Ditch the butter chicken and get ready to forget everything you thought you knew about Indian food – right in the heart of downtown Bangkok. Head chef Gaggan Anand has put together a refreshing culinary experience unlike any other you’ll find in this vibrant city. Situated in a stately, whitewashed colonial mansion, Gaggan Restaurant specialises in progressive Indian cuisine – an innovative seasonal approach to the regional dishes and street food of Anand’s homeland.
Enjoy a meal in the bright, airy dining room, from the four-seat ‘library’ full of cookbooks or at the exclusive chef’s table with an intimate view of the kitchen. It may feel cheeky seeking out Indian food in a city full of local delights, but a meal at Gaggan is not to be missed.
Fancy chomping on a crispy tarantula spiced with black pepper and lime sauce? From contemporary creations to long-forgotten recipes, Romdeng in Phnom Penh serves authentic Cambodian cuisine with a twist.
The restaurant is staffed by former street kids and run by Mith Samlanh, an organisation that works with the city’s marginalised youth. Set in a beautiful colonial building, Romdeng is decorated with wood carvings and locally made furniture, and the silk goods and cushions that adorn the restaurant’s interior are all crafted by sewing students at Mith Samlanh.
In the realm of street food it doesn’t get much better than sai oua. For those of you who don’t speak the lingo, that is simply Laos sausage. It’s one of the most popular dishes in the north of the country, and its spicy pork goodness can be found everywhere, including in the food markets popular in both Luang Prabang and Vientiane.
If you’re keen to try it in a sit-down establishment, head to Nangkhambang restaurant on Khoun Boulom Boulevard in Vientiane. This is a popular spot for well-heeled locals (it’s more expensive than the places they’d normally dine), but the staff members are quite used to catering to out-of-towners, too. They do a great Laos snag, but you’ll also find other unique local dishes like frog stuffed with pork and lemongrass, as well as staples including grilled river fish, papaya salad and sticky rice.
If you’re a fan of Anthony Bourdain you may have already heard about Bale Dutung (the name means ‘house of wood’), a family-run restaurant in Angeles City where chef Claude Tayag puts a contemporary spin on traditional Filipino dishes.
There’s a choice of set menus, including one inspired by Bourdain’s visit, serving up dishes like fiddlehead fern salad, lechon (roasted suckling pig) tortilla and sushi of crab fat and catfish. Don’t eat a thing before you get there – you’ll be enjoying about 10 courses – and ensure you book ahead.
They say knowledge is power, and this speakeasy delivers in spades, serving up potent potions – if you can find it. Hidden among the cosmopolitan hustle of Keong Saik Road, the Library facade is an ever-changing pop-up shop. Whisper the password to the shop attendant (ask at the Study next door for the magic words) and step through a secret mirrored door into a clandestine wonderland. Let waves of moody blues and jazz wash over you as you take in the wall-to-wall display of liquor.
Here, cocktails aren’t the average fare – wildly imaginative and handcrafted to precision, they’re dazzling and delicious to boot. Get splashin’ with Shrub-A-Dub-Dub, a bubbly concoction of Ford’s gin, Amaro Montenegro, peach puree, lemon, ginger shrub, Moroccan bitters and a dash of Moscato D’Asti, served in a miniature bathtub (rubber ducky included). Drinks are hard on the wallet at around US$15 a pop, but who can say no to a tipple in a tub?
I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore. And you’ll be feeling it too when you enjoy a classic flick over the lagoon on the idyllic Thai island of Koh Kood. Forget sticky seats and carpet that smells like last year’s popcorn, Cinema Paradiso is just as the name implies – big screen movies in our kind of paradise. Soneva Kiri resort plays Hollywood classics nightly in its open-air, jungle-enshrouded cinema, dubbed mother nature’s amphitheatre.
Sink into a cushioned lounge seat with a cocktail and gourmet snacks and relive the silver screen hits of yesteryear beneath a tropical canopy of stars.
The sleepy fishing villages of Sri Lanka’s east and south coasts were ravaged by the infamous Boxing Day tsunami of 2004. The damage was extensive, but even in the most hard hit areas, the laidback strip of restaurants and hotels have bounced back, welcoming growing numbers of visitors.
Tourists from around the world are increasingly heading beyond the well-established tourist resorts of the west coast to discover places such as Arugam Bay on the east coast with its mesh of brightly coloured fishing nets and rows of shacks serving up freshly cooked seafood from bubbling metal pots, sourced directly from the fishermen that haul their nets back to the shore on their wooden boats each morning.
But keen surfers are also making up a large number of the visitors to these thanks to the bay’s break, highly regarded during the monsoon season which produces some consistent waves along the east coast between May and September.
When the frenetic pace of city life has you feeling like a battery hen, it’s time to put yourself out to pasture. Check yourself in at the wholesome hideaway that is the Farm at San Benito and begin your personalised journey of transformation, whether you’re after the detox, stress management or wellness options.
While the term ‘holistic wellness’ is used loosely and liberally by any resort that boasts a spa and a gym, this Philippines establishment is the real deal. A team of doctors is on staff and your arrival begins with a rigorous health assessment to map out a course for achieving a new and improved you. You can expect to undergo colonic irrigation, reiki and possibly an intravenous vitamin infusion or a liver and gall bladder flush.
That’s the icky bit, now the indulgent bit: there’s a full suite of spa therapies to enjoy, from body scrubs and massages to facials and steam therapy. The retreat is tucked within 10 hectares of lush landscaped gardens in the foothills of Mount Malarayat and organic produce is all grown on site.
Forget about a Big Mac, meals here are vegan and served raw, using specially designed dehydrators to lock in the natural nutrients and enzymes that make your body sing. By day take part in yoga, meditation, boot camp, calisthenics or trampoline dance, and at night enjoy a moonlight massage, before retreating to your luxurious villa for your makeover’s most important ingredient – a restful night’s sleep.
Picture a holiday in India and you usually envisage crowded streets, incredible forts and the bustle of daily life, but at the Ashram Surf Retreat near Mangalore, on India’s south-west coast, you’ll find an experience far removed from the madding crowd. Take to the water and make the only barrel in your life the one you ride, rather than the one clinging to your waistline.
Choose your fitness weapon – surfboard, bodyboard, wakeboard or stand- up paddle board – and reinvigorate your body in the sun and surf. If you’re a novice, join the surf school and learn to master the swell, or opt for a sea kayaking adventure, snorkelling or meditation and yoga sessions. Delicious vegetarian meals are served twice a day, and you can eat your fill of coconuts and fruit.
Cast away that bottle of Bintang, scrap sun-baking on the beach and get your blood pumping at a Balinese wellness retreat.
Located at the heart of the island at a village outside of Ubud, a restored Balinese bungalow will be your home as you spend a week working out. You’ll earn that sweat streaming down your back getting active in the ‘jungle gym’, where the trainers utilise coconuts, bags of rice and bamboo apparatus.
Other sessions involve jungle runs, crawling through muddy rice paddies and hauling logs upstream. Rise at 3am to trek Mount Batur by torchlight, summiting its peak as the first rays of light catch a wisp of volcanic smoke. The early start is rewarded by a trip to natural hot springs to soothe those weary muscles. There’s also plenty of down time for massages, reading, napping and shopping in Ubud, and the meals are prepared using the freshest local produce. And, yes, you can have banana pancakes for breakfast.
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