wowpow
May 20th, 2006, 10:14
Personal Best picks from actor Chow Yun-Fat, property tycoon Minoru Mori and others.
As with most of these amusing foolishnesses Thailand came out well with:
Best Urban Oasis: Bangkok. The Phra Pradaeng Peninsula (aka Bangkrachao)
The jungle that lies in an oxbow curve of Bangkok's Chao Phraya river, barely two kilometers from the central business district, goes by more than one nameтАФPhra Pradaeng and Bangkrachao are the most common, but it's also been nicknamed "the lung of Bangkok." It's an apt description for this precious antidote to a traffic-choked capital with too few parks.
Many city dwellers are unaware that Phra Pradaeng even existsтАФand that's just how its habitu├йs like it. The area is served either by a single, hard-to-find road or by boat. The latter requires you to brave a rickety wooden jetty, buried in a dockside slum, before boarding a longtail boatтАФor else to head for Bangna temple, catching a peppermint-green ferry through the wakes of ocean-bound container ships and slow-moving rice barges. The reward is a sudden slice of rural Thailand, circa 1970, with bamboo-shaded creeks, crumbling old temples and raised walkways snaking through mango and banana plantations. The pace of life is slow here, and because tourism is a relatively recent phenomenon, the locals greet visitors with genuine delight. Reinforcing Phra Pradaeng's air of being a place lost in time is the surreal sight of villagers playing p├йtanque (the theory is that the game was bequeathed by 19th century French travelers).
Phra Pradaeng is "actually a peninsula, but it feels like an island," says Co van Kessel, a Dutch expat who led the first bicycle tours of the area more than a decade ago. Phra Pradaeng has no police station and no ATMs, he explains, just 128 kilometers of bike routes and plenty of wildlife. Proceed quietly, and you might see electric-blue kingfishers, racket-tailed drongos and giant monitor lizards. No less striking is the sight of Bangkok's skyscrapers, glimpsed above the swaying palm trees, reminding you just how close the city is, even as you relish this breath of fresh air.
Best Lesson in Peaceful Co-existence: The Kanchanaburi Tiger Temple
If any group of people were to have faith in the ability of full-grown tigers to live amicably with human beings, it would be Buddhist monks. The saffron-robed ascetics of Thailand's Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yannasampanno Forest Monastery, colloquially known as the Tiger Temple, live with 17 of the beastsтАФrendered no less fearsome by the cuddly names (Sunshine, Morning Sky, Rainbow) the monks have bestowed on them. The tigers spend most of the day caged, but are allowed out for an unleashed afternoon strollтАФat which time visitors to the temple, about 200 km west of Bangkok, have the opportunity to pet them.
Confronting a monster that has the perfect freedom to disembowel you with a single swipe of its paw probably requires faith in some kind of higher powerтАФor at the very least in the affable head abbot Phra Acharn Phoosit Chan, who founded the temple in 1994 as a sanctuary for orphaned and injured animals. The tigers, visitors will be relieved to hear, are raised in accordance with Buddhist proscriptions on violence. Feisty behavior, such as growling or cuffing, is punished with squirts of water from plastic bottles, and provocations are minimizedтАФwhen an appetizing goat or cow strolls by, monks shield the tigers' eyes. It's probably just as well that the tigers are not allowed near the small coterie of horses and deer that the temple also maintains.
The temple is in the process of expanding the current tiger habitat, an expensive project that relies entirely on donations from visitors. The hope is that this added space will dispense with the need for cages altogether. That development, however, will give greater urgency to the waivers that every visitor must sign, releasing the temple from any liability in the event of a mauling. The monks may believe in the power of compassion to calm the savage beastтАФbut they're not stupid.
Best Bespoke Potions; Lemongrass House Phuket
If you want to smell like no one else, try mixing a selection from the more than 90 natural scents at Phuket's Lemongrass HouseтАФa small, bamboo-lined shop across from Surin beach in Phuket. There's everything from extract of anchan (a Thai flower better known for the violet food coloring it yields) to ylang-ylang (a fragrant oil distilled from the flower of a Cananga tree), but if you want to get really adventurous, American owner Bobby Duchowny will gladly oblige. He once created a bacon room spray (used by a hotel to lure guests to breakfast) and a body wrap made from Godiva chocolate, sake, Dead Sea mud and 24-karat gold flakes. Duchowny's skills aren't limited to arresting scentsтАФhe's made a natural insecticide to help organic farmers in Thailand, and Lemongrass House produces a nourishing range of spa products based on its signature blend of jojoba, sweet almond and vitamin E. But he loves a challenge, and encourages individual customers to experiment "with what smells and feels good to you." Champagne and dollar bills anyone?
Many more at http://www.time.com/time/asia/2006/boa/index.html
Imagine Thailand winning Best Urban Oasis and not Best Red Light District!!
