Blog | Globetrotter Dogma

Since the 1991 Soviet Union collapse, Moscow has evolved into a bewildering contradiction of lingering Communist-era hangovers and upmarket chic.

I begin with The End, among Moscow’s tombs. Hundreds of Russia’s most famous artistic, literary, musical, and political figures are buried in Novodevichy Cemetery. On this stirring stroll through Russian history, I discovered that this hall-of-fame memorial collection stages not just gravestones but row upon row of elaborate images and sculptures depicting the buried legends in telling poses. Famed comedian Yury Nikulin relaxes with his dog, while the ex-presidents’ monuments portray less lighthearted souls.

I roamed into the realm of the living, where the Russian winds of change are personified by the nightlife. Two joints blew me away. The first, Petrovitch, is a 1970’s Soviet-era themed club with kitschy Cold War propaganda. The menu, hearkening back to the Iron Curtain, includes superpower snacks like Chicken Kiev, pelmenis (Russian dumplings), and borsht soup. Dining here eventually gives way to customers dancing in the aisles to disco-era pop tunes, both Russian and American. The characteristic dour-by-day but then party-all-night Russian persona goes on full display. It’s dance fever, redefined. Moscovites celebrate the night like they’ve won something, and the vodka flows. Be wary though, as sometimes a little palm greasing is required to enter such clubs.

The other joint, Rai Nightclub (Heaven), picks up where Studio 54 left off. Moscow’s DJs are hot properties across Europe and the U.K. these days, and Rai’s DJ spun a thousand glammed-out dancers into ecstasy. I haven’t waited in line to enter a dance club for decades—I’d rather eat glass—but this was worthwhile, as it was like visiting another planet. Face controllers, their term for dreadfully serious doormen, decide which Muscovites get into this mega-thumping Gaudi-esque disco with a jungle motif. Don your stylin’ shoes.

The nightclub bling was readily outdone inside the Kremlin fortress where the Diamond Fund showcases a thousand pounds of diamonds in a million fantastical incarnations, not to mention the gold nuggets bigger than basketballs. Also found in the Kremlin, the Armory Museum is a mind-blowing collection of extravagant ambassadorial gifts, colossal thrones, and gemstone-studded horse-drawn carriages dating back to the 1600s. This is ground zero for Russia’s crown jewels and treasures of Russian Tzars—a gigantic wow.

My quest for culture continued with a trip to the ballet. France and Russia share bragging rights for bringing this art form to the world stage. At the Bolshoi Theatre, a famous 18th-century icon for ballet, I caught “La Sylphide.” The plot involves a man marrying a woman before eventually staring up a flirtation with another woman. In due course, he is murdered for his transgression. Lesson? Behave yourself. There are two Bolshois, the famous grand theatre and the “baby” Bolshoi, which brings to mind New York’s Beacon Theatre.

When it’s time to find a place to rest your head, Moscow delivers with a bevy of new boutique hotels. The MaMaison Pokrovka Suite Hotel echoes a lavish, private home where there’s a balance of functional, chic furnishings and fine art, hence the hotel’s name, MaMaison, or my house. Moscow’s first all-suite hotel merges cutting-edge spaces, rousing art, and gourmet fusions beneath one roof. Designed to be green and for those interested in an extended stay, the 84 luxurious, fully equipped suites all have kitchenettes. Each suite features a different layout, view, variety of wooden parquet floors, pastel colors, and natural light.

The lobbies on each floor also flaunt high-design furniture and sculpture, while floor-to-ceiling photography by famed Czech photographer Štěpán Hon enlivens every hallway. Hon creates a chronological photographic installation that’s a local history lesson evolving by floor. Photographs tell a story of the circle of Russian life, starting with the birth of a baby who grows up (floor by floor), has children, and eventually becomes a grandparent.

