Open Skies | March 2017

EXPLORING ICE CAVES IN THE ROCKIES

THE IMPRESSIVE MOMENT.

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

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

ContributorS

Jade Bremner, Emma Coiler, Sarah Freeman, Marina Kay, Hynam Kendall, Vincent Long, Ralph Mancao, Matt Mostyn, Paul Murphy, Stuart Turton, Mitali Vyas Cover: Clara Gamito/Rex Features

gEnEraL ManagEr ProduCtion S Sunil Kumar ProduCtion ManagEr R Murali Krishnan

ChiEf CoMMErCiaL offiCEr Anthony Milne anthony@motivate.ae

grouP SaLES ManagEr Michael Underdown michael@motivate.ae

SEnior SaLES ManagEr Shruti Srivastava shruti.srivastava@motivate.ae

SEnior SaLES ManagEr Michelle Quinn michelle.quinn@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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E d i t o r ’ s

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ANDREW NAGY

on the cover

SeNior editor

F

or the past few years I’ve tried getting into yoga. Turns out it’s not as easy as you might think. There’s occasional chanting, it requires the type of movements that, at best, feel unusual, and there’s a strict requirement to carry a rubber mat with you at all times. Talk about high maintenance.

On the rare occasions that I actually make it to a class, however, the par t that always resonates is the most basic request: concentrate on your breathing.

For the briefest of moments, you’re

of focus required to work out whether you’re being followed by a psychopath.

All three feature in this month’s issue.

In the Canadian Rockies, photographer Clara Gamito crawled on her hands and knees through an ice cave for this month’s cover story. It was an experience she shared with friends, fully focussed on her environment. Despite the danger, it’s one she wouldn’t trade for the world.

Journalist Jon Ronson has faced many real (and digital) challenges in the

occasionally, it might even mean the focus required to work out if you’re being followed by a psychopath disconnected from the world, your phone, your digital life. It’s nice.

In part, unplugging yourself from the grid is what links our three main features this month. Each one is out there, in it’s own way, looking for adventure but requiring a more physical connection than the modern world often demands.

That could mean being aware of your surroundings to the extent that even the tiniest glacial movement will register, or simply focussing your mind and body on catching a wave. Occasionally, as it did for Jon Ronson while researching his book Them, it might even be the levels

process of becoming one of Britain’s favourite writers. He’s a man looking for mystery in the world’s murky corners, even though there’s every chance it might terrify him.

Finally, we follow a group of older surfers in California. Whether it’s allowing people to reboot and reset their day-to-day lives, or even help alleviate conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, surfing isn’t just a life-changing experience, it might well be a life-saving one, too.

ice caves in the rockies You might be surprised to learn that photographer Clara Gamito used hardly any post-production tricks on her images of the Athabasca Glacier. Nature, quite clearly, was enough.

Enjoy the issue.

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The winning artwork from the 2016 Emirates Skywards Art of Travel competition will soon feature on the 2017 membership cards. Check out the winners and their artwork at emirates.com/skywards.

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E x p E r i E n c E

March 15-18

Art DubAi dubai, uaE

The great thing about Art Dubai, is that it’s a real product of its environment.This city is home to over 200 nationalities and, with to 93 galleries from 44 countries, this year’s programme reflects that.

Now in it’s 11th year, it’s recognised as a leading event in the international art calendar, but one of the things I love about it most is its opportunity for dialogue. If you’re looking to buy art, then here you you can not only talk to the gallerist, but potentially meet the artist, curators and other art practitioners, too. All these conversations can inform your decision when considering a purchase.

As an art writer, it’s been wonderful to witness – and cover – the changes across the region over the last 15 years. It’s an invaluable experience that helps me contribute to Art Dubai’s year-round programme – that’s another thing people sometimes don’t realise: Art Dubai isn’t just a week in March.

If you’re looking to start a collection, I’d recommend a walk through the Modern and Contemporary halls.

Both present some serious art pieces, as well as a little something for everyone.There’s also an extensive interactive programme set alongside the waterways of Madinat Jumeirah.

For the more experienced art lover, we have Asia’s largest critically acclaimed talks programme, the Global Art Forum – this year, tackling the theme of trade – alongside studio and collection visits and a opportunity to see the work of 500 artists exhibiting at the fair through tightly curated solo, duo and multi-artist presentations.

You should also look out for the tribute to the late, great Emirati artist Hassan Sharif. Known as the father of conceptual art in the UAE, it’ll be presented through the work of his students and contemporaries.

Overall, I’m confident that there’s something for everyone. But if I had to sell Art Dubai in a sentence, I would say: you will leave the fair inspired, enlightened, rewarded to have discovered something, envoigorated to have learnt something, and with a real desire to come back for more. artdubai.ae | 19 |

iMAGE: upstrEAM GAllEry

As thE Art world cEntrEs its GAzE on thE rEGion for thE 11th sEAson of Art dubAi, fAir Director MyrnA AyAD tElls us whAt to ExpEct

L u n c h

w i t h

Pico iyer The British-born novelist on the life of a writer, a childhood spent on the move, and the fear of losing his reckless streak Words: marina kay imaGEs: vincEnt lonG

T

he Tassajara Zen Mountain Center is located 150 miles south of San Francisco, inland from Big Sur. To get there, you need a 4X4 to navigate the rocky track that bumps up and down through Los Padres National Forest before retreating into the Ventana wilderness.

I am here to attend Writing Through The Dark: A Workshop On Words And Silences, led by writer Pico Iyer, who will tell me on Saturday, over lunch, that not only is this his first time visiting Tassajara, but also his first attempt at teaching a workshop.

Pico’s Twitter profile offers a bitesized bio: “Born in Oxford, England, in 1957, resident since 1992 in suburban Japan and a Benedictine hermitage in Big Sur, California.” Hometown: “The World.” For context, I’ll add that when Pico wasn’t earning degrees at Oxford, Eton and Harvard, he was either in Santa Barbara, California, where his Indian parents moved in the 1960s, or in New York, where he worked for Time magazine. Now, he divides his time between Santa Barbara and Nara, Japan.

To date, Pico has written 12 books on subjects such as Cuba, Graham Greene and the Dalai Lama, as well as countless pieces in The New York Times, Condé Nast Traveler and The New York Review Of Books. He’s also chatted with Oprah Winfrey on Supersoul Sunday.

I was introduced to him by guidebook author Rick Steves. Well, via Rick’s radio show actually, when Pico, in his trademark British lilt, described the contemplative practice of sitting still in a techcrazed world. Pico’s (second) TED talk, The Art Of Stillness, based on his 6,000-word book of the same name, has generated more than two million views on YouTube.

On Friday, our group of poets, writers, Zen students, meditation practitioners, a lawyer, and even a psychologist, workshop the meaning of “home” – is it less about where we live than where we are going? – when the discussion segues into a question-andanswer session about Pico’s writing routine. He’s peppered with questions: how many hours do you write a day? (Five.) How many

projects do you work on at any one time? (Multiple.) When is the right time to send a completed manuscript? Pico says he waited a year before sending The Open Road: The Global Journey Of The Fourteenth Dalai Lama. Such interest in Pico’s writing life inspires questions for our interview.

And so, on Saturday, in between poetry sessions, we take lunch outside under sprawling sycamores, surrounded by blue jays. In person, Pico is charming, thoughtful and interested. His relaxed demeanor makes him an ideal dining companion. Pico’s wife, Hiroko, sits with us for a while. She stars in Pico’s non-fiction love story, The Lady And The Monk, but hasn’t actually read the book yet because there isn’t a Japanese version.

On our lunch plates: greens mixed with roasted red peppers, crumbled feta, and toasted pumpkin seeds. A blue dish, stacked with homemade choc-chip-cranberry cookies, teases within arm’s reach. Resigning myself to the salad, I ask Pico, whose mother and late father were professors, if he always wanted to be a writer. “I probably did,” he starts. “Of course, my options shrank the more I did English literature. The trick was how to parlay graduate school’s dead-end position into writing. I knew I didn’t want to be a professor.”

