Phuket – Phuket hotels – The Anantara Phuket Resort & Spa: A WET DREAM

I’ve been trying to think of the word to describe the languid unmitigated indulgence in this hotel’s 73 pool villas. I’ve come up with Wallow.


Sitting in the tepid tropical water, with glass of wine in hand, looking up at the palm trees is to completely free your mind of any worldly cares. What’s happening in the wider world beyond the wooden privacy screens doesn’t matter anymore. Had enough of wallowing in the shallow end? Retire to the king-sized day bed in the sala (gazebo), where the mini-bar can keep you continually and easily refreshed. Then as twilight sets in and a full moon rises, run a hot bath infused with frangipani petals in the tub which is set into the side of the pool. Aaah, I feel the heat seep into those poor overworked muscles of mine [pause for sympathy] as my favourite playlist is piped in from the iPod dock.

I could spend an entire vacation like this (and, dear readers, I am not ashamed to admit it, I occasionally have.)


Hence, wallow!


Then there’s the villa itself. All dark woods, and bright silks. All airy and light, with sliding glass panels that let the outdoors in. Or the indoors out. In the words of that Australian Crawl song: ‘The garden’s full of furniture, the house is full of plants.’

The Anantara Phuket follows the group’s Lost City-style design ethic, where the rooms and main buildings seemingly materialise from among dense tropical foliage.

A king-sized bed, surrounded by a decorative mosquito net, is the centerpiece here. Wallow. There’s also an adjacent day bed, just in case. In case of what you may ask? I don’t know … maybe in case you need a lie down on the way to the huge bathroom with separate rain shower and toilet. Then there’s another wooden shower rig adjacent the pool for a shower under the stars.

All this, and I haven’t even emerged from the villa yet. Let’s see. Pack the thoughtfully provided beach bag and saunter down for a swim in the Andaman Sea, with water the same temperature as the bath I enjoyed earlier, as the crimson orb of sun heads off for a good night’s rest below the horizon. It looks so much like a glow-in-the-dark bouncy ball, I fully expect it to hit the ocean and bounce off along horizon!

Time for sundowners. The Infinity bar is handily close. Hessian bean bags and happy hour form a holy alliance. Wallow. Kerosene torches make me expect Indiana Jones at any minute. Café Del Mar oozes from the speakers. Then I’m offered a free ‘mini-massage’ … a 10-minute sampler of the treatment I can expect in the Spa. Wallow.

Back in the villa, an ice bucket has been filled with a carafe of fruit juice, and drinking water and glasses have been placed thoughtfully bedside. Time for a midnight moonlight skinny dip? Or bed? Either way, I am wallowing in some kind of wet dream.

Comments: if you can think of a better word than Wallow, please let me know as I plan to make this an ongoing item of personal research. Call me dedicated!