Innholdsfortegnelse for March - May 2025 i DestinAsian

“This doesn’t happen every day!” our guide, Je! Higdon, shouted over the roar of the Zodiac’s motor as 20 five-meter-long male beluga whales swam alongside and beneath the boat. The pod had first appeared at the mouth of the Churchill River half an hour earlier, immediately making a beeline toward us. It was a surreal experience — our two disparate groups, humans and cetaceans, now intertwined. The belugas glided elegantly through the water, their milky-white bodies reflecting the sunlight. As they followed us, I imagined they were as captivated by the encounter as we were. Every June, when the ice on Canada’s Hudson Bay melts away, some 60,000 belugas migrate from the open Arctic Ocean to these more hospitable waters. About 3,000 of them congregate around the Churchill River estuary,…

Palmyra’s Monumental Arch The Romans and Parthians knew Palmyra as a prosperous oasis city, a bustling center of culture and commerce on the edge of their respective empires. Situated in the northern Syrian Desert, Palmyra became famous for its grand colonnades, temples, and the reign of Queen Zenobia, who established a short-lived empire of her own in the third century. Following its decline under the Byzantines and subsequent Islamic rulers, the city was gradually abandoned, leaving behind a wealth of evocative ruins for later explorers to rediscover. One was a young French naval officer named Louis Vignes, who, in 1864, took the first photographs of the ancient site; his sepia-toned images beautifully capture such archeological gems as the Monumental Arch, pictured above. Built sometime during the reign of Emperor Septimius…

While the southern coast of Iceland has no lack of must-visit natural attractions, it was a quiet moment that inspired this digital artwork by Vancouver-based illustrator Alex Louise Hill. On a rain-lashed drive along the country’s Ring Road this past September, en route to their night’s accommodation in the village of Klaustur, she and her sister stopped to watch icebergs on the Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon, admire the tumbling Svartifoss waterfall, and check out the basalt formations of the Dverghamrar (“Dwarf Rocks”). Yet what really caught her attention was a farmhouse. “It was a windy, wet day, and a thick fog closed in as we drove across this endless plain of black volcanic sand on the final leg to Klaustur,” Hill recalls. “But then came this patch of blue sky, with…

LAOS Sacred caves. Elephants. Wild jungle scenery. It’s hard to find a more compelling stretch of the Mekong than in Laos, where the river known as the “Mother of Water” has shaped the traditions and customs of the various ethnic groups along its banks. And now, with the launch of Bohème (mekongkingdoms.com), it’s just as easy to cruise these currents in unmatched style. The newest addition to the Mekong Kingdoms fleet, the three-deck Bohème is the largest and arguably best-appointed boat of its kind on the upper Mekong. Its 13 cabins feature daybeds and Laotian textiles alongside floor-to-ceiling French doors that open onto private balconies. Book the Royal Suite at the stern for the ultimate indulgence: done up in a contemporary Indochine style, the 60-square-meter stateroom comes with a freestanding…

AUSTRALIA Curious travelers heading to the Land Down Under shouldn’t miss the chance to see the country’s cities and awe-inspiring landscapes from the perspective of its traditional custodians. Australia can lay claim to the oldest living cultures on the planet: Aboriginal peoples have inhabited their continentsized homeland for the past 65,000-odd years, and their diverse traditions endure to the present day. They’re also more accessible than you might think, thanks in part to Discover Aboriginal Experiences, a Tourism Australia–endorsed collective that gathers leading Aboriginal-owned or -operated businesses under a single umbrella. Each prospective member goes through a rigorous selection process to ensure authenticity, and the initiative has now grown to include 55 local outfitters — with seven of those added as recently as December. Among the new entrants is In…

On a recent visit to northeastern Thailand’s Isan region, I was lucky enough to experience the natural beauty of Phu Phan National Park not once, but twice. My first encounter with it took place as I drove through ancient tropical forests en route to a village high up in the hills. The second came minutes after I had arrived at my destination, when artisans at the studio of an ethical clothing brand called Bhukram (bhukram.com) began showing me their latest creations: handwoven jackets in various shades of deep indigo or autumnal brown, each densely embroidered with scenes inspired by their surroundings, namely Phu Phan’s flora and fauna. “The setting sun is reflecting off the water, casting red shadows in every corner of the forest,” explained Tavee Meboot, as she proudly…

It’s not often a cultural walking tour includes a stop at a convention center. But then, Te Pae, which sits on the banks of the Avon River in the rebuilt center of Christchurch, is no conventional building. With a contoured profile evoking New Zealand’s Southern Alps and a facade of thousands of herringbone tiles in alternating tones of gray — a nod to the braided riverbeds that cut through the farmland of the surrounding Canterbury Plains — the flowing design is aligned with the Māori concept of ki uta ki tai, or the interconnectedness of the environment (literally, “from the mountains to the sea”). Opened three years ago, Te Pae is emblematic of the new urban narrative adopted by New Zealand’s second-largest city in the wake of the devastating earthquakes…

BANGKOK After dazzling Seoul with the debut of a lavish if temporary concept store in the Seongsu area in 2022, Dior now brings its haute couture sensibility to Bangkok’s bustling Ploenchit Road. Like its Korean counterpart, Dior Gold House (dior.com) is styled as a gleaming homage to the French fashion brand’s Paris headquarters at 30 Avenue Montaigne, its Haussmannian facade embellished with a million handlaid gold mosaic tiles and hundreds of faux windows under a mansard-like roofline. Throw in walls crafted from Carrara marble castoffs and a mirrored rooftop that reflects the Thai capital’s changeable skies, and you have the kind of grand gesture that could easily tip into excess. But here in a city that embraces gilt and ornate craftsmanship, it feels surprisingly at home. Inside the 800-square-meter space,…

HONG KONG Famed for its hair-raising landings over tightly packed residential neighborhoods, Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Airport was an exhilarating introduction to the city before its closure in 1998. Thrills of another kind will await visitors when they arrive at Kai Tak Sports Park (kaitaksportspark.com.hk), the roughly 28-hectare showpiece of the new urban district taking shape in its place. Envisaged by U.S.-based architecture firm Populous, the complex marks the realization of grand plans that first hit the drawing board more than two decades ago. The site’s features include a public sports ground, the city’s tallest climbing wall, and an indoor arena for high-level competitions in basketball, badminton, table tennis, and the like. This being Hong Kong, there is of course a retail element, with a mall scattered across three buildings…