June 2008

SOUTHEAST ASIA

JUNE 2008

The Style and Design Issue HOTELS ● FASHION ARCHITECTURE ● ART ICONS ● TECHNOLOGY PEOPLE ● AWARDS

Singapore Coolest clubs, best bars, divine dining

27

ITALIAN MUST-VISITS from Milan to Rome

travelandleisuresea.com SINGAPORE SG$6.90 ● HONG KONG HK$39 THAILAND THB160 ● INDONESIA IDR45,000 MALAYSIA MYR15 ● VIETNAM VND80,000 MACAU MOP40 ● PHILIPPINES PHP220 BURMA MMK32 ● CAMBODIA KHR20,000 BRUNEI BND6.90 ● LAOS LAK48,000

(Destinations)06.08 Stockholm 52 Rotterdam 46

Italy 128

Macau 136 Phnom Penh 87

Singapore 114

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Issue Index Siem Reap 40 Singapore 36, 38, 40, 60, 80, 114 Thailand 28, 36, 65 Vietnam 26, 50, 106 ASIA Beijing 104, 109 Nepal 26 Shanghai 74

THE AMERICAS Kansas City 107 Los Angeles 102 New York 38, 74, 76, 93, 101, 107 Seattle 105 Toronto 108

EUROPE Greece 98 Innsbruck 104 Italy 128 London 96 Milan 110 Paris 108 Rotterdam 46 Stockholm 52

AUSTRALIA Sydney 28, 76

Currency Converter Singapore Hong Kong Thailand Indonesia Malaysia Vietnam Macau Philippines Burma Cambodia Brunei Laos US ($1)

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Source: www.xe.com (exchange rates at press time).

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SOUTHEAST ASIA Bali 28 Bangkok 26, 28, 36, 40, 63 Hong Kong 40, 42, 62 Macau 136 Manila 36 Penang 40 Phnom Penh 87 Phuket 58

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(Contents)06.08 >114 The Singapore Flyer.

114 Singapore Swings A burgeoning nightlife, a worldclass cultural center, an F1 Grand Prix, casinos, even a nascent beach scene. Has the Lion City finally shaken off its staid image? By JOE YOGERST. Photographed

by DARREN SOH. GUIDE AND MAP 126 14

128 The Pleasures of Italy GINI ALHADEFF profiles Italian style insiders who effortlessly embody la dolce vita, and asks them to reveal their favorite restaurants, shops and more. Photographed

by OBERTO GILI. 136 A Living History From pastelcolored Sino-colonial buildings and fabulous Portuguese baroque churches, to rustic and sedate European piazzas—there’s a lot

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more to Macau than just casinos.

By PHIL MACDONALD. Photographed by DAVID HARTUNG. GUIDE AND MAP 145 Special

● Style and Design Awards 2008 > 98 In T+L’s annual competition, our jury chose the best of the year in 15 categories.

DARREN SOH

113-136 Features

(Contents)06.08

JUNE 2008

The Style and Design Issue HOTELS O FASHION ARCHITECTURE O ART ICONS O TECHNOLOGY PEOPLE O AWARDS

Departments 18 22 24 26 28 30 146

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Singapore Coolest clubs, best bars, divine dining

Editor’s Note Contributors Letters Ask T+L Best Deals Strategies My Favorite Place

27

ITALIAN MUST-VISITS from Milan to Rome

travelandleisuresea.com SINGAPORE SG$6.90 ● HONG KONG HK$39 THAILAND THB160 ● INDONESIA IDR45,000 MALAYSIA MYR15 ● VIETNAM VND80,000 MACAU MOP40 ● PHILIPPINES PHP220 BURMA MMK32 ● CAMBODIA KHR20,000 BRUNEI BND6.90 ● LAOS LAK48,000

Cover Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay, in Singapore. Photographed by Darren Soh.

> 52

> 46

65-81 Stylish Traveler 65 Fashion

Thailand’s designers are on a winning streak. Here, six spectacular looks from the country’s finest.

74 Spotlight

36 NewsFlash

Small wonders, cool T-shirts, a New York walk and more.

42 The Arts

80 Bring It Back

Playful brooches evoke age-old Chinese folk art.

81 His and Hers

Some fragrances to capture the essence of summer.

Hong Kong’s booming gallery scene.

BY LARA DAY

> 93

46 T+L Guide

Rotterdam rocks—Holland’s vibrant second city. BY JAIME GROSS

87-93 T+L Journal

50 Room Report

Hanoi’s new hotel on the lake is a stunner. BY SONIA KOLESNIKOV-JESSOP

87 Architecture

52 The Expert

Stockholm’s best shops and restaurants. BY DAVID A. KEEPS 58 Check-in

Three classy resorts on Phuket shine in the sun. BY ADAM SKOLNICK 60 Walk

A Singapore tour reveals the city’s secrets. BY CHRISTOPHER R. COX 62 Address Book

The most stylish places to go in three Asian cities. BY JENNIFER CHEN 16

> 65

The New Khmer Architecture of the legendary Vann Molyvann is fast disappearing from Phnom Penh’s streets.

ERIKA KINETZ tracks down what’s left.

93 Hotels

Philippe Starck’s over-the-top look made New York’s Royalton hotel famous. Can a new design team make it comfortable?

BY CHARLES GANDEE

C L O C K W I S E F R O M FA R L E F T : A N N E M A R I E K E VA N D R I M M E L E N ; P I A U L I N ; D AV I D N I C O L A S ; J E F F R E Y C H A N

35–62 Insider

Alexander Wang and Jason Wu—all you need to know about two of New York’s brightest fashion talents.

(Editor’s Note) 06.08

M

ENTION THE WORDS “style” and “design” in

the same sentence and most people will think of high fashion, conceptual art and the ultra-modern architecture that is popping up all over the region—all sharp angles, gleaming glass and minimalist décor. But as this issue illustrates, both affect travel, sometimes subtly, other times not so subtly. Proving this point are Travel + Leisure’s annual Style and Design Awards (page 98), a celebration of the myriad ways in which these concepts impact the traveler. Here you’ll find a New York city planner, an Alpine transport system and a glamorous retail space in Paris among the more obvious—but no less deserving—restaurants, hotels and travel accessories. More than anything, the awards show that form and function are not mutually exclusive but effortlessly complimentary. Style and design, of course, aren’t limited to the present, and for this special issue, we also delve into the past, with looks at the Modernist architecture of legendary Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann (“A Vanishing Legacy,” page 87), as well as the efforts by the Macau government to preserve the SAR’s precious heritage (“A Living History,” page 136). Meanwhile, in our Stylish Traveler section, we profile two hot young AsianAmerican designers—Alexander Wang and Jason Wu—who are taking the New York fashion scene by storm (“Fashion 2.0,” page 74). Singapore also takes center stage in this issue, both on the cover (the famed durian-shaped Esplanade performing arts center) and in our main feature, “Singapore Swings” (page 114).

Finally, a reader pointed out that in our December 2007 Strategies section, a table entitled “Prescription for Confusion” should have listed Ambyen as a drug for heart problems in the U.K., with Ambien prescribed in the U.S. for sleep disorders. high blood pressure. We apologize for the mix-up.—MATT LEPPARD TRAVEL + L EISURE EDITORS, WRITERS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS ARE THE INDUSTRY’S MOST RELIABLE SOURCES. WHILE ON ASSIGNMENT, THEY TRAVEL INCOGNITO WHENEVER POSSIBLE AND DO NOT TAKE PRESS TRIPS OR ACCEPT FREE TRAVEL OF ANY KIND.

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C H E N P O VA N O N T

Prozac is an antidepressant in the U.S., while Prazac is prescribed in Denmark for

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF EDITOR-AT-LARGE ART DIRECTOR FEATURES EDITORS DESIGNERS ASSISTANT EDITOR EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Matt Leppard Paul Ehrlich Fah Sakharet Jennifer Chen Phil Macdonald Ellie Brannan Wannapha Nawayon Napamon Roongwitoo Wasinee Chantakorn

(Contributors) 06.08

rika Kinetz “My grandparents lived in Phnom Penh in 1963. My grandma wrote home Above: Erika about the graceful, wide Kinetz. Right: sidewalks. All that’s gone now,” says Chaktomouk Conference Kinetz, who wrote about the city’s Hall, in Phnom Penh.

New Khmer Architecture, designed by celebrated architect Vann Molyvann (“A Vanishing Legacy,” page 87), which is now under serious threat.

Kinetz moved to Cambodia in 2006 to cover the Khmer Rouge tribunal. She contributes to The New York Times, Newsweek and the Christian Science Monitor.

Oberto Gili “Italian

Sonia Kolesnikov-

Jessop “Hanoi is a city style is understated and full of contrasts,” says low-key; it’s all about Kolesnikov-Jessop, who elegance and tradition,” reviews the new says Gili, who shot “The InterContinental Hanoi Pleasures of Italy” (page 128). “Franco Sersale, the Westlake (“Hanoi Now,” hotelier behind Positano’s page 50). “Dodging motorbikes is not for the Le Sirenuse, embodies faint-hearted, but the Italian sensibility. rewards are found in the Often it is less about what city’s wonderful colonial you wear—it’s the way architecture.” The you wear it, the way you move, the way you speak.” Singapore-based journalist is a regular Gili, who splits his time contributor to Newsweek between New York and and the International Piedmont, also shoots for Herald Tribune.

Vanity Fair and Vogue.

Darren Soh “Some

people find it hard to photograph in their own backyard, but with the amount of change that is currently taking place in Singapore, it really never quite feels like my own backyard,” says Soh. This attitude puts Singapore native Soh in the ideal frame of mind to photograph “Singapore Swings” (page 114), which details the city’s everchanging face. Soh’s work has appeared in Monocle, TIME and Wallpaper.

A BOV E , F RO M TO P : CO U RT ESY O F E R I K A K I N E TZ ; P E T E R ST U C K I N GS B E L O W, F R O M FA R L E F T : C O U R T E SY O F O B E R T O G I L I ; C O U R T E SY O F S O N I A K O L E S N I K O V -J E S S O P ; C O U R T E SY O F D A R R E N S O H

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NOW IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

(Letters)06.08 LETTER OF THE MONTH ~ T R E

N D S ,

C U L T U R E ,

F O O D

A

N D

M O R E ~

T+L Journal ADVENTURE 84 PORTFOLIO 88

Paradise Rebuilt It’s been 3½ years since the Asian tsunami devastated the southern Thai beach resort of Khao Lak. ADAM SKOLNICK returns to a place where a tragic past is now woven into an optimistic future. Photographed by CEDRIC ARNOLD

THAILAND

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Recovery and Renewal

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INDULGE YOURSELF

Thanks for your article on the recovery of Khao Lak [“Rebuilding Paradise,” May 2008]. Having visited the area just before the tsunami, I was glad to hear that it’s back and better than ever. I especially liked the way the article pointed out the positive impact tourism can have. We’re constantly being told what’s wrong with today’s tourism industry, so it’s good to remember that, sometimes, travel can make a difference, be it opening one’s eyes or healing wounds.

—S U S A N

W H E E L E R , H O N G KO N G

On the Road I read your Northern Thailand driving story [“Twist in the Tale,” March 2008] with great interest. Though I’ve visited Thailand several times over the years, it’s never occurred to me to get behind

THE WORLD’S LEADING TRAVEL MAGAZINE www.travelandleisuresea.com/subscribe

✉

the wheel myself. Your story has inspired me to give it a go on my next trip there.

—PAT R I C K D U N L E AV Y , S I N G A P O R E Fashion Forward I wanted to let you know how much I enjoy the Stylish Traveler section.

There’s always a great variety of stories—I especially appreciate your focus on Asian fashion talent—and incredible photography. The photos by Ben Watts in the April issue [“In Full Bloom”] were absolutely gorgeous, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what the coming months bring.

—TA N H W E E PA N G , K UA L A LU M P U R Bound for Glory What a great story about New York’s best borough [“Brooklyn Bound,” January 2008]! I loved the energy, verve and humor in Peter Jon Lindberg’s story-telling. This is what sets Travel + Leisure apart from other travel magazines—you don’t simply tell us where to go and how to get there, you give us the feel and spirit of the place.

As an armchair traveler, I eagerly await more stories such as this one.

—C Y N T H I A C H A N , H O N G KO N G Refreshing Change Thanks for your story on brewhouses in Asia in the March issue [“Better Brews”]. I am certainly a “beer fan” (in moderation, of course), but as you noted, most so-called beers here simply look and taste the same. The article was definitely “refreshing.”

—P E T E R H A D L E Y , BA N G KO K

E-MAIL T+L SEND YOUR LETTERS TO TLEDITOR @ MEDIATRANSASIA.COM AND LET US KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS ON RECENT STORIES OR NEW PLACES TO VISIT. LETTERS CHOSEN MAY BE EDITED FOR CLARITY AND SPACE. THE LETTER OF THE MONTH RECEIVES A FREE ONE-YEAR SUBSCRIPTION TO TRAVEL + LEISURE ( SOUTHEAST ASIA ONLY). READER OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN LETTERS DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THOSE OF TRAVEL + LEISURE SOUTHEAST ASIA, MEDIA TRANSASIA LTD., OR AMERICAN EXPRESS PUBLISHING.

I’M PLANNING A TREKKING HOLIDAY IN NEPAL. WHAT SHOULD I DO TO PREVENT ALTITUDE SICKNESS? —NIRMALA RAO, SINGAPORE

A:

Acute mountain sickness (AMS), which can occur at any altitude above 1,800 meters, should be taken very seriously. If ignored, it can rapidly develop into possibly fatal conditions. Basically, AMS feels like a bad hangover: headaches, nausea, dizziness, loss of appetite, vomiting and insomnia. As long as you’re at a high altitude, assume that any illness is AMS and descend. The best way to avoid AMS is to take a few days to acclimatize, and then ascend slowly. Some climbers take acetazolamide to help prevent AMS, but always consult with a doctor (and definitely don’t take it if you’re allergic to penicillin).

For more information, go to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control website, wwn.cdc.gov.

I frequently travel to Bangkok for business and am always looking for suggestions about where to take clients out for dinner. Do you have any?

—WILLIAM TSE, SINGAPORE

Bangkok really runs the gamut of dining: from street-side vendors to fine French cuisine. And there are certainly plenty of choices in between for businessmen that won’t necessarily blow your expense account. One of our favorites for something slightly more upscale but still laid-back is Vino di Zanotti (41 Soi Yommarat, Saladaeng Rd.; 66-2/636-3811), where you can sit out on the deck, order antipasti and sample the impressive wines. We’re also fond of the pretty authentic Iberian offerings at Tapas Café (1/25 Soi 11, Sukhumvit Rd.; 66-2/651-2947), run by a British expatriate who spent years in Spain.

While the best Thai food is to be had at street stalls, Patara (375 Soi Thonglor 19, Sukhumvit Rd.; 66-2/185-2960) and Baan Kanitha (69 South Sathorn Rd.; 662/675-4200) dish up tasty versions of Thai classics in cushier surroundings.

For something truly different, check out Red (124 Soi 53, Sukhumvit Rd.; 66-2/2597590) for contemporary Indian food amid plush surroundings.

I’m planning a holiday in Vietnam soon. Do you have any suggestions on where to go in central and southern Vietnam?

—JESSICA HUANG, GUANGXI

Darren Szwarcburg, product manager for Travel Indochina in Ho Chi Minh

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City (www.travelindochina.com), suggests the following itinerary: “Spend some time in Dalat, in the cool and beautiful Central Highlands. The gateway to southern Vietnam is Ho Chi Minh City, an energetic place that is home to some of the best restaurants in all of Asia.

Be sure to pack your appetite and try out a hands-on cooking class with a local chef. Then, head to the Mekong Delta, where the lush rice fields and fruit orchards make for a stunning backdrop.

It’s also possible to take a boat trip on the Mekong River to a traditional floating market at Can Tho. You can even cross the border into Cambodia on an exciting speedboat journey from Chau Doc to Phnom Penh.”

There always seems to be new photo-sharing websites to choose from. Which ones are the best?

—LARRY JENNINGS, MONTANA, U.S.A.

Popular with professionals, ad-free SmugMug.com (from US$39.95 for a yearly subscription) offers creative tagging, unlimited storage and a 24-7 support team. Meanwhile, Pixamo.com, which also functions as a social-networking site, has developed a tight security system to protect privacy. And with Google’s userfriendly Picasa Web Albums (www. picasaweb.com), family and friends can view albums on TiVo. Of course, you can also upload photos—as well as videos and stories—to our website at www.yourtravelandleisure.com, for a chance to win prizes and possible publication in a future issue of Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia. ✚

E-MAIL T+L SEND YOUR QUESTIONS TO TLEDITOR @ MEDIATRANSASIA.COM. QUESTIONS CHOSEN FOR PUBLICATION MAY BE EDITED FOR CLARITY AND SPACE .

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I L L U S T R AT E D BY WA S I N E E C H A N TA KO R N

Q:

(Ask T+L)06.08

(Best Deals) 06.08

Langham Place Eco Resort + Spa.

Stay in style. Here are six great packages at design hotels and resorts ■ THAILAND Indulge Me package at Langham Place Eco Resort + Spa on Ko Lanta (66-75/607-400; krabi.langhamplacehotels.com). What’s Included Three-night stay; daily breakfast and fresh fruit basket; a dinner; a 60-minute spa retreat; roundtrip airport transfer; and late check-out at 4 P.M. Cost Bt16,000, double, through October 31. Savings Up to 40 percent.

Special package at Villa Beige on Ko Samui (www. villabeige.com). What’s Included Five-night stay at the villa (maximum two adults and two children); one spa day; and daily breakfast and lunch.

Cost US$5,999, through August 31. Savings Up to 32 percent.

■ INDONESIA Ultimate Escape package at The Chedi Club at Tanah Gajah in Ubud, Bali (62-361/730-622; www. ghmhotels.com). What’s Included One-night stay in a one-bedroom suite; welcome drink; breakfast; laundry service; complimentary mini-bar; refreshments and afternoon snacks; private car to Ubud’s center; roundtrip airport transfer; two spa treatments; and complimentary use of personal 28

sauna and cold plunge. Cost US$445 per night, double, through July 31. Savings Up to 20 percent.

Promotional rate at Kayumanis Jimbaran Private Estate in Bali (62-361/705-777; www. kayumanis.com). What’s Included Accommodation in a one-bedroom pool villa; roundtrip airport transfer; a bottle of sparkling wine; a 30-minute massage; a beach picnic for two; daily breakfast, high tea and fruit basket; laundry and dry cleaning; 24-hour limousine service within local areas; a twohour spa treatment for two (minimum three-night stay); and a set dinner for two (minimum four-night stay). Cost US$499 per night, double, through March 31, 2009. Savings Up to 35 percent.

■ AUSTRALIA Sydney’s Winter Jewel package at the Diamant Hotel (61-2/9295-8888; www.diamant.com.au).

What’s Included Three-night stay for the price of two; a room upgrade; champagne and chocolates on arrival; breakfast for two; and a A$100 voucher to spend at Tancredi Jewellers (www.tancredijewellers. com), with roundtrip transfer. Cost A$800 per night, double, through July 31. Savings Up to 28 percent.—N A PA M O N RO O N G W I TO O

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THAILAND Bangkok in Style package at The Metropolitan (662/625-3333; www. metropolitan.como. bz). What’s Included Threenight stay; roundtrip airport transfer; a bottle of champagne; daily breakfast; a city tour; tickets for two to Siam Niramit Thai Cultural Show; a muay thai or Thai cooking class; a dinner for two at Cy’an; a daily yoga class; and a massage for two. Cost From US$450, double, through December 31. Savings Up to 50 percent.

A suite in The Metropolitan.

F R O M T O P : C O U R T E SY O F L A N G H A M P L A C E E C O R E S O R T + S PA ; C O U R T E SY O F T H E M E T R O P O L I TA N

DEAL OF THE MONTH

(Strategies) 06.08 IVE YEARS AGO, when my husband and I decided to get married, it never occurred to us to have the wedding anywhere else but Thailand. Living in Bangkok, we were within hours of spectacular beaches, and we’d already thought of the perfect spot.

