THE MAGAZINE OF ETIHAD AIRWAYS OCTOBER 2014THTHTHTHHHHHTHTHHTHT EEEEEEEEEEE MAMAMAMMAMAMAMAMAMMAMAAGAGAGAGAGAAGAGAAAZIZIZIZIZZZINENENENENENNEENENENENNEN OOOOOOOOFFF F FFF F ETETETETETETTEEE IHIHIHHHHAADADADAD AAAAAIRRIRIRIRI WAWAAWAWAWAWWW YSYSYSYSY OCOCOCTOTOTOBEB R R 20201414

ISLAND EVOLUTION

THE NEW PHUKET

TIME OF THE WHALESNEW ENGLAND’S HUNTING HISTORY

WALKING THE NILEA JOURNEY THROUGH SUDAN

- Hollywood, Los Angeles -

Piaget Limelight Gala,White gold watch set with diamonds.

piaget.com

PIAGET BOUTIQUES: Abu Dhabi: Avenue at Etihad Towers, 02 667 0044 Dubai: The Dubai Mall, 04 339 8222, Mall of the Emirates, 04 347 6336

Dubai: Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons, Atlantis 04 422 0233, Burj Al Arab, 04 348 9000 Burjuman Centre, 04 355 9090

Abu Dhabi: Al Manara International Jewellery, St. Regis Hotel, 02 6673535The Galleria Sowwah, 02 6743444

7

PCEO’S WELCOME

Instead, we constantly strive to introduce impressive products and services to make Etihad Airways the undisputed leader in modern air travel. You’ll find many examples of this in our short but groundbreaking 11 years of operations – from our Inflight Chefs and Flying Nannies to the soon-to-be-introduced Residence suite with its own Butler on our new A380 aircraft from December.

Our latest example is something that you will not fail to notice as our planes fly to all six continents of the world: a bold new livery for our aircraft.

This striking new design will fly us into the future, and quite frankly there is simply nothing else like it in the world. The exciting new design is inspired by traditional Emirati design patterns to reflect our strong and proud Arabian heritage in a fresh and modern way. It echoes the landscapes and hues of our homeland as well as the geometric shapes found in the modern architecture of Abu Dhabi. You’ll also see the UAE national emblem and the national flag prominently positioned along the fuselage next to the Etihad Airways name.

We very much hope you like the new design, which is unmistakably unique and will gradually appear on all our aircraft in due course.

Finally, I am delighted to tell you about a further three new Etihad Airways routes for 2015 – Baku, Tbilisi, and Dar es Salaam. These destinations join six other services previously announced for 2015 – Kolkata in February, Madrid in March, Entebbe in May, and Algiers, Edinburgh and Hong Kong in June.

A four-times-a-week service to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and a three-times-a-week service to Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, will begin in October. Both cities are famed for their warm hospitality and

natural beauty, offering a range of botanic gardens and parks, as well as historic attractions, museums and galleries. I know they will become popular additions to our network.

Baku and Tbilisi will be followed by daily flights to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania in December, our 11th destination in Africa and one of East Africa’s most important centres with tourist attractions including Mount Kilimanjaro.

These new routes build upon the extensive network development which has occurred in 2014 with the launch of seven new routes to Jaipur, Los Angeles, Medina, Perth, Rome, Yerevan, and Zurich. We are not finished yet, as new flights to Phuket in Thailand start this month, followed by the US cities of San Francisco in November and Dallas in December.

From our unique new aircraft livery to a constant focus on giving you the best new world-class destinations, it’s all proof that Etihad Airways really is a special new force in modern global aviation.

Thank you for flying with Etihad Airways. We hope you enjoyed your flight with us today, and look forward to welcoming you on board one of our aircraft again soon.

JAMES HOGAN,PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER ETIHAD AIRWAYS

Etihad Airways has never been an airline that conforms to convention. It’s just not our way.

Dear Guest, welcome on board!

MOUNT KILIMANJARO, TANZANIA

CONTENTS

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46

43 64

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FEATURES43

Abu Dhabi Developing filmThe Abu Dhabi Film Festival returns this month, bringing with it a number

of firsts, showcasing everything from pet projects to silver screen classics

to multi-million dollar Disney spectacles.

46Cover Story The phoenix from the waves

Ten years on from the devastating tsunami Phuket has never been

busier – or more ready to host guests seeking luxury.

53Gourmet Careful with the knives

Dining in working prisons is the latest foodie fad to hit London – but here’s

why it’s more than just an arresting lunch.

56Sport To the Max

Holland’s Max Verstappen is set to become the youngest-ever F1 driver

next season at just 17 years old. We assess the precocious talent.

58Wide Angle Nomad’s land

Levison Wood recently finished walking the length of the River Nile – a

journey from its source in Rwanda to its delta in Egypt. Here, Ashwin

Bhardwaj recounts joining Wood for the Sudan leg of this epic expedition.

64Culture Finding leviathan

Formerly the world capital of whaling, New England’s fortunes rose

with the industry. Today people still flock there in pursuit of

something magnificent

66Escape Hotel California

British television personality Dom Joly is used to being recognised at home,

but a stay at the Chateau Marmont left him quite star struck.

THE WHOLE WORLD TO THE NEAREST MINUTE.

Duomètre Unique Travel Time. Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 383.

Paris, New York, Tokyo, New Delhi… Swiss precision around the globe. The Duomètre Unique Travel Time is the world-time watch offering dual-time adjustment to the nearest minute. A feat made possible by the patented Dual-Wing movement. With 180 skills united under one roof, the Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre consistently contributes to driving advances in the field of Fine Watchmaking.

MA JOR PARTNER OFJaeger-LeCoultre Boutiques:The Dubai Mall +971 4 339 8769

Abu Dhabi Marina Mall +971 2 658 0004

Avenue at Etihad Towers +971 2 681 2834

Find your nearest point of sale at www.jaeger-lecoultre.com

YOU DE SERVE A RE A L WATCH.

CONTENTS

ETIHAD.COM

Published by Etihad Airways

PUBLICATIONS Reem Fekri (Publications Manager)Samar Mohaisen (Arabic section)Tel: +971 2 511 0000 Fax: +971 2 511 1405E: publications@etihad.aePO Box 35566, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

ETIHAD GROUP EDITORTiffany Eslick Tel: +971 4 444 3650email: tiffany.eslick@itp.comGROUP ARABIC EDITOR, ETIHAD TITLESSuha Halaseh Tel: +971 4 444 3793email: suha.halaseh@itp.comGROUP DEPUTY EDITORJamie LaffertyCONTRIBUTORSStewart Bell; Ashwin Bhardwaj; Najeh Hasan; Dom Joly; Matt Kish; David Parry; Giselle Whiteaker.

PRODUCED ON BEHALF OF ETIHAD AIRWAYS BYITP Customer Publishing, PO Box 500024, Dubai, United Arab EmiratesTel: +971 4 444 3000Fax: +971 4 444 3030CEO ITP PUBLISHING GROUP Walid AkawiMANAGING DIRECTOR ITP PUBLISHING GROUP Neil DaviesMANAGING DIRECTOR ITP CONSUMER, ITP LIFESTYLE & ITP CUSTOMER Ali AkawiDEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR ITP CONSUMER, ITP LIFESTYLE & ITP CUSTOMER Alex Reeve

ADVERTISINGBUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR, ITP CONSUMER & LIFESTYLE Joseph KhouryGROUP SALES MANAGERDelphene FletcherTel: +971 4 444 3245GSM: +971 55 991 0706email: delphene.fletcher@itp.comSENIOR SALES MANAGERShruti SrivastavaTel: +971 4 444 3187GSM: +971 50 3626 509 email: shruti.srivastava@itp.com

PRODUCTIONGROUP PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION DIRECTOR Kyle SmithDEPUTY PRODUCTION MANAGER Ranjith Kumar

ARTGROUP ART DIRECTOR Tracey MarkhamARABIC SENIOR ART EDITOR Amjad AycheMANAGING PICTURE EDITOR Patrick LittlejohnSENIOR IMAGE EDITOR Emmalyn Robles

ITP GROUP WWW.ITP.COMGROUP CHAIRMAN Andrew NeilGROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR Robert SerafinGROUP FINANCE DIRECTOR Toby Jay Spencer-DaviesGROUP DIRECTORS KM Jamieson, Mike Bayman, Walid Akawi, Neil Davies, Rob Corder, Mary Serafin

PRINTINGAtlas Printing Press LLC DubaiThe publishers regret that they cannot accept liability for error or omissions contained in this publication, however caused. The opinions and views contained in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers. Readers are advised to seek specialist advice before acting on information contained in this publication which is provided for general use and may not be appropriate for the readers’ particular circumstances. The owner-ship of trademarks is acknowledged. No part of this publication or any part of the contents thereof may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form without the permis-sion of the publishers in writing. An exemption is hereby granted for extracts used for the purpose of fair review. © 2014

Audited by: BPA Worldwide.Average Qualified Circulation: 29,000January – June 2014

WHEN YOU HAVE FINISHED WITH THIS MAGAZINE, PLEASE RECYCLE IT

REGULARS

THE MAGAZINE OF ETIHAD AIRWAYS OCTOBER 2014THE MAGAZINE OTHE MAGAZINE OHE MAGAZINE OHE MAGAZINE OE MAE MMTHE MAGAZINMTTH F F F EETETETIHTIHAD AIRWIHAD AIRWAHAD AIRWAHAD AIRWARWAWAYSSYSY OCTOBER 2014OCTOBER 2014

ISLAND EVOLUTION

THE NEW PHUKET

TIME OF THE WHALESNEW ENGLAND’S HUNTING HISTORY

WALKING THE NILEA JOURNEY THROUGH SUDAN

COVER IMAGEJames Bond Island in Phuket, ThailandGetty Images

32 22

is now available on the App Store and Google play. Download your

digital edition today.

7PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER’S LETTER

13YOUR WORLD

An enormous pilgrimage arrives in Morocco; chocolate dresses, golden arches and other oddities

hit the catwalk; the VW Golf GTI gets an all-wheel-drive makeover; a look inside London’s iconic

Savoy hotel; a chat with Etihad Airways Brand Ambassador Shane Warne.

31ABU DHABI

Disney spectaculars; the National Traditional Handicrafts Festival and family fun at

Yas Marina are all to be found in the capital in October; a look at the latest literature;

a Michael Kors watch which benefits charitable causes.

68INSIDE ETIHAD

News of three additions to the Etihad Airways growing network in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Tanzania; a

new crèche to help airline employees manage their family commitments; frequency of flights to Karachi

to double; a new Al Ain contact centre will improve guest experiences.

Learn more at TUMI.COM/GlobalCitizen

DESIGNED IN AMERICAFOR GLOBAL CITIZENS

YOUR WORLD SNAPSHOT

UNESCO has officially designated Botswana’s unique Okavango Delta

its 1,000th World Heritage Site. Find out more on page 18.

20 DrivenIs the Golf R worth the extra spend over the already legendary GTI?

22 Room with a ViewExplore one of London’s most iconic hotels, The Savoy.

26 Transit LoungeEtihad Airways Brand Ambassador Shane Warne chats to us about his favourite places.

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YOUR WORLD // LOCAL COLOUR

PILGRIMS PROGRESSOne of Egypt’s most important moulids [religious festivals], the Moulid of Sayyed Ahmed al-Badawi, will transform Tanta in the Nile Delta – around 90 kilometres from Cairo – towards the middle of this month. The eight-day festival honours a Moroccan Sufi who fought the Crusaders in the 13th century. Up to three million pilgrims make their way to Tanta from across the Arab world to pay their respects in the city’s richly ornamented, triple-domed mosque, which holds al-Badawi’s tomb. Thousands sleep either inside or around this building during the festivities as a mark of respect. Expect chanting and ritual songs, boisterous parades and rolling drums, snake charmers, shisha [water pipes], hubb el Azziz [sugared nut snacks], and vendors selling tartours [cone-shaped hats]. The chaotic religious fervour includes Sufizikr ceremonies, where participants chant and clap their way into a trance, in an attempt to achieve unity with God.HTTP://EN.EGYPT.TRAVEL

STAMPEDE TO SYDNEYThe Stampede is charging around Australia bringing complex obstacles and convoluted courses in a fundraising challenge that will test the hardiest of souls. This month sees Sydney on the blocks on 18 October. Participants will run wild through an epic 5km or 10km obstacle course focused on fun that pushes each partaker to the limit – from inching their way through thick mud, climbing cargo nets, speeding down the mega slip-and-slide and dashing through live wires charged with 10,000 volts. It’s challenging, rewarding and fun for all fitness levels, with the junior stampede catering for mini contestants aged five-11 years. The youngsters confront a 2km course with 10 kid-friendly obstacles. In addition, the Sydney Stampede is offering something new this year – for participants to buddy up and tackle the course together, attached with specially designed bungee belts. WWW.THESTAMPEDE.COM.AU

GLOBALGO

COWBOY CHEFSEvery year, during the second full weekend in October – this year, 9-12 October – Ruidoso Downs in the American state of New Mexico plays host to what may be the nation’s finest cowboy festival. Held at the Ruidoso Downs Race Track, the Lincoln County Cowboy Symposium sees old west storytellers, noted historians, poets, musicians, western artists, craftsmen, and a whole lot of cowboys ride into town for four days. The events include cowboy competitions, horse demonstrations, western swing dancing, a kids’ rodeo, and lots of country and western music. The highlight is the World Championship Chuckwagon Competition, with prizes totalling US$13,000. This is not the standard chuckwagon race – instead it is a cook-off, where competitors are judged on their mouth-watering food, and on the authenticity of their wagons and attire. They’ll have to cook up a storm to feed the 20,000 visitors gathering to celebrate all things western.WWW.COWBOYSYMPOSIUM.ORG

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LOCAL COLOUR // YOUR WORLD

WHITE NIGHTSIn 2006, one fine night in September, Toronto in Canada kept its eyes open from dusk until the early pre-dawn hours. The city buzzed with excitement as Scotiabank Nuit Blanche was unleashed on an unsuspecting city, the all-night exploration and celebration of contemporary art keeping slumber at bay. Since then, one night a year is dedicated to this multi-location artistic endeavour, which sees art grace the streets, parks and all manner of venue across the city. Toronto won’t be sleeping this year on 4 October, with the free art event kicking off at 6:53pm and flowing through to sunrise. Hundreds of artists are involved in creating more than 125 art projects. Some works encourage an intimate encounter with art, others wow with large-scale spectacle. The curated projects this year include Between the earth and the sky, the possibility of everything; The Night Circus; and Performance Anxiety, but you’ll find surprises around every corner.WWW.SCOTIABANKNUITBLANCHE.CA

TRUFFLE TIMEThe Alba White Truffle Festival kicks off on 11 October, running every weekend through to mid-November, and is the highlight of the white truffle season in Italy. The Piedmont region, where Alba is located, is considered to produce the best white truffles in the world. As such, visitors travel from far and wide to take part in the White Truffle Festival in Alba’s central square, the epicentre of the truffle-globe. The festival features not only the tasty fungus, but also arts and cultural events and spectacles that revolve around the celebration. One of the non-culinary highlights is the donkey race, held on the first weekend of the festivities. Heralded by a lavish medieval procession and theatrical pageantry re-enacting key moments of Alba’s history, the race is a comedy of errors, with the stubborn beasts refusing to run, or cantering off wilfully in the wrong direction, their desperate jockeys trying to urge them over the finish line. WWW.FIERADELTARTUFO.ORGIM

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PERISCOPEOctober brings a host of cultural celebrations, from symphonies to literature. Cultivate your sophisticated side with some of this month’s refined events.

AUSTRALIA: THE SOUND OF ORPHEUSThis production presented by Orpheus and the Australian Festival of Chamber from 3-6 October sees one of the world’s finest string quartets – the prestigious Goldner String Quartet – in the exquisite tropical setting of Orpheus, a secluded island hideaway set in the heart of the Great Barrier Reef.WWW.AFCM.COM.AU

ENGLAND: BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVALThe London Film Festival is the UK’s largest public film event, screening more than 300 features, documentaries and shorts from almost 50 countries. The festival showcases the best of world cinema to champion creativity, originality, vision and imagination.WWW.BFI.ORG.UK

FRANCE: ATLANTIQUE JAZZ FESTIVALJazz brings the tip of Brittany to life from 2-19 October, with some 30 concerts in 12 towns from Langonnet to Guilvinec. Expect creativity throughout a month full of experimental sounds, culminating in a grand finale in Brest.WWW.PENN-AR-JAZZ.COM

GERMANY: FRANKFURT BOOK FAIRThe Frankfurt Book Fair, held on 8-12 October, is the largest international book fair in the world, receiving visitors and book dealers from over 100 countries. Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press just outside Frankfurt and the first fair was held by local publishers shortly afterwards.WWW.FRANKFURT-BOOK-FAIR.COM/EN/FBF

TURKEY: ANTALYA GOLDEN ORANGE FILM FESTIVALThe Golden Orange Film Festival, running from 8-14 October begins with a bang as a parade goes through the streets of Antalya. This festival is a great introduction to some of the finest performers in the Turkish movie industry.WWW.ANTALYA.ORG

Artist Ai Weiwei mounts a labyrinth of 3,144 interconnected bicycles in his project Forever Bicycles at Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2013 in Toronto, Canada.

