SoutheaSt aSia
Romance is in the air
five eScapeS that aRe peRfect foR two
Real Macau
a weekend away from the casinos
February 2012
state of bliss
LuxuRy SpaS that cateR to coupLeS
rajasthan
Stylish camps in the desert
cambodia
SigHTS & SMellS of a naTion on THe Mend Singapore S$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
what you need to know about cruises TravelandLeisureAsia.com
C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
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The Balinese believe every home has a soul.
They are its heart.
ASIA’S BEST RESORT
2011 Conde Nast Traveller Readers’ Choice Awards
WORLD’S #1 SPA HOTEL
2010 Conde Nast Traveller Readers’ Choice Awards
ASIA’S LEADING LUXURY VILLA (AYANA VILLA) www.ayanaresort.com
2010 World Travel Awards
contents february 2012 volume 06 : issue 02
features 84 RetuRn to Cambodia thomas beller revisits a country transformed by its own shocking history. photographed by christopher wise. guide and map 93 94 a ClassiC ReboRn West Los Angeles’ 65-year-old Hotel Bel-Air has a new look that lands it in the 21st century. michael gross checks in. photographed by peden + munk.
c h r i sto p h e r w i s e
100 mysteRies of milan guy trebay looks behind the veneer to unearth Milan’s pleasures. photographed by dave lauridsen. guide and map 109
84
a Khmer wedding near siem reap.
110 aRgentina’s noRthwest Passage Around Salta, peter jon lindberg discovers spectacular landscapes, gaucho villages and sublime food and wine. photographed by david nicolas. guide 117
travelandleisureasia.com | february 2012 5
contents
february 2012 volume 06 : issue 02
t+l southeast asia romantic getaways / milan / cambodia / spas for couples / macau / saigon / cruises
SoutheaSt aSia
Romance is in the air
five eScapeS that aRe peRfect foR two
Real Macau
a weekend away from the casinos
February 2012
state of bliss LuxuRy SpaS that cateR to coupLeS
rajasthan
Stylish camps in the desert
cambodia
SigHTS & SMellS of a naTion on THe Mend
f e b ruary 2 012
Singapore S$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
what you need to know about cruises TravelandLeisureAsia.com
02Feb 2012 Cover FINALV3.indd 1
11/01/2012 17:22
On the cOver
spa naka at the naka island, a luxury collection resort & spa Phuket. Photographed by brent t. madison. model: daojai tanommuang. styling by tawn chatchavalvong. make-up & Hair by albert schippers. assistant: stacy nicole thomas.
26 Asia’s hottest spas and restaurants, how to choose a luxury villa and much more.
insider
33
33 CheCK-in Forget roughing it. Rajasthan’s luxe campsites offer creature comforts, stylish design and encounters with the great outdoors. by tanvi chheda 36 neighboRhood Tai Hang, a laid-back corner of Hong Kong, is home to hip cafés and boutiques. by christopher dewolf 38 sPas Solo pampering options aside, these luxury spas offer therapies for couples to unwind together. by catharine nicol 42 wellness On Bali, traditional healers are now a big draw. jen lin-liu joins the throng of seekers and is intrigued by the results.
36 6 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
42
44 Room RePoRt For a beachside escape with a bit of culture, head to the Ana Mandara in Hue. by lara day
f r o m to p : c o u r t e s y o f c h h at r a s a g a r ; c h r i s to p h e r d e w o l f ; i l l u s t r at i o n b y wa s i n e e c h a n ta k o r n
newsflash
contents
february 2012 volume 06 : issue 02
79 55
stylish
48
55 iCon In Cambodia, a new line of accessories combines traditional technique with style and functionality. by naomi lindt 56 shoPPing What makes the perfect souvenir? If you ask lynn yaeger, vintage jewelry. 58 sPotlight Prabal Gurung is New York’s fashion darling, but when he needs to reconnect with himself, Nepal is his destination of choice. by mahima shukla
journal
71 8 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
71 food Sure, streetside noodle stalls still dot Saigon's sidewalks, but naomi lindt discovers a whole other world of dining options, some of which will surprise you and your tastebuds. photographed by christopher wise
76 tRends When reality television hits the road, so do the most avid viewers around the world—in large numbers. chris norris looks at the good, the bad and the ugly of reality shows as 21st-century travel guides. With reporting by nikki goldstein 79 getaways You may think that Macau is only for gamblers, but hana r. alberts will wager that you’ll find plenty to like in the island’s architecture, art, dining and shopping. photographed by david hartung
departments 10
in this issue
12
editoR’s note
16
ContRibutoRs
20 mail 22 best deals 24 asK t+l 61
stRategies
66 digital tRaveleR 68 smaRt tRaveleR 118 last looK
c lo c kw i s e f r o m to p l e f t: co u rt e sy o f p u s h p u l l ; d av i d h a r t u n g ; c h r i s t o p h e r w i s e ; c o u r t e s y o f w h i t e d e s e r t
48 RomantiC getaways Choose your getaway for two— whether it's an intimate nook high up in the trees or a wilderness camp at the end of the earth. by lindsey olander and kathryn o’shea-evans
in this issue
milan 100 los angeles 94 Cambodia 84
Rajasthan 33 bali 30, 42
argentina 110
trIp IDeAS
DeStInAtIOnS SOutheASt ASIA bali 30, 42 bangkok 30 boracay 38 burma 64 Cambodia 55, 84 Chiang rai 38 Hong Kong 30, 36 Hue, vietnam 44 indonesia 22 Java 27 laos 22 macau 26, 79 malaysia 64 Philippines 27 saigon 71 samui 38 siem reap 118 singapore 30 thailand 22, 27, 40 vietnam 64
AuStrAlIA, new ZeAlAnD AnD the pAcIfIc australia 28 eurOpe milan 100 Paris 48 Positano 50 the AMerIcAS argentina 110 elkhorn, Wisconsin 51 los angeles 94 AfrIcA AnD the MIDDle eASt fez, morocco 49
adventure
33, 52
arts and culture
79
beaches
44
books
27, 28
city
36, 80, 100
fashion
28, 55, 56, 58
food
30, 71
Hotels + resorts
38, 44, 48, 94
romance
22, 38, 48
spas
26, 38
travel tips
66
Wellness
42, 68
AntArctIcA antarctica 52
featured destination
Milan
if you find yourself in milan over the weekend of march 24-25, you’ll have a once-a-year opportunity to visit a number of the city's historic buildings that are normally closed to the public, including the 1930’s-era santa barbara barracks. thank the fondo ambiente italiano, italy’s national trust, which sponsors the Giornata fai di Primavera (fai spring day). (for more on milan, see page 100).
10 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
d av e l a u r i d s e n ( 3 )
travel tip
ASIA China 22, 26, 40, 65 india 65
maldives 26, 38 nepal 58 rajasthan 33
editor’s note where to find me )) chrisk@mediatransasia.com
on our radar
One of the perks of living in Southeast A s i a i s t h e r e g i o n ’s w e a lt h o f s pa s. T h e r e a r e f e w t h i n g s t h at m e a s u r e u p t o a g o o d massage after a strenuous workout or a stressful week, yet when it comes to describing my own state of bliss while I’m under the thumb, there are others better qualified to put pen to paper. Words tend to fail me; sighs and moans hold sway. At times like this, we call in a writer like Catharine Nicol, a veteran when it comes to the joys of a good massage and at recognizing the best possible pampering. To coincide with Valentine’s Day this month, her story on escapes for couples (“Treatments for Two,” page 38) should equip you with enough of an argument to coax your better half to take a spa break. In a similar vein, Jen Lin-Liu is energized by the traditional healers she encounters (“Bali’s Balian,” page 42) at one of her favorite Indonesian getaways. Food is another favorite topic that requires a keen sense of detail: we all love to eat our way around Southeast Asia, but critiqueing restaurants is an art form. Naomi Lindt is one of several regular contributors whose love of dining is apparent in her writing about the
region’s rich cuisine. In “Sated in Saigon” (page 71), Lindt ventures into the city’s changing and flavorful restaurant scene to uncover its newest and best tables, whether in a renovated warehouse, down a narrow street or at a posh new address. Not all the romance of travel is as specific as a good meal or memorable massage. Often, it’s simply a place that gets the heart beating faster. That’s definitely the case for Thomas Beller this month in “Return to Cambodia” (page 84), a country he revisits less than a generation after reporting on the nation’s grisly history. Today, he finds Cambodia full of energy and enterprise as it deals with its recent past; a country that, while greatly changed from his first visit, is still finding its way in the modern world. Closing out this issue, Aaron Joel Santos offers his take on a popular stop in Cambodia, the Angkor-era ruins (“Last Look,” page 118), and the concerns it faces. It’s yet another place that leaves me speechless.— chr istop her ku cway
worLd'S BeSt Don’t forget to vote for your favorite hotels and resorts in our annual World’s Best Awards at www. tLworldsBest.com/ intl until March 31. PremiUm SeAtinG In April, Cathay Pacific will introduce premium-economy seating on long-haul routes to Sydney, Toronto, Vancouver and New York City. The seats will cost about 30 percent more than those in the economy cabin, and offer a 38-inch pitch, six inches more than a regular economy seat, as well as being wider and having better recline. Priority check-in and an increased baggage allowance—25 kilograms, up from 20—are other perks. For their part, economy passengers will see USB ports and iPod/iPhone outlets to connect to their personal televisions on the Sydney and Toronto routes next month.
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.
12 FeBrUArY 2012 | TrAVelANDleISUreASIA.CoM
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regular Contributors / PHotograPHers cedric arnold, Jennifer chen, robyn eckhardt, tom hoops, philipp engelhorn, david hagerman, lauryn ishak, naomi lindt, Jen lin-liu, brent madison, nat prakobsantisuk, aaron Joel santos, adam skolnick, darren soh, daven wu
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catharine nicol writer
david hartung photographer
thomas beller writer
assignment Wrote “treatments for two” (page 38). best sPa moment a li’tya treatment up in the blue mountains in australia. it started with a “smudging” where they burn herbs, sending me on a near-hallucinogenic journey. how many tReatments do you have eaCh yeaR Probably in the range of 50 or more. sometimes as many as three in one day. favoRite tyPe of massage i find facials incredibly relaxing, and it’s always a bonus to look so smoothed out afterwards too, but my favorite treatments are hot stone massages and ayurvedic shirodhara. what to avoid at a sPa if you have sensitive feet opt for a foot massage rather than reflexology, which can be torture. next sPa tRiP i’m off to tokyo and Kyoto this month to check out onsens, shiatsu and hotel spas.
assignment shot “the real macau” (page 79). aRe you a gambling man? i’ve tried and lost. anyone who believes they can beat the house is delusional. biggest seCRet about maCau? macausoul, a small wine bar near the st. Paul ruins. it has a great selection of wines, a relaxing environment and the best cappuccino in town. best thing you've eveR won? do my wife and daughter count? if you Could Change one thing about maCau, it would be... the public transport. this is the perfect environment to have a start-of-the-art metro system. latest PRojeCt my book, Macau: Work in Progress, has just been released. it documents the development of macau during the past six years.
assignment “return to cambodia” (page 84). then and now When i covered the cambodian hostage crisis of 1994, route 3, from Phnom Penh to Kampot, was a sinister place, frightening to think of. but this time i saw the landscape for what it was: gorgeous, lush, verdant. the people were and remain kind, charming, remarkably sunny. eat at the restaurant at Knai bang chatt’s sailing club, in Kep, on the western coast, where the surf pounds beneath the floor. aRChiteCtuRal maRvel the bayon temple, in angkor. i love the ambiguity of those enormous four-sided stone images, their plentitude, their calm and menace. tRavel essential my basketball sneakers; everywhere i go, i look for a game.
jen lin-liu writer assignment “bali’s Balian” (page 42). beijing bustle oR bali bliss bali, though there is plenty of bustle there these days. in bali, do not miss... uluwatu temple and the rock bar at the ayana. favoRite massage love them all, from chinese reflexology to balinese massage to the thai ones. when tRaveling, do you seeK out the tRaditional oR the modeRn traditional. dReam sPa tRiP a week at the como shambhala in ubud.
16 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
dave lauridsen photographer assignment “mysteries of milan” (page 100). milan is foR fashion loveRs style is in their blood. the worst-dressed person on the street puts me to shame. hotel highlight the spa at the bulgari Hotel— hands down, the best in town. you always tRavel with... a good book and my own bar of soap from home (it’s nothing special, but i like the smell). Photo oP you’ll get the best light both really early in the morning and at dusk. PRofessional news a book featuring many of my photos was just published: It’s Lonely in the Modern World.
t o p, f r o m l e f t : c o u r t e s y o f c at h a r i n e n i c o l ; c o u r t e s y o f J e n l i n - l i u ; c o u r t e s y o f d av i d h a r t u n g ; c o u r t e s y o f d av e l a u r i d s e n ; d a n d e i t c h . b o t t o m , f r o m l e f t : c o u r t e s y o f p u l l m a n l i J i a n g r e s o r t a n d s pa ; c o u r t e s y o f c s e . c o m o . b z ; d av i d h a r t u n g ; d av e l a u r i d s e n ; c h r i s t o p h e r w i s e
contributors
mail letteR of the month ASIAn AeSthetIcS
I appreciate Ian Schrager’s efforts to keep costs low at his new hotel Public Chicago [“Going Public,” December 2011]—it's hard to find an espresso bar with coffee prices under US$3 these days—but I cringed when I read about some of what he calls his improvements: a green marble floor replaced with concrete and room service in a brown bag were particularly striking. I hope his “brown bag” ethos is a passing fad rather than a permanent trend. One of the things I appreciate about living in Southeast Asia is how even the most common street vendor will present her goods with care and an appreciation for
BABy StepS
Peter Jon Lindberg’s essay on trying to learn a foreign language [“Words Fail Me,” December 2011”] was so astutely funny, I read it out loud to my wife over the phone from my hotel room in Saigon. He makes frustration and humiliation hilarious. Lindberg also hits on something that I’ve always felt: that my biggest hurdle to learning Vietnamese is my fear of letting go and being—linguistically, anyway—like a child again. —bryon turnes, baton rouge hOng KOng uncOvereD
I remember my first trip to Hong Kong, when I imagined a Wong Kar Wai movie and was depressed to find Lan Kwai Fong instead. I wish I’d had your article [“One Cool Colony,” December 2011] to go by then. It made
aesthetics, even if they’re wrapped in banana leaves. —michelle stemp, singapore
me sad to read that Oil Street was shut down by developers only to leave the space vacant, but here’s hoping that places like XXX Gallery are still around by the time I make my next visit. —deen surowka, penang SyDney In A new lIght
I love visiting Sydney and haven’t been back there for way too long, so it was good to read an update on the multifaceted city [“Sydney’s Next Great Neighborhood,” December 2011]. I think one of the reasons I haven’t been back recently is that the place can be very expensive, so coming across some more affordable hotel options is always a good thing. In fact, I think you should be providing more of them in your stories. —brian holkum, hong kong
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.
Hampton Inn Manhattan - SoHo, New York
p l a n va c at i o n s t h at c a n ’ t b e
ca pt u r e d in postcards.
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points & money rewards tm With the new Points & Money Rewards, you can redeem points more quickly. If you don’t have enough Hilton HHonors TM points to book a room, or if you prefer to use fewer points, you can combine points with money to book a standard room. This is a great option if you need just a few hundred more points to achieve a reward stay.
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h i lt o n h h o n o r s t m t r a n s f o r m s yo u r p o i n t s i n t o m e m o r i e s yo u c a n ’ t
bestdeals
budget-friendly tips for your travel planning
affordable asian trips
deal of the Month s n a P
maya ubud, indonesia.
the langham Xintiandi, China.
new World makati City, manila Hotel, Philippines.
GETAWAYS FOR TWO
ORIENTAL STAYS
room; round-trip airport transfers; daily buffet breakfast; one lunch and dinner; one two-hour spa treatment; one Balinese costume photo shoot; one countryside tour; and Internet. cost From US$1,315 (US$483 per night), double, through March 31. savIngs 20 percent.
xintiandi.langhamhotels.com) in Shanghai. What’s InclUded A stay in a Grand room; daily breakfast; unlimited treatments (from a pre-selected list) at Chuan Spa; daily RMB300 laundry credit; daily RMB200 mini bar credit; and Internet. cost From RMB2,700 per night, double, through February 29. savIngs 50 percent.
InDOneSIA Romantic Interlude package at Maya UbUd (62-361/977-888; mayaubud.com). What’s InclUded Three nights in a Superior
lAOS Honeymoon Retreat package at lUang say ResIdence (856-71/260-891;
luangsayresidence.com) in Luang Prabang. What’s InclUded Three nights in a Pioneer suite; one-way airport transfer; daily breakfast; one dinner with champagne; one elephant trekking trip; and a two-day, onenight Mekong cruise on the Luang Say boat (overnight at Luang Say Lodge). cost From US$1,882 (US$471 per night), double, through October 31. savIngs 25 percent. thAIlAnD Valentine Indulgence package at hansaR saMUI (66-77/245-511; hansarsamui. com). What’s InclUded Three nights in a Sea
View room; round-trip airport transfers; daily breakfast; one private dinner; a LUXSA Spa massage lesson; and early check-in and late check-out (if available). cost From Bt31,100 (Bt10,370 per night), double, through December 19. savIngs 40 percent. 22 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
chInA Spa Indulgence package at the langhaM XIntIandI (86-21/2330-2288;
First Class Opening package at st. RegIs tIanjIn (86-22/5830-9999; stregis.com/tianjin) What’s InclUded A stay in a Deluxe room; breakfast; one three-course dinner; Internet; two pieces of laundry; and late check-out at 4 p.m. (if available). cost From RMB998 per night, double, through February 29. savIngs 45 percent.
thaIland Bangkok Riverside Journey Begins package at anantara bangkok Riverside Resort & spa (66-2/4760022; bangkok-riverside. anantara.com). What’s Included A stay in a Deluxe room, with upgrade to Deluxe View room (if available); daily breakfast; 25 percent off dining and spa treatments; Internet; and late checkout until 3 p.m. cost From Bt3,888 per night, double, through April 30. savings 45 percent.
ARTFUL BREAK
phIlIppIneS An Affair of the Art package at neW WoRld MakatI cIty, ManIla hotel (63-2/811-6888; manila.newworldhotels.com). What’s InclUded A stay in a Deluxe room; buffet breakfast; daily museum visit (including entrance and drop-off/pickup); a Philippine art booklet; and a Filipino artist notecard gift set. cost From P8,000 per night, double, through February 29 (Thursdays to Sundays only). savIngs 25 percent.
anantara bangkok riverside resort & spa, thailand.
c l o c K W i s e f r o m t o P l e f t : c o u r t e s y o f m a ya u b u d ; c o u r t e s y o f t H e l a n G H a m X i n t i a n d i ; c o u r t e s y o f n e W W o r l d m a K a t i c i t y, m a n i l a H o t e l ; c o u r t e s y o f a n a n t a r a b a n G K o K r i v e r s i d e r e s o r t & s P a
i t
FEEL ON TOP OF THE WORLD
For a bird’s eye view of the rainforest situation in Brunei, climb to the top of the canopy tower at the Ulu Temburong National Park. A 360° view of lush primary jungles, as far as the eyes can stretch, will greet you alongside the sounds of a pristine environment teeming with life. And this can be experienced only 3 hours away from downtown Bandar Seri Begawan, the lovely capital of friendly Brunei Darussalam, the prosperous, safe and placid ancient Sultanate nestled on the northern shores of the huge island of Borneo. Pristine nature is complemented by strong Malay, Islamic and Royal traditions that effortlessly blend heritage and piety with outward looking modernity, tolerance and genuine hospitality. In Brunei one can also enjoy world class golf, diving and business events, from remote jungle lodges to palatial resort accommodation, allowing discerning travelers wholesome vacation experiences at good value for money. Nature, heritage, opulence…Discover Brunei, the Green Heart of Borneo.
BRUNEI TOURISM Jalan Menteri Besar Bandar Seri Begawan BB3910 - BRUNEI DARUSSALAM Tel : + 673 - 238 28 22 / Fax : + 673 - 238 28 24 Email : info@bruneitourism.travel
www.bruneitourism.travel
askt+l A: A difficult question to answer a stand of ginkgo trees in tokyo.
the east borneo suite, 137 Pillars Chiang mai.
definitively after the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster, though most are warning simply to avoid the areas of Japan most immediately affected. That doesn’t include Tokyo, where hotel rates are down an average of 10 percent. The japan national tourism organization (jnto.go.jp/eng/) is promoting more trips in Tokyo through discount coupons that cover everything from English-language tours to the whole price range of accommodation across the city. Last-minute bookings at the city’s hotels and popular restaurants are
also more possible these days with the decrease in visitors. The JNTO website also recommends the most costefficient ways of getting around the city and is now listing new shopping options in Tokyo. Q: Can you ReCommend somewheRe to go golfing in Chiang mai? —mark lee, hong kong A: The newly opened 137 Pillars house (66-53/247-788; 137pillarshouse.
com; golf-package doubles from Bt32,180), a 30-suite hotel, is offering golf packages that cover two nights’ accommodation, two rounds at the Royal Chiang Mai Golf Course and a 60-minute Thai massage.
» e-mail us at editor@travelandleisuresea.com » post queries at facebook.com/travelleisureasia » follow us on twitter at @travleisureasia (Questions may be edited for clarity and space.) what’s youR tRavel question?
f r o m to P : j n to.G o. j P/ e n G / ; co u r t e sy o f 1 37 P i l l a r s H o u s e
Q: is it safe to visit toKyo lateR this yeaR? —mariam koo, singapore
A private paradise that knows no bounds
Chic industrial minimalism meets unabashed opulence. Bold light falling on richly textured surfaces. A family’s storied past colliding with ultra-modern design. Indigo Pearl now offers seven exclusive Pool Villas. A secluded haven at Phuket’s most daring destination resort. Luxury to crave.
www.indigo-pearl.com
newsflash your global guide to what’s happening right now...
spa
NEW SPAS, NEW YOU CHINA In historic Suzhou, the new
close to natURe From top: Dense foliage at Banyan Tree Spa; lodgings at Jumeirah Vittaveli Maldives; sun tents at Oasis Sky Breeze Spa, Kata.
Pan Pacific suzhou (panpacific. com/suzhou) has partnered with Singaporean brand St. Gregory Spa to open six treatment rooms spread over 1,860 square meters. Walk through a bronze archway, past a mother-of-pearl wall to rooms lit by lamps from across Asia. Choose from marine-based treatments from Brittany, courtesy of Thalgo. The Thalgo Clear Expert Brightening Treatment (RMB980 for 90 minutes), for example, cleanses the skin with seaweed and plant extracts.
MACAU Part of Galaxy Macau, the Banyan Tree Macau’s banyan tree spa (banyantree.com/macau) couldn’t be further from a gambling atmosphere. Because it’s tucked deep into the property, you pass pools and a skylight-bathed bamboo forest on your way to your dark wood treatment room, where a Jacuzzi 26 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
catharine nicol
looks out onto a living green wall. Choose a therapy following the five Chinese elements of water, wood, earth, fire and metal—like the Gold Purification (MOP2,000 for 150 minutes), which includes a papaya body scrub, Lomi-Lomi (Hawaiian) Massage and a Head & Shoulder Massage, aimed at increased energy.
MALDIVES A 20-minute speedboat ride from Male on Bolifushi Island, jumeirah vittaveli maldives
(jumeirah.com/vittaveli) recently opened Talise Vittaveli (vittaveli roughly translates to “expansive space and light”). Double treatment rooms are set within a circular garden, beyond which are overwater rooms and a VIP pavillion. Aaila Time (aaila meaning “family”) encourages parents and children to spa together, with options like “Beyond” Family Hand and Foot Rituals (US$150 per person for 90
f r o m t o P : c o u r t e s y o f b a n ya n t r e e s P a ; c o u r t e s y o f t a l i s e s P a a t j u m e i r a H v i t t a v e l i maldives; courtesy of oasis
T+L’s favorite openings around the region for treatments and retreats. b y
c lo c KW i s e f r o m l e f t: c o u r t e sy o f Pa n Pac i f i c s u z H o u ; c o u r t e sy o f m ov e n P i c K r e s o r t & s Pa c e b u ; c o u r t e sy o f m e s a s t i l a . Q & a , f r o m to P : d i a n a a l l f o r d ; l a r s K lov e
WheRe to UnWInd Clockwise from left: Wellness Suite, at St. Gregory Spa, Pan Pacific Suzhou; Indulgence room at Mövenpick Resort & Spa Cebu; lush surroundings at MesaStila.
minutes) comprised of a hand massage and foot bath and scrub.
PHILIPPINES On Mactan Island, the mövenpick Resort & spa Cebu’s
(movenpick-hotels.com) SPA DEL MAR has seven treatment rooms. The best are the airy couples’ rooms, like the dark and earth-toned Indulgence, with splashes of sun let in by curtains billowing in the sea breeze. The Mactan Massage (P3,000 for 60 minutes) is a gentle treatment using sampaguita oil, from the country's national flower.
THAILAND Phuket’s oasis sky breeze spa (phuketoasis.com), set
high over Kata Beach, features a row of pyramid-shaped relaxation sun tents with poolside lounging on one side and spectacular views on the other. Under the calming influence of the island’s giant marble image of Buddha, stroll the garden’s stone
walkways from herbal-steam room to Thai massage sala, or to one of six treatment rooms for the Oasis Summer Day (Bt4,900 for three hours), including Aloe Vera Lavender Body Wrap, Body Massage and Biodroga After Sun Facial.
