Fresh air, seclusion and space turns Soneva Kiri into playground for lavish, playful moments.
ANIS RAMLI
If you return all black and bruised from Soneva Kiri, it’s perfectly understandable. Because there will be quite few instances where you need to pinch yourself to make sure you’re not dreaming. Presented with the rarity of Photoshopexpanse of the villa you will call home, consider being blackand-blue small price to pay to store your experiences for future extraction.
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It’s easy to write off yet another dreamy, oad
luxurious resort. It is that, yet it also is not. Sure, guests will gush over the private plane transfer, the own private airport on leased neighbouring island, the private boats at their dispense long after the tan has faded. And there are many Insta-worthy moments the resort offers. But beyond that, the resort triumphs in elevating the everyday experience. So even walk barefoot on the beach becomes novelty because the resort manages to connect all the dots to make it luxurious, special and memorable. Soneva Kiri also stands out for its discreet service, seclusion, exclusivity and space. And we mean /ots ofspace. Let’s take
the villas, for instance. Calling it that in fact, is misnomer.
str Spread out to house different rooms and
described it as being very Crusoé-esque. We’d to,think its natural earthy mansion and anextension of the lushygreén surrounds enveloping much of the resort grounds. Devoid of chandeliers and marble baths that would make it stand out like a-sore thumb; the Villas embrace ingenuity. There is freedom
in its design and lotsiof breathing space. The bedroom, indoor and otitdoor Bath and shower, his-and-hers vanity aréas, the:pool lounge and pool deck arevall bedutifully Spread out. Getting lost within your. villaon the first day is iS’space naturally the tesort owners thought nothing of building water slide from some.fooms direct to the poo!
because well swhy notl
This cheeky, andiplayful nature of the resort can beseen
‘@lSewhere, too. Guests gleefully ride around the resort in their «own cart: You can callout to your “butler”, which SonevaiKiri warmly names Mr or (Robinson Crusoe, get it?), to chauffer you around. But guests are quite game to
and stalls. We suspect the hosts get kick out of seeing these room andice-crean parlour. Adults become kids again gamely pocketing their favourite truffles or trying to choose between agtamarind sorbet and a’passionfruit ice cream from the list of over 40 flavourssOnce they have had their fill, it’s buggy time again to the on-water, open air cihema for homemade popcorn under the stars: Or, they could opt to.dine at the menu-less Benz, the quirky wooden.shack rising out of the mangroves in the middle of nowhere, or high above the treetops, strapped in
seatbelt with hosts ziplining in with the nibblets,
Only 36 villas stand in the 150 acres of land that makes up Soneva Kiri on quiet bay of Koh Koot, Thailand’s fourth largest island. This allows guests total privacy and intimacy
even when the resort operates at full capacity. Again,
in the availability of space has allowed the resort to focus‘on another area that they take seriously: sustainability. It’s vision that founders Sonu Shivdasani and wife Eva are committed to
since they established the brand together back in 1995.
Source: MUHIBAH, the Royal Brunei Airlines in-flight magazine, 2018 Mar-Apr, pages 16-21. Text recovered from the scanned page by OCR and lightly corrected; spelling may differ from the printed edition.
