Around the Region and a Leafy Retreat in Singapore

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Published: 4:00pm, 26 Jul 2012Updated: 3:19pm, 19 Oct 2016

Around the Region

While researching our cover story a few weeks ago on Asia’s hottest new openings (www.tiny.cc/hotopenings), we actually dug up too many cool places that had opened in the last year to mention. Here are the ones that didn’t make the cut, but that you should know about anyway:

The Moat in Melbourne (www.themoat.com.au): Located in the basement of the Wheeler Centre—a center for writing and ideas—this whimsical bar and café has a petite courtyard and, fittingly, shelves of books incorporated into the décor.
Fourplay in Taipei (www.facebook.com/FourplayCuisine): Word on the street is that this hipstery bar serves up yummy, creative cocktails (some emit smoke, others contain (ugh) durian). And don’t get any ideas about the name—the joint was started up by four buddies.
OHD Museum in Java (www.ohdmuseum.com): Privately owned by Oei Hong Djien—longtime collector, curator and honorary advisor to the Singapore Art Museum—the OHD Museum is home to over 2,000 paintings, ceramics pieces, sculptures and installations collected from the 1970s to the present. Opened in April, the museum’s new space is filled with a large amount of Indonesian art, due both to Oei’s passion for local artists as well as the lack of an Indonesian national museum of an international caliber.
Sakala in Bali (www.sakalabali.com): A fine dine serving contemporary French fare, a beachfront lounge and an open-air deck bar all rolled into one, with sun beds and an infinity pool for those who want to stay and play all day long.
Skye in Jakarta (www.facebook.com/SKYE.jakarta): This brand-spankin’-new lounge and restaurant boasts stunning views of the city from the 56th floor of a skyscraper. Advice from Indonesian bloggers: go early, ‘cause it gets crowded up there.

Leafy Retreat in Singapore

Treehouse hotels seem to be popping up all over these days. The first one I’d heard of was the somewhat rustic (their pool’s a pond with plants), in-touch-with-nature Bangkok Tree House (www.bangkoktreehouse.com). Then there’s the luxe resort in Moganshan, a few hours outside of Shanghai, Naked Stables Private Reserve, where one of the options is to stay in a treehouse (www.nakedretreats.cn). And now Resorts World Sentosa is joining the fray, adding two tree top lofts to the five-star hotel’s existing range of accommodation options. Okay, these suites stand atop columns fashioned to look like trees, but you’ve gotta admit, it’s probably 5,493 times more relaxing to wake up in a hotel in Singapore staring at the fronds of a verdant palm tree than at the monolithic Marina Bay Sands. But nature, in this case, comes with a weighty price tag—staying in the tree top lofts, which each contain a bedroom, bathroom, living room and a large outdoor terrace, will set you back around $18,000 a night.
Find out more about Resort World Sentosa’s treetop loft at www.rwsentosa.com.