Well as you probably know already, yes it does.

Read my review at TravelIntelligence.com

Plus Sauce & Nosh review here

View the photographs here on Flickr

The most perfectly preserved 1950s lobby in Thailand

This was the first hotel in Thailand with a pool, plus the first home of the Thailand Sub Aqua Club. The hotel boasts a unique and rigorously enforced set of rules (most importantly “No Sex Tourists”), and the world’s biggest vegetarian menu. We spent all week exploring her nooks and crannies, befriending the eccentric staff.

Extended Sauce & Nosh culinary adventures here

Ayurveda (life science in Sanskrit) is a 5000-year-old holistic system of traditional Indian medicine, the oldest known such system on Earth.

Rachelle and I were whisked away across the mighty Chao Phya river to the calming confines of the Oriental’s luxurious spa complex on the west bank. We spent half an hour with the lovely Ayurvedic Wellness Coordinator Neelam – who hails from Jaipur’s Pink City – determining our Ayurvedic Dosha (mainly through the medium of multiple choice questionnaire).

Rachelle is Pure Pitta (Fire), I am half Vata (Air), half Pitta.

That established we were ushered into a stunningly designed and equipped massage room for our Keraleeya Abhyangam massage. Changing into very flimsy see-through panties, we spent the next wonderfully relaxing ninety minutes having hot oils rubbed into every aching muscle…

From the Oriental’s website: “This distinctive style of rejuvenating massage uses harmonious strokes, rhythm, speed and pressure in perfect synchrony covering one from head to heel. The entire experience of being cocooned in caring warmth along with the therapeutic effect of the oil balances all the three levels of physical, mental and spiritual well-being, creating deep relaxation and a sense of grounding.”

After a cleansing steam and scrub, we kicked back and sipped gorgeous ginger tea. I ended up feeling more relaxed, focused and at one with myself than I’ve ever felt: and so goddam clean. Rachelle felt spoilt.

Definitely the best 4500 bhat I ever spent*

www.mandarinoriental.com/bangkok/spa/ayurveda/

*should read never spent…

More importantly, this is the only hotel in the world with not one, but two, Michelin three star restaurants. Read more at TravelIntelligence.com

More photos on Sauce & Nosh
http://sauceandnosh.com/lunch-at-caprice-four-seasons-hong-kong

After the craziness of Hong Kong and China we flew to Phnom Penh with our HK-based friends Nic and Emmet for a wee interlude between bustling Asian megacities, plus a quick recce of the islands off Cambodia’s southern coast.

Cambodia pics here on Flickr

These 40 islands are mostly undeveloped: much as Thailand’s islands were thirty or forty years ago. We didn’t know what we’d find beyond white sand and palm fringed beaches.

Cambodia is an endlessly fascinating country brutally ravaged by the Vietnam War: American B52’s dropped huge amounts of ordinance, in the confusion that followed the radical communist Khmer Rouge ceased power, emptied the cities of the educated, and attempted to radically remake Cambodian society by butchering three million citizens in the Killing Fields.

After decades of civil war the nation is finally back on its feet, with huge amounts of international aid ensuring everything is far better organised, and far safer, than when I last visited in the early noughties.

We spent a night in Phnom Penh at the wonderful Raffles-owned Le Royal Hotel, where Rachelle had a run in with a cheeky monkey…
www.simoncrerar.com/travel/monkey-business-phnom-penh

Next day we chartered a taxi and headed, via the Killing Fields, for Sihanoukville on the south coast, our jump off point for the islands. Unfortunately Rachelle and I got stuck in this rather ugly town for a few days while we fought various fires with suppliers in India.

So it was with blessed relief that we finally made it across to Koh Rong Saloem for several days of much needed R&R, lazy days and nights on this stunning, almost completely deserted tropical island: a little slice of paradise in the South China Sea.

Photos of Lazy Beach here I Sauce & Nosh report on Lazy Beach’s food here

Could we live on an island off Cambo’s southern coast? Absolutely. Could we run a business catering to the booming numbers of tourists beginning to explore these islands? Not without one of us pretending to shack-up with a local boy or girl (businesses need to be 51 percent owned by locals, at least in theory).

Would we want to live here? One day perhaps, at the moment we need reliable broadband and mobile connectivity: we’re almost certainly going to be wedded to the modern world for a wee bit longer yet, wonderful as living on a deserted tropical island sounds on paper.

