More Than Mala: Pandas, Hotpot and Chengdu’s Underrated Bar Scene

Nicholas Ng

Steam rises from a split hotpot, chilli oil sitting thick on the surface while tripe curls and beef slices firm up, chopsticks moving in steady rhythm across the table. Meals in Chengdu run long, dishes arriving in rounds, tea refilled without pause, and the table left intact until the last person finishes eating. Sichuan cooking drives this pace through contrast, chilli heat softened by sugar, numbing peppercorn following later, vinegar cutting through oil, and fermented pastes sitting underneath to hold everything together. Few cities organise pleasure with this kind of structural logic. Chengdu does it across every part of the day. Continue reading →

Chengdu After Dark: Peter Peng on Building a Bar Scene That Refuses to Be Overlooked

Nicholas Ng

Chengdu rarely enters the global bar conversation with the same weight as Shanghai or Hong Kong, yet a quieter shift is taking place on the ground. At the centre of it is Peter Peng, the operator behind five distinct concepts including Chinese Room, each pushing a different reading of what a modern cocktail bar in China can be. This conversation looks at how those bars came to be, what Chengdu gets misjudged for, and why the city’s drinking culture is beginning to demand closer attention.

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March Check Ins: Thawing Out The Last Of Winter in Greater China

Nicholas Ng

March places these cities into a workable band where Chengdu holds steady at temperatures that allow full days on foot around Taikoo Li and Chunxi Road without fatigue, while Lijiang’s elevation drops temperatures enough for cold mornings and evenings that change how the day is paced. Shenzhen remains dry, making movement between Futian and Nanshan predictable, and Hong Kong sits in a period where tables at restaurants and seats at bars can still be secured without extended lead time. The day becomes linear rather than fragmented, moving from late morning coffee into lunch districts, returning for a reset, then heading back out for dinner and bars without needing to account for long transit gaps. These hotels work because they remove distance, manage access, and reduce dependence on transport, allowing time to be spent on food and neighbourhoods rather than logistics. Continue reading →

Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2026: The Chairman Reclaims The Crown

Nicholas Ng

The 14th edition of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants took place in Hong Kong on 25th March 2026, with The Chairman reclaiming the No.1 position as Asia’s Best Restaurant. The list spans 17 cities, with eight new entries and four re-entries, reflecting a year where regional identity and ingredient-led cooking continue to define the direction of fine dining in Asia. Continue reading →

Seoul City Guide: Fire, Fermentation And Precision In The Glass

Nicholas Ng

Seoul’s reputation travels globally through choreography, cinema and glass towers, yet the city’s credibility is built far more quietly through what it cooks and what it pours. Rustic broth houses and charcoal grills operate with the same seriousness as Michelin starred tasting counters, while a bar scene of genuine regional weight balances technical precision with restraint. The range appears wide, but the governing logic is singular, because whether seated at a gukbap table at noon or a cocktail counter in Gangnam at midnight, Seoul rewards calibration over spectacle. Continue reading →

February Check Ins: Warm Cities and Considered Retreats

Nicholas Ng

February carries a transitional mood. In much of Asia, the air is dry and temperate, skies are clearer, and the rush of year end travel has settled into a more deliberate pace. Travellers at this point in the calendar are not chasing spectacle. They are seeking recalibration. Cooler mornings and mild evenings encourage longer meals, slower spa rituals and suites that function as working sanctuaries rather than display pieces. Psychologically, this is a month for reset. Energy is rebuilding, routines are stabilising, and comfort matters in practical ways. Good bedding, efficient service, restorative treatments and well run dining rooms become the difference between movement and recovery. February travel rewards hotels that understand rhythm. Not noise, not novelty, but properties that know how to host quietly and well. Continue reading →

What I Learned In 76 Flights

Nicholas Ng
Window Seat | Flighty

Seventy six flights. Twenty three domestic, fifty three international, ten long haul. The rest short and medium haul. The numbers are precise because every sector is tracked on Flighty, and seeing them arranged in sequence reframes what flying becomes over time. Movement turns into pattern. Privilege turns into repetition. The first flight in this stretch was Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok, a short sector that did not technically require business class, yet it was booked anyway for ease rather than necessity. Priority check in removed waiting. A wider seat meant landing without stiffness. Being first off the aircraft shortened the wait at immigration. Even then, a principle emerged quietly. The quickest way to arrive well is often the most efficient, not the most dramatic. Continue reading →

Florence City Guide: Where Renaissance Meets Top 500 Bars

Nicholas Ng

Florence is often reduced to a checklist of Renaissance landmarks and leather markets, but that framing flattens the city into souvenir and surface. What Florence rewards is not enthusiasm, but judgement, and the ability to recognise proportion when it presents itself. It does not compete on scale, nor does it attempt to overwhelm. For travellers who already understand heritage, Florence reveals itself through continuity rather than spectacle, through the quiet alignment between art and appetite. That became particularly clear during our visit for the Top 500 Bars 2025 awards ceremony, when the city absorbed the global drinks industry without altering its own cadence. Continue reading →

January Check Ins: Hotels Chosen for Comfort and Recovery

Nicholas Ng

January is when travel decisions become less about novelty and more about how well a hotel supports the body after long flights, packed itineraries, and heavy eating. Cooler temperatures across North and Southeast Asia change the rhythm of travel, making sleep quality, spa access, and dependable dining far more valuable than rooftop drama or trend-driven concepts. Hanoi and Xiamen settle into dry, crisp conditions, Bengaluru becomes comfortably mild, Bangkok is at its most breathable, Shenzhen loses its humidity, and Osaka’s winter chill sharpens the need for proper recovery. These picks reflect that shift, favouring hotels where comfort is engineered deliberately and where food, drink, and wellness justify staying in rather than pushing out. Continue reading →

London City Guide: Exploring London from Mayfair to Shoreditch

Nicholas Ng

They say if you run out of things to do in London you’re not doing London right. London is often described as a city of excess, but that framing collapses its complexity into volume. What London actually rewards is not appetite, but judgement, and the ability to read the city through more than one lens at a time. For travellers who already understand luxury, London does not reveal itself through endless choice or spectacle, but through contrast, between polish and process, inheritance and authorship, rooms built to endure and rooms still being shaped. Seeing London properly requires holding these opposing ideas together, moving between them with intent rather than choosing one at the expense of the other. Continue reading →