INDONESIA Previously Losari Spa Retreat & Coffee Plantation, mesastila (losaricoffeeplantation. com) has restored 22 plantation villas with four-poster beds, sunken baths and verandas and offers multi-day retreat packages like the two-night Dynamism with healthy meals, hammam, massage and fitness training (US$615 per person, double occupancy). Most significantly, wellness is integrated into Javanese experiences, with guests able to go hiking through the dense jungle to Mount Telomoyo or join local women planting rice in the nearby paddy fields.
Q&a
patricia schultz
Hot off the release of the second edition of best-seller 1,000 Places to See Before You Die (Workman)— featuring 28 new countries, including Ghana, Nicaragua and South Korea—the globe-trotting author sat down with T+L. Q: what Can ReadeRs exPeCt this time aRound? A: no sooner was the ink dry on the 2003 edition than i saw destinations that were on their way to being better-equipped for visitors: former soviet-bloc countries and war zones, places like the balkans and colombia. now is their moment. Q: is theRe somePlaCe you wish you Could have inCluded? A: libya would have been great for armchair travel. its future looks just too unstable right now. Q: what weRe some of youR best disCoveRies? A: ireland’s aran islands are remote and otherworldly. and it’s hard to believe you are still in europe in romania’s carpathian mountains and the pristine swath of transylvania—one of the most untouched corners left on the continent. Q: wheRe aRe you going next? A: turks and caicos, for my annual luxuryon-the-beach reprieve. Grace bay club and Parrot cay, here i come! —sarah khan
travelandleisureasia.com | february 2012 27
newsflash style
The French luxury goods label has unveiled its first store in Mumbai. Located in a Victorian-style building in the heart of the city, the 281-square-meter Hermès space stocks everything from fashion to furniture; there’s also an in-house gallery with fine art on display. Available now for a limited time: a line of handcrafted cashmere, silk or mousseline saris (price upon request). 15A Horniman Circle, Fort; 91-22/2263-0093. — c h ri sti n e a ju dua
spotlight
WHAT’S NEW DOWN UNDER
From an eco-lodge and the return of a major art museum to a different kind of pub crawl, we map out the latest happenings in Oz. b y f r a n c e s h i b b a r d the reMOte getAwAy
Wild bush luxury is converting the former viP guest quarters of Paspaley Pearls—australia’s largest pearling company—into Kuri bay, five simple yet chic rooms opening in april. Kuri Bay; 61-2/95716399; kuribay.com.au; doubles from A$1,545, all-inclusive, two-night minimum. the AIr ADventure
this activity elevates the humble pub crawl to an art form. the historic hotel heli tour starts in darwin and flies to five of the northern territory’s most iconic pubs. the day also includes fishing for barramundi. airbornesolutions.com.au; A$831 per person.
guide
LITTLE BLACK BOOK OF VILLAS Planning a 12-person holiday to Kandy? Or a girls’ vacation to Samui? Here’s the guide for you. Previously know as Private Homes & Villas, The Asia Villa Guide has released the first edition of its sleek black book (US$24) containing profiles and independent reviews of luxury villas in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Listings include numerical ratings based on criteria like character/charm, location, staff and value for money. Villas in each country are categorized by luxury level: Royal, Premium, Mid-range and Value collections. The accompanying website allows you to browse photos as well as check availability. thevillaguide.com— m r i g a a s e t h i
the luxury SAfArI Get up close to crocs, water buffalo and agile wallabies at the ecofriendly wildman wilderness lodge, where guests stay in air-conditioned units or fancooled tents. Point Stuart Rd., Mary River; 61-8/8978-8955; wildmanwildernesslodge.com. au; from A$235 per person per night, including meals.
the SeASIDe retreAt
the cIty renAISSAnce
in addition to its a$725 million airport transformation (currently under way), Perth has recently seen a spate of new restaurants. a couple of our new favorites: the contemporary middle eastern raah, and the aviary, a restaurant, lounge and rooftop bar.
28 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
Gold coast town surfers Paradise welcomed a hilton (6 Orchid Ave.; 61-7/56808000; hiltonsurfersparadise. com.au; doubles from A$250)— with australia’s first eforea spa—as well as the 77-floor sea temple (8 The Esplanade; 61-7/ 5635-5700; mirvachotels.com; doubles from A$810).
the hOtel reBIrth top-floor suites and redesigned rooms are all part of the head-to-toe renovation of the waterfront Park hyatt sydney, which reopens this month. 7 Hickson Rd.; 61-2/92561234; park.hyatt.com; doubles from A$960.
the culturAl hOt SpOt thanks to a major
expansion, sydney’s museum of Contemporary art will relaunch—doubled in size—in march, with three additional galleries plus a rooftop sculpture terrace. 140 George St.; 612/9245-2400; mca.com.au.
c l o c K W i s e f r o m t o P l e f t : c o u r t e s y o f H e r m è s ; c o u r t e s y t H e a s i a v i l l a G u i d e ; i l l u s t r at i o n b y Wa s i n e e c H a n ta K o r n
hermès takes on india
newsflash
RestauRants
ENCORE EATERIES
Seasoned chefs and restaurateurs strike again with new outposts around Asia. b y m r i g a a s e t h i
banGKoK Thailand’s celebrity chef Ian Kittichai has opened restaurants in Mumbai, New York and elsewhere, and consulted at Bangkok mainstays like the hip Hyde & Seek Gastro Pub and the suburban 99 Rest Backyard Café. Issaya siamese club, the first Bangkok restaurant that's his very own, puts together modern Thai cuisine with a lounge atmosphere. The 90-year-old, two-story Thai house has cool green walls, wooden shuttered windows and a large garden, where Kittichai is growing a lot of his own herbs. Can’t-miss dishes include spiced baby-back ribs, jasmine flower flan and wok-sauteed rice with Chiang Mai mushrooms and mixed grains served sizzling in a hot bowl—a lighter, Thai version of the Korean bibimbap. Wash it down with the kaffir lime, lemongrass and coriander mojito, which comes in tall, brass cups from Pakistan. T+L TIP Far from the dining thoroughfares of Sukhumvit, Issaya is a bit off the beaten path over in Klong Toei. Look at a map before heading over, and book ahead as there are not many other options nearby should there be a long wait. Soi Sri Aksorn, Chua Ploeng Rd., 66-2/672-9040; dinner for two Bt1,800.
URban and RetRo Clockwise from top left: Poached Sangria Fruit Crumble, at L'Esquina; the open kitchen at L'Esquina; Jasmine Flower Flan, at Issaya Siamese Club; dining room at The Principle; interiors at Mama San, seafood salad at Mama San; interiors at Issaya Siamese Club.
30 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
sinGaPore Chef and restaurateur Jason Atherton, of Gordon Ramsey pedigree and London’s Michelin-starred Pollen Street Social fame, has opened l’esquina, a tapas bar in Chinatown. Located in what was a laundry, the cozy space has a factory-meets-diner feel, with retro ads, a long steel-topped bar and an open kitchen. The menu is inspired by El Bulli, though the classics, like patatas bravas, paella and Spanish tortilla, do just fine. For something a bit different, consider the scallop ceviche or the ox cheek oloroso. Take advantage of their Spanish brews, like Mahou 5 Star and Estrella Damm Inedit, the latter developed by Ferran Adrià. T+L TIP Don’t even try making a reservation—they don’t accept them. Just show up early, or at least not starving, and hope for the best. 16 Jiak Chuan Rd.; 65/6222-1616; dinner for two S$80.
HonG KonG A great deal more
understated on the décor front, though no less interesting food-wise, the Principal is a new and busy Hong Kong opening. A partnership between Chef Jonay Armas and longtime restaurateur collective The Press Room Group, The Principal is high-ceilinged but cozy, with starched white table linens and neutral woodwork accented with brick and copper. The food is, to some extent, comforting European fare, but with twists and curveballs from Armas’ native Canary Islands. Don’t miss the Spanish suckling pig, which comes with a pomegranate reduction and lemon puree to cut all that crispy skin and fat, the smoked eel with herring roe and the more traditional Kobe sirloin with foie gras. T+L TIP Explore the exhaustive wine list, which has some nice surprises, including labels from Japan, Slovenia and Israel. 9 Star St., Wan Chai, 852/2563-3444; theprincipalhk.com; dinner for two HK$1,000.
clocKWise from toP left: courtesy of l'esQuina (2); courtesy of Hyde & seeK Gastro Pub; c o u r t e sy o f t H e P r i n c i Pa l ; c o u r t e sy o f m a m a s a n ( 2 ) , c o u r t e sy o f H y d e & s e e K G a s t r o P u b
bali
A chic intersection of New York gentlemen’s club and Shanghai Art Nouveau, Mama san is the second, more casual eatery by Sarong chef and restaurateur Will Meyrick. The story goes that Meyrick sourced favorite street food vendors from several Asian cities and flew them to Bali to consult. As a result, the menu is pan-Asian, with upscale versions of easy-to-eat iconic dishes like chow ming noodles with duck and pad Thai, and curries as disparate as Sichuan braised beef short ribs and Indian lamb with lentils and yogurt. Keeping in line with the retrochic theme, the drinks list is largely comprised of classic cocktails with creative twists, like Mint Juleps with apricots. Still on the fence? There is also the industrial, stone-and-wood décor with warm touches coming from the exposed brick wall, leather couches, numerous black-and-white photos and an enormous pop art–style portrait of the eponymous mama san looming over the whole space. T+L TIP Make it a nice, long night, starting out with drinks and nibbles upstairs, then head downstairs for dinner. 135 Jln. Raya Kerobokan, Br. Taman; 62-361/730-436; mamasanbali.com; dinner for two Rp450.
WoRlD’S BEST AWARDS
2012 world's best awards survey vote for your 2012 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! vote now!
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 2012 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. Readers of all global editions of Travel + Leisure will 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. Christopher Kucway Editor-in-Chief Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia
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destinations trends restaurants + more
c o u r t e s y o f c H H at r a s a G a r
sunset over the reservoir at Chhatra sagar.
RAJASTHAN BY TENT.
forget roughing it: the indian state’s luXe tented camps offer creature comforts, stylish design and encounters with the great outdoors. by tanvi Chheda
travelandleisureasia.com | february 2012 33
insider check-in
InDIA, nAturAlly
34 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
chhAtrA SAgAr
the SerAI
Warriors on the move, the Rajputs of Rajasthan were no strangers to tented camps—though at Chhatra Sagar you’ll see and hear kingfishers, pelicans and flamingos, not stampeding armies. Two hours east of Jodhpur, the camp is named for Rajput Chhatra Singh, who built a monsoon-fed reservoir for the community here in the 1890’s. Thirteen tents, with plush beds and campaign-style furniture, are erected each winter and face this lake. Catch stunning sunrises and sunsets from your tent, with a cup of chai or a sundowner in hand. Singh’s descendants, who run Chhatra Sagar, are gracious hosts, sharing family stories over meals of smoked eggplant with tamarind sauce and lotus seed pudding. They can also arrange visits to local villages and safari drives in search of the black buck antelope. chhatrasagar.com; doubles from US$408.
It’s a 20-minute drive through sand and scrub to arrive at The Serai, a desert camp and spa outside bustling Jaisalmer, in western Rajasthan. Set on 23 hectares in the meandering Thar Desert, the property’s remoteness— and subsequent serenity—is rare. The camp’s 21 tents, pitched on platforms of Jaisalmer stone, are enormous enough to feature cozy verandas that lead to spacious bedrooms with indigohued dhurries and rosewood writing desks. Cool off in the infinity pool, elevated to allow panoramic views of the desert, before departing for a camel ride, with the requisite sundowners waiting for you atop a sand dune. Dinner back at the camp is traditional fare: a thali (platter) of regional specialties such as sarson gobi (cauliflower marinated in mustard); khumbi ki subzi, a mushroom yogurt curry; and lapsi, an indulgent dessert
c l o c K W i s e f r o m t o P l e f t : c o u r t e s y o f r a m at H r a f o r t ; courtesy of tHe serai; courtesy of sHer baGH (2)
Clockwise from left: tents at ramathra fort: compound walls at the serai; sher bagh’s forest-nestled tents; the swimming pool at sher bagh.
made with broken wheat, clarified butter and sugar. sujanluxury.com; doubles from US$530. Sher BAgh
from left: courtesy of rasa; courtesy of c H H at r a s a G a r ; c o u r t e s y o f r a m at H r a f o r t
Just outside Ranthambhore National Park in southeastern Rajasthan, Sher Bagh is equal parts The Jungle Book and luxury campground. Encircled by deciduous forest, the eco-minded property is comprised of 12 tents sitting around a central garden, a main lodge with a club-like saloon and bar and separate tents for dinner, high tea and Ayurveda treatments. It’s not unusual to spot mongooses, monkeys, deer, peacocks, golden orioles and kingfishers on site, but the highlight is daily game drives within Ranthambhore’s (a wildlife sanctuary since 1957) steep hills, gentle slopes, perennial lakes and narrow valleys in search of the elusive Bengal tiger. Keeping the preservation of this land and its animals in mind, Sher Bagh boasts its own organic garden and dairy farm, engages in water conservation and anti-poaching efforts and almost exclusively employs locals. sujanluxury.com; doubles from US$530.
rAMAthrA fOrt
A four-hour drive from Jaipur, this Rajput fort-palace commands the quiet, remote countryside. The fort was converted into a heritage property in 2007, with family owners Ravi Raj Pal and his wife, Gitanjali, tending to guests who come to soak up the bucolic atmosphere and enjoy the bird watching—osprey, kingfisher, herons— on Kalisil Lake nearby. Six tents, with teak furnishings and stone-built baths, sit in a courtyard of the fort, surrounded by ramparts; their high ceilings and screened windows lend a sense of openness and space. Come dusk, gather on the ramparts for cocktails, followed by private alfresco dining among dramatic views of farmland and wilderness. ramathrafort. com; doubles from US$188.
green blends nature and design. The “rooms” feature latticed-glass bay windows that open onto triangular verandas; inside, golden brown–striped walls, minimalist, sleek furnishings and concrete floors reinforce the experience of textures and shapes. Should you tire of the sculpted landscape, you can borrow mountain bikes, try your hand at flying kites or birdwatching. At the restaurant, canvas arches play with geometry and scale. But you’ll be too busy digging into figfilled kebabs, murg dhanshak (chicken with spiced lentils) and rose-ginger ice cream to notice. rasaresorts.in; doubles from US$309. ✚
rASA
Adjacent to Amer Fort, some 10 kilometers beyond Jaipur, are 40 futuristic canvas cubes aligned in neat rows; they’re the latest venture from Devi Resorts’ Anupam Poddar and his mother, Lekha. Surrounding them, a Mondrian-like grid of gravel and
cOMfOrt AnD culture Clockwise from above: floor painting at Chhatra sagar;
a guestroom at rasa; sweeping views from the ramparts at ramathra fort.
travelandleisureasia.com | february 2012 35
insider
neighborhood
HIDDEN TAI HANG. a laid-back
When the British claimed Hong Kong in 1841, Tai Hang was a small fishing village along Victoria Harbour. It lost its waterfront real estate in the 1950’s when Victoria Park was built on land reclaimed from the sea, but the village atmosphere survives in a tight web of peaceful back alleys. In recent years, those streets have filled up with cafés and small shops that attract the most relaxed of Hong Kong flaneurs. Below, our guide to the area’s best spots. ✚
corner of hong kong is home to hip cafés, uneXpected boutiques and more. by ChRistoPheR dewolf
la belle Époque.
ShOp Hong Kong’s zakka enthusiasts flock to 1 la belle Époque (62C Tung Lo Wan Rd.; 852/6301-8893; belleepoque-hk.blogspot.com), epoque-hk.blogspot.com) a tiny boutique stuffed with impeccably twee necklaces, wallets, purses ore treasures and trinkets. more await at 2 microwave (7 School St.; 852/2566-8823), a vintage clothing emporium where you’re as likely to find a leopard-print dress as a woolly sweater.
SnAcK designer sweets emporium 10 Papabubble (34 Tung Lo Wan Rd.; 852/2367-4807; pappabubble. com.hk) makes you feel good about rotting your teeth. all ll of the shop’s brightly colored hard candies are made in-house with a bewildering array of potions and flavors, from mango to black tea.
microwave.
See legend has it that the chinese goddess Kwun yum once appeared on a huge rock near tai Hang, bestowing her mercy upon the village’s residents. in 1846, the villagers built 3 lin Ka fung temple (Lily St.) in her honor. it’s one of the most unusual temples in Hong Kong— step inside and you can see the rock where the goddess made her visit.
3
2 1
lin Ka fung temple.
7
4 6
10
8
9
5
Coffee art at unar Coffee Company. Kindergarten. DrInK tai Hang’s sleepy streets have been given a serious caffeine jolt with a new generation of sidewalk cafés. 7 unar Coffee Company (4 Second Lane; 852/2838-5231; coffee and pastries for two HK$100) captures the neighborhood spirit with its strong brews, takeaway window and comfortable back-alley seating. 8 Kindergarten (35 Sun Chun St.; 852/2657-7562; high tea for two HK$158), open only on weekends, is
bing Kee. a cozy hideaway with wellaged wood furniture and a dainty high-tea set with fruit tarts, scones and canapés. for a typically Hong Kong experience, try the velvetysmooth milk tea at 9 bing Kee (Ormsby St.; 852/25773117; milk tea for two HK$30), one of the city’s last 1950’s-era dai pai dong hawker stalls.
36 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
man sing. DO make your own crafty accessories at the 5 Polka dot studio (First floor, 23 Sun Chun St.; 852/3487-6665; polkadotdothk. blogspot.com), which offers weekend zakka workshops on techniques like felting (HK$550 per person, including materials, snacks and tea). 6 jam bakery (Flat B, 20 Wun Sha St.; 852/2805-6696; jambakery. com) not only makes fun cakes—try the lychee mousse cake—but it also hosts regular baking workshops (HK$350 per person).
Zakka doll at Polka dot studio.
eAt tai Hang comes alive in the evening, when people from around the city flock there to eat at its renowned restaurants. one of the best is 4 man sing (16 Wun Sha St.; 852/2576-7272; dinner for two HK$200), which serves thai-influenced cantonese food. try the yuk bang, a traditional cantonese meatcake topped with salted egg. Here, it’s a veritable mountain of meat, with meltin-your-mouth pork and a delicately sweet sauce. Jam bakery.
insider spas
TREATMENTS FOR TWO.
treAteD rOyAlly
from top: on Hadahaa island; mandala spa and villas; spa tatami at Pullman lijiang resort and spa.
38 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
MAlDIveS ■ Park hyatt maldives hadaaha the setting Largely candlelit, the five
phIlIppIneS ■ mandala spa and villas the setting On Boracay Island, this
spa villas at the Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa’s Vidhun Spa (vidhun means “shine” in Dhivehi), feature fenced-in alfresco space and sleek pale wood design. At sunset, witness the gradual quietening of the island while floating side by side with your partner pretreatment in the petal-dusted bath, moving to the daybed to dry off and sip a relaxing cup of tea as the stars gradually appear across the sky, then to the open thatch-roofed treatment area where two beds wait for your chosen therapy. the treatment Sessions here are influenced by Ayurveda, Chinese and Tibetan traditional medicines and are comprised of therapies using indigenous plants like coconut and rose. Especially sensual, the Sehathu Massage, with its rose, lotus and jasmine oils, is designed to balance the body’s hot, cold and dry humors. maldives.hadahaa.park.hyatt.com; Sehathu Massage US$450 per couple.
holistic resort is secluded high above the southern end of White Beach. Four spa villas exude tranquility thanks to simple dark wood floors, a cool breeze, undulating curtains and colourful textiles. From the main treatment room, step down your villa’s levels to where the large stand-alone bath overlooks the gardens outside. the treatment The therapists here are among the most gentle you’ll find (they begin their day with yoga) and practice local forms of healing. While the traditional Hilot Trilogy treatment is what they are best known for, they recommend the nurturing Hawaiian Kahuna Massage for couples. The dance-like Polynesian Ka Huna strokes are designed to reconnect you with your spirit. Afterwards, step over the rose petal–strewn floor and into the bath big enough for two, fragrant with coconut milk and flowers picked from the garden. mandalaspa.com; Hawaiian Kahuna Massage P3,850. »
f r o m t o p : c o u r t e s y o f p a r k h yat t m a l d i v e s h a d a h a a ; c o u r t e s y o f m a n da l a s pa a n d v i l l a s ; c o u r t e sy o f p u l l m a n l i J i a n g r e s o r t a n d s pa
solo pampering aside, these luXury spas offer environs and therapies for couples to unwind together. by CathaRine niCol
insider spas
treatment, involving aromatherapy oils and plant extracts (relaxing, warming, uplifting or balancing, depending on your needs). The view from the Jacuzzi is as much part of the recipe for relaxation as the treatment itself. All therapists are also certified in Reiki and trained by holistic wellness expert Dr. Buathon Thienarrom. conradkohsamui.com: Eden for Couples Bt15,000 per couple. ■ four seasons tented Camp the setting In Thailand’s Golden
thAIlAnD ■ Conrad Koh samui the setting At the new Conrad Koh
Samui, on the island’s less-populated west coast, is The Spa, where it’s all about the bird’s-eye ocean panorama. Earth-tone interiors and soft lighting give way to panoramic decks, and the best of these is the Royal Treatment Suite, where as well as the Jacuzzi and two treatment beds, there’s a private 10-meter plunge pool for a couple of water babies. the treatment Specially designed for the Royal Treatment Suite is the three-hour Eden for Couples, where each person is treated to gender-specific massages and facials before both partners come together to share a Candlelit Frangipani Bathology 40 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
Triangle, at the Four Seasons Tented Camp, cross a rope bridge and walk into the depths of the jungle to get to one of only two spa treatment salas, set above the rainforest and open on two sides. They have been designed in the resort’s colonial chic style (guestroom tents have antique style claw-foot baths and ceiling fans—luxurious Out of Africa romance from start to finish) with the kind of genius you’d expect from Bill Bensley, Thailand’s most prolific landscape and interior designer. the treatment The beauty of the location aside, staying here is all about spending time riding the resort’s elephants and playing mahout, so to continue the romance without nursing next day aches and pains, book the Mahout Recovery Treatment, a 90-minute leg and body treatment using herbal compresses full of camphor, lime and lemongrass. fourseasons.com/goldentriangle; Mahout Recovery Treatment Bt5,250.
up with Mandara Spa to open up a beautiful sanctuary in 800-year-old Lijiang. The space echoes the historic, red lantern–filled old quarter, with raw slate and ornate wood prominent in the design. One of the most romantic, Naxi-inspired spaces is the Phoenix Chamber, a slate-walled courtyard with a pavilion sheltering two treatment beds and an outdoor bath, while one of the Private Outdoor Treatment Courtyards is surrounded by water, edged by lotus in summer and autumn, and filled with koi. the treatment Tea features in many treatments; imagine bathing in red tea, or being scrubbed by pu-erh (post-fermented tea). Adventurous couples can try the 150-minute Power of Flower, making admirable use of ingredients native to the area. Once the formalities of sipping chrysanthemum tea during the foot ritual are over, the treatment starts with a Yunnan Lavender & Mountain Salt Scrub, the eye- and pore-opening Flower and Yak Milk Bath and a Jasmine Aroma Massage. mandaraspa.com; Power of Flower RMB1,450. ✚
wIlD AnD wet Clockwise from above: Water views at Conrad Koh samui; a bath awaits at four seasons tented Camp; outdoors at the camp.
f r o m to p : co u rt e sy o f fo u r s e as o n s t e n t e d c a m p g o l d e n t r i a n g l e ( 2 ) ; co u rt e sy o f co n r a d ko h sa m u i
chInA ■ Pullman lijiang Resort and spa the setting The Pullman has teamed
insider wellness
a
BALI’S BALIAN.
on indonesia’s favorite island, traditional healers are becoming a big draw for travelers. jen lin-liu Joins the throng of seekers and is intrigued by the results
42 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
uthor Elizabeth Gilbert sought out the counsel of two healers in her bestselling book Eat, Pray, Love. The designer Donna Karan discovered that her back pain was the product of her past life. A friend of a friend claimed that a healer mended her broken heart. And so, on my fifth visit to Bali, I decided to seek out a healer to help me with a predicament. Healers, known as dukun or balian, are traditional to Balinese and Indonesian society. Often operating out of their homes, they are well-respected fixtures of a Balinese neighborhood and use traditional medicine, massage, meditation and special powers to heal spiritual and physical problems. In recent years, as interest grows internationally, many healers have opened their doors to travelers as well. While there isn’t an exact way to pinpoint how many visitors come to Bali as seekers of traditional Balinese medicine, the island has experienced a significant upswing in tourists since the movie Eat, Pray, Love, starring Julia Roberts, was released, setting a record of 2.5 million tourists in 2010. Overseas seekers have come for a range of reasons including personal counseling, fertility issues, back pain and headaches. “[Foreign visitors] are interested in direct results. They want to relieve stress and see physical improvements,” says Silan Sinna, a spa consultant on the island at Fivelements. “As opposed to the locals, who believe in black magic and evil spirits.” Healers have important roles in each Balinese village. They are invited to ward off evil spirits before big celebrations, and they are believed to exorcise black magic out of people’s bodies. Their continued popularity in villages indicates exactly how spiritual and religious the Balinese remain. In Balinese Hinduism, the belief persists that good and evil are constantly present and often at battle with each other, and the balian’s duty is often to rout out the evil. And as in Chinese medicine, there are concepts regarding the channeling of energy and the arrangement of objects in the home, similar to feng shui. Healers also recognize the limitations of their powers. It’s quite common for locals to Illustration by Wasinee Chantakorn
f r o m to p : © s o n n y t u m b e l a k a a f p / g e t t y; kashish shrestha; courtesy of cse.como.bz
see healers in conjunction with regular visits to a Western hospital. And they’re quick to point out that they’re not fortune tellers or soothsayers—rather, they believe that doing good deeds can actually alter one’s fortune. “I cure broken hearts,” said the healer Tjokorda Negari, whom I went to see. “But if your heart is really broken”—as in a case where you’ve experienced a heart attack—“go see a Western doctor.” During a recent visit to Bali, my husband and I visited two healers. We began at Fivelements, a healing center a few kilometers away from Ubud, located on the banks of the Ayung River. The healer, Pak Wayan, had my husband Craig lie down on a thin mattress on the floor and did a scan of his body by placing his hands over his energy points, similar to a Reiki treatment. Though no formal training is required to become a healer, 24-year-old Pak Wayan graduated from a local traditional medicine university and comes from several generations of healers. After an hour-long scan, during which Pak Wayan meditated, chanted and cleared away bad energy from Craig’s body, he came up with a diagnosis: Craig was very stressed and suffered from light back pain. “The idea is that the healer is connecting you—the microcosm—with the universe—the macrocosm,” says Chicco Tatriele, a co-owner of Fivelements. “You have to accept that we’re a part of a bigger thing. The more you surrender, the more is possible.” According to Tatriele, healing must be part of an overall holistic regime that includes eating well, meditation and yoga; for Tatriele, such a regime resolved persistent back pain issues that had plagued him for years. John Halpin, the general manager of the luxury COMO Shambhala spa, helped me arrange a visit to the 82-year-old healer, Tjokorda Negari. Tjokorda Negari, whose name means “wise man of Negari”—the name of the village I visited—is a member of the Ubud royal family and greeted me with a few words of English. The thin but lively healer has a tanned, wrinkled face and sees patients in the covered patio next to his home, located down a nondescript alley not far from Central Ubud. I’d come to Tjokorda Negari four months pregnant; I wanted a blessing for the baby,
finding yo u R o w n balian
1 ask any local; every village has at least a few balian .
and I wanted to determine its gender. In China, where I live, women aren’t allowed to know the gender of their baby before they are born because the government fears that families, who are typically only allowed one child, will abort female fetuses. Tjokorda Negari, seating himself on a chair, asked me to sit in front of him on the floor. He pushed a number of points on my head. He told me to lie down on a straw mat and pressed on my stomach. He stood before me, pressing his toes to the bottom of my feet, and wiggled his fingers around. “I think it will be a girl,” he said. The baby is due this month, but even if his diagnosis proves wrong, it was worth it for the insight into Balinese culture. ✚
guIDe tO BAlIneSe heAlIng 2 determine whether you are seeking a spiritual or a physical healer; usually healers specialize in one or the other. Ketut liyer works with a tourist couple.
