Shandy Pockets | An online travel magazine
  • Front
  • Features
    • Travel Features
    • Interviews
    • Photo Features
    • Travel Archives
  • Reviews
    • Hotel Reviews
    • Eat & Drink Reviews
    • Attraction Reviews
    • Product Reviews
  • About
    • Media Kit

Return to Dunkirk

3/8/2017

0 Comments

 
Words by Simon Finlay
 
THE northern French port of Dunkirk has been enjoying much attention since the release of the blockbuster Christopher Nolan movie of the same name. Almost universally acclaimed for its realism, cinematography and story-telling, the film has attracted many a war buff to its shores.
 
The film tells the gripping tale of the evacuation of 340,000 British and French troops forced to flee the German advance, mostly by British sailing and fishing boats.
 
Naturally, the region’s tourism authorities are keen to extoll the virtues – and there are many of them – of this corner of France nudging up against Belgium.
 
The film-makers were given free use of the beach and its jetties for five weeks and taking one of the guided walking tours of the area where the action happened in 1940, it is easy to imagine the sheer scale of Nolan’s task to recreate the sights and sounds of that short, intense chapter in wartime history. Another guided walk can be taken around the Le Fort des Dunes, a 19th century fortress under German occupation at the time of the evacuation and located within a vast wildlife sanctuary. For a few euros, visitors can also enjoy a windswept audio-tour.
 
Almost more interesting was the Dunkerque War Museum with its thousands of artefacts picked from the shores after the Second World War. Packed into its caverns are old vehicles, a rusting hunk of Merlin Rolls Royce engine taken from a stricken Spitfire, uniforms, shell casings, badges, bottles and a great deal more.
 
For the adventurous, flights in a four seater plane taking in the whole area go from the local airfield at Dunkerque giving a Spitfire pilot’s eye view of the evacuation site. Straying into Belgian airspace, our French pilot asks politely in English for permission to land – a far cry from the rampaging dogfights in these skies almost eight decades ago.
 
Dunkerque is modern in feel, lacking those pretty cobbled back streets, rickety terraces, squares or a traditional old town quarter. In fairness, rather like its near neighbour Calais, Dunkerque was decimated by wartime bombing – 90 per cent of the town was obliterated – and today, in parts, it is rather industrial and not massively prepossessing.
 
The beach at Dunkerque is huge and, in summertime, packed with French holidaymakers This is always a good sign. Often, Parisians escape with their children to the northern coast, rather than head for Nice or St Tropez. The shoreline walkway is dotted with very decent French restaurants, full of chatty natives. Another good sign. Check out La Cocotte (Nolan dined here) and Comme vous Voulez on the seafront.
 
Further inland is L’edito, which is always well populated and much-loved by locals, while the food aboard the Princess Elizabeth ship turned floating restaurant – not least the veal cooked for 17 hours at 87C – is virtually faultless. There are rumours of Michelin status.
 
Clearly, Dunkerque has ambition, judging by the investment which has gone in, and has seized the opportunity for a blockbuster movie to be shot where it happened. The port is well served by DFDS ferries for Brits, but allows non-British visitors to hop across the Channel for a UK visit. Whether or not you’re a war buff, Dunkerque is a friend waiting to be made.
 
We travelled by www.dfds.co.uk and stayed at the Hotel Borel http://www.hotelborel.fr/en/
L’Edito restaurant with views over the marina http://www.restaurant-ledito-dunkerque.fr/
Dunkirk War Museum http://www.dynamo-dunkerque.com/
Le Fort des Dunes http://fort-des-dunes.fr/en/
La Cocotte http://www.lacocottedk.fr/
Dunkerque flying experience www.aeroclub-dunkerque.com
Comme vous Voulez restaurant on the beaches of Dunkirk http://comme-vous-voulez.com/


0 Comments

Radisson Blu Plaza, Bangkok

17/3/2017

0 Comments

 
Radisson Blu Plaza Bangkok
I’m a little lost. You know like in the opening scene of the movie The Beach, when Leo DiCaprio arrives in Bangkok (“Good Time City!” – I’ve been here about 83 times and I have never heard anyone call it that. Nobody even calls it The Big Chilli, despite the best efforts of the Tourism Authority)?

Anyhoo, he’s wandering down Sukhumvit Road – probably between Sois 1 and 27, where I’m most familiar with and the market stall men are shouting things like “Hey, wanna see the waterfall?!” and “Hey, wanna stay in my hostel?!” and then it escalates quickly to “Hey, wanna drink snake blood?!” and again, I’ve never been asked that. He gets all disoriented and then drinks snake blood so to not look like a chicken. Some other stuff happens. I don't remember.