Pico’s full name, Siddharth Pico Raghavan Iyer, blends Buddhist and Hindu influences. “When I was growing up,Tibetan monks would come to our house. My father went to meet the Dalai Lama when I was two years old. Nobody had heard of him then.” In spite of his parents’ interest in comparative religions, Pico says he has never been interested in attaching a single definition to his conviction.

What does interest him is the space between places. Relocating to California at seven years of age, Pico found it difficult to adjust in a new school. “In England, I was six when I was already studying Latin and Greek,” he explains. So he hatched a plan to return to Oxford, attend boarding school, and visit Santa Barbara during the holidays. “I was glad it was economical for my parents, especially after I’d won a scholarship to the high school, then I didn’t have to pay much at all.”

JUST FOUR HOURS IN NARITA MADE THE DIFFERENCE – I ALWAYS STRESS THAT PART BECAUSE IT’S THE FORGOTTEN MOMENTS THAT CHANGE OUR LIVES

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L u n c h

w i t h

I was at home In aIrports… I was always a foreIgner, always a traveller – even at home or at school.

I thInk that formed me ever sInce His life was formed by that commute, “that constant six times a year on a plane back and forth”, he says. “I was at home in airports… I was always a foreigner, always a traveller, even at home or at school, and I think that formed me ever since.”

Pico’s work started getting published in the 1970s. “I was a typical eager beaver,” he says. “My first week, I showed up at the university magazine… I was a rare student who lived in California, and would do all these cool hippie stories.” Writing for alternative weeklies, travelling around Europe for Harvard’s Let’s Go Guides, and studying literature for seven years propelled him towards a job with Time magazine in New York.

“I got so much out of those years. Time taught me how to write,” Pico says. “They taught me how to think of the reader, how to try to be as clear and concise and concrete as possible, and how to communicate, which I’d never studied in all those years of literature.”

And yet, world reporting from a cubicle proved unfulfilling. “I had been there less than a year and I asked if I could take my first vacation to Southeast Asia – three weeks to Thailand and Burma.”

Later, Time would grant Pico more time off, for his travels to Bali, India, Japan and Singapore, but he still had itchy feet. “After the four years, I thought I’d learned what I could, and now would take it out in a different way.” He submitted a number of proposals to publishers, and finally landed a book contract with a $US10,000 advance that afforded him a leave of absence to travel around Asia and write the manuscript for Video Night In Kathmandu. “When I came back from the trip I knew I was going to leave [Time] for good, and I did, maybe five months later.”

In 1983, while on a layover in Japan, Pico had an epiphany.

“It was a feeling of familiarity, a feeling I belonged there. My mother says, ‘You must have been Japanese in a previous life.’ ” He knew he would live in Japan, but what clinched it for him?

“Four hours of walking around Narita. I always stress that, par tly because it’s the forgotten moments that change our lives.”

Four years later, he moved to a Zen monastery in Kyoto, where he met Hiroko, whom he married 12 years later.

emirates serves 12 destinations in the Us – san francisco, los angeles, seattle, chicago, houston, dallas, washington, dc, orlando, fort lauderdale, Boston, new york and newark (starting march 12).

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L u n c h

We wipe our plates clean, and Hiroko brings Pico a cup of tea.

She asks if I’d like one too. “That’s another reason to live in Japan,” Pico says. “What thoughtfulness.”

In the ’90s, Pico experienced a defining moment of a different kind. His family home, perched in the hills of Santa Barbara overlooking the Pacific Ocean, was in the line of one of California’s biggest bushfires. Pico escaped with the family’s cat, but the house burned to the ground. “It affected me hugely. It was probably the biggest single event of my life,” he says. His mother, who was away at the time, was devastated. “It was her home and she lost her whole past.”

Everything was gone, all the family mementos, all his work, save for The Lady And The Monk manuscript. “My plan was the next book, on Cuba. So the day after the fire, that plan was still to write the book about Cuba. I wasn’t going to be diverted by the fire.” Without notes to reference, Cuba In The Night, originally commissioned as a non-fiction book, became Pico’s first novel.

These days, Pico brings his notes and computer discs from Japan and puts them into a safety deposit box in California.

Which brings our conversation to the fickle nature of today’s

w i t h

writing and publishing industry. Out of economic necessity, Pico has charted a new course – one that has taken him from the desk and into the public realm.

“My longing for my life has been to be a writer, and that’s what I trained to do by studying literature for so long, I don’t feel I’m qualified to do anything else. I’ve done that for 34 years now, that’s the life that I chose, but somehow I’ve been displaced into something different.”

I think back to a comment Pico had made about leaving Time all those years ago. He’d said: “It wasn’t hard to make that plunge. Nowadays, it would seem very difficult to me. I’ve lost that recklessness that I envy.” With a wife and two stepchildren, Pico may be less impulsive, but he’s an optimist; a realist adjusting the sails.

And new doors have opened, at Tassajara, for example, where Pico is keen to lead more workshops. “I selfishly come to this workshop to learn about Japan and about Zen, and I’ve done plenty of that by sitting in the Zendo [meditation hall] and being trained

by Fu [the abiding abbess] and by listening to her answers,” he says.

“There are certain things from this workshop that I can take back into my writing. I’ve learned things from listening to people; the space has given me a chance to think about things. Maybe I can bring the benefit of this workshop into what I regard as my real life, which is when I’m back at my desk in Japan in October.”

On the Sunday flight back to Los Angeles, back to the land of Wi-Fi and white noise, I attempt to sit in stillness, but it’s not easy.

Random thoughts dart across my mind. Out of the muddle, however, one curiosity does stand out. Would Pico, the preeminent writer – now workshop teacher at Tassajara – ever reconsider becoming a professor like his parents? Once so at odds with his journey, perhaps now it might be a thought worthy of some serious contemplation.

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S t a y :

R o o m

Shangri-La Singapore

Words: sarah freeman Images: shangrI-La Ensconced in leafy, tropical (not to mention award-winning) gardens, Singapore’s iconic Shangri-La is a mere ten-minute stroll from the city’s famous shopping artery, Orchard Road, yet feels a million miles from the hustle and bustle.

In its 46 years doing business, the hotel has been a magnet for dignitaries and celebs. Their exclusive wing of choice – the Valley (comprising 131 deluxe rooms

and suites), which takes personalised service to a whole new level, is akin to a private members’ club. Guests are ushered into the colonnade marble-clad lobby, ornamented with renaissance furniture, glittering chandeliers and a free-flowing champagne bar. Guests can indulge with bottomless pots of tea and complimentary evening canapés, to the soundtrack of a harpist.

Emirates flies four times daily to Singapore, including a twice daily A380 service.

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The extravagance extends to the 85-square-metre one-bedroom suites, which radiate understated oriental elegance. Guests have not one, but two butlers (one solely tends to your bath).

Details like monogrammed stationary, La Prairie cosmetics and a bedside dessert in place of a generic pillow chocolate ensure you get the full VIP treatment. shangrila.com

‘The most enduring legacies a re bor n of the most colour f ul lives’

A LIFE IN COLOUR L O N D O N N E W YO R K AUSTR A LI A A ZER BA IJA N BA HR A IN CA NA DA CZECH R EPUBLIC ITA LY M A LTA QATA R SAUDI A R A BI A SW ITZER L A ND TH A IL A ND UA E UK UK R A INE USA

FA B E R G E . C O M

@ O F F I C I A L FA B E R G E

F A B E R G É P R O U D LY U S E S G E M F I E L D S C O L O U R E D G E M S T O N E S

S t a y :

C l a S S i C

Mandarin Oriental Munich, GerMany

Words: sarah Freeman Images: mandarIn orIental Housed in one of the Bavarian capital’s most beautiful neo-Renaissance buildings in the heart of old town, this operahouse-turned-luxury-hotel keeps good company with the likes of Dior, Bulgari and Hermès across the street.