At MaMaison Pokrovka, you’ll be nourished by culinary master, Said Faddlie, a Moroccan native previously adapted to mingling his French-Moroccan and Asian cuisine finesse with premium Russian tastes. For 10 years, he was chef at Rasputin, a renowned Russian restaurant and night club in Brooklyn. His goal is for customers to “be satisfied not only food-wise, but with an overall warm atmosphere and unparalleled service.” The swank décor flows into Faddlie’s voguish Art Deco restaurant, Numbers, where signature dishes include Chilean sea bass with honey, porcini soup, and pheasant soup. The exquisite feasting space includes a summer terrace, an I’m-so-trendy-I-hurt-myself bar lounge, and a cigar bar. MaMaison’s Algotherm Spa is Russia’s first world-class spa within a hotel. It offers an equally enticing menu. Created in 1962, the Algotherm brand introduced algae as a fountain of youth.

Visit pokrovka-moscow.com. The Kremlin, Red Square and Bolshoi Theater are within a 20-minute walk from MaMaison.

While the ghosts of communism live side-by-side with the budding flowers of choice, one thing is for sure—you’ll want to discover Moscow for yourself.

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Delta offers the most year-round U.S. service to Moscow from New York. Visit delta.com.

“Measure (think) seven times, then cut (do).” —Unofficial Russian tailor maxim

Often, resorts insulate guests from the true jewels of a destination, but Grand Solmar Land’s End Resort & Spa sits in Cabo’s geologic marvel jewel. Spectacular roaring Pacific Oceanfront aside, the towering orange-sandstone Moab-style rock formations surrounding this place make your jaw drop—before the hiking starts. Stones-throw from this guilty pleasure getaway is a hike option between jutting 200-foot-high surf-sprayed cliffs to a private narrow hallway of a beach, which then invites you over rock formation to discover famous Divorce Beach, via its back door. Divorce Beach, for those who remember the original (1968) Planet of the Apes, is where Charlton Heston tragically stumbled upon the mostly buried and irrelevant Statue of Liberty.

For those who never saw that flick, imagine this: five-star digs on the literal southern tip of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula in the midst of what should be a natural World Heritage Site.

My guilt about staying in a new resort that must have displaced some of Baja California Sur’s wildlife was eased when a few sea turtles came marching my way. Any remorse about blowing my budget that wasn’t eased by the options afforded by my sweetly-appointed room’s full kitchen was evaporated by two incomparable infinity-pool bars. There’s just something about sipping a cocktail chest-deep in water between Mars rock museum pieces and fierce, aqua-blue waves.

While touristy downtown Cabo San Lucas is only a ten minute walk, I couldn’t stop peering from the pool bar up at the Presidential Suite that’s the first to rival the opulence I’ve beheld only in the Kingdom of Brunei. Then, a Tequila Sommelier appears armed with an arsenal of brands, limes, and lore…begin my agave wander 1,000 miles south of the California border.

This wonderland is not exactly affordable Cabo, but living in a stone-encased wonderland by the pounding surf? And, the huge dining room table in my studio suite is allowing me to calmly organize activities in a part of Mexico that is very safe for visitors, and even has drinkable tap water.

The only danger here is the volatile undertow created by the merging of the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific. You actually need to sign a waiver to go swimming.

* Visit solmar.com to get started. Tequila tasting classes are available for Grand Solmar Land’s End Resort & Spa guests every Thursday at 5pm.

* Cabo Adventures (cabo-adventures.com) took me on an enlightening outback safari hike through El Kuelele, a desert cactus-forest sloping toward the Pacific. The entertaining guide-naturalist noted that the plentiful multi-armed cardon cactus can live up to 450 years and grow as high as 40 feet.

