A Change of Guard

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Thursday 21 June 2012

Five-star Far East: Cambodia goes chic at super Song Saa

By Tim Lott



The idea that I might ever stay on a private island has always seemed remote. I'm not friends with Richard Branson or Philip Green, and my holiday budget usually stretches no further than a tent on the Isle of Sheppey.
So when invited to spend a few days on Song Saa, Cambodia's first private island resort, I jumped at it.
Song Saa
A world away: Song Saa has added a note of private luxury to Cambodia's coast
Only later did questions begin to nag about those two words 'private' and 'island'. You would be confined to a tiny area, there would be no strolling to the local village or cycling through nearby scenery. You'd share a space the size of a couple of football fields with strangers, and I'd even heard of someone who found the place so peaceful, he suffered terrible nightmares every night.
I had a few days to ponder this before arriving at Song Saa, because the trip included a short tour of some sites around Siem Reap - notably temples in and around the Angkor complex.

Much has been written describing Angkor Wat, so I shall merely add that of the three temples I visited - Bayon, Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm - the last was my favourite.
As I expected, Bayon and Angkor Wat were old, big, creepy, crowded, but unlike most Angkorian temples, Ta Prohm is still much in the condition in which it was found.
And therein lies its charm, as a monument to the grandeur of decay. Vast silk-cotton tree roots spring from the stone ruins, strangler figs wind themselves round those same trees.
The trunks and the piles of jumbled stones are porous like sponges, while the cobwebs and beehives, butterflies and stick insects seem to speak in the language of the animistic religions around which these shrines were built a thousand years ago.
Everything is falling - the trees, the temples, the very ground seems to subside as you walk. Scenes from Tomb Raider were filmed here, and you can see why - it is like being caught in the middle of an eerie, living process more than a place.
I also visited the floating village of Mechrey. Glowingly healthy seven-year-old girls row themselves to their (floating) school along a river in which the villagers swim, wash, drink and use as a loo.
Song Saa
Stop the clocks: Along with fine accommodation, Song Saa can boast its own time zone
The boats are nearly capsized by tourist barges. The school has no playground, only the river. Even the village pigs float. It is a bizarre place that flies defiantly in the face of every health and safety regulation known to man. As such, it is both instructive, and a delight.
When I arrived at Song Saa, the first thing that impressed was the idea that, since the property is so close to the equator, the owners have created their own time zone, moving the clocks forward an hour so you get a longer day. Simple, clever.
So there it was - the beach, the palm trees, the clear water, the coral reef. So what was the payoff for being on a private island? Leaving that question aside for a moment, I confess to being won over as soon as I entered my room - the most beautiful I've ever stayed in.
The dry stone wall was ochre, toffee, grey-coloured. The view from the white cotton-draped bed was ocean and sky. There was complete privacy, (the rear area is flanked by 15ft walls). The thatched ceiling was 25ft high, as if to provide a portal to ocean, sky and air.
There was a small private beach and plunge pool. The room service menu alone urges you to stay within the four walls. Dishes such as Tom Yum with frogs' legs, a Bowl of Birds (Tamarind and Honey Roasted Quails) and banana blossom salad replace the usual club sandwich.
No surprise the chefs here have cooked for the Beckhams and Wills and Kate.
This was not a place to do, but to be. Your mind stretches and yawns. It rained. I sat in my plunge pool, submerged my head to eye level and watched the sprouting tiny columns and bubbles of water that each raindrop threw up when it hits the surface, dancing.
A day ago, it would have just been plain old rain. Now it was a water sculpture.
A few trips are offered - we took a boat to the local village, and picnicked at Five-Mile Beach, which is exactly what it says. A nearby island temple is a dream spot for weddings. The hotel owners run ecoprojects and have established a square-kilometre-big marine sanctuary.
But the island is sufficient unto itself. Unusually for a five-star hotel, two local Buddhist monks come over from the mainland to bless the guests and the island. We made offerings of rice while they chanted melodiously. The ceremony's mystique was only marginally undermined by the monks pulling on cans of Diet Coke throughout the proceedings.
It does make a difference, psychologically, to know you are sealed off from the rest of existence, and the 60, largely uninhabited, atolls around you add to the sense of isolation.
Bayon Temple, Cambodia
Hallowed history: The temples of Angkor - including the Bayon Temple - are a true world wonder
I spent an hour snorkelling in these waters, hoping to see a sea horse, my favourite marine animal, but they are rare. More common are the spiny anemones that lurk in the coral, their single eye surrounded by an aura of pinprick blue lights. It's hard not to worry about pronging yourself with one of these, especially when the water distorts perspective so much.
On the island it is worth pushing through the lush, thick vegetation to get to Meditation Beach, a coastline of rocks painted in oxide reds, purples, ochres and greens.
Soft sandstones shattered to the touch and slate lay in tidy layers. Every step you took sent creatures skittering and fin-flapping. Dozens of anxious crabs scattered schools of darting fish.
Utterly alone, I sat on the rock furthest out in the ocean meditating that a private island wasn't so bad after all.

Travel Facts

Cazenove + Loyd (020 7384 2332, www.cazloyd.com) offers seven nights of culture and beach in Cambodia from £3,245pp.
This price includes three nights B&B in Siem Reap, staying at La Residence d'Angkor and four nights full-board at Song Saa Private Island Resort, plus return flights with British Airways, internal flights and transfers.

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