Arizona’s healing powers

At the Boulders resort in Carefree, participants are led through the spa’s labyrinth (meant to symbolise one’s life journey).

Long before settlers came west, indigenous people were turning Arizona’s native plants and herbs into medicines and treatments. Centuries later, people still flock to the region seeking physical and spiritual healing.

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But amid the protruding mesas and cacti-coated hills, what makes this area such a healing hotspot? Willard Scott, who founded Scottsdale in 1888, credited the climate. He promoted his new settlement as a land “where rain seldom falls and there is no cold”.At the turn of the 18th Century,the state advertised itself as an ideal place to treat tuberculosis thanks to its dry, warm air. By 1920, Tucson alone had more than 7,000 TB patients who hoped to kick the illness.

As time passed, golfers also discovered the state’s fantastic weather, and in turn, played a part in curating Arizona’s mainstream therapeutic offerings. “The golf and resort boom grew hand-in-hand and spas were the obvious missing link for the non-golfers,” said Lisa Kasanicky, founder of Arizona Spa Girls, an online guide to the state’s spas and salons. Scottsdale now has more spas per capita than any US city.

Arizona’s solid track record of healing was tragically interrupted in 2009 when three people died and others had to be hospitalized after a sweat lodge ceremony at a retreat outside Sedona. The man who led the ceremony has since been found guilty of negligent homicide, but visitors should still do their homework before any treatment. “If you can’t find a referral from someone you trust, stick to reputable establishments like resort spas,” said Robert Vance, a board member of the International Spa Association and spa director at Sanctuary Camelback Mountain Resort and Spa. “Look for licensed professionals that are subject to expectations of ethics and high standards of performance.”

From Scottsdale’s plentiful spa scene to Sedona’s famous vortexes(funnel-shaped energy centres believed to promote a stronger mind-body connection), Arizona offers the full gamut of relaxing, spiritual experiences. Get closer to the area’s rich healing traditions by signing up for a treatment at one of the spots listed below, all of which embrace the state’s landscape, history and energy.

Aji Spa at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort
Many spots in Arizona claim to have Native American-inspired treatments, but at Aji, in the Gila River Indian Community, every treatment must be approved by the Pima and Maricopa Tribe’s committee for authenticity and cultural sensitivity. The Tribe’s healer, Belen Stoneman, works on site and offers a treatment that includes massage and some vision work.

The BouldersSet against a huge cloud-shaped granite formation estimated to be 12 million years old, the Boulders resort in Carefree has award winning golf courses and four pools to escape the heat, but its 33,000-sq-ft Golden Door Spa is a destination in and of itself. An on-site shamanic ceremonialist conducts a “Meditation Journey Into the Tipi”, where participants are led through the spa’s labyrinth (meant to symbolise one’s life journey) to the spa’s Sioux-style tipi. The shaman leads a meditation that reaches a dream-like state, so guests leave feeling relaxed and more connected to their inner spirit.

Willow StreamThe 40,000-sq-ft spa at Willow Stream in Scottsdale has no shortage of treatments, but Kasanicky loves the Havasupai Body Oasis Experience which starts under relaxing warm waterfalls, meant to mimic Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon. The whole body continues to be pampered with a footbath, aromatherapy wrap and a scalp acupressure treatment.

L’Auberge de Sedona and Mi Amo
Due to the energy believed to come from the vortexes, Sedona is the still the place to go for the most new age treatments. Want to try hypnotherapy? The Spa at L’Auberge offers hotel guests a complementary weekly group session by resident healing expert Deena Lee. Topics include everything from anti-aging to clearing the chakras (energy centres located throughout  the body). At Mi Amo, long recognized as one of Sedona’s top spas, you can try “Interactive Aura Photography” to decode the colours that make up your physical, emotional and mental space and find out how they dictate your energy.

