The Bar @ Amar Vilas

The Bar, Amarvilas

Paktola, Tajganj,  Agra

0562 2231515

Timing: 12 - 12

The Taj Express gets us in to Agra at a decent time, and after we're done with our work day, we're left with 3 hours to kill before we head back to Delhi. Having visited the ITC last time around, this time we decided to visit the Amar Vilas, the Oberoi group's flagship in Agra. The Amarvilas website boasted off a view of the Taj from the balcony of the bar, and we thought it was important to verify this claim. Our only concern was, that given the reputation of the Vilas properties, we wondered if we'd get past the gate of the hotel! 

Having successfully made it through the front gates, the gent in the reception area, divined that we could either there be there for the bar or for lunch, and with a winning smile he escorted us through to the bar. Our attention by then had already been taken away by the breathtaking sight of the Taj, framed through the windows in the reception area. As we walked into the bar, Kamal the bartender, asked us if we'd like to sit outside, and escorted us to a table, one of about 8 on the balcony, which overlooked the pool, and gave us a great view of the Taj, not a frontal view, but a side view, but still.. 

The service at the bar  was top drawer with wide smiles the order of the day, belying the forbidding positioning the Vilases have and also the signs on the balcony, which said, "for hotel guests only". I guess, revenues are revenues, wherever they come from.  

The bar itself is fairly small with about 6-8 tables inside, apart from it's al fresco section. One side is taken up by the bar counter, above which is a beautiful cloth painting showing a top view of the entire Taj Mahal area.

Lovely winter sunshine  bathed the balcony, as we settled down into our chairs, and perused the menu. The prices seemed no higher than what a 5 star hotel in Delhi may charge, and thus came as a pleasant surprise. Most cocktails were priced at INR 520 and the Amar Vilas special Martinis were priced at INR 670. The BoB was 3.1 (for a pint of Kingfisher).  

And as we later realized, prices were inclusive of all taxes. My colleague ordered a Mint Julep and I chose a Negroni. The pouring brand for the Mint Julep was however a scotch whisky and not a bourbon, and apparently if we chose to replace the scotch with bourbon, we would have to pay double for the drink, which struck us as strange, and so she stuck with the Scotch.

Kamal soon came back to tell me that as Campari was out of stock, he couldn't make me a Negroni. I chose a watermelon martini instead, and he assured me that it would be made using fresh watermelon. As we waited for our drinks, we nibbled on the bar gratis, which disappointingly for a Vilas, were peanuts and crisps. I remember the Polo Bar at the Rambagh Palace in Jaipur. A salver of dry fruits came first and along with my cocktail, they served me a complimentary starter also.  

It's amazing to feel the exclusion zone occupied by the Amar Vilas. It's almost as if the moment you enter the hotel, you enter a vale of silence, and you hear no other sounds in spite of the fact that the road to the West gate of the Taj, lies right alongside the boundary of the hotel.  

The bar's balcony over looks the swimming pool, which is situated in the middle of reasonably sprawling grounds. A couple leisurely swim in the heated waters, as families sit around the pool snacking.  

Our cocktails arrive and at first glance are pleasing to the eye. The watermelon martini has a slice of watermelon perched on the rim and the Mint Julep has enough mint to justify its name. The watermelon martini tastes great, except for the fact that the drink hasn't been double strained, leading to chips of ice, being left in the glass. The drink  however tastes fresh and is well balanced. My colleague felt her Julep, could have done with a touch less mint. The martini glass quality was also not what one would expect from a Vilas property. Perhaps you may feel we're quibbling a bit too much, but we hold the Vilas properties to higher standards, than we would do most hotels in India.  

I was at an and upcoming 5 star luxury property on the outskirts of Jaipur, about a month ago, and the F&B manager told me that their prices would be expensive, but they would ensure that the service experience more than made up for it. Given the number of luxury chains setting up shop in India, I think the Oberoi will also have to raise their F&B game, especially for their top drawer properties.  

