Amanjiwo, Borobudur, Indonesia

Amanjiwo is a luxury hotel fashioned out of limestone, and takes its inspiration from the surrounding culture of Central Java. The resort is located within a natural amphitheatre with the limestone Menoreh Hills rising directly behind, the Kedu Plain in front and four volcanoes – Sumbing, Sundoro, Merbabu and Merapi – gracing the horizon. Amanjiwo looks out onto Borobudur, the largest Buddhist sanctuary in the world.

Borobudur is carefully mirrored in the luxury resort’s design and central dome. The view runs arrow-straight through Amanjiwo’s entrance and the stone corridor that neatly cleaves the resort, up the steps to the soaring, bell-shaped rotunda, down to the dining room, on to the terrace, past rice fields in an unwavering line to Borobudur itself.

The facilities

The rotunda bar is a circular salon, with columns and drop fans, a coconut-wood bar and acid-etched bronze-drum tables. The dining room, with its silver-leaf ceiling swirling with muted colours, is defined by a double row of stone columns. At either end, gold-leaf murals recreate scenes from the Hindu epic Mahabharata. The tables are of black terrazzo, the chairs silver-painted rattan with batik cushions. Indonesian and Western cuisine is served in an open-air setting with panoramic views over the rice fields to Borobudur and its surrounding volcanoes. The specialty of the house is makan malan, a series of classic Javanese selections served in brass dishes.

The luxury hotel boasts a forty-metre infinity swimming pool, overlooked by banyan trees and set into the rice paddies below the resort. It is surrounded by loungers and umbrellas and lies adjacent to a raised, colonnaded semicircular deck with tables and chairs for poolside snacks and drinks available from 8am to 8pm.

The suites

This luxury hotel has thirty-six suites radiate outward from the main building in two deep crescents. Amanjiwo’s suites feature terrazzo flooring, high ceilings, domed roofs and sliding glass doors that open onto a garden terrace with a view of Borobudur or surrounding farmland. Fifteen suites come with private swimming pools. All suites include a thatched-roof kubuk (pavilion) with a daybed for outdoor lounging and dining and two loungers. Interiors include a central, four-pillar bed on a raised terrazzo platform, sungkai wood screens, coconut wood and rattan furniture, old batik pillows in classic Yogyakarta style, traditional glass paintings and a large sunken stone outdoor bathtub.