3 bring a translator. most balian don’t speak much english.
4 a donation of rp200,000– rp500,000 is generally expected at the end of your visit.
• visits to tjokorda negari can be arranged for guests staying at uma ubud (Jln. Raya Sanggingan, Banjar Lungsiakan, Kedewatan, Ubud; 62-361/972-448; uma. ubud.como.bz) or como shambhala (Banjar Begawan, Desa Melinggih Kelod, Payangan-Gianyar; 62-361/978-888; cse.como.bz). • Pak Wayan is available for dayguest appointments at fivelements (Baturning, Mambal; 62-361/469-206; fivelements.org).
• if you must, visit Ketut liyer (Pengosekan, Mas, Ubud; 62-361/974092), one of the characters from Eat, Pray, Love. lines tend to be long and he’s in frail health.
at Como shambhala.
wellness on the web looKinG to unWind? or for a sPa in soutHeast asia? Go to travelandleisureasia.com
travelandleisureasia.com | february 2012 43
insider room report
the OvervIew
Hue, the former imperial capital of Vietnam, isn’t known as a beach-resort destination. Unlike seafronting towns Hoi An and Nha Trang, also in Central Vietnam, the city’s natural blessings—a white-sand beach, sunny weather from April through October—have been largely overlooked. That perception is slowly changing, with the opening of the Ana Mandara in October 2010. Today, the 78-room property offers a relaxed, seaside alternative and complement to Hue’s historic attractions, marrying a picturesque 400-meter beachfront and the Ana Mandara brand’s sleek trademark style. epikurean.ws/anamandara-hue; doubles from US$220. the lOcAtIOn
HUE’S HIDDEN GETAWAY.
for a beachside escape with a cultural twist, head to the ana mandara in vietnam’s former imperial capital. by laRa day
A 45-minute drive from Hue airport takes you to the resort, idyllically sited on Thuan An Beach, while Hue’s downtown—home to the Imperial Citadel, a unesco World Heritage site—is just 20 minutes away by car. Closer to home, guests can borrow one of the resort’s private bicycles to explore Tam Giang Lagoon and its neighboring fishing village. Be sure to stop for a Vietnamese coffee along the lagoon-fronting strip of atmospheric local cafés. the peDIgree
Operated by home-grown Vietnamese resort group Hotel Collection Indochine, the Ana Mandara Hue is in good company, with sister properties in coastal destinations such as Nha Trang and Dalat.
With a design by Thai firm Roof Company Limited, the resort embodies understated Asian chic. Terracotta steps lead up to the artworkflanked lobby, where a geometric sky-reflecting water feature overlooks the property and the sea beyond. Outside, sloping terracotta roofs are a nod to traditional Hue architecture, and cream-hued façades gesture toward Vietnam’s French colonial past. Indoors, dark-stained woods, ornate carved eaves and Sino-Vietnamese motifs are offset by russet, gold and aubergine accents. the ServIce BeAch eScApe from top: the main bedroom
in a Pool villa; private bathing options.
44 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
As with all new properties in emerging destinations, the service here lacks the polish »
courtesy of ana mandara hue (2)
the DeSIgn
W
orries and tension check out when you check into the anumba spa.
How apt is it that one of the Andaman Sea’s most beautiful islands also plays host to one of Asia’s top ten island spa destinations*?
Relax, stretch and breathe. And find oneself. www.theracha.com
X O
P R I VAT E
Anumba spa grounds cover 25,000 square feet of bliss. The thai flower ritual treatment is particularly renowned.
At The Racha’s serene Anumba Spa, expert and caring therapists restore and rejuvenate mind and body with signature natural treatments and oils. VIP couples’ suites, steam rooms and rain showers are just part of the pampering. Within the lush spa grounds, an ocean-facing balancefitness gym and OM studio offers guided holistic movement classes.
A menber of Small Luxury Hotels of the World
85 luxurious villas • 3 ozonated pools (excluding private ones) • 3 signature dining establishments & Bar • world-acclaimed anumba spa • club del mar for chilling personalized sea and land experiences • to-die-for-views complimentary. tel: 66 76 355 455 fax: 66 76 355 637 email: reservation@theracha.com
* as voted by Asia Spa Baccarat Awards
www.theracha.com
InDULgE yOURSELF
t+l southeast asia
Throughout Southeast Asia SoutheaSt aSia
/ / /
Romance is in the air
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five eScapeS that aRe peRfect foR two
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a weekend away from the casinos
February 2012
state of bliss
LuxuRy SpaS that cateR to coupLeS
rajasthan Stylish camps in the desert
cambodia
SigHTS & SMellS of a naTion on THe Mend
f e brua ry 2012
Singapore S$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
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insider room report of an established resort. A soft drink arrived instead of a glass of water. A straightforward spa booking was brusquely handled due to less-thanperfect English. At dinner, we were asked in a near-empty restaurant whether we’d mind a long wait since there were “too many guests.” But, staff was friendly and personable, so expect the rough edges to smooth out over time. the BeAch vIllA
Of the four room categories, the Beach villa offers excellent value thanks to its prime position on the resort’s broad, 400-meter stretch of soft, golden sand. The generously sized bedroom has a comfortable four-poster bed, stylish side lamps with folded-paper shades, and an in-built cupboard adorned with Vietnamese and Chinese objets. Adjacent is a modest living area outfitted with a cozy two-seater couch and desk-and-chair set. Both spaces open onto a private terrace that looks directly out to the beach. Sliding doors lead from the living area to the expansive stoneclad bathroom, where bathing options span a standalone claw-foot tub, a glass-partitioned rain shower and a private outdoor shower.
SeASIDe Allure from top: the resort’s sea-facing grounds;
a spacious patio at the Pool villa; sunrise in the lobby.
courtesy of ana mandara hue (3)
the AMenItIeS
The resort has free Wi-Fi throughout. For those without a laptop, a basic business center houses two computers with Internet access. The two restaurants are fine for a casual lunch but lack atmosphere in the evening; your best bet is the beach-facing terrace, though if you have romance in mind, the resort offers private dining at an extremely affordable price (from US$55 per person)—couples can dine beachside under the stars, with personal butler service and a choice of international fare or Hue imperial cuisine. In the daytime, beachside lounge chairs shaded by thatched-roof shades are perfect for relaxing to the sound of gently lapping waves. A central lagoonshaped pool, complete with cabana-style bar, makes for a pleasant alternative to a dip in the sea. the SpA
A tranquil water garden forms the center of La Cochinchine Spa, set next to the resort’s entrance. Treatments range from seaweed body scrubs to Swedish and Thai massages. We opted for the locally inspired Vietnamese Balancing treatment— tension-releasing massage incorporating warmed suction cups. ✚ travelandleisureasia.com | february 2012 47
insider romantic getaways
the trompe l’oeil lobby at la maison Champs Élysées.
paris
ROMANTIC ESCAPES.
choose your getaway for two—whether it’s an intimate (and affordable) nook high up in the trees or a wilderness camp at the very end of the earth.
RooM to book
the Curiosity Case suite, for its all-black interiors (check out the feathered bedside lamp by nora de rudder).
bRIng It back
t-shirt, €180, by mm6 maison martin margiela (maisonmartin
48 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
doWnload thIs
located in the heart of the city’s Golden triangle, the 19thcentury exterior of la maison Champs Élysées blends seamlessly with the area’s classic Haussmann façades. but thanks to belgian fashion house maison martin margiela, what lies inside is an entirely different matter. for its first hotel project, margiela’s design team transformed the former residence of the duchess of rivoli into a Parisian piedà-terre with interiors that are both playful and provocative. this is not your standard love nest: in the lobby,
any of the Paris audio walking tours from soundwalk (sound walk.com; prices vary), an immersive, avant-garde way to see the sights.
tinted mirrors reflect the stark white lounge and a gothique cigar bar with dark-as-night walls. in the 17 guest rooms redesigned along various themes, one-off details like slipcovered sofas and honeycombshaped chairs mix with unfinished moldings and trompe l’oeil wallpaper. While more traditional comforts remain—including linens from Garnier thiebaut and goose-down duvets—the hotel’s balance of elegance and eccentricity turns conventional luxury into something entirely more chic.— l i n d s e y olander
8 Rue Jean Goujon, 8th Arr.; 33-1/40-74-64-65; lamaisonchampselysees. com; doubles from €330-€1230.
sedUctIon qUotIent (out of 10) cozy cUttIng-edge PRIvacy factoR
f r o m to p : Ja m e s m e r r e l l ; l a r s k lov e
foR the uRban soPhistiCate
foR the woRldly wandeReR
fez, morocco after 30 years spent scouring the globe for rare and exquisite objects, antiques collector michel biehn retreated to fez’s ancient medina to open a small hotel in a restored riad that once served as a pasha’s summer palace. the result: the highly curated le jardin des biehn, whose nine guest rooms are a whirl of textures and patterns. a crimson armoire from sichuan sits near a concubine’s chair from beijing; a wall-size uzbek tapestry sets off an 18th-century mirror from Persia. tying it all together are moorish architectural details, including a courtyard framed by moghul archways, walls overlaid with mosaic tiles and a garden that provides many of the ingredients for the hotel’s fez café. Hicham, one of the chefs, moonlights as a maker of leather babouches (from US$30), crafting them to order in hues
f r o m to p : a n g i e s m i t h ( 4 ) ; l a r s k lov e
cABInet Of curIOSItIeS
Clockwise from above: the courtyard garden; le Jardin des biehn’s favorite guest suite, with its latticed alcove; babouches, or traditional slippers, handmade by one of the hotel’s chefs; the Pasha suite.
RooM to book the favorite, featuring
a painted cedar ceiling and century-old velvet and satin yemeni wall hangings.
bRIng thIs
vinyl-and-leather tote, us$310, by marni (jeffreynewyork. com), for shopping expeditions in the souk.
don’t MIss
a champagne cocktail at riad fès’s l’alcazar bar (5 Derb Ben Slimane; 212-535/947-610; drinks for two US$40), the chicest bar in the medina.
ranging from ocher to pale blue. Guests are welcome to peruse the islamic textiles (from US$180) in biehn’s onsite gallery, where, for a price, you can begin your own collection. —l.o. 13 Akbat Sbaa, Douh; 212-6/6464-7679; jardindesbiehn.com; doubles from US$140– US$200.
3 moRe exotiC esCaPes 1 China naked stables Private Reserve moganshan; 86-216/4318901; nakedretreats.cn; doubles from us$410– us$460. 2 india syna tiger Resort bandhavgarh national Park; synatigerresort.com; doubles from us$115– us$290, all-inclusive. 3 malawi tongole wilderness lodge nkhotakota Wildlife Preserve; 44-20/81230301; tongole.com; from us$275–us$375 per person, all-inclusive.
sedUctIon qUotIent faMIlIaR faR-flUng PRIvacy factoR
travelandleisureasia.com | february 2012 49
insider romantic getaways
foR the seaside sybaRite
positano, italy
cAMerA-reADy
Clockwise from above: overlooking the bay of Positano; a frescoed wall adorned with a painted phrase added by artist Julian schnabel, a recent guest; the sunburst headboard in the Callas e tosca suite.
RooM to book the diaghilev suite, named for ballet russes founder and former guest sergey diaghilev and showcasing a tub with gold claw feet.
Pack thIs bonita swimsuit, us$148, by trina turk (trinaturk. com), for lounging movie-star-style by the shore.
50 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
don’t MIss the family-run Ristorante donna Rosa (97–99 Via Montepertuso, Positano; 39-089/811-806; dinner for two US$100), for house-made pasta dishes such as tagliatelle with truffles.
arbor, a prelude to meals that feel like elaborate dinner parties among friends. almost everywhere you look, the bay is before you—a backdrop as cinematic as any of zeffirelli’s movie masterpieces.— l . o . 30 Via Arienzo; 39089/812-2411; villatreville. it; doubles from €1,125.
3 MOre SeASIDe getAwAyS 1 mexiCo hotel Cinco 5 ave. anclote, Punta de mita; 52-329/291-5005; cincopuntamita.com; doubles from us$290– us$350. 2 miami beaCh thompson ocean drive 1144 ocean dr.; 1-305/779-8700; thompsonhotels.com; doubles from us$229– us$529. 3 thailand anantara Rasananda Koh Phangan 66-77/239-555; anantara.com; doubles from us$246–us$589.
sedUctIon qUotIent soPhIstIcated staR-stUdded PRIvacy factoR
c lo c kw i s e f r o m b ot to m : l a r s k lov e ; © a n d r e w Ja l b e rt / d r e a m st i m e .co m ; s a l ly g a l l ; f a b i a n c e v a l l o s / s y g m a / c o r b i s
amid terraced gardens laced with footpaths and spilling down toward the mediterranean, opera and film director franco zeffirelli created his private refuge: a seaside estate where he would entertain some of the biggest stars of stage and screen. zeffirelli’s former holiday retreat has since been turned into the 15-room villa tre ville, but some of the director’s own items remain, including the mother-of-pearl bedroom furniture he brought back from syria. the spacious suites, which have hosted such stars as maria callas, leonard bernstein and elizabeth taylor, meld original majolica floors with modern lamps and rain showers. from the property’s jetty, a wooden motorboat whisks guests to nearby amalfi coast beaches. at dusk limoncello cocktails are served under the vine-draped
the tree house at Camp Wandawega, built using salvaged materials by a team of Chicago artisans.
foR the natuRe loveR
f r o m to p : b o b co s c a r e l l i ; l a r s k lov e
elkhorn, wisconsin sleeping in a tree is a childhood fantasy, but the tree house at Camp wandawega doesn’t lack for grown-up appeal. built around the trunk of an old elm, the airy, three-level structure is stocked with sheepskin pillows and vintage Pendleton blankets and crowned with a chandelier of fallen antlers. the private library contains many 19th-century tomes, including a bird-watching guide from 1890 and a well-thumbed copy of moulton’s Library of Literary Criticism. the tree house is just the latest addition to
When to book the tree house fills up year-round with weddings and other events; reserve at least a month in advance.
Read thIs delve into the intricacies of The Private Lives of Birds (Walker & Company; US$25).
the retro-styled Wandawega, a 1920’s resort located 90 minutes from chicago and reimagined by a creative young couple. the mood is quaint; instead of tv’s, there are puzzles and an antique pool table. at day’s end, retreat to the sleeping loft, where three glass walls look out on pike-filled lake Wandawega and the purple martins and mourning doves that swoop overhead. —kathryn o’shea-evans
3 MOre ruStIc hIDeAwAyS 1 CalifoRnia the andiron 6051 n. Hwy. 1, little river; 1-707/9371543; theandiron.com; doubles from us$90– us$129. 2 PeRu hacienda Concepción wilderness lodge Puerto maldonado; 51-1/6100400; byinkaterra.com; doubles from us$580– us$640, all-inclusive, two-night minimum.
W5453 Lakeview Ave.; wandawegarentals.com; tree house from US$200 a night, two-night minimum.
on the agenda nostalgia-laden activities await at every turn, from archery and canoeing to fishing with antique rods and minnow buckets.
3 united Kingdom, fRanCe, sPain Canopy & stars 441275/395-447; canopy andstars.co.uk; doubles from us$85–us$100.
sedUctIon qUotIent chaRMIng chIc PRIvacy factoR
travelandleisureasia.com | february 2012 51
insider romantic getaways foR the adventuReR
antarctica if you’ve ever yearned to go to the ends of the earth for love, white desert—a company that guides luxury treks through the antarctic interior—makes the once-in-a-lifetime journey possible. a private plane jets you from cape town across the southern ocean to Whichaway camp, a solar- and wind-powered base of six fiberglass sleeping pods and three living-and-dining tents connected by sheltered passageways. founder and modern-
day explorer Patrick Woodhead (who first made the trek a century after ernest shackleton’s ill-fated 1904 attempt) will guide you through all manner of antarctic experiences, from kite skiing and ice climbing to visiting the 8,000 emperor penguins that colonize the nearby ekström ice shelf. the trip caters to a variety of interests and activity levels: one couple recently spent their time photographing ice waves, massive breakers frozen in
travel; 61-3/9473-2673; intrepidtravel.com; 16-day trips from us$1,780 per person.
a permanent swirl. still, there’s no shame in simply curling up in your pod, snugly outfitted with cowhide rugs as well as heaters trimmed in leather and brass. — k . o . e . 44-7740/423-571; whitedesert.com; November through January; from US$25,455 per person, all-inclusive.
3 MOre epIc ADventureS 1 CentRal asia mountain Kingdoms of Kyrgyzstan intrepid
2 Chile tierra Patagonia torres del Paine national Park; 56-2/263-0606; tierrapatagonia.com; from us$1,950 per person, all-inclusive, three-night minimum. 3 mongolia adventure mongolia nomadic expeditions; 976-11/313-396; nomadicexpeditions. com; 14-day trips from us$5,130 per person, all-inclusive.
need to knoW don’t forget to bring sunscreen and a sleep mask; during the months the trip is offered, the sun shines 24 hours a day.
Pack thIs ski mask–inspired sunglasses, us$290, by Prada (prada.com).
52 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
behInd the scenes White desert’s Patrick Woodhead is also a best-selling author of adventure thrillers; his latest, The Secret Chamber (Random House; US$11), is based on his recent expedition in the democratic republic of congo.
sedUctIon qUotIent adRenalIne RUsh aMbItIoUs PRIvacy factoR
f r o m to p : co u rt e sy o f w h i t e d e s e rt; co u rt e sy o f p r a da
White desert’s Whichaway Camp, the ultimate wilderness destination.
LUXURY VILLAS IN THAILAND From THB 65 Million
W: kohsamuiresidences.com E: richard@amburaya.com T: +66 (0) 77 425 080
Amburaya Residences (Koh Samui) Co., Ltd. Registered and paid up capital Baht 1,000,000. Registered address: 4/1 Moo 1, Tambol Maenam, Koh Samui, Suratthani 84320. Site location: on title deed numbers: 12757, 13188, 13529, 13530, 13531, 13614 and 13691. Project area: 26 Rai 3 Ngan 19.7 Sq. Wah. Presently mortgaged with Siam Commercial Bank Plc. Customers will pay the expense of the common areas according to the Sale and Purchase Agreement and/or regulations of the project. Bangkok contact: Tel. (0)2 253 4300 Fax. (0)2 254 2441. Samui contact: Tel. (0)7 724 5133 Fax. (0)7 742 7524. An Amburaya Residences (Koh Samui) Co., Ltd. project. The Residences at W Retreat Koh Samui are not owned, developed or sold by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., W International, Inc. or their affiliates. Amburaya Properties (Koh Samui) Co., Ltd. uses the W 速 trademarks and trade names under a license from W International, Inc.
stylish traveler
[st ]
bring it back
Bags By hand
in cambodia, a neW line of accessories blends traditional tecHniQue WitH style and function. by naomi lindt
courtesy of PusH Pull
where tO fInD It Push Pull designs are sold in siem reap at hôtel de la Paix (hoteldelapaixangkor.com), la Résidence d’angkor (residencedangkor.com) and amansara (amansara.com).
Cambodian ikat weaving was at its height in the mid 19th century, when the Thai king presented U.S. President Franklin Pierce with a piece of the handwoven, geometrically patterned Khmer fabric. Now, American-run Push Pull Cambodia (pushpullcambodia.com) is taking the traditional technique to new heights, working with more than 45 artisans in Takeo province to produce trend-right, high-fashion totes, clutches and pillows. The 29-year-old creative director, Leigh Morlock, who lives in Cambodia, is a big fan of this travel clutch (pictured). “I’m a nerd about being organized when I travel,” she says. “I love that the clutch is wide enough to fit my printed itinerary, boarding pass, passport and a few different kinds of currency. I also recently carried it at all of the Cambodian Fashion Week runway shows. I wanted something small and chic. It fit my phone, money, keys and lipstick.” The clutch (US$90) is available in four patterns, including a chartreuse-andemerald-green grid and a jagged pink, periwinkle and brown weave. ✚ travelandleisureasia.com | february 2012 55
[st] shopping outside grays antiques in london.
BRing it Back for me, a trip isn’t complete unless there is afterward something tiny and preferably sparkly in my possession. Of course, buying a new piece of jewelry is usually a wonderful experience, but when you go vintage, you are also purchasing a bit of that destination’s history, color and character—and isn’t that what the best souvenirs are all about? Since I’ve embarked on this path, I have acquired a 19th-century bracelet from Paris decorated with the word souvenir in gold script; a myriad of Victorian London lockets monogrammed for their long-departed owners; and a Grand Tour bracelet from Rome enhanced by minuscule micro-mosaics depicting views of the Eternal City. Another advantage: it’s usually possible to bargain even in the toniest shops.
56 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
courtesy of Jeffery Johnson / flickr.com
WHat maKes tHe Perfect souvenir? if you’re asKinG lynn yaegeR, vintaGe jeWelry. Here, tHe style Guru reveals Her Go-to sources around tHe World.
lynn’s addRess booK
c l o c k w i s e f r o m t o p : c o u r t e s y o f J o e l t o n & o l ly g e r r i s h a t g r a y s a n t i q u e s ; e m i ly m o t t ; c o u r t e s y o f l a n g a n t i q u e s ; c o u r t e s y o f J o e l t o n & o l ly g e r r i s h a t g r a y s a n t i q u e s ; c o u r t e s y o f d e k k e r a n t i q u a i r s
AMSterDAM a number of antique jewelry stores line spiegelgracht. you should window-shop at them all, and then stop in at dekker antiquairs (9 Spiegelgracht; 31-20/623-8992). it’s a favorite of model lara stone’s; she recently bought four pieces— including a victorian diamond bracelet—in about as many minutes.
fAvOrIte fInDS
Clockwise from top: a victorian silverchain necklace from grays antiques, in london; a display of 20th-century silver brooches at grays; a circa-1930 platinum ring with diamonds and sapphire from lang antiques; a jade art deco ring from grays. Center: a 19th-century tortoise, diamond and pearl hairpin found at dekker antiquairs in amsterdam.
