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Uwern Jong

@uwern

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🇬🇧🇲🇾🏳️‍🌈 Luxury Travel | Inclusive Tourism
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🪸 This is Zannier Bãi San Hô. 98 hectares of coast, jungle and rice fields, tucked into a wonderfully quiet corner of Vietnam and one seriously exquisite stretch of coastline. @zannierbaisanho the kind of place where the road disappears into green, the sea keeps turning up when you least expect it and time seems to have misplaced its watch. Bamboo-clad villas are scattered through the landscape, fishermen drift past offshore and birdsong fills the afternoon. Then the light starts to change and everything seems to settle into the same slow rhythm – the palms, the water, the sky. Even the architecture feels like it belongs here, though thoroughly and beautifully considered and curated.

There’s a certain magic to Bãi San Hô. It doesn’t feel like you’ve arrived at a resort so much as stumbled into someone’s rather beautiful dream. And, frankly, I’m quite happy to stay in it.

Thank you @go4ital for persuading me to make the journey here. I’m thoroughly blown away.

I know you’ve left this magical place to focus on what’s next, but you’ve left something rather special behind. Not just a beautiful resort, but a sense of place that stays with you. That, I think, is quite a legacy. taken in Zannier Bāi San Hô by @uwern

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7 hours ago

💘 Love to love. @anantaraquynhon is playing the romance stakes with a very strong hand. Private beach dinners, rose-petal baths, couple’s massages, outdoor showers, sunrises that know exactly what they’re doing and that particular kind of barefoot luxury that makes you want to cancel whatever you were supposed to be doing next. taken in Anantara Quy Nhon Villas by @uwern

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a day ago

🌴 Going local in Quy Nhon … with the best kind of guide: someone who genuinely loves where he’s from. Thich from @thichtours works closely with @anantaraquynhon. He’s young, local and has an infectious passion for his hometown – and an eagerness to share the Quy Nhon that exists beyond the beach resorts. From the ancient Cham history that runs deep through the region, to the city’s best bánh xèo shop (which also served fab fishcakes and a peculiar guava-leaf wrapped fermented pork… the things I’d eat 🤪), he brought the place to life with anecdotes and stories, snacks, jokes and plenty of honest local and personal insight.

Quy Nhon may be a sleepy little city, but that’s rather the point. There’s something wonderfully unpolished about discovering it through someone who knows its streets, its food and its history – and is genuinely excited to show you around. taken in Quy Nhon by @uwern

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2 days ago

🥳 Happy birthday, Mr Leo. We’ve had birthday dinners (and more than a few cakes) for @leormorgan throughout this trip, with almost every property (and train) wanting to join in the celebrations. But we saw in the actual birthday in Quy Nhon. The wonderful folk at @anantaraquynhon pulled out all the stops with a very special surprise: a beautiful private dinner on the beach, part of @anantara_hotels’ destination dining experiences. ✨

The team were absolutely adorable and made the whole evening feel rather magical. Although, between the champagne, the candles and the dreamy beach setting, I’m starting to think they were hoping I’d propose… 😳💍 taken in Anantara Quy Nhon Villas by @uwern

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2 days ago

🚂 They see me rollin’… Some journeys are about getting there. Others are about THE getting there. The Vietage by Anantara turns the six-and-a-half-hour journey south from Da Nang to Quy Nhon into something altogether more epic. As Vietnam unfurls beyond the window – rice fields, fishing villages, mountains and flashes of coastline – the pace slows, the landscape becomes the entertainment and suddenly, there’s nowhere else you’d rather be. @thevietage

Inside, it’s old Vietnam Rail charm with a distinctly @anantara_hotels sensibility: plush seats, polished details, a beautifully considered carriage and the gentle rhythm of the rails. There’s breakfast, lunch, cocktails, a little neck and shoulders massage and plenty of time to simply sit back and watch the country roll by.

And that, really, is the luxury of it. Not flying over Vietnam at 35,000 feet, but letting it reveal itself mile by mile. As for the six and a half hours? It’s really not that much longer than getting on a plane after the airport pfaff. I’d happily recommend taking the long way south! taken in The Vietage by Anantara by @uwern

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3 days ago

🏯 Ancient city style. A grand day out exploring the grandeur of the Imperial City of Huế to the extraordinary, slightly surreal tomb of Emperor Khải Định. I’ll spare you the full potted history, but Huế was the imperial capital of Vietnam for almost 150 years under the Nguyễn dynasty, while Khải Định’s tomb is a fascinating collision of Vietnamese and European influences – lavish, intricate and quite unlike anything else we’ve seen on this trip.

