Tabla de contenidos para Dec 2020/Jan-Feb 2021 en DestinAsian

“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other places, other lives, other souls.”–Anais Nin So, here we are at the end of what has been an appalling year for the travel industry. I cannot think of anyone who hasn’t had their life turned upside-down by the Covid-19 pandemic. There is, of course, some light at the end of the tunnel, thanks to the recent announcements of successful clinical trials for multiple vaccines that have been developed at record speed. We’re especially heartened by AstraZeneca’s commitment to make its own vaccine available to less well-off countries at reasonable prices — and the fact that its long-lasting agents are immensely practical, as they can be stored at temperatures comparable to those found in an ordinary fridge. The road to recovery will…

CENTRAL JAVA Sitting cross-legged in a grassy clearing next to a terraced field planted with corn, tobacco, and shallots, I did my best to follow Patrick Vanhoebrouck as he guided me through a series of yogic meditation techniques. A sonorous mantra played on Patrick’s iPhone —Om Brahma astra pasupati, Visnu astra pasupati, Siva astra pasupati. Down at the edge of the field, a group of village kids flew homemade kites high in the morning sky. And beyond the tree line, hidden out of sight now, crouched the distant bulk of Borobudur, the world’s largest Buddhist monument, smack-dab in the middle of the world’s most populous island. We’re on the grounds of Amanjiwo, where Patrick, a Belgian who has spent 15 years in this part of Java, serves as the resort’s…

NORWAY Visitors to Norway’s southwestern fjordlands have enjoyed the scenery along the so-called Discovery Route since the 1880s, when British tour agency Thomas Cook began organizing package holidays between Bergen and Stavanger via horsedrawn carriage. And while little of the landscape has changed since those times — or indeed since the days of the Vikings — this storied old route through the glacier-chiseled Vestlandet region is now on course to offer a completely new and forward-looking travel experience. In what it bills as the country’s most sustainable journey, Oslo-based travel curator Up Norway (upnorway.com) has devised a 12-night, self-drive Discovery Route tour that promises meaningful encounters with local hosts, chefs, farmers, and guides who in turn are fully invested in their communities. The objective, says Up Norway founder Torunn Tronsvang,…

The sky’s no limit for intrepid photographers these days, as the images honored by the first annual Aerial Photography Awards (aerialphotoawards.com) attest. Paris-based founder Christophe Martin says the competition was in part inspired by the work of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, the Frenchman credited with taking the first aerial photos (from a hot-air balloon) back in 1856. More than that, his interest in airborne imagery stems from its ability to “allow us to understand our impact as humans in today’s world.” While this century’s aerial photogs have it technically easier than Tournachon — no wet-plate collodion process for them — their work still requires consider-able skill and imagination, criteria that the competition used to judge thousands of global submissions: images shot from drones, helicopters, planes, balloons, and even kites. In the end,…

IT WAS THE DESERT THAT BROUGHT me to Abu Dhabi. Specifically, it was a photograph that came over my desk a decade ago of an impossibly picturesque Arabian fortress nestled amid great red dunes at the edge of the Rub’ al Khali, the world’s largest uninterrupted expanse of sand. The caption identified this vision as Qasr Al Sarab — “Palace of Mirages” — which, in fact, was not a fortress at all but rather a newly built resort designed to emulate one: a stately confection of crenellated walls, towers, and archways enveloped by undulating desert. I was captivated. One day, I promised myself, I’d go. The years passed, and my travels took me in other directions. Every once in a while, the announcement of another highprofile hotel opening or big-name…

THAILAND Already a powerhouse in the wellness market, Thailand has welcomed another upscale health retreat with the December debut of RAKxa (rakxawellness.com). Situated on an oxbow bend of the Chao Phraya River at the edge of Bangkok’s urban sprawl, the 32-hectare wellness and medical center is also the first high-end resort for Bang Krachao, a vast, verdant oasis known as the Thai capital’s “green lung.” Deriving its name from the Thai word for “heal,” RAKxa incorporates holistic and traditional healing practices alongside more cutting-edge therapeutic offerings such as infrared saunas, vitamin IV infusions, and a cryotherapy chamber that bathes you in liquid nitrogen at temperatures as low as -140°C. Visits begin with a consultation at an on-site clinic run by VitalLife, a subsidiary of Bumrungrad International Hospital, after which…

Wes Anderson fans bemoaning the indefinitely delayed release of the filmmaker’s tenth feature, The French Dispatch, will find some solace in the pages of a new photography book by fellow Anderson-phile Wally Koval. Called Accidentally Wes Anderson (Trapeze; accidentallywesanderson.com/book), the 368-page edition is an extension of the popular Instagram account of the same name that Koval and his wife, Amanda, launched in 2017 as a tribute to Anderson’s distinctive, pastel-hued aesthetic. Filled with pops of color, whimsy, and above all, obsessive symmetry, the book brims with photos contributed by more than 180 enthusiasts in 50-plus different countries, each image capturing a real-life setting that could be a still from The Darjeeling Limited or Moonrise Kingdom or The Grand Budapest Hotel. There are lighthouses and church steeples, pink A-frame beach cottages…

A founding editor of stylish-hotel guide Mr & Mrs Smith, London-based Juliet Kinsman has developed a singular understanding of sustainable luxury travel over her two-decade-plus career as a journalist. Among her more recent ventures is Bouteco (bouteco.co), an online platform that profiles design-led hotels with exceptional eco-credentials; she also serves as sustainability editor for Conde Nast Traveller. And September saw the launch of her new book, The Green Edit: Travel, part of a series in environmentally friendly living by the UK’s Ebury Press. It’s a slim but essential volume filled with Kinsman’s expert guidance on how we can all travel more consciously and responsibly once it’s safe to do so again. DA: What should travelers keep in mind when considering carbon offsetting? Juliet Kinsman: There are plenty of online calculator tools…