We’d also naïvely assumed that planning the wedding would be easy just by dint of the fact that it was in Thailand—the Land of Smiles— instead of chilly Connecticut, where I’d grown up, or chillier and costlier London, my husband’s hometown. But that was before we confronted the logistics of transporting 100 champagne glasses, eight cases of wine, DJ equipment, two huge speakers, a dozen tikki torches, flowers and decorations, and 85 guests to an island accessible only by a once-a-day ferry.

And that was well before one of the buses taking our guests to the pier got lost, my father-in-law came down with food poisoning, and gale-force winds blew out all the tikki lights as well as the

F

Thinking about getting married on a tropical island? T+L asks the experts to give us their top tips on planning a destination wedding. By JENNIFER CHEN

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WA S I N E E C H A N TA KO R N

9 Hints for Getting Hitched

weddings | strategies

BY THE NUMBERS

Q Average cost of a wedding in Bali (with 50 people): US$50,000 Q Number of weddings at The Ritz-Carlton Bali Resort & Spa: 2005 527 weddings 2006 385 weddings (after the Bali bombing in 2005) 2007 490 weddings

candles, compelling us to eat in the dark and scrap our plans to send Thai paper lanterns floating into the sky.

“They’ll blow back and burn the resort down,” the owner said bluntly.

But would we have done it differently? Probably not. We wanted something memorable and, mishaps and all, that’s exactly what we got. And that’s something an increasing number of couples in Asia are looking for in their nuptials. “They want to make a once-in-a-lifetime experience, so when people ask, ‘So where did you get married?’ and they say, ‘Bali,’ the immediate response is, ‘Wow,’” says Monty Brown, the general manager of Amanusa in Bali, who expects to be hosting up to 30 weddings this year.

The draw of a destination wedding goes beyond wanting to have that perfect sunset moment on the beach.

For many couples, it conveniently combines a honeymoon and wedding, and allows them to spend time with farflung friends. For others, it’s a better deal—one night in Hong Kong versus three days in Bali—as well as a way of keeping numbers and costs down.

Destination weddings also appeal to couples eager to escape from traditional, formal events to more intimate, casual occasions. “Once a couple moves away from the city into a resort destination, it’s a lot more chilled out,” says Jeanette Skelton, a Phuketbased wedding planner.

So if you’re thinking of having a wedding abroad, here are nine mustread tips from some of the most experienced hands in the business:

1

SEEK HELP At resorts where weddings are popular, in-house planners are there to help and will probably be part of the package (The Ritz-Carlton Bali Resort & Spa has 17 planners on staff).

Otherwise, you might want to consider hiring a wedding planner, either at the destination or at home, to do the grunt work of researching venues, hiring vendors, greeting guests, planning activities, organizing babysitters and making sure that everything runs smoothly on the day. A good travel agent is also handy, especially if your guests are planning to turn the occasion into a holiday. Finally, if you have friends who speak the local language, recruit them as possible translators in emergencies.

2

RESEARCH YOUR DESTINATION There’s a long checklist of what you should know about your destination, but for many planners, the weather is definitely on top. “It might sound romantic to have a wedding in Phuket in July, but that’s the rainy season,” says Michele Li, one of the founders of The Wedding Company, a wedding consultancy in Hong Kong.

Make a contingency plan if your date does coincide with the rainy season.

Couples should also look into local customs and traditions. There might be

something they can incorporate into their wedding, but, more importantly, they can avoid causing offense. “Check when the public holidays are and whether it’s okay to have a wedding on the date you’ve chosen,” says Evelyn Mills, the group creative director of wedding planning consultants Marriage Maestros in Hong Kong.

Mills also advises couples to research the legalities of getting married at your destination and visa requirements for your guests. Want to get hitched at sunset? Then find out when that is exactly. Finally, keep your eye on the news so you can judge the security situation of your destination.

3

GO AND VISIT THE VENUE AT LEAST ONCE Even if it’s a resort that you’ve stayed at before, a reconnaissance visit is a must. Staying somewhere on vacation and having a wedding there are entirely different experiences.

“There’s no point having a vision of the type of wedding you want and find out that the resort can’t do that sort of set-up,” says The Wedding Company’s Li. You might also want to hold the welcome dinner, ceremony and reception at different sites.

4

MAKE A BUDGET While you get more for your money by having your wedding in a developing country such as Indonesia or Thailand, don’t expect rock-bottom prices. “There’s this perception that because it’s Phuket things will be a lot cheaper,” says Jeanette Skelton. “But if you’re expecting five-star service, it’s still going to be expensive.” Also keep in mind costs such as government taxes at hotels, staff overtime charges, duties on alcohol and, if you’re in a remote area, electricity generators. Some resorts also charge extra if rain forces couples to fall back on plan B. »

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strategies | weddings

maps, sunscreen, insect repellent and a card with a few essential phrases in the local tongue).

7

PACK APPROPRIATELY For brides, the dress should go with the surroundings (read: no long train), while grooms might want to eschew a tuxedo or suit. Brides also should consider changing into something shorter and more informal after the ceremony. “The wedding dress always gets trashed after the bride has dragged it through the sand and then the lawn,” says Jeanette Skelton.

8

ARRIVE EARLY Get there two to three days before your guests arrive to iron out any last-minute wrinkles (and there’s almost always eleventh-hour problems), and to ease into the spirit of the place.

5

KEEP IT SIMPLE The beauty of having a destination wedding is that the setting does most of the work.

Also, keep the guest list small, “otherwise the logistics will be a complete nightmare,” says May Chan, a Singaporean investment banker based in Hong Kong who held her wedding in Phuket in March this year.

6

PREPARE AND GUIDE YOUR GUESTS Give all your guests as much advance notice as possible. Not all of them will be hardy adventurers or jetsetting globetrotters, and they will probably need some guidance from 32

you. That means providing them with two to three hotel options near the venue, confirming hotel bookings, arranging airport pick-ups, planning activities for them and preparing welcome packages (i.e., a bag with

9

RELAX Easier said than done, but it’s important to remember that a destination wedding should be fun— that’s part of the point of having it somewhere unconventional. So get a massage, go for a swim and enjoy that glass of wine with old friends.

Wedding Planners in Southeast Asia SINGAPORE Directions M&C 65/6462-0030; www.directionsmc.com.

PHUKET

Luxury Events Phuket 66/813-700-246; www.luxuryeventsphuket.com.

HONG KONG Marriage Maestros 852/2546-0085; www.marriagemaestros.com.

BALI

Elite Events 62-361/738-911; www.eliteeventsbali.com.

BORACAY

Boracay Weddings 63/917-533-6293; www.boracayweddings.com.

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Lakeside living: A close-up look at the newest five-star hotel in Hanoi <(page 50)

Artistic ambitions.

The eight best galleries in Hong Kong <(page 42)

Double Dutch.

Our guide to Holland’s second city of Rotterdam (page 46) >

+

• Phuket’s latest design hotels • Southeast Asia’s architectural icons • Inside New York City’s Williamsburg

(Insider) Photo credit by tktktk

C L O C K W I S E F R O M T O P L E F T : P I A U L I N ; C O U R T E S Y O F I N T E R C O N T I N E N TA L H A N O I W E S T L A K E ; L A R A D AY ; C O U R T E S Y O F S A L A R E S O R T S A N D S P A S ; A N N E M A R I E K E VA N D R I M M E L E N

Scandinavian days: A style insider picks his favorite spots in Stockholm <(page 52)

Where to GoWhat to EatWhere to StayWhat to Buy

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TECH

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X Marks the Spot

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VER THE YEARS,

Ko Samui has transformed itself from a backpacker haven to a mainstream vacation spot.

It’s now undergoing another metamorphosis, this time as a design destination, with urbane resorts like The Library and The Four Seasons Samui. The newest in this breed opens its doors this month. X2 Koh Samui (66-2/6968239; www.x2resorts.com; bungalows from Bt4,200) consists of 27 one-story villas, most with their own pools. While it exhibits some of the familiar leitmotifs of contemporary hotels (sleek lines, check; polished concrete, check), the property’s discreet design melds seamlessly with its surroundings. Another major plus is its secluded location on the island’s relatively low-key southeastern coast.

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3

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Tee-Off Looking for a souvenir Tshirt but want to stand out from a sea of jerseys emblazoned with “Same Same But Different?”

Thanks to a new generation of designers, there are now plenty of fresh, funky choices to be found throughout Southeast Asia.

Here are some of our picks: (1) A cult favorite among hipsters in Europe and Singapore, graphic designer Hanson Ho’s label rabbit (www.noisyforest.com; T-shirts from S$110) favors edgy, limited edition designs.

(2) Sold in Bangkok’s Chatuchak Market, Hey Pilgrim! (www.heypilgrim.com; T-shirts from Bt380) offers streetwear that’s tough and girly at the same time.

(3) This nature-inspired shirt by Singapore’s Fuchsia Lane (www.fuchsialane.com; Tshirts from S$49) would brighten any wardrobe. (4) Exuberant, colorful and brash, Team Manila’s (teammanila.com; T-shirts from P500) tees celebrate everyday Filipino culture.

C L O C K W I S E F R O M T O P L E F T : D AV I E S + S TA R R ; S I T T I P U N C H A I T E R D S I R I ( 4 ) ; C O U R T E S Y O F X 2 R E S O R T S

BEST FIND

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| newsflash

South Williamsburg, New York F E S T I VA L

In Brooklyn’s buzziest neighborhood, right across the East River from Manhattan, former factories have been transformed into eclectic shops and restaurants that are destinations in their own right.

By ADRIEN GLOVER

2. Sprout Home

Green thumbs are rejoicing over a new East Coast outpost of Sprout Home, a popular Chicago shop that sells goods for the house and garden, including melamine plates with paint-by-number scenes, ergonomic pruning shears and beautiful cut blooms.

44 Grand St.; 1-718/388-4440.

Above: Thomas Hampson.

Right: Murray Perahia.

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1. A.P.C. Surplus Store

This discount outlet of the simple, well-cut Parisian label sells items from last year’s collections at 50–60 percent off (A.P.C.’s covetable jeans are the only full-price pieces).

The stock changes every six weeks. On the racks now: favorites from spring ’07. 33 Grand St.; 1-347/381-3193.

3. Marlow & Sons

ON TH E MAP

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Tapestries hang on the walls, and vintage spirits, absinthe and more than 90 Italian wines are displayed on 19th-century desks.

Tastings, classes and a mail-order wine club are in the works. 147 Broadway; 1-718/388-0087.

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Chef Polo Dobkin earned a Michelin star for his seasonal dishes like spring-pea raviolini and inventive cocktails inspired by local spots (try the Gretsch, named after a former guitar factory, and made from gin and cucumber-infused vermouth). Sculptors from the Brooklyn Navy Yard studios created the metalwork in the urban Gothic room. 149 Broadway; 1-718/3846343; dinner for two US$90.

FA R L E F T : C O U R T E S Y O F I M G A R T I S T S ; W A T A N A B E / S O N Y C L A S S I C A L . R I G H T : M A L U A LVA R E Z ( 5 )

The green-and-white awning announcing GROCERIES, SPIRITS, OYSTERS gives only a hint of what you’ll find inside. By day, the general store in front doubles as a coffeehouse. After 5 P.M., locals gather at communal tables in the gourmet restaurant in back for pomegranate Sidecars and artisanal cheese plates. 81 Broadway; 1718/384-1441; dinner for two US$42.

Ken t

Mark your calendars: this October, the Singapore Sun Festival (www. singaporesunfestival.com; October 17–26; tickets for concerts from S$38 and can be purchased via www.sistic.com.sg) returns with an impressive lineup. Among the performers expected at this year’s event are the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, pianists Ye m Bronfman and Murray Perahia, violinist Sarah Chang and baritone Thomas Hampson.

Calling itself a celebration of “the art of living well,” the festival—which began in Tuscany in 2003 and now includes a sister event in California’s Napa Valley— also features a charity wine auction, book readings, film screenings, talks by wellness experts and meals prepared by some of the world’s best chefs (Charlie Trotter and Daniel Boulud will be in attendance this year). With this much star power, you’ll want to book tickets soon.

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celebrity architects are the new status symbols for Asian cities, especially in China where a pre-Olympic building frenzy has reshaped Beijing. But other parts of the region are catching up fast. Singapore, for instance, is in the midst of a construction boom, which will see the addition of Reflections at Keppel Bay (2013), a luxury residential complex by American Daniel Libeskind, and South Beach (2012), an eco-friendly commercial and residential development by Britain’s Norman Foster to the city’s skyline. Penang has recruited New York–based architecture firm Asymptote to design the Penang Global City Centre, an ambitious development that will include a performing arts center, two hotels, a mall and an observatory tower, and will take at least 15 years to realize. British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid designed ARCHIHong Kong Polytechnic University’s Innovation Tower, expected to T E C T U R E break ground next year. If you don’t want to wait years to catch cutting-edge architecture, back in Beijing, The Opposite House, a 99-room hotel in the Sanlitun entertainment district, is a monument of a different order. Unlike the boldly futuristic National Stadium and CCTV towers, the hotel’s design is warm and understated, emphasizing natural light and pale woods—all hallmarks of its architect, Japan’s Kengo Kuma.

UILDINGS BY

Clockwise from left: Singapore’s South Beach; The Opposite House, Beijing; Reflections at Keppel Bay in Singapore.

Frozen Music

ON THE RADAR

Flavors of Asia

KHA Singapore This newcomer delivers modern Thai food in a lushly tropical setting.

Situated in the city’s new gardening and lifestyle center, Hort Park, it capitalizes on its Arcadian surroundings with an alfresco dining area, ample use of glass and airy interiors. Owner Yenn Wong — who’s also responsible for the JIA hotels in Shanghai and Hong Kong — hired Australian chef David Hamilton, formerly of Bangkok’s Dream Hotel, to devise a menu filled with refined interpretations of Thai classics, such hor muk, reborn here as spicy salmon quenelles with pomelo salad and red curry dressing. Hort Park, No. 02-02, 33 Hyderabad Rd.; 65/6476-9000.

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AHA Siem Reap

ISAO Bangkok

Anointed the region’s new It food, Khmer cuisine is enjoying a makeover, with stylish new eateries devoted to local traditions opening in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. The latest entry in Siem Reap’s expanding fine dining scene, this restaurant — whose name means food in Khmer — takes indigenous ingredients in unexpected directions: green mango and dried snake salad; grilled prawns with radicchio and mango; and sesameencrusted fish cakes. Opened by the team behind Hôtel de la Paix, the décor is equally striking, with parasolshaped lights and an undulating wood-paneled wall. The Passage, Old Market Area; 855-63/965-501.

The Japanese comprise Thailand’s largest group of expatriates, so it’s no surprise that Bangkok has some truly stellar sushi restaurants. This petite, minimally decorated sushi bar prides itself on super-fresh ingredients and decidedly less-than-traditional maki rolls that combine flavors and textures with abandon. Not all the rolls are original creations: both the owner and chef once worked at Green Tea restaurant, a trailblazing sushi house in Chicago, and they readily acknowledge their debt to that establishment. Still, what it lacks in inventiveness, Isao more than makes up for in tastiness. 5 Soi 31, Sukhumvit Rd.; 66-2/258-0645.

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C LO C KW I S E F RO M TO P L E F T: CO U RT ESY O F C I T Y D EV E LO P M E N TS L I M I T E D ; CO U RT ESY O F T H E O P P OS I T E H O U S E ; CO U RT ESY O F K E P P E L L A N D ; CO U RT ESY O F I SAO ; CO U RT ESY O F A H A ; CO U RT ESY O F K H A

Here, three new restaurants around the region that will have you coming back for more.

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| the arts

Cultural Revolution. Thanks to China’s art boom, Hong Kong’s gallery scene is enjoying a renaissance. Here are eight mustsee spaces. Story and photographs by LARA DAY ONG KONG, THE OLD CLICHÉ goes, is a veritable cultural desert. In its quest for cold, hard cash, this regional financial hub wastes little time on other, more genteel pursuits such as the arts.

But clichés are meant to be disproved, and in the past three years, Hong Kong has transformed itself into the world’s thirdlargest art market after New York and London, with headline-grabbing, recordsetting auction sales fueled by the Chinese contemporary art boom. In May, the territory held its largest international art fair, ART HK 08, while the first homegrown, Asian-focused auction house, Atting House, opened last November.

It’s no surprise, then, that new galleries are springing up all over the city, bringing fresh Asian and international artworks to both locals and visitors. At the same time, early pioneers are expanding and developing their exhibition programs, paving the way for richer, more diverse offerings. Below is our selection of galleries not to be missed.

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HONG KONG

Q CAT STREET GALLERY

On Display Clockwise from top: A portrait by Australian artist Craig Waddell at Cat Street Gallery in Sheung Wan; a sculpture by He Jia at Gallery on Old Bailey in SoHo; 10 Chancery Lane, a gallery in SoHo; a video from an installation by Gu Wenda at Hanart TZ Gallery in Central.

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Located down the road from the picturesque Man Mo Temple, this gallery offers a bright, modern exhibition space. Taking its name from a 14th-floor annex on Cat Street, it displays mainly figurative contemporary works by European, Australian and American artists. DON’T MISS Australian painter Craig Waddell’s brash, neon-hued self-portraits and French painter Katharina Monnier’s abstract, Rothko-inspired color fields. 222 Hollywood Rd., Sheung Wan; 852/2291-0006.

Q 10 CHANCERY LANE This space has been promoting contemporary art in Hong Kong since

founder–curator Katie de Tilly opened its trademark red doors in 2001. Hidden behind the historic Central Police Station, the gallery’s cozy front entrance leads to a roomier exhibition area. A newly renovated, 278-square-meter annex in Chai Wan allows for grander exhibitions. DON’T MISS Chinese conceptual artist Cang Xin, British figurative painter Simon Birch and Hong Kong photographer Stanley Wong, who also goes by the name anothermountainman.

10 Chancery Lane, SoHo; 852/2810-0065.

Q GALLERY ON OLD BAILEY Standing at the corner of buzzing Staunton Street, this gallery is impossible to miss, with its edgy, often-provocative window displays of contemporary Chinese painting and sculpture. DON’T MISS He Jia’s surreal bubblehead metal sculptures and Guo Hongwei’s ghostly, Gerhard Richter-esque watercolor “snapshots” of childhood. 17 Old Bailey St., SoHo; 852/2869-7122.

Q HANART TZ GALLERY Hanart has been a proponent of avant-garde Chinese contemporary art since 1983, when renowned curator and owner Johnson Chang first brought the world’s attention to contemporary artworks from the mainland.

Its snug Central showroom is supplemented by a larger space in the budding artists’ enclave of Fo Tan. DON’T MISS Internationally renowned mainland Chinese artists such as Zhang Xiaogang and Wang Guangyi, and Hong Kong luminary Wucius Wong. 202 Henley Building, 5 Queen’s Rd., Central; 852/2526-9019.

Q OOI BOTOS FINE ART This new gallery is the brainchild of Joanne Ooi, the creative director of Shanghai Tang, and Lisa Botos, a leading international photography expert. Devoted to contemporary art photography and photography-based installation, its striking two-level exhibition space in the heart of the old Wanchai market area promises to lend a dazzling new dimension to the Hong Kong art arena. DON’T MISS Leading Asian

photographers, including China’s Xing Danweng and Yi Zhou, Hong Kong’s legendary Wing Shya and Singaporean talent Sean Lee. 5 Gresson St., Wanchai.

Q OSAGE GALLERY Despite being around for only three years, this gallery has become a powerhouse.

With galleries in Beijing, Singapore, Shanghai and Manila, Osage also boasts an impressive 1,400-square-meter warehouse in Kwun Tong, which shows everything from experimental video art to large-scale installations. DON’T MISS Chinese photographer Miao Qiaochun’s apocalyptic takes on Michelangelo’s Last Judgment. 45 Caine Rd., corner of Old Bailey St., SoHo; 852/2537-0688.

