DestinAsian Magazine - June - August 2022

In this issue

Where are you going this summer? Now that the school holidays are just around the corner, some of us may be taking the chance to venture beyond our immediate backyards, and perhaps even embark on our first long-haul vacation in more than two years. There’s no doubt that travel is getting easier. Having recently spent some time in Australia and Turkey, I can tell you how exhilarating it feels to be out in the world again. Our team has been hard at work the past few months to put together this very issue: you may have noticed a fresh redesign with a more playful and dynamic look, while the contents offer plenty of inspiration for future trips. Flip ahead to the Dispatches section and you’ll find an excerpt from a new cookbook written by two Balinese food experts keen to preserve the island’s rich culinary heritage. Over in the Maldives, Bangkok-based contributor Chris Schalkx decompresses at a pioneering private-island wellness resort whose programs defy expectations that restoring balance necessarily means self-deprivation. Two other adventures encourage us to go off the beaten track: Kate Eshelby ex-plores a little-visited corner of Bangladesh with her family, and UAE resident Nicola Chilton recounts a recent foray to Ras Al Khaimah, a small emirate often overlooked in favor of its flashier neighbors. The lineup of feature stories is just as tantalizing. In South Korea, photographer Mark Parren Taylor hops on a train from Seoul to Jeonju, the purported birthplace of bibimbap, to dig into its food scene. South African writer Jane Broughton turns the spotlight on the latest barefoot-luxe resort to grace Mozambique’s Bazaruto Archipelago, where the sensitively designed villas blend in with the landscape and profits are channeled directly into marine conservation. In the cover story, our editor-in-chief Christopher P. Hill reports on how the hospitality industry is empowering local communities on the Indonesian island of Sumba.