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Latest Thai Luxury
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By: Susan Borham, Madeleine Stratton, Jemima Johnson-Gilbert And Diana Nguyen, Issue 43 – Winter 2010
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(Six Senses Soneva Kiri, The Langham Place Samui At Lamai Beach, Sareeraya Resort, X2 Samui Resort, JW Marriott Khao Lak, Le Meridien Chiang Mai and Vie Bangkok – Thailand)
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THAILAND’S NEWEST CROP OF LUXURY RESORTS AND HOTELS ARE WOWING GUESTS WITH ATMOSPHERIC INTERIORS AND GROUNDBREAKING DINING CONCEPTS. FROM BAREFOOT BEACH CHARM TO CHIC CITY RETREATS, LUXURY TRAVEL MAGAZINE VISITS THE LATEST PROPERTIES ON THAILAND’S TROPICAL ISLANDS AND IN ITS BUSTLING CITIES.
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Castaway-chic: For A New Generation Of luxury travellers
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ONE OF THE NEWEST ADDITIONS TO THAILAND’S HIGH-END RESORT SCENE IS THE ULTRA-LUXURY SONEVA KIRI RESORT. SUSAN BORHAM TRAVELLED TO A TINY ISLAND IN THE GULF OF SIAM TO VISIT THE GROUNDBREAKING CREATION OF A HIGHLY IMAGINATIVE LUXURY RESORT BRAND.
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This is a resort story but it begins in the Thai Airways Business Class Lounge at Bangkok airport because that, in a way, is where this resort experience begins. We were met in the lounge by an envoy sent to escort us to the resort’s own Grand Cessna Caravan aircraft waiting on the tarmac. We were bound for the tiny island of Koh Kood in the south-east of the Gulf of Thailand. The resort there, Soneva Kiri, is the latest property from the award-winning luxury resort brand Six Senses.
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An extended Indian family and its British nanny were already settled in for the flight aboard the 12-seater luxury aircraft and there was much excitement among the children as three more Soneva Kiri envoys lined up on the tarmac to wave us off. Fifty minutes later we spotted the dot in the ocean that would be our island home for the next five days. As we descended we saw white sandy coves and what appeared to be majestic, white tents scattered along the shoreline among clearings in the vegetation.
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We landed on an airstrip on an island near Koh Kood where another uniformed Soneva Kiri welcoming party greeted us. Among them was Chompoo Kiewkarnka, our butler for the stay. She led us to the water’s edge where a chrome, teak and navy James Bond-style motor boat waited to ferry us to the resort five minutes across the ocean.
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As soon as they were helped out of the boat the group from the plane headed off up the jetty. Six Senses regulars, they felt right at home and were already making comparisons between this, the group’s newest property, and the Maldives property they had most recently visited. Then it was just us and Chompoo on the jetty under the mid-afternoon, tropical sun. When the boat’s engine was switched off, the island seemed suddenly soundless. It felt very far from everywhere and everyone else in the world and we had that exciting and adventurous sensation of remoteness.
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All of the Six Senses resorts beginning with the name Soneva are the brand’s ultra luxury properties and what with special airport escorts, a private plane and the super slick speed boat we’d already had a glimpse of how luxurious ultra luxury gets these days. But the Six Senses group is also known for being one of the world’s first to experiment with the notion that tropical island resorts should be something other than buildings-on-beaches. So how, at their latest resort, would the design encourage those feelings of remoteness, freedom, closeness to nature and indulgence that make up the castaway-chic they are known for?
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From the jetty we were led across a giant, ancient Thai bridge transported to the island from Chiang Mai and rebuilt. We walked along soft-wood decking, past the resort’s ice cream parlour and chocolate room and were seated undercover in the open-air ambience of The Dining Room for a late lunch of lamb and island-grown leaf and vegetables. Then we were taken to our own electric buggy for the five-minute drive through rainforest to our residence, one of the resort’s 400 square metre beachfront villas. It was surrounded by trees and its decks followed the lay of the land down to the beach; the design philosophy here is for the structure to take its lead from the land rather than to dig, deform and impose buildings upon it.
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Outdoor decks and a private pool wrapped around our villa. One of the grand white tents we’d seen from the plane formed our roof and made the villa look less like a building, and somewhat temporary in the landscape. Bamboo screens created privacy and a sense of seclusion. The bathing, sleeping and dining pavilions were arranged for lateral living with everything except the sleeping area undercover but outdoors and open to the smells, sounds and warm temperature of the surrounding rainforest. Under the soaring ceilings of the canvas structure, within those open, airy spaces, it felt like luxury camping. Down below, we had a private stretch of sand, our own island cove, where deck chairs and umbrellas were arranged.
