He has swum with sharks in the Bahamas, crawled his way through a twisty underground cave in Belgium and crashed downhill on the slopes of Rizal and Cavite. As a sportsman, Mandarin Oriental’s general manager Torsten van Dullemen likes to live on the edge.
Yet he has brought recognition to the hotels that he managed and finds quality time with his family. It also doesn’t hurt that he has an Intelligence Quotient of 132, thereby making him a member of the high IQ society, Mensa.
Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group puts its most senior management through a special test to help map out their careers in the next five years. Van Dullemen’s score puts him in the top 1 percent of the world’s population blessed with brilliant minds.
From 2004 to 2007, Van Dullemen was hotel manager in Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London. Condé Nast Traveler (UK) placed the hotel in the Gold List, while its Readers’ Choice named it “Leisure Hotel of the Year” in 2005.
When he was general manager for Mandarin Oriental in Bangkok, the property won several Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Award and got on the Gold List for its food and service. In 2011 and 2012, the hotel was No. 1 in TripAdvisor for Thailand. Before his Philippine posting, he was GM for the Chiang Mai property, Mandarin Oriental Dhara Devi, which was also lauded for its accommodations and spa.
Vegetarian
Van Dullemen arrives way ahead of the Inquirer for the interview. Impressing his guest, he had the table laden with coffee, green tea and assorted cookies. He had just eaten a lunch of blueberry juice, quinoa with cherry tomatoes and spinach, noodle soup and vegetables at Mandarin’s Paseo Uno.
“Since I came here, the buffet has become more vegetarian,” says the Dutchman. “A hotel can be very dangerous. You can eat and drink whatever you want, but it is also an easy way to stay healthy. I don’t drink spirits and beer. I don’t take cream, meat, fish and fried food.”
Asked about his workout, Van Dullemen instead shows his swollen knuckles. One hand was sore from catching himself after his bike lost control on an army trail in Taguig. The other hand was the result of him crashing into a tree at the Enduro Race in San Pablo, Laguna. From other expeditions, stitches on his knees or legs would be his “mementoes.”
Nonetheless, he remains devoted to mountain biking because it provides the exhilaration of being amid nature’s beauty. On weekends, he meets up with friends who are equally fit—triathletes and ex-members of special forces—in Fort Bonifacio army trails, San Mateo, Antipolo, Cavite and Laguna.
“I don’t like to go where others don’t go,” he says. His group favors daunting trails that are obstructed by trees, huge rocks, gravelly soil and roller-coaster terrains. He likes the challenge of the 2,000-kilometer uphill climb which takes more than an hour followed by the steep descent.
“You have to be fit, or you can get easily injured,” he says.
“Mountain biking is tough on the body. You get beaten up so often. You go downhill on craggy terrain. There’s tension all the time. It’s so hard to sit on the bike for four hours, climbing and bouncing on rocks. You need to continuously hold on to the steering wheel because you might end up against a tree or rock. Your heart rate is 190 or 195. You carry three liters of water on your back because you get dehydrated.”
Van Dullemen uses a hardtail bike or full suspension bike for speedy expeditions and the dual suspension bike for steep trails. “It’s like a motor bike without an engine. You can jump and go downhill,” he explains of the latter.
The 46-year-old hotelier recently joined the Nuvali Summerfest Masters Cross Country Cup, finishing in the top 10 of his age group, Master D (45 to 49 years old, men’s division), in Calamba. He completed the 30-km nature trail in one hour and 51 minutes. Despite the sweltering temperature of 39 degrees Celsius, he pedaled at an average speed of 18.7 km per hour, which was fast for a mountain bike.
To date, his fastest record is 68 km an hour going downhill in Tagaytay.
On weekdays, he bikes from the hotel to Rockwell Club for boxing and comes back to start the day at work.
Natural aptitude
“I don’t do sports to lose weight or to look good. It’s just that I like it. I’ve done it at an early age, and you have a natural aptitude,” says Van Dullemen.
Growing up in a small town in Holland, he would swim in lakes, ride horses on the prairie or just rough it up with friends. It was a normal occurrence for him to visit the doctor or to have a wound stitched or bandaged.
“In Holland, if you haven’t done ice skating, biking, football and swimming, then you didn’t have a childhood,” he says. “We would bike for eight hours around Holland, pitch a tent, camp at night and bike again the next morning.”
Through the years, Van Dullemen has excelled in athletics. He’s got a certificate to be a lifeguard and was ranked No. 3 in seven of the 19 provinces in Holland for his karate skills.
He has sought thrills in water sports. When he spent his honeymoon in the Caribbean, he dove in the shark-feeding site to be with hammerheads and barracudas.
“When sharks get nervous, they shake. They are like wild dogs you see in mountain biking. You stay out of their way and leave them alone,” he says.
In the Mediterranean, he has done speargun fishing up to 32 meters underwater without any oxygen. He hunted for garoupas in Bali and dove in Egypt. In the Philippines, he spends more time snorkeling in Boracay and Subic. Over the Easter holidays, he was impressed with the rich biodiversity in the coral gardens of Puerto Galera.
Asked about his most extreme endeavor, the hotelier cites exploring the subterranean caves in Ardennes, a region of forests and hills in Belgium. It was an antidote to his claustrophobia and anxiety vertigo.
After mountain climbing and zip lining, Van Dullemen and his colleagues crept through underwater caves for two hours. Braving the chilly temperature, they struggled through openings plugged with ancient rocks and sediment and inched their way through pitch-black warrens.
“It’s like being stuck in a tunnel or canal. You have to wiggle your way through, stay calm and trust that you can do it. When you’re in the middle and the guy in front of you panics, you can’t get angry at him for being a sissy,” he recalls.
Prize catch
However, it’s not all derring-do for the hotelier. Van Dullemen also engages in sports for peace of mind. He once turned to fly fishing as a stress buster. His memorable fishing trips were in the United Kingdom. When he was working in London, Van Dullemen and his friends traveled to Wales, Ireland or South Britain on weekends.
They booked a bed-and-breakfast place, drove to a nature reserve for fly fishing, and even risked their lives perching themselves in trees and on slippery rocks to bait the fish.
He likens fishing to mountain biking. “It takes you to places where you have no reasons to go.” More than just the reward of catching the big fish, he enjoys the meditative activity.
“You give each other a kilometer apart for five to six hours. Walking into a river, you see kingfishers, huge deer, trees and hear the running water. There are no noises nor cars. You sit on a bank and make yourself tea. It is such a nurturing silence. Then you make the perfect cast. The five seconds from when the fly comes down the water to the trout taking it is called the longest silence. All the stress is gone. You drive home either frostbitten or sunburned, but you sleep better,” says Van Dullemen.
Aside from sports, Van Dullemen has other creative ways to spend his leisure hours. While managing the world’s best luxury resort, Oberoi Udaivilas in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India, he explored the state on an old Royal Enfield motorbike, the vehicle of British postmen in World War II. With his camera, he took snapshots of the culture and lifestyle of the people.
The owner, Pr. S. Oberoi, was impressed with Van Dullemen’s striking photojournalistic style, that he had them published in coffee table books. Proceeds of the sales of “Udaipur After Monsoons,” “Udaipur” and “Rajasthan” went to charity.
“Sports is just a small part of the equation. It’s got to be complemented by adequate sleep and a healthy diet,” says Van Dullemen. “In all, happiness is important. You need to be comfortable in your skin.”
