Banyan Tree Villa

At five-star level, the inducements are many and magnificent, and one ponders where it will end. Maybe such wonderments as poolside cosmetic surgery (an eyelift with your lemongrass martini, perchance) or, channelling the wit of Irish comic Dylan Moran, flamingoes on the lawn serving canapes on silver trays?

There are no pink wading birds at Banyan Tree Phuket but there are tummy tucks, breast implants, tooth-whitening and other such enhancements on offer in the hospitals and clinics of this southern Thailand holiday hub.

At Banyan Tree, management relies on the old-fashioned restoratives of relaxation and gentle activity. You may not depart this oasis-like resort with neon-bright choppers and wrinkle-free forehead but, believe me, you should have the shiny glow only a stress-free rest can bestow.

Banyan Tree Phuket is on Bang Tao Bay on the west coast of the island, about 20 minutes by road south of the airport, and within the Laguna Phuket enclave, an integration of five resorts linked by tropical gardens and a saltwater lagoon.

The Bang Tao Bay site used to be a tin mine and was sorely degraded when Banyan Tree developed the land in 1994 and opened its first resort. The Singapore-headquartered group now operates more than 20 properties; it also operates more than 60 spas plus as many retail galleries where Banyan Tree junkies can buy silken slices of resort living to take home.

Luxury levels have been ratcheted up to stellar levels recently at Banyan Tree Phuket with the introduction of the double pool villa concept. Twenty-two of these hideaways — named for sun-loving flowers, from hibiscus to heliconia — are scattered through an estate on the resort’s northern reaches. Accessed via frangipani-fringed gardens and over arched bridges, this new accommodation complements Banyan Tree Phuket proper but has its own entry and infrastructure.

Is a second pool really necessary? Perhaps not, but here’s the thing: while you are in bed, seemingly afloat in a glass-walled pavilion with a draped ceiling that feels like a bedouin’s tent, you are surrounded on three sides by a blue-tiled shallow moat. Step through a French door, down a couple of steps, and wade across to a semi-submerged transparent table and chairs. This is where your butler (personal villa host, that is, reached day or night by speed-dial on the cell phone provided) can serve you, if the mood and weather provides, a cocktail of the ilk of vodka and tequila blended with Thai ginger, or mixed fruit juice tinged with hot basil, or a reviving herbal tea.

And that is your second pool.

It all sounds too, too indulgent, but after just a few hours in a double pool villa, what used to pass as fanciful seems perfectly reasonable.

And so to the first pool. This is a 14m-long expanse of glossy water, stretchy enough for laps, in front of the pavilion-style villa. Depending on the location, the outlook could be across the lagoon to the French-Vietnamese restaurant and lobby pavilion or, protected by trees and thus more private in feel, towards meandering waterways and woodland.

The Banyan Tree high-ups insist the double pool villas have been designed to embody the senses of touch, sight, taste, smell and sound. All of this sounds like hocus-pocus to me but what is tangible is the luxurious sense of space and light, the calming scent of lavender or bergamot incense burning by the bed and the provision of CDs with ethereal tracks such as Fairy Wings and In the Realm of the Summer Stars.

There’s a huge dining area, air-conditioned television room with desk and lounge, bathroom festooned with magenta orchids and a choice of shower scrub each day. Fabrics are soft to the touch — slithery Thai silks, of course, and fine cotton weaves — and fragrant air circulates through breezeways. In late afternoon, cicadas strike up a clackety chorus and, late at night, a veritable marching band of frogs keeps me temporarily awake with its boom-croak, croak-boom, and then there’s utter silence.

If you can’t relax here, you are just not trying.

As is the case with, say, Nadi’s Denarau in Fiji or Bali’s Nusa Dua, there’s an argument to be made for not leaving the Laguna Phuket precinct, especially given the quota of restaurants, water-based activities and the pervasive green presence of the 18-hole Laguna Phuket Golf Club.