The Mandarin makes a grand impression, with two elegant, sweeping Italian marble-clad staircases leading to 73 rooms and suites, which frankly feel

more like private residences. Channelling an East-meets-West aesthetic, the highceilinged rooms are decked out with heated parquet floors, cherry wood desks and woven oriental rugs. The Bang & Olufsen gadgets and yoga mat are nice additions that will keep lo-fi and hi-fi couples happy.

If weather permits, take a dip in the spectacular guest-only rooftop heated

Emirates flies three times daily to Munich with the Airbus A380.

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pool, or sip on cocktails at the Asianinspired terrace bar, which affords 360° views over the city as well as the snowcapped Alps.

For dinner, forgo bratwurst in favour of black cod and yellow fin tuna sashimi at the hotel’s Peruvian fusion restaurant, with a menu curated by none other than chef Nobu Matsuhisa. mandarinoriental.com

F o o d

sharmajee’ss

Sharmajee’ss at stall No 22

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f o o d

Mumbai’s street food culture is revered and imitated throughout the world, but if you want to truly eat like a Mumbaikar, there’s only one place to go WORDS ANDREW NAGY IMAGES: MItAlI VYAS

A bowl of bhel puri

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F o o d

M

umbai’s Chowpatty Beach is crowded at the best of times.

It’s a place for festivals and celebrations, or just for somewhere to walk away from the bustle of the city.

Anybody who’s been there, however, soon realises that this is just background noise when compared to the real draw: the food stalls that line the shore. Here, at number 22, you’ll find Sharmajee’ss.

Something of a legend within the food stall community so prevalent in the city, any Mumbaikar worth his salt knows that this is where you’ll find the best bhel puri in the world.

Sweetly tangy and spicy, bhel puri is one of the most famous street food dishes in India. Made out of puffed rice and mixed with numerous chutneys such as tamarind, green chillies and dates, it’s then garnished with finely chopped tomatoes, potatoes, onions, coriander, sev (similar to crunchy noodles), chaat masala, fried lentils and some lime juice. It’s a dish bursting with flavour, but it has its restrictions. This is not a meal to take your time over. The puffed rice means bhel puri can get soggy, fast, so if you’re with friends, eat, then talk.

Pan puri is a classic at Sharmajee’ss

Sev puri is a great dish to share with friends and family. The sev is like a crunchy noodle, while the puri translates into a round deep fried wheat disc. Individually loaded with potatoes, onions, tomatoes, coriander, chutneys, green chillies and garlic, it then gets boosted by raw mango, coriander, lemon juice, chaat masala and some fried lentils. One plate – costing roughly US60c – will get you about six fully loaded puris.

Finally, no trip to Sharmajee’s would be complete without pani puri. These fried

balls of bread are stuffed with boiled potato, chickpea and coriander. You then dunk them into tangy tamarind and date chutney, before double-dunking into spicy mint flavoured water.

While the global appropriation of Mumbai street food continues apace – many is the high-end restaurant that attempts to recreate it’s most famous dishes – it’s reassuring to note that the best place to eat it remains away from the table, and firmly on the street.

Emirates serves nine destinations in India – Delhi, Mumbai, Cochin, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, and Bengaluru.

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f o o d

The owner, Mr Sharmajee

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E n t r E p r E n E u r

HatcHards London, UK

Words: Hynam Kendall ImaGes: Paul murPHy | 32 |

E n t r E p r E n E u r

W

e are two floors below where Francis Cleverdon – charming, slight, well turned out in blazer, slacks and thick-rimmed glasses – should actually be right now.

Instead, the manager of Hatchards bookstore sprawls across the careworn leather sofa-cum-window seat in a first floor alcove, and admires one of the most wonderful views of central London’s Piccadilly. We survey the iconic Royal Academy of Arts institute opposite, as well as the equally iconic department store Fortnum & Mason, against which Hatchards is neatly nestled.

“I probably should be upstairs trying to put together the guest list for this year’s party,” he sighs, referring to the legendary ‘Hatchards Author of the Year’ gathering, which they’ve hosted since 1923. Four hundred guests will cram into the shop’s five floors. No riff-raff. No publishers. Just authors. Recurring visitors include Jilly Cooper, Julian Barnes and Ian McEwan.

Salman Rushdie also pops in when he is in town. “The nice thing about it is that it’s a way of getting to know them [the

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authors] properly. We just shut the doors and give them champagne.” As the writers in attendance will push their books to a more prominent store location, it generally takes a week afterwards to put things back in the right place.

London’s oldest running bookseller is more than a mere bookstore, and listless city guides all laud this historic spot as a must-see attraction. It is undeniably charming: somewhat antiquated, with a moss green carpet knotted with regallooking navy curlicues, the odd roll-back upholstered chair for flourish and the famed wooden spiral staircase that the tourists all seem to adore.

What’s most notable is its ownership of the three Royal Warrants (worn like a badge of honour, with one prominent wall bearing an old receipt dated 1815 written in extravagant italic script Bought of John Hatchard, Bookseller to Her Majesty). There are only three Royal Warrants to be had – HM The Queen, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, HRH The Prince of Wales – and Hatchards is the only bookshop to have them all.

E n t r E p r E n E u r

In basic terms this means it supplies the royal books (HRH The Queen is actually the longest running customer as the booksellers received the Royal Warrant in the 1800s, as soon as they were eligible). Cleverdon can’t say how the Royal Warrant works practically – “This is when I have to use the ‘no comment’ line” – but one assumes Hatchards deliver a curated reading list to the Palace, a service they provide for about 300 customers a month.

“When John Hatchard started on a barrow in 1975, just there [Cleverdon points through the window to the roadside in front, bustling with crowds of out-oftowners], before moving indoors in 1977, it was known as the ‘carriage trade’ because they came down Piccadilly, parked up, and the footman would get off and come over to collect the books for the ladies within the carriage.”

Hatchards have modified this tradition and still curate the reading list for a large

The store’s Royal Warrants

number of their customers. “We don’t want to just do the bog standard ‘book of the month’,” he explains, “Where’s the fun in that?” After a brief interview process, where they develop an understanding of your likes and dislikes, the dedicated curation process begins. For all 300 customers it takes three days with multiple

staff, including Cleverdon himself doing the selection. It’s not a service you can do in most places. “But then we’re not most places,” he laughs.

It’s not just the Royal Family who are notable patrons. Throughout history, many famed names have and still do shop at Hatchards. British businessman

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E N T R E P R E N E U R

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE Sir John Sloane’s Museum It’s completely mad, you turn a corner and discover the most extraordinary things that I guarantee you have never seen in your entire life, just sitting there – drawings and models of his work [Sir John Sloane was a neo-classical architect in the 1800s], paintings, antiques, curiosities – it has charm and quirkiness.

The Clink The old Clink Prison Museum in Clerkenwell, which is basically unchanged, is where various greats of 19th century literature were imprisoned for debt. Can you believe it was a regular occurrence.

Francis Cleverdon

Cecil Rhodes (“a complete nightmare”) contacted Hatchards by letter when “taking over some country somewhere”.

He was reading Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and decided on a whim that he wanted Gibbon’s entire bibliography, asking Hatchards to supply him with it. They replied, kindly pointing out that at least half of it hadn’t even been translated yet – it was in Latin. “Well, can’t you translate it then?” he asked. And they did. It took six years, and much of the translations were actually the first printed of the works. Literary anecdotes like this are plentiful, a great one regarding Oscar Wilde’s wife’s love affair with the Hatchards manager of the time – there’s a marvellous series of love letters still resting upstairs.

