Photo: Taipei 101 and the business district © Roland Nagy | Dreamstime.com
Horace Greeley’s advice to enterprising Civil War veterans — “Go West, young man” — might also apply today. But in this century, it points further west, across the Pacific toTaipei, where enterprise is flourishing on the island of Taiwan. The bustling, cosmopolitan city lies at the core of a region devoted to bridging the East and West and expanding into the future.
Photo: Taipei 101 © Sean Pavone | Dreamstime.com
On an ascent to the top of the Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower or Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, it’s the outside vista that is the payoff. Of course, the views are spectacular, too, from Taipei 101, Taiwan’s tallest building, the world’s first skyscraper to break the half-kilometer mark in height and briefly the tallest building on Earth. But once you’re whisked up 89 floors at 37 mph in one of the world’s fastest elevators, it’s not only the cityscape stretching below toward the distant mountains that is magnificent. The sights from the observation deck are stunning, but the building’s inner core is what will take your breath away.
Published in Global Traveler
Photo: Sage Tapas Bar at Makati Shangri-La © Shangri-La
After hours in Manila you’re doubly in luck, with opportunities to mingle with a fashionable crowd of socialites and young professionals plus a favorable exchange rate that features tumblers of 12-year-old Scotch for $8 and gourmet entrées starting at $20. If you’re here on business, you’re apt to be in Makati, the city’s premier commercial and financial district. And for more than two decades, a social focus of Makati has been the centrally located Shangri-La Hotel, with three comfortable lounges.
Tradition and greenery in China’s most beautiful city
13th century Italian traveler Marco Polo and “Modern Marco Polo” Liam Bates
A cruise boat pauses for an island picnic
Walking across legend’s beloved Broken Bridge
A commercial barge passes the Canal cruise boat
Craftspeople demonstrate the art of making umbrellas
Exploring the Wetland Park by boat
Cormorants are trained to do the fishing
Tea Museum exhibits explain the types, history, and etiquette of tea
Sunny Hotel chef Jack Son explains dishes based on tea varieties
Feilai Peak Buddha carving
Pavilion in the Xiangi Temple
Beloved pandas at the Hangzhou Zoo each eat 50 pounds of bamboo shoots per day
Night view of Quinghefang bazaar
Constant activity on the West Lake shores.
Dancing waters portray the city’s beauty
From Luxuryweb.com article by Sharon King Hoge
A Stay at the Shangri-La Makati in Manila, the Philippines
With a highly favorable exchange rate, historic sights and a wealth of clubs and restaurants all within easy access to sandy beaches, Manila is one of the best travel bargains around. At the same time, eleven million people crowd the Philippine capital in streets clogged with cars, pedicabs, sidecar tricycles, horse carts, and garishly painted stop and go jeepneys (sic). A taxi ride all the way across town may cost only three to four dollars, but it may take an hour crawling through stationary traffic. Logistically, it doesn’t take long to get your fill-a of Manila and that’s where the Shangri-La is an oasis in the chaos, an urban resort located right in the heart of the trendy upscale business district of Makati.
After a day spent touring sites in the historic city, the Shangri-La was a welcome refuge. Set amidst picturesque but sprawling luxury malls, the hotel rises 26 floors behind a spacious oval fountain in its courtyard. Greeted at the door by hostesses in long skirts and pearls, I entered a huge lobby decorated in burnt caramel marble backed by a glass wall of greenery camouflaging it from the city outside. Large enough to include the reception desk, entrances to the restaurants, a concierge area and a sunken seating area the lobby is an event space in itself with its grand double staircase deliberately calculated to showcase dramatic red carpet party arrivals.
I was instantly escorted to the 24th floor Horizon Club where the concierge promptly checked me in and showed me to room 2423. A bellman arrived instantly with my luggage from the main floor lobby, avoiding that all too customary aggravating wait.
The room was spacious. Dominated by a huge king size bed, it included a comfortable couch seating area and ledge desk, both framing a floor to ceiling window overlooking the skyscrapers and malls below. A corner console held the Nespresso machine and complimentary bottles of water. There was an indented nook for the suitcase with drawers below and a closet equipped with umbrella, ironing supplies, and two types of bathrobe: light cotton batik and terry cloth.
Framed by a bathtub and shower stall on either side, the marble bathroom console included the regular shampoo, shower gel, and soap amenities along with a charming complimentary brocade “dop kit” bag with emergency hair elastics, lip balm, and pantyhose.
