March 2011

SOUTHEAST ASIA

FOOD

GLOBAL FLAVORS IN JAKARTA’S TOP EATERIES

AWARDS

21 STYLE WINNERS FROM HOTELS TO HIGH-TECH TOYS

BRUNEI MIAMI INDIA JAPAN

MARCH 2011

+

DESIGN SPECIAL

FASHION

SIZZLING LOOKS AT THAILAND’S HOTTEST SPOT

DESTINATIONS AN EXPERT’S MACAU, SAIGON MIXOLOGISTS, SIEM REAP STYLE! SINGAPORE SG$7.90 ● HONG KONG HK$43 THAILAND THB175 ● INDONESIA IDR50,000 MALAYSIA MYR17 ● VIETNAM VND85,000 MACAU MOP44 ● PHILIPPINES PHP240 BURMA MMK35 ● CAMBODIA KHR22,000 BRUNEI BND7.90 ● LAOS LAK52,000

In this issue: STYLISH TRAVEL TIPS FOR MEN Tra ve l a n d L e i s u re A s i a . c o m

Privilege knows no boundaries.

Carried by the Elite, the world over.

By invitation only.

For expression of interest, please call Singapore: + (65) 6295 6293

contents

march 2011 volume 05 : issue 03

features 98 Retro Bangkok Beyond the overflowing flea markets, Thailand’s capital is a trove of vintage fashion, sounds and gems. lara day navigates the in’s and out’s of old-school cool around the city. photographed by cedric arnold. guide 107

98

Old-school cool in Bangkok.

6 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

118 Miami Modern With the opening of Frank Gehry’s New World Symphony Building, the magic American city is ready for its next act. tom austin takes a tour of Miami’s ever-evolving neighborhoods. photographed by noe dewitt. guide and map 125

cedric arnold

108 Jewel of India Hyderabad is a city of mythic colonial glamour and fantastic long-lost wealth, but, as Marie Brenner discovers, it is also a high-tech boomtown with new hotels and renovated palaces, a place where history continues to be made. photographed by andrea fazzari guide and map 117

contents

march 2011 volume 05 : issue 03 T+L SOUTHEAST ASIA STYLE AND DESIGN SPECIAL / KOH SAMUI / SIEM REAP / SAIGON / MIAMI / INDIA / STYLE AWARDS 2011

SOUTHEAST ASIA

FOOD

GLOBAL FLAVORS IN JAKARTA’S TOP EATERIES

MARCH 2011

+

DESIGN SPECIAL

FASHION

SIZZLING LOOKS AT THAILAND’S HOTTEST SPOT

AWARDS

21 STYLE WINNERS FROM HOTELS TO HIGH-TECH TOYS

M A R C H 2 011

BRUNEI MIAMI INDIA JAPAN

DESTINATIONS AN EXPERT’S MACAU, SAIGON MIXOLOGISTS, SIEM REAP STYLE! SINGAPORE SG$7.90 ● HONG KONG HK$43 THAILAND THB175 ● INDONESIA IDR50,000 MALAYSIA MYR17 ● VIETNAM VND85,000 MACAU MOP44 ● PHILIPPINES PHP240 BURMA MMK35 ● CAMBODIA KHR22,000 BRUNEI BND7.90 ● LAOS LAK52,000

In this issue: STYLISH TRAVEL TIPS FOR MEN Tra ve l a n d L e i s u re A s i a . c o m

03Cover Style+Design.indd 1

08/02/2011 15:05

On the cover

Photographed by Tom Hoops. Styled by Akaphol Ruthaiyanont. Model: Kate. Hair and make-up by Kitty Kittiya. Photo assistant: Ami Lertpricha. Stylist assistant: Supaporn Teawvong. Hat and scarf by Hermès; earrings by Sretsis; suit and skirt

by Miu Miu; shoes by Jimmy Choo. In the beach bar, W Retreat Koh Samui, Thailand.

special

71

71

2011 Design Awards Thoughtful, innovative design makes travel better, whether it’s a stunning hotel, restaurant or cruise ship—or the perfect suitcase. For T+L’s annual competition, our illustrious jury chose the very best in 16 categories.

newsflash 28 Asia’s new design hotels, cool new

brews for the summer, Pantone-

colored gadgets, a fresh look at

Yohji Yamamoto and more.

35

expert A world away from the casinos, a Macau native reveals his hometown’s hidden corners. by christopher dewolf

38 Shopping Seven spots for style

in Siem Reap. by naomi lindt

42 8 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

42 Drink Shaking things up in

Saigon. by nana chen 46 See It Asia’s hottest architectural

icons. by daven wu

f r o m to p : N e l s o n G a r r i d o ; n a n a c h e n

insider

contents

march 2011 volume 05 : issue 03

51 Restaurants Global flavors

to devour when in Jakarta.

by sara schonhardt

stylish traveler 55 Icon Marimekko prints

underscore a certain Finnish flair.

by christine ajudua.

styled by mimi lombardo 57

spotlight Men’s style is on the rise across Asia. Here, we get the advice of two tastemakers.

by liang xinyi

60 DESIGN Fusing traditional

artisanship with cutting-edge

design in Taiwan. by lara day 62

Fashion W Retreat Koh Samui proves the perfect tropical locale for some time in the sun. photographed by tom hoops

journal 81

Food Where do you find sublime sushi, tempura, kaiseki and more in a city known for its obsessive devotion to food?

Veteran critic gael greene charts a course through Japan’s capital.

10 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

84 84

Drink Vienna is a city steeped in tradition, where the centuries-old kaffeehaus struggles to modernize. michael z. wise investigates.

87

Golf While they may not be at the top of most lists, the links in Brunei are a great place to golf—just ask some of the pros. by spencer robinson

90

Portfolio Inspired by Art Deco–era postcards, these vibrant posters of the Philippines are one graphic-design team’s answer to jumpstarting the country’s tourism industry.

90

departments 12 In This Issue 14 Editor’s Note 18 Contributors 20 Mail 22 Best Deals 24 Ask T+L 126 My Favorite Place

60

c l o c k w i s e f r o m t o p l e f t : a ya b r a c k e t t ; j e s s i c a s a m p l e ; c o u r t e s y o f t e a m m a n i l a ; C o u r t e s y o f Y i i

81

Business Travel that’s More Than Just Business Next time your work takes you away from the office, organize a trip that gives you a little something extra.

City Breaks packages from Summit Hotels & Resorts give you the special extras provided for corporate VIPs including complimentary breakfast and a unique amenity from over 145 hotels across the globe.

Choose your business center destination at SummitCityBreaks.com/march < HARBOUR GRAND HONG KONG, HONG KONG

Plan your City Break at over 145 resorts — Dong Fang Hotel, Guangzhou, China Parkyard Hotel Shanghai, Shanghai, China — Regal International East Asia Hotel, Shanghai, China — EAST, Hong Kong — Harbour Grand Hong Kong, Hong Kong The Suryaa New Delhi, New Delhi, India — Keio Plaza Hotel Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan Royal Park Hotel, Tokyo, Japan — Yokohama Royal Park Hotel, Yokohama, Japan Royal Plaza on Scotts, Singapore — The Landmark Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand myhotel Chelsea, London, United Kingdom — The Kitano New York, USA, and more.

in this issue

Austria 126 Taiwan 46, 60, 62 Miami 71, 116 Bangkok 22, 28, 33, 98 Hyderabad 108 Brunei 87

trip ideas

DESTINATIONS Southeast Asia Bali 22, 33 Bangkok 22, 28, 33, 98 Brunei 87 Chiang Mai 22 Hong Kong 22, 46 Hua Hin 22 Jakarta 51 Luang Prabang 22 Macau 35 Philippines 90 Phnom Penh 28 Saigon 24, 42 Siem Reap 38 Singapore 33, 46 Thailand 24

Active + Adventure

87, 126

Architecture

46

Beaches + Islands

90

City

35, 98, 108, 116

Culture + History

84

Design

71

Fashion

55, 57, 60, 62

Food + Drink

30, 42, 51, 81, 84

Hotels + Resorts

22, 28, 33

Shopping

38

Travel Tips

24

middle east Abu Dhabi 71

Featured Destination

Hyderabad

The south Indian city is more than just a high-tech center, though that industry has spurred its growth in recent years. Along with that expansion has come a growing arts and culture scene, while Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sixth most populous city has always had a wealth of historical sites. This month sees temperatures range between 20 and 36 degrees Celsius. (See page 108 for more on Hyderabad.)

12 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

a n d r e a fa z z a r i ( 3 )

travel tip

Asia Guangzhou 46 Hyderabad 108 Kazakhstan 46 Mumbai 46

Shanghai 22, 33, 71 Taiwan 46, 60, 62 Tokyo 81

Europe Austria 126 Brussels 71 France 28, 71 Madrid 71 Oxford 24, 71 Vienna 84

The Americas California 32 Hawaii 71 Los Angeles 71 Miami 71, 116 New York City 71 Utah 71

editor’s note where to find me )) matt@mediatransasia.com )) matt leppard tlsea on Facebook

PICKS OF THE MONTH Some of my design favorites.

FRANCE The Louvre From the glass pyramid to the Mona Lisa, this was my first taste of fine art and I. M. Pei design, some years ago. Paris; louvre.fr.

Road structure in Miami or the gleaming, futuristic Yas Hotel in Abu Dhabi (“Design Awards 2011,” page 71) that struck me as I leafed through the pages, pre-publication. It was the human element that interacts with design—and this led me to contemplate the human body itself. After all, if you think about it, is there a more classic, ergonomically perfect, stylish and functional creation that is essential to devise and engineer such wonders, and to travel and to behold them?

Personally, I think not—the human body and its senses are so important when thinking about the style and design that impacts our lives, in travel and in general. For example, striking buildings need an architect’s eye and hand, and which master craftsman designs a building never to be walked around? (For some really mind-blowing Asian structures, check out “Asia’s New Architecture,” page 46, and tell me you don’t feel the urge to visit and gawp.) And as any chef will tell you, people

eat with their eyes before their mouths— presentation is the key to the joyous, sensuous experience that eating should be, even down to watching sizzling sticks of satay fizzle street-side. Meanwhile, with finer-dining trends (“Jakarta’s Chic Eats,” page 51), we are seeing more open kitchens and in-kitchen dining, which makes the chef’s art an even more integral part of the process of appreciating culinary perfection. I guess what I’m saying is that in these days of looking toward the über-modern to stimulate our senses, we can overlook the basic principles of design and human interaction. Speaking of fundamentals, when I look at our collection of Filipino tourism ads created by Team Manila (“Poster Nation,” page 90), inspired by the Art Deco era, I am reminded that great art can be simple and bold. And it’s my eyes and brain that processes the colors and shapes that please me, sitting, as I am, within my own human design classic.— m at t l e p pa r d

SINGAPORE The ArtScience Museum Part of the Marina Bay Sands complex, I caught an underconstruction glimpse of this in October 2010 and was blown away.

10 Bayfront Avenue; marinabaysands.com/ ArtScienceMuseum BANGKOK Elephant Building I didn’t “see” the elephant in this building the first few times I passed it. Once I did, I was hooked, although it polarizes opinion.

3300/25-28 Phaholyothin Rd.; eptg-acsc.co.th/real estate/home.htm.

Gadgets Swatch I coveted my first Swatch, a funky black-and-white plastic classic.

Well, this was the mid-1980’s... swatch.com.

travel + leisure 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.

14 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

tom ho ops

The final inspiration for this month’s Editor’s Note came from, not surprisingly, the issue itself.

But it wasn’t so much the astonishing 11 11 Lincoln

come for the

views... editor-in-chief art director deputy editor features editor senior DEsigner DEsigner ASSISTANT editor/Illustrator Assistant Editor

Matt Leppard James Nvathorn Unkong Christopher Kucway Lara Day Wannapha Nawayon Sirirat Prajakthip Wasinee Chantakorn Liang Xinyi

Regular contributors / photographers Cedric Arnold, Jennifer Chen, Robyn Eckhardt, Philipp Engelhorn, David Hagerman, Lauryn Ishak, Naomi Lindt, Jen Lin-Liu, Nat Prakobsantisuk, Adam Skolnick, Darren Soh, Daven Wu

chairman president publishing director

publishER director singapore / associate publisher DIGITAL MEDIA MANAGER business development managers CONSULTANT, HONG KONG/MACAU chief financial officer production manager production group circulation MANAGER circulation assistant

...stay

J.S. Uberoi Egasith Chotpakditrakul Rasina Uberoi-Bajaj

Robert Fernhout Lucas W. Krump Pichayanee Kitsanayothin Michael K. Hirsch Joey Kukielka Shea Stanley Gaurav Kumar Kanda Thanakornwongskul Supalak Krewsasaen Porames Chinwongs Yupadee Saebea

american express publishing corporation

for the experience

President/Chief Executive Officer Senior Vice President/Chief Marketing Officer Senior Vice President/Chief Financial Officer Senior Vice President/Editorial Director Vice President/Publisher, Travel + Leisure U.S. Executive Editor, International Publishing Director, International

Ed Kelly Mark V. Stanich Paul B. Francis Nancy Novogrod Jean-Paul Kyrillos Mark Orwoll Thomas D. Storms

travel+leisure southeast asia Vol. 5, Issue 3

2011 & 2010 CONDE NAST TRAVELLER GOLD LIST World’s Best Hotels and Resorts 2010 CONDE NAST READERS’ SPA AWARDS #1 Spa in the World 2010 TRAVEL + LEISURE

Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia is published monthly by Media Transasia Limited, Room 1205-06, 12/F, Hollywood Centre, 233 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong. Tel: +852 2851-6963; Fax: +852 2851-1933; under license from American Express Publishing Corporation, 1120 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036, United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the Publisher.

Produced and distributed by Media Transasia Thailand Ltd., 14th Floor, Ocean Tower II, 75/8 Soi Sukhumvit 19, Sukhumvit Road, Klongtoeynue, Wattana, Bangkok 10110, Thailand. Tel: +66 2 204-2370.

Printed by Comform Co., Ltd. (+66 2 368-2942–7). Color separation by Classic Scan Co., Ltd. (+66 2 291-7575). While the editors do their utmost to verify information published, they do not accept responsibility for its absolute accuracy.

World’s Top 20 Hotels for Value Overall This edition is published by permission of AMERICAN EXPRESS PUBLISHING CORPORATION 1120 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036 United States of America Tel. +1 212 382 5600 Online: www.amexpub.com Reproduction in whole or in part without the consent of the copyright owner is prohibited.

AYANA Resort and Spa Bali Jl. Karang Mas Sejahtera, Jimbaran 80364 T.(62) 361-702 222 | E.reservation@ayanaresort.com www.ayanaresort.com

subscriptions Subscription enquiries: www.travelandleisuresea.com/subscribe ADVERTISING Advertising enquiries: e-mail advertising@mediatransasia.com

cedric arnold photographer

james grant photographer

Assignment Photographed “Retro Bangkok” (page 102).

Retro or modern I’m both a fan vinyl LP’s and mp3’s just like I am a fan of very old photographic processes using largeformat cameras and also completely embrace digital.

Favorite thing about Bangkok Without a doubt the 24/7 possibilities. Where else can you find so much good food any time of day or night, and get film processed and prints done 24/7? Best photography advice If you saw it you missed it! Favorite Thai expression Ohhhh hoooooooo! Next big project Shooting my first documentary film.

Assignment Photographed “Angkor Modern” (page 42).

Siem Reap in three words Historic, convivial, enchanting. What you shouldn’t miss in Cambodia? In Phnom Penh, 1960’s architect Vann Molyvann’s Olympic stadium at sunset. Never leave home without…

A waterproof, dustproof and antproof camera bag.

Still need to get to in Cambodia? In the southwest, the Cardamom Mountains. Dream Assignment? To travel around Southeast Asia documenting the region’s traditional dress.

sara schonhardt writer Assignment Wrote “Jakarta’s Chic Eats” (page 51). Overlooked Jakarta Tanah Abang, a bustling neighborhood known for its thugs and alleyways, but ignored for its cluttered neighborhood charm, friendly food stalls and hidden cafés. Best food in Asia Nearly four years in Thailand made me partial to som tam, or spicy papaya salad. Eat it at the beach, on the street, in a fancy air-conditioned restaurant. It’s been a point of pride to seek out the best.

Cheap eats in Jakarta The warung (street-food stall) closest to my home.

Otherwise, Ben Hil makes mean Acehnese fried noodles and Kelapa Gading has cheap street treats from around the archipelago.

T O P R O W , F R O M L E F T : c o u rte s y of Ce d r i c a r n ol d ; c o u rte s y of s a r a s c h o n h a r d t ; c o u rte s y of J a me s G r a n t B O T T O M R O W , F R O M L E F T : Ce d r i c a r n ol d ; C h r i s K err i g a n ; J a me s G r a n t

contributors

©2010 Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. All rights reserved.

WO R L DW I D E WOW. N OW B A L I - S E M I N YA K .

SOON: BANgKOK

BEIJINg

+62 361 738 106

MUMBAI

NEW YORK

PARIS

W h At E v E R / W h E N E v E R

®

ShANghAI

SINgAPORE

St. PEtERS B U Rg

W h Ot E L S . c O M / B A L I S E M I N YA K

mail Letter of the month

Where’s Bill?

Interesting behind-the-scenes look at TV chef Anthony Bourdain [“Cambodia Confidential,” January 2011]. It’s good to see a recognizable face doing the things most of us do on a vacation, in this case getting down and dirty to eat some street food. You should do more of these types of stories. Former American president Bill Clinton was in Bangkok recently and made a cameo in the sequel of The Hangover. Clinton in Bangkok? It couldn’t get much more risqué than that.

—bo pongpipat, bangkok

Singapore Blues

I have been an avid reader of T+L SEA since the first issue and it has been a refreshing alternative to another regional travel magazine. The article “Singapore On the Move” [January 2011] has confirmed my suspicion all along that your publication has been milking the tiny dot of an island to death. Almost every issue has featured a story that has been rewritten, retold and re-photographed countless times.

January’s article did not offer anything new or inspiring about the insipid and sterile city. This eminent spotlight and continuous bombastic effort is nauseating although I so loved your magazine and wanted it to be the eye on the region. I am sure that other travelers would swear that there are far better spas, restaurants, natural treks in Indonesia, Thailand or Malaysia than that tiny red dot, and these havens of natural beauty will never be known if the magazine doesn’t turn its

eye beyond the big city and into the vast lands of Southeast Asia. There’s the forest of Sarawak, a unesco World Heritage site; the rich and magnificent Sipadan islands; the Similans in Thailand. I have nothing against the good people of Singapore, and visit at least once a year. But I’m afraid it will be the end of the road for me with this magazine if I see another feature story on Singapore in next month’s issue.

—jackson kho, kuching Editor’s Reply While I feel our

coverage is more balanced than you suggest, I take your points. In our defense, we have covered Sipadan and the Similans, among other far-flung destinations. Last year, we featured Komodo and Mt. Bromo, and in October 2008, we visited Kinabalu National Park and Mount Arayat National Park. That said, we continually adjust the focus of our content, and are always looking into new story angles, so your input is greatly appreciated.

e-mail t+l Send your letters to editor@travelandleisuresea.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.

bestdeals

budget-friendly tips for your travel planning

AFFORDABLE ASIAN TRIPS

deal of the month s n a p

The Luang Say Residence.

The Waldorf Astoria Shanghai.

CITY BREAKS

HONG KONG Stay For More package at Hyatt Regency Hong Kong, Sha Tin (852/37231234; hongkong.shatin.hyatt.com). What’s Included A three-night stay in a One Bedroom Executive room. Cost From

HK$1,100 per night, double, through March 31. Savings 42 percent.

BANGKOK Opening Promotion at Hansar Bangkok (66-2/209-1234; hansarbangkok. com). What’s Included A stay in a Studio

suite; room upgrade if available; daily breakfast; Wi-Fi; and mini-bar soft drinks.

Cost From Bt4,500 per night, double, through March 31. Savings 40 percent.

SHANGHAI Preview Privilege Offer at Waldorf Astoria Shanghai on the Bund (86-

21/6322-9988; waldorfastoriashanghai.com).

What’s Included A stay in a Deluxe River room; daily breakfast; free Internet; and a heritage souvenir. Cost From RMB2,800 per room per night, double, through March 31. Savings 36 percent.

BALINESE RETREATS

INDONESIA Stay 3 Pay 2 package at Mayaloka Villas (62-361/736-436;

mayalokavillas.com) in Seminyak, Bali.

What’s Included A three-night stay in a one-bedroom Pool villa; round-trip airport transfers; daily breakfast; Wi-Fi; 22 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

Mayaloka Villas.

and one 15-minute spa treatment. Cost From US$500 (US$167 per night), double, through March 31. Savings 33 percent.

Between Us Promotion at Jimbaran Puri Bali (62-361/701-605; jimbaranpuribali.com).

What’s Included A stay in one bedroom Deluxe Pool villa; welcome mini-bar and laundry service; daily breakfast and afternoon high tea for two; Wi-Fi; butler service; and a 20-minute jet-lag massage at the Beach Spa. Cost From US$485 per night, double, two-night minimum, through March 31. Savings 30 percent.

