ROLLIN’ LIKE A ’ROCK STAR
Elizabeth Sleith gets pampered like a pro at the relaunched Le Touessrok Resort on Mauritius
WHY do we travel? To encounter new cultures, experience new things, to shake our world view and shock our hearts. All noble intentions, to be sure. But sometimes — tell the truth now — we go only to get away: to sink into a lounger, drink tropical concoctions and have someone called Garçon polish our sunglasses.
Yes, anthropology is admirable but once in a while it’s great to just go and be a rock star. And on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, it doesn’t get more rock star than Le Touessrok.
Strutting across a little archipelago on the beautifully beached east coast, near Trou d’eau Douce, Le Touessrok is a great grand-daddy of Mauritian hospitality. Its party pedigree stretches back to 1915, when a local sugar baron named Henri Wiehé bought a rocky islet in a film-set-blue lagoon for his adored wife, Hilda. Then it was known as Hare Island (Ile aux Lievres), but its new mistress called it Ilot Touessrok, after a spot in their native Brittany.
With no electricity or mains water, their life here was basic; but the setting was unparalleled and the sea laid on a never-ending banquet of lobster, mussels, oysters and fish. Though this side of the island was (and still is) wilder and less accessible than the west, their friends — and their friends’ friends — would come again and again to share in the bounty. The pair quickly became known for their fabulous lunch parties and soon set up a five-roomed guesthouse so their most convivial callers might linger. By 1969, the property was still in the family and had grown into a 14-room hotel.
Its big break, however, came in 1978, when Sol “the Sun King” Kerzner picked it as the golden ray on which to stake his Mauritian empire. Cue a musical montage filled with big hair, bellbottoms and lip gloss; celebrities from Twiggy to Anneline Kriel to, later, Naomi Campbell to Mark Shuttleworth, all sipping pinacoladas and waterskiing and dancing barefoot in the sand, looking for all the world like three decades of a Peter Stuyvesant commercial.
… so it’s all indigenous, organic and recycled; wood and water features; panoramic windows and sea breezes — a holiday on glossy paper. And oh, that sea
Such sustained fabulousness is wont to fray, however, and Kerzner and Le Touessrok split nine years ago. Though the band played on, there were some back-stage rumblings about faded assets and a less-than-shimmering sheen. Then last year, Le Touessrok pulled a classic “legend” move. It got a new manager (the Hong Kong-based Shangri-La group) and a facelift.
After a six-month hiatus, the grand unveiling in December revealed a nip-tuck of the classiest kind. That retro-’70s Mediterranean backbone has been collagen-pumped with clean, Asian interiors for a contemporary, cosmopolitan cool. At the heart, an airy, open lounge has replaced the clinical reception desk; and floating levels feature three restaurants, a bar, a stage and some shops, all spaced to avoid a cluttered feel and at the same time retain a quiet intimacy.
Walls have fallen to let the outside in so it’s all indigenous, organic and recycled; wood and water features; panoramic windows and sea breezes — a holiday on glossy paper. And oh, that sea. Of the resort’s three villas and 203 rooms, not a single one fails to dive deep into a splendid ocean view.
Still, on an island bathed in so much
beauty, none of this would matter much if the pampering weren’t up to par. If you’re not an actual celebrity, you wouldn’t know it here. I’m not, obviously, but I was still spirited from the door of the plane to a private car on the runway to have my passport stamped in a champagne lounge, separate from the main terminal.
In my suite, a stylish sigh over the ocean with an ipod jack and a deep bath in the middle, there waited a plateful of macaroons and a bottle of Veuve. In pots dotted around the resort, someone writes the day of the week in sand — because how would you know otherwise? Indeed, the diva is in the details.
While there’s a lot of lounging to be done, there is also an emphasis on wellness that suits the resort’s work-hard, play-hard clientele. There are personal training sessions in the gym and group jogs on the beach; the Chi spa grows its own Ayurvedic herbs and preludes each treatment with a guided meditation — I tried this and can enthusiastically attest to its opiate-mimicking qualities.
An early morning yoga session by the adults-only infinity pool (yes, there is another one for celebutots) limbered me up nicely in preparation for the perfect splits I would do later that day — inelegantly while I was trying to waterski. This is one of a host of watersports offered from Ile aux Cerfs (along with golf, thanks to its 18-hole, Bernhard Langer-designed course), though you may have to share with — gasp — day trippers from other hotels.
For exclusive lazing, guests can shipwreck themselves on the private Ilot Mangénie, a Robinson Crusoe-style version of desertion but with ice buckets and waiters and regular ferries back to the mainland.
At night though, you must flick a style switch and dress for dinner — Japanese at Kushi; international at Le Bazar; or best-you’ve-ever-had Indian at Safran. (The latter’s chef Ramesh Bundi, born in Hospet, Karnataka, India, and trained in Michelin kitchens, shared some of his recipes, see the box above).
After-dinner shows on the main stage shimmy from sega dancing to jazz and the old-school Sega bar has a rum sommelier and something familiar for all those old-timers who’ve stayed loyal to Le Touessrok through the years. These are the pride of the hotel’s staff, many of whom have been here for decades themselves and can genuinely greet returning customers like old friends.
So it was for an Australian family I met, who had first been here on their honeymoon and were now back for the umpteenth time — with their 15-yearold daughter.
For her ilk, the relaunch has involved some effort to snag a younger, hipper crowd — most notably Republik, an uber-sexy beach bar, all fire pits and pillows, where the edgy gather for cocktails at sunset and DJs crank out cool beats till after dark. The fabulous girls may wear their best heels here but they’re sure to end up carrying them home later, their toes dusted with sand.
And will they be weaving from the music, the maitais or the magic? Whatever it was, I was giddy enough at bedtime to blow kisses off my balcony; lapping up the ocean’s dark applause. “Thank you, Le Touessrok, you’ve been amazing. Goodnight!” — Sleith was a guest of Shangri-La’s Le Touessrok
For information or to book, call World Leisure Holidays on 0860 954 954 or visit wlh.co.za.
In little pots dotted around the resort, someone writes the day of the week in sand — because how would you know otherwise? Indeed, the diva is in the details.