TRAVELLING IN STYLEGlobe-Trotter has been around since 1897, although the company relocated from Germany to England in 1932, where it has remained. Every suitcase produced by the luxury travel brand is handmade in the UK on original Victorian machinery. The cases are constructed from vulcanised fibreboard, composed of 14 layers of specially bonded paper, with the corners, handles and straps crafted from leather. Don’t miss the recently launched Voyage collection, which is handcrafted in sumptuous purple, comp lemented with rich burgundy leather trim and brass hardware. This is the first time Globe-Trotter has released a purple edition, which also celebrates the 10-year anniversary of the company’s first limited edition featuring a Liberty-print lining. Opening the Voyager case reveals the exquisite Hera peacock feather print, which originally debuted in the 1890s as a furnishing fabric. WWW.GLOBETROTTER1897.COM

YOUR WORLD // FASHION

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DRAPED IN CHOCOLATECreative director Jeremy Scott’s debut Autumn/Winter 2014-15 collection for Moschino features his Fast Fashion selection of styles, which combines food, couture, irony, joy and glamour, all in one witty blend. This playful collection presents RTW and accessories inspired by fast-food, cartoons and the fun characters who enliven packaging of chocolate bars, candies, popcorn and cereal boxes. The colourful, irreverent pieces – which include a French Fry Case that looks like a takeaway portion of the fast food, chocolate-wrapper dresses and bold golden arch sweaters – were an instant hit in the UAE, selling out immediately. But select items are now back by popular demand and are available at The Galleria, Al Maryah Island.WWW.MOSCHINO.COM

NEPALI ARTISTRYNepal’s recently launched Kaligarh was founded as a tribute to the artisans of the Himalayan region. And within this company’s jewellery lines, the motifs and designs inherited from generations past, are re-crafted into new forms by small-scale craftspeople, who hand-make each product. The elegant works are inspired by the history, geography and diversity of the Himalayan region. There, jewellery is more than a form of adornment – it carries symbolic reference to the cosmology, lifestyle and spiritual beliefs of the wearer, and the community within which they live. The Puraniya collection showcases silver, gold and brass pieces that are adorned with turquoise, coral, and lapis lazuli.WWW.KALIGARH.COM

GOOD LOOKS

At the Top, Burj Khalifa AttheTopBurjKhalifa Atthetop–tweets

of enjoyment...Witness and enjoy 360 degrees of unparalleled

views of Dubai and beyond from level 124 of

the world’s tallest tower. Cruise at an incredible

10m/s with the world’s fastest double deck

elevators. Explore the story behind Burj Khalifa

with unique and interactive exhibits. Step on to

an outdoor terrace and experience sweeping

views of Dubai’s ever growing skyline.

To experience all-round enjoyment, visit At the

Top, Burj Khalifa.

www.atthetop.ae800 ATTHETOP (288 43 867)

18

YOUR WORLD // ECO NEWS

DANGLING ABODE

The Roomoon is a hanging tent handcrafted by Rufus Martin. Originally part of an A-Level design and technology school project, the Roomoon has now become a full-time business – after all, who doesn’t want some time in a spherical haven in the trees? The pinnacle of tensile glamping, the Roomoon’s durable stainless steel frame is held rigid with push pins, but folds down for easy transport. The hand-made canvas cover is designed to provide shelter, yet opens to reveal the world, and the matt lacquered ply floor can be rolled away for access to a small storage space below. Rolled up, the boards become the carrying case for the frame and accessories. The real creativity, though, is in the custom-made hoist that allows the user to haul themselves three metres off the ground. Based on an engineering scheme from the 18th century, the hoist can lift up to one tonne with its three ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene slings, leaving you dangling in the canopy.WWW.HANGINGTENTCOMPANY.COM

TURTLE TIME

The private island of Sainte Anne in the Seychelles is home to a Beachcomber Hotel, lapped by the waters of one of the world’s largest marine par ks. The turtle egg-laying season starts here this month, lasting until January. Each day, turtles venture ashore to lay their eggs on one of the six beaches or creeks that form the beautiful shores. Two months later, hatching begins, giving guests an amazing glimpse of nature. Aware of the importance of the preservation of these animals, the hotel has committed to a protection programme in conjunction with Sainte Anne’s marine park authorities. Every birth that occurs on the island is reported and the turtles are regularly counted and weighed. Procedures are implemented to guarantee the preservation of the fragile ecosystem, with the nests clearly marked, and lights switched off at night to offer the creatures peace and privacy. An increasing number of turtles returning to the island year on year suggests these measures are working. WWW.BEACHCOMBER-HOTELS.COM/HOTEL/SAINTE-ANNE-RESORT-SPA

GREEN LIFE

AN ODE TO THE OKAVANGO

UNESCO has officially designated Botswana’s unique Okavango Delta its 1,000th World Heritage Site. Situated in north-western Botswana, the Okavango Delta is a broad, fan-shaped plain of permanent swamps and seasonally flooded grassland, spanning an area roughly twice the size of Qatar. Its extraordinary annual flooding, which occurs in the dry season, supports one of the greatest concentrations of wildlife in Africa, sustaining populations of threatened large mammals such as the cheetah, the white and black rhinoceros, the wild dog and the lion. It harbours 24 species of globally threatened birds and is key to the survival of Botswana’s population of 130,000 elephant – the largest community of the species in the world. The Okavango also supports the lives of thousands of people by providing fresh water, food, building materials, medicinal plants and employment through tourism. The proposal for World Heritage listing was strongly backed by the indigenous peoples living in and around the delta, who have conserved the area for millennia.WWW.OKAVANGODELTA.COM

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YOUR WORLD // DRIVE

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It was 1976 and a motoring revolution was brewing. With the global oil crisis in full swing, frugal fun was certainly a winning formula. One German car-maker understood that not everyone could afford a sports car, and proved that keen drivers need not be lumped with boring metal. Volkswagen set out to capture customers by appealing to their sensible nature. It took a humble city runabout, the Golf, and installed a ground-breaking, K-Jetronic mechanical fuel injection system. This gave it 110bhp, which, combined with stiffer suspension and direct steering, made it a blast to punt down the local B-road. A redesigned interior, wider wheels and GTI badges were added. The first “hot hatch” was born.

Seven generations later and the GTI is still the pick for those who want hatch practicality but enjoy a bit of fun on the weekends. But, like everything in life, there are those who want more. Thus, with the advent of the Golf Mk IV, Volkswagen decided to be a bit creative. It took a 3.2-litre six-cylinder engine making 237hp and shoehorned it into the tiny engine bay of the GTI, adding a driveshaft to also power the rear wheels, creating an all-paw screamer. The Golf R32 entered the world with a zinging engine and tremendous grip, even if it wasn’t especially fast.

The next iteration was brilliant – more power, better balance, better sound. It was

quick and affordable, but again, was quite heavy. A move to reduce emissions meant downsizing the engine, thus the Mk VI Golf R utilised a turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder. A good effort, on paper, it was executed poorly in reality. Despite being all-wheel-drive, it behaved exactly like a front-wheel-drive car, understeering when pushed and far too laggy when coming on boost.

The result was rather undignifying – the front ploughed on in almost every corner and the rear wheels couldn’t supply enough power to bring the back around. Apart from the extra power over the Golf GTI, there was absolutely no benefit in paying the thousands of dollars extra it cost.

However, in 2014 a new version was launched, and The Mark VII Golf R is very different to its predecessor. It’s longer, wider and heavier, but it counters with more power, better suspension and a far more capable drive system.

Again, it’s a 2.0-litre boosted four-pot, but Volkswagen has beefed up the internals to handle the extra grunt. The cylinder head, exhaust valves, valve seats and springs have been all upgraded, while redesigned pistons, injection valves and turbocharger are included. It’s a strong engine; oh yes, aftermarket tuners will be rubbing their hands with glee.

Using a dual-clutch transmission (the much-vaunted six-speed, rather than the sloppy seven-speed), the Golf R puts its power effectively, launching it to 100kph in just five seconds. But while it’s impressive in a straight-line, it’s most at home attacking a corner. Using a Haldex 5 apportioning drive system, each wheel is primed to compensate for slip, even before it happens.

The result is a beautifully balanced vehicle, and one that doesn’t raise the white flag to physics partway through a curve. Even if the road tightens, keep your foot buried, allowing the electronic brain to sense the yaw and shuffling the torque to the needed wheels. The system is completely seamless, feeling as natural as a well-sorted rear-wheel-drive, and it simply pulls you through the bend and slingshots you out the other side.

Despite this elec-trickery going on underneath, it never feels disconnected or artificial. There’s good weighting from the steering, the brakes give good feel and the paddles mounted on the steering wheel shift near-instantly.

In Race mode, there’s even a growly exhaust note, adding to the enjoyment. Couple that with a beautifully built interior and heaps of room and the Golf R passes as not just a hot hatch, but a genuine daily mode of transport.

Hatching a planTHE INVENTOR OF THE ORIGINAL HOT HATCH HAS CREATED SOMETHING EVEN HOTTER WITH ITS LATEST

ALL-WHEEL-DRIVE MODEL. BUT IS THE GOLF R WORTH THE EXTRA SPEND OVER THE ALREADY LEGENDARY GTI?WORDS KARL PESKETT

22

YOUR WORLD // ROOM WITH A VIEW

Lunch Gordon Ramsay’s Savoy Grill serves up a wonderful array of traditional and comforting, yet classy, food. A strong Art Deco aesthetic filters through the square, endearingly lit dining room. The neo-Edwardian menu proves the perfect solution for a rainy-day lunch. Savour pan-fried gnocchi with sea vegetables and sweet garlic or a forest mushroom and confit potato pie with cabbage.

Afternoon Tea There’s nothing quite as quintessentially English as high tea, and this, at The Savoy, is legendary. Taking place at the Thames Foyer, the central cupola allows natural daylight to flood the room, highlighting in the centre, a charming pianist playing in an equally delightful gazebo. Try the increasingly rare yellow tea (similar to green tea) while nibbling on four courses of an array of finger sandwiches, scones, French pastries and Savoy signature cakes.

Morning No two rooms are alike at The Savoy with their interiors presenting a mix of Edwardian or Art Deco features. Wake up to an incredible view of the Thames, just as Monet, Churchill and Monroe did in the past. If you manage to prise yourself from under the exquisite bed linen, head up into the hotel’s well-appointed gym to work up a sweat in preparation for the breakfast to come. After rinsing under a gargantuan rain shower, head down into the Thames Foyer and gorge on traditional-with-a-twist breakfast options such as papaya with lime, followed by Bircher muesli topped with banana, blueberries or caramelised apple and cinnamon brioche French toast. People-watch and digest while sipping on white peony and rose tea from quaint, Edwardian-patterned crockery.

Midday Be transported into heavenly bliss at the Savoy Spa. Wipe away the smog of the city by opting for the deep cleansing facial – a rejuvenating experience that uses freshwater mud masks, along with oils and massage. Afterwards, work up an appetite by doing laps in the pool. Situated under a stunning atrium, the water contains hardly any trace of chlorine (it’s purified by Kinetico systems) and will leave your skin nourished and soft.

Dinner & Cocktails If you have room to spare, make your way to Kaspar’s Seafood Bar and Grill, equipped with beautiful 1920s-inspired décor and a panoramic view of the river. With such a varied menu, Kaspar’s focuses on fish, cheese as well as more traditional “classy” cuisine such as sweet potato and goats cheese ravioli. Round off with the delectable chocolate fondant, accompanied by caramel ice cream and hazelnuts. For post-dinner cocktails, head to the Beaufort Bar. The bar stands on a former cabaret stage and is dramatically decorated in black and shimmering gold. While a jazz pianist enhances the atmosphere, sip away at the best cocktails in the world.

LONDON’S ICONIC SAVOY HOTEL HAS RE-OPENED AFTER A MULTIMILLION-POUND RESTORATION PROJECT. THIS PRESTIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENT IS AT THE FOREFRONT OF ALL THAT IS MODERN LUXURY, BUT HAS MAINTAINED ITS TRADITIONAL BRITISH

AESTHETIC AND OLDE-WORLDE CHARM.WORDS REEM FEKRI

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*Gallery list correct at time of printing, visit abudhabiart.ae for up to date information.

MODERN. CONTEMPORARY.ABU DHABI ART.5 - 8 November 2014Manarat Al SaadiyatSaadiyat Cultural District

ABU DHABI ART 2014 GALLERIESAB GalleryAcquavella Galleries, Inc. Agial Art GalleryAicon GalleryARNDTAthr GalleryAyyam GalleryCarpenters Workshop GalleryEdward Tyler Nahem Fine Art, L.L.C.Elmarsa Galeri ZilbermanGalerie Brigitte Schenk Galerie Enrico NavarraGalerie GP & N ValloisGalerie Janine RubeizGalerie Tanit Galerie Thaddaeus RopacGALLERIA CONTINUA Gallery Isabelle van den EyndeHanart TZ GalleryHauser & WirthHorrach Moya Hunar Gallery

kamel mennour Kashya Hildebrand GalleryKukje Gallery / Tina Kim GalleryLam Art GalleryLe Violon Bleu Leehwaik GalleryLeila Heller GalleryLisson Gallery Meem Gallery October Gallery Park Ryu Sook GalleryPaul Kasmin Gallery Paul Stolper GallerySalwa Zeidan GallerySfeir-Semler GallerySimon Lee GalleryTaymour Grahne GalleryThe BreederThe Park GalleryThe Third LineWhitestone GalleryXVA Gallery

Abu Dhabi Art offers a multi-disciplinary experience combining an art fair with a diverse public engagement programme which includes art, talks and sensational events.

Organised by:

abudhabiart.ae

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24

YOUR WORLD // BOOKS

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THE EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEY OF THE FAKIR WHO GOT TRAPPED IN AN IKEA WARDROBE AUTHOR: Romain PuértolasPUBLISHER: Harvill SeckerPRICE: AED 84

This debut novel by French author Romain Puértolas is a number-one best-seller in France, has been translated into English and is currently being sold in close to 40 countries… not bad for his first go. Following in the footsteps of Jonas Jonasson’s popular The One-Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared, Puértolas’ novel is a hilarious adventure tale (sprinkled with smatterings of satire) in which a mischievous hero (an Indian con-artist named Ajatashatru Oghash) embarks upon a series of unbelievable escapades. Leaving his small village in India, he jets off for Paris on a pilgrimage to IKEA, where intends to obtain a brand new bed of nails. But, in no time at all, he accidently ends up on a European tour. It’s all very silly, and is a great read if you’re looking for some light-hearted comic relief, while its serious undertones add necessary depth.

SILENCE YOUR MINDAUTHOR: Dr Ramesh ManochaPUBLISHER: Orion PRICE: AED 71

The benefits of this book are twofold: if you’ve considered meditation, but are unsure about how to start, then this is for you; and if you’re already dabbling in it, then the techniques and solid information presented will only help to deepen your experience. Dr Manocha is a medical practitioner and researcher currently based at the Sydney Medical School, Sydney University, where he co-ordinates the Mediation Research Programme. In Silence Your Mind, he draws upon extensive new scientific research, fusing Western society’s concepts of creative flow and mindfulness with the ancient authentic Eastern idea of inner stillness. He promises that you can improve your happiness in just 10 minutes a day, should you follow his suggested approach: the concept of meditation called “mental silence”, which is practiced in Sahaja Yoga. Master this, and your world could change.

JAMIE’S COMFORT FOOD AUTHOR: Jamie OliverPUBLISHER: Michael Joseph, an imprint of Penguin BooksPRICE: AED 195

Jamie has been writing cookbooks for the last 15 years, but with this, his latest tome of delectable dishes, he set out to take cooks to the “next level”. “I’ve dedicated more space to the recipes and switched my usual editor filter off so I can really talk about all the slightly eccentric, geeky little details with extra rants and pops of information,” he says. It’s brimming with guilty pleasures, pick-me-ups and sweet indulgences, presenting everything from beans on toast to his close-to-perfection Insanity Burger, steaming ramen and katsu curry to sticky toffee pudding and tutti frutti pear tarte tati – all captured through exquisite photography. “I hope it helps you think about where you take a dish, how you cook and perfect it, so that every time you make and serve one of these scrumptious, comforting meals, there’s big old smiles around the table,” says Jamie.

26

YOUR WORLD // TRANSIT LOUNGE

Where is home for you?I spend most of my time split between London and Melbourne, as well as many other stops in between. I’m Australian, so my heart will always be in Melbourne. It’s where I was born and raised. I’ve seen a lot of cities but can say that Melbourne is the best city in the world.

What makes Melbourne such a great place to live and to visit?Melbourne always has something going on – a great energy about it with great people. Winters are cold but are not as harsh as in London, and our summers really are (just like the Aussie cliché) all about hanging out down at the beach with family, having a few beers and a barbecue.