LAID-BACK LUXURY

LAOS Special Introductory Offer at The Luang Say Residence (856-71/ 260-891;

THAILAND Introductory Offer at Khum Phaya Resort & Spa (66-53/415555; centarahotelsresorts. com/kpc) in Chiang Mai. What’s Included A stay in a Lanna Deluxe room; round-trip airport transfers; daily buffet breakfast; and a free stay for children under 12 (two children maximum) sharing parents’ guest room. Cost From Bt2,600 per night, double, through the end of March. Savings 70 percent.

luangsayresidence.com) in Luang Prabang.

What’s Included A stay in a Pioneer suite; and a choice of either a free second night for two or a two-day, one-night cruise package for one. Cost From €271 per night, double, through April 30.

Savings Up to 50 percent.

THAILAND Opening Special Offer at Cape Nidhra Hotel (66-2/233-3433; capenidhra.com) in Hua Hin. What’s Included A stay in a Sky Pool suite with

private pool; and breakfast for two.

Cost From Bt6,800 per night, double, through March 31. Savings 20 percent.

Khum Phaya Resort & Spa.

c l o c kw i s e f r o m t o p l e f t : c o u r t e s y o f t h e l u a n g s a y r e s i d e n c e ; c o u r t e s y o f w a l d o r f A s t o r i a s h a n g h a i ; c o u r t e s y o f m ay a l o k a v i l l a s ; c o u r t e s y o f k h u m p h a y a r e s o r t & Sp a

i t

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Valid from now – December 31, 2011 Discover the true experience in Asia, with the promotion of staying 3 nights for the price of 2 at participating Best Western Hotels in China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

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Call toll free +800 0013 1779.

I’d like to go back to school this summer as part of my vacation. Can you make any recommendations?

—mary caher, singapore

In England, Oxford (conted.ox.ac.uk) has a wide range of week-long summer courses that cover all things British, from the BBC to the Beatles to Shakespeare. The courses take place in July and August, starting at £1,090. And if a review of the Battle of Britain is too heavy for you, there’s also a course entitled “The Art of Lying.” Better still, anyone can enrol and there’s no final exam in any of the courses.

An overview of Oxford, England.

At Oxford University.

Q: Why is it that I’ve heard that many marine parks in Thailand are closed to tourists?

—tim robinson, london a: The Thai government has ordered the

temporary closure of 18 dive sites at seven marine parks around the country for up to 14 months because of coral bleaching. The 24 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

In Vietnam, a bowl of pho.

bleaching is a result of excessively warm water temperatures, which can cause the coral reefs to die. Reefs around the world suffered severe stress last year, with the waters around Thailand being notably warmer in both April and May. The move has also sparked demands for better government regulation of dive-tour operators, many of whom are not licensed, critics say, and often are the worst offenders when it comes to polluting the marine environment. Among the marine parks limiting access to divers for the next few months are Surin, Similan and Tarutao.

Q: Can you suggest some good spots for local food in Saigon?

—tasara vowell, bangkok a: Fortunately, the Vietnamese love to eat

and have a cuisine that is worth exploring, so there’s no shortage of possibilities around the southern city. Noodles are ubiquitous, but head to Pho Hoa (260C Pasteur St.; 84-8/829-7943) for some of the best pho in town and, at US$5 for two, at a great price. If the urge for crab dishes strikes, stop by Quan Thuy 94 (84 Dinh Tien Hoang St.; 84-8/3827-7131), where cha gio cua, or crab spring rolls, and mien xao cua be, glass noodles with crabmeat, mushrooms and chilies, are must-orders. Don’t get lost: the place used to be at 94 Dien Tien Hoang Street but moved to 84 and kept its original name. Out in District 3, go to Com Nieu Sai Gon (6C Tu Xuong St.; 84-8/3932-6388), where the specialty is rice cooked in clay pots (which explains the sound of shattering pots). Try your dish with scallion sauce, before moving on to other favorites at the restaurant, including eggplant sautéed in garlic, and lotus-root salad. what’s your travel question?

» E-mail us at editor@travelandleisuresea.com » Post queries at Facebook.com/TravelandLeisureAsia » Follow us on Twitter at @TravLeisureAsia

(Questions may be edited for clarity and space.)

c l o c k w i s e FROM t o p LEFT : © P u w a n a i P o n c h a i | D r e a m s t i m e . c o m ; © P e t e r K i m | D r e a m s t i m e . c o m ; © RMA X / i s t o c k p h o t o . c o m ; © C h r i s L o f t y | D r e a m s t i m e . c o m

askt+l

Tarutao Marine National Park, Thailand.

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Located at the most secluded area of Karon Beach with direct beach access and backing onto lush green hills, the new Centara Grand Beach Resort Phuket is eye-catching in design and scale and has all the amenities for an unforgettable holiday experience.

The resort is built around a landscaped water park with a lazy river and 4 swimming pools with extensive facilities for couples, groups, families with children, and everyone intent on pure pleasure.

Don't miss your chance to enjoy our great opening offers.

Please contact us at: T +66 (0) 2101 1234 Ext. 1 E reservations@chr.co.th www.centararesorts.com

traveler

websites, apps, tech gear, e-advice and more

Trend of the Month

FROM LEFT : COURTESY OF JOBY ; COURTESY OF SAMSUN G ; COURTESY OF AMAZON ; COURTESY OF AT & T

In the Clouds The days of lugging clunky laptops on the road may be numbered, thanks to cloud computing—the term for apps and services that do their heavy lifting online instead of locally on your hard drive. Of course, “the cloud” has long been accessible through any Web-connected computer, but the tablet/app revolution is making it even more convenient. With Google Docs, for example, you can create (and share) documents, presentations, spreadsheets and drawings right on your iPad or Android tablet via docs.google.com, while apps such as Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite (from US$10) take it one step further by letting you access these documents even when you’re not online.

Now you can quickly edit and share photos

through Photobucket, Smugmug and Flickr apps; use Evernote to take text, picture, or audio “notes” and store them in the cloud; or create a personalized newspaper with Instapaper, which downloads selected articles from news sites to read later on your tablet.

Meanwhile, services like Dropbox provide an online storage area where you can upload any kind of file and access it from a Web-connected device. Want to watch your favorite shows or the local game from the comfort of your hotel room bed?

No problem: You can now stream them onto your tablet live via a Slingbox (from US$180; slingmedia.com) or pull them from your hard drive with a Pogoplug Pro (US$99; pogoplug.com), attached to your home TV and router, respectively.

Impromptu hotel-room party? Musicstreaming services such as MOG have more than 10 million songs. —tom samiljan

innovation

Windows Phone 7

what it is Microsoft’s answer to the iPhone: The new Windows Phone 7 operating system, soon available for all carriers on smart phones such as the HTC Surround (above; htc. com). The platform has a stripped-down interface, an innovative main screen with window-like tiles that click through to your favorite resources and apps. It also has easy access to entertainment through Xbox Live (games), Zune (music and video), and Netflix (movies). why it matters

T+L Picks: resources for the road 1

The new origamiinspired Joby Gorilla­ mobile Ori for iPad (joby.com) is made from super-light aluminum and has multiple hinges so you can adjust the viewing angle to practically any position.

Illustrated by Leif Parsons

2

Clocking in at just under 1.36 kilograms, the Samsung 9 Series laptop (samsung. com) is featherweight, thin, and, with its race car–inspired curves, ultrachic. It’s also powerful with a top-ofthe-line Intel processor.

3

The expanding Kindle for the Web (amazon.com) means that anyone with a Web browser can buy and read books—no app necessary— and any site (blogs included) can be a Kindle portal.

Although Windows Phone 7 is still far from perfect (dedicated apps are required to play most kinds of Web video), it’s arguably the easiest and least cluttered mobile platform, and is surprisingly stable.

Key features that were missing at launch—the ability to cut and paste text—are being addressed.

For anyone who finds the iPhone and Android interfaces confusing, this sleek system could be the answer.

travelandleisureasia.com | march 2011 27

newsflash your global guide to what’s happening right now...

hotel

Check-in: paris

A literary-themed retreat has arrived in the City of Light

The Pavillon des Lettres, in Paris.

the inspiration for this chic hotel on a quiet street in the Eighth A ­ rrondissement. Opened by the owners of the nearby Pavillon de la Reine, the 26 sleek guest rooms each channel an international author—from Hans Christian Andersen to Émile Zola—with their prose decorating the walls and their oeuvres on the shelves. Didier Benderli, the protégé of French architect Jacques Garcia, has imbued the hotel with a kind of masculine sexiness (dark velvet furnishings; stone floors).

Accommodations are the first in France to have dedicated iPads, each with daily installments of Le Figaro news and a service app created just for the hotel. Thanks to the property’s location, on a little corner near the Champs-Élysées and the Faubourg ­St.-Honoré, bathrooms are ablaze with natural light. The cozy library, stocked with the works of the hotel’s muses, is the ideal spot for a relaxing afternoon tea. Or if you’re more inclined to follow the lead of some of the more decadent scribes—Proust, Baudelaire—the diminutive bar remains open until 2 a.m. 12 Rue des Saussaies; Eighth Arr.; 33-1/49-24-26-26; pavillondeslettres.com; doubles from €190. —a l exa n d r a marshall well read From left:

A copy of Trois Contes in the Flaubert room, at Le Pavillon des Lettres; the lobby; a suite lounge; the Andersen room.

28 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

CLOC K W ISE F ROM TO P : COURTESY O F l e P AVILLON DES LETTRES ; RO B ERTO F RAN K EN B ER G ; COURTESY O F l e P AVILLON DES LETTRES ; RO B ERTO F RAN K EN B ER G ( 2 )

Voltaire once wrote, “God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.” Paris’s new Pavillon des Lettres takes this spirit to heart, and also pays homage to Voltaire himself, along with 25 other writers who were

newsflash Beer Vault offers 48 brews, left.

The pub’s bright interior, right.

Uslu’s collaboration with eyewear brand Mykita; MFM, a peach lipgloss.

drink

NEWS ON BREWS beauty

flights of fancy Make travel part of your beauty routine with Uslu Airlines (usluairlines.com), a Berlin-based cosmetics brand that draws inspiration from the world’s airport destinations. Each product takes its name from a three-letter global aviation code: think ktm (Kathmandu Tribuvan, Nepal), a vitamin E–based concealer, dam (Damascus International, Syria), a creamy black mascara and mfm (Macau International Airport, China), a Shrimpton–peach lipgloss. Featuring over 170 countries, the range is known for its eyecatching nail polishes. The latest: gray ita (Itacoatiara, Brazil), lilac myk (May Creek, U.S.A.) and neon-yellow sxf (Schönefeld Berlin, Germany), paired with sunglasses by cult eyewear brand Mykita.—l i a ng x i ny i

exhibition

fashion’s poet of black

BANGKOK Forty-eight types of suds are sold at Beer Vault, but what makes this modern beer pub stand out is its bright, modern interior, with comfy leather chairs and bright colored glass. Half of the labels hail from Belgium—premium brews start at Bt200 a bottle— but if low-country/highalcohol pils aren’t your thing, England, Australia, the Philippines and even Laos are also well represented. Four Points

by Sheraton, Sukhumvit Soi 15, Sukhumvit Rd.; 662/309-3000; drinks for two Bt400.

TOKYO A five-minute walk from the north exit of Koenji JR Station is Koenji Beer Kobo, a 35-seat microbrew pub where the owner—ask for Nohmurasan—informs customers of what’s available on

his constantly changing blackboard. To date, his small batches have included red ale, pale ale and wheat beer, from ¥350 a glass. There’s also a small food menu—try the moriawase sausage.

2-24-8, Koenjikita, Suginami-ku, Tokyo; 813/5373-5301; drinks for two ¥700.

PHNOM PENH On the banks of the Tonle Sap river, Kingdom Breweries is the perfect spot to quaff a cold Clouded Leopard pilsner from a relaxing outdoor deck; step inside the next-door brewery to see your tipple being made from German and Czech hops. Both light and dark beers are available but skip the US$10 tour. 1748 National Rd. 5; 855-23/430180; drinks for US$5.

—christopher kucway

In London, Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto takes center stage in a landmark retrospective at the V&A

Yohji Yamamoto on the runway, left. The designer, right. A design at the V&A, far right.

30 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

Thirty years ago, a young Yohji Yamamoto arrived in Paris, conquering its runways with his stark, challengingly intellectual designs. Now, the Japanese couturier—known as a “poet of black” for his aggressive use of monochrome—is being feted with a major retrospective at London’s V&A (vam.ac.uk; admission £7 per person), under the arched roof of the 320-square-meter Gallery 38. Designed by longtime collaborator Masao Nihei, the exhibition is set to highlight 80 of Yamamoto’s creations, with a handful displayed across the museum. Also look out for satellite shows at the Wapping Project in London’s East End. From March 12 to July 10.—lara day

c l o c kw i s e f r o m t o p l e f t : COURTESY O F U s l u A i r l i n e s ( 2 ) ; c h r i s t o p h e r k u c w a y ( 2 ) ; n i c k k n i g h t ; K o i c h i I n a k o s h i ; M o n i c a F e u d i

Three new spots to sip your next pint

newsflash Q&A

tech

coppola’s next act Director and vintner Francis Ford ­Coppola gives T+L the scoop on his Francis Ford Coppola Winery, in Sonoma, California, and ­his soon-to-open Palazzo Margherita, in Basilicata, Italy (coppolaresorts.com).

With honeysuckle appointed Pantone’s 2011 Color of the Year, we pick three stylish accessories to keep your gadgets rosy.— l . x .

SwitchEasy Ticker band Designed for the iPod nano, this shock-resistant elastomer wristband—featuring a stainless-steel strap pin and three polycarbonate buttons—transforms the portable music device into a boldly colorful timepiece. US$24.99; switcheasy.com.

Francis Ford Coppola.

A rendering of the lounge in Hilton’s Eforea spa.

Mobile Tail stand Made of flexible liquid silicon rubber, this playful, tail-like stand—inspired by a Dalmatian’s tail—attaches to the back of your smartphone via a suction cup.

US$6.50; studiooofactory.com.

spas

Hilton Goes Holistic

With treatment “journeys” based on healing rituals from around the globe, Hilton’s Eforea spa concept is paving a new path in the world of wellness.

Slated to open in Bangkok and Melbourne this month, it will be rolled out to 90 properties worldwide. Our favorite treatment? The Aboriginal-inspired Escape body wrap: an exfoliation with mother-of-pearl followed by a cocoon of warm pearl-and-kelp mud. At the spa’s Travel Bar, you can buy products from the treatments in TSA-approved sizes. hilton.com; treatments from US$115.—no r a z e l eva ns ky 32 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

Graphic Image iPad sleeve This chic case keeps your beloved tablet safe with a goatskin-leather exterior and shammy-cloth lining. Add your own personal touch by goldstamping your initials onto the sleeve.

US$105; graphicimage.com.

c l o c kw i s e f r o m t o p l e f t : © d o m i n i q u e c h a r r i a u — g e t t y i m a g e s /a fp ; c o u r t e s y o f s w i t c h e a s y ; c o u r t e s y o f s t u d i o o o f a c t o r y ; c o u r t e s y o f g r a p h i c i m a g e ; COURTESY O F HILTON HOTELS & RESORTS

What’s on the menu at the winery? It’s a family resort, but with no hotel. You can swim, play bocce, see movie memorabilia and eat at Rustic. The menu has all my favorite things: for meat, we have an Argentine parrilla grill. For dessert, there’s a cream puff with a cannoli filling my mother used to make. And to drink, our Archimedes Cabernet or caipirinhas. And what about Palazzo ­Margherita? The villa is an 1870 palace on a hilltop in the village of ­Bernalda, just 15 minutes from the sea. It’s luxurious, but step outside and you’re in an authentic Italy filled with history. What does the villa look like? Jacques Grange designed it; the 12 palatial rooms with frescoed ceilings are all named for family members. I especially love the Francis, which overlooks a walled garden.

Will there be a restaurant? Of course, and it will feature local specialties: roasted pig, salamis, puréed chickpeas with bitter greens and other vegetables that even people in Rome have never heard of. It’s a culinary adventure.— d a v i d a . k e e p s

PANTONE pink

f r o m l e f t : c o u r t e s y o f H o t e l I n d i g o S h a n g h a i ; c o u r t e s y o f T h e S a ff ; c o u r t e s y o f W r e t r e a t & s p a b a l i – S e m i n ya k

Hotel Indigo Shanghai, left. A colorful room at The Saff, in Singapore; the W Retreat & Spa Bali–Seminyak.

SHANGHAI The latest addition to the

city’s design-forward Bund stays, the 184room Hotel Indigo Shanghai (shanghai. hotelindigo.com; doubles from RMB1,580) takes its cues from its neighborhood, the Huangpu River’s Shiulupu dock area, with “found art” installations made from deconstructed riverboats. Not spending the night? Stop for a drink at Char, a sleek resto-bar with an alfresco terrace.

hotel watch

SINGAPORE Dating to the early 1900’s,

The Saff (thesaffhotel.com; doubles from S$230) adds to Chinatown’s heritage luster with 79 compact, eclectically OWH/HOTEL/2011/087_203.2x133.35mm outfitted guest rooms. Ancient

asia by design

merchants’ spice routes inspire the hotel’s interiors: Indian Jhoola swings in the lobby, Thai-inspired architectural doors and a textured floor “mosaic” woven from antique Turkish rugs.

BALI Opening this month, the beachfront

W Retreat & Spa Bali–Seminyak (starwoodhotels.com; doubles from US$500) eschews literalism when it comes to traditional Balinese design. The 232 guest rooms layer poleng-patterned mother-of-pearl panels and headboards embossed with green stingray skin, while a resin pagoda-styled lobby bar glows with LED lights at night.

Welcome to a world where daily discoveries can enrich your mind and nourish your soul.

45 minutes from the airport, 20 minutes from downtown Kuala Lumpur and next to the multi-award-winning 1 Utama Shopping Centre, towers the 5-star One World Hotel.

Humble as it appears from the outside, its interior paints a dramatically different picture of stunning crystal chandeliers and fine Italian marble artfully blended with Asian influences.

Here, you will find a range of world-class facilities catering to the needs, comfort and interests of business and leisure guests alike.

Function rooms spread over 5,000 sq.m., including a magnificent Imperial Ballroom with variable mood illumination and capacity to seat 2,000.

6 categories of guestrooms and suites, lavishly furnished with hi-tech interactive services managed via LCD TVs. 6 signature restaurants, lounge and bars serving innovative creations and daring fusion dreamed up by master chefs.

And a spa that offers an easy access to an oasis of peace and tranquillity.

Then there is 1 Utama, with more than 5 million sq.ft. to keep you intrigued at Malaysia’s only shopping centre with a Rainforest and Sky Mall. There’s also the Secret Garden of 1 Utama, South East Asia’s largest rooftop garden with over 500 species of rare tropical and temperate plants.

To experience this world of daily discoveries, begin your journey at www.oneworldhotel.com.my.

The BrandLaureate SMEs Chapter Awards 2009 Corporate Branding Best Brands in Hotel – Business

Cinnamon Coffee House Malaysia Tourism Award 2008 - 2009 Innovative Restaurant Premier Award - International Restaurant

first avenue, bandar utama city centre, 47800 petaling jaya, selangor, malaysia. toll free domestic: 1300 88 7888 toll free international: 1800 88 7888 tel: 603 7681 1111 fax: 603 7681 1188 email: sales@oneworldhotel.com.my website: www.oneworldhotel.com.my

JUMEIR AH ZABEEL SAR AY, THE PALM JUMEIR AH, DUBAI. NOW OPEN

YOU AR E THE INSPIR ATION You are different.

That’s why Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts are opening new hotels around the world, inspired by your individuality.

Shanghai Spring 2011

Maldives Summer 2011

Frankfurt Fall 2011

STAY DIFFERENT AT JUMEIR AH HOTELS & RESORTS FOR RESERVATIONS, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR TR AVEL PROFESSIONAL OR VISIT JUMEIR AH.COM

Dubai / London / New York & Opening Soon: Abu Dhabi / Azerbaijan / Dubai / Frankfurt / Kuwait / Maldives / Shanghai

insider

destinations trends restaurants + more

BEYOND THE CASINOS. Macau-born photographer and

culture guru James Chu Cheok-son reveals his hometown’s hidden corners, from independent art spaces to charming neighborhood cafés. By Christopher DeWolf

macau’s local look

Clockwise from top left: A nighttime stroll along the city’s restored, Portugueseinfluenced streets; outside the Cinema Alegria; local fashion in the Three Lamps District; the entrance to the Albergue SCM.

Photographed by David Hartung

travelandleisureasia.com | march 2011 35

insider expert art of living Clockwise from below: Photographer James Chu Cheok-son; Macau-style milk tea; promoting Albergue SCM; Ox Warehouse, a cattle depot turned art space; a sculpture greets visitors to AFA Macau; birds sing in the Casa Garden.

36 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

Ma Heng Hong Café Rua de Francisco Xavier Pereira, 63A–65B; 853/2859-0161.

Cinema Alegria Estrado do Repouso, 85D; 853/8299-3678.

