Travel Feature
Follow the leaders
Leading travel agents reveal their ideal destinations
M
ost of us rely on travel agents to
help us plan our holidays. They
know the hot spots, the places
to avoid, the out-of-the-way hotels and
they can design a trip to suit everyone’s
budget. Who better to ask then for the
low-down on their personal favourites on
the vacation front than the travel experts
themselves? We put this question to a
number of industry professionals and
received some interesting answers.
Lost civilisation
The ancient temples of Angkor Wat in
Cambodia are at the top of the list for
Freddy Yip, chairman of Goldjoy Travel
Ltd. Spread out over some 40 miles
around Siem Reap, the temples were
constructed from the 8th —13th centuries
AD by the Khmer people, whose empire
stretched from southern Vietnam to
Yunnan, China to the Bay of Bengal.
‘I like to see these architectural
wonders. These temples were built so
long ago. You don’t have to go all the way
to Egypt to see something so impressive,’
he enthuses. ‘It’s only a two-hour flight
from Hong Kong.’
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THE HONG KONG ACCOUNTANT
Mr Yip spent several days at the site,
wandering through the ruins and taking
in the majestic architecture. The temple
of Angkor Wat was dedicated to the
Hindu God Vishnu and was constructed
over a period of 30 years. It’s considered
one of the finest examples of Khmer and
Hindu art.
The temples are part of a great
metropolis that was abandoned by its
inhabitants in 1432 in favour of
Cambodia’ s current capital, Phnom
Penh. Angkor Wat was hidden from the
outside world for centuries by the
encroaching jungle until French botanist
Henri Mouhot discovered it in 1860.
Appreciating nature
An African safari was the ultimate
adventure travel experience for Edmund
Tsang, general manager of destination
and events management at Swire Travel
Ltd. His visit began with a stay at a luxury
lodge in Johannesburg, South Africa and
visits to an ostrich farm and a gold mine.
Gold was discovered in South Africa in
1886, setting off a gold rush that would
make Johannesburg the gold capital of
the world. Among Mr Tsang’s fellow
travellers were tourists from Hong Kong,
Japan and the Chinese mainland.
One of the tastiest treats of the trip
was abalone for dinner at a fraction of
what it would cost in Hong Kong. ‘In
Hong Kong, you pay $600 for abalone at a
five-star hotel. We had two every night
and they cost only $180 each,’ Mr Tsang
exclaims.
The safari in nearby Kruger National
Park, a 20,000-square-kilometre expanse,
which is home to an unparallel diversity
of wildlife, is taken in an open-topped
four-wheel drive jeep. ‘We had an African
tracker and a ranger with us, both of
whom had guns. They drove us through
the bush, up and down dry riverbeds. We
were amazed at the skill of the driver. We
saw lions a few feet away. Any of them
could have jumped onto the jeep,’ he
FEBRUARY 2004
Travel Feature
recalls. He rates seeing these magnificent
creatures, including rhinos, giraffes and
elephants, as a once-in-a-lifetime
experience.
Cartoon favourites
Animals of a different sort appealed to
Chan Siu-Fong, product development
manager at Miramar Express, who
remembers a holiday at Disneyland in
California as a memorable trip for
herself, her husband and their three-yearold son. ‘The one in California is the
original Disneyland so we wanted to see
it,’ she says.
Her son was thrilled at seeing life-size
Disney characters, such as Mickey Mouse
and Donald Duck, and visiting ToonTown
where Mickey, Minnie and Goofy live in
tilted, lopsided houses. ‘Everything was so
colourful, especially ToonTown. We
walked around and took a lot of pictures,’
she remembers. Nightly fireworks over
Sleeping Beauty’s Castle and a daily
parade added to the magic of their visit.
The family also went on the studio
tour at nearby Universal Studios in
Hollywood, where they had a chance to
see moviemaking demonstrations, special
effects and back street lots. A 3-D cyber
adventure with a character from
‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ and the
FEBRUARY 2004
50-foot T-Rex dinosaur that they saw on
their ‘Jurassic Park’ ride were other
highlights.
Before returning home to Hong
Kong, the family made a quick two-day
visit to glitzy Las Vegas, staying at the
Monte Carlo Resort and Casino Hotel.
‘When you walk in, everything is so grand,’
she recollects. She and her husband
played a little blackjack (losing, alas)
before rising early the next morning for
their vacation finale, a day trip to the
Grand Canyon.
They flew from Nevada to Arizona
and then travelled by coach, to
appreciate the awesome spectacle of one
of the world’s seven natural wonders. The
chasm carved through the rocks that
makes up the Grand Canyon is up to a
mile deep and 18 miles wide in some
places. ‘The coach stopped at several
places so we could see the views and take
photos,’ she says. ‘It was beautiful—a
must see.’
Lap of luxury
If relaxation is at the top of the agenda,
Kevin So, project manager at Sightseers
(HK) Ltd, recommends a spa holiday in
Bali, Indonesia as a hedonist’s delight. Mr
So recently stayed at the Four Seasons
Sayan Bali/Four Seasons Jambaran Bay
Bali Hotel that offers the luxury of a
detached bungalow with its own garden
and splash pool. A two-hour Indonesianstyle body scrub and lomi lomi massage,
which gently releases muscle tension, was
the perfect start to his holiday. ‘After the
massage, they rinse your whole body with
warm yoghurt,’ he says, which he
followed with an invigorating dip in his
bungalow’s pool.
The beach, just a short walk away,
featured an array of restaurants. ‘There
are some good places that serve lobster.
One time during a thunderstorm the
lights suddenly went out and we had to
light candles, which was nice,’ he says. If
going out is too much of an effort, meals
can be served in your bungalow. The
hotel also kept a stock of compact discs
and videos for travellers content to laze
away their time in a prone position.
An outing to Ubud, about an hour’s
drive by car, was a worthwhile way to
spend a day, says Mr So. ‘Hiring a car
and driving there costs very little,’ he
adds. Ubud is the centre of Balinese
painting and offers a treasure trove of art
galleries. After a morning of sightseeing,
Mr So lunched at the Bali-Ubud Kupu
Kupu Barong Hotel perched above the
Ayung River, Bali’s longest and largest
waterway. ‘People go rafting there and
you can watch them go by,’ he says.
THE HONG KONG ACCOUNTANT
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