And another two for the Road …
The glories of yesterday are so seductive in Asia that even new hotels are coming online today with architectural references to a past they never really had . Here are two remarkable examples .
The Sanchaya Bintan ( Indonesia )
The Sanchaya Bintan ( Indonesia ).
The European colonization of Indonesia didn ’ t get very far on Bintan Island , a mere 45 minutes by ferry from Singapore , but The Sanchaya Bintan plays with the trappings of yesterday as a powerful elixir today . From its pristine seaside croquet court , to a bar that looks as if it were removed wholesale from a gentleman ’ s club in Mayfair , The Sanchaya is doing for Bintan Island today what the Hamptons did for New York yesterday .
Sanctum Inle Resort ( Myanmar )
If watching Intha fishermen maneuver boats around Inle Lake in a precarious one-legged paddling stance doesn ’ t make you feel like you ’ ve pushed the button on the most remarkable of time machines , then checking into the new Sanctum Inle Resort should . For it ’ s here , on the shores of that lake dotted by half-sunken stupas and surrounded by jungled hummocks of ancient flora , that France ’ s Brigitte Dumont de Chassart designed a 96-room boutique hotel with architectural flourishes that invoke European monastic traditions of the 16th Century .
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