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As our stay unfolded, we came to believe that Chompoo, our assigned butler, was Six Senses’ sixth sense. As with many of her timely arrivals, she came to our villa just seconds after our arrival from lunch. She gave us a remote phone with her number on speed dial and told us to call her whenever we needed anything. There would be no standing around at a concierge desk here. She opened some drawers and asked if she’d satisfactorily unpacked our luggage. It was the first time we’d seen it since leaving Sydney. Then she handed us a suggested itinerary for our stay. Anything at any time could be swapped, deleted or delayed; nothing, she said, was out of the question. Anything we wanted to do would be arranged around our whims and wishes and there would be no group excursions.
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Chompoo mothered us in this fashion for the duration. There were no protests from us when she presented divinely packed picnic lunches in wicker baskets during our excursions to a remote island beach; in a four-wheel-drive vehicle on an island fishing village and rubber plantation tour; and in a speed boat on a snorkelling expedition when we hadn’t even yet thought about where or what we might eat. Around dusk one day, at the same time the Thai fishermen head out in their colourful traditional wooden fishing boats, we set out in a speed boat to watch the sun set. Way out there on the Indian Ocean, Cambodia just beyond the horizon, Chompoo presented two glasses of champagne at the very second the sun dropped out of sight.
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There wasn’t a time we wanted to be anywhere else during those magical expeditions on and around the island, except perhaps back at our villa. So on just one day we stayed home. Chompoo arranged to have what might have been the entire breakfast buffet delivered to our villa when we woke on that day. (The timing of its arrival was, as per usual, Mary Poppins like; she had somehow intuited the moment of our rising.) We swam in our private pool and at our private beach and we sprawled on our deck chairs and read novels until lunch was laid out in the dining pavilion once again under Chompoo’s meticulous supervision.
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Other than her and the staff she brought to the villa bearing food, we hadn’t seen another soul all day on that day and so by mid-afternoon we were wondering about the rest of the world. Chompoo brought us a laptop with wifi internet connection already set up along with a selection of DVDs we chose from the most comprehensive DVD library list we’d encountered at a hotel.
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By early evening she had arranged for a dining table to be set up down on the beach and we headed to the sand with a white from the villa’s cellar tucked underarm. Our five-year-old son chased crabs along the shoreline and inspected the inhabitants of rock pools left behind by the tide while the chef fired up the barbecue. That night we dined with our feet in the sand under stars that looked like scattered fairy dust. Yes, this was the fabled tropical island barefoot luxury, and just one more meal turned into a memorable event. That night we slept the sleep you might only dream of. Sleeping like a baby? Babies slept like us.
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Soneva Kiri is an ultimate kind of luxury, but it’s not the kind that is either opulent or glamorous. It’s an eco-aware kind of luxury for a new generation of travellers and for those whose taste it matches it’s a more refined, natural and sensitive luxury. Six Senses owners, Eva and Sonu Shivdasani call it “intelligent luxury” and others have named it eco-chic. The materials used to construct its buildings are humble so where you might expect to see oak, you’ll see renewable pine. There isn’t a grand, majestic lobby to create a sense of arrival (unless you count the open air, reconstructed Thai bridge as one), no crystal chandeliers or marble shipped from Italy. In fact, the materials, where possible, are local and locally handcrafted. In every detail of its construction and operation, an enormous amount of consideration is given to the environment both in which it is built and globally.
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On our final evening, feeling once again inclined to explore, we travelled at dusk by boat along a river to Stet Benz’s restaurant. Khun Benz had been talent-scouted by Sonu and Eva when she was operating a Phuket Thai food street stall. Her creations so divine, they set her up on Koh Kood island with her very own restaurant. On the way there, through the mangroves, we could just make out a couple of other resorts. Curiously, their names were Peter Pan Resort and Captain Hook Resort. So, I was pleased to note, we weren’t the only visitors to Koh Kood who recognised its uncanny resemblance to a place that never actually existed, the fairytale island of Never Land, the home of Peter Pan and the Lost Boys.
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The world’s travel media hasn’t yet descended upon Koh Kood but soon after they come, as with other Six Senses properties, Soneva Kiri will begin to appear on the world’s-best lists and rock divas, movie stars, heiresses, tycoons and billionaires will fly in. What this resort has to offer is something their money can’t usually buy: a feeling of being remote, carefree and connected to nature. A bit like the paradise in which the Lost Boys were found.