Cleverdon sees the future of bookselling being in the quirks, which is why upon his employment he looked at reinstating Hatchards’ stocking of rareties and first editions. They currently have

around US$125,000 worth, including a signed Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake, worth around US$1,860, and a set of Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time, which can be yours for approximately US$4,350.

“I think everybody’s looking for a way of survival,” explains Cleverdon.

“Our quirk is our heritage; that fact that we have created a world, a personality, and that we, as booksellers, have beliefs that we stick to. For example, there are some books that we love, but that we know hardly anybody will buy.

However, to be a proper bookshop you should still have them. The great classic is James Joyce’s Ulysses – and quite honestly the actual number of people who have read it is not that high – but would you trust a bookseller if they didn’t have a copy of it knocking about? No. You wouldn’t. You can’t believe a bookstore is great if it won’t surround you with greatness.” hatchards.co.uk | 35 |

Hampstead Heath Just the most extraordinary place, unlike anywhere else in London. It’s literary leanings are legendary… the poet William Blake was endlessly walking across it, the novelist Wilkie Collins set The Woman in White there, too.

Albany, Piccadilly The apartment complex, Albany, in Piccadilly is down a small unassuming alleyway. It’s so discreet that you would never even know it’s there. So many greats have lived there and it really is the most beautiful residence in London – even just looking at the façade from the outside is a treat. Built originally in the 18th century as bachelor apartments, Kenneth Clark – and even Byron, at one stage – have lived there.

A collection of stories from around the world One Before The Wave

For The Love Of Odd

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ve of odd Jon Ronson has made a career out of peeking into life’s dark corners. This month you can see him at the Emirates Airline Festival Of Literature, so here’s what to expect from the last of the great gonzo journalists

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lot of journeys I do are quite frightening, and I’m not somebody who enjoys being frightened.”

This is a surprising thing to hear from Jon Ronson, an author who’s built an entire career wandering into scary situations, and then writing funny things about them. Back in 2001, he went looking for shadowy cabals in Them: Adventures With Extremists and ended up hanging out with assor ted oddballs including David Icke (who believes the world’s controlled by giant lizards) and conspiracy investigator Big Jim Tucker (who believes the world’s controlled by the secretive Bilderberg Group).

He blagged his way around the world in Clubbed Class, hunted psychopaths in The Psychopath Test and investigated psychic warfare in The Men Who Stare At Goats, which was made into a film starring George Clooney and Ewan McGregor – the latter of whom plays a journalist inspired by Ronson, which must be a nice icebreaker at dinner par ties.

More recently, he put himself in Twitter’s crosshairs by tackling the thorny subject of online witch hunts in So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed. For a man who claims to not enjoy fear, he cer tainly ends up prodding a lot of bears.

“My star ting point is always that I’m tr ying to solve a myster y,” says Ronson.

“I can only do a story where it’s a world I don’t understand, but I want to tr y and understand it. It could be a myster y as simple as, ‘Why did that person behave in a way I would never behave?’ or it

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they’re paranoid conspiracy theorists, could be something much bigger like, ‘Is or those who’ve fallen foul of Twitter’s it true that psychopaths rule the world?’ permanently outraged insult army. or ‘Is it true there’s a shadowy cabal “One of my challenges is always, that secretly rules the world, and can I ‘How can I write about this in a way get in?’ ” nobody else is, and in a more timeless Not to ruin the book, but solving way?’ ” he says. “I don’t want to write a this last one results in Ronson making polemic about how everything is bad, I a panicked phone call to the British want to write an interesting adventure embassy after discovering his car is being story. I had a sor t of epiphany when I tailed. Trying to explain his predicament, first star ted writing Them, which was that he ends up blurting out, “I’m a humorous people expect a cer tain amount out of a journalist out of my depth” – which is fiction novel. You expect your protagonist not only a fantastic line, but effectively a in a novel to go through some sor t mission statement for his entire career. of life-changing experience, you want “That’s the difference between me and something profound to happen. If you’re the other non-fiction writers,” he says. “I spending money on a novel you want a want to be out of my depth, with all that lot to happen. Why not have the same entails – being lost in a world and not high standards for non-fiction? In Them I understanding how it works, and maybe wanted to put myself through the same I’m going to screw everything up, or significant life changes that a fictional maybe I’ll be wrong. In The Psychopath Test person would go through in a novel, and I become this crazed psychopath spotter I’ve always tried to keep that up.” because I’m out of my depth.”

The problem This idea of with this technique an investigator My starting is that life-changing becoming lost in point is always experiences the thing they’re that I m trying don’t end when investigating isn’t the books do, as unique to Ronson, to solve a Ronson found out but he does it mystery. I can when he released extraordinarily only do a story So You’ve Been well, injecting where it is a Publicly Shamed. humour, pathos In sympathetically and a breakneck world I don t recounting the pace into his books understand but I story of Justine that’s more often want to try and Sacco, a PR woman associated with who made an the fiction side of understand it offensive joke publishing. Perhaps on Twitter and his most endearing found her life ruined 12 hours later, he quality though is the empathy he has inadver tently placed himself in front of for the people he writes about, whether

Learn more about the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in the podcast on channel 1503 on ice Digital Widescreen.

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in search of ADVENTURE...

“I’ve always believed society, fundamentally, to be a rational thing, but what if it isn’t? What if it is built on insanity?”

“We’ve created a stage for constant artificial high drama.

Every day a new person emerges as a magnificent hero or a sickening villain.”

“Remember that the crazy people are not always to be found on the outside. Sometimes, the crazy people are deeply embedded on the inside.”

the boulder of ill will that is social media.

Writing in The Guardian, Ronson recalled how the first few pebbles of criticism swiftly became a landslide, with one commentator writing, “After reading that excerpt from his book. I think it’s safe to say @jonronson is a f****** racist.”

As the hatred grew Ronson quit Twitter, joining again sometime later when things had calmed down. And yet, as horrible as the experience was, it served to reinforce the case being made in the book that social media had mutated into something toxic, propelling it even further into the public consciousness. Malevolence had become marketing.

“When So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed came out I travelled with that book for a year and a half non-stop, promoting

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it,” says Ronson. “With my other books, I have this rule: you take ages to write the book so in terms of promotion I’ll talk about it for as long as people want to talk to me about it. What I didn’t realise about Shamed was that people would want to talk to me about that book for the rest of my life. Particularly the Justine Sacco story, people want to hear that story over and over again. So, I was travelling forever with that book. I was becoming old. I remember at one point – and I recognise this all comes from a place of privilege – but nonetheless, I remember being in Amsterdam, and I was traipsing down a hotel corridor towards people who wanted to interview me, having been to a million countries beforehand, and actually feeling like it had turned me old.”

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Ronson’s laughing as he tells me this story, and yet it’s not hard to imagine the weariness of being on the road for 16 months, telling the same stories in different ways. So arduous did it become, he actually called a moratorium on travelling for a little while.

“I have a real love/hate relationship with travel,” he says. “I tend to love it in retrospect and hate it at the time. My greatest memories are being in some Hampton Inn [cheap chain hotel in the US] in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere in America, on a story, having breakfast with servicemen on the next table, or travelling salesmen, before going off into the middle of nowhere to solve a mystery. Those are by far my best memories, but at the time I hate it.

I get exhausted, but then I honestly think we do most things for some form of retrospective happiness.”

For the moment, Ronson’s busy researching new projects and writing screenplays. He most recently completed

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not just

a great line but a mission statement for his entire career Okja with acclaimed Korean director Bong Joon-ho, which is due out on Netflix in 2017, starring Tilda Swinton and Jake Gyllenhal. He’s also making an appearance at the Emirates Airline Festival Of Literature, where he’ll be

talking about his travels, and some of his adventures along the way. They better have given him a nice long slot, because Ronson’s not shor t of a story or two.

That’s the beauty of being a humorous journalist out of your depth.