IStAnBul the Grand bazaar’s winding passages have proved to be a challenge for centuries—be careful, or your path may be littered with attractive but worthless reproductions. to avoid this peril, head for mavi Köşe (No. 11, Bedesten section; 90-212/519-0686), where Grace Kelly would shop for such items as rose-diamond drop earrings and vintage timepieces. lOnDOn no trip to london is complete without a visit to grays antiques (58 Davies St. and 1-7 Davies Mews; 44-20/7629-7034), with two levels worth of dealers in the West end. be sure to venture downstairs, where jo elton and olly Gerrish sell glass serpents and japanese agate bracelets. new yOrK amid the roughand-tumble diamond district, steven herdemian (78 W. 47th St.; 1-212/944-2534) is a haven of calm. His booth is laden with antique diamond rings; Herdemian can also suggest surprisingly affordable art nouveau brooches (from US$350). pArIS dary’s (362 Rue St.-Honoré, First Arr.;
33-1/42-60-95-23) is divided in two sections that have been enticing flaneurs since 1932. one features silver bracelets and paste brooches; the other, more rarefied— though not entirely out-of-reach—treasures, including a pair of mine-cut diamond pins for less than €540. StOcKhOlM indulge a taste for midcentury works at jacksons (53 Sibyllegatan; 46-8/6653350), where signed scandinavian pieces like a circa-1974 silver björn Weckström pendant are displayed next to aalto furniture. SAn frAncIScO in contrast to san fran’s bohemian side, the bauble-bedecked windows at lang antiques (323 Sutter St.; 1-415/982-2213) will transport you to a more elegant era. though a 1929 cartier diamond necklace might exceed most budgets, there are also turn-of-the-century silver stickpins and other less expensive treats. tAngIer, MOrOccO deep within the medina, boutique majid (66 Rue Les Almouhads; 212-539/938-893) stocks historic indigenous furniture and objets d’art (armoires; birdcages) alongside antique berber jewelry. a huge silver hamsa hand dangles from a pendant, while amber and coral beads cry out to be worn layered. venIce long before vampires cluttered the cultural landscape, Codognato (1295 San Marco; 39-041/522-5042) was specializing in jewelry with a vaguely sinister air. rochas designer marco zanini sports one of its hard stone skull rings—it’s the envy of the fashion world. ✚
travelandleisureasia.com | february 2012 57
[st] spotlight Prabal GurunG may be neW yorK’s latest fasHion darlinG, but WHen He needs to recHarGe and reconnect WitH Himself, nePal is His destination of cHoice. by mahima shuKla
guRung’s toP sPots
Kathmandu’s Patan darbar square.
rOADhOuSe cAfé When craving “some delicious european fare,” Gurung goes to roadhouse café at the arcadia apartment Hotel, where the pizzas from their woodfire oven are a big draw. the espresso is good, too. Chaksibari Marg, Arcadia Building; 977-1/426-7885; arcadianepal.com.
fashion designer Prabal gurung.
asian Roots
a glimpse of the Himalayas. right: terraces at nagarkot.
58 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
the courtyard at the Hyatt regency Kathmandu.
hyAtt regency, KAthMAnDu Gurung frequents this 280-room, newari-style hotel, located a short walk from the boudhanath stupa. “it is one of my favorite hotels in the world,” he says. Taragaon, Boudha; 977-1/4491234; kathmandu. regency.hyatt.com. gArDen Of DreAMS “the neoclassical garden was built in the 1920’s, along the lines of an edwardian garden,” Gurung says. the restored swapna bagaicha, or Garden of dreams, is a peaceful enclave in a bustling city, featuring fountains, urns and balustrades. Kaiser Mahal, Tridevi Marg; 977-1/442-5340; gardenofdreams. org.np.
JArDIn reStAurAnt according to Gurung, jardin restaurant is “one of the best fusion, fine-dining restaurants in Kathmandu.” the chefs are swiss-trained, and the menu has touches from thailand, parts of Peru, japan and elsewhere. the outdoor seating features a scenic garden. Dhobighat, Lalitpur-3.
inside the garden of dreams, Kathmandu.
c lo c kw i s e f r o m to p l e f t: © d i m i t r i o s k a m b o u r i s / a f p/g e t t y; k a s h i s h s h r e s t h a ; a m i t s h a r m a ( 2 ) ; k a s h i s h s h r e s h t h a ( 2 ) ; © c h r i s m c g r at h / a f p/ g e t t y
a look by gurung from the swarovski fashion show at the audi fashion festival singapore 2011.
“When I’m in Nepal it always feels as though time stands still,” says Prabal Gurung. The Singapore-born, Nepali designer has been a success story in the fashion world since the launch of his first collection in 2009. Hollywood heavy-hitters like Demi Moore and Oprah Winfrey, as well as First Lady Michelle Obama, have all worn his outfits, which are marked by elegant drapes and the pairing of bold, monochromatic fabrics— touches that have their source in Nepal, where Gurung’s family resides. “Time and again, I am inspired by the colors, the drape and the nuances of my home,” he says. “From the landscape and architecture that dates back 1,000 years to the simplicity of day-to-day life, Nepal is the place where I really stop and reflect.” But it’s not just the natural vistas and tradition that Gurung loves about his hometown. It is also the squares, restaurants, cafés and gardens. He recommends Patan Durbar Square and Nagarkot as top places to see in Kathmandu—and, of course, an organized trek to Mount Everest by Tiger Top Resort. ✚
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2012 cruisinG report GleaminG new ports, state-of-the-art cabins, short-term proGramminG— whether you’re a first-time passenGer or a veteran of the hiGh seas, t+l has mapped out everythinG you need to know for your next voyaGe.
J E R E M Y KO H M /2 0 x 2 0 0.CO M
reported by lisa cheng and jane wooldridge
With only a handful of ships debuting this year, 2012 might seem the time for a land vacation. It’s not. Most cruise lines have made use of the economic slowdown to take older ships into dry dock, such as Crystal Cruises’ Serenity and Windstar’s Surf, Spirit, and Star vessels, adding suites and amenities that had previously only been found on their newest liners. What that means for passengers: the freshest Illustrated by MCKIBILLO
cabins and the greatest variety of onboard entertainment in cruising history. And even if being out at sea for weeks at a stretch isn't a possibility, shorter river cruises in major European and Southeast Asian destinations are a perfect introduction for first timers. What makes all these upgrades even sweeter is that prices have virtually remained the same. Indeed, cruising this year may well offer the
best value ever. True, chef’s tables and other individualized experiences come with a hefty price tag. But even the most luxurious lines regularly offer discounts or 2-for-1 fares for advance bookings more than nine months out. When you compare the cost of a cruise today with that of 15 years ago, it’s usually the same or less—and you get a lot more. For some travelers, going to sea is more economical than staying home. travelandleisureasia.com | february 2012 61
strategies CRUISE REPORT Uniworld’s River Ambassador on the Rhine River.
river cruising
touring the waterways is one of the fastest-growing trends in cruising. below, five itineraries for every type of traveler. best for
...foodies
...amateur historians
...culture aficionados
itinerary
Tauck’s 10-day a taste of france itinerary, departing from Paris with stops in lyons, arles and avignon on the Swiss Emerald.
a 13-day Waterways of the czars tour by Viking River Cruises, from st. Petersburg to moscow, on four of viking’s russiabased ships.
hiGhliGhts
a gourmand’s tour of the rhône valley, including a cooking class at alain ducasse’s École de cuisine, in Paris, and a visit to avignon’s les Halles, a traditional Provençal food market, accompanied by local chefs.
details
1-203/899-6500; tauck.com; from us$5,390 per person, double.
...temple buffs
...adventurers
Uniworld’s eightday Gems of Germany, belgium and the netherlands on the River Ambassador.
the 14-day fascinating vietnam, cambodia and the mekong river from Avalon Waterways, on the new Avalon Angkor.
AmaWaterways’ 14-day stars of africa expedition, with a cruise on botswana’s chobe river on the Zambezi Queen and land tours in south africa.
a tour of the Hermitage’s 33,200-squaremeter storage facility (including the romanovs’ imperial carriage collection), usually off-limits to the public; onboard arias performed by mariinsky theater musicians.
calls at cologne, antwerp and maastricht; a visit to see 65 hectares of bursting blooms at the decennial floriade horticultural expo, running between april and october in venlo, in the netherlands.
access to vietnam and cambodia’s remotest villages, as well as one-ofa-kind experiences including a water blessing by buddhist monks at cambodia’s Wat Hanchey, on a hilltop overlooking the stupa-studded countryside.
excursions through chobe and Kruger national parks and victoria falls; a picnic in a rustic tent on the banks of the chobe river, which is full of bathing hippos.
49-221/258-6209; vikingrivercruises. com; from us$3,746 per person, double.
1-818/382-7820; uniworld.com; from us$2,399 per person, double.
avalonwaterways. com; from us$3,819 per person, double.
1-818/428-6198; amawaterways.com; from us$8,995 per person, double.
new programming
celebrity chef The only thing better than having a Jacques Pépin restaurant on the Oceania Marina? Inviting the chef himself aboard. The May 12 Tuscan Artistry cruise, which sails between Barcelona and Rome, will feature the seasoned chef in a series of classes and hands-on demos.
political debates Want to keep au courant? Crystal Cruises is launching political powwows on six cruises this year. The first, on the March 31 Ocean View sailing, features a debate on world events with powerhouse couple James Carville and Mary Matalin, and General Hugh Shelton.
62 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
fitness proGrams Shape up or ship out? Celebrity’s enhanced wellness programs have a new roster of fitness classes and healthfocused activities such as demos on how to make low-cal cocktails.
shore excursions A cruise is just as much about the destination as the journey, so Silversea Cruises is expanding its overnight shore excursions: now you can view sand dunes from Namibia’s Sossusvlei Desert Lodge or climb up to Lhasa, Tibet’s Potala Palace.
entertainment Carnival Cruise Lines’ Fun Ship 2.0 initiative—a US$500 million investment in fleetwide enhancements by 2015—will roll out this year on the Carnival Breeze and the Carnival Dream. Comedian George Lopez will revamp shipboard comedy clubs and DJ Irie will hone talent at his Spin’iversity.
COURTESY Of UnIwORld
the last thing you’ll need to worry about is cabin fever, thanks to a host of fresh activities on shore and at sea.
strategies CRUISE REPORT
short asian cruises
Haven’t got fourteen days to spend on a boat? or the budget to fly to a faraway port? luckily there are plenty of cruise options closer to home, and many of them well under a week long. vietnam exploring Halong bay isn’t particularly groundbreaking, but aboard the Emeraude—which combines colonial decor touches like brass fans, beadboard walls and hardwood floors with hotel luxuries like air-conditioning, en-suite bathrooms and a spa—views of the bay’s enormous karst formations come with onboard cooking classes, numerous excursions to caves and fishing villages and activities like kayaking and rock climbing. choose from the one-night or
The Orient Express in Burma.
port news
not sure where to set sail in 2012? read on for a snapshot of the most anticipated port developments around the globe. rio de janeiro As all eyes turn to Rio for the World Cup (and the 2012 UN Earth Summit and 2016 Olympics), the city is investing millions of reals into the existing Pier Maua, which will allow cruise passengers to visit nearby sites such as the Santiago Calatrava– designed Museum of Tomorrow.
le havre, france A longtime gateway to Paris, Le Havre has become more than just a place of passage, thanks to a thriving cultural scene—including the Musée d’Art Moderne André Malraux and Jean Nouvel’s Les Bains des Docks swimming complex.
64 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
sinGapore This city-state is a must for many Asia-bound travelers thanks to its concert hall, gleaming new hotels and resorts (Fullerton Bay Hotel; Marina Bay Sands), and dynamic food scene. A new terminal opening in mid 2012 will double ship capacity, making it easier than ever to visit.
trujillo, honduras
falmouth, jamaica
When it debuts later this year, this cobblestoned colonial settlement will be Honduras’s first mainland port, giving cruisers access to the lush Banana Coast’s Capiro-Calentura mountain preserve and the new Campo del Mar monkey sanctuary.
To accommodate its Oasis-class mega-liners, Royal Caribbean (in partnership with the country’s port authority) opened Jamaica’s fourth cruise port in this charming 18th-century trading town between Montego Bay and Ocho Rios.
london The 2012 Olympic host plans to be ready for the crowds when it opens a terminal closer to central London. The port will be part of a larger refurbishment of the historic Enderby Wharf, which will include a 251-room hotel and public square on the Thames.
cruising à la carte
Cruisers on Halong Bay.
if the cost of that cruise looks like a steal, read the fine print: if it’s not all-inclusive, some fees might surprise you. We did the math to show you how they can really add up. base price seven-day eastern caribbean cruise in an ocean-view US$851 cabin extras unlimited soft drink pass US$30
Orion Expedition Cruises in Sabah.
C lO C Kw I S R f R O M l E f T: CO U RT E SY O f T H E O R I E n T E x P R E SS ; COURTESY Of EMERaUdE; COURTESY Of ORIOn ExPEdITIOn CRUISES
two-night itinerary. emeraude-cruises.com; doubles from US$149. india a unesco World Heritage site and the world’s largest mangrove ecosystem, the sundarbans are packed with kingfishers, herons, estuarine crocodiles and the elusive sundarban tiger. Vivada Cruises does cruises ranging from three to seven nights. trips originate in Kolkata, and include visits to local villages, guided walks through mangrove forests and excursions to wildlife watchtowers. While the cruiser is better defined as deluxe rather than luxury, it has a sun deck, basic spa facilities and air-conditioned, riverfacing cabins. sunderbancruises.com; doubles from Rs40,500 per person for a three-night cruise. burma more than just luxury travel by train, The Orient Express also does short cruises up and down the irrawaddy river on its riverboat The Road to Mandalay. travel either between mandalay and the trading post of bhamo, famed for its bustling market and mountainous location, or mandalay and bagan, home to over 5,000 temples and pagodas built by the buddhist kings of the 11th and 12th centuries. cozier than an ocean-liner, the ship nevertheless contains colonialthemed cabins, a restaurant and bar and a wellness floor with fitness machines and aromatherapy treatments. cruises range from three nights to 11 nights. orientexpress.com; doubles from US$2,400 for a three-night cruise.
malaysia mangrove-lined riverbanks, coral-fringed islands and cascading rapids are just some of the natural scenery promised aboard the orion ii, which trails the coastline and part of the Kinabatangan river in eastern malaysia’s sabah. operated by australian outfitter Orion Expedition Cruises, the luxurious 88-meter vessel was given an extensive overhaul in 2009 and now boasts 50 staterooms, starting from a comfy 20 square meters. shore excursions on the Zodiac small boats are a delight, delving into the borneo rainforest for encounters with the indigenous rungus tribes, orangutans and the rare pygmy elephant. orionexpeditions.com; doubles from A$7,335 for a 10-night cruise. china at 91 meters, the 62-cabin Yangzi Explorer is much more modest than the colossal liners plying the three Gorges region of the yangtze river. its high staff-to-guest ratio (130 crew members to 124 passengers) assures an intimate cruising experience, while comfy beigeand-white suites, each measuring upwards of 26 square meters, feature private balconies. sailing between chongqing and yichang, the 600-kilometer journey offers arresting vistas of the area’s geographical marvels—the towering, mist-topped cliffs look like replicas from chinese scroll paintings; and even crossing the 181-meter high, 2.3-kilometer-long three Gorges dam, which remains a controversial project, is impressive. yangziexplorer.org; doubles from US$1,400 for a three-night downstream cruise.
cover charge at a specialty dining venue US$31 nightly glass of wine US$52 after-dinner cappuccino U S$2.41 snorkeling excursion
US$52
Premium shore excursion US$148 60-minute massage
US$119
spin class
US$10
day pass to the spa suites US$24 two poolside daiquiris US$13 Wine-tasting session US$28 cooking class US$38 behind-the-scenes ship tour US$94 45 minutes of internet use US$40 two hours of babysitting US$12 dry-cleaning of a shirt US$4.49 suggested gratuities total
US$85
us$1,633.90
*Prices averaged from applicable services on seven leading cruise lines.
bottom line
these extras can nearly double the cost of the cruise.
travelandleisureasia.com | february 2012 65
traveler
websites, apps, tech gear, e-advice and more
Trend of the Month
Each site has its own edge: MileBlaster is particularly good at tracking your miles and alerting you whenever your points are about to expire, while AwardWallet provides users with a convenient wallet-size card listing all of their loyalty numbers. We like TripIt’s iPhone- and iPad-optimized apps, which let you access your details on the fly. New to the space, MileWise aims to solve the age-old dilemma of whether you should buy that last-minute ticket to Bali using cash, miles or points. It delivers flight search results in all three “currencies” and tells you which itinerary promises the best value—and why. There’s just one downside. At press time, it didn’t feature American Airlines. (But we’re told it has plans to incorporate them soon.) Travelers can also find more comprehensive listings for cashversus-points searches on PointHub, which also offers PointFinder, a personalized feature that makes sure to inform you of any additional perks given by airlines such as extra points or even upgrades on a particular route. — t om s a m i l ja n
mileaGe counters Staying on top of your many mileage, hotel and rental-car programs is one of the biggest headaches for frequent travelers. Ditto figuring out whether or not you’ve accumulated enough points to book a first-class ticket for your next big getaway. Luckily, online mileage trackers have stepped in to help, letting travelers input their various member ID’s and passwords to consolidate all of their programs in one place. Besides displaying your latest balances, these services also notify you of all upcoming expiration dates, which is essential for keeping (and amassing more!) points.
innovator Jim Lanahan
WHO HE IS
When online custom book publisher Blurb wanted to build its mobile division, it tapped Jim Lanahan, a former photojournalist and early adopter of digital photography, for the job. Lanahan had previously helped to develop Apple’s original digital photography strategy in the early 1990’s, playing a big part in making it the go-to company for graphic designers and photographers.
t+l picks: resources for the road
1
the touch-screen face on the Phosphor World Time Sport watch (US$99; phosphorwatches.com) lets you easily toggle between time zones when you’re on the go.
2
the slim, sleek, gunmetal-gray Tumi wireless keyboard (US$125; tumi.com) is perfect for travelers who occasionally need the real deal, not a touch screen.
66 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
3
4
eliminate that pesky leave your iPad at the cord with the securehotel, with Griffin’s fit, sweat-resistant TechSafe Case JayBird Freedom (US$80; griffin Bluetooth technology.com). Headphones its locking steel cable (US$99; lets you tether it to jaybirdgear.com). something secure.
blurb mobile (free) is an app that lets iPhone and iPad users create beautifully packaged picture-andvideo slideshows, then instantly share them not only with other Blurb Mobile users, but also on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Tumblr—all in just a handful of simple steps. How simple? Lanahan’s 81-year-old father quickly mastered it, so he could share his travel photos on the fly. Illustrated by Leif Parsons
f R O M l E f T: CO U RT E SY O f P H OS P H O R ; CO U RT E SY O f T U M I ; J aY b I R d ; g R I f f I n T E C H n O l O g Y ; C O U R T E S Y O f J I M l a n a H a n
HIS BIg IdEA
G E T A W AY T O I T A L L Time for the two of you to leave the everyday stresses behind and head for somewhere that will bring a little romance back into your lives. Somewhere far away from it all, yet which provides everything you desire. Somewhere like a luxurious villa or suite on a small island in the Indian Ocean, with white sand and blue sea, and all the time in the world to be together. Somewhere with a sumptuous spa where the two of you can relax in a private suite, somewhere with wonderful restaurants and a fun nightlife. We know just the place.
Cen tara G ran d island resort & spa maldives Centara Grand Island, South Ari Atoll Republic of Maldives Contact Reservation Centre
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smarttraveler
the inS and outS of modern travel
So you’ve done the beachside yoga retreat and the weeklong fast with colonic irrigation, and you’re still in search of the healthier you. Ever consider an elephant trek followed by a yoga class in the jungle? Or an Ayurveda course with lectures by licensed doctors and a tour of a traditional medicine factory? There’s even a getaway that combines yoga, Balinese healing ceremonies and a bit of pottery (yes, believe it or not, you read that correctly the first time). Getting healthy has never seemed more complicated. As more travelers seek something more from their holiday than a bit of sun and a massage, wellness packages and health-focused resorts have mushroomed across Asia. The offerings mentioned above—available at Anantara Golden Triangle in northern Thailand, Heritance Maha Gedara in Sri Lanka, and Bali’s Fivelements, respectively—are just a small taste of what’s out there today. With straightforward spa treatments, travelers have become a lot savvier. “People know the difference between a bad massage and a good one,” remarks Monica Barter, the group operations director of COMO Shambhala, the Singaporebased company that runs an acclaimed luxury retreat in Bali. But even industry players admit that the ever-expanding array of stress-reducing/liferenewing programs can be bewildering. To help pick the right wellness holiday for you, we turned to a couple of experts for tips.
choosinG wellness
YOga wORKSHOPS, JUICE dETOxES, MEdITaTIOn RETREaTS—HOw dO YOU KnOw wHICH HEalTH-fOCUSEd vaCaTIOn IS RIgHT fOR YOU? BY JENNIFER CHEN
68 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
1 know thyself Choosing a wellness holiday is a very personal decision, says Karina Stewart, one of the founders of Kamalaya resort on Koh Samui. A fit twentysomething yoga enthusiast obviously has different needs than a chainsmoking, burned-out fortysomething executive. So it’s key to closely examine your eating habits, fitness, stress levels and overall state of health. “Think of it as a roadmap—you can’t go on a journey without one,” says Stewart. Other questions to consider include whether you’ve been getting enough sleep and what the sources of stress are in your life. Try to be as Illustrated by Wasinee Chantakorn
honest as possible, Stewart says—denial comes easily for many when it comes to their health. 2 set specific Goals Lose two kilos? Stop smoking? Improve your diet? Learn a new sport? Knowing exactly what you want to achieve helps winnow down your choices. And picking the most suitable regime is more likely to lead to a deeper sense of accomplishment at the end. 3 location, location, location Unless you want to combine a cleanse with carousing, it’s probably best to look at resorts that are far from the action. “There’s nothing worse than doing a yoga retreat on a beach with a busy bar scene,” says Stewart. So instead of yoga on Koh Phi Phi, consider the Yoga Detox program at Ananda Spa near the Himalayan foothills of northern India.
with a phone call with a consultant. Barter notes that any reputable retreat should offer this service. As with any health consultation, there may be a lot of questions, so don’t call when you’re pressed for time. If you have a chronic condition or have had a serious illness, check in with your doctor. 5 check credentials A wellness holiday is a serious investment, both of money and time, thus thorough research is wise. “You have to be very discerning,” says Stewart, who urges travelers to take a close look at a resort’s team of instructors and practitioners as well as the cuisine on offer. Any retreat worth its salt—think of standardbearers such as Sri Lanka’s Heritance Ayurveda Maha Gedra, or the long-popular Chiva Som in Hua Hin, Thailand—will provide information on its practitioners. ✚
4 consult with an expert Still unsure of what’s best for you? At Kamalaya and COMO Shambhala Estate in Bali, bookings often start
gET THE gUIdE for more ideas and recommendations on Wellness retreats around soutHeast asia, Go to travelandleisureasia.com
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February 2012
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Stylish in the desert
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Real au Mweac ekend away
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journal
travel topicS in depth, vivid viSualS and more
At Flow, the emphasis is on all things fine.
SaTEd In SaIgOn
sure, streetside noodle stalls still dot tHe sideWalKs, but NAOMI LINdT discovers a WHole otHer World of dininG oPtions, some of WHicH Will surPrise you and your tastebuds. PHOTOgRAPHEd BY CHRISTOPHER WISE
travelandleisureasia.com | february 2012 71
journal fOOd
city with a twist Clockwise from above: Shri offers 360-degree views of Saigon from 23 floors above; outside tables at the restaurant are the ones to book; El Gaucho is the spot for meat lovers.
f
or gourmands, it is easy to stay infinitely satiated in Ho Chi Minh City from morning till night. Whether it’s an early morning bowl of freshly barbecued pork served over noodles and heaps of herbs cooked up by a street vendor or a decadent, multi-course French meal rendered by a renowned chef and served in the most refined of surroundings, gastronomic pleasures in the city abound. And now, a host of new eateries, whose offerings span the globe from Naples to Argentina, are drawing on the city’s entrepreneurial, cosmopolitan roots more than ever. Like so much in the city these days, it’s impossible to keep up with all the hottest spots, so we’ve gathered a list of the best new openings to tempt your palate.
FLOW Housed in a renovated warehouse along a quiet side street of bustling District One, French-managed Flow brings together many of life’s pleasures—fine food, fine art, fine wines. The 28-year-old, classically trained Vietnamese chef at the helm, Hung Nguyen, brings a youthful, contemporary approach to his France-meets-Vietnam menu, with dishes like seared lamb served with diced black olives, truffles and bitter, spicy la lot leaves, and a pho-inspired beef consommé accompanied by market-fresh tiger prawns from Phu Quoc. 72 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
the 200-plus selection of Old and New World wines, handpicked by general manager and sommelier Ashley Nichols, who trained at London’s Michelin-starred Chez Bruce. 72-74 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai; 84-8/3827-9631; shri.vn; dinner for two VND1,200,000.