Tell us about some of the places in Melbourne that mean something to you.I love Brighton as that’s where I lived for a long time with my kids – it’s a great part of the city and it’s close to the beach. I also have good memories of summer holidays down at Portsea.

Where would you take a visitor if you were showing them around? If we were in Melbourne, I would take them for

a walk along Brighton Beach, then for lunch at one of the amazing cafés like the Pantry, and then for a night out at Club23 at Crown.In London I couldn’t go past taking them to [Ciro’s] Pizza Pomodoro on a Sunday night – it has the best Italian food and an Elvis impersonator who will rock your socks off.

Where else in the world is important to your career?The United Kingdom is a huge part of my life, particularly London as it’s where I am based and live. It’s a place that has been such a big part of my career – both for playing cricket, and now also for commentating. I’ve made a lot of great friends in London. Of course I also do a lot of travelling to South Africa and India, which are both great places to visit – and both have the most passionate cricket fans.

What is the best trip you’ve ever been on?That would have to be the 1993 Ashes tour to the UK. We were an amazing group of guys; we had fun and won everything.

Tell us the three things you always take with you when you travel.I’m lucky that Etihad provides me with most of what I need on the flights. But three things

I always have with me are my laptop, my phone with my current music playlist, and usually a pen and paper so I can write down all my thoughts and things I need to do.

What makes you feel at home when you travel?Being able to keep in contact with my family back home is so important. I’m pretty lucky these days with all the new gadgets and apps available that enable me to talk to or text my kids and family at any time. Etihad even has Wi-Fi that I can use when I’m thousands of feet in the air, which is pretty amazing.

What’s the worst part of flying?The jet lag! Although I have it down to a fine art now and can pretty much fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.

What’s your routine when you get on board a flight?Generally, if it’s a night flight, I’ll get straight into the pyjamas and go to sleep! But on a morning flight or when I’m awake I love to make use of the in-flight movies and of course I’ll order myself some delicious food – the steak sandwich with chips wins every time.

There’s no place like homeFOR INTERNATIONAL JET-SETTER AND ETIHAD AIRWAYS BRAND AMBASSADOR SHANE WARNE,

HIS HOMETOWN OF MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, IS STILL HIS FAVOURITE CITY.

MINUTES IN THE TRANSIT LOUNGE WITH SHANE WARNE

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28

YOUR WORLD // ETIHAD HOLIDAYS

WINTER WONDERLANDHistoric Christmas markets, held throughout Europe, are becoming more popular. The ambience of a typical German Christmas market is enhanced by the aromas of hot chestnuts, grilled sausages and other tasty snacks. Explore this magical country with Etihad Holidays and a four-day Christmas market tour in southern Germany, from AED 6,599 per person. The package includes return Economy Class flights from Abu Dhabi to Munich; three nights’ accommodation in a four-star hotel in Munich; breakfast; return airport transfers; a full-day excursion to Neuschwanstein Castle (excluding entrance fees) as well as a full-day excursion to Nuremberg; and taxes and surcharges.

GOLDEN TRIANGLE TRAVELSIndia’s “Golden Triangle” is one of the country’s most well-travelled routes and is known for its cultural gems and transient landscapes. Embark on a journey tracing its lines with Etihad Holidays from AED 2,599 per person and discover the sights and sounds of this vibrant country. Enjoy two nights exploring the historical city of Delhi before travelling to Agra and visiting the majestic Taj Mahal. Travel onwards to the famed “Pink City” of Jaipur and its palaces, impressive forts and museums. The package includes return Economy Class flights from Abu Dhabi to Delhi; five nights’ accommodation in varied four-star accommodation on a twin sharing basis; breakfast; tours; transfers and taxes and surcharges.

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Escape to this five-star paradisiacal hideaway with Etihad Holidays from AED 51,299 per person. The package includes return Business Class flights with Etihad Airways from Abu Dhabi to Seychelles; three nights in a Presidential Villa on twin sharing basis; breakfast, lunch and dinner, all drinks and cocktails; scuba diving and snorkelling activities around North Island dive sites; sea kayaking; mountain biking; sunset cruises and guided nature walks; a half-day fishing charter; use of a North Island buggy; return helicopter transfers and taxes and surcharges.

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ABU DHABI SNAPSHOT

ABU DHABI32 News

Disney spectaculars, the National Traditional Handicrafts Festival and family fun at Yas Marina are all to be found in the Capital in October.

40 PeopleA horrendous injury abruptly curtailed Emirati Mo Hassan’s rugby career in the middle of a World Cup. Now he’s returning to the international stage, but in an altogether different sport.

43 Developing Film The Abu Dhabi Film Festival returns this month, bringing with it a number of firsts.

Stratos, a new revolving lounge and

grill concept at Le Royal Meridien

Abu Dhabi offers a world of

lavish interiors and delicious cuisine.

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ABU DHABI // NEWS

DIVE INYas Marina’s water-themed family-fun day Splash@Yas is back – with a host of water sports and entertainment on 17 October. Here is your chance to try wakeboarding, water skiing, stand-up paddleboarding, kayaking or sailing. For adrenaline junkies there’s the sea sofa – a high-speed tow along the channel between Yas Marina and the mainland, or visitors can jump aboard one of Captain Tony’s Cruises and set sail for half an hour around Yas Island. There will be plenty of action on dry land too, with kids’ entertainment and activities, a playground and a musical fountain. With a combination of free and paid activities, pack your swimsuit, bring a towel, and simply dive in to everything on offer. To finish off in style, a free family movie will be screened outdoors. With seven restaurants and bars on-site, there’s no need to go home hungry, and when the sun fades, the marina nightlife kicks off with live music and DJs. WWW.YASMARINA.AE

PAYING HOMAGE TO HERITAGEThe Emirate’s cultural heartland, Al Ain, is launching a new celebration – the National Traditional Handicrafts Festival, running from 23-29 October. It will take place at the historic Souq Al Qattara; an old market once abandoned that was restored and re-opened in 2012. The festival aims to shed light on the importance of traditional craftsmanship in Emirati heritage and support craftsmen’s efforts to preserve, revive, and transfer their skills to future generations. The programme will include heritage competitions for visitors of all ages, including an Al Yola dance contest for children, a craftsmanship competition, preparation of traditional Emirati dishes and making Arabic coffee, in addition to dance and musical performances. There will also be a series of specialised workshops on the production and promotion of traditional handicrafts, which will outline the importance of handicrafts as part of the living heritage of the nation, intrinsic to modern life.WWW.VISITABUDHABI.AE IM

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THE POWER OF LOVEDisney’s Beauty and the Beast is celebrating 20 years on stage, with its first-ever international tour. The musical fairy tale will be arriving in Abu Dhabi on 30 October with performances up until 8 November at the du Forum on Yas Island. Based on the 1991 Academy-Award winning animated feature film, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is the classic story of Belle, a young woman in a provincial town, and the beast, who is really a young prince trapped by a spell placed upon him by an enchantress. If the beast can learn to love and be loved, the curse will end, but time is tight and if he doesn’t learn his lesson soon, he and his household will be doomed. Since licensing in 2004, this enchanting tale has been performed in 22 countries, seen by more than 35 million people, during a run of over 28,000 performances.WWW.THINKFLASH.AE/EVENTS/DISNEY-S-BEAUTY-AND-THE-BEAST

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ABU DHABI // ETIHAD AIRWAYS ARRIVAL LOUNGE

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STEP INSIDE THE NEW, ONE-OF-A-KIND ETIHAD AIRWAYS’ ARRIVALS LOUNGE FOR FIRST AND BUSINESS CLASS GUESTS AT ABU DHABI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT.

Arabian hospitality

A dedicated relaxation area, with high-comfort seating, large screen televisions, and an array of local and international newspapers, magazines and books await you. Savour café-style refreshments, which are served throughout the day, including a delicious breakfast spread in the morning, a selction of beverages, and a delectable range of canapés, snacks and sweet treats, all freshly prepared by a world-class culinary team.

Guests looking for a quiet and productive space to prepare for meetings can utilise the on-site business facility, which features a large-screen Apple computer, printer, and complimentary broadband and wireless internet connections.

An innovative new “SHAVE by Etihad Airways” concept has been introduced inside the lounge, with guests offered a complimentary refreshing wet shave by fully qualified barbers. In addition, why not clean up before leaving the airport, with 10 revitalising shower units, each equipped with luxurious amenities and linked to a complimentary service for clothes steaming. As part of the offering, garments such as suits and dresses can be steamed by housekeeping while guests shower, and will be returned within 10 minutes.

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ABU DHABI // FASHION

The new watch design is based on Michael Kors’ bestselling Runway watch, this time in rose-gold-tone stainless steel with a detailed map of the world etched onto a striking

grey-blue dial. This timepiece is available exclusively in Michael Kors

stores worldwide and online at www.michaelkors.com

IT’S TIME TO FIGHT

MICHAEL KORS RECENTLY ANNOUNCED THE LAUNCH OF THIS NEW, LIMITED-EDITION WATCH AS PART OF THE 100 SERIES, THE SPECIALLY DESIGNED WATCH COLLECTION OFFERED IN SUPPORT OF THE BRAND’S GLOBAL WATCH HUNGER STOP CAMPAIGN. FOR EACH 100 SERIES WATCH SOLD, 100 CHILDREN IN A HUNGER-STRICKEN AREA WILL RECEIVE A NUTRITIOUS MEAL.

38

ABU DHABI // AT LEISURE

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Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani and executive head chef Justin Galea have something in common: matching collections of gilded, Art Deco-style crockery from Germany. While Armani keeps his at home, chef Justin uses his set to present culinary works of art at Stratos, Abu Dhabi’s latest hotspot in the sky.

Set on the highest floor of Le Royal Meridien, this revolving restaurant takes more than two hours to rotate, allowing for plenty of time to take in panoramic views of downtown Abu Dhabi, the Corniche, Lulu Island and beyond. And whether it’s for afternoon tea, sunset cocktail hour or dinner, there’s the chance to catch sight of the UAE capital in a variety of light.

But I’d suggest getting there after dark to experience it at its best. As the city’s skyscrapers begin to flicker, spot lamps are dimmed and candles are lit. Gold cushions on plush, high-backed seats shimmer, and bronze cutlery on reflective black tables sparkles. A black and white carpet with a diamond motif commands attention while framed quirky line-drawings of camels, owls

and flamingos decorate the walls. The fit-out is Great Gatsby meets Alice in Wonderland, and this opulent and playful theme trickles down to chef Justin’s food.

It’s hats off to this man and his chef de cuisine Grant Balinger, for delivering an imaginative menu and presenting their dishes with flair. The kitchen is open, and as I spin past it twice during dinner (yes, I stayed here that long), I chat to the cooks while they work. Created with seasonal produce and sourced from the finest global suppliers, they’re all about achieving the right balance of flavours. Nothing looking contrived.

Snacks from the Lounge Selection include crispy fried king prawns scented with fresh curry and lemongrass sauce, and chicken fritters, which I dunk in chipotle mayonnaise. The former are fragrant and delicate, while the latter are addictive. And if fine dining did ever offer a take-away, these morsels of comforting goodness should be served in a bucket.

An edible empire of mains will tempt all taste buds, and really it’s difficult to decide on what’s best. From caviar served in a 24-carat-gold-plated egg, to parmesan

gnocchi served with black truffle and parmesan foam, or the buttery west coast Scottish langoustines to the decadent lobster mac-and-cheese made with a rich Dunlop cheddar and a brioche crust, it’s a feast for the senses. Simple sides packed with flavour serve as perfect accompaniments. Order the uber-creamy Paris mash or spinach Rockefeller and don’t leave without trying the salad of baby spinach, red onion, tomato, olive and Roquefort.

Can the desserts top all that? The answer is yes. And there are three that need to be tried. The spiced roasted pineapple with star anise syrup, eight spice and black truffle ice cream has an intriguing bite. Match it with one of the fine whiskies on offer and its smokey flavours will explode in your mouth. The chef’s Valrhona chocolate version of a Magnum ice-cream bar is simply delicious, but it’s the strawberry posset which, if I absolutely had to choose, would win my vote. Served with granola, meringue, lemon sorbet and 20-year-old balsamic vinegar, it’s a great take on this classic pud, which I think epitomises chef Justin’s style.

Sky-high delightSTRATOS, A NEW REVOLVING LOUNGE AND GRILL CONCEPT AT LE ROYAL MERIDIEN ABU DHABI, IS UNIQUE TO THE CITY.

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40

ABU DHABI // PEOPLE

The UAE and Hawaii are not quite antipodes, but they come close to that. Almost 14,000km and innumerable cultures separate Honolulu and Abu Dhabi; the fact surfing has successfully travelled from one to the other is proof of its global appeal.

In just four years, Mohammed Hassan Rahma (or Mo, as he prefers to be called) has gone from an artificial pool in the Abu Dhabi desert to chasing hurricane-driven swells in Mexico, and, at the end of this month, competing in the International Surfing Association World Surfing Games, which will be held in Punta Rocas, just south of Lima, Peru.

Mo moved to Los Angeles in time for Etihad Airways’ launch there earlier this year – the 27-year-old is a sales development manager for the airline – ostensibly for work, but also to continue his development into a world-class surfer. The move allowed him to significantly improve his surfing, and increase the amount of time he could spend in the water. At the right time of year, the UAE does enjoy surfing swells, but they are seasonal and unreliable.

Alongside a stint in Australia, Mo’s time in California has seen him qualify for the Surfing Games. That is significant in its own regard but remarkable considering his path to get there. Not only has his rise in the sport been meteoric but, quite incredibly, this is the second sport at which he will participate in a

the sea, especially when it comes to reading the ocean. In that regard, he will always be playing catch-up with competitors who have spent most of their lives watching the horizon, preparing for the perfect wave.

For Mo, the waves in Peru are likely to be the biggest he’s ever surfed. He plans to get to South America 10 days before the tournament, but is realistic about what he hopes to achieve.

“My main goals are to represent my country and to increase exposure of surfing in the UAE. Putting that all together would be really good for me; putting the UAE on the surfing map… I hope that in three years’ time we’ll have five Emiratis competing in the event.”

Above all, he takes enormous pride from being able to be the UAE’s flag-bearer. During the opening ceremony, each surfer will deposit a handful of sand from their home country – in that element at least, the Emirati expects to do well. “It’ll be the easiest part,” he laughs. IM

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A HORRENDOUS INJURY ABRUPTLY CURTAILED MO HASSAN’S RUGBY CAREER IN THE MIDDLE OF A WORLD CUP. NOW HE’S RETURNING TO THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE, BUT IN AN ALTOGETHER DIFFERENT SPORT.

WORDS JAMIE LAFFERTY

world championships. And whatever happens in Peru, it’s hard to imagine this time around being more of a disaster than the last.

They say pride comes before a fall, but in Mo’s case it came immediately before an obliterated knee. He was competing in the 2008 World Cup Rugby Sevens when he had the chance to score a try. Bearing down on the points, he decided to showboat a little, at which point his ACL, meniscus and knee bone imploded. The pain and rehabilitation process for such an injury would be enough to put most people off the idea of sport altogether.

Yet, before medical professionals thought he was ready to do so, Mo found himself in the water and very quickly on a board. There followed a whirlwind of improvement, expedited by good coaches and meeting the right professionals. His current coach is Sean Mattison, whom Mo credits for his improved technique, fitness and results. “He makes me cry every day – if I don’t finish a manoeuvre that we’ve been practicing, I’m not allowed to come in,” he says over the phone from Los Angeles.

The Emirati manages to squeeze in surfing before and after work most days, and is practicing as much as possible before the big event. But while he has clearly adapted to the sport at an almost unnatural rate, there is no substitute for the experience of being in

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43

The Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF) is growing up. Now in its eighth year, its programme is more varied, covers more nationalities, more subjects and a longer span of film history than ever before. More selections are submitted for consideration, audiences are bigger.

As the ADFF has matured, so have its audiences. In 2013, some filmgoers were so affected by what they’d just seen that they approached the filmmaker afterwards with tears in their eyes, trembling while trying to explain their gratitude. “Since Ali Al Jabri became festival director, there has been a significant increase in the local audiences,” says director of programming, Teresa Cavina.

The opening film of this year’s festival is a good indicator of just how far things have come. And it’s an Emirati film that will kick off the eight-day event. Dubai-based director Ali Mostafa’s From A to B tells the story of a group of friends taking a road-trip from Abu Dhabi to Beirut. The follow-up to Mostafa’s 2009 City of Life, its prominence within the programme is seen as a triumph of local film-making. “This is the first time we’ve opened with an Emirati film and we’re proud and happy to present it on opening night,” says festival director Ali Al Jabri.

From A to B will be the highest-profile Emirati film shown, but it is far from being the only one. While there is still a shortage of native feature films, the short-film scene is booming. The festival programme has grown by 12 percent this year overall – a figure matched by the increase in submissions to the Emirati Film Competition.

However, these days that title is something of a misnomer. “There has been a wealth of short films submitted,” says Cavina. “It’s called the EFC, but it’s actually open to all Khaleeji [Arabian Gulf] filmmakers. We have submissions from all GCC cultures.”

