The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences to host Ariana's Persian Kitchen

The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences and Iranian-American celebrity chef Ariana Bundy have announced that her debut restaurant, Ariana’s Persian Kitchen, will launch at the destination property late 2019.

Served family style, Persian classics will be given a modern twist in terms of textures, ingredients and presentation. Guests can sample signature dishes such as Ariana’s Caspian-style filet kabab, rose-scented sea bass, a colorful array of new mezze dishes, and her take on classic Persian ice cream with saffron, pistachios and rosewater. Meals will be complemented by a range of specially created cordials and drinks as well as traditional Persian tea and baqlava (baklava).

An elegant, light yet relaxed and intimate setting, the restaurant will seat more than 140 guests offering sea views over the Dubai skyline from wooden ‘day beds’ in a garden terrace. Features of note include a cordial bar, vaulted domes and a masculine private dining room. At the heart of the restaurant is a show kitchen featuring a massive charcoal grill and fire pit tanoor serving fresh breads.

A TV chef and cookbook author, Bundy is on a mission to bring Persian cuisine to a wider audience.
“The stunning design of the resort, combined with the professionalism of the Atlantis and Kerzner teams, convinced me that this was the ideal time and place to open my first restaurant,” she said. 

Source: Kerzner International Holdings.
Bundy. 

“Ariana’s Persian Kitchen will bring to life the untold stories of Persian culture through plentiful and beautifully presented dishes. Complex, yet comforting flavours will work alongside an interplay of textures, spices and tastes, all served with charming and generous hospitality.”

Martin Chung, SVP, Global Development at The Royal Atlantis Resort and Residences said: “We have big expectations for Ariana’s Persian Kitchen, there is really nothing in the region that fuses a contemporary dining experience with the authenticity of the Persian cuisine. Joining the likes of Gordon Ramsay, Nobu Matsuhisa, Heston Blumenthal, Giorgio Locatelli and José Andrés, Ariana Bundy is another iconic addition to the Atlantis family.”

Bundy was first exposed to the food business by her restaurateur father, who owned French dining establishments in pre-revolution Iran and later Beverly Hills in the US. After learning her craft at Le Cordon Bleu and Le Notre in Paris and training at Fauchon Patisserie, Bundy became the head pastry chef for the Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles, the US, catering for the Oscars and Golden Globes as well as movie premieres. 

Shortly after, Bundy published her first book, Sweet Alternative that features desserts using alternatives to dairy, gluten, or soy, inspired by her own food intolerances. Following the success of her book Pomegranates and Roses: My Persian Family Recipes in 2012 she went on to write, produce and present the cookery and travel series, Ariana’s Persian Kitchen on NatGeo People, in 2015. 

Kerzner International Holdings owns the Atlantis brand, which includes Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai, a 1,500-room, water-themed resort on The Palm; Atlantis Sanya Hainan in China; and in development, The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences in Dubai, UAE. 

Oman to open ferry route to Iran

The Oman News Agency (ONA) has reported that the National Ferries Company (NFC) will officially kick off a new ferry route between Khasab in Oman to Bandar Abbas and Qeshm in Iran on 28 July, coinciding with the Sultanate's celebrations of Renaissance Day.

Mehdi bin Mohammed al-Abdawani, CEO of NFC told ONA that the journey will start from the Port of Khasab in the Governorate of Musandam in Oman to Bahonar Port in Bandar Abbas via the Port of Bahman in the island of Qeshm in Iran. The trial will run twice a week for six months.

The CEO added that travel to the Qeshm does not require a visit visa while visiting the city of Bandar Abbas will require a visa from the Iranian Embassy in the Sultanate. He said that talks are underway with Iran's Hormozgan province to discuss the possibility of issuing visas on arrival for Omani visitors to Bandar Abbas Port.

The journey from Khasab to Qeshm takes 90 minutes while that to Bandar Abbas takes two hours. He explained that only passengers and goods - no vehicles - will be taken on board of ferries until the completion of the construction of a bridge for vehicle shipment in some Iranian ports.

The move builds on a January 2016 memorandum of understanding signed between the NFC and Qeshm Free Zone Authority in Iran. A pilot voyage from Sultan Qaboos Port to Chabahar Port in Iran on board the ferry Hormuz was completed thereafter.

Interested?

Those who wish to travel via ferry to Iran must obtain a visa and contact the communications and booking centre at NFC for tickets.

World Heritage Committee inscribes new world heritage sites

The Singapore Botanic Gardens entrance from Botanic Gardens MRT station.