Invited to dinner by the hotel’s vivacious Director of Communications Lesley Tan, I met her in the newly revamped SAGE’s Restaurant on the second floor. Again backed by leafy greenery, the sleek modern decor felt removed from the city’s bustle. The menu is exquisite. I started out with the crab cake followed by a fillet of lacquered sea bass in teriyaki sauce and Chao Mien prawn noodles. Lesley shared bites of her delicious lamb chop, which was encrusted in pistachios and served with lamb candy, zucchini and goat cheese cannelloni, and black garlic. Both entrees cost around $20. Dessert was the piece de resistance. Who knew that a dish described on the menu simply as vanilla cremeux would be Pastry Chef Romain Renard’s amazing concoction of a spun glass sphere which cracks open “like an egg” to release a frothy cream and the ultimate treat, a nugget of solid chocolate.
As we dined, Lesley explained that Sages is the upstairs of a duplex dining room and tapas bar with the lounge below decorated in the “perfect cut” style with traditional lines, patterns, and material mixed with a pop of teal to create a bespoke couture decor. An alternative to the comfortable Lobby Bar, it attracts a local crowd of fashionable young professionals who sip banana coolers, cherry Daiquiris, berry sangria, savor amazing foie gras-filled “phyllo cigars,” and listen to live and DJ music.
Relaxed after an amazing dinner, I fell asleep catching up on the news from CNN and the BBC on the giant flat screen facing my bed.
In the morning I went down to the pool to exercise off some of the delicious dinner calories. What a pool. Outdoors, fully half an Olympic length, it is surrounded by more greenery and includes a full bar area and lots of chaise lounges — it wouldn’t put a beach resort to shame. Adjoining it, also on the fourth floor, the double fitness room was full of guests working out on treadmills and stationary bicycles. An instructor offered to take me through my paces in a separate room set up for soul cycle and yoga.
Just off the dressing area, the full fledged steam room, dry and wet saunas, and Jacuzzi are first class installations — not the lip service facilities found in too many other urban hotels. Besides shiatsu, hair and scalp treatments, aroma wellness packages the spa offers the Philippine “Hilot” massage, in which virgin coconut oil, banana leaf and selected essential oils enhance the traditional technique. An hour massage costs $70. The gym and spa facilities are open and available twenty-four hours a day. A separate salon offers daytime hair dressing and manicures.
I looked in on the attractive breakfast buffet laid out in the Horizon Room, but decided to go down to the main breakfast buffet served in Circles off the lobby. Good thing I had worked out, it was truly memorable. Where to begin — first a choice of health juices in shot glasses — I selected a cucumber concoction which claimed to be excellent for complexion and anti-aging and good for nail and hair strength. Beside that a full array of mango, pear, and other fruit smoothies plus the option to order one in any flavor combination of my choice.
Then a whole counter of breads, roll, pastries, and toast. There were waffles and scrambled eggs, “streaky bacon,” and the option for an omelet of my choice. I sampled some Philippine specialties; classic chicken adobo and homemade bibingka, a dish of delicious salted eggs and cheese. Then a whole ledge of cheeses, smoked salmon, breakfast meats, yogurts, along with onions, olives and assorted garnishes. And in a country where coffee refills aren’t customary, a full carafe was left on my table.
It can’t go without noticing that the service was impeccable — the lobby hostesses, the bellmen, the room cleaners — everyone greets guests with cheery “Hello, Ma’am,” and their courtesy extends well beyond that. Returning to my room one day I found an elaborate rabbit the housekeeper had “sculpted” from a towel. When I rushed in one morning to grab a quick breakfast while my car was waiting, the hostess voluntarily packed me cups of juice and coffee to take along. Hearing that I planned to sit up in the airport from midnight until I could check in to my 3 am flight, the Horizon hostess took the initiative to arrange for me to spend the early morning hours at the hotel’s private airport lounge, one last chance to relish the Shangri-la before reluctantly checking out.
http://www.shangri-la.com/manila/makatishangrila/
For people visiting the Philippines’ second-largest city Cebu, the near by Shangri-la Mactan is a full fledged resort with luxury accommodations and activities. http://www.shangri-la.com/cebu/mactanresort/
Story and photography by Sharon King Hoge
Additional photos courtesy of Shangri-La Makati
First published at luxuryweb.com. Story by Sharon King Hoge
Photography courtesy of Sharon King Hoge and the Conrad Maldives
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Leave your shoes behind. You may want to wear them while you wait in the comfortable airport lounge where the staff of the Conrad Maldives offers snacks and beverages until your seaplane is ready to ferry you the 30-minute flight to the resort on Rangali island. But once you’ve boarded, the airplane steward is barefoot and when you land you’re escorted to the reception desk in the lobby, with its floor set right on the white sand which is a trademark of the gorgeous Maldives islands.
