E X PER I EN CE S
63
the contacts and know the sort of experiences their guests would be interested in. In turn, the galleries hope that if the guests are coming from a resort, where a room costs big money per night, there’s a fair chance of making a sale. Te tours the Four Seasons organises are pretty much
merely being inspired by a pattern from a book. It’s a high- wire act – the pottery shop is full of “seconds” where the flaw would have to be pointed out to you. I was watching potters at the Prempracha Collection, one of Tailand’s leading ceramics factories, where people come from far and wide to see the latest designs. Te factory employs more than 100 people on premises just outside Chiang Mai, and provides tableware for top-end restaurants, local private buyers and tourist giſts for visitors (shipping even the largest items home isn’t a problem). Chiang Mai has long been known as an artistic
centre. Tough you can find every kind of art for sale as you wander this city in northern Tailand, from local handicraſts to pieces by Western artists who have set up home here, to gain access to some of the top studios you will need an appointment or guide or both. High-end hotels, such as Four Seasons Resort Chiang Mai, which arranged my tour, can help you gain access, as they have
busin e s s t r a ve lle r . c o m
FROM FAR LEFT: A tour of the Prempracha Collection as organised by Four Seasons Resort Chiang Mai; other options at the Four Seasons include a tour of the MAIIAM gallery
bespoke, so if you want to brush up on your watercolour skills, you can, as the PR puts it, “Learn to wield the paintbrush with a classical Chiang Mai watercolourist… at her own private gallery.” Since I can’t paint or draw it would have been very dispiriting for both of us if I’d signed up for that, so instead I opted to look at the art of others, even if all of it was well beyond my pocket. Te MAIIAM gallery, which opened in 2016 in
San Khampang, 15 minutes’ drive from Chiang Mai, is a converted warehouse rendered unrecognisable by a stunning façade by a Tai architectural firm. Te gallery is run by Eric Bunnag Booth (Booth also runs the well-known Jim Tompson company) and his stepfather Jean Michel Beurdeley, and it houses the collection accumulated by them and Eric’s late mother Patsri Bunnag. Te museum’s bistro restaurant, Kamphaeng Kaew, is also the venue for the lunch stop and there’s a private tour of the museum with the curator. Other options include a longer Gallery Hopping Tour, which is a “curated itinerary of eight galleries”. It’s the sort of inside track offered by many luxury hotel
chains, or by their loyalty programmes. On the following pages we give you a taste of the wide-ranging experiences you can expect to find at hotels throughout the globe...
→ S E P TEMBE R 2 0 18
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108
