For the past 25 years I have averaged about 200 travel days per year in my career as a freelance travel writer. My husband and I were enjoying a trip to South Africa last March when suddenly we had to cut it short and get back to Canada on the earliest plane as per Canadian government warnings. Since then I have been “grounded” with lots of time to think about some of my favourite globetrotting experiences. So, in an attempt to inspire you to spend some quality time reminiscing fondly about some of your best holidays, I am sharing some of mine. When the COVID-19 crisis is over and it’s safe to get on a plane, here’s my bucket list.
Ode to Venice, Italy
Truman Capote once quipped that, “Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs at one go.”
The moment I first laid eyes on her I was smitten by La Serenissima. Who would not be seduced by this fantastic mirage rising like a Venus from the lagoon? Nothing succeeds like excess could be her motto—from the golden mosaics of the Doge’s Palace to the marvelous Tintoretto-painted ceilings on the Sculoa di San Rocco.
For me, Venice is a treasure chest brimming with precious exotica from all over the world. This fantasy isn’t far from reality, actually. The city was built by merchant princes whose navies ruled the eastern Mediterranean and dominated trade routes between Europe and faraway eastern lands.
So, if La Serenissima seems to be a tapestry woven of silk, velvet and lace imbued with saffron, cinnamon, amber and silver filigree, it’s because those riches and more first entered the western world through her labyrinth of waterways. Probably nowhere else on earth does East meet West with so much panache.
Venice has been flabbergasting visitors for centuries. Entering the city via the Grand Canal is a staggering experience whether it’s for the first time or the tenth. Walt Disney could not have improved upon this architectural fantasy of Romanesque and Renaissance palaces, domed churches and arched bridges, all bathed in that rich radiant light that is Venice’s alone. At dusk the city becomes shrouded in a soft mist made mauve by the glow of the iconic lamplights. The grand salons of the palaces are illuminated by flickering Murano glass chandeliers and their lacy facades appear to be melting into the watery mirror below.
Is Venice a tourist Mecca? Of course. We flock to the Piazza San Marco, which Napoleon described as the drawing room of Europe. We order exorbitantly priced coffee with zabione liqueur and whipped cream served on a silver tray to the accompaniment of a string quartet at Café Florian. We nip into Harry’s Bar, Ernest Hemingway’s favourite watering hole, for a Bellini where the cocktail was first created.
We bargain for leather goods, Carnevale masks and other trinkets in the stalls around the impressive Rialto Bridge. We shell out €80 for a 40-minute ride in a sleek black gondola gracefully maneuvered through the narrow canals by a dashing gondolier. And we leave absolutely entranced by the city that Gore Vidal called the most beautiful cliché on earth.
Pop a Cork in Champagne, France
“Come quickly! I am drinking the stars!” The legend goes that Dom Pérignon, a Benedictine monk and cellar master of the Abbey Hautvillers near Epernay, uttered these words after his first sip of his accidental creation of effervescent wine in the 1600s. The star-struck monk may not have “invented” champagne but he is credited with perfecting the bottling and fermentation process that harnesses those bubbles to produce a wine that sustains its sparkle.
Back in the 1980s, an invitation to visit the Champagne region, about 145 km northeast of Paris, began my love for most things French, especially the “grapes of froth.” Reims, dominated by a 13th century gothic cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is home to several prestigious producers. At Domaine Pommery they display modern art in the cellars so you get champagne and art tour rolled into one. Nearby, book a table at Le Domaine Les Crayères, a posh hotel with a Michelin-starred restaurant, Le Perc. I will never forget a four-hour, multi-course truffle tasting menu that I enjoyed there hosted by Remi Krug from the prestigious House of Krug Champagne.
Fifteen minutes south, tiny Epernay, is home to more fabled champagne houses, easily visited on foot. Moët et Chandon produces the legendary Dom Pérignon, and offers terrific tours of its vast chalk cellars where the bottles are aged.
The Comité Interprofessionel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC), the industry’s governing body, stringently enforces its regulations. The grapes, the costliest in France, must be handpicked. Adding to the expense is the minimum one-year aging time and the labour-intensive second fermentation whereby every day for several months an expert remueur turns and tilts each bottle until it’s upside down with the sediment deposited against the cork. The cork and sediment are then disgorged and a sugar mixture is added.
Like many masterpieces, this collaboration between man and nature does not come cheap. But then one doesn’t launch ships or celebrate momentous occasions with anything but the best.
Spice it up at The Siam, Bangkok, Thailand
Arriving at The Siam hotel via the hotel’s vintage riverboat transported me into a unique and tranquil world onto its own in the middle of bustling Bangkok. My debonnaire butler, Paul, escorted me along a path past a swimming pool to the antique carved wooden doors of my villa where I had a courtyard with my own plunge pool.
The Siam is the brainchild of Bangkok rock and movie star, Krissada Sukosol Clapp who built the hotel in 2012 as a retreat and place to house his and his mother’s vast collections of antique Thai treasures. They hired American architect Bill Bensley who incorporated the clean bold lines of Art Deco, glass, water features and lush garden landscapes with the carefully curated art and antiques.
If you enter the Siam from the street you find yourself in a garden pavilion with a lotus-shaped fountain in the centre. The piece de resistance is the soaring central atrium where a glass conservatory-style roof brings light to a reflection pool surrounded by tropical foliage. Off to one side there is a library and screening room. Upstairs in the Vinyl room, complete with grand piano and vintage posters, you could well expect to spot Noel Coward tickling the ivories in this jazz-age setting.
The Siam offers some unique guest experiences. You could work with a trainer and learn the art of Muay Thai kick boxing (the national sport). If that’s too demanding, head to the Opium Spa for a Muay Thai deep tissue massage. You can also opt to have a Sak Yant ceremonial sacred tattoo.
I joined The Siam’s sous chef, Thammarach, for a Thai cooking lesson. We started our morning with a tuk-tuk ride to a local market where chef pointed out the remarkable range of produce and bought fresh herbs for our class as we dodged shoppers on motor scooters. Back at the hotel we donned aprons in the private cooking class kitchen overlooking the river. Chef demonstrated how to tackle each ingredient, from bruising lemongrass to chiffonading kaffir lime leaves. He also explained that Thai food contains five major flavours: sweet, sour, spicy, salty, bitter. Each dish should have a least two of those tastes and the key is getting the right balance. Hence the need to keep testing as you cook and add more chilies, more fish sauce, more coconut milk or more palm sugar as your palette dictates.
We concocted Tom Yam Goong soup, a fiery broth with jumbo shrimps topped with fresh coriander and drops of chili oil. Then we tackled pork with red curry, a marvelous mélange of all of requisite flavours. For our last dish, the green chicken curry, chef taught me to make curry paste from scratch pounding the toasted coriander and cumin seeds, garlic, shallots, coriander roots, chilies, galangal and lemongrass with a mortar and pestle. Hard work but worth the effort.
The hotel is located in the Royal Dusit district of Bangkok. Your butler will help you arrange your day and reserve a place on the hotel shuttle yacht for excursions along the Chao Phraya River. But chances are good that you won’t want to leave The Siam.