Innholdsfortegnelse for June/July 2020 i Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia, Hong Kong & Macau

This month on travelandleisureasia.com T+L EDITORS SUGGEST THEIR FAVORITE STORIES FROM THE LAST YEAR Past trips aren’t the only thing we’ve been reminiscing about. These are stories from the last 12 months that our editors loved the most. THIS TOP CHEFAPPROVED RECIPE FOR PAD THAI IS A CURE-ALL Classic Thai comfort food from Ton Tassanakajohn, one of the country’s most beloved Michelin-starred chefs. GO AHEAD, START PLANNING YOUR NEXT TRIP TO JAPAN The emergency decree in Japan has ended (yay!), so, naturally, we have started thinking about our next trip. +Lookout A robot dog polices Singapore; our editors’ favorite books; what bartenders are drinking at home; the latest travel deals and much more. travelandleisureasia.com DOWNLOAD US T+L TABLET EDITIONS Available on iOS, Android, Win 8 and Zinio Desktop Reader. FOLLOW…

PROVING IT’S more than just a temple town, Siem Reap has lately blossomed into a happening creative hub, where both locals and expats contribute to a burgeoning arts scene. A number of independent art spaces have sprung up around town—here we round up some top spots for a DIY Siem Reap art tour. A good place to start is One Eleven Gallery (oneelevengallery.com), which features both Khmer and international artists covering diverse topics in a wide variety of styles and mediums. The gallery’s position near Psar Chas, the “Old Market,” its late hours and a bar in the back make it the perfect place to get your bearings, soak up the riverside atmosphere and rub shoulders with Siem Reap’s artsiest locals and expats. One such local is prominent Belgian painter Christian…

WITH PALM TREES shooting from the earth like daytime fireworks, year-round balmy weather, and the Indian Ocean licking its craggy coastlines and caramel-colored beaches, the south of Sri Lanka has all the trimmings of a paradisiacal hideaway. But it’s no longer the secret hippie commune it once was. Now, 300-plus-room resorts have cropped up on its shores and gift shops line the road from Unawatuna to Matara. Ahangama, however, a small village just 40 minutes east of Galle, has been spared. Despite the influx of surfers, yogis and Crossfitters settling down in its terracotta-roofed villas, it still feels like a dusty, palm-fringed little secret. Roti shops, not souvenir stores, still line the coastal road, and the air is perfumed with dried fish and frangipani. In-the-know expats have long kept it…

THE BLADE OF the swordfish is not sharp. My palm is wrapped around it. When chef Marios Salmatanis tells me to lift it, and I do, I almost laugh—it’s so much lighter than it looks. The hilt is heavy, though: the head of a 35-kilogram creature that stretches all the way down the kitchen counter of the restaurant. “Our first swordfish in two years!” Salmatanis exclaims. His wife, Anna Kouda, explains, “We only serve fish that is fresh-caught and local. If it’s too windy for the boats, we just don’t have fish.” The restaurant, Thalassamou (thalassamou.gr; mains €10–€27)—Greek for “my sea”—sits at the end of a barely paved road on Páros, the third largest in the group of islands known as the Cyclades. A few worn wooden tables and chairs are…

Accessorize, Eco-Style As you pack for your next island or beach break, consider giving the planet a break, too. 1. FREOSTYLE TURKISH TOWEL Bamboo is one of the fastestgrowing plants and requires less water to produce than many other fibers. These super-absorbent beach towels are hand-loomed in traditional weaving villages in Turkey and incorporate 70 percent bamboo. freostyle.com; from A$35. 2. VILO EYEWEAR Made from certified sustainable sources of maple, zebrawood, walnut and bamboo, Vilo Eyewear wooden sunglasses look good and do good. Donate your old plastic sunnies to help those in developing countries and receive a discount on your Vilo purchase. viloeyewear.com; from A$69. 3. MANDA REEF-SAFE ORGANIC SUNSCREEN Sunscreen chemicals can damage corals, and not all “reef safe” products are really proven safe. Choose a zinc oxide–based product…

I’M IN SENSORY OVERLOAD, standing in a sea of color. Vivid pops of orange, red, turquoise and gold explode into my periphery like starbursts. It’s neon Tokyo—but not how many of us know it. Unlike the in-your-face irreverence of modern Shinjuku and Shibuya, this vibrant room in the neighborhood of Yushima is a meditation on ancient Japan. Thousands of sheets of delicate origami paper are neatly arranged in vertical Technicolor rows along the walls around me. Those that have been given identities now sit on the display shelf, folded into samurai, kangaroos, elephants and frogs. “It’s good exercise for my brain,” says 74-year-old Kazuo Kobayashi, his frost-white hair brushed back from his kind, lived-in, bespectacled face. Leaning over his desk, Kobayashi-san’s fingers work in a slow and measured flow as…