However, what more than made up for any quibbles we might have had, was the awe inspiring location we were sitting in, and the fact that we could spend 2 hours over a single cocktail, with no pressure of any kind. As dusk began to fall, we heard the call of the muezzin to prayers, and we reluctantly finally bade farewell to the balcony, just as it began to fill with hotel guests.

Drinking in Ladakh

Next stop Siachen

In keeping with the landscape, getting a drink in Ladakh is a forbidding task.

Beer in a China Cup

In Leh, 100 Oceans, near a parking lot doesn't look appealing, especially as our group has a bunch of kids. We ask along the way, and finally the friendly folk at Metokling (recommended by Lonely Planet, as it says outside), tell us that if we bring in our own booze, we can drink it discreetly. We hop across to a retail outlet near the Post Office, and pick up 4 bottles of Kingfisher. Back again to Metokling, where we are given 3 china cups of differing shapes, and sizes, one of them with a grateful Winnie the Pooh, with his arms wrapped around a pot of honey. The cups are small, and necessitate frequent refilling from the bottles placed below our feet. We appear to be the only people drinking alcohol here, as the rest of the crowd, largely foreign tourists, are content with their food and conversation, and besides a screening of the Hangover is about to start. 

Winnie the Pooh & Me

The day before in the Nubra valley, my pal and I had walked for half an hour, from our hotel (Yereb Tso) in the town of Tiger, to a larger adjacent town, called Sumur, in search of a drink. It was an amazing walk in the moonlight, with the high mountains of the Karakoram range around us, and the road frequently interrupted with streams flowing across. Hardly any traffic, except the stray biker, making his way onwards, possibly to Panamik, one of the last points before the Siachen Glacier starts.  In Sumur, we climbed a bunch of stairs to a restaurant called Larjan, where Psering, the owner, set a couple of chairs for us on his roof top, and brought us a couple of Godfather Beers and some hot Maggi. The sky was amazingly clear, and as we finished our beer, a group of 4 men trudged across the roof top, past us, the last of them, carrying a bow, and on chatting with him, we found that he had gone for an archery tournament earlier in the day. 

Bring your own booze is my recommendation. Camping on the banks of Pangong Tso, we rued that we had not brought some Single Malt with us. Would have been perfect to combat the biting wind, and the rain.

On the banks of Pangong Tso

Drinking in Darjeeling

Yangdup's wedding drew us to Gayabari, just south of Kurseong, and a 2 hour hop from Darjeeling. Having never been, we had to tick Darjeeling off our list, and especially the "drinking in" part. Darjeeling on arrival seemed no different than any other Indian hill station of its ilk, or perhaps since the only part we saw was the crowded mall area, our perception may have been biased. Once you've taken a photo in front of the world's highest railway station (Ghoom @ 8000 feet) and taken in the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, it's museum and the Wildlife Sanctuary, there's not much more which appears doable in Darjeeling, which is no doubt why people drink so much rum in the hills. When in Rome!

There appear to be quite a few bar options in Darjeeling, from the seedy to the tourist friendly. Having whetted our initial appetite with a steaming bowl of Thukpa, and having dutifully shopped for curios for kith and kin (the Newar family doll set, purchased for daughter, now languishes in a drawer), we ploughed on to Glenary's, one of the landmarks of the Mall road, and a veritable tourist ghetto. It's a shame that you can't have a drink on the ground floor, with its amazing now you see them, now you don't view of the Himalayas. The live music @ Buzz, which is the pub downstairs @ Glenary was only slated to come on at 7 pm, and we had to be back at Yangdup's to witness some more riotous singing and dancing, so we sated ourselves with a slice of apple pie and a Coffee.

A Guinness Stretch Rugby figure and assorted Guinness and Murphy's collateral were the last things we expected to find in Joey's Pub as was the bottle of Munro's King of King's Scotch whisky, which now doubled up as an ugly lamp shade.





