STREET FOOD SECRETS
The heritage town of Hoi An is a true gastronomic paradise
The Vietnamese equivalent of burgers is
stuffed baguette sandwiches. Some people get pretty obsessed with tracking down the best
in Vietnam and those in the know say that Hoi An’s Madam Khanh, also known as the Bánh Mi Queen, makes the country’s finest.
From top: The gorgeous view from one of the sprawling private residence villas; the bedroom in one of the residences
there are singular flashes of colour; bright yellow, lime and scarlet play brilliantly off the two-tone theme.
The property is situated on the side of a steep hill that leads to the beach. Learning from experience, Bensley created four levels upon which all of the resort’s buildings would stand—and named them Sea, Earth, Sky and Heaven. This clever device allows for the inclusion of what is one of the Intercontinental’s most idiosyncratic features: a funicular cable car that runs from the hilltop Heaven level all the way down to the Sea. The twin cable cars provide guests with a quick and charming way to move between the four levels.
In addition to its striking visual appearance, a few other features distinguish the resort: the fine-dining restaurant La Maison 1888, operated by French culinary master Pierre Gagnaire (see opposite page); the Harnn Heritage Spa; and the three private residences that occupy a secluded part of the estate. The design of the spa’s treatment rooms and villas references the dome-shaped Quonset huts used as aircraft hangars and barracks during the war. The top recommendation here is the Dong Y treatment, during which you recline on warm Danang marble said to possess therapeutic properties.
The private residences come in two- and three-room versions, but the word “room” is misleading; they’re actually self-contained apartments, thus making each one ample for entire families or groups of friends. As to be expected, the residences come with dedicated butlers. Service is an area where the resort is perhaps most striking—it’s excellent and on a par with the hardware, which as many seasoned travellers know, is not always the case in burgeoning hotspots like Danang.