The 2,032 entries included works by Kuwaiti and Bahraini artists, as well as the expected deluge of domestic pieces, with filmmakers free to tackle any subject they liked.

ABU ABU DHABI F ILM FESTIVAL // ABU DHABI

THE ABU DHABI FILM FESTIVAL RETURNS THIS MONTH, BRINGING WITH IT A NUMBER OF FIRSTS, SHOWCASING EVERYTHING FROM PET PROJECTS TO SILVER SCREEN CLASSICS TO MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR DISNEY SPECTACLES.

DEVELOPINGFILM

FROM TOP: Emirati film director Ali Mostafa reviews footage; the red carpet at last year’s Abu Dhabi Film Festival.

The opening film of this year’s festival is a good indicator of just how far things have come. For the first time, an Emirati film will kick off the eight-day event.

44

At the other end of the festival’s budgetary scale is Big Hero 6, which has been chosen to close the proceedings on 1 November. The first Disney film since 2013’s ludicrously successful Frozen (which had a budget of US$150 million and went on to take over $1.2 billion globally), it marks their first cinematic union with Marvel. Set in a fictional future city, Big Hero 6 follows a young robotics prodigy and his portly android companion Baymax as they are forced to become amateur crime fighters. With two of the most powerful names in children’s entertainment attached, and a budget that most filmmakers can only dream of, it’s a huge movie – and surely the biggest film ever to come to ADFF?

“Well we have to agree on the term ‘huge’,” says Cavina. “When we can also show our audience winners from the Berlin [Black Coal, Thin Ice, winner of the coveted Golden Bear] and Cannes festivals [The Salt of the

Earth, winner of Un Certain Regard special prize] and the Francois Truffaut films, it is maybe not so clear. But it’s true that there’s a synergy happening here in Abu Dhabi. I don’t think it’s by chance that we were selected not just because of the festival, but also because Abu Dhabi is becoming an important place for film.” Important enough for the Star Wars franchise, now also managed by Disney, to come to the emirate earlier this year to shoot part of the seventh movie in their cherished saga.

However, for many, it’s the Francois Truffaut films that Cavina mentions which are perhaps the most significant at this year’s festival. One of the founding fathers of the French New Wave movement, Truffaut was enormously successful and influential through the 1960s and 1970s, winning Oscars, BAFTAs and festival prizes along the way. His films are not the most famous at the festival, and perhaps

won’t be the most popular, but for Cavina and festival director Al Jabri, they represent a vital step in the evolution of the event. “It’s exciting that we can start to show homages (it’s not a retrospective) to filmmakers,” says Cavina. “Now we feel confident enough to show those films, knowing that there will be an audience for them. At the beginning of the festival that was not the case. The attention on non-Hollywood and Bollywood films was very low. Little by little we started to show other things – for example we showed Chaplin and people discovered that even silent movies were fun.”

This year, filmgoers will be able to see an eclectic array of classics, from Rebel Without a Cause to Mary Poppins to A Fistful of Dollars. “We really feel we have killed two pigeons with one stone by showing one of the great film makers of cinema history, –Francois Truffaut – and films that are really

ABU DHABI // ABU DHABI F ILM FESTIVAL

“We really feel we have killed two pigeons with one stone by showing one of the great film makers

of cinema history – Francois Truffaut – and films that are really eternal.”

eternal,” says Cavina. “The audience will not feel as though they’re watching something that is 40 or 50 years old.”

Over a thousand films were watched, whittled down to under 70 (not including the EFC entries) for the final schedule. Some of the selections will only be shown in Abu Dhabi, but may go on to have lives in cinemas around the world. Others have been brought in following their success elsewhere. ADFF representatives attend several festivals around the world to acquire new titles and to see if there is anything to be learned from the organisers of Toronto, Venice and Cannes. “From the beginning of the year we’re working hard to make our selections, to have meetings – a lot of things happen for the festival,” says Al Jabri. “We’re always trying to get exciting films from all over the world.” IM

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: A scene from Emirati film From A to B; director Sergio Leone; catch an array of classics llike Rebel Without a Cause at this year’s ADFF; festival director Ali Al Jabri; an iconic scene from Mary Poppins; Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars.

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TEN YEARS ON FROM THE DEVASTATING TSUNAMI, PHUKET HAS NEVER BEEN BUSIER – OR MORE READY TO HOST GUESTS SEEKING LUXURY.WORDS JAMIE LAFFERTY

THE PHOENIX FROM THE WAVES

47

PHUKET // COVER STORY

48

COVER STORY // PHUKET

No one can accuse Phuket’s rainy season of false advertising. Predominantly running from July to the end of October, it is characterised by alternate periods of explosive showers and sudden sun, the sky rendered schizophrenic by the season. Yet, while it might not feel like it if you’re caught in a downpour, all that water is essential for making the island, and wider Thailand, such a green and fertile place – there are times on Phuket when it feels as though you can see the jungle growing.

When I visit during the rainy period, I’m concerned that the weather might leave me with nothing to do. Or perhaps not nothing – like Indonesia’s Bali or Spain’s Ibiza, Phuket’s name is synonymous with hedonistic holidaymakers, but as on those two far-flung cousins, they tend to stay in a very small part of the island. People didn’t first arrive because they were looking for a party – they came because the island and waters around are beautiful. Later, they realised that nothing is very far from the international airport and that, outside of the rainy season, the weather is reliable and the diving is world class.

For Phuket’s part, its wild side is largely contained within Patong, where backpackers and thrill-seekers arrive year-round in search of fun. It is bypassed by locals and discerning holidaymakers alike. However, it is absolutely not a reason to avoid Phuket altogether, an island in flux and which has enjoyed a steady rise in a number of high-end luxury properties around the island.

The newest of these is the already serene Point Yamu by COMO, a barely finished property that hangs over the end of a peninsula like a thimble on a finger. It’s an unusual place for a number of reasons.

Firstly, unlike the majority of Phuket’s resorts, it’s on the east side of the island, facing into the dramatic Phang Nga Bay. Awake early enough and you can see the sun rise between islands that look like plates along a stegosaur’s spine, reflected by a vast mirror created by the stillness of the water.

The resort is also unusual in that it doesn’t have a beach. To me this is great news – there’s no temptation to get covered in sand, then traipse it through the hotel and into my room. Guests who insist on that kind of thing can take the hotel’s small boat over to Rang Yai island, where there’s a private beach and

the chance to pretend you’ve been stranded on a desert island, at least for an hour or two.

Feeling superbly slothful, I instead decide that the most active I want to be is to take the elevator to a treatment room. The COMO brand has made its name by offering sensational treatments across its nine properties and, despite the newness of this particular haven, the standards have not been allowed to slip. Time passes strangely when you’re getting the right massage – slowing down and speeding up, things becoming at once intense and dreamlike. When I’m told the treatment has finished, I have to be nudged awake. The howling madness of Patong seems like a far-off impossibility.

Outside of its superb Nahmyaa restaurant and atmospheric lobby, much of Point Yamu by COMO doesn’t feel especially Thai – it is sleek and it is pretty and it has a location than can hardly be bettered, but local it is not. Perhaps that’s part of a push for ultra-modernity and perhaps that’s why Amanpuri, on the other side of the island, looks so very different.

Built in 1988, like its nominal rival Amanpuri is out of the ordinary. The COMO brand and several others have come late to the Phuket party, but Aman Resorts saw something here before anyone else.

PREVIOUS PAGE: The distinctive swimming pool at the heart of Amanpuri, one of Phuket’s oldest luxury resorts and Aman’s flagship property.

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: The atmospheric, open-air lobby at COMO’s brand new Point Yamu property; a modern, breezy sun lounger and pool at Point Yamu; the more traditionally Thai buildings at Amanpuri; Point Yamu’s superb Nahmyaa Thai restaurant, complete with giant bubble-eyed goldfish; the view from the COMO property across Phang Nga Bay, one of the most spectacular panoramas anywhere on Phuket.

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PHUKET // COVER STORY

There are times on Phuket when it feels as though you can see the jungle growing.

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The brand now has properties in 19 countries, but this is their flagship. If you have enjoyed an Aman hotel in another part of the world, it is at least in part because the Phuket formula has proved so successful. With pavilions, pagodas and scaly, Smaugian roofs, everything about Amanpuri feels very Thai. The food, the staff, the brilliant massages, all of it is local, very much in sync with itself and its surroundings – thus the benefit of two and a half decades of experience.

For most of that time, Tong has worked on site. Originally from Bangkok, he started here in 1995 and today, at 50 years old, he is proud to call himself sports and recreation manager. Tong is softly spoken, and not just because we are talking in the hotel’s surprisingly well-stocked library. I don’t think the whisper-quiet of his brogue is to do with our topic of conversation, either, although I’d understand if it was.

On Boxing Day 2004, halfway through Tong’s time at Amanpuri, everything changed – for him, for Phuket, for all of South East Asia. To understand the number of people who

The food, the staff, the brilliant massages, all of it is local, very much in sync with itself and its surroundings – thus the benefit of two and a

half decades of experience.

died in the tsunami that day, the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 is not a suitable comparison. The 230,000 estimated dead are more comparable in number to the victims of the joint nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War Two.

Despite its proximity to the megathrust quake, which occurred just off the coast of Indonesia, Thailand suffered fairly few losses; the 5,000-plus deaths were not insignificant, but compared to other countries, it was comparatively spared. Still, Phuket was among the islands affected by the tsunami. Tong will never forget it – not least because he was working on the beach during that fateful morning.

The great Japanese woodblock artist Hokusai’s work The Great Wave off Kanagawa is an image most people believe accurately depicts a tsunami: a towering, terrible thing that seems to be constantly on the verge of breaking as it surges forth. It looks theatrical – perhaps even surfable. In reality a tsunami is a pulsating collection of waves, which pushes forward until it runs out of energy or, just as likely, makes landfall. But before all the water arrives, it is preceded by a strange void, a disappearance of seawater. In 2004, no one locally knew this.

“I was on the beach because the gym used to be down there,” says Tong as I strain to listen to him. “The sea started going down. It was something strange – we’d never seen it before, suddenly it was dry

and going out. We knew there had been an earthquake in Sumatra in the night, but we didn’t know what the effect would be…”Around 50 metres of water disappeared, sucked out so quickly that fish were left flipping and flapping on the exposed sea bed. For some of the local fishermen, this was a dream come true – they ran forward to collect what they thought was the easiest catch of their lives.

It was mid-morning in Phuket and even though it was the high, dry season, none of the hotel’s guests had yet made it to the gym. It was just Tong and an Australian trainee watching the demented fishermen chase fish around the sand.

“Ten minutes later, the water started coming back. The first one came like a high tide, so quick, so we started pulling back the sun loungers. But when the second one came, we knew something was wrong,” says Tong. It was the Australian trainee who declared it a tsunami and when they saw the third wave approach, everyone fled for their lives.

Despite its coastal location, Amanpuri coped with the disaster admirably. The gym was lost and its beach ravaged, but the property is built above a cliff face and then up a hill, like a sea fort. As a result, the damage was minimal and no lives were lost. Further up the coast, particularly in Khao Lak, people were not so fortunate. As soon as they could, Amanpuri sent staff to help with the relief effort.

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PHUKET // COVER STORY

For all the devastation wrought upon the island, the recovery has been astonishing. There are a now a number of early-warning systems and escape routes in place around the island – it was a tough lesson, and it seems strange to me that it took until 2004 for people to learn it, but visitors rightly have no fears about a similar event happening again. Now, a decade later, Phuket has never been busier – high end and otherwise, there are more properties here than ever before.

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FOR EATING: BREEZELocated just outside the Point Yamu by the COMO property, Breeze is generally acknowledged as the best independent restaurant on Phuket. Led by French-Canadian chef Cheryl Johnson, it features Thai-inspired dishes on a menu that changes more frequently than the sky in rainy season. Their Sunday brunches have earned especially glittering reputations, but it’s wise to book in advance.WWW.BREEZECAPEYAMU.COM

FOR EXPLORING: PHUKET TOWNIf you don’t mind a bit of traffic, then it’s worth taking a trip into Phuket Town in the south east of the island. It’s far from gentrified yet, but is developing all the time, with increasing numbers of trendy cafés and small galleries found among some fantastic Sino-Portuguese architecture. With many public beaches being cleaned up by the government, perhaps Phuket Town will become the island’s new hot spot.WWW.PHUKET-TOWN.COM

FOR FAUNA: THE GIBBON REHABILITATION PROJECTAnimal-based attractions have something of an inglorious reputation in Asia, but you can visit the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project with a clear conscience. Now in its 23rd year, it has garnered and excellent reputation for doing honest work to return gibbons to the wild. Part of the Wild Animal Rescue Foundation of Thailand, it welcomes visitors – and donations, of course.WWW.GIBBONPROJECT.ORG

Now, a decade later, Phuket has never been busier – high end and otherwise, there are more properties

here than ever before.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Staff ready to greet guests at Amanpuri; the heart of the Aman resort at night, with their signature restaurant lit in the background; the beach has long since recovered from the devastating Boxing Day tsunami; a memorial for the victims of the catastrophe, which happened 10 years ago this December.

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For luxury accommodation Amanpuri was ahead of the curve, but the chasing pack has caught up. Along with COMO, you can find Anantara, Banyan Tree, Marriots, Hiltons, Hyatts and dozens of brilliant local properties. Almost all of them have near-perfect spas and wide arrays of fine restaurants. The competition they provide each other drives standards ever higher and proves that Phuket hasn’t just recovered from the Boxing Day tsunami but thrived. It has evolved.

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53

THE CLINK // GOURMET

DINING IN WORKING PRISONS IS THE LATEST FOODIE FAD TO HIT LONDON – BUT HERE’S WHY IT’S MORE THAN JUST AN ARRESTING LUNCH.

WORDS DAVID PARRY

Just 200 yards off the bustling BrixtonHill street is a restaurant with a difference. A real difference. It serves breakfast and lunch like plenty of the trendy outlets in the nearby Brixton Village, awarded the accolade of best market in the whole UK for its hipster appeal. But this 120-cover restaurant, some would argue, is in one of the least desirable places to dine in the country. It’s located beyond the thick-steel doors of Her Majesty’s Prison Brixton – from the outside a mesh of barbed wire and security cameras. It’s all rather intimidating.

The notion that criminals and convicts serve up gourmet fare and are entrusted with sharp knives and pointy cooking utensils is not as fanciful as it seems – all of HMP Brixton’s successful prisoner applicants who make it past the rigorous interview stage relish the opportunity to cook for paying diners. It not only helps alleviate the boredom of mundane cell life, but is part of a larger five-step model (recruit, train, audit, employ, mentor) to reduce overall reoffending rates: indeed, the news of the prisoners’ capacity to learn and share their skills is starting to spread well beyond the confines of the prison walls.

The restaurant project, or The Clink Charity as it’s officially known, is becoming championed thanks to an increase in openings – the HMP Brixton restaurant follows the successful launch of others at prisons in Cardiff in Wales and one at High Down, Surrey.

More prison restaurants are in the pipeline, too, and it’s evident that the idea is engaging the greater British public with the welfare of prisoners in a way that’s never been done before. So how has it become such a success?

“We’ve had 12,000 visitors so far,” says Chris Moore, chief executive of The Clink Charity behind the restaurant. “That’s 1,000 people a month – a real cross-section of society. So I like to think that we’re changing the public’s perception of what life in a prison is like, and we’re helping out the hospitality industry. It operates just like a normal restaurant, really – you just can’t sneak out for a cigarette break.” Given that dining at HMP Brixton requires

an in-depth security assessment before any reservation is granted, it can also prove to be a complicated visit.

Basic entry includes the following: all visitors must book at least 72 hours in advance of arrival and be aged 18 or over (which deters any walk-in customers, the bane of London’s no-reservation dining trend). Mobile phones or SIM Cards are not allowed in to the prison at any time. You may be required to undergo a biometric evaluation, which includes your fingerprints and photograph being taken. Diners may also be subject to routine searching. Then, before the booking can be confirmed, this is written in big scary red letters: “Please ensure you have read and understood the security procedures outlined above as it is a criminal offence if you do not comply.” All of which means that – once you get past the portcullis and menacingly thick steel door – you can be happily guaranteed a table on a busy lunchtime.

WITH THECAREFUL KNIVES

I like to think that we’re changing the public’s perception of what life in a prison is like, and we’re

helping out the hospitality industry.

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What makes The Clink restaurant such an empowering concept – and like a badge of honour for anyone that has visited – is it genuinely seems to be working. Upon their release, graduates are helped to find employment within the catering and hospitality industry, and mentors them weekly for six to 12 months to help them reintegrate into society without reoffending.

“The prisoners work 40 hours a week, eight hours a day and learn more than just how to work in a professional kitchen,” adds Chris. “They learn teamwork, motivation, social skills – and some of these prisoners have never had a job, at least not a legal one.”

On top of this, each training session is meticulous (the knives and sharper kitchen implements are locked away and need to be signed in and out every time they’re used to trim a carrot) and each dish is carefully constructed. Each kitchen assistant or pastry chef has a genuine opportunity to continue their career within the hospitality industry after they serve their custodial sentence – and the statistics for reoffenders are startling.

