Column: The Good Life: for Mint Lounge
Hidden Gem: Shopping in Santiago, Chile: for Time magazine
Santiago is one of South America's best-kept shopping secrets. With prices in their own countries skyrocketing because of inflation, well-heeled Argentines and Brazilians are flocking to the Chilean capital for their luxury purchases. Among the best buys�besides leather and wine�are gems like amethyst, malachite and lapis lazuli. Amethyst is locally prized for its supposed healing properties (it's common to find chunks of it lying in homes to counter bad luck). Malachite is used in popular fashion accessories, worn by Chilean women in bracelets and anklets as they sashay down the Parque Arauco Mall. But lapis, the most well-known Chilean stone, [...]
Malaysian Sensations: Four Seasons Langkawi. For Time magazine
Most spa resorts are so cookie-cutter that once you check in, it's hard to tell if you're in Krabi or the Maldives. Not so at the new Four Seasons Langkawi, tel: (60-4) 950 8888. The design of this resort has a very Malaysian sense of place and incorporates elements from the country's Muslim heritage. Arabic tiling turns the large bathrooms into approximations of Turkish hammams. The resort has gorgeous views of the Andaman Sea, and all its airy rooms open on to covered balconies. The main restaurant, Ikan Ikan, is housed in a recreation of a limas, or traditional Malay [...]
Whey They Go: New Zealand. For Time magazine
If you think New Zealand cheese means processed cheddar slices, be prepared for a surprise. The country has seen a mini boom in artisanal cheeses in recent years, with producers taking advantage of a pristine environment and prime, grass-fed dairy cattle to create cheeses that would be at home in any gourmet emporium. Dutch-style cheeses like edam and gouda have been particularly successful. According to Sarah Aspinwall, owner of the award-winning Canterbury Cheesemongers in Christchurch, cheesemakers in New Zealand now produce "the best Dutch-style cheeses outside of Holland." There are many other varieties being made besides, and while skeptics might [...]
Waterworld, Time magazine
Iguazu Falls, as Eleanor Roosevelt famously observed, "make the Niagara look like a kitchen faucet." This may be an exaggeration but not by much�after all, the Iguazu Falls are four times wider than Ontario's most famous body of water. Located amid lush rainforest at the border of Brazil and Argentina, they present one of the best (and most deafening) opportunities you will ever have for an encounter with the unbridled power of nature. The Brazilian side has the panoramas, while the Argentinean side offers proximity to the falls themselves. But viewing from both sides is necessary to complete the experience. [...]
The Oil Boom: Time magazine.
The Oil Boom: Time magazine. June 24, 2005 New Zealand's olive-oil industry is barely 20 years old, but since the first olive trees were experimentally planted in the country in 1985, the number of olive growers there has soared to more than 500. The reason? Olives are very easy to cultivate in New Zealand's temperate climate, particularly in the Marlborough region, where the same weather that is favorable for wine production also results in beautifully rich, fruity olive oils. New Zealand growers have planted olive varieties from all over the world, including Israeli barnea (the most common), French picholine, [...]
The Smell of Success: Time magazine
The Smell of Success: Time magazine, September 05, 2005 (Of course, link won't work unless you are a subscriber, so I am not giving the link) If you're stranded in Bangalore, you won't go hungry. This southern city is rapidly becoming the wealthy, cosmopolitan face of India (even if the infrastructure and road system struggle to cope) and is blessed with scores of decent restaurants as a result, from swanky gourmet venues to trendy holes-in-the-wall. Its upwardly-mobile population is also adept at sniffing out good food and value something that makes many restaurateurs use Bangalore as a testing ground for [...]
Game Show: About safari parks in South Africa: for Time magazine
The silhouette of a lone acacia at sunset, the tremulous gaze of an impala: these are some of the pleasures of Africa, and you don't have to go all Ernest Hemingway to experience them. New-generation game lodges — with spas, designer accommodation and eco-friendly attitudes — are mushrooming. The best seem to be in South Africa, where proximity to the giant Kruger National Park is a boon. Here are four fail-safe choices. None are cheap, but all guarantee that you'll see the "Big Five" — lions, leopards, buffaloes, elephants and rhinos — in contemporary style. ULUSABA Sir Richard Branson's foray [...]
Thread of Hope: wearing healing clothes: for Time magazine
Thread of Hope: from Time magazine February 12, 2006 Never mind applying creams and lotions—if you could relieve a skin ailment simply by the kind of clothes you wear, or the bed linen you use, wouldn't you? The Handloom Weavers Development Society in Kerala, India, hopes so. The nonprofit organization—based in Thumbod, a tiny village of swaying palms an hour outside the state capital of Trivandrum—has infused yarn with organic herbs and plant extracts, and claims that regular contact with cloth made from this material will relieve itches, rashes and other skin disorders. With a sharp eye for the contemporary [...]
India’s Lust for Luxe: from Time magazine April 3, 2006
New Delhi entrepreneur Natasha Chaudhri chases after expensive fashion products like a big-game hunter in pursuit of wildlife pelts. Owner of three restaurants in Bombay and Goa, two lifestyle stores in Delhi and an export business, Chaudhri, 30, has the money, if not necessarily the time, to go on shopping safari, and her closet is full of trophies: Louis Vuitton, Prada and Chanel handbags; sunglasses by Bulgari and Gucci; countless designer outfits; shoes by Sergio Rossi, Tod's and Jimmy Choo. These days, she doesn't have to go overseas to indulge. Jimmy Choo, for example, just announced plans to open its [...]
Cruise holidays: for Time magazine
Asia-Pacific cruise holidays have become one of travel's hottest tickets in recent years, with eager operators offering packed itineraries and massive liners to entertain and accommodate ever growing legions of eastbound vacationers. Good organization, hassle-free immigration, no language problems and a huge choice of dining and recreational facilities are prime selling points. But what if you want your Asian sea voyage to come with more privacy? What if you don't like enforced craft classes before lunch or sharing the pool with raucous children? Enter the world of small cruise liners and private charters. They may not offer half a dozen [...]