I’m like that, except kind of in reverse. I’ve stayed all up and down Sukhumvit Road in all manner of hotels but never in anywhere swanky. I’m wandering, dazed, around the Radisson Blu Plaza Bangkok in a Leo-like state of shock, and would have a similar reaction to the snake blood question if someone in the lobby shouted, “Hey, wanna drink a prosecco cocktail?!” I know I’m on Sukhumvit, I just didn’t know it could be…well….nice.

I’d bundled in with my rucksack and my wheezes from the very close Asok Sky Train Station, around the winding driveway (the hotel is tastefully set back from the tuk-tuk and cab-smoked main road) and the staff were very polite about not pointing out that I looked like I’d be more at home in a hostel. No prosecco cocktail or snake’s blood offered, but a glass of water and the most impressively swift luggage transfer up to my room (I hate giving my case away usually but I was too tired to resist).

The rooms don’t make a big song and dance about being in Thailand or a sense of place because that’s not really the wheelhouse of an international business-class hotel and it always feels a little weird when they go overboard. It’s a solid, European-style, clean room with an understated design. If you want Thai boxing gloves and black and white photos of river markets, there are plenty of other options, and if you forget where you are, go for a walk.

I preferred to go for a drink after all that talk of snake blood, and yes, they have a typically great rooftop bar 30 stories up (the website says this is “almost” sky-scraping – I’m not sure what the minimum height is for actual sky scraping). The wines are described as “juicy”, which is funny as well as technically very accurate. If beers are more your thing, they also have a tap room with the none-more-American name ‘Brewski’, as well as some standard-issue hotel cocktail nooks.

The two restaurants take on Tuscan and Chinese cuisine respectively, but sadly I only got to nose into the breakfast buffet, which was perfectly wonderful, as are most breakfast buffets at high-end hotels in Thailand. The best part is that have to cater for so many rich people from very different countries, so you can have a curry or dim sum with your coffee.

The best part is being in a place like this but also being able to trot out and walk into the noodles and chaos of Sukhumvit. I’ve grown up a little bit, but not so much that I don’t like to be in the thick of it and get shouted offers of waterfall tours (nobody really shouts about anything this innocent and pastoral on Sukhumvit Road).

As with most Bangkok hotels on this level – if you haven’t stayed in a prestige internationally-branded hotel chain, then this is the city to do it in. For the price of a night in a London Travelodge, you can live like a prince, and still walk to hang out with the paupers if that’s your thing. You know, like Leo. 

Rooms from around £120/$140 a night, though website offers have gone as low as just over £100. Go to the website HERE. 


Paul Oswell was a guest of Radisson Hotels. 
0 Comments

Coming this week: The Shandy Pockets Podcast

23/1/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
We're excited to announce that this week will see the first episode of the Shandy Pockets Podcast. Or the Shandy Podcast. Or Shandy Podckets. We're not sure about the name yet. Either way, you'll be able to find it here and on the usual podcast sites and we'll be talking 2017 travel trends and traveling in Thailand  in the late 90s (when The Beach came out) and tips for visiting the Ivory Coast. So...you know...check it out this Friday. 
0 Comments

W Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand

18/1/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
One of the first things you notice when you travel to Asian cities is how the Western corporations appropriate the local traditions to fit in. Usually it’s about as culturally comfortable as your dad wearing a bindi to a Hindu wedding (this analogy doesn't work if your dad is Hindu, of course).

In Bangkok, for example, the sight of Ronald MacDonald doing his forced clownish bowing outside the Thai outposts of his fast food chain never fails to illicit a cringe though maybe it’s better than him not doing it? I don’t know, you’d have to ask a local, but to me it feels a bit ‘white person wearing native headdress to Coachella’.

Starwood are a western brand but with their much-vaunted W Bangkok hotel, they’ve thrown themselves into placing this property with so much gusto you can only really admire it. Just walking into the lobby is an assault in the senses as vivid Thai imagery comes at you from every corner.

Some 80,000 crystals have been employed in huge collages amid the black marble backdrop and foreground of young fashion bloggers looking at their phone screens. A tiger fights a phoenix for…reasons? A lobby nymph does explain it to me but my old ears lose the thread beneath the curated trip-hop.

The other motifs include Thai Boxing – lobby drinking booths are fashioned over traditional ringside fixtures – and pimped-up tuk-tuks with artistic light installations. It’s kind of spectaular, like if young people had a go at redesigning Vegas.

In London or New York, you’d expect a hefty dose of disdain from the staff if you didn’t show up wearing Skrillex t-shirt but that famed Thai hospitality shines on through and the staff can’t help but be wonderfully helpful.