Currently in the UK, 47 percent of ex-offenders reoffend within one year of release, rising to 75 percent among those who do not find work within five years. In 2011, however, the reoffending rate of The Clink’s graduates was

12.5 percent, according to their own statistics — and many more found work in restaurants, including Carluccio’s, Prezzo, Wahaca and Locanda Locatelli – four of the UK’s most well-regarded restaurant chains..

So successful is the charity that the fourth restaurant is now soon to open at HMP Styal, near Manchester, early next year. It’ll be the first in a female prison, and by 2017, The Clink Charity plans to have 10 training projects across the UK, mentoring upwards of 500 prisoners a year. There are also now two Clink Gardens, where prisoners farm fruit, vegetables and herbs to supply the restaurants, plus they have recently invested in livestock, including some 50 chickens.

“This is all part of the bigger picture,” says Chris. “When you come out of prison you need to have a tough skin. It’s difficult to find work, to get a mortgage, to pay bills. Society is against you and that’s why so many former prisoners reoffend. That’s where The Clink is starting to really make a difference.”

As for the restaurant itself, for the casual diner, that’s an eye-opener, too. The slate walls could be straight out of Mayfair’s finest five-star hotels and the banquet seating and tables – indeed everything, including the lighting – couldn’t be further from the rest of prison life, despite the fact that they’ve been

handcrafted in prison workshops throughout the country.

And the food? The menu reads like it should belong at a far more expensive Michelin-starred outpost in Soho. For a main course you can choose pan-seared cod loin with pea crust, confit potatoes, pancetta, samphire and lemon and caper dressing, or thyme roast guinea fowl with celeriac rosti and chargrilled vegetables.

Dessert could be chocolate and chilli tart with lime-infused crème fraîche – or a variety of ice creams, all of which are made fresh on-site, every morning.

“We’ve been visited by the Michelin team,” concludes Chris, proudly. “But as we’re not open to the public in the traditional sense as a walk-in, walk-out restaurant, we’re not eligible – though they did say they loved the place.”

Breakfast: Monday to Friday 7.15am – 9.15am.Lunch: Monday to Friday 12noon & 12.30pm.Reservations and pre-screening security checks are compulsory.www.theclinkrestaurant.com IM

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It not only helps alleviate the boredom of mundane cell life, but is part of a larger five-step model (recruit, train, audit, employ, mentor) to reduce overall reoffending

rates: indeed, the news of the inmates’ capacity to learn and share their skills is starting to spread well beyond the confines of the prison walls.

GOURMET // THE CLINK

FROM LEFT: The menu at The Clink is competing with some of London’s top-notch eateries; the prisoners work 40 hours a week, eight hours a day; more than 12,000 patrons have eaten at The Clink so far.

© D

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56

SPORT // MAX VERSTAPPEN

HOLLAND’S MAX VERSTAPPEN IS SET TO BECOME THE YOUNGEST-EVER F1 DRIVER NEXT SEASON AT JUST 17 YEARS OLD. WE ASSESS THE PRECOCIOUS TALENT.

WORDS STEWART BELL

TO THE

MAX

Formula One is a young man’s sport. To race a modern-day F1 car at its limit requires a level of skill, fitness and commitment that only fades with age – and the complexity of the current cars only compounds that.

But how young is too young? Enter Dutch driver Max Verstappen, who has just been signed for an F1 race drive with Red Bull sister team Scuderia Toro Rosso for next season. By the time you read this, he will have turned 17.

To give you some perspective, the current record holder for the youngest-ever driver to take an F1 Grand Prix race start is Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari – who made his debut at the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix aged 19 years, 125 days, and lasted just two full seasons until the end of 2011.

Verstappen, though, has the right heritage – and the results to date. His father is none other than former F1 journeyman Jos “The Boss” Verstappen – who drove in 106 Grands Prix for a variety of teams including Benetton, Simtek, Footwork, Tyrell, Stewart, Arrows and Minardi. His mother Sophie is also an accomplished kart racer, with his grandfather on that side, Paul Kumpen, a Belgian national rallycross champion too.

So the kid has racing flowing through his veins – and, much like the majority of his fellow racers, jumped into the seat at a very early age via karting. “Ever since I was seven years old, Formula One has been my career goal, so this opportunity is truly a dream come true,” Verstappen says.

However, most importantly, the results to date reflect his considerable talent – with karting’s top prize, the 2013 World Karting Championship, pole position and victory at this year’s prestigious Formula 3 Masters, and eight wins (so far) in the ultra-competitive Formula 3 European Championship.

And by the time you read this, we will know if he was good enough to overhaul the points gap to Frenchman Esteban Ocon, and take the title…

“In the end, it’s in karting that you learn the most – [things] like racecraft, so I think that’s what you need to do before you step into cars,” Verstappen says. “The FIA F3 [European] Championship has been difficult, given it’s my first year. And there are a lot of good drivers in it, ones who have been in it for four or five years already. But I think we’ve had some really strong results.”

Regardless, Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost is convinced of his protégé’s potential – and has no qualms about his jump straight to the pinnacle of international motorsport.

“We are happy to welcome Max into the Toro Rosso family,” says Tost. “We consider Max as one of the most skilled young drivers of the new generation and we believe he has the necessary

FROM TOP: Max Verstappen, who recently signed with Scuderia Toro Rosso, is set to become the youngest F1 driver ever; Verstappen drives an F1 car on the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

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MAX VERSTAPPEN // SPORT

think it’s not as complicated as it looks. I think that any driver can come to F1, adapt, and get up to speed. I think everybody is coming to Formula One for some reason – because he has talent, and he has been successful somewhere. There is always a reason, but then there are many different things that make the difference, so it’s as simple as that.”

Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo – who has taken three victories this year at top team Red Bull Racing – knows the strength of the driver development programme that Red Bull has put Verstappen on ahead of his debut next year.

“Definitely the Red Bull Junior Team and the programme for me worked a treat; helped me get to where I am,” Ricciardo says. “It’s good they’re now helping out Max. Obviously the age is the question mark but the talent is there. It’s going to be interesting but, yeah, it’s good.”

The learning curve, naturally, will be very steep – if not vertical. “First of all, I think it’s great that teams are still interested in the talent of the driver and not the money,” says Williams’ driver Felipe Massa. “[However], 17 is a little bit young! For sure, we need to wait and see how he’s going to perform in his first year. I think the most important thing is that he has the talent.

“I hope he can be clever as well. There’s a lot to learn and I hope that he’s quick enough to learn and be consistent in Formula One, and that he can stay, not just for one or two years.”

It’s a sentiment shared by Lotus F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean, who only last year really came of age – shedding himself of his fast, but erratic reputation.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity that he has and it’s something quite special to come to Formula One,” Grosjean says. “As everyone says, he has shown great talent early in his career but he will have a lot

of homework to do to learn everything about racing in higher categories – [and to understand] tyre degradation, speed, a lot of things.”

Grosjean should know – he had to grow up very fast in F1. His lowest moment came two years ago at the Belgian Grand Prix, during his first full season, when he was handed a one-race ban for his part in causing the multi-car pile-up on lap one.

It was just part of a series of accidents for which now-ex-F1 driver Mark Webber labeled him a “first-lap nutcase”.

For now, Verstappen will prepare for his F1 debut next year by taking part in a number of Friday first-practice sessions at Grands Prix – with Abu Dhabi on the cards. And it’s there that we’ll see exactly how quick he is.

“We’ve all worked tremendously hard to reach F1 and I will give my absolute best to be successful in the pinnacle of motorsport,” he says.

It’s a sink-or-swim moment for the Dutchman set to become the youngest-ever F1 driver. Ready or not, it’s time for his ultimate test.

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maturity and mental strength to take on this challenge successfully. This year [in European F3] he has already demonstrated how well he can cope under difficult conditions [on-track]. For example, at the Norisring [in June] and Nürburgring [in August], he showed extraordinary determination, and the ability to withstand pressure before going on to win. Bearing in mind that Scuderia Toro Rosso was created with the aim of bringing young talent from the Red Bull Junior Team into F1 and to educate them. It will now be up to us to provide Max with a competitive car, which will enable him to have the best possible start to his Formula One career.”

So Verstappen has the heritage, results and backing from Toro Rosso – but will he be talented and mature enough to jump straight from F3 to F1?

It’s a giant leap of faith, dodging a chance to prove yourself in a higher class like Formula Renault 3.5 or GP2, before opening up to the white-hot intensity of F1. The only option is for Verstappen to get in and deliver. “There is a lot more [media attention] than you get in F3, of course. But it is part of F1, so you have to get used to it,” says Verstappen. “A racing car is a racing car, so I think the step from F3 to F1, driving-wise, is not that big. It’s just everything around it. But I’m in a good situation here with Toro Rosso to support me in that.”

His team-mate next year will be 20-year-old Russian hot shot Daniil Kvyat, who has already played-down the age issue: “I think we will see how it is going to be,” says Kvyat. “I IM

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Max Verstappen has the right heritage – and the results to date. His father is none other than former F1 journeyman Joss “The Boss” Verstappen – who drove in 106 Grands Prix for a variety of teams.

Verstappen and his father Jos in the Scuderia Toro Rosso garage during practice ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix at Circuit de Spa-Francor champs.

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LEVISON WOOD RECENTLY FINISHED WALKING THE LENGTH OF THE RIVER NILE, A JOURNEY FROM ITS SOURCE IN RWANDA TO ITS DELTA IN EGYPT. HERE, ASHWIN BHARDWAJ RECOUNTS JOINING WOOD FOR THE SUDAN LEG OF HIS EPIC EXPEDITION.WORDS ASHWIN BHARDWAJ

NOMAD’S LAND

SUDAN // WIDE ANGLE

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Purple scatters, chased by a Prussian blue. Clouds glow orange, like the dying embers of a fire given late respite by a generous breath. A camel raises its head, squinting towards promised warmth, as Venus silently heralds the coming drama. Rays of light squeeze between peak and col, spilling into the empty valley. Around the camp, eyes dart from the light to its target on the ridge.

The sun crests the hill, its light a shock, in spite of the anticipation. All eyes look left as the light reaches its target: the serried ranks of ancient Pyramids. Stones carved with stories of an ancient world reveal their secrets in the light of a new day.

This might sound like an archaeological expedition in 19th century Egypt, but this is the modern day, 2,000km south of Giza, near Shendi in Sudan. Sudanese classical civilisation rose to prominence nearly 3,000 years ago, when the Nubian King Kashat invaded Egypt. One hundred years later they returned to Sudan and consolidated their power around Meroë, bringing with them Egyptian customs, such as the use of Pyramids as burial tombs for kings and queens.

This collection of monuments is just one of the striking sights I find in this rarely visited land. While not a top destination on tourist hit lists, Sudan is the most rewarding country that I’ve visited in recent years. And it was only through the adventures of a friend that I ended up here at all.

Levison Wood, 32, is a British explorer with a unique ambition: to walk the entire length of the River Nile. The river that cradled civilisation spills into the Mediterranean at Alexandria in Egypt. Lev has walked from the source, in Rwanda’s Highlands, crossing Tanzania, Uganda and South Sudan, until I meet him here, at Shendi.

The river is known as the White Nile until Khartoum, where it meets the Blue Nile from Ethiopia and flows North to the Mediterranean. Lev chose to walk the White Nile because it is more than twice as long as the Blue and, while both sections have been travelled by wing, wheel, and boat, it is the passion to move on foot that sets his journey apart.

“The Nile is the birthplace of modern man,” he explains, “It was not far from this river that mankind first struck out across the savannah, and its shores were the melting pot of ancient civilisations. Man was made to walk, and there is no better way to understand this part of

the world than by the mode of transport that uniquely describes our species.”

“In walking, you experience a country in a way that no fleeting tourist ever could,” he adds. “Rather than dashing from airport to resort, or from hotel to highlight, you encounter places at a pace that suits the human experience. You meet people you never otherwise would, encountering the real country, rather than a touristic veneer.”

Our time at the pyramids is just such an experience. After walking through the afternoon, we arrive a few hours before sunset. An elderly shepherd bids us welcome, before offering us tea and water. We are the only people here. Picture-perfect orange dunes roll up to pyramids, filling the entrances with sand. We brush it away to reveal hieroglyphics, telling the story of each king or queen. There is a line, above which the wind has eroded the exposed carvings, and we carefully replace the sand to help preserve the images. Previous visitors have not been so considerate: in 1834 an Italian treasure hunter by the name of Giuseppe Ferlini literally blew the tops off the Pyramids while searching for gold.

As the sun edges inexorably towards the horizon, we make our camp in a valley between the northern and southern Pyramid groups. Our Bedouin camel-handlers brew sweet chai on a fire of charcoal and twigs, then cook-up a basic, but delicious, dinner of beans, fried onions and tomatoes, which we mop up with bread.

The stars in the night sky are bright enough to trace the outline of broken pyramids. I can’t believe we’ve been wandering around monuments that date back to 720BC, uncovering hieroglyphs like Indiana Jones, and now lying down to sleep next to them. If this were anywhere else in the world, we’d be lost in a sea of photo-snapping day-trippers and haranguing trinket-merchants. Instead we feel like genuine explorers. The next morning we rise before dawn for that magical sunrise, pack up our belongings and head north.

“Travelling on foot creates a detachment from materialism,” says Lev, “Sure, I have camels to carry provisions and kit, but I need less than you think. Actually, it becomes easier the less that I have – as well as being lighter

“In walking, you experience a country in a way that no fleeting tourist ever could. Rather than dashing from airport to resort, or from hotel to highlight, you encounter places at a pace that suits the human experience.”

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to carry and quicker to pack up, less physical clutter makes for a clearer mind.” Which is important when you’re on a journey of 7,000 kilometres, making daily decisions about routes and logistics.

As we cover the ground between Meroë and Atbara, we pause at a truck stop for sweet chai and a lunch of foul [a saucy bean dish] and bread. Lev has ditched the expedition shirt and pants that he wore in Sub-Saharan Africa. Here he wears the jellabiya: a cotton shirt and pair of trousers traditionally worn by Arab tribes along Sudan’s Nile valley.

“Not only is it more comfortable for the heat, but it helps when interacting with people, as it puts up less of a barrier. People appreciate the fact that I’ve decided to wear their local dress. It’s a point of conversation that breaks the ice.”

Lev is accompanied on this part of the journey by Moez, a Sudanese guide of Nubian descent, whose local knowledge and command of Arabic “makes life far easier than rummaging through a phrase book.”

Then there’s the camels: Gordon, Speke and Burton. They carry Lev’s kit and provisions for the wilderness between towns and villages. They’re certainly not pets: approaching

The river is known as the White Nile until Khartoum, where it meets the Blue Nile from Ethiopia and flows North to the Mediterranean.

PREVIOUS PAGE: Pyramids of Meroë – reconstructed in the foreground.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Levison Wood and the expedition camels in front of the Pyramids of

Meroë; Levison Wood and Dr Will Charlton (who also joined the expedition for part of the way)

walking out of the Bayuda Desert, Sudan; an aerial view of Juba, the capital of South Sudan

and the River Nile; hieroglyphics in the entrance to the Pyramids of Meroë.

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Speke elicits a throaty roar, accompanied by a scent that I don’t wish to re-encounter. To handle the camels, and ensure they are fed, watered and cared for, two Bedouin nomads have joined the expedition: Awad and Ahamad are in their 60s (neither is sure of their exact age) and have been looking after camels all their lives. Their antics are like a comedy double-act.

It reaches 40C during the hottest part of the day and we stop at cafés from midday till 2pm to rest the camels and ourselves. People enquire where we come from, delighted to welcome visitors to their country. The generosity is unlike anything I’ve ever encountered: cars pull over and offer us lifts, or even to pay for bus tickets. The drivers shake their heads and smile when we explain our objective. As we rise to pay for coffee, the waitress tells us the man in the corner has paid for it. We haven’t even spoken to him, and turn to say thanks. But he’s already climbing into his truck, and doesn’t look back to seek gratitude.

On the seventh day we arrive in Atbara, which is known as the “Railway City” due to the vast workshops built here in the British era, and which continue to provide most employment in the area. It is also where the Atbara, the Nile’s final tributary, flows into the great river.

We wander the streets on Lev’s weekly rest day, which he takes to prevent injury. While sitting at a café we chat to another friendly local. In broken English he ascertains that we want to see a side of Sudan that the world doesn’t know. He becomes animated and tells us about a Sufi festival in two days, in the town of Kadabas. We get out the map. It’s 40km. We should be able to make it.

Just 48 hours later, we are picking our way through the streets of a town on the Nile’s West bank. Mud-walled compounds line the streets, and donkeys chew absent-mindedly on tufts of grass. In the distance we can hear the faint echo of the call to prayer. On the horizon we spot a mosque and minaret, brightly lit in green.