The trek concluded on the beach with a hokey camel ride, but I learned something interesting from the camel trainer who is originally a Saharan Desert Tuareg nomad from Niger. Before the U.S. Civil War, the army imported camels and trainers from the Middle East as western frontier caravan pack animals. One of those camel trainers, a Syrian named Elias, moved to Mexico, married a Mexican, and had a son. His son, Elias Calles, became the President of Mexico in 1928. Cabo Adventures resurrected the animal theme the next day when I didn’t just swim with dolphins, I rode one as it swam. I’ve stared an Antarctic-residing whale in the eye while in a kayak. Gazing into a pool-living dolphin’s eye wasn’t quite as supernatural, but equally hypnotizing.

* Land’s End connects via pedestrian pathways to other sprawling and diverse Solmar vacation communities—all within a godly rock garden on the beach—with stirring restaurant options. The adjoining resorts include Playa Grande and The Ridge Luxury Villas, both upscale. The Ridge, overlooking it all, has an epic outdoor patio on a rock mountain saddle; dueling ocean/desert views and an amazing menu put this restaurant on my all time top-10. Request to dine on outdoor patio.

* Brigantine Restaurant didn’t just dazzle with food, I’m still under the spell of their classic mariachi guitar player/singer. Their luxe spa zone, part of the Solmar spa collection, includes a pre-Hispanic bath cleanse called a temezcal sanctuary—think ancient Mexican-dweller steam/sweat lodge, but with designer outdoor massage tables waiting for you outside.

* Heartfelt charity: the Solmar Foundation isn’t kidding about empowering the lives of disadvantaged local people via optional $10 guest donations—and theirs. I visited two of their facilities, an adolescent job training shelter (carpentry, hairstyling, etc.) and an orphanage for sexually-abused kids. They are making a difference; solmarfoundation.com and casahogarcabo.com.

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Visit solmar.com for more information on Grand Solmar Land’s End Resort & Spa. Rooms also have an extra Murphy Bed.

Cabo Adventures will assist you in enjoying all of the regional hits, including swimming with dolphins. cabo-adventures.com.

Ps, Dear Mom, been meaning to tell you about a special relationship I’ve been hiding in Cabo, Mexico…

Ps, The Pacific Ocean-side road trip from Cabo San Lucas to Todo Santos on Route 9 ranks as a National Park drive, without entrance fee or tolls. Say hi to the clumsy but harmless, bat-sized butterflies. Those cactus skeletons are porous wood, who knew.

Statue of Liberty image courtesy planetoftheapes.wikia.com

Canada’s ‘Little Brother’ Metropolis Grows Up

The U.S.-Canada border, the longest unprotected border in the world, sees 500,000 daily crossings. Our relationship with Canada defines ally. While most Americans are familiar with Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, their sleeping gem, Edmonton, is starting to get the attention it deserves. Located in the heart of Alberta—one of Canada’s 10 provinces—and hockey legend Wayne Gretzky’s launch-pad, Edmonton is a young northern city of more than a million people with a lot more to do culturally than you’d expect. Their southern neighbor Calgary is a bit more of white collar oil town that’s known, ironically, for peddling Edmonton’s oil. Edmonton was recently named the cultural capital of Canada, and for good reason—there’s no shortage of galleries, symphonies, plays, concerts, and festivals. This riverside metropolis is a mellow yet savvy urban getaway if there ever was one. By the way, their river valley park, which bisects the city like a greenbelt should, is 22 times bigger than Central Park.

Culture thrives here. Although across-the-river Old Strathcona seems get all the mojo buzz, downtown Edmonton teems with world class performance spaces. The Citadel is a breathtaking complex of theaters, one a 700-seat state-of-the-art thrust stage. All of the Citadel’s venues combined make it the busiest regional theater in Western Canada. citadeltheatre.com. The Winspear Centre’s acoustically perfect balcony-flanked venue also showcases world-class music acts. winspearcentre.com. A sculpture itself when viewed from afar, the incredible Art Gallery of Alberta opened in 2010. It dazzles from inside and out. youraga.ca.