CUC gACH QUAN While many of Saigon’s new eateries channel contemporary spaces in cities like Bangkok or Singapore, Cuc Gach Quan is Strawberry parfait at the Franco-Vietnamese refreshingly old school. Architect Tran Binh Flow, left. Above: Tuna carpaccio with tomatoes, designed the multi-storied eatery in an old olives, frisée and poached quail eggs at Shri. French colonial villa in a remote corner of District One to look and feel like his grandmother’s home in the countryside, with mismatched There’s also an array of traditional homemade pastas with wooden tables, vintage dishes and rickety bookcases. ingredients like goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes, and Apparently, his nostalgia for the past is striking a chord for decadent desserts—strawberry mascarpone served in a many a Saigonese, judging by the packed tables and bustling cocktail glass; pannacotta with an espresso reduction. The atmosphere every night. Reservations are essential, as industrial-chic surroundings are similarly lavish yet are recommendations from the waitstaff considering the unconventional, with concrete floors, red and black velvet mammoth menu, which features page upon page of classic seating, and a long white marble bar backed by dozens of Vietnamese home cooking (there are more than 30 types bottles of wine. Walls serve as an art gallery for the colorful, of vegetables alone). First-time diners should sample the Asia-inspired paintings of Hélène Kling, an artist who has lived in Vietnam since 1996. 88 Ho Tung Mau; 84-8/ 3915-3691; excellent, silky homemade tofu, crispy seabass topped with a tangy passion fruit sauce and the caramelized pork in clay flowsaigon.com; dinner for two VND1,000,000. pot, which melts in your mouth. Newly opened sister restaurant Cuc Gach Café, modeled on a 1970's Vietnamese home, is a popular spot for its set lunch, which changes daily. SHRI 10 Dang Tat; 84-8/3848-0144; dinner for two VND600,000; Cuc Gach Café, 79 Phan Ke Binh, 84-8/3911-0120. With a name like Shri—a Hindu word for god or illumination—this restaurant and lounge certainly set its ambitions high when it opened two years ago atop the MAM SON Centec Tower in District Three. From its perch on the 23rd floor and the commanding, 360-degree views of Saigon’s Grandma’s home cooking is also the theme at this charming, twinkling cityscape from the white linen–clad dining two-story restaurant along a narrow shopping street in room and frangipani-lined outdoor terrace, Shri doesn’t District One. Opened by brother and sister Ngoc Tu and Tuan disappoint. The uber-sophisticated setting is matched with Giang, Mam Son, whose name refers to the traditional red » an equally urbane menu, whose contemporary European treasures include a 200-gram Wagyu beef tenderloin accompanied by seasonal vegetables and a choice of eight sauces ranging from horseradish cream to wild mushroom; a sea bass wrapped in Serrano ham with olive oil mash and gremolata; and a pepper duck breast served with gratin dauphinois. There’s also a number of simple yet creative dishes for smaller appetites, like a roast lamb and arugula salad or a papardelle pasta with sun-dried tomatoes and ricotta cheese. Everything simply shines here, from the gorgeously presented meals to the sparkling glassware to
cuc gach Quan’s nostalgic theme is striking a chord for many a Saigonese, judging by the packed tables
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journal fOOd lacquer tray introduced during Tet, focuses on Hanoian cuisine—the softer, more delicate, fresh-herb reliant cousin to the more pungent dishes of the south. In a renovated colonial shop house and surrounded by mustard-yellow walls, ornate colonial tiles and cherry-red silk lamps, diners are served an artfully presented array of Northern dishes in an Old World setting. Fresh, hand-wrapped Hanoi spring rolls are stuffed with cilantro, chive, shrimp and pork and served with a nuoc mam dipping sauce, while the signature dish, cha ca—grilled fish—is topped with dill, spring onion, peanuts and shrimp sauce. A bowl of the bun rieu cua—pounded crabs collected from rice fields served with crab roe and a tomato-based broth—will make you feel like you’re slurping away in the heart of Hanoi. 35 Ton That Hiep; 84-8/3915-3653; dinner for two VND500,000.
EL gAUCHO SAIgON A successful brand with outlets around the world, El Gaucho’s concept is not new, but the quality of meats that the new Saigon outlet has brought to the city certainly is. It’s a must for any meatlover seeking that perfect cut of beef or lamb. Since amiable, chatty brothers Nathan and Dini Himi opened El Gaucho in March across from the Park Hyatt, the place has quickly become an expat favorite. Regulars cite the restaurant’s warm, welcoming ambiance—exposed brick walls, dark brown leather booths, mismatched wooden chairs and tables, exposed steel beams, black-and-white photos on the walls, stellar service, which is carried out by an experienced team of vietnam’s Global tastes From
top left: El Gaucho is based on an Argentine steak house; crispy duck and sour bamboo shoot salad at Mam Son; Pizza 4P’s oven; one of the eatery’s wood-fired pizzas.
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servers from around the world. Along with excellent food and wine, of course, it’s winning combination that merits repeat visits. Though the place is themed on a contemporary Argentine steak house with features like a handmade charcoal grill, prime cuts are imported from Australia and the U.S., with the American prime rib being a house specialty (be sure to check out the huge cuts of meat displayed like fine pastries on the ground floor). There are nearly 60 vintages from around the world on offer here, which can be enjoyed at one of the candle-lit tables or at the large, wood-and-steel bar paired with an order of beef carpaccio or wild mushroom empanadas. An outlet in Hanoi just opened and a Hoi An location opens later this year. 5D Nguyen Sieu, 84-8/3825-1879; dinner for two VND1,500,000.
PIzzA 4P’S Thirty-three-year-old Yosuke Masuko left a job as a venture capitalist in IT to pursue his great passion: handmade, wood-fired pizza. He opened Pizza 4P’s down a quaint alley off of Le Thanh Ton in October, the culmination of an obsession that’s included pizza-themed trips to Naples and building stone ovens for sport back in his native Japan. The restaurant’s sleek quarters are chic yet cozy, with stone block walls, pale grey wooden floors and aubergine-hued accents. Naturally, a grand pizza oven stands front and center, where guests gather around a circular, marble table and watch the red Ray Ban-wearing Japanese chef, Yoshi, create his masterpieces. Classic renditions like the addictive margarita are topped with the homemade buffalo mozzarella, while gutsier versions might feature local specialties like edible flowers or Japanese flourishes like teriyaki chicken. Not only are the pies to die for, but the concept here is pretty neat, too: the restaurant’s name stands for “Platform of Personal Pizza for Peace,” conveying Masuko’s intention to educate his patrons about healthy food as a social platform. Every month a contest is held for a new pizza recipe, with the winning entry becoming a permanent item on the restaurant’s ever-growing menu. 8/15 Le Thanh Ton; 84-8/3822-9838; pizza4ps.com; dinner for two VND700,000.
Bobby chinn Saigon will feature small plates inspired by chinn’s travels throughout asia and beyond
Nostalgic touches at Mam Son, above. Right: A touch of Hanoi at the restaurant.
BOBBY CHINN SAIgON This month sees the long-awaited grand opening of Bobby Chinn Saigon, the second installation of the acclaimed TV personality and celebrity chef’s eponymous restaurants. In a moody, dimly lit space hung with contemporary Vietnamese art and draped in silk, the menu will feature small plates inspired by Chinn’s travels throughout Asia and beyond: Moroccan bisteeya (braised squab wrapped in crispy almondscented rice paper), sticky rice dumplings filled with mung bean puree, green tea smoked duck with pomegranate duck au jus, filet mignon spring rolls. Customized tasting menus will also be available. Sustainability is a priority at Chinn’s new restaurant, with organic produce and onsite purified water to minimize the use of plastic bottles. Kumho Asiana Plaza Saigon, 39 Le Duan St.; 84-8/6291-7788; bobbychinn.com; dinner for two VND1,500,000. ✚ travelandleisureasia.com | february 2012 75
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THE REal wORld
l
ast fall, the New Jersey defamation league that’s driving much of recent cable television sent several of its members on a mission overseas. When The Real Housewives of New Jersey began a two-episode trip to sunny Punta Cana, its Soprano-manqué cast hit the Dominican Republic running. First, airport personnel came scurrying to remove housewife Jacqueline Laurita, teetering on high heels after an in-flight happy hour, from a
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baggage carousel she had mounted to search for a loudly lamented “one missing luggage.” Then, for the short trip to the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana, the crew took a narco-cartel fleet of huge black SUV’s—their convoy abruptly halted when Joe “Juicy” Giudice interrupted a driver, saying, “Hey, amigo.... I gotta take a pee-pee.” Stepping into the tropical sun, the squat fortysomething was soon joined by paisanos from other cars, who stood roadside giving the Caribbean nation a beer-fueled Jersey baptism that set the
b R av O T v / T H E K O b a l C O l l E C T I O n / a f P
wHEn REalITY TElEvISIOn HITS THE ROad, SO dO aMERICanS—In laRgE nUMbERS. CHRIS NORRIS lOOKS aT THE gOOd, THE bad and THE UglY Of REalITY SHOwS aS 21ST-CEnTURY TRavEl gUIdES. WITH REPORTINg BY NIkkI gOLdSTEIN
tone for the rest of their trip—which included a lawsuit-bringing brawl with other Hard Rock patrons. How, then, did the show’s roughly 2.8 million viewers respond to this Bay of Pigs in Punta Cana? Not with “Ew” or “The humanity!” but, “OMG, I’m so going there for the holidays!” Just after the Dominican Republic–set Housewives episodes aired, the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana recorded a 300 percent spike in Web traffic. “We’re a massive hotel with 1,787 rooms,” says the hotel’s press representative, Kelli Schindelegger. “But with the exposure from the show, we sold out for New Year’s. People who watch Housewives are also attracted to the hotel lifestyle, so it was a huge appeal to that demographic.” It’s a demographic now changing the style and practice of American tourism around the world. Fifty years ago, the media’s archetypal American abroad—say, a fedora-topped Jimmy Stewart squiring Doris Day through Marrakesh—inspired adventurous viewers to go and see Morocco for themselves. In this, they were much like the 19th-century English tourists who visited the sites of Brontë novels—distant precursors of the newer, stranger breed that scholars call “media tourists.” Instead of sweeping postwar cinema, these tourists grew up with a somewhat downgraded, TV-sized exotica: a tropical paradise whose new visitors arrived each week to send wee, white-suited Hervé Villechaize scurrying up a tower to ring a bell, crying, “De plane! De plane!” Thirty years later, this formative fantasy met the unmooring force of reality TV, whose recent “docusoaps” seduce viewers not only with foreign landscapes but, sometimes perversely, with the lifestyles realityTV stars impose upon the world. MTV’s The Real World began the paradigm shift just after its 1992 debut, setting each subsequent season in a new city announced in the title. But it wasn’t until Richard Hatch strode flabbily, hirsutely naked along Malaysia’s Pulau Tiga beach, in 2000’s surprise smash Survivor, that media tourism truly exploded. Since then, producers have sought exotic backdrops for their shows and their sometimes-notso-telegenic stars, though in the past few years, this hired scenery began grabbing the starring role. Sites in South Africa, Tahiti, New Zealand and even far-flung New Guinea have reported huge surges in tourists from the United States after visits by reality-TV show cast and crews, some almost literally putting these destinations onto the map of America’s consciousness.
Cable television’s positive effect on Americans’ global literacy has been notable ever since the Travel Channel’s 2005 premiere of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, whose host’s gonzo style of cultural immersion has debunked negative stereotypes around the world while introducing viewers to everything from Singaporean street food to the delicacy of Namibian warthog rectum. Even the channel’s most sensational programs arguably have credible cultural merit. “Shows like Got Home Alive may not make our viewers think, ‘Oh, let’s go to that country,’ ” Travel Channel president Laureen Ong acknowledges. “But they may educate them, teach them: ‘Here are things to avoid if we do go.’”
Brad Womack, the 39-year-old star of last year’s The Bachelor, actually seemed hard-pressed to occupy three dimensions But when it comes to educating viewers on behaviors to avoid, few shows can match the three episodes of The Real Housewives of New York City set in Morocco last spring. In one, socialite Sonja Morgan stood in an all-white designer ensemble before a senses-dazzling Marrakesh souk and declared her core existential dilemma: “I’m torn between shopping and being secure.” The rest of the ladies ate, preyed and shoved their way valiantly through like Elizabeth Gilbert’s evil siblings, their local impact graciously absorbed by a long-suffering (and, one hopes, well-compensated) guide, whose djellaba and dark shades revealed only a smile as enigmatic as the Sphinx. Perhaps anticipating such scenes, Florence’s city officials used legal tactics to contain the cast of MTV’s Jersey Shore when it arrived in the city last summer. Banning MTV from shooting at Boboli Gardens or the Uffizi Gallery averted the inevitable atrocity of the Situation’s abs-off with the David, though it didn’t stop his fans’ pilgrimages to the pizza parlor where he worked. Whatever their educational value, the housewives and Jersey mooks do fill the screen with sound and color, which can’t be said of Brad Womack, the putative star of last year’s The Bachelor, which concluded in South Africa. The 39-year-old » travelandleisureasia.com | february 2012 77
bluffly handsome bar owner actually seemed hard-pressed to occupy three dimensions. In the voice-over opening of his South African adventure—spoken in the careful Texan cadences of a teen lineman on Friday Night Lights—Womack made it clear that as a travelographer, he’s no Paul Theroux: “South Africa is…amazingly beautiful. It’s a very vast land full of exotic animals. It’s really, really cool.” Later, on a safari, when a lion appropriately yawned at him, Womack deemed this, “Seriously, the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.” But in this case, South Africa spoke for itself. The days following the airing of The Bachelor were the busiest ever on the southafrica.net tourism website, according to South African Tourism. The show’s climactic “rose ceremony,” in which Womack proposed to the final, lucky lady, took place at the Tinga Legends Lodge, on the Lion Sands Private Game Reserve. The South Africa tourism website offered Bachelor-themed packages, and within two weeks more than 200 people had booked trips to stay at Lion Sands, according to Robert More, Tinga’s co-owner. While the figure may not sound significant, a package that costs thousands per person and requires a flight halfway around the world operates on a different scale. It seems that no recent reality-TV shows have motivated American travelers more than The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, which have consistently brought the largest spikes in U.S. tourism. “The Bachelorette is practically a travelogue,” says Kim S. Marshall, publicist for the Hilton Bora Bora Nui Resort & Spa, whose occupancy jumped 55 percent after hosting the
show in 2010. “There are cut-ins from the commercials to sweeping aerial views of the destination.” She reports that visitorship to Tahiti, which had flatlined for almost a decade, shot up 37 percent after the show. A year after hosting The Bachelorette, the Hilton Bora Bora Nui also welcomed the cast of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, which brings incomparable ancillary benefits in publicity. “If you host the Kardashians at your hotel, you know it’s going to be in Us Weekly and People every week,” Marshall says. Yet reality TV’s amateur romantics may be a stronger brand than Kim and Kris, who went from their Bora-Bora idyll to a wedding and a marriage that lasted less than half a TV season. “I’m not a big TV person,” says Adeline Regan, a 26-year-old raised in the reality-TV age. Still, she hasn’t missed a season of The Bachelor or The Bachelorette in four years, the last of which was most fateful. “Before that, I didn’t really know anything about the French Polynesian islands,” Regan says. “But seeing how beautiful it was and knowing the producers picked this location out of any struck me.” Regan and her fiancé will wed this August and have placed a deposit for a honeymoon at the Hilton Bora Bora Nui. There she’ll join the thousands of others like her: viewers who see a television landscape populated by people whose tans are fake, whose lives are scripted and whose relationships end before the airdate—and who still fall in love and book their flights. “With the world today, I really need things that are positive in my life,” Regan says, to explain her viewing habits. “Sometimes, I just really need a love story.” ✚
THE (NOT SO) INNOCENTS ABROAd
kIM kARdASHIAN TAkES TAHITI
The Kardashians (and their television crew) can be demanding on their hosts, according to officials at the Hilton Bora Bora Nui—but they deliver serious publicity in return.
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the bachelor ROMANCES SOUTH AFRICA
Although Brad Womack’s engagement went south shortly after the show aired, viewers still booked tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of copycat trips.
jersey shore dOES FLORENCE
Perhaps wary of reality TV after their own brush with the all-too-real Berlusconi show, Florence officials banned MTV from filming in high-profile locations such as the Uffizi Gallery.
f R O M l E f T : S P l a S H n E w S / C O U R T E S Y O f H I lT O n b O R a b O R a n U I R E S O R T & S Pa ; CO U RT E SY O f M a R K w E SS E l S / a b C ; a f P P H OTO / f R E d E R I C J. b R Ow n
journal TREndS
journal gETawaYS
iberian flavors From top: The enclosed tunnel staircase that leads up to the Pousada de Sao Tiago; starters at A Petisqueira.
THE REal MaCaU you may tHinK tHat macau is only for Gamblers, but HANA R. ALBERTS Will WaGer tHat you’ll find Plenty to liKe in tHe island’s arcHitecture, art, dininG and sHoPPinG. PHOTOgRAPHEd BY dAVId HARTUNg travelandleisureasia.com | february 2012 79
journal gETawaYS
portuGuese pleasures
Clockwise from above: At Albergue 1601; Hea Deco, a boutique in Old Taipa; colonial splendor at Taipa Houses Museum; egg tarts at Margaret’s Café.
i
’m always baffled when friends tell me they don’t like going to Macau. “If you don’t like to gamble,” they say, “what else is there to do?” It’s easy to be misled. After all, about 80 percent of Macau’s visitors each year hail from mainland China and Hong Kong, and the vast majority is content to while away weekends at the baccarat tables. Gaming makes up the lion’s share of Macau’s economy—it soared 42 percent in 2011 from a year earlier to US$34.47 billion—and Macau’s casinos have been raking in more dollars than the Las Vegas Strip since 2007. It’s no wonder, then, that visitors fail to realize they can trade in the gilded casino floor at the Venetian for a quaint cobblestoned lane in
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Taipa Village, one that’s lined with Portuguesestyle pastel houses. The two locations, in fact, are less than two kilometers from each other. The former Portuguese colony has a rich, tangled history; its allure lies not only in its mixed heritage and culinary offerings but also in some contemporary developments, like an up-andcoming art and fashion scene. Here, the traditional and the modern stand side-by-side. During my visits I take the same photograph again and again—framing a Chinese-style residence, or a row of ceramic tiles, against some glittering casino in the background. In a city this richly layered, even the aisle of a basic grocery store can be of interest to travelers, as a run-of-the-mill reflection of the zone’s diversity.
That’s why this place is an ideal weekend-long antidote to Asia’s shiny skyscrapers and crowded sidewalks. I set out to find enough gems to prove those naysayers wrong. First stop: Albergue SCM, a peaceful square to eat, shop and peruse some art. This area, formerly populated by lepers, was earmarked for revitalization about a decade ago. After renovations at the hand of architect and Macau native Carlos Marreiros, Albergue Santa Casa da Misericórdia (or SCM for short) formally reopened in 2009 as a creative hub. In the shade of two enormous camphor trees, yellow buildings with wooden shutters house an intimate gallery, a European restaurant called Albergue 1601 and an exquisite new boutique that imports Portuguese goods. At The Portuguese Corner Shop, browse sweet-smelling soaps and creams, jams, hand-painted tiles, wines, canned sardines and jewelry specially chosen by friendly owner Margarida Vila-Nova. Nearby you’ll find one of the territory’s best-known design houses. Lines Lab is where creative duo Manuel CS and Clara Britto turn out avant-garde fashion—sleek black-and-white dresses and oversized wool collars—and furniture. Next to it, 10Fantasia is an art space that’s home to an eclectic mishmash of local creative work. Climb the stairs into the cozy circular atrium to see everything from trendy clothing collections to old-fashioned etchings to modern interpretations of Macau’s landmarks in sculpture and painting. For a taste of art from abroad, I head to Tap Seac Gallery. Despite a striking red-and-yellow façade, inside it has an industrial feel, with blocky concrete columns punctuating the space. Recent
shows have featured the work of artists from Taiwan, South Korea, France, Denmark and the Czech Republic. In search of a late lunch, I wander the narrow alleys of Taipa Village. I’ve heard good things about A Petisqueira, a longtime staple of the Portuguese dining scene. But because I miss their lunch hours by about three minutes—who knew the Portuguese were such sticklers for punctuality?—I cautiously step into Lopes, a newer restaurant next door. An all-Portuguese station blares from the TV above the bar—evidence of authenticity, I think—and I ask for a table. A Portuguese lager in hand, I await tender stewed beef with potatoes and African chicken. Over bottles of Super Bock beer proprietor Lourenço Lopes tells me his story. Though he arrived in Macau in 1995, only four years before the handover to China, he’s stayed on even as the city has grown to revolve around the gambling industry because small pockets of laid-back village life remain. “Casinos, for me, are not Macau,” he said. “We have two Macaus now. The real Macau is the small streets, the small shops.” After lunch, I amble through the sleepy village, past Camoes Square, where kids ride their bikes »
pockets of laid-back village life remain. ‘We have two macaus now. the real macau is the small streets, the small shops’
10Fantasia art gallery space, left. Right: The Portuguese Corner Shop at Albergue. travelandleisureasia.com | february 2012 81
journal gETawaYS in front of the Pak Tai Temple as caretakers look on. Further along, a makeshift painted shrine holds a gaggle of porcelain statues of Chinese gods. I peek into Old Taipa Tavern, a popular pub for expatriates, and Hea Deco, a good spot to shop for offbeat furniture and knickknacks for the home. I happen to peer into the office of António Coelho, who leaps up to give me a tour—and a lecture in Macanese culture. A dapper, portly chef who initially came to Macau because of Portugal’s compulsory military service, he returned here a decade ago. He now runs António, which has earned a Michelin star and counts Portuguese dishes like gratinated goat cheese and duck rice among other specialties, as well as a coffee shop across the street. Coelho recruits staff—and even imports the bottled water he serves—straight from Portugal. His café’s homemade pastries and desserts are best enjoyed with a strong, hot coffee, consumed amid furnishings made out of old wooden wine boxes. At the end of a long day, I retreat to a Portuguese-style inn. My favorite place to stay is Pousada de Coloane in Macau’s southernmost district. Rooms, decorated with dark wood furniture and blue-and-white tiles, are basic, but each has a balcony and an oversized bathtub. The hotel also has a large terrace overlooking the beach, a pool and a restaurant serving Portuguese classics. The nearby village of Coloane—and its famous egg tart shop, Lord Stow’s—is also worth a visit. The biggest rival of Lord Stow’s in the egg tart department is Margaret’s Café e Nata, where I go for breakfast the next day. Tucked down a back alley near the Grand Lisboa, this decades-old Tap Seac Gallery, left. Right: Antonio’s Coffee Shop in Old Taipa Village.
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eatery attracts long queues and dishes out tray after tray of the signature Macanese treat, which arrives steaming, its moist, eggy interior encased within a flaky, buttery crust. Next, to see how Macau’s elite once lived, I visit the Taipa Houses Museum. Five two-story houses, lovingly touched up with fresh coats of sea-green paint, contain furnishings, clothing and curios typical of the early 20th century, as well as old photographs. The row of houses, with an adjacent garden and small lake, is surrealistically set against the biggest casino in the world, The Venetian. Back in the main part of Macau, Mandarin’s House offers another glimpse into the lives of the territory’s ancestors. A recently reconstructed complex of 60 rooms, it’s a Chinese residence typical to the region, containing rooms centered around courtyards, round portholes and distinctive tiled trim. As for shopping, even I had thought Macau was merely a place to pick up brand-name goods, or to buy peanut candy and dried meat. But offbeat boutiques are starting to spring up. At homegrown label Ribs Clothing, four local designers produce cheeky T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts that often feature trendy depictions of retro institutions (70-year-old ice cream parlor Lai Kei) and pastimes (like table tennis). Though it’s not far from Senado Square, the crowded epicenter of Macau’s old town, Massala manages to feel like an oasis. Vibrantly patterned clothes, textiles, accessories and housewares from China, Southeast Asia and India fill the racks of this narrow shop, which is furnished with handmade pieces made from recycled wood.
art and soul
Massala sells vegetarian snacks and occasionally hosts film screenings. “I am a native of Macau,” said Deborah Costa, one of Massala’s co-founders, “so for me it’s sad when foreign people talk about Macau and they just talk about casinos. It’s more than that.” Inspired by Costa’s passion for her hometown, I seek out the A-Ma Temple, dedicated to the goddess of seafarers. I find a maze of Taoist prayer halls, pavilions and gardens, hazy with smoke from incense coils. Avoid massive tour groups by coming early in the morning or at dusk when it’s cooler. Eager to find a place to wind down, I walk alongside the Barra Fort to Pousada de São Tiago.
The 12-suite hotel is built into the 17th-century fort; entering the hotel requires walking up an atmospherically dim passage of stone steps. High tea on the hotel’s picturesque terrace, complete with scones as well as Portuguese pastries, is a treat. Alternatively, sip some cocktails while watching the sun set over the harbor, with China in the distance. At Coelho’s recommendation, before my ferry home I stop at City Square, a grocery store with a large selection of Portuguese wine that is easy on the wallet. I pick up a couple of bottles of vinho verde and rush to catch my ferry home. They’ll have to tide me over until my next visit. ✚
From far left: An evening stroll through Old Taipa Village; local fare at A Petisqueira; artwork at 10Fantasia.
MACAU AddRESS BOOk EAT António 3 rua dos negociantes, taipa; 853/2899-9998; antoniomacau.com; lunch or dinner for two moP1000. Lopes 15b rua de são João, edificio tsui lam Garden, taipa; 853/2882-7632; lunch or dinner for two moP500. Margaret's Café e Nata edificio Gum loi, rua almirante costa cabral; 853/2871-0032; breakfast or lunch for two moP75. Old Taipa Tavern 21 rua dos negociantes, taipa; 853/2882-5221; lunch or dinner for two moP400.
A Petisqueira 15 rua de são João, taipa; 853/2882-5354; dinner for two moP700. SHOP 10Fantasia 10 calçada da igreja de sao lázaro; 853/ 2835-4582; 10fantasia.com. City Square 191-227 dr. sun yat sen avenue, shop b-e, edificio royal ascot, taipa; 853/2830-3310. Hea deco 19 rua dos negociantes, taipa; 853/2882-7118. Lines Lab 8-a3 calçada da igreja de sao lázaro; 853/2892-2159; lineslab.com. Massala 86b rua da alfândega; 853/6658-9219.
