Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2017 i Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia, Hong Kong & Macau

EVERY PHOTOGRAPHER I’VE EVER TRAVELED WITH HAS, AT SOME POINT, said the same thing to me: Look at that light! That’s the cue to stop everything we’re doing and capture the scene, whether digitally or on film. Savvy photographers, like good writers, are the people who notice the little things. So, this month we peer through the viewfinder for some tricks of the photography trade—partly in an attempt to make our own Instagram accounts more memorable. There are too many tips to mention, but it’s best to start off with “How I Got The Shot” (page 32), in which a handful of professional photographers explain what motivated them when taking a particular image, and proceed from there. Whether you use your smart phone or a dedicated camera, you’ll want to mine…

RICH INTERIOR COLORS and glass walls dominate initial impressions of Changi Airport’s new Terminal 4, but take your carry-on a bit further and you’ll see that this airport’s draw is its selfservice. After thanking your taxi driver, in theory the next person you will speak with is the flight attendant directing you to your assigned seat. Check-in kiosks are simple to operate. Facial-recognition technology authenticates passengers at four of the terminal’s seven check-in rows, streamlining the security process all the way to the gate. Passengers then collect their own boarding passes and attach their simplified luggage tags before taking their checked bags to a machine that measures, weighs and scans each before it rolls along a floor-level belt to the aircraft. If there is a problem—a battery packed in your…

NO MATTER HOW MANY CITIES YOU’VE visited around the world, chances are you’ll still be amazed by the sheer scale of Guangzhou. Once China’s maritime link to the Silk Road, this tech and manufacturing hub in the Pearl River Delta has grown to become the country’s third-largest city. From my room on the 22nd floor of the new Conrad Guangzhou, the urban sprawl appeared endless. As midday sunshine ricocheted off futuristic glass towers in the near distance, a rainstorm loomed on the other side of town. The dark clouds were so far away that they appeared to hover over another city entirely. Prodigious size is, of course, a quality shared by many Chinese cities. What sets Guangzhou, population 19 million, apart is a sense of architectural and cultural diversity. To…

1 CHANGE YOUR POINT OF VIEW. If you want a postcard-worthy picture of an iconic landmark— well, that’s what gift shops are for. For personal photos, go for something unconventional: try a close-up instead of a wide shot, shooting from below rather than head-on, or zooming in on one element of a structure, like the intricate carvings of a temple. 2 US E THE GRID FOR BETTER COMPOSITIONS. In your camera settings, turn on the grid option to divvy your screen up into nine rectangles. Then use the lines to guide your composition. For a better photo, frame your shot so key subjects sit at the intersection points or along the gridlines. (It’s called the rule of thirds, and it’s a good guideline for stronger photos.) 3 DOWNLOAD A LIGHT-METER…

Giraffes against the sunset at Mbirikani Group Ranch, in southern Kenya. SETTIN GS 500 ISO, f/9.0, 1/1600 second exposure. what i learned “I can still hear my teacher’s voice telling me which f-stop to use and where to point the camera. I didn’t understand what he was getting me to do until afterward. Exposing for the sky turns the giraffes into a pair of moody silhouettes.” The Emakoko, a luxury safari lodge, stands by the Mbagathi River on the edge of Nairobi National Park, in Kenya. It’s a place of serenity and wide-open spaces. I had come to learn to photograph wildlife, and I saw immediately that I wouldn’t have to look far to find it. When I arrived at the veranda to meet David Murray, who would be my…

YOU MAY NOT KNOW THE ARTIST BY NAME, but odds are you’d recognize Yayoi Kusama’s signature dotted patterns, or perhaps even the 88-year-old’s iconic fiery red wig. The Japanese artist is one of the most prominent figures in her country’s contemporary art scene and most recently has caught the rest of the world’s attention as her uber-Instagrammable exhibit “Infinity Mirrors” makes its way around the globe on a one-year tour. All the while, Kusama had been quietly preparing to open her first museum. Her five-story eponymous structure in the heart of Tokyo’s Shinjuku district debuted last month and is dedicated to Kusama’s work from earlier years until the present. The gallery will rotate through semi-annual exhibitions, while also housing other permanent installations, including a whole floor devoted to one of…

GETTING THERE Guangzhou is a hub for China Southern Airlines, with Asiana, EVA Air, Korean and Qantas also flying here. The city is a two-hour train ride from Hong Kong. HOTELS Conrad Guangzhou This new property provides airport transfers in a Tesla Model X with Batmobile-style doors, and has a 30-meter lap pool. conrad hotels3.hilton.com; doubles from RMB1,200. Four Seasons Guangzhou The highest hotel in the city provides dramatic river views and easy access to nearby architectural attractions. fourseasons.com; doubles from RMB2,100. RESTAUR ANTS & CAFÉS Bei Yuan Cuisine The city’s oldest dim sum spot is set in a romantic garden with a koi pond. beiyuan cuisine.com; mains RMB80–RMB260. Bingsheng Pinwei Try the signature char siu (barbecued pork), pineapple buns, and house-made tofu at this popular Cantonese restaurant. bingsheng.com; mains RMB40–…