Banyan Tree’s accommodation is the classiest of all on the estate and, aside from the double pool configuration, there are deluxe villas with outdoor jet-pools, one or two-bedroom pool villas with private plunge pools and enormous spa pool villas that come with a virtual aquatic playground of jet-pool, steam room, outdoor sunken bath and swimming pool. Of course there are cushioned and bolstered daybeds and pitch-roofed outdoor salas because one will doubtless be suffering from luxury lag and have to lie down a lot.

The architectural principle here is one of shelter. Temple-like roofs overhang like shady brims, all accommodation is self-contained and tucked away (like the double pool villas, the 14 spa pool villas reside in a separate domain). Guests hunker down and look in, notout.

Over at Villa Kurosawa (embarrassingly, a brass sign to this effect has appeared beside the front door), the sole occupant is considering the breakfast menu. There’s a platter of rose apple, jackfruit, dragonfruit and papaya. Coconut bread is accompanied by house-made jams in flavours as enticing as banana and cinnamon or pineapple and mint. My villa host, Kwan, is on stand-by in the villa’s little kitchenette with his spatula and cooking oil and his face falls when I don’t want pancakes, fried rice and eggs every which way.

Later, in the resort’s day spa, with its 20 treatment pavilions arrayed through village-like laneways and named for spices such as pepper and clove, the larder of ingredients seems oddly compatible with in-villa dining. There’s aloe and lavender in healing balms, turmeric and honey to cleanse, green apples and green tea to polish, warm sesame oil for massages and dill seeds and rice grains to exfoliate. Should one ask for the ginger, pineapple and coconut scrub to be applied to one’s dry heels or simply take to it with a spoon?

Ginger tea and vetiver-scented refresher towels are served in anterooms where stone-carved panels show maidens dancing and monks meditating. Treatment beds are draped in brocade and therapists ring a Tibetan bell to wake guests after spa sessions. As I walk back to reception, down an enfilade of spa pavilions with their stone statuary and rattan-screened gardens, I hear these bells ringing merrily as therapists coax awake their pampered and pummelled charges.

Of course while in a mood of sequestration, dining is an important component and in-villa barbecues are a specialty. Start with an astringent green papaya salad, finish with a tropical fruit plate and, sizzling between, whole red snapper, Andaman tiger prawns or, more prosaically, Australian sirloin or lamb chops.

The food throughout the resort, at a slew of restaurants and cafes (including Tamarind, with its low-fat spa cuisine and delicious juices), displays pan-Asian and Euro-fusion influences. Perhaps a red seafood curry with eggplant from Saffron, the Thai restaurant, or local prawns wrapped in Italian prosciutto and served on Thai salad greens, or banana-blossom risotto from the Mediterranean-influenced Watercourt. Or, from Tre, the Vietnamese restaurant exclusive to double pool villa guests, beef pho soup with truffle infusion, or scallops and green apples tartare with pan-fried foie gras and star anise emulsion.

One afternoon, the traditional coffee man appears at Villa Kurosawa, twin baskets over his shoulders on a yoke, and he pours thick, hot coffee from a great height into tiny cups with a dash of evaporated milk. Kwan serves chewy little almond cakes on the side and flutters about in a proprietorial manner.

I wander outside to drink the nursery-sweet coffee, barefoot on the springy lawn, and sit by my No1 pool. Kwan calls out that he has left my sandals by the door, in case I need them later.

Cycling past in the distance, over the bridge leading to Tre and the lobby, are two fellow guests, tennis racquets strapped to their backs. Rather than feeling shamed, I just idly wonder where they have found the energy.

For Purchasing a Double Pool Villa at the Banyan Tree or Luxury Travel

Contact

Sales@12property.com

Street Address

123/29 M.5 T.Cherngtalay
A.Talang, Phuket, Thailand, 83110

Phone Number

(66) 76 326 318

24 Hour Hotline

(66) 80 700 7900

Fax Number

(66) 76 326 319

Office Hours

9.00 a.m. to 7.00 p.m. + 7 hours ICT

Monday through to Saturday including public holidays