If you want the local flavour in Darj, then drop in to Joey's, sit at the bar, and chat with Sans, the manager, who stands in for Puran Gongba, the owner, affectionately known as Joey by guests. Old Monk and Coke hit the spot, although the plate of sausages going to a table looked good, we abstained with thoughts of impending dinner on our mind. Joey's is situated right opposite the Big Bazaar and from the outside gives the appearance of Ye Olde English Tea Tavern. Visit, you won't be disappointed.



Tulleeho!

Vikram Achanta

Tulleeho Traveller Vol. 1 - Gangtok

Day 1

It's a half an hour chopper ride from Bagdogra to Gangtok, and accompanying us on the flight was the MD of the Sikkim Tourism Development Corporation, L B Chettri who was most dashing in his YSL jacket and his Ray Ban's. He told us that Chaang (the local Sikkimese spirit), was easily available and we should contact the travel desk at our hotel for assistance. For those of you who are Bollywood fans it may come as a surprise to know that Danny Denzongpa, the former bad boy of Hindi movies runs Yuksom Breweries at Malli, which produces two variants of Dansberg beer, one the normal one and the other a premium lager, distinguished by it's blue label ("made from Sikkim spring water, finest malt and imported hops") as well as Hit and the uniquely named He Man 900, both strong beers. It's a good choice of beer and goes down well accompanied by platefuls of steamed momos.

For such a small state, Sikkim has an amazing variety of alcohol and the Teesta White rum, looks like it's giving Bacardi a run for it's money. It was out of stock at the Hotel Tibet, so I ordered the Sikkimese special Whisky, which went down rather well with soda, and which was accompanied by Phing Sha rice (steamed rice, topped wiith 3 kaju's, with a steaming broth of chicken, shitake mushroms and potatos) on the side. Rather bland and I'm going to try the Special Gyathuk next time (noodle soup), but definitely not the Chetse Detse (Boiled noodle topped with Tofu). My brother was downing bottles of Hit ('aapko fit kar denga said the waiter!"). There was a cop at the table next to us, with 2 girls, more interested in their Razr's than the cop, or maybe that part was yet to come. Unfortunately there was no Cherry Brandy at the Hotel Tibet. Patience. 4 days to go and Cafe Tibet on main MG Marg with a fetching advertisement of good food, good beer and good music seemed like a "go-to" place.

Day 2

Out for a stroll the next morning, it was refreshing to see liquor shops open at 7 am (7 am - 8 pm). I resisted the temptation and picked up a packet of doughnuts from a surprised shopkeeper who was shocked to find out that I knew what they were and that people ate doughnuts in Delhi.

Raj, the manager @ The Oriental where we are staying was quizzed on Chaang. He was off to his native Kalimpong the next day and promised to get us back some home brewed Chaang, as he said the local one didn't pass muster. His sister made Chaang at home every day for his father to drink. If your'e a drinking man, you can drink 2 Thumbha's (the cylindrical wooden mug used to drink Chaang), if not, 1 would do you just fine. It's drunk through a straw called the Pipsing. Raj also promised to bring us back the "marcha", which from what we gathered, was the yeasty substance used to ferment the predominantly millets based brew which was what Chaang was. We also put in an order for 2 Thumbha's and 2 Pipsing's to take back to Delhi. Wouldn't be a bad idea to start a Tulleeho musuem of Indian spirits, considering the little which is known about this subject. We inquired in the local market about Thumbha purchases and were told that they were available in the price range from Rs. 100/- for the plain vanilla ones to Rs. 5,000/- for fancy ones made from silver, etc. I picked up 2 Thumbha's and 6 pipsings from Lal market.



For dinner, we tried some Newari cuisine @ The Square. Chicken Shevka (Grilled chicken in mustard oil) and a Sikkimese style Thai Red Curry. The Dansberg Blue made it all palatable. Lining the walls of the bar were the range of the Johnnie Walker collection from Red to Blue. We were suitably impressed and made enquiries about the price, to be told that the owner had just brought them in today and the price hadn't been set yet. Too bad, we could have done with some Glenfiddich.