Fundação Oriente Praça Luís de Camões, 13; 853/2855-4699.

Museu de Arte de Macau Macau Cultural Centre, Av. Xian Xing Hai; 853/8791-9800.

Albergue SCM Calçada da Igreja de S. Lázaro, 8; 853/2852-2550.

Ox Warehouse Av. Coronel Mesquita at Av. do Almirante Lacerda; 853/2853-0026.

AFA Macau Rua de Francisco Xavier Pereira, 63A–65B; 853/2836-6064.

Chu’s Macau is a city of old-fashioned cafés, eccentric back streets and independent art spaces—and it’s about as far from the slot machines as you can get. Here, he shares a side of the SAR rarely experienced by visitors.

TEA TIME, MACAU-STYLE

“When I come here, I don’t even have to order, because they know exactly what I want,” says Chu as he settles into a seat at the Ma Heng Hong Café, a lively neighborhood coffee shop whose tile walls and wooden booths haven’t changed in decades. Chu is just one of the regulars who visit Ma Heng Hong every day for strong coffee or thick milk tea (made with a blend of black Ceylon tea and evaporated milk) and one of Macau’s signature snacks: crispy Portuguese bread stuffed with a juicy, pan-fried pork chop.

“Tourists line up for hours to get a pork-chop bun at that place in Taipa,” says Chu, referring to Café Tai Lei Loi

j a m e s c h u c h e o k - s o n : a fa m a c a u d e ta i l ; o x wa r e h o u s e : C h r i s to p h e r d e w o l f / u r b a n p h oto . n e t ; milk tea: Courtesy of Winnie Ma / Flickr.com

T

here are a few things about Macau that any traveler should know.

First, it’s tiny. You can walk from one end of town to the other in a couple of hours. It’s also the world’s gambling capital, with more revenue from slot machines and baccarat tables than even Las Vegas. Most importantly, though, Macau is like a Russian doll, with hidden layers inside a deceptively small package. Just ask James Chu Cheok-son, a printmaker, photographer and designer.

“Few cities in the world are as interesting,” he says while sitting in his studio, on the sixth floor of an old textile factory. Outside the window, a landscape of tenements, electrical wires and laundry drying from balconies extends to the green hump of Guia Hill. “There’s lots of life. You see a lot of familiar faces.

And whenever I leave, I miss the food.”

ADDRESS BOOK

Kei, a guidebook staple that attracts throngs of visitors every day. “But it’s actually nothing special over there.”

He grins and takes a big bite from his sandwich. “This one is the best.”

AUTHENTIC NEIGHBORHOOD

Outside the café, the narrow streets are buzzing with scooters. “The first thing we did when we turned 16 was to get a driving licence and a scooter so we could pick up girls. We would go out to Taipa, which wasn’t so developed then.” He smiles wryly. “There weren’t so many people around.”

Chu grew up just on the outskirts of the Three Lamps District, a busy web of street markets and shops. In contrast to the Louis Vuitton and Prada outlets that have taken root around the casinos, this part of Macau is triumphantly quotidian. “I like that it’s still small shops around here and not chain stores,” says Chu. “They’re the kind of places where you feel like you’re friends with the staff even if you don’t know their names.”

The neighborliness even extends to the local movie house, a stylish Art Deco edifice known as the Cinema Alegria. Every evening, street vendors set up just outside, including a one-armed hawker famous for his imitation-shark’s-fin soup.

HIGH CULTURE

A short taxi ride away from the movie house, but miles away in terms of culture and atmosphere, is the Macau Museum of Art, best known for its collection of historical paintings. From now until early May, two exhibitions are showcasing prints and paintings of nineteenth-century Macau. “It has the best team, the best gallery and it plays a very important role in Macau,” says Chu, who was a curator at the museum for three years. “But they’re focusing a lot on traditional things rather than contemporary art, and they invest a lot on things from outside, but not much on local Macau artists.”

Chu’s interests may lie with the grassroots and avant-garde, but he has a soft spot for another elite institution: the Fundação Oriente, which was set up in 1988 to promote the Portuguese language and culture. It occupies a historic building in the banyan-shaded Casa Garden, built in 1770, where it maintains an art gallery, a museum and teaching facilities. During the day, the gardens are filled with old men with birdcages who spend the day chatting while their birds sing. The place reminds Chu of Macau before it was returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1999. “It was very different when the Portuguese were here,” he says.

“They’d stop working at 4 p.m., get a coffee, and talk and talk. We learned that from them, but we’ve lost the patience that we had before.”

ALTERNATIVE ART

If the Museum of Art and the Fundação Oriente are reminders of the past, Macau’s small but growing contemporary art scene is a window into the future. A number of independent, avant-garde art spaces are nurturing local artists, including the Ox Warehouse, a historic cattle depot that houses two galleries, and the Albergue SCM, whose show this month features traditional Chinese rabbit lanterns designed by iconic Macau architect Carlos Marreiros.

Chu’s own art space, AFA Macau, is located two floors below his studio in the Lun Hing Knitting Factory.

Since 2007, it has highlighted the work of emerging artists from Macau and abroad, including Portuguese-born photographer Fernando Eloy and home-grown painter Tong Chong.

“There aren’t many artists in Macau, but a lot of young people are more willing to take a risk than ever before,” says Chu. “I know a lot of designers and artists who have recently quit their full-time jobs to focus on their artistic careers. This is exactly the kind of energy we need.” ✚

insider shopping

FCC ANGKOR

ANGKOR modern. Siem Reap is

growing ever more stylish, with a clutch of new boutiques springing up in two locations. By Naomi Lindt

cambodian charms Clockwise from top left: Eye-popping Buddha figures at

Wa Gallery; tropics-friendly designs at Wanderlust; Eric Raisina shows off some of his vivid silk creations; Poetry doubles as an artist’s exhibit space.

38 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

Not only is this boutique hotel a trendy spot to stay or sip a sundowner, but it also houses some of Siem Reap’s finest stores. Below, three not to miss. Pokambor Ave., next to the Royal Residence; fcccambodia.com/angkor. l For years, fans of Madagascar-born haute couturier Eric Raisina could only enjoy his stunning silk creations by appointment at the designer’s private atelier. Now, they can visit his petite boutique of luxurious pleasures, with its riot of vibrant colors—fuchsia, turquoise, lime—on dresses, tunics, skirts and scarves that conjure images of glamorous evenings in exotic places. The magic is in the handcrafted details of each piece, with intricate crochet and finely fringed silk “fur” edging everything from scarves to bolero jackets. 855-63/963-208; ericraisina.com. l The playful, feminine Wanderlust opened its second location at the FCC last year (the first was on Alley West), occupying the space that once housed the Red Gallery. The flirty, tropicsfriendly designs—pinstriped shirtdresses modeled on men’s dress shirts; belted cotton minis; floaty tops adorned with polka dots and tiny hearts—easily transition from the pool to the pub. There’s also a range of fun accessories, » Photographed by James Grant

insider shopping

color me khmer Clockwise from left: Circle specializes

in quirky fashion; at work at Wild Poppy; outside Wa Gallery; splashy accessories at Wanderlust; Tendance Khmer and its local silks; jewelry at Wild Poppy.

including Jackie O. shades, espadrilles, chunky wooden necklaces and handmade, checkered cotton scarves in punchy pastels. 855-63/969698; wanderlustcambodia.com. l French couple Marie Fabre and Frédéric Escudier spent more than four years traversing the globe before settling down in Siem Reap in 2007. Soon after, they opened the Wa Gallery, a white, exhibition-like space stocked with treasures picked up on their travels. Each piece tells a story, from the ornate silver Afghan rings set with giant precious stones, to the leather Malian poufs and the Cambodian Buddha images carved from rare tropical wood and lacquered in eye-popping hues like cherry red and cerulean. Hear the tales firsthand from the couple, who can usually be found in the store.

855-16/746-701; no website.

ALLEY WEST

A few years ago, the block now known as Alley West was little more than a dark, dingy throughway to the bar- and restaurant-lined Alley. These days, it’s a pedestrian-only charmer lined with fun, fashion-forward shops.

Check out these four gems. Close to Old Market. l Young Filipino duo Loven Ramos and Don Protasio are the creative minds behind Poetry, Siem Reap’s first ever design concept store. The airy white space, defined by tiled floors and exposed brick walls, features Ramos’s cheeky totes and cards—a black canvas bag pleads, Dear Lord, Make Me a Prada—and Protasio’s drapey, subdued women’s wear and stoneencrusted breastplate necklaces. The space also shows work by local artists and designers, 40 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

including conceptual paintings by up-andcoming Phnom Penh painter Em Riem. 85563/965-998; youaremypoetry.com. l Pick up pretty, floral floor-length dresses and square-necked, cap-sleeved blouses at Wild Poppy, an Australian-run boutique where mothers and daughters alike will find plenty to covet. The lightweight cotton designs are youthful yet classic and cover a good range of basics: linen pants in beige, black and white, collared dresses and neutral-hued V-neck tunics. Check out the handmade leather sandals and multi-strand beaded necklaces for fun final touches. Many products here are fair trade. 855-77/568-874; no website. l Circle brings a taste of shabby chic to Cambodia, blending vintage-inspired dresses with ruffled sleeves, belts and 60’s-inspired plastic buttons sewn onto items made of recycled fabric. Floral and striped bed sheets are transformed into short-sleeved dresses, while secondhand cotton becomes distressed T-shirts printed with quirky line-drawn creatures such as rats and fish. The crocheted floral belts are works of art in themselves. The shop also employs and supports women with HIV. 855-92/649-122; keokjay.org. l The journey of home-design shop Tendance Khmère began in Paris before its Cambodiameets-France aesthetic arrived in Phnom Penh, and, most recently, Siem Reap. Locally woven silk is delivered as stylish two-toned quilts (silver and lime green; copper and beige), patterned wall sconces and bright pillows. Look out for delicate, unexpected flourishes like hot pink knitted wool and webbed rice paper. 85512/584-661; tendance-khmere.fr. ✚

insider drink BOTTOMS UP Clockwise

from left: A drink in hand at Cépage; monochrome rules at Flow; Flow bartender Jasper Hooijer gets shaking.

SAIGON’S TOP MIXOLOGISTS. in Vietnam’s southern metropolis, behind-the-bar maestros are shaking up the city’s drinking scene. Here, we put their skills to the test.

Story and photographs by Nana Chen

■ CÉPAGE The Place Designed by internationally

renowned firm Noor, this two-story, 200-square-meter bar­–lounge is perfect for people watching. Grab a leather-studded barstool or plop in a roomy burgundy chenille armchair under the red glass mobile.

The Person Voted Mixologist of the Year in Shanghai in 2008, 34-year-old Austrian Markus Bernthaler has been shaking cocktails across Europe and Asia for 15 years. He joined Cépage when it opened three years ago, and has since earned a strong following, from in-the-know locals to international stars such as Elton John.

The Drinks Sipping on the vodkabased White Sand (US$5.50) is like 42 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

placing your lips on a bed of nutty liquid marshmallow. Also try the zesty Yuzu Lemonade (US$5.50), a mix of Campari, gin and the Japanese citrus fruit that tastes like a cross between a grapefruit and lemon.

The Test Asked to design a cocktail for T+L, Bernthaler impresses with a sophisticated blend of three-year-old Havana Club rum, fresh apple juice, Galliano, fresh lime and egg white.

Score 10/10. 22 Le Thanh Ton, Dist.

1; 84-8/3823-8733; cepage.biz.

■ XU The Place Originally outfitted by

design firm DWP, this restaurant cum bar–lounge received an old-meetsnew-Viet makeover last year by owner

Bien Nguyen, with retro leather ottomans, a light projection showing a collection of Saigon buildings, and glowing fabric-draped chandeliers.

The Person The multi-talented Nguyen, 32, is a Viet Kieu who grew up in Australia but moved to Saigon in 2006. Now, the city can’t get enough of his creative takes on cocktails and contemporary pan-Asian cuisine.

The Drinks Top sellers are the Mojito Rosa (US$4.75), with fresh strawberries, the Coconut Martini (US$4.75), laced with coconut flesh, and the Xu Martini (US$4.75), which features Nguyen’s own secret tea blend.

The Test Nguyen’s T+L-tailored cocktail is as sexy as the clientele who frequent his bar: red grapes muddled in lime juice, brown sugar, sugarcane and Cruzan rum. Score 9/10. 75 Hai Ba Trung St., Dist. 1; 84-8/824-8468; xusaigon.com.

under his belt, Amsterdam native Jasper Hooijer, 34, is known around town for his cocktail-making prowess.

As Vietnam’s thirst for luxury grows, Hooijer’s epicurean innovations—12year-old rum instead of light rum; champagne in place of cloying syrup— add a welcome dimension to Saigon’s already flourishing drinking culture.

The Drinks Try the Spoiled Mojito (US$8), Hooijer’s signature cocktail, based on 12-year-old Pyrat Rum and sweetened with Bulle de Blanquette champagne, or the Tokyo Iced Tea (US$6), a heady combination of Cointreau, vodka, lime and Midori.

The Test Hooijer shakes up an Apple Martini (US$8) for T+L, made from Dutch Ketel One Vodka, fresh apple juice, a little strawberry, syrup and lime. Score 8/10. 88 Ho Tung Mau, Dist.

1; 84-8/3915 3691; flowsaigon.com. »

■ FLOW The Place This former warehouse

turned split-level bar–restaurant serves up drinks at street level and Viet-inflected European fare upstairs.

A row of red chesterfield booths and paintings by French artist Helene King enliven the dramatic monochrome interior by Theo Van Olphen.

The Person With accolades such as the prestigious Coupe George Baptiste

DRINKING AGE

Clockwise from left: At Cépage; a cocktail at Xu; a 2 Lam Son waitress; inside Xu.

travelandleisureasia.com | march 2011 43

insider drink Belvedere vodka, lemongrass, lime juice and syrup. Another favorite is the Ambarella Martini (US$12), a mix of vodka, ambarella juice and lime.

The Test Tan whips up a gourmet crush of mint, strawberries submerged in Bacardi light rum and lychee syrup, garnished with plump lychees and sugarcane (US$12). Score 9/10. 2 Lam Son Square, Dist. 1; 84-8/3824-1234; saigon.park.hyatt.com.

■ THE AMBER ROOM The Place Like its namesake in St.

■ 2 LAM SON The Place Edgy Japanese firm Super

Potato created the space for this highceilinged upscale watering hole, complete with a VIP mezzanine level overlooking an impressive display of lights and patterned metal screens.

The Person Local talent Pham Minh Tan, 24, is well equipped to keep patrons in high spirits: when he’s not shaking up top-flight cocktails, he likes to entertain with magic tricks using coins and his own jewelry. Says Pham: “I love the international crowd who come here from all walks of life.”

The Drinks A must-try is the fragrant Lemongrass Martini (US$12) with

SHAKEN SAIGON

From top: Upscale lighting at 2 Lam Son; imbibing at The Amber Room; a gourmet cocktail at 2 Lam Son; trendy patrons at The Amber Room.

44 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

Petersburg’s Catherine Palace, this Noor-designed bar exudes opulence, but with a modern, understated twist: think clean lines, warm hues and strategically placed mirrors.

The Person Twenty-seven-year-old Bui Tan Hoang joined the Amber Room two years ago, specializing in martinis and classics. “I enjoy the atmosphere and dynamism of a bar, trying something new, which we’re encouraged to do,” he says.

The Drinks Standout concoctions include the vodka-based Expresso Martini (US$6.25) and the Boston Cocktail (US$6.25), an invigorating blend of Bombay Sapphire gin, apricot brandy, lemon juice and grenadine, designed to keep you up all night.

The Test Bui keeps his drink strong and sweet with a mix of Skyy Vodka, Cointreau, passion-fruit juice and syrup. Score 8/10. 59 Dong Du St., Phuong Ben Nghe, Dist. 1; 84-8/62913686. ✚

insider see it Guangzhou Opera House by Zaha Hadid Architects.

architectural ingenuity, asia has seen a swathe of groundbreaking projects in the past year. Here, an inside look at the buildings that are redefining the region. By Daven Wu

46 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

I wa n B a a n

Asiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s New Architecture. Long hailed as a center for

A

sia’s reputation as a hotbed for architectural innovation continues to grow apace. While the rest of the world is beset by battered currencies and shaky economies, the region’s fortunes have continued to grow from strength to strength, galvanizing a burst of new and increasingly ambitious projects over the past few years.

Though many have been led by the West’s architectural élite, local practices have proven that given the right client and encouragement, they too have the ability to punch above their weight. Here, we pick some prime projects of the past year, while sneaking a peek at others that are about to open.

C l o c k w i s e f r o m t o p : p a t r i c k b i n g h a m - h a l l / C o u r t e s y o f WOHA ; N i g e l Y o u n g / F o s t e r + P a r t n e r s ; C o u r t e s y o f S w i r e P r o p e r t i e s ; © J ay H a r i a n i / F l i c k r . c o m

Guangzhou Opera House, Guangzhou ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS

With beveled angles clad in gray stone and inset with strips of windows, Guangzhou’s new Opera House hovers over its Pearl River neighborhood like a sleek, if slightly ponderous, mother ship. Though Zaha Hadid’s design is not as amorphous as, say, her theater in Rabat, the massive 70,000-square-meter »

bold visions Clockwise from top: School

of the Arts by WoHa, in Singapore; a sketch by Frank Gehry outlining 53 Stubbs Road, Hong Kong; the Foster + Partners Khan Shatyr Entertainment Centre in Kazakhstan; Antilia Tower

by Perkins + Will in Mumbai, India.

travelandleisureasia.com | march 2011 47

insider see it

School of the Arts, Singapore WOHA ARCHITECTS

The eastern end of Singapore’s Orchard Road has been plagued by a series of ill-judged new builds and renovations; happily, the School of the Arts by Aga Khan laureates WoHa is stemming the tide. From certain angles, the intricately massed pile with its cantilevered blocks and tessellated façade appears to float above the plaza. Bijoux pockets of gardens link the various lecture rooms and auditoria while a rooftop garden provides both students and faculty with a welcome respite from the tropical heat.

Antilia Tower, Mumbai PERKINS + WILL

Mumbai’s skyline has tended toward bland towers that loom over equally nondescript squat blocks, but the new Antilia Tower has raised the bar for the city’s architecture.

Incredibly, the 27-story tower was designed

by U.S. firm Perkins + Will as the private home for India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, and his family of six. Stacked like Lego blocks, the controversial tower contains three helipads, several indoor and outdoor swimming pools, and vast terraces with wraparound views of sea and city.

Lanyang Museum, Taiwan ARTECH ARCHITECTS

From a distance, the new Lanyang Museum on the edge of Yilan Harbour, in Taiwan’s northeast corner, looks a little like a futuristic cube submerged in the marshes. Inside the light-filled aerie, the vertiginous quality of the space is accentuated by the glossy sheen of glass, marble and stone claddings set at a dizzying angle. The building is founder and lead architect Kris Yao’s first museum and it is arguably his most ambitious geometric composition to date.

Khan Shatyr Entertainment Centre, Kazakhstan FOSTER + PARTNERS

Despite being unfairly burdened with a frontier vibe, Kazakhstan continues to push its ambitious fleet of building projects. Its most high profile to date—the Khan Shatyr Entertainment Centre in the capital Astana—is architect Norman Foster’s second project in the country. Resembling a deflating circus tent, it is, at 150 meters, the world’s tallest tensile structure. Clocking in at 140,000 square meters, it comfortably houses a five-screen multiplex cinema, a faux boating river, shops, spas, restaurants and an indoor beach resort.

53 Stubbs Road, Hong Kong GEHRY PARTNERS

brave new icons From top left: Inside Foster + Partners’ 140,000-squaremeter Khan Shatyr Entertainment Centre in the capital of Kazakhstan; the futuristic Lanyang Museum sits at the edge of Taiwan’s Yilan Harbour.

48 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

Hong Kong’s vast concrete canyon has never lacked for dazzling skyscrapers, all of which makes Frank Gehry’s first residential project on the island (and in Asia, for that matter) such a remarkable structural counterpoint. Set in Mid-Levels with sparkling views over Victoria Harbour, the 12-story residential apartment block shimmers with a façade of glass-ribbed balconies that bear the architect’s trademark predisposition for off-kilter silhouettes. The building is scheduled to complete next year. ✚

f r o m t o p : N i g e l Y o u n g / F o s t e r + P a r t n e r s ; c o u r t e s y o f L a n ya n g M u s e u m

building still bears her unmistakable imprint, especially in the interior swooping spaces of the 1,800-seat grand concert hall, where there appear to be no straight lines.

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insider restaurants

JAKARTA’S CHIC EATS. Global flavors

and sophisticated style converge at these five new restaurants in Indonesia’s capital.

By Sara Schonhardt TIN PAN ALLEY

Inspired by New York City’s West 28th Street, the cradle of America’s popular music industry, this industrial, U-shaped space takes its aesthetic cues from a midtown Manhattan jazz club: a phonograph and rotary payphone evoke the 1930’s, and naked light bulbs hang above the bar.