On the road with Jon Ronson

Observations from a life spent looking for mystery the welcome note I was in Ohio writing The Men Who Stare At Goats and we’d turned up incredibly late at night, probably midnight, and I was completely exhausted. There was a massive sign on the reception desk, framed, that said, “Hampton Inn welcomes our guest of the day Jon Ronson.” I was like, “Wow, what do I get?” They said, “You get room 21.” It was exactly the same as any other Hampton Inn bedroom, except it was massive. It was the size of four Hampton Inn rooms knocked together, and instead of a brown plastic bathtub it was a massive brown plastic hot tub. I kept that sign on my fridge for years.

the problem with luxury hotels If I’m on a story, trying to solve a mystery, I’d never think to stay in a fancy hotel. For me, it’s little hotels that equal mystery and adventure. When I travel it’s always like that, but it’s changed a bit as a get older.

When I go on holiday with my family, I like to stay in fancy places, and I’ve got to confess, these days, I will always find a way to fly business class on international flights. It does feel like the only significant luxury in my life. I don’t do anything else particularly luxurious. I don’t own a car, I don’t go to fancy restaurants, this is basically it, the one thing.

a boy with a tuba I remember one time when I was writing the Men Who Stare At Goats, I was making a film at the same time, and me and my grumpy cameraman were in Indianapolis. For some reason, the production manager had checked us into a honeymoon hotel.There were hearts everywhere, and little chocolates all over the place. We were like, “What are we doing here?” I also have a memory of being on a train going to the Ilkley Literature Festival in the north [of England], and this schoolkid got up and started playing the tuba on the train. People are doubtful when I tell them that story, like it’s not a real thing that happens, but it really did.

See Jon Ronson at the Emirates Airline Festival Of Literature, March 3-11. emirateslitfest.com

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Life in Ice

The Athabasca Glacier in the Canadian Rockies is almost six kilometres long, and receding at a rate of five metres per year. Portuguese photographer, Clara Gamito, braved sub-zero conditions to capture some amazing images of these living structures. Here’s how she did it‌

Images by Clara Gamito

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This trip to the Athabasca Glacier was planned a few months before we went.

We knew about the caves, but we just weren’t sure if it would be possible to get inside. Luckily the weather was cold enough and we found one in good enough condition to enter without a real risk. The chances of this happening were so low that, when we did, it was just amazing.

Once inside, everything worked by pure photographic instinct.

My landscape photography is a reflection of my passion for earth sciences such as meteorology and geology. I feel a very special attraction to glaciers because they’re living geological and climatic structures. For me, getting inside an ice cave of a glacier is like travelling back in time to witness the ancient ice formed thousands of years ago. | 47 |

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Alaska Airlines and its sister carrier, Horizon Air, service more than 90 cities across continental US, Canada, Mexico and four Hawaiian Islands. Emirates Skywards members can earn and spend Miles when flying on the Alaska network, including all flights marketed and operated by Alaska Airlines.

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We had to walk on the ice, so I brought only the essential photographic equipment. I used a full frame reflex camera with an ultra wide-angle lens and a steady tripod. The space inside was very narrow so I had to use a really wide-angle lens to capture the shape of the cave. To get there we needed proper winter clothes and ice equipment like crampons, lanterns and, of course, some very good snacks.

We didn’t really feel in danger, but we were very alert. The conditions inside the cave were difficult – it was impossible to walk upright in the majority of it – and we were very aware of any possible sound that could indicate some dangerous glacier movement. | 49 |

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Ice caves can change every year because of glacial movement and de-icing.

They change appearance and can even disappear. Although the weather conditions can be very extreme, they should only be visited during the winter and at the beginning of spring (depending on the temperature). When it gets warmer, they can be dangerous places to be.

I aimed simply to show what I saw and felt inside the cave in the most faithful way. The behaviour of the light through the ice was so amazing that it didn’t really require much post-production work. | 51 |

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These shoots are really fun and rewarding because they are impossible to do without great teamwork. There are some places you can photograph alone or without being aware of your colleagues, but in a narrow and slippery ice cave – in the middle of a glacier – everything and everyone must be synchronised, both for the safety of the group and the quality of the pictures you bring back home.

In an ice cave I feel happiness for doing my job in a unique and stunning place.

Surrounded by those walls of ancient ice and sharing that moment with the people that I love. | 52 |

iMAGE: ClArA GAMito/rEx FEAturEs

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LE YE STYLE EAST IF IF L L A ’S ’S IT IT , , E PORATSPORFTOLDEFROLSDUERRF SRUSRFERS S’T A ’T N N IS IS G G TJUST PGOROUP O SN’T JSUNS RFIN FOR A FGORROU SURFIN SUA ’T A E E O O D D D D N N S S A E E , , V V E E A A A IC , RIDIN,GRW G WE LIVEESL–IV ITESC – NIT CAN CHOIC CHOR IN ID IA IA N N R G G IFOCALIFO ER TOECRHT ANO CHAN IN CALIN W W O O P P E E H H TAVE T OO HAVE H TAHVEEMTTHEM TOO SAVE S

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Eric ‘Bird’ Hoffman, owner of Bird’s Surf Shed

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n sunny San Diego, just moments from the Mexican border, locals talk of a big city with a laidback small town vibe. Here, surfers enjoy 75 miles of coastline, with beaches of all types. After Polynesia, these shores were the first place people began riding waves, but as perfect sets peel off at Swami’s reef in Encinitas, it’s not the energetic youths shredding the water that grab your attention, it’s the graceful glide of an older group of surfers.

And if there’s one thing you should know: it’s that Southern California’s older surf sect have the most compelling stories to tell.

“The old guys are just fabulous,” says Jane Schmauss, historian at the California Surfing Museum. “Surfing keeps people young, I’m a firm believer in that.” Schmauss got hooked on the lifestyle when her Encinitas restaurant, George’s, turned into a surfer hangout. “Kids would gather there and talk about it so much that I just fell in love with the culture,” she explains.

Schmauss now dedicates much of her time to preserving surf history, and the Oceanside-based museum has collected key artefacts, such as Hawaiian surfer Eddie Aikau’s 1978 Rescue Board and a century-old depiction of a Polynesian surfer woman, drawn during a Captain Cook voyage. Schmauss loves that many of the same people she served in her restaurant all those years ago are still surfing today. “Once a surfer, always a surfer,” she says. “Older guys could be stumbling around on land but as soon as they get in the water they have this graceful athleticism.”

A short drive down the coast, near Mission Bay, you can find an infamous spot, where fabled board shapers have made their mark in a corrugated steel building named Bird’s Surf Shed. Here 60-year-old Eric ‘Bird’ Huffman turned an old army quonset hut into a surfboard storage space, and in 2011 opened his library of boards to the public. More

When life GeTS DiffiCUlT, SUrfinG helpS reSeT me. iT pUTS everyThinG in perSpeCTive anD makeS me appreCiaTe WhaT i have | 57 |

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than 1,400 colourful designs hang on the concave ceiling and walls. Legendary shapes include ’60s Hanson boards, plus Caster and older Simmons models – one of which Bird values at around US$25,000.

At the back of the shed, in a dusty shaping room, is a man who’s also been surfing Southern California’s breaks for half a decade. Local hero Robin Prodanovich, 67, is lean, toned and tanned. He could easily be mistaken for a man 10 or 15 years younger. Prodanovich started working for surfboard makers Gordon & Smith before going it alone and building a successful name in shaping. He now shapes part-time at the shed. “I’m kind of a dinosaur,” he jokes, referring to the fact that he goes against the grain of modern computerised boards made in factories. “I completely shape boards start to finish by hand, including cutting the board.” Over the years he’s hand-crafted twins, quads and tri-fin designs, but is seeing more orders for retro single fins boards – favoured by older surfers – and similar to the ones he learned to surf on in the early ’60s. “I just made my son, the editor of Surfer Magazine, an old-school 9’7” single fin longboard. He loves it.”