Signh FarmsThis 20-acre organic oasis set in the Sonoran desert outside Scottsdaleis its own energy centre according to owners Lee and Ken Singh. By channelling those forces, they have transformed the soil and used their success to educate the public on nutritious food and sustainability based on the Earth’s cycles. Signh Farms is only open to the public on Saturdays from 8am to 1pm, but its produce is so fresh and flavourful that many of the Phoenix’s top chefs buy her

In search of the perfect road in Mallorca

One Balearic island, one new and lightweight Porsche Cayman R, one very short night. Ask yourself: what would you do? (James Lipman)

Mallorca has blown a very big fuse. This is my first thought upon spearing out of yet another pretty-but-identikit rural village, because as soon as we leave the immediate environs, the night sky wraps around the Cayman like a black velvet shroud, turning the ice-white Porsche into a faintly glowing, unquiet ghost. Being let loose in the new Cayman R, the lightened and tightened version of one of the most useful sports cars in existence, up a Mallorcan mountain road at night sounds quite cool, but believe me, at this point there’s a horrible, gut-boiling sense of frustration running through me like a dirty infection. And it has nothing to do with dodgy tapas.

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The fact is that there are precisely no streetlights to give even the vaguest hint as to which way the road goes. Not one. Any ambient starlight or moonglow is diffused by heavy cloud, and the road is simply too twisty to get any solid idea of direction. The wraithlike little Porsche is fitted with the excellent optional xenons, but it’s still impossible to drive even vaguely quickly without risking inconvenient death. Worse, the roads are actually pretty good. But you can sense the doomy drops off the inky edges, and the corners have a nasty habit of tightening at the last moment. Like trying to run across a large room in pitch darkness, you can sense the space even if you can’t see it, and you belt along cringing, awaiting the moment when you meet the scenery with your face. It’s all about confidence, and I appear to have left mine at the hotel.

I can’t believe this. Gifted a hardcore Porsche and a mountain range, and I can’t even find a decent bloody road to drive it on.

Grinding the point home is the overwhelming sense of potential in this newest Cayman. Ghosting through these orange-lit Mallorcan villages, the R potters with sublime ease, riding better than a standard Cayman S, despite being lowered a not-insignificant 20mm, failing to graunch over speed bumps, sucking lumps into the dampers like a tiny, perfect magic trick. On light throttle openings, the 330bhp 3.4 sounds, frankly, like it has a blowing exhaust, the familiar flat-six hoarseness akin to a dog coughing up an angora sweater, but on brief revels to three-quarters of the rev-range, the wail starts to build. Just as I have to slow for the next village. Frustration becomes a familiar – and infinitely bitter – taste in the back of my throat.

Eventually we stop to take pictures in a sleepy village and immediately cause a bit of a stir. It could be the sight of two men assembling a photographic rig that looks like some sort of siege engine in the middle of the street at 1am, or it could be the Cayman. A mallowy wobble of craggy old lady shuffles over to poke us with her walking stick, so I smile and point at the Porsche, miming picture-taking in some sort of bizarre late-night version of Give us a Clue, becoming increasingly camp during the whole wordless exchange. Apparently satisfied, the leathery old matriarch taps the side of her head, points at my face and undulates away. She likes the Cayman. She likes the fixed rear spoiler. She likes the massaged bodywork, the mascara’d black of the headlight-surrounds. She likes the Seventies graphics down the side, and she loves the lightweight black wheels. She even likes the interior, trimmed as it is in blood-leather and white plastic like some sort of futuristic abattoir. Probably.

What she doesn’t know is that if it were down to pure rationale, there would appear to be very little point in the R. Compared to a standard Cayman S, it’s a bit lower, a tiny bit faster, a smidge more powerful by 10bhp – though torque remains the same – has more downforce (15 per cent at the front, and 40 per cent at the rear) and a tad less weight. I’ll admit that 55kg of weight reduction is significant in a car of this size, bringing down the total to 1,295kg, but probably not a deal-breaker.

A walk through Sydney’s criminal shadows

If Sydney’s lanes could talk, the stories they could tell would shock you. (Gillianne Tedder/LPI)

It can be hard to think of Sydney as anything other than a bastion of delicate pleasures and devil-may-care whimsy. But for history lovers, Sydney offers so much more than a pleasant trip aboard a ferry and a few dizzingly expensive meals.

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As the site of some of Australia’s most notorious criminal gangland activity, Sydney’s past teems with tales of bawdy bordellos, sordid soirees and rapacious razor gangs. As the world emerged from the shadow of the Great War, drugs, booze and prostitution became the criminal order of the day – and no more so than within the belly of Sydney’s bloodthirsty razor gangs.