Day 3



Out for my morning stroll, I picked up 3 bottles of Cherry Brandy for the folks back in office and a bottle of Pan Liqueur for me. I was also amazed to see a bottle of Southern Comfort in the shop window and picked up the same also. SoCo as it is popularly known was launched by Brown Forman in India in 1997 as 2 bastardised variants of the original - Amber and another whose name escapes me. They tried to position it as a whisky and it bombed. One of the finest whisky liqueurs in the world and one of the only beverages to be invented by a bartender (the legendary MW Heron @ Mcauley's bar in New Orleans), it didn't deserve this fate. I picked up the Amber variant @ Rs. 300/-.

Raj and his wife were both Cookery students from the Food Crafts Institute up at Darjeeling and he ran on the side a small homely restaurant on Tibet Road, called Tibet Kitchen. We were to go there for dinner and Chaang and duly wound our way up the steep slope. Hotel California was blaring out of the stereo, as 2 Thumbhas of Chaang were placed on our table. The mugs were brimming over with the millets and a few grains of rice on top (signifying welcome). A steaming mug of hot water was poured in and we were advised to wait for 5 minutes, before we dipped our Pipsings in. The Pipsing is a long narrow bamboo straw, which apart from the hole at the end which gets dipped in, also had 4 slits around that end, all of which ensured that the millets didn't get into your drink. The best momos in Gangtok were served on our table and we sipped our first draught of Chaang. And how does it taste? The closest comparison I can give is that it tastes like a warm wine. It's nice and definitely leagues ahead of the only other native spirit I have had so far, feni. It's very like the German Gluhwein.



Pema Changyal, the wife of a local friend, told us that her mother in law gave her a lot of Chaang after the birth of her child. Not only was it supposed to have medicinal properties, but also was instrumental in making sure that the baby slept a lot. It certainly didn't seem to have any deleterious effects as the baby in question is now studying art and design @ Washington State University. There have been a few attempts to bottle Chaang which we believe failed. It is sometimes available, we were told from shops which sold country liquor. Far better option - speak to Raj @ Tibet Kitchen on Tibet Road.

Sated with momos, Chaang and Beef curry and rice, we walked back to our hotel. Next morning was going to be yet another try to get a glimpse of the elusive Kanchenjunga, which although theoretically visible from our room window, seemed determined to stay hidden by the clouds. Come on Kanchen, give it up.

Day 4

Off to Changu Lake, Baba Mandir and Nathu La. Nathu La @ 14,000 odd feet is the pass where the Indian and Chinese borders meet. Indian and Tibetan borders meet, if you want to be politically correct (or is it incorrect?). On the way up @ Kyongnosla, we had a cup of tea and a shot of cherry brandy. I thought the cherry brandy would calm my vertigo, but it did only momentarily. The taste reminded me of alcoholic cough syrup and I resolved to go back and exchange the cherry brand I bought for Pan liqueur. In 1962, when the Chinese invaded India, they came all the way to Kyongnosla, some 20 km odd from Gangtok and 30 km in from the border. The driver informed us that one of the regiments, stationed here, the Black Cat Eagles, do not have a nose in their logo, as the Chinese still occupy the Indian border post (the one we spotted just across the border). Fact or fiction, we don't know, but the Black Cat in the picture is indeed sans nose.

Karma Kele, husband of Pema, told us that in 1962, with the Chinese on their doorstep, Gangtok was blacked out, with all the windows covered with plastic. The richer citizens headed for their bunkers and drank Chaang as their servants kept supplying them with hot water. Nathu la Pass is the route the old silk route took and is scheduled to reopen for trade between India and China later this year. This was to be our last day in Gangtok as we drove back to Bagdogra the next day. We celebrated with a traditional Sikkimese repast at Hotel Netuk house. Bamboo shoot curry, Nettle soup, Pork curry, Chicken curry, rice all washed down with Dansberg Blue. A fitting end to a great trip. Back to sweltering Delhi now.