As with most of these amusing foolishnesses Thailand came out well with:
Best Urban Oasis: Bangkok. The Phra Pradaeng Peninsula (aka Bangkrachao)
The jungle that lies in an oxbow curve of Bangkok's Chao Phraya river, barely two kilometers from the central business district, goes by more than one nameтАФPhra Pradaeng and Bangkrachao are the most common, but it's also been nicknamed "the lung of Bangkok." It's an apt description for this precious antidote to a traffic-choked capital with too few parks.
Many city dwellers are unaware that Phra Pradaeng even existsтАФand that's just how its habitu├йs like it. The area is served either by a single, hard-to-find road or by boat. The latter requires you to brave a rickety wooden jetty, buried in a dockside slum, before boarding a longtail boatтАФor else to head for Bangna temple, catching a peppermint-green ferry through the wakes of ocean-bound container ships and slow-moving rice barges. The reward is a sudden slice of rural Thailand, circa 1970, with bamboo-shaded creeks, crumbling old temples and raised walkways snaking through mango and banana plantations. The pace of life is slow here, and because tourism is a relatively recent phenomenon, the locals greet visitors with genuine delight. Reinforcing Phra Pradaeng's air of being a place lost in time is the surreal sight of villagers playing p├йtanque (the theory is that the game was bequeathed by 19th century French travelers).
Phra Pradaeng is "actually a peninsula, but it feels like an island," says Co van Kessel, a Dutch expat who led the first bicycle tours of the area more than a decade ago. Phra Pradaeng has no police station and no ATMs, he explains, just 128 kilometers of bike routes and plenty of wildlife. Proceed quietly, and you might see electric-blue kingfishers, racket-tailed drongos and giant monitor lizards. No less striking is the sight of Bangkok's skyscrapers, glimpsed above the swaying palm trees, reminding you just how close the city is, even as you relish this breath of fresh air.
Best Lesson in Peaceful Co-existence: The Kanchanaburi Tiger Temple
If any group of people were to have faith in the ability of full-grown tigers to live amicably with human beings, it would be Buddhist monks. The saffron-robed ascetics of Thailand's Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yannasampanno Forest Monastery, colloquially known as the Tiger Temple, live with 17 of the beastsтАФrendered no less fearsome by the cuddly names (Sunshine, Morning Sky, Rainbow) the monks have bestowed on them. The tigers spend most of the day caged, but are allowed out for an unleashed afternoon strollтАФat which time visitors to the temple, about 200 km west of Bangkok, have the opportunity to pet them.
Confronting a monster that has the perfect freedom to disembowel you with a single swipe of its paw probably requires faith in some kind of higher powerтАФor at the very least in the affable head abbot Phra Acharn Phoosit Chan, who founded the temple in 1994 as a sanctuary for orphaned and injured animals. The tigers, visitors will be relieved to hear, are raised in accordance with Buddhist proscriptions on violence. Feisty behavior, such as growling or cuffing, is punished with squirts of water from plastic bottles, and provocations are minimizedтАФwhen an appetizing goat or cow strolls by, monks shield the tigers' eyes. It's probably just as well that the tigers are not allowed near the small coterie of horses and deer that the temple also maintains.
The temple is in the process of expanding the current tiger habitat, an expensive project that relies entirely on donations from visitors. The hope is that this added space will dispense with the need for cages altogether. That development, however, will give greater urgency to the waivers that every visitor must sign, releasing the temple from any liability in the event of a mauling. The monks may believe in the power of compassion to calm the savage beastтАФbut they're not stupid.
Best Bespoke Potions; Lemongrass House Phuket
If you want to smell like no one else, try mixing a selection from the more than 90 natural scents at Phuket's Lemongrass HouseтАФa small, bamboo-lined shop across from Surin beach in Phuket. There's everything from extract of anchan (a Thai flower better known for the violet food coloring it yields) to ylang-ylang (a fragrant oil distilled from the flower of a Cananga tree), but if you want to get really adventurous, American owner Bobby Duchowny will gladly oblige. He once created a bacon room spray (used by a hotel to lure guests to breakfast) and a body wrap made from Godiva chocolate, sake, Dead Sea mud and 24-karat gold flakes. Duchowny's skills aren't limited to arresting scentsтАФhe's made a natural insecticide to help organic farmers in Thailand, and Lemongrass House produces a nourishing range of spa products based on its signature blend of jojoba, sweet almond and vitamin E. But he loves a challenge, and encourages individual customers to experiment "with what smells and feels good to you." Champagne and dollar bills anyone?
Many more at http://www.time.com/time/asia/2006/boa/index.html
Imagine Thailand winning Best Urban Oasis and not Best Red Light District!!