November 2009

TRAVEL+LEISURE SOUTHEAST ASIA

9SSINGAPORE PATTAYA TOP ART FINDS IN T

THE NEW VIBE BEIJING’S BEST 15 COOL IDEAS 23 MUST-VISITS

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Style insider’s travel tips • Beijing • Bali • Singapore • Hong Kong • Flores • Pattaya • New York • Rioja

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NOVEMBER 2009

NEW YORK

YOUR ULTIMATE DOWNTOWN GUIDE

NEED TO NEED-TO-KNOW O K NOW TIPS FOR TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY

FLORES EXPLORE ORE THE LAND OF HOBBITS AND DRAGONS HONG KONG WHERE TO FIND THE HIPPEST THREADS

NIKOI ISLAND:

Quick break guide Q dee NOVE MBER 20 09

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Special Promotion

Spiritual Journeys with THAI ith today’s traveler looking for inspiring experiences beyond mere shopping and beach resorts, let Thai Airways take you on journeys of enlightenment, self-discovery and wonder, as you explore holy Buddhist sites in Asia.

Since the global economic crisis has hit, faith is such an important personal tool to help you see through the darkness and towards spiritual reawakening. More than this, faith can help guide you out of the gloom and towards a brighter future. So why not search for a deeper understanding of our planet and its cultures and diversity?

By undertaking a personal pilgrimage to make merit, the faithful can see the world—and experience travel—through fresh eyes. They say travel broadens the mind—why not let it energize the soul as well? Let these spiritual journeys enhance the Buddhist virtues of wisdom and compassion.

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© ANHARRIS / DREAMSTIME.COM

Discover the sacred places in Asia with a once-in-a-lifetime journey of faith

Clockwise from above: The “Big Buddha” in Hong Kong watches over the frenetic city; the Todaiji Temple in Nara, Japan, is a listed UNESCO World Heritage Site; the Sri Dalada Maligawa temple in the city of Kandy in Sri Lanka houses a relic of Buddha, a tooth; Guan-Yin, the Goddess of Mercy in China, and spirit of unconditional love, compassion and mercy; India, the birthplace of Buddhism, has to be on any itinerary for the faithful; Kyaiktiyo Paya in Myanmar.

(Destinations)11.09 Rioja, Spain 126 New York City 114

Beijing 48, 134

California 95 Pattaya 81

Flores 102

World Weather This Month -40oF -20oF -40oC

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Issue Index Nikoi Island, Indonesia 89 Pattaya 81 Penang 34 Singapore 34, 48 Thailand 50

Bhutan 146 Tokyo 54, 62

ASIA Beijing 48, 134

EUROPE London 56

Majorca 62 Rioja, Spain 126 Paris 62

AFRICA Ethiopia 62

THE AMERICAS California 95 Cartegena 62 New York City 114

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

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1.40

7.75

33.4

9,425

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3.41

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17,865

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7.98

(P)

46.4

(MMK)

6.51

(KHR)

(BND)

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4,167

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8,502

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

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SOUTHEAST ASIA Bali 38 Bangkok 42 Cambodia 62 Flores 102 Hong Kong 34, 56, 70 Jakarta 32, 48 Kuala Lumpur 50

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(Contents)11.09 >102 The dry hills of Rinca Island off Flores.

102 Another World On an island once home to hobbits, where lumbering dragons are lethal and volcanic lakes change color, it’s often difficult to know what to believe. What is certain, writes CHRIS KUCWAY, is that Flores is a natural wonder. Photographed

by LAURYN ISHAK. GUIDE AND MAP 112 8

114 Downtown New York As Manhattan’s historic, bohemian center undergoes its latest transformation, PETER JON LINDBERG looks at the big ideas, cutting-edge design and daring personalities shaping the new New York. Photographed by ANDREA FAZZARI. GUIDE AND MAP 125 126 Spanish Crush If ever a place embodied the spirit of Spain’s tapas tradition, it’s sleepy

NOV E M B E R 2 0 0 9| T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E S E A . C O M

Logroño, in the Rioja wine region.

BRUCE SCHOENFELD embarks on a Spanish-style bar crawl for the city’s charms. Photographed by DAVID NICOLAS. GUIDE AND MAP 133 134 One Happening Hutong Changes along a small Beijing lane reflect transformations taking place across the city, writes JEN LIN-LIU, and also in the country.

Photographed by DARREN SOH. GUIDE 145

LAURYN ISHAK

102-134 Features

NEW VIBE BEIJING’S BEST PATTAYA 15THECOOL 9SINGAPORE S IDEAS 23 MUST-VISITS TOP ART FINDS IN T

(Contents)11.09

SOUTHEAST ASIA

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18

NOVEMBER 2009

NEW YORK

YOUR ULTIMATE DOWNTOWN GUIDE

NEED TO NEED-TO-KNOW O K NOW TIPS FOR TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY

FLORES EXPLORE ORE THE LAND OF HOBBITS AND DRAGONS HONG KONG WHERE TO FIND THE HIPPEST THREADS

NIKOI ISLAND:

Departments 12 Editor’s Note 16 Contributors 18 Letters 22 Best Deals 24 Ask T+L 27 Strategies 146 My Favorite Place

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> 36

Quick break guide Q dee

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EXCLUSIVE ASIA TRAVEL DEALS EXC

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

Cover 50 Classics Kuala Lumpur’s love affair with authentic South Indian cuisine.

BY JARRET WRISLEY 52 First Look Soneva Kiri in Thailand ups the ante on green design. BY JENNIFER CHEN

At the Shangri-La, Villingili, Maldives. Photographed by Nat Prakobsantisuk. Styled by Kontee Pamaranont. Hair and make-up by Wansuk Prasert. Photographer’s assistant: Ekkarat Ubonsiri.

Model: Tanja Viding. Swimwear

by La Perla.

> 81

54 See It An abandoned warehouse in east Tokyo is home to cutting-edge art galleries.

BY LARA DAY 56 Wine Who to dial when you need a sommelier’s advice. BY DAVEN WU

33-56 Insider 34 Newsflash A new-look Mandarin Oriental in Jakarta, boutique stays in Penang, Hong Kong’s love of yogurt and more.

38 Eat Western chefs in Bali get back to the island’s roots. BY JEN LIN-LIU 40 On the Map Singapore as a treasure trove of public art. BY SONIA KOLESNIKOV-JESSOP 42 Check In In Bangkok, small hotels with style that won’t break the bank.

BY ANDREW BURKE 48 Drink From Jakarta to Beijing, speakeasystyle bars are all the rage.

BY JENNIFER CHEN 10

61 Icon Spanish jewels from Van Cleef & Arpels.

BY GIGI GUERRA 62 Spotlight Six fashionable trailblazers reveal what fuels their creativity.

70 Shopping In Hong Kong, boutiques that tailor to your every need. BY LARA DAY 76 Watches Stylish men’s watches for everywhere from Scotts Road to Sukhumvit.

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81 Dispatch Pattaya comes with a lot of baggage but there are a few indications—new resorts, snazzy shopping malls—that things are looking up. BY MATT LEPPARD 86 Insider On rude waitstaff, belligerent maître d’s, scowling chefs and the people who love them. BY PETER JON LINDBERG 89 Resorts If you’re searching for a place to get away from it all—no phones, Internet or worries other than the weather—Nikoi Island is the place. BY HUI FANG 95 Driving Explore a foodie enclave with hikes, picnics and an enticing vibe in a spin along Highway 1 north of San Francisco. BY OLIVER SCHWANER-ALBRIGHT

C L O C K W I S E F R O M FA R L E F T : D AV I D H A G E R M A N ; L A R A D AY ; C E D R I C A R N O L D ; L A R A D AY

61-76 Stylish Traveler 81-95 T+L Journal

(Editor’s Note) 11.09

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HEN I WAS RESEARCHING AND WRITING “CITY OF EXTREMES”

(page 81), about the emergence of a new spirit of élan in Pattaya, I was reminded many times of how polarizing even a discussion about the place can be. Depending on whom you talk to, the mere mention of Pattaya can provoke knowing winks and nods, absolute disgust and disregard, or a shopping list of what’s wrong with the place. Personally, I’ve had a love–hate relationship with the city for some time, and, for many years, avoided South Pattaya completely, basing myself in the quieter Jomtien area when I visited. That was until I took a vacation there with my parents this year (which you’ll read about in the story) and realized that it really is possible to have a normal vacation in the “extreme city,” and not be overwhelmed by the less-desirable aspects any more. Certainly, hotels like the Sheraton, Amari and Royal Cliff, as well as retail heavyweights like CentralFestival Pattaya Beach, have helped raise the city’s travel reputation by a notch or two and will continue to do so.

But given that Pattaya is such a contentious subject, why not e-mail me with your own thoughts, whatever they may be? I’m especially keen to hear from recent firsttime visitors and the experiences you had.

One place that’s definitely less controversial is Flores in the fittingly titled

“Another World” (page 102). This is where the now-famous meter-tall skeleton was found and later dubbed a “hobbit” in the popular press, but is what turns out to be a previously unknown species of primitive human. Here, dragons roam, and their bite is definitely worse than their bark. Lastly, on a totally different subject, I really hope you enjoy this issue’s photography-based Strategies guide (page 27). A lot of our readers are, according to the feedback we get, amateur snappers—so this is luck, and if they turn out really well, why not send them in?—MATT LEPPARD TRAVEL + L EISURE EDITORS, WRITERS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS ARE THE INDUSTRY’S MOST RELIABLE SOURCES. WHILE ON ASSIGNMENT, THEY TRAVEL INCOGNITO WHENEVER POSSIBLE AND DO NOT TAKE PRESS TRIPS OR ACCEPT FREE TRAVEL OF ANY KIND. 12

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C H E N P O VA N O N T

your turn to take tips from the pros to transform those snaps into pro pics. Best of

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ART DIRECTOR FEATURES EDITORS

Matt Leppard Anjan Das Jennifer Chen Chris Kucway

SENIOR DESIGNER EDITORIAL ASSISTANT INTERN

Wannapha Nawayon Wasinee Chantakorn Brijesh Khemlani

REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS / PHOTOGRAPHERS Paul Ehrlich (editor-at-large), Brent Madison, Adam Skolnick, Robyn Eckhardt, Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop, Lara Day, Naomi Lindt, Cedric Arnold, Steve McCurry, Peter Steinhauer, Nat Prakobsantisuk, Graham Uden, Darren Soh

CHAIRMAN PRESIDENT PUBLISHING DIRECTOR

PUBLISHER DIRECTOR SINGAPORE / ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER DIGITAL MEDIA MANAGER BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGERS CONSULTANT, HONG KONG/MACAU CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER PRODUCTION MANAGER PRODUCTION GROUP CIRCULATION MANAGER

J.S. Uberoi Egasith Chotpakditrakul Rasina Uberoi-Bajaj

Robert Fernhout Lucas W. Krump Pichayanee Kitsanayothin Michael K. Hirsch Kin Kamarulzaman Shea Stanley Gaurav Kumar Kanda Thanakornwongskul Supalak Krewsasaen Porames Chinwongs

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Ed Kelly Mark V. Stanich Paul B. Francis Nancy Novogrod Jean-Paul Kyrillos Cara S. David Mark Orwoll Thomas D. Storms Madelyn A. Roberts Marc Abdeldaim

TRAVEL+LEISURE SOUTHEAST ASIA VOL. 3, ISSUE 11 Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia is published monthly by Media Transasia Limited, Room 1205-06, 12/F, Hollywood Centre, 233 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong. Tel: +852 2851-6963; Fax: +852 2851-1933; under license from American Express Publishing Corporation, 1120 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036, United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the Publisher. Produced and distributed by Media Transasia Thailand Ltd., 14th Floor, Ocean Tower II, 75/8 Soi Sukhumvit 19, Sukhumvit Road, Klongtoeynue, Wattana, Bangkok 10110, Thailand. Tel: +66 2 204-2370. Printed by Comform Co., Ltd. (+66 2 368-2942–7). Color separation by Classic Scan Co., Ltd. (+66 2 291-7575). While the editors do their utmost to verify information published, they do not accept responsibility for its absolute accuracy.

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(Contributors) 11.09

From top: Bright lights of New York; Andrea Fazzari; Peter Jon Lindberg.

eter Jon Lindberg Based in New York City, the writer behind this month’s feature on the city (“Downtown, New York,” page 114) says visits to lower Manhattan remind him why he lives there. “Un. Define. Able,” is Lindberg’s description of Downtown. “It’s a shame that a culture of creatives has been priced out. But capital has allowed for unexpected and offbeat things as well, like the New Museum and the High Line.” Andrea Fazzari, who shot the article, says the city is best photographed at night. Of the eclectic, creative and stylish Downtown neighborhoods, she says “There’s a greater sense of innovation, art and history, especially immigrant history.”

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Jen Lin-Liu wrote this month’s article on a fastchanging Beijing (“One Happening Hutong,” page 134) about a city that is her part-time home.

“Writing about the young entrepreneurs in my neighborhood was incredibly eye-opening,” she says. “Rather than the spoiled ‘emperors and empresses’ we’ve been told about, I was introduced to a thoughtful, creative group of twentysomethings who will change China in the coming generations.”

LiLi Tan Hong Kong–based Tan wrote this month’s story on the city’s bespoke boutiques (“Tailor-made Chic,” page 70), a few of which are difficult even for a local to find. “I pounded the pavement on this one,” she says, “including several trips to Tsim Sha Tsui with no luck, asking everyone and their mother.” But she perservered and a few jewels popped up. “Now, I can play designer too.” Recently, Tan has been developing an online cooking show.

Darren Soh shot this month’s look at little-known Nikoi Island (“Barefoot Bliss,” page 89) in Indonesia, fairly close to his Singapore base. “I would say that Nikoi is a little gem of an island that cannot be more different from Singapore even though its just a stone’s throw due south,” he says. “Detractors should think twice the next time they feel like declaring that there’s nothing to do in or close by to Singapore besides eating.”

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FA R L E F T, F R O M T O P : A N D R E A FA Z Z A R I ( 2 ) ; C Y N T H I A W I M E R ; N I L O U M O TA M E D ; R I G H T C O L U M N , F R O M T O P : C O U R T E SY O F L A U R Y N I S H A K ; C O U R T E SY O F J E N L I N - L I U ; C O U R T E SY O F L I L I TA N ; C O U R T E SY O F D A R R E N S O H

Lauryn Ishak The Singapore-based photographer shot this month’s Flores feature (“Another World,” page 102). “Flores is exhilarating. There’s magic around every corner,” she says. “Traveling there makes you feel like you’re living life to the fullest.”

Born in Germany, educated in both the bustling centers of Hong Kong and New York City, Ishak says she loves nothing more than traveling to the middle of nowhere on an assignment or on a break.

(Letters)11.09 THE LAST

DYNASTY ON A JOURNEY TO LADAKH, IN THE SHADOW

OF THE HIMALAYAS, SOPHY ROBERTS UNCOVERS A BOLD NEW MODEL OF CULTURAL TOURISM. IS THIS WHAT’S NEXT FOR TRAVEL TO INDIA? PHOTOGRAPHED BY MORGAN OMMER The courtyard of Hemis Monastery. Opposite: Glacial waters flow through Ladakh.

LETTER OF THE MONTH A Top Trip

It was great to read your story on Ladakh [“The Last Dynasty,” September 2009], which brought back a flood of memories of my own trip there 10 years ago. The conservation and preservation work that is just starting is worth a trip alone, and it’s great to see that the local population has a hand in this work.

— M A RY

R I C H A R D S O N , K UA L A LU M P U R

Budget List Your story on Hong Kong’s budget hotels [September 2009] hit a chord with me. I always used to book topnotch, five-star accommodation, but now, as long as a hotel is conveniently located, clean and safe, I don’t care if someone wants to call it cheap or if it’s listed as being for budget travelers.

—SHIRLEY

AY Z A , JA K A RTA

Some Local Color The 2009 World’s Best Awards [August 2009] really blew me away.

The winners’ list is so extensive and I’ve now revised my travel wish list.

✉

However, I noticed what I think are inconsistencies and omissions. For example, in the Top Overall Cities Africa and Middle East, at least three Middle Eastern cities are on the list, while two Middle Eastern Airlines were in the top three International Airlines.

But what happened to the new developments in the Middle East like the Burj Al Arab? While I realize that Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia is part of the broader T+L family, I think that to be able to grow, you need to be more local. With the economic crisis still lingering, people are more interested to visit somewhere near, so I would recommend putting in more local destinations. You could start with listing more local regions, such as Best Hotels in Central Asia, Top Airlines in Asia and so on.

—P.

TA NA M A S , JA K A RTA

Firstly, thanks for your valued input. Suggestions for the awards were submitted by the editorial teams from all editions of Travel + Leisure and readers of all these editions were able to vote. So the results are a combination of these factors. But we do recognize the need to develop a more regional awards scheme—watch this space!

EDITOR’S REPLY

CORRECTION In October’s Best Deals section, we incorrectly stated the room rate and website for the Weekend Escape Package offer for The Club at the Saujana. The rate should have been RM600 per night, not the stated RM750. In addition, the website should have read ghmhotels.com. For more details, call 60-3/7843-1234. We apologize for the errors.

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.

Special Promotion

MEXICO, A UNIQUE LAND

México is a unique country. This fascinatingly diverse land offers something for everyone—world heritage sites; stunning beach resorts; ecotourism activities; traditional craft towns and vibrant cities.

Spread across nearly 2 million sq. km. of territory México encompasses nearly every type of geologic formation.

Abrupt topographic and climatic changes make México a mosaic of natural diversity.

OUTSTANDING BEACHES With more than 10,000 km of coastline and four distinct seas or oceans at its borders, México has an unmatched selection of seaside activity and amazing resorts.

Besides the usual hotels offered everywhere in the world, high rises or small inns, México offers visitors a greater variety of accomodations to choose from, including all inclusive hotels, heritage converted “haciendas”, historical colonial era mansions, boutique hotels, ecological-villas within the ancient archeological sites, among others.

The waters of the Yucatán Coast in the Caribbean Sea (Cancún, Riviera Maya, Cozumel), and the Sea of Cortés (Loreto, Guaymas, La Paz) offer the gentlest swimming conditions that are great for snorkelling. The Pacific Coast resorts offer either open ocean conditions (Mazatlán, Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, Ixtapa), or calm bay settings (Zihuatanejo, Acapulco, Huatulco). Along México’s Pacific Coast, you can enjoy shallow bays, golden sand beaches, impressive cliffs and an ideal climate year round.

México is also blessed with some of the world’s finest diving sites with clear placid waters, tremendous biodiversity and outstanding facilities. The best diving spots are concentrated in The Sea of Cortés and the Yucatán Peninsula’s East Coast. Diving enthusiasts and water sports lovers from all over the world come to México to get their thrills. México’s clear waters, kilometres of laid-back beaches and fabulous food will ensure that you’ll have the best beach vacation ever.

CENTRE OF CULTURE

World Heritage Sites: México ranks first in the Americas in terms of World Heritage Sites, with 29 in all. These sites, considered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to be “of outstanding universal value”, include the historic downtown areas of the colonial cities such as Puebla, Zacatecas, Querétaro, Guanajuato Oaxaca and México City; the archaeological sites of the Aztec, the Mayas and other prehispanic cultures; the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve; the natural Biosphere Reserve of Sian Ka’an in Riviera Maya; the whale sanctuary of El Vizcaino in Baja California; the agave landscape of Tequila, near Guadalajara, among others.

Clockwise from left: Kiosko Plaza de Armas, Guadalajara; a view of the pre-Hispanic site of Chichen-Itza; a view of the Agave landscape at Tequila; the famous red-tile roofs of Taxco. Opposite, clockwise from top right: A view of the historical Zocalo in México City; colourful Mexican cuisine; discovering different types of Tequilas; El Arco in Los Cabos.

Perhaps no country on earth showcases its ancient treasures as attractively as México. There are more than 200,000 known archaeological sites, of which only a small percentage have been fully excavated and studied. México is a one-stop destination for visitors who are looking for a unique experience that combines culture, cuisine, heritage and traditions.

ECOTOURISM HEAVEN México is one of the leading ecotourism destinations in the world. Its vast land mass holds an astonishing variety of flora and fauna—nearly 20,000 species of flowering and plants, including 1,000 species of orchids, and more than 1,000 species of birds, including 50 species of hummingbirds alone.

There are more than 1,500 species of reptiles, mammals and amphibians, and breeding and nesting areas for endangered sea turtles, dolphins and whales. Millions of Monarch butterflies migrate to México from as far away as Canada.

México’s distinctive topography and climate also create the perfect stage for ecological adventure and exploration. Dry northern deserts contrast with steamy tropical forest to the south, while lofty snow-capped mountains give way to plunging gorges and canyons.

Places like the Sea of Cortes biosphere, the Baja California Peninsula and the Copper Canyon in the north and the Sian Ka’an Biosphere on México’s Caribbean coast, and the state of Chiapas with its six national parks are some of the distinct regions you can visit. There is no doubt that México is rich in geology, plant life and wildlife.

But that’s not all, the country also offers intriguing up-close contact with México’s awesome ancient ruins and native cultures. This fabulous country is extremely diverse and whatever your interest may be—from scaling historical ruins to diving in placid waters or partying the night away—you’ll find that México will go far beyond meeting your every expectation!

(Best Deals) 11.09 Included Accommodation in a Westin

room and RMB1,000 worth of hotel credit to spend anywhere in the hotel. Cost RMB1,000 per night, through December 31, weekends only. Savings 50 percent.

Two Nights for One offer at the St. Regis Shanghai (86-21/5050-4567; starwoodhotels. com). What’s Included Book a superior deluxe room and get a free upgrade.

Cost From RMB2,100 per night October 12–November 30; from RMB1,900 per night from December 1–31. Savings 50 percent.

■ HONG KONG Introductory offer at The Upper House (852/2918-1838; upperhouse.com). What’s Included Two nights for the price of one.

Cost From HK$3,388 per night, through January 2. Savings 50 percent.

Need some holiday inspiration?

Here, 18 great, year-end packages all around Asia ■ AUSTRALIA Stay Two Nights, Get a Third offer at the Westin Sydney (61-2/8223-1111; westin. com/sydney). Cost From A$330 per night, through December 30; book online.

Savings Up to 33 percent.

■ CAMBODIA Christmas in the Kingdom package at Raffles Hotel Le Royal (855-23/981-888; 22

raffles.com) in Phnom Penh. What’s Included Daily breakfast; round-trip airport transfer; and a five-course dinner. Cost From US$270 per night, from November 28– December 28. Savings Up to 33 percent.

■ CHINA Add More Value offer at the Westin Beijing Financial Street (86-10/66068866; westin.com/beijingfinancial). What’s

N OV E M B E R 2 0 0 9| T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E S E A . C O M

Business in Style package at Alila Jakarta (62-21/231-6008; alilahotels.com). What’s Included A two-night stay in a deluxe room; daily breakfast; free daily drop-off service to the local office in Jakarta; and round-trip airport transfer. Cost US$190, through December 28. Savings 45 percent.

Reconnect package at the Ritz-Carlton, Jakarta (62-21/2551-8888; ritzcarlton.com).

What’s Included Special weekend rates; US$50 credit for a minimum two-night stay; US$100 for a minimum four-night stay; and daily breakfast. Cost From US$140 per night, through December 31. Savings Up to 25 percent

CO U RT ESY O F W EST I N R ES O RT N U SA D UA

The Westin Resort Nusa Dua, on Bali.

■ INDONESIA Rekindle Your Romance package at the Westin Resort Nusa Dua (62-361/771906; starwoodhotels.com) on Bali. What’s Included Accommodation in selected Royal Beach Club room with access to the club and its privileges; a beachside dinner; a 60-minute massage; and daily breakfast.

Cost From US$255 per night, through December 21. Savings Up to 47 percent.

■ JAPAN Dine package at the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo (81-3/3270-8800; mandarinoriental.com).

What’s Included A dinner at the Michelinstarred Signature or Sense restaurants. Cost From Y90,750 per night (including service and 5 percent consumption tax), through December 30. Savings Up to 30 percent.

F R O M T O P : C O U R T E S Y O F P A R K H O T E L C L A R K E Q U AY ; C O U R T E S Y O F A N A N TA R A S I K A O ; C O U R T E S Y O F L E M É R I D I E N B A N G K O K

■ SINGAPORE Great Weekend Escapes package at the Park Hotel Clarke Quay (65/6593-8888; parkhotelgroup.com). What’s Included Discounted room rate and 50 percent off a second night. Cost From S$188 per night, from December 1–March 30, 2010.

Savings Up to 53 percent.

■ THAILAND Weekend Retreat package at the Sukhothai (66-2/344-8888; sukhothai.com) in Bangkok.

What’s Included Accommodation in a deluxe studio; daily breakfast; free Wi-Fi; and a welcome plate of fruit and chocolates.

Cost Bt9,300 per night, through December 31, minimum two-night stay is required from December 23–January 1 (Bt2,200 per night surcharge required for those nights).

Savings 30 percent.

Anantara Si Kao.

Early Bird rate at Anantara Si Kao (6675/205-888; sikao.anantara.com) in Krabi.

What’s Included Daily breakfast and a drink at the Café Lounge. Cost From Bt5,500 per night, through December 20; book 40 days in advance. Savings Up to 40 percent.

Park Hotel Clarke Quay.

DEAL OF THE MONTH

off spa treatments; a discount card for Siam Paragon and The Emporium; and late check-out 6 P.M. (upon availability). Cost From Bt9,000 per night, through December 31. Savings Up to 33 percent.

Zazen Romantic Escape package for T+L Southeast Asia readers at Zazen (6677/425-085; samuizazen.com) on Ko Samui.