The Portuguese Corner 8 calçada da igreja de sao lázaro; 853/2856-2708; merceariaportuguesa.com. Ribs Clothing 7a Patio de Ho chin sin tong, tai res-do-chao a; 853/28356358; ribsclothing.com. Tap Seac gallery tap seac Plaza, 95 avenida do conselheiro almeida ferreira; 853/2836-6866; macauart.net/ts. STAY Pousada de Coloane Praia de cheoc van, cheoc van beach, coloane; 853/ 2888-2143; hotelpcoloane. com.mo; doubles from moP1,280.
Pousada de São Tiago avenida da república, fortaleza de são tiago da barra; 853/2837-8111; saotiago.com.mo; doubles from moP2,680 SEE ANd dO Albergue SCM 8 calçada da igreja de sao lázaro. A-Ma Temple rua de são tiago da barra. Mandarin's House 10 travesso de antónio da silva; 853/2896-8820; wh.mo/mandarinhouse. Taipa Houses Museum avenida da Praia, taipa; 853/2882-7103; housesmuseum.iacm.gov.mo, admission moP5.
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return to
cambodia
Day’s end on the docks at Knai Bang Chatt, a resort in Kep, Cambodia. Opposite: Phnom Bok, one of the oldest temples in the Angkor region, near Siem Reap.
fIfTEEn YEaRS afTER REPORTIng On THE KHMER ROUgE, THOMAS BELLER REvISITS a COUnTRY TRanSfORMEd bY ITS Own SHOCKIng HISTORY. P H OTO g R A P H E d BY C H R I S TO P H E R W I S E travelandleisureasia.com | January 2012 000
WHEN I first arrived in Phnom Penh, in 1994, I looked out the window of my descending plane and saw a landscape of rice paddies dotted with palm trees. It might have been, in a parallel universe, or perhaps just in a neighboring country like Thailand, a pastoral image, but for me it was synonymous with land mines, Agent Orange, genocide, death. My feelings were shaped in part by popular culture—movies such as The Killing Fields and Apocalypse Now and books like Elizabeth Becker’s When the War Was Over and Nayan Chanda’s Brother Enemy. To say they told of a darkly mysterious place where terrible things had happened was only part of it; in 1994 the Khmer Rouge was still in control of large chunks of the country, even after the United Nations had sponsored a historic democratic election the previous year. I had come to Phnom Penh to write for a fledgling English-language newspaper, the Cambodia Daily, a decision whose logic had escaped me by the time the wheels hit tarmac. I swore I would proceed through the city with the utmost caution. But by my second night I was at a party eating a piece of cake that I had just been told had an entire pound of pot baked into it, when someone rushed in yelling, “Coup! Coup! There’s a tank in the middle of downtown!” Because the party was filled with that strange breed of catastrophe addicts who have found their calling as journalists, everyone piled into the backs of pickup trucks and rushed off to look for the tank. I went, too, fretfully, like some eighth grader herded into a group activity he knows is wrong but is too spineless to resist. We never found the tank. To arrive in Phnom Penh today is to encounter a city teeming with energy
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and enterprise. There are skyscrapers, high-end hotels and restaurants, hip coffee shops, galleries, boutiques. The streets are thronging and chaotic but the overall mood is civilized. When I first came to this town, I was fascinated by the way women would ride sidesaddle on the back of motos, one foot on the footrest and the other with the ankle cocked gently upward so their flip-flops didn’t fall off. The modern bustle has removed only some of this charm. For most of the past decade, until 2009, Cambodia experienced an average of nearly 10 percent annual growth. The despotic prime minister, Hun Sen, has provided some stability, which, as one local businessman I know remarked, “is the magic recipe for cheap labor for garment factories and two million pairs of feet each year wandering around Angkor.” He also said, “Ten percent growth in a country that didn’t have an economy a decade or more ago isn’t anything stunning.” But I was stunned, mostly in a good way—Phnom Penh, once a lawless haven for adventurers, layabouts and hedonists of all stripes for whom freedom was just another word for no real law enforcement, is now praised in similar terms but for different reasons by a new class of small-business owners who see the place as an opportunity. “There are so many opportunities because they are not weighed down by traditional hierarchy,” said Yoshie Treiber, who runs La Clef de Sol, a fancy boutique specializing in housewares, bags and dresses. It sits at the end of a quiet alley off hectic Sihanouk Boulevard. Originally from Japan, she spent five years in Cannes before moving to Phnom Penh. “Everything is new here. If you have guts, you can do anything in Phnom Penh.” And yet, when I saw a friend who has lived here for 18 years, he said, “Phnom Penh isn’t as exciting as it used to be, but it’s nice that you can get good coffee and Wi-Fi is everywhere.” By this he meant that it no longer felt as if you had arrived at the drop-edge of the world.
street life
I was visiting toward the end of rainy season, which I knew about, and the start of the Pchum Ben holiday, which was news to me. Nuon So Thero, the Cambodia Daily’s general manager, picked me up at the airport. Thero was the first person I ever met in Cambodia, having rescued me as I sat bewildered and a bit frightened outside the locked doors of the newspaper, suitcase by my side, transfixed by the steep pitch of the Royal Palace roof across the street, the bright orange-yellow of its tiles glinting in the sun. Now, 17 years later, I saw his smiling, intelligent face, changed but unchanged, beaming from the waiting »
Local Flavor Clockwise
from top left: Spa Bliss, in Phnom Penh; inside Wanderlust, a shop in Siem Reap; stir-fried calamari and green peppercorn at Hôtel de la Paix’s Meric restaurant, in Siem Reap; the view from Kep’s Vine Retreat; the Royal Palace, as seen from Phnom Penh’s Sisowath Quay after dark. Center: Kep rice paddies.
A wedding procession in Siem Reap, near the Angkor temples.
crowd. “It still has that fantastic smell!” I said as we loaded the car. Phnom Penh’s air has a sweet, smoky scent, as though someone were slowly roasting cardamom over a fire. “I live here,” he said. “I never noticed it.” We drove to my hotel, and Thero pointed out the new parliament building and the new office of the prime minister, both radiating prosperity and redolent of something built by Mussolini. We arrived at Raffles Hotel Le Royal, my last recollection of which was little more than a ruin. “I know exactly where I am!” I exclaimed. “We’re right near the Youth Club.” The International Youth Club was a whitewashed bastion of francophone leisure, fragrant with a colonial prerogative that was only partially antique. “Youth Club gone,” Thero said. “The American Embassy is there now.” “They built the American Embassy on top of the Youth Club?” I said. “Oh, the French must have hated that.” “I think they did,” Thero said. We headed off to dinner at a Chinese restaurant on Monivong Boulevard. Once there had been an outdoor noodle stand with plastic chairs and a fluorescent light hooked up to a generator. Now, even after midnight, the place was filled with well-appointed revelers. The menu was epic, a scroll of fine print. I had crab soup. Salt-and-pepper shrimp. The restaurant took credit cards. I spent the next day wandering the city’s streets on foot and by cyclo, a now mostly antiquated form of transportation in a town filled with motos, cars and even SUV’s. On my first trip into Phnom Penh, cars had been scarce; they pushed through the bikes and motos like a bull gingerly parting a flock of sheep. Busy intersections were manned by traffic police in sharp military-style uniforms and white gloves. They stood on battered metal pedestals and performed a rather ornate and formal set of gestures that combined, either by osmosis or intent, elements of Khmer dance’s fluidity with the more rigid hand motion one associ-
on my first trip into phnom penh, cars had been scarce; they pushed through the bikes and motos like a bull gingerly parting a flock of sheep ates with the word stop! The effect was a bit like vogueing. But these were vestiges of an old order. The city now has stoplights that people obey; metal dividers down the center of the avenues ensure traffic is mostly two-way. Once it had been four, or six, or eight-way and composed largely of two-wheeled vehicles, slender as minnows. Turning left had required entering a dream state of faith in which you drifted slowly across the avenue into the oncoming traffic, hoping the force was with you, until you got to your turn.
news from cambodia
I met my old friend Ek Madra, who used to be a moto driver but then got a job as a translator and then as a reporter for the Cambodia Daily, and later became an accomplished bureau chief for Reuters. He picked me up at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC) in his car. “Madra, I cannot believe what is going on in this city!” I shouted after we hugged. He whisked me off to the Sorya Restaurant, near the madness of the Central Market. Located in a space that was once a movie theater, its lighting was bright; the napkins were red linen; at least one person catered to our needs at all times, which I took to mean that Madra was now a big shot. “This is a new Cambodia on old land,” he said. “I believe in human luck.” The phrase contained a boosterism that did not sound like a journalist. It turned out Madra had recently started a business himself. His firm is called Ek Tha & Madra Associates and imports dried fish from Vietnam. “But Madra, Ek Tha is a pseudonym you sometimes use. Your company is you and you.” “Yes,” he said. “That way no one can steal from my family!” Madra, who had
always been very dramatic, said, “People are going from war to wealth.” Completely by chance I was in Cambodia at the same time as Chris Decherd, my old friend from the Cambodia Daily who now runs the Cambodia division of the Voice of America, in Washington, D.C. The VOA had recently stirred up a hornet’s nest with a report on the current Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) prosecution of Khmer Rouge leadership. Pol Pot died in 1998, but Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary—icons of a genocide—are elderly and alive. The tribunal was supposed to be a cathartic national event, a moment of reckoning, but the VOA suggested it was being undermined by Prime Minister Hun Sen. This provoked a blistering critique of the VOA by Hun Sen, a strongman whose critics have, on occasion, met untimely deaths. I had thought Chris was here to smooth ruffled feathers. But the VOA’s television news clips are in high demand in Cambodia. He was here to negotiate distribution deals. We had dinner at a restaurant called Malis, no pun intended. The chef, Luu Meng, served a feast of green mango and smoked fish, spicy scallops with mint leaves, beef carpaccio and lemongrass chicken. Chris said he was waking early the next morning for a four-hour drive to Battambang, Cambodia’s second city, in the north and asked if I wanted to join him. “You can drive to Battambang?” I said, amazed. “Sure,” he said. “You can drive anywhere now.”
up at la villa
I am staying at La Villa, one of several examples of French-colonial architecture in Battambang. It overlooks the river. I collapse in the afternoon » travelandleisureasia.com | february 2012 89
Cambodia modern
Clockwise from top left: In the kitchen at Knai Bang Chatt; a swim at Knai Bang Chatt; an installation by Kong Vollak at Sa Sa Bassac art gallery, in Phnom Penh; a guava and green tomato salad at Romdeng, in Phnom Penh; a guest room at Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor, in Siem Reap; crabs at the market in Kep.
and sleep through dinner, waking in darkness to the sound of pouring rain. Within that sound is something difficult to identify, a kind of music. I go to the window and realize it is a monk, chanting into the darkness of Pchum Ben. The river at night looks like a tiny Seine, dotted with elegant lamplights and arching bridges. A moto comes into view, moving slowly through the downpour on the far side of the river. My room is an attic-like space with exposed beams, ceiling fans and dark wood floors. There is a bare wooden desk with a gorgeous old standing lamp beside it, and a writing mat. The room, the rain, the chanting, it all suggests the intrigue of a Graham Greene novel, the ruined mansion of Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient, Bogart in Casablanca. I watch the moto move through the rain on its mysterious errand. A little while later the rain tapers off and I go for a long swim in the pool. The air is filled with the singsong voice of the chanting monk as the trees around the pool reveal themselves in silhouette against the dawn. I swim back and forth
in the pool of La Villa, wondering if Cambodia has exorcised the demons of the Khmer Rouge.
history lesson
In Battambang I go to school. First to an empty high school, where a conference on education is under way, and later to a place where everyone has more or less run away to join the circus. In the morning I hear the country’s most renowned psychiatrist speak in front of secondary-school teachers. The title of the workshop is “How History Teachers Who Were Victims of the Khmer Rouge Teach the Khmer Rouge History to Students Who Are the Children of the Khmer Rouge Perpetrators.” One teacher stands to say she had told her students of her suffering at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, and they had laughed. “I could forgive the Khmer Rouge but not those students who laughed,” she says. Dr. Ka Sunbaunat, wearing white linen, is an unlikely apostle of the talking cure. “You have to teach the Khmer Rouge history,” he says to his audience of teachers. “You have to get comfortable with it. Otherwise there is no catharsis.” That afternoon I visit Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPS), an arts school that functions partly as a shelter for street kids; it is run by ethnic Khmers who were refugees at the Site 2 camp on the Thai border in the late eighties and received drawing lessons from a French teacher. On its small campus at the edge of town there is an outpouring of activity: drawing, painting, video animation, music. PPS is responsible for turning Battambang into something of a hotbed for artistic talent in Cambodia, producing artists such as Srey Bandol, whose intricate pencil drawings of Angkor’s temples subtly reconfigure the landscape, making it feel like it’s an old master painting from Europe. Its centerpiece, both architecturally and as a business, is its circus, which puts on performances in Battambang and tours in Asia and Europe. I spend
almost an hour watching kids of all different ages fly through the air, twisting and spinning (and sometimes crashing) to the cheers of their peers. Standing amid such energy and laughter, with rhythmic music coming from the building nearby, where kids are jamming on ancient Khmer instruments, I remember a remark by a UN official in 1997: “I don’t think there is a good outlook for this generation. The hope is for the Cambodians not yet born.” Fifteen years later I am watching that future generation. They fly spinning through the air and, most of the time, land on their feet.
water world
I had intended to take a boat from Battambang to Siem Reap, but the torrential rains have flooded the docks. I take a taxi instead. It’s a pleasant drive that arcs around the northern tip of the Tonle Sap. We skirt those areas once held by the Khmer Rouge. Anlong Veng, Pailin. The violence connoted by those names is mocked by the landscape outside the window. I love rice paddies. I love their green. I love the strange, weaving effect of so many tiny strands making a dense, textured whole, a kind of luscious rug. I love the mystery of their always being submerged. All of Siem Reap, it turns out, is submerged in water at the moment. But the temples are open, and I rush to Angkor Wat and submit to its scale, which is both monumental and oddly soothing. One approaches on what must surely be both the world’s largest and most primitive runway—a runway to the gods—and enters its terraces of astonishingly detailed bas-reliefs of sex and death, monkeys and men, which spill across endless walls. Leaving Angkor I encounter actual monkeys who have wandered in from the jungle, and brought snacks in the form of coconut, which they leisurely eat while ogling all the tourists. I first glimpsed Angkor through an airplane window during my visit in 1994. Siem Reap was then composed of just » travelandleisureasia.com | february 2012 91
the natural and the man-made conspire to make a beautiful kind of hybrid art, and yet there is also the suggestion of strangling, choking, entwining a few guesthouses and you could, if you went at the right time, wander nearly alone through the temples. It wasn’t entirely safe; not long after my visit an adventurous tourist was killed by suspected Khmer Rouge on the periphery of the temple complex. On the ground the temples feel monumental, but from above I saw them as a tiny arc of civilization in an ocean of jungle. A mysterious force had willed Khmer civilization to such heights that it could build these temples and then, with equal mystery, had laid them low and in ruins. There they sat silently for hundreds of years while the jungle encroached like the sea. Ta Prohm, a 15-minute tuk-tuk ride from Angkor Wat, is where this feeling of discovering a modern-day Atlantis is most explicit. It’s a landscape from myth. Enormous trees have grown over the buildings and carvings like a forest that descended from the sky. Their giant roots drip down over the structures like candle wax or the tentacles of a huge squid. Beautiful figures carved in stone live within a tangle of vines and roots, which seem to imprison them. The natural and the man-made conspire to make a beautiful hybrid art, and yet there is the suggestion of strangling, choking, entwining—like a metaphor for the unbelievable complications that come with telling stories about Cambodia, past and present, a superstitious place where epic horror has unfolded against a landscape of such dreamy gentleness.
GoinG Green
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monumental. Legions of brand-new hotels line the main road, almost Soviet in scale. Because of the rains, I had decided to stay at Sojourn Boutique Villas, a gorgeous oasis just outside of town that strikes a balance between the escapism of a full-service resort and a kind of cultural tourism that encompasses the temples and also Treak, a nearby rural village from which Sojourn hires most of its wonderful local staff. That afternoon, Sokheurm, a man who speaks with such calm, soothing attentiveness that I couldn’t help but feel I was in the care of a reassuring and talented therapist, arranged an in-room massage, a cooking lesson and a visit to Banteay Srei, where I spent a morning obsessing over the fanatical detail of more temple carvings. But the activity that most intrigued me was helping plant rice in the nearby village. Which is how I came to be standing shin-deep in a rice paddy, bent forward and pushing with my thumb a clutch of rice stalks into the mud. We had walked for a long time along ridges separating the paddies, which stretched out across a perfectly flat landscape to mountains in the distance, interrupted only by shacks on stilts and the occasional palm tree. The people whose plot I helped plant made me lunch, which included a bowl of vegetables and rice with prahoc, a local delicacy involving fermented fish. “This is heaven,” I said to Anthony Jaensch, Sojourn’s owner, and then without thinking added, “I could live here.” He waited a few moments before diplomatically pointing out that I might start to miss certain amenities, simple things like electricity.
to the sea
I arrive at Knai Bang Chatt at night. The wind is very strong. The air is warm. I
can hear the waves rushing ashore in a continuous tumbling hiss. I want to go right to the sea for a swim but the sea is very rocky, I am told. And it is dark. “Perhaps you should swim in the pool.” And so as I had done in Battambang, Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, I inaugurate my time in Kep, this seaside resort area built by the French in 1908, with another long session in the pool. I feel a bit like John Cheever’s “The Swimmer.” Spalding Gray’s famous monologue was “Swimming to Cambodia”; mine seems to be swimming through it. Gray was something of a pioneer in using a national horror as the setting for self-exploration and neurotic comedy. For a number of years in the midnineties young travelers flocked to Cambodia in the spirit of mountain climbers, except instead of proving themselves on the face of the Eiger, they flitted through the lawless world of Cambodia waiting to see if gravity would assert itself. For this group, traveling in the country was a form of playing with fire. Some of them got burned. Perhaps the most sensational example unfolded here on Vine Mountain in 1994. Three young travelers were kidnapped off a train. In part because they were French, English and Australian and, in part, because it was a protracted baroque drama, it was a media sensation. They never came down from the mountain. I have breakfast at a long wood table, sampling Khmer and Western food, and then set off by tuk-tuk to the Vine Retreat. The name alone amazes me, just as I am amazed to learn that a new private island resort, Song Saa, has been developed just down the coast. The mountain had once been controlled by the Khmer Rouge and festered with land mines. But the Khmer Rouge has gone. The land mines have been cleared. And the lodge, nestled among mango and jackfruit trees, with a spectacular view, is surrounded by a Kampot pepper farm. I find a few young people kicking back around the pool. Later, over lunch, in what feels like the fire tower of a
national park, a man from England who specializes in training plastic surgeons on Botox techniques extols Cambodia's virtues. “As soon as I am here, the pedal is off. I’m home.” “Home? But this is a very exotic place,” I say. “Yes, but as soon as I am here, all the cares slip away.” And this is true of much of the country—it lulls you. On the way down the mountain I pause at the train tracks. After the international scandal of the hostages, about which new reports are emerging to this day, the train was shut down. I see a new line is being put in.
time travel
My flight leaves late on Friday night and I have my last supper at the Chinese House, an old villa overlooking the river. Getting there is joyous mayhem. My tuk-tuk lurches through traffic along the quay, which is throbbing with colored lights, food vendors, and many groups of people partaking in what seems to be a cross between an exercise class and an outdoor dance party. I arrive to find a dimly lit building with gigantic doors that looks closed. Then two men pull the doors open to reveal a bar lit in hues of silvery blue; upstairs is a modish room festooned with Chinese lanterns, where
the restaurant, Tepui, serves excellent South American food. I rush back to the hotel, then the airport, passing by the Olympic Stadium on my way. Mobs of people used to play basketball, volleyball and soccer on its perimeter, me among them, but now it is being renovated and there is a fence around it. I am looking for the giant Seiko clock that used to adorn the side of the building. The clock had been permanently stopped at around four in the afternoon. But it seems it has been removed as part of the renovation, which is fitting. In the country of Year Zero, time is moving again. ✚
gUIdE TO CAMBOdIA N
gREAT VALUE Villa Paradiso Boutique Hotel colorful themed rooms in a Khmer mansion turned boutique hotel in central Phnom Penh. House 27, st. 222; 855-23/213720; thevillaparadiso.com; doubles from us$71.
LAOS THAILAND
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cambodia
TN
Tonle Sap
Battambang
AM
Angkor Archaeological Park
V
Siem Reap
Se
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Phnom Penh
hi
na
kep
C
Gulf of Thailand
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ut
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60 km
STAY
knai Bang Chatt Phum thmey, sangkat Prey thom, Kep; 855-78/888556; knaibangchatt.com; doubles from us$160.
hosted Jacqueline Kennedy onassis. 92 rukhak vithei daun Penh, sangkat Wat, Phnom Penh; 855-23/981888; raffles.com; doubles from us$340.
La Villa 185 Pom romchek 5, battambang; 855-53/730-151; lavilla-battambang.net; doubles from us$60.
Sojourn Boutique Villas treak village rd., siem reap; 855-12/923437; sojournsiemreap.com; doubles from us$110.
Raffles grand Hotel d’Angkor this 1930’s siem reap classic has just undergone a major renovation. 1 vithei charles de Gaulle, Khum svay dang Kum, siem reap; 855-63/963-888; raffles. com; doubles from us$265.
Song Saa Private Island song saa; 855-23/686-0360; songsaa.com; doubles from us$1,336.
gREAT VALUE
gREAT VALUE
Raffles Le Royal Phnom Penh a first-class frenchcolonial hotel that once
gREAT VALUE
gREAT VALUE Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra a grand, centrally located 12-story tower. 26 old august site, sothearos blvd.; 855-23/999200 sofitel.com; doubles from us$200.
gREAT VALUE Vine Retreat chamcar bei village, Kep; 855-11/706-231; thevineretreat. com; doubles from us$35.
EAT Abacus Restaurant, garden & Bar rd. n6 to airport, siem reap; 855-63/966-156; lunch for two us$30. FCC the foreign correspondents’ club in Phnom Penh offers casual Khmer-french dishes along the mekong river. 363 sisowath Quay; 855-23/210142; dinner for two us$42. Malis Restaurant 136 norodom blvd.; Phnom Penh; 855-23/221-022; dinner for two us$50. Meric Hôtel de la Paix, sivutha blvd., siem reap; 855-63/966-000; dinner for two us$60. Romdeng this restaurant serves excellent local cuisine and is staffed by former street kids. 74 st. 174, Phnom Penh; 855-92/219-565; lunch for two us$20. Sorya Restaurant 142 st. sangkat Phsar thmey ii,
Phnom Penh; 855-23/210-63; dinner for two us$30. Tepui at Chinese House 45 sisowath Quay, Phnom Penh; 855-23/991-514; dinner for two us$45. SHOP La Clef de Sol 25 s3 suramarit blvd., Phnom Penh; 855-92/194-468. Wanderlust a curated collection of locally made clothing and products with outposts in siem reap and Phnom Penh. wanderlustcambodia.com. SEE ANd dO Angkor Archaeological Park 440 square kilometers of ninth- to 15th-century temples—including angkor Wat, angkor thom and ta Prohm—make up this unesco World Heritage site. siem reap Province; whc.unesco.org. Sa Sa Bassac a gallery for emerging cambodian artists. 18 sothearos blvd., second floor, Phnom Penh; 855-77/ 374-110; sasabassac.com. Spa Bliss 29 st. 240, Phnom Penh; 855-23/215-754; blissspacambodia.com. S-21 Tuol Sleng Museum this former high school turned prison in Phnom Penh is a memorial to the almost 2 million lives lost during the Khmer rouge regime. st. 350; no phone.
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Outside the Canyon View rooms at the newly remodeled Hotel Bel-Air, in Los Angeles. Opposite: Lounging by the pool.
a classic reborn Nestled in one of the loveliest canyons of west Los Angeles for 65 years, the iconic Hotel Bel-Air now has a modern new look, landing it firmly in the 21st century. MICHAEL GROSS checks in. P hotographed by P eden + M unk
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CO U RT E SY O f H OT E l b E l-a I R
Two and a half years ago, while researching a book on Los Angeles, I had dinner in an alcove booth at Hotel Bel-Air’s open-air restaurant with a real estate broker who was a regular. The place was packed and crackled with an energy that seemed driven by anticipatory nostalgia seasoned with a dash of anxiety: the news had just come out that the then-63-year-old property was closing for a stem-to-stern remodeling. The community was curious and a little concerned. Hotel Bel-Air, after all, was and remains a rare piece of living history in a town that hasn’t cared much for the past. Would something beloved be lost when reinvented? In October, the new Bel-Air opened, and I flew in again to check it out. My antennae went up the moment I was greeted at the entrance by valet parkers in white sweater-vests, striped shirts and Chuck Taylor high-tops. As I walked through the porte cochère and over the familiar bridge, past the hotel’s resident swans, nothing seemed too different—until I entered the lobby. Instead of the dark, low-ceilinged reception area that I remembered, the space, created by interior designer Alexandra Champalimaud, whose previous stints include remakes in New York (the Algonquin; the Carlyle; the Pierre) and London (the Dorchester), was open and airy, with big Spanish-colonial arched windows, ivory walls and a tall, freestanding limestone fireplace. It is a whole new Bel-Air.
