ed peters provides local news for the jetset
HOTEL WATCH
Forget Club Floors or Presidential Suites. Holidays nowadays are all about villas – preferably adjoining a hotel complex or run by hotel staff, so you get the same level of service and facilities, but absolute maximum privacy.
Baan Mai Khao in Phuket is a case in point, with two expansive bedrooms and an exquisite living/ dining pavilion, ornate double outdoor “bird cage” private showers, its own lap pool and garden, not to mention a butler on call 24/7. It’s so exclusive, you would barely realise it is part of the JW Marriott Phuket hotel (jwmarriottphuket.com).
To get even further away from it all, check out some of the private villa rental companies, such as www.villagetaways.com.
INSIDE TRACK
Run by Australian duo Stuart McDonald and Samantha Brown, as well as their team of researchers, www.travelfish.org is a comprehensive and free online guide to Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand.
Apart from pointing the way on how to get around, Travelfish also provides a travel planner, feature articles, FAQs, a message board, and an up-to-the-minute, real-time indicator as to what is hot on the site.
With new content added daily, there are few more up-to-date guides to the region anywhere on the web.
SEIZO THE DAY
Never underestimate the ability of Japan to spring a surprise. Fukuoka is a lovely seaside city, famous as the place where kamikaze (divine winds) dispersed an invading Mongol fleet in the Middle Ages.
Well worth a visit at Bangkok Airways’ newest destination is the Fukuoka Art Museum (www.fukuoka-art-museum.jp) which contains work from diverse practitioners such as Andy Warhol and Marc Chagall, as well as remains from Pompeii in Italy which was buried in a volcanic eruption in 79AD.
A special exhibition from the collection of the late dilettante and art devotee, Fukuoka native Ota Seizo, runs from now until 27 December, as does another expo, “School of Things”, which invites visitors to question the whole concept of art.
The museum hosts numerous similarly eclectic exhibitions throughout the year, while the Pre Modern and Buddhist art galleries (both permanent) are very much worth a look.
BKK WALKIES
Tour guides are all very well, but the more verbose who recite facts and figures non-stop can make you want to reach for the “off” button. Technology is providing a solution in the shape of Siam Soundtrek, which bills itself as “The Soundtrack to the City of Bangkok”.
An MP3 walking tour with a discreet musical background is just the thing for culture vultures who want to hoof it round the city, while picking up interesting facts about Asia’s most dynamic metropolis.
With a historical bent, and concentrating on the less visited aspects of the city, the first tour centres on Democracy Monument. Future additions are planned for Chiang Mai and Angkor Wat. Downloads are free from www..soundtrek.org, but they come with adverts, so it is better to pay US$5 for the commercial-free version.
LOCAL HERO
Achara Thammaraks, managing director of INTCO Travel, has lived in Chiang Mai for 27 years and knows Thailand’s second largest city and its surrounds like the back of her hand.
“This region is home to several different hill tribes who have changed very little over the centuries,” she says. “Basing yourself somewhere like the Hmong Hilltribe Lodge, which is traditionally built, yet with all modern conveniences and only a kilometre from the Hmong village of Mae Khi (40 minutes’ drive from Chiang Mai) is a marvellous way to experience their lifestyle firsthand.”
HEARTY ARTISANS
Searching for a souvenir from Cambodia? Look no further than Artisans d’Angkor (AA), a phenomenally successful company that was set up to help young people find work in their home villages making traditional arts and crafts.
Today, 550 artisans in 15 workshops are lacquering sandstone and wood, carving wood and stone, and spinning silk.
If you can’t make it to see some of the artisans in action at the National Silk Centre in Puok, check out the AA-run shops at Siem Reap and Phnom Penh’s airports, where the finished articles are gloriously displayed. AA also operates the slick Angkor Cafe by Angkor Wat.
Tel +85 (0)63 963330, www.artisansdangkor.com
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW…
Khao Lak is being spoken of as the new Phuket – less than an hour’s drive north of the island, imbued with all its charms and more, but with far fewer foreign faces. The beaches are good, but the region trumps with natural attractions and outdoors activities.
Two national parks – Khao Lak and Khao Sok – 
dominate the area, with towering limestone mountains, placid lakes, jungle trails and caves to explore aboard a jeep, canoe, elephant or Shank’s Pony. The rainforest here is reckoned to be 160 million years old, give or take a millennium, and the parks’ numerous waterfalls are popular places to picnic and swim.
Whitewater rafting adds an extra dimension of excitement, and the parks act as nature reserves, home to tapirs, bushy crested hornbills and monitor lizards. The Sarojin (www.sarojin.com) makes for a highly convenient base for exploration of the area.
TRIP LIT
Tight schedules and a constant demand for accuracy means that travel guide authors only stop researching when they sleep. But most also admit that they love the job and the exciting exploration involved.
Rafael Wlodarski, who contributed to the latest edition of Lonely Planet’s Thailand’s Islands & Beaches, raves about Koh Samui: ‘I spent one full day circumnavigating the island by scooter, and on some of the more remote roads, you could be forgiven for thinking Samui was all yours and had yet to be “discovered’.”
A new book from the LP stable is entitled A Year of Adventure, a 365-day guide to exciting activities around the world, with rock-climbing in Thailand, mountain-biking in Hong Kong, and elephant safaris in Cambodia, among the more attractive offerings.
With 2007 around the corner, the Lonely Planet calendar provides a great deal by way of inspiration; the photos of South China (April) are especially evocative.
Visit shop.lonelyplanet.com for more information.