What’s Included A half-day spa package for two; a dinner; round-trip airport transfer; daily breakfast; and 10 percent off spa treatments and activities. Cost From Bt4,335 per night, through November 30.

Savings Up to 50 percent.

Bienvenue package at Le Méridien Chiang Rai (66-53/603-333; lemeridien.com). What’s Included Daily breakfast; round-trip airport transfer; and late check-out until 4 P.M. Cost From Bt4,999 per night, two-night minimum, through December 22. Savings Up to 58 percent.

Dining Delights package at the Sheraton Hua Hin Resort & Spa (66-32/708-000; sheraton.com/huahin). What’s Included Daily set lunch or dinner; daily breakfast; and 25 percent off spa treatments. Cost From Bt5,600 per night, through December 20; cite the TLDINING code when booking.

Savings Up to 52 percent.

THAILAND Suite Revelation package at Le Méridien Bangkok (66-2/232-8888; lemeridienhotelbangkok. com). What’s Included A one-night stay at an Avantec Suite; breakfast; evening cocktails; 30 percent off spa treatments; complimentary soft drinks; complimentary pressing of three garments upon arrival; and late check-out (upon availability). Cost Bt8,999, through December 31; cite the TLBKK code when booking. Savings 51 percent.

Le Méridien Bangkok at night.

Delightful Studio Suite package at dusitD2 chiang mai (66-53/999-999; dusit.com).

What’s Included A two-night stay in a stu-

Executive package at the Conrad Bangkok (66-2/690-9999; conradhotels1hilton.com).

What’s Included Free upgrade to an Executive room, with Executive floor privileges; round-trip airport transfer; 20 percent

dio suite; daily breakfast; a bottle of wine; round-trip airport transfer; 20 percent off laundry; 10 percent off food; and free 45 minutes of Internet. Cost Bt26,650, through December 22. Savings 40 percent. ✚

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Q:

(Ask T+L) 11.09

Can you recommend some good bookstores around Asia where I can stock up while I’m traveling?

I’M VISITING BANGKOK THIS DECEMBER. WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO AVOID TRAFFIC AROUND TOWN? —PAUL EE, SINGAPORE

A:

The Thai capital’s traffic may be notorious, but it’s a wellknown fact that it’s not as bad as in years past thanks to both the Skytrain and subway lines. If you center your stay and travel around either of these modes of transport, you’ll be fine. For short distances down smaller sois, hop on a motorcycle taxi or into a taxi, but avoid the busier streets particular if zipping around on a motorcycle as safety becomes an issue. When taking taxis, make sure you have clear instructions to your destination, preferably written in Thai.

—MARTIN WISETHORPE, LOS ANGELES

Book fiends need not lug their to-read lists across the region, since each major city now has at least one decent Englishlanguage bookstore, in some cases several. In Taipei, head straight for Eslite (886-2/8789-3388) in Xin Yi, where locals aren’t above sitting down in the stylish digs to read a few chapters before buying. It’s open until 2 A.M. and has enough diversions other than shelves of books to keep you going late into the night. Bangkok’s Kinokuniya (66-2/6109500) outlet in Siam Paragon has it’s own coffee shop and is well stocked with books in several languages, as is Borders (65/6235-9500) in Singapore. Kuala Lumpur also has a good Kinokuniya (603/2164-8133) in the center of the city. While on the small side, Hong Kong Book Centre (852/2522-7064) in Central is a treasure trove of bestsellers and often has some out-of-print titles on its shelves.

Do you have any suggestions for beach resorts in Malaysia we can visit for some peace and quiet?

The opportunity to do as little as possible remains great on Langkawi.

While it’s a popular getaway, it is also a nature-lover’s paradise. As for where to stay, both the Datai (ghmhotels.com) and the Four Seasons Resort (fourseasons.com) are at the high end if money is no object. A third option, the Bon Ton Resort (bontonresort.com.my), is a small village of Malay wooden houses that has been transformed into stylish lodgings.

✉

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

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

—PETER CHO, SEOUL

Unwind after relaxing.

www.andalucia.org www.spain.info 541 Orchard Road

# 09-04 Liat Tower

NATIONAL TOURIST OFFICE OF SPAIN SINGAPORE 238881 Tel: 65 6 73 73 008 Fax: 65 6 73 73 173

singapore@tourspain.es

(Strategies) 11.09 TIP 1 TRY A DAYTIME FLASH

If you’re taking portraits in the sun, turn the flash on. Not only will this brighten any shadowy areas, but it will also make the subject pop in the frame.

Professional photographers often use this trick at the beach.

N AT P R A K O B S A N T I S U K

Point and Click. There’s no better way to remember

a trip than through pictures. Here, Travel +Leisure (U.S.) photo editors offer six easy tips to better travel photos. PLUS We test-drive the latest digital cameras for different skill levels and preview four hands-on photography tours around the globe. Happy shooting!

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TIP 2 USE A LOW-LIGHT SETTING

TIP 3 GET UP CLOSE

TIP 4 SNAP THE WORLD IN MOTION

When shooting after dark, switch to the night setting, which makes the camera’s sensor more sensitive to light.

Before taking the picture, place the camera on a steady surface to help prevent a blurry shot.

Always ask permission before shooting a subject.

Having a conversation beforehand will help the person relax and may actually allow you to catch more spontaneous images.

Set your camera to a slower shutter speed (between a 30th to a 60th of a second) and ask your subject to stand still in front of a moving background (or do the opposite); the contrast can be powerful.

Whether it’s shooting down from the top of a building, from the side of a monument, or up from the bottom of a staircase, find a unique or elevated spot to see a classic scene from a new and surprising perspective. It adds depth to an image and is a great way to convey the overall feel of the place.

TIP 5 FIND AN UNUSUAL VANTAGE POINT

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TIP 6 LOOK FOR HUMOR

Many photographers make careers out of capturing funny moments. Pay attention to what’s happening around popular tourist sites— there’s often comedy in the tension between the iconic and the pedestrian.

C LO C KW I S E F RO M TO P L E F T: A N JA N DAS ; TO M H O O PS ; P I C H AYA N E E K I T S A N AY O T H I N ; A N J A N D A S ( 2 )

strategies | photography

Jessica Schwartzberg, Whitney Lawson and Lily Becker.

T+L Road Test

We sent our photo editors on assignment with the latest digital cameras, from basic point-and-shoots to more-advanced DSLR models. Their task: Put the cameras through their paces to find the very best

T O P : B E T H G A R R A B R A N T. B O T T O M , C L O C K W I S E F R O M L E F T : L I LY B E C K E R ; J E S S I C A S C H W A R T Z B E R G ; W H I T N E Y L A W S O N ; J E S S I C A S C H W A R T Z B E R G . C A M E R A S , F R O M T O P : C O U R T E S Y O F N I K O N ; C O U R T E S Y O F K O D A K ; C O U R T E S Y O F O LY M P U S ; C O U R T E S Y O F S O N Y

Digital Point+Shoots

Nikon Coolpix S220

Olympus StylusTough-8000 Kodak Easyshare M380

NIKON COOLPIX S220 “This lightweight 10-megapixel camera takes great outdoor shots and close-ups, as long as there’s enough natural light. But I wouldn’t use it at night: the image quality is poor in low light, and the flash takes a long time to charge.” —L I LY B E C K E R KODAK EASYSHARE M380 ”This is a great all-around camera. It’s perfect for

simple snapshots, whether you’re shooting during the day or in the evening, since the settings are automatic. The biggest drawbacks are a small LCD screen and limited zoom for video.” —J E S S I C A S C H W A R T Z B E R G OLYMPUS STYLUS TOUGH-8000 ”Water- and freeze-proof, this 12-megapixel lives

up to its name. The best part? It takes sharp underwater photos. Low-light scenes produce blurry images, however. There’s a mode to offset this, but if you want to capture a moment, you may lose your shot.” —W H I T N E Y L A W S O N SONY CYBER-SHOT W230 “While the Sony lacks a viewfinder (the window you look through to compose the image), this model makes up for it with other features: the screen is large and it counts down how many shots you have left based on the file size.” —J . S .

Sony Cyber-Shot W230

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strategies | photography SEMI-PRO AND PROFESSIONAL-LEVEL

DSLR’S

(DIGITAL SINGLE-LENS REFLEX CAMERAS)

Four Photo Tours NEW YORK CITY

National Geographic photographer David Alan Harvey leads you on a photo adventure through the Big Apple, from Union Square Green Market to Chinatown and Little Italy, where you’ll learn how to capture street scenes. National Geographic Expeditions; April 29–May 2, 2010; nationalgeographicexpeditions. com; from US$1,795, per person, double, including hotel.

GALÁPAGOS George Ritchey, a veteran wildlife photographer, teaches guests how to snap action shots of fauna. International Expeditions; April 30–May 9, 2010; ietravel.com; from US$4,798 per person, double.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Nikon D5000

Canon EOS REBEL T1I

NIKON D5000 “Recreational photographers who prefer to shoot in automatic

but want to take higher-quality images should consider this Nikon. The internal meters are fairly accurate, and most settings, such as F-stop and speed, are already embedded. Plus, it’s not too heavy, and unlike previous models, it allows you to close the LCD screen when you’re not using it.” —L . B .

CANON EOS REBEL T1I ”If you’re looking to upgrade from a point-and-shoot

to an easy-to-use DSLR, this 15.1-megapixel model is a good option. It provides excellent color saturation, has a wide LCD viewing screen, and switches comfortably back and forth between manual and auto, which made it fun to experiment with while scouting in New York City.” —J . S .

CANON EOS 5D MARK II “This camera is not for amateurs, and with the hefty

price tag, it’s a serious investment. But when it comes to battery life and image quality, the camera is the best in its class. I love how it captures scenes with mixed light and fires repeatedly without delay. It includes a 21-megapixel sensor and HD video.“ — W . L .

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C L O C K W I S E F R O M T O P : W H I T N E Y L A W S O N ; J A C K A N D R I K K I S W E N S O N ; L I LY B E C K E R . C E N T E R : J E S S I C A S C H WA RTZ B E R G . C A M E R A S, F R O M TO P : CO U RT E SY O F N I KO N ; CO U RT E SY O F C A N O N ( 2 )

THAILAND, LAOS AND CAMBODIA

With the help of expert Ewen Bell, travelers test their shooting skills in the streets, markets and temples of Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Luang Prabang, before moving on to Angkor Wat. Grasshopper Adventures; November 14–27, 2010; grasshopperadventures.com; from US$3,800 per person, double.

KENYA AND TANZANIA Husbandand-wife photo team Jack and Rikki Swenson take you to the iconic parks of Masai Mara and the Serengeti, as well as the less-visited Samburu Game Reserve. Micato Safaris; February 4–18, 2010; micato. com; US$15,490 per person, double.

Promotional Feature

Enraptured

by Rajasthan Travel through the pages of history to experience the infectious charm of royalty

R

ajasthan is one of the most magical places in India; the abode of numerous kingdoms throughout history and with an impressive charm but with an air of majestic mystery. Part of this is the historical “palace on wheels”—trains that epitomize a royal spirit of flamboyance and luxury. With this history, the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation and the Indian Railways jointly undertook a venture in 1981 to revive the glorious history of royal carriages.

And so, the “Palace on Wheels” concept was initiated. Now, the luxurious Royal Rajasthan on Wheels offers you this experience, with a seven-day exploration of this vibrant region.

Newly designed in contemporary style, guests will be delighted by magnificent interiors, sumptuous meals, expensive wines and personalized service.

The Royal Rajasthan on wheels even offers a fine spa on board, with total wellness and relaxation services, as well as the finest personal care products for hair, skin and body.

TARIFF CATEGORY September 2009 to April 2010 ( TA R I F F P E R P E R S O N P E R N I G H T ) Super Deluxe

US$ 1,600

Suite

Deluxe

US$ 590

Twin Sharing

Deluxe

US$ 825

Single Occupancy

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8

New Delhi Jaipur Sawai Madhopur Chittaurgarh Udaipur Jaisalmer Jodhpur Bharatpur/Agra New Delhi

CONTACT: General Manager, Royal Rajasthan On Wheels, Bikaner House, Pandara Road, New Delhi 110001, India.

Tel.: 91-011-2338-1884, 2338-6069, 2338-3837; Fax: 91-011-2338-2823; E-mail: powrtdc@yahoo.com; Website: www.royalrajasthanonwheels.com RAJASTHAN TOURISM DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION LTD. Paryatan Bhawan, Govt. Hostel Campus, M.I. Road, Jaipur 302001 Rajasthan, India, Tel.: 91-141-220-7434, 51-1476-869, 220-2586; Fax: 91-141-220-1045, 220-4065; E-mail: croho@rtdc.in; Website: www.rtdc.in; Toll Free No.: 1800 1033 500

Pictures at an exhibition.

Explore five cutting-edge art galleries in Tokyo <(page 54)

On the grapevine.

A luxury sommelier service debuts in Hong Kong <(page 56)

Tropical heat.

An eco-beach paradise in Thailand (page 52) >

+

• Where to eat now in Bali • Speakeasy craze comes to Asia • Singapore’s best bistros

(Insiider) (Ins Photo credit by tktktk

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 N AVA L A I R I V E R R E S O R T ; L A R A D AY ; C O U R T E S Y O F S A R M E N T ; C O U R T E S Y O F S A R O N G B A L I ; C O U R T E S Y O F S I X S E N S E S

City living.

Bangkok’s new breed of affordable boutique hotels <(page 42)

Where to GoWhat to EatWhere to StayWhat to Buy

FEB MROUNATRHY 2 0 0 7 | T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E . C O M

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insider

| newsflash

RESTAURANT

Size Matters

THE EMPEROR’S JEWELS Double happiness, the zodiac, Mao in every incarnation. Many designers tend to fall into the same clichés when dealing with Chinese motifs. Not Dickson Yewn (Shop 303, Level 3, The Landmark, Central; 852/2868-3890; yewn.com), a Hong Kong conceptual artist and jeweller who draws deeply on tradition to create one-of-a-kind, highly sought–after baubles. This fall, Yewn turns to the ancient art of cloisonné for inspiration, using pink sapphires, blue sapphires and travorites instead of the more traditional enamel.

Cloisonné was once reserved for the imperial family, and princesses of yore would no doubt covet Yewn’s collection.

—K E I T I N G

34

Hong Kong might be synonymous with over-the-top, but lately we’ve noticed restaurateurs trying to give diners more bang for their buck. Opened this past summer, SML (11th floor, Times Square, Causeway Bay; 852/2577-3444; dinner for two HK$600) offers Continental-inspired fare in — you guessed it — small, medium and large portions. It’s an approach that encourages mix ‘n match, communal dining. We recommend sampling the salmon tartar, crispy pork belly with red cabbage, chips with truffle and sea salt, and panna cotta with orange and grapefruit. Wines, too, come in varying sizes, while an automatic wine dispenser allows you to sample vintages before committing. The collective mindset extends to décor; long tables and stiff-backed chairs in pale wood give it the air of a hip cafeteria.—K E I T I N G

HOTEL

A New Look The Mandarin Oriental Jakarta (Jln. M.H. Thamrin; 62-21/3983-8888; mandarinoriental.com; doubles from US$200) wants its title back as the city’s leading luxury hotel, and it just might succeed thanks to a multi-million dollar, nearly two-year face-lift. Unveiled last month, the hotel’s 272 guestrooms now sport an urbane mix of dark wood, earth tones and lustrous fabrics as well as Wi-Fi, iPod docks and 42-inch flatscreen TV’s.

Extensive renovations have also taken place in the hotel’s public areas: gourmands will find a French brasserie and Chinese fine dining, while MO Bar is set to become a fixture among party-goers.

NOV E M B E R 2 0 09| T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E S E A . C O M

C L O C K W I S E F R O M L E F T: C O U R T E SY O F M A N D A R I N O R I E N TA L J A K A R TA ( 3 ) ; CO U RT ESY O F D I C KS O N Y E W N ; CO U RT ESY O F S M L

SHOP

B+B

Penang’s New Boutique Stays A clutch of colorful stays has opened in historic George Town. By ROBYN ECKHART

F RO M TO P : CO U RT ESY O F T H E ST RA I TS CO L L ECT I O N ; CO U RT ESY O F C LOV E H A L L ; CO U RT ESY O F C H I N A T I G E R

THE STRAITS COLLECTION Heritage features and fashionable flourishes characterize these 10 individually designed suites occupying two rows of shophouses. At No. 93 Armenian (suites are named by address), hot-hued textiles complement exposed beams and white walls. Flatscreen TV’s, rain showers and 24-hour butler service add polish to your stay, though our favorite luxury bonus is the soaking tub in the sunroom.

91–95 Armenian St. and 47-53 Stewart Lane; 60-4/955-3643; doubles from RM400.

CLOVE HALL Chris Ong, a native Penang-ite who co-owns Galle Fort Hotel in Sri Lanka, chose a former coconut plantation as the site of his latest offering. Ong’s minimalist approach serves the gracious Edwardian bungalow well; dark timber, terra-cotta floors and eye-catching antiques grace the seven well-appointed suites. Should you be inclined to stay in, on-site facials, massages and yoga sessions can be arranged. 11 Clove Hall; 60-4/229-0818; clovehall.com; doubles from RM500.

CHINA TIGER Set in a painstakingly rebuilt Chinese merchant’s house in vibrant Little India, each of the two suites of this upscale bed-and-breakfast consists of a sitting room and bedroom and bath connected by a spiral staircase. There’s also a living area and shared veranda, where a breakfast of local specialties is served. Bicycles are available; upon arrival, the owner takes guests on a short walking tour. 25 China St.; 60-4/264-3580; chinatiger.info; suites RM1,140 from December–February, RM950 for the rest of the year.

insider

| newsflash GRAY KUNZ With the opening of Café Gray Deluxe in the new Upper House hotel, the acclaimed chef returns to Hong Kong. T+L catches up with him. ● Returning to Asia

“Asia has long held an appeal to me, since I was born in Singapore. That, along with my desire to build a strong presence Q+A in this part of the world, means the region will always hold a special place in my heart.

The main attraction is excellent timing: even though we are facing a tremendous downturn in the economy, I figure, strike now in a downturn, take the risk—and reap the rewards later.”

● Hong Kong’s best eats “I have not been here long enough

again to say, but dai pai dongs definitely top the list.” ● Neighborhoods to watch in New York “Look at some

very interesting things coming out of the Fort Greene, Park Slope, Greenpoint and Williamsburg neighborhoods in Brooklyn, with young chefs setting up shops producing great seasonal, organicinspired foods and avoiding the high rents in Manhattan. I like a restaurant called Peasant in Nolita [194 Elizabeth St.; 1-212/9659511], and keep an eye on Corton restaurant in Tribeca [239 W. Broadway; 1-212/219-2777].” ● Inspirations “Every successful person has a mentor and I will

always be grateful to Freddy Girardet of Lausanne, Switzerland. As far as being inspired by cooking I know what I don’t like, and that is the copy-cats of molecular ‘blah-blah.’ Cooking is soulful: make it taste good, put you heart into it, demand the best products you can get and treat them appropriately.”—M A N U E L A Z O N I N S E I N

JUST DESSERTS

Yo Y Ma Ma There are only two flavors at this cheekily named shop, but they’re both exceptional. The original is deliciously creamy, with a rich, mellow tang, while the green tea is delicately aromatic. Don’t forget their soft, chewy mochi—made fresh every day—which pairs nicely with fresh fruit or, even better, a crunchy cereal topping. Ground floor, 16 Wing Fung St., Wanchai; 852/2865-5600.

36

Berry Good This minimalist spot’s sweet original flavor is tasty on its own or served in a swirl cup along with the flavor of the day.

Standard toppings like fresh fruit and low-fat granola are reliably yummy, but if you’re feeling indulgent, treat yourself to an all-American sugar rush—Froot Loops, Apple Jacks or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Ground floor, 41–43 Graham St., Central; 852/2543-8393.

N OV E M B E R 2 0 0 9| T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E S E A . C O M

TREND

Yogurtime Right in the heart of Soho, Yogurtime offers the city’s widest selection of flavors. The best bet is still the original; aptly named Eurotart, it’s light, smooth and sophisticated. If you’re feeling adventurous, order the key-lime ginger. Don’t leave without trying the ambrosial date-honey syrup, delicious with whole-roasted hazelnuts or flaked almonds. Ground floor, 46 Elgin St., Central; 852/2543-8393.

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 T H E U P P E R H O U S E ; L A R A D AY ( 3 )

Frozen yogurt frenzy has hit Hong Kong. T+L picks the best places to dip into this latest food fad. Story and photographs by LARA DAY

E AT

Left Bankk iin Si Singapore Three old-fashioned French bistros are making their mark on the city’s dining scene. By EVELYN CHEN L’ENTREPOT BISTROT WHERE #01-02 Clarke Quay, 3E River Valley Rd.; 65/6337-5585; dinner for two S$120.

THE FOOD Chef Sufian Zain hung up his apron at Iggy’s, voted Asia’s No. 2 restaurant by the latest Miele Guide, to preside over this riverside, bohemian bistro, where he fine-tunes standards like bouillabaisse and crispy duck confit. A must-try dish is the perfectly poached egg on a bed of sautéed mushrooms in chicken jus and truffle oil—divine simplicity.

F R O M T O P : C O U R T E S Y O F L’ E N T R E P O T B I S T R O T ; C O U R T E S Y O F L E S A M I S G R O U P ; C O U R T E S Y O F T H E F R E N C H K I T C H E N

BISTRO DU VIN WHERE #02-12 Shaw Centre, 1 Scotts Rd.; 65/6733-7763; dinner for two S$120.

THE FOOD The Les Amis group strikes again, this time with a scarlet-hued bistro that’s a stone’s throw from its flagship restaurants.

The eatery amps up its Gallic credentials with tiled floors, marble-topped tables and chalkboards. Dig into the melt-inthe-mouth daube de boeuf or mushroom fricassee with poached egg—priced at a fraction of neighbouring Les Amis.

THE FRENCH KITCHEN WHERE #01-03 Central Mall, 7 Magazine Rd.; 65/6438-1823; dinner for two S$160.

THE FOOD It’s back to French culinary basics for gifted chef Jean-Charles Dubois, formerly of the Raffles Grill, at this top-notch eatery. Minimalist black-and-white interiors help diners focus on the outstanding food. Among our picks are the full-bodied lobster bisque—perhaps the best in town—served with a daub of fragrant leek custard, and crispy sweetbreads with creamy morel mushrooms on light-as-air puff pastry.

insider

| eat

INDONESIA

Elegant Island Dining Clockwise from left: Sarong Bali has become one of the most popular restaurants in Seminyak; lemongrass tuna at Nutmegs; the restaurant’s garden zone.

Back to Basics. Western chefs in Bali

UST A FEW YEARS AGO, IT WAS easier for most travelers to find Continental fare in Bali than traditional Indonesian dishes, unless you ventured to a local warung, street stall or European chef Heinz von Holzen’s pioneering Bumbu Bali. But in the last year, noted Western-trained chefs have begun turning their attentions to Balinese and Asian cuisine, with a slew of restaurants opening in Seminyak, Bali’s hip enclave, following von Holzen’s model of showcasing the cuisines in fine dining environments. “These days, your average Indonesian chef wants to cook Western food,” says Will Meyrick, the head chef at Sarong Bali, one of island’s latest pan-Asian restaurants to

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open. “It’s the Western chefs that want to go back to traditions.”

SARONG BALI British transplant Meyrick, who has set up a number of restaurants in Bali over the last few years, introduced his latest concept, Sarong, more than a year ago.

Decorated in muted brown tones with antique armchairs, sofas and gauzy curtains, Sarong has become one of Seminyak’s hottest restaurants with a menu that pays homage to Asian street food. Dishes span the continent, from the Indonesian-inspired twice-cooked lamb shank to tandoori-oven fish and chicken specialties. Having studied Thai cuisine extensively, he’s hired chefs from each of the countries whose

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cuisine is represented on the menu to give diners an authentic experience.

“To truly understand Asian food,” says Meyrick, who once worked at Sydney’s Jimmy Liks and Longrains, “you can’t do it from Sydney or sitting in your house on Fulham Road in London.

You have to be in Asia.” No. 19X Jln. Petitenget, Kerobokan; 62-361/737-809; sarongbali.com; dinner for two Rp400,000.

NUTMEGS Located within Hu’u Bar, Nutmegs recently received a facelift along with the introduction of chef Philip Mimbimi, an American who came to Bali by way of Montego Bay, Jamaica, and Singapore’s Four Seasons Hotel.

Mimbimi combines his knowledge of

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

are taking another look at the archipelago’s gastronomic traditions. By JEN LIN-LIU

C LO C KW I S E F RO M TO P L E F T: CO U RT ESY O F C H A N D I ; CO U RT ESY O F SA RO N G BA L I ; CO U RT ESY O F N U T M EGS ( 2 ) ; CO U RT ESY O F SA RO N G BA L I

Hip Asian Menus Clockwise from top left: The backlit wall of the bar at Chandi; at Sarong Bali, the menu spans Asian cuisine; prep work at Nutmegs; the restaurant’s kitchen; Sarong Bali serves up regional street food in a stylish manner.

faraway places with the local cuisine to create an internationally minded menu, embracing indigenous ingredients like red organic rice, shallots, lemongrass, cloves, honey and locally caught seafood. One dish he’s especially proud of is bakar, lemongrasslaced tuna marinated in turmeric and served with Balinese purple potato and passion fruit sauce. Though it’s a few years old, the open-air dining room still looks chic, with an open kitchen displaying local spices. Ideally situated for nightclubbing, Nutmegs draws a crowd “who like to indulge elegantly,” says Mimbimi. Jln. Oberoi, Petitenget, Kerobokan; 62-361/736-443; nutmegsrestaurant.com; dinner for two Rp500,000.

