Cool rooms

Travel writing is the ultimate glamour job - or so everyone who is not a travel writer tells me. But there must be a better way to make a dollar than waking up jetlagged in an achingly nondescript hotel room, unsure of what day it is or what country you are in.

Writing about a generic chain hotel can have its challenges. How do you describe the omnipresent colour of hotel beige that forms a great global smear of blah from Bangkok to Bogota? Every now and then, however, I will discover a truly one-of-a-kind lodging. It's travel gold and the review effortlessly writes itself.

Here is my personal collection of distinctive accommodation from around the world that, with one easy swipe of a credit card, will lift your journey from tedious to transformative.

With 1.3 million square kilometres of infinite barren rock and nary a raindrop nor human in sight, the Gobi is Asia's largest desert and the last place on earth you would expect to find any semblance of luxury. Yet, there I was on the desert's northern edge in the Gurvansaikhan National Park, sipping fine French wine at the luxe Three Camel Lodge listening to the glorious warbling of a traditional throat singer reverberating through a faux Mongolian temple.

My spa reservation was being set up as I gazed out to the Gobi Altai Mountains. Tomorrow I would be galloping across Mongolia, the birthplace of horseback riding. And then I would witness a demonstration of grown men in colourful briefs practising open-air wrestling. But tonight I would be retiring to my classy ger (a circular tent house better known as a yurt), kept toasty warm with felt coverings and a wood-burning stove.

I smothered my dry skin with camel milk lotion before putting on my felt slippers and Mongolian bathrobe. Buddhist symbols handpainted on wooden beams overhead sheltered me from the winds sweeping off the steppes. As I drifted off to sleep, I decided the life of a nomadic herder wasn't so bad after all.