PANGKOR LAUT RESORT
Pangkor Laut Resort - Luxury Travel Magazine
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Pangkor Laut Resort | |||||
| By: John Borthwick / Pictures by Jason Busch, Issue 16 – Spring 2003 | |||||
| (Malaysia, Pangkor Laut Island, Pangkor Laut Resort, Spa Village) | |||||
| A SPECTACULAR NEW SPA VILLAGE WILL SET THE MIND, BODY AND SPIRIT AT REST. | |||||
| A monitor lizard the size of a Komodo dragon saunters out of the jungle and slips into the sea. As I watch in astonishment, the two-metre-long creature swims casually away, looking more like a seal than a forest saurian. Pangkor Laut Island, off Malaysia’s west coast, embodies extremes like these, from the primordial – such as this spectacular amphibian – to luxury that verges on the post-modern. My overwater villa at Pangkor Laut Resort is part of an elegant new Spa Village. Perched high on piers, beautifully formed in dark teakwood and connected to each other by rambling walkways, the 22 Spa Villas collectively look like the kampung of particularly well-off sea gypsies. My villa’s beautiful bathroom boasts a tub almost the size of a rowboat, on three sides of which are huge, wide-opening windows with no-one but the sea and stars peeking in. Definitely a tub built for two. No sea gypsy ever had it so good. I’m here to experience Pangkor Laut Resort’s new spa, so I weave my way along those lovely walkways, above jade waters, beside a shoreline of sea-sculpted granites, past the verges of the island’s two-million-year-old and never-been-logged rainforest, and into the marble calm of the spa. It’s here that things go seriously post-mod. From a broad array of Asian and other therapies and treatments, the spa manager (Hawaiian) suggests for me (an Australian), a massage (Malay/Thai-style) which will be done by a therapist (Balinese) – a mini-United Nations dedicated to the well-being of fortunate guests. All main treatments begin with a signature Bath House Ritual. After bathing my feet, my masseur, Ade, gently pounds my soles with a light bamboo hammer. Known as Chinese foot pounding, I’m told only the concubines of feudal China previously enjoyed this treat. The Emperor didn’t know what he was missing. Next, to the segregated Bath House to enjoy a Malay bath where water cascades over me from a series of raised urns that supposedly represent the mother, wife, sister and daughter in a traditional Malay household, each one honouring Dad with a good drenching. A Japanese-style soap-and-scrub with a goshi-goshi cloth is followed by a dip in a simulated hot spring. Finally, I surrender to a skin-tingling exfoliating Shanghai Scrub. After 40 minutes, I’m already light-headed with a cleanliness that must surely be next to godliness – and my real treatment hasn’t even begun. Time out for a cup of herbal tea then onto the main event, the Campur-Campur (mixed) Malay-Thai massage. As Oscar Wilde said: “The best way to cure the soul is through the senses, and the senses through the soul.” My soul doesn’t feel any great need for a cure but, as Ade’s massage does its work, I let it – or at least my mind – go for a wander. In this space, one can be restored, the stress cracks in our psyches healed. Some 90 absent-minded minutes later it is time to return, refreshed, to my senses, with the treatment concluded. The Indian Ocean laps a wake-up call below my teak floorboards. Morning means breakfast served on the villa’s sunny deck, with views stretching from the Malaysian mainland five kilometres away to Pangkor Laut’s densely twined jungle. The breadfruit trees, cycads and tall hardwoods of the forest hide hornbills, sea eagles and monkeys. A little way down the shore from our Spa Village, the exuberant greenery cedes just enough space for the resort’s other facilities, which include four excellent restaurants, a gym, reception and 126 guest rooms ranging from water villas to beach and garden villas. “How beautiful God has made this paradise,” Luciano Pavarotti reportedly exclaimed when he visited privately owned Pangkor Laut Island. Eighty per cent of its 120 hectares are untouched and under the philosophy of ‘one island, one resort’ will remain so. For guests this means tranquillity at almost any point 10 paces beyond your villa door. Tranquillity within it is ensured by no TV, just a CD player, not to mention the beautiful ocean and jungle outlooks. Turning my back on the forest’s high canopy and hidden orchids – and onto the temptations of more angel hair pasta at the excellent Fisherman’s Cove restaurant – I head off again to the spa’s complex of pavilions. The range of programs that its staff of 16 therapists offers is huge. Chinese, Malay, Thai and Indian traditions are the mainstays, although the most popular, according to spa manager Enola Kaneta, is still the Balinese massage. An Indian Ayurvedic treatment, known as Abhyanga, is recommended for me. Other than commencing with the wonderful Bath House Ritual, this experience varies from my earlier Campur-Campur session in almost every way. My masseur, a young man from Kerala, directs me to an unusual massage table, a broad, slightly convex neem wood slab with gutters along the sides. After a good scalp massage, he anoints me from head to foot with warm sesame oil in such volume that it is soon obvious why the table needs gutters. With long sweeping strokes – to increase circulation to all parts of the body, I’m told – he bastes me with ever more oil. I’m soon glistening like a chook ready to be popped in the oven; meanwhile the massage is diligent, the relaxation a real pleasure. The treatment concludes on an even more acute culinary note with a ‘de-oiling’ scrub that sees me coated all over with dahl paste. The paste then combines with the sesame oil to burn like chilli powder, turning my back fiery red. Call me sensitive – call me tandoori – but Ayurvedic obviously isn’t a recipe for everyone. On my last morning at Pangkor Laut, I take the short jungle hike across the island to another gem, Emerald Bay, a pristine horse-shoe cove cupped between long, rainforest-clad headlands. Its translucent waters are indeed the colour of the bay’s name. Devote what time and attention we may to the finesse or flattery of treatments, to me there is nothing so restorative – healing, if needs be – than the massage of these waters, the forest sounds and silences, the untrammelled light. Welcome to Pangkor Laut’s original spa. | |||||
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