What makes @banyantree.langco such a great base for cultural immersion is its rather unique position between three UNESCO sites: Huế, Hội An and Mỹ Sơn. That puts an extraordinary amount of history within reach, without having to give up the pleasures of a rather fabulous resort in between.

And our day was made all the more fascinating by Hung Nguyen, our guide and driver from the hotel. His knowledge, wit and generosity brought every place we visited to life, but what I appreciated most was the Vietnamese perspective he brought to the stories – adding nuance beyond the usual guidebook version. taken in Imperial City, Huế by @uwern

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4 days ago

💦 Make me water. I’ve been lucky enough to swim in some seriously dreamy private villa pools, but this one at @banyantreelangco… sublime. ✨ Bathwater-warm, a separate jacuzzi, and that incredible ocean view. Honestly, I could stay right here forever. taken in Banyan Tree Lăng Cô by @uwern

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4 days ago

👨🏽‍🍳 A cooking class to float your boat. Out on a barge that cruises a canal that cuts through the @banyantreelangco, complex, I learnt the art of assembling Vietnamese summer rolls and pomelo salad.

I’ll admit, the whole going-up-and-down-the-canal-on-a-boat thing felt a little theme park – particularly given it’s not exactly the Mekong – but the food and the people involved were what made it such fun.

Special shout out to Nho Le, who heads up “culinary guest engagement”… our chef, teacher, chief laugher and, very quickly, firm friend. Her infectious personality and sheer joy in sharing Vietnamese food (and making sure it looks pretty) was worth the experience alone. I’d happily have hung out with her for a few more hours.

And it didn’t end when the class did: over the following mornings, she’d disappear into the kitchen at breakfast and reappear with off-menu Vietnamese favourites for us to try.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that the real magic of Lăng Cô isn’t just the mountains, the sea or the resort itself. It’s the people. There’s a genuine sense that everyone here is invested in this place – proud to be part of the team and passionate about showing guests a part of Vietnam that deserves a little more attention. taken in Banyan Tree Lăng Cô by @uwern

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5 days ago

🏛️ Villa life POV. Checked into a three-bedroom oceanview villa at @banyantree.langco. It’s enormous, beautifully done and tucked into the hillside presenting incredible views, with all the space, privacy and tropical drama you could want. Do I need three bedrooms? Absolutely not. Am I going to make the most of them anyway? Obviously.

Sometimes luxury is simply having entirely unnecessary amounts of space – and I’m very comfortable with that. taken in Banyan Tree Lăng Cô by @uwern

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5 days ago

🌊 Xin Chào, Lăng Cô. I’ve arrived on Vietnam’s central coast, somewhere between the mountains and the sea – once a retreat for Vietnamese royalty and now quietly catching the eye of the well-travelled luxury set. The kind of traveller who has done the big Southeast Asian hits and is now looking for somewhere with a little more space, character and sense of place.

Central Vietnam feels like a slow burn. Da Nang may have opened the door, but increasingly, some very interesting luxury names are stepping through it – heading beyond the city and into places that offer something harder to find: genuine escapism without completely disappearing off the map.

@banyantreelangco is rather well placed for it, sitting between the Truong Son mountains and a wonderfully laid-back stretch of coast. Its location is almost ridiculously favourable. From here, three UNESCO World Heritage sites are within easy reach: the imperial grandeur of Huế, the lantern-lit trading history of Hội An and the extraordinary Cham temple ruins of Mỹ Sơn.

It is no wonder why the Banyan Group has chosen to establish such a substantial presence here, with three of its brands gathered in one destination with the Banyan Tree at the pinnacle. Perhaps the answer lies in Lăng Cô’s rare combination of natural beauty, cultural depth and room to create something more considered than a single resort. It feels less like a convenient outpost and more like a deliberate statement about where travel in Vietnam might be heading.

So, Lăng Cô, I’m intrigued. And rather excited to spend the next few days finding out what you have in store for me. taken in Banyan Tree Lăng Cô by @uwern

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6 days ago

🏖️ Wasn’t expecting a beach, but this thoroughly surprised me. @intercontinental_halongbay sits on a beautiful stretch of man-made beach and an unusual front-row view of those legendary karsts. Plus, I can’t deny that it rather magical to swim in the Bay of Dragons. taken in InterContinental Halong Bay Resort, an IHG Hotel by @uwern

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6 days ago

👍🏼 Ha Long time coming. Loved every minute. Thank you #LeonaCruise for a special day out on the water. taken in Ha Long Bay, Việt Nâm by @uwern

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7 days ago