Aman Junkie

I had a meeting with Rohini of Aman today for an update on their two properties in Sri Lanka, Amangalla and Amanwella. We had a great chat about many things including why a stay at an Aman is so special. I confess up front that I am an Aman Junkie. There are lots of top rate hotels, resorts, lodges and camps around the world; Huka Lodge in New Zealand, Governor's Il Moran Camp in Kenya, Park Hyatt in Tokyo, just to name a few. But Aman is special.

I was never able to verbalize the Aman difference until Sally at Amanbagh said it for me: "This is our home and we treat every guest as though they were a friend visiting our home". Eureka, that was it! It wasn't the clean, modern, comfortable design or the understated luxury. It wasn't the particular locations or destinations. I always knew it was the people, but I couldn't figure out how everyone could make me feel like I was staying somewhere special; at least, more special than any of the other hotels in the US$500-US$1,000 per night price range.

For example, at many of the top hotels, staff know to make an effort to address you by your name. Being able to address the guest by name is really the bare minimum though. It is just the starting point for making the guest feel at home, but it's amazing how few places manage to get even this simple thing right. I was impressed when the pool attendant addressed me by my name the first time I went down to the pool at Four Seasons Jimbaran Bay. I was impressed when the front desk at Claridge's remembered my name the next evening even though my only contact with her was at check-in. But even then, the feeling is that they are merely saying a name that they have made a point to remember because you have supposedly paid for this service rather than because they really have made an effort to get to know and like you as an individual.

At most luxury hotels, there are cards signed by the general manager in your room, but at Aman, it's always a greeting in person, a chat by the pool, a drink in the bar or even dinner. They are wonderful conversationalists, chatting with you to get to know you as a person better. The managers at Aman at not just managing what goes on behind the scenes. They are your personal hosts or hostesses, making sure your needs are anticipated well in advance. I remember the names of the people at Aman, because they treat me like a friend, not a client. There isn't that distance, stiffness and formality that is so prevalant at many other luxury hotels. And the amazing thing is, I haven't met a manager at Aman that I haven't been able to click with. They all just have this incredible knack for making everyone feel at home and knowing what you might like before you even know it yourself.

It can be somthing very simple like the farewell at Amansara where all the staff stand and wave goodbye to you until your car has entirely left the complex. Another example was when I was working in the Library at Amanbagh. Sally walked in to check up on me. She asked if I needed anything or would like something to eat or drink. I replied that at was fine. Many people would have stopped at this point; their job done. But Sally went on to explore, "Are you sure you wouldn't like to try our fresh pomegranate juice?" Mmmmm! Pomegranate juice, sounds lovely! So she had someone bring me a glass of pomegranate juice. At that moment, I really did feel like I was staying at a friend's home.

And there are always those "wow" moments, which you come to expect from Aman. But nonetheless, they still manage to woo you all over again each time. Like when Sally mentioned meeting in the lobby to "go out with some other guests for drinks". Go out where, I wondered. Afterall, we were in the middle of nowhere. "Oh, just a neighborhood bar," said Sally. The neighborhood bar turned out to be a centuries old chatri, regal-looking pit stops for maharajas, now a ruin. But given the Aman treatment, it looked like a very hip bar lounge.


As for the properties in Sri Lanka, Rohini assured me that life has regained normalcy since the Tsunami, transfers by air taxi from Colombo to the properties cut the hassle and travel time down significantly. Adrian Zecha's always had this knack for creating the next travel hot spots, just think Bhutan. I can see Tangalle, where their beach property Amanwella is located, becoming the next Bali or Phuket before they became over-developed. Destination aside, Zecha just knows how to pick the right people to deliver the Aman experience. So I have no doubt that Amangalla and Amanwella will not disappoint. Now, if only I could just make some time to head to Sri Lanka for my next Aman fix!