SurferS fighting in Vietnam tried to maintain that mindSet, and when they came home, they Surfed to eaSe the StreSS | 58 |

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Clockwise from left: Brock Rosenthal at Tourmaline Surfing Park; Don Hastings and Juli Redmerski before a sunset surf; Linda Wolfgang from the San Diego Surf Ladies; board shaping legend Robin Prodanovich

Bird reckons longboarding has always been in San Diego, it just happens to be getting fashionable again. “San Diego’s weird, because it [longboarding] never really left, although some of the most progressive boards have come out of here, you might not fit riding them.”

The passion and energy for surfing at Bird’s is contagious. Californian big wave surfer and board glasser Dave Lot, 65, is adamant he’ll never stop. “I have friends now whose hips are going, their knees are going, they’ve had operations, they’re getting frail. They’ve had good jobs and made good money, but they can’t even get to their feet anymore,” he says. “I’ve slowed down, but I can still do it. If I get to the point where I can’t get to my feet, I’ll make boards I can ride on my belly, I’ll never give up. I love it so much.”

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wander through the streets in wetsuits, dripping wet from the sea, cyclists peddle surfboards in racks attached to their bikes, and crowds at the beaches line up on plastic chairs to gaze at sets rolling in on the horizon. Surf culture has influenced the music, the fashion and the attitude of the people who live here. It’s a remarkable feat given that it was first popularised by a publicity stunt.

In 1907, developer Henry Huntington invited Hawaiian surfer George Freeth to ‘walk on water’ in order to promote his new beachside property. A hundred years ago they had to actively convince people to move here – the coastline was deemed too rugged, the seas wild and, despite year-round sunshine, the water was cold and uninviting. Little did Californians know that surfing would eventually draw people from across the globe to these same waters. Southern California surfers speak

Susan Hefuna, Notation, 2011 (inverted detail), Ink and graphite on paper and tracing paper, 34.3 x 41.9 cm, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. © Susan Hefuna. Photo: Courtesy Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago

ABU DHABI TOURISM & CULTURE AUTHORITY PRESENTS

07 MARCH 29 JULY 2017

#INABUDHABI #THECREATIVEACT #GUGGENHEIMABUDHABI SAADIYATCULTURALDISTRICT.AE

MANARAT AL SAADIYAT SAADIYAT CULTURAL DISTRICT ABU DHABI

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Top right: San Diego Surf Ladies Linda Little, Barb Whatley and Taffi Parrish.

Below: Linda Little catches a wave

of the joy (or “stoke”) from riding the wave, plus a freedom and energy they feel in the water. Others claim it a physical and mental healing force.

Close by, at the mile-long soft sandy La Jolla Shores, are surfers Linda Little, Taffi Parrish, Barb Whatley and Laura Wolfgang from the San Diego Surf Ladies club. All over 50, but without a grey hair in sight, they seem to have found the secret of near-eternal youth. “Surfing has changed my whole attitude,” says Little.

“I’m happier when I’m near the ocean and happy when I catch a good wave.”

At 53, she surfs regularly at various spots along California’s coastline. “I kinda’ become one with the outside world, because I can’t check my emails, I can’t do the laundry, I start to pay attention to the creatures and the water, the waves and the patterns, it puts your brain on hold from everything else when you focus on the stuff around you.”

Along with Whatley, Little is a breast cancer survivor and claims surfing has a rehabilitating force. “The paddling, while it’s difficult for me, really strengthens the muscles that are left,” she explains. For 61-year-old Whatley, surfing was also an emotional boost. “Surfing is the ultimate spiritual mind-body experience. I’ve participated in many sports in my life and I’ve never found anything even close to the connection I have to life as I have

through surfing. It’s just amazing. It centres me. If I’m happy, if I’m angry, if I’m sad… I know I can go to the water for relief and a mother hug from the ocean. I pretty much feel the same as I did in high school,” she says. “I’m completely fit. When things go up and down in life, surfing helps reset me, it puts everything into perspective. It makes me humble, makes me appreciate what I have, what I don’t have and how I can get better.” The ladies paddle out, sit

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Laura Wolfgang, Barb Whately and Taffi Parrish at La Jolla Shores

on their boards chatting, then beautifully glide along six-foot waves. They return to the shore beaming.

Older surfers frequent many of Southern California’s beaches, but only one is affectionately named after them.

Surfing instructor Souf Tihhi runs San Diego Surf School on Pacific Beach, five minutes from a break dubbed Old Man’s (also known as Tourmaline Surfing Park), where there’s a strong social surfing community. The soaring rocky outcrop off La Jolla shelters the waves here from northerly winds, and a monument honours legendary surfers like Skip Frye, Mike Hynson and late surfing radical Doc Paskowitz, all of whom have enjoyed waves here over the years. “Tourmaline is one of the historic spots in the area.

The single fin style of riding started here,” explains Tihhi.

Chris Formo changed his job and moved house so he could be closer to this spot and surf every day. “Today I got an awesome wave and that one wave just made my whole day,” says 49-year-old Formo, after his morning session. “The other day I dove under three waves and

a harbour seal popped up at the foot of my board with a big chunk of fish in its mouth, another great moment,” he smiles.

“You forget what’s going on when you’re out there [in the water], you’re really in the moment. Even at my age I’m still getting better, I don’t feel like I’ve peaked at all.”

More than a sporting obsession, surfing is a state of mind in Southern California, explains veteran Rick Matthews, 67. “Even when you’re not in the water you’re still a surfer, it’s about how you look at things and think about things.

“That’s the difference between surfing and other sports? You might remember skiing, but do you remember a specific run? Probably not. Surfing gives detailed memories, they just somehow get burned into your subconscious.”

One of Matthews’ most poignant surfing moments was entering a surfing contest in Hunting Beach in the early ’60s.

“It was the US Open of Surfing. I’d done really well, but when I got home my draft notice [for the army] was there. I couldn’t have been higher and then lower at that point. I’ll never forget it.” | 62 |

Many surfers fighting in the Vietnam War tried to maintain that surfing mindset, and when they returned they used it as a way to ease post-traumatic stress. “The thing about surfing that’s particularly relevant to combat veterans is that it’s a solitary sport,” explains Matthews. “You see that about veterans – a lot of them are very solitary.

With surfing you get out on the water and it’s you on your own in a vast quiet arena.”

Heroes of their beaches, some have overcome great challenges in life through surfing, others were at the heart of the ’60s surfing scene, and in their small tribes they conquered unsurfable waves, experimented with board designs, and helped pave the way for the new generation of board riders.

Rich or poor, the ocean is a great leveller. Once you catch the surfing bug you’ll be drawn to it forever.

“Longboarders our age can still hold their own, no matter what aches or pains they may have,” says 53-year-old Southern California native Taffi Parrist, “I will be surfing for the rest of my life. Even though they might have to roll me down the hill and push me into the water.”

Essential news and information from Emirates New route to Newark via Athens

Inside Emirates

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new daily to newark and athens Emirates is to launch a new daily service from Dubai to Newark Liberty International Airport via the Greek capital city of Athens.

The new route, which will begin on March 12, complements Emirates’ existing four daily flights between Dubai and New York’s JFK airport. It will also provide a year-round non-stop daily service between the United States and Greece – a service that has not existed since 2012.

“The Greek government and Athens International Airport approached Emirates some time ago to consider serving the route between Athens and New York,” said Sir Tim Clark, President of Emirates Airline.

“After careful review, Emirates concluded that extending one of our Dubai-Athens flights to Newark would be commercially and operationally feasible. We are pleased to be able to help meet a strong consumer need long neglected by other airlines, and we would like to thank the authorities and our partners in both the US and Greece for their support of the new route.”

more a380 destinations On March 26 Emirates will add three new destinations to its A380 network, with the launch of a daily double-decker service to Tokyo Narita, Casablanca and São Paulo.

