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Portugal is rarely a destination of choice for most Indian visitors who have so much to choose from during a visit to the European continent. Many prefer the more familiar sights of Buckingham Palace, the Eiffel Tower or the Coliseum in Rome. But for those who persevere, Portugal has all kinds of hidden charms and tourist pleasures that duly reward the brave and adventurous. And for those who are lucky — as I was — there are even unexpected reminders of home. Among the country’s hidden gems is the longest established luxury golf, tennis and beach resort of Vale Do Lobo, located on the Atlantic Algarve coast, just 20 minutes from Faro International Airport. It is also flanked by the Ria Formosa Natural Park, an area of outstanding natural beauty that boasts two kilometres of golden beach and majestic sandstone cliffs. For golf enthusiasts, including those who play at the beautiful Chandigarh course, Vale Do Lobo’s principal attraction lies in the access to two stunning 18 hole courses of contrasting character, the Royal and the Ocean, designed by the legendary British golfer Sir Henry Cotton and upgraded in more recent times by American golf architect Rocky Roquemore. Both courses start off from an impressive clubhouse that also hosts a spa, including a hamam, swimming pool and gym, as well as a world-class restaurant called Spikes. Further away, but still within the complex are yet more restaurants, including Ken Lo`B4s Memories of China, La Place for French food, Amore Pizza Pasta, Teahouse Oriental and others. Golf package holidays currently on offer start from around 112 to 117 Euros (approxinmately Rs 8,300) per day and include accommodation, three rounds on the Ocean Golf Course and two rounds on the Royal Golf Course. Accommodation could be in any one of the 1500 stunning villas with red tile roofs and blue shutters that are dotted around the resort. The beautifully equipped villas, which come with maid service, are all privately owned and sub-let from time to time by their owners who may be golfers or tennis players or both. My group was made up of 27 tennis players who set off for Vale Do Lobo from London’s Luton airport early one Sunday morning. We each paid 795 Pounds (just under Rs 70,000) for return air flights, accommodation and one week`B4s daily tennis lessons ( two hours in the morning and two in the afternoon). Between lessons, we swam in the tennis academy pool that has also in the past hosted the likes of John McKenroe, Bjorn Borg and Pat Cash. No surprises there, but the big personal shock for me personally came in the shape of the charismatic Englishman who shared a taxi with me from near the villa to the tennis courts. A British Airways pilot by profession, he had brown hair and pale white skin and told me his name was Raj. When I did my predictable double take, he explained he was half-Punjabi. When he was born, and at the mid-wife`B4s urging, his parents gave him the additional middle name of Vernon to protect him from any future bullies who might sneer at his Indian roots. In the event he has not had too bad a time, although in the Royal Air Force — where he trained as a helicopter pilot — his friends anglicised Raj to Reg. There was one further change. His code name while on duty was formalised as Reg Warrior, after he explained that his ancestors were originally Rajput fighters. By now I had registered Raj as a biba munda, but still more details were forthcoming during that momentuous taxi ride in Portugal. Raj explained that his mother, Rosalie Anne Buckridge is Irish and his father, Lahore-born orthodontist Dr Surendra Bhatia, is Indian and the son of the late Hans Raj Bhatia, also of Lahore and the author of many educational text books. "Bhatia", I said, looking at Raj in total stupefaction. "But I´m a Bhatia too and my late father, Prem Bhatia, was also from Lahore. What could be the percentage chances of us ever meeting up like this in a remote part of Portugal ?" Raj had no answer to my question and he was just as shell-shocked. We spent the rest of the holiday playing tennis together every day and comparing notes and information about any other Indian friends and relatives we had in common. One other discovery was that we lived barely half a mile away from each other in North London and that our Bhatia ancestors reputedly played a pivotal role in the evacuation of Lahore in 1947. According to Raj it was only when the Bhatias decided to leave Lahore in 1947 that the rest of the Hindu and Sikh population accepted that it was no longer safe or reasonable to stay behind in the newly formed state of Pakistan. Born in London 15 years after Partition, this was one of the stories Raj was told about our common Punjabi ancestors. Whether true or not, the story gave us something else to discuss both on and off the tennis court. All kinds of pleasant surprises await current and future visitors to Vale Do Lobo. But for two men of the Bhatia tribe a visit to this resort has been a unique experience that is likely to stay with us for the rest of our lives.
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