7/30/2019 Jakarta Post Magazine features Kamu Lodge and La Residence Hotel & Spa in their latest Monday issue, 26th Aug

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Bali Hyatt to undergo extensive renovationsbeginning in November

The Bali Hyatt will be closedbeginning Nov. 14 to allow for a largescale, 24-month renovation project totake place at the hotel.

This project will mark 40 yearssince the Bali Hyatts official openingon Nov. 14, 1973. Many of thehotels traditional design featureswill be retained, while substantialenhancements to the overall guestexperience will be introduced.

Tokyo-based interior designersSPIN will incorporate authentic Balinese features for the Bali Hyattsupdated looks. Renovations will focus on guestrooms, public areas, diningand meeting facilities and the propertys garden areas.

Upon its reopening, which is anticipated to h appen by the last quarterof 2015, the hotel will be renamed the Hyatt Regency Bali.

Bali Hyatt will celebrate forty years in November, and the hotel has trulystood the test of time, said Pete Sears, senior vice president of operations,

Asia Pacific, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts. It is imperative that we continue tooffer a strong, locally focused experience, while catering to the growingpreferences of our loyal leisure and business guests.

MONDAY August 26, 2013|25

Bali Expose

Travel

Event

Courtesy of Bali Hyatt

Where the sedentary tourist can still get out there in Asia

All across Asia, icons fulfillour fantasies of the destina-tion. Rice paddies. Imperialcitadels. Moats. Indigenous

dance. The upturned eaves of mas-sive but graceful roofs. The jungle.

A beach that served as backdrop toa hit TV drama.

Usually, were obliged to

seek out these distinctive Asianlandscapes and architecture,guidebook in hand, camera at theready. But for every active tourist,whos moving from dawn to dusk,ticking icons off their bucket list,there is the leisure traveler whowants more leisure than travel.

Fortunately, throughout Asia,there is accommodation wheresuch travelers can plant himselfor herself in a hotel room or on aterrace such that the icon is in f ullflourish right before you.

Kecak DanceThe Chedi Club Tanah GajahUbud, Bali

Without leaving the confinesof the resort itself, catch aperformance of traditionalBalinese dance and drama. Staged

under the stars in the resortson-site amphitheater, theKecakcultural dance show features alocal dance troupe of 80 to 100

bare-chested male performers,who chant and dance in atrancelike state in concentric ringsaround an open flame.

TheKecak has roots in thesanghyang, and originated in Baliin the 1930s. Also known as theRamayana Monkey Chant, thepiece depicts a battle from theRamayana where the monkey-like Vanara assists PrinceRama in fighting the evil KingRavana. There is no musicalaccompaniment; rhythm isprovided by a monkey choruswho wear checked cloths aroundtheir waists and act as variousmonkey armies in the story.

Imperial Palace Gardens

Palace Hotel TokyoTokyo, Japan

If youve never lived withinthe walls of a moat, the next

best thing is a prime, moat-side

accommodation experience. At thenew Palace Hotel Tokyo, guests

borrow the comforting bufferof a moat every morning as theydine on the outdoor terrace of thehotels Grand Kitchen. Across thewaters, aji stones case the upperreaches of the moats walls, whileover the waters swans cruise

through the heart of Tokyo.From the hotels upper floors,

balconies and expansive viewsdeliver the most magnificent vistain all Tokyo, from swards of blackpines, so deliberately planted, tothe monuments of the ImperialPalace Gardens. Visible fromnearly every room in the hotel, thePalaces Fujimi-yagura (Fuji-viewKeep) is a lure to some of Tokyosmost hallowed ground. Thoughmost of the palaces structureswere lost to Allied bombing inMay 1945, the grounds makefor fascinating perambulation,from the Nij-bashi Bridge to theNinomaru Gardens to the aji-stone cased walls and rampartsthat evoke the romantic appeal of

vanished Japan.

