East Eats West

The need for modern-day dragons

 

Picture: Inherit or work hard for it? 

I recently visited family and relatives in Asia. While eating heaps of yummy food a recurring topic is the upbringing and tuition of the 20 plus children and teenagers. Some are studying at local schools, others at international ones. Some are destined to become a doctor while others want to go in business. After many conversations one thing has become clear: parents and relatives worry more about boys than girls. Most dads miss the “hunger” and yearning in their sons. One dad put it nicely. He said that his son could become a pilot, a cook or a sports teacher. All is fine with me. But whatever option he proposes to his son, the son seems not to catch on. Furthermore his son seems not to be motivated by money or materialistic things. Which did not surprise me as the sons gets everything from the dad: travels, electronics and even a car. So is there something wrong with the boys in Asia, or even globally? Probably not. Here is what I have been able to gather so far.

There is a new generation coming up. A generation that has everything from a materialistic point of view. This generation cannot be motivated by a fancy car or a big house. Quite the contrast. They already have experienced the spoils of modern living, having attended good schools and been given any gift conceivable. So what do they yearn for? They yearn for a more spiritual, sometimes even religious, life. A balance between work, a comfortable life and a higher purpose. They yearn for meaning and sometimes, interestingly, for tradition or roots. Social contacts, mostly through social medias like Facebook, is their competitive playing field. This is where they spend a lot of time and where battles are fought (e.g. cyber mobbing). But why are boys more slacking in the eyes of the older generation?

I think boys are lacking adventure, danger and confrontations. Today we live in a relatively safe world. We can easily travel to almost any spot on the globe and most countries have abandoned compulsory military service. In short, there is little adventure left. There are no more dragons to be slain or maidens to be saved. King Arthur and Lancelot would get bored out of their skulls. I think this absence of a villain or battle makes many boys nowadays slack. Spending twenty years in school, listening to other people’s thoughts and sitting for exams doesn’t excite them anymore. There is a dire need for modern day dragons!

Best of stylish colonial hotels in Asia

Picture: The Old Harbour Hotel in Fort Cochin, Kerala. The best hotel in India according to TripAdvisor. 

There are two good reasons to stay in a colonial hotel in Asia. Firstly, most of them are hard to beat for pure atmosphere and style and secondly, tourism today is an important force to protect historic buildings that might be destroyed otherwise. So here is my best-of-list (in no particular order): 

The Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, Georgetown (Malaysia)

Entirely vast, UNESCO-awarded, designed according to Feng Shui and movie set. Hard to beat for charm, the manager, Eric, though is quite a character. 

The Majestic Hotel, Malacca (Malaysia)

Old and new beautifully fused with a service that is right up there. A 1920s Chinese mansion got fully renovated by the Malaysian YTL group. They added a modern hotel complex that easily blends the two properties. Worth a mentioning are the hotel manager Mr. Ben and the chief guest relation officer Mr. Lim. It is rare nowadays to see hospitality industry employees who still believe in the customer is king philosophy. Mrs. Ben and Lim are such individuals. And yes, do not forget to try the Nyonya cuisine in the upstairs restaurant.

3 Nagas, Luang Prabang (Laos)

Situated in the heart of UNESCO protected Luang Prabang, wonderfully decorated and peacefully quiet at night. 

Old Harbour Hotel, Fort Cochin (India)

Vast colonial mansion with lush garden with swimming pool. Join the owner for yoga every morning at 7am and relax in the generous rooms. A perfect break away from hectic India!

Angkor Village, Siem Reap (Cambodia)

Right in the old town center of ever busy Siem Reap. Relax in the Khmer style wooden bungalows or sip a fruit shake at the pool while watching the monkeys go by on the electrical wires.

Picture: The (now more expensive) 3 Nagas Hotel in Luang Prabang, Laos. 

Help me make my holidays in Singapore and Hong Kong fun!

I will visit Singapore and Hong Kong in October for holidays and I am interested to hear if you, my reader, can show me attractions of those two cities I overlooked so far. Just leave a comment by clicking here. Thanks!

Computers cannot travel and give bad advice

Let’s say you want to go on holiday to South-East Asia and have never been to Laos and Vietnam but would like to find out if a trip there suits you and what itinerary you should take. How do you go about it? Searching Google, browsing online review services like www.tripadvisor.com or www.i-escape.com or buy a Lonely Planet? What if you want to know what VISA you need and what are typical hand-made souvenirs? Online services do not answer such questions but mostly provide places to stay or tell you how much a flight cost as the information is gathered from travel-agencies and the hotel-industry. Travel books like Lonely Planet or Fodor’s might get you detailed information about routes and places to stay but might lack on the inspirational side whereas books like Spas in Asia or Hotels in Asia might inspire you but are sometimes out-of-date, unhandy and mostly filled with beautiful pictures. The difficult task is brining the inspirational side together with the detail-planning of actual arranging a trip and so far I have not found an online-service which provides that. Computers cannot travel and are often bring up search-results that are huge-lists of text but lack inspirational pictures. If you go for example buying for a dress you go window-shopping and reading through price-lists. And this is the current weakness of travel-advice websites: they are not visual and inspirational enough. Not that with thousands of travel-blogs there is a lack in text and picture provided by traveling humans, just combining human knowledge with online search ability and then presenting it in an appealing way has not been achieved yet. In the meantime feel free to ask me for free travel-tips. 

