Tag Archives: The Grand Tour

The Grand Tour III-2: Sacred City… Benares (Varanasi)

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Benares is old. Older than the other cities on this Grand Tour. Older than most cities… It rises, like a mirage, on the west bank of the mighty Ganges River. It is a port city, but of souls first and … Continue reading

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The (Oberoi) Grand Hotel, Calcutta

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The Grand Hotel is, as its name suggests, the grande dame of the Calcutta hospitality scene. Located, as it was and still is, on Chowringhee Road, it is situated right in the centre of the city’s social and entertainment scene. … Continue reading

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Kalighat, Dakshineshwar and the Hooghly Waterfront, Calcutta

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No visit to Calcutta is complete without a day-trip to two of its most important Hindu temples and pilgrimage sites, and without a stroll along the city’s waterfront from Prinsep Ghat to Babughat – perhaps the most Romantic spot in … Continue reading

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Chowringhee Road to the Victoria Memorial, Calcutta

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The second part of my virtual tour of European, or “White” Town, Calcutta, has the armchair traveller exploring the two most fashionable thoroughfares in Calcutta – Chowringhee Road (today’s Jawaharlal Nehru Road), which was the centre of the city’s cultural and … Continue reading

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(Former) Dalhousie Square & the Financial District, Calcutta

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Calcutta’s former European Town is a large, sprawling, highly-planned city that occupies much of the southern reaches of Central Kolkata today. At its heart is Fort William, the fortified, walled settlement that the English East India Company established here, along … Continue reading

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The Grand Tour III – Port and Princely Cities of the Subcontinent

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It’s been 14 months since I concluded the second leg of The Grand Tour here on Dream Of A City. And since it is becoming increasingly clear that I’m not going to be able to secure a contract just yet … Continue reading

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The Historic Hakodate Waterfront (and Hotel New Hakodate)

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The Port and Historic Waterfront in Hakodate also contains a high concentration of historic buildings from the city’s Meiji, Taisho and Showa eras, and is well-worth a walk. The highlight of the historic Waterfront is the Kanemori Red Brick Warehouses … Continue reading

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A Stroll through Motomachi, Hakodate

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Motomachi 元町 is the erstwhile Foreign Settlement in the Treaty Port city in Hakodate. Even today, it contains many examples of well-preserved buildings from the Treaty Port era. Like the other foreign settlements we’ve encountered on the Japanese leg of … Continue reading

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The Grand Tour II-Postscript: Boxy Mansion…(函館)

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So just when I thought I was done with the second China-Korea-Japan leg of my Grand Tour of the East, I find myself in Hakodate, in Japan’s northern-most island of Hokkaido. Hakodate was THE very first treaty port in Japan, … Continue reading

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Tales of Asia II – Batavia (Jakarta)

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Here are the highlights of my talk on Old Batavia (Jakarta). The full talk may be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD81C_LExjo Do come for my next talk on Friday, 30th Oct.  Details to follow…

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