AYANA RESORT AND SPA BALI
AYANA Resort and Spa Bali - Luxury Travel Magazine
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The New Bali | |||||
| By: Timothy Morrell, Issue 43 – Winter 2010 | |||||
| (AYANA Resort and Spa Bali – Bali) | |||||
| THESE DAYS IT TAKES MORE THAN THE SEDUCTIVE MYSTIQUE OF BALI TO CONVINCE DISCERNING TRAVELLERS THAT IT’S WHERE THEY WANT TO GO. TIMOTHY MORRELL DISCOVERED THE NEW BREED OF BALI RESORT THAT MAKES TRAVELLERS FEEL THEY’VE ARRIVED SOMEWHERE SPECIAL. | |||||
| Bali has changed somewhat since the 1950s when Indian Prime Minister Jawarharlal Nehru described it so poetically as the morning of the world. It now represents the high noon of tourism, and even though it’s still the most exquisitely beautiful island on earth, a lot of people may be starting to feel that they’re over Bali. But with the release of the movie Eat, Pray, Love set in Bali and starring Julia Roberts, along with a new breed of Bali resort such as AYANA Resort and Spa Bali, travellers will fall in love all over again. AYANA Resort and Spa Bali combines optimum creature comforts with the idyllic tranquillity that beguiled visitors to Bali last century. High on a cliff above Jimbaran Bay, the hotel is only 20 minutes from Denpasar Airport, but gazing out over the ocean you can let yourself imagine that there’s nothing else on the island. The hotel compound is an immaculately maintained garden, which gently dissolves at its fringes into lush natural vegetation and tiny private white sand beaches between rocky promontories. At 77 hectares it’s big enough so that guests who are so inclined can find perfect solitude in a short walk. Among the catalogue of luxuries that have brought AYANA global acclaim, the most noteworthy is the pervasive feeling of peaceful space. Accommodation is unusually generous. Occupants of the guest villas move through a procession of airy marble and carved limestone rooms culminating in a vast, celestially conceived bathroom. The serene, almost ceremonial stateliness of it all doesn’t simply offer over-the-top glamour. It induces a profound sense of calm. Each villa has its own flower-filled garden, terrace and swimming pool with a canopied and cushion-strewn platform for lounging. Strategic landscaping keeps you completely concealed, yet allows you to survey the ocean from your pool. As well as the 78 individual villas there are 290 hotel rooms and suites. These include 71 on the Club level, where food, beverages and various additional services come as part of the package. A visit to the award winning spa is essential if you want to appreciate what the hotel is famous for. The hard part of this elaborately soothing ritual is staying awake so you can fully appreciate it. You and your partner can recline in a wooden pavilion that’s poised with Zen-like balance on rocks a few metres above the rhythmically surging waves, while applications of hot and cold jade disks get your chakras up to scratch. The Diamond Miracle treatment combines crystal peeling, submersion in a bath blanketed by the petals of 500 red roses, a massage with oils that contain elements of silk and pearl and a facial that uses diamond dust. There may be some debate about the specific clinical benefits of roses and gemstones, but it’s amazing how they can always make you feel better. The sensation of being physically transported into the realm of pure fantasy is undeniably rejuvenating, and if having your face sprinkled with pulverized diamonds isn’t going to get you there, nothing will. AYANA has an extraordinary number of places to dine, 13 all up. The resort’s executive chef Giordano Faggioli has an Italian distain for palate-numbing complexity and is instead dedicated to authentic regional styles of cuisine and the best quality ingredients. Simply cooked fresh local fish eaten beside the ocean on a sandy terrace at the Kisik Bar and Grill provides the quintessential Bali dining experience. Or you can watch the A sunset from the new Rock Bar, a massive viewing platform constructed a few metres above the level of spray from the crashing waves.If you are after a romantic meal one can be conjured up virtually anywhere you like. Popular alternatives to dining in the restaurants and bars include a champagne breakfast on a floating table launched in your swimming pool and a lobster dinner serenaded by a private gamelan orchestra at the end of a pier. The latter would surely qualify as the most exclusive restaurant in existence - maximum seating, two. For active guests, AYANA Resort and Spa Bali offers golf, tennis and a fully equipped fitness centre. The five imaginatively designed swimming pools are more conducive to contemplating the scenery than getting fit, but for a wet and wild experience you can have a jet-powered salt water massage by doing a circuit of the world’s biggest Aquatonic pool. At the end of the circuit you recover by enjoying the view of the ocean and terraced gardens when you reach the more gently effervescent round pool in a pavilion reminiscent of Beijing’s Temple of Heaven. With all that is on offer at AYANA from food to the spa there is no shortage of ways to unwind. The resort allows you to feel the sensation of being physically transported into the realm of pure fantasy is undeniably rejuvenating. AYANA is extravagant in every way, yet it essentially allows the island to work it’s own magic. | |||||
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