On September 20, we returned to Bangkok from the Philippines, full of fear and trepidation over what we would find when we landed. We had heard about the coup d’état from an avalanche of concerned messages that friends e-mailed us via the Blackberry…many of which suggested that this was just another opportunity for Joyce to make Peter ride something, namely a tank!

Alas, or maybe thank God, all was quiet and we got back to our Bangkok apartment without incident…In fact the events of the day prior had produced the salutary effects of chasing all the traffic away, so we got back from the airport in record time for a fare of about $2.00 - truly an anticlimax for all the anxieties.

As to the trip. over a period of eight days our itinerary took us from Bangkok to Bali, from Bali to Singapore, from there to Manila, from Manila to a little dot in the Philippine archipelago called Pamalican Island and then back to Bangkok. In the process:

• We became fully matriculated “Aman Junkies”…we even got the T-shirt with that label!…more about that later in this narrative;
• We swore to never visit a gateway city while it was hosting a world event (The IMF/World Bank meeting was in Singapore);
• We joined the many who have concluded that Singapore Air is the best airline in the world;

We also experienced an interesting variety of hospitalities; in Bali it was Amandari, a hillside Amanresort overlooking a steep gorge near Ubud; in Singapore, we had the presidential suite on the 30th floor of the Conrad Hotel in the middle of the business district; in Manila, the Hyatt Casino in the downtown/waterfront area of the city was our host before we set out for Pamalican Island; and on Pamalican Island in the Philippines, we spent an idyllic three days at Amampulo, the Amanresort which made us confirmed Aman Junkies!…which brings us to the main subject of this chapter in our travels - Amanresorts.

As newly matriculated junkies, we feel compelled to express ourselves about our experiences there. We are veterans of four Amanresort destinations including two in Sri-Lanka - Amanwella, and Amangalla and now, Amandari in Bali and Amanpulo on Pamalican Island in the Philippines. All four of these resorts are consistent in the level of the extremely high quality of their physical design and this is matched by their amenities, their facilities and the overall comfort they provide. But all that is dwarfed by the extraordinary regal service with which they pamper their guests. What makes each destination unique, however, is that each resort is endowed with its own special character, drawing from its unique geographical settings and the culture of the location. As such, the resorts are the antithesis of the Holiday Inn catch phrase “The only surprise is no surprise”, where uniformity is considered a virtue no matter how mediocre! In fact, it’s the surprises that distinguish each of the Aman resorts and indeed, these surprises provided for us the greatest part of our enjoyment!

We considered ranking our experience from most to least favorite stay…alas to no avail; one simply cannot distinguish between equal levels of excellence. The most remarkable quality of Amanresorts, however, is that they have succeeded in imbuing their staff with a spirit that leaves no doubt in the mind of the guests that “this is their home” and that everything is at their disposal for their use and pleasure. The most extraordinary thing about this philosophy is that it has been stretched to the point where the staff has learned to anticipate the wishes of guests before they have the need to articulate their desires!

As an example, the beach in Amanpulo abounds with tropical fish that swirl around you as you wade chest-high into the warm, crystal clear and calm surf. The next thing we knew, a staff member, who must have been watching from some hidden spot on the beach, was bringing us a bag of bread to feed the fish, turning the fun of merely gazing at the fish into a participatory sport. Similarly, in Amandari, Peter stayed by the pool while Joyce was being pampered to death with exotic oils, tender hands and milk baths at the resort’s fabulous spa. As the staff saw Peter coming, they not only set him up at a poolside, generously padded chaise-lounge with the customary towel, umbrella, etc., they brought extra bath towels, iced aromatic wet cloths, two kinds of suntan lotions, ice water, food and beverage menus and anything imaginable for a relaxing read by the water. He was not installed for more than 15 minutes when another staffer appeared, serving the sunning lizards plates of deliciously refreshing ice cream! There were countless other examples of the kind of extrasensory perception we encountered during our stays at the resorts. Let it simply be said that we were constantly under scrutiny by someone trying to detect any hint of our expressed or subliminal needs.

