Supported by the Lady Bamford Foundation as a centre for craft and sustainable design, Nila House occupies a 1940s residence in Jaipur restored by Indian architect Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai. Image by James Houston

Lady Carole Bamford, the founder of Daylesford Organic, beauty brand Bamford and numerous charitable foundations including Nila House gives us a guide to her spiritual home, Jaipur

Lady Carole Bamford

Where I hunt for treasures…

I always look forward to visiting the government khadi shops. I find myself spending hours there, lost in the piles of beautiful hand-spun fabric. Handwoven in villages across the country, the simple white cloth with all its imperfections is my idea of the ultimate luxury item.

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Cultural immersion…

The riot of colour and sound of the markets is extraordinary, and the old city has some of the best textiles and jewellery. I recently met a family of hand-block carvers who have been creating intricate wooden blocks for generations. Such artisans have a wealth of knowledge that we at Nila House, our new centre for preserving these traditions, believe should be shared with a broader audience so that it can be carried on into the future.

Image by James Houston

My perfect day in the city…

I always start my day with a puja prayer ritual followed by yoga and meditation. Then I will head out with my design team to visit our suppliers. I love visiting the workshops; I always learn so much, watching the dedication and meditativeness of their work. In the afternoon I might explore antique textiles at Rajasthani Arts to see if there is anything for our archives.

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Best dining spot…

47 Jobner Bagh is my favourite place to escape the crowds and noise. This charming family-run hotel has the best home-cooked Indian food. My favourite is a bowl of dal makhani, mopped up with a hot naan bread.

The building features a shop and studio spaces for local artisans. Images by James Houston

Home away from home…

We always stay at the The Oberoi Rajvilas. It is our home in Jaipur and the wonderful staff look after us like family.

Worth a detour…

I love visiting the paper factories in Sanganeer, just outside Jaipur. They have some of the most beautiful paper you can find, all handmade from natural materials – from cotton rag and banana fibre to the beautiful textured seed paper that we use for all of our packaging [at Nila House].

Nila House is a cultural centre dedicated to preserving traditional craft methods and supporting artisans across India; it is part of the Lady Bamford Foundation. Find out more: carolebamford.com

This article was originally published in the Spring 2020 Issue.

Sirena is the newest addition to Oceania Cruises’ fleet

Luxury cruise brand Oceania Cruises is in the midst of multi-million dollar project, which will see the refurbishment of their six ship fleet and the introduction of new exotic itineraries. We speak to the brand’s Senior Vice President and Managing Director Bernard Carter about the changes to come, fine dining at sea and how the brand is tackling sustainability

Bernard Carter

1. Can you tell us about the OceaniaNEXT initiative and what it means for the brand?

Our $100 million OceaniaNEXT initiative is a sweeping array of dramatic enhancements designed to elevate every facet of the guest experience; from thoughtfully-crafted new dining experiences and reimagined menus, to the re-inspiration of our six luxurious and intimate ships.

The ships are being completely transformed – with brand new designer suites and staterooms and stunning new décor in the restaurants, lounges and bars – which will result in ‘better-than-new’ ships.

On top of this, we have announced we are preparing to take delivery of two new Allura-class ships in 2022 and 2025. This new class of ship will represent an evolution of the Oceania Cruises’ experience with all the elements our guests treasure: a warm, intimate, residential style, the most spacious standard staterooms afloat, amazing suites, and of course, excellent cuisine.

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2. How do you provide fine dining services onboard?

Along with destination and service, we believe that cuisine is a key element of the cruise experience and this is what Oceania Cruises has been built on. Our promise to offer ‘The Finest Cuisine At Sea’ stands at the very heart of our business.

The key to offering such incredible food at sea is planning. We plan menus months in advance to ensure the smooth running of onboard operations.

This meticulous planning sits hand-in-hand with the need to build an impeccable network of trusted suppliers, who can deliver the quality goods we demand for ‘The Finest Cuisine At Sea’. Meats, fish and produce from specific and dedicated farms, some where we are the only customer – every detail is covered with care and attention to ensure we only use the very best ingredients.

Oceania Cruises has a reputation for high quality cuisine onboard their ships

More than a quarter of all crew onboard an Oceania Cruises’ ship is dedicated to the culinary experience. Our high ratio of culinary staff to guest means that each dish is able to be created in our state-of-the-art galley à la minute.

Alongside the fantastic food on offer in our restaurants, we love to engage with our guests and offer them the chance to have a hands-on experience at The Culinary Center, our cookery school onboard Marina and Riviera. Here, our guests can cook along with our talented master chefs at fully-equipped individual workstations. We also offer a range of culinary excursions, giving guests the chance to see well-known destinations through an alternative ‘culinary lens’.

3. With a career spanning 25 years in the industry, what are some of the biggest changes you’ve noticed?

There’s been a real and meaningful shift towards wellness in the last ten years or so. Where once, the likes of offering fitness classes and having fully-equipped gyms onboard were seen as a nice-to-have element, they are now a crucial element of a holistic suite of wellness options for guests.