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Six Senses Soneva Kiri
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The Langham Place Samui At Lamai Beach
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The Langham’s latest hotel in Koh Samui might not be what you’d expect from a hotel chain with a legacy that dates as far back as 1865, but this new resort is a Langham Place property, a brand within the Langham portfolio that aims to attract a new generation of travellers looking for more than just five-star facilities in a desirable location.
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Beach Angels stroll along the beach in front of The Langham Place Samui at Lamai Beach and around the resort grounds offering guests sun cream, refreshments and even to clean their sunglasses. There’s a DJ in the lobby creating a chilled out vibe and music is piped underwater in the resort’s main pool.
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For those bored with the usual range of resort eating options, The Langham Place Samui plays with traditional restaurant expectations. Restaurant walls are taken down with one of the latest concepts in resort dining known as borderless dining. A dining setting is arranged anywhere chosen within the resort’s gorgeously landscaped grounds. Feeling peckish? You can get up close and personal with a chef at The Pantry where you enter the kitchen and watch your snack being prepared or have a go at cooking it yourself.
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77 villas offer as much or as little privacy as desired. For larger groups, clusters of villas surround a pool solely for the occupants or for total seclusion there are villas with their own pools, some oceanfront. All of the villas have outdoor or semi-outdoor bathing areas and all are generous with atmospheric interiors featuring woods, silks and elegant furniture.
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Lamai Beach plays second fiddle to its more lively Koh Samui sister, Chewang Beach but it has its own charms and anyway when your holiday accommodation is a resort like this one, the beach becomes little more than a beautiful backdrop.
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The Langham Place Samui At Lamai Beach
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Sareeraya Resort
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Once a loved backpackers destination, Chaweng Beach on Koh Samui island is now the location of more than a few smart resorts, one of the newest of which is Sareeraya Resort. It has only been open since December 2008 and has already won the Landscape Design Honourable Award 2008 from the Landscape Designers Association of Thailand. As with many of the new resorts popping up in Thailand, Sareeraya’s contemporary oriental style indoor/outdoor architecture, dubbed tropical chic, is stylish and in tune with its surroundings on the beachfront at Chaweng Beach. The resort’s exact location on the beach is at the quieter end, and the resort itself, is sanctuary-like.
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It is made up of only 26 villas and suites, many with private pools, some with outdoor jacuzzis. If you have a pool villa you may not want to leave it, but if you do feel inclined to go beachfront get in early for a front row deck chair. The beachfront starts to get interesting around mid-morning when vendors trudging through the sand hauling their wares thicken in number. Music blares from the bars, jet skis rip across the bay and the beachfront restaurants set up their tables on the sand, some on the very edge of the water. Sareeraya Resort doesn’t have a spa, and little wonder given what’s on offer within a 30-second stroll along the beach; dozens of charming open-air massage and nail salons where patrons lying on mattresses in their swimmers drift off to the sound of the lapping ocean and ladies chatting in Thai. A short stroll from the back of the resort will take you to Chaweng’s commercial strip, a little Bangkok where tourists party until the small hours. Sareeraya’s environmental responsibility programs include the Samui Coconut Tree Implant program for the island, recycling and a staff education program on energy and water saving.
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Sareeraya Resort
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X2 Samui Resort
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The five-star X2 Samui resort joins only a handful of other high-end residential properties in the largely underdeveloped coastal region of Hua Thanon where it sits alongside one of Thailand’s few remaining traditional fishing villages. The resort utilises the underdevelopment and purity of this area of Koh Samui as part of its design.
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Opened in 2008, it is one of only four X2 (pronounced “cross to”) resorts, which claim to be Thailand’s first chain of design resorts and hotels. The chain’s design philosophy is to “satisfy the spirit”, and involves the incorporation of the surrounding environment into the architectural design, and is reflected in the resort’s simple structures and minimalist furnishings. Instead of taking away several large, established trees on the site the resort was designed around them.
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There are only 27 villas at the resort, some of which offer guests a private pool and all have a private terrace and garden. Each villa also has a flat screen LCD TV with satellite and a magazine library. If you can summon up the determination to leave your villa oasis, head to Hua Thanon beach and take advantage of the activities X2 Samui has to offer there, including fishing, sailing, scuba diving, snorkelling and windsurfing. Or simply go for a run along the beach on your doorstep. Other activities the resort can organise include golf, mountain biking and trekking in the beautiful and untouched surrounding environment. Back at the resort guests can relax at the spa or the outdoor massage pavilion.
