“Song soong,” says a young mahout, urging an 8-foot-tall female to lift her leg off the ground. He taps the Asian elephant with a goad, and she responds, raising a foot as though kicking up her heel. The action creates a generous crook in her leg, a leathery curve from which the elephant’s keeper plans […]
Entry for one team—you and five other players—in the next King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament, to be held no sooner than April 2007 in the Golden Triangle region of Thailand. Three weeks’ accommodations for six at Four Seasons resorts in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Koh Samui. A private viewing of King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s […]
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At the entrance to an intimate, low-lit dining room rendered grand by its cloistered ceiling and walls of Venetian plaster, the hostess welcomes a party of two, announces their arrival to the chef, and leads the guests to their white-linen-covered table that soon will teem with crystal. Within moments, maître d’ Nick Peyton wheels forth […]
By the numbers, Gregorius/Pineo has outdone itself: The maker of furniture re-creations based on 15th-to-18th-century European and Asian antiques has introduced 40 designs and 25 finishes with its 2005 collection, when in a typical year it adds just five new pieces. But instead of representing a break from tradition, Gregorius/Pineo’s prolific year draws heavily from […]
When the shark appears, we are snorkeling in the Beqa Lagoon, south of the main island of Viti Levu and north of Royal Davui, one of the smaller links in Fiji’s chain of more than 300 isles. The latter, home to the recently opened Royal Davui private island resort, seems worlds away, as does our […]
New Zealand’s rugged beauty fits into 5,000 acres on Great Mercury Island. Soaring white cliffs, a sheep and Angus cattle farm, and forests of skyscraping pines and pohutukawa trees, which seasonally produce brilliant red flowers, border silica sand beaches and ocean as aquamarine as a tropical sea. Hiking, swimming, fishing, and diving are among the […]
Early Fijians, perhaps while fleeing from cannibals, are believed to have jumped to their deaths from Chieftain’s Leap, a precipice some 600 feet above the Koro Sea on Wakaya Island. A few yards from the drop-off, pottery shards, rudimentary tools, and human bones mark the site of the ancient village of Korolevu. The remnants and […]
Skybridge private air chairman Michael E. Napoliello Jr. envisions a day when his company’s offering—private luxury air travel without a membership requirement, fractional shares, or other long-term commitments—will be at parity with full-fare, first-class commercial flights. That day will come, Napoliello says, possibly within five years’ time. “There’s a chance the SkyBridge format [will] become […]
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