This Way Out

CITY SLICKERS
Travel + Leisure has given The Land of Smiles more reason to smile, now that the magazine has named Bangkok top city in its annual ‘World’s Best’ list. Third in last year’s list, Bangkok came in first this year in the criterion that includes culture/arts, restaurants/food, people, shopping and value. It beat out Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Sydney and Florence (last year’s winner), which were in third, fourth and fifth place respectively. Other notable placings: New York slipped down the list, from sixth to eighth place, as did San Francisco, from ninth to 10th, while Cuzco, Peru, making the list for the first time, finished a very respectable sixth.

LOCAL MOTION 

Meanwhile, local travel industry names were also honored at this year’s World Travel Awards in July. Now in its 15th year and deemed the Oscars of the travel industry, the World Travel Awards are selected based on thousands of votes cast by travel professionals from 167,000 travel agencies, tour and transport companies and tourism organizations in over 160 countries across the globe, over a 1,000 different categories. These local favorites were judged the best among their peers:
- Indonesia's Leading Boutique Hotel The Bulgari Resort Bali
- Indonesia's Leading Business Hotel Hotel Mulia Senayan, Jakarta
- Indonesia's Leading Golf Resort Le Meridien Nirwana Golf & Spa Resort
- Indonesia's Leading Hotel Mandarin Oriental Jakarta
- Indonesia's Leading Resort Hotel Sedona Manado
- Indonesia's Leading Spa Resort Banyan Tree Bintan, Indonesia

HEALTH WATCH

With cross-border SARS scares and bird flu outbreaks in the past years, you never know what afflictions and ailments you can pick up on your travels. Which is why hypochondriacs, health nuts and savvy travelers alike will love TravelTurtle.co.uk, a wealth of free travel health information and advice, and also voted one of the 50 best travel websites by UK news portal Times Online last year.

 

Whether headed for Malaysia, Malawi or the Maldives, travelers will be able to access country specific health information at any time of the year and gather up-to-date news on any foreign disease outbreaks and health risks.

TRAVEL TALES

A tell-all book that dishes on those travel guidebooks every traveler treats like the gospel? Do Travel Writers Go To Hell? by former Lonely Planet contributor Thomas Kohnstamm does just that with his admission that life on the road was more sex, drugs and rock and roll, than well, lonely planet.

 

In his dish-all memoir, Kohnstamm, the principle writer on the Lonely Planet guide to Brazil and coordinating author on some of its Latin America titles, reveals how he would write good reviews in exchange for sex or free board, and how corners were cut in the three years he spent in Latin America researching the books.

 

In one account, Kohnstamm decribes how "The waitress suggests that I come back after she closes down the restaurant, around midnight.

 

"We end up having sex in a chair and then on one of the tables in the back corner.” And with that, the restaurant earned a review in the guidebook, with Kohnstamm calling it "a pleasant surprise" where "the table service is friendly".

 

Indeed, with details as juicy as these, we’re tempted to throw out the ol’ guidebook and pack Kohnstamm’s memoir for our next holiday read.

TRUE BRIT

British food has been on the receiving end of plenty of bad jokes, but there are a couple of things the English have gifted upon the rest of the world that we ought to be thankful for. The Beatles, for one, JK Rowling and Harry Potter. And what would billions of men over the world watch on TV or talk about to each other if not for the English Premier League? Holiday Inn has given the country due props and conducted a poll of 7,000 Brits to find out the 50 things they loved most about their country. Andrew Smith, a spokesman for the hotel group, says, ''As a nation we are rightly patriotic. This list gives a fascinating insight into exactly what it means to be British - our food, history, Royalty, our many wonderful characters and all the fabulous places we love to visit.”

 

And surprise surprise, topping the list is a food item. Fish ‘n Chips comes in at #1, just ahead of The Queen herself, while other English icons making the list were Prince Harry (#44), Yorkshire puddings (#38) , Shakespeare (#12), Manchester United (#19) , Big Ben (#6), the BBC (#26) and James Bond (#15).

 

 

+ Chan Hse May