Suddenly we are in a mass of people on their way to evening prayers, and are swept along by welcomes and greetings. We visit the local sheikh, an Anglophile who studied in Birmingham in the 1970s. He formally welcomes us to Kadabas, and we share a meal with him. As evening prayers finish, drumbeats and singing filter out from the mosque, and the sheikh suggests we have a look.

Groups of men gather in animated conversation all over the prayer square. From time to time, a current of energy passes through the crowd as incense is waved by a censer-bearer, and everyone pushes closer to breathe in the smoke.

Sufism is a branch of Islam characterised by Dhikr – the practice of repeating the names of God, often performed after prayers and usually accompanied by drums or instrumental music. Tonight we see it all around us. A drummer and singer start the process, and the numbers grow until a crowd of up to 50 or even 100 surrounds them. It’s

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done in a form of call-and response, with the singer singing a verse, and the crowd responding, sometimes with the whole verse, sometimes with just a line or two.

Over 10,000 Sufis from all across Sudan have come together for this event – which is to remember the Prophet Mohammed’s (PBUH) ascent to heaven – and every single one of them is fed.

We are shown the food preparation area, where a veritable army of chefs butcher meat, stir vats of foul big enough to swim in, and brew chai in a comically large teapot. Everything is placed in bowls that are passed along a human chain, before disappearing over a serving hatch and into the waiting throng.

The temptation to explore every nook and cranny of this celebration is strong, but we are on the road tomorrow, and need at least a few hours’ sleep. The first suggestions of light are teasing the eastern horizon, but the singing and dancing continue as we make our way back to the campsite.

The next morning, as we set out towards Berber, Lev reflects on the previous night’s

EXPERIENCE SUDANSecret Compass runs expeditions to

Sudan. For more information visit www.secretcompass.com

FLY WITH ETIHADEtihad Airways offers direct daily flights

from Abu Dhabi to Khartoum, Sudan. For more information visit

www.etihad.com or call 02 599 0000.

events, “I’ve asked the production team back home to do some research [he is filming his journey for a television documentary] and they’ve found nothing about Kadabas or the festival – we’re quite probably the first people to have ever documented it. Experiences like this make the journey so worthwhile. A chance meeting in a café has led to us seeing something that no-one beyond Sudan’s borders has ever heard of. It’s remarkable, really.”

As I head home, leaving Lev to continue on his journey, I wonder what other extraordinary experiences he’ll have over the next 2,500km. Whatever he encounters, it’s already one of the most inspiring adventures of the modern era of exploration.

On 30 August 2014, Levison Wood successfully reached the Mediterranean Sea at Alexandria, Egypt. The documentary of his expedition will be broadcast in January 2015. To find out more, and to see video clips from the expedition, please visit www.walkingthenile.com.

Lev has walked from the source, in Rwanda’s Highlands, crossing Tanzania, Uganda and South

Sudan, until I meet him here, at Shendi.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Ashwin Bhardwaj with a village elder on his last day with Levison Wood; Sufis engaged in Dhikr during Friday worship in Omdurman; Awad the camel-handler feeds a camel; River Nile; Levison Wood, Moez and Dr Will Charlton with the two camels, crossing the plain in the middle of the Bayuda Volcanic Field, Bayuda Desert.IM

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CULTURE // NEW ENGLAND WHALING

It’s hard to quantify the enormity of a whale. A North Atlantic right whale can weigh as much as 10 African elephant. So what? Unless life has taken you down an unlikely path that requires you regularly interact with elephant, that’s a fairly meaningless comparison. Telling you that blue whale often come in at more than double the heaviest known dinosaur doesn’t mean much either.

Perhaps man-made items allow for better understanding. Remember that huge swimming pool you used to struggle up and down as a kid? The 25m one? Well if you put that blue whale in there, its tail would hang out by another five metres, like a tall man in too short a coffin. And the North Atlantic right whale? Well… Well I can’t actually tell you much about that because humans have so mercilessly hunted them that just 500 or so remain.

One of three subspecies of right whale, they earned their moniker during the inglorious days of mass American whaling in the 18th and 19th centuries. They were the “right” whales because they swam slowly and close to shore,

came up for air regularly, had an unfortunate habit of being naturally curious, and floated when dead, allowing them to be easily towed to harbour or casually butchered on board. Now, if you were to wander the world, you would be four times more likely to bump into a giant panda than a North Atlantic right whale. Which is to say: they are exceptionally endangered, and that is our fault.

Fortunately, other species of whale have proved more robust, even though they too were hunted by man. Take the humpback, as many as 200,000 of which were thought to have been taken during the 20th century. It’s hard to grasp that number too – that amount of meat and bone – but knowing how widely they were persecuted makes their being so easy to spot today all the more remarkable.

Along with perhaps 50 other wide-eyed tourists, I spend a morning on board a Dolphin Fleet whale-watching ship just off the coast of Cape Cod, one of those salty New England destinations whose name conjures the roar of the ocean and the cry of a gull. Not far from

the boat, four humpback whales are hunting herring using a technique known as bubble-netting. Working as a team, they swim below great shoals of fish, steadily releasing streams of air to confuse and ensnare their prey. Then they rush up from the depths, swallowing the herring in colossal gulps. It’s a thrilling thing to witness, especially as the first bubbles of their trap hit the surface just before their vast, yawning mouths. The crowd oohs and aahs. No one is on the side of the doomed herring.

To witness this behaviour, and more generally to see a whale in person and to feel your own smallness next to it, stirs up a strange kind of melancholy. Why did we want to stab at these behemoths? Why would we choose to destroy something so magnificent? It seems to be, as the author of Moby Dick, Herman Melville, wrote, “part of the universal problem of all things.”

Melville’s white whale has come to symbolise many things to many people – the perfect novel, a great love, almost anything overwhelming and profound and capable of

FORMERLY THE WORLD CAPITAL OF WHALING, NEW ENGLAND’S FORTUNES ROSE WITH THE INDUSTRY. TODAY PEOPLE STILL FLOCK THERE IN PURSUIT OF SOMETHING MAGNIFICENT.WORDS JAMIE LAFFERTYILLUSTRATION MATT KISH

Finding Leviathan

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destroying us. To his lunatic Captain Ahab, of course, Moby Dick was the target of insane revenge, the sperm whale having “razed” his leg on a previous voyage: “All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick.”

Though Melville, himself a former whaler, understood the trade better than most, it’s unlikely many New England sailors were motivated by hatred of their quarry. More likely they were simply in it for the money – and there was a lot of money to be made.

Americans were whaling before the States were united; it was the first global trade in which they were leaders. It was so important to the island of Nantucket that in the build-up to the American Revolutionary War, whalers tried to stay out of the conflict, so as not to interfere with their profits. Even now along the coasts of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maine, many of the grandest houses once belonged to captains who’d become fabulously rich and fat through whale oil. “Go and gaze upon the iron emblematical harpoons round yonder lofty mansion,” wrote Melville. “All these brave houses and flowery gardens came from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. One and all, they were harpooned and dragged up hither from the bottom of the sea.”

In decades of hunting, the New Englanders became, quite literally, bloody experts in their trade. Some of the lines in Moby Dick are so perfect as to seem carved into the paper, but many of the most memorable are graphic descriptions of how gruesome the whole business was. Perhaps better to leave it to the pen of Francis Allyn Olmsted, a medical student who travelled on a whaling vessel in 1839, to describe one of the whalers’ ruthless techniques: “The taking of one of a school almost always ensures the capture of another, for his comrades do not immediately abandon the victim, but swim around him, and appear to sympathise with him in his sufferings.” The men carrying the harpoons showed no such sympathy.

The importance of the industry to New England is explained in the excellent New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts. Established in 1903, it opened while whaling was still popular, but at a time when the local population knew it was on the wane.

The Civil War had done them no favours, and the introduction of the even deadlier explosive-tipped harpoons by the Norwegian fleet heralded the beginning of the end of America’s comparatively prehistoric trade.

The demand for whale oil was decreasing too. For over a century it had been used to light the streets of America’s cities, and the hundreds of lighthouses that are still found up and down the New England coastline also ran on whale oil, the keeper having to fill the lamps every 12 hours. But then kerosene was discovered and it was cleaner, burned longer and didn’t require the transcontinental murder of giant mammals. In the case of the North Atlantic right whale, the hunters were simply running out of prey, too.

The Whaling Museum doesn’t overtly mourn the death of the industry, nor does it romanticise the era more than feels appropriate. But it does detail the history with an almost forensic eye, displaying 750,000 items, including a replica of whaling boat and a juvenile blue whale skeleton, which still silently seeps oil into a jar from its immense jawbone. Elsewhere there are 3,000 pieces of

scrimshaw – artwork scratched into pieces of whale ivory and the teeth of sperm whales by men at sea. That they are such delicate, beautiful pieces of art speaks not only to the skill of their creators, but also the unimaginable boredom on ships between hunts.

These days, people taking to the waters off New England in search of a whale are unlikely to be bored, and even less likely want to do the leviathan any harm. Perhaps the whale are found so readily because they can’t resist the easy meals found beneath those waves, but it’s just as easy to believe that they have been forgetful, or forgiving, of man’s transgressions, and that when they feed so close to the boats they do so as an act of kindness and reconciliation.

“The mere act of penning my thoughts of this Leviathan, they weary me,” wrote Melville, “as if to include the whole circle of the sciences, and all the generations of whales, and men, and mastodons, past, present, and to come, with all the revolving panoramas of empire on Earth, and throughout the whole universe.” A lways the whale has left the mind reaching for bigger things.

The hundreds of lighthouses that can still be found up and down the New England coastline ran on whale oil too, the keeper having to top-up the lamps every 12 hours.

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ESCAPE // LOS ANGELES

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“The Chateau Marmont?” asked my puzzled American production manager, regarding my accommodation request during the filming of my first US TV show. “Why does every Brit I ever deal with want to stay there?”

I didn’t bother to explain. Perennial home to the stars, The Chateau is an LA legend and there was no way I was ever going to stay anywhere else.

Los Angeles is a curious destination. There’s the Hollywood sign, the Walk of Fame and that crazy guy on Venice Beach playing the guitar on roller skates who was in Fletch. But there are no great destination landmarks, no fabulous café culture, no obvious place to go.

Los Angeles is more of a “scene” and you are either part of that scene, or a movie-going tourist. Actually, I lie. There is another option. You can check into The Chateau Marmont and instantly become a Hollywood bit player.

The Chateau features heavily in LA cultural references, from almost every Lana Del Rey lyric to the work of F Scott Fitzgerald, (celebrity photographer) Annie Leibovitz and John Belushi. This is where trendy Hollywood comes to party. It is the original Hotel California, built as an apartment block in 1926 and modelled loosely on a couple of Gothic chateaux in the Loire Valley.

Driving down Sunset Boulevard, the place stuck out like a sore thumb. The odd turrets and faux-French architecture blended with poolside palm trees and a gargantuan neighbourhood billboard to encapsulate everything I love about LA: the perpetual spring weather, the unashamed materialism, the seedy glamour.

I’d asked my production manager to book me into the Chateau because I was a comedian getting a break in the City of Angels

and this was the hotel to the stars. Once, it was the ultimate rock n’ roll hotel with luminaries like Jim Morrison, John Lennon, Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger hanging out in the grounds. Nowadays, the clientele is more of a mix of uber-cool Hollywood – plus any visiting British rock stars (and comedians).

When I got there it didn’t disappoint. The hotel was dark, the corridors were dark, even the furniture was dark. It positively reeked of atmosphere and when I got into my room it was like moving into a Raymond Chandler novel. The hotel was built as an L-shaped apartment block/castle and so the rooms still have the feel of a 1950s bachelor’s apartment but with all the mod-cons. The beds are super comfortable but the rest is just the right side of kitschy, with a vintage kitchen, complete with an antique fridge full of goodies and a letter-set that announces you are now “in residence” at the Chateau.

The real joy of the place however, is the garden. A raised, first-floor lawn-tent affair, it is lit by twinkling fairy lights and unnecessarily heated by platoons of patio heaters (it can plummet down to a Botox-numbing 15C at night) in which you suddenly find yourself in some surreal situations. On my very first morning there, I wandered down to breakfast, very jet-lagged, only to be seated next to Orlando Bloom. This would have been interesting

HOTELCALIFORNIA

BRITISH TELEVISION PERSONALITY DOM JOLY IS USED TO BEING RECOGNISED AT HOME, BUT A STAY AT THE CHATEAU MARMONT LEFT HIM QUITE STAR-STRUCK.

WORDS DOM JOLY

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enough but Courtney Love was two tables away and behaving rather erratically. Then Johnny Depp walked in and I gave up on any thoughts of the rather wonderful breakfast on offer and instead pricked up my eavesdropping ears.

Everywhere you look in the Chateau's garden a Hollywood cliché is unfurling: a ditzy model laughing too hard at her older date’s jokes; Michael Madsen, dressed in what appears to be off-cuts from a Hell’s Angel staring at his drink as though it had just disrespected him; a woman with sunglasses too large for any normal human trying to get noticed by the nearby table of dim cheekbones.

It’s no wonder that Sofia Coppola shot her movie Somewhere there. It is more of a wonder that it was such a stinker, as the script for a thousand great movies seems present at every sitting. I was once stuck at the Chateau for two weeks while an annoying Icelandic volcano grounded all international flights. Nobody could tell me when this pesky mountain was going to stop belching and so I hunkered down for a long stay. This was no hardship. It was particularly comforting to know that, during this period of natural unrest, I would have been totally safe had LA suffered from another – the Chateau was the first building in LA to be designed as earthquake-proof.

Most days I’d hang out by the pool and observe the comings and goings from the garden cottages and hillside bungalows. These are all separate from the main building and the occupants tend to get up very late and stumble about the poolside area talking loudly about whatever they got up to the night before. Everything you need to know about what’s happening in LA is repeated around this pool. Then, if you can’t wangle a game of table tennis with a member of Coldplay, it’s off to lunch to see who has arrived. If you are not in the industry and feel a little out of place, a good tip is to carry around a thick script with you. This not only allows you to look like a “player” but you can pretend to be going through the thing when you are eavesdropping on Gwyneth Paltrow and her date. Just remember one thing: no photos. The Chateau has a strict policy on this, so don’t start whipping out your phone and getting selfies with Madonna.

So, to recap, when you get to LA, rent your convertible, get some enormous sunglasses, place your script under your arm and head for Sunset Boulevard. You can check into the Chateau any time you like, but you might never leave… IM

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You can check into the Chateau any time you like, but you might never leave…

CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT: The Hollywood sign was conceived as an outdoor ad campaign for a suburban housing development called “Hollywoodland"; stars are voted in once a year in June for the Hollywood Walk of fame. An average of 20-24 stars are selected per year; the Chateau Marmont; the terrace; hillside bungalows are separate from the main hotel; the lobby lounge viewed from the courtyard.

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CREATING CONTACT

Etihad Airways has completed the final phase in the development of its Al Ain contact centre facility, with the opening of a second contact centre, bringing to three the number of centres within the UAE, and a total of four worldwide. The new facility will complement the airline’s current Al Ain contact centre, which was launched in 2011 and is staffed and managed by a team of 170 UAE-national women. The centre will operate 24/7 with a desk capacity for 70 agents providing bilingual Arabic and English assistance to the airline’s guests. “We are pleased to expand our Al Ain contact centre and enhance the guest experience with highly trained, multilingual contact centre agents,” says Chief Commercial Officer, Peter Baumgartner. “Our contact centres, which are located in the UAE and the UK, handle around three million calls each year. As Etihad Airways grows, we continue to evolve our guest services to provide the best experience for all our guests and travel trade partners.”

INSIDE ETIHADFIRST FLIGHT INSIDE ETIHAD

NEW NURSERY

Employees of Etihad Airways now have access to a unique aviation-themed nursery in Abu Dhabi, part of the airline’s commitment to provide world-class support services for its employees. Located directly opposite the airline’s head office at Etihad Plaza, the Etihad Airways Nursery was officially opened by Ray Gammell, Etihad Airways’ Chief People and Performance Officer. “Etihad Airways is a people business and our people are our number-one priority. The new on-site nursery will provide the highest quality of care for the children, while helping our working parents and their families to balance the roles and responsibilities of parenting with the demands of full-time work,” says Gammell. “This initiative reflects our ongoing commitment to the wellbeing of our employees and their families, to provide them with the best-in-class support services.” As well as a nursery, the facility also operates an out-of-hours crèche service.

DOUBLE KARACHI

Etihad Airways will add a new daily flight between Abu Dhabi and Karachi to offer a double-daily service from 18 November. The additional service will be operated by a two-class Airbus A320 aircraft configured to carry 136 passengers, with 16 seats in Business Class and 120 seats in Economy Class. Adding 1,904 new seats per week to the Abu Dhabi-Karachi route, the new flights will provide guests with more choice and greater flexibility when travelling to and from Abu Dhabi. Etihad Airways will now be able to offer 46 weekly return flights to four destinations in Pakistan, which, along with Karachi, include Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar. “The addition of the new flights will strengthen Etihad Airways’ presence in the Pakistani market and foster the growth of commercial and cultural relations between Pakistan and the UAE,” says Kevin Knight, Etihad Airways’ Chief Strategy and Planning Officer.