Food caters to third-culture kids craving upscale Americana (creator Nathalia Bernhard grew up in New Jersey): take the pitch-perfect Aloha burger, which oozes with potato-chip crumble and housemade pineapple chutney. Start with the Summer Picnic salad—sweet watermelon with sharp, crumbled feta—and save room for the chunky apple pie, just as good as grandma’s. As for the soundtrack, classic Motown hits set people’s feet tapping, while Friday-night Acoustic Alley events showcase unplugged cover bands. Thamrin Nine Podium, UOB lobby level, Jln. M.H. Thamrin No. 10; 62-21/3000-7881; dinner for two Rp250,000.

BISTRO BARON

Jakartans don’t need to travel to Paris for beautifully turned-out confit de canard and steak frites. Instead, they come to Bistro Baron, whose Indonesian owner Anna Bambang consulted celebrity chef Emmanuel Stroobant to ensure authenticity. Royal blue walls set off red-leather » Photographed by Chris Kerrigan

cosmopolitan style

Clockwise from top left: Tin Pan Alley offers a taste of New York City; Pesto excels at rustic Mediterranean fare, including pasta made from scratch; the Parisian-inspired Bistro Baron.

travelandleisureasia.com | march 2011 51

insider restaurants banquettes reminiscent of Café de Flore, while a rocket-shaped Elektra coffee machine transforms Javanese beans into smooth café au lait. Diners here are exacting—“they know what they want,” says marketing manager Jenny Wiano—and the dishes deliver the goods: silky triangles of foie gras evaporate on the tongue and a round of gruyère adds an exquisite savoriness to the caramelized onion soup beneath. For proof that food and drink are the best medicine, try the Penicillin, made of Scotch, house-made ginger syrup and lemon squeeze. Plaza Indonesia Extension, level one, Jln. M.H. Thamrin Nos. 28–30; 62-21/2992-3505; bistrobaron.com; dinner for two Rp350,000.

PESTO

indonesian flair Clockwise from top:

Jackrabbit is a favorite after-hours hangout in Jakarta; behind the bar at the New York– styled Tin Pan Alley; the whimsical wall art at Jackrabbit; brunch at Social House.

Rustic Italian cuisine gets a showing at Pesto, where an open kitchen marked by bottles of olive oil looks out onto a contemporary dining room that invites guests to eat as a family. To design the menu, owner Dennis Soendoro brought in traditionalist Neapolitan chef Mikko Mastrogiacomo, who puts a Mediterranean spin on mains—thin spaghetti with eggplant and paprika; rolled-zucchini gamberi—and offers breads, pastas and desserts made from scratch. Don’t miss the Margarita, a crisp, thin-crust pie sturdy enough to hold up the generous layer of cheese and basil (folding not required), and the cognac- and espresso-soaked tiramisu that’s bound to knock your socks off. Thamrin Nine Podium, UOB basement level, Jln. M.H. Thamrin No. 10; 62-21/2993-7230; pesto.co.id; dinner for two Rp270,000.

JACKRABBIT

Stepping into this mod-American bistro is like sneaking back to the U.S.’s Prohibition era, starting with the long, snakeskin-tiled bar running parallel to liquor-laden shelves. Dark wooden shutters hang above March Hare armchairs, and cantilevered private rooms float above a dining space that, like its under 40-clientele, is equal parts raw and refined. Mixologist Carson Quinn, an Arizona native, uses herbs and innovation to create whimsical cocktails: we loved the Tokio Old Fashioned, a mellow blend of Suntory, gomme syrup and Japanese basil. U.S.-trained chef Juna Rorimpandey prizes his butter-poached Norwegian salmon, but he’s struck gold with his hand-cut spinach pappardelle, subtly flavored with ricotta cream and spicy chili. Cyber 2 Tower, 52 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

Jln. H.R. Rasuna Said X-5 No. 13; 62-21/2902-1357; jackrabbitjakarta.com; dinner for two Rp350,000.

SOCIAL HOUSE

Kicking up your feet is what this casual eatery is all about—guests are encouraged to lounge on comfy couches while sipping tasty cocktails with names like PS, I Love You, made from gin, apricot brandy and rose syrup. Overlooking Jakarta’s ritziest traffic circle, the space is decked out in earth tones and fake trees that arch over diners as they refuel over leisurely brunches: try the Middle Eastern breakfast, a delicious platter of hummus, olive tapenade, grilled halloumi and salad on pita.

Or stop by in the evening for a glass of wine from a collection of bottles from around the world. Grand Indonesia East Mall, 1st floor, Jln. M.H. Thamrin No. 1; 62-21/2358-1818; ismayagroup.com/socialhouse; dinner for two Rp240,000. ✚

Social House has a casual vibe, above.

Top right: A​Pesto thirst-quencher. Right: At Tin Pan Alley.

stylish traveler

[st ]

Cotton-canvas Unikko print tote,

by Marimekko.

In 1951, in an effort to brighten up postwar life, Helsinki-based Marimekko started commissioning local artists to create colorful graphic textile patterns.

Sixty years and more than 3,000 prints later, Finland is topping Gallup polls as one of the happiest places on earth, and Marimekko is celebrating its anniversary by collaborating with Converse on a line of limited-edition sneakers that will surely put a bounce in your step. But our favorite Marimekko design is the lightweight cotton-canvas Unikko tote, with a motif created by Finnish designer Maija Isola in 1964. There’s something undeniably uplifting about a travel-­friendly bag (or a dress, or a shower curtain or a mug, for that matter) adorned with oversize poppies in palettes that always say spring. ✚ Photographed by Charles Masters

icon

flower power

for the past 60 years, Marimekko prints have been spreading finnish Flair around the world. by christine ajudua .

Styled by Mimi Lombardo travelandleisureasia.com | march 2011 55

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[st] spotlight

MEN IN VOGUE with Asia’s runways witnessing ever more stylish men's collections, t+L talks to TWO tastemakers IN the world of MEN’S fashion.

By Liang Xinyi

f ro m to p : © O l l i wa n g / D r e a m st i m e .co m ; w e e k h i m ; co u rt esy o f MFW 2 0 1 1 s i n g a p o r e ; c o u r t e s y o f 3 . 1 p h i l l i p l i m / B u t S o u L a i

PHILIP HUANG supermodel Don’t be fooled by his chiseled good looks and high-fashion pedigree; Taiwanese-American male supermodel Philip Huang is remarkably down to earth. His style inspiration is Cheng Guorong, the sharply dressed Chinese vagabond who catapulted to fame when photos of him were posted online. “[Cheng] didn’t have many options or choices in life, but he did his best he could to survive,” says Huang. “True creativity is when one creates something great with limited resources.” Creativity and persistence are two of Huang’s greatest assets: the 1.88-meter Ohio native, who began modeling during college, didn’t let his looks deter him from making his mark in an industry typically dominated

by Caucasian models. Huang has since modeled for fashion powerhouses such as Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci and John Galliano, and he’s set to be the face of Men’s Fashion Week (March 30–April 3; mfwasia.com) in Singapore, the first of its kind in the region. Below, he tells T+L what it takes to be truly stylish. comfortably cool

Clockwise from top: The mountains of central Taiwan; model Philip Huang; Huang is set to be the face of Men’s Fashion Week in Singapore; designer Phillip Lim’s 2011 Fall collection.

FAVORITE DESIGNER “I first met Phillip Lim (31philliplim.

com) during castings in New York and he invited me to open his first show season. He’s an easygoing person with a genuine personality. I like his collections because they’re so different every season, and he’s not afraid to experiment.”

BEST JOB PERK “Modeling has given me a life I could never have dreamed about growing up in a small town in America. I enjoy traveling to different places and meeting creative minds. It’s all an experience.” » travelandleisureasia.com | march 2011 57

[st] spotlight

league of gentlemen

FASHION-FORWARD ASIA “I get to see

a variety of different collections during fashion shows, and it’s interesting to see how people from different countries and cultures put their outfits together and the styles they tend to adopt. Japan has a crazy and detailed fashion scene—and probably the most advanced in Asia.”

TOP TRAVEL DESTINATION “I’m

fascinated with the mountains running through central Taiwan. Besides the breathtaking vistas of semi-precious stone mountains and turquoise streams, the indigenous people are very resourceful with their land.”

CAREER TIP “Believe in yourself—we’re all special and unique. Most importantly, have fun with what you’re doing!”

PACKING WISDOM “My motto is: It’s

cool to be comfortable. Pack versatile items to cope with unexpected weather.”

58 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

BHUBAWIT “ROJ” KRITPHOLNARA Fashion Designer The creative force behind Thai fashion label Issue (266/10 Siam Square Soi 3, Rama 1 Rd., Bangkok, Thailand; 66-2/658-4416; issue. co.th), Bhubawit “Roj” Kritpholnara— formerly known as Roj Singhakul—first shot to international fame when his designs were featured in the final episode of America’s Next Top Model Cycle 6. The flamboyant couturier was already hugely popular in his home country thanks to his playful creations, which reinterpret tribal and Buddhist elements while delivering topnotch workmanship. “I focus on Buddhist philosophies because they’re part of my life, but I also love ethnic motifs because they form the core of every culture,” says Roj. The designer is also passionate about supporting local talent: “It’s my dream to see the continued growth of the Thai design scene, as well as to see stronger acceptance and support of homegrown designs.”

c lo c kw i s e f ro m to p l e f t: co u rt esy o f i ss u e ; © H u g o h t / D r e a m st i m e .co m ; co u rt esy o f b h u baw i t ro j k r i t p h o l n a ra ; co u rt esy o f i ss u e ; co u rt esy o f g r ey h o u n d ; co u rt esy o f to d i e fo r

Clockwise from far left: Dessert at To Die For; Issue’s designs; Greyhound on the runway; Kathmandu, in Nepal; Issue on the runway; Bhubawit “Roj” Kritpholnara.

TOP TRAVEL DESTINATIONS “I love Nepal; in fact, I’ve

been there 10 times already. Within Thailand, my favorite place is Chiang Mai and I also like Chatuchak Weekend Market—it’s where I get my clothes in addition to my own Issue collection.”

FAVORITE LOCAL HANGOUT “Bangkok’s Thonglor area is where I go with friends, especially To Die For (H1 Place, Sukhumvit Soi 55 (Thonglor); 66-2/381-4714; todieforbangkok. com; dinner for two Bt1,200), a chic restaurant-bar with a homey atmosphere. The grilled salmon trout steak is a must-try.”

DESIGN INSPIRATION “I get inspiration from anywhere

and everywhere—my home, bookstores, movies—so long as it can evoke strong emotions in me.”

THAI DESIGN​ERS “The scene’s pretty small and tight-

knit; we all are friends that support and inspire each other.

Greyhound (Siam Paragon, ground floor, 991 Rama 1 Rd.;

66-2/129-4358; reyhound.co.th) and Soda (Siam Center, level 3, Rama 1 Rd.; 66-2/251-4995) are my all-time favorites.”

PACKING WISDOM “Always pack to suit the local climate

and weather. If you’re coming to Thailand, light and airy clothing will be the best option. Colorful and fun styles are perfect for a tropical country like Thailand.

That being said, for now, you should avoid wearing red and yellow!” ✚

f r o m t o p : © Ed w a r d K a r a a / D r e a m s t i m e . c o m ; co u rt esy o f to d i e fo r

Chatuchak Weekend Market, left. To Die For, in Bangkok’s hip Thonglor district.

[st] design

1

2

3

craft work

4

At first, avant-garde designers and tradition-venerating craftsmen may sound like natural enemies. But in Taiwan, the two have joined forces thanks to Yii, pronounced “E,” a revolutionary design brand conceived by the National Taiwan Craft Research Institute and the Taiwan Design Center in collaboration with Dutch creative director Gijs Bakker. “The idea was to find out how you can actually bring those two worlds together,” says Bakker, who co-founded the famed Dutch design collective Droog and joined Yii when it launched in 2009.

“Craft culture in Taiwan is historically strong, but also disappearing as craftspeople get older. One of our aims was to see if designers could bring a kind of new life into the world of craft.”

Bakker chose Yii’s 12 young professional designers, all from Taiwan, who were in turn paired with local masters of their trade.

60 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

The key to working together, it seemed, was locating the universal in the specific. “All parts of the world have their own culture, and their own way of expressing their daily lives,” says Bakker. “It’s my belief that this should be expressed in the products that surround us, though [the design] needs to find a kind of abstraction so it can communicate worldwide but still keep its own identity.”

The proof is in the products: 1 a bulbous chair made from woven strips of bamboo (design: Rock Wang; craft: Kao-ming Chen); 2 dragons and tigers, both sacred symbols in Taiwan’s temples, transposed onto Koji pottery with a computer-designed polygonal base (design: Chen-hsu Liu; craft: Shiren Lu); 3 a silver-wire vase grounded on a slab of sleek granite (design:

Yu-cheng Yao; craft: Jian-an Su and Pei-ze Chen); and 4 diaphanous bowls in white porcelain fashioned to resemble traditional lacework (design: Ching-ting Hsu; craft: Tsun-jen Lee).

Yii has already turned heads internationally, from Miami to Paris, and will be showing for the second time at Milan’s Salone de Mobile this April. According to Bakker, the group’s new designs take a turn for the vernacular: “Last year the products were mainly inspired by local history, craft history, but this year I see there’s a shift, with the interest more focused on popular street culture.” What to expect? For starters, try a dazzling wall-lighting piece inspired by Taipei’s omnipresent scooters, rendered as reflectors in polyester with traditional Chinese lacquer. Watch this space. ✚

bridging worlds For more with Gijs Bakker and on Yii’s new designs, please visit travelandleisureasia.com/features.

c lo c kw i s e f ro m l e f t: Yos h i a k i Ts u ts u i ; Co u rt esy o f Y i i ( 4 )

In Taiwan, a visionary creative collective is fusing traditional artisanship with cutting-edge design. By Lara Day

[st] fashion

under the sun W retreat koh samui proves the perfect tropical locale for a day out. Photographed by tom hoops

Sunglasses, Chanel; earrings, Sretis; jacket and pants, DKNY; bikini, Rip Curl; bag, Bulgari.

[st] fashion

Opposite: Earrings, belt and necklace, Kloset; dress, DKNY; bracelets, Chanel.

Sunglasses, Chanel; rings and earrings, Sretsis; bikini, Rip Curl; necklace, Bulgari; pants, Emilio Pucci; bag, Hermès.

travelandleisureasia.com | march 2011 65

[st] fashion

66 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

Opposite: Earrings, Kloset; necklace, Sretsis; bracelets, Miu Miu; scarf, Hermès; bikini, Sloggi.

Sunglasses, Chanel; earrings and necklace, Kloset; vest, DKNY; bikini and shorts, Rip Curl; bag and shoes, TODâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S; scarf, Bulgari.

[st] fashion

Opposite: Earrings and necklace, Kloset; dress, DKNY; bracelets, Miu Miu. Dress, Emilio Pucci; earrings, Kloset; bracelets, Chanel and Miu Miu; rings, Sretsis; bag, Hermès; shoes, TOD’S. Model: Kate Stylist: Akaphol Ruthaiyanont Stylist assistant: Supaporn Teawvong Hair and make-up: Kitty Kittiya Location: W Retreat Koh Samui STOCKISTS Bulgari bulgari.com Chanel chanel.com DKNY dkny.com Emilio Pucci emiliopucci.com Hermès hermes.com Kloset klosetdesign.com Miu Miu miumiu.com Rip Curl ripcurl.com Sretsis sretsis.com TOD’S tods.com

travelandleisureasia.com | march 2011 69

VOTE FOR YOUR 2011 FAVORITES www.TLWorldsBest.com/intl For your favorite hotels, spas, airlines, cruise lines, travel companies and the destinations you love—in the only truly GLOBAL travel survey that matters!

Dear Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia readers, We trust you. We trust your judgment. That’s why we want you to rate your global travel experiences for us, in the 2011 Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards. These awards are recognized as travel’s highest honor, so it’s time to give back to those hotels, spas, airlines, cruise lines, travel companies and destinations you love. And this year is a very special year, with readers of all global editions of Travel + Leisure now able to participate in the awards.

So visit www.TLWorldsBest.com/intl and tell us exactly what you think. The full global results will be published in our August edition.

Matt Leppard Editor-in-Chief Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia

]

Design awards

2011

thoughtful, innovative design makes travel better, whether it’s a stunning hotel, restaurant or cruise ship—or THE perfect suitcase. For T+L’s annual competition, our illustrious jury chose the very best in 16 categories. + this year’s design Champion

T+L Jury 2011

jury moderated by Chee Pearlman; text by Charles Gandee; edited by Luke Barr; reported by Bree Sposato, with Christine Ajudua, Adam Baer, Jessie Bandy, Alexandra Ilyashov, Mimi Lombardo, and Mario Mercado; designed by Mark Maltais.

Fashion designer NORMA

her great-great-grandfather.

KAMALI gave us high-tech

She has led the family

Hospitality Group, DANNY

fabrics and the sleeping-

business to introduce its

MEYER is best known as the

bag coat, the bathing suit

crystal as a component

New York City restaurateur

for every figure and age,

for fashion, interior

responsible for the Union

and a long look back at

and lighting design.

Square Café, the Gramercy

siren and the fifties pinup.

She has recently been designing a line of affordable clothing for Walmart.

FRED DUST is a partner at

Palo Alto, California–based IDEO, an interdisciplinary firm whose clients include

The founder of Henry Urbach Architecture, a New York City gallery of contemporary art and architecture, HENRY URBACH is now the curator of architecture and design at sfmoma .

Tavern, the Modern, Eleven Madison Park, Blue Smoke, Shake Shack and Maialino.

DAVID CHILDS , chairman

emeritus of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and chairman of the august Municipal Art Society of New York, is the man

everyone from Prada to

As CEO and creative

responsible for, among

the Social Security

director of ABC Carpet

other things, the Time

Administration.

and Home, PAULETTE COLE

Warner Center in

curates the always changing

Columbus Circle and

collection of home décor

the now-in-construction

and furniture at the iconic

One World Trade Center.

German-born, Londonbased NADJA SWAROVSKI is creative director for Swarovski Crystal, which was founded in 1895 by

New York City shop.

Theo Morrison

both the forties screen

CEO of Union Square

From the Jury

“Yas PUSHES THE BOUNDARIES OF HOTEL DESIGN.” — NADJA SWAROVSKI

B e s t h o t e l ( m o r e t h a n 1 0 0 r o o m s ) Yas Hotel Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; designed by Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture, Asymptote Architecture This 499-room hotel has brave-new-world bravado and future-is-now daring to spare: two 12-story steel-and-glass towers connected by a bridge, under which fantastically fast cars speed by during Formula One races.

Most dramatically, Rashid and Couture draped the hotel, top down, with a sinuous, biomorphic “veil” that acts like an environmentally responsive second skin, by day reflecting the sky and the surroundings, by night lit by a spectacular LED system. 971-2/656-0700; theyashotel.com; doubles from Dhs.810.

B EST HOTEL ( F E W ER THAN 1 0 0 ROOMS ) Pantone Hotel Brussels; designed by Michel Penneman (interiors) and Olivier Hannaert (exterior) It’s a gimmick, but it works: this 61-room hotel features one distinctive Pantone color per floor, ranging from vivid to more subdued. The Pantone Hotel is built on contrasts; white walls provide a blank canvas for saturated colors to pop. At the shop are Pantone products of all sorts, from furniture to iPhone cases. 32-2/541-4898; pantonehotel.com; doubles from €89.

F r o m T o p : G e r r y O ’ L e a r y/ C o u r t e s y o f A s y m p t o t e A r c h i t e ct u r e ; S v e n L a u r e n t/ C o u r t e s y o f Pa n to n e H ot e l

HONORA B LE MENT I ON waterhouse at south bund Shanghai; designed by Neri & Hu Design and Research Office

FROM THE JURY

“Pantone is CLEVER, BUT NOT ‘CUTE,’ Exactly what a small hotel should be.”

— DAVID CHILDS

Design awards

FROM THE JURY

“Single cabins are AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THIS INDUSTRY TO BLOSSOM.” — NORMA KAMALI

B EST TRANS P ORTAT I ON Norwegian Cruise Line: norwegian epic studios Designed by Priestmangoode Geared to younger, solo travelers, Norwegian Cruise Line’s 128 Studio staterooms on the new Norwegian Epic are crisp but cozy, with soft, padded-leather surrounds for the beds, everything-in-its-place efficiency, and one-way portholes that look onto the ship’s interior corridors, where the lighting changes relative to the time of day. Many of the rooms interconnect, so singles sailing with friends are easily accommodated, and the generously scaled Studio Lounge provides communal space exclusive to occupants of Studio staterooms. ncl.com; from US$899, single occupancy, for a seven-day cruise.

B EST RETA I L S PA C E FreeCity Supershop Supermät Los Angeles; designed by Nina Garduno T-shirts and hoodies, tepees and bicycles, and vintage vinyl and custom-mixed scents are among the offerings at FreeCity Supershop Supermät, in Hollywood, an inspired alternative to the slick and the polished shops along Rodeo Drive and Melrose Avenue. The store sells its eclectic, handmade products in a 280square-meter space where 1960’s-era supergraphics add punch to the ad hoc, low-tech aesthetic. 1-323/461-2226; freecitysupershop.com.

