Glamping in Indonesia

Take the global trend that is glamping — camping in the pristine wild minus the inconvenience of actually setting up camp and little annoyances like being attacked by mosquitoes or sand flies — then multiply it by infinity.

The result is Amanwana, a luxury safari tent camp and the only accommodation property on Moyo Island, a nature reserve set in the shimmering blue waters of the Flores Sea about 250km east of Bali.

Amanwana, or Peaceful Forest, is one of 31 five-star-plus properties owned by Aman, a hotel chain so exclusive that its repeat guests are known as Aman Junkies for their refusal to stay almost anywhere else.

But even among Aman’s treasure trove of resorts — including a 16th-century Venetian palazzo where George and Amal Clooney tied the knot and a mansion in the Moroccan desert where David Beckham celebrated his 40th — Amanwana stands out.

Tennis ace Maria Sharapova described it “as the most romantic place I’ve been”, while Elle Macpherson, Mick Jagger, Ursula Andress — one of the original Bond girls — and the late Princess Diana have used Amanwana as an escape-within-an-escape while holidaying in Bali.

THE TENTS

Amanwana’s 28 tents, if one can call them that, are resplendently appointed with hardwood floors, cream-coloured lounges, his and her vanities, king-sized beds draped in mosquito netting, handcrafted teak writing desks and marble eggshell desk lamps. At nearly 60sqm in size, they are capped with palatial canvas big tops and encased by sliding windows and glass doors with 270-degree views of plush green lawns, white sand, blue waters and skies.

THE FACILITIES

There’s no swimming pool, no gymnasium and no TVs at Amanwana — though staff can set up an under-the-stars cinema on request, or a barefoot beachfront barbecue attended by butlers and personal chefs who are old hands at barbecuing lobsters or Wagyu beef with marble scores that are off the charts.

Facilities are limited to a plantation-style dining room dripping with hardwood, a water sports and dive centre, plus an open-air spa with large sunken tubs set only steps from the water’s edge — where utterly unnecessary treatments like Himalayan crystal salt scrubs, hair cream baths, fresh fruit facials and “little princess manicures” for Richie Rich guests are dispensed with elan by therapists in white-pressed linen uniforms with Buddha-like grins.

THE ISLAND

All 35 Aman Hotels are set in fantastical locations, and Moyo Island is no exception. Beneath the surface lie coral gardens heaving with lobsters, moray eels, parrot fish and hawksbill turtles that can be seen hatching on the beach between November and April.

The wildlife is just as prolific on land. Moyo’s dense tropical jungles are covered in monkeys who reckon they own the place. Deer with magnificent antlers also make regular unscheduled appearances, including a full-grown specimen called Sky who nearly gave me a heart attack when he licked my face while I dozed on a sun lounge.

I also saw a boar the size of a small cow while driving to Barry’s Falls — a series of limestone pools with jade-coloured waters named after a former Amanwana naturalist from Australia. The olive-green jeep we used to get there is one of only two cars on the 350sqkm island.

“The only noise you get here are noises from the jungle,” said my guide. “Sounds made up of 10,000 little sounds, each of which is a different dimension of nature.”

fact file

+ A three-night minimum stay at Amanwana is $7734 for a jungle tent or $9066 for a tent facing the ocean. Includes three meals per day for two people, non-alcoholic drinks, transfers from Sumbawa Besar Airport and two scuba dives per guest. See aman.com.

+ Flights from Bali to Sumbawa Besar start at $140. See lionair.co.id.

+ Ian Neubauer was a guest of Aman Resorts. They have not influenced or read this story before publication.