The Union Bank Inn, a resurrected old-style bank that melds bold Modern Renaissance—imagine swanky 1911—and contemporary design. The goose down bedding, fireplace, and fleece robe waiting in your room add to the understated elegance. Sturdy like an armory, the 14 vintage rooms have different themes each individually overseen by some of Edmonton’s finest interior designers. An adjacent wing providing business-style accommodation makes 34 rooms total. People make a place and their warm staff completes the luxurious Inn experience. The ground floor of the hotel features Madison’s Grill—fine dining sourcing local options—and the adjoining wine cellar-esque Vintage Room. unionbankinn.com.

For a taste of grand Canadian royalty consider the imposing, river valley-hugging Fairmont Hotel MacDonald. Sample this landmark on fairmont.com/macdonald-edmonton. The cheesy-but-fun Fantasyland Hotel, attached to the famed West Edmonton Mall, is themed by floor. Choices include Hollywood, Roman, and Tropical—there’s even a few igloo-themed rooms with bunk beds. The mall’s mammoth indoor rollercoaster is a savage neck-twister. fantasylandhotel.com.

Edmonton’s Blue Plate Diner, holding court on downtown’s 104th Street promenade, serves uplifting diner cuisine including an elk & bison burger, vegetarian options, and a Kentucky Hot Brown (turkey) Sandwich. This cozy joint with high ceilings is a member of eatlocalfirst.com.

Set in a homey building on a residential tree-lined street, the NVE Institute is a spa specializing in phyto-aroma cosmetology—translation, epic massages with a tender “you can nap now” touch, concluding with a nifty tubular-cocoon wrap. A world away from pomp, this place is a down-to-earth upscale treat. nveinstitute.ca.

CROSSING THE RIVER

For an entirely different urban vibe, explore life across the North Saskatchewan River. Old Strathcona, Edmonton’s Brooklyn, is a hip historic area that’s home to more than 100 eateries and pubs offering the city’s largest variety of jazz, blues, country, folk, alternative rock and dance. Also a theater district with 10 theater groups celebrating new works and innovative takes on classic material, improvisation, and children’s productions. Discover one-of-a kind offerings, from locally made crafts to treasures from afar. Amid many historic buildings, businesses are mostly owner-operated, offering whatever you’d expect to find in New York’s Soho district, minus the people-jams. oldstrathcona.ca.

The Varscona Theatre is located in the heart of Old Strathcona, and is home to four professional resident companies as well as many independent theatres. Check out shadowtheatre.org and varsconatheatre.casaannett.com.

Visit Old Strathcona in mid-August and you’ll be in the heart of North America’s longest-running and largest fringe theatre festival. In fact, Edmonton is festival ground zero—home to 30 major festivals year-round that celebrate the arts, music, winter, and sports.

Packrat Louie is an upscale brick-walled Swiss bistro with a wood-fired oven and made from scratch international cuisine via fresh local markets. Located in the heart of Old Strathcona, the Swiss, French, German, and Italian influences are enjoyed in an open, friendly environment. packratlouie.com.

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Via Rail has service to/from all points east and west of Edmonton—the four hour train ride west to rustic-but-hip Jasper passes through the Canadian Rockies and some of North America’s best scenery. This rail odyssey makes Amtrak tuck its tail between its legs. viarail.ca.

For an impressive overview of what’s to do in rockin’ Edmonton visit edmonton.com.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) echoes the European Union’s regional solidarity for reciprocal advantages. The 32nd annual ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) will be held in member-nation Laos from January 17-24, 2013. In developmental terms, Southeast Asia’s 10-country amalgam of incredibly diverse cultures poses several challenges. ASEAN member states range from wealthy Singapore and Brunei to agrarian Laos and Cambodia. Politically, members include the democratic Philippines (largely Christian), Indonesia (world’s largest Muslim population), and, until recently, military-ruled Burma.

This year’s conference is themed, Road Map for ASEAN: Fostering Sustainable Growth, Promoting EcoTourism.