F rom T op : C ourtesy of N orwegian C ruise L ine ; C ourtesy of L isa E isner

HONORA B LE MENT I ON United Nude, Flagship Store Shanghai; designed by Rem D Koolhaas

B e s t r e s o r t Amangiri Canyon Point, Utah; designed by Adrian Zecha, with architects Marwan Al-Sayed, Wendell Burnette and Rick Joy Set on a 243-hectare swath of desert in a remote quarter of Utah just north of the Arizona border, Amangiri is pure escape and natural wonder. A 50-meter-high rock is the centerpiece of the resort’s design, and it’s there that the architects placed the main pavilion and the main swimming pool. Two wings, containing 34 guest rooms, branch out from this center, with a spa at the isolated southern end of the complex. To better blend in with the Entrada sandstone, the buildings are made with a concrete mix of local sand, cement and aggregate that approximates the color and density of the surrounding geologic formations. 1-435/675-3999; amanresorts.com; doubles from US$850.

F r o m T o p : C o u r t e s y o f Am a n r e s o r t s ; D a v i d Alm e i d a / C o u r t e s y o f T h e W o lf s o n i a n

HONORA B LE MENT I ON Waikiki Edition Honolulu, Hawaii; designed by Yabu Pushelberg, with creative consultant Ian Schrager and in partnership with Marriott International

D esi g n C hampion

Micky Wolfson Mitchell “Micky” Wolfson Jr. has been a collector since he was 12, but it wasn’t until 1986 that he opened what is now the Wolfsonian-FIU museum, in the heart of Miami Beach’s Art Deco District. This remarkable trove of curiosities, all from the period 1885 to 1945, explores the power of design in both political and aesthetic contexts and has become a destination for scholars of Modernism and the history of propaganda.

There are decorative objects from all around the world, from a Fascist board game to King Farouk of Egypt’s matchbook collection, each powerful and provocative in its own way.

“I mean to stimulate people to think,” Wolfson says; he also embarks on frequent trips to far-flung places, including Algeria and Easter Island. We honor this year’s Design Champion for his remarkable preservation efforts, for his deep engagement with history and for his abiding, global curiosity.

B e s t R e s t a u r a n t Table No. 1 Shanghai; designed by Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu, Neri & Hu Design and Research Office Table No. 1 is a pared-back, industrial-chic restaurant, stripped to its unadorned material essence. Situated in the base of the new 19-room Waterhouse at South Bund hotel, which was also designed by architects Neri & Hu, the restaurant is a natural wood, gray-brick, Cor-Ten steel and exposed-cement space flooded with light. There are cinematic views of Shanghai’s Shiliupu Dock from the outdoor courtyard, oversize wooden communal tables in the main dining hall, and more conventional seating arrangements off to the side and in the private dining rooms. 86-21/6080-2918; tableno-1.com; dinner for two ¥1,000.

FROM THE JURY

“I love the way the communal tables blur the line between going out to eat and staying home.”

— DANNY MEYER

C o u r t e s y o f Ta b l e N o . 1

HONORA B LE MENT I ON D’espresso New York City; designed by Nemaworkshop

B EST m i x e d - u s e v e n u e 11 11 Lincoln Road Miami Beach; designed by Herzog & de Meuron More than a parking lot, 11 11 Lincoln Road is an open-air raw-concrete structure with, depending on which floor you happen to be on, two- to 10-meter ceilings, as well as numerous hip retail shops and restaurants. Its developer, Robert Wennett, refers to the place as a “parking sculpture.”

He also built a one-block extension of the pedestrians-only Lincoln Road Mall designed by landscape architect Raymond Jungles and Herzog & de Meuron and installed new public art by Dan Graham called Morris’ in honor of the late Morris Lapidus, the much-maligned, much-loved architect we have to thank for such Miami Beach landmark hotels as the 1954 Fontainebleau and the 1956 Eden Roc. 1-305/538-9320; 1111lincolnroad.com.

HONORA B LE MENT I ON Barceló Temporary Market Madrid; designed by Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos

Design awards

FROM THE JURY

“11 11 Lincoln Road is SO GUTSY… BEAUTIFULLY DIALED IN.”

Nelson Garrido

— HENRY URBACH

Design awards

Best car Nissan leaf nissanusa.com

Best tech accessory jambox portable speaker by jawbone jawbone.com

—fred dust

Best technology apple ipad apple.com

Best bag urban mobility Backpack, by puma with designer Hussein Chalayan puma.com

Best luggage tumi vapor collection tumi.com

Best gadget bowers & wilkins p5 noise-isolating headphones bowers-wilkins.com

BEst Travel Clothing patagonia m10 jacket and ultralight down shirt (shown); patagonia.com

Best gear snow peak hozuki lantern snowpeak.com

cl o c k w i s e F r o m t o p L e ft : C o u r t e s y o f NI s s a n N o r t h Am e r i c a ; T e r u O n i s h i ( 7 ) . St y l i n g b y S h a r o n R ya n f o r H a ll e y R e s o u r c e s

From the Jury

“The iPAD Has been a revolutionary product for travel.”

From the Jury

“the new ashmolean is MODERN, YOUTHFUL, 21ST-CENTURY— Yet sensitive to the past”

© R i c h a r d B r y a n t /A r c a i d / C o u r t e s y o f R i c k M a t h e r A r c h i t e ct s

— P AULETTE COLE

B e s t M u s e u m Ashmolean Museum Oxford, England; designed by Rick Mather Architects The monumental transformation of the 17th-century Ashmolean, the oldest public museum in the United Kingdom, is an exceedingly discreet intervention: the new building maintains an admirably low profile behind the Ashmolean’s beloved 19th-century Greek Revival façade. It is here that visitors still enter, before flowing into a new skylighted atrium. The museum’s collections of art and archaeology now have twice the display space, and two staircases ensure that natural light filters vertically through the museum, from the new café on the sixth floor to the ground level, via interconnecting, double-height galleries. 44-1865/278-000; ashmolean.org.

HONORA B LE MENT I ON Centre Pompidou-Metz Metz, France; designed by Shigeru Ban and Jean de Gastines

journal

travel topics in depth, vivid visuals and more

A sushi platter at Sushi Takumi Okabe, in Tokyo’s Asakusa neighborhood.

Right: Roasting bonito fish over rice straw at Owan, in Setagaya-ku.

iWhere do you find sublime sushi, itempura, kaiseki and more in a city known ifor its obsessive devotion to food? iVeteran critic Gael Greene charts a icourse through Japan’s capital. iPhotographed by Aya Brackett

Appetite for Tokyo

I

think of myself as fearless in pursuit of gastronomic thrills. I have conquered my dread of imagined mob scenes to sample airy fried puchkas in Kolkata, India. I’ve braved the winding roads to a religious retreat in the mountains of Sichuan province for vegetarian esoterica. Showed up for lunch in lawless Macau as rival gangs took potshots at each other for a bite of Macanese chili shrimp.

But I just couldn’t get myself to the gastronomic nirvana of Japan, so spooked was I by tales of indifference to outsid­ers and stratospheric prices.

Then Richard Bloch, an architect pal who commutes regularly to commissions in Tokyo, offered to guide me to secret places where tourists rarely go. And Japanophile friends in New York City set up food-world connections willing to lead my mate, Steven, and me on delicious de­tours. We headed off, determined to discover the best

of the best Tokyo has to offer, at price levels high and low, from the exclusive and obscure to the raffish and humble.

At 10 p.m., barely three hours after landing at Narita, the odyssey begins at Sushi Takumi Okabe, in the city’s Asakusa neighborhood, where a duo of sushi adepts wait at an unprepossessing nine-seat counter. To begin, we sip icy cold Koshinozeki sake, premium fuel for the Edo-era masterworks of Kaichiro Okabe. The chef, we are told, is the mentor of Masa Takayama, whose ¥37,000 sushi omakase has thrilled Manhattan sushi cognoscenti since his res­ taurant, Masa, opened in 2004. Hearing Takayama’s name, the chef smiles and proceeds to cut thin slices from a silver needlefish, painting them with a red-pepper-and-sesame sauce. The fish’s liver follows in a puddle of soy, then a parade of small bowls: bits of raw shrimp that cling volup­ tuously to the tongue; mackerel chunks topped with spikes of nori; crab eggs laced with pungent seaweed. » travelandleisureasia.com | march 2011 81

journal food noodle shops for udon, others for soba, joints for ra­men, tempura, breaded pork cutlets, chicken parts.

Should we disregard the Japanese passion for Italian cooking and gooey layer cakes? Ignore Michelin’s darling, Joël Robuchon? Yes: After all, we can go to Robuchon’s Atelier back home in New York.

I Owan’s chef and owner Kuniatsu Kondo. Above: Pork-and-napa-cabbage rolls at Owan.

These surprising textures and flavors are just the prelude to sushi, morsels of fish that arrive slicked with the chef’s “special sauce”—universal code for “I’m not giving away my secrets.” Squid comes stuffed with chopped egg, Edo-style.

Vinegar tempers the sweet­ness of raw shrimp on warmed rice. A big hit of wasabi on fatty tuna goes right to my brain.

My senses go into overdrive as so much complexity is delivered at a ceremonial pace, one piece at a time. Or is it the sips of sake in be­tween? I’m thrilled to be launching our quest on such a high note.

T

he next day, we check in with our designated foodie gurus, and everyone I talk to seems to have a favorite sushi bar, robata grill or temple of kaiseki (little tasting portions in exquisite bowls and saucers). The Japanese are ob­sessed with food.

I see them lined up to buy ¥5,000-a-pound green tea at Takashimaya when we stop to explore the store’s vast food hall of international edibles. We sample gyoza (pork dumplings) hot off the griddle. Clerks direct us to the Fauchon display and to barrels of Japanese pickles sold by the gram. I don’t see anyone actually buy a ¥8,000 melon, but they are displayed in ruffled tissue like Fabergé eggs.

I realize we can eat five or six times a day to cover every category of cook­ing in Tokyo alone, where Michelin has awarded 320 stars—more than Paris, more than any other city in the world. This is a city where specializa­tion becomes maniacal, with restau­rants that just do eel or fugu (the blowfish that can kill you if not prop­erly detoxified),

82 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

’m more curious about tempura. Can even the best be thrilling enough? In my New York experience, tempura is rarely as exciting as a good fritto misto, never as transporting as sublime sushi. But a friend has insisted we experience a tempura evening at Kondo, a favorite of hers in Ginza. I hope for a deep-fried revelation.

There are only 15 seats at the U-shaped counter (booked far ahead) atop one of those needle-like towers. But we get a bow from Fumio Kondo himself, planted in front of the frying station next to a mountain of pebbled flour, his arms folded like a middle-aged warrior. Young women deliver drinks and amuses-bouches from the kitchen. Then, once everyone is into the prologue, Kondo tenses, swivels his head like a baseball pitcher on the mound, and swings into action. Powder flies as he drags sea crea­tures through the hill of dry tempura coating or liquefies a batch of soft wheat flour into a batter. He sets a small tray in front of me, drops a rectangle of parch­ment on it, and delivers a pair of crisped shrimp heads. Then a clean paper for the shrimp bodies, sweet and wondrously tender. He gives instructions to the two of us in English: “Use salt,” he says. “Now, sauce.” “This time, lime.”

Here come deep-fried lotus root, as­paragus tips, a lily bulb. Kondo constant­ly stops to wash away the floury mix that sticks to his fingers. “No sauce,” he com­mands for a mild little fish. Scallop, clam, whiting, eggplant slivered and fanned. Fat-splotched parchments disappear and clean ones arrive. Kondo selects an odd, green, acorn-like object from a bas­ket of early spring vegetables (seasonal was a Japanese mantra long before American chefs got religion).

“Butterbur,” he says, as if that would explain it. He presses the battered bulb flat as it fries, so it emerges looking like a giant brooch. Its taste? The essence of green, with a surprise flash of bitterness at the end. I’m starting to understand.

T

he next evening our architect friend Richard leads us down a little alley past a gas station to Owan, which is obscured behind a dramatic façade of weathered steel and glass. It’s clear he loves this small oasis, not just for the gently priced omakase menu of delicious dishes—just ¥4,000 per person—

but also for his rapport with the amiable owner, Kuniatsu Kondo, a man who clearly reveres design too. The staff’s terra-cotta-colored aprons echo the terra-cotta-painted walls, and the bowls he sets before us mirror the precious an­tique pottery and lacquerware on the il­luminated shelves.

The chef chooses a sake cup for me from a collection on a tray. A menu scroll is held open with two smooth black stones. An assistant behind the 12-seat counter carves ice into shapes the chef requires; an artful chunk goes into my plum wine spritzer.

Kondo puts out special salts for a gossamer opener of freshly made tofu, fol­lowed by mizuna salad with shavings of dried bonito. Black seaweed the chef mar­inates himself comes on the sashimi plate, the fish excitingly smooth and firm, the temperature perfect. Scallop, oyster and broccoli rabe stud a soft steamed dump­ling floating in a dashi broth.

Shrimp sandwiched between lotus slices is rolled in batter and deep-fried for tempura. Pork is rolled in napa cabbage.

I sense the chef is moving toward a classic Japanese finale of layered egg. “Each chef prides himself on his egg mixture,” Richard observes. Unlike the blobby cut of omelette I avoid at home, this one is warm, and not sweet at all, with grated radish alongside.

I had planned to immerse myself in Japanese food, to explore the mysterious ways of miso, tofu, mochi (sticky rice paste). We eat a few too many delicious kushiage, fried things on skewers, the specialty of Rokukakutei, above Barney’s in the Ginza, where an impressive collection of imported wines are poured into expen­sive goblets. The chef is full of surprises: lotus deep-fried, then skewered; shiitake and salmon; a piece of beef wrapped around a string bean. Each of us gets a bowl of raw vegetables to crunch between deep-fried morsels.

I haven’t come this far to eat French, nor counted on the Japanese passion for foreign cuisines. But a food-obsessed man-about-town invites us to lunch at Restaurant Kinoshita, where the devo­tion of affluent sophisticates has made owner Kazuhiko Kinoshita a star. “But he’s a star chef who’s always in his kitchen,” our host observes. Though the 32 seats are usually booked far in advance, we have managed to snare three last-minute spots at the communal table with a good view of Kinoshita. Athletic in his white T-shirt and an apron tied over jeans, he personally tweaks every plate, his mustache and goa­tee setting off a shiny hairless head.

After a trio of amuses-bouches, a deli­cately jellied lobster cocktail makes me realize I’m grateful for a break after a week of soba, marinated fish and pickled tidbits. A lush seafood bisque positively smells like France. The six-course tasting menu doesn’t add up to a poetic progression, but I’m still a fool for blood sausage, not to mention the chef’s

peppery calamari. A tender venison fillet, served rare alongside a caul-wrapped venison patty, is followed by tangerine segments on a shallow island of crème brûlée.

Pretty amazing dishes from a chef who has never even been to France.

Before my visit, I’d been warned that there are Tokyo restaurants so esoteric, so exclu­sive, so expensive that only royalty and moguls are welcome. But on my quest for foodie epiphany in the Japanese capital, I was dazzled by the astonishing range of high and low dining, and charmed by the rituals of fawning attention. From the en­ thusiastic welcome in fastfood ramen joints to the graceful surroundings of cer­emonial kaiseki, wherever we ventured, food was the main event. Food that is, above all, seasonal, but also provocative, exotic and deliriously good. ✚ Gael Greene is the author of Insatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess (Warner Books).

Ebi (shrimp) tempura at Kondo, in Ginza, left.

Above: Chuo-dori near Rokukakutei, in Ginza.

tokyo address book Kondo Sakaguchi Bldg., Ninth floor, 5-5-13 Ginza, Chuo-ku; 81-3/5568-0923; dinner for two ¥24,000.

Rokukakutei Kojun Bldg., fourth floor, 6-8-7 Ginza, Chuo-ku; 81-3/5537-6008; dinner for two ¥30,000.

Owan Okada Bldg., 2-26-7 Ikejiri; 81-3/ 5486-3844; dinner for two ¥13,000.

Sushi Takumi Okabe 5-13-14 Shirokanedai, Minato-ku; 81-3/5420-0141; dinner for two ¥25,000.

Restaurant Kinoshita Estate Bldg., 3-37-1 Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku; 81-3/3376-5336; dinner for two ¥12,000.

Takashimaya Nihonbashi 2-4-1 Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku; 81-3/3211-4111.

travelandleisureasia.com | march 2011 83

journal drinks An apprentice at the 1876 Café Central, in Palais Ferstel.

Vienna’s Café Culture

In a city steeped in tradition, the centuries-oldI kaffeehaus struggles to modernize. Michael Z. WiseI investigates. Photographed by Jessica SampleI

84 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

T

he Viennese speak of a coffeehouse as having a soul, often resisting even the slightest change to the 300-year-old institution.

“In Vienna, the Kaffeehaus is a cultural enclave untouched by time,” says local landscape architect Roman Ivancsics as he plows through a stack of newspapers at Old Town’s Café Korb, on the corner of Tuchlauben Strasse and Brandstätte, whose opening in 1904 was so noteworthy that among the guests was Emperor Franz Josef.

Puffing cigarettes between sips of espresso, or kleine Mokka as the Viennese call it, Ivancsics sits amid marble-topped tables and bentwood chairs strewn with regional German-language dailies and foreign titles such as Le Monde and Corriere della Sera. Waiters, formally clad in jackets and bow ties, rush about with steaming coffee cups and plates of pastries, providing excellent service, not with a smile, but rather with serious attitude marked by a butler-like blend of gravitas, unctuousness and charm.

“A democratic club,” was how the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig described the Viennese coffeehouse in his 1943 memoir The World of Yesterday, claiming it to be “the best place to keep up with everything new.” Zweig was but one of countless intellectual and artistic luminaries, including Sigmund Freud, Gustav Klimt and Leon Trotsky, whose constant presence in the Viennese café scene throughout the early 20th century gave it legendary status.

Nearly 70 years after Zweig’s book appeared, these fabled meeting places face an uncertain future as newspaper readers switch to the Internet, café operators grapple with higher real estate costs due to generational shifts in management, and older establishments face competition from more modern chains, including Starbucks (there are now nine in Vienna) and the Indian-owned Coffee Day. In 1900 the city had at least 600 coffeehouses; today only several hundred remain. Three popular venues—Café Servus, Café Schopenhauer and Café Wilder Mann— have shut down within the past year-and-a-half.

Café Ritter, which opened in 1867, declared bankruptcy in 2009 and an H&M clothing store

was set to occupy its quarters, in a former aristocratic palace, until a “Save Café Ritter” page on Facebook attracted 4,600 fans.

(For now, a new owner has rescued it from extinction.) Café Museum, designed in 1899 by pioneering architect Adolf Loos, was also closed for nearly a year until new management reopened the old haunt of Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka as a tradition-minded coffeehouse last October.

Vienna’s city councillor for cultural affairs, Andreas Mailath-Pokorny, concedes that the coffeehouse “needs to change with the times,” but he downplays the prospect of its disappearing altogether. As much as opera and the waltz, it has been, after all, part and parcel of Vienna’s self-image ever since the Turks introduced the caffeinated beverage during their siege of the city in 1683. As the story goes, the army left behind sacks of beans after being defeated by the Austrians.

In recent years, many café owners have added wireless Internet to accommodate laptop-toting patrons. Whether such tinkering is enough to change the downhill trend remains unclear. Indeed, Berndt Querfeld, the head of the coffeehouse department at Vienna’s Chamber of Commerce, speaks of a “death spiral” whereby many older coffeehouses have neither renovated nor invested in »

Café Society Clockwise

from left: Outside Café Ritter; a Melange (espresso with milk) and chocolate cake at Café Bräunerhof; the interior of Café Weimar, in Vienna’s Old Town.

travelandleisureasia.com | march 2011 85

journal drinks infrastructure. “Some have not repainted for thirty years,” he says. “The cakes are stale and at a certain point the customer can’t take it.”

Querfeld, who runs the fashionable Café Landtmann and five other spots, has taken pains to ensure his own establishments survive.

Four years ago, he added a glass-enclosed winter garden at Landtmann, designed by the cutting-edge Austrian firm Wehdorn Architects, that poses a striking contrast to the woodpaneled Jugendstil interior lit by ornate brass chandeliers. The soaring rooms are now nearly always filled with Vienna’s leading political and media figures, who are drawn to the café’s excellent food (Wiener schnitzel; Würstel) and location near parliament.

Meanwhile, the Viennese coffee firm Julius Meinl, founded in 1862 and billing itself as the world’s oldest coffee brand, seeks to reinvigorate café culture by ensuring the quality of its beans and staff. “In Vienna, we have a very discerning clientele,” the fifthgeneration owner Thomas Meinl tells me during a visit to one of the company’s training centers on the outskirts of the city. Meinl

addresS book Café Bräunerhof 2 Stallburggasse; 43-1/512-3893 Café Central 17 Herrengasse; 43-1/533-3764 Café Korb 9 Brandstätte; 43-1/533-7215 Café Landtmann 4 Dr. Karl Lueger-Ring; 43-1/2410-0100 Café Museum 7 Operngasse, Karlsplatz; 43-1/2410-0620 Café Prückel 24 Stubenring; 43-1/512-6115 Café Ritter 73 Mariahilferstrasse; 43-1/587-8238 Café Weimar 68 Währingerstrasse; 43-1/317-1206

recently introduced new brewing and grinding equipment and his offerings now include flavored coffees, unheard of in the city before.