The perils of frequent flyer programs

As I fly a lot I got a Miles&More Frequent Flyer VISA Card from the Lufthansa Star Alliance Network and every time I buy something with my VISA card, I get miles. As I fly back from Bangkok via Singapore to Zurich on a journey that takes almost a day, I wanted to upgrade from Economy to Business Class. I checked my miles online and saw that I have enough miles. This is when the troubles began.

I first sent Miles&More an Email and did not get an answer for over a week. So I decided to ask the airport Singapore Airlines office and they told me they could not upgrade, only KrisFlyers in Singapore. I then decided to ask the Star Alliance Miles&More office at the airport on the day of my departure. They said that technically in the system I could upgrade but they could not do it, only Singapore airlines. I went again to the Singapore Airlines office and insisted on an upgrade. After a few calls they found out that my ticket is a special ticket and they would have to ask the issuing office in Zurich if that is possible. Unfortunately this would take about three days and therefore they could not do it. I cannot even pay for an upgrade as my ticket is some kind of special ticket.

The moral of the story is that if I had known about the difficulties to get an upgrade, I would have never got a card in the first place. Secondly the procedure is so complicated and the customer service so bad, that I really wonder what the Star Alliance Network’s added-value is and thirdly, I rule that has been true for a long-time: never ever send an email to a website of a big company as you might never get a response. No more miles for me, just give me the cheapest rate for the flight!

Welcome Back-Party in Zurich

For all the ones of you who do not receive my regular Email-Newsletter, I am announcing herewith that I will host a Welcome Back-Party in Zurich on Saturday the 24th of June. Just send me an Email to confirm your attendance and I will send you further information!

Traveling helps to uncover secret agent’s little lies

Sometimes the benefits of traveling are quite eye-opening, so to speak. I watched the new Mission Impossible 3 episode and immediately realized that the movie was a little incorrect regarding its Shanghai location. When Ethan Hunt travels to Shanghai to recover the Rabbit’s Foot (who has figured out what it was?) the first scenes with the skyscrapers are shot in Shanghai. But the following shots where Ethan frees his wife and runs around canals and old-style Chinese houses are not shot in Shanghai but a few hours away from Shanghai in scenic Suzhou famous for its canals and classical gardens. And I only know that because I was in Suzhou and took pictures of the canals. Anyway, the movie rocks!

Far is not always that far

Never ask a Singaporean if something is far because nothing is far in Singapore. Nevertheless you might hear someone saying that something is far, meaning farther away then for example Suntek city or more than a 15 minutes cab-ride. In contrast Americans would not mind to drive for 3-4 hours one way to visit friends and relatives in a neighboring town, their sense of distance being greatly affected by a vast country as I learned when I lived in San Franciso. For Swiss on the other hand everything is far when it is outside the town or the canton. When I lived in Bern, the Swiss capital, a one-hour drive away from Zurich, the biggest city, many friends considered this as living very far away from “home” and only a few came and visited me. And I am realizing that with my extensive traveling far is only what is more than a four-hour flight away from wherever I am. I guess globalization and budget-airlines make the world indeed smaller.

All sorts of Chinese

Like there is no homogenous Asia there is not only one typical Chinese. People who claim to be Chinese can be found across Asia but it is not always clear what makes them “Chinese”, as many of them do not live in China or Taiwan but in Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, the Philippines and elsewhere. The best definition of being Chinese I came across is so far a shared sense of heritage derived from a shared scripture and language, taste for Chinese food and strong sense of family and Chinese ancestry. But then again, it is not that all Chinese feel as one big unity, not at all. For example when I went out with a Hong Kong Chinese friend of mine she liked to point out to me Mainland Chinese, apparently distinguishable through their attire and rougher behavior. And when I spoke to a Singaporean Chinese who lives in Kuala Lumpur, she conceded that she feels a bit superior to Malaysian Chinese (who speak Cantonese in contrast to the Mandarin spoken in Singapore). And then there is the big group of ABCs or American-born Chinese who now return home to Mainland Chinese in flocks. Interestingly the Chinese Diaspora, like the Jewish Diaspora, is spread across the world and perceived as being successful and hard-working business people. Not that this business acumen is admired everywhere as hostilities in Malaysia against the Chinese tells.

The real reason why you are able to read this blog: my parents

Some diseases are incurable but still pleasant, one of them being the travel-fever caused by the travel-bug. And as you might already guess EastEatsWest has contracted this splendid disease a long time ago. Even though I cannot exactly recall when I first got the travel-bug I know who had a major hand in me getting it: my parents. Let me explain: My father took his family every now and then on his business trips and I still remember staying with my family at the legendary Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida. I just adored the massive building with its intimidating dining-hall, the beach and a sommelier serving exclusive wine to my parents. Later on my dad sent me to a summer-camp to learn English in Bournemouth, in the south of England. And I still remember being initially terrified by the idea but quickly got to love it. My dad also sent me in 1995 to San Francisco for half-an-year to learn even more English and boy, did I love this town and the trip on a motorbike to the Grand Canyon. This was also when portable computers, called notebooks, became popular and I got my first Toshiba notebook. So slowly the travel-fever got hold of me and since 2001 I developed a particularly severe case of yellow-fever, visiting Asia at least once a year. Therefore I want to thank my parents to give me the inspiration to travel and the financial means when I was younger. I thank them for letting me explore and eventually love the world, for me feeling at home around the globe and what last but not least resulted in this EastEatsWest-blog. Thank you mummy and daddy! Thank you very much!
PS: Hey, and parents do not complain of me travelling for almost a year and intending to share my time in the future between Europe and Asia. It is your entire fault!