The lowest country on earth, with barely 100 square miles of land, the Maldives is a string of 1200 islands lying in 26 atoll rings stretching north to south in the Indian Ocean southwest of India and Sri Lanka. Only around 200 of them are inhabited, each a pristine jewel of tropical foliage ringed with powdery beaches and ringed by coral reefs in the transparent turquoise waters. Around half of the islands are dedicated to tourists, and the Conrad calls itself the country’s “best luxury resort.”
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Long wooden footbridges and a charming ferry connect the Conrad’s villas on two connected sand fringed islands and the spur of accommodations on stilts that comprise it’s Spa Retreat. Once checked in, guests are escorted to beach or overwater villas. Junior Beach Villas are mini-complexes with a spacious bedroom surrounded by a courtyard with outdoor fountain, shower, elevated bathtub, and Jacuzzi lap pool with an enclosed footpath leading directly to the beach. Mine had a spacious walk-in closet, desk space, coffee-table seating area, a wide-screen TV with excellent reception, speedy wi-fi, and Aromatherapy Associates amenities. Similarly posh overwater villas, built on stilts above the sea, allow swimmers to descend directly down their steps into the water. Overwater villas in the Spa Retreat are fitted with rooms for treatments right on the premises.
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Even though all the food has to be imported through Male, the cuisine is delicious. Diners preferring privacy can arrange for in-villa catering and special meals can be arranged in various island settings. Breakfast and an elaborate evening buffet are served in the main Atoll Market with extensive choices of ethnic cuisines: Indian, Japanese Chinese, Malaysian, Arabian, Indonesian, Italian, along with classic European favorites. There’s fine dining in the Vilu gourmet restaurant where one night we had a special tasting of six courses paired with Schubert wines from New Zealand and hosted by the proprietor of the winery. Mango risotto and crispy langoustine came with a very light “Trianco” 2011, there was Syrah 2010 enhancing roasted veal tenderloin with seared foie gas. Finally a “Dolce” 2013 sweetly accompanied Caraibe dark chocolate ganache with raspberry jelly all paired with Schubert wines from New Zealand.
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Although alcohol is forbidden in the Muslim country, resorts are allowed to carry a full range of cocktails and wine on premises. The Conrad serves drinks on the sand in the Rangali bar or poolside in the Quiet Zone and the restaurants offer special wine and cheese tastings.
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Just off the beach, the Sunset Grill suspended over the sea serves casual specialties. In the Mandhoo, another overwater pavilion at the Spa Retreat, the menu is based on ingredients related to air, earth, fire, water, and plants. “Water” selections include fried sea bass or crabmeat salad with tiny cubes of avocado; mango plus a grapefruit and blueberry granite is listed under “air.”
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For a unique experience, diners can “descend” to the Ithaa Undersea Restaurant and watch fish cruising the coral reefs as they and the guests dine.
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Spa-goers can choose between two pampering spas with sweeping ocean and lagoon views. Holistic spa treatments, many designed with couples in mind, involve precious oils, colors, and crystals. Besides consultations in nutrition, lifestyle, cuisine, there may be courses in detoxification and muscle therapy led by visiting specialists.
Booked for a soothing massage, I strolled over from my beach villa wearing my robe, selected “air” from five options of oils and lay listening to the wind and sea while the therapist relaxed my muscles. After a cup of tea and an oaty biscuit, I walked barefoot along the beach back to my villa.
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Swimming in two infinity pools, snorkeling, fishing and SCUBA expeditions are recreation activities plus tennis on the outdoor court. The diving center supplies wet suits, snorkel masks and fins, and for rainy days there’s a yoga studio and a fitness room with exercise machines set up to catch the view. A fully equipped Business Center supplements the excellent complimentary in-room wi-fi. Shoppers can browse for souvenirs and clothes in the gift shop.
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My second and last evening at the Conrad, Resort Manager Karim Schadlou invited us to sunset cocktails on the beach — because the sun set ordinarily happens before cocktail hour, the Conrad sets its clocks ahead one hour, establishing its own version of day light savings time to ensure pleasant views for sipping beverages as dusk descends. We sipped rum punches and local musicians entertained as the sun sank into the pristine water.