Q SCHOENI ART GALLERY Opened in 1992, Schoeni made its name exhibiting Chinese artists such as Chen Yu and Yang Shaobin. The newly refitted exhibition space now shows a wider roster of international artists. DON’T MISS Lawrence Schiller’s whimsically poetic photographs of Marilyn Monroe. 21–23 Old Bailey St., Central; 852/2869-8802.

Q PLUM BLOSSOMS GALLERY This large showroom designed by local architect Leslie Lu shows everything from ancient textiles to contemporary Asian and Western art. DON’T MISS Jiang Shuo’s bronze interpretations of the revolutionary Red Guards. G6 Hollywood Rd., Central; 852/2521-2189.

Great Leap Forward From top: A sculpture of Mao Zedong, another element to Gu’s installation at Hanart TZ Gallery; one of Andy Warhol’s iconic portraits of Mao at Plum Blossoms Gallery in Central; Italian artist Omar Galliani’s paintings at Schoeni Gallery in Central.

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SLEEP

SEE

Housed in the iconic brick building that was once the head office of the Holland America line, Hotel New York (1 Koninginnenhoofd; 31-10/439-0500; www.hotelnewyork. nl; doubles from US$173) has 72 loftlike guest rooms and a lively waterfront oyster bar. • Each floor at Hotel Bazar (16 Witte de Withstraat; 31-10/206-5151; www. hotelbazar.nl; doubles from US$197, including breakfast) pays homage to a different part of the globe. (We prefer the colorful African rooms.)

Hit the hotel’s restaurant for excellent North African and Middle Eastern fare. • The floorto-ceiling windows and white-onwhite interiors of Stroom (1 Lloydstraat; 31-10/221-4060; www. stroomrotterdam.nl; doubles from US$252), set in the burgeoning Lloydkwartier neighborhood, are undeniably beautiful. Our one complaint: a few instances of design-hotel folly, such as an unwieldy, high-style bathtub.

• The 185-meter-high Euromast (20 Parkhaven; 31-10/436-4811; www.euromast.nl; doubles from US$607, including breakfast) has a new attraction—two stunning suites nestled far above the city.

Destroyed by bombs in World War II, central Rotterdam was rebuilt in a daring, modern style.

The architecture hit list: Ben van Berkel’s elegant Erasmus Bridge (the Swan, in local parlance); Piet Blom’s Cube Houses, which look like dice in mid-toss (70 Overblaak; 31-10/414-2285; www. kubuswoning.nl); and the Kunsthal museum (341 Westzeedijk; 3110/440-0301; www.kunsthal.nl), one of native son Rem Koolhaas’s first big commissions.

Explore it all with a walking tour from Rotterdam ArchiGuides (31-10/433-2231; rotterdam-

archiguides.nl; US$205 for a private, two-hour tour). • Witte de Withstraat, in the city center, is a street of pioneering galleries and world-class museums. Don’t miss the fine arts museum, Boijmans van Beuningen (18–20 Museumpark; 31-10/441-9400; www.boijmans.nl), or the

HOLLAND

Netherlands Architecture Institute (25 Museumpark; 31Dutch Treats Clockwise from left: A colorful, light-filled hallway in Hotel Bazar; a view of the Euromast tower from the banks of the Nieuwe Mass River; the span of the city’s famous Erasmus Bridge, designed by Ben van Berkel; Hotel Bazar’s Eritrean-themed room No. 308, with Tigrinya writing on the wall.

10/440-1200; www.nai.nl) and TENT and Witte de With (50

Witte de Withstraat; www.tentplaza. nl; www.wdw.nl), a pair of the city’s most groundbreaking contemporary art galleries. »

Rotterdam in the Limelight. A showcase for modern architecture and design, Holland’s vibrant (and slightly edgy) second city is one of Europe’s rising stars. By JAIME GROSS 46

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Photographed by ANNEMARIEKE VAN DRIMMELEN

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guide

DO Skip the big-brand shops on Lijnbaan (Europe’s first pedestrian mall) in favor of the smaller, more varied boutiques in the neighborhood around Meent and Pannekoekstraat. Don’t miss the sleek handmade jewelry and accessories at Galerie Puur (50A Botersloot; 31-10/213-6796). Then head to Delfshaven, an area of picturesque canals that emerged from the war relatively unscathed.

Drop by the maritime-themed art and antiques store, known simply as Delfshaven (33 Voorhaven; 3110/425-4356), for a selection of maps that date back to the Age of Exploration. • After dark, Rotterdam is one of Europe’s hottest club destinations. Sample the scene at Thalia Lounge (31 Kruiskade; 31-10/214-2547; www.thaliarotterdam.nl), where a sophisticated crowd congregates at the bar above the dance floor.

Cutting-edge DJ’s and multimedia art exhibitions draw a younger set to Off_Corso (22 Kruiskade; 31-10/411-3897; www. offcorso.nl). Cocktail hour belongs to Soho (53A Pannekoekstraat; 3110/411-8883). Furry white walls and futuristic curves make this bar look like the lair of a very stylish Abominable Snowman.

EAT With its mural of oversize roses at the entrance and a huge picture window looking onto the Nieuwe Maas River, the restaurant Blits (701 Boompjes; 31-10/282-9051; dinner for two US$60) is full of eye candy. But chef Glyn Stoker’s imaginative Japanese-meets-

The Art of Eating Clockwise from above: Hotel Bazar’s North African–themed restaurant; parchment-wrapped baked apple at the stylish Blits restaurant; the bar at Blits; a Rotterdam local.

GUIDE TO ROTTERDAM GETTING THERE Rotterdam is 80 kilometers southwest of Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport; trains connecting the two cities depart every 15 minutes.

WHEN TO VISIT May through September, for the best weather, and back-to-back festivals and beach parties along the Nieuwe Maas River (www.strandaandemaas.nl).

T+L TIP Central Rotterdam is compact and easily explored by metro, tram, bike or foot — but the most thrilling way to do it is by water taxi (31-10/403-0303; www.watertaxirotterdam.nl).

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North African menu (try the spiced tuna-and-tabbouleh salad) keeps diners’ attention where it belongs. • Lulu (60 Van Vollenhovenstraat; 31-10/201-9394; dinner for two US$63) is one of the city’s top restaurants, serving modern Asian food in a seductive room warmed by saffron- and chile-colored walls and floor-toceiling shoji screens. Well-dressed diners, bathed in candlelight, sip sake at low Indonesian tables.

• For a day-into-night experience, set aside time to explore Westelijk Handelsterrein (15 Van Vollenhovenstraat), a covered warehouse complex dating from 1894 that has been transformed into a warren of galleries, restaurants, bars and clubs.

Watch the transition at Restaurant Rosso (31-10/2250705; dinner for two US$128), a chic brick-walled restaurant with a Mediterranean menu. After 10 P.M., the dining room turns into a sexy late-night lounge. ✚

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| room report

Hanoi Now. The new InterContinental Hanoi Westlake breathes fresh life into the local hotel scene. By SONIA KOLESNIKOV-JESSOP

Water World Above: Viewing the lake from a private balcony at the InterContinental Hanoi Westlake. Left: A panoramic view of the hotel.

THE AREA Right next door to 50

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the Sheraton Hotel, the InterContinental is just a fiveminute walk to the 800-year-old Golden Lotus Pagoda (now under restoration) and a 10- to 15-minute taxi ride to the Old Quarter. Xuan Dieu Road, which winds around the lake, doesn’t provide a particularly pleasant setting for a stroll because of incessant motorbike traffic. But it does offer several small, atmospheric restaurants such as the rustic Vine and Thai Vine, which serve international and Thai food, respectively.

THE DESIGN Works by upand-coming local artists like Nguyen Minh Thanh and Le Quoc Viet hang in the lobby, setting the hotel’s contemporary Vietnamese tone. However, interior designer KCA Design, whose previous clients include

the Burj Al Arab in Dubai and the InterContinental London Park Lane, also found inspiration in the rich cultures of Vietnam’s ethnic minorities, as evidenced by the decorative textile hangings on walls.

THE SERVICE The friendly, competent front-desk staff showed initiative such as tracking down an errant taxi driver. But housekeeping staff proved to be overzealous and impatient, with a penchant for vacuuming the corridors as late as 11 P.M. and ringing the doorbell a second time if you do not respond promptly.

THE LOTUS SUITE Tasteful and comfortable, the suite features high ceilings, polished wood floors with wool, cut-pile rugs from Thailand and sliding

C O U R T E SY O F I N T E R C O N T I N E N TA L H A N O I W E S T L A K E ( 2 )

VIETNAM

THE OVERVIEW Removed from the bustle of the city’s Old Quarter, the InterContinental Hanoi Westlake is built right over tranquil Tay Ho, or West Lake, a location that delivers picturesque views as well as plenty of local color (fishermen trawl the waters right beneath your windows). Each of the 198 rooms boasts a large private balcony, lending the property, which opened in December 2007, a resort feel. Not all the rooms have a lake view, so for the best vistas, make sure to book into one of the rooms in the three pavilions that are perched further out over the water. 1A Nghi Tam, Tay Ho; 84-4/2708888; www.intercontinental.com/ hanoi; doubles from US$220, suites from US$350.

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louvered window shutters.

Soothing earth tones—dark chocolate and burnt orange— dominate the color scheme. Wall decorations include a black-andwhite image of the Vietnamese countryside by Hoang Lingh, a well-known local photographer, and a framed textile inspired by traditional ceremonial ethnic costume. The 1.6-meter-high headboard, upholstered in leather, offers comfortable support for viewing the 42-inch flat-screen television. The room is also equipped with high-speed Internet access, a DVD player, a Bose entertainment system and an iPod dock.

THE BATHROOM Generously sized and brightly lit, the bathroom features a soaking tub and a separate rain shower (a

minor complaint: the shower stall’s glass door opens awkwardly outward). His-andhers sinks nestle in yellow marble, though a more indigenous touch can be found in the bamboo ladder that serves as a towel rack. Along with the usual suspects, toiletries include a mini talcum powder box, a tiny stick of deodorant, a small hairbrush and Elemis bath products. Ultra-soft bathrobes, from Singapore-based bedding company Ploh, heighten the overall luxe factor.

THE AMENITIES Golf buggies and trishaws shuttle guests between the pavilions and the main building. Turndown service includes the weather forecast and a small card bearing the legend of West Lake’s origins

to send you into dreamland. Too bad it’s always the same story.

For an early morning breakfast, dig into the spread at Café du Lac, where you can gaze out of the floor-to-ceiling windows and catch a glimpse of daily life on the water. At the end of the day, nothing beats the Sunset Bar; try and secure one of the lakeside daybeds for the best views. As befits its name, Milan-Saigon restaurant offers a selection of Italian and Asian favorites. ✚

A guest room at the InterContinental Hanoi Westlake.

insider

| the expert T WASN’T QUITE Project Runway for Swedish designer Daniel Ostman.

A cabinetmaker by training, he made his name serendipitously a few years ago with a handful of Christmas gifts he sewed himself; now his signature striped scarves, hats and robes are sold at boutiques all over Europe and through the lifestyle product collective Design House Stockholm—and he’s one of the country’s most in-demand

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Ostman at Design House Stockholm‘s headquarters.

accessories designers. Here, his guide to the city’s most aesthetically minded destinations.

■ TOP TABLEWARE Ostman goes to Jacksons (53 Sibyllegatan; 46-8/665-3350; www. jacksons.se), in the posh part of town known as Östermalm (where you’ll fi nd Gucci, Burberry and other familiar brands), to look for exquisite crystal, glass and ceramics by Orrefors, Kosta Boda and Gustavsberg. “They

Stockholm Syndrome. Brilliant design is everywhere you look in the Swedish capital. Local furniture and accessories creator Daniel Ostman gives T+L his list of must-see shops and restaurants. By DAVID A. KEEPS

SWEDEN

Orrefors and Kosta Boda on display at Jacksons, a favorite of Daniel Ostman‘s.

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Photographed by PIA ULIN

carry all the things you fi nd in coffee-table books on design.

They don’t have anything that is not absolutely the best.”

■ SLEEK INTERIORS On Strandvägen, one of Stockholm’s most prestigious addresses, Svenskt Tenn (5 Strandvägen; 46-8/670-1600; www. svenskttenn.se) and Carl Malmsten (5B Strandvägen; 46-8/233-380; www.malmsten.se) are furnituredesign showrooms that have been in business since the 1930’s.

Svenskt Tenn is famous for textiles with floral, avian and animal prints; Malmsten manufactures and sells solid wood furniture that typifies the timeless silhouettes and craftsmanship of traditional Scandinavian furniture.

■ SWEDISH ESSENTIALS “Of course, everyone shops at Ikea and H&M,” Ostman declares, citing the Swedish furniture and clothing giants as paragons of “down-to-earth, democratic design.” Hit the super-size H&M in Östermalm (22 Hamngatan; 46-8/5246-3530), then grab one of the free shuttle buses that run past it and go

directly to the 1960’s Guggenheim Museum–like, 55,000-square-meter Ikea at King’s Bend (1 Ekgårdsvägen, Skärholmen; 46-4/768-1000)— slightly outside the city, but worth the ride to nab the most comprehensive assortment of Swedish kitchen accessories and textiles available anywhere.

Midcentury textile designs at Svenkst Tenn. From top left: Inside Design House Stockholm; denim devotees in front of Acne Studio.

■ FASHION CENTRAL Bruno Götgatsbacken (36 Götgatan; www.brunogotgatsbacken.se) is a 17th-century industrial building and its loading docks, reinvented as a sleek, Modernist mall with a café and shops for top, cutting-edge local fashion labels: Whyred, Filippa K, Tiger and J. Lindeberg.

■ DENIM AND MORE Like Italy’s Benetton in the 1980’s, Acne (23 Lilla Nygatan; www.acne.se; 46-8/5557-9900) melds fashion, design and media: they print their own magazine and even stage exhibitions in their store—located, not by accident, in the old bank where Swedish thieves locked hostages in a vault and made the “Stockholm Syndrome” a part of the poppsychology lexicon.

■ BEAUTY AND BAGS Just a few steps down the street, in a 1920’s Art Deco building, C/O Stockholm (30 Götgatan; 468/5052-5900; www.costockholm.se) offers a wide range of international makeup, body care and designer accessories; get your Annick Goutal or Darphin fi x, then browse the Botkier and Vanessa Bruno bag selection. »

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| the expert breads and pastries made with fresh lingonberries.

The shop also houses an Italian espresso bar, Ostman’s choice for the best coffee in town.

■ FOR THE SWEET TOOTH Riddarbageriet (15 Riddargatan; 46-8/660-3375) is a small bakery with room for only six or eight people, but worth the wait for perfect Swedish breakfast carbs: dense cardamom-and-cinnamon

■ SWEDISH STANDOUTS In Swedish, husmanskost means “food for the everyday people,” and invariably features a herring special. Ostman takes visitors to KB (7 Smålandsgatan; 46-8/6796032; www.konstnarsbaren.se), an authentic Scandinavian restaurant established in 1931 that serves standards like reindeer, elk, salmon and beef Wallenbergare (a Swedish variation of shepherd’s pie).

■ DINNER THEATER A short walk away, Riche (4 Birger Jarlsgatan; 46-8/54503560; www.riche.se)—in an 1890’s mansion recently redesigned by architect Jonas Bohlin—is Stockholm’s HQ for the young and fashionable. In a labyrinth of

Stådsgarden street, in the Södermalm neighborhood, passes beneath the airborne Gondolen restaurant.

Right: Employees at R.O.O.M., which sells Ostman‘s furniture designs. Above: The front bistro at Riche.

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rooms, a menu of international all-star classics (steak tartare, frisée aux lardons, schnitzel) lures droves every night, as does the lounge, Lilla Baren, which offers cutting-edge DJ’s and the occasional live show.

■ VODKA WITH A VIEW Call it a day with a drink and a panoramic skyline view of Stockholm from the Södermalm neighborhood at the tramcar-inthe-sky Gondolen (6 Stadsgården; 46-8/641-7090; www.eriks.se).

Erik Lallerstedt, a puckish chef with two other spots, Bakficka and Viinbar, serves continental dishes with a Swedish spin, but the big draws are local lagers Falcon and Pripps, aquavit, oldschool Absolut (“We don’t drink lemon vodka,” Ostman sniffs) and Swedish snaps (bitter and herbal schnapps). ✚

insider

| check in A glimpse inside a pool villa suite at the SALA Phuket Resort and Spa, one of the area’s new designcentric hotels.

Designs on Phuket. Three new hotels in Thailand’s famed resort effortlessly blend style with the region’s history and culture.

By ADAM SKOLNICK

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SALA PHUKET This new hotspot opened last December on Hat Mai Khao, a stunning 17-kilometer stretch of white sand at the far north of the island, which is also home to a national park and a turtle hatchery. The property, designed by local architect Amata Luphaiboon, whose portfolio includes the Six Senses Hideaway Samui, is a stunning rendition of Phuket Town’s Sino-Portuguese architecture. The resort’s 63 sugar-white pool villas are decorated with floral ceramic tiles and frosted glass, which have been painted and etched by hand with Chineseinspired geometric patterns—allusions to Phuket Town’s historic shophouses.

All the villas have alfresco bathrooms, and the second-story balconies boast soak tubs (with curtains for privacy).

Look out for Approach the resort

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SIX SENSES HIDEAWAY YAO NOI Unveiled in October 2007 on Ko Yao Noi, just an hour’s boat ride from Phuket, this latest addition to Six Senses Resorts & Spas pays homage to the indigenous Moken people, or sea gypsies. Like Moken dwellings, the resort’s 54 thatched-roof villas are perched on stilts, affording them incredible views of the sea. Of course, the real nomads lack air-conditioning, butler service and private pools. True to the company’s ecological ethos, form does not trump substance at the property. Nothing is wasted here.

Even broken dishes are used as fi ltration in their sewage treatment plant. Thanks to floor-to-ceiling glass on all sides, natural light floods the bungalows, minimizing the need for electricity during the day.

Look out for Six Senses Hideaway properties are known for their splendid spas. This one rambles over a creek, and up a landscaped hillside.

The spa longhouse and satellite treatment salas are essentially luxurious huts with bamboo floors

CO U RT E SY O F SA L A R E S O RTS A N D S PA S

from the beach, and you’ll be greeted with a glamorous pool and seaside lounge scene. There are actually two pools. The 32-meter infi nity pool is made from black terrazzo, while the dark-green terrazzo fun pool has massage bubble baths in one corner. If you want to stay dry, curl up in one of the bar’s plush, round daybeds or poolside salas. 333 Moo 3, Mai Khao Beach; 66-76/338-888; www.salaphuket. com; villas from US$350.

C LO C KW I S E F R O M TO P : CO U RT E SY O F I N D I G O P E A R L ; CO U RT E SY O F S I X S E N S E S R E S O RTS & S PA S ; CO U RT E SY O F I N D I G O P E A R L ; CO U RT E SY O F SA L A R E S O RTS A N D S PA S

and sliding doors, and woven window treatments. Everything in the spa, including the in-house line of spa products, is 100 percent natural, adding to the property’s back-to-theland aura. 56 Moo 5, Ko Yao Noi; 6676/418-500; www.sixsenses.com; villas from US$1,000 per night.

INDIGO PEARL Most resorts post the day’s activities on a simple chalkboard. Here, the owners have opted for something a bit more unusual. Standing in the middle of the lobby’s entryway is a wroughtiron cart with gears, wheels, levers and lanterns. It looks 100 years old, and, in fact, it is. A relic from Phuket’s tin mining past, this old-fashioned generator has been kitted out with a flat-screen that strobes all the activities available to guests at Indigo Pearl. It’s a utilitarian nod to the region’s history.

When the owners of this former three-star resort began planning repairs after the 2004 tsunami, they didn’t want just a simple upgrade.

