ADVENTURE HOLIDAY SEEKERS ARE PUSHING THE BOAT OUT
Small-ship cruises in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific allow visitors to get closer to local culture
With a gentle breeze on its stern, our tough little Zodiac inflatable boat motors gently up to a deserted beach. Massive kapok trees draped in dense creeping vines fringe the rough coral sands, which are split by a glistening stream from the jungle beyond. But behind the foliage a surprise awaits.
As our rubber bow kisses the shore, the tranquillity is shattered by a blood-curdling chorus of screams and yelps.
As if disgorged by the jungle itself, an excited band of vine-clad men and boys brandishing spears and clubs surrounds our tiny vessel, weapons held high. We’re not in danger; this is part of a ritual inhabitants of Loh Island, in the remote Torres Islands of the South Pacific island nationofVanuatu,performbefore welcoming us with broad smiles, handshakes and fresh green coconuts.
Spirited Melanesian greetings like this are common as we make landfall on the far-flung islands bordering the Bismarck, Solomon and Coral Seas from our cruise company Heritage Expedition’s purpose-built 140-passenger expedition yacht Heritage Adventurer.
At each island, instead of
gaudy tourist traps and well-worn shore excursions, we enjoy a cultural exchange wherein the locals perform traditional dances and songs and prepare food, and we are introduced to mystic practices first described by wayfaring anthropologists more than a century ago. We respond with clumsy renditions of our own national anthems.
Similarly, the river cruise operators plying the waterways of Southeast Asia offer their guests a traditional experience and the co-mingling of cultures.
Intimate cruises along the Upper Mekong between the Thai city of Chiang Rai and the Laotian capital, Vientiane – via the Unesco World Heritage-listed town of Luang Prabang – have been growing in popularity since tour company Mekong River Cruises launched long-distance (typically overnight) river cruises in 2005.
Cruise company Pandaw began plying this route in 2015, and another company, Heritage Line, is due to launch its newest vessel, Anouvong, on the stretch later this year.
More multiday itineraries are being developed by Pandaw and HeritageLineinVietnam’sHalong Bay, where many visitors currently settle for rushed day cruises.
The operators are coupling these itineraries with sailings along the Red River, in northern Vietnam, and to the relatively
unknown Lan Ha Bay, to the south of Halong Bay, in the Gulf of Tonkin.
Adventure or expedition cruising, with its smaller, more nimble vessels, is ideal for negotiating narrow, shallow channels, reefs and shoals, and delivering 100 passengers or less directly to remote settlements.
The cruises bring much needed economic activity to these communities – be they in Melanesia or Southeast Asia –which can encourage the local inhabitants to maintain their traditional lifestyles, and prevent in particular the young men from having to seek work elsewhere.
Little infrastructure is required toaccommodateshallow-draught ships, which bring with them their own food and accommodation.
Villagers can then concentrate on providing cultural attractions and selling traditional handicrafts rather than installing expensive wharves and jetties that could go unused for months on end.
Cambodia, with its plethora of exquisite architecture and Unesco World Heritage temples, is in the box seat for such tourism.
Heritage Line’s Jahan is a retro vessel with a steampunk-meetsBritish-Raj vibe. The boat entered service 10 years ago, taking 50 or so guests at a time across Cambodia’s Tonlé Sap lake and over the border into Vietnam’s vast Mekong Delta.
Visitors on these trips are exposed to centuries-old industries across the fertile floodplain of the “mother of water” – as the Mekong can be roughly translated.
It’s delightfully anachronistic to sit, gin and tonic in hand, on Jahan’s upper deck while the panorama of riverine activity drifts past – until the dinner gong summons us downstairs to eat.
Away from continental Asia, operators expect to see Indonesia, the Philippines and Micronesia become more popular among expedition cruise tourists with a taste for refined travel.
“Expedition cruise companies are picking up where they left off just before Covid struck,” says Justin Friend, founder of Austronesian Expeditions.
“Word has been slowly getting out from niche operators and TV documentaries and these companies are responding to customer demand to go and see these places.
Like Antarctica 20 years ago, impetus builds and the cruise companies cannot ignore it.
“The Komodo dragons in Indonesia, the whale sharks of West Papua and the Philippines, the magnificent coral reefs all through the Coral Triangle (a coral-rich area of ocean around the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and East Timor)
and spectacles like the horseback spear fighting in Sumba, make for irresistible travel alternatives when people are getting sick of the same old stuff.”
Mick Fogg, a director of expeditions and destination development at cruise company Ponant, says of Micronesia: “The 2,000 islands that make up the region of Micronesia are among some of the remotest in the tropics. Many can be challenging to visit unless you are on board a boutique small expedition vessel.”