If you’ve stayed at Ws before, you know what you’re in for with the rooms – bold colours and tech-forward amenities with local touches that double as expensive souvenirs. The latter in this case is a delightful pair of oversized gold Thai boxing gloves (no, YOU danced around in your pants pretending to be Rocky).

Adjusting the lighting and temperature from a tablet still feels wonderfully futuristic to me, but I remember Friendster, so what do I know? In short, the rooms are great and if W prices are a bit too rich for you in Western cities, then the value on parade in Thailand provides a good opportunity to try it out.

Across the forecourt is a very different experience altogether. Still part of the hotel, the House on Sathorn (named after the road/neighbourhood we’re in) is a painstakingly-restored 19th century mansion that was formerly the Russian embassy in Thailand. It has beautiful, wood-framed colonial dining rooms and an expansive courtyard which had a DJ even at 10am when I looked around (possibly still there from the night before).

The to-be-expected modern freebies are all present and correct – fast, free WiFi so that stream of Instagram updates of you wearing your pants and huge boxing gloves needn’t suffer, and a breakfast buffet (if you book that rate) that is on a par with the city’s most sumptuous. If you’re into that sort of thing, the spa is pretty space-age and the rooftop pool delivers what all rooftop pools are supposed to in terms of views and a feeling of quiet superiority.

The immediate neighbourhood, Sathorn, took a few years to catch up to the W but there should now be enough cafes, bars and restaurants to keep those fashion bloggers happy. I didn’t see a bowing Ronald MacDonald, but it’s probably just a matter of time.
 (PO)
0 Comments

The Stafford Hotel, London

1/12/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
OK, give us a minute. There’s a truckload of history to address but the first point of order is working out what the secret thermostat in the wardrobe does. I say it heats up the inside of the wardrobe itself so as to make light of any creases that a chap might have collected while transporting his dress shirts. My girlfriend, more prosaically but probably more accurately, says it’s to control the temperature of the heated bathroom floor.

Either way, this goofy argument should tell you something about the ruddy, bloody poshness of this here hotel. I’ve knocked about some upscale pads in my time, somehow sneaked into a selection of classy joints. The Stafford, just to be clear, is one of them.
​

The welcome reveal, though, is that it doesn’t come with the snobbery that a poor urchin like me can sometimes inspire. I’ve seen it. The look of bafflement or even outright pity as I approach the reception desk, the presumption (hope? I’ve seen hope!) that I’ve wandered into the wrong place.

Usually, this is at some upstart, newly tarted up joint that was a derelict warehouse a fortnight ago. NOT AT PLACES LIKE THIS. Actual, historically swanky places like The Stafford have way too much self respect to judge anyone. A relief when, rolling in after getting lost with two heavy cases and looking like a porter down on his luck, I step up and tell them I have a reservation. Unblinking politeness. A reassuring mix of knowing deference with the misting of authority that we all secretly like. A world-worn Scot  who has probably worked there since the 40s to take us to our room. This is what I’m talking about.

Here’s a potted history: the place used to be a posh knob social club, became a private hotel and housed a selection of lofty officers during WWII. It has since expanded to the stables at the back and added a modern annex but essentially you’re staying in a building that has hundreds of years of history.

I need a drink.

“That’s Nancy’s stool.”

I’m leaning up against the old-school looking bar, about to order a pre-dinner gin. Bartender Benoit has been here forever (he’s only the 3rd bar manager since 1946), so I’m deferring to his knowledge. He’s not moving me on, just drawing attention to it.

Nancy is Nancy Wake and the stool jammed up against the far corner of the bar is just one of many memorials to this mysterious lady that become apparent once you start looking. The bar at The Stafford Hotel is called The American Bar. It was used by Allied officers as a meeting spot during World War II, and had since expanded and been extensively bedecked with every conceivable artefact, American and otherwise.

It’s quite a trip. Historically AND aesthetically. I recommend a visit, even if you’re not staying at the hotel.

Our room is in the modern annex (The Mews), with its dedicated entrance and absolute masses of space. To be able to loll about in somewhere with the feel of a medium sized apartment is a luxury in Central London on its own. Add to that the panoramic luxury encased within – huge marble bathrooms with heated floors that may or may not be controlled from the wardrobe, overwhelming coffee selection, expensive furniture, almost emotionally-impressive levels of service…well, I’ve been looked down on by much worse, I’ll tell you that.

We dined. The Lyttleton is the onsite restaurant, and though we were the only customers for dinner, we were made to feel more than welcome and not at all like we were keeping several staff from knocking off early. Chandeliers, high end British cuisine, you get the picture.