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DESTINATION DELIVERY

Etihad Airways will expand its global route network with the addition of Baku, Tbilisi and Dar es Salaam in the second half of 2015, increasing the total number of new destinations it has announced for next year to nine. The fast-growing Caucasus region will be a major focus area for the airline next year, with a new service to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, being operated four times a week from 1 October, while Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, will be served three times a week from 2 October. Both cities are famed for their warm hospitality and natural beauty, offering a breath-taking range of botanical gardens and parks, as well as historical attractions, museums and galleries. Etihad Airways will also commence a daily service to Dar es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania, from 1 December 2015, providing access to one of East Africa’s most important economic and government centres.

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INSIDE ETIHAD FIRST FLIGHT

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY

INSIDE ETIHAD FIRST FLIGHT

ETIHAD AIRWAYS IS ENCOURAGING STAFF TO “GIVE TOGETHER”

the airline’s global network in the first few months.

‘We are pleased, but not surprised at this very positive response by the staff. There is a strong community culture across our 140 nationalities,” says Linden Coppell, Head of Sustainability.

The first activity to be organised under iVOLUNTEER was the participation in a community support project in Abu Dhabi using funds donated directly by the airline.

Fifty volunteers from the programme donated their spare time to shop for gifts that were distributed to 330 ladies living in a workers’ community. The gift packs included fresh fruit and personal care items. The volunteers also distributed hot meals in collaboration with Abu Dhabi Cause Connect, a UAE-based community group that is dedicated to increasing creative collaboration between causes, communities and companies.

To encourage further collaboration and incentivise staff, the sustainability team held a leadership workshop for staff enrolled in the iVOLUNTEER programme.

More than fifty volunteers attended the workshop titled Leading by Example – spreading happiness and making a difference. They listened to and interacted with Jules Lewis, a motivational speaker who gave examples of her involvement in various community and corporate social responsibility activities. The focus was on how the volunteers could benefit at both a personal and professional level through working together and giving back to the community.

The sustainability agenda of Etihad Airwaysis framed under the TOGETHER initiative, which comprises four key elements: Growing, Working, Giving, and Greener. The “Giving” component incorporates the airline’s efforts to support the wellbeing of local and global communities, and recognises that its employees can play a major role in the support of these efforts.

The Etihad Airways’ sustainability team recently launched the iVOLUNTEER programme – a wide-ranging initiative to encourage employees to engage in community-related activities and support the work of local charities across the UAE and in other parts of the world.

Since the launch, the programme has witnessed great success, registering over 400 employees from around

IVOLUNTEER YVAN PROVIDES SUPPORT TO A SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND IN THAILAND

Yvan Clot-Goudard is a graphic designer at Etihad Airways and a passionate supporter of community projects.

For the last two years Yvan has made an annual visit to the Christian Foundation for the Blind in Thailand, a non-profit charitable organisation helping blind people and employing staff, regardless of gender, race or religion. The foundation employs 400 people and caters for over 4,000 blind persons all over Thailand.

Yvan made a visit to one of the schools supported by the Foundation to donate clothes, blankets and bags donated by Etihad. The iVOLUNTEER programme has enabled Yvan to connect with similarly minded individuals who helped him in the collection of these items.

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To meet its mandate to be global, competitive, profitable and financially independent, Etihad Airways needs to build scale and reduce costs. In its own right, the airline can never achieve the size of its major competitors, most of which have been flying for decades or, in some cases, generations. So it has developed a new business model that supplements organic growth and codeshare partnerships with minority investments in other strategically important airlines.

Codeshare and commercial partnerships deliver revenue, network access and customer loyalty opportunities. Equity goes much further. It enables Etihad Airways to significantly reduce unit costs and achieve productivity gains and cost savings that otherwise could be achieved only through a merger or takeover. It also streamlines entry into new markets and facilitates rapid growth through the use of established networks, facilities and customer bases.

Equity means skin in the game, ensuring commitment and obligation from both airlines, and much deeper cooperation than a commercial partnership can deliver. It offers savings through resource-sharing such as joint training of pilots and cabin

crew, shared maintenance of common aircraft types, joint leasing of property and unified sales and marketing activities. Equity also enables joint procurement of assets, services and supplies – from office stationery to aircraft – providing major economies of scale that legacy airline alliances cannot offer to their members. And it creates opportunities to share best practice and to transfer knowledge for mutual benefit.

Etihad Airways currently holds a 29.21 percent stake in airberlin; a 40 percent stake in Air Seychelles Ltd; a 21.24 percent equity stake in Virgin Australia; a 4.99 percent stake in Aer Lingus; a 24 percent equity stake in Jet Airways, a 49 percent equity stake in Air Serbia and has announced plans to take a 49 percent stake in Alitalia, subject to regulatory approvals. Etihad Airways is also awaiting regulatory approval to acquire 33.3 percent of the Swiss-based regional carrier Darwin Airline, which is currently operating as Etihad Regional-Switzerland.

BENEFITS OF EXISTING PARTNERSHIPSEquity and codeshare partners contributed revenues of US$820 million to Etihad

Airways during 2013. This represented a 30 percent increase over 2012, and 21 percent of the year’s total revenues for Etihad Airways, which reciprocated by contributing passengers and freight to partner airlines.

In the case of equity partners, the benefits were even greater, significantly reducing unit costs and operating expenses through activities including resource sharing and joint procurement.

During 2013, Etihad Airways operated a number of services using aircraft from the fleets of Jet Airways, Virgin Australia and Air Seychelles, while also providing aircraft to partners including Air Seychelles and Air Serbia to meet short-term requirements. Etihad Airways hired 50 pilots who were surplus to airberlin’s requirements, and shared new office facilities in Germany with airberlin, provided training for pilots and cabin crews from several partner airlines and participated in joint sales and marketing activities with a number of partners around the world.

Etihad Airways also extended the benefits of its equity relationships by connecting partner airlines with each other, as well as by integrating partner airlines into the Etihad Guest loyalty programme.

EY NETWORK: DESTINATIONS

EY NETWORK: COUNTRIES

EY NETWORK: CONTINENTS

PARTNERS: AIRLINES

EQUITY PARTNERS:

110 66 6 47 8

EQUITY ALLIANCES INSIDE ETIHAD

BIGGER AND BETTER

Etihad Regional will increase its services between Geneva and key European destinations for its 2014 winter schedule commencing 26 October. In response to seasonal passenger demand, the airline will increase frequency on the Geneva-Nice route from three to five flights per week and on the Geneva-Bordeaux route from three to six flights per week. Etihad Regional will also add three and four new weekly flights on the Geneva-Venice and Geneva-Toulouse route respectively, to offer a daily service. The additional flights will be operated with a two-class Saab 2000 turboprop aircraft, configured to carry 50 passengers, with five seats in Premium Economy Class and 45 seats in Economy Class. The addition of the new services will bring Etihad Regional’s total network to 25 year-round destinations in Europe, using a fleet of eight 50-seat Saab 2000 turboprop aircraft and four 68-seat ATR 72-500s.

NEW HORIZONS

Air Seychelles recently announced the launch of two new routes with direct flights to Mumbai (subject to regulatory approvals), India’s financial, commercial and entertainment capital, commencing 2 December 2014, and direct flights to Antananarivo, Madagascar, commencing 3 December 2014. Meanwhile, the airline also scooped two coveted accolades at the World Travel Awards 2014, further enhancing its status as the leading carrier in the Indian Ocean region and beyond. The airline was awarded Indian Ocean’s Leading Airline – Business Class, and Indian Ocean’s Leading Cabin Crew. “To receive these two awards is testament to the outstanding efforts of the entire team at Air Seychelles, our strategic partnership with Etihad Airways, and the innovative approach we have taken to being the best at what we do,” says Joël Morgan, Seychelles Minister for Home Affairs and Transport and Air Seychelles Board Chairman.

BRAND EVOLUTION

In line with its recent announcement of a uniform “single brand”, Jet Airways will commence streamlining and aligning its domestic operations into a single full service product to provide an enhanced and consistent product experience. As the first of many upcoming initiatives, all guests booking flights for travel on or after 1 December 2014, will enjoy the full service experience on board all Jet Airways and JetKonnect-operated flights across the domestic network. The enhancement into a uniform, full-service single brand will include a complementary meal service on board all flights and Sky Café – the airline’s buy-on-board service – will be discontinued. JetPrivilege members will also earn JPMiles in line with the accrual structure for full service flights. Jet Airways and JetKonnect together operate over 544 daily flights, both domestic and international.

LEADING THE WAY

Air Serbia has appointed Stevan Sipka, an experienced aviation professional, as its new Vice President Asia Pacific and Aviation Online has been appointed the new General Sales and Service Agent (GSA) for Australia and New Zealand. In his new role, Sipka will be based in Sydney, where he will have overall responsibility for Air Serbia’s expanded commercial operations in the Asia Pacific region. Bringing a wealth of industry experience to the airline, Sipka has worked with both Qantas and Virgin Australia. At Qantas he held the positions of Commercial Manager Asia and General Manager Alliances for Asia. Immediately prior to joining Air Serbia he worked for Virgin Australia as General Manager Revenue Planning. He was also a member of the initial management team of Air Serbia, following the airline’s formation as a result of the partnership between the Government of Serbia and Etihad Airways in October 2013.

Nice, France

Antananarivo, Madagascar

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INSIDE ETIHAD PARTNER NEWS

AIRPORT SERVICES INSIDE ETIHAD

72

Upon arrival at the airport, First and Business Class guests are greeted by our concierge staff, a complimentary porter service, and escorted into a purpose-built check-in area. Resembling a luxurious hotel lobby, the check-in allows guests to relax in comfortable surroundings while formalities are taken care of. The dedicated immigration facilities ensure guests can enjoy a swift transfer to the premium lounges.

FIRST AND BUSINESS CLASSCHECK IN

Etihad’s dedicated Economy Class check-in desk offers a personalised experience for every one of our guests. Many new facilities have been added in order to make the process of getting on your flight as smooth and pleasant as possible. One of the major new additions is an all-new duty free shopping area.

ECONOMY CLASS CHECK IN

The new First and Business Class Lounge located in Terminal 3 (opposite Gate 35 on the departures concourse) can accommodate up to 500 guests with a host of a la carte dining options, a Six Senses Spa, library, family area, shower rooms, TV and work stations. The new Arrivals Lounge, which is conveniently located just after customs, offers First and Business Class guests the chance to unwind or freshen-up before they leave the airport. Highlights include 10 revitalising shower units, each equipped with luxurious amenities, a complimentary service for clothes steaming and refreshing wet shaves by fully-qualified barbers. The Etihad First and Business Class Lounge in Terminal 3 (opposite security) is currently undergoing refurbishment.

LOUNGES

Another world-famous brand in the lounge area is the Six Senses spa, where a series of complimentary treatments are available to both First and Business Class guests. The spa areas, dedicated to ambient relaxation, provide an urban sanctuary where guests can enjoy a range of express treatments. Whether looking to relax or revitalise prior to your flight, the menu includes massage options on one of the energy chairs or perhaps a facial on one of the beds. This area also has dedicated showers in which to freshen-up before boarding.

SIX SENSES SPAOur younger guests are also fully catered for in Etihad lounges in both Terminal 1 and Terminal 3. The new kids’ room in the Terminal 3 lounge is packed with books, toys, games and a wide-screen TV with the latest in family movie entertainment, allowing the children to be as colourful and boisterous as they please in a safe area all their own.

KIDS’ AREA

ETIHAD TERMINAL 3 ABU DHABI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTAbu Dhabi International Airport’s state-of-the-art Terminal 3 is Etihad Airways’ dedicated flight terminal. Terminal 3 has been carefully designed to provide a swift, seamless and enjoyable departure and arrivals process for guests travelling across Etihad’s flight zones, including the convenient new self-check-in kiosks. Additionally, it includes a world-class range of facilities and services for our First and Business Class guests. The majority of Etihad flights depart from Terminal 3. To check details of your flight departure terminal, please refer to etihad.com.

INSIDE ETIHAD AIRPORT SERVICES

73

AIRPORT SERVICES

ETIHAD AIRPORT SERVICESMEET AND GREETThe Meet and Greet service is available to all Etihad Airways guests who are arriving at, transiting through or departing from Abu Dhabi International Airport. Four types of service are on offer. The Arrivals Silver Service (AED 100 per person) offers guests a personal welcome on arrival, assistance throughout the arrival process, and fast-track through immigration. In addition to all this, The Arrivals Gold Service (AED 200 per person) offers guests a personal welcome on arrival from one member of staff for every guest or couple travelling together and free porter service from the baggage belt to the curbside. The Transit Gold Service (AED 325) offers assistance throughout the arrival process, an escort from the arrival gate to the Etihad Airways Premium Lounge in Terminal 1, and from the lounge to the departure gate. The service is available for guests spending up to five hours in transit at the airport. The Departure Gold Service(AED 250) includes a personal welcome and assistance throughout the departure process, including escort from the Business Class check-in desk in Terminal 1 to the Premium Lounge. The Meet and Greet Service can be booked online at etihad.com/meetandgreet.

ETIHAD LOUNGEAt Abu Dhabi International Airport Terminal 1, First and Business Class guests may relax in the 24-hour Etihad First and Business Class Lounge which offers a den with individual TV pods, a business centre with printing facilities, a family room, a relaxation area, shower rooms, a Six Senses Spa, a library, coffee stations and a concierge service.

CHECK INEtihad Airways has dedicated check-in desks for all zones. First and Business Class guests can use the premium check-in facilities at Abu Dhabi International Airport and the Etihad Travel Mall in Dubai.

TRANSPORT SERVICESFirst and Business Class guests receive a door-to-door luxury limousine service, complete with the Etihad Chauffeur Service.

LUXURY COACH Etihad Airways offers a complimentaryluxury coach service between Dubai andAbu Dhabi, departing from Etihad Travel Mall on Sheikh Zayed Road. A service is available for guests travelling between Al Ain and Abu Dhabi International Airport. Guests with confirmed flight reservations can reserve their seat on etihad.com, by calling 02 599 0000 or through their travel agent.

SPECIAL TRAVEL NEEDSGuests with special travel needs such as wheelchair assistance should make this known at the time of booking. Special meals: each guest may request one of the following meals at the time of booking, or no later than 24 hours before the flight: diabetic, gluten-free, lacto-vegetarian, vegan vegetarian, low fat/cholesterol, low sodium/salt, Halal, Hindu, and Jain.

AIRPORT SERVICESAMENITIESAbu Dhabi Duty Free (ADDF) offers international designer brands, plus gold, electronic items and souvenirs. Both Terminal 1 and Terminal 3 offer duty free shops.

EYE SCAN INFORMATIONAn eye scan room is located next to the immigration desk where a copy of your irises will be recorded for identification purposes in a safe procedure taking a few seconds.

E-GATE INFORMATIONThe E-Gate system allows citizens and residents of the UAE and the GCC to use a swipe E-card at the immigration gate. The E-card can be used as identification at all international airports. E-cards can be obtained in Abu Dhabi at the Naturalisation and Residency Department, from the director general for Naturalisation and Residence or from the airport.

TIME ZONE: GMT plus four hours.

LANGUAGE: Arabic is the official language. However English and Urdu are also widely spoken.

CURRENCY: Dirhams (AED), divided into 100 fils. Money exchanges can be found in most malls.

WORKING HOURS: 08.00 – 13.00 and 16.00 – 19.00, although increasingly companies are adopting 09.00 – 18.00. Government hours are 07.00 – 15.00. Banking hours are 08.00 – 13.00 (depending on the branch). All businesses are closed on Fridays and Saturdays.

PUBLIC HOLIDAYS: New Year’s Day (1 January), Mawlid Al Nabi (13 January), Lailat Al Mi’raj (27 May), Eid Al Fitr (28 July), Eid Al Adha (5 October), Al-Hijra (25 October) UAE National Day (2 December).

VISAS: Residents of the following countries receive a visa upon arrival in the UAE: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brunei, Canada – except diplomatic passport holders, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Monaco, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Portugal, Qatar, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Vatican City, United Kingdom, USA. Please ensure your passport has two months (in some cases six) before its expiry date in order to be granted admission into the UAE.

ESSENTIAL INFORMATION

HEALTH INSIDE ETIHAD

ENVIRONMENT: The inflight cabin pressure is significantly different to that at ground level. On most flights, the pressure is similar to 5,000 – 8,000ft above sea level. This has two effects: there is less oxygen available for your body to absorb, and the air and other gases in your body expand. Typically, neither phenomenon presents healthy passengers with problems. However, with the body inactive and the blood absorbing less oxygen, bodily processes slow down, slightly impairing the ability to digest food. It’s advisable to eat lightly before and during the flight. Some passengers feel discomfort during take off and descent as the air in their middle ear and sinuses expands and contracts. Chewing, swallowing and yawning can help. Babies might suffer more acutely. Another side effect of the cabin’s atmosphere is the low level of humidity, leading to dry eyes, a sore throat and constant thirst. To compensate, travellers should drink regularly but avoid alcohol and caffeine, both of which cause dehydration. Regularly applying moisturiser to the skin and lips will also help. Glasses, rather than contact lenses, should be worn on long-haul flights.