CHANDI Among the most-talked-about of Bali’s new wave of restaurants is this spacious eatery on happening Jalan Laksmana a.k.a Oberoi (called “Eat Street” for its high concentration of fine food). Head chef and owner Agung Nugroho has the perfect pedigree to launch a trendy Indonesian restaurant: born on the main island of Java, he trained at a number of high-profile New York eateries including Nobu, Buddhakan, Perry Street and Spice Market. Before setting up Chandi a year ago, Agung traveled around Java with his American wife to reconnect with the flavors of his homeland. At Chandi, he updates the presentation and cooking

style of classics dishes like beef rendang and pecel, a salad that’s similar to gadogado. The menu at Chandi, Chef Agung says, caters to a “glamourmeets-health-nut” clientele of Seminyak, with an emphasis on healthful native ingredients like soybeans and tempeh. Reasonable prices matched with a smart décor— black-and-white checkered floors and a spectacular 8-meter hand-carved backlit amber wall behind the bar— add to the appeal. No. 72 Jln. Laksmana, Seminyak; 62-361/731-060; chandibali. com; dinner for two Rp312,000. ✚

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| on the map

Art Walk. Singapore is a treasure trove of public art gems—you just need to know where to look.

By SONIA KOLESNIKOV-JESSOP

Empress Place Building

8

Anderson Bridge

d lar R Circu

Cavenagh Bridge Singapore River

9 Fullerton

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1 DRAGON-RIDING BODHISATTVA, 2001

Called the “Asian Botero” because of his fondness for rounded figures, Li often meditates on Buddhist subjects, taking images from the Tang and Song dynasties and giving them a contemporary spin. The St. Regis also has works by Botero, Joan Miró and Marc Chagall. St. Regis Singapore, 29 Tanglin Rd. 2 SENSE SURROUND, 2007 ARTIST ANTONY POON

This dynamic wave of curved and twisted ribbons of painted steel is typical of the late Singaporean artist’s lifelong exploration of volume and void. Best known for his “Wave” series of paintings and sculptures, Poon often worked with geometric shapes and color tonalities. St. Regis Singapore, 29 Tanglin Rd.

This prolific local artist, who died in 2001, dealt with issues surrounding identity and belonging, taking a decidedly humanist slant on his topics. Familiar to many Singaporeans, this figurative sculpture shows the intimate bond between mother and child. Orchard Parade Hotel, 1 Tanglin Rd. 4 URBAN PEOPLE, 2009 ARTIST KURT LAURENZ METZLER

Placed on the steps of the recently opened ION Orchard mall, these brightly colored, largerthan-life aluminum figures represent a slice of everyday life. Ion Orchard.

2

One of two pieces cast in bronze from a 1938 model, this sculpture outside of the OCBC building is among the largest the famed English sculptor ever created. Architect I.M. Pei insisted on its installation, saying it provided balance to the building’s modernist architecture. OCBC Centre, 65 Chulia St. 6 HOMAGE TO NEWTON, 1985

In Madrid’s Plaza de Dalí, there’s a 5-meter version of this work, which reflects on Newton’s discovery of the law of gravity.

Spaces in the head and torso symbolize an open mind and heart—two characteristics the artist felt were necessary to Newton’s revelation and all human endeavours. UOB Plaza.

7 BIRD, 1990 ARTIST FERNANDO BOTERO

In 1995, a bomb attack in Medellin, the artist’s hometown, killed 23 people and partially destroyed a similar sculpture. Botero instructed officials to leave the mangled piece as it was as “a monument to stupidity” and placed another version next to it, which he called Bird of Peace. By the Singapore River near UOB Plaza.

8 MILLENNIUM, 2002 ARTIST VICTOR TAN

Wrought out of stainless steel wire, this piece is by a well-known local sculptor. Visually impaired, Tan often leaves his figures seemingly incomplete, which makes them take on the appearance of a sketch—giving them more expression and poetry. Empress Place Building.

3 Or ch ard Rd

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ARTIST CHONG FAH CHEONG

There’s an air of nostalgia in many of Chong’s works, which recall Singapore’s recent past. This piece depicts five exuberant naked boys are shown jumping into the river—not something you’d see now in real life in this zealously regulated city. Singapore River at Cavenagh Bridge, near the Fullerton Hotel.

C L O C K W I S E F R O M T O P R I G H T: C O U R T E SY O F N AT I O N A L A R T S C O U N C I L ( 3 ) ; C O U R T E SY O F V I C T O R TA N ; C O U R T E SY O F N AT I O N A L A R T S C O U N C I L ; C O U R T E S Y O F I O N O R C H A R D ; C O U R T E S Y O F N AT I O N A L A R T S C O U N C I L ; C O U R T E S Y O F S T. R E G I S S I N G A P O R E ( 2 )

ARTIST NG ENG TENG

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5 RECLINING FIGURE, 1986 ARTIST HENRY MOORE

ARTIST SALVADOR DALÍ

3 MOTHER AND CHILD, 1980

Rd lin ng Ta

5 Philli p St

OCBC Centre

ARTIST LI CHEN

Coll yer Qua y

Building

ay Qu at Bo

| check-in

THAILAND

Bangkokâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s New Boutique Wave. Five new hotels promise plenty of style and character, without breaking the bank. By ANDREW BURKE

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CO U RT ESY O F T H E B H U T H O R N

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F RO M TO P : CO U RT ESY O F LUX X X L ; CO U RT ESY O F T H E B H U T H O R N ; C O U R T E S Y O F 7 2 E K A M A I ; C O U R T E S Y O F N AVA L A I R I V E R R E S O R T

THE BHUTHORN Occupying two century-old shophouses on a villagelike square near the Royal Palace, The Bhuthorn is the result of four years of renovation by Bangkok architects Chitlada and Direk Senghluang. The heritage-listed building has been converted into three guest rooms, a library and a café that are fi lled with Arabesque prints, old bowls, and antique photographs and furniture.

Rooms come with flat-screen TV’s, DVD players and free Wi-Fi as well as a deeply satisfying attention to detail.

Service is bed-and-breakfast–style attentive—nothing is too much trouble. T+L TIP This area is full of delicious Thai food: try Nátthàphawn, right next door, for coconut ice cream with fresh beans and nuts, and the legendary Chote Chitr for amazing winged bean salad. 96–98 Phraeng Bhuthorn Rd.; 66-2/622-2270; thebhuthorn.com; doubles from Bt2,800.

LUXX XL Following the success of the 13-room Luxx, the owners have gone upscale with Luxx XL on swanky Langsuan Road. The 50 rooms across eight floors range from 33-squaremeter studios to two-bedroom suites that are three times that size. All include balconies—some with pleasing pool views—but in some rooms the space is poorly used. It’s a world of chic teak, with floors, furniture and elegantly simple corrugated wainscoting, all teak. Other décor includes flat-screen TV’s, DVD players and roomy bathrooms that would look classier without stickers on the porcelain. Wi-Fi is included as are movies from the lobby DVD library.

T+L TIP If you’re here to shop or do business, Luxx XL is a walk or short taxi to the Siam mall district, and both the Silom and Sukhumvit business areas. 82/8 Langsuan Rd.; 66-2/6841111; staywithluxx.com; doubles from Bt2,800. »

Chic Stays From top: Luxx XL fits in well with its swanky neighborhood; The Bhuthorn’s old shophouse look; art at 72ekamai; clean design at Navalai River Resort. Opposite: Stylish interiors at The Bhuthorn.

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| check-in

Small But Stylish Clockwise from above: A pool with a view at Navalai River Resort; Baan Pra Nond’s 1940’s style; the villa’s distinct exterior; at 72ekamai, a retro-chic guest room.

NAVALAI RIVER RESORT It’s not what you’d expect from Banglamphu, the world’s most famous backpacker melting pot. Perched on the banks of the Chao Phraya River five minutes from Khao San Road, this busy 74-room boutique hotel delivers on location, style and—the ultimate 21st-century luxury— space. It’s in the midst of Phra Athit Road’s arty bars and cafés, boasts a river ferry at the doorstep and sweeping river views. The rooms have cheeky peep-show bathrooms and are decorated in an edgy, if not wild, range of colors and artworks. T+L TIP Views from the 15 River Breeze rooms are well worth the extra; Serene Corner rooms are mostly view-less. Even if you’re not staying here, stop for a sunset drink at the rooftop pool.

45/1–2 Phra Athit Rd.; 66-2/280-9955; navalai.com; doubles from Bt2,400.

72EKAMAI Bangkok’s young hipsters flock to Ekamai, an area off Sukhumvit Road, so it’s appropriate this low-rise

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18-room hotel is stylish in a retro-chic way. The lobby sets the tone with a glowing red counter and 1970’s-era TV set. Next door is a shop selling old vinyl, jukeboxes and other pop culture paraphernalia. In the spacious studios and one-bedroom suites (from 30 to 62 square meters) you might find Fab Four dolls to amuse you when you’ve tired of the flat-screen TV and free Wi-Fi. Outside, a pool is accompanied by a bar-restaurant serving Thai and Italian food, and live music Monday to Saturday. T+L TIP Pack your dancing shoes as several of Bangkok’s smartest nightclubs are within a five-minute walk. Ask about discounts. 72 Ekamai Rd. (Sukhumvit Soi 63); 66-2/714-7327; 72ekamai.com; doubles from Bt2,750.

BAAN PRA NOND When Tasma Cotsmire’s grandfather built this colonial-style villa in the 1930’s, he probably never thought it would lay abandoned for 15 years to be reborn a simple, old-style bed-and-breakfast.

The yellow-washed buildings now house nine small but bright rooms. The décor takes its cues from the 1940’s, from the floor tiles to the four-post beds, overhead fans, wind-up alarm clocks and crisp white linens. For us, though, chatting with the hosts—in the reception area or around the small pool—is where the real appeal lies. On the downside, the location between two busy roads is noisy: light sleepers beware. T+L TIP Hosts Tasma and Jason are mines of local information, so don’t be shy in seeking their advice.

18/1 Charoen Rat Rd.; 66-2/212-2242; baanpranond.com; doubles from Bt2,574. ✚

F R O M T O P : C O U R T E S Y O F B A A N P H A N O N D ; C O U R T E S Y O F N AVA L A I R I V E R R E S O R T ; CO U RT ESY O F 72 E K A M A I ; CO U RT ESY O F BA A N P RA N O N D

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insider

| trends

Quiet, Please Clockwise from left: Fubar in Beijing; a mug from Fubar; Speakeasy in Singapore; the bar’ss menu; Speakeasy’s façade; a private corner in Fubar.

Don’t Tell Anyone. From Jakarta to Beijing, speakeasy-style bars are luring city sophisticates with their low-key vibe and nostalgic drinks. By JENNIFER CHEN nostalgia for speakeasy-style joints has gripped the U.S. and it’s slowly spreading overseas. Call it reverse snob appeal, but we’re delighted to see an alternative to Asia’s high-octane clubs and fauxEuropean bars. Don’t come expecting bottle-only service, ladies’ nights, VIP areas or imported DJ’s blasting house music. In some cases, don’t even expect a sign. Instead, you’ll find friendly regulars, quiet nooks, maybe a few Al Jolson tunes, and some tasty cocktails.

A

COTERIE OF A MERICAN EXPATRIATES

and their local cohorts are initiating Asian city dwellers to the pleasures of the speakeasy. Started during Prohibition—the period from 1920 to 1933 when the United States went dry—speakeasies were back-alley watering holes where patrons had to provide passwords, tolerate bathtub gin and other home-brewed liquors, and keep their voices down, or “speak easy,” lest the police come around. Of course, enforced teetotalism isn’t an issue these days, but a wave of

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Q FUBAR BEIJING Speakeasy connoisseurs will approve of this bar’s obscure locale in a forgotten corner of Worker’s Stadium. Patrons have to walk through a hot dog stand and down a fl ight of stairs, where they’ll fi nd a gray brick wall. Hit the light switch next to it, and, voilà, it slides open to reveal a cozy, subterranean lair that’s fi lled with nods to the city (red walls, Ming-style chairs). Liquor is treated with respect here: Japanese ice makers ensure your cocktails aren’t muddied by unfi ltered water. But the bar doesn’t always take itself too seriously; drinks are served in playful ceramic Buddha and Fu Manchu Tiki mugs. 10–11 Gongti Dongmen, Chaoyang district; 86-10/6546-8364; drinks for two RMB80.

Photographed by DARREN SOH

C O U R T E SY O F TA B A C

Q SPEAKEASY SINGAPORE Housed in a sage-green shophouse, the sign-less Speakeasy serves Prohibition-era concoctions such as the refreshing Empire Glory, made with ginger, lemon and rye whiskey. If a Sazerac-based tipple doesn’t sate, there’s also a quirky, but well-curated wine list as well as a menu of Continental-inspired snacks. A self-confessed Roaring Twenties aficionado, American owner Joyce Odom has decorated the two-story space with mismatched furniture, vintage advertisements and the odd bit of family silver; most regulars, though, gather at the tables outside. Come 10:30 P.M. and patrons are invited upstairs for a pub-style “lock-in” where the merriment can continue without disturbing the neighbors. 54 Blair Rd.; 65/6410-9026; drinks for two S$30.

Q TABAC JAKARTA Tabac arguably started the speakeasy movement in Asia when it was opened two years ago by local Gabriel Tri Swastono with the help of New York transplant Tom Sisk, a veteran nightclub owner.

True to the Prohibition-era spirit, the bar isn’t easy

to find d for f first-timers. i H Here’s ’ the h secret: enter through an old-fashioned telephone booth to reach the cigar smoke-filled bar decorated with dark leather chairs and antique typewriters. All that’s missing is a password and peephole. The bartenders can mix a mean mojito, or, for a change of pace, order a smooth, small-batch bourbon— a far cry from the moonshine that revelers in the Twenties were relegated to. Kemang 6 Building, Jln. Taman Kemang; 62-21/719-1357; drinks for two Rp180,000.

Tabac, in Jakarta, was a speakeasy pioneer, above.

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MALAYSIA

| classics

Land of Plenty Clockwise from left: The special lunch set at Bakti Woodlands; one of the restaurant’s waiters; tea at Saravanna Bhavan.

Little India in Kuala Lumpur. It’s easy to find authentic South Indian cuisine in Malaysia’s melting pot. By JARRET WRISLEY

B

ETWEEN THE ULTRAMODERNITY

of Petronas Towers and the quaint shophouses of Chinatown lies one of Kuala Lumpur’s most colorful neighborhoods—Lebuh Ampang, better known as Little India. While KL offers restaurants representing all corners of the subcontinent, this city’s soul is firmly South Indian; in Lebuh and further afield in the Brickfields neighborhood, you’ll find eateries specializing in the food of Chettinad, a region in Tamil Nadu that’s famed for a fragrant and fiery cuisine that makes liberal use of curry leaves, mustard seeds, cumin, chilies, peppercorns and fenugreek.

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■ BAKTI WOODLANDS This vegetarian eatery transports diners to India with vibrant spreads of curry in the thin, southern style, spooned atop bright green banana leaves and an array of sticky desserts. If you’re hungry, choose the special thali, which on our visit featured a spicy daal enriched with plenty of ghee and a “Manchurian” fry, a Chinese-inspired vegetarian dish with chewy blooms of cauliflower stir-fried and blanketed with ginger and soy. Emulate the patrons—a multicultural mix of Malays, Chinese and Indians—and end your meal with payasam—tender vermicelli and golden raisins in a rich, cardamom-laced cream. 55 Leboh Ampang; 60-3/2034-2399; lunch for two RM30.

■ SARAVANAA BHAVAN It’s a testament to KL’s affinity for South Indian food that a handful of Photographed by DAVID HAGERMAN

The Real Deal From top: Hands-on dining at Vishal Food and Catering; the restaurant’s squid curry; chettinad masala chicken and daal at Anjappar.

Chennai-based restaurants, such this chain of vegetarian restaurants, have outposts here. The open-air spot lures lunchtime diners with its generous thalis stacked with curries, coconut chutneys, rice and bread. But come nightfall, and the draw becomes its excellent menu of chaat, or Indian snacks. We recommend the adia avail—dense, buttery pancakes of spiced, mashed lentils and rice that are served with a bright-tasting curry of fresh vegetables and sweet coconut.

Also on the menu are convincing renditions of a few Western Indian dishes, such as Mumbai’s dahi papri chat—a riot of crisp, fried wafers, sour yogurt, tangy tamarind sauce, boiled potatoes, mint chutney and crunchy fried lentils—finished off with a dusting of lip-puckering chaat masala powder.

1007 Selangor Mansion, Jln. Masjid India; 60-3/2691-6217; lunch for two RM30.

■ ANJAPPAR Another Chennai-based chain, Anjappar provides more comfortable surroundings, as befits its upscale Bangsar address. Mostly by virtue of its air conditioning, copper tableware and hardwood tables, the curries here are a bit pricier, but the food doesn’t skimp

on authenticity. Their chicken chettinad shouldn’t be missed: a rich brown gravy that’s heavily spiced with black pepper, curry leaf, coriander, cinnamon and cloves. The chicken slides easily off the bone, and its tender meat is suffused with the heady spices of India’s southern reaches. Cool off with a side of mixed raita—homemade yogurt with cucumber and red onion—and an icy fresh lime soda. 56 Jln. Maarof; 60-3/2288-1508; lunch for two RM35.

■ VISHAL FOOD AND CATERING Located in the gritty Brickfields district, this pleasantly airy restaurant attracts a mostly Tamil crowd with its superb curries, all spooned on a large banana leaf. The dining room feels like a pure expression of South India, with whirring ceiling fans and windows that open up onto a temple-lined street— and the food reflects this authenticity.

Dosas here are crisp and fragrant, peeled off the griddle and served in a bubbly golden fold. It’s hard to single out the best curry, but we favored the red fish variety—large chunks of sweet mackerel offset by a complex mixture of fiery spices. 15 Jln. Scott (near Jln. Tan Sambanthan); 60-3/2274-0502; lunch for two RM27. ✚ T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E S E A

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| first look

THAILAND

Soneva Kiri’s private pools. Tranquil Ko Kood, right.

Treasure Island. Barefoot luxury meets

F

OURTEEN YEARS AFTER INTRODUCING ITS

castaway-luxe look to the world, Six Senses is bringing its ultra-exclusive Soneva brand to Southeast Asia. Soneva Kiri, which opens this month, hits all the high notes of an Asian beach holiday: powdery sand, aquamarine water and utter privacy—all thanks to its secluded location on relatively undeveloped Ko Kood in the Gulf of Thailand. Unvarnished timber, canvas canopies, mosquito-netted beds and leather trunks in the 29 guest suites and villas make you feel like you’re on safari, though with Bose sound systems, private pools equipped with water slides, and in some accommodations, private gyms and spas.

But there’s more to the resort than unabated luxury. True to the company’s sustainable philosophy, reclaimed and certified woods are used throughout the 41-hectare property while the restaurants serve locally sourced produce; plans are 52

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afoot to set up an organic farm on the island. The resort also showcases fanciful, bamboo designs by the Rotterdam-based, boundary-pushing 24H architecture firm; a dining “pod” is hoisted into the trees (servers reach the table with the help of harnesses and a zip line), while the kids’ club takes the shape of a swooping manta ray. The eco pièce de résistance, however, is the Eco Villa—a prototype of a carbon-neutral suite that Six Senses hopes to roll out with its new Evalutions brand. Made of mud bricks, stone and driftwood, the green-roofed structure is powered by a wind turbine and solar panels, and features a water-recycling system. Virtuous though it may be, the good life isn’t neglected: guests can cool off in the natural swimming pool and a terra-cotta kiln stores select vintages, proving luxury doesn’t have to come at a high price to our planet. 110 Moo 4, Ko Kood; 66-39/619-800; sixsenses.com; suites from US$1,192. ✚

CO U RT ESY O F S I X S E N S ES

radical green design at the new Soneva Kiri resort on Ko Kood. By JENNIFER CHEN

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| the arts

JAPAN

On the Waterfront. An abandoned warehouse in east Tokyo houses some of the city’s most cutting-edge galleries.

Story and photographs by LARA DAY

I

T ’S A FAMILIAR LAMENT AMONG ART LOVERS IN

Tokyo: locating galleries can be notoriously tricky.

Scattered across the city’s vast metropolitan sweep, they’re often tucked away inside anonymous residential or industrial blocks. But in recent years, a few art enclaves have emerged, with one in particular proving to be a must for gallery-goers. Head east across the Sumida River to Kiyosumi, Koto-ku’s harborfront warehouse district, where you’ll find an unassuming seven-story former warehouse opposite a sprawling concrete plant. There’s little hint of the complex’s artistic contents, but on the top three floors, you’ll find some of the city’s best galleries, showing challenging artwork in lofty, white spaces reminiscent of New York’s Chelsea neighborhood. Here’s the lowdown on our five picks for an afternoon of gallery-hopping.

Artistic Content From top: Exhibits at Hiromi Yoshii; half full at the Taka Ishii Gallery; exhibit space at Shugoarts.

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Q TOMIO KOYAMA GALLERY A giant in Tokyo’s contemporary art scene, Tomio Koyama launched the careers of Takashi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara, two of Japan’s most internationally recognized art stars. In 2005, he moved into the warehouse, bringing along with him Shugo Satani, Taka Ishii and other fellow gallerists. His eponymous gallery enjoys pride of place in the compound, occupying the warehouse’s top floor and encompassing several lofty exhibition areas, including a large, central gallery—a rarity in space-scarce Tokyo.

Expect everything from young, emerging Japanese artists

such as Makiko Kudo and Hiroshi Sugito to established overseas names like U.S. post-minimalist painter Richard Tuttle. Exhibitions this month include shows by British video artist Marcus Coates and painter Atsushi Fukui.

7th floor, 1-3-2 Kiyosumi, Koto-ku; 81-3/6222-1006; tomiokoyamagallery.com.

Q SHUGOARTS Dealer Shugo Satani, another heavyweight in the Japanese art world, represents international names such as German conceptual artist Carsten Höller and homegrown art stars.

Look out for the work of Yasumasa Morimura, famous for his playful self-portraits that borrow iconic images from art history, endowing them with his face and body. Also in November is a show by Leiko Ikemura, a Germany-based Japanese artist known for her dreamy female figures. 5th floor, 1-3-2 Kiyosumi, Koto-ku; 81-3/5621-6434; shugoarts.com.

GUIDE TO EAST TOKYO HOW TO GET THERE Take a 15-minute cab ride from Ginza, or walk 10 minutes from Exit A2 of the Kiyosumi-Shirakawa subway stop — also the stop for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo.

Q TAKA ISHII GALLERY A bright corridor draws art enthusiasts into this impeccably curated space. Originally known for his emphasis on photography—representing such local luminaries as Daido Moriyama and Nobuyoshi Araki—Ishii has introduced Tokyo gallery-goers to the works of international artists such as conceptualists Wilfredo Prieto of Cuba and Germany’s Ignacio Uriarte, whose recent joint exhibition “I Am Making Art” featured a duochrome map installation made of spilled black coffee and spilled milk left to degrade on the gallery’s bare concrete floor. 5th floor, 1-3-2 Kiyosumi, Koto-ku; 81-3/5646-6050; takaishiigallery.com.

Q MIYAKE FINE ARTS It might be small in size, but this gallery’s roster features big international names such as Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly and Florian Sussmayr. The gallery’s Japanese artists are no less prominent, including Jiro Takamatsu, nationally acclaimed for his shadow drawings and paintings, and Yukinori Yanagi, who ruffled feathers with his explicitly political, edgy ant-farm installation works. 5th floor, 1-3-2 Kiyosumi, Koto-ku; 81-3/5646-2355; miyakefineart.com.

Art as a Trend From top: Gallery-goers and the avant-garde fashion set head to the east side of Tokyo for their fill of contemporary Japanese and foreign art.

Q HIROMI YOSHII The son of one of Tokyo’s most eminent gallerists, Hiromi Yoshii carved out his own niche by showing edgy, young Japanese artists such as Keisuke Maeda, Yoshitaka Azuma and Hiromix, as well as avant-garde foreigners like Turner Prize–winner Martin Creed. There are also plenty of opportunities for people-watching: openings here tend to attract Tokyo’s hipsters and fashion set. 6th floor, 1-3-2 Kiyosumi, Koto-ku; 81-3/5620-0555; hiromiyoshii.com. ✚

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insider

| wine True Connoisseurs Clockwise from far left: Inside a cellar; vineyards in Burgundy, France; Bertrand Faure Beaulieu, the founder of Sarment, a sommelier service; vintages ageing.

Dial and Drink. World-class sommeliers are now only a phone call away with this new, ultra-exclusive service. By DAVEN WU

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course, the bragging rights of having your own sommelier on speed dial comes with a hefty price tag: budget for a HK$550,000 joining fee and an annual subscription of HK$140,000.

Still, you can rest assured that Sarment’s crack team stay on top of their game. Faure Beaulieu insists that they spend at least eight weeks a year on the road to sniff out new trends and source wines for members. After one such trip to the Rhône recently, Sébastien Chevalier, Sarment’s Hong Kong–based sommelier, is very impressed by the up-and-coming estate Chêne Bleu. “I love the intensity of their wines,” he says, “especially the Syrah dominated Heloïse 2007 which is very intense and spicy. That’s going to be a star wine of the future.” Much the same could probably be said of Sarment himself. ✚

Beginner Christopher Delalonde (formerly of L’Arpege in Paris and London’s The Square) suggests the Bourgogne Blanc “Champlains” from Domaine Simon Bize. “Simon Bize is one of my favorite winemakers, and though they’re better known for Pinot Noir, this Chardonnay is a great introduction to white wines of this region.”