In another bid to stave off closures, Gregor Eichinger, a prominent Viennese architect, is calling on the city to grant tax breaks and for owners to rethink the very institution. To that end, he recently organized an exhibition at the Museum of Applied Arts entitled “The Shape of the Café to Come,” and invited five design teams to create new tables, seating and dishes for the coffeehouse of the future.

The exhibition prompted a heated discussion in the Viennese media—an article in Der Standard elicited hundreds of comments, many passionately in defense of the status quo.

Still, owners feel pressure to modernize. While neo-nomenclature like “soy chocochino” might have been anathema a decade ago, owners like Querfeld are trying out such things. “We’re innovating slowly,” he says, expressing certainty that the institution is nowhere near its end.

“The traditional Viennese coffeehouse,” Querfeld wagers, “has survived two world wars and economic crises. It will stay around.” ✚

At Café Landtmann, the SOARING rooms are always filled with Vienna’s leading political and media figures

Old meets new From above:

Outside a Vienna institution; the interior of the 1899 Café Museum, designed by architect Adolf Loos; house-made apple strudel at the recently renovated Café Landtmann. Top: An Almdudler soda at Café Prückel.

86 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

journal golf Aiming for the putting green at the Empire Country Club.

green dreams c o u r t e s y o f t h e e m p i r e h o t e l & c o u n t r y cl u b

While they may not be at the top of most lists, the links in Brunei are a great place to golf—just ask some of the pros. By Spencer Robinson

F

rom Bali to Beijing, Haikou to Hua Hin, Penang to Phuket and Singapore to Surabaya, a host of outstanding golf courses are finally receiving the recognition they deserve. But when debating the topic of Asia’s finest golfing getaways, it’s fair to say that Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei, doesn’t trip off the tongue quite so effortlessly—or frequently—as some of its more established rivals.

That shouldn’t come as a surprise given that Brunei, one of only two sultanates in the world, is best known as a land of Islamic architectural grandeur and lush virgin rainforest.

Gradually, however, that’s changing, in no small part thanks to The Empire Hotel & Country Club, whose splendid Jack Nicklaus–designed course has naturally matured since it was first unveiled in 1997, drawing growing numbers of golfers and their families over the past decade.

What’s more, the staging of selected professional events has helped the club’s—and Brunei’s—international profile to skyrocket. According to Sheikh Jamaluddin bin Sheikh Mohamed, chief executive of Brunei Tourism and chairman of the Brunei Open Organizing Committee, not only have professional tournaments been instrumental in developing the sovereign state’s golf scene, but they also promote tourism. “While our initiatives in growing the game are of utmost importance, the Brunei Open also puts our nation firmly on the world’s golf map,” he says. “The television exposure we receive on the Asian Tour platform is tremendous as the highlights show goes out to 40 countries around the world and is accessible to 350 million people.

“There is a significant increase in golf tourists coming to Brunei, especially from Korea and more recently from China and Hong Kong. The indication is positive that future trends will be strong in golf tourism. The international » travelandleisureasia.com | march 2011 87

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exposure of the Brunei Open and the Brunei Senior Masters through TV has made this possible.”

Whether you’re yearning for a weekend break far from the madding crowd with your partner, family and kids or your golfing buddies, The Empire is an attractive option that is easily accessible, whether by road from neighboring East Malaysia or by air from most major cities. And when you get there, one of the beauties is that you don’t have to waste hours going to or from the airport or town. The Empire is 15 minutes from Brunei International Airport and 20 minutes from Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital and central business district.

Unless you specifically wish to explore the sultanate or try out Brunei’s handful of other golf courses, there’s really no compelling reason to leave the premises, especially if you’re only there for a short stay. After all, the property has its own cinema featuring the latest movie releases plus a state-of-the-art theater for live performances and presentations. Recreational facilities include a lagoon beach and pools, a kids club called E Kids Club, tennis courts, a fully equipped fitness center and the Empire Spa. The award-winning facility is also accustomed to hosting the rich and famous, with former U.S. president Bill Clinton and Chinese premier Hu Jintao among those who have 88 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

stayed at the Emperor suite in the hotel that opened for the APEC CEO’s summit meetings in 2000.

For those of us unable to afford the suite life, the hotel also features 518 spacious guestrooms, including two- and three-bedroom villas, all with marble bathrooms, glittering furnishings, and balconies. The hotel celebrated its 10th anniversary late last October, since when extensive room refurbishments have been taking place, addressing the comments and demands of guests who have stayed there.

The result is that the new rooms are equipped with a range of new technology, from high speed in-room wireless Internet to 55-inch LED TV’s with interactive channels.

There’s also an iPod docking station as well as Internet radio for international listening.

While the hotel and its accompanying amenities stand proud within the 180-hectare tropical garden retreat, it’s the 18-hole golf course that remains the centerpiece of this expansive project, even after dark when the floodlights are switched one, enabling visitors to enjoy night golf in a pleasing climate.

Encompassing lush green fairways and tropical landscapes fringed by jungles with breathtaking views of the South China Sea, it’s a course to savor—whether you’re a top professional, an accomplished amateur or a novice.

c o u r t e s y o f t h e e m p i r e h o t e l & c o u n t r y cl u b ( 2 )

Alongside the coastline, the 15th HOLE signals the start of a demanding home stretch

c o u r t e s y o f t h e e m p i r e h o t e l & c o u n t r y cl u b ( 2 )

Smooth fairways and blue skies. Left: Golf in the tropics has its benefits. Opposite, left and right: Above the Empire Country Club; drive time.

The course stretches to 7,016 yards and plays to a par of 71. As Nicklaus intended when he went through the sculpting process, each hole presents its own distinctive and individual challenge. As you’d expect from a man who remains the greatest player of all time, despite the efforts of Tiger Woods to dethrone him, Nicklaus offers players options. There are plenty of risk-reward holes where you have to decide whether to attack and reap the dividends if you pull it off or take a more cautious route that reduces the prospects of a scorecard-wrecking number.

The appeal and challenge of the course is perfectly illustrated by the sixth, 15th and 18th holes, which offer a great variety from the tee.

At 357 yards from the championship tees, the sixth hole may be the shortest par-four on the course, but for amateurs it’s among the most intimidating, requiring a 210-yard carry off the tee over a deep ravine to a narrow slither of fairway.

Miss right and odds are that your ball will disappear into the “cliffs of doom.”

Running alongside the beach as it hugs the coastline, the 15th hole signals the start of the demanding home stretch.

At 549 yards, it’s the shortest of the three par-fives on the course. For long hitters, it’s a definite birdie chance, but bogeys and worse are common for those who are distracted by the vistas and let down their guard.

If you’re expecting a gentle conclusion to your round, think again. Measuring 478 yards, the par-four 18th is designated as stroke index one, meaning it’s the toughest hole on the course. The sanctuary of the clubhouse may beckon, but you need full concentration with your drive from one of the highest points on the course if you’re to avoid a strip of fairway that is bordered by a large bunker on the right and cliffs to the left.

For many pros and golfing tourists, Brunei and The Empire have become a favorite. Australian Rick Kulacz, the 2008 champion, The Empire will always hold a special place in his heart. “I like the course as it sets up well for me. And away from the golf course, the hotel is just unbelievable.”

As well as being the home to the Brunei Open since the event’s inauguration in 2005, the Empire will this month (March 4–6) be thrust once more into the international spotlight when it stages a European Senior Tour event for the third year running. Former Major champions Ian Woosnam and Sandy Lyle will be among those aiming to tame the course when they grace its fairways in the US$350,000 Aberdeen Brunei Senior Masters.

Of course, the sultanate still offers plenty of green beyond the putting variety. Says Sheikh Jamaluddin: “With more than 70 per cent of Brunei’s land area covered by primary rainforests, it’s often known as the ‘Green Heart of Borneo.’ We hope that all the golfers and visitors who travel to Brunei for the tournament will have time to experience life beyond the golf course.” ✚ The Empire Hotel & Country Club Jerudong BG3122, Brunei; 673/241-8888; theempirehotel.com; doubles from B$189; round of 18 holes, B$135. travelandleisureasia.com | march 2011 89

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poster NATION

inspired by art-deco era postcards, these vibrant posters of the philippines are one graphic design team’s ANSWER TO an AGE-old QUANDARY: how to jumpstart the country’s tourism industry

Graphic design collective Team Manila is known for its striking designs showcasing the Philippine capital’s street culture. Now, in the wake of a flailing promotional campaign by the Department of Tourism—the country only attracted 3.45 million tourists last year, less than one quarter of the total that visited Thailand—the designers are tackling a 90 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

bigger question: How to market the archipelago to travelers? Jowee Alviar, a co-founder of Team Manila (teammanila.com), has created a set of unofficial tourism posters that prove the power of design, highlighting locales such as Candaba, a bird-watcher’s paradise north of Manila Bay. “Bring your binoculars,” he advises.

Located in the central Philippines, the Chocolate Hills are a surreal natural wonder spread across some 50 square kilometers on the island of Bohol. Each of the estimated 1,776 limestone mounds is covered in green grass, which quickly turns to brown in the dry season and lends the formation its name. The geological symmetry of the

conical hills—rising from 30 to 50 meters and stretching “as far as your eyes can see,” says Alviar—inspired the visual repetition of this imprint, with a sea of block-color shapes leading to a bright yellow sun. Beaches, churches and world-class dive sites are other selling points on Bohol, but this one-of-a-kind dimpled landscape is what sets it apart. travelandleisureasia.com | march 2011 91

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Unless you’re a military-history buff, the rocky, tadpole-shaped island of Corregidor might not be an obvious destination. But this former defense post for Manila—now an easy day trip from the capital—gives a fascinating, moving insight into the role of the Philippines in World War II. Once home to American General Douglas 92 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

MacArthur, it was the site of pitched battles in 1942 and 1945, and today offers attractive ruins and memorials. Team Manila draws from the island’s complex past, rendering its visual elements into vibrant colors and simple silhouettes.

Alviar stresses that, when “rebranding” the country, man-made drawcards are as important as natural ones.

Dating back to 1606, Manila’s old walled city is the only district in the capital to retain a distinct Spanish architectural influence. Though it was largely destroyed during World War II, much has been rebuilt and restored.

Alviar points out that the inspiration for this vivid poster came from the lively, informed walking tours of Carlos

Celdran, an artist, historian and spirited raconteur. “There are so many stories behind the walls of Intramuros,” says Alviar. “There should be a conscious effort to revive the walled city.” Here, Team Manila’s imagery channels the Philippines’ rich Latin heritage, with warm, sultry hues and block-patterned outlines. travelandleisureasia.com | march 2011 93

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Vaunted as the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most perfect volcanic cone, the 2,463-meter Mount Mayon is as remarkable for its majestic symmetry as it is for being one of the liveliest volcanoes in the Philippines, having erupted 49 times in the past four centuries. Yet Alviar says he has a different perspective on the volcano: he sees it as a gateway to his 94 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rich collection of natural sites and potential eco-tourism activities beyond the confines of Manila. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not difficult to see why: this Asian archipelago consists of more than 7,000 islands, many of which are still largely unexplored. Mount Mayon is only one of 22 active volcanoes in the country.

With more than 1,700 islands and islets stretching across hundreds of kilometers, the province of Palawan is host to some of the most beautiful seascapes found in Asia, if not the globe. This underlines a corner of the country that has yet to be discovered by the hordes of mass tourism, making it an area ripe for the type of rebranding Alviar and

his team specialize in. Palawan island itself is a land bridge that is more than 450 kilometers long but rarely wider than 50 kilometers. The limestone karsts around El Nido, on its northern tip, are especially worth visiting for their stark, natural beauty, with blue lagoons and flourishing coral reefs adding to the pristine environment. travelandleisureasia.com | march 2011 95

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Due south of Palawan, the sweep of the Sulu Sea and the surrounding islands is another of the Philippines’ far-off natural wonders. “The colors of Mindanao should be seen by the whole world,” Alviar says. “From the dreamweavers to the vistas, the south has so much to offer and hopefully people will start visiting the provinces.” The Sulu Sea itself 96 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

is home to the Tubbataha Reef National Marine Park, a unesco World Heritage Site to rival the Great Barrier Reef when it comes to diversity of marine life. Well-known among the world’s diving community, it remains off the map for most travelers, yet those who take the plunge are rewarded with a host of unspoiled riches.

A world away but only a two-hour drive from Manila is the stunning Lake Taal, home to what’s widely known as a volcano within a volcano. Located amid a sprawling caldera that today measures approximately 20 by 30 kilometers, the Taal Volcano is a short hike up for visitors, who don’t need to worry about getting too close—its last violent eruption

was back in 1977. Today, the volcano makes for a relaxing escape from the big city, not least because it sits amid the lush, temperate highlands of Tagaytay, a region noted for its organic farming and foodie possibilities. Don’t miss a meal at Antonio’s, a regular fixture in the Miele Guide, though be sure to visit in the daytime to take in the views. ✚ travelandleisureasia.com | march 2011 97

1950’s enthusiasts Boy and Jote pose with Boy’s 1972 Cadillac.

Beyond the flea markets, Thailand’s capital is a trove of vintage gems. Lara Day navigates the in’s and out’s of old-school cool. Photographed by Cedric Arnold

blast from the past Clockwise

from above: DJ Maft Sai at ZudRangMa Records; a stylish clothes trader at Bangkok’s Talaat Rot Fai; it’s all in the details at The Atlanta Hotel; Donnie Tsiu, owner of Cocue Basics; Chris Menist shops for vintage Thai records in Chinatown’s Saphan Lek; Tuba restaurant and store; Papaya’s funky furniture.

‘MOST BANDS RECORD DIGITALLY,’ SAYS TAT RECORDING A SONG AND A DOG IS BARKING

I

t’s half-past midnight at Café Democ, a pleasingly grungy split-level bar in Bangkok’s Old City. The party is reaching a crescendo. Two hatsporting DJ’s—one Thai (in a trilby), one English (in an ivy cap)—spin a cascade of sounds from a groaning pile of vinyl records, spurring the bar’s boho, under-35 patrons into dance moves that fall somewhere between the twist, the shimmy, the monster mash and Saturday Night Fever. The music is both strange and familiar: an artful, psychedelic roil of twangy rock guitars and wailing pipes, driving beats and jangling percussion, hip-shaking funk and sinuous grooves. And then there are the vocals: nasal, borderline histrionic, occasionally punctuated with spoken word. Somewhere along, I pick out a tune I recognize: “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath—in Thai.

This is Paradise Bangkok, a bi-monthly event featuring vintage Thai records from the 60’s and 70’s. I go up to the DJ booth and talk to the ivy-capped Englishman, Chris Menist, who smiles at me tolerantly. “CD’s?” he repeats, then briefly consults his trilbied compadre, Maft Sai. “We don’t have CD’s.”

Instantly I’m transported to a scene in Back to the Future 2, where Doc Brown disabuses Marty McFly of his tedious dependence on passé technology—“Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads”—except this, of course, is the reverse. Instead of hoverboards and flying DeLoreans of the future, we’re talking about music so old it’s measured in inches and rotations per minute. There’s a lesson there, somewhere.

But is it just that vinyl is in, and CD’s are out? Or is it something else? I can’t help but wonder: Since when did old become cool?

B

angkok has an obsession with all things retro, one that stretches far beyond just music.

This may be a 21st century city in some respects: there’s the finger-print-activated key pad that opens the door to my apartment building; the ubiquitous GPS-enabled smartphones that make instant, pixellated sense of the city’s confounding sprawl; the Skytrain that whizzes high above the city’s paralyzing traffic, a breezy, triumphantly modern answer to the age-old problem of urban congestion. Yet, at almost every turn, pieces of the past hold sway. Here, charming 1960’s-built movie theaters—the Lido; the Scala—stay afloat in a metropolis awash in blockbuster multiplexes; quirky antique-filled cafés playing classic swing records coexist with bland, minimalist coffeehouse chains; 1950’s Vespas and Volkwagen Beetles jostle for road space with gilded Mercedes-Benzes; secondhand clothes get snapped up as quickly as the latest Greyhound designs.

Six months after my first Paradise Bangkok night, I visit

Baan Ekamai, a new two-structure complex comprising a converted residential house and warehouse, now occupied by a range of creatively inclined shops. One of these is ZudRangMa Records, Maft Sai’s vintage record store that channels Bangkok’s old-record-shop–lined Saphan Lek in Chinatown, where he and Chris Menist go “digging” for vinyl finds. “I’ve got a battery-operated turntable and go through everything,” explains Menist, a U.N. consultant by day, who met Maft Sai on one such “dig” back in 2008. “I find that aspect of it quite humorous. No one knows the reality of finding this music. On the whole, one in every 70 records is worth keeping.”

In the compact, high-ceilinged space, painted sky-blue and plastered with retro album covers, three young Thais are sifting through racks of records that start from Bt100 a piece.

The records are encased in anonymous brown manila sleeves, but they’re easy enough to navigate: each one bears a helpful marker-pen label detailing musical style, title and artist name in English, ranging from the opaque—Isan rare groove, “Bor Leum Huang nur,” Pakaipetch—to the arresting: Soul, “I want to kill my wife,” Kannanphah Lukpetoh.

Though the store’s offerings extend to African roots music and Ethiopian jazz, browsers here will mainly find mor lam, the vocally driven music of Thailand’s northeast, luk khrung, the more refined music of the city, and luk thung, literally music of the countryside, a genre so invigorating that there’s a Red Bull–style energy drink named after it. “Before we held our first party, people asked me, Why are you into Isan music?

Why do you want to play taxi driver music?” Maft Sai says, describing the snobbery that divides urbanites from their rural cousins. Despite that resistance, in 2009 the duo went ahead with their first event, at the artsy, now-defunct bar Raindogs, and more than 200 people showed up out of nowhere.

The music undoubtedly resonates, not just in Thailand but further afield—Menist and Maft Sai are behind two recent, globally acclaimed compilations, The Sound of Siam, an upbeat mélange of old Thai genres, and the heavier Thai? Dai!, which hones in on underground luk thung and features the excellent “Iron Man” cover, “Kuen Kuen Lueng Lueng,” by the legendary Soreng Santi (yes, both albums are sold as CD’s). Closer to home, an exhibition last year at the Museum of Siam explored “Luk Thung: The Phenomenon of Thai Country Music,” displaying a collection of classic records—though Maft Sai was skeptical. “The music has to be played, to really be alive, or else the albums become just artworks on a wall, like a museum,” he says. “Back in the day, people knew all the words to these tunes. They’d shout out the lyrics and sing along.”

Yet the appeal of anything vintage has always been linked to surface aesthetics. Next door at Cocue Basics, a clothing boutique curated by Hong Kong transplant Donnie Tsui, »

BUNNAG. ‘WE DO THE OPPOSITE. iF WE’RE IN THE BACKGROUND, iT STAYS IN’

Door men at the Lido Cinema in Siam Square.

Opposite: The Atlanta Hotelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s famed retro lobby.

surviving sounds Clockwise from top left: The old telephone

switchboard at the Atlanta Hotel is still in use today; Tom Dundee at Ratchada Night Bazaar; Chris Menist and Maft Sai in action at Paradise Bangkok’s second-anniversary party.

most of the items look like they could be old; only when you examine the labels do you realize that 80 percent of the items here are new releases by ultra-contemporary brands such as South Korea’s Fleamadonna. “Things don’t need to be original,” my Thai friend tells me, by way of explanation. “They just need to be cool.” Meantime, hidden in the back of the store is a designated “real” vintage section, where fashionistas can score chic knitted caps and secondhand blazers by Comme des Garçons, sourced from Tsui’s travels as well as his weekly visits to Chatuchak Weekend Market’s secondhand section.

Conveniently, the real and the aspiringly retro mingle around the corner on Ekamai Soi 21, where a cluster of Midcentury Modern furniture shops—Y50, Hawaii Five-O, Tuba 1 and Tuba 2—sell both originals and replicas, from bona fide Eero Saarinen chairs to made-yesterday Verner Panton– styled mushroom lamps. Tuba 2, in particular, is a pleasure to explore, presented like a meticulously styled interior designer’s showroom, but with idiosyncratic objects galore: you might find a self-aware plastic radio molded into the shape of the word radio, or an R2D2-inspired robot cassette player complete with plastic claws. The place is in stark contrast to its sister warehouse, Papaya, a 4,000-square-meter cavern of jumbled curiosities hidden in Bangkok’s Lad Phrao district, where eagle-eyed tenacity is required to reap take-home 104 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

rewards. Still, it’s worth the trek—when I dropped in one Sunday afternoon, the covered central courtyard was animated with a single fluorescent light, a surreal tango soundtrack and an old man at a desktop computer furiously trawling eBay. For some, it takes work to hunt down a retro gem worth treasuring. For others, it takes work to keep one in business.