Batteries recharged, we left Nic & Emmet on Lazy Beach to continue their deep unwind, and spent nearly 24 hours travelling to Bangkok by boat, tuk-tuk (x3), bus (x3) and taxi (x2), eventually arriving at our hotel in the City of Angels at 05:00 this morning.

Follow our continuing culinary adventures at sauceandnosh.com

Photos here on Facebook

Food review on Sauce & Nosh

[this actually happened to Rachelle, not me. Her wonderful photos are above]

Read more at TravelIntelligence.com

Hong Kong photo highlights here on Flickr
China photo highlights here on Flickr

Kowloon northwards rocks, Hong Kong Island feels like an overblown Canary Wharf: showy yes, but ever so slightly sterile. Could I live here? Definitely. Just might feel I’m lacking the ultimate oomf…

Everything about arriving in Hong Kong never ceases to impress, the brilliantly efficient airport, lightening fast transfer right into the heart of Central, knock-out skyscrapers

This time we were lucky enough to spend our first night at the brilliantly appointed Four Seasons, the only hotel in the world with two 3-star Michelin restaurants (pics over at sauceandnosh.com)

Next day Chelle headed up into China for work, while I spent a couple of days in deepest darkest Kowloon, researching a forthcoming piece of reportage.

We rendezvoused in Shenzhen, not yet 30 years old and already the third biggest city in China. I particularly enjoyed Splendid China, a recreation of the three thousand year old civilisation’s greatest sites. In miniature. Very cheesy pics here on Facebook

I spent the next few days with Rachelle in her Guangdong factories, a hugely interesting, informative, eye-opening experience. The scale, graft and attention to detail is incredible.

The less said about the foot massage we “enjoyed” together, the better

Awaiting foot Massage, Panyu

I had interesting, positive chats with the editor and arts editor of the South China Morning Post, a wonderful, outward looking newspaper covering the biggest story of the century.

China is endlessly fascinating, fascinatingly interesting, and all our futures.

Sporadic updates on our culinary adventures here
http://sauceandnosh.com/

We are zipping through Cambodia and Thailand at the moment, more soon: next stop Australia.

Pics here on Facebook

Photo highlights of our Sri Lanka trip here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/simoncrerar/sets/72157623199762259/

We began our fortnight in Sri Lanka with a wonderfully decadent weekend at the truly stunning Amangalla in Galle Fort, almost certainly the very best hotel we have ever stayed in.

Si & Chelle at Amangalla

Amangalla photos here on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/simoncrerar/sets/72157623199812471/

Story here: The Butler’s Guide to Galle
http://www.travelintelligence.com/travel-writing/amangalla-the-butlers-guide-to-galle

We then spent the next 10 days checking out a number of beach resorts along the beautiful south coast, plus chasing blue whales offshore and leopards inland.

Wijaya beach, Unawatuna

We finished off with a delightful dinner with our new friends, the Samarakkody family…

Dinner with the Samarakkody's

Unawatuna, Mirissa and Tangalla all had their positives, but despite their lush white sands and fringing palms, we struggled to imagine ourselves working there. The coast was really battered by the tsunami and much of the redevelopment is rushed and ugly (and sometimes actually in the Indian Ocean!)

The 400-year-old Dutch colonial Galle Fort is packed with incredible antique shops, stunning properties and a wonderfully vibrant and varied community of locals and interesting expats, but we fear it could be a little insular for us at this stage in life.

Plus the political situation would make it very hard for me to work openly as a journalist.

Our fortnight in Sri Lanka coincided with the country’s first election since the brutal ending of the 26-year-long civil war last May. Was a rather turbulent time to be in country.

The incumbent president Mahinda Rajapaksa won re-election after a bitterly contested race, amid accusations of vote rigging, pre-election violence and serious electoral irregularities.

Virtually every Sri Lankan we spoke to voted for the opposition candidate General Sarath Fonseka, so all were rather surprised that Mahinda, the man whose family and friends hold 80 percent of goverment posts, romped to an apparently convincing victory. Echoes of Saddam-era Iraq’s 99 percent positive turnouts. Mahinda is looking east, not west for friends, allowing China to build a huge deepwater containter port and naval base, and apparently basing his presidential style on a Cultural Revolution-era Chairman Mao. All a little discomforting.

Avoiding election riots, Rachelle hooked-up with a women’s cooperative and is exploring incorporating some of their work into a forthcoming collection. I filed a photostory for The Sunday Times Magazine, and will forward details when it is eventually published.

Sporadic updates on our culinary adventures here
http://sauceandnosh.com/