IN THESE DAYS OF SOCIAL DISTANCING, few idyllic stretches of sand can top those lining the shores in and around Krabi. Dozens of Thai islands sprout from the Andaman Sea, many of them unnamed in English. Where some of the more famed limestone outcrops along this dramatic coastline are home to chalk-fingered climbers, the coral reefs below to deep-sea divers, you’re never more than a longtail boat away from a secluded strip of beach, a throwback to the days when thoughts of isolation were a blissful dream, not a modern necessity. Best to visit with a specific plan, plenty of sunblock and a lunch basket to get you through what is bound to be an unforgettable day of staying away from everyone else.…

1.Chris Schalkx IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN AHANGAMA (P. 19) “I traveled to Sri Lanka with my toddler and my parents, who live on the other side of the globe. While the rickety train ride from Ella to Kandy took the cake in terms of scenery, it was the moments spent frolicking at the pool with my family that I’ll treasure the most. A visit to Ahangama is not complete without a sundowner at Driftwood (order the Cucumber Gimlet). On the beach in a little cove where stilt fishermen await their catch between the waves, the views are spectacular. Throughout the trip, I ordered hoppers for breakfast, lunch and dinner—and might’ve actually had a few as snacks, too. The little boho café Maria Bonita did a great version with poached egg,…

SEVERAL YEARS AGO, my Chilean cousin Andrea and I were descending a steep path leading to the horseshoe-shaped, white-sand beach in Zapallar, a couple of hours northwest of Santiago. We paused at a tiny stucco house with exposed timber and a thatched roof about halfway down that, thanks to a microclimate that shields the area from coastal winds, was embowered by an exuberant mix of palm, eucalyptus, cypress and pine trees. It looked just like the family compound at the foot of the Andes my late father grew up on. Though my aunts, cousins and their kids still live in that idyllic place, Andrea and I fantasize about creating a separate retirement compound for ourselves and a handful of friends. Zapallar’s mountain-ringed bay, protected from overdevelopment by the government, seemed…

Tanah Gajah, a Resort by Hadiprana, Indonesia Dust off the quarantine cobwebs with a luxury villa stay in Bali. Tanah Gajah, rebranded from The Chedi Club, plunks you amid Ubud’s wavy rice paddies in spaces dotted with the owner’s private art collection. This readers-only perk entails a complimentary room upgrade when you book Tanah Gadjah’s “Third Night on Us” deal, moving you up from a suite to a One-Bedroom Club villa. The deal comes with all the club accoutrements: personal butler service, daily breakfast, afternoon tea and sunset cocktails, comped daily minibar, Wi-Fi and more. Rates begin from US$940 for three nights. Quote “TLDEAL20” when you book. tanahgajahubud.com Radisson Blu Resort Cam Ranh, Vietnam This new resort on the coast of Cam Ranh might have a host of kid-friendly facilities,…

ADMIRING BOAT-FLECKED Bophut Bay, cocktail condensing down my arm, there’s space to meditate on how great it is to get intoxicated on the beach. Left of frame the sun completes its westward arc in a burst of orange and violet, the air fills with mellifluous house tunes from the DJ and my brain bobs gently in a sea of dopamine. On Samui, already home to many of the fanciest hotels, some chic new beach clubs and bars set down on the shores just before lockdown. Call it a Balification pivot for the cashed-up designer-sandaled travelers who alight to postcard weather here 10 months of the year. And now that the island is open again—with added emphasis on whistle-clean, open-air venues—it’s the perfect time to take a whirl through the newest,…

THE FIRST THING you need to know is that I’m not a cyclist. My occasional rides are by bike share, a few kilometers to the office or maybe to a restaurant near my home. I don’t wear spandex, least of all out in public. Yet there I was, wiping the sweat from my face while standing on top of a Byzantine aqueduct not far from Bodrum, Turkey, with nine people I’d met only a few days before. Ahead of us was the steep hill that we’d have to conquer before reaching a lookout in the village of Alatepe, from where the Aegean would unfurl like a vast azure carpet. We were loving it—not least because our small band was one of the first groups to make this particular trip. We’d…

THREE YEARS AGO, Hurricane Irma barreled through the Caribbean with its 286-kilometer-an-hour winds, tossing cars and catamarans and Janus et Cie lounge chairs like so many crumpled cans of Perrier. Of the wreckage left in its wake, perhaps none was as iconic to a place as Eden Rock hotel to St. Bart’s. Before I go any further, I’ll make a confession: until I flew in last November, I had never set foot on St. Bart’s. In my preconceived opinion, it was where the extremely wealthy went to compare their latest Art Basel acquisitions, where Beyoncé swan-dove off yachts, and where moguls ran up US$50,000 champagne tabs at Nikki Beach. In short, a place that held little interest for me. But enough people who I love and respect had such affection…