Hong Kong: Asia's Polluted City

I miss blue skies and starry skies. Been back for 3 days, and I've been living in a haze, litterally. It's not jet lag; it's that grey film hanging over the city that obstructs visibility and causes all sorts of respiratory tract and sinus irritations. I love living in Hong Kong, but the poor air quality is what will eventually send me packing to live in other parts of the world where I can breathe with ease -- Vancouver immediately comes to mind or even New York City, where most of the days I've spent there have been blue sky days.

At a recent lunch conversation, we were talking about a mutual acquaintance now living in Sydney. One, who was in recent contact with him, reported that he was a happy, health-conscious yoga instructor in his spare time and added, "It's amazing what breathing can do for you!" It's true. I walk around this city and see so many stressed-out, blank, even miserable-looking faces. If only they could spend a day on the ski slopes or a night camping under the star-lit skies! Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain has been the talk of the town even before it won Lee an Oscar for Best Director. The advertising tagline for the movie is: "Everyone has their own Brokeback Mountain". I would say that a large majority of the 7 million people living in Hong Kong have not had the luxury of spending a night in untouched wilderness with the stars to light their path and the sounds of nature to lull them to sleep. For those who want the luxe version of this, they should spend a night sleeping in the star beds at Loisaba in Kenya.

Hong Kong's tourism board should really be more proactive about alleviating the air quality problem. It's Rugby Sevens weekend here. Tons of visitors in town. But I wonder how the players feel about playing and breathing in all this polluted air. And the visual impression of Hong Kong most tourists will depart with will be a skyline hidden in haze. Imagine how much more beautiful Hong Kong would be with its stellar skyline, shimmering in the clear harbour, against a backdrop of verdant, green mountains and clear, blue skies!

Hong Kong pays a lot of lip service to wanting to be "Asia's World City", nurturing more competitive atheletes or even becoming a more creative, innovation-led economy. How can we do any of these things when we struggle so hard, day after day, just to breathe a breath of clean, fresh air and catch a clear glimpse of our inspiring cityscape?

It'll probably be a while before we have clean air again. In the meantime, perhaps Pure Yoga might consider conducting yoga classes in oxygen-enriched yoga studios and Pure Fitness might want to convert its hypoxic cardio room into an oxygen-enriched cardio room.

Today is actually a sunny day, but this is the view from my office in Causeway Bay, with a sliver of a view of Tsim Sha Tsui across what's left of our still-shrinking Victoria Harbour:




Wi-Fi connection used:
netvigator account @ Starbucks: HK$3/10 minutes or HK$18/hour

Würzburg Address Book

Congratulations to the newlyweds! The wedding day came and went in this historic, little town on the Romantic route without a hitch.

In between all the activity, I had a chance to walk around and came across some fun little places along the way:

Eva Maisch & Schmuck is a chic, little jewellery shop representing several German designers.
Café Balthazar on martinstraße 3 (T: +49 931 404 4447) is a trendy café/lounge bar and was packed at mid-day.
Schloß Steinburg is a charming castle hotel perched up on the hill with views of Würzburg in the distance. Decor is a bit Rococo, but the restaurant serves up good food. Pictured is the indoor pool with views of the Marienberg.

Welcome to Würzburg!

Würzburg is a charming, little place, that's most famous for it's Residenz, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. My brother's wedding ceremony will take place in the Residenz's Chapel. Imagine having your wedding in an important, historic Baroque church and the most amazing thing is that it cost only EUR50 to rent the venue (If only all the other wedding-related expenses were so reasonably priced)!!

Welcome dinner for out-of-town guests was at Nikolaushof up on a hill by the 400-year-old, onion-domed, Käppele. It has great views of Würzburg from its terrace and is a great place a an outdoor reception in warmer weather. As it was, it was still a bit cold and the dinner was held indoors.