Collector Gearoid Devaney (ex-Tom Aiken in London) is impressed by the young winemaking team at Domaine Bernard Moreau. He suggests sipping the ChassagneMontrachet 1er Cru “Morgeot” 2007.

“It’s young, but very good to try and it’s not so well known.”

Connoisseur Philippe Messy has a soft spot for Domaine de l’Arlot and his current favorite for special occasions is the Nuits-Saint-Georges “Clos des Forêts” 2002 from Domaine de l’Arlot. “This is how a Pinot Noir should taste!”— D . W .

SOMMELIERS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Wine lovers can now find plenty of free or cheap advice online — it just takes a bit of patience. Snooth.com is a one-stop shop that offers wine advice as well as listings of the nearest shops stocking your chosen bottle. There’s a plethora of wine-related wireless apps for iPhone users. Cor.kz, an offshoot of cellartracker.com, provides information on more than half a million bottles of wine. Wine Enthusiast features a quick tutorial for budding oenophiles, while Wine Ph.D. lets you add notes as well as tags for food pairings and flavor.—J.C.

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CO U RT ESY O F SA R M E N T ( 4 )

BERTRAND FAURE Beaulieu’s most memorable wine experiences came during a meal in 2004 at London’s swanky L’Etranger, when co-owner and head sommelier Philippe Messy— with whom the Swiss-born businessman had become friendly— sent out, quelle horreur, a screw-capped New Zealand Pinot Noir. “It was very good,” he recalls, “but for this very French three-star sommelier to bring me such a bottle, I was a bit in shock and more than intrigued.”

This, and many other like experiences, sparked a business plan from the duo: What if you could have on-demand access to similar, unbiased advice from some of the world’s best sommeliers? So in June, Faure Beaulieu and Messy launched Sarment (sarmentwine.com), the world’s first luxury sommelier service, based in Hong Kong and London.

Global membership is limited to 75 new members each year, with a maximum of 450 at any given time, to ensure that the level of service from the team of sommeliers (all recruited from A-list and Michelin-starred restaurants) is never compromised. Each member is assigned a sommelier who individually tailors advice on tasting, education, storage and investment of wines. Of NE OF

Sarment’s sommeliers recently visited Burgundy and the Rhône to test new wines. Here are their off-the-beaten track tips for the neophyte, collector and connoisseur.

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StylishTraveler

INSET: © BILDIX / DREAMSTIME.COM

Van Cleef & Arpels Alhambra Vintage gold necklaces with malachite, carnelian, and lapis (vancleefarpels.com).

Inset: Inside the Alhambra, in Granada, Spain.

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LAZED-TILE WALKWAYS, elaborate honeycombdomed ceilings and soaring arabesqued archways, it’s easy to see why the Alhambra—that breathtaking monument to Moorish architecture, a onetime sultan’s palace in Granada, Spain—has enchanted artists and scholars for nearly 800 years.

Not surprisingly, it has also captivated architects, fashion editors and designers alike. To wit: the Van Cleef & Arpels Alhambra jewelry collection, a tribute to its namesake introduced in 1968 and updated over the years. Each necklace, bracelet, pair of earrings or ring—whether a special-edition Vintage design combining malachite or lapis with textured gold, or the newly released Magic style with carnelian and tigereye— is defined by its quatrefoil motif, the symbol of balance and harmony that recurs throughout the citadel. The sultans would have approved.—G I G I G U E R R A

JEWELS OF ANDALUSIA

Inspired by Spain’s legendary palace, the Van Cleef & Arpels Alhambra collection is a gem in its own right. Photographed by NIGEL COX T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E S E A

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THE NEW TASTEMAKERS For these six fashionable trailblazers, inspiration knows no boundaries. They tell T+L about the places that fuel their creativity, in Tokyo, Cambodia, Paris—and beyond

KEBEDE’S AFRICA Gonder, Ethiopia “When I go back to Ethiopia, I try to go out into the countryside. I didn’t do so while growing up in Addis Ababa. Gonder is one of my favorite places, with an incredible castle where the king used to live.” ● Dakar, Senegal “I went to Senegal for an AIDS conference and was shocked that it only took six hours to get there from New York City. Dakar is the perfect combination of traditional and modern, and it has great beaches on the Cape Verde peninsula.” ● Essakane, Mali “There’s a magical event here, Festival au Desert (festival-audesert.org). During the day, you nap in tents and traders set up a village market. You spend all night jumping up and down to live music.” ●

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IYA KEBEDE ISN’T JUST ANOTHER PRETTY face. The Ethiopian-born mother of two, who lives in New York City, is a goodwill ambassador for the World Health organization, and through her foundation (theliyakebedefoundation.org) she advocates for women’s and infants’ health issues in the developing world. Kebede also recently launched a children’s clothing line—made in Ethiopia, to benefit her countrymen—called Lemlem (flourish in Amharic). This fall she’s extending Lemlem’s mission by introducing a line of soft cotton scarves, woven by hand in Addis Ababa. “These traditional looms usually occupy a one-room shack and the weavers, all men, sleep on a platform above it,” she explains. “I wanted to open a market for them to showcase their beautiful talent and the way they do things, like drying thread between two tree trunks.”—S H A N E M I T C H E L L

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Africa Calling From top: Ethiopian model Liya Kebede’s new Lemlem scarves; Kebede; royal ruins in Gonder, Ethiopia.

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LIYA KEBEDE MODEL

Jason Wu in Tokyo’s Harajuku district. From top right: Tokyo’s bustling Shinjuku district; Wu and a friend in Turks and Caicos; a silk faille pleated dress from Wu’s fall 2009 ready-to-wear collection.

WU’S TOKYO ● Undercover “I tend to buy a lot of clothes from local designers. In Tokyo I especially like Jun Takahashi of Undercover.

Everything fits me, so I bring an empty suitcase!”

5-3-18 Minami- Aoyama, Minato-ku; 81-3/407-1232.

JASON WU DESIGNER

C LO C KW I S E F RO M TO P L E F T: CO U RT ESY O F JAS O N W U ; © R E T I N A 2020 / D R E A M ST I M E .CO M ; CO U RT ESY O F JAS O N W U ( 2 )

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NTIL ONE COLD NIGHT LAST JANUARY, MOST T PEOPLE

outside the fashion world would have asked, d, “Jason ady who?” but that was before a certain First Lady picked Wu’s one-strap ivory gown to wear at an inaugural ugural ball. “It was more than just a dress,” Wu says. “Now,, it’s part of American history. That’s the power of choice—Michelle Michelle Obama didn’t follow the rules and use someone more re seasoned.” At that point, the Taipei-born, 26-year-old ld New Yorker, whose own uniform consists of skinny ties and classic Levi’s, had only six collections to his name. But he’s been busy ever since. Wu jets regularly to Tokyo, along with Paris and London.

Most recently, he took a break in Turks and Caicos—“I was looking for inspiration for my spring collection”—before launching into another creative reative frenzy. He says he tends to find ideas for his defined silhouettes and flirty fabrics both in fantasy figures—his —his fall collection is based on the fairy-tale images of the latee English illustrator Arthur Rackham—and real women, including uding dynamic muses like actress Diane Kruger and stylist Tina Chai. “I love dressing women of substance,” he says,, “not the flavor of the month.”—S . M .

Shinjuku “I love to go shopping in this bustling district, where I can duck into the little hole-inthe-wall ramen places to eat. They’re really inexpensive.”

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Comme Ça du Mode Tokyo “Whenever I’m in town, I shop at this Gap knockoff, which also has great stationery and gadgets.” Stores throughout the city.

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KIESTER’S CAMBODIA

ELIZABETH KIESTER BOUTIQUE OWNER ELIZABETH Kiester, who gave up her high-powered job as the global creative director of LeSportsac to open Wanderlust (The Alley West, Old Market Area; 855-63/965980), a shop on a dusty alley in Siem Reap, Cambodia, near Angkor Wat, with a sister store opening any day now in Phnom Penh. An avid traveler whose father was a Vietnam War correspondent, Kiester had always dreamed of living in Asia; a 2008 volunteer vacation in Cambodia sealed the deal. “Siem Reap was an ancient arts-and-culture capital, and that creative spirit is still here,” she explains. Kiester set out to create a fashion line that is democratic in its approach (one size that really fits all), affordable (nothing over US$60), and appealing, with a Palm beach– meets-Phuket look. By commissioning almost everything from Cambodian artisans, she has also been helping to revive artistic traditions: a handicapped woman weaves US$2 bracelets from plastic bottles; kids from an orphanage tie-dye US$6 T-shirts; and a local seamstress creates US$8 Jackie O.–style head scarves. “I love a global design dialogue,” Kiester says.—L A U R A B E G L E Y

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● Angkor-era Temples “Among the zillions of structures that make up the site, my favorites are Ta Prohm, which looks like it’s straight out of Land of the Lost, and Sarang, with its majestic lion statues.” ● Angkor Beautiful Shoes “This Phnom Penh store and its other location, Angkor Making Shoes, in Siem Reap, will design custom sandals from a picture or copy ones you love, for US$12 and up.”

138 Rue 143, Phnom Penh; 855-12/848-438.

C LO C KW I S E F RO M TO P L E F T: CO U RT ESY O F E L I ZA B E T H K I EST E R ; © H O LG E R M E T T E / D R E A M ST I M E .CO M ; CO U RT E SY O F H Ô T E L D E L A PA I X ; L A R S K LOV E ( 2 )

Elizabeth Kiester at her Siem Reap shop.

Clockwise from top right: Angkor Wat; the Arts Lounge at Hôtel de la Paix; Wanderlust’s basket bracelets and Tokyo dress.

● Hôtel de la Paix’s Arts Lounge “The hotel’s massive gallery and hangout space features new collections every other month by upcoming Khmer and Asian artists.

It’s the place to see and be seen, and has launched many a career.” Sivutha Blvd., Siem Reap; 855-63/966-000.

stylish traveler

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French Classics Clockwise from left: The Grand Palais, in Paris; Hermès artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas; a pair of hand-sewn riding boots from Hermès; Dumas in his cluttered office with designer Bali Barret.

PIERRE-ALEXIS DUMAS ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, HERMÈS PARISIAN IN SOUL, PARISIAN IN SPIRIT,” SAYS PIERREAlexis Dumas about his family’s company, which was founded in the French capital in 1837 and, according to Dumas, couldn’t have been started anywhere else. But the city to which he refers is not one of hoity-toity stereotypes. “The Paris I grew up in is an open place that welcomes foreigners like my mother, who is Greek. It’s a place where great ideas are born.” He sees this in ethnically mixed neighborhoods like Belleville, where he can find the Asian food he misses after living in Hong Kong, and in Paris’s many museums, where he heads for inspiration. Dumas, who studied visual art at Brown University and runs the company’s arts foundation, knows them intimately. Though he jokes that Hermès was established “in horseshit” (the company began life as a saddle shop), it’s the city’s blend of creativity and refinement that the brand reflects so well, and that Dumas finds everywhere he goes.—A L E X A N D R A M A R S H A L L

DUMAS’S PARIS ● The Grand Palais “I wrote my thesis on this Art Nouveau building. Did you know that in addition to museums and exhibits, it has stables underneath?

There’s equipment for hundreds of horses down there.” Ave. Winston Churchill; grandpalais.fr. ● Virgule “It’s one of my favorite restaurants. The place is tiny and offers unbeatable quality for the price.” 9 Rue Véronèse, 13th Arr.; 33-1/43-37-01-14; dinner for two €35. ● Les Puces de Saint-Ouen “I used to go to this flea market with my parents every Sunday when I was a kid. Now I’ve become like the Terminator with antiques.

I walk into a shop and scan the place.” Ave. de la Porte de Clignancourt, 18th Arr.; open Saturday–Monday.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: © POIREMOLLE / ISTOCKPHOTO.COM; P I E R R E EV E N ; CO U RT ESY O F H E R M É S ; B E N O Î T P EV E R E L L I

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ADROVER’S MAJORCA

Mercat De l’Olivar “This great big farmers’ market, in Palma, has an almost Arab-bazaar feel.

It’s like Dean & Deluca— but for the real world.”

Plaça Olivar; 34/97-172-0314. ●

MIGUEL ADROVER DESIGNER

Spanish designer Miguel Adrover.

Clockwise from right: An Adrover alpaca poncho for Hessnatur; the designer’s Es Jac bar and exhibition space in Palma; off the coast of Majorca.

● La Cueva “The tapas at this fish restaurant are the best: pescaditos fritos (fried fish), pulpo (octopus)—a lot of great seafood, all really fresh.” 5 Calle Apuntadores; 34/97-172-4422; dinner for two €40.

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mentality,” says fashion designer Miguel Adrover, who grew up in the village of Calonge, on Majorca, Spain.

“You feel like there’s nothing else out there, so it pushes your imagination further.” Adrover’s imagination has never been in question: Witness the challenging—and critically acclaimed— collections he produced in New York City until moving home in 2004 to get back on his feet following trouble with his backers.

After taking over management of Es Jaç (13 Carrer Vallseca; no phone), a bar in Majorca’s capital city of Palma, and turning it into an exhibition space, he began working as the creative director for German eco-fashion company Hessnatur. Adrover’s strong commitment to the environment around him has made him a perfect fit for the company, for whom he has produced three capsule collections since fall 2008. “It helps that I’m connected to nature,” he says. “It’s paradise here.”—A . M .

Designer Silvia Tcherassi. Clockwise from far left: A rendering of the roof deck at Tcherassi Hotel & Spa; a colonial building in Cartagena; a silk-taffeta trench from Tcherassi’s fall collection.

SILVIA TCHERASSI DESIGNER 1992, COLOMBIAN fashion designer Silvia Tcherassi has developed a cult following at home and beyond for her body-conscious, brightly hued pieces with unexpected boho flair. Having originally trained as an interior designer, Tcherassi is now returning to her roots with a forthcoming furniture line and, as of last month, the first in a clutch of Tcherassi Hotels. In collaboration with Estudio Morfo architects, the designer transformed a centuries-old mansion into a seven-suite colonial-contemporary retreat in Cartagena’s UNESCO-protected Casco Viejo (Old Town) where, she says, “every corner is a mystery waiting to be discovered.”—DAV I D K A U F M A N

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INCE LAUNCHING A NAMESAKE LABEL IN

TCHERASSI’S CARTAGENA Galería Cano “For inspiration I head to this jewelry and art boutique, where they reproduce gold and emerald pre-Columbian pieces.”

33–20 Plaza Bolívar; 57-5/664-7078. ● Teatro Adolfo Mejía “The theater was built in 1911 to celebrate 100 years of Colombian independence. It’s an architectural treasure.”

38–10 Plaza de la Merced; 57-5/664-8844. ● Restaurante La Vitrola “This restaurant is a local institution, with a six-man Cuban band. I love the grilled fish and patacones [crispy fried plantains].” 2–01 Baloco; 57-5/664-8243. ●

C L O C K W I S E F R O M L E F T, B O T T O M : C O U R T E S Y O F S I LV I A T C H E R A S S I ; C O U R T E S Y O F T C H E R A S S I H O T E L S ; © T R AV E L E R 1 1 1 6 / I S O C K P H O T O . C O M ; C O U R T E S Y O F S I LV I A T C H E R A S S I .

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● Cabrera Island “About 45 minutes from Palma, the island is a natural park with virtually no structures.

We take a boat out and spend all day there.”

stylish traveler

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TAILOR-MADE CHIC Boutiques in Hong Kong are melding the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tailoring traditions with a fashion-forward sensibility to produce bespoke, cutting-edge designs in our guide starting overleaf. By LILI TAN. Photographed by LARA DAY

HONG KONG

Dapper clothes at Moustache boutique, in Hong Kong.

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Forest Essentials is popular for its home spa products.

Top: An ornate sari at D7. Opposite.

stylish traveler

| shopping HOPPING IN HONG KONG usually consists of one of two things: perusing top-label designer fashions or getting measured for a custom-made suit. With the local fashion scene coming into its own, it was only a matter of time before the two met and morphed into the bespoke boutique.

Make no mistake: we’re not talking about cut-rate tailors making designer knock-offs in 24 hours. Instead, these tailor shop– boutique hybrids are helmed by young, homegrown fashion talents who offer ready-to-wear collections that you can personalize. There’s one catch: bespoke boutiques can be hard to identify. But as a general rule, sales associates at these shops will tell you as soon as you walk through the door that items can be customized (just ask if you’re not sure). To make things even easier, here’s the scoop on six of our favorites.

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Made to Order From top: Feminine designs at Cotton Collection; designer Alex Daye of Moustache sizes up a client; Cotton Collection stocks flirty frocks; ShoeGirl offers loads of footwear designs.

■ MOUSTACHE When he first arrived in Hong Kong in 2005, New York transplant Alex Daye was impressed by the craftsmanship at local tailor shops, but frustrated by the limited styles. “The fabric choices were generic and there was a lack of interesting and inspiring garments hanging around,” he says.

His solution was to start a tailor shop together with his partner Ellis Krueger, who has more than 20 years of experience at labels like Liz Claiborne and Tocca, right in their studio in Sheung Wan. In September, the pair unveiled Hu Zi, or Moustache, on the edge of NoHo, where Daye himself is available for personal consultations. Touches like porcelain dragons, bamboo racks and Chinese screens add a Hong Kong flavor to the turquoise-painted boutique. You’ll find customizable suits and weekend wear with a vintage feel; fabrics range from lightweight gabardines to synthetic linens, all found on sourcing trips to Japan, India and China.

Though intended for men, some of their designs—such as a natty navy tuxedo jacket with satin lapels—have been snatched up by female customers during their trunk shows in Paris. (They’re happy to tailor for women on appointment.)

Other must-haves: quirky black-and-tan tartan trousers and a cerulean toggle coat made with melton. Check back for a collection of tuxedos during the holidays. 31 Aberdeen St., Central; 852/2541-1955; moustachehongkong.com.

■ COTTON COLLECTION This newcomer’s hot pink panels and signature leaf motif set off its vibrant collection of jersey dresses and tops in ethnic-inspired prints, reminiscent of Anna Sui’s flower-child and Etro’s folkloric fashions. Creative director Radhika Byrn—who was a model for Yves Saint Laurent, Dior, »

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| shopping asymmetrical hemlines—often for a minimal or no extra charge. One thing that you can’t swap is the fabric, but you wouldn’t want to: made in India, it’s of couture quality.

Ground floor, Shop A, Lucky Building, 39 Wellington St., Central; 852/2521-9608; cottoncollection.com.hk.

■ SURI COLLECTION Don’t let the bleak strip-mall surroundings and noisy copy shop across the walkway fool you. Young professionals pop into this tiny but brightly lit corner boutique for co-owner Ricky Fung’s eponymous line of affordable, cheerfully colored party dresses and Sixties-style work outfits. Look out for his Barbie pink, satin wrap-top dress with flutter sleeves; luscious grape Grecian-style cocktail dress with braided straps and waistband; taupe soft suiting; and a lavender satin tank with black lace overlay, which would look even more flapper-esque if elongated into a sassy mini dress (all you need to do is ask). Ground floor, 2A1 Hoi Kwong Court, 13–15 Hoi Kwong St., Quarry Bay; 852/6056-2621.

Fashion Forward From top: A lady-like design from ShoeGirl; a bohemian tunic at Cotton Collection; accessories on display at Fang Fong Projects; more fancy footwear at ShoeGirl.

Lanvin and Issey Miyake—takes her previous catwalk experience and turns it upside down, designing silhouettes meant to flatter a variety of figures. And it works: empire-waisted blouses, A-line shifts and frocks with built-in belts work well with both their local and expat customers.

For winter, look out for unique details: a collar adorned with antique Indian brocade, a statement trench enhanced with hand-beaded pockets, and dresses embellished with bold floral embroidery. The shop’s in-house seamstress can crop knee-length frocks into mini dresses, stitch up revealing keyholes for more demure customers, or level out 74

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■ COUP DE FOUDRE AND SHOEGIRL Bespoke isn’t limited to clothes in Hong Kong. To complete your tailored-designer look, head to Coup de Foudre (222/223, Island Beverly, 1 Great George St., Causeway Bay; 852/3428-2655) for a pair, or 10, of their customizable, of-the-moment shoes. Chunky soles and peep toes are positively Marni-esque, while plain work pumps come alive with detailed heels and lush patent leathers for winter. Make sure to request their book of leather samples and heel height choices. At ShoeGirl (6 Yiu Wa St., Causeway Bay; 852/2834-1023), owner Jennifer Cheung, a secondgeneration shoemaker, offers a large selection of in-store samples. There’s even an extensive photo database of every shoe—which veer towards pumps, ballet flats and evening shoes—she has made since ShoeGirl opened. To ensure that perfect fit, Cheung can also make molds of your favorite shoes.

■ FANG FONG PROJECTS Deep in the heart of SoHo, this airy boutique showcases emerging designer and co-owner Wu Lai-fan, who matches traditional Asian fabrics with modern silhouettes (think trench coats made from Thai silk and shifts cut from gorgeous vintage kimonos). Initial consultations with the designer usually run an hour, with several follow-up appointments. Wu can also help you accessorize; displayed in the shop are silk belts, double-sided wraps and other carefully hand-picked accessories as well as leather boots that she’s designed. Get in there quick, the word is spreading about Wu: her 1980’s-style blazers with puffed shoulders from her autumn collection have been a runaway hit among Hong Kong’s smart set. 69 Peel St., Central; 852/3105-5557. ✚

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City of

Extremes Pattaya comes with a lot of baggage but there are many indications—chic resorts, snazzy shopping malls—that things are looking up, writes MATT LEPPARD. Photographed by CEDRIC ARNOLD

THAILAND

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Beachward Bound Left: On the beach at the Sheraton. Above: Poolside at the Centara Grand Mirage. Opposite page, left: Dining at Cabbages and Condoms.

Right: Pattaya City Walk, the new, chic pedestrianized walkway.

ARLIER THIS YEAR, I FOUND MYSELF PERCHED ON A stool at the pool bar of the Amari Orchid’s new Ocean Tower, water slapping my waist, sipping Long Island Iced Teas with my sixty-something mom sat next to me. It was oven-hot and there were party vibes wafting through the air. Over in the next pool, the young and the beautiful cavorted in garish swimwear, while outside, I could feel the throb and thump of a vibrant city coming alive, with pastel neons starting to bathe the main road that runs parallel to the beach. To me, it felt like Miami.

But this was Pattaya.

I’ve lived in Thailand for almost 10 years now, and have visited what many call the “extreme city” many times. Back in the day, certain areas, mostly along the main South Pattaya beach drag, were largely driven by the flesh trade, with packs of young men loping to and from long days and nights of power-drinking and carefree carousing to a Europop soundtrack.

Even then, there were less-earthy pursuits available, like golf, visiting tropical gardens, island-hopping, diving and hill walks. At the same time, resorts like the Royal Cliff, Dusit Thani and Amari provided oases of normality away from the chaos.

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But the problem with Pattaya has always been one of reputation. When the eye of the international media turns to the resort town, it usually focuses on the seedy and the sordid.

The city’s reputation takes another dive and stereotypes are reinforced. Yet there are signs that Pattaya’s fortunes are on the up. Certainly in the past decade, I’ve noted some major changes, but none so evident as when I visited with my parents. They chose Pattaya over a number of other Thai destinations for several reasons: I recommended it, since they prefer vibrant over sedate; I knew the place had changed for the better; and it is the closest large beach destination to Bangkok, a two-hour trip at most.

This closeness is of vital importance. Everyone I spoke to about a “new” Pattaya commented on its proximity to the capital—and, more importantly, to the three-year-old Suvarnabhumi Airport, which cuts travel time down to 90 minutes—for everything from day trips to viable beach alternatives to other tourist mainstays.

“Pattaya is increasingly a destination that provides an alternative to Thailand’s islands. It’s closer and easier, without connecting flights,” says Wallaya Chirathivat, executive vice president for business development and construction for Central Pattana, part of the Central Group

In the next pool, the YOUNG and the beautiful cavorted, while outside, I could feel the throb of a city coming alive

of companies. She should know. Central Pattana now boasts CentralFestival Pattaya Beach, Asia’s only beachfront “lifestyle” retail center, which came with a price tag of Bt7 billion. And make no mistake: this 250,000-square-meter mega-mall, with a new Hillton as its centerpiece, now dominates South Pattaya beach. Near its back end, an area once home to a handful of Pattaya’s redundantly named “beer bars”—honeypots for those seeking vicarious kicks— has disappeared to make way for development.

There’s no denying that the new mall has generated enormous interest in the past year or so. “CentralFestival has been one of the most definite statements made for confidence in the city,” says Chris Bailey, senior vice president of sales and marketing for the huge new Centara Grand Mirage Beach Resort in North Pattaya (Naklua).

This confidence has been snowballing for some time. Four years ago, hotel giant Starwood recognized Pattaya’s emerging potential as it sought to establish the high-end Sheraton brand there. “The vision was to create a destination where people could come and stay, and have an upscale experience, and without this style of accommodation being offered, the city would not attract [such] people,” says Wayne Buckingham, Starwood’s regional vice president.

Over at the dusitD2 Baraquda—a stunning boutique/ design hotel located just down the road from the new CentralFestival mall—Paolo Randone, “guru” (read: general

manager) for the dusitD2 Baraquda agrees. For Randone and the Dusit group, which already has the high-end Dusit Thani towards the north of the city, developing their own D2-branded hotel in the more colorful South Pattaya was a logical choice. “We looked at the future and what Pattaya wants to be, and we definitely fit in,” he says. “For some, early on, it was a bit of a shock, but if you see the big picture and the future, we fit in and bring up a notch the Pattaya experience.”

Randone and others also point to the changes currently facing the tourism industry. As long-haul inbound travel suffers, increased intra-Asian travel—as well as the Middle Eastern, Russian and Indian markets that help prop up Pattaya during the rainy season—are beginning to really bulk up the numbers.

