The Art of Living Fabulously
They say language is a living thing because words resonate with life. Carefully, our ancestors named us, because you were your name and your name was you. But language is no longer in such rude health. Take “luxury,” for example. It’s dead, says Bill Bensley, disruptive designer. Presumably, from overuse and Insta inflation.
This makes it even tougher to write meaningfully about Shinta Mani Angkor – Bensley Collection. Is it “luxury”? If that means the privilege of being at ease in the world so you can see life, as it is – yes, of course. And how.
Shinta Mani Angkor – Bensley Collection comprises 10 villas of 156 sq m each in the French quarter of Siem Reap, close to Angkor itself. Bensley has distilled something heady for the first hotel to bear his name. Like the perfume of arak and eaux de vie, it is splendidly trippy. Your villa is a delight; couture-like and yet oh-so-liveable. You walk in, past high walls topped with frangipani trees; below, an outdoor lounge, lap pool and tall larder replete with photogenic Khmer herbs, snacks and craft beer fizzing with life. The cornucopia flows from the yard, into your indoor living space, segueing with the restorative inner courtyard that links to your personal Eden.
This, is how the light gets in; with the birds, bees and gentle breeze. City bumpkins who long to sync with the sun, moon and five-element cycle will discover the open-sky bath and shower a godsend. “Completely private,” writes Bensley. Yes, it is.
Naturally, you notice how fixtures, fittings, materials, colours, patterns, textures, switches, lighting, everything, is designed to be just so, and burnished by the patina of time. “The most handsome king” Jayavarman VII’s robe extends from the monumental mural on the lofty outside wall to grace the inside, lending soft textural flourish to otherwise unrelenting flatness.
As you breathe in more of Siem Reap and Angkor itself, you realise Bensley has drawn from the mysteriously advanced architecture that makes it both an awesome civic and sacred space. You occupy your villa’s commanding heights in the same inclusive way unlike you would a presidential suite, bent on world domination. Your vantage point encourages you to entrain with local life humming to its own beat; the community volleyball, outdoor aerobics, the tall, tall trees and bird-frog-insect harmony at sunset. Happening and quietude in sympathetic resonance; not one tuk-tuk with an angry exhaust note.
Blessedly, there are no skyscraping Gherkins, Shards or Tulips in Angkor. The royal city still exists on a human scale because buildings higher than Angkor Wat are banned. But for some reason, beyond architecture and interior design, the Shinta Mani Angkor properties feel like they jive with their provenance. I realised why after an excursion to Siem Reap’s outskirts with Shinta Mani Foundation director, Brad Akins.
It was a highlight of my stay, observing children observing us with relish, climbing trees whenever we talked too much among ourselves. Like in a Lat cartoon, they leaped with abandon into the canal as our driver deftly negotiated the craters of the dusty trunk roads in our cool, white Toyota SUV. In the wide-open countryside and its seemingly unlimited supply of fresh air and sunshine, they hug the earth with more gusto than urban children.
In more ways than one: Akins pointed out the new neighbour in the village, who was in the midst of laundry in her great, wide-open front yard policed by a vocal gang of pups. Her domestic life was as transparent to us as the plastic bags she used to reinforce the walls of her new home, made plain by the previous night’s storm we had slept through.
It’s easy to forget how Cambodia, like Indonesia before it and Myanmar now, experienced genocide not two generations ago. The country’s public sector has not recovered, says Akins. The Shinta Mani Foundation, set up by Cambodian businessman and Shinta Mani founder and Bensley’s business partner, Sokoun Chanpreda, provides basic healthcare assistance to rural communities, and by building homes, water wells and toilets. It seeks to provide people a measure of independence with educational assistance, agriculture research and micro-financing.
This has been ongoing since 2004 (before the foundation’s formal establishment), when the Shinta Mani Hotel and Institute of Hospitality opened on the grounds of Shinta Mani Angkor to train locals “in aspects of world-class hotel operations,” free of charge. It counts more than 245 graduates so far, gainfully employed in the immediate township and local countryside. A proportion of your room rate and 100 percent of all donations go towards the non-profit foundation’s work, as it is fully backed by the for-profit hotel enterprise. Amid trending talk of sustainability, here is a virtuous cycle.
It will come as no surprise that the people entrusted with your well-being at Shinta Mani Angkor – Bensley Collection are gracious and giving beyond expectations of merely faultless service.