ATF 2013 in Vientiane will bring together Tourism Ministers, travel industry buyers (460 from 60 countries), nearly 1,000 sellers (500 exhibition booths from 360 companies and properties), and media (145 from 35 countries) to focus on the significant developments and aspirations of this booming region. A mine for business and leisure traveler news and forecasts, speakers will range from Tourism Ministers to winners of the Green Recognition Awards, a huge supporter of rainforest tree replanting programs.

ATF TRAVEX, the core of the forum, will take place from January 22-24 at the Lao International Trade Exhibition and Convention Centre, a recreational venue in Vientiane. Situated on the Mekong River, Vientiane is the economic center of Laos. The country is celebrated for its ecotourism, Buddhist culture, food, and ultra-friendly people.

Professor Bosengkham Vongdara, the Lao Minister of Information, Culture, and Tourism, said, “This is an exciting time for Laotian tourism industry, and we are honored to host ATF 2013. Since we last hosted ATF nine years ago, Laos has grown in infrastructure and facilities. Through ATF, we will do our best to contribute to strengthen and build an ASEAN community by 2015.”

Press conferences for each member country create buzz about plans for a single or no-visa policy for the entire region, as this visa-free tourism strategy will create an ideal single destination. For now, news is pending that Cambodia and Thailand are close to implementing a single visa policy, which will ease the Bangkok business traveler’s path to Cambodia’s Angkor Wat.

Brad Olsen, a California-based author and travel expert, noted that “this forum is always an ideal venue for tourism managers and policy makers to exchange issues of common interest.” Exemplifying that spirit, ASEAN Ministers of Tourism continue developing a mutual recognition agreement aimed to improve the quality of human resources and giving workers in the tourism sectors of member countries a chance to work in different locations in the region.

ATF’s “The Heart of Green” campaign also aims to create a united tourism image. ASEAN’s concern for the environment continues to uplift its hotel industry standard in the form of the ASEAN Green Hotel Recognition Awards presented to ASEAN properties with outstanding efforts in environmental conservation. Criteria for these hotels includes environmental-friendliness and energy conservation measures based on 11 major criteria, including environmental policy and actions for hotel operations, solid waste management, energy efficiency, water efficiency, and air quality management.

ASEAN cohesion emphasizes partnerships rather than competition. A single ASEAN market free-trade agreement is another goal of the organization. Stefan Christensen, editor-in chief of Sweden’s Asian Magazine, considers this tourism forum to be “more than just another trade show, because they go to great lengths to infuse culture—including music, dancing, and fashion shows—into the daily events.” Conference delegates are also entertained each night by an array of cultural song and dance performances.

For more information visit atflaos.com.

Previous ASEAN Tourism Forums have discussed the following topics…

ASEAN has existed for more than 40 years, but until December 2008 it had no written constitution. The new charter set a 2015 goal for establishing economic integration via a 10-country free-trade zone and established commitments respecting human rights, democratic principles, and keeping the region free of nuclear weapons. Binding the 10 members to an enhanced legal framework, the regional charter sets out their shared aims and methods of working together.

BRUNEI, the last Malay Kingdom, may be alcohol-free, but it still celebrates the good life with options to golf, play polo, dive, or kick back in a plush resort…the list goes on.

CAMBODIA, its symbolic Kingdom of Wonder campaign, remains an enduring symbol of Southeast Asia’s incredible history.

INDONESIA’s claim that it offers the ultimate in diversity remains legitimate, despite a few setbacks, tourism numbers continue growing.

LAOS continues promoting itself as the Jewel of the Mekong with a new effort to support soft tourism and local immersion.

MALAYSIA welcomed 23 million visitors in 2009, a one million increase from 2008.

MYANMAR, despite its internal conflicts, remained authentic via isolation. The absence of credit card acceptance and foreign investment made it feel like Thailand 40 years ago, which had an upside! Now, every aspect of tourism is quickly evolving, and it can be difficult to secure accommodations.