Carrying my shoes next day to the seaplane departure, I could tell I’d embraced the resort’s motto — “where barefoot luxury meets unpretentious style.”
http://conradhotels3.hilton.com/en/hotels/maldives/conrad-maldives-rangali-island-MLEHICI/index.html
First published on luxuryweb.com. Story and photography by Sharon King Hoge
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Maldives — Shangri-La Villingili
The dictionary defines “Shangri-La” as “an imaginary paradise on earth,” and except for one word of that definition I’ve been there. For there’s nothing imaginary about the heavenly Shangri-La Villingili resort in the Maldive Islands. One of 1190 Maldivian islands, Villingili lies in the Indian Ocean just below the equator in Addu Atoll, the southernmost of the country’s 26 atolls. As recently as a few years ago it was uninhabited, but it has been transformed into a resort that offers accommodations as luxurious as the island is idyllic.
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There are a few international direct flights to nearby Gan Airport, but it’s easier to fly to Male, the country’s capital city and main airport. From there you connect to a comfortable 70 minute flight on efficient Maldivian Airlines. Awaiting the flight south, I passed the time in the airport’s airy lounge where beverages and snacks are provided — slices of omlette, baby bananas, cheese and crackers, cappuccino. On arrival, before disembarking at Gan, Maldivian presented each of us an official “Equator Crossing Certificate” signed by the Director of Flight Operations and bestowed by the attractive flight attendant.
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Once off the plane, Shangri-La staff staff greeted us on the tarmac and us escorted to a private lounge before leading us along the jetty to a speed boat which whisked us five minutes across the sea to the Shangri-La’s thatched dock. Awaiting each of us in electric buggies at reception was a personal Villa Host who chauffeured us over to our accommodations.
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I was led by Anwar to an Ocean View Beach Villa — or villas! Designed to be a private retreat, my “villa” was actually a two-room complex nestled in the foliage: the main building, which included a large adjoining bedroom and bathroom, was juxtaposed to another villa which was my living room with a seating area, bar, and extra wide-screen TV. Facing both was my personal deck pool, long enough to accommodate swimming laps and two partially submerged chaise lounges. Off in the distance, providing a constant roar of crashing surf, was the ocean.
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I was almost tempted to settle in to the sanctuary of my villa, but a weekly sheet lists each day’s scheduled lessons, tours, and activities and there is a lot in the island’s three kilometer-length to explore. Guests can call at will for chauffeured electric buggies but walking is an option, or each villa is supplied with two sturdy white bicycles. I pedaled off on the loop around the beautiful nine-hole golf course, stopping on and off along the way to read the instructive signs which are being prepared as a nature trail. At one spot in the golf course I paused to take some photos of “Mount Villingili,” one of the golf tees which, at 16.7 feet above sea level, is officially the highest spot in the country. I came home with an official certificate issued by the resort to commemorate that I had reached the “summit.”
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I took some time to tour the Chef’s Garden where herbs, flowers, and vegetable plants are beautifully laid out in hydroponic channels and plots defined by coconut shells.
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Central on the island is the Village, a cluster of shops selling art, jewelry, clothing, antiques. At the Cool Zone for children I admired coconuts junior guests had painted in a variety of designs and colors. The Eco Centre is staffed by a marine biologist who led a flora and fauna nature walk explaining why coconut palms lean toward the sea (for better photosynthesis), pointing out a white tern settled on its nesting place, and describing the “natural” umbrella frames growing on the local cork wood trees.
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I eschewed water skiing, kayaking, parasailing, surfing, reef fishing, and visits to 25 local SCUBA dive sites, but the Silver Sands Water Sports Centre loans out masks and flippers free of charge, and I picked up some gear and went snorkeling around the house reef, eyeing the exotic fish and coral formations.
Located beside the tennis court, the 24-hour Fitness Center is well stocked with machines plus a steam room and sauna. Besides rescuing humidity hairdos, the salon offers a wedding package — renting out gowns, bouquets, jewelry, tiaras, — including makeup and a hair style for $500.
Nearby the elegant Chi Spa provides guests a suite of treatment rooms, many overlooking the sea and treatments inspired by traditional Asian healing philosophies. I was greeted with a glass of delicious “alona,” a concoction of iced ginger, lemongrass, lime, and honey. During my signature Kandu Boli Ritual massage, the attendant rubbed me with heated coconut oil and stroked me with heated cowrie shells. Even my face and hair were covered in warm coconut oil and swathed in warm towels.
