DestinAsian – August 01, 2019

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DESTINASIAN.COM – AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2019

PUBLISHER’S NOTE RONALD LIEM

@destinasianmagazine

@DestinAsian_Mag

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As much as I love a five-star stay

in the Maldives—complete with

butlers, chic overwater villas with

glass inserts in the floor, indulgent

spas, and infinity-edge pools—

one of our broader goals here at

DestinAsian is to let readers see even the most familiar places in a whole new light.

So it’s heartening to read this issue’s cover story by husband-and-wife team Daniel

Bosley and Aishath Naj, about their ongoing project to document the Maldives that

few tourists know. Dreamy photos aside, it offers a real insiders’ perspective and

shows us new possibilities for exploring this Indian Ocean paradise.

In a similar vein, Jonathan Hopfner reports on a trend in Seoul that has taken

hold within the last decade or so: a renewed appreciation of traditional Korean

houses known as hanok. He doesn’t just prowl the much-photographed streets of

Bukchon Hanok Village where tourists prance around in full traditional costume,

but speaks to designers and entrepreneurs who have adapted once-neglected

architecture form to become boutique hotels and cafés and cultural spaces.

Closer to home, we venture to the northwestern Vietnamese hill town of

Sa Pa, where traveling filmmaker Johnny Langenheim and photographer James

Carnegie get a Hmong cultural immersion on a day trek, and take stock of the latest

developments (including a Bill Bensley–designed hotel) in the area. It throws the

spotlight on questions about the nature of tourism in Southeast Asia’s emerging

economies, and how local people should benefit from the industry.

Then we have an eye-opening story from New York–based photographer Matt

Dutile, this time on his recent trip to Quito, the Ecuadorian

capital. The promise of a vibrant, heritage-rich city with

protected cloud forest on its doorstep would appeal to

almost anyone with a taste for adventure. South America is

a long way away from many of us, but with some advance

planning and determination, perhaps a vacation in that part

of the world isn’t such a distant dream after all.

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