Need a break from the recession? A mental escape? Consider taking one of Randy Lynch’s, (Lynch is the owner of the highly successful Kipling & Clark private luxury travel company based in Chicago that specializes in customized “dream trips” to Asia), exercusions and experience Southeast Asia in a way few will ever get the chance to.
Lynch is an Asia expert. His experience working for Korean Air and now owning his own travel company gives him not only the credentials, but the access and contacts. Want to play with a Panda? Call Lynch. Want to paint a painting with an elephant? Lynch can arrange that.
Read on for Lynch’s “insider” travel ideas for Asia. 
Family luxury travel
Lynch says he is seeing more and more families take their kids on trips, even from a young age. Some of the activities he has booked for families have included the following:
Maesa Private Elephant Camp - What the Four Seasons is to luxury hotel accommodations, the Maesa Elephant camp is to personal, hands-on, high-touch elephant training.
During a recent trip to the camp, Lynch had a personal photographer and eight mahout elephant trainers. Unlike the majority of activities in Southeast Asia involving guides and vehicles, the mahout training assigns everything on a one-to-one basis or better. A three-hour private elephant camp experience includes a brief training of elephant commands, riding the elephants on your own (with trainers close by), personally bathing the elephants in the river, and then concluding with a painting session with the elephants. With directions, the elephants can actually paint and draw, Lynch says.
The fun doesn’t stop there. During the afternoon, you are taken into a special baby elephant nursery to be assigned one elephant to “train. You will also feed, bathe and play with the elephant, including creating a canvas masterpiece together with the elephant. In addition to the training and painting, you will able to take home the “mahout uniform” you wear during your stay, as well as the elephant painting and image CD of the afternoon.
Lynch says another program families enjoy is the orphanage/grade school visits where local kids can travel locally with the families. During Lynch’s trips, his clients have the opportunities to visit several local guide schools in Laos and Vietnam, and the Cambodian Orphan Save Organisation (COSO) in Siem Reap.
Soft adventure, luxury style
For adventure seekers, Lynch can arrange private mahout elephant training in Thailand (as discussed above); cruising the Mekong River for two days on the remote section between Luang Prabang and Chiang Rai, with stops at various minority villages; taking the toboggan down the Mutianyu Great Wall in Beijing; or hot air balloon over Bagan in Burman.
Spas, spas, spas!
Lynch’s clients “demand” spa services throughout their trips, for adults and kids alike. Almost without exception, all of the luxury properties Lynch uses in Asia (big or small) offer various levels of spa services. Even the boutique Maison Souvannaphoum Hotel in Luang Prabang, Laos has a tiny spa that Lynch feels has the best massage anywhere in Southeast Asia. The one he and his family recently tried was the traditional Laotian (similar to Swedish) massage.
Unique cultural experiences
Lynch’s clients also “demand” unique cultural experiences. For example, Lynch can arrange private Geisha dinners and entertainment in Japan. In Kyoto, for clients who have daughters, Lynch can easily organize a Geisha “dress-up” for the clients’ daughters. Lynch can also arrange activities that include a private panda experience in China; private cooking classes with noteworthy chefs in Tokyo, Saigon or Hanoi; private tours of temples in Angkor Wat by an archeologist; and private origami lessons in Tokyo.
People want to "give back" while traveling
For Lynch’s clients, the trip isn’t all about them. Many of his high-end clients increasingly wish to be altruistic on their trips. Volunteering at the COSO Orphanage, local grade schools, and/or the Angkor Water Well in Cambodia are all examples of activities Lynch offers in which clients can give donations and interact with the recipients, which is incredibly rewarding – to actually see where your money is going.
For more info: Kipling & Clark; 1-800-354-3404
Photo: Asia travel expert Randy Lynch
Comments
Thailand, sounds great - isn't that where all those little brown people will massage my feet and serve me papaya smoothies all day? Isn't "luxury" travel dead yet? What is it with this kind of "travel?" What kind of message do you send your children from visiting an orphanage or a donated well, then returning to the pomp of the Four Seasons?
great article! i read a similar one at the www.luxury.affluence.org . good supplement for people who are interested in more luxury travel ideas
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