We have already described Amanwella and Amangalla in our write-up of Sri-Lanka, so this segment of our narrative will be limited to Amandari in Bali and Amanpulo in the Philippines. Amandari is unabashedly perched along a deep gorge that inspired the physical organization of the resort. Its approach through Ubud dispels any notion that its location is in a poverty ridden area. The scenery is full of art shops, sculpture emporia and decorative displays. You feel as though you are passing through a 60’s art colony filed with shops selling carvings and colorful silks and painting, intermingled with Hindu temples, adorned with their own colorful complexities of iconic and monumental carvings and sculpture works. The only thing missing…and we thought we saw one … would have been a graffiti-festooned Volkswagen bus! Suddenly, we turned down narrow overgrown path that led us to the entrance of Amandari. We felt as if we had arrived at a temple. We were greeted with orchid leis dispensed by two adorable eight or nine year old girls in traditional dress. There is really no lobby, instead there is a large thatched pavilion with an open roof and a slick, very shiny floor, surrounded by ancient looking lily ponds and a grassy area in the middle, dominated by an enormous sandstone sculpture - the “Tiger Cow” - just like the courtyard of a shrine. The Tiger Cow was draped, like all monumental carvings which abound on the property, with a black-and-white checkered flag representing opposites, the yin and yang of good and evil that balance the world…a quasi religious philosophy that seemed at the root of Balinese culture.

Beyond this “reception” area, the property dramatically drops off into the gorge with only the distant sound of rushing waters to hint at what lies below. The overwhelming impression of the place was that we had reached a village in Angkor Wat. Indeed it looked like the resort was carved out of and blended with, the surrounding tropical jungle. This impression was reinforced as we approached our “room”. It was like entering another Angkor Wat shrine, all moss covered gateways lily ponds with goldfish, an ancient looking private courtyard and finally, an almost indiscernible door providing access to our tropical nest. Our room was actually a complete Villa which grew in size as we entered. The somewhat circular hut-shaped structure was bamboo with rafters that joined to a dramatic pinnacle some 30 or more feet in the air. All the furniture and furnishings followed the bamboo idiom as well, down to the pens and writing pads supplied as guest courtesies. The villa was surrounded by glass, with sliding decorative panels that enclosed the space at night. Privacy was total and we felt, sitting at the edge of the gorge that defined the location of the resort, like birds in a tree house. A less sensitive treatment of the glass expanse could have easily produced a slick ultra modern and frigidly spacious environment; not a nesting milieu.Yet the villa must have measured 700 square feet or more, sporting, like all Aman resorts we have experienced, an extremely generous bathing and dressing area, including in this case a most unusual outdoor sunken bathtub which acted more like a hot water “plunge pool” than an ordinary tub.

To fully enjoy the setting, it was recommended by the reception that we reserve breakfast on the slope of the gorge. We had no idea what that meant, but like good Aman troupers, we did. Boy was that a good idea! The next morning we followed a little path and some steps down, beyond the sheer drop of the “infinity” pool and there we found our own private breakfast table all set out with servers afoot ready to wait on us. The table was under a little thatched shelter that framed the overlook of the gorge from which the cheerful gurgle of the fast running stream at the bottom of the gorge was rising.

The most significant amenities of Amadari, in addition to tennis and exquisite settings for its restaurants, are its award winning spa, which is reputedly the most famous in the entire Amanresort family, and the pool. The latter is of the “infinity” type, with its edge disappearing at the rim of the gorge. As such, it provides the roosting place for the most gigantic bird bath we had ever seen, and a constant source of entertainment for everyone overlooking the pool. An interesting note is that the pool is lined with green rather than the more common blue ceramic tiles, thus completely blending the man-made with the natural environment.

Beyond the built-in amenities, Amandari provides unlimited private limo service to guests wishing to browse the myriads of art stores in Ubud or visit other destinations. In our case, we decided to have lunch at the nearby competition, the significantly larger and newer Four Seasons Resort, which shares the same river gorge as Amandari less than a mile away. The contrast was remarkable. The Four Seasons is an architectural wonder cascading on four to six levels from the road down toward the river, with the most impressive design features built into the stairs, railings and ramps that interlink the various levels. The place was a wonder of managing vertical dynamics. On the other hand, unlike Amandari, it made no attempt to blend or fit into the natural environment - it barged through it, demonstrating man made dominance over nature left alone. Service was perfect and very correct…but, also unlike Amandari, it was not “home”. We could not wait to get back!

