August Wrap-Up: Vancouver, Hamptons, New York City, Phoenix, Oxford, Geneva, Hong Kong

Summer holidays are great. For the past few years, I've had the luxury of being able to take off from typhoon-riddled Hong Kong in search of blue skies, cooler climes or even snow as I did last year.

This year, my travels took me around the world to see family and friends, as well as giving me the luxury of time to read three books cover-to-cover in three weeks -- Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, Paolo Giordano's The Solitude of Prime Numbers and Kazuo Ishiguro's Nocturnes. Plane rides are great for reading books, and I can often remember when I read them by flipping through and finding the flight ticket stubs that I used as a bookmark (I managed to read Nocturnes on the round-trip London-Geneva flights). In fact, the books themselves are often a reminder of the places I've been. I picked up Rand's tome of a novel at a bookstore in Vancouver's Yaletown. The other two I picked up in Oxford's Blackwell's bookstore. When I wandered into the bookstore, I had no intention of buying any books. I had only wandered in to browse their rare books collection and buy a milk shake from the in-store Caffe Nero. Along the way, after two weeks of travel, I had already picked up seven books. And books are heavy! I also managed to start, but not finish, two other books: Geoff Dyer's Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered To Do It and Karen Armstrong's A Short History of Myth. But back in Hong Kong now, I have yet to finish either.

In between pages, I had time to enjoy wonderful weather, fun conversation and delightful places. Here are some highlights:

Vancouver -- I walked past a hot dog stand on Marinaside Crescent (across the street from Provence) and couldn't resist trying their TexMex hot dog (complete with tortilla chips stuck in the bun along with the jalapeno cheddar cheese hot dog). While waiting for my hot dog to get cooked, I learned from the owner that one cannot just set-up a hot dog stand anywhere one pleases. There's a actually a lottery and he managed to win three locations. Operating a hot dog stand is not an easy job. He's up at 6am in the morning prepping enough food for three stands and doesn't get home till midnight. He enjoys it much better than drilling for oil in Calgary though. I could see why. It was a beautiful, summer day in Vancouver and strollers, roller-bladers, pram-pushing parents would stop by either for a hot dog or an ice cream cone or sandwich and have it served up with a view of the marina in Falls Creek.

From Little Cream Life: Almost a Photo a Day

Hamptons:
1. Wifi-enabled Hamptons Jitney (even if it did mean standing on a street corner at 7:50am by myself in front of a building with signs for "Body by Berle" and "Hooters") followed by lunch at Lobster Roll in Amagansett, building a sand castle at Wainscott beach, shopping in East Hampton and practicing yoga behind Rodney Yee in Colleen Saidman Yee's 8am class at Yoga Shanti in Sag Harbour the following morning. During class, she read out a quote that sticks in my head: "Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow." As I write this, Edward Kennedy's funeral has just taken place and his life exemplifies this so well.

From Little Cream Life: Almost a Photo a Day

From Little Cream Life: Almost a Photo a Day

New York City:
Candle 79 -- Surprisingly tasty vegetarian restaurant. I was told that outside of August, when most New Yorkers (or at least Upper Eastsiders) are holidaying in the Hamptons, it is very difficult to get a reservation. I understand why now, because it's not easy to serve a vegetarian menu that doesn't sound or taste like you are depriving yourself of some essential joys in life.
The Standard Hotel -- Andre Balazs' new hotel in Meatpacking. Grab a drink underneath the High Line or enjoy the views of the hotel from the High Line.
The High Line -- I'm impressed that a project like this got funded. An old railway line along the Meatpacking waterfront all the way up to Penn Station got a makeover by landscape architects Field Operations and structural support from architects Diller+Scofidio. I was walking the High Line with PC, who has been asked to consult the Norman Foster team that's working on the West Kowloon Cultural District. I, of course, complained that property developers in Hong Kong don't have the combination of civic-mindedness and foresight to contribute to a city-owned project such as this. Barry Diller and his wife Diane von Furstenberg are co-chairs of the High Line Trust. The building up from The Standard Hotel is being developed by von Furstenberg and Diller's Frank Gehry-designed IAC building is just off the High Line. Contributing to the beautification and preservation of heritage in the neighborhood simply makes good business sense. Be sure to enjoy the view in the mini amphi above 10th Avenue at 16th Street.

Phoenix -- I had dinner at the Wrigley Mansion for the first time, even though I've spent many years living there. Built by Wrigley of chewing gum fame, the mansion is now owned by Hormel of Spam fame. The place is quite a museum: I was intrigued by a telephone switchboard and amused by a very kitschy bathroom with red velvet and gold print wallpaper.

From Little Cream Life: Almost a Photo a Day

Oxford -- I always imagined the hallowed halls of academia to be tranquil, almost monastic, places. But Oxford in summer is a tourist/summer student zoo. Having said that, I managed to escape the hubub by staying at Old Parsonage Hotel and going for a run along Thames Path, where I found the quiet little village of Iffley.

From Little Cream Life: Random photos

From Little Cream Life: Random photos

Geneva -- I was in-and-out of this town within 24 hours. But I left with the sense that I had spent those hours in a sort-of lalaland, a little enclave where everyone seems to live the most charming of lives.

