel pARkin (folioART.co.uk)

if you’re looking for wildlife You can go out on a boat and see a whole load of turtles, but if you’re at Sandy Bay Beach, you really don’t have to head far out at all – they’ll pretty much swim up to you, and the water is so clear, so you get a great shot of them, too.

The food alone is worTh coming for Barbados is all about seafood: saltfish, fishcakes, fish stew, we have amazing seafood.

Daphne’s is a really romantic place, with great seafood and a fantastic view. If you’re looking for somewhere a little more relaxed, the Waterfront Café in Bridgetown has the most fantastic food and live music.