HOT HOTEL
KOH S AMUI, T HAIL AND
Six Senses Samui, Thailand
Six Senses Samui, on Thailand’s second largest island, is a luxury resort in a tropical paradise. The hotel’s 66 villas are dotted around the coastline, and are linked by sunbleached timber boardwalks, but spaced far enough apart so that we feel we’re in our own private oasis when the do not disturb sign is on the door.
Everything in our enormous villa screams island getaway, from the bamboo- and- reed weaved, pitched ceiling to the stone bathroom and the outdoor shower. The sunken bath and bright, canary yellow sofa are also welcome luxuries.
Outside, we have a large deck with a private infinity pool tiled in emeraldcoloured stone, although there is another infinity pool long enough for swimming lengths, if we were inclined to join the resort’s other guests.
Six Senses resorts are renowned for their spas, so I treat myself to a Thai massage. The therapist takes me to one of the treatment cabins, whose wall is adorned with galss- framed picturepostcard views of little, unpopulated islands in the gulf.
All this is slightly wasted on me because my eyes are closed as my muscles are rubbed and worked on until they feel like putty.
As night falls, the boyfriend and I visit the resort’s celebrated restaurant, Dining on the Rocks. The venue is made up of a series of terraced platforms on a cliff.
We listen to the waves crashing on to the rocky shore as we dine on classic
Thai dishes given an extra flourish with modern culinary techniques.
In the morning, we visit the resort’s Farm on the Hill. There is a kitchen garden, a herd of goats for milk, roosting chickens and a gaggle of ducks for organic eggs.
But what sets this little side project apart is its educational eco- garden. It features a natural reed- bed system that filters and remineralises the waste water for irrigation, a waste- to- wealth garden, a module aquaponic system, solely constructed from reclaimed waste materials, and they even create their own biodiesel fuel.
It is truly an island destination we would be happy to be stranded on.