On our first night, our Amandari hosts drove us to a local concert that introduced us to the unique music and dance culture of the area. Both turned out to be pleasant and strangely exotic, with the music, mostly on percussion instruments, almost Chinese in tonal qualities and the dancing almost flirtatious in the demeanor of the performers.

Before leaving Amandari, we need to cite the fact that Joyce enjoyed several very successful chauffeured shopping expeditions, where she managed to buy colorful sarongs for her girlfriends. Peter, on the other hand, relished one of the best and most elaborate dinners he’s ever had at Mozaic a fabulous eatery developed by Chef Owner Chris Salan, who was American-born, but reared in the atmosphere of a French kitchen, as a Cordon Bleu Chef in two Three-star Michelin rated restaurants. In Ubud, he’s earned a permanent place in Bali’s culinary hall of fame. Without Amandari’s intercession, we would never have gotten a reservation.

On our to Amanpulo, we made a one and a half day, one night pit stop in Singapore, just to see what this City-State was like. The real lure for this detour was to be able to stay at the famous Raffles hotel, considered the eighth wonder of the world in hospitality. We couldn’t get in; the place had been totally booked months in advance because of the IMF/World Bank annual meeting about to get underway at the time of our visit. As we later found out, this event had preempted everything…including the streets surrounding the Conrad Hotel where ultimately we did get a room. The taxi from the airport had to circle the vicinity of the hotel for half an hour, as the streets were all blockaded to provide IMF participants with an over abundance of security!

Our consolation prize for not being able to sleep at Raffles was the “Presidential Suite” on the 30th floor of the Conrad hotel. Here, we had a classic example of why Amanresorts puts other hospitality products to shame. Indeed, the Presidential Suite was big, maybe over 2,000 square feet. Indeed it was elaborate, with a large king bedroom, dressing room, 30 foot living room, a kitchen/dining/half bath complex accommodating a large circular “deal” table for 10 and splendid views in three directions. The antique furniture and the museum quality furnishings looked slick and expensive…but in one word, unlike Aman hospitality, it wasn’t home!

The three layers of security cordons at the entry were horrendous, the staff totally impersonal, though very…almost too… proper, and with all of the bowing and scrapping and elaborate introduction to the place, we felt uncomfortable and, in many respects, unwelcome. However, we somehow managed to “suffer” through it all, simply accepting the fact that no matter the ingenuity of the marketing geniuses that branded the Conrad Flag, a Hilton will always be a Hilton!

The comical aspect of our stay was the fact that our elaborate suite was full of switches, but we had no idea which switch activated what light or gadget. After an hour of experimentation, we simply could not determine how to shut off some of the lights in the living room or how to control the temperature. And so we froze to death and shut the sliding doors that separated the living from the sleeping areas, reducing the latter into an almost claustrophobically small space.

Ironically, we decided to have dinner at the vaunted Raffles. What a disappointment! We thanked our lucky stars that we could not stay there. The hospitality function of the hotel was completely subordinated to its labyrinthine shopping arcade which bewildered anyone looking for the hotel lobby, a particular restaurant or anything else in the place…which, beyond that, looked quite frayed at the edges.

Singapore, as a city, is everything one would expect of a large gateway metropolis defined by the needs of Business. Banks and corporate office buildings are the most visible feature, business hotels are next and then, like all good mixed use complexes, slick and boring shopping malls round out this merchant paradise…even Joyce got bored and we didn’t buy anything until we reached an immaculately maintained Chinatown with its equally orderly street market. We had gotten a hint of all the boring orderliness when we landed and meticulously followed our very explicitly delineated immigration drill which got us out of the airport in less than 20 minutes. The hint got a little more obvious when, after following a meticulously prescribed procedure, we sat in the back seat of an immaculate cab and the driver benignly pointed to a sign which called for a $130.00 fine if our safety belts were not buckled up. In fact, there is a fine for everything in Singapore, to a point where Peter could not resist buying a T-shirt sporting a full menu of fines levied there.