Since I am using wi-fi so much. I thought I'd start a public service and give people an indication of wi-fi hotspot pricing. So whenever I'm connecting via wi-fi, I'll indicate network and pricing at the end of the post.
Wi-fi connections used:
Best Western Premier Hotel Rebstock (service provider is probably T-Mobile) -- EUR5/24 hours (what a steal!!)
T-Mobile @ Frankfurt Airport (spent 3.5 hours at Starbucks in the New Shopping Avenue at Terminal 1's check-in level) -- EUR18/24 hours, you can also buy in smaller units such as EUR8/hour

Lovin' Lufthansa

Here I am thousands of miles over somewhere in China I assume. There's no way I can check, because I'm sitting in economy class of a B747-400 from Hong Kong to Frankfurt, and there is no in-seat entertainment. It's been years since this has happened to me! But I'm still luvin' Lufthansa, because:
1. I connected without problems to the wi-fi internet with Connexion by Boeing. I had to choose the rather costly US$14.95 for 2 hours plan, because my iBook's battery time was down to 1hr 40min. You can actually pay only US$26.95 for the entire duration of the flight. My flight being around 12 hours, would make that a steal! You can check out which flights have this service here. I never use CX's in-flight connection. They really should stop using netvigator as the in-flight internet service provider; as it's a pain to log into and dreadfully slow. Connexion is really easy to log into. I just switched on laptop and it located the wireless network immediately, opened browser and signed up and paid for service within 5 minutes.
2. The fabulous service. It's the first time I've been allowed to hang-out in business class when I only hold an economy class ticket (not-withstanding the early days when I travelled unaccompanied minor and I always got to sit in First Class for the duration of the descent.). I knew my laptop was low on batt and asked if there was an outlet to charge it. I expected the stewardess to say no, and that would be the end of it. As it turns out, she tells me she will check to see if there is a vacant business class seat where I can charge my laptop. In no time, I am in biz, laptop in hand. The outlet doesn't match, so I ask for an adaptor. Another steward produces one. Unfortunately, it doesn't charge. But I'm still happy. They really did try. This would never happen on SQ or CX (Singapore and Cathay being my two favoured airlines).

My battery timer is now down to 1hr 19 min. Time to get some work done and transfer that last episode of Desperate Housewives to my iPod video, which has at least 3 hours of video play time left.

Editor's Note added 19 November 2006: Since this post Connexion by Boeing has announced that their in-air wi-fi service will be discontinued as of the end of 2006.

Working from CLK...

Hong Kong International Airport -- Lufthansa flight's delayed by an hour. I'm already early, because I'm travelling with family for my brother's wedding in Wuerzburg, Germany. So what to do? Set up office at Starbucks! If it weren't for the fact that Starbucks' wi-fi provider were netvigator, I would have cut my netvigator broadband subscription ages ago. Not only is there zero customer service to speak of, the company's sales tactics are scam-like. But netvigator is not the only service (what service?!) provider guilty of this. There's also Hutchision, Wharf T&T to name a few others.
All this aside, when I do need to log-on, the wi-fi service is seamless. Even though, at the airport, they dare to charge their own subscribers HK$40/hour (a little less than US$5/hr)! To be fair, this is much less than what I've been charged in most European airports, which is nearly double that. But I pay for it, because I can turn idle time into productive time, like writing this blog, reading and replying emails, checking in with my office on MSN messenger. But time's up....gotta board now.

Lost without Lost

I was going to write about how I came to be an Aman junkie, but I'm about to get on a plane tomorrow for Frankfurt and all I can think of is how miserable the 12+ hour plane ride will be without any previously-unwatched episodes of Lost or other shows to keep me entertained. Sure, there's the in-flight entertainment system, but I've pretty much already watched all that I want to watch. Which got me thinking that I might have become an iPod video junkie. I got my 60gb iPod video for my birthday earlier this year, and it has changed my life. No joke! It has proven to be one of my most treasured travel companions; the other being my mobile phone (most of my friends call my HP iPAQ the largest mobile phone around, but I like to think of it as a laptop that fits in my palm).