The World Heritage Committee has inscribed the Singapore Botanic Gardens (SBG) as a UNESCO World Heritage Site at the 39th session of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) in Bonn, Germany. The committee noted that the site "demonstrates the evolution of a British tropical colonial botanic garden that has become a modern world-class scientific institution used for both conservation and education", and that it has been an important centre for science, research and plant conservation, notably in connection with the cultivation of rubber plantations, in Southeast Asia since 1875.

According to the SBG, the gardens is the first and only tropical botanic garden on the UNESCO’s World Heritage List. It is the first in Asia and the third botanic gardens inscribed in the world following Orto botanico di Padova in Italy and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the UK.

The inscription bid process started in 2010 following a feasibility study commissioned by the then-Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, in consultation with experts, academics and other stakeholders. Singapore formally submitted the official Nomination Dossier for the bid in January 2014.

The World Heritage Committee also approved the inscription of the Diyarbakir Fortress and Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape in Turkey; China's Tusi Sites; Susa and the Cultural Landscape of Maymand, both in Iran; the Baekje Historic Areas in Korea; the Great Burkhan Khaldun Mountain and its surrounding sacred  landscape, in Mongolia; Bethany Beyond the Jordan; and the rock art in Hail in KSA.

Source: UNESCO World Heritage Committee nomination file. Diyarbakır Fortress and Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape, Hevsel Gardens and Kırklar Hill, copyright: © Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality - Site Management Unit, author: Zeynep Sıla Akıncı.

Turkey
The Diyarbakir Fortress and Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape are on an escarpment of the Upper Tigres River Basin. The fortified Turkish city of Diyarbakir and the landscape around has been an important centre since the Hellenistic period, through the Roman, Sassanid, Byzantine, Islamic and Ottoman times to the present. The site encompasses the Amida Mound, known as İçkale (inner castle), the 5.8km-long city walls of Diyarbakir with their numerous towers, gates, buttresses, and 63 inscriptions from different periods, as well as Hevsel Gardens, a green link between the city and the Tigris that supplied the city with food and water.

Source: The Zunyi Huichuan District Party Committee Publicity Department. Snow-Covered Feifeng Pass. 

China
Located in the mountainous areas of southwest China, Tusi (土司) sites encompass remains of several tribal domains whose chiefs were appointed by the central government as ‘Tusi’, hereditary rulers from the 13th to the early 20th century. The Tusi system made the autonomous rule by minorities a reality, and facilitated the development of ethnic diversity, strengthened national unity, ensured borderland security, and promoted the peaceful coexistence of the central government and local minority regimes.

The sites of Laosicheng (老司城) in Yongshun County, Hunan; Tangya (唐崖) in Xianfeng County, Hubei; and Hailongtun Fortress (海龙屯城堡) in Zunyi, Guizhou that make up the site bear testimony to this form of governance, which derived from the civilisation of the Yuan and Ming periods.

Hailongtun fortress was built in 1257 CE. The Tusi arrangement was a collaboration between the central government of the Song dynasty and the Yang family, which built and owned the fortress. The family governed the area for more than 700 years, spanning Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, from Yang Rui from the Liao ethnic group in 876 during the Tang dynasty, to Yang Yinglong, the last Tusi of Bozhou (present day Zunyi) and the 29th governor of the Yang family, died in 1600.

Being listed on the World Heritage List will promote studies on the Tusi culture and the history of Bozhou, according to the Office of the Application to World Heritage for Hailongtun, Huichuan District, Zunyi in China. The organisation noted that with Guizhou province's first cultural heritage site, it plans to strengthen the preservation and excavation of historical relics within the territory, and apply for more world cultural heritage listings.

Iran
Susa in southwest Iran, in the lower Zagros Mountains, consists of a group of archaeological mounds on the eastern side of the Shavur River, as well as Ardeshir’s palace, on the opposite bank of the river. Susa contains several layers of superimposed urban settlements in a continuous succession from the late 5^th millennium BCE until the 13^th century CE*. The site bears exceptional testimony to the Elamite, Persian and Parthian cultural traditions, which have largely disappeared.

Maymand is a self-contained, semi-arid area at the end of a valley at the southern extremity of Iran’s central mountains. The villagers are semi-nomadic agro-pastoralists. They raise their animals on mountain pastures, living in temporary settlements in spring and autumn. During the winter months they live lower down the valley in cave dwellings carved out of the soft rock (kamar), an unusual form of housing in a dry, desert environment.  This cultural landscape is an example of a system that appears to have been more widespread in the past and involves the movement of people rather than animals.

