Pangkor Laut Resort

A boat leaves the Perak coast, crosses a narrow channel of the Strait of Malacca and pulls in beside a row of timber villas raised on stilts above the water. This is the arrival at Pangkor Laut Resort, on the small island of Pangkor Laut, just off the larger and busier Pangkor in western Malaysia. It is the only resort on Pangkor Laut, and most of the land behind the villas remains rainforest.

History

The resort belongs to YTL Hotels, the hotel arm of the YTL group, a Malaysian company run by the Yeoh family. Pangkor Laut was the group's first resort. Its approach of local building styles, regional cooking and a spa grounded in Malaysian healing traditions was later repeated at Tanjong Jara, on the east coast of the peninsula.

The island has a wartime footnote. Freddie Spencer Chapman, the British officer who spent the Japanese occupation hiding and fighting in the Malayan jungle, and who wrote about it in The Jungle Is Neutral, was taken off this coast by submarine in 1945. The resort later named its bar at Emerald Bay after him.

A later visitor left a more audible mark. Luciano Pavarotti stayed at the resort in the 1990s, and the suite he used now carries his name.

Architecture and design

The buildings follow the Malay kampung house: timber frames, steep roofs and raised floors that let air move underneath. Villas are spread along the shore, over the water and up the wooded hillside, joined by boardwalks and paths rather than roads. Construction was kept to a small share of the island, and the forest comes right down to the backs of the hillside villas. Hornbills, macaques and monitor lizards are regular neighbours, and guided walks lead into the trees behind the resort.

Rooms and suites

Accommodation is entirely in villas. Sea Villas stand on stilts over the water. Hill Villas sit among the trees with views across the strait. Garden Villas are set lower down among the planting, and Spa Villas stand over the water beside the Spa Village. The Pavarotti Suite is a separate house of its own.

Above these sit the Estates, a group of private houses at one end of the island. Each has several bedrooms, a private pool and its own staff, including a cook, and guests can stay there for days without using the main resort at all.

Dining

Uncle Lim's is the restaurant most guests remember. It is built on rocks above the sea, serves Hokkien and Nyonya dishes and takes its name from the chef who cooked there for decades. Feast Village serves Malaysian cooking in an open pavilion, and Fisherman's Cove, beside the water, concentrates on seafood. At Emerald Bay, Chapman's Bar serves drinks and light meals a few steps from the sand.

Wellness

The Spa Village is a cluster of wooden pavilions beside the sea. Its treatments draw on Malay, Chinese, Indian and Japanese bathing and healing traditions. A visit usually begins with a bath-house ritual that moves through several of them before any massage, and the Malay treatments use herbs and oils long associated with village healers.

Weddings and events

The resort hosts weddings, most often on the beach at Emerald Bay towards the end of the day, with dinners afterwards on the sand or in one of the restaurants. The Estates suit small family gatherings and private celebrations. Pangkor Laut has no conference centre, and groups tend to be small, taking over villas rather than a ballroom.

Location

Emerald Bay, a curved beach of pale sand with calm water, lies on the far side of the island from the main villas and is reached by the resort's shuttle through the forest. The mainland departure point is the Lumut area of Perak. Most guests drive up from Kuala Lumpur, a journey of several hours, or fly into Ipoh, the nearest commercial airport, before taking the boat across.