Instead, they sought to infuse the 243room property with a sense of Phuket’s roots and soul. So they hired

renowned architect and interior designer Bill Bensley, who together with Australian artist John Underwood began scouring the area for recycled scrap metal, reclaimed building materials, old railroad ties, driftwood and antique mining instruments. Restored and repurposed, their fi nds litter the entire resort, which reopened in 2006. Iron coffee tables in the lobby were fashioned out of grills found in an old Phuket Town ice factory. The reception counter is made from recycled driftwood louvers, while the spidery chandeliers that hang from the ceiling’s beams in the lobby are melted scrap metal, molded by hand and crowned with indigo lamps.

Look out for The resort’s crowning glory is its steakhouse, the Rivet Grill, which features walls made from burnished stainless steel that’s been hammered and baked. The booths, which resemble chairs by Jaime Hayon, the eccentric Spanish designer, are actually old horse carriages. Their covered tops lend the tables an extra touch of intimacy. Nai Yang Beach; 66-76/327-006; www. indigo-pearl.com; doubles from US$180. ✚

Thai Style Clockwise from top: Black Ginger restaurant at the Indigo Pearl; a pool villa at Six Senses Hideaway Yao Noi; a tuxedo suite at the Indigo Pearl; a semi-alfresco tub at SALA Phuket.

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| walk

Raise the Red Lantern. Singapore’s reputation SINGAPORE

wasn’t always squeaky clean, as CHRISTOPHER R. COX discovers during a stroll through Chinatown

fastidious image now, but for much of its early existence, the Nanny State was a notorious pleasure dome, where gambling, prostitution and opium use were rife.

Now, every Friday evening, as the neon lights glow to life on Pagoda Street, Original Singapore Walks conducts an offbeat but insightful stroll through Chinatown’s former red-light district, now a respectable neighborhood of small shops and street vendors. The two-hour “Secrets of the Red Lantern” tour stretches less than 2 kilometers, but it’s enough time and distance for guide Helena Poon to provide visitors, and more than a few Singaporeans, with a compelling behind-the-scenes history of the city-state 60

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founded by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles in 1819. To bring order to the young colony, Raffles designated separate districts for each ethnic group. The so-called “Jackson Plan” of 1822 left the swampy south bank of the Singapore River to the Chinese. Seafaring Hokkien from Fujian province settled fi rst along the waterfront, followed by Teochew and Cantonese, who inhabited an inland area near the present-day Chinatown subway station.

Then, the neighborhood went by many names, including Bu Ye Tian, or The Place of Nightless Days, and its brothels, restaurants and theaters operated non-stop to serve thousands of young and single male immigrants. At the corner of Trengganu and Temple streets, Poon pauses Illustrated by WASINEE CHANTAKORN

to read from a visiting Manchu official’s 1887 description of the district: “Brothels are as many and as close together as the teeth of a comb.”

It was no exaggeration: just a block away, Smith Street was once lined with 17 sporting houses, and remnants of the neighborhood’s past can still be found. Outside 16 Temple Street, Kung Onn Herbal shop displays dried crocodile, starfish and deer horn—all reputed to give men a boost in the boudoir.

Though debauchery is never far from the mind, our entertaining guide keeps the commentary relatively mild and works hard to put the naughty bits in their proper social context. Poon, a history buff, has combed old coroner’s reports, and every colonial-era shophouse seems to hold a tragic story, underscoring the seamy side of the neighborhood’s florid past. At 10 Trengganu Street, a 23year-old working girl was murdered by a frequent customer in 1912. A few doors down, at 4 Trengganu, a 22-year-old prostitute hopelessly in debt killed herself with an overdose of opium in 1887.

If the chronicles of the comfort women were fi lled with abuse and peril, the lives of their male Chinese customers were barely better. On Temple Street, Poon shows a vintage photograph of the crowded hold of an immigrant “hell ship.” One vessel that sailed from Macau with 300

coolies arrived here with only 120 survivors. A life of backbreaking toil awaited, and these laborers numbed their despair at “flower brothels’’ with opium, a vice the British found too lucrative to ban until 1946. Legions of addicts would continue to get their fi x clandestinely. From her bag, Poon produces an opium pipe “just like the one grandma used to use.’’

The route passes the somewhat incongruous Sri Mariamman Temple (244 South Bridge Rd.), built in 1823 and the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore, before fi nally ending a few hundred meters west of Chinatown in The Blue Triangle. This site, bounded by Keong Saik, Teck Lim and Jiak Chuan roads, is a DRA, or Designated Redlight Area. That’s right: the world’s oldest profession still hums along in staid Singapore.

At 8:30 on a Friday night, however, the scene is decorous, and indeed, positively sedate. Journey’s end is Kim Hock Seng (34 Keong Saik Rd.), a mom-and-pop barbecued-pork shop where the owners offer night stalkers platters of thin-sliced marinated smoked meat. It’s the only flesh trade that Poon encourages.

Original Singapore Walks “Secrets of the Red Lantern” steps out every Friday at 6:30 P.M. in Chinatown; the group also offers personalized tours. 65/6325-1631; S$25 per person; www.singaporewalks.com. ✚

insider

| address book

Southeast Asia’s Style Guide. Eager to experience the best in design in Asia? Here, our hit list of the smartest addresses in Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok. By JENNIFER CHEN HONG KONG Q SLEEP

T+L TIPS

Q EAT

Hong Kong abounds with restaurants where the food and décor are equally tasty. Australian-run Lotus (37–43 Pottinger St., Central; 852/2543-6290; www.lotus.hk) dishes up delicious versions of Southeast Asian street food classics and cocktails in a warm setting furnished with leather chairs and beautifully carved lattice screens.

Behind heavy oakwood doors and

Arnault Castel, the owner of Kapok boutique in Hong Kong.

C O U R T E S Y O F A R N A U LT C A S T E L

Off-the-Beaten-Path Shops in HK O Flea + Cents Everything from Hong Kong knickknacks to abstract mobiles by Danish firm Flensted. 34–38 Queen’s Rd. East, Wanchai; 852/28916811; www.fleancents.com.

O Kapok Run by Frenchman Arnault Castel, this tiny space houses French ceramics, Hong Kong label Daydream Nation and Italian fragrances. 9 Dragon Rd., Tin Hau; 852/25499254; www.ka-pok.com.

Opened in 2004, the quirky 54-room JIA (1–5 Irving St., Causeway Bay; 852/3196-9000; www.jiahongkong.com; doubles from HK$2,000) still looks fresh and innovative, with its chandeliers, beaded African chairs and satin sofas.

A bit more sedate but no less stylish, Hotel LKF (33 Wyndham St., Central; 852/3518-9688; www.hotel-lkf.com.hk; doubles from HK$2,038) appeals to both young executives and night owls.

Staying in Hong Kong for longer?

Then check into The Putman (202 Queen’s Road Central; 852/2233-2233; studios from HK$19,000 per month), the

eponymous serviced apartment complex by Andrée Putman, the French design legend famed for eclectic projects such as The Morgans Hotel in New York and the Concorde.

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F R O M T O P : C O U R T E SY O F F O R E S T + T R E E S ; C O U R T E SY O F J I A ; FA H S A K H A R E T

down a staircase lined with Buddha images lies Yun Fu (Basement, 43–55 Wyndham St., Central; 852/2116-8855), a northern Chinese restaurant that fuses traditional Chinese décor with a modern, edgier aesthetic (as evidenced in its stunning circular bar lined with an ornately carved wooden bench).

made from recycled leather. In the mood for something more offbeat?

Check out Forest + Trees (No. 03-02, The Cathay Building, 2 Handy Rd.; 65/6734-8454), a nail salon cum design consultancy cum shop that sells Hong Kong artist Carrie Chau’s fanciful illustrations and sculptures.

SINGAPORE

BANGKOK

Q SEE

Q STAY

For a region rich in history and culture, museums, sadly, are not the forte for most Southeast Asian countries; often, they’re little more than dusty storage rooms. Singapore, however, is the exception, with plenty of well-thought-out spaces. Reopened in 2006 after an extensive renovation, the National Museum of Singapore (93 Stamford Rd.; 65/6332-5642; www. nationalmuseum.sg; admission S$10) deftly mixes the old with the new, down to its design, which incorporates a new glass-cloaked extension into the original colonial structure. Design fans can get their fi ll at the red dot design museum (28 Maxwell Rd.; 65/6327-8027; www.red-dot.de; admission S$5). Located in the old police headquarters (now painted brick-red), the institute celebrates all things design-related, from fashion to cars, and it also hosts a design market the first weekend of every month.

Design hotels have caught on big in Bangkok. Unfortunately, they often fall into one of two categories: uncomfortable minimalist box or repository of Victorian kitsch. Two class acts—from completely different ends of the spectrum—are The Eugenia (267 Soi 31, Sukhumvit Rd.; 662/259-9017; doubles from Bt5,800), a colonial fantasy stuffed with antique furniture and maps, and period touches such as copper soaking bathtubs, and Ma Du Zi (9/1 New Ratchadapisek Rd., corner of Sukhumvit Soi 16; 66-2/615-6400; doubles from Bt13,900), a new, exclusive property that effectively blends Islamic screens, marble floors and dark wood with a contemporary touch.

Q SHOP

Shopping is the great Singaporean pastime, so it comes as no surprise that it runs the gamut of design: from cheap-and-cheerful Ikea (317 Alexandra Rd.; 65/6786-6868) to cult haute designers such as Giambattista Valli at The Link (01-01 Mandarin Gallery, 330 Orchard Rd.; 65/6836-3238). Besides the offerings along Ann Siang Hill and Haji Lane, check out Anthropology (B177–78, Raffles City Shopping Center, 252 North Bridge Rd.; 65/6336-3655), which carries T-shirts and home wares

by Hong Kong designer G.O.D., as well as its own business accessories

Q SHOP

A pioneer in the gentrification of Thonglor, home décor shop Geo (912/3 Soi 55, Sukhumvit Rd.; 66-2/3814324; www.geo.co.th) has moved to a larger space, just a block away from its old location. With a distinctive green shopfront, the airy new digs showcase Geo’s eccentric mix of home wares (including delicate chandeliers wrought from wire), stationery and gardening tools. Upstairs, there’s a small selection of clothes and baubles from up-and-coming local designers.

Bangkok has rightly earned a reputation as a hunting ground for furniture. Head over to Casa Pagoda (43/12 Soi 31, Sukhumvit Rd.; 66-2/6622263; www.casapagoda.com), where you’ll find vintage-style leather club chairs and colorful armoires.

Design for All From top: A painting by Hong Kong artist Carrie Chau in Forest + Trees boutique, in Singapore; inside JIA hotel, in Hong Kong; the bar and restaurant at Ma Du Zi hotel, in Bangkok.

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Special Promotion

Slug:Location (Stylish Traveler)

THE ALL-NEW SHERATON HUA HIN RESORT & SPA One of Thailand’s newest five-star resorts boasts superior accommodation and facilities in one of Thailand’s most popular destinations Sheraton Hua Hin Resort & Spa, one of Thailand’s newest five-star beach resorts, is embedded in a tropical garden, and boasts 240 guest rooms comprising nine buildings surrounding a 200-meter-long, lagoon-style swimming pool. The unique low-rise architecture provides a boundless panoramic view towards the ocean. Warm, bright colors and wooden tones imply the comfort of modern Thai interior design.

A new sense of welcome and comfort awaits our guests at this stylish new resort, where well-trained staff provide service with a smile and go out of their way to make guests feel at home.

All deluxe rooms are 49 square meters in size with a private garden, balcony or direct access to the pool. The deluxe rooms feature signature “Sheraton Sweet Sleepersm Bed,” 32-inch LCD TV, spacious open bathroom with full-length mirrors, and a separate bathtub and shower. Located closest to the beach and overlooking the Gulf of Thailand, the 12 suites are 98 square meters in size, featuring 37-inch plasma TV, a DVD player, a walk-in closet with silk bathrobes and BVLGARI bathroom amenities. Wireless high-speed Internet access throughout the resort keeps guests connected while enjoying their stay.

Five restaurants and bars let guests savor a wide array of delights, inside and outdoors. With a generous 800-squaremeter convention area, the resort also welcomes functions of up to 500 guests.

“Aspadeva Spa” is the resort’s haven of relaxation, while the fitness center, two tennis courts and a kid’s club offer other preferences. Several world-class golf courses are only minutes away, and water sports and tours can be arranged.

The town of Hua Hin itself combines the facilities of a modern holiday destination with the charm of its local attractions. Sheraton Hua Hin Resort & Spa is located only 200 kilometers southwest of Bangkok, with a trip to Hua Hin taking only two and a half hours by car or 40 minutes by plane.

For reservations and further information, please contact our Reservations Department on 66-32/708-080; or fax to 66-32/708 028;

or e-mail us at reservations.huahin@sheraton.com. Best rates are available for online reservations at www.sheraton.com/huahin.

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ot for retiring types, Issue is best known for its brightly colored, ethnic designs for men and women, all inspired by founder Roj Singhakul’s global-trotting adventures.

Cotton shirt and silk ikat-print skirt, Issue (266/10 Soi 3, Siam Sq.; Rama 1 Rd.; 66-2/6584416); leather belt and bracelet

by H&M (www.hm.com).

Bright

Y O U N G

T H I N G S

From Sretsis to Boudoir by Disaya, the world is catching on to Thailand’s dynamic fashion scene. Here, six spectacular looks by the country’s most dazzling talents.

Photographed by JEFFREY CHAN. Styled by KAMPOL LIKITKANJANAKUL 65

stylish traveler | fashion

T

hailand’s fashion industry owes a huge debt to one man: Bhanu Inkawat of Greyhound (www.greyhound.co.th). Founded in the 1980’s, the label began as a small boutique in Bangkok’s Siam Center, selling edgy, urban fashions. Now it’s one of the country’s most recognizable names. Velvet top, Greyhound; black leather belt with gold buckle, MNG (www.mng.com).

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retty and playful, Sretsis (sretsis.com) has gained a following among fashionistas worldwide. True to its name, which is â&#x20AC;&#x153;sistersâ&#x20AC;? spelled backwards, the ďŹ rm is a family affair for the Sukhahutas: Pim is the head designer, Matina designs the accessories while Kly handles the marketing. Silk top, cotton trousers and lace bag, Sretsis; car charm bracelet, Disaya.

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isaya Prakobsantisukh opened her ďŹ rst boutique in 2004, while she was still studying at Londonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Central St. Martins.

Four years on, and Boudoir by Disaya (www.boudoirbydisaya.com), her ultra-feminine ready-to-wear line, is now sold internationally. Printed chiffon dress, Boudoir by Disaya; bracelets, Disaya; black leather belt, Chaps (www.chaps.com).

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hile Greyhound focuses on sleekly sophisticated fashions, the company also has two, more casual spin-offs: Playhound, known for its bold streetwear, and Hound and Friends, which produces a line of offbeat Mickey Mouseâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;themed T-shirts. Dress, Greyhound; platform shoes, Playhound.

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Photographer’s Assistant: Lui Hong Ching.

Hair and make-up: Elaw Wong.

Model: Jennifer Lee Whitehead.

THAI DESIGNERS

Four more Thai designers in Bangkok:

Munchu’s ➻ 3rd floor, Siam Center, 979 Rama 1 Rd.; 66-2/658-1134.

Fly Now ➻ 2nd floor, Gaysorn Plaza, 999 Ploenchit Rd.; 66-2/656-1359.

Headquarter ➻ 3rd floor, Siam Center, 979 Rama 1 Rd.; 66-2/658-1048.

Theatre ➻ 2nd floor, Central World Plaza, 999/9 Ratchadamri Rd.; 66 -2/255-9545.

A

s with many of Thailand’s young designers, Pim Sukhahuta of Sretsis studied overseas (in her case, New York’s Parsons School of Design) and later interned with a major international designer (Marc Jacobs)—experiences that give her clothes a cosmopolitan touch. Chiffon dress, Sretsis; belt, Jaspal (www.jaspal.com); bracelets, Disaya. ✚

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| spotlight

FASHION 2.0 First came Doo Ri, Thakoon, Derek, Peter and Phillip.

Now, two young Asian-American designers are taking the New York fashion scene by storm. Here’s what you need to know about them. By JENNIFER CHEN

Street Savvy Clockwise from above: Alexander Wang; Shanghai’s skyline; a dress from Wang’s Uniqlo collection; Wang’s spring/ summer 2008 collection.

UP NEXT

A collaboration with Uniqlo (www.uniqlo.com), in stores now.

“They’re mass market, but they have still have this independence about them.

They use Terry Richardson and Sabina Schreder, the stylist. It’s affordable, but it doesn’t feel cheap.”

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A LEXANDER WANG STARTED his fashion career making highly coveted cashmere separates. Last year, he launched his first ready-to-wear line, winning rave reviews for his street-smart designs (among his fans is his unofficial muse, catwalk star Erin Wasson). Still, the 24-year-old designer, who was born and raised in San Francisco, says his feet are still firmly planted on the ground. “As a designer, I’m influenced by real life, my friends and family, things that are tangible,” he says. “I’m more grounded in reality, I’m not one of those designers who says things like, ‘It’s a Russian princess escaping.’”

■ EARLY INFLUENCES “I come from a family dominated by girls. I have 17 female cousins, and they were always going to dance and ballet classes. And my siblings are much older, so I just remember watching them dressing up, wearing costumes.”

■ THE LOOK “My girl is someone who is very knowledgeable about fashion, but she defines her own path. She’s very confident, she’s willing to experiment, and she’s not a conformist … It’s a little street, raw, urban. It’s not too refined, not too polished.”

■ CURRENT INTERESTS “I’m into the little things, the things that people overlook. A lot of people are into the big picture; they’ll talk about art and architecture and culture as influences. I’m a simple person. I have the same friends, I go to the same restaurants. I want to keep what it was that inspired me before—that’s something I don’t want to lose.”

■ DOWNTIME “Eating is a big part of my life. My family, we eat three to five meals a day. And I like places like New York Noodletown (28 1/2 Bowery; 1-212/349-0923) where it’s simple, there’s no wait, you get great food and you don’t have to be somebody. I’m really into holes-in-the-wall.”

■ ASIAN JOURNEYS Wang frequently travels to Shanghai, where his mother was born. “To be honest, I really enjoy karaoke there. You get a big room, food … It’s a full-on entertainment experience that people take really seriously.”

■ ALTERNATE CAREER “A backup dancer! That was always an aspiration with me.” »

C L O C K W I S E F R O M T O P : C O U R T E S Y O F A L E X A N D E R W A N G ; © P H I L L I P G R AY / D R E A M S T I M E . C O M ; CO U RT ESY O F U N I Q LO ; CO U RT ESY O F A L E X A N D E R WA N G

Alexander Wang

stylish traveler

| spotlight

Modern Classic Clockwise from top: Jason Wu backstage at his fall/winter 2008 show; Wu outside the Sydney Opera House; a cocktail from Guillaume at Bennelong restaurant; Guillaume at Bennelong restaurant; a gown from Wu’s fall/ winter 2008 collection.

SYDNEY FAVORITE

Dinner at Guillaume at Bennelong, in the

Jason Wu “I ALWAYS KNEW I was going to be a fashion designer,” says Jason Wu. Born in Taipei and raised in Vancouver, Wu cut a deal with his parents to go to boarding school and receive a well-rounded education before hightailing it to Parsons School of Design in New York City. After interning with the master of sleek modernism, Narciso Rodriguez, Wu debuted his own line in 2006. His assured, flirty interpretations of classic looks now adorn the likes of actresses Kerry Washington and Tang Wei. ■ EARLY INFLUENCES “Growing up in the 1980’s, I guess I was influenced by those 80’s suits. Probably not the best influence! (Laughs) … But I guess my earliest memories were watching my mom dress. I’d also collect old magazines.”

■ DESIGN PHILOSOPHY “I think in order to really innovate as a designer you need to understand where fashion came from. So I took it upon myself to learn as much as I could about fashion history.”