Formerly part of the Rancho San Jose de Buenos Ayres—one of the original Spanish land-grant ranches—the Bel-Air occupies a 4.89-hectare sliver of a vast 1,796-hectare tract that was once owned by a California pioneer named John Wolfskill. When he died in 1913, Jake and Daisy Danziger—she the daughter of one of the oilman founders of Beverly Hills— bought half of the tract for a song and turned it into a private estate, centered around a 35-room house that the Los Angeles Times said was “the largest and most expensively equipped” in southern California. In 1922, after the couple divorced, the land was sold to Alphonzo Bell, an entrepreneur who’d just struck oil; he took over the house but subdivided the land to create the enclave of Bel Air, which he envisioned as “a community of gentlemen’s estates.” At the end of World War II, Bell was in financial distress and offloaded his oil company’s office, his land company’s sales room, a community tearoom, as well as the stables and riding ring he’d built for his neighbors, to Joseph Drown, a onetime desk clerk in the first Texas hotels owned by Conrad Hilton (the two were friends and, later, neighbors in Bel Air). Drown turned the structures into the world’s first boutique hotel. Opened in 1946, Hotel Bel-Air catered to travelers, of course, but also to neighbors, many of them celebrated and wealthy, who used its bar and restaurant as their local hangouts and its grand rooms for parties. Eventually, the suites would be named for such regulars as Marilyn Monroe and Grace Kelly. Lauren Bacall usually took a room near the former riding ring, which Drown had converted into an oval pool, three meters deep at one end, so she could swim laps in the morning. After Drown’s death in the 1980’s, the property was sold to the Hunt family of Texas and became a Rosewood Hotel. The Hunts kept almost everything the same, but in a bold move, brought in celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck to consult on the food. Puck recalls that after he redid the menu, locals were invited in for a free meal, and two couples complained. Why, they demanded, were the beans and peas artificially colored? Why were they green and not gray? Puck searched the kitchen and when he found shelves of canned vegetables, he bel-air, reimagined threw most of them away but invited Hotel Bel-Air’s Chalon the two couples back to eat the last Courtyard in 1948; the space is now occupied of them. “They were happy,” he says, by the Presidential chortling. “That’s the last time the Suite. Opposite, clockwise from top: Bel-Air served canned vegetables.” The sleek new lobby In 1995, the hotel was purchased lounge by Alexandra Champalimaud; by Prince Jefri Bolkiah of the royal cocktails in the David family of Brunei. And in 2008, it was Rockwell–designed hotel bar; a baby beet, bought by Dorchester Group, a celery root and goat subsidiary of the Brunei Investment cheese salad at the expanded restaurant, Agency, which, among other » run by Wolfgang Puck.
properties, owns London’s Dorchester and the new 45 Park Lane hotel; Le Meurice and Plaza Athénée, in Paris; and the Beverly Hills Hotel, all managed by Dorchester Collection. Occupancy at the hotel had dipped, and the clientele, while still glamorous, was aging. So Dorchester used the wealth of its owner to reboot the Bel-Air, bring it into the 21st century, and, says Dorchester Collection CEO Christopher Cowdray, “seduce the younger generation.” As I wandered the hotel over the next few days, past the pale-pink Spanish-mission buildings and through the gardens with their 483 specimen trees and more than 4,000 plants, the magic first conjured by Drown was still tangible. But now, the Bel-Air also offers much that is new. Some of the changes are practical (the hotel is earthquake-resistant), some ecological (the Swan Lake now uses recycled water) and many are as classic as those that have endured for six-plus decades, but with a modern twist. Like the lobby, all of the hotel’s 103 rooms have also been reconceived by Champalimaud. Gone is the old look: chintz, wooden armoires, needlepoint rugs and white tiled bathrooms. The rooms are now a contemporary take on Hollywood Regency, done up in a light palette of cream, black and white, with natural wood ceilings, sand-colored limestone and marble floors and big prints of dreamlike flowers by botanical artist Miron Schmückle on the walls. I was especially impressed by the US$3,000 computerized toilet, which lifted its own lid. There are 12 lavish new rooms and suites that come with travertine patios, private spa pools, outdoor fireplaces and canyon views. At the north end of the hotel, there’s a La Prairie spa, another Champalimaud creation, with striated black plaster walls in the reception area and creamy ceilings detailed with three-dimensional flowers. It’s within a new 1,115-square-meter building that also contains a fitness room and three loftlike guest rooms, all occupying the site of what was once the Marilyn Monroe cottage and a somewhat secluded self-parking lot that, a Hollywood agent whispered to me one day, was long used by the famous to facilitate trysts far from the prying eyes of the valet desk and other guests. Originally, I planned to eat several meals outside the hotel, but after my first dinner at the expanded restaurant designed by David Rockwell and run by Wolfgang Puck—with a menu that included dishes such as bacon-wrapped dates, a microgreen salad with olives and goat cheese so fresh I wanted to slap it and sautéed diver scallops drizzled with sunchoke purée—I never left the property. Rockwell’s long list of credits includes Trump SoHo and Nobu Dubai, l.a. story Opposite, along with production design for several clockwise from top: Academy Awards ceremonies and The Hotel Bel-Air restaurant patio; Broadway shows, so I wasn’t surprised inside one of the by the theatricality of the dining room, 103 guest rooms; the path leading which provides a perfect perch for to the hotel’s bar discreetly watching the action. A marble and restaurant.
The directive for the hotel’s overhaul was to ‘bring the Bel-Air ever so slightly forward and let people catch up,’ Champalimaud says; to combine ‘how we are today with the magic of who came here and their lifestyle.’ fireplace anchors the room and retractable windows look out onto the terrace. Aware of the desires of its pampered denizens, Rockwell updated the patio restaurant with heated stone floors and custom-upholstered director’s chairs, and then added more coveted banquettes that ring the room. He also expanded the alcove tables over the front garden and included special banquettes that allow easy vectoring between views of the nearby nature and the equally compelling one of local power players who now mingle under a trellis that will soon be overgrown with the bougainvillea that were cut back during construction. One night at dinner, I watched Larry King, a male friend of his and two California blondes straight out of a Beach Boys song switch tables several times. Was he looking for a new favorite spot? Rockwell also rethought the formerly old-fashioned hotel bar. Though he retained the original fireplace and woodwork, he replaced the piano, stripped and refinished the walls in deep graphite gray, removed several view-blocking columns and added French doors leading to a terrace for alfresco drinking. It’s still cozy enough to allow for private conversation, but with its stars-in-waiting waitstaff, outdoor tables and potent cocktails—I had one named for John Wayne that lived up to the image it conjures by kicking like a horse—the updated bar seems sure to attract the sophisticated young crowd Dorchester Collection wants. The directive for the hotel’s overhaul was to “bring the Bel-Air ever so slightly forward and let people catch up,” Champalimaud tells me. It was to combine “how we are today with the magic of who came here and their lifestyle.” She and Rockwell met that challenge forcefully. “I care about the people who love this place,” Rockwell says. And then he offers a rejoinder to any skeptics who feel the Bel-Air should have stayed the same: “Judge it in a year or two when it grows in— it’s a living, breathing organism.” ✚ Hotel Bel-Air, 701 Stone Canyon Rd.; 1-310/472-1211; hotelbelair. com; doubles from US$590. travelandleisureasia.com | february 2012 99
After dark in the Piazza Cordusio. Opposite: A view from the roof of the Duomo, nearby.
MYSTERIES OF MILAN for a PLaCE synonymous with fashion and dEsign, miLan at first bLush sEEms ConvEntionaL and staid. rEguLar visitor guy trebay Looks bEhind thE ConsErvativE vEnEEr to unEarth its PLEasurEs.
P H OtO g ra P H e D by DaV e Lau r I DS e N
Shopping on Via della Spiga, one of Milan’s most fashionable streets.
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o looking for the new in Milan and you doom yourself to disappointment. I say this with a confidence that results from the fact that my job has carried me to this millennium-old city four times every year for more than a decade. True, there is the occasional glimmer of progress, far from least the recent political broom sweep that finally pushed Italy’s scandalplagued prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to the curb. Even before the European debt crisis forced the media mogul— who had weathered accusations of corruption, ties to the Mafia and an unwholesome appetite for teen prostitutes—to step down, there were subtle signs in Berlusconi’s hometown of Milan that change was afoot. Some of this had to do with the construction of Porta Nuova Varesine, a much-ballyhooed urban renewal project on the site of an old rail station, built to bring seemingly countless square meters of retail, office and cultural space to the city, along with some shiny new starchitecture by the American firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. But as a New Yorker, I find it hard to generate the requisite excitement for a bunch of glass towers. Far more thrilling was the Duomo’s emergence from a seemingly never-ending renovation. When the scaffolding finally came 102 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
down from the main façade, it was as if a film star you’d always loved had emerged from a face-lift as dewy and gorgeous as she’d ever been. Funding for the Duomo project came largely from the private sector, the government having fallen asleep on the job. The same was substantially the case with the legendary Teatro alla Scala, which also reappeared newly gilded and gleaming after its own long renovation. On a much more domestic scale, intrepid newcomers periodically show up to import something unexpected to Milan’s perennially conservative dining scene. In the case of Genoa natives Marco Bruni and Paul Lips, it was the introduction of regional home cooking served in a setting almost too casual and rough-hewn to fit a city so formal and prim as this one. “Am I in Milan,” one wonders at U Barba, “or Brooklyn?” A former sporting club turned restaurant, U Barba (the name is Genovese dialect for uncle) has a kitchen filled with the reconditioned pasta cutters and blending apparatuses Bruni collects. “I don’t want things too perfect, and with the old machines you get more texture in the food,” he said. The restaurant has a bocce court active in all but the coldest of seasons. Watching people play there, one can’t help but recall the Jane Jacobs dictum that old buildings make good settings for new ideas. Old cities do, too. Despite the fact that Milan plays host to the prestigious annual Salone del Mobile and the twice-yearly ready-towear fashion shows—events that use the city as a changeable scrim against which, season after season, designers offer up the latest in, respectively, furniture and clothing—there’s no escaping the sense that in Milan cutting-edge is an alien concept. Hip can’t happen here. I struggled with this at first, continually on the prowl for some glimmer of newness. I made fruitless efforts to cozy up to a city bent on preserving an enigmatic northern distance. Spending as much time there as I did, it seemed necessary to discover the spring that opens the secret drawer. And, as with most revelations of this sort, when I finally happened upon the key to understanding, it turned out to have been hidden in plain sight. I was looking for novelty in Milan when all along the allure of the place was its inverse. Few cities hold fast to the time-tested as Milan does, and few places so fetishize that most conservative of virtues, refinement. In Milan it is no hardship to find a specialty cutlery store selling a mindboggling array of, say, horn-handled hunting knives (G. Lorenzi) or one that offers an array of gloves in wrist, driving and opera lengths (Sermoneta Gloves). There is a confectionery shop I often visit in a storefront little altered since it opened in the 19th century. Standing at a minute zinc-topped coffee bar there, you order bite-size sandwiches while a clerk wraps your purchase of confections that must have seemed anachronistic even back in your grandmother’s day. Candied violets? Pasticceria Marchesi »
Worldly goods Clockwise from top left: Vases and lamps on display at Spazio Rossana Orlandi; Rasmus Ringberg at AD56 Milano, a men’s-wear boutique in Brera; the lobby of the Bulgari Hotel; design doyenne Rossana Orlandi outside her gallery, in ant’Ambrogio.
Inside the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the city’s main shopping hub.
has them, and not only that but candied rose petals and lilacs. If you happen to be there around All Souls’ Day in early November, you can find at Marchesi the delicious small seasonal loaves of sugar-dusted pan dei morti, although the ones I prefer come from Giovanni Galli, a rival shop. It says something about a city that it can sustain real competition between bakeries with house recipes for cakes for the dead. In Milan a sober and venerable engraver (Ditta Raimondi di Pettinaroli) tucked amid the Prada and Dolce & Gabbana emporiums on the bustling high street of Corso Venezia stocks copperplates that date to the company’s founding, which corresponds roughly with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. At Pettinaroli one can order correspondence cards and have them personalized using a blind embossing technique so subtle one’s initials seem written in braille. In Milan it is still possible to fall upon what must be among one of the last great troves of secondhand goods in Europe at the Mercatone dell’Antiquariato. Here, on the last Sunday of each month, hundreds of dealers set up at dawn with offerings including the reconditioned kitchen equipment that people like Mr. Bruni of U Barba collect, but also Venini glass or plaster crèche figures or bridal linens or Mussolini memorabilia or industrial material such as the jointed-metal 1950’s doormat I snapped up for US$80 that looks like a piece of contemporary art. Not only is there a shop (Mercatores) in Milan specializing in uniforms for household domestics, it does a volume of sales any fashion retailer might envy. The anachronism of Mercatores might seem bizarre in any other city. Houseman jackets with epaulets? Starched caps for the parlor maid? Yet it’s probably worth knowing that before every fashion show she presents, the designer Miuccia Prada—a discreet child of the Milanese haute bourgeoisie if ever there was one—sends waiters wearing crisply starched jackets from Mercatores to circulate among the throngs of buyers and press. The waiters serve champagne cocktails and cucumber sandwiches on white bread with butter, their crusts, of course, cut off. As a sage American friend who lived in Milan once pointed out, it is fairly pointless to try to “squeeze out” newness there. “Time would be better spent,” this woman said, “unearthing the treasures in the land that time forgot.” t happens that, when my friend made this remark, we were seated in a restaurant that is one of my haunts in the city, eating bowls of vivid green soup made from stinging nettles. This hearty first course had been prepared by Arturo Maggi, a man with a head like a public monument and the habit of referring to himself not as a chef but as an “alchemist.” Maggi, his wife, Maria, and their sons, Roberto and Marco, run La Latteria, an eight-
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table hole-in-the-wall a short walk from San Marco, a church where, in a side altar, is installed a credible copy of Caravaggio’s Deposition, a masterpiece that allegedly hung here at one time. Whenever I am in Milan, I make plans to have dinner at La Latteria, stopping en route at San Marco to light one of the pale wax candles that in Milan have not yet been replaced by feebly flickering electric lights. Few Milanese know about La Latteria, a well-kept secret where for decades Maggi has offered his delectable but unfussy home cooking, food prepared according to quasiscientific precepts involving an evolved philosophy relating to the reactive properties of metals and food. Maggi cooks exclusively in pots made from .999 silver or aluminum, and perhaps only he understands precisely how this benefits the taste of his cuisine. Yet anyone who eats there is immediately struck by the intense freshness of the food and the produce that typically comes from Maggi’s own garden or direct from farmer friends. On any given day the crowd at La Latteria might include the architect Renzo Piano or Carla Sozzani, the owner of 10 Corso Como, that mother of all “concept” stores, or else Barnaba Fornasetti, son of Piero, the great furniture designer. It will also just as likely include the local pharmacist, or me. Everyone is democratically jammed into one or another of the small tables wedged into a corner, beside a minuscule bar, or behind the door, happy to be in this brightly lit space where the decoration runs to charmingly awful floral paintings that the owners proudly frame and hang. “It’s important that food is not only delicious,” Maggi remarked one afternoon, as his wife served rabbit stew in dense and redolent ragù and carafes of the brusque house red. “It has to be nourishing to give you health and strength.” Health and strength you require in plenty if you aim to penetrate the mysteries of Milan. Good walking shoes also help. I favor rubber-soled loafers from Prada or sturdy Gommini from Tod’s for pavement pounding. Despite its efficient subway system and network of antiquated trolleys, Milan is a pedestrian town. Those Frenchwomen who somehow never grow fat are not possessors of any special secret. In most European cities people keep their figures mainly by smoking and getting around on their feet. I lost two kilograms in a week spent racing around the city, all the while eating like a very fortunate trencherman. My hotel, the hyperefficient Park Hyatt, was adjacent to the 19th-century Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, an immense glass-roofed cathedral to consumerism erected, with a certain impertinence, alongside the Duomo, Milan’s foremost house of God. The Galleria functions as kind of geographic pivot point for central Milan and the streets that radiate outward into the area called the Golden Quadrilateral; from whichever direction you exit the place, you come face to face with a monument. » travelandleisureasia.com | february 2012 105
I often advise friends to stop for a moment before heading off to La Scala or the Palazzo Reale or the Museo del Novecento to observe the small army of workers seemingly always repairing the Galleria’s pavement. Curious as the advice may seem, there’s good reason to cast an eye downward at the gorgeous mosaics, so rich and ornate and symbolic. (It’s considered particularly lucky to execute a circle atop a bull inset there, heel planted where the beast’s testicles might be if generations of Milanese hadn’t worn them away, leaving a hole in the floor.) Decades of hard use and neglect had left the floor of the Galleria looking pockmarked and sad, yet like so much else in Milan it has undergone long-overdue restoration in recent years. It happens that the mosaici these days are not mended by traditional laborers with hands gnarled and knotted like roots. Instead, young women with art history degrees toil late into the night grinding and grouting and polishing until their faces and hair are powdered with ancient civic dust. epair of the galleria is a small but meaningful thing, a gesture to a public surprisingly often excluded from much that is splendid in Milan. There’s a reason for this. Milan is above all a cold and gorgeous fortress and has been that way for centuries. The cyclopean granite walls of ancient palaces built in inner-city grids proclaim their impregnable nature. The marmoreal façades of great apartment complexes dare the curious to guess what’s inside. Concealed behind the stone walls, the palace doors, and the iron gateways are often beautiful gardens, green spaces whose existence is known only to the lucky inhabitants and to the birds. Thus it did not astonish me when an acquaintance once mentioned having gone househunting by helicopter. On my most recent trip to the city, I took advantage of the chance to poke into crannies, nose down side streets I’d only glimpsed before from the backseat of a cab. I started my wanderings, as I advise anyone to do, at the Villa Necchi Campiglio, a sublime structure designed for a family of industrialists in the 1930’s by architect Piero Portaluppi and now open to the public. Purists may gripe about the ornate fireplaces, Venetian antiques and lush tapestries Tommaso Buzzi, a later designer, added to the house, which Portaluppi built with monastic severity in the then-new rationalist style. But to my eye the balance between rigor and ease attains a seldom surpassed level of elegance and chic. The house’s material richness is offset by a disarmingly simple geometry. It demonstrates, as the director Luca Guadagnino, who filmed the art-house hit I Am Love there, once said, “the obsession with perfection and details” characteristic of the Milanese bourgeoisie. This obsession is clear in the restrained walnut parquetry, the lozenge stucco ceilings, and in an articulated steel partition Portaluppi
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designed to screen the solarium, a device so ingenious you barely register that it is essentially a security gate. Giorgio Armani often cites the Villa Necchi Campiglio as one of his inspirations, and references to Portaluppi’s supremely stylish austerity are easy to see at the designer’s new Armani Hotel Milano, a 95-room property he opened last November atop his flagship store in a Fascist-era building on the Via Alessandro Manzoni, shopping ground zero in this city. The residential area where the Villa Necchi Campiglio stands is an odd place known as the Quadrilatero del Silenzio, the Silent Quadrilateral. Within easy walking distance of the center city, it nevertheless feels so remote from the hubbub of Milan as to be somehow enchanted. This effect is underscored when you stroll there amid the stolid villas and Liberty-style buildings, passing on your way the kinds of half-hidden treasures in which Milan abounds. Here is the palazzo where Michelangelo Antonioni set scenes from his first film. Here is a courtyard garden at the center of which stands a four-story sycamore tree. Here is a house whose bronze entry phone, created by the sculptor Adolfo Wildt, is in the shape of an ear. Here is a garden lying behind an iron fence and a high hedge in which a flock of pink flamingos wades and struts through the papyrus in an ornamental pond. “Milan needs to be discovered slowly,” explained Rossana Orlandi, the city’s doyenne of contemporary furniture design, whose gallery, Spazio Rossana Orlandi, has long been a showcase for the most gifted and adventurous furniture designers in the world. A curious figure in her trademark outsize sunglasses, Orlandi bears a resemblance to a small bird at roost in a strangely feathered nest. All around her the day I visited stood furniture that flouted convention: chairs and tables constructed by the gifted Dutchman Piet Hein Eek from scrap wood or iron; the Spaniard Nacho Carbonell’s “Bush of Iron,” a bristling desk-and-chair combination that looked menacingly alive; a wardrobe by the Slovenian Nika Zupanc that looked like an accordion file. There, too, was a tabletop on which were arrayed ranks of glazed porcelain beetles, sinister and irresistible, by the Germans Beate Reinheimer and Ulrike Rehm, who go by the acronym RaR. Even Orlandi’s gallery—located in a former tie factory in the courtyard of a residential building—is not easy to find. “There are plenty of beautiful places that need to be discovered here,” she added. “If I may be honest, I don’t know too much Milan myself.” It takes time to unearth the city’s wonders—a decade in my case. It takes determination and a plan. When in Milan now, I always make a point of stopping at the Bulgari Hotel for drinks in the tranquil garden. The hotel’s air of exclusive remove is so earnest even cab drivers are challenged to find its private cul-de-sac. »
old meets new Clockwise from top left: Confections at Giovanni Galli, a century-old pasticceria; young restorers working
on the mosaic floors of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II; lunch at UÂ Barba; the Imperial Suite at the Park Hyatt Milan.
Armani, the new hotel in town, left. Below: A spaghetti with seafood dish at Giacomo Arengario.
thE gaLLEria, an immEnsE CathEdraL to ConsumErism, fuNctIONS aS a kIND Of geOgraPHIc PIVOt POINt; from whiChEvEr dirECtion you Exit, you ComE faCE to faCE with a monumEnt
I alternate meals between high-end restaurants such as Giacomo Arengario—a swank outpost of the famed Da Giacomo, this one set in the Palazzo dell’Arengario overlooking the Duomo—and lunch counters like Mandara, a businessman’s joint down the block from that great Milanese deli Peck. At Mandara the mozzarella di bufala is always “freschissima,” as a Milanese friend notes with approval. The prosciutto sliced to transparency and layered on crusty rolls is well-aged. While the selection is limited, the price is right and the cashier, a taciturn mama out of Central Casting, glowers over her empire from her throne by the till. I stop each time I’m in town at AD56 Milano, a haberdashery I blithely walked past for years before a casual comment by Lapo Elkann finally sent me inside. Elkann, of course, is the Fiat heir famed for a style both chic and raffish. 108 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
When I once admired Elkann’s shirt at a dinner party, he told me he’d had it run up at one of those “little tailoring places” that still abound in Milan. I kick myself now for the years I squandered shopping elsewhere when all along I might have been capitalizing on Guido Vergani, the expert counselor whose advice I now seek whenever important decisions are to be made about clothes. One of the unkillable canards about men involves shopping and how much we allegedly hate it. No one ever bothers to note that men’s-wear departments are typically shunted to basements of most large retail outlets around the world, somewhere between the rest room and the exit to the parking garage. For an hour or so in the wood-paneled sanctuary of AD56, banked with wools, silks and cashmeres, I get to impersonate Milanese gentlemen of some discernment.
With Vergani’s assistance I explore and adjust sartorial details that are probably the true secret to personal style. I choose between spread and button-down collars, round cuffs or square. I weigh the decision to add a breast pocket or not. And when the whole performance becomes a bit too peacock for someone of my basically Calvinist nature, I nip downstairs to the shop’s main selling floor and pick out several gorgeous and amazingly affordable ties to give to friends back home. n my most recent visit, i piled my purchases into a car I’d hired for the afternoon and hurried off to keep an appointment I’d been trying to get for years. It was on the way to Santa Maria delle Grazie, where Leonardo’s Last Supper sits high on the wall of a former refectory, that Milan produced a bit of serendipity in the form of an offhand remark made by Massimo Padovani, the driver. Did I know, Massimo asked me, that San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore had reopened? I did not and neither did I know what that might signify. Massimo explained as he drove that this ecclesiastical complex, hidden from public view for years, boasts a masterpiece that rivals that of Leonardo: a luminous fresco cycle executed in the early 16th century by the undersung genius named Bernardino Luini and his sons. Since the 1980’s the frescoes have been undergoing major surgery, an overdue attempt to stabilize an ailing patient using funds from a local bank. Over decades, technicians painstakingly resuscitated a fragile and fugitive picture cycle that—like the Last Supper—had suffered badly from the moist breath of Milan’s deep aquifers and the interventions of restorer hacks. When Massimo told me this, I decided on a whim to forgo my allotted 15 minutes with the Last Supper and stop into San Maurizio instead. Both Ruskin and Nabokov, I knew, were unified in praise of a painter some art historians wrote off as a Lombard bumpkin. Could both Ruskin and Nabokov be wrong? For an hour that brisk afternoon, I took in the assorted ascensions and annunciations; lunar madonnas and bloodyfanged demons; martyrs beheaded, impaled or fricasseed in oil. I wandered among the idealized virgins ostensibly modeled on nobles of no such virtue and puzzled over an ark onto which Noah herded a wacky menagerie that included a pair of unicorns. That the church that day should be so eerily empty felt hard to explain, until I remembered a defining feature of a city where talent and wealth has concentrated at least since Roman times. In Milan, there are so many riches it would take a lifetime to scratch the surface of them all. ✚
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Ad56 Milano
Armani Hotel Bulgari Hotel
Sermoneta gloves Four Seasons Hotel Milano
g. Lorenzi Villa Necchi Campiglio galleria Vittorio Emanuele II ditta Raimondi Park Hyatt di Pettinaroli San Maurizio al giovanni galli Monastero Maggiore Teatro alla Scala Straf Hotel Pasticceria Marchesi duomo Spazio Mandara Rossana giacomo Peck Orlandi Arengario Mercatone U Barba dell’Antiquariato
gUIdE TO MILAN STAY Armani Hotel Milano 31 via alessandro manzoni; 3902/8883-8888; armanihotels. com; doubles from €560. Bulgari Hotel 7/b via Privata fratelli Gabba; 39-02/8058051; bulgarihotels.com; doubles from €600. Four Seasons Hotel Milano a luxury conversion of a 15th-century convent. 6/8 via Gesù; 39-02/770-88; fourseasons.com; doubles from €540. Park Hyatt Milan 1 via tommaso Grossi; 3902/8821-1234; park.hyatt. com; doubles from €425.