1 Adam Skolnick WRITER “The Empty Vessel” Page 72 “I’d wanted to visit the Gobi ever since I saw the desert in BBC’s Planet Earth 2,” says the American scribe who made it to Mongolia in August. He was beguiled— and even soothed—by the “transporting endless history” there. In particular, “I loved exploring Ikh Nartiin Chuluu. The wildlife, petroglyphs, camels and red rock formations made it my favorite place in the Gobi.” As for favorite people, he bonded a bit with Jalsa Urubshurow, “the Mongolian American millionaire owner of Three Camel Lodge. The man smuggles in his own booze to stock his magnificent bar.” Instagram: @adamskolnick. 2 Ian Lloyd Neubauer WRITER AND PHOTOGRAPHER “Forgotten Paradise” Page 23 “I was drawn to Nusa Penida by reports that it looked like Bali…

WHAT WAS BALI like in the seventies, when mass tourism had only just begun? The answer lies on Nusa Penida, a one-hour speedboat ride from Sanur in east Bali and the largest of the three “sister islands” southeast of the main attraction. The kaleidoscopic coral reefs surrounding the island have been visited by dive operators in Bali for more than 20 years, yet few, if any, ever made landfall. That began to change when a 2012 National Geographic article describing Nusa Penida as “a biological and cultural treasure, basically immune from all the trappings of Western culture,” coincided with the meteoric rise of Instagram in Indonesia. The island’s towering sea cliffs, colorful marine life and sugar-white beaches made fantastic fodder for the app, and earned it a place on Bali’s…

Though tourism in Hoi An has skyrocketed, there remain a few refuges in the city limits, and La Siesta Resort and Spa is one. Overlooking rice paddies, it is hidden behind a small, subtle, vine-covered façade that belies the large, graceful space inside. You head through the lobby to a pool deck, turn the corner into a lush garden that hosts tranquil private barbecues (the signature triangular prawn-and-pork spring rolls are a must) and emerge into an entirely new section of Eden. La Siesta, part of a family-owned group of boutique hotels based in Hanoi, has recently expanded beyond their original building to include a handsome wing where the rooms feel more like villas and the photogenic saltwater pool transports you to Bali (monumental fountains; cabana swings). This block of…

The true appeal of a destination wedding lies in offering you and your guests an unforgettable experience —with each other. Having a destination wedding is a wonderful way to concentrate all your loved ones in a contained area for a few days allowing them to bond over welcome cocktails, share tissues to wipe up tears as you exchange your vows, do a mini Macarena choreography on the dance floor and gossip about the night’s juiciest escapades over brunch the next morning. Call them hostages of the heart. Still, planning a wedding is difficult to begin with, so why make the gargantuan task even more complicated by doing it in a far-flung location? You need to worry about accessibility, flights, transfers, activities, shuttling back and forth to coordinate with local suppliers……

SUPERSAVER Cantaloupe Levels, Sri Lanka This beach-bordering boutique hotel serves as the perfect place to get friendly with aquatic life. With this package, go on a whale watching excursion with a marine guide and visit a turtle hatchery. Enjoy a free breakfast, return airport transfers and a trip to the local market followed by a cooking lesson. The Deal Big Blue package: three nights in a Deluxe Silhouette suite, from US $1,100 for two, through December 23. cantaloupehotels.com. BEACH BALI Sheraton Bali Kuta Resort If you didn’t schedule in a visit to Bali’s buzzing Kuta but want to see what see what all the hype is about, swing by for this day-use package and allow Sheraton Bali Kuta to host you for a day of shopping, dining and relaxing. The…

Our Landcruiser bumped along two-wheel tracks toward the largest complex of sand dunes in Mongolia. Eighteen kilometers of white sand sprawled in peaks and valleys, fronting the glorious granite Southern Altai Mountains. It was a clear morning, the sky cobalt blue save a few clouds, and that depth of field, the play of light and color made the whole scene look a set piece for a dream sequence, like a painting come to life. For the first time in weeks I felt serene, as if the sheer majesty rocked me out of my body so I might float above my troubles. Soon the mountains disappeared and the dunes loomed ever larger until we landed at their doorstep. It takes three days to traverse the dunes on foot, but just an…

Two days in Paris researching the city’s patisseries: I sometimes have to remind myself that this is, indeed, my job. Yet for all the “You’re doing what?!” and “That will be incredible!” comments in the days leading up to my trip, there was a small part of me that was a little bit intimidated. I had spent the past two years working on a book about desserts and baked goods. Every Wednesday I would sit down to try the recipes with my co-author, Helen Goh, and see what stage of development each one was at. After months of working this way, I was able to confirm two things. First, there is such a thing as too much cake. And second, the theory of diminishing returns is correct. The more you…