“The great thing about the industry here is that it’s so broad—there’s not one market center,” says David Cummings, general manager of the Amari Orchid Resort and Tower. He counts clientele from Eastern Europe to Hong Kong, Singapore and even the Philippines.

There have been other changes, says Peter Waagensen, owner of Mermaids Dive Center, one of Southeast Asia’s most successful scuba operations. As well as standard-fare diving, Mermaids offers long-term, career-changing “internship” programs. As these programs have grown in popularity, their attraction beyond young males looking for » T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E S E A

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a long-term break with benefits, has also developed. “We’ve seen a huge shift in our customer types, not only in terms of gender, but also in age and income levels,” says Waagensen.

“Now, we see a lot of people … who come and spend up to a year here, taking an alternative education, which they can use to change their lives.”

PATTAYA replaced the old one? Have all the go-go bars finally shut up shop? The honest answer is: no, although that scene seems to be in decline. Still, the new Pattaya, with its attendant infrastructure challenges, is a work in progress that will take years, if not decades, to complete.

“While we have noticed significant changes since we started development last December,” says Chris Bailey of the Centara Grand Mirage, “the old Pattaya may not be shrinking so much, or it may be shifting—but it’s still possible to avoid,” he adds. The Centara Grand is fortunate with its out-of-town location. Others, like the dusitD2 and the Fraser Resort Pattaya—a fresh boutique located on the new, pedestrianized Pattaya City Walk—are arguably less so, located in the raunchier side of town. A problem?

No, says Majinder Kaur, general manager of the Fraser Resort, which, by developing the first resort extension of the

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Fraser serviced apartment brand, has shown its own confidence in the city.

“It [the commercial sex industry] happens everywhere, but in Pattaya, there’s now enough to do that you can avoid it,” she says.

The juxtaposition of Pattaya City Walk and the infamous Walking Street is jolting. Pattaya City Walk is an oasis of quiet calm, with family-friendly puppet performances by the Joe Louis Puppet Theater, as well as pleasant cafés and eateries.

Yet, 10 minutes away and apparently in a different world, Walking Street is a cacophony of vicarious diversions.

Perhaps the final words on the “new” Pattaya should come from those most familiar with the city. The 36-year-old Royal Cliff Beach Resort was one of the first in Pattaya. Long-term staff have witnessed its transformation, but, says Praweena Jetthumrong, on staff since 1978, the reputation challenges remain. “Many visitors are completely unaware of the beauty of the area, or the range of activities available, and people don’t know that Pattaya can be a very stylish place to stay.”

And there’s the rub. As I write this, there’s talk of a new TV show sensationalizing local “problems.” But if this new confidence and spirit can help put a more positive Pattaya on the map, the question might not be whether the city can evolve further, but just how bright its future can be.

GUIDE TO PATTAYA WHEN TO GO The best time to visit is during the cool season between November and March, although temperatures can still reach the high 30’s. Even if you choose to visit during the mid-year rainy season, it rarely rains all day.

GETTING THERE AND AROUND After arriving at Suvarnabhumi Airport, get an official airport limo taxi (around Bt1,700 one way). Pattaya itself is either blessed or cursed with an ever-growing fleet of songthaews, covered pick-ups that seat about 10. These are convenient for short trips around town with a standard charge of Bt10 per trip; simply hail one and hop on — you pay when you get off.

WHERE TO STAY Amari Orchid Resort & Tower Make sure to book a seaview room in the new Ocean Tower. Beach Rd.; 66-38/418-418; amari.com/orchid; doubles from Bt2,594.

GREAT VALUE

Chic Pattaya Clockwise from below: The cool pool at the dusitD2; CentralFestival Pattaya is a shopper’s paradise; a sea view at the Sheraton Resort; the vast lobby at the Centara Grand Mirage; poolside at the Amari Orchid; dining at d2.

Royal Cliff Beach Resort Arguably the first luxury hotel in Pattaya, it now includes four five-star hotels. Perched on a promontory, it also boasts a private beach. 353 Pratamnak Rd.; 66-38/250-421; royalcliff. com; doubles from Bt3,400.

Sheraton Pattaya Resort Real luxury in one of the most secluded spots in the area. 437 Pratamnak Rd.; 66-38/259-888; starwoodhotels.com/sheraton; doubles from Bt10,300.

Fraser Resort Pattaya A design hotel that is amazingly quiet given its central location. Beach Rd.; 66-38/909-555; pattaya. frasershospitality.com; doubles from Bt2,500. dusitD2 Baraquda Ultra-chic boutique with an air of funky playfulness. 485/1 Moo 10, 2nd Rd.; 66-38/769-999; dusit.com; doubles from Bt4,200.

Centara Grand Mirage Impressive, huge and brand new, the scope and scale of the hotel will take your breath away. 277 Moo 5, Naklua; 66-38/301-23; centarahotelsresorts.com; doubles from Bt3,400.

GREAT VALUE

Holiday Inn Another new resort, one with

stunning bay views. Beach Rd.; 66-38/725-555; ichotelsgroup.com; book now for a special opening rate of Bt1,999 for two.

WHAT TO DO Mermaids Dive Center Learn to dive at one of the best schools in Asia that also offers long-term career training options. Thappraya Rd., Jomtien; 66-38/303-333; mermaiddive.com; four-day PADI Open Water course Bt14,000 plus manual.

CentralFestival Pattaya Beach The biggest and best, the mall also boasts a breast-feeding room, a Muslim prayer room, nappy-changing rooms for both sexes, and interpreters for English and Mandarin. A brand-new Hilton is also due to open around press time.

Between Sois 9 and 10, Beach Rd.; www.centralfestival.co.th.

Deep Bar The dusitD2 Baraquda’s bar brings sophistication to Pattaya’s evolving night scene. With three levels, the contemporary interior is inspired by the textures and curves of a floating iceberg. minus5pattaya Literally the city’s coolest bar, this spot features walls, seats, bars and glasses fashioned from ice and the atmosphere is distinctly chilled at minus 5 degrees.

254 Moo 9, Soi Petchtrakool; 66-38/489-488; www.minus5pattaya.com.

WHERE TO EAT AND DRINK Cabbages and Condoms The restaurant and adjacent resort, started by famed safe-sex advocate Meechai Veeravaitaya, is well worth a visit for the lovely gardens, the menu, the service and the sunsets. Soi 4, Pratamnak Rd.; 66-38/250-556; cabbagesandcondoms.co.th; dinner for two with wine Bt2,000.

Mantra Successfully carving itself out a place for the hip crowd seeking to see and be seen, dining options range from Thai to sushi to prime steaks.

North end of Beach Rd.; 66-38/429-591; mantra-pattaya. com; dinner for two Bt2,000.

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Unhappy to Serve You On rude waitstaff, belligerent maître d’s, scowling chefs and the people who love them. By PETER JON LINDBERG

maître d’ may be losing currency nowadays, but for the determined efforts of one man: Philippe Pinoteau, owner of Le Baratin, a bar à vin/bistro in the 20th Arrondissement. A skilled sommelier and manager, Pinoteau is even more adept at making his customers feel like so much terroir. A friend once showed up with his wife 17 minutes late for a reservation. There was an empty two-top in plain view, but Pinoteau made them wait at the bar … for exactly 17 minutes.

“We watched him watching the clock,” recalls Oliver, still incredulous. Dinner, when they finally got it, was apparently worth the humiliation— Oliver’s story wasn’t mentioned a warning but a ringing endorsement.

Perhaps because rudeness is more memorable than niceness, every food lover has a story (usually a funny one) about being mistreated at some legendarily rude restaurant—places where the staff is not just sullen or distant but egregiously, deliberately obnoxious. And yet we go anyway.

Repeatedly. And like it. We endure the admonishments of sushi chefs, notorious scolds who can shift from placid indifference to rage in the blink of an order. (God forbid you ask for spicy tuna rolls at L.A.’s Hiko Sushi, or mix wasabi into your soy sauce at Sushi Sasabune, in Honolulu.) We obey the ornery house rules posted at countless barbecue joints (NO CAMERAS NO KETCHUP NO LINGERING NO SUBSTITUTIONS OR YOU’LL BE SHOT). We even flock to tourist haunts where the rudeness has become patented schtick: Ed Debevic’s, in Chicago; Pat’s King of Steaks, in Philadelphia; Durgin-Park, in Boston; Sam Wo, in San Francisco; Peter Luger Steakhouse, in Brooklyn.

Just as five-star Asian hotels are renowned for gracious service, certain restaurants are known for the exact opposite. The five-story madhouse Wong 86

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Kei is London’s most famous Chinese restaurant, less so for the food (agreeable but ordinary) or the ambience (duck sauce–stained tablecloths) than for the comically rude waiters. Harried staff bark at you the second you walk in (“SIT DOWN THERE YOU ORDER NOW NO MORE DUCK!”); busboys throw down plates with the clatter of a Max Roach drum solo. And still the queue outside grows longer. The cult of Wong Kei has even inspired two Facebook groups on which the faithful trade stories about, for instance, ordering an after-dinner drink and being told to “Go find a f***ing bar—we need table back!” In truth the rudeness is more rote than real these days; some veterans have even complained that the new employees are “too nice.”

Why do restaurants get away with this when other service enterprises do not? You’d never return to a hotel where the bellhop scolded you for arriving late.

You wouldn’t shop at a boutique that forbade pairing these pants with that sweater. (Unless the person doing the forbidding happened to be named Lagerfeld.) You wouldn’t go to a masseuse known for pummeling customers with insults. (Okay, maybe if it were a Russian bath.) Yet the promise of a great meal makes us willing to prostrate ourselves: to call exactly one month ahead at 9 A.M. for a coveted booking, to drive three hours just to get there, to line up in the freezing cold, to squeeze in at a tiny table by the toilet—all for the privilege of having dinner.

What strange impulse makes us seek out such abuse? Is it the same one that compels people to go on bone-rattling amusement-park rides? Is it to atone for our guilt over stuffing ourselves—are we really that ashamed to eat? Does all the scolding and reproach make us feel somehow at home—like mere toddlers in our parents’ kitchen?

Or maybe it’s not so twisted and Freudian.

Knowing the rules is a way of showing you belong, that you’re an insider—not some clumsy neophyte who thinks he can ask for ketchup. I remember being paralyzed with fear while waiting in line at the Beacon Drive-In, a greasy spoon in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where the scowling counterman shouts “TALK!” at each new customer and then sends him off to the pick-up area with “WALK!” Making it out of there with my burger alive was like surviving a skydive; my first thought was, Wow, I want to do that again.

It bears noting that restaurant people are not necessarily “people” people. Some are in it solely for the food, or for the money, and would rather be in the kitchen, or in the backroom counting cash, than out here dealing with all your nonsense. Others are

just moody eccentrics. Kenny Shopsin, whose namesake Manhattan luncheonette—since closed— was the subject of a New Yorker tribute by Calvin Trillin, had, among many house rules, a ban on parties of five. (No splitting the group into two tables, either. That would get you ejected.) Yet people loved Shopsin’s, even if Shopsin’s didn’t love them back.

Of course the whole transaction falls apart if the experience isn’t worth the abuse; the ends have to justify the meanness. And in plenty of cases—from Hiko Sushi to Peter Luger—they do. Some diners view rudeness as the gauntlet they must run in order to earn a great meal; they take brusqueness not as a personal affront but as a mark of quality and seriousness of purpose.

The line is easily crossed. At the Chicago hot dog stand the Wiener’s Circle, the staff heap abuse on customers like relish—and, per tradition, the

Of course the whole transaction falls apart if the experience isn’t worth the ABUSE; the ends have to justify the meanness

customers give it right back. Me, I found the whole routine disturbing: white male customers and black counter ladies trading the most vicious insults, like a Neil LaBute play with an even uglier racial undercurrent. No hot dog is worth that.

Still, definitions of “good” and “bad” service depend on where you are. “In certain cultures lack of politeness is not only acceptable but expected: Russia, China, Belgium, Holland, not all of Italy but certainly Rome,” says Travel + Leisure food writer Anya von Bremzen. “The thought is that rudeness equals authenticity, whereas excessive politesse is considered suspicious.” Better a sincere jerk than a disingenuous sycophant.

If being treated badly confirms that we’re in exactly the right place, being fawned over provokes a sense that we’re being duped. Compare the you-are-nothing nonchalance of the staff at, say, L’Ami Louis, a brasserie in Paris, with the unctuous pleading of the touts outside the tourist traps along Rue de la Huchette (“You like moussaka? Come taste the best in Paris!”). You can hold the flattery and smiles; I know whom I’ll trust with my dinner. ✚ T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E S E A

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Sea Breeze Left: A relaxing break to Nikoi starts with the ferry journey to the Indonesian island. Below: Approaching Nikoi, the anticipation of some peace and quiet only grows.

INDONESIA

Barefoot Bliss If you’re searching for a place to get away from it all—no phones, Wi-Fi or worries other than the weather—HUI FANG writes that Nikoi Island, only a couple of hours from Singapore, just might be the place. Photographed by DARREN SOH T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E S E A

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Personal Touches From top: Behind the bar; bungalows at the Nikoi Island resort are partly built from driftwood; the resort’s informal restaurant specializes in homemade dishes.

A bank of FINE white sand, gentle waves that entice you, no noise pollution—you’re holidaying on a private island 90

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HE NEED TO GET AWAY FROM

the madding crowd is not new, and while others might like a more spartan adventure, and don’t actually need constant pampering, I prefer my escapes to be couched in relative comfort. Not everyone wants to schlepp halfway across the world, scale a mountain or embark on a desert trek—just to get some peace and quiet. Enter the age of barefoot luxury, where life’s simple pleasures are presented with none of the hassles of roughing it, all wrapped up with a couple of authentic experiences to write home about.

This tricky little formula is something the owners of Nikoi Island have come close to perfecting. Recognizing the mass-market nature of many Southeast Asian resorts, the owners decided to create an island escape of a more personal nature. According to Andrew Dixon, one of Nikoi’s owners, the aim was “to transport someone to a place that feels like a million miles away from civilization but is really not that far.” On this, they’ve certainly delivered. The island has been kept simple but luxuriously so. The 15 wood—but no glass—bungalows all face the ocean and are all designed for one to embrace nature’s elements. Appropriately, each house—there’s a mixture of one, two and three bedrooms— is constructed out of driftwood with a grass alang alang roof and comes with ample lounging space; an outdoor sala that doubles up as your personal massage bed; deck chairs strategically placed in a spacious “sand box;” and a “modern” hammock, kept in the shade but always in the direction of a light sea breeze.

Upstairs, the center of attention is a spacious bed, above it a clever mosquito net and fan contraption that ensures you’ll never get bitten, or be left suffocating from the heat.

Other thoughtful extras, an iPod dock, shuttered windows concealed by strategic landscaping—so no neighbor can peek in—and a solar water heater, makes certain all your creature comforts are met.

Outside the rooms, few islands come similarly packaged.

A bank of fine white sand that changes daily along with the tide, gentle waves that entice you to dive into the crystal clear water, an absence of motorized sports, bars and discos, which means no noise pollution, tacky neon lights or pesky touts hawking their wares—you’ll be excused for thinking you’re holidaying on someone’s private island. Peace in our time might be too much to ask, but time in this peace will do me just fine for now.

On Nikoi, my days pass in a blissful haze. The island’s remote locale, I quickly learn, is far from a disadvantage.

There’s no in-room television, automatic wireless access doesn’t come into play and shopping is simply not an option.

I’m forced to slow down. I begin walking at a more leisurely

pace, away from the chaos of the city. I rediscover the ability to enjoy—as clichéd as it sounds—the simpler things in life. Suddenly, I pay no mind to the buzz of the Blackberry.

I dress by my own code and even ponder going barefoot for the rest of my life. I find myself deflating, replacing adrenaline-pumping spin classes with calm walks around the island, embracing my inner-child, scrambling up granite boulders, only to slip down clumsily. Close to the sunset hour, I kayak out to steal a few moments alone as the sun begins to dip down.

Instead of rushing for that first coffee in the morning, I laze in bed, flitting in and out of sleep, listening to the natural symphony playing outside. Calls of the white-bellied sea eagles mark the sunrise. An hour later, the elements perform their own alarm call. The sky darkens, waves crash and criss-cross each other as the wind whips the bungalow’s attap fringe so viciously that I think there’s a howling creature right outside my balcony. After weathering that din, but before I nod off again, the clack clack clack sound of diesel engines signal local fishermen motoring by as they drop their nets into the sea.

When my stomach starts to rumble, I amble out to the main beach house for a simple meal of homemade muesli, bread, pancakes and more, savored over a latte. The chatter of other guests takes the place of the morning paper.

“On Nikoi Island there is no working, only playing,” says Baxter, my rather talkative eight-year-old breakfast buddy who is determined to catch an octopus he can salt and dry in the sun. True to his word, I spot him after breakfast purposefully running around the lagoon with his net. I have no heart to tell him it’s unlikely he’s going to net himself an eight-legged holiday “pet.”

Not up for exertion of any kind, I’m happy to do some quality sun baking. I order a coconut, settle into a deckchair and get lost in a novel, glancing up occasionally to observe the shifting sand bank. When the first beads of perspiration drip onto the pages of my book, I heed nature’s call to cool off. Diving into the clear blue water, a few strokes out and I’ve pushed past the seaweed and find myself hovering over my own personal aquarium. Colorful coral, clownfish, scary looking sea urchins, pretty rainbow fish and thankfully not a poisonous stonefish in sight. Content, I flip over and bob along with the waves, enjoying the weightless feeling, admiring my manicured toes against the backdrop of a nearby mountain.

The urge for a pre-lunch cocktail hits. Sauntering up to the bar, I ask Yogi the bartender for the resort’s signature Ti Punch, while waiting for lunch. The cocktail packs a punch but not a wallop, the perfect state to drift off into screensaver mode. My thoughts or lack of them are interrupted by a group of departing guests exchanging anecdotes. One group of four challenged each other to a swim and run round the island, a father–son pair attempted to earn their keep »

Private Island From top: A spacious and welcoming bed; preparing for another day at the resort’s bar; while the resort aims to be rustic, its pool is anything but.

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Slow Down From top: Spots for a sea view; night falls on Nikoi; resort staff are as laid-back as the island itself.

GUIDE TO NIKOI ISLAND GETTING THERE Guests reach Nikoi via Bintan, an hour by ferry from Singapore; book tickets through Bintan Resort Ferries (brf.com.sg). From there the resort will organize a car to take you down to Kawal — approximately an hour’s drive — before transferring to another boat, which will take you to the island 30 minutes away.

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T+L TIP The resort accepts Singapore dollars and credit cards but keep some Indonesian rupiah handy if you want to venture to other nearby islands.

WHERE TO STAY Nikoi Island resort Nikoi Island, Riau Archipelago, Sumatra, Indonesia; 65/9635-1950; nikoi. com; doubles from S$330.

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with a spot of fishing, and a couple indulged in a game of island-style boules using a few coconuts.

Post lunch, I fight off the urge to return to the bungalow for a snooze. Instead, I don a sarong, slip my feet into a pair of flip-flops and set out for a jaunt. I head southwards towards the mangrove trees where I spot a set of majestic granite boulders. I smile and gingerly navigate under tree branches, using the rough-looking stones to get across while steering clear of the slippery moss-covered ones. My reward comes in the form of utter peace and quiet as I sit atop one of the rocks pondering life, the universe and just about any other random idea that pops into my mind. Ahead of me lies a sea of tranquility, while behind me the overgrown mangrove and lush vegetation remind me of the raw untouched beauty of the island.

A wave splashes over me and I’m soaked. Time to move. Climbing down, I notice small weevil-like creatures scrambling under the formation. I can’t resist and turn this interaction into a harmless game. I make a sudden movement, they scatter, I hesitate, they hold still with anticipation—it only takes the slightest movement before they’re off again. I’m highly amused and snap a picture for posterity.

Back at the house, I lounge about going from the sala to sofa, before sprawling out on the “modern” hammock. The sound of the incoming tide acts as a lullaby until I’m woken up by the gentle call of Emi, the island’s masseuse. Making up the bungalow’s outdoor sala, she offers a combination of oils, recommending a juniper and lemongrass mixture. I find little reason to suggest otherwise and before long find myself (once again) lulled to sleep while listening to the sound of crashing waves. I wake up in time for sunset. Making haste towards the north end of the island I arrive just as the last bright orange-red sun streaks fade into the background.

My stomach still full from all the food and non-activity, I request my meal to be brought to the bar. There I slowly make my way through a juicy tenderloin and a bottle of red while making conversation with Yogi. I ask for the time but in true island style no one has a watch handy. Listening to my own body clock, I stroll back to the room, stopping to do a spot of stargazing on the beach. I don’t last long; the bed calls out to me. Utterly relaxed, I drift off to the sound of crashing waves with one thought: that Nikoi Island captures what most of us desire out of an island retreat: privacy, relaxation and beauty.

To me, 1°04’N 104°43’E are definitely the co-ordinates of paradise found. ✚

driving | t+l journal Artisanal cheeses at Cowgirl Creamery, in northern California’s Marin County.

U.S.A.

California’s Winding Roads On a spin along Highway 1 just north of San Francisco, OLIVER SCHWANERALBRIGHT explores a foodie enclave with leisurely hikes, picnics, towns unchanged from a century ago and an enticing vibe. Photographed by THAYER ALLYSON GOWDY T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E S E A

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Classic California From left: A ranger at Point Reyes Lighthouse, with the 29,000-hectare nature reserve beyond; oysters at the Marshall Store.

T’S JUST A 57-KILOMETER DRIVE FROM THE GOLDEN Gate Bridge to Point Reyes Station. The distance is pocket change by California’s sprawling standards, but the trip takes forever—or to be fair, a little more than an hour—because the best way to get there is on Highway 1, a narrow ribbon of asphalt that twists along sheer coastal cliffs before plunging past Stinson Beach and finally jagging through Point Reyes Station, a dusty little town that’s outwardly unchanged from a century ago.

Point Reyes Station is the unofficial seat of West Marin, which, in turn, is the unofficial name for the hardscrabble coastal part of Marin County. It’s one of the most unspoiled corners of the state, a region that has more in common with the sun-faded, handmade California of the 1970’s than the wealthy nearby suburbs of Mill Valley and Sausalito.

Which isn’t to say West Marin isn’t welcoming or, to judge by the plush comforters at Manka’s Inverness Lodge, a collection of meticulously decorated cabins scattered along a wooded hillside, even luxurious. Whether or not you consider it appealing depends on what you expect from northern California. You won’t find US$1,000 bottles of wine or a state-of-the-art spa. But if you want to pick up line-caught albacore tuna salad at the deli, go for a four-hour hike in a wild-elk reserve or take in the sunset while throwing back a few dozen oysters harvested that morning from

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the estuary where Sir Francis Drake ran aground in 1579, that’s easy. And there’s the driving: the distances within West Marin are short, the roads are windy but smooth and you’re always skimming along a nature preserve, the coast or a picture book–perfect farm. Here, my wife Christine and I found even running out to grab lunch can become an automotive pleasure.

I first started exploring West Marin more than 15 years ago, when I was a student at the University of California, Berkeley, and I traversed every corner of the Bay Area in my battered Honda Accord. When I returned this time, it was for the food and wine: Cowgirl Creamery’s cheeses; Sean Thackrey’s legendary Rhône-style reds; the grass-fed beef of Marin Sun Farms; oysters fresh from Tomales Bay. It’s a remarkable showing, even for a gustatory state like California, and more impressive still when you consider that the largest town around here has about 500 residents, and that much of the land in the area is a part of Point Reyes National Seashore, a 29,000-hectare reserve.

Geologically speaking, Point Reyes is basically a mountainous stretch of Big Sur that migrated up the coast. The Earth, always unusually active in California, is still rearranging West Marin: the land has been grinding northward for thousands of years, lurching a full 7 meters during the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

(2.5 centimeters every six months is average.) But the San Andreas Fault doesn’t feel sinister here. The rift valley is lush and shady, California folded up on itself.

We were staying at Manka’s, in Inverness, where the rooms are so peaceful they have an almost narcotic effect. The main lodge and its legendary restaurant burned to the ground in 2006, so we made the 15-minute drive to Point Reyes Station to grab lunch. Our plan was to go to Cowgirl Cantina—a deli counter opened by Cowgirl Creamery—and put together a picnic for a hike through the national seashore.

But first we couldn’t help lingering at the farmers’ market that sets up next to Toby’s Feed Barn on Saturday mornings,

sipping expertly made cappuccinos from the unassuming coffee stall, buying sackfuls of organic apples and sharing a braised-goat sandwich.

The converted barn that houses Cowgirl Creamery and Cantina is just a block off Highway 1. There’s an impressive cheese shop, and you can spy some cheese making through plate-glass windows, but we were there to stock up for our hike. We chose from house-cured gravlax, fig-and-bluecheese salad, seared day-boat tuna with fennel, assorted Fra’Mani charcuterie, duck pâté and still-warm bread from Brick Maiden. We also picked up a bottle of a floral Pinot Noir from Pey-Marin, one of the more promising »

Culinary Coast Clockwise from below left: Drakes Beach, in Point Reyes National Seashore; Olema Druids Hall hotel; the main bedroom at the Boathouse, in Manka’s Inverness Lodge; harvesting bivalves at Tomales Bay Oyster Company, off Highway 1.

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Seaside Menu Clockwise from top left: Point Reyes National Seashore as seen from the cliffs above the lighthouse; Cowgirl Creamery, housed in a converted barn in Point Reyes Station; oysters and beer on Tomales Bay; the Boat Shack restaurant at Nick’s Cove & Cottages, in Marshall.

local wineries, and a piece of Pierce Pt., a Muscat-washed whole-milk cheese rolled in dried, local herbs. There was more to the menu, which changes daily, but my daypack had only so much room.