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Besides in-villa dining and various outdoor and seaside site specific Dine-by-Design options, three restaurants and an outdoor bar cater to guests’ culinary wants. Fashala offers sophisticated contemporary cuisine. At Dr. Ali’s Restaurant & Bar each of three rooms offers a different cultural and dining concept themed to different Indian Ocean countries — Middle East, South Asian, Maldivian. Seaside sipping is provided at Manzaru, with trendy couches overlooking the lagoon.
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For lunch and dinner, Javvu the main indoor/outdoor dining room serves steaks and seafood with a Mediterranean touch. It’s breakfast buffet is amazing — after starting with the “healthy drink” of the day — maybe carrot and orange juices flavored with ginger — you can go on to myriad ethnic options: mini egg sandwiches, stir fried cabbage, jelly donuts, roasted vegetables, mixed leaf salad, a heap of sushi, waffles, oatmeal made with either water or milk, curry bread loaf, shrimp and butterfly wantons, — plus each day there’s a featured item, perhaps the Vietnam Pancake Breakfast — and all the while the waiter is passing croissants from table to table.
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With incredible facilities and idyllic activities — feeding fish that swim up to the pier, arranging a sunset cruise on the yacht Horizon, Dining-by-Design at a private table set up in the Chef’s Garden gazebo — it’s no wonder that a stay at the Shangri-la feels like a visit to the garden of Eden.
Villingili Island, Addu Atoll, Republic of Maldives
(960)689 7888
Published in Huffington Post
The eight points on a Maltese cross stand for the eight original “langues” or foreign origins of the care-giving Knights Hospitaller of St. John who were gifted the islands of Malta in the early 1500s. They can also stand for eight good reasons to travel to the richly historical country. Add in glorious Mediterranean weather, the compact terrain, the convenient euro currency, the common English language and the appeal of the island mini-republic just 60 miles from Sicily, should be irresistible.
Published on Luxury Web
“Be prepared.”
“A stitch in time saves nine.”
“There’s no time like the present.”
Taking those “do it now” proverbs to heart should prompt you to set about booking a trip to San Diego in September or Miami in May to attend one of AARP’s “Life at 50+” national expos.
It’s never too late to start confronting the process we’re all constantly undergoing as we all are getting older day by day. The recent May expo in Boston was not only fun and entertaining, but illuminated why people of all ages can benefit from thinking now — and ahead — about the future
Photo: Ithaa Undersea Restaurant © Jingzhongyue | Dreamstime.com
Diners may have some misgivings about ordering the yellowtail king fish or Maldivian lobster entrées while aquatic “relatives” of the seafood are nibbling along on branches in the nest of coral outside the windows. But the menu offers beef and lamb alternatives atIthaa Undersea Restaurant at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island. Set in the resort’s vibrantly colored coral garden 16 feet below the surface, the restaurant offers 180-degree panoramic “SCUBA” views for diners sampling the European cuisine, four-course lunch menus or six-course fixed-price dinners accompanied by Champagne-inspired wines. Continue reading
Published in Global Traveler
Photo: The infinity pool at the Conrad Maldives © Conrad Maldives
Travelers curious for a preview of paradise can visit the Billy Graham Center Museum in Wheaton, Ill., where a room lined in soft, white clouds with strains of ethereal choral music evokes a visit to heaven. I remember stopping by that exhibit many years ago, but lately I’ve found a real-life substitute for paradise — a visit to the islands of the Maldives.
Published on Luxury Web
Published in Huffington Post
Never mind that you’ve never heard of a city somewhere off in the Philippines with a name that evokes some meatless diet. Vigan should be a must destination for travelers in the Pacific islands. The Philippines’ only UNESCO World Heritage City, the charming town north of Manila on Luzon island maintains the colonial flavor of a thriving Spanish port and 19th century capital. Here is why you want to go.
Besides the city’s magnificent St. Paul’s Metropolitan Cathedral and Archbishop’s Palace facing two spacious public squares, block after block of charming structures which miraculously survived World War fill the Heritage District illustrating the amalgamation of Chinese, Spanish, and American influences that characterize historic structures which are being supplanted all over the country by concrete and tin. Continue reading
Published in Huffington Post
Some of New York’s must-see sites are permanent: Lady Liberty, the Empire State Building, Central Park, the Metropolitan Museum and other popular sites are always here. But exhibitions come and go. These are some shows that will close within weeks. Here today, gone tomorrow — hurry to town!
1) Elegance in the Age of Crisis: Fashions of the 1930s