Since moving to Hong Kong nearly 13 years ago, I stopped watching television, with the exception of CNN or BBC in hotels and Sex and the City and the first season of Six Feet Under on DVDs. It's not that I didn't want to watch TV; I just never had time to sit down in front of a television when the shows were actually on-air. But now, with iTunes Music Shop selling the most recent episodes for just US$1.99 an episode, I've become hooked not only on Lost, but also Desperate Housewives and Commander-In-Chief. I may even start watching Top Chefs, since I've just downloaded their free pilot episode, which I only downloaded because I had run out of fresh episodes of my afore-mentioned fave shows. Now, I look for things to download whenever I travel. I watch my iPod video on 4-hour train rides from Geneva to Zermatt, in long immigration queues at Heathrow and, of course, on the plane. And the best earphones have got to be Shure's E-series. They really do block out all the ambient noise, whether it's the humming of the jet engine or even the wailing baby. For the iPod video's battery life of about 4 full episodes of Lost, I am in another world. So now, my only problem is that I can't fill my iPod with enough content to fill my transit time. So I'm hoping the folks at Apple, iTunes and various studios work out a deal fast, that will allow me to buy and download the latest movies. But first, Apple needs to double the screen size of the iPod and extend the battery life to around 12 hours of video play time. But I have faith, that all this is in the works as I type. In the meantime, I'm...

Junkie no. 1

dictionary.com's definition of a junkie reads: "One who has an insatiable interest or devotion: a sports junkie". In my case, that would make me a powder junkie. I'm talking about the light, fluffy powder that falls from the skies on top of which skies and boards float, ever so effortlessly. I'm also another type of junkie, but I'll leave that for my next post.

Having just had a fix, like any junkie, I am left with wanting more. I am writing this post from my Causeway Bay office on a typically, overcast, hazy Hong Kong day, so you may have guessed that I am suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

I miss the feeling of freedom that is skiing (or boarding) -- to breath freely, move freely, and just letting go. It's all really zen when I'm at the top of that steep, black slope, starring down and telling myself that, I will go down with grace and ease. It's just me, the snow-covered mountain and silence (unless, of course, when it's me screaming as I spin and slide on my back down the mountain). It's about living in the moment, one sure-footed turn at a time, revelling in the sun, wind-swept snow and powder sprays coming off the edge of the skis. All I have to think about is the staccato tac-tac, tac-tac -- like a metronome -- of each pole plant as it accents a seamless transfer of weight that then translates into a perfect turn.

When I'm down the slopes, zen gives way to indulgence as I sit down, admire the view of what I've just conquered or am yet to conquer, and knock back a few bombardinos. If I'm really lucky, I get to fill your stomach with some delicious, yet simple, casunziei (beetroot ravioli with nothing else but melted butter, a sprinkling of parmesan and poppy seeds). At the moment, I am thinking of El Brite de Larieto, a charming farmhouse restaurant in Cortina surrounded by larch trees. But it could also be the terrace of Riffelalp in Zermatt with front row seats to the Matterhorn on a sunny day. Just substitute the bombardinos with a bottle of bubbly and the casunziei with an amazingly comforting pot au feu. Their chili con carne's not bad either. All that racing around mountains does work up quite an appetite! And then, after much cheer and joy and a full stomach, I go to bed with a feeling of total satisfaction and great anticipation for the next day. That is, if it's not my last day.

Back in Hong Kong, I am now counting the days until my next fix. Hopefully, it will be August in Bariloche. In the meantime, I've just googled a recipe for bombardinos.

Welcome to my Little Cream Life!

I always find it difficult to sum up what I do in the usual one to three word description as required in most cocktail conversations. For a start, I travel. I travel with and on behalf of my clients to plan their holidays, celebrations and get-togethers. I travel for research. And of course, I travel for pleasure. I also sit in front of a laptop to research and write about travel. Then, I publish books, and now a blog, from all of this. I do all this as a small business owner, which comes with headaches a plenty. This is not just a travel blog. It's also about the creation and evolution of ideas into businesses, the pleasures and the perils of being an start-up entrepreneur as well as all the other little things (like wi-fi in Starbucks and gprs in long queues) that make my life so creamy!