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The Urbane
Nomad keenly seeks the best that travel has to
offer-keenly seeking out exciting design
hotels with its associated mod cons, the
most unique travel experiences in localities
yet to be discovered by the masses or
experiencing a favoured tourist destination
on an entirely different level. Yet there is
a concern and responsibility that the Urbane
Nomad seeks to fulfil; favouring hotels with
enlightened management and an architectural
style respectful of its surroundings, whilst
learning the cultural and political
dialectics of the place.
Urbane Nomads offers interesting travel
experiences, proffering locations and
accompanying experiences that re-define 'the
ultimate travel experience'. Our travel
experiences go beyond the almost-clichéd
'ski in the morning, swim in the
Mediterranean sea by afternoon' itinerary,
nor is it just about holing up in a luxury
resort in a remote area; completely
oblivious to the lifestyle of surrounding
locals. The prototypical Urbane Nomad
can be found living it up in a sybaritic
town of Latin America one holiday and
roughing it out in an eco-resort (sans
mod cons) in an undeveloped city the
next. Whilst fully revelling in the mod cons
of luxurious, well-designed hotels around
the world, the Urbane Nomad is too aware of
the potential pitfalls of the homogenous
5-star accommodation; one of the ironies of
luxury travel. Mere tourists, holed up in
the chic boite of their luxury resort hotel,
unable to discern their location from the
environment that this same resort and others
like it creates, is a demographical
stereotype and experience that the Urbane
Nomad seeks to avoid. Taking an active
interest in the culture and history of the
area (which goes beyond watching a 'native'
dance staged with the tourist in mind), the
Urbane Nomad seeks out intelligent tours
that go under the skin of the place.
To this end, we'd
turned the typical tourist itinerary on its
head- taking the tourist through a city's
back alleys, revealing its seamier (and/or
more interesting) side , continually testing
the limits of accessibility in travel or
using a local folkloric legend as a premise
for an itinerary revealing current social
and political problems. You could be
traversing the back alleys of the glittery
malls of Bangkok to visit the floating
village of Muslim Cham silk-weavers. Having
lost their patron with the disappearance of
Jim Thompson in 1967, the history and
tradition of silk weaving in Ban Krua and
its obvious state of physical disrepair, is
analogous, perhaps, to any tale of
industrialization and modernization of any
developing city in the world, where beneath
a romanticized tale lies a suppressed
narrative, running in parallel. Or you could
follow the trail of a mythical sea goddess
in Indonesia, a legend inspiring everyone
from President Sukarno to the Sultans of
Yogya and Solo and the inhabitants of the
coast of Java. While the trail could take
you to the kratons of Yogya and Solo,
witnessing sacred dances held in her honour,
it could also extend through Southern Java,
highlighting the plight of bird's nest
gatherers- surely one of the most dangerous
jobs in the world, and for whom the
particular sea goddess is a patron saint.
Be it a surprisingly
tranquil retreat from the chaos of touristy
Bangkok or watching a no-rules polo match in
the highest peaks of (a much less-touristy)
Pakistan, Urbane Nomads seeks to create
interesting, alternative travel experiences
for the prototypical Urbane Nomad.
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