Korea
The Baekje (백제) Historic Areas, in the mountainous midwestern region of the Republic of Korea, comprise eight archaeological sites dating from 475 to 660 AD, including the Gongsanseong fortress and royal tombs at Songsan-ri related to the capital, Ungjin (present day Gongju), the Busosanseong Fortress and Gwanbuk-ri administrative buildings, and the Naseong city wall related to the capital, Sabi (now Buyeo), the royal palace at Wanggung-ri and the Mireuksa Temple in Iksan related to the secondary Sabi capital.

Together, these sites represent the later period of the Baekje Kingdom – one of the three earliest kingdoms on the Korean peninsula (18 BCE to 660 CE) –during which time they were at the crossroads of considerable technological, religious (Buddhist), cultural and artistic exchanges between the ancient East Asian kingdoms in Korea, China and Japan.

Mongolia
The Great Burkhan Khaldun (Бурхан Халдун) Mountain and its surrounding sacred landscape is in northeast Mongolia in the central part of the Khentii mountain chain. Burkhan Khaldun is associated with mountain worship. The site is also believed to be the place of Genghis Khan’s birth and burial.

Jordan
The baptism site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” (Al-Maghtas, المغطس) is on the east bank of the River Jordan, and consists of two distinct areas: Tell Al-Kharrar (تَل الخرّار), also known as Jabal Mar-Elias (Elijah’s Hill, جبل مار إلياس) and the area of the churches of Saint John the Baptist near the river. The site is believed to be the location where Jesus of Nazareth was baptised by John the Baptist. It features Roman and Byzantine remains.

KSA
Rock art in the Hail (حائل) region of Saudi Arabia includes both Jabel Umm Sinman at Jubbah (جبة) and the Jabal al-Manjor and Raat at Shuwaymis (ال شوويمس). The ancestors of today’s Arab populations have left traces of their passages in petroglyphs and inscriptions on the rock face, covering 10,000 years of history.

Vietnam
The Committee has additionally extended Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park (Kẻ Bàng) in Vietnam, a natural site inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2003. The extension ensures a more coherent ecosystem while providing additional protection to the catchment areas that are of vital importance for the integrity of limestone landscapes.

The site originally covered 85,754 hectares and now covers a total surface area of 126,236 hectares (a 46% increase). The Park’s landscape is formed by limestone plateaux and tropical forests. It features great geological diversity and offers spectacular phenomena, including a large number of caves and underground rivers.

Other developments during the World Heritage Committee discussions include inscribing a number of World Heritage sites  on the List of World Heritage in Danger due to damage inflicted to the property by armed groups. These include Hatra in Iraq and the Yemeni cities of Sana’a and Shibam.

Iraq
Hatra was a fortified city which grew under the influence of the Parthian Empire and was the capital of the first Arab kingdom. It withstood Roman invasions in 116 and 198 AD thanks to its walls, which are reinforced by towers.

World Heritage Committee members have declared their willingness to help Iraq as soon as the situation on the ground will allow them to do so. The Committee stressed that the danger listing of Hatra was a way to rally the support of the international community for the country’s heritage.

Two other Iraqi sites are also on the World Heritage List in Danger: Ashur (inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2003) and Samara Archaeological City (inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2007).

Yemen
The World Heritage Committee has voiced concerns about the damage to the old city of Sana’a (سناء) due to armed conflict in Yemen. Situated in a mountain valley at an altitude of 2,200 m, Sana’a has been inhabited for more than 2,500 years. Its religious and political heritage can be seen in 103 mosques, 14 hammams and over 6,000 houses, all built before the 11^th century. The neighbourhood of al Qasimi and the 12^th century al-Mahdi Mosque have been affected.


The Committee also noted that the Old Walled City of Shibam (شِبَام) in Yemen is under potential threat from the armed conflict, which compounds safeguarding and management problems already observed at the site. The Committee decided that adding it to the List of World Heritage in Danger could help reinforce international mobilisation for the safeguarding of the site.


Surrounded by a fortified wall, the 16th-century city of Shibam is one of the oldest and best examples of urban planning based on the principle of vertical construction. 

The 39^th session of the World Heritage Committee started on 28 June and will continue till 8 July under the chair of Maria Böhmer, Minister of State at the German Federal Foreign Office and member of the Bundestag. The inscription of sites will continue through 5 July.

*BCE stands for 'before common era', corresponding to BC, and CE for common era, corresponding to AD.

