DISTANT shores are beckoning more beguilingly than ever, now that they can be reached without excessive queuing, testing and quarantining. New York is one tempting option as the place empties in the summer.
Everyone is heading for the hills (as in Dirty Dancing) or the seaside (as in just about every other American vacation movie). The only problem with a Big Apple unblemished by too many New Yorkers is that its most illustrious hotel is closed until next year.
The Waldorf Astoria has been the very embodiment of hospitality for more than a century. Now it's time for a refurbishment and the US media have been writing about it like a favourite family member has gone missing.
In Malaysia, it's hard to imagine the sort of attachment that residents can feel for a hotel that most New Yorkers will never set foot in. Kuala Lumpur's oldest international-standard facility, The Federal, was a solution to the problem of dignitaries attending the Merdeka festivities; it opened, with three days to spare, in August 1957.
New York has always done things bigger and earlier. When the Waldorf and the Astoria hotels were combined in 1897, it was just ahead of the Savoy in London and the Ritz in Paris.
The amalgamated property became the largest in the world, with origins so acrimonious they could have been made into a television mini-series. Originally, they were two competitors, built next to each by feuding members of America's legendary Astor family.
Both were astonishing hotels that were considered too grand to survive. When the family merged the two buildings, with a massive corridor between them, there were 1,300 rooms of breathtaking luxury. Many had an ensuite bathroom and all had telephones.
Everything was on a scale that the world had not seen before — and wouldn't have been seen for very long if the owner hadn't decided to save his white elephant by having a charity dinner there.
Gala events such as this have distinguished New York ever since. There's nothing to compete with the Metropolitan Museum Gala in the 21st century, but the scene was set long before.
STOREHOUSES OF AMERICAN HISTORY
New York was a place of luxury that seemed to turn its back on the simple, homespun virtue that most of America had to offer. This was a place of plutocrats and philanthropy on an unprecedented scale.
In countries with a monarchy rather than an oligarchy, history tends to have been made in castles, palaces and the istana. The USA, with its presidential system centred on Washington DC, has no natural centre for major happenings.
The most dramatic — and least palatable for US patriots — happening at the White House before last year was when the British burned it down in 1814. Hotels became the storehouses of American history as the former colony began to take over the world in the late 19th century.
New York, above all, was a place for entertaining on a heroic scale. Its top hotels offered matchless opportunities for the "Four Hundred" and other society stalwarts. The charms of the Waldorf Astoria had a much wider reach than the local "upper crust" as they called each other.
Countless heads of state and government have stayed there, including guests as discerning as Queen Elizabeth II. In the late 19th century, at a time when the USA was stepping up segregation within its own population, this hotel was a delighted host to the Qing imperial dynasty of China and princes of Siam.
The history of luxurious hospitality as we know it today is encapsulated in the premium property of New York. Heating and lifts were perfected there, while women were given some independence. They had their own unchaperoned space for hairdressing and, less predictably, their own billiards room.
RENEWED CONNECTIONS
Although the buildings of Gilded Age America looked to France and Germany, the facilities were often inspired by further east. Turkish baths were essential, backed up in New York by the less well-known Russian baths.
A taste for the old Orient was expressed in smoking rooms, a male refuge from the notoriously assertive ladies of New York. In these havens they could not only enjoy Turkish tobacco in peace, but also admire arms and armour from around the Islamic world.
There was even a touch of Southeast Asia at the Waldorf Astoria. Palm gardens had become fashionable places for dining in general and tea in particular. To be surrounded by towering tropical greenery was considered an elegant retreat from the alternating blazing heat and icy cold of Manhattan.
The furniture was usually rattan. I haven't encountered any gamelan performances but they would no doubt have been well received. Instead, there were performances by the greatest singers of the time, including Enrico Caruso and Nellie Melba.
When the hotel reopens next year, it will have a new look and renewed connections with Asia. The old Art Deco style is to be enhanced by a number of artists from around the world, including the Korean visual-arts megastar Minjung Kim.
Lovers of luxury and aesthetics who don't mind waiting an extra year will be able to experience the Waldorf Astoria in Kuala Lumpur. As with the new New York parent, the emphasis is on fewer but larger rooms. The smallest size will be 800 square feet74.3sqm.
There's the same emphasis on superior facilities, including the ultimate wellness centre. Being located in Malaysia, the food will not only be two-Michelin-star quality but also the last word in variety. Waldorf salad will doubtless be on the menu in KL.
One asset that certainly cannot be matched by New York is the selection of art on the walls. Nowhere else are you likely to be greeted by an early 19th-century Persian painting that measures 4.5 metres wide. Featuring 24 of the Qajar ruler Fath Ali Shah's innumerable male offspring, it's bound to look entirely at home in the palatial opulence of this new hotel.
Follow Lucien de Guise at Instagram @crossxcultural.