From the ragged streets of Surrey Hills and Darlinghurst emerged two unlikely kingpins to rule over everyone – unlikely because these two kings were queens. Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh presided over their empires for years, establishing most of their power during the late 1920s. Taking advantage of a legal loophole that denied men the right to profit from women’s “immoral” behaviour but made no mention of women doing the same, Devine and Leigh became Sydney’s most notorious madams and drug dealers. With their own respective gangs looking after their interests, they fended off attempts from all sides – including each other – to maintain their place at the top of the heap.

It is easy to take your own walking tour to follow the trajectory of these key moments, though tours are also available with groups like Razorhurst. So, don your best cloche, wing tips and silk stockings and lift that invisible veil that separates the ages with these highlights.

Kate Leigh’s Sly Grog Shop 
Leigh had already been operating a lucrative criminal business for years before the emergence of razor gang warfare. Capitalising on the enforcement of the so-called six o’clock Swill (instituted in 1916 following a riot of 5,000 ANZAC soldiers high on grog), Leigh was the queen of the sly grog shop. Described by papers as “the most evil woman in Sydney”, Leigh’s main dispensary was a flat above her fruit and vegetable shop at 212 Devonshire Street, Surrey Hills. It was also the site of her death in 1964, at age 82. She had been known as one of Sydney’s wealthiest, most charismatic women and more than 700 people attended her funeral – including police officers and politicians.

Frog Hollow From Devonshire Street, turn left onto Riley Street and walk to the corner of Albion Street.
Most slums would be seen as middle class boroughs in comparison to Frog Hollow. Razed to the ground in the late 1920s, it was a hiding place for criminals, prostitutes and violent thugs. Its swamp-like ground housed frogs in the mid 1800s, but even they abandoned the vile, vermin-infested horrors that lay within. Home to Samuel “Jewey” Freeman, leader of the Riley Street Gang and former lover to Leigh, it was the site of unimaginable poverty and violence.

King’s LaneContinue up Riley Street towards Darlinghurst. Cross over Oxford and Burton Streets.
King’s Lane was the stomping ground for Norman Bruhn’s gang, Sydney’s most violent criminal and master wielder of the razor. With Snowy Cutmore, George “the Midnight Raper” Wallace (whose moniker manages to be both frightening and brutally straightforward) and Razor Jack Hayes, Bruhn terrorised the local populace. Busting out of Melbourne before a court hearing, Bruhn was feared for his garrotting skills: with one hand he would tighten a leather thong around his victim’s neck, while calmly pick-pocketing him with the other. 

The Tradesman’s Arms 
Head east on King’s Lane to Palmer Sreet to arrive at the site of the old Tradesman’s Arms
Directly across from Devine’s home at 191 Palmer Street, the Arms was a literal den of iniquity. With sawdust coating the floor to soak up blood and vomit, it was the site of illegal bootlegging, drug dealing and gambling. Devine operated one of the most lucrative brothel networks in Sydney and often called in to transact business at the Arms

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The futurist: China leads high-speed rail plans

With the 30 June opening of the high-speed rail between Beijing and Shanghai, China became a leader in new rail developments.

Despite lagging for years behind Japan’s new maglev trains and the continuously expanding TGV in France (the just-announced Paris to Bordeaux link will cut travel time from three hours to two), China’s newly opened route is the first in a network expected to grow to 10,000 miles of track by 2020. China already built around 6,000 miles of track since deciding in 2006 to pursue high-speed rail over maglev and other technologies.

The country’s expertise in the required technologies has made them a major player among the consortia that bid for high-speed rail contracts. In March, a group of Hong Kong and Shanghai-based businesses put in a tender for the long-awaited San Francisco to San Diego line, and Russian Railways announced that it is very likely China would win the public bidding for the high-speed rail network Russia plans to have in place for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to Birmingham touched off rumours that China would bid for the proposed London to Birmingham line, although construction will not begin until 2019.

The $33 billion track, which opened one year ahead of schedule, on the eve of the Communist Party’s 90th birthday, is expected to carry 180,000 passengers a day along 24 stops. It shortens the journey between the two cities from ten hours to less than five. In comparison, travelling roughly the same distance between New York and Chicago takes 19 hours on Amtrak.

Many of the towns and cities between Shanghai and Beijing are preparing for a property and population boom. The city of Xuzhou, with a population of nearly 10 million, has plans for a business district and hotel around the train station, while Qufu, where Confucius was born, will be the smallest city in China to have a Shangri-La Hotel when it opens next year. Qufu is 340 miles from Beijing, but can now be reached in just two hours.