San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore 15 corso magenta; 39-02/8645-0011. Teatro alla Scala 2 via filodrammatici; 39-02/72003744; teatroallascala.org. Villa Necchi Campiglio 14 via mozart; 39-02/76340121. SHOP Ad56 Milano 2 via marco de marchi; 39-02/654-030; ad56milano.it. ditta Raimondi di Pettinaroli 6 corso venezia; 3902/7600-2412; pettinaroli.it. giovanni galli 2 via victor Hugo; 39-02/8646-4833; giovannigalli.com.
Straf Hotel & Bar Hotel with a minimalist-industrial look right by the duomo. 3 via san raffaele; 39-02/805081; designhotels.com; doubles from €235. EAT giacomo Arengario 1 via Guglielmo marconi; 39-02/ 7209-3814; dinner for two €130.
g. Lorenzi 9 via montenapoleone; 3902/7602-2848; lorenzi.it. Mercatone dell’Antiquariato naviglio Grande, between viale Gorizia and the via valenza bridge; 39-02/89409971; navigliogrande.mi.it. Mercatores 3 via filippo turati; 39-02/7600-1177.
La Latteria 24 via san marco; 39-02/659-7653; dinner for two €66.
Pasticceria Marchesi 11/a via s. maria alla Porta; 39-02/862-770; pasticceriamarchesi.it.
Mandara 2 via santa maria segreta; 39-02/8646-3728; lunch for two €15.
Peck 9 via spadari; 3902/802-3161; peck.it.
U Barba 33 via Pier candido decembrio; 39-02/45487032; dinner for two €60. SEE ANd dO San Marco 2 Piazza san marco; 39-02/2900-2598.
Sermoneta gloves 46 via della spiga; 39-02/76318303; sermonetagloves.com. Spazio Rossana Orlandi 14 via matteo bandello; 39-02/467-4471; rossanaorlandi.com.
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Argentina’s northwest passage On a drive through the rugged province of Salta,
Peter Jon Lindberg discovers a place of spectacular
landscapes, dusty gaucho villages, sublime food and wine— and teeth-grittingly memorable roads. photo g raphe d by davi d nicolas
A guest room at the House of Jasmines Estancia de Charme, outside the city of Salta. Opposite: The switchback-filled Cuesta del Obispo road between Salta and Cachi.
THE WEEK HAD PASSED LIKE A FEVER DREAM. PERHAPS IT WAS THE ALTITuDE, oR THE HEAT FRoM An unFILTERED Sun. Or maybe this just happens to anyone who tackles an eight-day drive around the province of Salta, in Argentina’s mountainous northwest. In proximity, physicality, culture and spirit, Salta is closer to the Andes than to the rest of the country. The cosmopolitan airs of Buenos Aires seem a world away. The province’s topography is remarkably diverse: a jumble of red rock and green rivers, vineyards and thorny cacti, snowcapped peaks and arid deserts—as if God had crumpled a map and squeezed a continent’s worth of landscapes into one remote corner of Argentina. My wife, Nilou, and I had caught the two-hour flight from B.A. to the city of Salta, the provincial capital. It was the end of South America’s summer, and the tobacco fields were lush from rain, the alfalfa blooming vibrant purple. From Salta we set out on a 530-kilometer loop: over an alpine pass to the chalk-white pueblo of Cachi; onward to the tidy hamlet of Seclantás and the fabulous horse ranch and wine estate of Colomé; south to the vineyards of Cafayate; then north through rust-colored canyons on the way back to the capital. And on the eighth day, as we pulled into the rental lot to return our » travelandleisureasia.com | february 2012 111
mud-spattered 4 x 4, we had trouble fathoming all we’d encountered: a series of vivid, almost surreal moments, strange enough to make the trip seem half-imagined. Had all that really happened? | THE PASS | “Nothing grows here but scrub and resentment,” Nilou observed as we rounded Hairpin Turn No. 472. We were inching along the Cuesta del Obispo, a near-vertical series of mountain switchbacks in the Sierra del Obispo, en route from Salta to Cachi. We had risen above the treeline, though it was hard to say for sure; you couldn’t see 10 meters for the mist clinging to the road. The temperature had dropped from 21 to 11 degrees Celsius. It looked like Venus out there. “Are we sure this road is even open?” Nilou wondered aloud. She had a point—we hadn’t passed another car for miles. The fog was thick, the air dizzyingly thin: we were wending our way up to 3,350 meters. At the height of the pass, a stone chapel materialized out of the mist, poised on the edge of a cliff. Nearby stood several primitive crosses, no doubt marking where someone had fallen into the void. We got out to stretch our legs and immediately our feet were soaking wet. Rivulets of runoff cascaded down the hillside, into our boots, and over the cliff, to vanish in the whiteness below. We pushed on into the murk, the SUV now pointed downward. I rode the brake. Our ears popped; the rain stopped. In an instant the fog fell away, revealing an arrow-straight highway and a vast plain dotted with cardon cacti. Along the roadside grazed a herd of curious, fuzzy-eared donkeys. Two ambled toward us as we idled on the shoulder. The ears were so ridiculously outsized that the donkeys seemed to stoop under their weight; they looked like helicopter rotors. | THE ROdEO | I could hear them approaching from the ravine below. It began as far-off thunder, a rumble that became a roar—the deafening drumbeat of a hundred hooves. In a frenzy of dust the herd rounded the corner: 25 unbridled criollo horses at full gallop. We pressed our backs against the fence as they swept into the corral, close enough that we could smell their sweat and feel their heat as they passed. Trailing the herd was a boy no older than 14, riding bareback and wielding a rebenque, the braidedleather riding crop of the gaucho. The crowd cheered as he drove in the last of the herd. The doma could begin. After the Cuesta del Obispo we had dropped down, down into the Calchaquí Valley, where lush pastures and llama farms sidle up to Georgia O’Keeffe hills striated pink, chalk-white and green. The highway hugged a canyon wall into which the river had carved faces: jagged brows and cheekbones glowing red in the midday sun. At last we’d pulled into Cachi, a low-slung frontier town that, despite the dust that blows in from every direction, manages to keep its adobe façades blindingly white. By sheer luck, we’d arrived in Cachi on the day of the doma, a gaucho rodeo festival that draws crowds from around the valley: families in pickup trucks, ranchers on horseback and, of 112 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
course, a whole cavalry of gauchos, with their flat wool brims, their baggy bombacha trousers, their faces like rock formations. We joined the spectators at the rim of a gravel pit that doubled as the rodeo ground. For all the excitement it could have been the Roman Colosseum. Salteño folk music began to blare over the tinny loudspeakers, and one by one the horses were set loose into the pit, to be lassoed and mounted by the gauchos. Most riders were tossed within seconds—much to the crowd’s delight—but a few hung on for a minute or more, whereupon the men in the audience would briefly set down their two-liter soda bottles of homemade wine and murmur their approval. Under a eucalyptus tree, a cluster of bowlegged gauchos sharpened their facon knives and studied their BlackBerrys. Their horses lapped at a nearby water trough, saddled in full regalia, their stiff leather guardamontes (saddle guards) flared out like butterfly wings—the mounts of flying cowboys. | THE RESTAURANT | One hears all sorts of hype about the wines of Salta, which are second only to Mendoza’s in reputation, but what really sold us was the food. We fell hardest for locro, a hominy-and-pumpkin stew as hearty as cassoulet, spicy as gumbo. (Salteño cooking packs more heat than that of southern Argentina.) Along with beans, pimientos and fresh scallions, locro might incorporate pork, beef, tripe, sausage and/or smoked bacon. It is positively soul-reviving. The best version we found was at Inti Raymi, in the village of Seclantás, a two-hour drive south of Cachi. Seclantás’s town green is improbably tidy, the hedges and flower bushes trimmed just so, overlooked by a lovely rose-colored cathedral. Inti raymi means “festival of the sun god” in the local Quechua language, a form of which was spoken by the Incas. In addition to locro, the restaurant serves several regional specialities, including a terrific charquisillo (cured-beef and quinoa stew). It was opened five years ago by the Díazes, a couple of Indian and Spanish descent, in an adobe hacienda that’s been in the family since 1700. When we stopped in for a late-afternoon lunch, they were in the backyard making tomato jam. Señora Díaz greeted us warmly, took leave of her canning and sat us in a cool, chapel-like room decorated with devotional art, antique instruments and a Victrola. For the next hour she brought out course after course of the cockle-warming food one craves after a long and winding road: empanadas stuffed with raisins, olives, potatoes, goat cheese and ground beef, bursting with fragrant juice. Golden tamales, the filling light and fluffy yet rich in umami from salted beef. And the tastiest salsa criolla we’d had all trip—an ear-ringingly spicy mix of tomatoes, onion, garlic, cumin and locoto peppers. It was all so good we were tempted to stay and order another round for dinner. | THE RIVER | “When you get to the river, go straight,” they told us when we called for directions to Colomé. “You mean the bridge?” “No—there is no bridge. You’ll have to cross the river »
the wild, wild northwest Clockwise from top left: Salta-based metalsmith Humbero Juárez with one of his works; the Neoclassical San Francisco
Church, in Salta; hand-spun textiles in the Río del Valle Luracatao boutique, in Salta; the view over the swimming pool at House of Jasmines; empanadas from La Casa de las Empanadas, in Cafayete; the chapel at the summit of the Cuesta del Obispo, between Salta and Cachi; the Quebrada de las Flechas, on Ruta 40 between Cachi and Cafayete; La Table restaurant at the House of Jasmines estancia. Center: A Salteño farmer outside of Cachi.
The ravine leading to El Anfiteatro, on the road from Cafayate to Salta. Opposite: Stable manager Ernesto GonzĂĄlez on horseback on the grounds of Estancia ColomĂŠ.
THAT A STATE-oF-THE-ART WInERy couLD ExIST In SucH A REMoTE AnD DIFFIcuLT SETTIng SEEMS A MInoR MIRAcLE yourself.” The man paused. “You do have four-wheel drive, yes?” Before arriving at this challenge, we had already endured an agonizing stretch of Ruta 40, Argentina’s legendary highway, which we had picked up south of Cachi. To call this particular portion a “dirt road” would be exceedingly kind. We were never fully convinced we were actually on Ruta 40 and not tracing some ancestral pilgrimage route bushwhacked by the Incas. Since leaving Seclantás we had rattled along for ages at five or six kilometers per hour, until we reached the banks of the Molinos River. Late-summer rains had raised the river to unusual heights. The water was about 90 meters across and rushing at a good clip. “Turn your wheel into the current,” the man on the phone had advised. “And whatever you do, don’t slow down.” Nilou unbuckled her seat belt in case she needed to get out quickly and swim. I shifted into first. The wheels spun briefly, then we launched off the muddy bank. At this point, for reasons that still remain unclear, I began to yodel. Loudly. Nilou seemed to agree this was the thing to do, and soon both of us were yodeling as we bounced across the river, until we reached the shore. | THE ESTANCIA | If any place is worth fording a river for, Estancia Colomé is it. The 38,850-hectare estate was bought in 2001 by Donald Hess, a Swiss entrepreneur and art collector whose primary intention was to make wine. Colomé’s vines are some of the oldest in Argentina (one plot dates to the 1850’s), and among the highest in the world, averaging 2,195 meters above sea level. The extreme elevation, and the increased UV-ray exposure, result in more concentrated, intensely flavored wines. Colomé’s Malbecs, Syrahs and Tannats rank among the country’s finest. That a state-of-the-art winery could exist in such a remote and difficult setting seems a minor miracle. That Colomé would also house an 1,670-square-meter James Turrell museum veers into the absurd. Hess built the museum in 2009, working from a design by Turrell himself. It is the world’s only museum devoted to the California-born artist, whose light installations toy with infinitesimal variations in color; with the interplay of natural
and artificial light; and—via mind-bending trompe l’oeil effects—with the limitations of the human eye. The exhibit is mesmerizing, and Turrell’s works take advantage of the setting. The final installation, Unseen Blue 2002, occupies an entire room, with a rectangular portal in the ceiling: a massive skylight framed by ever-shifting colored lights. During our sunset tour of the museum, the docent instructed us to find a spot on the marble floor, lie on our backs and watch. Watch what? The sky, as it shifted imperceptibly from blue to cobalt, deep indigo to inky black. Just uphill from the museum is an elegant hacienda full of Spanish archways, timber beams and wrought-iron chandeliers. Until recently, its nine rooms were run as a luxury hotel, but alas, in September, Hess closed the hotel operation; the house is now available only for group rentals. Colomé’s excellent restaurant, however, remains open to the public, along with the winery and Turrell Museum. I can think of few things more happy-making than a lunch of spit-roasted lamb and greens from Colomé’s biodynamic farm, taken on a sun-dappled terrace perfumed with lavender and woodsmoke. Few things, that is, besides exploring the property on horseback. Colomé is a rider’s dream, and day visitors can book guided treks around the ranch. The stable has a handful of Peruvian Paso horses, whose unique, smooth, four-beat gait (they set down only one foot at a time when in a trot or canter) makes them extremely comfortable to ride. Led by the resident horse trainer, Ernesto González, Nilou and I ranged deep into Colomé’s hinterlands. Out here the landscape changed every kilometer or so, like a series of disjointed Westerns, quickcutting from the Badlands to the prairie, the high plains to Monument Valley. We scrambled up rocky slopes, raced along dry riverbeds and cracked mud plains, trotted through pastures of stirrup-high grass, forded silt-heavy rivers and streams (fording rivers being old hat for us)—in short, indulging every cowboy fantasy I’d harbored since the age of four. | LA PARRILLA | The joint was jammed—every table inside and on the sidewalk filled—and no one looked to be leaving soon. “Momentito, por favor!” our host said, before darting into the kitchen. » travelandleisureasia.com | february 2012 115
WE SAT on A bouLDER AnD LISTEnED FoR A WHILE, HyPnoTIzED by THE InTERAcTIon oF WIRE, WooD, AIR AnD RocK He returned with two stools and a folding metal table, which he set up in the street between a pickup and an old Ford Falcon. “Ta-da!” he cried, as he laid out two place settings. What could we do but laugh and take a seat? We had followed Rivadavia Street out to the western edge of town, joined in the final blocks by a gathering procession of like-minded hungry locals. At last we spotted the place, enveloped in fragrant grill smoke: Shula Cata, the finest parrilla in Cafayate. Set in a valley at the southern end of the province, Cafayate is Salta’s most famous wine town, which means it draws plenty of wealthy weekenders, bus tourists and backpackers. The latter especially have embraced Cafayate’s easygoing spirit—playing hacky sack on the verdant town green, noshing on cheap empanadas and hitting local wineries for free tastings. The overall vibe is like a scruffier Sonoma; call it Down-at-the-Healdsburg. Plenty of decent restaurants face the square, but six different people had told us the real deal was out at Shula Cata. The parrilla (pronounced “pa-ree-zha”; meaning grill) is, of course, an Argentinean institution: a temple of fire, a holy church of meats. In larger cities they tend to be more refined, akin to North American steak houses, but small-town parrillas are often as raucous as a rib shack crossed with a biker bar. Shula Cata fit soundly in the second category. At our tablein-the-street we were circled by a pack of ravenous dogs. (Very Amores Perros.) But the dogs skulked away whenever the host reappeared with his stick—and frankly, everything was so delicious we soon paid them no mind. Just inside the restaurant, the burly parrillero worked an immense grill laden with steaks and sausages, their savory aroma pouring out the chimney and the front door. We had glorious cuts of lomo (tenderloin), asado entiras (ribs) and chorizo, served by the grill man himself on a big wooden platter alongside two ramekins of chimichurri—one fiery, one mild—plus fries, salad and a half-decent Malbec. The bill? Ninety-six pesos, or US$24. | EL ANFITEATRO | Northeast of Cafayate, en route to Salta city, Highway 68 passes through some of the most spectacular scenery in Argentina. Swirling dunes, rust-red canyons, sandstone monoliths, rock 116 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com
faces like stacked shards of colored glass: although the road itself is in good condition (at least far better than Ruta 40), driving the thing takes forever, for all the slack-jawed rubbernecking required. Nilou and I took three hours to drive the first 80 kilometers, during which we took 537 photographs. They’re all good. One place nearly impossible to capture on film: a chasm-like ravine that doubles as a natural amphitheater. El Anfiteatro is a popular stop on coach tours, but on this sun-scorched afternoon we were one of only two cars in the parking lot. We heard the music as soon as we stopped the engine. Following a gravel path into the ravine—the air growing cooler as we walked—we emerged into a huge, half-moon-shaped chamber, like the belly of a giant stove. The rock walls reached up like a chimney, 30 meters or more, to meet the shocking-blue sky. Music now surrounded us. In one corner of the chamber, two guitarists sat on blankets, playing a luminous ballad. Though their fingers hardly glanced the strings, the notes reverberated all around the canyon walls. We sat on a boulder and listened for a while, hypnotized by the interaction of wire, wood, air and rock: two beat-up guitars that came off like an orchestra. Argentinian appetizers.
| THE MAxI | Salta’s provincial capital is home to 536,000 people, and every last one of them is crazy about their hometown. That’s what you figure, anyway, based on the many billboards promoting the city’s beauty and charm, and, especially, the number of Salteño folk songs extolling the virtues of Salta over anyplace else on earth. In short: people like it here. Take, for a particularly handsome example, Maxi—short for Maximiano, of the locally prominent Montaldi family. Maxi is 25, and recently passed the bar and joined his father’s law firm in Salta; he also moonlights as a tour guide, which is how we met him. With his bottomless brown eyes and wavy locks, he’s a ringer for a young Antonio Banderas. Though he has friends who’ve moved to B.A., Maxi has no interest in leaving for a bigger game. He’s too fond of the Salta lifestyle—the deep sense of family, community, the respect for tradition. (In Buenos Aires, he explains, office workers don’t even have time to come home for lunch with their families!)
Maxi led us excitedly around the Plaza de 9 Julio, the city’s elegant main square, planted with eucalyptus, cedar and sweetsmelling orange trees. Surrounding the plaza are striking colonial façades, preserved or restored, culminating in the town’s Neoclassical cathedral, frosted pink and creamy white. We sat to watch the sunlight play on its rosy twin bell towers. Every person who passed it made the sign of the cross. The city has changed since Maxi’s youth. Before Argentina’s economic crisis a decade ago, he says, “Salta was a ghost town— nobody wanted to visit.” But post-crash, when few Argentines could afford to travel overseas, the northwest saw a huge rise in domestic tourism, resulting in an explosion of local hotels, B&B’s, restaurants and tour companies. Foreign travelers were soon drawn to the region as well. “Especially the French—they love the old buildings,” Maxi says. That’s not to say Salta has polished itself up for tourists. In the gritty Bolivian quarter, we were startled by the screech of a rusted-out El Camino, its dragging back fender shooting sparks into the street. The flatbed was loaded with hundreds of ears of corn. | LA zAMBA | Wine, empanadas and colonial architecture notwithstanding, Salta is most famous for its music. The northwest is the cradle of Argentina’s traditional folk scene, and Salta’s many peñas (music clubs) are legendary. One of the country’s most popular bands, Los Chalchaleros, formed here in the 1940’s and still plays to sold-out crowds, usually clad in high-heeled boots and gaucho capes. Salta’s signature musical form is the zamba, a stirring waltz-time dance that showcases the bombo legüero,
a traditional fur-skinned drum. The lyrics typically namecheck a number of provincial villages and their landmarks. Like American country music, folklorico Salteño is nothing if not hometown-proud. Maxi is crazy for Salteño folk songs. As we rode with him around town, he blasted tunes by Los Chalchaleros and Los Nocheros. So on our final night in Salta, he wanted to take us out for live music. La Casona del Molino sits on the outskirts of town in a crumbling old mill complex dating from 1671. It’s a bar, but far more than that: in five cozy salas surrounding an open courtyard, musicians gather to play informal sets, hootenanny-style. At 11 p.m. on a Wednesday, the place was just beginning to fill up—with students, old men, mothers nursing babies. Tabletops were crowded with Fernet-and-Cokes (Argentina’s national cocktail) and pop-top bottles of wine. Every man wore a gingham shirt; some carried satchels of coca leaves. The guitarist unleashed a flurry of manic strumming, and soon everyone was singing along to the triumphant chorus. The only words I could make out were “Salta,” “Salta,” and “Salta.” It was a fist-pumping tribute to the place they called home—the “Empire State of Mind” of folk anthems. Hearing that song, watching that crowd, I had the impression of Salta as a land apart from the rest of Argentina— or at least the sense that Salteños see it that way. Their pride is infectious. As the moon rose over the century-old aguaribay tree, it was easy to imagine Maxi’s grandfather in this same courtyard, years earlier, singing a similar song for Salta. Tonight his grandson took up the mantle, resplendent in his broadbrimmed hat and singing along at the top of his lungs. ✚
gUIdE TO SALTA, ARgENTINA WHEN TO gO salta’s weather is temperate year-round, but it’s best to visit between april and november to avoid the rains. gETTINg THERE aerolineas argentinas, andes lineas aereas and lan argentina offer connections to salta city (sla) via buenos aires. gETTINg AROUNd if you plan to drive, don’t even think of hitting salta’s challenging backroads without 4Wd. try b.a.-based mai10 (5411/4314-3390; mai10.com. ar), run by t+l a-list veteran maita barrenechea, or u.s. company limitless argentina (1-202/5365812; limitlessargentina. com)—both have deep experience in argentina’s northwest. for driving tours, maximiano montaldi
can be hired through mai10. STAY gREAT VALUE
Hotel Hacienda de Molinos a recently renovated historic home featuring a beautiful courtyard, sweeping views and indigenous touches like algarrobo (black carob) ceilings. molinos; 54-3868/494-094; haciendademolinos.com. ar; doubles from us$120. gREAT VALUE
House of Jasmines Estancia de Charme this handsome, early 1900’s hacienda has 14 rooms and suites on a 150-hectare ranch just outside of salta. 54-3874/972-002; houseofjasmines.com; doubles from us$215. gREAT VALUE
Legado Mítico Hotel an 11-room boutique hotel (in
a restored colonial town house) whose rooms are themed around notable salteños. 647 General mitre, salta; 54-387/4228786; legadomitico.com; doubles from us$210. gREAT VALUE
La Merced del Alto cachi’s most luxurious property often doubles as a contemporary art gallery. 54-3868/490-030; lamerceddelalto.com; doubles from us$185. Patios de Cafayate Hotel & Winespa 1.6 kilometers northeast of cafayate, this resort has fussy interiors but lovely grounds. 543868/422-229; patiosde cafayate. com; doubles from us$335. EAT Inti Raymi abraham cornejo, seclantás; 54-3868/498-009; dinner for two us$23.
José Balcarce the northwest’s “high plains cuisine” with contemporary style. 912 General mitre, salta; 54-387/421-1628; dinner for two us$64. La Casa de las Empanadas more than a dozen varieties of empanadas—all fabulous— at a graffiti-bedecked take-out joint off cafayate’s main square. 54-3868/421-589; dinner for two us$17.
La Casona del Molino 1 luís burela, salta; 54-387/434-2835; drinks for two us$10. SHOP Félix J. Coro a fourth-generation luthier known for his handcrafted guitars and charangos. 845 Jujuy, salta; 54-387/423-4766.
Parillada Shula Cata 584 rivadavia, cafayate; 54-3868/422241; dinner for two us$17.
Río del Valle Luracatao one of salta’s finest boutiques, specializing in hand-spun textiles from the nearby luracatao valley. 515 leguizamón, salta; 54-387/431-0082.
SEE ANd dO Bodega y Estancia Colomé tours of the estate’s winery, museum and horseback-riding trails must be booked in advance. 54-3868/494200; bodegacolome.com; tours from us$70.
Taller Juárez de la Cámara salta’s most famous metalsmith sells handsome flatware, boxes, and serving trays made with pressed metals and carved-bone accents. 236 Pedro arias velázquez, salta; 54-387/439-4465.
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lastlook
the bayon, cambodia “My first trip to the temples outside of Siem Reap was a decade ago. Not ages past, but long enough to notice many changes today. Preservation should be at the heart of Angkor’s temples, but there’s a sideshow element to them today. I remember a more reserved version of Ta Prohm from my first trip. It was grand and elegant and overgrown. You could walk up to the trees and crumbling doorways. On my last visit, I saw that roped-off wooden platforms control where you can go. People queue for photographs, and it all feels a bit false. I was torn. Preservation must come first, but surely there’s a way to keep this from becoming a theme park. This photograph was taken later in the afternoon at The Bayon and there weren’t as many crowds. Two monks were chatting in the inner courtyard. There were no ropes or platforms; no pre-determined photo ops. For a moment, it felt timeless: the crumbling walkways, wide arches and passive, all-seeing stone faces looming above. I first saw this in black and white. I guess I was feeling nostalgic for a picture that is getting more difficult to take.” ✚ ph ot o g r a p he r a a r o n jo e l s a ntos • i n tervi ew ed by chr i stop her kucway 118 february 2012 | travelandleisureasia.com