The first backpackers of the 60's and early 70's deserve credit for discovering the beauties of Phuket, in the Andaman Sea off Thailand's southern coast. The best beaches were isolated at the time by formidable limestone mountains and required determination as well as stamina to reach; once there, the only accommodations on most were a few ramshackle bungalows of bamboo and thatch with primitive sanitary facilities. The water, though, was crystal clear, the sand was pure white, the costs were minimal, and, best of all, the privacy was practically absolute.
As any present-day visitor quickly finds, things have changed. Every arriving jet is met by a uniformed horde representing a dozen or so large hotels that have gone up in the past few years, and the road leading from the airport is lined with billboards proclaiming the charms of others. Phuket, it is abundantly plain, has arrived on the international tourist scene with a vengeance and the day of the backpacker and the cheap bungalow is over.
Near-total privacy, however, is still available for a select few, nowhere in a more secluded and seductive atmosphere than at Amanpuri, a one-of-a-kind establishment that aims to provide a maximum of romantic glamour and a minimum of typical resort distractions. Conspicuously missing at the Amanpuri, aside from an attentive staff of around 200, is any overt suggestion that it happens to be a hotel. There is no reception desk, no counter at which to rent cars or book tours, no souvenir shops, no nightclub or disco, no elevators.
AmanpuriAmanpuri, a Sanskrit word meaning place of peace, is the brainchild of an Indonesian-born entrepreneur named Adrian Zecha. Mr. Zecha was looking for somewhere to build a winter home and about six years ago came across what seemed an ideal site on Phuket's Pansea Beach. It was a coconut plantation at the time and covered some 100 acres on a steep hill rising 130 feet above the sandy beach, one of the island's prettiest, with spectacular views from almost every point and a rare sense of serenity.
Amanpuri
Mr. Zecha's friend Ed Tuttle agreed. A Paris-based American architect, Mr. Tuttle had previously designed residences for Mr. Zecha in Bali, Indonesia, and Hong Kong, as well as a winter palace for the Shah of Iran and a new interior for the Athens City Museum. He was excited at the prospect of working in Thailand, where the architecture had long fascinated him. Eventually the two agreed that the property was large enough for not just a few houses but a small hotel as well, one that would be dramatically different from the others then beginning to rise all over Phuket.
Mr. Tuttle had never been in charge of a complete hotel design before, but he was already determined on two key issues. "I wanted it to be as free as possible from conventional resort gimmicks," he said recently, "and I wanted it to be as Thai as possible in design and feeling."
To achieve the latter, he traveled extensively over Thailand, studying its Buddhist temples and, especially, its traditional domestic architecture. He finally settled on what is known as the central style, characterized by steep, elegantly proportioned roofs and plain paneled wooden walls, elevated from the ground on stout pillars. Such houses in a Thai village are always separate or grouped around a central platform, which led Mr. Tuttle to decide on erecting a number of individual structures up the hillside, widely spaced for both privacy and esthetic appeal.
Forty of these graceful "pavilion suites," as the Amanpuri prefers to call them (bungalow would certainly be an inadequate term), have been erected on the steep hillside for maximum privacy. The reception area is another, much larger pavilion with 40-foot ceilings and open sides to allow views of a 100-foot black-tiled swimming pool, two restaurants (one serving Thai food, the other Italian) and, through the trunks of lofty coconut palms, the turquoise water of the sea, reached by an impressive flight of steps.
Mr. Tuttle also supervised the interiors, selecting a large number of handsome antique woodcarvings, theatrically illuminated at night, as well as handwoven Thai silk and cotton in muted colors and custom-made furniture that suited the essential simplicity of the paneled walls.
The guests in each pavilion are assigned their own "manager" who greets them on arrival and takes care of such mundane matters as registration while showing them around their L-shaped platform. A complete traditional Thai house occupies one part and contains the air-conditioned bedroom, with dark paneled walls, comfortable furniture, antiques, a semi-sunken bath and a general atmosphere of discreet luxury. Outside is a spacious sun deck and an elegant little open-sided pavilion - a "sala" in Thai - which shelters a low table and triangular cushions for lounging over breakfast or cocktails.
During my visit I found it tempting to spend most of my time in this beguiling atmosphere, admiring the Thai antiques in the bedroom - among them the chofa, or temple roof finial, which when mounted was transformed into a dramatic piece of modern sculpture - sunbathing on my private deck and generally savouring the pleasure of doing nothing but listen to the lanquid rustle of palm fronds and the soothing sound of distant surf. It is possible to dine undisturbed too in the elegant restaurant, where 700-year-old Thai jars form part of the decor, or at candlelighted tables on the terrace overlooking the sea. An Italian chef is on hand to recommend home-made pastas and fresh seafood, or one can have a Thai meal with assorted curries and peppery green-mango salads. A small library offers a selection of unusually well-chosen books on Asian topics to while away the hours of rare privacy.
Other guests, too, apparently succumb to this temptation. "I stayed there five days and hardly spoke to a soul," says a well-traveled woman. "It was bliss."
For those who want a more active vacation, however, there are two floodlighted tennis courts, a sauna and equipment for wind-surfing, water-skiing and scuba diving. The Amanpuri also has a 50-foot yacht that can be hired for excursions to such nearby attractions as Phang Nga Bay, where hundreds of limestone cliffs jut dramatically up from the sea.
A few may even want to explore some of Phuket's other beaches - Patong, for instance, where the nightlife approximates that of Bangkok's bawdy Patpong Road; or Kata, where the Club Med offers exactly the sort of organized gaiety Mr. Zecha and Mr. Tuttle sought so assiduously to avoid; or Nai Harn, overlooked by the Phuket Yacht Club, the Amanpuri's main competition when it comes to luxurious accommodations.
The lack of elevators has probably been the biggest source of complaints from those who have stayed at the Amanpuri since it opened in 1988 (and from some who have only come to look). From the reception area to the highest pavilion is a climb of more than 200 steps, and reaching the beach involves another 80; getting all the way down for a swim and finding you have left your suntan lotion back in the room can thus be an unsettling experience for anyone not in the best of physical shape. For a while the management tried to solve the problem by using a fleet of tuk-tuks, motorized tricycles popular in Bangkok, but the noise proved disruptive to serenity; now they have a couple of electric golf carts for emergencies.
Others, however, have responded enthusiastically to the novel concept and been willing to pay the stiff prices being asked for peace and privacy on Phuket - from USD 275 to USD 700 for two people in the high season, from November through April, and from USD 200 to USD 500 the rest of the year. Dinner for two with wine in the Italian restaurant will add about USD 105 to that figure; in the Thai restaurant, about USD 75. Hotel guests have included celebrities like Michael J. Fox, Sean Penn and Brian DePalma, who occupied suites while filming "Casualties of War" in a Phuket jungle, along with a fair sampling of fashionable jet-setters from around the world.
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