Back in Hong Kong, I've been playing around with my little flip HD video camera. I'd bought it back in April, but only now decided to put it to use. I'm hopeless at shooting, and have no patience for editing. For practice, I took it along to some of the past Luxury Week's fashion shows, but didn't manage to shoot any good footage. I fared a little better last night at Courtney Act's performance at Sevva. Act (or Shane Jenek when not in drag) was a semi-finalist in Australian Idol in 2003.

Hopefully, I'll get the hang of telling stories with moving images and really start to have some fun with it.

Hamptons Weekend: Ross School, Lois Nesbitt

Am catching up on my posts in the BA lounge waiting to board the CX flight to Vancouver, which is running half an hour late.

Headed out to the Hamptons on Friday afternoon; the drive out took 3.5 hours. Much of Saturday was spent by the pool with HB & BM putting together quite the BBQ lunch spread. For dinner, NK had arranged for us to attend a Nobu-catered fundraising dinner for the Ross School. Dinner was excellent, especially considering that they had to bring everything in from Manhattan. The school was also the perfect setting for the dinner; as there were quite a few Asian-inspired interiors around the school. Ross School was founded in 1991 by Courtney & Steve Ross (former Time-Warner CEO). Looking through their brochure, it is exactly the kind of school I would have loved to have attended. The school's curriculum embraces technology in all areas of learning and its approach to teaching is inter-disciplinary and global in perspective. Most importantly, Ross teaches that learning doesn't just take place from textbooks or from within the walls of a school. There's an emphasis on community service and learning opportunities outside the school and abroad. Students are encouraged to explore their own areas of interests and intellectual enquiry. The Hong Kong education system could use a total revamp along these lines. At it stands now, probably only a handful of international schools offer a similar educational experience.

The most active thing we did on Sunday (aside getting the NY Times and my Dolce de Leche latte, for which I made BM drive me out to Bridgehampton's Starbucks first thing in the morning) was a morning yoga class with Lois Nesbitt at One Ocean Yoga. Lois, like Patrick at Pure Yoga, is a student of John Friend. It was a great class, felt very familiar and I got to work on my handstand. An interesting tidbit about Lois is that before becoming a full-time yogi is that she was an artist, writer and taught at Princeton University. Interesting career change, but I guess yoga is full of such stories.

The rest of the day (and weekend) was spent reading the Times at the beach. It only started to rain just as we got on the LIE to head back into Manhattan.

Hamptons Weekend

"I'll be going to the country on Wednesday," said JK as we were trying to fix a day for dinner. "The country" evoked images of the Cotswolds, English manor houses and the like, but she was talking about the Hamptons, the eastern end of Long Island, consisting of Southhampton, Bridgehampton, East Hampton and neighboring towns. Hampton snobs don't really consider West Hampton to be of the same standards as the other Hampton towns and there is this "south of the highway" snobbery as well (the highway in question, really a two-lane road, is Montauk Highway, Hwy 27). So my image of the Hamptons was very country clubby complete with garden parties and white dresses. When A&C extended an invitation to join that at their summer share in Wainscott with K&M, I jumped at the chance to see what all the fuss was about.

As it turns out, it is true that tout-New York is in "the country" or "by the beach" over the summer weekends (which pretty much extend from Thursday to Monday for many). However, it's less country club in feel than I expected. A 2-2.5 hour drive from Manhattan, it does really feel like New England countryside (think Cape Cod). With the exception of East Hampton, which has big brand shops such as Gucci, Tiffany & Co. etc., the rest of the villages are quite quaint and charming. On a beautiful, sunny day, driving along Hwy 27 with the top down, life is pretty sweet.

I caught a ride out with AD, who was excited that he and CS's feature in the Sunday New York Times was already out. Sunday stories actually appear online by Friday evening, so we printed copies of the article. By the time we got in the car, it was nearly 8pm. We were hoping to miss the traffic for the Friday night exodus. We got to Almond, which was packed, in Bridgehampton before 10:15pm, so traffic wasn't too bad. We met up with C, K and M for a drink before heading to their house in Wainscott. The 3-bedroom house, owned by a dentist, was simple, but comfortable. There was a pool and deck where we ended up lazing away most of the weekend -- we pretty much had all our meals there. They were all great in the kitchen, baking blueberry muffins and a killer carrot cake, making pasta salads, seafood bakes, hamburgers and hot dogs on the Weber grill etc. The only local restaurant I got to try out was Nichols in East Hampton, which served up home-style, American food in a pub atmosphere. Apparently, it's also a good spot for celebrity sightings.

I spent Saturday morning in Sag Harbour, a little town with cute shops and stunning yachts. Sunday morning, after reading the Times, we headed out to Montauk, all the way out to the lighthouse. Montauk has much more of the secluded beach feel, because it is at the most eastern tip of Long Island, which is a very long island. There were hardly any people at the beach, and unlike the other beaches in the Hamptons that require permits for parking in the beach parking lots, Montauk's lot offered free parking. It also had a very charmingly done up shack selling refreshements and snacks, which the other beaches did not seem to have. The beach was a little more cluttered with pebbles and shells, but the quiet was very soothing and it's fun watching all the boats come and go from the inlet.

Andre Balazs' Sunset Beach is out on Shelter Island (you can drive from Sag Harbour, but you need to get on a ferry). Apparently, it's quite a happening beach from which to watch the sun set on a Sunday evening. If I weren't staying with friends, I would probably stay there or The American Hotel in Sag Harbour.