There’s no way to see all of Point Reyes National Seashore in one day. An elk preserve is located to the north; steep peaks are covered with pines to the south; coastal highlands are blanketed with brush. Then there are the roads to the ocean through a lunar landscape of rolling hills and active pasture. We decided to start at the southern end and loop down to the Pacific. For four hours we experienced what passes for paradise when you spend most of the year overworked in a busy metropolis: we didn’t encounter 98

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another human. Instead, we came across fallow deer, river otters and a turkey vulture standing with outstretched wings.

When we sat down for our picnic, we looked out on the ocean and, as if on cue, a school of gray whales appeared, migrating south.

Most of California’s shoreline is too rugged to enjoy up close. Which is why Tomales Bay—a long, shallow body of water formed where the San Andreas Fault dips under the Pacific Ocean—is such a pleasant oddity. I also have a culinary affection for the gentle bay: fed by freshwater streams and open to the ocean, it’s where the finest oysters in the state are grown.

Many of the oyster farms are clustered around Marshall,

a snaking 20-minute drive north of Point Reyes Station. The most famous of them, Hog Island Oyster Company, sells unshucked oysters—but unfortunately they charge US$5 per person merely to sit at a picnic table. Our next stop was Tomales Bay Oyster Company, a few kilometers south, where jumbo oysters are US$16 for the dozen, seats at the tables don’t cost a penny, and the weekend crowds make it feel like a bivalve festival.

But at the Marshall Store & Oyster Bar, a seafood shack perched on timber pylons, we found a dining experience that’s even more low-key, the ultimate example of a certain kind of meal: unfussy, delicious, relaxed. It’s nominally a general store, and though they sell beer and wine—including some inspired selections from importer Kermit Lynch—they can’t legally serve it, though they will lend you a corkscrew.

The store farms its own exquisite oysters, and prepares them three ways: raw, Rockefeller (piled with spinach and cheese) or, the local specialty, barbecued (grilled with house-made barbecue sauce). We happily ordered a dozen of each and carried them out to a barrel on the narrow strip of land between Highway 1 and the bay, where we drank a crisp Sancerre from paper cups.

I’m seduced by the simplicity of eating in California. It’s a place where even the most sophisticated and satisfying meals can feel easy, almost effortless. But when Christine and I ate at the restaurant at Nick’s Cove & Cottages, a small hotel in Marshall where rooms are converted fishermen’s shacks, the food felt unnecessarily complicated. And while we enjoyed our meal at Olema Inn & Restaurant, set in a 100-year-old

Most of California’s shore is too rugged to enjoy up close.

Which is why Tomales Bay is such a pleasant ODDITY

clapboard building, the night we were there the dining room was so loud we couldn’t hold a conversation.

So for our final evening we made reservations at Drakes Beach Café. It’s part of an oceanfront visitor’s center, an architectural flashback for those of us who went on school field trips during the Carter administration (wood beams; fliers pinned to corkboard), and two years ago it started serving candlelit prix fixe dinners on weekends. It welcomes BYO, and we brought a bottle of Orion, a blend from Sean Thackrey, the cult winemaker.

The dinner was heartfelt and idiosyncratic; slow food cuisine served in a snack bar. And because it was so intimate, it felt romantic. It wasn’t until we left the café and walked through the bracing night air to our car, the surf crashing a few meters away, that we realized exactly how isolated we were. San Francisco may have been just a few kilometers down the coast, but the stars that filled the sky above us seemed closer. ✚

GUIDE TO MARIN

C O U R T E S Y O F C O W G I R L C R E A M E R Y. M A P B Y Y A N I L T A C T U K

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WHERE TO STAY Manka’s Inverness Lodge 30 Callendar Way, Inverness; 1-415/669-1034; mankas.com; doubles from US$215, including breakfast.

GREAT VALUE

Nick’s Cove & Cottages 23240 Hwy. 1, Marshall; 1-415/663-1033; nickscove.com; doubles from US$695, including breakfast; dinner for two US$105.

Olema Druids Hall An 1885 meeting hall is now a four-suite inn with a charmingly overgrown garden. 9870 Hwy. 1, Olema; 1-415/663-8727; olemadruidshall.com; doubles from US$210, including breakfast.

GREAT VALUE

WHEN TO GO Located just 57 kilometers from San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, West Marin is at its best in fall and spring, when the days are sunny and temperate. The nights are cool year-round, and Point Reyes National Seashore is often misty.

Olema Inn & Restaurant 10000 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Olema; 1-415/663-9559; theolemainn.com; doubles from US$198, including breakfast; dinner for two US$90.

GREAT VALUE

WHERE TO EAT Cowgirl Creamery and Cantina 80 Fourth St., Point Reyes Station; 1-415/663-9335; picnic lunches for two US$25.

Drakes Bay Family Farms For brinier bivalves than those harvested in Tomales Bay, head to Point Reyes National Seashore, where oysters are exposed to the cold Pacific waters. 17171 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Inverness; 1-415/669-1149; drakesbayfamilyfarms.com; dozen oysters from US$9.

Marshall Store & Oyster Bar 19225 Hwy. 1, Marshall; 1-415/663-1339; lunch for two US$40.

Tomales Bay Oyster Company 15479 Hwy. 1, Marshall; 1-415/663-1242; dozen oysters from US$10.

WHAT TO SEE Point Reyes National Seashore 1 Bear Valley Rd., Point Reyes Station; 1-415/464-5100; nps.gov/pore.

Drakes Beach Café 1 Drakes Beach Rd., Inverness; 1-415/669-1297; prix fixe dinner for two US$100.

Hog Island Oyster Company 20215 Rte. 1, Marshall; 1-415/663-9218; dozen oysters from US$10; table charge from US$5 per person.

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Cowgirl Creamery cheeses.

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THE NEW MUSEUM,

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DOWNTOWN

NEW YORK. PHOTOGRAPHED

BY

ANDREA FAZZARI

The natural wonders of FLORES Downtown New York’s NEW look ON a tapas crawl in Lograño, Spain BEIJING’s ever-changing hutongs 101

The dry hills of Rinca Island off Labuanbajo.

Opposite: Zipping along the Trans Flores Highway.

IN A PLACE THAT WAS ONCE HOME TO HOBBITS, WHERE LUMBERING DRAGONS ARE STILL LETHAL AND VOLCANIC LAKES CHANGE COLOR, IT’S OFTEN DIFFICULT TO KNOW WHAT TO BELIEVE. ONE THING IS CERTAIN, WRITES CHRIS KUCWAY: FLORES IS A NATURAL WONDER. PHOTOGRAPHED BY LAURYN ISHAK

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Do I want a cup of hot tea, the man with the rippled face of an old boxer wants to know? And if that won’t do, he asks from underneath a black hood and a baseball cap, how about some instant coffee? But I’m too cold to dig a few thousand rupiah out of my pocket. I’m also distracted by a ceiling of stars spread across the sky, stars that are almost close enough to touch. They are the only light. We’re perched atop the remnants of a volcano on the island of Flores in central Indonesia, the pre-dawn calm broken by a chill wind that whips us into an equatorial shiver. Waiting. Trying to stay warm. Then, as if some larger-than-life figure has opened the lid on a dark box, a sliver of light cracks the horizon. Slowly, the deepest of inky purples seeps across the sky. Then a bright strip of white, a tinge of yellow, some tangerine orange and crimson red all flood through, erasing the stars for another day. But we didn’t tumble out of bed at three in the morning to see thousands of stars or even the first spectacular sunrise in days. No, the three of us—photographer Lauryn Ishak, myself and our trusty, four-pack-a-day, “on a good

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day,” driver Frengky Syukur—clambered up the 1,640-meter Mount Kelimutu in the dark with nothing but an iPhone’s flashlight app and some heady expectations to see a series of three lakes. The tea man simply followed. These distinctly colored, volcanic divets, the ones pictured on the back of Indonesia’s old Rp5,000 notes, are what set our alarm bells ringing. On Flores, a 350-kilometer-long island eight degrees below the equator, nature’s wow factor is everywhere provided you’re willing to search for it.

We’ve come to be awed by that natural beauty of Flores— abandoned black sand beaches, serrated mountain ridges that knife into the clouds and billiard-table green rice terraces— but we’re going to be shocked too. This is also an island where things are rarely as they appear. It’s home to what are popularly known as hobbits; the only place in the world to find slothful-looking, lethal lizards in the wild that can move twice as fast as most humans; and the occasional local who, how to put this politely, isn’t above playing with the truth. »

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Island Spirit Clockwise from top left: Catch of the day at the port in Maumere; sunset on a secluded beach; ďŹ lling up along the Trans Flores Highway; two of the lakes on Mount Kelimutu.

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Stands of thick bamboo crowd the roadside, a natural barrier

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Natural World Opposite, clockwise from top left: The volcanic landscape on Flores; a young boy in Moni; amid all the greenery, some of the island’s colorful flora; a local woman along the winding highway.

tury Portuguese church and a congregation of weavers, their natural-dye warp ikat draped over a cemetery fence, every available tree branch and a roadside wall. Further along the coast fronting the Savu Sea, a postcard sweep of beach is deserted except for a quiet old man whose hair and day-old growth are as white as the sand. By noon, we’re in Moni, a town that exists simply because of the road and the nearby volcanic lakes.

After our visit to those lakes, sections of the highway are more of a tunnel than a road, trees forming a canopy high across the tarmac. Stands of thick bamboo crowd the roadside, a natural barrier against dropping off 100 meters into a limestone gorge.

Frengky is always more than happy to stop, he for a smoke, us for a glimpse of local life at a market or warung. Usually, a goat or cow is pinned to any roadside patch of grass. Groups of kids give way at the light touch of a horn—adding to the urgency, ours sounds like an ambulance siren—their school uniforms forming a line of, in one case, woven ikat tops over white shirts and grey shorts. “Hello mister.” One day, in Bahasa as thick as the forest, a boy shouts “hello white man,” his

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For now, Mount Kelimutu’s three lakes hold my attention. If local legend is to be believed, these bodies of water are where spirits come to reside. I’m content to witness the sky brighten the trio and their different hues. Each changes color, something they’ve done several dozen times in the past 50 years. For now, they are tinted aqua-marine, dark green and, in the volcanic shaft behind us, very deep black. No one knows why.

That’s just the way things are on Flores, an island to the east of Bali but, I’m beginning to think, part of another world.

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USH GREEN FOLDS, THE MOUNTAINS OF CENTRAL Flores, rise through the clouds. We’re flying low over the southern length of the island and I try in vain to spot anything resembling a road. Lauryn and I have hired a car and driver, but we neglected to ask if a road is part of the package. Our trek up Mount Kelimutu is still two days away and the only sign of life from this altitude is a few ragged ridge-top bamboo huts, smoke rising from their cooking fires.

If there is anything else down there, it’s well hidden. Over the centuries, this rugged landscape has been largely responsible for dividing the island into distinct ethnic groups.

against dropping off 100 meters into a limestone gorge Dawn can’t come soon enough in Maumere, one of those towns with an airport where the best thing you can do is grab your bag and leave. With a full tank of petrol, we’re headed west to Labuanbajo and, it turns out, beyond.

For most, Flores is off the map. The sandalwood trade saw the Portuguese build a fort here in 1561, the Dutch taking their place a century later and, aside from the road extending the length of the island, seemingly little has happened since.

Flores is also unstable. It’s home to 14 active volcanoes, is continually shaken by tremors and features more than a few accelerate-into-a-blind-corner drivers.Everyone here knows that a December 1992 earthquake and tsumani killed 3,000. What they can’t tell you is how many perish in road accidents. While the grandly named Trans Flores Highway is narrow, more like a lane and a half at most parts given the closeness of the oncoming bis kayu (open trucks) and ojeks (motorcycle taxis), it’s in good shape. Sure, there’s rarely a moment when it’s not dipping, twisting or turning—“the road is like a snake” one local in Maumere warns me before we leave town—but no good mystery travels in a straight line. In fact, the highway is almost twice as long as the island itself.

The day before our trek up Mount Kelimutu, we veer off the main road to a requisite stop in Sikka to see its 19th-cen-

wide grin exploding into peels of laughter from his friends and, after translation, from us. There are so many students along the road, you’ve got to wonder who is actually in school.

Once they’ve graduated, sitting around bridges, watching traffic pass by seems to be a prime occupation.

In Ende, Sukarno stares down at us. Or maybe he’s eyeing our breakfast of sweet tea, lamb curry and lamb satay. The former leader was exiled here in the 1930’s by the Dutch and everywhere are framed portraits. The road past Ende clings to the coast as rollers as tall as a man pound into the island so hard that water spits up 10 meters into the air. Volcanic masses don’t give way easily, at least not until they’re ready to.

We’re racing now. Uncharacteristically, Frengky has both hands on the wheel, his clove-scented cigarettes nowhere in sight. Later, he explains that our rush was to snare the last room for the night in Bajawa. Once that’s done, we double back to soak in the Soa Hot Springs, a pool of water tinted lime green, before winding down a one-lane road to Bena.

Gunung Inerie, a perfect 2,245-meter pyramid of geological violence that is often hidden in thick mist or cloud, towers over the well-preserved village. “It’s the volcano that is in your dreams when you’re a kid,” the only other visitor, a man from Montreal, tells me. Two rows of 40 traditional houses with » 107

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Local Sights Left, above: The local version of an alarm clock. Left, below: In Sikka, a main attraction is a 19thcentury Portuguese church. Opposite: On Flores, the next volcano is never far away.

high thatched roofs line a clearing, the space between them filled with megalithic tombs, giant shards of rock the shape of shattered glass protruding from the ground. There’s also a chapel, underlining the mix of Catholic and Animist beliefs common on Flores. Bena looks like something from another millennium, but the village has been a co-op since 1993, its members meeting every three months to determine how to distribute donations. Children with an uncanny knack for remembering names play in the open space, elders sit and watch, making the occasional attempt to sell their own traditional weaving called gedhogan, its brilliant colors in stark contrast to the basic surroundings, or bundled sticks of cinnamon or vanilla.

Early the next morning leaving Bajawa behind, the towering Gunung Inerie is hard to lose. It shows up at every switchback. Mountains below it ripple down to the sea looking like the back of a Komodo dragon. Maybe it’s that image that stays with us, but as soon as we arrive in Ruteng, we decide to leave. It’s barely noon, but if we bypass the town, we’ll have a day to visit the dragons. First, Liang Bua Cave beckons.

Down a road crowded with tall grass and rice paddies just outside of Ruteng is where Homo florensiensis was found in 2004. Better known these days as a hobbit, the diminutive skeleton was a 1-meter-tall female with a skull the size of a grapefruit. She lived about 18,000 years ago, but the find stirred a heated debate in the past few years as to how closely she was related to you and me. One side of the argument saw the skeleton simply as a deformed pygmy, but earlier this year new evidence emerged to point to a new species of primitive humans. “From head to toe, it’s clearly not a diseased modern person,” says Dr. William Jungers, an anthropologist at Stony Brook University in New York, “but is something much more ancient and primitive in overall design.” Jungers has worked on the dig and hopes to return for more exploring. To my untrained eye, there’s little to see except an empty cave but that doesn’t deter our “guide,” who insists he must open the lock—a stick knotted with two loops of twine—on the rusty gate to the cave. He then asks for an entrance fee of, oh, say Rp20,000, which just so happens to be the largest bill I pull out of my pocket. If needed, he can also scrounge up some » 120

Our hike on Rinca takes us through a dry, rolling landscape dotted with Lontar palms. The crusty earth and dead leaves make it hard to spot dragons

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After a week bouncing along the serpentine roads of Flores, being out on a boat is a welcome break; an exclamation point on the trip

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Dragon Island Right, above: Pointing the way on Rinca Island. Right, below: Some of the victims of Komodo dragons on Rinca.

Opposite: Leaving the island and its dragons in one piece.

modern-day hobbits from the surrounding hills—for a fee.

More captivating is the anthropological battle taking place.

“Some scientists,” Jungers says, “cling to their favorite theories of human evolution, and the ‘hobbit’—yes, I’ve grown to accept that pop term—changed so many things that it’s overwhelming for those with fixed preconceptions.” Forlorn looking it may be but Liang Bua Cave really is a link to another world.

HERE’S A TROPICAL BREEZE IN OUR HAIR AS WE CHUG out to Rinca Island, part of Komodo National Park, the world’s only natural habitat for Komodo dragons. After a week bouncing along the serpentine roads of Flores, being out on a boat is a welcome break—an exclamation point on the trip. Yet as soon as we step onto Rinca, the hair on the back of my neck stands on end. Any worry that we wouldn’t come across dragons is quickly dispelled: there’s one basking on some rocks at the end of the dock. It’s 80 kilograms of ugly. And it can easily outrun a human. At park headquarters, the convoluted amount of entry fees temporarily takes my mind off the lethal dragons. Once paid up, it all comes back. A dozen or so Komodo dragons sun themselves near the headquarters, their skin armor-like, their curled claws dug into the ground.

We pick up our guide, who is armed with a forked stick that is double his height. He tells us that Rinca is home to about 1,100 Komodo dragons. He warns us to keep our distance.

We do. We crowd around him like a swarm of mosquitoes.

Our two-hour hike on Rinca takes us through a dry, rocky, rolling landscape dotted with tall Lontar palms. The crusty earth and dead leaves make it difficult to spot dragons, so every snap in the underbrush makes my heart skip. Our guide informs us that, because of a dragon’s slow metabolism, it can survive on as little as 12 meals a year. Good to hear. On the other hand, they’ve been known to take on too big a meal and when they do this, will ram their prey against a tree to help ingest it. Forcefully: some trees have been knocked over as a result.

Dire images fill my head. Just how lethal are Komodo dragons compared with other creatures? Dr. Bryan Grieg Fry, »

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a biochemist at the University of Melbourne who studies venom with a bit too much boyhood gusto, says that’s comparing apples and oranges. “A taipan kills with venom alone,” Grieg Fry explains, “or my crocodile pretties kill by powerful bite and drowning.” The combination of deep wounds from a dragon’s teeth and their venom is septic. We spot wild boar, water buffalo and long-tailed macaques that have lived another day. The few skulls lying around are warning signs. Up a creek, our turnaround point, we eyeball two dragons. Fortunately, they’re on the other side of a watering hole. Even a muddied water buffalo has enough sense to saunter away from the somnolent duo.

On the way back to our boat, a tell-tale rustle in dry leaves quickens our step. It’s a dragon, though its lumbering pace doesn’t seem deadly.

Duly frightened, we start back to Labuanbajo. Almost to offset the adrenaline rush of coming face-to-face with Komodo dragons, we stop en route at coral-encircled Kelor Island.

Climbing about halfway to its top on a steep slope covered in meter-deep dry grass, the scene mimics some of the colors we had seen at Mount Kelimutu. Minus the tea man. There’s a decent breeze, the sky is a deep blue, the sea varying shades of green. Under a brilliant equatorial sun, I close my eyes and everything on Flores finally makes sense.

Lethal Komodo dragons on Rinca Island.

GUIDE TO FLORES

T+L Tip Money-changing fees, where they’re available, are exorbitant on Flores — often as much as 10 percent below official market rates — so bring enough Indonesian rupiah for your entire stay.

WHERE TO STAY MAUMERE Sea World Club Caters mainly to divers but offers comfortable accommodation just outside of town along a pleasant stretch of coastline. Jln. Nai Roa Km. 13; 62-382/21570; sea-world-club.com; doubles from US$35.

Gardena Popular budget hotel, but book

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ahead for an air-conditioned room. Also handy for finding a guide or car and driver.

Jln. Patiranga; 62-382/22644; doubles from Rp100,000.

MONI Arwanti’s Homestay The most comfortable spot in this small town. 62/81-236-873-333; doubles from Rp85,000.

BAJAWA Bintang Wisata One of the few places in town with hot water. Jln. Palapa 04 Ngedukelu; 62-384/21744; doubles from Rp300,000.

LABUANBAJO Bajo Komodo Eco Lodge A beachside resort with 10 air-conditioned guestrooms and two with fans. 3 Gorontalo; 62-385/41362; ecolodgesindonesia.com/bajo; doubles from US$75.

Bintang Flores Hotel The most comfortable option on the outskirts of town with beach,

pool and decent restaurant. Pantai Pede, Labuanbajo; 62-385/42000; bintangfloreshotel.com; doubles from US$120.

WHAT TO DO Flores Adventure Tours Offers a wide range of itineraries around the island. Jln. SMIP Cowang Dereng; 62-385/41163; floresadventuretours.com.

Komodo Flores Tours Based in nearby Bali, the company has trips to Flores and other islands in the area, including small plane journeys. No. 42 Jln. Ciungwanara I; 62-361/786-8449; komodoflores.com.

Komodo National Park The park is well set up for visitors to both Rinca and Komodo islands, and its website is particularly good.

It’s cash only for the day passes. gokomodo. org; one- to three-day passes cost US$15 plus Rp40,000 in entrance fees per person.

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

GETTING THERE From Bali, the most convenient connection, there are flights to Labuanbajo and Maumere aboard Merpati (merpati.co.id). Be forewarned that services are often overbooked or cancelled, so reconfirm three days in advance and show up early for your flight.

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Flores Faces Clockwise from top left: A woman at the traditional village of Bena; locally grown vanilla pods for sale in the village; a passing look from a local; tomatoes at a roadside market.

Downtown As Manhattanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s historic bohemian center undergoes its latest transformation, PETER JON LINDBERG looks at the big ideas, cutting-edge architecture and design, and daring personalities that are shaping the new New York. Photographed by ANDREA FAZZARI

Lower Manhattan at dusk, as seen from the New Museum, on the Bowery.

York

No one can agree precisely when it started, let alone where it starts.

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You can knock it back in the innovative new breed of cocktail bars—including PDT, Pegu Club, Mayahuel and Death & Co.—that are transforming New York nightlife. Downtown has become the anchor of the city’s restaurant scene, as well as the preferred location for new hotels. And after decades in the doldrums, New York is finally back to creating bold new architecture, much of it below 14th Street: Witness the fabulous New Museum, opened in 2007 on the Bowery, and, nearby, the soon-to-rise headquarters for the Sperone Westwater gallery, designed by Norman Foster. Even those interloping luxury brands and national chains are copping a Downtown edge: consider Derek Lam’s striking new SoHo store, by Japanese firm SANAA (who also designed the New Museum), or J.Crew’s actually-quite-hip men’s emporium in TriBeCa, the Liquor Store (co-conceived by Andy Spade).

“If one reads anything about the history of New York, one sees that it’s a whole different city every ten years,” says Sean MacPherson, who, with the Bowery Hotel, has done plenty to define the current phase. I’d say his timetable is off by »

Designers Carol Lim and Humberto Leon at their Opening Ceremony store on the once-remote Howard Street, near Chinatown.

O P P O S I T E PAG E : P I N K T I E BY TO M FO R D

SOUTH OF HOUSTON STREET? 14TH? 23RD? Does it include the farther-flung galleries of Chelsea? The Financial District? Do the leafier blocks of the West Village still count, or are check-cashing joints and graffiti a prerequisite? Some say Downtown New York is less a place than an idea, more about sensibility than geography. (For the purposes of our discussion, let’s call it the swath between 14th and Chambers Streets, from the Hudson to the East River.)

The one thing New Yorkers can agree on is that Downtown just feels different. You sense it the minute you cross that disputed border. Few cityscapes have such recognizable iconography—the cast-iron façades of SoHo, the Belgian block– paved lanes of TriBeCa, the water towers punctuating rooflines like squat wooden rocket ships, the hoardings plastered with dance-mix ads, the congee joints and Puerto Rican bodegas, the bodega that last Tuesday became a bistro.

Funky. Gritty. Hip. Eccentric. Indie. Irreverent. Cool. The prefix Downtown has come to connote all sorts of things, not all of them endemic to Lower Manhattan. Downtown’s attitude and aesthetic have been codified, commodified and sold in a million pieces, such that any clued-in kid visiting from the mainland can dress the part and pass as a local. And while it’s still the de facto hub, Downtown no longer corners the countercultural market in New York. Artists, designers, and musicians—and the galleries, shops, and clubs that support them—are increasingly drawn to the cheaper reaches of wayUptown and the outer boroughs. It’s a sign of the times that most of New York’s top rock acts (MGMT; TV on the Radio; the National; the Yeah Yeah Yeahs; Santigold; the Hold Steady) are based in Brooklyn.

You might conclude that the bohemian culture Downtown nurtured as its own has up and moved elsewhere. No question, this isn’t the Lower Manhattan of your uncle’s hard-core band. Money, both corporate and private, plays more of a role here than ever: the median price of a two-bedroom condo is US$1.37 million, compared with US$315,000 in 1993.

Not even 9/11 could knock Downtown off its gentrifying trajectory. Today, the area has far fewer art galleries, far fewer poetry clubs and six American Apparel stores. It is markedly easier to buy eye shadow than a New York Dolls record.

Yet underneath the spit-shine gloss—in the cracks between La Perla and L’Occitane—that churning, inventive, pioneering spirit improbably surges on. You can see it in the young provocateurs of fashion, art and design who followed their muse to Lower Manhattan, in spite of the costs. You can hear it at music venues like (Le) Poisson Rouge and the Stone (run by avant-garde hero and longtime Downtowner John Zorn).

High Line advocates and community activists Joshua David (left) and Robert Hammond (right) at the park they helped create, set in a defunct elevated railbed and running from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to 20th Street in Chelsea, above. Below: A room at the Cooper Square Hotel, designed by Carlos Zapata Studio.