Many of The PHILIPPINES’ 7,017 islands share some form of American-influenced musical, religious, and Hollywood traditions that invite visitors to come and rejoice.

SINGAPORE’S Formula One Racing Week, once hosting ZZ Top, will continue to feature international music acts.

THAILAND is considering waiving its tourist visa fees, but not their exotic brand: a culture of service.

VIETNAM’s French Imperial twist continues fanning its hidden charms, and now, a simpler visa policy.

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GETTNG THERE: For more information on things to do in Laos visit tourismlaos.org. An epicenter of Southeast Asian holiday options are on southeastasia.org.

The annual ATF rotates alphabetically through its ten member-countries with a total of 570 million people: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

There is no burnt rice to a hungry person. —Philippine proverb

Man’s first urge to travel was motivated by finding food. This lifestyle requires a mobile crash pad. Tracking migratory herds, primeval wanderers fashioned portable shelters out of stones, branches, and animal hides. Today, our movable shelters—tents and the like—have roots in archetypal havens like Native American tepees, Inuit tupiks, and Mongolian gers. Even well-fed never-get-their-knees-muddy city kids want to build forts inside their apartments.

Because most of us rarely think about from where our food comes, we rarely get to appreciate its farm-to-table odyssey, let alone having to defend it at its origin. Raised in water, rice is the staple food of three billion people, primarily Asians. In traditional rice paddies, a hidden few take shelter and wait until their food is hunted by the enemy. While trekking in the mountainous Philippine highlands, I came across a recurring curiosity, farmhands who seemed to be watching the rice grow. I discovered that the rice business requires 24-hour surveillance in Northern Luzon’s Cordillera, where live scarecrows protect mountainside rice terraces from persistent rice-loving birds. These farmers spend their days in temporary thatch-and-bamboo huts called ab-hungs, makeshift sheds that provide room for only two. They are built into human-crafted mountainside terraces and provide breaks from the sun and rain for the people whose job it is to scare off the thieving “ricebirds.”

These human scarecrows use tactics that evolve with the growing seasons. Early on, pounding on a barrel or a basin would suffice in frightening the birds who flew away and devised new plans of attack. When the birds tired of that ploy and returned to the crime scene, the farmers created noise by pulling on strings attached to rows of jingling cans. When that jig was up—the birds don’t fall for the same tricks for long—ab-hung security ultimately had to shoo the birds away by running after them.

Fortunately, this mode of occupational scaremongering does pay off. Highland rice is tastier, more aromatic, and more nutritious than the lowland’s industrial version. Then again, more work goes into it, as it takes six to seven months to grow, three times longer than chemically fertilized rice. Locals perform planting and harvesting rituals to invoke ancestral spirits who watch over the crops—and it seems to work. The International Rice Research Institute wasn’t so lucky. When it tried introducing new strains here, they didn’t produce. Farmers then resurrected their ancient methods after rejecting a non-governmental organization’s pesticide invasion, which killed tiny fish and snails—additional food sources—that also grow in the rice-paddy ponds.

Savoring moments in a Philippine bird-spy shack, I’m reminded of the ancient nomad musings weekend warriors enjoy inside their recreational camping tents. Entering one makes the hut smaller but the world bigger. While avoiding some midday rain in this ab-hung, I chat with a local elder about rice watchmen until the sun comes out. Inside the shack, I offer the farsighted, squinting man a pen, and he doles out a pinch of tobacco for me to chew. Insider trading. He then trots out a thought that is loosely translated by an eager kid who has been tailing me. I later employ the eager one as my guide, and the elder’s quote as fact…

“A peace on birds would probably work better than this war on birds.” —Rice wisdom

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“Ladies and gentleman, this is your dining car attendant. I had the baked chicken, and it changed my life.” —Amtrak employee announcement

“Why weight?” —Tahitian beach bartender’s napkin scribble, dismissing customer’s concern about fancy drink’s calorie count.

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