Escaping Singapore, we left for Manila and spent a very relaxing night at the Hyatt Resort and Casino hotel. What a contrast. Though the hour was late, the city was alive, gritty and garish, full of psychedelic lights and sounds. We eschewed all the fun and went to sleep; the folks from Amanpulo were scheduled to pick us up at the hotel the next morning. And thus begins our Amanpulo escapade.

Amanpulo is very different from Amandari. The setting is not a hillside near a lively town. It is an isolated tiny island, one of the hundreds of atolls in the Philippine archipelago and the kind you can circumnavigate on foot in about two hours. We got underway when the Amanpulo driver met us in the lobby of the Hyatt. It ended when another staff member of the resort checked us in at the airport for our flight back to Bangkok. We were driven a short distance to a general aviation airport and escorted to Amanpulo’s own private lounge fully staffed and serviced with drinks, snacks, reading material and entertainment, until the Amanpulo 20 seat turbo-prop Dornier was ready for boarding. Once on board, we were in for a picturesque 1 hour and 20 minute flight that took us over a good part of the Philippine archipelago to Pamalican Island, a one mile elongated island of white sand surrounded by coral reefs which can be circumnavigated by foot in about an hour and a half. When we landed, we were greeted by an armada of golf carts which dropped us at “The Club” where lunch was served next to a magnificent infinity pool, and where the check-in formalities were executed.

We were then carted to our beach front “Casita”, the Amanpulo term for villa, where the driver left the golf cart for our private use during our stay… after, of course, briefing us on its operation…something with which Joyce bonded like a fish to water! Our casita, one of 40 on the island, was like the villas in Amandari - very generous in size, about 700 square feet with about one third devoted to bathing dressing and closets. It was hidden amidst prolific tropical planting with beautifully framed views of the ocean which out-hues the Caribbean. We could slide the doors open, walk to the beach and spend the day in a bathing suit, without ever having to wear shoes.

The place was “Fantasy Island”. If we wanted breakfast in the room, no problem. If we preferred to eat at the nearby “Beach Club”, again no problem, we simply walked the beach for about 150 yards. If that was too far, well we could simply drive there in our golf cart. Snorkeling? No big deal. There is a user friendly pontoon boat at the beach club which has all the necessary equipment, in excellent working order, and staff so helpful they even put the flippers on for you. The waters are warm and the reefs are healthy, with the clearest waters we had ever seen. In sun light, they provided a magnificent display of colorful coral and swarms tropical fish of all kinds, which we fed from our hands…including Amunpulo’s own private school of resident Batfish - a beautiful 10” or so flat fish with bright yellow and gray coloration punctuated by a large black spot near the tail.

The Beach Club became our base camp. It served excellent meals, either at a regular table on the deck or in a sandy tropical grove. Alternatively, for the really slothful sorts, the staff will bring drinks or a full meal to a low table next to a bed-like affair where one can recline on a towel-wrapped mattress with bolster, so that the day-long wallowing can continue with a minimum of interruption. Everything has been thought out. After a dip in the ocean, there is a shower next to the deck supplied with an abundance of bath towels, as well as soap, shampoo and lotion so that there is no need to return to the casita to get rid of sand and salt.

One day, we had walked to the opposite side of the little island where the sea turtle hatchery was located and wind surfing activities took place, and we got stuck in the middle of a rain storm. Sure enough, there was a phone attached to a palm tree and all we had to do was call for a golf cart which appeared in a matter of minutes to ferry us back to our casita.

The resort seems to have become a magnet for weddings and indeed we witnessed four that took place while we were there. In some cases, the celebrations include fire works. But whether or not related to weddings, it seems that everyone who visits Amanpulo is in a celebratory mood. For us, it was expressed through a private romantic dinner in a tented space. For others, it was a luau involving a suckling pig roasted on the beach in front of the Casita, and of course more elaborate happenings are possible…there is no limit.

The return trip was uneventful except for the trepidations about the coup d’état in Bangkok which caught us by surprise, as we had been completely out of touch for nearly four days - ship-wrecked waifs on a deserted island. As it turned out, it was, for us at least, a non-event as the Amanpulo driver not only got us to the airport on time, but checked us in. And thus cocooned, we got back in our ex-pat home without incident.