Breakfast in the same room was perhaps the most impressive affair I’ve seen in a hotel. A heaving table of pots and pastries and every conceivable morning snack, paired with an a la carte menu including three types of egg Benedict, and that’s enough to impress this guy.
​

If it’s available, have the short tour of the wine cellar – there are lots of surprises that will delight war buffs – and if it’s not, then just revel in the absolute bonanza of professionalism and service that greets you here. World class. Especially for guttersnipes like me.

​(PO)

0 Comments

Anantara Siam, Bangkok 

27/9/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
The last time I was in an Anantara property, around a decade ago, I took a weird driving test. It was in the northern Thai city of Chiang Rai, and out in the forest, the hotel’s resident elephant expert taught me as best he could how to steer an elephant, with – let’s be honest – mixed results.

Memories of that (very ethically run) camp came flooding back as I checked into the palatial Anantara Siam Bangkok, coinciding with a curiosity about the city credentials of a brand I’d previously associated with grand resorts.

The Anantara Siam Bangkok is downtown, but, like, posh downtown – that stretch round the corner from Chit Lom where the Royal Bangkok Sports Club is and the Grand Hyatt and the St Regis. You’re in a fairly average shopping district and then you turn down Ratchadamri Road and it’s like one of those lifestyle magazines you only see in airport lounges.

Its previous incarnation as the Four Seasons, and some characteristics remain, though it’s been given a colourful flourish. The marble staircase steals the show in the lobby, which is no small feat considering the silk murals and frescoed walls and intricate mandalas on the ceilings. I’d arrived pretty late, and though welcome drinks are never that much of a chore, I didn’t stand on ceremony and hightailed it up to my room.

The view would have to wait until morning, and I just had chance to note the solidly 5-star décor – nothing too flashy, marble bathroom, dark woods with colourful silk accents – before conking out.

The next morning, I got the full postcard treatment, the panoramic greenery of the Royal Bangkok Sports Club’s horse racing track and golf course spread out before the hotel, like you’d paid to be in a particularly nice stand. I’m a fan of the shambolic chaos of Bangkok, but this landscaped oasis works as well.

I went to stretch my legs, and was grateful for the handy smartphone that comes with the room, my jetlagged fug meaning my already poor sense of direction was way off kilter, the online maps helping me find my way back for further exploration of the property.

The hotel restaurants and shops are largely collected around a large indoor tropical garden, and it’s here that we can finally address the elephants in the room. They’re here largely due to an apparent partnership with the famed Jim Thompson House, hanging on the walls in colourful silks and carved from dark teak.

Thompson, of course, is the mysterious (he disappeared without a trace) importer/exporter of Thai artefacts and his empire is now a museum and retail one. The main court at the Siam enjoys a healthy dollop of his tasteful décor, some of the arcade walls also home to some striking contemporary local art.

It felt rude not to eat a lunch that Mr Thompson might have approved of, so despite the international dining options available, I lunched at the Spice Market. The deep-fried fish cakes and crab meat salad leading into a spicy sour orange curry, a new one on me but something I’ll look out for again.

​Sadly, that was the extent of my one-night stay and I left the Anantara without having taken any elephant driving tests, instead just wishing that I could steer my tuk-tuk driver with anything approaching the same amount of control. No, sir I do not want to drop in on your cousin’s jewel shop on the way to the next hotel, but thanks for offering…
0 Comments

The Shandy Pockets Guide to London

4/8/2016

0 Comments

 
London Guide
0 Comments

The Shandy Pockets guide to New York City

6/7/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
0 Comments

FEELING FLIGHT-HEADED

30/6/2016

0 Comments

 
The Shandy Pockets guide to drinking in the sky
Picture
0 Comments

Eat, pray, laugh

6/6/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Lydia Nicholas

​If you love the wind in your hair on tuk tuk tours but feel the need for a little more freedom and speed, Vespa Adventures allow you to hitch up behind an experienced driver who’ll weave through crowded streets or whiz through the countryside, all the while shouting interesting tidbits about the scenery. You’ll get a whole new perspective on the region.
 
There’s a tour of the temples which promises new angles and insights from the company’s founder, who was raised by the last Chief Monk of the complex. The After Dark Foodie Tour offers feasts of spiced wine, beer and bugs, exploration of night markets and an evening shrine.
 
I went on the Countryside Life tour, mixing the best of both worlds, including copious local food and ruined temples, as well as getting an idea of everyday local life. We started with a demonstration of the terrifying job of climbing trees to harvest palm wine (with tasting of said cold, sweet juice of course), then scootered away to a local market.

