Magical Laos

With its splendid riverside location, enriching cultural programme and myriad sybaritic pleasures, Rosewood Luang Prabang casts a spell over Jakki Phillips

Rosewood Luang Prabang’s guest experience manager used to live in a cave. For one year Sommai Saiyavong undertook a silent retreat in a rocky hideaway high in the mountains above the former royal capital of Laos. In his quest for enlightenment, the 29-year-old did not speak, read, write or communicate in any way, existing in total isolation, sustained only by donations of sticky rice and fruit from local villagers. This spiritual solitude was part of Saiyavong’s training to become a Buddhist monk, an apprenticeship he started in a monastery when he was only 12.

Rosewood Luang Prabang’s managing director, Elias Pertoft, first encountered this devout young Buddhist in late 2017, several months before his property was due to open. The two men were living very different lives. Saiyavong’s austere existence eventually took its toll and, after falling ill, he ended his religious training, moving from his cave to a hut in the forest near Rosewood Luang Prabang. Although no longer a novice monk, he still followed the teachings of Buddha, visiting monasteries daily and undertaking long walking meditations in the countryside where he befriended local villagers and hill tribes.

Pertoft was living on-site at Rosewood, a beautiful Bill Bensley-designed resort 10 minutes outside the historic Unesco World Heritage-listed city. A far cry from Saiyavong’s jungle shack, this slice of paradise is cradled in a peaceful valley along the banks of a mountain stream, with only 23 residences ranging from luxurious hilltop tents to riverside pool villas overlooking gentle waterfalls.