MALAYSIA One&Only Desaru Coast Southeast Asia’s first One&Only property occupies a prime beachfront location at Desaru Coast, a recently revived holiday enclave on the southeast shores of the Malay Peninsula. With a clean-lined tropical aesthetic that draws on Malaysia’s kampong (village) vernacular, it’s a dazzling achievement by Singapore-based Kerry Hill Architects, which continues its late founder’s celebrated brand of sitesensitive modernism. The resort debuted in September as the most exclusive address on the coast, with just 44 suites and a four-bedroom villa. Surrounded by 51 hectares of wild tropical flora, dining options range from contemporary Japanese to Mediterranean and Malaysian, while the spa, by Swiss-based wellness firm Chenot, blends scientific diagnostics with traditional Chinese and alternative medicines. Another draw? A one-and-a-half-kilometer stretch of pristine beach overlooking the South China Sea.…

CALL OF THE WILD It’s not just gemstones and diamonds that make these beautiful pieces sparkle: this is jewelry with a purpose. Following a visit to Shinta Mani Wild in southern Cambodia, Australian jewelry designer Kate McCoy teamed up with the luxury tented camp’s creator, Bill Bensley, to produce a range of limited-edition pendants, earrings, and bracelets that support conservation efforts in the resort’s 350-hectare swath of wilderness. Called Nature’s Treasury (naturestreasury.com.au), the 20-piece collection features motifs inspired by the lush surrounds, ethically sourced gems, 18-karat gold, and, more precious still, the assurance that each purchase directly funds the forest rangers who protect this fragile habitat from illegal logging and poaching. VEGGING OUT It’s salad days for Ovolo Hotels (ovolohotels.com), which announced in October that its eight properties in Hong…

SARAN YEN PANYA Thai designer Saran Yen Panya’s oeuvre is an exploration of cultural contrasts. Whether it’s a collaboration with a century-old prayer pillow workshop in Bangkok’s Chinatown to create contemporary takes on metal street-food stools, or designing cheeky patterns for a collection of Benjarong (traditional Thai porcelain) tableware, he matches kitsch with cool, the high-end with the mundane. A recent addition to his repertoire is OMT (short for One More Thing), a textile-driven brand with a showroom in Charoenkrung, Bangkok’s de facto design district. OMT’s first collection, Swear Like Thai Spirit, consists of tote bags and holdalls with kaleidoscopic motifs created with a jacquard weaving technique and inspired by tilework and patterns found around Bangkok’s historic Old Town area (56thstudio.com). ALVIN TJITROWIRJO Indonesia is the world’s largest producer of…

BANGKOK The revival of Charoen Krung Road, Bangkok’s oldest street, continues apace with the recent opening of a community space that pays tribute to the neighborhood’s enduring legacy. Called Central: The Original Store (centraltheoriginalstore.com), it occupies the first piece of commercial real estate ever owned by father and son Tiang and Samrit Chirathivat, who purchased the shophouse in 1950 and thereby laid the groundwork for what would grow into Thailand’s largest retailer, the Central Group. Barom Bhicharnchitr, the 36-year-old great-grandson of Tiang, spearheaded the project to create a hip gathering place for a new generation of Bangkokians. It also serves as an homage to the roots of the family business, which began here as a pioneering emporium of Western books, magazines, and other imported merchandise back when Charoen Krung was…

“It’s as beautiful as the Seychelles, but a lot more affordable,” says Frenchman Thierry Bratic as I follow his gaze along the empty beach toward a headland piled with smooth granite boulders. He’s not the first person to make the comparison with that distant Indian Ocean archipelago; Belitung, situated at the confluence of the South China and Java Seas, has worn the “Seychelles of Indonesia” epithet for a while now, especially since its starring role in the hit 2008 Indonesian film Laskar Pelangi (“Rainbow Troops”) propelled the island into the national consciousness. The water is indeed limpid, the sand pale and soft, and everywhere you look along this tantalizing stretch of coastline, huge weather-worn boulders stand in meditative arrangements that bring to mind an oversize Zen garden. After an initial…

THOUGH DINNER IS STILL A few hours away, Phanuphon Bulsuwan is already guiding me on a remarkable culinary expedition. Not just backstage through his kitchen, but into storage rooms packed with large glass beakers, colorful cultures swirling inside. Better known as Chef Black, Bulsuwan is co-owner of Blackitch Artisan Kitchen, a compact restaurant whose dedication to hyperlocal ingredients and fermentation techniques has put the city of Chiang Mai on the global foodie map. “Here, try this,” he says, passing me a dish that tastes like, well, Thailand — a mélange of sweet-salty-spicy flavors accentuated by the tang of fish sauce. Surrounded by jars of fermented delicacies, Bulsuwan looks like a mad scientist. “You can ferment anything,” the 38-year-old adds with a mischievous smile. Bulsuwan grew up in Chiang Mai, the…

ARASHIYAMA, KYOTO “I spent a month traveling around Japan last December as a way of celebrating the end of my university studies,” says Sydney-based watercolorist Janice Wu. “It was my first visit to the country and I loved every minute of it.” In Kyoto, she was particularly taken by Arashiyama, a temple-rich district on the western edge of the city. “Although there were a lot of tourists around — remember those days? — it didn’t feel nearly as crowded as Osaka, and it was picturesque as can be, with traditional houses and shops lining the streets and a massive timber bridge spanning the Katsura River. As I walked along the riverfront, I noticed a rickshaw parked outside a charming-looking soba restaurant. The whole scene was quite mesmerizing, like something from…