India snapshots win NZ bank teller award

Joshua Donnelly, who has been working as a bank teller at ANZ in New Zealand since the last 10 years, was named the Cathay Pacific Travel Photographer of the Year. And his award-winning photograph was shot in India last year!

Joshua Donnelly

Donnelly, a former travel agent, has travelled the world extensively. He has only been taking photos seriously since 2009 and he beat a field of professional photographers for the award.

He entered four photos into the competition. Three had been previously published in a photography magazine. "India has always intrigued me. I always thought I had to do it; I was a bit scared because the perception is it's dirty and filthy, but it was amazing," he said.

Women at Jama Masjid, Delhi

He was here for two weeks and said the photos he took reflected capturing people "in the moment". In a black and white photo taken at Jama Masjid in New Delhi, he said he needed to wait until the right time to capture the atmosphere. "I didn't want any tourists in there, so I waited for quite a bit. I think it has a very authentic feel to it."

Another photo shows a man sewing rice sacks together in Tordigarh. 

Man sewing rice sacks

He had previously got $5000 for winning a House of Travel photography competition, which he spent on the trip to India. Next on his travel list is Cambodia for which he won flights in this competition.

Donnelly said he wants to return to India - "it's one of the greatest places to photograph."

Spice up your holiday with MasterChef Travel

Are you one of those who are often torn between going on a food trail and exploring a new destination for a holiday? Then this one's for you!

Coz & Kings has tied up with MasterChef Travel (of MasterChef Australia fame) to create a tour specially for foodies who love to travel. 

MasterChef Travel is Cox & Kings' brand new range of culinary holidays, focusing on the world’s most inspiring cuisines. All the tours feature local culinary experts and are accompanied by some of the most popular former contestants who have appeared on MasterChef Australia. 

These tours will offer the opportunity to discover local cuisine, explore the countries’ most interesting sights and even get hands-on experience participating in exclusive cooking opportunities! Whoa! 

The first one will involve taking an amazing tour through India this October in the company of Courtney Roulston, MasterChef Australia finalist 2010. This will include visiting the magnificent Taj Mahal, the fabulous Amber Fort, the stunning beaches of Goa and the colourful (and very crowded) bazaars of Mumbai.

Food will involve visiting the street food capital, Chandi Chowk and experiencing dinner at a local family’s home to learn some traditional home-cooked secrets.

Starting in Delhi from 8 October 2014, the 13-day tour also includes a stop at the Agra Fort then at Udaipur for a traditional cooking demonstration. 

India: A spice odyssey with Courtney Roulston is valid for sale until  30 Jul 14 or until sold out. For more details, check out the MasterChef Travel here.

Other MasterChef Travel tours for 2014
England: A rural food discovery with Alice Zaslavsky. 18-28 September 2014. 

Italy: A Culinary Journey with Kate Bracks. 2-11 September 2014. 

Mexico: A Food Fiesta with Ben Milbourne. 1-14 November 2014. 

Vietnam with Angkor Wat: Flavours & Highlights with Mindy Woods. 15- 29 November 2014.

Crouching tiger gets ready for attack

India may be dubbed as a crouching tiger but it’s probably just getting ready for attack. After all, slow and steady is what we’ve been always been taught to follow.

So what if China has overtaken Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy? India isn’t too far behind and is making headway in other, more interesting albiet small, areas. Take travel for instance. While Asia as a continent has been identified to assume a leadership role where travel is concerned, according to Euromonitor Travel and Tourism Forecast Update, India it says is expected to do well in terms of attracting international tourists and business travellers.

The report states that India is set to attract more corporate travellers and inbound tourists. India corporate travel is expected to outpace Asia Pacific in 2011, with business departures from India accounting for 33% of all travel versus 23% for Asia Pacific. Considering the total outbound travel in 2011 in Asia, India will see off about 7.4% of the total travellers.

Indian Flavours
 
Apart from Indian travellers, Indian food does well too and ranks fifth in the most sought-after cuisine by tourists across the world. A recent gastronomy survey conducted by Hotels.com, which is part of Expedia, has found interesting insights into the dining habits of various nationalities across the globe. According to the study, Indian cuisine is loved by tourists across the world and is fifth in the list while Italian cuisine remains the world’s favourite food.

Aussies, Brits, Dutch, Kiwis – all love Indian food as do Indians of course. However, it is no surprise to note that Indians also enjoy Chinese food the most after home-cooked food. The French though seem to like Indian food over Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and even the Greek cuisine. Their affinity to Indian food follows their fondness towards French and Italian cuisines.

Our Asian counterparts, Koreans and Japanese, surprisingly seem to prefer Indian food the least. Italian cuisine, renowned for its pizza and pasta, ranked as the most popular fare among the survey respondents worldwide, followed by French, Thai, Chinese and Indian food. Of the major Asian cuisines (Chinese, Thai and Indian), Thai cuisine finds the most fans among international travellers.

Apart from Indians who enjoy dal makhni and rotis, Aussie travellers rated Indian food among the tastiest cuisines. However, although chicken tikka masala is popular among British, they seem to like Italian more than Indian food.

More than 4,000 travellers from Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and UK participated in this Hotels.com survey carried out from October 25 to November 8, 2010.

For more, read http://blah.burrp.com/travel/destinations/crouching-tiger-ready-for-attack/6565