Just last month, we unveiled our new ‘Aquamar Spa + Vitality Centre’ the most unique and comprehensive spa and wellness centre at sea. This will be introduced across all ships by mid-January 2020 as part of our OceaniaNEXT enhancement.

This extends well beyond a traditional spa, offering a complete and original collection of holistic wellness encounters both onboard and ashore, including wellness cuisine options, land-based tours in ports of call, and onboard treatments and classes.

Our guests are active, they are leading rich and fulfilled lives. For them, wellness is not a pursuit, it’s a lifestyle.

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4. Do you think the expectations of luxury cruise clients differ from the demands of customers at luxury hotels, and if so how?

In a word: no. Guests who appreciate, and seek out luxury do so in all areas of their life – from cars to jewellery, from cuisine to travel.

At Oceania Cruises, our guests are a like-minded group who appreciate the same things, and our onboard operation being akin to an English country hotel, or a private members club lends itself to discerning individuals that want to explore the world from the comfort of their own home away from home.

Here: The Penthouse Suite onboard Insignia. Above: the ship’s grand dining room

5. How are you tackling issues of sustainability?

Our environmental commitment is continually evolving and expanding into additional areas of our operations, both shipboard and shoreside.

Our industry is inextricably linked to the condition of our oceans and as such, continual improvement is one of our core responsibilities. In line with this accountability comes our commitment to preventing accidents and incidents involving pollution, reducing the environmental impact of our operations, and managing waste through recycling and reusing materials.

A great example of this is earlier this year, Oceania Cruises became the first cruise line to introduce VERO Water, the Gold Standard in still and sparkling water service onboard. All guest accommodation is be stocked with refillable and reusable VERO Water decanters as well as all restaurants and bars. With the introduction of VERO, we will eliminate more than three million single-use plastic bottles per year from onboard use

This is being extended further to include keepsake refillable water bottles for each guest to take VERO Water ashore with them, eliminating several million more bottles per year.

6. What’s been your most memorable voyage to date?

I have been lucky enough to experience many amazing cruise destinations during my career, but my most memorable has to be the 14-night journey onboard Nautica from the historically pivotal city of Istanbul through to cosmopolitan and vibrant Barcelona.

After an overnight stay onboard in Istanbul (which allowed us to really explore the city in depth) we set off around a variety of Greek islands, each with their own unique charm. These included Rhodes, Mykonos, Santorini and UNESCO heritage site, Monemvasia – where only a limited number of visitors each year are allowed onto the Old Town, built into a massive rock that can only be reached by a half-mile causeway.

Having spent a week living the ‘island life’ we headed to the western Mediterranean to experience the beauty of Sicily, the Italian gems of Rome and Florence and then to the billionaires’ haven, Monte Carlo. This second week was quite simply a majestic parade of history, culture and luxury – and as we ended in Barcelona it actually felt like we had been on two holidays in one!

For more information visit: oceaniacruises.com

Dwarika’s Dhulikhel is designed like a village, nestled into the hillside overlooking the Himalayas

Since the devasting 2015 earthquake, Nepal has slowly been rebuilding itself as a travel destination. Until now, visitors tended to be Everest summiteers and those seeking other, though slightly less extreme, high altitude adventures, but slowly luxury is finding a place in the Himalayan foothills for travellers who seek to immerse themselves in mountain life without the hike. In the second part of her Himalayan journey, Digital Editor Millie Walton crosses the border from North East India to the remote Nepalese mountain retreat, Dwarika’s Dhulikhel in search of a slower pace of life.

Unsurprisingly, the Himalayas are difficult to navigate. It’s not until you’re actually eye to eye with the mountains that you can even begin to appreciate their enormity, not just in terms of height, but length too. The range stretches through Nepal, India, Bhutan, China and Pakistan with over fifty mountains exceeding 7,200 metres (including ten of the fourteen 8000 metre peaks). So making the journey from Darjeeling to Kathmandu isn’t impossible, but it’s not easy. Firstly there’s the drive to the border, which even in one of Glenburn Tea Estate‘s hardy Land Rovers is likely to make the strongest of stomachs queasy. The land border itself is a breeze, the Nepalese border control are easily the most friendly security officials I’ve ever met, but then there’s the flight. The weather systems over the mountains are unpredictable – on a good day it’s a bumpy ride – that said, the views of the world’s highest peaks rising majestically through the clouds makes it more than worth it.

Day beds dotted round the resort provide a perfect viewpoint of the Himalayas

Sitting in the Zero Gravity lounge at Dwarika’s Dhulikhel that’s all far behind us. We’re here for the sunset, which, we’ve been told, illuminates a view of panoramic peaks in soft pinks and golds. The lounge is a rectangular glass box with an alfresco roof top seating area, but the winds are blowing and it looks dangerously like rain so we’re nestled into one of the day beds, playing Bagh-Chal (Nepal’s national game, also known as tigers and goats), hoping that nature will change its mind. Of course, it doesn’t. The storm when it hits is fast and ferocious. Sheets of rain slice into the glass, forks of lightning stab the ground and the wind shakes the sides so violently, we almost expect it to shatter. It’s over in less than ten minutes. The clouds have been ripped apart leaving smudgy outlines of the giants that surround us. There’s no rosy tint, but even these sultry shadows are impressive.

