Vietnam— Halfway between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, places so chaotic that crossing their streets is an act of bravery, lies China Beach, where American GIs once took R&R and global tourists now do the same, but much more expensively. The beach is the site of the Nam Hai, a resort designed by an architect who’d never designed a resort—which was fine, because neither the owners nor the architect, Reda Amalou, wanted a “resort-y” look. Says the Paris-based Amalou: “You know when you’re in the polluted, crazy hustle and bustle of an overcrowded city, and suddenly you push open a door and walk into a temple and everything’s quiet?” That’s the feeling he wanted from Nam Hai. His creation, which has garnered a ton of awards and attention since its December 2007 opening, is so quietly arresting that a journalist suggested the hotel offer tours of it. Starting in November, it will—an iPod tour, narrated by the architect. From this you learn that Amalou borrowed from sources high and low. The hotel’s main entrance, with its grand staircase leading to a symmetrical central pavilion, evokes local temples. The layout of the villas, with their indoor-outdoor spaces and proximity to water, comes from traditional vernacular timber-framed peasant houses—although, as Amalou admits, his is “a hedonistic interpretation.” For contrast head to nearby Hoi An, a 16th-century port town that’s a Unesco World Heritage site. Unfortunately, that architect wasn’t available to do the iPod tour.

 

The Nam Hai: from $750 per night; 84/510-940-000; ghmhotels.com.

  "iPod Tourism" originally appeared in the Fall 2008 issue of Culture+Travel. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Culture+Travel's Fall 2008 Table of Contents.