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■ THE LOOK “Definitely polished and sophisticated … In the last two seasons I’ve really fine-tuned a certain look. It’s a little bit of uptown and a little bit of downtown.”

■ CURRENT OBSESSIONS Famed Italian fashion illustrator René Gruau and iconic but troubled American actress Jean Seberg. “[Seberg was] chic but somewhat underground.

When people talk about ingénues, they always bring up Audrey Hepburn, but for me, it’s Jean Seberg.”

■ TRAVELS ABROAD “I loved Sydney. It’s peaceful and serene and really beautiful … It moves at a slower pace than New York. After eight years of being in New York, it’s sort of a bubble, you get so involved in your own world, especially when you’re in fashion. So it’s good to get out of that bubble.”

■ BEST ASIAN METROPOLIS “Tokyo for sure [is my favorite Asian destination] … the visual stimulation, especially at night … I like going to buy stuff for myself there because the fit is a lot better for my frame.”

C L O C K W I S E F R O M FA R L E F T : C O U R T E SY O F J A S O N W U ( 3 ) ; C O U R T E SY O F G U I L L A U M E AT B E N N E L O N G ( 2 )

Sydney Opera House

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SINGAPORE

| bring it back

FOLK ARTS

Inspired by the age-old Chinese tradition of paper-cutting, these brooches lend a playful spirit to any outfit. Photographed by SITTIPUN CHAITERDSIRI. Styled by ATINAN NITISUNTHONKUL

Tan Sheau Yun spent her childhood steeped in Chinese culture. Her father would school her on classical poems while her mother would reminisce about studying under the former painting teacher of Puyi, China’s illfated last emperor. After six years in broadcast journalism, Tan decided to return to her roots, and in 2006, launched her own line of quirky qipaos, Mao jackets and Mandarincollared blouses, sold exclusively at her store Tan Tan. There’s an ulterior motive behind her boutique, she says: “I wanted to teach people about Chinese material culture, and let’s face it, we are all shoppers. Clothes are accessible in a way museums are not.” Evangelism never looked so appealing, especially when it comes in the form of these delectable acrylic brooches that draw from jian zhi, traditional Chinese paper cutouts. Keep an eye out for an expanded accessories line, including handbags, earrings and necklaces. No. 01-05 Shaw Towers, 100 Beach Rd.; 65/6396-3887; www. tantan.com.sg; brooches from S$28.—J E N N I F E R C H E N

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his and hers | stylish traveler

SUGAR&SPICE Haute fragrances to capture summer’s essence. For her, fruity and floral scents, while spicy notes give him a mysterious allure. Photographed by SITTIPUN CHAITERDSIRI. Styled by ATINAN NITISUNTHONKUL

FOR HIM Top row: L’Homme by YSL; Silver Shadow Altitude

by Davidoff; Pour Homme II by Gucci.

Bottom row: Man by Calvin Klein; London

by Dunhill.

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stylish traveler

| his and hers

STOCKISTS Gucci gucci.com Calvin Klein calvinklein.com Davidoff davidoff.com Dunhill dunhill.com Marc Jacobs marcjacobs.com Nina Ricci nina-parfum. com Sarah Jessica Parker sarahjessica parkerbeauty.com YSL ysl.com Stella McCartney stellamccartney.com

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PHOTO CREDIT TK

FOR HER Middle row: Pretty Nina by Nina Ricci; Stella in Two Peony by Stella McCartney; Covet by Sarah Jessica Parker. Bottom row: Euphoria Blossom by Calvin Klein; Daisy by Marc Jacobs.

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T+L Journal The Independence Monument by night.

Right: Workers demolish the Council of Ministers.

CAMBODIA

A Vanishing

Legacy As modern development grips Phnom Penh, the unique New Khmer Architecture of legendary Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann is fast disappearing from its streets. ERIKA KINETZ sets out to find what’s left.

Photographed by PETER STUCKINGS

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Living Legend Above: Early morning at the National Sports Complex. From right: The Chaktomouk Conference Hall; Vann Molyvann at his home in Phnom Penh; the city’s Central Market.

82, Vann Molyvann is walking through what many, including his wife, Trudy, consider his masterpiece: Phnom Penh’s National Sports Complex. Rushed to completion for the 1963 Southeast Asian Peninsula Games (which were never held), the complex has an eight-lane Olympic pool, an outdoor stadium for 70,000 and an 8,000-seat indoor stadium cleverly cooled by transverse breezes.

Vann Molyvann sits at the top of the bleachers, near the Olympic torch, not too far from where Charles de Gaulle addressed the crowds during his 1966 state visit. When Vann Molyvann returned to Cambodia in 1993, he found the stadium an oasis in a ruined city. People gathered before dawn to jog around the sweeping red dirt track. “It was fresh. Elsewhere there was nothing,” he says.

The 70-hectare site is ringed by moats, a design borrowed from Cambodia’s great Angkorian temples to the north.

Those moats are now being filled in by private developers.

Where there once was water, there is a Total gas station, several gambling parlors, a bank, a motorcycle shop and a

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block of three-story dung-colored shophouses. With less drainage, the streets around the stadium have begun to flood. “I don’t like to come back to see such misère,” says Vann Molyvann, his hand pressed against his forehead. “It is very difficult. Investors have no culture.” Today, Vann Molyvann’s buildings are the ghosts of life before the Khmer Rouge’s Year Zero, reminders that there was a moment when this little nation, once the pearl of Southeast Asia, had a chance to become something big. Now, they too are vanishing. This year, two of Vann Molyvann’s most prominent works—the Preah Suramarit National Theater and the Council of Ministers—have been leveled. What three decades of war did not ruin, commerce might.

1953, when Cambodia won its independence from France, and 1970, when the advances of the Khmer Rouge insurgency were first being felt, have been mythologized as Cambodia’s golden age.

Freed from 90 years of colonialism, Cambodia was bursting with creativity and nationalism, in politics as well as culture.

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HE YEARS BETWEEN

FREED from 90 years of colonialism, Cambodia was bursting with creativity and nationalism

Then Prince Norodom Sihanouk tried—and ultimately failed—to forge his own brand of “Buddhist Socialism,” reinterpreting foreign ideas in a Cambodian context. So too with the arts. As a patron, Sihanouk helped rekindle classical Khmer forms and create new kinds of theater, art, film and, indeed, architecture.

Born in Cambodia, Vann Molyvann won a scholarship to study in France. He returned in 1956, a diploma from L’Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts in hand. As Cambodia’s first licensed architect, Vann Molyvann became the nation’s chief architect and head of urban planning at the age of 30. In 1965, he became the founding rector of the University of Fine Arts; two years later, he was appointed Minister of Education.

Before fleeing to Switzerland with his wife and children in 1971, Vann Molyvann had designed 80 works—far more than any other architect—and had figured out how to build a fair part of the burgeoning city’s infrastructure.

Vann Molyvann’s buildings have a sleek mid 20th-century elegance. They are redolent of gin martinis and big-bellied airplanes, emanations of a time when ladies wore hats and men put on white suits against the sun—a time when the first fires of independence were sweeping across the colonized plains of Asia.

Vann Molyvann was influenced by Swiss Modernist Le Corbusier—he worked for years with two of Le Corbusier’s

associates, engineer Vladimir Bodiansky and town planner Gérald Hanning—but his buildings remain distinctly Khmer.

His fan-shaped Chaktomouk Conference Hall (1961), for example, looks modern but cleaves to Cambodian values.

It’s a favorite of Ly Daravuth, who runs the Reyum Institute, a gallery and publishing house in Phnom Penh. The building, on Sisowath Quay, has two faces, one oriented towards the Royal Palace, the other to the confluence of the Mekong and Bassac rivers. “It’s very respectful,” Ly Daravuth explains. “If the back was facing the palace, it would be disrespectful. But if the back was facing the river where the spirits and the gods reside? He was very smart in respecting both.”

Similarly, Vann Molyvann’s 100 Houses, just off Russian Federation Boulevard, reinterpret the classic structure of a Khmer wooden home. Built between 1965 and 1967 for middle-income employees of the National Bank of Cambodia, the houses are still occupied.

They are elevated on tall thin columns to allow air circulation. Long shuttered windows and peaked roofs also help keep things cool. Today, some retain their original form; beneath their spare haunches, ponds and grasses grow.

Others have been blocked up with new walls but retain their essential character. Still others have been altered beyond recognition, with gilt flourishes, fearsome garuda and tall, mirrored windows. » T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E S E A

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At Vann Molyvann’s Teacher Training College on Russian Federation Boulevard, which was completed in 1973, three students rush up to him, pressing their hands together in a high gesture of respect. “He’s very famous. He makes us proud of Khmer culture,” says Kith Sothearith, 23, a student of French. “We can follow him. I want him to continue to build.” Vann Molyvann chuckles. “The government is not interested,” he says, shaking his head.

We pass the library, a small circular building modeled on a straw peasant hat. Triangular spines, like the leaves of a palm tree, grip the circumference of the building. We walk up the stairs, flanked by watchful naga serpents, to the main building. Vann Molyvann pauses in the lobby. He gestures with his arm, a sweep of satisfaction, which takes in the zigzagging stairs and the students leaning over books in the long, cool light of dusk. “It works. Everybody is enjoying it,” he says. Other buildings have fared less well. The most alarming loss was the destruction, early this year, of the Preah Suramarit National Theater off Sothearos Boulevard.

Known colloquially as the Bassac Theater, the building was inaugurated in 1968 as a seat of Cambodia’s nascent arts scene. After the Khmer Rouge was driven from power, artists came back to the theater and tried slowly to rebuild not just their lives, but also their lost culture.

Last of a Legacy Below: The new Gold Tower 42. From right: The Institute of Foreign Languages; a foreman at the demolition site of the Council of Ministers; the run-down Municipal Apartments.

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The theater was gutted by a fire in 2004, but more than 300 artists, many of whom lived in a nearby squatter community, still gathered to rehearse dance and music beneath the leaky roof. In 2005, the Ministry of Culture reportedly gave Cambodia’s most famous tycoon, Kith Meng, rights to the land around the theater on the condition that he renovate the building. Instead, he offered the artists US$300 each to get out.

“It is really tragic, as it was one of his most audacious and accomplished buildings,” says architect Helen Grant Ross, co-author of Building Cambodia: New Khmer Architecture 1953–1970.

Drawing from Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier, the theater had a sharp triangle shape and walls vented like the scales of a fish. Khim Sarith, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, maintains that the theater had been damaged beyond repair. “It was all burnt down and corrupted, it could not be reconstructed,” he says.

Today, all that remains of the 1,200-seat theater’s cantilevered staircases and enviable acoustics is rubble.

Wrapped behind bright blue and green metal fencing, the last boulders of the foundation send up little cloudbursts of dust in the evening breeze.

Gone, too, is the Council of Ministers building on Russian

Federation Boulevard, with its long, lightly curving façade of windows, which once served as the seat of government power. Vann Molyvann’s Olympic Village Apartments, on Sothearos, once unrolled with the grace of fingers on a hand; now they’re the Phnom Penh Center, a nondescript white block of offices and a private university. Last year, a ring of fountains, which pulse with electric-colored lights, was added to Independence Monument, a restrained reddish tower Vann Molyvann fashioned in 1962, after Angkor’s Banteay Srei temple.

Ly Daravuth says Vann Molyvann contributed much more to Cambodia than his monuments. As an urban planner, he unfurled a vision of orderly growth. “That was possible in the 1960’s. Is it still possible today?” he asks, adding, “The problem is not just in Cambodia. It’s the push of development.” Fueled by record levels of foreign investment, Phnom Penh is changing fast. Until very recently, one had only to look out to comprehend the city; the tallest building was the 15-story InterContinental hotel. Now, you have to look up.

The most ALARMING loss was the destruction, earlier this year, of the Preah Suramarit National Theater

The skeletons of the city’s first skyscrapers are rising, thanks mostly to South Korean developers. The most prominent new project is the Gold 42 towers, twin high-rises with residential units that list for over US$1 million.

Heritage Watch, a preservation group, tried—and failed— to get international funding to encourage preservation of Phnom Penh’s mid 20th-century buildings. “Every time you go away for a month, there’s another building gone,” says Dougald O’Reilly, Heritage Watch’s director. “You lose a page from the book of Cambodia’s history every time you lose one of these things.”

Grant Ross has advocated preservation for nearly a decade, to little effect. “Cambodia’s dignity has already taken a big knock—this architecture stands for a better world remembered by old people as a golden era in Cambodian history. At the risk of being paranoid, this is probably why its present leaders take a vicious pleasure in seeing it disappear as it is a strong reminder of what can be achieved by good leadership and lack of corruption,” Grant Ross says.

The governor of Phnom Penh Municipality, Kep Chuktema, says City Hall believes in preservation, but its powers are limited. “City Hall wants to keep them, the existing old architecture, but when they are privately owned, what can we do?” he says.

ANN MOLYVANN’S SWISS-BORN WIFE, Trudy, is tall, trim and stately, even when sitting at her dining room table.

Vann Molyvann designed their home in 1968, back when Mao Tse Toung Boulevard was still largely forest. Up above, the ceiling moves with an impossible parabolic curve, as if »

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National Treasure Above: Vann Molyvann outside the National Sports Complex he designed. Right: Bibliotheque, Institute of Foreign Languages, is also his work.

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GUIDE TO MOLYVANN’S WORK

TOUR GUIDES Khmer Architecture Tours, a local nonprofit group, offers tours of Cambodian architecture of the 1950’s and 60’s in Phnom Penh. You can also download a walking map from their website. www.ka-tours.org; contact@katours.org.

FURTHER READING Building Cambodia: New Khmer

Architecture 1953–1970, by Helen Grant Ross and Darryl Leon Collins (The Key Publisher, Bangkok, 2006). Available at Phnom Penh’s Monument Books, 66 Norodom Blvd.

Cultures of Independence, edited

by Ly Daravuth and Ingrid Muan Reyum (Phnom Penh, 2001).

Available at the Reyum Institute, No. 47, Street 178, Phnom Penh.

M A P BY WA S I N E E C H A N TA KO R N

it could wing away at any second. Trudy clasps her long fingers and considers the problem of preservation in a poor country just now getting a taste of prosperity, of how to regulate development in a place where there is no effective rule of law, of how to proceed when one no longer has political power. “They can make skyscrapers,” she says.

“Evolution is normal. But to destroy everything?”

She fears the National Sports Complex will be next. “He’ll get over it,” she says. “I admire Molyvann. Now he can still find something positive.” At an age far past retirement, Vann Molyvann is working on a doctoral thesis about the growth of Asian cities. Trudy shakes her head. “I tell you this man will never stop. He drowns himself not to think of the misery of what’s happening,” she says. Suddenly she’s crying.

Near the ruins of the Bassac Theater, the Municipal Apartments—a block of low-cost housing built in 1963— stand as a proud vision of a country in which all people, rich or poor, might enjoy the basic dignities of life. It was the architecture of an enlightened future, with sleek lines, idealistic principles and good airflow.

Today, it is stained with rot. Trees have taken root in all the wrong places. Bushes sprout from the building’s face.

Sections of wall are missing, letting in earth, sky, rain. It’s a slum, but I imagine women hanging laundry in meadows that have grown up in their kitchens and congresses of butterflies sweeping through the porous walls, oblivious to the idea of inside. Men stand on the stairways, lifting their shirts now and again to rub their bare bellies in the evening breeze. Somewhere there is the smell of meat cooking. There is the smell of soap, of people trying to stay clean.

It is as if the Khmer Rouge’s peasant revolution has here claimed some small victory: a dream, vaguely European, certainly enlightened, is being slowly returned to the pure Cambodian earth. ✚

hotels | t+l journal

A Cozy Royalton Philippe Starck’s over-the-top look made the hotel famous. Can a new design team make it comfortable?

CHARLES GANDEE reviews the renovation.

Photographed by DAVID NICOLAS

U.S.A.

Designers Stephen Alesch and Robin Standefer pose by the fireplace in the Royalton’s new lobby.

WENTY YEARS AGO, when Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell opened the Royalton, a fantastically sleek and maddeningly popular 168-room hostelry in midtown Manhattan, they did more than perfect the concept of the boutique hotel; they ushered in a new design era. Flash took precedence over comfort, theatricality was more important than substance, and the designer—in this case enfant terrible Philippe Starck—became a pop star.

T

The Royalton was a slam-dunk sensation, a dazzling tour de force that commingled wit, charm, irreverence, irony and a slightly surreal rendition of daredevil Modernism with a soupçon of perversity, a whiff of 1970’s sex clubs and a tongue-in-cheek giggle. And yet, if to Starck’s eye the Royalton was timeless, with its luminous glass sconces modeled after rhinoceros horns, its glistening (and potentially painful), asp-like stainless steel backrests, and its three-legged chairs that, yes, tended to tip over, to » T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E S E A

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IT’S THE KIND OF ROOM

where highballs get ordered and where black crocodile wallets get flashed

Sunken seating areas provide intimacy, while see-through walls allow the eye to wander.

the eyes of others it had become of late a time capsule marked “October 10, 1988,” a period piece that instantly conjured up a decade obsessed with avant-garde design.

Somewhat inevitably, the powers that be at Morgans Hotel Group (MHG), which owns the Royalton and seven other Starck-designed hotels, quietly brought up the word renovation. “You’re doomed if you do, and you’re doomed if you don’t,” says architect Anda Andrei, Schrager’s designer for 22 years. “The place definitely needed work. It was time. After all, they’re not museums, eh?” Schrager, who left MHG two years ago, confesses that he did not envy the hotel group its task. “Anytime you’re working with an icon, you’re between a rock and a hard place,” he says, noting

that, to his mind, the best strategy is to “keep the same kind of DNA.” Enter architect Stephen Alesch and designer Robin Standefer, the founding principals of New York firm Roman and Williams, named after Alesch and Standefer’s respective grandfathers. Best known as the designers of choice for the young Hollywood set, Roman and Williams’s client list is filled with such red-carpet personalities as Kate Hudson, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin.

When the new Royalton reopened in October 2007, it was clear that Alesch and Standefer did not set out to recreate the Starck DNA. Far from it— they demolished Starck’s legacy, erasing virtually all evidence that the great Gaul had ever been to West 44th Street. Quips Standefer: “Philippe, peace be with you, but we’re moving on.”

Moving on meant sacrificing surface appeal for depth, and dazzle for coziness—and yes, if ever a 930-square-meter space could be described as cozy, it’s this one, with discrete seating areas broken up by somewhat ethnic-looking, wall-size screens made of wood, metal and glass. The screens are “a big part of the narrative,” according to Standefer. “I wanted there to be mystery. I wanted you to be able to see people through things. The screens increase the voyeurism, that peekaboo quality.”

Moving on also meant custom designing everything, “every chair, every handrail,” says Standefer, who likens her firm’s work to bespoke tailoring. And yet, unlike the leisurely pace associated with all things bespoke, MHG gave Alesch and Standefer a single summer to transform the Royalton lobby. Despite the tight time frame, the duo pulled it off. Guests now enter the hotel through a glass-walled vestibule, pass under a vintage Venini chandelier, and set out on a 32meter-long carpet runner that bisects the slatefloored lobby and leads from the front door (Starck’s famous mahogany doors did survive the renovation) to the restaurant in back. Deep blue at the entrance, grading to a pale blue at the restaurant, the carpet’s subtle shift in hue was chosen because people tend naturally to gravitate toward light. “We wanted to draw people to the restaurant,” says Standefer. Once there, diners are greeted by intricate webs of spotlit rope arches that appear to have been inspired by suspension bridge design. With its teak banquettes and tables and chairs, there is a “Scandinavian vibe” to the luminous light-wood restaurant, according to Standefer; but others note that the restaurant is also

reminiscent of the work of American architect and furniture designer Warren Platner in the 1970’s.