The A380 services to Casablanca and São Paulo will be the first-ever commercial A380 flights to Morocco and Brazil. While the Tokyo Narita service is the resumption of the A380 operation on that route, providing ideal connectivity and a start-to-finish A380 experience for Japanese travellers.

The airline’s flagship aircraft, which continues to excite travellers and aviation | 66 |

enthusiasts alike, will replace the Boeing 777-300ER currently used on all three routes, offering increased seat capacity across all three cabin classes and an enhanced premium product experience.

The new flights join more than 40 destinations on Emirates’ extensive global network served by the highly popular A380 aircraft, including Paris, Rome, Milan, Madrid, London and Mauritius.

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Service Sponsor

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The emiraTes lounge experience jusT goT bigger Access to Emirates’ luxury lounges at Dubai International Airport has been extended to include Loyalty Programme members and their guests.

The launch of the additional privilege (for a minimal fee regardless of class of travel) means that pay-per-visit access will be available to Emirates Skywards members and their guests travelling on

Emirates. Business Class travellers now also have the option to pay an upgrade fee to access the First Class lounges.

Eligible guests can access the Emirates Business Class lounges in Dubai for a fee of US$100 and the Emirates First Class lounges for a fee of US$200. Business Class customers can also upgrade to First Class lounge access for a fee of

US$100. Guests who have paid a fee for entry can stay for up to four hours.

“Our premium lounges here at our hub in Dubai are some of the best in the world and we are pleased that more of our customers can now experience them,” said Adel Al Redha, Emirates’ Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer.

day. This includes flowers transported on board dedicated freighters from major flower exporting countries such as Kenya and Ecuador directly to Amsterdam – the world’s largest flower distribution centre.

Flowers transported in the belly hold of

the aircraft also come from countries as far and diverse as India, New Zealand, Vietnam, Zambia and Ethiopia.

Between January and December last year, Emirates SkyCargo transported over 70,000 tonnes of fresh flowers around the world.

emiraTes in bloom If you received flowers for Valentine’s Day last month, there’s a chance they arrived at your door by way of Emirates SkyCargo.

Ahead of the celebration, Emirates SkyCargo unveiled a unique rose decal on one of its Boeing 777-F freighter aircraft. The decal was installed at the Emirates Aircraft Appearance Centre in Dubai. It was the first of its kind for Emirates SkyCargo and highlighted the strong contribution made by the air cargo carrier to the floriculture industry through the transport of fresh flowers across the world.

Emirates SkyCargo transports fresh flowers across its global network every

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Prize giving By entering the Emirates Thanks a Million prize draw, you could not only win one million Skywards Miles, but also change the lives of those less fortunate around the world WORDs: Matt MOstyn Emirates’ frequent flyer programme Emirates Skywards is once again set to create an instant Skywards Miles Millionaire through its annual Thanks a Million campaign, while at the same time supporting a host of charities.

Set up in 2001, shortly after the launch of Emirates Skywards, the goal was to establish a programme that allowed Emirates to give back to the community. Over the years, the money raised has supported causes as diverse as the World Food Programme, Riding for the Disabled and the Dubai Centre for Special Needs.

The campaign’s strategy has evolved over time, with funds more recently being directed into The Emirates Airline Foundation, a non-profit charity organisation that aims to improve the quality of life for disadvantaged children, providing them with the basics that most of us often take for granted, such as food, medicine, housing and education.

As Dr Nejib Ben Khedher, Senior Vice President, Emirates Skywards, explains, “Since 2014, the funds have been used

solely in support of The Emirates Airline Foundation and its objective to assist children in need around the world. Both Emirates Skywards and Emirates Group staff have volunteered their time and effort to raise money for Thanks a Million, and over the years, our group of volunteers has grown from 20 to 150. They’ve continually raised the bar at each event with their dedication and passion to help others.”

This year, one lucky raffle winner will become a Skywards Miles Millionaire, landing one million Emirates Skywards Miles to spend on flights across the Emirates worldwide network. That’s enough to fly Economy class 22 times from Dubai to Europe, 19 times to the Far East or 13 times to the US or Australia. This year’s winner will be announced at the Dubai World Cup on March 25, and there’ll also be two runners-up prizes of 500,000 Skywards Miles and 250,000 Skywards Miles.

Over the past 16 years, the campaign has helped change the lives of children around the world by collecting more than Dhs3

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million in ticket sales. Last year alone, more than 12,000 tickets were sold, raising Dhs220,000 for the foundation. One of the projects supported by The Emirates Airline Foundation includes the Emirates Friendship Hospital, which provides vital medical assistance to more than two million people living in communities isolated by the annual monsoon flooding in the most deprived region of Bangladesh. The Emirates Airline Foundation financed the twin-hulled vessel to Friendship, the registered NGO that runs the ship. The Foundation also funds a full-time team of doctors, nurses and support staff.

The cause is a vital one as communities in northern Bangladesh are in dire need of basic medical facilities to deal with the unforgiving conditions in which they live. Thankfully, The Emirates Airline Foundation is able to reach out to them with this flagship project. It also hopes, with the kind support of its customers, to be able to do a lot more in the years to come.

Another project being funded is Singakwenza. Translating as ‘we can do it’ in the local language, the charity gives disadvantaged South African children the opportunity to learn through play, using toys and teaching aids made purely from recycled materials. Recognising the value of this highly sustainable programme, Singakwenza is the Foundation’s first South African NGO partner – and they’re currently helping the NGO to expand its reach into many of the country’s most impoverished areas, to give local kids a better chance at a brighter future.

Also supported is The Emirates-CHES Home. A refuge for children, donations have already funded the entire cost of building the facility (operated in conjunction with the Community Health Education Society NGO), as well as its annual running costs for the next 20 years. The airline is immensely proud to be part of this unique initiative.

One of the many other charities supported is the Virlanie Foundation: a Philippines-based organisation that cares for

abandoned, abused, exploited, neglected and orphaned children.

The Foundation operates eight children’s homes that provide essential services for these young people such as: social work, education and psychology programmes that can help empower them in order to live their lives to the fullest, while also offering basic needs such as food, clothing and healthcare. The airline has supported the organisation since 2016, and aims to help it build a better future for all children affected.

All money raised is donated to The Emirates Airline Foundation – and the fortunate winner of those one million Skywards Miles might even consider giving some of them back to the Foundation. In a related scheme, you can donate Miles to extend complimentary airfares and send doctors and engineers on humanitarian missions.

You can give to this vital cause on board, by informing a member of the cabin crew. If you’d also like to donate some of your own Miles, then visit emiratesairlinefoundation.org to find out more

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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

SÃO PAULO Emirates will operate the first commercial A380 to Brazil on March 26, as it upgrades its service to São Paulo. Enjoy our guide to this bustling metropolis Admit it, most of us will instinctively think of Rio de Janeiro when we’re talking Brazilian cities. Copacabana, bossa nova and laidback vibes, what’s not to love? And yet the city of São Paulo takes some beating. The largest in South America, it’s as multicultural as its diverse population of 12 million would suggest. And what it lacks for in tourist finesse and seaside grooves, it easily makes up for in business acumen and culture.

At first glance São Paulo is something of a concrete jungle, a once featureless capital of finance that has, over the course of the past two or three decades, transformed itself into the epicentre of Brazilian culture. It is where art, architecture, design and fashion flourish. And, perhaps most importantly, food.

EAT

In the upscale area of Jardins, restaurants, bistros and cafes abound, serving every imaginable culinary delight to diners from across the world. São Paulo has a fer tile foodie and cultural life that is enriched by hundreds of different nationalities and ethnic groups, not least from Japan (it has the largest Japanese community outside of Japan), Italy, Lebanon and Syria.

Home to world-class museums, diverse neighbourhoods, high-end shopping, experimental clothing boutiques, innovative galleries, graffiti-daubed streets and bursting with creative expression, São Paulo feels more like a city that is going places than a metropolis playing second fiddle to Rio de Janeiro.

