The E-Book SOPHISTICATED STAYS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA is now available in PadPlaces. The Italian version, SOGGIORNI CON STILE NEL SUD EST ASIATICO, is available as well.
Both versions are FREE within the app while the iBooks, Google and Amazon Kindle editions costs around 5 US$.
Years of travel reporting in Southeast Asia (in comfort, I have to admit) suggested this gallery of accommodations that are a real addition to the travel experience.
The book, as Massimo Morello, author of the texts says, is a wise guided introduction to "Smart & intelligent boutique hotels (and more) in Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Myanmar".
And more, as the introduction says:
“There is the culture of luxury and the luxury of culture,” a wise man once said. He was no hermit or philosopher, but the director (and a bit of a hermit and philosopher) of a hotel at the foot of the Himalayas (so not featured here). His aphorism is useful for understanding the spirit of this book: “the luxury of culture”. The hotels featured here are luxurious, at times extremely so. But luxury does not just mean excellence or exclusivity; it can also describe a place that enables us to live in the moment, to appreciate the natural and cultural space in which we find ourselves. They are places of eminent history, art or design because they are
indicative of a trend. Unlike “non-places”, spaces devoid of identity, these are charged with meaning; they are remarkable spots on the Asian landscape, models of that architecture and life style that is redefining the Orient and spreading from there to the West. Intelligent places.
That being said, this book is not aiming to be any kind of guide. Nor does it claim to be comprehensive (over time, who knows, given it is a work in progress). In order to be featured here, the hotels must have been actually visited and experienced by us. The idea is
luxurious in its very simplicity: to offer a useful tool for sophisticated travellers. For those discerning travellers for whom a hotel is not just a place to go to (or to get bragging rights from), but a part of the journey. Intelligent travellers.