Safety concerns for China’s high-speed rail network, which has also been hit with accusations of corruption, mean that the trains, designed for a maximum speed of 380kph, will operate no faster than 300kph. But for those who can afford the tickets, which range from 555 yuan in coach to 1,700 yuan for a first-class, fully-reclining seat for the trip between Beijing to Shanghai, the bullet trains will be welcome option. Some airlines have even cut their ticket prices by 65%, to between 400 and 2000 yuan, to compete with the cheapest rail ticket. 

The next 4,000 miles of track will connect remote cities like Urumqi and Nanning with the coastal capitals. These high-speed rail lines free up older tracks for freight, which is cheaper than trucking, and also moves workers and cheaper labour from the outer provinces more quickly to the cities, making China’s economy even more competitive.

Perfume in Provence: Visit, smell, create

Provence's famed lavender fields are best visited between June and July. (Bethune Carmichael/LPI)

Fragrance making began in Provence about 500 years ago, when local tanneries sought to make their leather products smell good. The region’s temperate climate has long been ideal for growing roses, jasmine, lavender, tuberose and other flowers.

Costly land and labour values have forced many perfume makers to move to major cities and increase the use of synthetic materials, said Virginia Bonofiglio, associate chairperson of cosmetics and fragrance marketing at the Fashion Institute of Technology. But Grasse, a medieval Provencal town with cobblestone streets, is still considered the perfume capital of the world. There are about 65 perfume-related companies currently in operation.

Some of the factories are built into the rock surrounding the walled city. “When visiting the smaller ones you literally have to duck your head when walking in,” said Jennifer Wilson-Buttigieg, co-president of New York-based Valerie Wilson Travel.

Visitors can take free tours of three traditional perfume factories –Parfumerie Fragonard, Molinard and Parfumerie Galimard – to learn how flowers and plants are distilled into essential oils, and view antique production equipment. 

At Parfumerie Fragonard, named for Jean-Honoré Fragonard, the 18th-century painter born in Grasse, a museum documents 3,000 years of perfume history and showcases bottles used to store the liquid gold, including some from ancient Egypt and China. Each year, the perfume maker celebrates a different flower and 2011 honours the orange blossom. At fragrance workshops, groups learn ancient perfume making tricks as they make their own cologne or orange blossom eau de toilette.

In a building designed by Gustave Eiffel, a Molinard "nose" (perfume maker) helps visitors create their own distinctive fragrance. Their classic scent, Molinard de Molinard contains nearly 600 components and its most popular perfume, Habanita turns 90 this year.

Parfumerie Galimard, founded in 1747 and provider to the royal court of Louis XV, enters its visitor-created scents into a database to ease the re-ordering process. Body cream, shower gel and aftershave balm can also be scented and ordered. Escorted by a master gardener, guests can stroll through flower and plant fields in the nearby village of Gourdon.

At Le Domaine de Manon, outside of the Grasse city limits, tours of flower fields are given during the harvest, which is generally May for roses and August through mid-October for jasmine. Both flowers (which visitors can pick during tours) are reserved exclusively for use in Dior perfumes. 

Grasse also boasts the early medieval Notre Dame du Puy Cathedral and the International Perfume Museum. The museum has botanical gardens about 7km outside of town.

In the town of Manosque, L'Occitane en Provence began making fragrance and body products in 1976 using natural ingredients and traditional Mediterranean methods. Guided factory tours are available.

Les Routes de la Lavande is a road trip along Provencal lavender fields that takes travellers to places associated with growing and processing lavender, such as farmhouses and botanical gardens that feature demonstrations of distillation techniques. Grande-traversee-alpes.comoffers interactive maps detailing accommodations, events and attractions along the route.

How to
Grasse is an easy day trip by car from Nice or Cannes.

Le Couvent des Minimes Hotel and Spa, in nearby Mane, is located in a centuries-old former convent with a long tradition of creating natural skin products. The property is now owned by L’Occitane and its products are used in the spa.

If you visit in August, there is a Jasmine festival in Grasse 5 to 7 August and a Lavender Parade in Valréas 6 to 8 August. The Lavender festival in Sault on 15 August will feature Provencal music, crafts, lavender ice cream, a field of lavender in the centre of the festival and a chance for visitors to try their hand at harvesting.