The Little Things That Matter

9/28/2018

Travel fills one with knowledge and experience. Hotels and resorts endorse this by building properties in accordance with the area’s vernacular architecture and by offering services that would highlight the local culture. While the memories stay, we also find ourselves collecting small things and foods from places we visit as souvenirs and as a nod to the saying “good things come in small packages.” What we appreciate the most is the effort taken by hotel managements to align these small items to the contemporary lifestyle and local culture. We handpicked our favourites below.

Aman Summer Palace

Paper-cutting cards

Paper-cutting is a very distinctive visual art of Chinese handicrafts. It may be easy to learn how to cut a piece of paper but it proves to be very difficult to master it. Traditional paper cut is also called “Window blossoms” because they were first put on windows for decoration. The guests of Aman Summer Palace in Beijing, China are offered to participate in making this handcraft at no cost and the ability to carry their work home as a souvenir.

Hotel Indonesia Kempinski

Chocolate and Macaroon Boxes

We’ve learned from social media that when people go to Hotel Indonesia Kempinski, they would either go home with something from Kempi Deli (the hotel’s bakery and delicatessen shop), or Sweet Boutique (the chocolatier and pastry shop). The latter is a go-to destination for small goods and, true to its name, sweet things. Sweet Boutique by Kempinski creates fresh and bespoke confectionery items, including chocolates, sweets, macaroons and cakes. The products are wrapped elegantly in a black box, with gold tint for the shop’s logo.

Alila Hotels

Amenities

When it comes to ‘green’ beauty, Alila Living products are free from parabens, sodium laurel sulphate, petrochemicals, synthetic substances, and artificial colour or fragrance. The natural, organic range includes therapeutic skin care products for both ‘him and her’, from massage oils and body scrubs to body milk and facial toners that blend ancient Asian healing and beauty knowledge. These products are featured in Alila Hotels & Resorts across Indonesia and India.

The Phoenix Hotel Yogyakarta by M Gallery

Tea Set

In Yogyakarta, we can see many clay products – from gudeg bowls to teacups, including at the Phoenix Hotel Yogyakarta by M Gallery. Their afternoon teas are served with a teapot, two teacups and tray set –100 per cent made from clay. The teapot depicts the image of phoenix, a mystical bird favoured by locals. The teapot and teacups have a glossy poreless finish on the inside for food grade, while the outside is left the raw clay texture.

Fairmont Jakarta

Afternoon Tea

The lobby of Fairmont Jakarta is sandwiched between its masculine Barong Bar and the feminine Peacock Lounge. The latter is a sophisticated space that features white roundtables with rattan chairs and comfortable sofas where guests can relax and enjoy a wide selection of light bites, teas and coffees throughout the day, including the famous Fairmont Afternoon Tea experience. The afternoon tea is served in an elegant leather-clad white jewellery drawer-chest where each drawer reveals a different set of the sweet and savoury treasures by Fairmont’s kitchen brigade, along with an array of tea selections by TWG.

Yello Hotels

Slippers

Yello only provides a soap/shampoo dispenser instead of bottled ones, but they do have one of the cutest slippers. Designed for millennials, the hotel provides lace-shoe like slippers. It comes with the signature colour of the brand.

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Barbara Hahijary
Author
Barbara earned her bachelor's degree in architecture from the Interior Architecture Program of the University of Indonesia in 2013. Historical or heritage buildings, as well as utilitarian design, fascinates her as it is the interaction between people and architecture that remains her favourite topic to explore. Besides architecture, her interests include design, handcrafts, literature and social issues.
PetriePR
Photographer