Fit for royalty and rock stars: Amanpuri Resort

Make no mistake about it, my visit to Aman Resort's Amanpuri in Phuket, Thailand was an eye-opening experience. Rather than carry on about my two night, three day stay there, I think Amanpuri general manager Frederic Varnier's stories of some of their clients weave a better tale. Me? About the best I can do is request a Coke. Hold the ice.

A pachyderm present

Frederic Varnier: "A few years ago we organized a birthday party for the eight year old daughter of a very wealthy client in one of our private villas. As usual there were a  number of demands made by the birthday girl and we had no problems in securing a magician, fire eaters, jugglers and a swimming pool filled with multi colored balloons of all shapes and sizes.

The father of the birthday girl also enquired about the possibility of having exotic animals around the villa to somehow recreate a scene from the Jungle book.

Within 24 hours we had a baby elephant, small tiger, monkeys and a two meter albino Burmese python on the premises.

At the end of the party the little girl asked her father, 'Daddy can we take the Elephant back with us?' The father looked at me and without hesitation said, 'Sure princess, Fred will arrange for it to be shipped back home.'

I thought the father was kidding. He was not, and the baby elephant flew first class back to the little princess’ home."

 

The private rock show

Varnier: "A very successful young entrepreneur once decided to celebrate his 40th birthday at Amanpuri with about 50 of his closest friends and business associates. He wanted to have total privacy, so he rented out the entire resort -- all 40 pavilions and 30 villas, or enough room for 300 people -- for a week.

We flew in his favorite rock band from Europe and throughout the entire week we only served Dom Perignon Champagne and a selection of Chateau Lafitte, Latour and Montrachet wines. At the end of the week the party had consumed over US$250,000 worth of wine and Champagne alone.

He was also a keen badminton player so we set up a special court for him. When he specifically asked for a very experienced player able to keep up with him, we made a few phone calls and secured the services of the number one ranked badminton player in Thailand -- who was at the time in Bangkok preparing for the ASEAN games.

On the last night prior to the group’s departure we had a floating barge anchored right in front of the villa where they were staying and we set off a a massive fireworks display which lasted 30 minutes.

Everyone left happy the following day in their private Boeing 737."

 

How much fruit will an Airbus hold?

Varnier: "A family from one of the gulf states (sorry, can't name names) once spent a week with us on the recommendation of another influential family from the the gulf.

As we anticipated, the family had an entourage of about 40 people and although there were just six people in the family itself, they took up four villas and 20 hotel rooms for their household staff.

The main villa was for the family and the other two adjacent villas were used for the luggage and 'play area' for the children. During the week the family took a real liking to the local delicacies. Thailands sweet young coconuts and tropical fruits in particular.

The night before their departure I received a call from their secretary who wanted to place an order of fruit to take back with them in their private plane. Thinking they wanted some snacks during their trip back home I told her I would be delighted to prepare an assortment of tropical fruit with our compliments. She then proceeded to thank me for the kind gesture, but insisted on paying for the fruits. I soon found out why. She then placed the order which was as follows:

500 young coconuts
10 cartons of Mangoes
10 cartons of rose apple
10 cartons of Rambutan
10 cartons of mangosteen
10 cartons of Bananas
100 pineapples

The shipment of fruit was delivered the next day with the help of a 10-wheeled truck.

To my surprise, and easing my concerns about their excess luggage fees, a private Airbus flying their country’s colors was on standby ready to take the family -- and fruits -- back home."

For more information on rates and availability, please visit Amanpuri Phuket's website.

Amanpuri Gallery

The steps down to Amanpuri's private beach.

 

A view of part of the Phuket coastline.

 

The resorts private beach is small but uncrowded.

 

The setting sun as seen from Amanpuri's private beach.

 

Guests can either take the steps back up to their villas or get driven via cart.

 

Each villa has it's own private outdoor space and gazebo area.

 

Amanpuri's clubhouse features a library, full service Internet stations and a service desk ready to help with any requests, no matter how obscure.

 

Amanpuri's main clubhouse as seen at night.