Charles Henn inherited The Atlanta Hotel from his late father, Dr. Max Henn, an enterprising German engineer turned hotelier who began renting out rooms to travelers in 1952—the hotel’s third and current incarnation, in a “new” building, dates back to 1958. The stunning period lobby, with its floating staircase and diamond-patterned flooring, is reputedly the most photographed in Thailand, but don’t wander in expecting to take a few snaps: passers-by are prohibited from entering without booking a room in advance, and those who don’t are unceremoniously discharged from the premises.

Although the hotel’s common areas recall its 1950’s heyday—Henn remembers Gatsby-esque evenings at the nowcrumbling poolside, with beautiful people dancing to live jazz combo bands—today it’s hard to imagine that this charming, if eccentric, budget stay was once a pioneer on Bangkok’s hospitality scene, boasting Thailand’s first hotel diving pool among other innovations. “My father was a very modern man.

People sometimes forget that,” Henn tells me from an elevated

classic style Clockwise from left: Suphakanya “Bloom” Tripawattna, a designer at Kloset; vintage phones at Talaat Rot Fai; indie band Basement Tape uses retro recording techniques.

cherry-red booth in the hotel’s restaurant, open only to room guests. “What he created was the most modern hotel in Thailand, and it just so happens that it became a classic.” It’s just as well: The Atlanta’s history is palpable, from the photographs on the walls to the original hotel switchboard, which still works to this day.

T

he woman is stern. “they’re coming, you need to get ready,” she warns. Then, in jest, she panics: “I’m scared, I’m too short for them!”

Suphakanya Tripwattana, or “Bloom,” is talking about flares; I’m just glad she didn’t say “hotpants.” Bloom is a vintage-fashion lover and designer for popular clothing brand Kloset, whose creations draw heavily from period styles. She’s talking me through a preview of Kloset’s spring collection, a playful, travel-themed farrago of influences from the 1920’s to the 1980’s, in a workshop strewn with mood boards, Post-it notes and fabric swatches.

“I don’t limit myself. You don’t need to be on trend all the time.” Bloom picks up a dress from a rack by her desk, a 1960’s black-and-white shift from Japan that she’s hemmed in around the waist. Her waist-length hair is cut into a Cleopatra fringe, which sets off her 80’s cut-off shorts and long-sleeved voile top.

“These days it’s all about individual style.”

Vintage clothes, Bloom says, have the cachet of being oneof-a-kind, and while certain people—myself included—don’t have the patience for endless hours spent rummaging, she relishes the hunt for the perfect find: “When you find a piece you love, especially after you’ve been searching all day and come up with nothing, it’s an amazing feeling, like the sun is shining, like energy, like music.” I ask her if she minds wearing something that’s been worn before. “Some Thais are scared of memories,” she admits. “But for me, when I find something beautiful, I thank whoever owned it. I feel like they might have loved their clothes, and appreciating them is a form of respect.”

Not everyone believes in paying tribute. Some people coopt the past in their quest to stand out. At Shades of Retro, a tucked-away Thonglor bar where every item you see—from the old Hammond organ by the wall to a vintage Vespa by the bar—is for sale, I sit down with Tat Bunnag and Ben Edwards, members of lo-fi indie band Basement Tape, whose look is part 50’s mod, part 60’s shaggy. Their recording techniques are staunchly analog: they put a tape into a cassette player, press record and voilà. “Most bands these days record digitally, so the sound comes out clean,” says Tat, who has an iPhone case styled like a 90-minute cassette tape. “We do the opposite. If we’re recording a song and a dog is barking outside, or a baby is crying, it stays in.” » travelandleisureasia.com | february 2011 105

Ben, a Sydney native, agrees. “A lot of modern albums tend to sound the same, because they follow the same rules about mixing, But we like analog recording. It’s fun, and it’s more physical than looking at files on a computer screen.”

There’s something to be said for the physical—as opposed to, say, online scouring. At Ratchada Night Bazaar, famed for its secondhand offerings, I witness a fashionista scrum over a rack crammed with vintage dresses in a dizzying array of patterns: zig zags, polka dots, butterfly prints, polygonal lattices, paisleys, fleur-de-lys. And all in strangely edible colors: celery, persimmon, lemon, butterscotch, raspberry, honeydew.

You can find just about anything here—old cassette tapes, classic aviators, Rolleiflex cameras, rotary dialphones—but not everything here is old, so be vigilant. If in doubt, ask the stallkeeper—which is how I find myself conversing with Tom Dundee, a part Thai, part Sioux and Apache vendor of motorcycle parts, handlebars, tyres, automotive magazines, cowhides, gun holsters, leather horse saddles and novelty items such as a 1993 Harley Davidson telephone handset.

“Everything here is used. Even I’m used!” he chuckles, before launching into French, which he speaks fluently. As we chat about his colorful history—he’s in a band, prefers “la liberté” to settling down, and learned French, “un mot par jour,” at school—a magazine catches my eye: V Class Vol.1, Issue 4: Varieties Art Magazine for Bikers, Cowboys-Indians & Classic Car. There he is, on the cover, posing proudly in a poncho, his feathery red, yellow and black headdress billowing in the wind; in the foreground, a winsome Thai cowgirl on a bright red Harley jauntily tips her cowboy hat. I buy it for Bt100—a deal.

ust when I think vintage shopping can’t get any more fun, I discover a recent arrival just a stone’s throw from Chatuchak: the Train Market, or Talaat Rot Fai, also known among Thais as the “Hipster Market,” or Talaat Dek Naew. Sited between an abandoned train carriage and a former warehouse populated with drool-worthy retro items—pendant sputnik chrome lamps; sofas fashioned from classic-car spoilers—the outdoor market kicks off at 7 p.m. and is said to draw some of Bangkok’s most flamboyantly stylish characters. As if on cue, Jote and Boy, retro Bangkok couple extraordinaire, roll up in a 1972 Cadillac Fleetwood, all metallic aqua and ivory paint along its six-meter-long body.

Jote dons vintage 1950’s-style white frames, a navy cherryprint mini-dress and kitten heels: she’s part Vargas Girls, part Bettie Page pinup, by way of Dita Von Teese. Boy is all vintage Ray-Bans and waxed crooner hair, with a cut-off vest embellished with roses and skulls; his hero is Johnny Cash.

Jote sells fabulous vintage clothes at a bargain—“I want everyone to love vintage so I keep prices low,” she says—and Boy runs a pop-up bar selling SheeVa Wop, a light rum, to a rockabilly soundtrack highlighting Hank Williams (SheeVa Wop’s slogan: Rich in Taste, Classic in Style—“like us,” Boy quips). They invite me to a vintage car event in Bang Saen the following week, but sadly I have to decline.

I do make it to Paradise Bangkok’s second anniversary bash at indie bar WTF, where a giant disco ball made up of blank CD’s hangs above a crowd that moves giddily, gleefully, to old Thai songs. At one point, the people around me start singing along to the music. The past has never sounded so good. ✚

GUIDE TO retro bangkok SHOP Baan Ekamai This retail complex’s funky retro vibe comes from creative, vintage-inclined tenants such as ZudRangMa Records (zudrangmarecords.com), Cocue Basics (cocuebasics.tumblr.com) and Him&Her, which stocks slick hipster threads, both new and secondhand. Come after 2 p.m.

Soi Chamchan, Ekamai 21 or Thonglor 20, Sukhumvit Rd.

coordinated couples. Corner of Ratchada and Lad Phrao Rds.; Saturdays only, 7 p.m.–midnight.

Tuba 2 Smart 1950’s and 1960’s furniture gallery. 34 Ekamai 21, Sukhumvit Rd.; 66-2/711-5500.

Rod’s Antiques Outstanding retro vehicle, furniture and homeware emporium at Talaat Rot Fai, open in the daytime. Bar next door. rodsantique.com; 66-8/797-8057.

Papaya Tuba’s sprawling sister warehouse brims with vintage furniture and audiophile esoterica.

306/1 Lad Phrao Soi 55/2, Lad Phrao Rd.; 66-2/933-0661.

Train Market (Talaat Rot Fai) A nexus of vintage cool after dark, with 1950’s to 1980’s fashions, antique toys and Polaroid cameras in mint condition. Also known as Talaat Dek Naew, or the “Hipster Market. Take a taxi from Kamphaeng Phet MRT station, exit 3; weekends only, from 7 p.m.

Y50 Midcentury furniture with a Scandinavian slant. 24 Ekamai Soi 21, Sukhumvit Rd.; 66-2/711-5629.

Chatuchak Weekend Market The mother of all markets has a welltrammeled retro section. Mo Chit Skytrain station or Chatuchak MRT station; weekends only, 9 a.m.–6 p.m.

Ratchada Night Bazaar Heaving secondhand night market drawing Bangkok’s fashion mavens; look out for the chronologically

Talaat Wang Lang Vintage clothes and accessories in a fleamarket environment. Wang Lang, behind Siraraj Pier; open daily.

106 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

EAT & DRINK Shades of Retro Free popcorn and creative clientele. 522/3 Soi Thonglor, between Sois 16 and 18, down Thararom 2; 66-8/1824-8011; drinks for two Bt300.

your seat by a dapper yellowjacketed usher. Soi 3, Siam Square, Rama 1 Rd.; 66-2/252-6498.

Tuba Sample the tom yam fried rice amid old grandfather clocks and life-size superhero figures (hello, Yoda). 34 Ekamai 21, Sukhumvit Rd.; 63-2/711-5500; dinner and drinks for two Bt800.

STAY The Atlanta Hotel The lobby alone makes this 1950’s gem worth a stay; the budget prices are a plus. Accessible only to room guests who book in advance. 78 Soi 2, Sukhumvit Rd.; 66-2/252-6069; theatlantahotel bangkok.com; air-conditioned doubles from Bt800.

Pathé Ladprao Cheerful retro café with a swinging sixties soundtrack that streams from a record player.

1130/4-7 Phaholyothin Rd.; 66-2/ 938-4995; dinner for two Bt400.

DO Paradise Bangkok Bi-monthly Thai music night, showcasing rare vintage mor lam, luk thung and luk khrung. Keep an eye on zudrangmarecords.com for upcoming events.

Lido Cinema Catch a new or arthouse flick and be shown to

Scala Cinema Soi 1, Siam Square, Rama 1 Rd.; 66-2/251-2861.

LISTEN The Sound of Siam: Leftfield Luk Thung, Jazz and Mo Lam from Thailand 1964–1975 A recent release from Soundway Records (2010); soundwayrecords.com.

Thai? Dai!: The Heavier Side of the Lukthung Underground Finders Keepers (2009); finderskeepersrecords.com.

Shades of Retro, an after-hours retro hangout where everything is for sale.

I WITNESS A FASHIONISTA SCRUM OVER A RACK FILLED WITH VINTAGE DRESSES travelandleisureasia.com | march 2011 111

Jewel ~of~

India

Hyderabad is a city of mythic colonial glamour and fantastic long-lost wealth, but, as Marie Brenner discovers, it is also a high-tech boomtown with new hotels and renovated palaces, a place where history continues to be made.

Photographed by Andrea Fazzari

Charminar, or the Mosque of the Four Minarets, in Hyderabad, the capital of the south-central state of Andhra Pradesh. Opposite: A terrace view from the newly opened Taj Falaknuma Palace, set 610 meters above the city.

The draw of Hyderabad is its astonishing backstory, which can make you feel at times as if you are in India’s Oz. How else to explain the peculiar magic of this city deep in south-central India?

Part Brigadoon and part futuristic disney, it pulls you immediately into its hallucinatory past.

On a balmy night in November, down the narrow lanes of the old city, we drive through the pearl bazaar and the throng of auto rick­shaws near the Charminar, the grand arch and mosque that is the central artery of Hyderabad. Suddenly, I see goats. Thousands of goats. A wall of goats. Children carrying goats on the backs of bicycles, goats in rickshaws being held by young boys in white kurtas and caps. Goats with horns painted pink and yellow, wear­ing bells. Goats being led toward festive striped tents. Music! “Is this a goat festival?” I ask my guide. “Madam, no! This is the night before Eid al-Adha—a most holy day on the Muslim cal­endar. Tonight, there are prayers, tomorrow, they will be halal.” The quick and holy execution of ritual slaughter continues in Hyderabad as if its storied former ruler, the nizam, continued to hide his jewels in the engines of his rusty Rolls-Royces in his 60-car garage. I look out the window only to see clusters of women in hijabs gliding slowly through the pearl souk.

Hyderabad still has the me­dieval grace of the Persian and Urdu courts. As we drive into the Chowmahalla Palace complex, I hear an astonishing cas­cade of goat brays, horns and the call to prayer.

Once the finest royal residence in the country, this palace in the old city was a derelict Xanadu for decades. Inside, a frail older man in a black jinah makes his regal way through a bejeweled audience in his former childhood home. A whisper goes through the crowd. “It’s the nizam! The nizam!” Sudden110 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

ly, there is a cas­cade of royal salaams, an elaborate davening as Hyderabad’s elite and guests flown in by the Taj hotel company for the grand open­ing of its newly renovated property, the Taj Falaknuma Palace, raise their hands toward their faces, bow their heads, and pay tribute to the prince who managed to lose what was not so long ago the largest fortune in the world. Gazing at the group gathered, the nizam, Mukarram Jah, managed to look both terrified and furious, as if he were none too happy to be on display along with the newly reupholstered sofas and refurbished chandeliers from his grandfather’s day. One of his sons, a friendly young Australian real estate man, spent some minutes looking for the nizam’s van­ished medications. “Has anyone seen my father’s pills?” he asked me. “He loses everything.”

Was he trying for a double entendre? Indeed, the nizam had managed to squander most of what was left of his meager inheritance. When he fled these now-restored palaces to tend a sheep station in the Australian bush, he left behind a legacy of titles: His Exalted Highness, the Regulator of the Realm, the Rustam of the Age, the Aristotle of the Times, the Victor in Battles, the Leader of Armies.

Here, in the old city, was the Islamic center of India, the center of Deccan arts and culture, known for its gracious court manners and such lavish jewels as the Jacob diamond, which the previous nizam once used as a simple paperweight on his desk. »

living history

Clockwise from top left: A woman at a Hindu festival in Hyderabad; historian Sattar Ji at the Taj Falaknuma Palace hotel; an old nizam building; the nizamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s study at the hotel. Opposite: The Taj Falaknuma Palace hotel, in Hyderabad.

The Lobby Lounge at the Park, Hyderabad. Opposite: Biryani, a local specialty, at Paradise Restaurant, in central Hyderabad.

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travelandleisureasia.com | february 2011 111

I

first came to Hyderabad by accident. Stuck in Goa last year with bad weather and a newly arrived throng of beefy tourists from the Ukraine at our hotel, I came across a tattered copy of The Last Nizam, Australian journalist John Zubrzycki’s rivet­ing history of the court. The city was only a two-hour flight away. The next day, I landed in one of the most automated airports in the world and drove past ugly quarries of dusty granite, passing women walking on the road wearing hijabs and herding goats. Although vast fortunes were made here in the granite and cement industries, Hyderabad at first appeared grimy and run-down. There were travel alerts about riots by a local separat­ist movement. Passing the Tata Motors showrooms I saw bro­ken windows. Time to eat: my first dinner was at the bustling Paradise Restaurant, a shrine to Hyderabad’s prized cuisine, biryani. In a long room filled with noisy families, I shared a table with two young software engineers diving into mounds of the pil­lowy rice-and-meat mix. “Everyone is working too hard now in India,” one told me. “What has happened to our way of life?”

Hyderabad has become a hub of India’s high-tech boom; Google’s India headquarters is in what’s known as Cyberabad, just a short drive away. Microsoft, Oracle, Infosys and

Dell are also here, and Facebook chose the city for its first office in India. Communications guru Suhel Seth always comes to test-market his campaigns in hitec (Hyderabad Information Technology Engineering Consulting) City, Cyberabad’s official name. At night, sleek geeks meet at the gleaming bar of the Park, Hydera­bad, a new hotel with a terrace that overlooks the swampy lake in the center of town.

That lagoon reflects the paradox of Hyderabad and of the vast state of Andhra Pradesh. The lake divides the city and has a Muslim name, Hussain Sagar—sagar meaning ocean in Hindi. In the center of the lake there is an island with a towering statue of Buddha. Northeast of the lake is Hyderabad’s twin city, Secunderabad, an oasis of green space and low yellow buildings used by the British military during colonial days. The clubs and the golf courses that used to ban Indians are now just as exclusive and reserved for Hyderabad’s professional elite. I stopped to see a little-known building marked the retreat and discovered an elegant bungalow where Win­ston Churchill stayed when he was posted to the east. On the way back, I ate a quick dosa at Tibbs Frankie, a new chain of stands that you find in places where India’s surging upper-mid­dle class lives, such as nearby Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills.

Not that long ago, the Hyderabad court threatened the cre­ation of the new nation. Descended from the caliphate of Islam, the seventh nizam (the current nizam’s grandfather) made his fortune from the region’s minerals and diamonds— and the tributes paid by people who requested an audi­ence with him. One of the more compelling, possibly apoc­ryphal, stories was that the jewels—and hundreds of millions of rupees—were kept unattended and unlocked in the basements of the Chowmahalla Palace. The cash was hidden in newspapers. When at last the storerooms were opened, rats had nibbled their way through Rs1.36 billion or so.

I

was staying at the Taj Banjara, and one day, killing time, I sorted through a stack of dusty curios in a shop off the lobby. “I’m Babu’s broth­er,” the manager said, with the snobbery of old Hyderabad and the assumption that I would know who “Babu” was—or care. I spotted an al­bum that looked like a prop from The Jewel in the Crown. Dark and faded, the front was stamped in white: mixed bag 26 september 27 to june 1937. Inside was a sepia world of old Hyderabad—nawabs posed in their turbans, playing tennis. “Can you tell me the history of this?”

I asked. An hour later I was still in the shop. Babu, his »

We considered empty walnut cabinets and the pulley elevator with just a flashlight. the surrounding rooms had silver and gold tributes. the nizam was rumored to have never worn the same outfit or pair of shoes twice

out and about

From left: Rich details at the Taj Falaknuma Palace; The Sri Venkateswara Temple, made of white Rajasthani marble.

Opposite: A pearl market near Charminar.

travelandleisureasia.com | february 2011 105

size of jawbreakers. Famously ascetic, he lived in one room in the vast complex and served visitors a single tea biscuit, yet he donated a squad of fighter planes to the war effort during World War I, for which a grateful England gave him the title His Exalted Highness. When his then-34-year-old grandson came back to Hyderabad in 1967 to take over the title, he discovered a snake pit of in­trigue. His dying grandfather was con­vinced that he would be poisoned. Jah shared the belief and pitched a tent on the palace grounds. Soon after, he dis­covered the nizam’s treasures—emeralds and rubies and parrots made of enormous Golconda diamonds. All of them were covered in dust (one of the nizam’s most stirring beliefs was that dust protected his riches from theft). There were family albums and warehouses of ceremonial coats with solid-gold threads. Scheming financial advisers managed to plunder most of the estate. After years of court fights, the government of India whirled in and took the gems for a national mu­seum. Jah was paid Rs1.81 billion—a frac­tion of the stones’ worth. And that money was frozen by litigation.

Jah then fled to Australia to ride around on tractors most days. He eventually wound up in a small apart­ment in Turkey.

Ramoji Rao, founder of Ramoji Film City.

brother in­sisted, was a dealer who had been brought in by the nizam to unload his basements of storied treasures. I bought the album to discover that I had indeed found an authentic royal book—but it had belonged to a lesser heir.

The next day, Babu himself offered to take me on a brief tour of the old city. Our first stop was not the massive Salar Jung museum, mentioned in the guidebooks, but the small­er H.E.H. the Nizam’s Museum, the home of the sixth nizam, who ruled from 1869 to 1911. I followed Babu through a de­caying garden that fronted a school. We discovered the run-down former ser­vants’ quarters, kept only half lit and overseen by what ap­peared to be a single geriatric attendant.

We stepped into a dingy but vast hall that once served as an enormous closet. Then the lights went out. We considered the 150 empty walnut cabinets and the pulley elevator with just a flashlight. The surrounding rooms had solid silver and gold tributes from his silver jubilee. This nizam was rumored to have never worn the same outfit or pair of shoes twice.

The royal ruler had multiple palaces, hundreds of hectares, 200 wives, 14,000 legal dependents and a kingdom half the size of France supported in part by the diamonds that came from the nearby Golconda re­serve. With 20 million Hindus and 3 million Muslims in his territory, the canny nizam wanted a separate state when India became independent and had a militia to back him up. If you half closed your eyes in the city, you could imagine the current nizam’s grandfa­ther still shuffling around the palace, hoarding a secret treasure of priceless diamonds, rubies and pearls the 116 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

H

yderabad has long vexed the rest of India. There is the mat­ter of the language— Telugu—which most people outside India have never heard of but that is spoken here by a population larger than the Britain’s.

The writer David Shulman, an expert on Indian languages, describes Telugu’s mesmerizing musicality as having more syllables per second than almost any other spoken language.