Compared with Starck’s whimsical tongue-in-cheek riffs, the new Royalton lobby is a relatively sober affair. There is not, in fact, a joke or a pun or a three-legged chair in the place. “It’s about craftsmanship and comfort,” says Standefer. “We wanted to have things that were very well made and livable.” It is also about associations, the kind we inevitably make when confronted with such classic elements as woodpaneled walls, chesterfield-style sofas and commodious club chairs.

“We wanted it to be warmer, cozier, moodier, sexier,” says Standefer. “We wanted to create a very vibrant social environment.”

Depending on your frame of stylistic reference, the new Royalton lobby is indeed evocative of other times and places.

There are shades, perhaps, of the Playboy Club in Chicago circa 1965, for example, of a membersonly men’s club outfitted to the silk smoking-jacket specifications of a young, devil-may-care Hugh Hefner. It is the kind of room where highballs get ordered, where black crocodile wallets and gold Dunhill lighters get flashed. Envision a charmed world of vicuña coats and Charvet shirts … of very attentive cocktail waitresses in black sheaths with spaghetti straps and ample décolletage.

To automobile buffs, on the other hand, the lobby may bring to mind the interior of a new Maybach 62S. That is, it is a conspicuously handcrafted interior embellished with luxurious materials—leather and wood, bronze and brass, glass and springbok skin—exquisitely rendered by expert artisans. Like the princely car, there is a tactile, highly textured quality to the lobby, a conspicuous material richness that is not so easy to place in time.

With its velvet-upholstered banquettes and attendant bronze cocktail tables, the Royalton interior is also evocative of its venerable neighbors along this particular stretch of West 44th Street: the Harvard Club, the New York Yacht Club, the Algonquin (though not so stuffy or staid— traditional elements here have dramatic twists).

Those sofas and club chairs are encased in massive custom-made brass or bronze enclosures that wrap

the seats and cushions in a tight, slightly reflective metallic embrace.

Alesch and Standefer wanted the space to have what the partners describe as an “international” or “global living room” quality. “So we really played with different languages, different materials, different textures,” says Standefer. “Things came from different parts of the world. It definitely melds together periods of design and different stylistic moves.” She adds that it’s “hard to tell what’s vintage and what’s new.” Standefer feels the Royalton lobby has echoes of late Midcentury Modern hotels “in Lisbon and Brazil.” It may be New York 2008, but you could just as well be in the lobby of a hotel in Cologne or Düsseldorf, Osaka or the Hague, and it could be the late 1950’s, the 60’s or the early 70’s, and British design legend David Hicks could have had a hand in it. The reason for the eclecticism? “I wanted a) not to date myself, and b) not to immediately be categorized,” Standefer explains.

To give the lobby heft and gravitas, the walls are either paneled—in rosewood, mahogany or teak— or upholstered in blue or brown leather. Breaking up the monolithic surfaces, and introducing a welcome element of scale, are shimmering brass channels that add a bit of geometry, which is echoed in the irregular squares woven into the carpet. On one wall, a 9-meter black iron screen that once adorned a 1940’s Modernist building » T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E S E A

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Ready for cocktail hour at the Royalton’s wood-paneled Bar 44.

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t+l journal | hotels

THE NEW COMFORT: TWO MORE BOUTIQUE HOTELS

on the outskirts of Paris now hangs like a piece of art, a kind of hardedged graphic backdrop for one of the sunken seating areas. It was the first thing Alesch and Standefer bought for the project, and—much to the design team’s delight—MHG supported, without hesitation, the US$60,000 acquisition. “That’s when we knew they were going to be good clients,” says Standefer. “That screen really jump-started a lot of our shapes.” One such shape—a monumental double-sided fireplace encased in a massive bronze-colored steel surround—recalls the largescale work of sculptor Louise Nevelson. Intense and tough, the fire pit provides an animated central focal point for the lobby, as well as visual warmth. On a lighter note, suspended from the ceiling is a series of oneoff, handblown glass globes by such artisans as the Brooklyn-based John Pomp and Los Angeles’s Alison Berger.

To help invigorate the bar and restaurant, MHG brought in John McDonald, the publisher of City magazine and the restaurateur responsible for such New York hotspots as MercBar, Chinatown Brasserie, Lure Fishbar and Lever House. McDonald re-christened the Royalton restaurant “Brasserie 44,” and is determined to return the restaurant and lobby bar, Bar 44, to their glory days with the fashion and media crowd—the place once served as a kind of commissary for nearby Condé Nast Publications.

“The Royalton had a great concept—wit, intelligence, individuality— but it didn’t have great craftsmanship,” Standefer says. Twenty years later, the tongue-in-cheek novelty of the boutique hotel has worn thin, and Standefer seems pleased with the new user-friendly attitude she’s helped usher in. But she is also a realist, understanding that tastes don’t stand still. ✚ The Royalton, 44 W. 44th St., New York; 1-212/869-4400; www. royaltonhotel.com; doubles from US$449.

Charles Gandee is a frequent contributor to T+L.

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JU N E 2 0 0 8|T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E S E A . C O M

NEW YORK Designed by the team behind the Bowery Hotel, the Lafayette House opened in February 2007.

THE LOOK The Royal Tenenbaums meets Fawlty Towers. Envision a Victorian-style bed-and-breakfast without the breakfast. Five of the 15 rooms have kitchenettes, but the hip B Bar and Grill next door serves as a default restaurant for the inn.

1-212/505-8100; www.lafayettenyc. com; doubles from US$375.

I N S E T ( TO P ) : CO U RT ESY O F F I R M DA L E

A lobby seating area in the hotel, designed to function as a “global living room.”

LONDON Firmdale’s 44-room Knightsbridge Hotel opened in 2002. THE LOOK Traditional English contemporary, with granite and oak bathrooms and sandstone fireplaces. Co-owner Kit Kemp keeps the place feeling forever new with an ongoing refurbishment. Two rooms a year undergo a complete makeover.

44-20/7584-6300; www.firmdalehotels.com; doubles from US$406.

BEST SMALL RESORT MYSTIQUE, A LUXURY COLLECTION HOTEL

Oia, Santorini, Greece.

Designed by Frank Lefebvre, Bleu Nature Built into the cliffs overlooking the Aegean Sea on Santorini, Mystique’s 18 villas and suites make the most of the superdramatic island setting. The hotel’s design uses local materials and naturalistic forms to otherworldly effect: sloping, cavelike walls, large, eggshaped tables and chairs, window views that look like a mirage — can water really be that blue? There are no right angles here, it seems, just sunbaked, earthy serenity. 30-22860/71114; www.mystique.gr; doubles from US$722.

Honorable Mention LEMARTI’S CAMP, KENYA

Designed by Anna Trzebinski-Lemarti Koija, Laikipia; 1-212/568-7639; www.journeysbydesign.co.uk; doubles from US$1,340.

PLUS

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Clockwise from top left: David Rockwell, Agnes Gund, Hani Rashid, Richard Lambertson, John Hoke, Renée Price and Yeohlee Teng.

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O Philanthropist AGNES GUND is the president

emerita of the Museum of Modern Art. She is also chair of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission for New York City.

O JOHN HOKE is the head of design for Nike. He helped develop the Shox cushioning system, one of the brand’s signature features.

O After working for Geoffrey Beene, Gucci and Bergdorf Goodman, RICHARD LAMBERTSON

cofounded (with John Truex) the luxury leather goods company Lambertson Truex in 1998.

The partners were honored as accessory designers of the year by the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2000.

O RENÉE PRICE is the director of the Neue

P R E V I O U S S P R E A D : C O U R T E S Y O F M Y S T I Q U E . T H I S P A G E : D AV I D N I C O L A S ( 4 ) .

O P P O S I T E PA G E : T H O M A S W H I T E S I D E

{ THE 2008 T+L JURY

Galerie New York, a museum for German and Austrian art. She curated the current exhibition, “Gustav Klimt: The Ronald S. Lauder and Serge Sabarsky Collections.”

O Architect HANI RASHID is the cofounder, with Lise Anne Couture, of Asymptote. Designs for the Penang Global City Centre in Malaysia and pavilions for the planned Guggenheim Pavilions on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island are among the New York fi rm’s recent works.

O Architect DAVID ROCKWELL founded the New York–based Rockwell Group in 1984. The fi rm’s numerous projects include W Hotels, Nobu restaurants, Broadway set designs and an innovative children’s playground in downtown Manhattan.

O Fashion designer YEOHLEE TENG established her company, Yeohlee, in 1981. She won the Fashion Design Award from the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in 2004, and her work is in the Costume Institute collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

DESIGN CHAMPION AMANDA BURDEN

Commissioner of City Planning of New York “City planning” can sound a bit like an oxymoron, especially in New York, a place where it’s hard enough to make dinner plans, let alone shape neighborhoods, erect skyscrapers or create new parks. But Amanda Burden, commissioner of City Planning of New York since 2002 and this year’s T+L Design Champion, has managed all those things, and brilliantly. She is dedicated to ambitious, innovative architecture — “It makes the city young and compelling,” she says — but most of all she is a proponent of public spaces: parks, sidewalks and promenades, the life of the street, the soul of the city.

Born to the rarefied world of New York society (her father was Stanley Mortimer, an heir to the Standard Oil fortune, and her mother was Babe Paley), Burden is now making her mark on the fabric of the entire city, from the redevelopment of Coney Island to the High Line (seen here last year), a unique elevated park set to open next fall.

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“Katsuya Hollywood has Philippe Starck’s wit and sense of playfulness, and puts it on a bigger scale.”

— DAV I D

ROCKWELL

B E S T R E S TAU R A N T KATSUYA HOLLYWOOD

Los Angeles.

Designed by Philippe Starck Bold, witty and sensational — just what you’d expect from a Philippe Starck– designed sushi restaurant in L.A. But Katsuya is also warm, fun and inviting: oversize photographs of a geisha — her lips, eyes, kimono — loom over the simple armchairs and comfortable sofas. The vivid, winking elements of Japanese kitsch (sushi knives embedded in Lucite, rows and rows of sake bottles) serve to project the restaurant’s iconography out the front door and onto the street, a remarkable achievement in this car-centric city.

6300 Hollywood Blvd.; 1-323/871-8777; dinner for two US$150.

B E S T T R AV E L FA S H ION SIMPLY VERA VERA WANG ANORAK JACKET FOR KOHL’S

Designed by Vera Wang A lightweight jacket that’s as chic as it is practical. Made of nylon and polyester, it’s easy to pack and wrinkle-resistant.

And at US$88, who says high fashion can’t be highly accessible? www.kohls.com.

}

“It’s weightless— this anorak is very functional, and fun to wear.”

TENG

R A I N E R H O S C H . O P P O S I T E : T R U J I L LO/ PA U M I E R

—YEOHLEE

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B E S T P U B L IC S PAC E THE NATIONAL STADIUM

Beijing. Designed by Herzog & de Meuron It isn’t often that a building defines a city, and even becomes its icon, but that seems destined to be the case for Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron’s National Stadium in Beijing, the primary site of this summer’s Olympic Games. The stadium is a stunning attraction, a woven-basket form that seems to have grown organically on the edge of town like an enormous mushroom, or, as the locals have dubbed it, a bird’s nest. Lit up in colors at night, the crosshatched latticework façade announces the city as a capital of the 21st century. 8 North Si Huan Zhong Rd., Chaoyang District; www.beijing2008.cn.

B E S T T R A N S P OR TAT ION NORDPARK CABLE RAILWAY STATIONS

Innsbruck, Austria. Designed by Zaha Hadid

“Herzog & de Meuron’s National Stadium in Beijing is a fantastic, harmonious, musical, symphonic work.”

—HANI

RASHID

F RO M L E F T: RO L A N D H A L B E ; ZHANG PENG / ONASIA.COM; BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER

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Aggressively futuristic and sensual, the four Alpine railway stations along the line linking Innsbruck’s city center to Hungerberg are eye-popping biomorphic forms in glass, floating over simple concrete platforms. At first glance, the stations seem to evoke rocket-fueled, supersonic air travel. But as the yellow and blue train cars glide slowly through snowcapped mountains, it’s clear: the streamlined shapes connote not speed but just the opposite — a glacial melting of ice, the slow freezing of water.

Zaha Hadid has made architecture that speaks to the landscape. Congress Station; 43-512/293-344; www.nordpark.com.

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“Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park provides a unique way of engaging and interacting with some of the world’s best art.” — J O H N H O K E

B E S T C U LT U R A L S PA C E OLYMPIC SCULPTURE PARK

Seattle. Designed by Weiss, Manfredi Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism Cutting into the landscape with X-Acto–blade precision and then folding the planes like origami, Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi have transformed a section of the Seattle waterfront into a park that displays sculpture, including large works by Richard Serra and Alexander Calder.

Previously an industrial site divided by train tracks and roadway, the ingenious Z-shaped park reconnects the city to the bay, and includes a lowslung pavilion for indoor exhibits. 2901 Western Ave.; 1-206/654-3100; www.seattleartmuseum.org.

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BEST RESORT THE NAM HAI

Hoi An, Vietnam.

Designed by Jaya Ibrahim

“The water is integrated as a simple floating plane at The Nam Hai, and there’s not a lot of distinction between what’s indoors and what’s outdoors.”

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At The Nam Hai on China Beach, Vietnam, every guest room is a stand-alone pavilion facing the sea — a high-style take on the local, single-story, thatched-hut vernacular. The light, open-air design, with numerous terraces, pools and indoor–outdoor spaces, is grounded by a severe dark wood elegance, rich materiality meant to recall Vietnamese royal architecture. But it’s the white sand and palm trees that are the center of attention here, an inviting landscape framed by graceful craftsmanship.

Hamlet 1, Dien Duong Village, Dien Ban District, Quang Nam Province; 84510/940-000; www. ghmhotels.com; doubles from US$550.

— DAV I D

ROCKWELL

BEST MUSEUM THE NEW MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART

New York City. Designed

by Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa/SANAA

{ “A very exciting building, and a bold place to have it.”

D E A N K AU F M A N ( 2 ) . O P P O S I T E : CO U RT E SY O F G H M LU X U RY H OT E L S CO L L EC T I O N ( 2 )

—AGNES

GUND

Taking the form of a somewhat haphazardly stacked pile of boxes, the seven-story New Museum on the Bowery in New York embodies the meticulously crafted yet easygoing minimalism of its architects, who also won this category last year. The Tokyo-based duo of Kazuyo Sejima (right) and Ryue Nishizawa (left) have made a building that is cleanlined, small-scale and highly functional — housing three white-box exhibition spaces, all with skylights — just the opposite of the sometimes extravagantly theatrical museums going up these days. But this is not shy, retiring architecture — the museum overlooks the Lower East Side with a certain nonchalant authority, selfconfident and hip. 235 Bowery; 1-212/219-1222; www. newmuseum.org.

Honorable Mention THE BLOCH BUILDING AT THE NELSON-ATKINS MUSEUM OF ART

Kansas City, Missouri.

Designed by Steven Holl Architects Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; 4525 Oak St.; 1-816/7511278; www.nelson-atkins.org.

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“Patrick Jouin’s color palette is subdued, and of course that makes the jewelry really shine.”

—RENÉE

PRICE

B E S T R E TA I L S PAC E VAN CLEEF & ARPELS

This Paris jewelry shop is a fantasy of pure luxury and understated glamour, an extravaganza of pale creams and beiges, gently curving display cases and opulent silk-covered furniture, all set off by sparkling chandeliers and, of course, many, many diamonds. The design by Patrick Jouin (above) for this classic Place Vendôme address — the atelier of Van Cleef & Arpels since 1906 — is textured and decorative, with elaborate wall moldings and carved wood paneling, playful acknowledgments of the building’s stately formality. 3–5 Rue de la Paix, Second Arr.; 33-1/53-4535-60; www.vancleef-arpels.com.

Honorable Mention EKO Toronto, Ontario. Designed by Bennett C. Lo. 288 Queen St. West; 1-416/593-0776.

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ROBERTO FRANKENBERG (2). OPPOSITE: C O U R T E S Y O F T H E R I T Z - C A R LT O N B E I J I N G

Paris, France. Designed by Patrick Jouin

BEST HOTEL THE RITZ-CARLTON BEIJING, FINANCIAL STREET

Designed by HBA/ Hirsch Bedner Associates Design Consultants An emblem of the new China, The Ritz-Carlton Beijing, Financial Street mixes all the required elements of luxury hotel design with a sophisticated, neoclassical Chinese aesthetic. This is not Eastmeets-West pastiche, but rather a thoroughgoing and thoughtful synthesis. From the elegant lobby with its beautiful carved wooden screens, sculptures and artwork to the richly appointed rooms, every detail is perfect â&#x20AC;&#x201D; refined, low-key and discreet.

1 Jin Cheng Fang St. E., Financial St., Xicheng District; 86-10/ 6601-6666; doubles from US$202.

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“Town House Galleria is a 21st-century hotel steeped in history.”

RASHID

BEST SMALL HOTEL TOWN HOUSE GALLERIA

Milan. Designed by Ettore Mocchetti In the heart of fashionable Milan — set in the iconic 19th-century Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II arcade, no less — Town House is a 24-suite property in which bold dashes of color, dramatic lighting and modern furniture contrast entertainingly with the stone detailing and restored frescoes of a landmark building. Dazzlingly chic and very comfortable, a winning combination. 8 Via Silvio Pellico; 39-02/8905-8297; www.townhousegalleria. it; doubles from US$1,256.

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GIAMPIERO BRIOZZO. OPPOSITE: NIGEL COX (4)

—HANI

BE ST LUGGAGE LOUIS VUITTON MONOGRAM WATERPROOF KEEPALL US$1,950 (www.

louisvuitton.com)

B E S T WAT C H TANK LOUIS CARTIER DUAL TIME ZONE US$20,300 (www.

cartier.com)

B E S T T R AV E L GADGET APPLE IPHONE US$399

(www.apple.com)

BEST CAMERA SAMSUNG NV15 US$249 (www.

samsungcamerausa.com).

(T+L)06.08

GUIA FORTRESS,

IN

MACAU. PHOTOGRAPHED BY DAVID

HARTUNG

114 SINGAPORE: from staid to sensational 128 Style insiders sing ITALY’s many praises 136 Amazing World Heritage in MACAU 113

The Singapore Flyer. Opposite: St James Power Station, which houses numerous nightclubs.

A burgeoning nightlife, a world-class cultural center, an F1 Grand Prix, casinos, even an Ibiza-style beach scene.

Has the Lion City finally shaken off its staid image? JOE YOGERST finds out.

Photographed by DARREN SOH

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City Vibes From top left: Drinks at St James Power Station; riding high on the Singapore Flyer; dancing at the Ministry of Sound.

Opposite: The curved lines of VivoCity, on the waterfront.

E

NCLOSED IN A MASSIVE GLASS rectangle, I am suspended inside the belly of a cavernous structure, sipping a pretty darn tasty martini as the 1970’s funk classic “Jungle Boogie” reverberates down my spine. Turning my head one way or the other brings my eyes into contact with incongruous scenes—tango dancers prancing across a floor and a pair of delicate Chinese women in silk sarongs performing an umbrella dance.

One might be tempted to think all this is some opium-induced dream, or the result of something clandestinely slipped into my drink, or perhaps I’m the victim of alien abduction. But the truth is even weirder—I’m in Singapore. Not the demure, conservative Singapore we have come to know over the past few decades, but a swinging new Singapore that seems to have been conjured out of thin air.

This particular manifestation is the St James Power Station, a 100-year-old Victorian landmark that has been transformed into nine different nightlife venues under a single roof. It’s Wednesday night (no cover for ladies) and all the clubs are packed, including the Latin music hub Movida, where salsa, merengue and tango take over the floor each night, and a prototype Chinese pop club called Dragonfly, where the two umbrella ladies have given way to the crooning of Emilee Kang, a recent Singapore Idol winner.

