4Qs with Anita Kapoor

As the host of Exotic Escapades, you went to Kota Kinabalu, Lombok, Chongqing and various bits of India, but you didn’t do anything here. Off the cuff, what would your exotic Singapore suggestion be?
Singapore is amazing. Just look at how it has developed and yet keeps a bit of the village in us. This is where our soul is at, and we should capitalise on those experiences. Take a night tour of Singapore, take people to the HDBs, squeeze in a spot of karaoke, and end off with a cruise down the river, or maybe a feast on the beach. After all, that’s who we are – we’re an island.

You’re originally from India, what was it like going back?
I loved it. I’d not been back in eight years, and after 20-plus years of not living there, it was lovely to get to know India again. The country is a challenge, you either love it or hate it... it’s a challenging place to live, not really because of the traffic congestion etc, but because there are a million and one stories. This is what happens when you go to a country that is so old and dynamic, filled with people and stories.

Of all the places you visited, which was your favourite?
Darjeeling, mainly because I am an avid tea drinker and the connection it has with my mother – she went to boarding school there – and my family. There is something quaint and old-fashioned about the place, it’s very different from the other parts of India we travelled to.

After all that you’ve seen, what are your top five moments?
Wow, that’s tough, just five? Okay, capsizing in Lombok; seeing a poor beached whale in Kota Kinabalu and watching the villagers bathing it, trying to keep it aerated; spending a month in India; the people and the random conversations I had; and eating my way through Asia – having hot chapatis every day, the beautiful fern leaf salads in Lombok, the ceviche in Kota Kinabalu, it was all out of this world.

This story first appeared as '4Qs with: Anita Kapoor' (November 2009)