The crowd pouring past stalls overflowing with fresh fruit, veg and meat was both universal and totally local. The gossip and haggling and shouting could be in your home city half a world away, but the young monks in orange singing prayers for offerings are completely Cambodian. There was delicious caramalised sticky rice wrapped around tiny sweet bananas in banana leaves straight from the barbecue, rice and beans in bamboo, as well as sweet, hot, rice flour waffles...excuse me a second...
 
Ahem.
 
The tour whizzes through a monastery and onwards and upwards to a ruined temple on a wide open plain. Your guide, like mine, might try to explain what the place really is while you’re driving with the wind in your ears but it won’t work because if it sounds impossible, it is impossible.
 
The ruined temple, it turns out, stands in the centre of a reservoir, an enormous artificial lake that took 80 years to dig by hand. Something clicks as the guide explains that, “No, the edge is not over there where the grass and flowers begin, that's just the dry season bloom. No. That line, the treeline in the distance there. So far away that it’s just a grey smudge. There.”

Honestly, it somehow makes the scale of the Angkor complex, the thousands of years of cities and infrastructure and art feel more real, the hugeness of it all hitting home. Then it’s time to zoom off on the scooter over the wide flat basin, wrapping a scarf around your face to see more local cooking and crafts, many of which won’t have changed from the time the lake was dug.
 
In the evening we head to Phare, a Cambodian circus. It’s worth arriving early to see the beautiful art on sale and to watch the story of the organisation play out on screens above the stage as you find your seat.
 
Phare’s 20 year mission has been to offer education and employment in the arts for disadvantaged families and orphans while supporting the rebirth of Cambodian arts. It began as an arts school for children in Battambang, many of whom had fled or suffered under the Khmer Rouge, but the founders soon realised that for many of the children they served, physical arts were a more effective therapy than fine arts, and the circus was born. The fine art school is still going strong, as the piles of beautiful paintings on sale in the foyer will attest.
 
The circus itself is lively and fun - the one I saw had a single plot about a ghost terrorising a group of schoolboys, who seek all kinds of solutions for their inconvenient haunting problem. The plot gives space for lots of physical jokes, and for abrupt and refreshing changes of tone. The slow, elegant, luminescent rope work of the painted white ghost tumbling through the dark contrasts wonderfully with the brightly coloured, characterful schoolfriends’ haphazard attempts to defeat it using (and always eventually throwing, flipping over or balancing on) whatever school equipment comes to hand.
 
The design is colourful and fun, and the tricks build up gradually, from relatively simple juggling and flips interspersed with a lot of slapstick at the start to truly astonishing acrobatics near the close. Circus and physical arts fans won’t see anything they haven’t seen before, but it’s glorious fun, with great jokes and some jaw dropping moments, and costs a fraction of what you’ll pay for circus elsewhere in the world. Absolutely worth a visit, especially in the knowledge that you’re supporting an incredible organisation.
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Archives

    January 2018
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013

    Categories

    All
    Air Travel
    Americas
    Asia
    Books
    Celebrities
    Cities
    Competitions
    Eco Travel
    Europe
    Food/Drink
    Gadgets
    Guides
    Hacks
    Hotel Guests
    Hotels
    Humour
    Infographic
    Interviews
    Luxury
    Magazine Content
    Maps
    New Orleans
    News
    Passengers
    Photos
    Podcast
    Products
    Restaurants
    Reviews
    Surveys
    Technology
    Trains
    Travel Writing
    Trivia
    UK
    USA
    Video
    Weird

    RSS Feed

Copyright © Shandypockets and the individual authors, 2013, 2014 and 2015. All rights reserved. Online travel magazine, travel features, travel reviews, travel interviews, travel funnies, hotel reviews, product reviews, travel photos


In the course of writing features, we will sometimes be hosted. Where appropriate, we will indicate this within the article. For all queries regarding Shandy Pockets, see the CONTACT page, above.
Photos used under Creative Commons from Ewan-M, Chrissy Olson, Powershift2012, Mr Thinktank, jennicatpink, nafra cendrers, eastmidtown, ST33VO, PYONKO, shaman2477, Upupa4me, Infrogmation, jikatu, Janitors, Robert S. Donovan, JD Hancock, beltz6, beggs, brownpau, sierragoddess, badgreeb RECORDS, mikedarnell1974, °Simo°, Daquella manera, Alex Schwab, ST33VO, MMartin Photography, Numinosity (Gary J Wood), Coco Mault, dying regime, DonkeyHotey, LoFish23, Aero Icarus, Bob Jagendorf, Matt @ PEK, travel.executive