Luxe

By Guillermo M. Luz

Amanpulo, one of the dozen famed Amanresorts, lies on the small island of Pamalican somewhere between Palawan and Mindoro Islands. Ringed by seven square kilometers of reef, the resort is just a short flight away by chartered aircraft from Manila. But what a world of difference that one hour flight can make. For Amanpulo epitomizes the ultimate in luxurious resort travel destinations.

From the moment you land, you know you’re in for a treat. Guests are greeted plane-side and im-mediately es-corted by club-car to your private casita. You have a choice of 40 casitas to pick from — 29 on the beach, four at treetop-level (as in palm trees), and seven hillside casitas. As I’m a beach person, I opted for the beach casita.

The philosophy of each Amanresort is to make the travel experience a lifestyle experience, “one without limitations.” Each Amanresort also tries to blend in carefully with the environment and the local culture, at once giving you local lifestyles at its most elegant while providing a certain intimacy and privacy occassionally broken only by its excellent service. At Amanpulo, they like to describe their casitas as being loosely inspired by the bahay kubo, native houses of thatched walls and roofs found in small barrios across the country. These casitas are anything but. Tastefully designed and appointed with indigenous materials and native baskets, each beachside casita is spacious, private, and opens out to a sundeck and a private path to the beach. Each casita is spaced far apart and surrounded by lush foliage to give the feeling of seclusion and total privacy. Your path to the beach leads to your own strip of white sand, beach lounges, and a shady umbrella. No one else around but you. No hawkers, nobody.

Though Pamalican is not big — just over five kilometers long and perhaps half-a-kilometer wide — getting around is easy in your private club car. Each casita is provided with one so that guests can putter their way around to the main clubhouse, tennis courts, beach clubhouse, or picnic grove. While there’s much to do on Amanpulo if you’re inclined to go snorkelling, scuba-diving, boating, or windsurfing, one of the attractions of Amanpulo is simply to do nothing and be pampered and relax. For the active traveller, the Beach Club stocks all the necessary gear for snorkelling and scuba-diving for both beginners and certified divers. House Reef fronting the Beach Club is a favorite for snorkelers. Hawksbill turtles, parrot fish, manta rays, and a variety of other colorful fish inhabit House Reef. For sailors, there are Hobie Sports 21s and 16s as well as Lasers to take out for a sail along the waters just off the stretch of beach. If you’re an inexperienceed sailor, a guide will actually go out with you to help sail the craft.

For those who want to get their feet wet — literally — by windsurfing, head for the Windsurf Hut on the eastern beach where the winter trade winds are best suited for this sport.

If the beach is not your thing, the Clubhouse is a good alternative. Expansive and airy, the Clubhouse breaks out in two wings, one heading into the Restaurant, the other housing the library, boutique, and galleries. The lobby is wonderfully accentuated with wall-mounted panalongs of various sizes, the roof-top wood sculptures found on traditional Muslim Mindanao homes. Made of indigenous woods, the Clubhouse lobby spills out to a terrace and a wide, aqua-blue tiled 30-meter pool bordered by trellises crowded with bougainvillea and plants potted in oversized earther vessels. At the end of the terrace lies large, open-air salas or pavillions, perfect for lounging. The terrace itself lies at an elevation that gives you great views of outlying islands.

Nightlife on Amanpulo is not the nightlife which you find, for instance, in places like Boracay. Whether you dine inside the restaurant or al fresco on the restaurant terrace, take time to catch the stars after dinner and dessert on the opposite side of the pool just outside the bar’s terrace. It’s not the drinks which will make you see stars but rather Amanpulo’s 850x90mm astrono-mical refractor tele-scope which will keep you star-gazing. For those of us not used to looking at the stars and galaxies from Manila (where its is impossible due to the pollution and city lights), this can be quite a treat. On resorts like Amanpulo, the night air is crisp and clean and the absence of city lights makes one able to look deep into space with the help of a powerful scope. Believe me when I say that your sense of wonder will be heightened, with or without those drinks!

Alas, all good things come to an end and even after a weekend stay at Amanpulo, one is not able to cover all the ground in spite of the smallness of the island. Maybe it’s that island rhythm that one easily falls into upon arrival, choosing to relax and unwind rather than to run all over the place. I’ve missed the southern end of the island, where baby black-tip sharks can be seen at low-tide while at certain seasons, there is a chance of catching a glimpse of nesting marine turtles. And that stretch of blue beyond the reef that rims the island, on the sandbanks and channel where dolphins and sea cows have been known to stray. All that will have to await a return visit to Amanpulo. In the meantime, all I have to take away is that rhythm and that lifestyle that is the hallmark of Amanresorts.

For inquiries and reservations, visit www.amanresorts.com