“The Way Life Should Be” – Kennebunkport’s Hidden Pond resort, I discovered during two recent stays, epitomizes the state motto of Maine. Though no simple task, I was able to narrow my favorite things about the property into a short-list for “Five Things We Love,” published on the Virtuoso Life blog. For my longer piece on Hidden Pond, family travel, and summer vacations in K’Port, check out “Prime Time.”
Long live Bali’s cultural traditions, which endure with the help of forward-thinking hotels like The Ritz-Carlton, Bali and Mandapa, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve. Learn more about how these and similar resorts are helping preserve the island’s heritage amid a rising wave of tourism in “Staying Power,” a story I wrote for the August 2018 issue of Virtuoso Traveler. Looking for a quicker read? Check out my Bali photo essay on the Virtuoso Life blog.
A few of my favorite things, all in one spot: Stays at Hidden Pond resort in Kennebunkport, summers on the Maine coast, traveling with family – in this case, my oldest daughter/cover girl – and the April issue of Virtuoso Traveler. For anyone who’s ever lamented how quickly childhood passes, or suddenly realized how imperative it is to travel with our kids when they’re still young, “Prime Time” – my story about our visit to KPort last July (and the first in a trilogy of features based on family vacations) – will hopefully hit home.
The best way to keep my Bali memories going – especially in the midst of a mid-February cold spell – before I write my upcoming feature: two posts on The Virtuoso Life blog. The first, a photo essay on the country’s beauty; the second, a focus on the best breakfast I’ve ever had.
Just back from Bali (and, great stays at The Ritz-Carlton, Bali and Mandapa, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve). Photos at every turn, but I was able to “narrow it down” to under 50 (yes, 49) for this new gallery.
Nightly symphonies of cicadas, picnics by thirteenth-century Lanna ruins, jaunts to Myanmar, hours exploring the Hall of Opium, dinners in the jungle accompanied by two-ton elephants – I had the fortune to experience it all during a recent stay at Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort. Though elephant-based tourism is a contested and hugely complex issue – and, sadly, so often done wrong (read: good for profits, bad for animals) – Anantara provides one sound prescription for caring for Thailand’s captive pachyderms while also employing their mahout partners and working to preserve wild populations. Learn more about the camp and its efforts in my article, “Wildest Dreams,” written for December Virtuoso Traveler magazine.
It’s mid-October, which means that Colorado’s aspens must be fully in bloom. It also means that it’s been one full year since my last visit to the state – a visit that marked a much-needed return after a 16-year voluntary exile (see Time Travel: This One’s Personal) and that followed an invitation I received to stay at Gateway Canyons Resort, playground to Discovery Channel founder John Hendricks (see Gateway Canyons: A Curious Place). Though articles, like life, happen when they’re supposed to, I’m happy to have at long last published my story on the stay, written for the October issue of Virtuoso Traveler.
If achieving longstanding goals is truly good for the soul, then today I’m pleased to have realized two: 1) visiting Myanmar, and 2) arriving in a country by walking across its border – rather than simply “parachuting” in via its airport (see numerous criticisms in the Paul Theroux canon).
Thanks to a guided tour provided by the Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort in northern Thailand, I had the fortune – all in a single day – to visit thirteenth-century ruins in the surrounding town of Chiang Saen, take a long-tail boat ride along the Mekong for a stop on the Laos island of Don Sao, and cross a bridge spanning the Ruak River from Mae Sai on the Thai border to Tachileik for an exceptional – albeit brief – two-hour glimpse of eastern Myanmar.
So much bustle, chaos, and dust stirred from tuk-tuks and motorbikes in both border towns eventually led to some stillness and peace at Phra Jow La Keng (shown above), a 90-year-old Buddhist temple that doubles as an orphanage. I’ve posted a few more photos of the chaos and peace I experienced today – mostly as a reminder that I need to return for a more thorough stay – in my Myanmar gallery.
There’s very little to the town of Gateway, Colorado: a diner (shut down, it seems, for some time), a post office (is it open?), a general store (still under construction). Blink on the drive through – about an hour from Grand Junction along the Unaweep-Tabeguache Scenic and Historic Byway – and and you’re sure to miss it. All the better, I say. Retired, reticent settings such as this so often store the best secrets, and in the case of Gateway, can quickly lead to revelation.
Just a few paces past “town” lies Gateway Canyons Resort, the brainchild of Discovery Channel founder John Hendricks. Over the past weekend I’ve had the opportunity to explore the resort and sample some of its draws, including soaring over 300-million-year-old red-rock formations in a helicopter, driving a convertible Bentley down quiet canyon roads, and riding horseback through valleys ablaze in brush oak and scented with sage.
It’s an eclectic and, truth be told, privileged playground for sure. And although a few of the activities feel as extravagant and over-the-top as the Discovery Channel’s lineup (see “Amish Mafia” or “Moonshiners”), what strikes me most is the number, and quality, of people I’ve met here (staff and guests alike), who, thanks to Hendricks’ vision, have found a place to pursue their passions. Take, for instance, the restoration specialist who maintains Hendricks’ impressive collection of vehicles at the on-site auto museum, the retired marine who leads guests on heli-tours (including a couple on their 64th anniversary over a mining camp they inhabited during the first years of their marriage), the horse whisperer who’s able to match even the most trepid rider with the right steed, and the brothers who I watched sail their small aircraft (again and again) past the Palisade (see bottom photo) before flying off to their next adventure.
There’s certainly no chance of being bored here (did I mention that guests can also learn to drive pro-Baja trucks on the resort’s off-road racetrack?). But what I’ve most appreciated about this place after, and even despite, all its activities, is the seclusion it has provided simply to sit, slow down, and watch the Palisade behind my casita soak up the setting sun and then slowly assimilate into the starry night. It’s during these shows that I most understand why Hendricks selected this spot as “the place” for his playground, and why his general manager so readily confided to me (twice, no less) that he never wanted to leave.
UPDATE | May 1, 2013: For more on Mashpi Lodge, check out my review, “Ahead in the Clouds,” written for the May issue of Virtuoso Life magazine.
My head’s in the clouds, I confess, but once again it occurs to me how good life can be. True: Such an outlook comes easy, perched in the canopy of the Andean cloud forest and surrounded by a symphony of birdsong. Nevertheless: Shouldn’t travel be transcendent? Does it not have the power to transform?
Two hundred feet above the jungle floor, I’m seated in the “sky bike” at Mashpi Lodge, a new eco-resort situated in the wilds of Ecuador some 100 miles northwest of Quito. The start of my nine-day trip designed by the Ministry of Tourism to showcase the country’s mainland, my stay at Mashpi has reminded me of the metamorphosis that travel can bring.
Some 80 percent of the lodge’s employees, for example, come from local communities. Built with sustainable materials, Mashpi also resides on land previously owned by a logging company, and its formation has led to the protection of more than 40,000 acres of forest. Under the guidance of resident biologist, Carlos Morochz, the region’s flora and fauna are now being preserved. Already Carlos and his colleagues have identified new species of frogs and discovered a number of heretofore-unknown leks, or mating grounds, for manakin, cock-of-the-rock, and umbrella birds.
Of course, such efforts are the boon of travelers, too. Here in this eco-playground I’ve had the good fortune to immerse myself in revitalizing waterfalls; take night hikes through the jungle; linger in the lodge’s butterfly and hummingbird gardens; and indulge in an alfresco chocolate degustation with chef David Barriga as toucans flitted by in the background. All this and now an aerial bicycle ride that places everything – the lodge, the land, and this verdant, vibrant life that surrounds – in perfect perspective.