Flagtower Bastion

La Residence Hotel & SpaHue, Vietnam

From myriad terraces, frombalconies, even from the hotelstop floor fitness center, the viewdrinks in the Flagtower Bastionof the Hue Citadel. Work on the1.5-square-mile Citadel began

in earnest in 1804 after the firstemperor of the Nguyen Dynasty,Gia Long, consolidated his holdon the country and set 30,000conscripts to work. Modeled ondesigns by the 17th Century Frenchmilitary architect, Sebastien de

Vauban the Citadel emerged asVietnams most imposing Citadel(there were others in Hanoi,Saigon and even Nha Trang).

During the First Indochina Warin 1947, and during the VietnamWar in 1968, battles raged withinthe walls of the Citadel. The wallsand bastions suffered from allthe tribulation, but Vietnamesepreservationists busied themselveson the brickworks after the war.Today, the Flagtower Bastionlooms over a 165-foot wide moat,and the Perfume River.

The Mighty MekongKamu Lodge ExperienceMekong River, Laos

Theres isnt much electricityhere, or any mobile phonecoverage. Forget about WiFi,or cable television, or airconditioning, which is allrather the point, anyway. From

verandas that apron each of these

hybrid safari-tent and thatched-sala lodges, there is a view ofthe mighty Mekong, and the

verdurous, jungled slopes acrossthe river.

Contemplation is whatthe experience is all about contemplation of the sluggish,coffee-colored flow of the worlds7th longest river and the natural

cacophony of the jungle environs,35 kilometers upstream fromLuang Prabang. Here, thereslittle visual difference betweenwhat you see today and the daysof the great French exploringexpeditions of the 1860s whenFrancis Garnier and company

journeyed past these banks,

traveling toward the source ofthe Mekong, or when HenriMouhot, the re-discoverer of

Angkor, traipsed these junglesas a naturalist. Of course, ifcontemplation alone isnt all thatenticing, theres a spa sala perchedon the edge of the river. Ah, Asia.

Icons of War PhotographyCaravelle HotelHo Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Saigon s***, Martin Sheensays asApocalypse Nowgetsunderway. Im still only inSaigon. The prettiest, most exoticname of any in Asia, the citysstature as a one-time Paris of theOrient is now being subsumed

by the headlong rush to bettereconomic times. In that rush, theold colonial villas and magisterial

French edifices are falling victimto wrecking balls. But there areflickerings of old Saigon still, if youknow where to look.

From the Saigon Bar of theCaravelle Hotel, look up DongStreet toward the landmark1880-built Notre Dame Cathedral,and then, halfway to the basilica,swerve your sight to the right for aglimpse of the elevator penthouseshaft made famous by Hubert

Van Ess 1975 snap of refugeesscaling a steep ladder to the skidsof a helicopter. It used to be thatmost of the rooms at the front ofCaravelle, itself one of the mostfamous war hotels ever, gave upa view of the penthouse. But anintervening skyscraper clippedthe sight line. Still, all those roomsat the front of the hotel do offera glimpse of another icon, the1897-built Opera House.

China BeachThe Nam HaiHoi An, Vietnam

There might not be a betterbalcony on the Pacific than theeast end of this acclaimed resortsOlympic-sized, infinity-edgedswimming pool. From there,

behold a stretch of golden sandthe Vietnamese know by variousnames My Khe, Non Nuoc,Ha My but Westerners referto as China Beach. The swath isframed to the north by the Son TraPeninsula, which American GIscalled Monkey Mountain duringthe Vietnam War, and to the south

by the rugged Cham Islands,located just nine miles offshore.

The Chedi Club Kamu Lodge

Caravelle Hotel

The Nam Hai

Palace Hotel Tokyo

La Residence Hotel & SpaFrom 1988-1991, China Beachwas immortalized by an AmericanTV series of same name. The

beach gained additional fame in2005, when it was called out byForbes magazine as one of the10 most luxurious beaches in theworld.

This article provided by

Balcony Media Group.

T e C e i C u Kamu Lo e

Caravelle Hotel