Vanity Fair UK - 11.2019

  

Editor’s Letter

Recently I rented a car in Prague to explore the

western borderlands of the Czech Republic, the

region that my family had ed through in the dead

of night. Nowadays it is hard even to nd a trace

of a border; the road just rolls on into Germany. I

studied the map again trying to locate the former

“no-man’s land”, the bu‚er zone between East and

West. At a nondescript village called Pled, I followed

an unsealed lane into woodland. There I found an

abandoned sentry post. A hundred metres on was

a sign: Pozor Státní Hranice, Caution State Border.

Behind, another notice: Bundesrepublik Deutschland.

I stopped the car. Nobody was around. A farm

building in the distance would have once represented

freedom. Childishly, I darted back and forth across

the invisible border, just because I could.

There’s something about crossing a border. The

frisson, that feeling of a new adventure unfolding,

the blast of freedom.

In 2004, I travelled the entire length of the EU’s

eastern boundary for a story, just before 10 more

countries joined the union. By train and bus, I

journeyed from Estonia to Latvia to Lithuania to

Poland, and so on. The only reason I knew I was

in a new country was the beep-beep of my Nokia

notifying me that the network had changed.

But there were other trips when everything

changed at a border. In the 1980s at Victoria Falls,

I remember looking across from the bright lights of

Zimbabwe to Zambia in darkness; 10 years later, the

reverse was true. How fortunes ip. I spent a New

Year’s Eve in West Berlin; at midnight, I could trace

the route of the Wall because half the city was ablaze

with reworks, the other half pitch black.

Perhaps my favourite border—in more peaceful

times—was between Lebanon and Syria. Nothing

was more romantic than the road to Damascus. The

memories ll me with heartache.

For much of the world, a border is a barrier to

another life, to a dream, to freedom. That the U.K.

is considering hardening the politically sensitive

Irish border is troubling. So, too, that U.S. President

Trump wants to spend billions on a wall along its

southern border.

Next month it will be 30 years since the fall of the

Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. Until 1989

my grandmother and mother had been in exile for

40 years. Some of the family back in Czechoslovakia

were thrown into prison as a punishment for their

escape. I know about families, about continents,

ripped apart by borders.

JONATHAN Z LEE/JONATHANZLEE.COM MICHELLE WITH JULIENNE RAHARISOA; CANDLENUT SINGAPORE CANDLENUT; SHANGRI-LA BARR AL JISSAH RESORT & SPA TURTLES; DATO IMAGES/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES BOAC POSTER, LEFT; ARCHIVART/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO BOAC POSTER, RIGHT

Celebrating 100

years, British

Airways has painted

aircraft in retro

livery, recalling a

more romantic era of

travel. How we long

for those simpler

days—of shorter

queues, less

disruption. Try BA’s

route from London

City airport to J.F.K.

The all-business

class flight refuels in

Shannon where

customers clear U.S.

Immigration, allowing

them to arrive in New

York as a domestic

passenger.

@british_airways

It’s the best of

wake-up calls.

One of the five turtle

nesting areas in

Oman is the beach

of the Shangri-La

Barr Al Jissah Hotel

in Muscat. At check

in, send a WhatsApp

to Mohammed Al

Hassani, the

resident ranger on

+968 9678 7554

and he’ll fire off an

alert—day or night—

if he spots a

hatching or a female

laying eggs. The

luckiest time of year

is from January

to August.

@shangrilahotels

In Singapore’s leafy

Dempsey Hill, chef

Malcolm Lee is

spreading magic at

his Candlenut

restaurant. The

cuisine is

Peranakan, a mix of

indigenous Malay

and Chinese

diaspora cooking;

the “Ah-ma-kase”

menu includes lamb

satay, pork

lemongrass curry,

and blue swimmer

crab turmeric lemak;

finish with buah

keluak ice cream

with chocolate

and chilli.

@comodempsey

ON THE JOB

Michelle (left)

reporting in

Madagascar

(page 70)

46 VANITY FAIR NOVEMBER 2019

11-19-Travel-Eds-Letter.indd 46 19/09/2019 12:19