Sybaritic Single Samples Peranakan Splendour
The Sybaritic Single desperately browses through Tatler Asia hoping to discover at least something vaguely exciting in Jakarta - it's all in vain. It's the most uneventful city in the entire region: even Kuala Lumpur is more fun.
Looking for the most expensive hotel to stay at, as he always does, he comes across the House of Tugu, priced way above the city's Raffles and Four Seasons. It also happens to be on the TIME Magazine's World's Greatest Places list for 2026.
Feeling intrigued, he books a Concubine Suite on the fourth floor, perched just above the Grand Madame Suite.
When the hotel opened in Jakarta’s Old Town last January after two decades in the making, it offered something rare in Indonesia: a public home for Peranakan heritage. One-of-a-kind antiques painstakingly collected over nearly 60 years fill the 25 guest suites and corridors of the historic complex.
Today, it displays more than 1,000 privately preserved pieces. Thousand year old statues stand guard over the bar and main restaurant, a giant and glistening Chinese dragon flies under the ceiling and a giant Buddha dominates a private dining room.
The Sybaritic Single arrives just in time for the opening of the on-site Huang Museum, which adds thousands more artifacts of old Batavia. He tours the premises and rides around town in a horse drawn carriage rather than a Rolls-Royce. All modern technology is intentionally hidden.
Time lingers sweetly in this other-worldly realm. The Sybaritic Single spends balmy evenings on airy terraces soaking in nostalgia and the aroma of the moon orchids. Everyone goes out of their way to ensure he is most comfortable, even as he walks down dimly lit, cluttered corridors doing his best not to knock down any of the antiques.
In a world dominated by global brands, wonderfully imperfect, authentic hotels are the place to be.