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X2 Samui resort was originally intended to be a renovation of a 15-year-old bungalow-style hotel but instead the owners decided to build a completely new resort. It now sits on eight acres with a 100-metre beachfront which is wide by Koh Samui standards.
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X2 Samui Resort
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JW Marriott Khao Lak
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Khao Lak, 80 kilometres north of Phuket in the Phang Nga province of Thailand, is a place of stretches of pristine white beaches and glittering turquoise waters. The area was devastated by the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 but is on the mend, and the latest JW Marriott offering in Thailand has found its home on Khuk Kak beach.
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The JW Marriott Khao Lak comprises 273 rooms and 20 suites, each stylishly decorated with a mix of modern and traditional Thai textiles and artwork. Elegant and spacious, there is an emphasis on comfort, with soft downy beds and cosy lounges both in the rooms and on each private balcony, and individual climate control.
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Set at three levels, the rooms fringe the resort’s 16,000 square metre lagoon-shaped outdoor pool, which weaves like a river through the buildings. Each pool-access-room on the lower levels has its own private swim-up entrance to the pool so guests can literally jump right into the water from their room.
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You can stroll or swim to either of the resort’s two pool bars for afternoon cocktails and light appetisers. This child-friendly resort also has a separate children’s pool with a man-made beach and waterslide. The best way to while away the hours is to lounge on the private beach which offers a stunning tropical backdrop and is peaceful; free from the intrusions found on other popular tourist beaches.
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JW Marriott Khao Lak
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Le Meridien, Chiang Mai
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While many new hotels and resorts are opening on Thailand’s southern islands, the French hotel chain Le Meridien has opened the newest five-star hotel in the north of the country right in the heart of the ancient city of Chiang Mai. Le Meridien Chiang Mai is, like Chiang Mai itself, a fusion of old culture and charm, by virtue of its location, and modern comforts. Beautiful ancient temples and historic sites surround the hotel while its large and luxurious guest rooms are all about chic contemporary Asian design.
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Just outside the hotel is Chaing Mai’s bustling night bazaar loved by travellers from all over the world. The hotel is close enough to the action to whip back, unload and head out to buy more.
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Inside, the hotel provides a peaceful haven from the energetic life outside, with views of the looming Doi Suthep Mountain and the Buddhist temple that sits upon it available from many rooms. The mountain views are shared by the roof-top resort-style pool which captures the afternoon sun and is one of the best places in Chiang Mai to take a good book.
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Temperatures are generally a little cooler in Thailand’s northern capital and more conducive to activity. Le Meridien Chiang Mai’s concierge desk is especially well organized to facilitate excursions that make the most of the local area. They will arrange hiking, hill tribe community visits, bare back elephants rides, Thai cooking lessons and anything else you might want to see or do.
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Le Meridien is one of the luxury hotel brands looking for ways to excite and engage its guests and so one of the hotel’s restaurants, Latest Recipe, is a popular concept restaurant which encourages guests to interact with chefs by placing their orders directly with them and so diner and chef may discuss the cooking style and ingredients.
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Le Meridien, Chiang Mai
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Vie Bangkok
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This chic new hotel is set right in the heart of the bright lights and bustle of Bangkok. The cutting-edge architecture combined with rich textures, bold colours and exotic designs throughout Vie Bangkok perfectly compliment the energetic life in Thailand’s most colourful city. Designed by renowned French team J+H Boiffils (acclaimed for their interior design work for Chanel, Hermes and Lacroix), the hotel’s 154 spacious guest rooms make full use of the sweeping views with high ceilings and big windows.
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The hotel appeals to both business and leisure travellers. The deluxe suites incorporate stylish décor and comfort with king-sized beds and separate living rooms with workspaces and wireless Internet access for travellers on the job. All the necessary facilities are available in the business centre, and for a more informal meeting, enjoy cigars in Vie Cigar Bar or cocktails on the rooftop at Vie 39. Both Vie Wine and Grill and Vie Dining restaurants offer striking cityscape views, as does the rooftop swimming pool where you can quite literally float above the clouds.
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If you’re heading to Bangkok to shop up a storm, Vie is the place to stay, and it’s only minutes from the MBK Center, the largest shopping centre in Bangkok, as well as Siam Paragon, Siam Center and Siam Discovery Center for more high-end shopping and designer brands.
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Vie Bangkok
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