In the South Pacific, heavy investment by Carnival and other large cruise lines in Fiji, Vanuatu, New Zealand and Tahiti is likely to result in increased adventure cruise options in those waters, as smaller operators also take advantage of the new infrastructure.
Aranui operates a 256-passenger and freight vessel called the Aranui 5 that delivers cargo to Polynesian islands while simultaneously offering luxurious cruises.
This year, the operation, based in Papeete, French Polynesia, is expanding its reach to make stops at Pitcairn Island as well as the Tuamotu Archipelago and the Gambier Islands.
As tourists reassess their priorities in a post-pandemic world, more far-flung options could become increasingly sought after.
Market data company Statista predicts “the global passenger capacity of expedition cruises is expected to reach over 578,000 passengers by 2027, more than double the capacity of 2018”.
ARTS
All-female Korean string quartet who defied the doubters
Years of gruelling practice mean Esmé Quartet can play the most challenging music, leader says Jiwon Park jiwon.park@scmp.com
For their Covid-delayed debut in Hong Kong, the award-winning Esmé Quartet will begin with a joke – or rather, The Joke, as Haydn’s String Quartet in E-flat Major is known. The four Korean-born female musicians who make up the quartet are eager to bring lightness and joy to the city during this year’s Hong Kong Arts Festival, the first since the relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions. Their recital on February 28 will be followed by a performance on March 4 with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and two Hong Kong choirs called “Voices of Hope and Togetherness”, when they will play the American contemporary composer John Adams’ Absolute Jest. They will also provide the live music for February 24’s theatre performance The Book of Water
Don’t get the Esmé Quartet wrong – the Germany-based foursome are keen to show Hong Kong audiences that they are capable of playing the most challenging music after years of gruelling training, their leader says.
“Many audiences in Europe still seem to be surprised that performances by ‘four Asian women’ could be this powerful,” first violinist Bae Won-hee says.
Such prejudices have only made them stronger and tightened their bond.
The Esmé Quartet have been together since 2016, when Bae, violist Kim Ji-won and cellist Heo Yee-un were music students together in Germany. They were joined by second violinist Ha Yu-na, then studying in France, who moved to Germany.
Ha, Kim and Heo had known each other in South Korea while attending the prestigious Seoul National University together. Heo and Kim were members of a student quartet there at one point. Heo and Bae met at the Cologne University of Music and Dance in Germany and became friends.
In their first year together the quartet practised for up to 10 hours a day – for what was initially meant only as a graduation project. Knowing that it would be tough to keep a full-time quartet going, they thought of disbanding after they obtained enough credits for their university programmes.
But Bae, who had nurtured a desire to form a quartet since going to a concert by the Belcea Quartet at London’s Wigmore Hall when she was a student, could tell that all four of them had a passion for chamber music.
She convinced Ha, Kim and Heo to invest their careers in the quartet, and gave the group its name, derived from an old French word meaning “being loved”.
“It was hard training,” says Bae, as they tried to create a “perfect” sound for the group. They would play for five hours without a break, she recalls.
The practice paid off. In 2018, the quartet won the triennial
Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition in London, as well as four other prizes at the competition. At that point their average age was 27, which was relatively young for a quartet playing at an international level.
A YouTube video of the group went viral in 2020, as they exhibited during a television game show a level of synchronisation not unlike the perfect choreography of K-pop idols. With each player wearing headphones blasting out loud K-pop music, they were asked to play classical music relying on just their eyes and body language for coordination. They did it perfectly even though they couldn’t hear each other.
“We have trained together for so many years we can sense each other even if it is a small movement in facial muscles or the rhythm of our breaths,” Bae says. Their shared cultural background and language makes it easier for them to talk through each piece of music, she says.
Esmé Quartet will make their Hong Kong debut this month.
FIRST VIOLINIST BAE WON-HEE
As the quartet enter their seventh year, the women’s focus is on how to become more original – “to create our own work”, Bae says – and help contribute to the development of the music they love. “I have heard some women- only quartets have been inspired by us. I feel a huge responsibility,” Bae says. “I hope we can show the power of Korean women through our performances.”
She adds: “We would be happy ifwecouldbecomethe‘Blackpink’ of the classical music scene,” referring to the chart-topping four-woman K-pop group.
“Michel van der Aa: The Book of Water” featuring the Esmé Quartet, Feb 24, Concert Hall, HK City Hall; “Dazzle – Esmé Quartet Recital”, Feb 28, Concert Hall, HK City Hall; “Voices of Hope and Togetherness –A Choral and Orchestral Gathering”, Mar 4, Concert Hall, HK Cultural Centre. The quartet will have an artist sharing session at the Korean Cultural Centre at 6.30pm, Feb 27.