Country Holidays launches new Signature Departures for 2015

Bespoke travel agent Country Holidays has introduced new Signature Departures itineraries for luxury travellers departing from Singapore. Launched in 2011 to bring an entirely new perspective to group travel, Signature Departures avoids crowded bus tours, impersonal hotel chains, mass canteen meals and tourist traps. 

Theng Hwee Chang, Managing Director of Country Holidays says: "We launched Signature Departures four years ago to meet the growing demand for enriching group travel experiences outside of the mainstream. By limiting the number of travellers to 16, we are able to source the smaller hotels in smaller towns and hence create a more authentic, off-the-beaten-track experience for the group."

The following trips are new to Signature Departures in 2015:

Source: Country
Holidays. Ladakh.

Ladakh – Mountains, Monks & Monasteries (19 to 27 September 2015)

As Tibet gets sinicised, the Ladakhi living on the remote Tibetan plateau cut off from the rest of the world by the Himalayas and Karakorum retain much of their original way of life. The trip starts with a drive from the plateau through stunning terrain, stopping off at oasis villages and unseen monasteries along the way. 

Ending in the capital of Leh, travellers receive an education into Ladakh culture and history with a series of special private visits and talks. Then, the group moves its base is to The Chamba Camp, a luxury tented accommodation from where they hike into the rural countryside.

India Photography Workshop with Michael Freeman (22 to 30 November 2015)

A unique and rewarding opportunity to learn beside  British author, photographer and journalist Michael Freeman in a country full of colourful rituals, vibrant local bazaars, and unique daily lives, focused around Amritsar and Varanasi.

Iran – The Heart Of Persia (24 September to 3 October 2015)

Iran is the heart of the Persian civilisation, and has been under Islamic influence for nearly 1,500 years. There are now 20 UNESCO sites in Iran, seven of which feature on this trip.

The journey starts in the city of Shiraz and the ruins at nearby Persepolis and ends at the architecturally stunning city of Esfahan, translated in Persian to mean “half the world”. The trip finishes in the capital Tehran, where travellers will recall the country’s history through the National Museum of Archaeology; discover carpet weaving and see the world’s biggest pink diamond.

Qatar Airways adds flights to Muscat, Islamabad, Tehran from September

Qatar Airways has announced more flights to the popular destinations of Tehran, the capital of Iran, Islamabad, capital city of Pakistan, and Muscat, capital of Oman in response to a steady increase in passenger demand. 

Source: Qatar Airways. From left: Muscat, Islamabad, and Tehran.

The additional flights, which include four for Tehran, two for Islamabad and four for Muscat per week, will commence September 1, 3 and 16 respectively. The Doha-Muscat route will go up from 31 to 35 per week. Qatar Airways has five flights daily to Oman while Tehran, which is currently served with 14 flights a week, will see an increase to 18 flights weekly when it adds the four flights. 

The airline now flies to Islamabad once a day; two more flights added to the schedule bring the number of weekly flights up from seven to nine. Qatar Airways increased frequencies to Islamabad last year, from four flights a week to daily flights. 

The additional flights will help meet the needs of those travelling to and from the Americas, which is a popular destination for many passengers from Pakistan. The short connection time at Hamad International Airport in Doha is another strong draw for those looking to make the cross-Atlantic journey.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Officer, His Excellency Akbar Al Baker said: “People from all over the world are becoming more and more interested in discovering this part of the world. With such rich histories and stunning, undiscovered landscapes, these destinations are hidden gems that are slowly coming into their own.

“We have witnessed a great increase in passenger demand for both local passengers in each market, as well as international passengers looking to travel to each of these cities, and passengers on these flights can look forward to an enhanced travel experience with Qatar Airways’ five-star service as we welcome them onboard.”

The additional Doha – Tehran weekly flight schedule commencing September 1 (all times local)

Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays

Depart Doha QR488 at 0720 hrs, arrive Tehran at 1055 hrs
Depart Tehran QR489 at 1155 hrs, arrive Doha at 1230 hrs


The two additional Doha – Islamabad flights commencing September 3 (all times local)

Wednesdays and Thursdays

Depart Doha QR616 at 0050 hrs, arrive Islamabad at 0630 hrs
Depart Islamabad QR617 at 0730 hrs, arrive Doha at 0915 hrs


The additional Doha – Muscat weekly flight schedule commencing September 16 (all times local)

Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays

Depart Doha QR1126 at 1440 hrs, arrive Muscat at 1705 hrs
Depart Muscat QR1127 at 1805 hrs, arrive Doha at 1830 hrs