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INDONESIA
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June14
The Vacay
So what exactly does it take to be
named among the world’s best? The
first criterion is to elicit a reaction from
arriving guests that ranges somewhere
between a jaw drop to a standing back
tuck. The entire property is steeped in
grandeur, with lobby ceilings that would
turn a Gothic church green with envy,
and décor that would make an interior
decorator swoon. My laptop collection of
interior design ideas – which on average
gets about three additions a year – was
blasted with shot after shot of furniture,
vertical gardens and mosaics made out
of broken pieces of dishware.
If everything is bigger in Texas,
everything is evenmoremassive at Mulia.
And that goes for pools, rooms, views,
artwork, floral arrangements and floating
pavilions. It is as if no expense has been
spared, even down to the dirtiest of
details (the $6,000-plus automatic Toto
toilet in our villa being one example). And
though the Indonesian brand may not
be a household name yet, this property
proves you don’t need the words Ritz,
Regis or Seasons to play with the big
industry boys.
The Villa
We are staying in one of the
family
villas
, a butler-serviced 60-square-metre
space with two bedrooms (the second
is perfect for visiting parents, older kids
or a helper), a hydrotherapy pool and a
large outdoor pavilion. We are delighted
with our villa. Baby is too. There is a
Jacuzzi tub for extreme bubble play, a
soft grassy area for her to practise her
first steps, and a walk-in closet with a
crib inside it that constitutes a sizeable
upgrade from her room at home.
The villas are not totally private, but this
won’t fuss the family set, who have long
passed their strip-naked-and-frolic-about-
in-the-pool phase of life. The villas are
terraced towards the back of the property,
and the wall facing the ocean has been
knocked down to provide a piercing view
of the ocean in the distance.