Vanity Fair editor and Downtown bon vivant Graydon Carter at his Waverly Inn & Garden restaurant, with chef John DeLucie (left) and general manager Emil Varda (right).

The New Museum recalls a seven-story stack of gift boxes (an allusion to SoHoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s retail transformation? )

The New Museum, on the Bowery, with Swiss artist Ugo Rondinoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hell, Yes! installation.

Fresh New York Clockwise from above left: Artist and 34-year Downtown resident Laurie Simmons inside the New Museum; Daniel Bouludâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new DBGB Kitchen & Bar restaurant; escargots at DBGB; chef April Bloomfield in the test kitchen of her pioneering West Village gastropub, the Spotted Pig.

L AU R I E S I M M O N S’ H A I R BY ST E L L A FO R P R I V E N YC ; M A K E U P BY F U M I N A G A I ; S T Y L E D BY C AT H E R I N E C R AT E

about, oh, 10 years. These days, Downtown changes itself every other week.

MORE THAN MOST PARTS OF NEW YORK, Downtown readily evokes Then and Now, Before and After.

History is forever bursting to the surface here, like the underlayers of subway posters for last season’s blockbusters. For this reason Downtown also evokes a keen sense of nostalgia, usually of the pessimistic sort: Everything went downhill after Florent/CBGB/the Mudd Club closed. Alphabet City was better when it was just artists and dealers and thieves.

TriBeCa was better when it didn’t exist. I moved to Manhattan at age 24—in time to catch Jeff Buckley at Sin-é but too late to glimpse Basquiat chalk-painting sidewalks. Whenever you arrived, it seems, you were either too late or too old.

A favorite lament concerns the Fall of SoHo—where, eight years ago, in a metaphor too preposterous to make up, the Downtown branch of the Guggenheim Museum was replaced by a Prada store. It’s true that SoHo’s most recent metamorphosis is startling even in a city defined by metamorphoses.

But too often we neglect the long view—and across its history, the curious expanse between Houston and Canal streets has seen plenty of ebbs and flows. Mostly farmland in the 18th century, it became, by 1825, one of the richest and most densely populated neighborhoods in Manhattan. John Jacob Astor was a principal landowner. But trendiness had its drawbacks. The 1860’s saw an influx of high-end retail—Tiffany; Lord & Taylor—that forced out a quarter of its residents.

(Does any of this sound familiar?) It was at this time that SoHo’s iconic architecture took shape: the grandly ornamented commercial buildings and warehouses clad in cast iron. But in the 1890’s retailers began relocating Uptown, and SoHo spiraled into decline; through the first half of the 20th century it became a wasteland known as Hell’s Hundred Acres.

“The Fluxus artist George Maciunas really pioneered SoHo as a place to live and work,” explains Lisa Phillips, director of SoHo’s New Museum. Starting on Wooster Street in 1967, Maciunas set up co-ops in disused cast-iron buildings.

So began the rise of New York’s most famous artists’ colony.

“It was about more than just affordable space,” Phillips says.

“It was about seeing beauty in unconventional environments—living in those interzones, in places that people wouldn’t normally think of as appropriate or safe.”

It’s easy to forget how desolate the city used to feel south of Houston Street. In 1970, TriBeCa had only 243 residents.

Today, it has 26,151. Downtown still came off as a wild, vaguely menacing frontier as late as 1985, when Martin Scorsese shot his cult classic After Hours here. The film starred Griffin Dunne as an Uptown Mr. Jones lost down the rabbit hole of pre–hedge fund SoHo and TriBeCa. In the course of one night he’s accosted by burglars and mohawked punks, flummoxed by a kinky sculptress, chased by an angry mob, and sent back to Midtown encased in plaster of paris.

“At the time it was all just called Downtown,” Dunne recalls. “Terms like NoHo, TriBeCa, and Nolita hadn’t taken form yet. And it was truly a no-man’s-land. There was no traffic to block—we would shoot all night long and no one would bother us.”

You certainly couldn’t find a place to spend the night back then, unless you count three-dollar SRO’s. High-end hotels were scarce Downtown until the mid-90’s, when a handful of boutique properties made inroads. Now they’re on every other block. The past 18 months have ushered in Robert De Niro’s Greenwich Hotel, in TriBeCa; Sean MacPherson’s cheap-chic Jane Hotel, in the West Village; André Balazs’s the Standard, New York; the Cooper Square Hotel, designed by Carlos Zapata Studio; and the just-opened Crosby Street Hotel, in SoHo, the first stateside property from London’s everstylish Firmdale group.

Downtown’s hotel boom has helped to lure a relatively new demographic over the past decade: tourists. Indeed, some weekends there appear to be more visitors on Spring Street than in Times Square. No surprise, either, for SoHo and its satellite neighborhoods have become retail destinations to rival Madison Avenue, with both global and homegrown brands, outsize designer flagships and back-alley boutiques cheek-by-jowl.

Today even Uptown girls stray as far south as (gasp!) Howard Street, on the grungy fringes of Chinatown, to peruse the racks at Opening Ceremony. Carol Lim and Humberto »

The new rock-and-roll-inspired John Varvatos store on the Bowery, occupying the former space of the iconic CBGB club.

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THE CULINARY LANDSCAPE, TOO, HAS exploded. In contrast to a decade ago, most of New York’s restaurants-of-the-moment—those that aren’t in Brooklyn— are below 14th Street: the Spotted Pig, Locanda Verde, the Waverly Inn & Garden, Elettaria, and the genre-defying, destination-defining restaurants of Keith McNally (including Balthazar, in SoHo; Pastis, in the Meatpacking District; Schiller’s Liquor Bar, on the Lower East Side; and the new Minetta Tavern, in Greenwich Village). And then there are the Lower East Side’s WD-50, where relentlessly innovative Wylie Dufresne conjures his metaphysical cuisine, and David Chang’s border-jumping Momofuku empire in the East Village. It’s hard to imagine these latter restaurants—defiantly casual, offbeat, often quite affordable—existing anywhere but Downtown. And its appeal—for both diners and restaurateurs—remains undiminished (if not enhanced) by the area’s gentrification. As Graydon Carter, co-owner of the Waverly

Niki Russ Federman and cousin John Russ Tupper in their family’s landmark 90-year-old Lower East Side food store, Russ & Daughters.

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Hold on, you say the birthplace of punk rock is now a fashion boutique?

Inn, says, “In any other city, downtown connotes a raffish, unbathed, countercultural sensibility—what Republicans would call ‘edgy.’ In New York it’s all of that, plus it’s geographically accurate.”

Even Uptown chefs are migrating south. Daniel Boulud, whose namesake French restaurant sets the standard for Upper East Side fine dining, has arrived on the Bowery, of all places, with a resolutely informal, resoundingly loud boîte called DBGB Kitchen & Bar. (Yes, the name is a pun on CBGB, whose former quarters are just up the block; the legendary rock club closed in 2006.) Hearing the Replacements blasting while sampling Boulud’s note-perfect charcuterie is quite the novelty. But if there’s a disconnect between his name and the neighborhood, Boulud doesn’t see it. “I’ve been a New Yorker for 25 years, and just happened to drop my suitcase Uptown,” he says. “I’ve been coming down here just as long—partying, visiting friends. So opening a restaurant here seemed natural.”

But Boulud might not have chosen this quirky strip were it not for the futuristic edifice looming down the street. The New Museum recalls a seven-story stack of gift boxes (an allusion to SoHo’s retail transformation?). The setting is incongruous: two blocks north of a shop with a sign proffering cash registers, slicers, scales, bandsaws and two doors up from the Bowery Mission homeless shelter. Yet the museum embraces its context with an exuberant HELL, YES! (so reads the rainbow-colored sign on the façade, an installation by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone). The purview is global, yet the curators are dedicated to exhibiting artists who still live and work in Downtown, such as the up-and-coming Corsican-born multimedia artist Agathe Snow and established artists like Laurie Simmons.

“We were keen to bring a great work of architecture to the city, and to this street specifically,” Phillips says. “The hope is that the Bowery will become a sort of laboratory for experimentation in architecture and design.” It’s certainly become a tourist destination. And the museum has spurred an unexpected revival of the Bowery: besides DBGB and the Bowery Hotel, recent openings include Double Crown, a restaurantlounge from design collective AvroKO; the clothing emporium Blue & Cream; Bowery Electric, a rock club co-owned by musician Jesse Malin; a pizzeria from McNally; and, in the former CBGB space, a splashy John Varvatos store. »

K I T K E M P ’ S H A I R & M A K E U P BY L I A M D U N N / B E R N S T E I N & A N D R I U L L I ; S T Y L E D BY C AT H E R I N E C R A T E . D R E S S B Y R O B E R T O C AVA L L I ; B E LT, T E M P E R L E Y L O N D O N ; S H O E S , D O L C E & G A B B A N A

Leon—U.C. Berkeley grads who’d worked for Bally and Burberry—cofounded the boutique in 2002, selling their own line of clothing alongside a mix of labels from Europe, Asia and South America. A branch in Los Angeles followed. In August the duo opened an eight-story department store in Tokyo. But their hearts remain in Lower Manhattan, specifically the “alternate universe” of Howard Street.

“This is a tiny pocket of Old New York,” Lim tells me. “Even when we opened in 2002, it was deserted after 7 P.M.” Yet they found plenty of kindred spirits. “Up the block is E. Vogel, the 120-year-old custom shoe place; Ted Muehling, who’s made jewelry around here since the 90’s; and newer stores like De Vera and BDDW—it’s this incredible little street.”

Urban Style Clockwise from above left: The eclectic inventory of Partners & Spade, in NoHo; Firmdale hotelier and designer Kit Kemp inside Suite 907 of the Crosby Street Hotel, her latest project; New Yorkâ&#x20AC;&#x201C; and Vancouver-based band the Albertans at the new (Le) Poisson Rouge nightclub, on Bleecker Street.

jumble of steel girders, concrete and shadow that wound through Manhattan’s far west side. Built in the 1930’s, the 2.3-kilometer-long railway had been unused since 1980 and was marked for demolition. At a community board hearing on the subject in 1999, Hammond met David, and the two founded Friends of the High Line, an advocacy group dedicated to saving the structure. FHL would go on to raise US$150 million to recast the railway as a pedestrian park.

“Downtown has more of the juxtapositions I love about New York—the glamorous and the gritty, the hard and the soft, the old and the new,” Hammond says. “That’s why I love the High Line: Who would have imagined a steel structure with wildflowers growing on top?” The first section of the park opened last spring to rave reviews.

Cocktail entrepreneurs Phil Ward of Mayahuel tequila bar, Audrey Sanders of Pegu Club, Brian Miller of Death & Co. and Jim Meehan of PDT, inside Sanders’s Burmese-themed bar, on Houston Street.

Hold on, you say—the birthplace of punk rock is now a fashion boutique? Well, as Dave Navarro of Jane’s Addiction put it recently, “Better this than a Pinkberry.” To Varvatos’s credit, rock and roll has always been part of his brand’s aesthetic. The Detroit native vividly recalls his first trip to New York in 1977—a pilgrimage to see the Ramones at CBGB. Now, in CB’s old digs, Varvatos embraces his inner rock geek: selling vintage vinyl, displaying punk memorabilia, staging free concerts, and treating the room less like a clothing store than, well, a club. “We see it as a cultural space,” he says. “No way are we trying to emulate what was here before, but we wanted to keep to the history, and to keep music alive in the Bowery. We have a stage and a P.A., so on any given day, people show up and play—the guys from Cheap Trick, Ringo Starr, the New York Dolls.” And plenty of curious young rock fans who aren’t remotely interested in fashion drop in to the store just to see where CBGB once was.

DOWNTOWN IS A PLACE OF ENDLESS collisions and near-misses, where disparate worlds rub up against one another with remarkable familiarity. Here’s Yonah Schimmel’s bakery (opened in 1910) abutting an arthouse cinema; there’s the Bowery Hotel sidling up to a methadone clinic. In an East Village basement, the sultry speakeasy PDT hides behind an unmarked door in a hot dog joint, while over on the West Side, a derelict elevated freight railroad is abloom with flowers, transformed into the city’s newest park.

The High Line—the former railroad in question—is an apt symbol for Downtown’s quirky charms, struggles, and (continual) rebirth. Yet were it not for the vision of two ordinary citizens, artist Robert Hammond and writer Joshua David, the High Line might be just a memory. Hammond moved to New York in 1993 and was captivated by the Meatpacking District and West Chelsea—semi-industrial areas “that weren’t traditionally beautiful, that some consider eyesores.”

The High Line in particular caught his imagination: a rusted 124

“IT’S SPECIFICALLY A DOWNTOWN THING. It could go anywhere, but it makes more sense here.” Andy Spade—founder of Jack Spade, husband of Kate, and allaround Renaissance man—is discussing his latest venture, Partners & Spade, an ephemera shop/exhibition space/creative consultancy headquartered on Great Jones Street. On any given day P&S’s stock might include riding crops, antique globes, Super Balls and a vintage photography book titled Brokers with Hands on Their Faces. For a time they also sold vintage guns. Oh, and live birds.

Spade remains dedicated to Downtown, but he admits misgivings. “It doesn’t have as much diversity as it did, just because of how expensive it is to live and rent space here. I think half of Downtown has moved to Brooklyn,” he says.

There are those who feel Downtown has betrayed itself— or, more to the point, them—in the name of mammon, that money has broken Downtown’s spirit. Resentment over gentrification is nothing new, but it’s grown increasingly bitter in the past 15 years. (That Guggenheim-Prada switch didn’t help.) “For the first time in Manhattan’s history, it has no bohemian frontier,” declared Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker in 2007. “Another bookstore closes, another theater becomes a condo, another soulful place becomes a sealed residence.”

MacPherson seconds Gopnik’s alarm: “I often wonder, Do we really need so many banks?”

But if the effects of millennial prosperity were undeniable, the effects of recession are now plainly visible. Storefront vacancies in New York are at their highest since the early 90’s; one in 10 retail spaces in SoHo are presently unoccupied. “With prices loosening up a little,” MacPherson says, “there might be more room for more adventurous projects.”

So will the softening of the real estate market spark a revival? Will poets and sculptors recolonize Lower Manhattan?

Phillips is optimistic. “Downtown still represents the vanguard of the counterculture. There’s still a lot of renegade thinking that takes place here—and the downturn is going to bring even more changes.”

“Art and music do seem to be more inspired when people

are struggling,” Jesse Malin observes. “Downtown always needs that next kick in the ass.”

IF NOVELTY IS ONE OF THE ONLY CONSTANTS in New York, there are also places whose constancy is the novelty. Places that have held on so long they might as well be preserved in vinegar. Places like Russ & Daughters, the Jewish “appetizing” shop that’s occupied the same Houston Street storefront since 1920. It’s the sort of spot where you might join a nonagenarian widow, a tattooed drummer and Harvey Keitel in line for bagels and whitefish.

“All these hipsters who’ve settled in the neighborhood are now discovering us,” says Niki Russ Federman, the 31-yearold great-granddaughter of founder Joel Russ. “You’ll see them chatting with the grandmothers, sharing tips—‘Oh, you have to try the wasabi-roe and cream-cheese sandwich!’ ” Federman remembers a wholly different neighborhood from her youth, when the Lower East Side was still dominated by working-class families. Its transformation into a trendset-

ters’ bastion is now complete, though traces of the Old World remain: in the cacophonous weekend marketplace on Orchard Street; in the discount underwear shops run by Orthodox Jews; in the brilliantly conceived Lower East Side Tenement Museum, which documents the era when this immigrants’ ghetto was the densest conurbation on earth.

Federman studied for an MBA at Yale and worked in international development and health care and as a yoga teacher until a few years ago, when she began to consider joining the family business. She got an unexpected boost from a Downtown icon. “I was at a friend’s party, and Lou Reed happened to be there,” she recalls. “I’d brought some hors d’oeuvres from Russ & Daughters, and Lou was hovering around the table, devouring the smoked salmon. Someone finally told him who I was. He marched right over and shook my hand and said ‘Niki, I just wanted to say—you’re New York royalty.’

Lou Reed! I almost dropped on the floor.”

And when Lou Reed speaks, Downtowners listen. Not long afterward she started work at the shop.

GUIDE TO DOWNTOWN NYC WHERE TO STAY Bowery Hotel 335 Bowery; 1-212/505-9100; theboweryhotel.com; doubles from US$425.

3850; dinner for two US$98.

Cooper Square Hotel 25 Cooper Square; 1-888/251-7979; thecoopersquarehotel.com; doubles from US$425.

Pastis 9 Ninth Ave.; 1-212/929-4844; dinner for two US$140.

Crosby Street Hotel 79 Crosby St.; 1-212/226-6400; crosbystreethotel.com; doubles from US$525.

Greenwich Hotel 377 Greenwich St.; 1-877/888-1255; thegreenwichhotel.com; doubles from US$475.

Jane Hotel 113 Jane St.; 1-212/924-6700; thejanenyc.com; doubles from US$114.

The Standard, New York 848 Washington St.; 1-212/645-4646; standardhotels.com; doubles from US$295.

WHERE TO EAT AND DRINK Balthazar 80 Spring St.; 1-212/941-0364; dinner for two US$100.

Momofuku Ssam Bar 207 Second Ave.; 1-212/254-3500; dinner for two US$80.

Russ & Daughters 179 E. Houston St.; 1-212/475-4880; lunch for two US$22.

Schiller’s Liquor Bar 131 Rivington St.; 1-212/260-4555; dinner for two US$70.

Spotted Pig 314 W. 11th St.; 1-212/620-0393; dinner for two US$120.

Standard Grill The Standard, New York; 848 Washington St.; 1-212/645-4100; dinner for two US$80.

Waverly Inn & Garden 16 Bank St.; 1-212/2437900; dinner for two US$100.

The Stone Corner of Ave. C and Second St.; no phone; thestonenyc.com.

WHERE TO SHOP Blue & Cream 1 E. First St.; 1-212/533-3088.

Derek Lam 12 Crosby St.; 1-212/966-1616.

WD-50 50 Clinton St.; 1-212/477-2900; dinner for two US$124.

J.Crew’s Liquor Store 235 W. Broadway; 1-212/226-5476.

Bowery Electric 327 Bowery; 1-212/228-0228.

John Varvatos 315 Bowery; 1-212/358-0315.

DBGB Kitchen & Bar 299 Bowery; 1-212/9335300; dinner for two US$80.

Death & Co. 433 E. Sixth St.; 1-212/388-0882.

Opening Ceremony 35 Howard St.; 1-212/ 219-2688.

Double Crown 316 Bowery; 1-212/254-0350; dinner for two US$120.

(Le) Poisson Rouge 158 Bleecker St.; 1-212/228-4854; lepoissonrouge.com.

Elettaria 33 W. Eighth St.; 1-212/677-3833; dinner for two US$110.

Mayahuel 304 E. Sixth St.; 1-212/253-5888.

Locanda Verde Greenwich Hotel; 377 Greenwich St.; 1-212/925-3797; dinner for two US$110.

Minetta Tavern 113 MacDougal St.; 1-212/475-

Partners & Spade 40 Great Jones St.; 1-646/861-2827.

WHAT TO SEE AND DO

Milk & Honey 134 Eldridge St.; milkandhoneyreservations@gmail.com.

PDT 113 St. Marks Place; 1-212/614-0386.

Pegu Club 77 W. Houston St.; 1-212/473-7348.

Lower East Side Tenement Museum 91 Orchard St.; 1-212/431-0233; tenement.org.

New Museum 235 Bowery; 1-212/219-1222; newmuseum.org.

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A tapas bar crawl on Calle del Laurel, in the heart of the Casco Viejo.

Opposite: Bacalao with black-olive tapenade at the Electra Rioja Gran Casino, in LogroĂąoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Casco Viejo.

IF EVER A PLACE EMBODIED THE SPIRIT OF SPAIN’S TAPAS TRADITION, IT’S SLEEPY LOGROÑO, IN THE RIOJA WINE REGION. B R U C E S C H O E N F E L D EMBARKS ON A SPANISH-STYLE BAR CRAWL TO EXPERIENCE THE CITY’S AUTHENTIC CHARMS. PHOTOGRAPHED BY D AV I D N I C O L A S

Spanish Crush

S

STANDING ALONG THE BRASS RAIL OF A CROWDED STOREFRONT BAR IN THE CASCO VIEJO NEIGHBORHOOD OF LOGROÑO NOT LONG ago, surrounded by an arc of friends I hadn’t known an hour before, I was eating a half-sandwich of freshly grilled sardines with tangy guindilla peppers and drinking a wine I probably would have passed up if it had rolled by on an airplane cart. My glass of 2003 Solagüen Crianza, a soft, translucent red that cost all of €1.20, seemed to shine in the dim light. It tasted tart yet viscous, like a cherry pie. I’d spent the day sampling decades-old Riojas, fascinating wines that offered up glimpses of truth like a Lorca poem. I could discuss each of those for an hour, consider their attributes, chart their progress. This wine I didn’t want to talk about, just drink. At that moment, in that place, it felt exactly right.

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Hidden Rioja Clockwise from top left: Johana Agudelo and Jesús Villamor, waiters at Bar Sebas, a favorite for tapas in Logroño’s Casco Viejo; outside the 16th-century Concatedral de Santa María de la Redonda; Blanco y Negro, a classic tapas bar just off Calle del Laurel; Bar Soriano, one of many tapas bars on Calle del Laurel; a piquillo pepper stuffed with beef and béchamel sauce at Bar Sebas.

The Rioja is Spain’s most celebrated wine region. In some areas of the country, its name actually serves as a synonym for wine: the way to request a glass of generic red is to shout “un Rioja!” at the barman. Despite all of its €70 bottles and spectacular new wineries, it also remains a bastion of unpretentiousness in an increasingly urbane nation, an area renowned for an elemental way of life that’s rooted in the land and the livestock, and in the farmers and viticulturists who work them.

Yet for such a central and evident place, an amorphous stain near the top of Iberia, it can be maddeningly difficult to access. Eating and drinking there at El Soldado de Tudelilla, acting out the useful Spanish verb potear—which connotes a Spanish version of a pub crawl, only with better nutrition—I remembered a doctor I know and his wife, bright and resourceful people, who’d called upon their return from a recent trip to complain that they’d traveled right through the Rioja and yet

somehow missed it. They’d had in mind a Spanish version of Burgundy or Tuscany, but instead of gentle slopes and leafy trees and enchanting villages with picturesque cellars, they’d encountered a craggy brown landscape that reminded them of Wyoming. They saw faceless apartment blocks ringing Logroño and charmless wineries along the highway that look like giant warehouses.

Had I known that they were going, I would have sent them to the Casco Viejo. It sounds counterintuitive, I know: accessing a rural, agricultural region through the paved, narrow streets of the most crowded piece of its only city. But no spot better encapsulates the charms of one of Europe’s last remaining authentic places. The Rioja ranks among my favorite areas in Spain—I’ve returned there more than a dozen times over the past 15 years—but it isn’t Burgundy or Tuscany. The terrain is impossible, for one thing. I often describe it as » 129

A FRIEND TOOK ME TO FIVE OR SIX BARS, INSISTING NOT ONLY WHICH ONES WE VISIT, BUT IN WHAT EXACT ORDER — AND WHICH TAPAS TO HAVE Tapas Town Clockwise from top left: Fried loinas at Bar Sebas; the wine cellar at Electra Rioja Gran Casino; the casino’s bite-size quail; Bar Sebas before the rush hour. Negro, a classic tapas bar just off Calle del Laurel.

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something a fourth-grader would draw; its improbable towns are perched precariously atop hills that jut upward from the landscape. Some of the wineries are stunning, but most could easily double as refrigerator factories. And Logroño, which seems so generic from the outside, only becomes worthwhile when you get all the way to the middle, to the part that has been around since the beginning of the Dark Ages: a jumble of bars and small shops that is shuttered to the world by day and only comes alive as the skies darken. Then, about 9 P.M., the doors open and people start to fill the narrow streets.

Many are travelers, passing through. Spaniards well know that eating tapas in Logroño isn’t the cutting-edge gastronomic experience it is in San Sebastián, or the traditional one it is in Seville, but it is infinitely more fun. Still, most of the people you’ll see there are locals, whether part of the wine industry or not. They’re heading out after work to spend time with friends, eat a few snacks and drink a few glasses of tinto or rosado that, likely as not, was made by someone they know. A few hardier souls move on to a restaurant dinner, but it’s usually enough to eat and talk for a couple of hours and then head home, having followed your wandering tasting menu to half a dozen bars, gobbled up a grilled anchovy here and a bit of rabbit stew there, washed it all down with perfectly complementary wines that seem to have been tailor-made for this purpose alone, tugging on the ties to the local culture all along the way.

T

HE FIRST TIME I VISITED THE RIOJA, IN 1992, I THRILLED to a lunch of grilled baby lamb chops so sweet and moist that I licked my fingers like a Flintstone. I watched the enormously talented Espartaco fight bulls in the old plaza de toros. Then I walked the Casco Viejo with a friend who worked for one of the local wineries. He took me in and out of five or six bars, insisting not only on which ones we visit, but in what exact order—and which tapas to have in each. I remember the sweetly pungent odor of mushrooms on the grill, and marinated anchovies on pillowy rolls and inexpensive wines that deftly balanced red fruit, dusty tannins and the vanilla notes of coarse-grained American oak. Nothing about the wine or food was complicated, but it all felt genuine in a way that not everywhere on the Continent still did, even then.

