Authentic Phuket
For once the brochure doesn’t lie! Nor do the pictures need air-brushing. There are, it’s true, a host of luxury hotels across the island but I wanted to experience those that offered a special authenticity. Those that blended in with their surroundings. Hotels with their own story and not merely offering jungle living with Wifi.
Could, thirty years on, the appeal still be there on an island steeped in mass tourism? Not all of Phuket is now attractive. Garish boards and gaudy buildings, long traffic queues and party-seeking tourists have left their mark. But emerging out of the jungled landscape are some wonderful places to stay.
Initial impressions set the tone, reassure, pamper even. They take away all life’s normal responsibility. And, my goodness, Thai hotel staff know how to ‘do’ hospitality. When greeting, they hold their hands together in front of their hearts in a prayer-like position and nod their heads.
It was on a Saturday when I arrived first at The Sarojin (www.sarojin.com/en), a boutique hotel, up north of Phuket in Khao Lak. The rooms are very Zen. There are stones and slate on the bathroom floor beneath the showers, absorbing the water beautifully in the heat, and logs to put shampoo on and driftwood acting as decoration. The contemporary Asian style with strong symmetry allows nature to flow and there’s a real harmony with barely any distinction between the interior and exterior.
Even the spa is positioned close to the beach in order for the lapping of the sea and bird songs to be incorporated into the experience. The extraordinary service is palpable from a staff so clearly enjoying the shared dream. Indeed 50 of the 56 rooms are named after the families who helped rebuild the hotel after the tsunami in 2004.
The food in the two restaurants comes from a confidently small menu of extremely fresh local produce. I enjoyed a pomelo salad that had mincedprawns, tossed coconut flakes, sliced kaffir, lime leaves, lilies and sliced shallots. The Massaman curry with tofu had coconut milk, roasted cardamom seeds, cinnamon, roasted peanut, bay leaf and tamarind juice.
It was wonderful to have the experience of being tucked up safely in my outdoor pavilion while a proper tropical rainstorm played itself out on a landscape where kingfishers and monitor lizards had made themselves at home.
I stayed next at Slate Phuket. It’s a hotel proud of its industrial imagery (with tool-shaped cutlery and propeller fans cooling the patio) reflecting its former role as a tin mine. Similarly, the rooms have a very masculine feel, grounded as they are with large, heavy doors.
The highlight is in the landscaping with a gorgeous infinity pool and shaded avenues of vibrant shrubs and cacti and scented white flowers called Champak and Leelawadee and the red spiky Helicopia. The trees compete for light and cleverly eclipse the buildings giving an overall relaxing green tone.
The Coqoon Spa at Slate Phuket is set in a wonderful ‘bird nest’. They adapted my treatment to suit my jet lagged needs. Not the proposed manicures or pedicures for me but lots of neck and shoulder work! Not to men- tion the soothing pungent choice of oils such as eucalyptus, peppermint, lemongrass, sesame, coconut and bergamot orange.
A few days later I returned to Phuket. Next up was Keemala (www.keemala.com). It has its own distinctive brand, new to Phuket of both fantasy and nature. Resembling the Beijing Olympic stadium, the mesh exteriors of the villas seem suspended in the air. As for the ‘pool’s nest villa’, it has a bird’s nest theme with round wicker basket beds with grand mosquitos nets looking out out to sea across Kamala Beach. Unlike most modern structures, Keemala will effortlessly benefit from the seasoning process. The foliage will become more bountiful and lush and the nature will brim and enhance it.
Here the frogs were teeming and crickets chirping. Such wonderfully deafening choruses at dawn and dusk! And the Thai language has an expressive vocab- ulary for their noises! Jiap jiap is the sound of chicks; ake-e-ake-ake of cockerels; gaa gaa of crows and hook hook of owls.
I took the boat trip to Phi Phi but be warned. Go early before the crowds and, after all, it’s at a beautiful time of day. There is otherwise a large number of tourists. The highlights are the almost full-circle bay of Phi Phi Ley and the wonderful “Treasure Island” of Bamboo Island.
Set in a mature coconut plantation and meaning “place of peace’ was my last stop, the classy Amanpuri hotel. (www.aman.com/resorts/amanpuri). It’s minimal and it’s luxury in an expansive sphere. Decked in the woods makha, which is golden brown with dark veins, and teak that was considered a ‘royal’ tree by the kings of Thailand and Burma.
The design embraces authentically the Thai tradition and is timeless and serene with intelligent spacing between the restaurants and swimming pool. The sloping location is enhanced with cascading stairs and raised steps that took me down from the rooms to the lobby. Even more magnificently, straight out of a stage setting from Aida, it took me down again from the pool to the private beach.
The airy poolside restaurants offer some real little delights such as ginger and passion fruit stirred with a spring onion as a mixer. The spring rolls come with salmon, fish roe, grapefruit and chilli sauce. Then there’s the tea-time mini-cakes. All the food varies in its spicy intensity.