(Urdu is anoth­er major language in Hyderabad.)

I was on my way to Ramoji Film City, the largest moviemaking facility in the world, a good hour from town. Tollywood is almost as huge a movie industry as Bollywood, yet the films and TV shows it cranks out each year are rarely shown outside the state. The day we went to Ramoji, the studio had been virtually shut down by the news on the front pages. The star of the cur­rent epic hit had spoken out against the separatist movement. Riots had erupt­ed at some theaters.

We drove up a three-kilometer hill and discovered yet another Ruritania. Soundstages, Indian vil­lages and train stations and Ramoji’s Tuileries were eerily empty. I asked to meet the reclusive billionaire, Ramoji Rao, who is South India’s Rupert Mur­doch and controls the largest Telugu newspaper and all the screens—whether they be televi­sion and film—and was amazed when he agreed. Taken by golf cart to his cor­porate headquarters, I found Rao in an office to rival that of Louis B. Mayer. I was strictly warned to stay off politics. When I walked into his office, Rao, who made one fortune from the manufac­ture of Priya brand chutneys and other prepared foods, stared gloomily into a wall of TV’s, each screen featuring a differ­ent broadcast. He wore a white shirt and spoke in a low tone. Rao could not wait to plunge into the day’s news. “The separatists are ruining our

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business!” For the next hour I was treated to an inside-India barrage of political in­trigue that few outsiders could ever hope to comprehend.

After leaving Ramoji, I stopped at the Golconda Fort, a visit necessary to under­stand Hyderabad’s grandiose xenopho­bia. Visitors enter the imposing fort through a dusty warren of streets and arrive at its massive ram­parts and stone walls. In the 17th cen­tury, the citadel was able to stave off the Moghul armies for months. The fort towers over a granite hill and is pro­tected by massive gates with iron spikes to obstruct war elephants.

A short drive away is the nizam’s el­egant Falaknuma Palace, on its own granite hill to the south of the city. The more than decade-long Taj hotel reno­vation project was the dream of the nizam’s former wife, Turkish socialite Princess Esra. As steely and determined as she is visionary, the princess oversaw every detail with autocratic zeal—reportedly, hundreds of carpets were rejected un­til she was sure that she had the correct color—meticulously restoring the neo-Palladian whimsy.

In November, during the grand opening, Hyderabad was awash in nizam nostalgia. I was greeted by a man in an elegant jacket who handed me his card. Prabhakar Mahindrakar, the Taj Falaknuma Palace’s historian, it said. He had been hired decades ear­lier by the Indian government as a se­curity guard. “It was my dream to be here,” he said. All that weekend, he conducted tours for Bo Derek and Prin­cess Michael of Kent, among many oth­ers, of the Falaknuma’s wonders. The library has now been restocked with the nizam’s nearly 6,000 rare books and manuscripts. Sitting at a desk now used by guests in what was the nizam’s office, I reached for a sheet of stationery that said falaknuma castle. Mahindrakar gasped. “That is the nizam’s original letterhead!” he said. From the desk, I could see out to the front entrance where the nizam’s original carriage galloped up the hills, passing gardens and gatehouses. That carriage had been reconstructed from parts in the storage rooms for a lavish weekend of lunches, dinners and rides. Over and over again, Mahindrakar repeated: “Falaknuma. It means ‘mirror in the sky.’ ” I looked out to the courtyard to see the nizam’s gazebo, where Princess Esra greeted guests. The call to prayer suddenly blared from below. It was dusk, and the lights of the old city glowed in the pink sky. ✚

india Bangladesh Mumbai Hyderabad Andhra pradesh

Arabian Sea

Bay of Bengal

Bangalore Sri Lanka 0

365 km

GUIDE TO Hyderabad Hyderabad is a two-hour flight from New Delhi or a one-hour flight from Bangalore and Mumbai. Air India offers direct flights to Hyderabad from Dubai.

GUIDE T+L A-List agent Ellison Poe (epoe@poetravel.com) organizes tours of the city’s cultural sites.

STAY Park, Hyderabad 22 Raj Bhawan Rd., Somajiguda; 91-40/23456789; theparkhotels.com; doubles from US$250.

GREAT VALUE Taj Banjara Rd.

No. 1, Banjara Hills; 91-40/ 66669999; doubles from US$195.

Taj Falaknuma Palace Engine Bowli, Falaknuma; 91-40/24388888; doubles from US$510.

Bhawan Rd., Somajiguda; 9140/2345- 6789; dinner for two Rs3,400.

Paradise Restaurant Paradise Circle, M.G. Rd., Secunderabad; 91-40/2784- 3115; dinner for two Rs770.

Tibbs Frankie 38 Rd. No. 3, Banjara Hills; no phone.

SEE AND DO Chowmahalla Palace Khilwat, 20-4-236, Motigalli; 91-40/24522032; chowmahalla.com.

Golconda Fort Located 11 kilometers west of Hyderabad.

H.E.H. the Nizam’s Museum Near Purani Haveli, Old City; 91-40/ 2452-1029.

Ramoji Film City 91-84/15246555; ramojifilmcity.com.

GREAT VALUE Taj Krishna Rd. No. 1, Banjara Hills, 91-40/66662323; doubles from US$217.

Salar Jung Museum Afzalgunj; 91-40/2457-6443; salarjungmuseum.in.

EAT Aish The new Indian restaurant at the Park hotel outfitted by fashion designer Tarun Tahiliani. 22 Raj

READ The Last Nizam Australian journalist John Zubrzycki’s riveting history of the court.

travelandleisureasia.com | march 2011 117

Miami With the opening of Frank Gehry’s New World Symphony Building, the magic city is ready for its next act.

Tom Austin takes a tour of Miami’s ever-evolving neighborhoods.

Photographed by Noe Dewitt

Poolside at Soho Beach House, in Miami Beach. Opposite: Inside Frank Gehry’s New World Center, in the Art Deco district.

Modern

hroughout the late 1980’s and early 90’s, I worked as a nightlife columnist for the alternative newspaper Miami New Times and kept a small office on Lincoln Road, the pedestrian mall that bisects the northern stretches of South Beach. In the 60’s, the vibe of Lincoln Road— designed by the late Morris Lapidus of Fontainebleau and Eden Roc fame—was Mad Men South, but the glamour days were long gone by the 80’s: retirees with radioactive tans shuffled past bedrag­gled drag queens and downtrodden shops. But there were interludes of grace: I’d start the day watching the rehearsals of the Miami City Ballet, in an old windowed storefront (their original studios are now a Victoria’s Secret store). In the evenings, the New World Symphony, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, would broadcast its concerts live on the street over a terminally low-tech sound system.

Thirty years later, Lincoln Road has emerged at the fore­front of Miami’s cultural revolution, thanks to Frank Gehry’s just-opened New World Center performing arts venue. An ambitious stab at the civic transcendence of blockbuster architecture, the building is a testament to the city’s ability to reinvent itself after years of shaky real estate develop­ments. The project is relatively modest in comparison to Gehry’s other work—his trademark geological formations are contained within a partly-glass-walled rectangular box. In all respects, the Gehry campus is intended to be used as an everyday social arena, not simply gaped at. Visitors to the adjacent 1-hectare park, designed by the renowned Dutch firm West 8, can watch rehearsals and symphony patrons through a six-story glass curtain wall, as well as concert broadcasts and video-art murals on a 650-square-meter pro­jection wall. As Gehry explains, “The building is meant »

Local Flavors Clockwise from top

left: Michelle Bernstein, the chef at Sra. Martinez; the pool at the JW Marriott Marquis Miami; on the street in Miami’s Design District; co-owner Arel Ramos at his shop, Stripe Vintage Modern; the Rotunda at Collins Park; inside Bal Harbour Shops; grilled octopus from Cecconi’s, at the Soho Beach House; hitting South Beach.

120 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

in all respects, frank gehryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new world center is intended to be used as an everyday social arena, not simply gaped at

south pointe incorporates a series of serpentine trails that wind through dune grasses

to be a seduction, a way to lure people in by blurring the dis­tinction between the private and public realms.”

In the same manner that the fight to preserve South Beach’s Art Deco district 40 years ago jump-started the first resurrection of Miami, the campus—and, of course, such events as Art Basel Miami Beach—is helping the city establish itself as a major destination on the global cultural map.

Just north of Gehry’s complex, the Collins Park arts district is adding to South Beach’s architectural cachet by creating a thoughtfully landscaped domain for sculptural installations.

“Miami has little green space, but South Beach is leading the way with intelligently designed public parks,” says JeanFrançois Lejeune, an urban historian and professor of architecture at the University of Miami. Bor­dered on the north by the Arquitectonica-designed studios of the Miami City Ballet, the park features an open expanse of lawn studded with sculptures that stretch from the Bass Museum of Art to the beach. From there, it’s a 10-minute bike ride along the newly extended boardwalk to South Pointe Park, a 7.7-hectare former wasteland at the southern tip of Miami Beach that’s been transformed by Hargreaves Associates, the team behind the planned 2012 Olympic parklands, in East London. South Pointe incorporates a series of serpentine trails that wind through dune grasses to a waterfront promenade lined with 18 pylons that emit colored LED light.

These projects come on the heels of significant develop­ ment across the city. In mid–Miami Beach, the top-to-bottom billion-dollar renovation of the Fontainebleau kicked off the area’s rebirth two years ago; now there’s the Soho Beach House next door. “We wanted to be outside the madness, but close enough to dip in easily,” says Nick Jones, owner of the newest outpost of the London-based boutique hotel and so­cial club. To build the property, local architect and writer Allan Shulman joined the 1941 Roy France–designed Sovereign Hotel with a slim new Modernist tower. “Allan is very clever in the way he manages to infuse Art Deco and contemporary styles,” Jones says. The public spaces are de­signed by London-based Martin Brudnizki and include heavy ye-oldeEnglish-club leather chairs, along with a 150-plus-piece contemporary art collection curated by Francesca Gavin.

Nowhere is the hotel boom more acute than in downtown Miami. In the 1980’s, the area was dominated by the illumi­ nated I. M. Pei tower immortalized on TV’s Miami Vice: the skyline then had a certain less-is-more elegance. Now it looks like a kid with too many teeth. It’s way too overbuilt, but the cheaper rents and low condo prices are starting to lure the bold and hardy. »

Miami heat From top: Strolling through

South Pointe Park; the view from the JW Marriott Marquis Miami. Opposite: Morning at Wynwood Kitchen & Bar.

122 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

travelandleisureasia.com | february 2011 111

overlooking biscayne bay is a 12-hectare architectural all-star complex slated to open in 2013 that will include the new building for the miami art museum Early hotel settlers included Mandarin Oriental and Four Seasons and the boom was amped up by the arrival of the Kelly Wearstler–designed Viceroy in 2009. Downtown’s latest addi­tion is the JW Marriott Marquis Miami, situated within a 41-story tower in the Met­ropolitan Miami development. The build­ing also holds the boutique Hotel Beaux Arts Miami, the debut of Marriott’s new luxury brand. There’s also the new 67-story Marquis Residences, which houses the hotel Tempo Miami, a RockResort and Kimpton’s Epic Hotel, overlooking the Brickell Avenue financial district, a landscape that resembles the unholy spawn of a three-way between Hong Kong, Manhattan and Las Vegas.

Of course, as with any hotel boom in a major American city, noteworthy chefs are never far behind. After years of flirting with South Beach, Daniel Boulud chose downtown as the setting for his first Miami restaurant. “All my restaurants require a leap of faith,“ he says. “Downtown has fewer velvet ropes than South Beach, but has a very cultivated clientele.”

His DB Bistro Moderne, designed by Yabu Pushelberg, is located on the first floor of the new JW Marriott. Other acclaimed restaurants include Rainer Becker’s Japaneseinspired Zuma, which has sister operations in Hong Kong and Dubai, and Eos, the brainchild of Donatella Arpaia and Michael Psilakis.

Accompanying downtown’s hotel explosion is perhaps the city’s most ambitious project. Overlooking Biscayne Bay is the vast fallow ground of Museum Park, a 12-hectare architec­ tural all-star complex slated to open in 2013 that will incor­ porate Herzog & de Meuron’s new building for the Miami Art Museum. Inside, more than 9,290 square meters will be dedicated to contemporary art. This is the project that may transform downtown all over again.

124 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

Smaller Miami communities are also being reenergized.

For years, Bal Harbour village was primarily known for its luxury shopping and not much else. Now, One Bal Harbour Resort & Spa, which includes a new beach club designed by Miami-based Hernan Arriaga, hosts free movie screenings on the beach, yoga classes and concerts by indie bands such as Surfer Blood. Last year, the national Salon de Louis Vuitton was launched at the Bal Harbour Shops with an exhibition by Miami-born artist Teresita Fernandez. The mall has upped the culture quotient even further with the Bal Harbour Art Nights, as well as free performances by groups including the Overtown Music Project, Miami City Ballet and YoungArts, the core program of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts.

In the sleek Design District, high-end boutiques including Tomas Maier’s eclec­tic boutique and 4141 Design, the first Florida showroom to feature Tom Dixon (and other designers) as well as innovative restaurants such as Michelle Bernstein’s Andalusian-inspired Sra. Martinez—have been joined by the new 2,790-square-meter de la Cruz space of contemporary art. It’s the latest in a series of museums that have been opened by eminent Miami collectors. Nearby Wynwood now has Wynwood Walls, a graffiti garden with a restaurant and bar created by Tony Goldman, an early South Beach pioneer who jumped from the bankable buzz of Art Deco to street art.

beachy colors From left: A Coppertone ad on Biscayne Boulevard; works by Ugo Rondinone and Rachel Harrison at the de la Cruz Collection of contemporary art in the Design District.

Heading north on Biscayne Boule­vard, visitors discover a historic district with row upon row of Miami Modern motels that unfurl like a ribbon of joy—all statues of cavorting sea nymphs and trapezoid forms resembling 1955 Cadillac fins, and bearing names like the South Pacific and Seven Seas.

Little Haiti—centered around the whimsical Caribbean Marketplace designed by Haitian archi­tect Charles Harrison Pawley in 1990—is a few blocks west, and has positioned itself as a new frontier for contemporary art: the atmospheric landscape is filled with artists’ studios and fantastic street

murals by Serge Toussaint. The new Little Haiti Cultural Center also show­cases cutting-edge art exhibitions and free concerts. Across town, in the neon wonderland of Eighth Street, the heart of Little Havana, music and art take center stage: on the last Friday night of every month, the Viernes Culturales street party includes late-night gallery openings, local salsa bands and Afro-Cuban timba. Only here can you witness such a celebration of the city’s cultural heri­tage. It’s a party no traveler should miss. In a city known for reinventions, some­times the classics of Miami are just as alluring. ✚

GUIDE TO miami

One Bal Harbour Resort & Spa 10295 Collins Ave.; 1-305/4555459; oneluxuryhotels.com; doubles from US$400.

GREAT VALUE Riviera Hotel

2000 Liberty Ave.; 1-305/5387444; rivierahotelsouthbeach. com; doubles from US$219.

Soho Beach House 4385 Collins Ave.; 1-786/507-7900; sohobeachhouse.com; doubles from US$495.

Standard Spa 40 Island Ave.; 1-305/673-1717; standardhotels. com; doubles from US$289.

Tempo Miami, a Rock Resort 1100 Biscayne Blvd.; 1-720/5245096; rockresorts.com; doubles from US$329.

W South Beach Hotel & Residences 2201 Collins Ave.; 1-305/938-3000; whotels.com; doubles from US$559.

EAT Amuse Restaurant & Lounge 1100 Biscayne Blvd.; 1-786/3690300; dinner for two US$75.

Eden South Beach 210 23rd St.; 1-305/397-8760; dinner for two US$110.

Eos Restaurant 485 Brickell Ave.; 1-305/503-0373; dinner for two US$120.

Tallahassee FLORIDA Gulf of Mexico

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Sra. Martinez 4000 N.E. Second Ave.; 1-305/573-5474; dinner for two US$100.

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ShopBal Harbour Shops 9700 Collins Ave.; 1-305/866-0311; balharbourshops.com.

Stripe Vintage Modern 799 N.E. 125th St.; 1-305/893-8085.

Dynamo Museum Shop 1001 Washington Ave.; 1-305/5352680; wolfsonian.org.

SEE AND DO De la Cruz Collection Contemporary Art Space 23 N.E. 41st St.; 1-305/576-6112; delacruzcollection.org.

va rd

Bal Harbour

1 95

A1A

B i s c ay n e Biscayne B ay Bay

LITTLE HAITI

MIAMI design district

iR

i ve

r Miami International

Miami Beach MIAMI BEACH

wynwood South Beach

OVERTOWN LITTLE Bayfront HAVANA Park

Downtown

Flagl er Stree t

Calle Ocho LITTLE HAVANA

Zuma 270 Biscayne Blvd.

Way; 1-305/577-0277; dinner for two US$65.

A1A

1

LIBERTY CITY LITTLE HAITI

54th Stree t

Shake Shack 1111 Lincoln Rd.; 1-305/434-7787; lunch for two US$20.

B oule

North Miami

95

Mandolin Aegean Bistro 4312 N.E. Second Ave.; 1-305/5766066; dinner for two US$60.

Wynwood Kitchen & Bar 2550 N.W. Second Ave.; 1-305/722-8959; dinner for two US$75.

135 th Stre et

Georgia

ay n e

DB Bistro Moderne 255 Biscayne Blvd. Way; 1-305/421-8800; dinner for two US$85.

Miami Architecture by Allan T. Shulman, Randall C. Robinson Jr. and James F. Donnelly.

Collins Ave.

JW Marriott Marquis Miami 255 Biscayne Blvd. Way; 1-305/4218600; marriott.com; doubles from US$449.

Wynwood Walls N.W. Second Ave. at 25th St.; 1-305/531-4411; thewynwood walls.com.

Bi sc

944 Washington Ave.; 1-305/ 534-4069; thehotelchelsea.com; doubles from US$230.

Cecconi’s 4385 Collins Ave.; 1-786/507-7902; dinner for two US$110.

Biscayne Blvd.

GREAT VALUE Hotel Chelsea

New World Center READ 500 17th St.; 1-305/428-6748; Knoll: A Modernist Universe newworldcenter.com.

by Brian Lutz.

167 th Stre et

Atlantic Ocean

Hotel Beaux Arts Miami 255 Biscayne Blvd. Way; 1-305/421-8700; marriott.com; doubles from US$550.

Buena Vista Bistro 4582 N.E. Second Ave.; 1-305/456-5909; dinner for two US$40.

N.W. 27th. Ave.

STAY Epic, a Kimpton Hotel 270 Biscayne Blvd. Way; 1-305/424-5226; epichotel.com; doubles from US$345.

Coral Gables

SOUTH BEACH

1

��

Biscayne Bay

COCONUT coconut GROVE grove CORAL GABLES

N 5 miles 8 kilometers

Matheson Hammock N Park

Atlantic Ocean Crandon Park

KEY BISCAYNE Key Biscayne

0

2.4 km

travelandleisureasia.com | march 2011 125

douglas young’s

favorite place

local tips

LECH austria “Lech is a favo­­rite because it is where I go skiing. It is an incredibly charming and picturesque village with stunning mountains as backdrop.

The food is fantastic and the people very friendly.

Because it is quite expensive, it is free of crowds.

“My best memory of it was last year when I spent New Year’s Eve there. It was really a fairy-tale experience. The atmosphere was wonderful. The roads were closed for street parties and champagne was generously served. Fireworks exploded above our heads and we celebrated overnight.

“I’ve been going to Lech almost every year for the past 10 years. But I am also intrigued by places that I’ve not been to before, especially areas that are culturally rich and historic. I am fascinated by how different civilizations develop and I like places that are able to combine ancient traditions with state-of-the-art modern.”—christopher kucway Douglas Young is the founder of Goods of Desire, a Hong Kong–based design company that most recently has worked on commissions for Lane Crawford and the Hong Kong Art Fair.

126 march 2011 | travelandleisureasia.com

Hillside Address “If money is no object, stay at the Almhof Schneider (6764 Lech am Arlberg; 435583/3500-0; almhof.at; doubles from €280) for complete pampering. It’s not only ideally located for ski-in ski-out, but also close to the village center.”

Dine and Dash “The best restaurants for lunch on the piste tend to be small, family-run and slightly off the beaten track. Ask your hotel for recommendations and book in advance.”

Night Flights “A lot of people think it’s more time-efficient to travel to Japan than Europe for skiing. This is actually false economy.

Direct flights arrive in the early morning in Zurich, and Lech is only two hours away by car. There is really no travel time lost at all.

Japan requires traveling during the day, so a full day is lost.”

F RO M T OP l e ft : © B e n 1 8 5 | D r e a m s t i m e . c o m ; c o u r t e s y o f d o u gl a s y o u n g

The Austrian Alps near Lech. Below: Designer Douglas Young.

BEST WINE CELLAR “The Restaurant Hospiz Alm (6580 St. Christoph am Arlberg; 43-5446/3625; dinner for two €120), in nearby St. Christoph, has a legendary wine cellar with incredible 20-liter bottles of French first growths.”