I can’t always make time for a wander through the Casco Viejo when I return, but I’m always glad when I do. That sense of being somewhere real hasn’t waned, and I cherish it even more these days because the Rioja, unlike Tuscany and Burgundy, remains a work in progress. Over the past two years, the titanium-sheathed, Frank Gehry–designed hotel/ tasting room attached to the Marqués de Riscal winery has transformed the region into an international tourist destination, changing it as profoundly as if a spacecraft had dipped from the heavens and landed in one of Logroño’s main plazas. It has helped to pull the Rioja into the modern era, raised both awareness and standards, attracted a caliber of visitor who wouldn’t have come before, and altered almost every-

one’s concept of the possible. And Gehry is far from the only one who is transforming the landscape with a sketch pad and a computer program; Santiago Calatrava, Zaha Hadid and the emerging Basque standout Iñaki Aspiazu Iza have also designed new wineries that leap out from the area’s monochromatic terrain like color photos in the otherwise gray pages of The New York Times. Many visitors travel here now for the architecture alone.

At the same time, an astonishing 500 new wineries have come alive over the past two decades because of the move away from huge wine-making factories and toward smaller producers, and a growing awareness of Spanish wines in farflung markets such as North America and Asia that has made it possible for a Rioja producer to get a decent price for a quality bottling. The wines themselves are better than ever. Traditionally styled Riojas, many of which in the 1960’s and 1970’s had the approximate fruit-to-oak ratio of a coffee table, are now made with riper grapes and taste far fresher, though fruit remains secondary to a kind of delightfully woodsy characteristic that I haven’t found in any other wines. And most every producer in the area now also offers at least one sleek, sculpted wine in a double-weight bottle designed to please the international palate. Called vinos de autor, the best of which typically cost €50 and up, but they hold their own against Napa Cabernet, Australian Shiraz and just about every other big, bold wine from around the world. The Rioja hadn’t ever had a Michelin-starred restaurant until Francis Paniego earned one with El Portal de Echaurren in 2004, but it now teems with ambitious young chefs who’ve worked or studied in Bilbao or Barcelona and are eager to bring the culinary revolution of Ferran Adrià and his acolytes to this part of Spain. Each time I come now, I eat at another compelling new restaurant that would fit in perfectly in Barcelona, even London.

Yet though they’re undeniably important to the experience of visiting the area, these new buildings and new wines and new food sit on its surface like a bright coat of paint on a comfortable old barn. Finding myself in Madrid not long ago, I couldn’t resist the hour-long flight to Logroño and the chance to potear. After a day of drinking vinos de autor and reveling in some of the wildly fanciful new architecture, I headed back to the Casco Viejo, ready not so much to step back in time as to circumvent it entirely. I ate pan-fried goat tripe, and grilled sardines and stuffed piquillo peppers. I saw pilgrims bound for Santiago de Compostela washing their feet in a public fountain, as pilgrims have done at the same fountain since the Middle Ages. And then, long after midnight, I walked the ancient neighborhood alone. I reveled in the tranquility that seemed to emanate from its stately buildings, soaking up the silence like I’d taken in the merriment and the food and the wine earlier in the evening. I headed back to my hotel on the edge of downtown at what would be a scandalous hour most anywhere else, reassured that the soul of this singular place had stayed the same.

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Spanish Spirit Above left: The baroque towers of the Santa María cathedral. Above right: Strolling on the stately Calle de los Portoles.

Opposite: The modern tapas experience at Electra Rioja Gran Casino.

GUIDE TO LOGROÑO

N

B

ay of Biscay

FRANCE

UGAL

Logroño

PORT

At l O ca n t i c ean

Bilbao LA RIOJA

ri lea B a Sea

Madrid

SPAIN M 0

ed

c

a r rane n ite ea S 245 km

GETTING THERE Logroño is a short hop on Iberia (iberia.com) from Madrid or Barcelona. From elsewhere in Europe, an easier route might be a direct flight to Bilbao and a 90-minute drive.

WHERE TO STAY Hotel Marqués de Riscal Frank Gehry’s sandstone-and-titanium confection cloaks a well-run business hotel and spa, and an innovative restaurant. 1 Calle Torrea, Elciego; 34/94-518-0880; starwoodhotels.com; doubles from ¤288.

Hotel Marqués de Vallejo GREAT A starkly elegant 50-room hotel in VALUE the center of the old town. 8 Calle Marqués de Vallejo; 34/94-124-8333; doubles from ¤90.

WHERE TO EAT AND DRINK In the old quarter, dozens of intimate wine bars offer specialty tapas and a list of by-the-glass regional selections that cost a euro or two. Here, some of the area’s top wine experts recommend their favorites.

Bar Ángel The establishment’s sole victual — a five-centimeter-high stack of mushrooms precariously united by a toothpick and topped with a tiny shrimp (¤1) — pairs perfectly with Bodegas Lan Crianza 2004. It’s a classic Rioja that impresses with elegance, not fruit (¤1.35). 12 Calle del Laurel; 34/94-120-6355.

Bar Donosti A tiny corridor of a place where embuchados, plates of grilled goat tripe, sizzling and crunchy, with spicy romesco sauce (¤4.50) are served with Bodegas Solana de Ramírez Ruíz Valsarte Crianza 2002. The wine is full of sweetness and round in the mouth (¤1.20). 13 Calle del Laurel; 34/66-523-1589.

Bar Sebas This storefront-size bar has a formidable list of wines on a chalkboard. The hearty semi-spicy pepper stuffed with beef and béchamel (¤1) is a standout. 3 Calle Albornoz; 34/94-122-0196.

Blanco y Negro An eclectic crowd, including pilgrims bound for Compostela, visits this L-shaped bar for irresistible matrimonio sandwiches: roasted peppers, salted anchovy and anchovy in vinegar on a cottony soft bun (¤1.50). Refreshing Florentino Martínez

Clarete 2006, colored like onion skin, flows like water (¤0.50). 1 Travesía del Laurel; 34/94-122-0079.

Electra Rioja Gran Casino Postmodern bar in the corner of a small casino that pours wonderfully acidic Viña Soledad 2005, a white from Bodegas Franco-Españolas (¤2); the wine is the ideal complement to embuchados with caramelized onion (¤3).

10 Calle Sagasta; 34/94-125-1420.

El Soldado de Tudelilla Popular with locals for its classic half-sandwich of grilled sardines topped with guindillo pepper (¤1.40). The tart Bodegas Solagüen Crianza 2003 knifes through the oil and spice (¤1.10). 33 Calle San Agustín; 34/94-120-9624.

La Tortilla Mere Order tortilla española — runny like a good omelette and slathered with house-made red sauce (¤1.40) — and chase it with the neighborhood’s best bargain: Bodegas Prudencio Larrea’s Los Porrones de Nedurp 2006 (¤0.60).

2 Travesía de San Juan; 34/94-123-0716.

Pata Negra This capacious corner bar is named for Spain’s famous black-hoofed pigs, so don’t miss a crunchy, salty and delicious toasted sandwich of jamón serrano, fresh tomato and anchovy (¤2), accompanied by Bodegas Bretón Dominio de Conte 2001. The firm but fruity wine is from the best Rioja vintage in years (¤3.50). 24 Calle del Laurel; 34/94-121-3645.

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ONE HAPPENING Young Chinese enjoying some shade along Nan Luogu Xiang.

Changes in one small Beijing neighborhood reďŹ&#x201A;ect transformations taking place across the city, writes JEN LIN-LIU, and also in the country. Photographed by DARREN SOH

o ON A HOT, MUGGY SUMMER DAY AROUND NOON, IN THE BACK OF central Beijing’s Wenyu Nailao dessert shop, young men in shower caps stir buckets of milk for double-boiled custard, a dessert once favored by Qing dynasty emperors, as they howl along to Usher’s “Yeah.” Out front, teenagers have been queuing up for two hours. The line stretches down a narrow alley called Nan Luogu Xiang, past an intersection and stores selling trendy T-shirts. Cyclists trying to make their way down the alley grumble. Cars honk.

Just a few years ago, Nan Luogu Xiang was an idyllic, unassuming hutong, or alley, full of local residents, many of them laid-off factory workers and senior citizens who whittled away hours playing mahjong and drinking beer in front of their traditional single-floor courtyard homes, known as siheyuan.

The north–south alley, which spans three-quarters of a kilometer and is within walking distance of Beijing’s Drum Tower, was dotted with a few Western-style bars and cafés.

But, for the most part, commerce appeared in the form of bicycle vendors who pulled wagons behind them, hawking the essentials of hutong life: round coal briquettes used for heat, local vegetables and toilet paper. The occasional ramshackle mom-and-pop convenience store sold cigarettes and jars of traditional plain yogurt.

But these days, if you’re looking for a bellwether of China’s

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future, there is no better place to visit than Nan Luogu Xiang.

The lane, which means South Drum and Gong Alley, has become a place where young Chinese have come to realize a more idyllic life, an urban version of Shangri-La where the young generation—rather than parents or the Communist government—dictates what is bought and sold, what is cool and how they’re going to live their lives.

Traditional goods, like double-boiled milk custard, are gaining a new youthful audience but are also competing against new expressions of modern Beijing life: Live music clubs like Mao Livehouse feature American- and Japaneseinfluenced indie and punk bands; clothing boutiques like Woo sell original designs that cost several hundred U.S. dollars; and novelty stores abound featuring everything from sex toys to 1980’s Chinese vintage clothing to handmade notebooks.

How this sleepy hutong—once under threat of being wholly demolished—has exploded almost overnight into a destination for young Chinese and travelers alike illustrates the changes Beijing has undergone in the past few years.

Double-digit growth and ambitious government spending for last year’s Olympics have improved the capital’s quality of life, while authorities are gradually realizing that the old alleyways can be preserved for tourist and commercial value.

According to the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center,

Eat Street From opposite page: Eating a cup of Nailao, a doubleboiled custard, from Wenyu Nailao; get there early as lines for the Chinese dessert can last for hours; two students dig in after their wait.

600 alleys including Nan Luogu Xiang are under historical protection. Meanwhile, a new crop of 1980’s youth—who grew up under President Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms, with no memory of hardships like the Cultural Revolution—are striking out on their own as independent entrepreneurs and designers on Nan Luogu Xiang.

The gentrification isn’t just limited to Nan Luogu Xiang.

Pockets around the city have seen a fury of creative commerce. Sanlitun, a once-grungy bar district near the embassies, now boasts a Kengo Kuma–designed minimalist boutique hotel, The Opposite House, and a cozy shopping complex called Nali Patio—with a white exterior and light blue trim—features an array of independent clothing designers. The 798 art district, on the grounds of a former military factory, started attracting artists and galleries in the past decade but has lately become a youth magnet, with bookstores, inexpensive cafés and knick-knack shops.

But with its central location and traditional Chinese architecture, Nan Luogu Xiang has become the up-and-coming destination for Beijing’s youth. Zhu Di, the 28-year-old manager of the art gallery White Space near 798, recently opened a bar on a hutong off Nan Luogu Xiang called Yin, decorated with contemporary Chinese art. “It’s getting too commercial,

too crazy at 798. I wanted a more peaceful environment, a place where I feel more at home.”

In a strange twist of fate, I’ve also become an entrepreneur on Nan Luogu Xiang. I’ve lived next to the alley for several years, and though I’m primarily a writer, I have a passion for cooking. The hobby turned into something bigger when I set up a cooking school and private kitchen just off the alley last spring. Soon after, I began meeting many likeminded entrepreneurs who were opening shops on the street.

Most of the owners are in their twenties and thirties and have never run a business before. Many have idealistic motives, unlike China’s first wave of entrepreneurs in the 1980’s and 90’s, whose sole focus was to make money. Locals attribute the development of Nan Luogu Xiang to an outdoor enthusiast named Xiao Bian, who owns Pass By Bar, one of the first youth-oriented businesses on the alley to open in 1999.

One of China’s early backpackers, Xiao Bian decided to set up the bar after realizing he and his friends needed a more permanent watering hole. In the evenings, they would sit out in the alley drinking until the early morning hours, after which they’d curl up in sleeping bags and doze off on the side of the road. His two-story bar, encircling a traditional courtyard on the south end of the alley, is intended for kindred adventurers. Crammed with Lonely Planet books from » 137

around the world—though, ironically, the China edition is conspicuously missing because the Communist government forbids its distribution due to the book’s mention of Tibet and Taiwan—the bar also displays red T-shirts with black lettering, designed by Xiao Bian, that reads “Better Travel Than Dead.”

More bars and cafés soon followed, including Xiao Xin’s, with a pleasant living room-like setting where pasta and cheesecake are central to the menu, and Salud, a popular tapas bar with live music. But the young crowd really began flocking to the block after Dominic Johnson-Hill, a 36-yearold Englishman fluent in Mandarin, held a memorable outdoor street party in 2007.

After opening a store called Plastered, featuring T-shirts with nostalgic images of China, Johnson-Hill turned the alley into a catwalk, hiring tall Chinese models to show off his wares. The event drew a crowd of several hundred young Chinese and foreign residents. “The fashion show was a real turning point for Nan Luogu Xiang,” says Johnson-Hill, who lives on the alley with his Canadian wife and three daughters.

“Everyone started seeing the potential for commercial growth on the street.”

While Xiao Bian and Johnson-Hill are regarded as old-timers on the block, Li Ning and Gao Wenzhou represent the young Chinese who’ve discovered the hutong recently. The couple, like hundreds of other young Chinese, visited Nan Luogu Xiang to watch the opening ceremony of last year’s Olympics in one of the alley’s bars. Li and Gao—who are married and both 27 years old—then decided to move Navel, their quirky T-shirt shop, from a nearby neighborhood to the alley.

Just a couple of doors down from Plastered, the shop features shirts with sketches of a young teenage boy that reminds me of Beavis of MTV’s Beavis & Butthead, if he’d only grown up in Communist China. Each month, Gao introduces new designs, which depict the character as a red-handkerchiefed Young Pioneer, the Communist Party group for elementaryschool children, in various boy-meets-girl scenarios, ranging from innocent to provocative.

One morning when I visit, Li, who handles the business operations, can’t help giggling as she takes a shirt off the rack, which shows the nameless teenager engaged in a mock S&M scene: “Hit me!” the dialogue bubble reads above Navel’s head. “Okay!” the girl replies, her knee bent over him.

Unlike most of China’s mass-produced wear, the shirts are collectibles—only 50 of each design are printed—and, like the neighborhood, have become popular. T-shirts are both affordable and the perfect slate for self-expression. While Gao holds down a full-time position as an interior designer, Li has quit her job as a graphic designer to look after the shop. As young shoppers circulate through the store in a constant flow, Li says the shirts have developed a cult following.

Much like the neighborhood. » 118

Alley Ways Clockwise from top left: Welcoming wait staff at Pass By Bar; the inside of the bar; Pass By shop, next to the bar. Opposite, from top: The still-developing Nan Luogu Xiang at night; the street by day.

EACH MONTH, GAO INTRODUCES NEW DESIGNS, WHICH DEPICT HIS CHARACTER IN BOY-MEETSGIRL SCENARIOS, RANGING FROM INNOCENT TO PROVOCATIVE 139

Future Shops Clockwise from top: The Xiao Xin CafĂŠ; a quirky cabinet at the cafĂŠ; its cheesecake; spaghetti aglio olio with tuna. Opposite: The T-shirt shop Plastered offers designs depicting old and new China.

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W

ITH NEARLY EVERY INCH OF REAL ESTATE

having been developed on Nan Luogu Xiang now, the side alleys are now where you’re most likely to stumble into the unexpected. Two posh boutique hotels in restored courtyards, Du Ge and the Han Royal Garden Hotel, have opened on alleys east of Nan Luogu Xiang. On the same alley as Han Royal Garden Hotel is narrow alley leading to an experimental theater and accompanying bar called Penghao, where a stage version of Dirty Dancing was performed recently. There’s also an Italian wine bar called Cambulac, filled with Art Deco furniture and art installations. Heizhima Hutong, or Black Sesame Hutong, where my cooking school and the bar Yin are located, also features a signless eatery called Gui Wei, or

ghostly taste, serving five flavors of grilled chicken wings that draws Chinese from across the city.

Walking down Ju’er Hutong one afternoon, I come across a shop surrounded with a low white-picket fence selling sex toys, run by a Chinese talk-show writer named Smoke. Rather than most of the city’s drab, unappealing sex shops with names like Adult Health, Smoke calls his place In Sex We Trust. The back room is reserved for women, who can peruse dildos and lingerie without embarrassment. “A lot of the sex shops in Beijing cater to middle-aged men,” says Smoke, who sports a light goatee and thick glasses. “I wanted to create a place for young couples, who might be visiting a sex shop for the first time.”

Still, I think Nan Luogu Xiang’s development has come »

IN PLACE OF TRADITIONAL SNACKS YOU CAN FIND STANDS SELLING HOT DOGS, GELATO AND CHURROS

Beijing Bites Clockwise from right: Students at Black Sesame Kitchen; iconic images at Grifted; a paper-clip curtain at the shop; Gui Wei chicken wings; door décor at Gui Wei; stir-fried beans at Black Sesame.

at a price: an Australian pub has replaced my favorite steamed bun eatery; the little shop where locals used to buy savory grilled breads now houses a retro fashion store called NLGX. Only since the Olympics has the alley taken on a carnival-like atmosphere. In place of traditional snacks, you can find stands selling hot dogs, gelato and churros. At night, the alley becomes a night market, where vendors sell stuffed animals from the trunks of their cars and a DJ—complete with a spin table and speakers—offloads pirated hip-hop CD’s.

Residents complain about the noise and the mess visitors make. Beijing is still struggling to figure out the right formula when it comes to preserving the old hutong neighborhoods, and, as for now, Nan Luogu Xiang remains one of the better—albeit precarious—models for development. Other neighborhoods haven’t been so lucky. The nearby Houhai Lake has become a tacky bar district with strobe lights, neon signs and techno music drowning out the lake’s natural beauty. South of Nan Luogu Xiang, an old commercial district dating back to the Qing Dynasty called Qianmen was wholly demolished for the development of Disney-esque Main Street, which remains empty a year after completion, save for the arrival of the Swedish clothing store H&M. But the pace of development may quicken on Nan Luogu Xiang. Recently, construction workers began tearing down a few shops on the south end of the alley to make way for a subway station, slated to open in 2011. Even Starbucks has looked into the alley. And one local chain, a leather goods store called Herbal Heaven, opened on the block. With rents skyrocketing and possible evictions looming, some shop owners on Nan Luogu Xiang have opened second outlets on a nearby hutong called Wudaoying next to Lama Temple that is showing early signs of gentrification. “I really don’t want to envision what Nan Luogu Xiang will look like in a few years,” says the ambivalent Xiao Bian, at Pass By Bar. He thinks it’s best to keep his expectations low: “I had no idea that we’d even last for 10 years.”

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00

BEIJING IS STILL STRUGGLING TO FIGURE OUT THE RIGHT FORMULA WHEN IT COMES TO PRESERVING OLD HUTONGS

00

Cultural Evolution Clockwise from opposite top: It’s only rock and roll but they like it at Mao Live House; trendy apparel store Navel; T-shirt specialist NGLX; headed for another night of live music.

GUIDE TO BEIJING WHEN TO GO Fall (September–November) and spring (April–June) are the best seasons, with mild temperatures and little rain.

Pass By Bar The longest-running bar on Nan Luogu Xiang serves decent western favorites like pizza and pasta. 108 Nan Luogu Xiang; 86-10/8403-8004; meals for two RMB150.

GETTING THERE Beijing Capital International Airport has become a major international hub, with daily arrivals and departures of all major Asian airlines. Metered taxis to the city cost around RMB100, while the airport express train to downtown costs RMB25.

Wenyu Nailao College students line up for hours for a taste of the double-boiled custard served at this little institution. 49 Nan Luogu Xiang; 86-10/6405-7621; dessert for two RMB20.

WHERE TO STAY Du Ge Hotel Eleven rooms with Tibetan and Imperial Chinese themes are hidden in this cozy courtyard. 26 Qianyuan Ensi Hutong; 86-10/6406-0686; dugecourtyard.com; doubles from RMB1,200.

Gu Xiang 20 Wedged between Nan Luogu Xiang’s bars and boutiques, the spacious third floor rooms with balconies put you in the center of the action. 20 Nan Luogu Xiang; 86-10/6400-5566; guxiang20.com; doubles from RMB500.

GREAT VALUE

Han Royal Garden Hotel A carefully restored series of five courtyards, this luxurious hotel with spacious rooms features understated dark wood furniture with Chinese accents. 7 Bei Bingmasi Hutong; 86-10/8402-5588; hansroyalgarden.com; doubles from RMB1,200.

The Opposite House In the upscale Sanlitun bar district, this Japanese-designed boutique hotel features minimalist rooms and the city’s hottest restaurant and bar venues. 11 Sanlitun Lu; 86-10/6417-6688; theoppositehouse.com; doubles from RMB3,000.

WHERE TO EAT & DRINK Black Sesame Kitchen The cooking school can also be booked for private dinners for four or more guests. 3 Heizhima Hutong; 86/136-9147-4408; blacksesamekitchen.com; dinner for two RMB600, including wine.

Cambulac A Chinese–American joint venture, this hidden wine bar pours Italian wines in a restored courtyard decorated with Art Deco furniture. 38 Bei Bingmasi Hutong; 86-10/6402-5301; cambulac.cn; drinks for two RMB300.

Dali Courtyard A lively courtyard restaurant featuring southwestern Chinese cuisine from Yunnan province. 67 Xiao Jingchang Hutong; 86-10/8404-1430; dalicourtyard.com; dinner for two RMB300.

Gui Wei This narrow restaurant down a side alley of Nan Luogu Xiang attracts students and young professionals with its spicy grilled chicken wings. Heizhima Hutong; 86/137-1826-9221; dinner for two RMB60.

Xiao Xin This café that feels like a living room, serves cakes and coffee. 103 Nan Luogu Xiang; 86-10/6403-6956; coffee for two RMB60.

Salud Live music, tapas and drinks make this a popular spot for Europeans. 66 Nan Luogu Xiang; 86-10/6402-5086; drinks for two RMB80.

Yin Decorated with avant-garde Chinese art, this café serves delicious cheesecake and dark-roast coffee. 20 Heizhima Hutong; coffee for two RMB60.

WHAT TO DO Houhai Lake A 10-minute walk west of Nan Luogu Xiang, the lake is best at sunset.

Mao Livehouse Beijing’s most progressive punk and indie bands play at this nightclub.

111 Gulou Dong Da Jie; 86-10/6402-5080; maolive.com; tickets for two from RMB100.

Penghao Theater Owned and managed by a Chinese dentist, Penghao is one of the area’s first independent theaters. 35 Dong Mianhua Hutong; 86-10/6400-6472; tickets for two from RMB100.

Qianmen Da Jie Just south of Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, this newly renovated area of town features old Chinese institutions and international brands like H&M. WHERE TO SHOP Grifted Kitschy T-shirts featuring icons of Chinese culture. 32 Nan Luogu Xiang; 86-10/6406-2716; grifted.com.cn.

Navel T-shirts of a Communist Youth League hero. 53 Nan Luogu Xiang; 86-10/6403-8610.

NLGX Clothing and accessories boutique featuring the work of various Chinese designers. 33 Nan Luogu Xiang; 86-10/6404-8088; nlgx.org.

Plastered British designer Dominic JohnsonHill’s T-shirts feature images of past and present China. 61 Nan Luogu Xiang; 86-10/8884-8855; plasteredtshirts.com.

Woo Cashmere, silk, and wool scarves by a Shanghai designer. 110–1 Nan Luogu Xiang; 86-10/6400-5395.

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(My Favorite Place) Robert Thurman hiking in Bhutan’s Phobjikha Valley.

THURMAN’S BHUTAN

Robert Thurman, a Columbia University professor, Tibet House cofounder and former monk, tells DANI SHAPIRO about a Buddhist retreat high in the Himalayas HE PHOBJIKHA VALLEY IS A MAGICAL HIDDEN PLACE ABOUT SIX OR SEVEN HOURS BY ROAD east of Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan. You climb up and up, going by yaks, herders, nomads. The air becomes misty and cooler as you cross a pass at 3,300 meters. And when you arrive in the valley, you see the Gangtey Monastery perched above, as if it’s flying up there.

Hidden valleys are auspicious in Buddhist tradition, and the Gangtey Monastery is particularly auspicious, because it’s the wintering place of the black-necked cranes. Each fall, the cranes arrive from Tibet and circle three times, clockwise, around the monastery before they gather in the marshland. In Buddhism, it’s a sign of respect when making a pilgrimage to holy places to circle clockwise. Now, you could say that the cranes circle in this way because of thermal currents— and that very well may be—but it confirms the local belief that the black-necked cranes are the reincarnations of the monks of the Gangtey Monastery.

It’s best to visit the valley in the fall when the cranes arrive, or in early spring before they leave.

When you see them coming against the clouds, with a reddish-golden light behind them, the effect is like watching a magnificent Japanese screen come to life.” ✚

T

Robert Thurman will be taking a small group of travelers back to Bhutan and will visit the Phobjikha Valley in May 2010 as part of a Geographic Expeditions (geoex.com) trip.

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NOV E M B E R 2 0 0 9| T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E S E A . C O M

The Dewachen Hotel (Phobjikha Valley; 9752/442-550; dewachenhotel.com; doubles from US$500, including meals, transportation and the country’s US$250 daily tourist fee) is a traditional guesthouse that looks up at the Gangtey Monastery.

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● Amankora Gangtey (Phobjikha Valley; 9752/331-333; amanresorts. com; doubles from US$1,300, including meals, transportation and fees) is a small, very comfortable resort with a beautiful view of the valley as well as wonderful food.

A fantastic day hike in Phobjikha begins at the marsh where the cranes are. From there you can walk to the Gangtey Monastery.

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● Many guesthouses have stone baths. The water is heated by rocks known to have special mineral properties. You get in after a hike and it’s marvelous.

BRENT OLSON, GEOGRAPHIC EXPEDITIONS

BHUTAN