STAY

DO

D.O.M. One of the best restaurants in the world, D.O.M. has been at the top of every foodie’s to-visit list for the past 10 years. Run by former punk rocker and DJ Alex Atala (also one of the world’s most influential chefs), it fuses fine dining with the wild ingredients of the Amazon basin. domrestaurant.com

FASANO It’ll cost a pretty penny, but nowhere comes close to the Fasano for design and sheer style. The work of architects Isay Weinfeld and Marcelo Kogan and located in upscale Jardins, this ‘Milan-meetsManhattan’ boutique hotel is also home to one of the best Italian restaurants in the city. fasano.com.br

EAT AT THE MERCADO The Municipal Market of São Paulo is the place to go if you love food – any food. Rare fruits that you’ve never seen before, cheeses of all kinds, vegetables and, of course, the mortadella sandwich.

Similar to pastrami, the mortadella sandwich is an experience that anyone who visits São Paulo should savour.

OHKA This exquisite modern Japanese restaurant serves some of the best sushi in the city, which is saying something considering São Paulo’s sizeable Japanese population.

With a wonderful ambience and a penchant for fusion, try the salmon and tartar starters grilled with scallop sashimi. ohka.com.br

HOTEL UNIQUE Arguably the city’s most architecturally ambitious hotel, the Unique is known as the ‘Watermelon’ thanks to its striking crescent shape.

A stunning, modernist property designed by architect Ruy Ohtake, it has wonderful views of São Paulo and Ibirapuera Park, just a 10-minute walk away. hotelunique.com.br

VISIT THE MOSTEIRO SÃO BENTO Stretching 2.8 kilometres, Avenida Paulista is the most important avenue in São Paulo, and is home to everything from museums to shops, cinemas to schools and cultural centres. It is also home to the city’s best bookstores, including Livraria Cultura and Livraria Martins Fontes, where you can literally spend hours.

FIGUEIRA RUBAIYAT With a large dining area centred on an enormous fig tree, this is as much an experience as it is a culinary treat. One of the best restaurants in the city, its menu is well known for steak and seafood that brings together the best of Italian, Brazilian, Spanish and Argentinean traditions. rubaiyat.com.br

GEORGE V CASA BRANCA With an enviable location in the Jardim Paulista neighbourhood, the George V Casa Branca is a sleek and contemporary hotel that may lack the panache of the Fasano but nevertheless offers that regal touch.

The building was designed

by Itamar Berezin and decorated

by Sig Bergamin. georgev.com.br

VISIT THE MOSTEIRO SÃO BENTO This is undoubtedly one of the city’s most beautiful churches. It was founded in 1598 – although the current structure was built between 1910 and 1914. Its neo-Gothic facade is an indicator of what lies within, including magnificent stained glass windows and regular Gregorian chanting.

EMIRATES STAFF TIPS MAKE A TRIP TO BAR DO BIU Behind this seemingly pedestrian rust-red bar facade is an incredible restaurant serving authentic and tasty food from the northeast of Brazil.

TAKE IN CASA DA FAZENDA Built in 1813 by Regente Feijo to develop the cultivation of English tea, this is now the headquarters of the Brazilian Academy of Arts, Culture and History.

Tatiana Vidal Nel PUBLICATIONS SPECIALIST

From March 26, EK261 will become an A380 flight, leaving Dubai every day at 8.35am and arriving in São Paulo at 4.30pm. The return flight, EK262, departs São Paulo at 1.25am and lands in Dubai at 10.55pm.

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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 |

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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 |

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

OPEN SKIES FOR IPAD

Search for Open Skies on the App Store

openskiesmagazine.com

R O U T E

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M A P

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M A P

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

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R O U T E

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M A P

CORPORATE & COMMERCIAL LEGAL SERVICES LITIGATION, ARBITRATION & ADR BUSINESS SETUP & COMPANY REGISTRATION OFFSHORE & FREE ZONE COMPANY FORMATION INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & E-COMMERCE LAWS BANKING, INSURANCE & MARITIME LAWS REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION LAWS MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE DRAFTING & CONTRACT REVIEWS LEGAL TRANSLATION DEBT COLLECTION TRADEMARK & PATENT REGISTRATION PROTECTION & ENFORCEMENT

DUBAI

EMIRATES TOWERS 14th Floor, Sheikh Zayed Road P.O. Box: 9055, Dubai-UAE T+971 4 330 43 43 F +971 4 330 39 39

ABU DHABI

JABEL ALI

SHARJAH

INTERNET CITY

TEL: +971 2 639 44 46 auh@emiratesadvocates.com TEL: +971 6 572 86 66 shj@emiratesadvocates.com

TEL: +971 4 887 16 79 jafz@emiratesadvocates.com TEL: +971 4 390 08 20 dic@emiratesadvocates.com

RAS AL KHAIMAH

TEL: +971 7 204 67 19 rak@emiratesadvocates.com

UAE | SAUDI ARABIA | QATAR | BAHRAIN | KUWAIT | OMAN

R O U T E

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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.

F L E E T

EMIRATES FLEET

Our fleet of 262 aircraft includes 247 passenger aircraft and 15 SkyCargo aircraft

AIRBUS A380-800 This month:

up to

1 arriving

2500+ 17% All Emirates A380 aircraft are fitted with Wi-Fi, Mobile Phone and Data Roaming services. 16 (17%) of the A380s are now equipped with Live Television, with more coming soon.

95 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.

131 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

F L E E T

CONNECTIVITY AND ENTERTAINMENT SERVICES AVAILABLE

# Live Television

Wi-Fi

Mobile Phone GSM

Data Roaming GPRS

Channels of inflight entertainment

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 For more information: emirates.com/ourfleet

Aircraft numbers accurate at the time of going to press

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the Guide

Grammy Award-winning rapper, Oscar-nominated actor and all-round megastar Will Smith shows us Philadelphia

When i’m home I’ll always go and watch the Philadelphia 76ers. They are my team, and now I have a business interest in them it’s even more exciting to watch.

the best cheesesteak in toWn? Easy one: Overbrook Pizza, no doubt.You’re not going to get a better cheesesteak anywhere, so if you’re in Philly you just got to go there and try it. i’m getting too old to go out Partying But if you head towards South Street you’re going to have a good night: guaranteed. if you’re looking to just chill out If it’s summer, go and watch a ball game and get some fresh air at Citizens Bank Park. If it’s winter, you don’t want to be outside – trust me, our winters get cold. I would probably go and suggest you soak it up with

a cheesesteak – do you notice how most of my answers revolve around cheesesteaks? shoPPing?

Honestly, don’t waste your time in Philly shopping unless you have to. We are a city with so much soul, so much culture, so many great places to eat and things to do that you really can’t do anywhere else.

Well, there is one Place you could go Repo Records is one of the oldest and coolest record stores in the city. Now that’s the sort of shopping you want to do.

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get out of the city The heart of the city obviously has the big attractions, but don’t be scared to go and check out some of the neighbourhood and experience the real Philly.

Bucks County is only an hour outside the city, but it’s like another world. It’s quiet, pretty, full of history, and if you have more than a few days in Philly it’s really worth checking out. if you’re there With the family The list is endless, but the Museum of Art is constantly voted amongst the best museums in the world. Go there, take a Segway tour of the city, or go and see one of our sports teams.Then, yeah, you guessed it, have a cheesesteak.

AS TOLD TO: EMMA COILER; ILLuSTRATIOn: RALPh MAnCAO

if you’ve got just one day in Philly You should start on Benjamin Franklin Boulevard, as you’ll be at the heart of everything.

Don’t try and see it all, you’ve got no chance. Pick a few options and make the most of them. Off the top of my head, you gotta get a Philly cheesesteak for lunch. Then go and watch one of our sports teams in the evening. That’s a pretty great day in this city.