OTHER TIPS INCLUDE: Wearing loose clothing, and leaving the area under the seat in front of you empty to allow space for you to stretch.

JET LAG: The effects of jet lag vary depending on how many time zones have been crossed, the individual’s ability to recover, and the direction of travel. To diminish jet lag’s effects, rest well before the flight and, if your schedule permits, move two hours towards the destination time before flight. During the flight, eat lightly, reset your watch, and consume caffeine sparingly. Schedule outdoor activities early on and limit daytime naps to 40 minutes or less, going to bed at the appropriate hour for the new zone.

HEALTH RISKS: It is best to consult your doctor about health concerns before flying. Pregnant women and those with heart or respiratory problems, blood disease or ear, nose and sinus infections should seek medical advice before they fly. Travellers who scuba dive should wait 24 hours after their last dive before flying to minimise the risk of developing decompression illnesses. Although quite rare, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) can also pose a threat. Passengers are encouraged to walk around the cabin periodically to decrease any potential risk.

SIT UP STRAIGHT� Place the pillow at the hollow of your back.� Sit tall in your seat to avoid compressing your spine.� Do not cross your legs. Instead, try to sit with your weight evenly balanced.

SHOULDER CIRCLES� Sit tall and move forward in your seat.� Bring your shoulders up towards your ears, then circle back downwards.� Reverse the exercise by lifting your shoulders towards your ears and drop them back.

ANKLE CIRCLES� Sit tall in your seat, and place the pillow under your thigh, just above the knee.� Keep your weight even as you circle your foot around, keeping the whole foot as still as possible.

NECK ROLLS� Sit back in your seat and flatten the headrest. � Gently and slowly roll your neck to one side, then back through the centre towards the other side.� Try keeping the back of your neck extended.

COMFORT AT 40,000FTFollow our simple guidelines to ensure that you arrive fresh and ready to handle any challenges that your journey might throw your way

EXERCISEThese simple exercises will help to relieve the tiredness and stiffness associated with flying

74

INSIDE ETIHAD DUTY FREE

75

INSIDE ETIHAD US PRECLEARANCE

CUSTOMS DECLARATIONEach individual arriving into the US must complete the Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Declaration Form 6059B. CBP Declaration Forms must be completed at the airport on the day of departure, and one completed declaration form per family must be handed to the US CBP officer at Abu Dhabi International Airport. CBP Declaration Forms are available at Etihad check-in counters, on board or in the US preclearance facility at Abu Dhabi Airport.

For further information, visit:www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/vacation/sample_declaration_form.xml

ADVANCED TRAVEL AUTHORISATION ESTAPassengers travelling to the US for a period not exceeding 90 days and who have a return ticket, and if the country of their nationality or their birth adheres to the Visa Waiver Programme, must request prior authorisation to travel (called ESTA – Electronic System for Travel Authorisation) without requesting an entrance visa, but only if they are in possession of one of the following types of passports:

○ A machine-readable passport (MRP) issued or renewed prior to 26 October 2005○ One with a digital photo issued or renewed between 26 October 2005 and 25 October 2006○ Electronic passport issued or renewed after 26 October 2006

Complete the procedure online by logging on to website www.esta.cbp.dhs. gov/esta at a cost of US$14, payable by credit card.

US authorities do not allow passengers without this authorisation to embark on the flight.

CLEARED TO ENTER THE US IN ABU DHABI BEFORE YOU TAKE OFF

US PRECLEARANCE AT ABU DHABI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT – TERMINAL 3On select flights to the US, guests on Etihad Airways will have access to Abu Dhabi International Airport’s United States Customs and Border Protection Facility, located at Terminal 3. This new facility enables travellers going to select US destinations to preclear US Customs and Border Protection formalities before boarding their flights in Abu Dhabi. On touchdown in the US, guests will be treated as though they are US domestic arrivals. Shorter connection times are possible for onward flights in the US with guests’ luggage through-checked to their final destination. Experience an easier, quicker and more comfortable journey with the World’s Leading Airline (World Travel Awards 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013) to Washington DC, New York (excluding EY103), Chicago and Los Angeles. Future US destinations will also benefit from the facility.

For further information, visit: www.etihad.com/en-ae/before-you-fly/us-preclearance

DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION FOR ENTRANCE TO THE USIn accordance with the Secure Flight programme developed by the TSA (Transport Security Administration), the authority charged with security in the US, passengers travelling to/from or with a stopover in the US or flying in US airspace to reach other countries must, when they book/purchase their ticket, or at least and not later than 72 hours prior to their departure, provide the following information: full name (exactly as it appears in their passport) date of birth, gender and their identification number (if provided, this is a code number assigned by the US authorities to those passengers whose names were erroneously put on the list of people under observation). If this information is not provided, they will not be permitted to travel to/from/over the US or Canada.

For further details, visit: www.tsa.gov/secureflight

etihadguest.com

Request your application form from our cabin crew.

The Widest ChoiceEnjoy exclusive online shopping.

� Flights and upgrades – easy options to book your travel. � Over 6,000 products – choose from electronics, jewellery,

toys and more.

Family MembershipFaster rewards than you ever expected.

� Family membership – up to nine members can be enrolled. � One Family Head account – every single mile earned

by every Family Guest is collected into one account.

Immediate RewardsEarn from your very fi rst fl ight with us!

� 1 Mile Redemption – be rewarded from the moment you step on board.

� Miles + cash – choose any combination that makes redeeming rewards easy.

JOIN ETIHAD GUEST TODAY

ETIHAD GUEST EARN MALLOur Etihad Guest Earn Mall off ers a wide selection of products from over 400 global brands. Members can earn Etihad Guest Miles when shopping online for anything from fashion and jewellery, to electronics and travel accessories.

ETIHAD GUEST REWARD SHOPAnd what are you going to do with all those well-earned Etihad Guest Miles? The Etihad Guest Reward Shop has thousands of products all available to buy with any combination of milesand cash.

REWARDING YOU!The below comparison chart shows how Etihad Guest gives you more for your miles.

Abu Dhabi –Los Angeles (Return) Etihad Guest Miles Earned**

Economy Class Up to 16,756

Business Class Up to 29,323

First Class Up to 41,890

PRODUCT Etihad Guest Reward Shop

Other Frequent Flyer Shops

iPod nano 16GB

22,850 miles 50,000 miles

ONLY

To know more about Etihad Guest partners, visit etihadguest.com/partners

**Can vary with type of ticket purchased.

PointsPayConvert your Etihad Guest Miles to cash.

� Unlimited freedom – pay with miles in-store or online at over thirty million outlets worldwide.

� Unlimited mobility – use PointsPay on your mobile device to redeem on the move.

ENJOY OUR LATEST PARTNER OFFERS

Experience San Francisco.Enjoy double Etihad Guest Miles.From the timeless architecture of the Golden Gate Bridge to the hilly landscape that frames an unforgettable urban landscape, experienceSan Francisco with Etihad Airways from 18 November 2014. Fly within our fi rst 30 days of operation and receive double the Etihad Guest Miles.

MARRIOTT INTERNATIONALYou’ll now be able to earn Etihad Guest Miles on every stay at over 3,900 hotels worldwide by enrolling to Marriott Rewards and setting your earning preference to Etihad Guest Miles. Book and stay before 31 October 2014 and receive 2,000 bonus Etihad Guest Miles per stay. Simply enter the promo code ‘MRP’ at the time of booking at marriott.com

LTI - LUXURY TRAVEL INTELLIGENCEOne of the worlds most respected review portals, is off ering you a special membership price and up to 6,000 Etihad Guest Miles. Pay just US$ 400 instead of the usual US$ 700 for membership and earn 3,000 Etihad Guest Miles. And if you pay with an Etihad Guest co-branded credit card, you will earn 6,000 Etihad Guest Miles!

PHILIPPINES AIRLINESFly Philippine Airlines between 1 September and 31 October 2014 and earn double Etihad Guest Miles on all bookings. Simply quote your Etihad Guest number when booking and remember to present your Etihad Guest card at check-in.

L U X U R Y T R AV E L I N T E L L I G E N C E

AMERICAN EXPRESSTransfer your American Express Membership Rewards points to Etihad Guest Miles for a chance to experience award-winning travel with Etihad Airways. Simply convert your Membership Rewards points today and fl yto your favourite destination soon!

78

FLEET INSIDE ETIHAD

CURRENT FLEETETIHAD

AIRBUS A330 FAMILYCAPACITY: 231

RANGE: 10,400KMNUMBER OF AIRCRAFT: 28

AIRBUS A320 FAMILYCAPACITY: 174

RANGE: 6,500KMNUMBER OF AIRCRAFT: 29

AIRBUS A330 FREIGHTERMAX PAYLOAD: 64,000KG

RANGE: 7,400KMNUMBER OF AIRCRAFT: 4

BOEING 777 FREIGHTERMAX PAYLOAD: 102,800KG

RANGE: 9,000KMNUMBER OF AIRCRAFT: 3

BOEING 747 FREIGHTER FAMILYMAX PAYLOAD: 134,000KG

RANGE: 8,100KMNUMBER OF AIRCRAFT: 3

BOEING 777 FAMILYCAPACITY: 412

RANGE: 15,900KM NUMBER OF AIRCRAFT: 26

AIRBUS A340 FAMILYCAPACITY: 292

RANGE: 14,700KM NUMBER OF AIRCRAFT: 11

BOEING 787 FAMILYCAPACITY: 330

NUMBER OF AIRCRAFT: 71

CARGO FLEET

FUTURE FLEET

AIRBUS A380CAPACITY: 500

NUMBER OF AIRCRAFT: 10

INCLUDED IN THE ABOVE ARE AIRCRAFT THAT WERE ORDERED IN NOVEMBER 2013. THESE INCLUDE: 30 x B787,

50 x A350, 36 x A320NEO, 25 x B777X, 1 x A330F AND 1 x B777F.

AIRBUS A350 FAMILYCAPACITY: 400

NUMBER OF AIRCRAFT: 62

79

INSIDE ETIHAD FLEET

REGIONAL FLEETCAPACITY: 112

NUMBER OF AIRCRAFT: 20

ETIHAD REGIONAL FLEET

AIRBUS A330-200CAPACITY: 336

NUMBER OF AIRCRAFT: 14

AIRBUS A320 FAMILYCAPACITY: 210

NUMBER OF AIRCRAFT: 72

airberlin FLEET

AIR SEYCHELLES FLEET

AIR SERBIA FLEET

REGIONAL FLEETCAPACITY: 70

NUMBER OF AIRCRAFT: 5

AIRBUS A320 FAMILY CAPACITY: 126

NUMBER OF AIRCRAFT: 10

REGIONAL FLEETCAPACITY: 36

NUMBER OF AIRCRAFT: 5

AIRBUS A330-200CAPACITY: 254

NUMBER OF AIRCRAFT: 2

REGIONAL FLEETCAPACITY: 68

NUMBER OF AIRCRAFT: 13

BOEING B737 FAMILYCAPACITY: 186

NUMBER OF AIRCRAFT: 44

Dakar

Bamako

Nouakchott

OujdaNador

Lisbon

TangiersFez

MarrakechOuarzazate

Agadir

Minneapolis La Crosse

Columbus BaltimorePhiladelphia

ClevelandPittsburghHarrisburg

Newark

BostonHartford

NY - La Guardia

Rochester

ToledoBuffalo Westchester

SyracuseBurlington

OttawaMontreal

Halifax

St. Johns

Detroit

IndianapolisBloomington Champaign

Washington, D.C.

Raleigh (Durham)

Des MoinesDubuque

MadisonMilwaukeeWaterloo

Sioux City

Omaha Moline

Saint LouisEvansville

Louisville

LexingtonTulsa

DenverSalt Lake City

Redmond

Eugene

San Jose

AlbuquerqueNashville

KnoxvilleCharlotte Douglas

MemphisHuntsville

Little RockNW Arkansas

Atlanta

San Antonio

Oklahoma

Miami

San JuanAguadillaPonce

OrlandoWest Palm Beach

Fort LauderdaleTampaBradenton

Fort Myers

AustinHouston New Orleans

Las VegasBurbank

TucsonEl Paso

San Francisco

San Diego

Santa Barbara

PhoenixLos AngelesLong Beach

SeattlePortland

RenoSacramento

Oakland

Vancouver

Fort McMurray

ReginaWinnipeg

Saskatoon

Covington

Prague

Billund

Goteborg

BarcelonaMadrid

Algiers

HTurk

AalesundBergen

Stockholm-ArlandaStavanger

Oslo

Copenhage

Hamburg

Gothenburg

StockholmHelsinkiOslo

Copenhagen

PragueNürnberg

KosiceStuttgart

ZurichLugano

Inverness Aberdeen

EdinburghBelfast

RhodesThiraKos

SamosMykonos

Chania

KefalliniaKerkyra Ioannina

Irakleion

ThessalonikiBarcelona

Lyon

Madrid

Bucharest

Rome Tirana

Venice Venice

SofiaAlexandroupolis

KavalaLimnos

Mytilini

BirminghamLondon Stansted

AmsterdamBerlin

Hamburg

Warsaw

Gdansk

Krakow

Budapest

Belgrade

SouthamptonExeterNewquayJersey

Malta

Isle of Mann

ChristchurchQueenstown

Dunedin

Auckland

RotoruaHamilton

Wellington

Hobart

Launceston

AdelaideCanberra

Albury

Gold Coast

Coffs HarbourPort Macquarie

Newcastle

Ballina

Ayers Rock (Uluru)

Darwin

Broome

ProserpineKarrathaPort Hedland

Newman

Cairns

TownsvilleHamilton IslandMackay

RockhamptonGladstone

Hervey BaySunshine Coast

MarseilleToulouse

ViennaGraz

Salzburg

Palma de MallorcaAlicante

Glasgow

Mildura

Kansas City

Lisbon

London GatwickBristolCardiffCork

ShannonKerry

Bordeaux

Nice

Stavanger

BillundNewcastleDurham

Berlin

Vienna

Valencia

Conakry

Malaga

G

Cape Town

Florianopolis

Rio de Janeiro

Salvador

ManausBrazzaville

Pointe-Noire

Livi

Banjul

Mount Isa

Bundaberg

Moranbah

Grand Rapids

Jacksonville

SavannahCharlestonOrange County

Blackpool

Nottingham

Bournemouth

Porto

Faro

CasablancaMadeira

Dakar

SalPraia

Emerald

Bergen

FresnoMonterey

Bussellton

Geraldton

Paraburdoo

Kalgoorlie

Kununurra

EsperanceRavensthorpeAlbany

Derby

Dallas

Perth

Banja Luka

CasablancaTripoli

MunichFrankfurt

Stuttgart Kos

Kerkyra

Düsseldorf

MilanGeneva

London

Paris

Dublin

Brussels

TorontoChicago

New York

Manchester

MunichFrankfurt

Düsseldorf

MilanGeneva

London

Athens

Paris

Dublin

Brussels

Manchester

Istanbul

Brisbane

Melbourne

Sydney

Lagos

São Paulo

Amsterdam

Edinburgh

Ouagadougou

Malta

Yaounde

Belgrade

Zurich

Rome

WORLDWIDE ROUTE NETWORK

Europe Network

Australasia Network

MAP KEY October 2014

Etihad DestinationsCodeshare Partner DestinationsEtihad Future Destinations

Podgorica

SarajevoSplit D

Fukuoka HonoluluKumamoto

Kagoshima

Sapporo

OsakaMatsuyama

NiigataSendai

Okinawa

KuchingJohor Bahru

Padang

LangkawiPenang

PhuketKrabiKoh Samui

Denpasar Bali

Kota Kinabalu

Cebu KaliboTacloban

Laoag

Legaspi

BacolodRoxas

Puerto PrincesaDumaguete ButuanTagbilaranCagayan de Oro

DavaoGeneral SantosCotabatoOzamis

DipologZamboanga

Phnom PenhTrat

Luang PrabangMandalayKolkata

Patna

Vadodara

Lucknow

Amritsar

Goa Mangalore

HanoiChiang Mai LampangYangon

Nay Pyi Taw

Praslin

Krasnodar

St. Petersburg

Riga

Helsinki

Lappeenrantaku

en Kazan

Samara

Vilnius

Klaipeda

Vientiane

Kochi

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B R E G U E T B O U T I Q U E S – D U B A I M A L L , M A L L O F T H E E M I R A T E S D U B A I & E T I H A D T O W E R A B U D H A B I – W W W. B R E G U E T. C O M

Classique Hora Mundi - 5717

An invitation to travel across the continents and oceans illustrated on

three versions of the hand-guilloché lacquered dial, the Classique Hora

Mundi is the first mechanical watch with an instant-jump time-zone display.

Thanks to a patented mechanical memory based on two heart-shaped

cams, it instantly indicates the date and the time of day or night in a given

city selected using the dedicated pushpiece. History is still being written...

Breguet, the innovator.

2014 202020201441414