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Homely touches in the suites

An hour’s drive outside of Kathmandu, Dhulikhel is an ancient Newari hillside town where tourists flock in the promise of panoramic views from Langtang Lirung in the east, through Dorje Lakpa to the huge bulk of Gauri Shankar and as far as Numbur. Of course, for the true thrill seekers, you can venture by foot into the depths of the Himalayas to a base camp or perhaps even to a peak, but if its luxury you’re after, you won’t find any beyond this point. Just outside of town, Dwarika’s sprawls up the side of a slope, hidden behind thick forest. Built in 2013, as the more subdued sister of the Dwarika’s hotel in the city, its a place of indulgent solitude, where guests are invited to embrace a slower pace of life in search of a more mindful and creative existence. There’s a daily schedule of complimentary activities led by resident gurus and artists including yoga, meditation, pottery and painting all held within little mud huts tucked into the dense foliage. Most beautiful is the Himalayan pink salt room, with walls and floors made from glistening rock crystals. It’s the purest form of salt on earth and is thought to be beneficial for the respiratory system – sitting on the arm chairs with a soundtrack of spiritual chanting, it feels almost otherworldly. Time within these walls loses all meaning.

The resort’s infinity pool

We begin our stay with an Ayurvedic consultation with an enthusiastic doctor who asks us to fill out a form to determine our body type. Most of the Ayurvedic teachings are based on common sense, and whilst sceptics may be turning away at this point, at the very least its an important reminder to prioritise health and mental wellbeing with early nights, mindful eating and exercise. Essentially it’s about learning or re-learning to listen to your body. In urban landscapes, every space is filled with sound (traffic, voices, building sites) – even when we get home, there’s rarely a moment of true silence – and so somewhere along the way, we’ve forgotten how to listen to our bodies. The mountain setting of Dwarika’s then isn’t just about pretty views, but about reconnecting to a more traditional way of living, a way of life which still exists within the Himalayan villages.

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The Art Studio at Dwarika’s Dhulikhel. Image by James Houston

The resort takes its inspiration from that simplicity and whilst it is certainly luxurious, it is designed to blend seamlessly in with the natural surroundings. The suites are all bright and spacious with rustic furnishings, cream linens, smooth natural woods and pebble stoned bathroom floor. To be truly of nature, there probably shouldn’t be wifi access or televisions, but since most guests fill their days with chakra meditation or ink painting, there’s really very little opportunity to pull out a device. Our junior suite is centred around the views with floor to ceiling windows allowing the space to fill with natural light and a large terrace where we curl up on the daybed in the afternoons with a cup of herbal tea and homemade cookies, gazing out at the mountains. There are homely touches like a bowl of walnuts for cracking, a pot of honey as a natural sweetener for tea, homemade soaps and a ceramic pot of lemongrass bath salts on the edge of the tub. Each evening coloured cotton scarves are placed on the bedside table, to wear on the following day reflecting a certain energy along with a small silver dish of soaked almonds to promote peace of mind. It’s a world of indulgence, in which every detail has been carefully considered to create an atmosphere of complete calm, and it’s not long before we feel ourselves unraveling.

Read next: Summertime in Moscow at the Four Seasons

The Spa. Image by James Houston

The food adheres to Ayurvedic principles too; ingredients are locally sourced, and vegetables are plucked straight from Dwarika’s own organic farm. At Mako’s Zen, the Japanese restaurant, which offers set menus of six or eight courses, the cuisine is based on the diet that was originally followed by monks in training (it’s not nearly as intensive as it sounds) and dishes are all vegetarian and light on sodium, designed specifically for easy digestion. The vegetable tempura and maki are the highlights, and although we leave craving a little something more, it is refreshing to go to bed feeling light. For Nepalese traditional cuisine, Nature’s Flavours restaurant serves up by far the best momos (dumplings) I’ve ever tasted, and they look pretty too, dyed (naturally, of course) in bright colours.

Sunset over the mountains. Image by James Houston

On our last morning, before sunrise, we wander to the top of the hill – it’s quite a breathless climb for those unused to altitude (at 1,550metres it’s well above the UK’s highest peak) – to the meditation maze, a winding walled path of sculptures on the grass with hidden speakers playing a continuous track of OM chanting, which has an almost soporific effect as we drift from side to side. The air is fresh and light, not yet saturated with the heavy heat of the day, the grass is damp beneath our feet and the birds are only just beginning to sing. The Himalayas surround us, rising like giant waves into the ice blue sky. It’s a powerful image of stillness and stability, that’s more poignantly therapeutic than any level of luxury ever will be.

dwarikas-dhulikhel.com