St James isn’t the only place where Singapore is swinging tonight. There

are little nightlife hubs all over town—on Sentosa Island and along the banks of the Singapore River, along Orchard Road and even out in the suburbs at places like Rochester Park and Dempsey Hill. And there are plenty of people to fill them, a heady blend of young Singaporeans, expats from India, the U.K., Australia and all over, along with tourists who have stumbled onto this thoroughly unexpected side of the Lion City—a polar opposite from the image that Singapore has traditionally projected to the outside world.

The irony is that Singapore isn’t reinventing itself (again), but going back to its roots. During colonial times, the island had a reputation as one of the party towns of Southeast Asia, a bustling seaport flush with money, restless energy and plenty of young men with time on their hands. The sun never set on the British Empire and the merrymaking never ended in Singapore—especially at the Raffles Hotel and its notorious Long Bar. Then along came independence and all that nose-to-the-grindstone stuff necessary for the island to achieve economic prosperity and self-reliance. It’s not that Singaporeans didn’t want to have fun—they simply didn’t have the time or cash. But having achieved most of their lofty economic and social goals, they once again find themselves ready for a night on the town.

And boy, are they blowing off steam, especially at places like Zouk, the island’s first world-class nightclub when it debuted in the 1990’s and still one of its most stylish. Lodged in old godowns (warehouses) along the Singapore »

A comfy guest room at the Naumi Hotel. Right: Embroidered bath towels at the retro Hotel 1929.

Opposite: The breezy lobby of the chic New Majestic hotel.

The IRONY is that Singapore isn’t reinventing Best Boutique Hotels Guide New Majestic •A chic place in Chinatown with a breezy open-air lobby, upstairs pool deck and a well-respected restaurant. Owner Loh Lik Peng turned the 30 rooms over to local artists, actors, designers and film directors. The end result is a dazzling array of sleeping spaces, some of them clad in floor-to-ceiling mirrors or funky murals, others outfitted with aquariums, hanging beds and alfresco bathtubs for soaking beneath the stars. 31–37 Bukit Pasoh Rd.; 65/6511-4700; www.newmajestic. com; doubles from S$300.

1929 •LohHotel is also responsible for this hotel, lodged in another historic Chinatown 118

structure and just as visually startling. It’s almost like you’ve stepped back into the psychedelic 60’s, with décor that blends modish furnishings, mosaic-tile showers and “flower power” linens, with 21st-century features like flat-screen TV’s and wireless Internet. The rooftop garden (and hot tub) is another plus, as is the cozy Ember restaurant and bar. 50 Keong Saik Rd.; 65/6347-1929; www.hotel1929. com; doubles from S$350.

Scarlet •YetThe another Chinatown find, the decor is French on steroids—gilt-edged mirrors, sunburst head boards, curlicue lamps and loads of scarlet—making it almost sinister in its elegance. There is the ground floor

Desire restaurant, while the rooftop Breeze could be the most romantic place in Singapore to snatch a drink.

33 Erskine Rd.; 65/6511-3333; www. thescarlethotel.com; doubles from S$200.

Naumi Hotel •Newest of the breed, the Naumi is marvelous. It is within walking distance of the museum district, Marina Bay and the Singapore River. The 40 rooms are comfy and modern, fully wired for business and equipped with kitchenettes.

There’s a ladies-only floor, with special security and amenities. And the views from the rooftop pool are sensational.

41 Seah St.; 65/6403-6000; www.naumihotel.com; doubles from S$200.

itself (again), but going back to its ROOTS Graze restaurant in Rochester Park.

River, Zouk was the first local club to play house music and host international DJ’s from London, Sydney and New York. Over the years it has evolved into several distinct venues, including the surreal Velvet Underground (with its velvet-covered walls) and a club-withina-club called Phuture that could easily double as the Starship Enterprise.

Down at the mouth of the Singapore River is a large, metallic green structure called

Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay, which has been compared to everything from durians and fly eyes to one of Madonna’s spiky brassieres. Launched to much fanfare in 2002, the offbeat building is a Southeast Asian version of London’s South Bank or New York’s Lincoln Center, a fulcrum for all sorts of art and cultural events. These events run a broad gamut, from Chinese opera and Mozart to fashion shows, ballet and wayang shadow puppets.

Seventy percent of the Esplanade’s events are free, as part of an effort to attract ordinary Singaporeans to art forms they may never have even heard of, let alone witnessed in person. “One of our goals is to get rid of the perception that ‘high art’ is scary,” says the Esplanade spokesperson Fiona Soh. “One of the ways we do that is by engaging local people in the arts—not just watching, but actually participating in the act itself through » 185 119 00

Resorts World Sentosa under construction. Clockwise from right: The unusual dome roof of the Esplanade; inside Hotel 1929 in Chinatown; the Caribbean-style KM8 bar on Sentosa Island. Opposite: The Singapore skyline at night.

our workshops and other hands-on programs.” A short walk along Marina Bay from the arts center is the island’s latest entertainment attraction: the Singapore Flyer, the world’s largest Ferris wheel. Reaching 165 meters into the equatorial air, it takes the giant steel-and-glass circle about 30 minutes to make a full rotation.

Views from the 28 glass pods stretch all the way from Singapore’s waterfront (at your feet) to Sumatra in Indonesia.

Those with a romantic bent (and a pocketful of cash) can book a private “flight” for two. The cost? A mere S$1,500.

Truth be told, my ride on the giant wheel wasn’t nearly as titillating as the “fish massage” I got at the funky little Kenko Spa in the mall that wraps around the base of the Flyer.

“They’re special fish from Turkey,” says attendant Elaine Lim, “that like to eat the dead skin off your body.”

Rolling up my cuffs and plunging my legs into a shallow pool, hundreds of tiny fish immediately set upon my feet.

Some people say it tickles, but I think the sensation is more like having hundreds of fingers probing your skin at once.

Only half kidding, I ask Elaine if it is possible to have an allbody fish massage. But she seems somewhat scandalized by the suggestion. “We haven’t done that yet,” she admits. And they weren’t about to start with me.

From the Flyer, I get a bird’s-eye view of other new entertainment icons rising along the Singapore waterfront. Directly below the wheel, workers are busy putting the finishing touches on part of a sinuous auto-racing circuit that will host the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix on September 28. This will be the first Formula One Grand Prix held at night, with race cars whooshing around downtown Singapore beneath powerful stadium lights. About 70,000 people are expected to attend and thousands more will watch from hotel balconies.

The Grand Prix will be the biggest sporting event in Singapore history—and an annual event. Many hotels are already booked solid for Grand Prix week. And don’t even ask about the rates.

A different sort of action is taking shape on the other side

of the harbor—a massive construction zone that will eventually transform into Marina Bay Sands—one of two massive hotel casino projects to open in 2010. In typical Singapore fashion, they’re euphemistically called “integrated resorts.”

And their development is anything but shoddy—world-class architects, show-biz experts, culinary doyens and convention maestros are all part of the mix of what will be two of the largest resorts ever built, anywhere. » 121

Only HALF kidding, I ask Elaine if it would

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be possible to have an all-body FISH massage

A selection at Aurum restaurant. Clockwise from above: A table setting at House in Dempsey Hill; a waitress at House; the bar at the New Majestic hotel.

Opposite: The stunning dome ceiling inside the Esplanade.

Old GODOWNS house dozens of nightclubs, From high up in the Flyer, I see dozens of cranes and massive holes where the foundations for the resorts are being poured. I get the full scoop on Marina Bay Sands (the same people from the Las Vegas and the more recent Macau Sands casinos) at its project office. “We’re taking the model we use in Las Vegas and applying it here,” says George Tanasijevich, the project’s Canadian overlord. “Leisure on weekends and conventions during the week. And we think the hotel itself will be an attraction, that people will come to see it.” The resort design—by cutting-edge Boston-based architect Moshe Safdie—is like nothing else, a giant waterfront casino and convention center beneath a roof that resembles a spread-out deck of cards, and three 57-story hotel towers connected by a unique “sky garden” that will feature pools, parks and a running track perched 180 meters in the air, and jutting out as much as 60 meters over the edge of the buildings.

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Malaysia’s Genting Group is developing the other playground, Resorts World Sentosa. Other than the gambling and high-rise hotels, this resort will bear little resemblance to the Marina Bay project, and will instead feature a wide range of family-friendly components, including Southeast Asia’s first Universal Studios theme park; a water park filled with “water coasters” and flume rides; an oceanarium where visitors will be able to swim with dolphins and whale sharks; and a Cirque du Soleil show. The architect this time: American post-modern master Michael Graves.

“The integrated resorts are slated to change the entertainment and tourism landscape not just in Singapore, but all of Southeast Asia,” Resorts World spokesperson Robin Goh tells me at the project office on Sentosa. “We looked at what the region didn’t have and that is what we decided to create here, a range of attractions that will draw different audiences.”

Bite-sized bits at Aurum restaurant.

Left: On the beach at KM8. Opposite, from left: Outdoors at Graze restaurant in Rochester Park; the Singapore Flyer.

bars and restaurants beneath a GIANT canopy The only thing close to an integrated resort in Singapore at the moment is The Cannery @ Clarke Quay, an eclectic entertainment zone wedged between Fort Canning Park (where Singapore’s colonial founder, Sir Stamford Raffles, lived during his days on the island) and the Singapore River. Here, old godowns house dozens of nightclubs, bars and restaurants beneath a giant canopy that keeps out the tropical sun.

In among all the flash, I stumbled onto an oddball eatery called Aurum, which specializes in molecular gastronomy of the type pioneered at the famed El Bulli restaurant on the Costa Brava, in Spain. From a table beside the kitchen-cumlaboratory, I watch through a plate-glass window as Aurum’s cooks prepare what has got to be the strangest meal of my life. “We use scientific methods to break down and then reconstitute basic foods into entirely new tastes and shapes,”

chef Wee Bin Khao explains. Like some Buck Rogers version of a Chinese banquet, I sink my teeth into a procession of dishes: deconstructed suckling pig, lychee caviar martini with mint cotton candy, liquefied Sicilian olives with an algae shell.

And, surprise: they’re all quite tasty. Add the pomp, circumstance and dry ice, with which many of the dishes are served, and the end result is dinner as theater, a feast for both the eyes and the palate.

Singapore has always been a food haven, but now it’s making a bid to become a beer maven too. It wasn’t long ago that Tiger was the king of local suds. And while the striped cat may continue to rule in terms of overall sales, there are some serious challengers for the title of island’s best amber nectar.

Archipelago Brewery makes half a dozen craft beers that blend traditional Belgian brewing techniques and distinctly Asian flavors like tamarind, ginger and lemongrass. » 125

Over a couple of pints at Archipelago’s “beer hub” on Circular Street, Hawaiian-born brewmaster Fal Allen tells me how he comes up with the unusual flavors. “I was brought here to create beer that’s more than wet, yellow and fizzy,” says Allen. “Right away I figured the best way to do that was to incorporate local ingredients into the beer. I do this by browsing the local food markets, asking lots of questions, tasting things and then bringing things back to mix into the beers.”

In suburban Singapore, two bygone British colonial neighborhoods have been transformed into popular afterdark enclaves. Rochester Park once housed a thriving expat community of artists, photographers, advertising people and writers like myself (I lived and wrote for three years at No. 16). Nowadays, the stylish black-and-white bungalows are best known for their gourmet eateries like Min Jiang at One North, with its classic Chinese food, served indoors beneath swirling ceiling fans or alfresco on a leafy terrace. The house specialty is wood-fired barbecued duck prepared in what used to be the amah’s quarters in the back of the garden.

Over on Dempsey Hill, the old haunt of British Army soldiers has been replaced antique dealers, chefs, bar staff, jazz musicians and Asian massage masters. The largest barracks has been converted into a funky multi-use center called

House, which includes a greenhouse café that faces a verdant forest, a cozy after-work and late-night bar, and a sprawling Spa Esprit, with flamboyant treatment rooms (each with its own visual theme) and sexy whirlpools that steam until well after midnight.

Singapore has also spawned a beach scene on the leeward side of Sentosa Island. Here, coconut palms shade a strand of white sand. Beach volleyball is de rigueur, followed by drinks and eats at trendy waterfront oases. At a Caribbeanstyle beach bar called KM8, I spend an hour or two listening to reggae and downing rum-based cocktails with names that cannot be printed in a family magazine.

Later, wandering along the strand, I come to Café del Mar, a clone of the celebrated Ibiza hangout and another great place to while away a tropical afternoon and evening. While I am sorely tempted to curl up and nap on one of the daybeds inside, sunset beckons me to an outdoor table where I can scan the pool, the beach and all of the beautiful people flouncing up and down the shore.

As I sip a caipirinha at Café del Mar and watch the sunset over distant Sumatra, I ponder the notion that this new swinging Singapore is going to turn a few heads, maybe even shock some people who still think of this island as the epitome of staid. Then again, the ghosts of parties past are probably going to dig it.

GUIDE TO SINGAPORE WHEN TO GO The weather varies little from month to month — it’s always humid. November to January are the wettest months, but it rains during all other months

as well, while from March to September there is a lack of refreshing breezes.

Temperatures average around 31 degrees during the day and 24 at night, year-round.

GETTING THERE Singapore Airlines has daily flights from all major airports in Southeast Asia. All the region’s major carriers fly to Singapore from their respective hubs, along with a number of budget airlines.

WHERE TO EAT & DRINK Archipelago Brewery 79 Circular Rd.; 65/6327-8408; www.archipelagobrewery.com.

Aurum #01-02A Block C, The Cannery, 3 River Valley Rd.; 65/6887-3733; www.aurum.sg; dinner for two S$170.

Barfly #02-02 Block C, The Cannery, 3 River Valley Rd.; 65/6887-3733; www.barfly.com.sg.

Café del Mar 40 Siloso Beach Walk, Sentosa Island; 65/62351296; www.cafedelmar.com.sg.

House 8D Dempsey Rd., Dempsey Hill; 65/6475-7787 (café), 65/6479-0070 (spa); www.dempseyhouse.com.

KM8 120 Tanjong Beach Walk, Sentosa Island; 65/6274-2288; www.km8.com.sg.

Ministry of Sound Block C, The

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Cannery, 3 River Valley Rd.; 65/6235-2292; www. ministryofsound.com.sg.

Min Jiang at One North No. 5 Rochester Park; 65/6774-0122; www.goodwoodparkhotel.com/ dining-minjiang.htm; dinner for two S$185.

St James Power Station 3 Sentosa Gateway; 65/6270-7676; www.stjamespowerstation.com.

The Cannery 3 River Valley Rd.; 65/6887-3733; www.thecannery.com.

The Clinic #01-03 Block C, The Cannery, 3 River Valley Rd.; 65/6887-3733; www.theclinic.sg.

Zouk 17 Jiak Kim St.; 65/67382988; www.zoukclub.com.

WHAT TO DO Kenko Spa #02-08 Singapore Flyer shopping arcade, 30 Raffles Av.; 65/6565-0303; www.kenko.com.sg.

Singapore Flyer #01-07, 30 Raffles Av.; 65/6333-3311; www. singaporeflyer.com.sg.

Esplanade 1 Esplanade Drive; 65/6828-8377; www.esplanade.com.

Relaxing outdoors at CafĂŠ del Mar on Sentosa Island.

The Pleasu

ures of Italy From Milan to Rome, from Florence to Naples, GINI

ALHADEFF

profiles style insiders who effortlessly embody

FA B R I Z I O M O S C A Film Producer/Rome

One of Italy’s youngest and most passionate movie producers, Mosca is French-Neapolitan by birth but a Roman by adoption. He started his adult life in London as a “yuppie banker,” he says, but his predilection for “the unexpected” led him to film—making documentaries in Africa, Pakistan and India, then producing a feature, I Cento Passi, which was nominated for a Golden Globe and a David (the Italian Oscar) in 2001. Last year, Mosca produced Emanuele Crialese’s Golden Door, which won the Venice Film Festival award for Best Director; he has recently completed a film called Galantuomini, by young Anglo-Pugliese director Edoardo Winspeare, whose family castle in Puglia sits on the very tip of Italy’s heel.

R O M E FAV O R I T E S

Mosca likes to have drinks at the Hotel de Russie’s Stravinskij Bar (9 Via del Babuino; 39-06/3288-8830; www.hotelderussie.it; drinks for two US$30) and recommends the pizza at Ristorante Al Passetto (14 Via Zanardelli N.; 39-06/6880-3696; dinner for two US$68).

Mosca, at Stadio dei Marmi, near his Rome office.

LA DOLCE VITA—

something she knows a little about herself—and asks them to reveal a few of their favorite local restaurants, shops and more.

Photographed by OBERTO GILI

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talians have a word—sprezzatura—

to indicate their belief that style must be unconscious and that talent must appear effortless. You have sprezzatura if you are naturally able to perform extraordinary deeds, come se niente fosse, as if there were nothing to it. The mayor of Venice, Massimo Cacciari, for instance, has no difficulty being a skillful administrator and one of Italy’s leading philosophers at the same time.

I had some early master classes in Italian style and sensibility. When I was 12 and traveling in Japan, the architect Giò Ponti placed a natural pearl in the palm of my hand—we were in the hall of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. Ponti’s daughter Lisa, who ran her father’s architectural magazine Domus, had an elaborate set of white luggage that consisted of slightly angled boxes with satiny steel closures. I remember being impressed. Nanda Pivano, a writer and herald in Italy of the American Beat Generation, sent me hot-pink patent leather Mary Janes, knowing my feet were too big for Japanese shoes. Years later, when I was in boarding school in Florence, she sent me poems by Jerry Rubin and The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which Allen Ginsberg had sent her, to translate into Italian, accompanied by letters scented with Guerlain’s Mitsouko.

When I went to have lunch with the Pontis, the family myths were paraded: how Giò had put risotto on his head to amuse the grandchildren and how his glamorous wife, Giulia, had once brought back a suitcase full of potatoes from Venezuela to give her friends as souvenirs because she liked their shapes.

LUISA BECCARIA

When I worked for Giorgio Armani in the 1980’s, his code word for style was grinta. It sounds, in Italian, a little bit like what an animal does to show Designer/Milan power, baring its teeth or its claws. Armani was not interested in prettiness or even “elegance,” but in a show of strength—grinta.

It takes grinta to transform disaster, and that’s what the maverick con- “The older I get,” fashion designer Beccaria says, “the more I like to return to places I already know.” Her temporary-art dealer Lucio Amelio did when he invited Beuys, Warhol, base is Milan, which she calls “a pocket city,” and “an Rauschenberg and Basquiat to show in Naples, and organized the exhibiopen-air office.” “But in 20 minutes you can be at tion “Terrae Motus” (Earth Trembles) after the earthquake of 1980 killed Lake Como and have dinner at Harry’s Bar (1 Piazza 3,000 and left 30,000 in the city homeless. Self-taught, an interpreter by Risorgimento, Cernobbio; 39-031/334-7057; dinner for two profession, flamboyantly independent, with a strangely rasping voice, as if US$97). In America you’d need a private jet to change there were a movement of lead pellets in his throat, Amelio would startle scenery that quickly.” Her delightfully spare boutique, Luisa Beccaria (1 Via Formentini, Milan; 39-02/863men with the question, “Are you normal or do you go with women too?”

807), is painted the palest of pinks.

