Eco luxury in the rainforest
Josie Clarke checks out green credentials in Malaysia
It’s 6am and I’m cocooned in absolute luxury amid the trees in a 10-million-year-old rainforest. Quietly sipping a coffee high on the balcony of my villa, all I can see is every shade of green, shot through with the occasional riot of feathered colour swooping past. can hear the dawn chorus, gently backed by the sound of a stream at the bottom of the valley below. Relaxation drifts down like a soft blanket.
Nestled under the forest’s ancient canopy and edged by white sands, the Datai Langkawi resort is a haven for nature lovers, just an hour’s flight from the concrete metropolis of Kuala Lumpur.
And while the Datai prides itself on its “unparalleled luxury”, it unapologetically places the wellbeing of the jungle and the creatures that live in it first and foremost.
Even before they enter through the sleek gates, guests are politely warned that they will be sharing the space with a wide array of enigmatic animals.
The lily and frog-filled pool in the lobby – that bursts into a noisy cacophony when night falls – is the first indication that this is to be no ordinary hotel stay. From there, the main pool and its fig tree bustling – particularly at dusk – with birds and monkeys lead on towards the beach, via the resort’s open air “grand staircase” – a title that somewhat underplays an experience that surrounds you with the smells and sounds of the jungle.
Further down, the path leads through the Butterfly Walk, bordered with specially-chosen nectar plants to attract more than 530 species of butterflies on the island down from the jungle canopy.
The resort’s purpose-built nature centre houses a team of naturalists and marine biologists where resident – and renowned – naturalist Irshad Mobarak developed the resort’s responsibility for protecting its environment into “The Datai Pledge”.
The resort is also working to regenerate the bay’s reef with five large artificial steel frames “planted” with rehabilitated corals from the resort’s nursery within the nature centre, where they are cared for until they are healthy enough to be returned to the sea.
It is working with Malaysia’s
Department of Fisheries to reach local people and encourage them to fish sustainably, with the hotel operating a buy-back scheme for their catch.
Back on land, we join an evening walk guided by nature centre manager Dev Dass, serenaded by cicadas so loud that guests have mistaken them for car alarms. Dev halts a few metres in and says: “Hear that! That’s the sound of a healthy forest.” A great hornbill calls out above us.
Another 100 metres in, though, and he stops again. He points out an aquilaria tree, highly prized for its use in perfumes, although most of its resinous agarwood has been scraped away by poachers. “We’re not going to be able to save this one,” he says, crestfallen.
The Datai now employs 35 rangers to secure the perimeter of the resort’s 1,800 acres from poachers. It has also heavily invested in cutting the resort’s waste, with its own glass water bottling system. Single-use plastic is practically outlawed, and even the boutique’s assistant apologetically refuses to let me keep the manufacturer’s plastic wrapping on a shirt that
I’m by now ashamed to say would have been quite handy for the flight home. Nothing leaves the resort bound for landfill. Food waste is sorted, drained of liquid and donated to local chicken farmers and dog homes. Crushing machines turn glass into fragments to be mixed in to concrete and polystyrene into filling for bean bags, while the team’s pride and joy is “the Asher”, an incinerator producing only steam and neutral ashes, which can be used to improve the forest floor.
How to plan your trip
Stay seven nights in a Canopy Garden Room at The Datai Langkawi on a bed and breakfast basis, including economy flights from Heathrow with Malaysia Airlines, private transfers and UK airport lounge passes from £2,210 per person with elegantresorts. co.uk.