He influenced an entire generation of artists and curators. One is among M I L A N FAV O R I T E S the group of style-setters I profile on these pages: Eduardo Cicelyn, who Beccaria loves to go out in Brera, Milan’s Greenwich masterminded and directs the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donna Village. She recommends L’Oro dei Farlocchi (13 Via Regina (MADRE) in Naples. Cicelyn’s wife, Lavinia Brancaccio, an art Madonnina; 39-02/860-589), a small antiques store; historian from an old Neapolitan family who teaches underprivileged Obika (28 Via Mercato; 39-02/8645-0568; dinner for two children, told me Neapolitans believe you should sip espresso all day long US$66), a new mozzarella bar, where the waiters and waitresses tend to be the sons and daughters of the so as to always have its taste in your mouth. clientele; Pasticceria Marchesi (11A Via Santa Maria The word sprezzatura conveys an Italian’s greatest compliment: that alla Porta; 39-02/876-730), one of Milan’s oldest cafés, whatever one’s talents, they are well-hidden, or at least understated. But for coffee and a cornetto; and Latteria di San Marco, that shouldn’t always be taken literally: as the performance artist Luigi (24 Via San Marco; 39-02/659-7653; lunch for two Ontani—who had himself photographed in 1970 as a young Bacchus on US$60) for very simple good food. a velvet settee, wearing nothing but a bunch of grapes on his face, and nowadays sports three-piece sherbet-colored silk suits—says on his Opposite: Beccaria at her Milan boutique with her daughter Lucilla Bonaccorsi, in dresses of her own design. answering machine, “Viva l’arte! ” 130

P RODUCED

BY

OLIVIA MARIOTTI

AND

M A R I A SHOLLENBA RGER

CLAUDIO NARDI Architect/Florence

Nardi’s minimalist transformation of the now legendary fashion boutique Luisa Via Roma (19–21R Via Roma; 39-05/283-621; www.luisaviaroma.com) in the 1980’s helped

attract an international clientele. Nardi has turned the place on its ear again: a new space, scheduled to open this month, will feature a vast glass terrace. Another project is a Palazzo del Profumo, the renovation of an ancient palazzo that includes a museum of fragrances and a restaurant. Nardi recently converted the industrial warehouse where he once had his studio into one of Florence’s most innovative hotels, Riva Lofts (98 Via Bandinelli; 39-055/713-0272; www.rivahotel.it; doubles from US$330), run by his daughter. The rooms are spacious and uncluttered. “It took four years to design it and to collect objects and furniture from antiques fairs and flea markets,” Nardi says.

F L O R E N C E FAV O R I T E S

Nardi is a regular at the restaurants Alla Vecchia Bettola (32–34R Via Luigi Ariosto; 39055/224-158; dinner for two US$70) and Trattoria 4 Leoni (1R Via dei Vellutini; 39-055/218-562; dinner for two US$85), in a neighborhood full of artisans’ workshops. And in Borgo Pinti, he likes the lively La Giostra (10–12R Via Borgo Pinti; 39-055/241-341; dinner for two US$96).

Nardi in one of the rooms at Florence’s Riva Lofts.

E D U A R D O C I C E LY N Museum Director/Naples

This blue-eyed Neapolitan is a prince of contemporary art in Italy—the founder and director of the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina, or MADRE (79 Via Luigi Settembrini; 39-081/562-4561; www.museomadre.it). Set in a renovated 17th-century palazzo, the collection is an illustrious grouping of American Pop (Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons) and Italian Arte Povera, along with rooms commissioned from important living artists—local hero Francesco Clemente made frescoes for two of them. The 14th-century Donna Regina church that gave the museum its name is also on site. MADRE’s whitewashed vaulted restaurant, Madre E Vino (39-081/19313016; dinner for two US$90), now serves dinner on Friday and Saturday nights.

N A P L E S FAV O R I T E S

For Cicelyn, the best part of Naples is the centro storico, the Old Town surrounding the museum. He recommends the 29-room hotel Costantinopoli 104 (104 Via Santa Maria di Costantinopoli; 39-081/557-1035; www.costantinopoli104.com; doubles from US$267) and the bar Intra Moenia (70 Piazza Bellini; 39-081/557-1190; www.intramoenia.it) across the street. The bar’s owner also publishes books on Naples.

Cicelyn in the courtyard of the MADRE museum, in Naples, with sculptures by Mimmo Paladino.

199 133

LORENZA SEBASTI PALLANTI Wine Producer/Tuscany

In Chianti—more specifically, in Ama, near Gaiole—Pallanti and her family live surrounded by olive groves, vineyards and contemporary art. Here, they make a fabulous wine, Castello di Ama, named for the estate, which is also home to works by Anish Kapoor, Carlos Garaiçoa, Daniel Buren and Giulio Paolini, among others. The sculptures and installations are the result of a continuing series of yearly commissions, and, Pallanti says, “they make the place more beautiful.” The permanent installations—including a new one by Bulgarian artist Nedko Solakov called Ama Doodles—can be visited by appointment.

Castello di Ama Località Ama, Gaiole, Chianti; 39-0577/746-031; www.castellodiama.com.

T U S C A N Y FAV O R I T E S

Sebasti loves Chiasso dei Portici (1 Chiasso dei Portici, Radda in Chianti; 39-0577/738-774; dinner for two US$85), a restaurant in a town near the estate, run by two women who bake their own bread and make their own pasta. For a day’s outing, she suggests Monterchi, near Arezzo, to see Piero della Francesca’s fresco Madonna del Parto (1 Via della Reglia; 39-0575/70713).

Pallanti, reflected in Daniel Buren’s mirror installation at Castello di Ama, in Chianti.

FRANCO, ANTONIO AND CARLA SERSALE Hoteliers/Positano

It would be worth traveling to Positano just to meet a galantuomo (gentleman) like Franco Sersale, dressed in white linen trousers and shirt, sitting on the terrace of his hotel, Le Sirenuse (30 Via Cristoforo Colombo; 39-089/875-066; www.sirenuse.it; doubles from US$487).

The rooms here feel like someone’s house, with objects assembled over time. That is the key sensibility of the place—that it did not happen overnight. Sersale’s son Antonio runs the property with his wife, Carla, and they all present themselves as modestly as the rippling waves that come ashore at the beach below the hotel.

P O S I TA N O FAV O R I T E S

The Sersales like Don Alfonso (11–13 Corso Sant’Agata, Sant’Agata Sui Due Golfi; 39-081/878-0026; www.donalfonso.com; dinner for two US$275), where chef Alfonso Iaccarino—who also has a restaurant at the hotel—“combines Neapolitan cooking with nouvelle cuisine lightness.” Next 2 (242 Viale Pasitea; 39-089/812-3516; dinner for two US$138) is a lively meeting place, and Music on the Rocks (51 Via Grotte dell’Incanto; 39-089/875-874) is a “fabulous discothèque on the beach.” A number of restaurants are accessible by boat: Lo Scoglio a Marina del Cantone (Nerano; 39-081/808-1026; dinner for two US$110) is “the best for style, atmosphere, and quality of food.” The family also recommends La Conca del Sogno a Recommone (9 Via San Marciano, Nevano; 39-081/808-1036; dinner for two US$138), where you can sit outside, and Da Adolfo (40 Via Laurito; 39-089/875-022; lunch for two US$124), where the specialty is grilled mozzarella on lemon leaves. ✚

Carla, Antonio and Franco Sersale at Le Sirenuse, their hotel in Positano. Carla’s dress is by Alberta Ferretti.

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Old buildings line a cobblestone street in the Historical Center of Macau, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

A LIVING

HISTORY

COBBLESTONE STREETS WINDING PAST SINO-COLONIAL BUILDINGS AND FABULOUS BAROQUE CHURCHES, TO SEDATE, RUSTIC PIAZZAS. PHIL MACDONALD DETAILS MACAU’S REMARKABLE HERITAGE. PHOTOGRAPHED BY DAVID HARTUNG

A Chinese opera performance during celebrations honoring the Taoist goddess, Matsu, outside the A-Ma Temple, Macau’s oldest temple.

Macau owes much of its historical legacy to inertia.

While British Hong Kong— just 65 kilometers away across the Pearl River Delta—boomed, busted, busted and boomed its way towards the 21st century, bulldozing much of its heritage along the way, this tiny Portuguese enclave idled. There was no need to knock anything down in Macau because no one wanted to build anything in its place. Centuries-old buildings stood their ground—albeit in various stages of disrepair—not defiantly, but by default. Before handing back the colony to China in 1999, a concerted effort was underway to restore much of the SAR’s historical architecture. In 2005, the Inner Harbor became a UNESCO World Heritage site, containing 29 individual plazas, buildings, churches, forts, temples and even a cemetery, collectively known as the Historical Center of Macau.

Unlike other cities in the region, there is nothing piecemeal or ad hoc about Macau’s heritage architecture. Lovely colonial buildings aren’t squeezed between gleaming skyscrapers, looking unlikely, or even silly. Historical preservation here is not an afterthought as it is in other places in the region. The Inner Harbor of Macau is more European in this perspective, where its history is a living part of the city, not a quaint anomaly. To tread the cobblestone streets and winding lanes of central Macau is a delight. And the great advantage of the city is its compactness: all the World Heritage buildings are jammed within a few square kilometers and it is an easy and pleasant amble from place to place.

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Cultural Harmony Clockwise from top left: A night view of the Ruins of St. Paul’s; an incense coil burns at A-Ma Temple; morning tai chi exercises at Camoes Garden; the bold neo-classical façade of the Holy House of Mercy building on Senado Square.

THE ODD ANGRY SHOT The top floor of the Macau Museum leads out to the grounds of the Mount Fortress (Monte Fort)—with its original cannon emplacements and ramparts now enclosing pleasant gardens, lawns, footpaths and shady banyan trees—to sweeping vistas of the Inner Harbor. From the fort, views linger over the rooftops to a cluster of high-rise office towers to the south, then further on to needle-shaped Macau Tower, standing at the water’s edge. Within cannon-shot of the fort, and interrupting the panorama with its dominance, is the new 44-floor Grand Lisboa casino and hotel (a garish blight designed to look like a chorus girl’s headdress, or a sprouting lotus flower, or a ceremonial dagger).

The formidable Mount Fortress was built by the Jesuits— who pretty much ran the show in Macau at that time— between 1617 and 1626, and formed the backbone of the Portuguese defenses in the enclave. But its cannon were used only once. That was in 1662, when a cannonball fired by a priest, and guided by either divine providence or blind luck, managed to lob on to a powder keg on one of the invading Dutch ships in Macau’s harbor, creating a tumultuous explo-

sion and panic among the interlopers, who limped away in defeat. The cannon are being used more these days, as photographic props for young couples visiting the fort—smiling girlfriend drapes herself over a gun, flashes the peace sign, while gleeful boyfriend snaps away at different angles. Unlike the failed Dutch adventure, these are not isolated incidents.

THE HEART OF MACAU Senado Square—laid with mosaic stones forming swirling patterns and lined with handsome colonnaded colonial buildings—is one of Asia’s finest. In the evening, when lights bathe the square and surrounding buildings in an evocative paleyellow hue and the gaggles of tourists have headed off to the casinos, it becomes even more engaging. The Holy House of Mercy, with its bold neo-classical façade and thick coats of whitewash, dominates one side of the square. Opposite the square is the Leal Senado (“loyal senate”), named such because of the colonial government’s refusal to recognize the Spanish occupation of Portugal in the 17th century. It was completed in 1784, with its current balconied façade added a century later. Inside, a stone staircase rises from the grand » 139

Sweeping steps lead up to the iconic Ruins of St. Paulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s.

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BY THE 1980’S, THE GRAND FAÇADE OF ST. PAUL’S WAS IN SUCH A STATE OF TEETERING DISREPAIR, IT LOOKED AS IF IT WOULD COLLAPSE IF YOU BOUNCED A TENNIS BALL OFF IT

185 141 00

Historical Theater Clockwise from top left: Epitaphs of misadventure can be found on gravestones at the Protestant Cemetery; a pianist practices on the stage of the Dom Pedro V Theatre; the waterfront A-Ma Temple; a historical tome at the Sir Robert Ho Tung Library.

foyer to a flourishing courtyard garden. Further up are a beautiful wood-paneled public library and stately senate chambers. At its northern end, Senado Square narrows before opening up again to the outstanding façade of St. Dominic’s Church. The church, framed by palm trees, is Portuguese colonial baroque architecture at its finest. Its three-tiered façade is adorned with elaborate stucco motifs, iconic columns and huge carved-teakwood doors.

Father Alessandro Valignano, which now forms part of the one-room Museum of Sacred Art. Skulls and bones of martyrs from Vietnam and Japan in glass cases vie for attention with centuries-old ecclesiastical regalia, sculptures and paintings, including one of Saint Francis Xavier chatting to some attentive waterfowl while a couple of bemused monks look on. It’s titled “St. Francis Preaching to Animals.”

CLIMBING THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN A STORIED FAÇADE By the 1980’s, the grand façade of St. Paul’s was in such a state of teetering disrepair, it looked as if it would collapse if you bounced a tennis ball off it. It was restored in the 1990’s at some aesthetic expense—ungainly steel scaffolding behind the edifice keeps it from toppling onto the hordes of photosnapping tourists below—and now stands as one of Asia’s finest examples of ecclesiastical architecture. Built in the early 17th century by the Jesuits, the carvings and statuary adorning this magnificent three-tiered stone edifice unfurl a wonderful adventure in religious iconography. Behind the façade, excavations have revealed the crypt of the church’s founder, 142

A-Ma Temple—Macau’s oldest temple, predating Portuguese settlement—is dedicated to the Queen of Heaven. A path winds up past boulders, prayer halls, pavilions and courtyards, through moon gates and an inordinate number of old ladies with begging bowls and gold-tooth smiles, to the wooded slopes of Penha Hill. There is the image of a junk embossed into a boulder just inside the entrance, while Chinese characters on other boulders invoke the gods. The main shrine has plenty of statues of A-Ma and a model of a war junk. Barra Square, facing the Inner Harbor in front of A-Ma Temple, has charcoal and ocher mosaic stones laid in a wave pattern to mirror the flow of the harbor.

Inside St. Anthony’s Church, Macau’s oldest church, originally built in 1560, and where the Jesuits set up their earliest headquarters.

GARDENS, GROTTOS, GRAVES On the day I visited, the snarling dog shading itself by the guardhouse—with no guards inside—at the entrance to Casa Garden dissuaded me from venturing past the front gate. The whitewashed, yellow-trimmed villa sitting beyond the dog, a large pond and a line of palm trees, was once touted as the finest in all Macau, and a summer residence for Portuguese aristocracy and politicians and, later, home to bosses from monopoly opium purveyor, the East India Company.

Next door, Camoes Grotto and Garden is dedicated to Luis de Cameos, a 16th-century Portuguese poet who penned the epic Os Lusiada. A bronze bust of the man sits in a grotto just inside the entrance to the park. Elsewhere, paths wind past boulders, luxuriant banyan trees, and fern and bamboo groves. On the other side of Casa Garden and fronted by a simple chapel is the Protestant Cemetery. Epitaphs on gravestones in this small, well-tended cemetery tell forlorn tales of shipwreck, disease and misadventure of Macau’s British and American residents. The chapel is named after the first Protestant missionary to China, Robert Morrison. Facing the cemetery on the opposite side of shady Cameo Square, St.

Anthony’s Church stands on the site of Macau’s first chapel, built in 1558. The current church on the site, with its hulking presence, was built in the 1930’s.

A PIAZZA OF SOME NOTE A sun motif set in earth-tone mosaic tiles is the centerpiece of the small but charming St. Augustine’s Square, which is bordered by historic buildings. St. Joseph’s Seminary and Church was set up in 1728 to train Chinese priests. Its three-tiered whitewash façade is topped with twin towers, while a door from the altar leads to a cloistered garden. Dom Pedro V Theatre was the first European theater in southern China and still hosts performances (it’s currently closed for renovations). Its columned entrance and motif flourishes evoke a Romanesque theme. Arched windows dominate the façade of the Sir Robert Ho Tung Library, the former summer residence of an influential Hong Kong businessman. Sir Robert bequeathed the building and his book collection as a public library on his death in 1955. Another example of Portuguese baroque style is St. Augustine’s Church, built in 1814, with cream stone offset by white columns and swirling motifs. » 143

Church and State From left: The Macau Museum, on the grounds of the 17th-century Mount Fortress; inside St. Anthony’s Church.

MORE MACAU WORLD HERITAGE SITES

Square is perhaps the most charming of all the squares under the UNESCO World Heritage umbrella.

MOORISH BARRACKS

CATHEDRAL

The somewhat drab (for a cathedral at least) stonework façade belies the stature and importance of the Cathedral, Macau’s holiest church, which fails to impress in light of the baroque splendor of other churches in the SAR. However, it fronts the expansive, cobblestone Cathedral Square. A collection of beautifully restored, pastel-colored colonial buildings surrounding the square evoke an appealing European air.

SOUTHERN EUROPE IN LILAU

Exuding a rustic, Mediterranean village feel with simple, pastel-colored colonial apartment buildings lining a plaza shaded by banyan trees, Lilau 144

An Islamic-influenced architectural anomaly among the city’s baroque and Sino-colonial heritage. Built in 1874 to house an Indian regiment from Goa. ST. LAWRENCE’S CHURCH

LOU KAU MANSION

Built in the late 1800’s, this plain, twostory gray-green brick building is enlivened by elaborate patterning along the eaves.

ST. DOMINIC’S SQUARE

This northern extension of Senado Square provides open space to take in the engrossing façade of St. Dominic’s.

The surrounding palm trees lend a tropical feel to this cream-and-white church, originally built in the 1560’s (its current facade is a 19th-century addition). Chandeliers hang from the church’s magnificent timber ceiling, while one of its twin towers was once an ecclesiastical prison.

COMPANY OF JESUS SQUARE

SAM KAI VUI KUN TEMPLE

Perched on the highest point in the Macau, overlooking the city, the grounds include the small but historically significant Guia Chapel, and Guia Lighthouse, the oldest still-operational lighthouse in China.

No standout architecturally, but historically important as a meeting place for Macau’s top merchants prior to the establishment of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in 1912.

This square fronts the sweeping stone staircase that leads to the Ruins of St. Paul’s.

SECTION OF THE OLD CITY WALLS

Part of the original fortifications of Macau, constructed around 1569.

GUIA FORTRESS

Hilltop Views From left: The lighthouse and chapel at the Guia Fortress; one of Macau’s historic streets leads to the Ruins of St. Paul’s.

GUIDE TO MACAU WHEN TO GO October to December are the best months to visit, when the weather is cool and relatively dry.

September is the peak of the typhoon season.

GETTING THERE There are several airlines servicing Macau from other Asian cities, including Air Macau and AirAsia. Most major airlines have flights to Hong Kong from cities in Asia, Europe, North America and Australia. From Hong Kong, take a ferry to Macau (or a helicopter — a much speedier alternative).

WHERE TO STAY Sofitel Macau at Ponte 16 The SAR’s newest luxury hotel, within walking distance of UNESCO sites.

Rua do Visconde Paco de Arcos; 853/8861-0016; www.accorhotels. com; doubles from US$220.

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(My Favorite Place)

TURKS AND CAICOS

Donna Karan on the beach at Parrot Cay, in the Turks and Caicos.

Donna Karan, designer and die-hard New Yorker, tells DANI SHAPIRO why Parrot Cay, in the Turks and Caicos, is her home away from home

I 146

York contingent and an L.A. contingent.

They flew in from everywhere, and it was a weekend-long party.

Parrot Cay brings my favorite things in the world together. It’s East meets West. It’s everything and nothing, if I can describe it that way. It’s a hidden treasure—the turquoise water, the white, white sand. I remember that, when I was first there, I thought that it needed to be a silent, grownup place. And now, just recently, I was there with all of my seven grandchildren. It’s become a family place for me. And it feels completely effortless. But, oh my God, the amount of effort that goes into it behind the scenes. ✚

JU N E 2 0 0 8| T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E S E A . C O M

WHERE TO STAY

Parrot Cay A reclusive 400hectare private island resort and spa, fringed by a white powder-sand beach.

Accommodations vary from rooms with sundecks to ocean-front villas.

1-649/946-7788; parrotcay.como.bz; doubles from US$525.

LY N N K O H L M A N

Parrot Cay in 1999, right after it opened. My husband, Stephen, was sick with cancer, and it was this amazing retreat for us. We would go there after a collection, and I would literally not leave the room. The place has significant meaning to me because it’s where we spent our last Christmas together, when we redid our vows—we were barefoot on the beach, eight or 10 of us—and when we bought our property there.

My daughter Gaby was also married there—and she wanted a wedding just like Mommy’s. But she married an Italian, so there was an Italian contingent, a New STARTED GOING TO