Luxury Camping Around the World by Cynthia Rosenfeld
Featured Hotel in Ranthambhore Nature Reserve
The Oberoi Vanyavilas
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As a kid, I was truly a lousy camper. I hated bugs, cooking over an open flame, never mind coping with the calls of nature and erecting my own accommodations. Rather than relive those convoluted sleeping arrangements, when the neon-hued nylon collapsed under the weight of a few rain drops and I woke wet, nearly choking on my own pup tent, I limit my adult tent time to a small selection of canvas-covered havens at the cutting edge of eco-chic.
My own failed tents aside, these temporary shelters actually have a long and far-reaching history across Asia. In his exhaustive study entitled Felt Tents and Pavilions: The Nomadic Tradition and its Interaction with Princely, historian Peter Alford Andrews traces the origin of tents as they came to be used in Asia to covered carts that doubled as nomadic dwellings in the Ukrainian Steppe 400 years before Christ.
Fourth century BC Greek historian Herodotus (484 and 424 BC) wrote of tent-like dwellings of the Scythians, a horse-riding nomadic people in Central Asia, and there is archaeological evidence that the Huns, warriors who were active across Central Asia from the 4th to the 6th century AD, used a tent type known as a yurt, originally and still made of animal hair felt and wood.
Of these Mongolian tents, the first Westerner to visit the Mongolian Empire in the 14th century, Marco Polo wrote, “...They have circular houses made of wood and covered with felt, which they carry about with them on four-wheeled wagons wherever they go.” The yurt, otherwise known as the ger, is stable enough to endure the extreme temperatures of the steppes and easily disassembled for the Mongols, who were known to have fought against many of their neighbours. They regularly needed to beat a quick retreat or continue on the march.
The notion of temporary, moveable dwellings gravitated to the Indian sub-continent by the 16th century where Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great extended that empire, making use of tents as temporary and transportable accommodation during battle. Akbar was also fond of game hunting and a patron of the arts. He ordered elaborately decorated tents with the most luxurious amenities of the time as a refuge in the dense jungles where he ventured in search of tigers and leopards.
By mid-17th century, Emperor Shah Jahan travelled by ornate tents of red velvet and embroidered with real gold thread, which can still be seen today in the Tent Room of Maan Villas at Jodhpur’s Mehrangarh Fort.
Fast forward to Asia in the 21st century, when emperors like Akbar would feel quite at home among the current crop of canvas-covered five-star accommodations associated with top brands like Four Seasons, Oberoi and Amanresorts.
“Our focus is on experiencing the wildlife and the tent concept has always lent itself nicely to that,” answers Amanresorts Executive Director Trina Ebert when asked why the luxury brand opted for an Aman-style, minimalist interpretation of those opulent Mughal tents for Aman-i-khas, their first India resort, opened in November 2003.
“It was back in the 60's that [Amanresorts founder] Adrian Zecha was introduced to Ranthambhore, the wildlife sanctuary where conservationists were helping to increase the dwindling tiger population from just four to more than 40. He simply fell in love with the place, and we opted for tents, which are very much part of India's past with the travelling Mughals.”
Today’s travelling moguls who check into one of these 10 air-conditioned tents with indulgent, deep soak bathtubs and elegant writing desks are really not so different. During my own visit in 2007, adults gushed like children (actually more like competitive siblings) about the number of sightings they had on any given day in Ranthambhore National Park, where the big cats roam stealthily through the tall grasses seeking their prey, while open-air jeeps roll as silently as possible along the same magnificent terrain.
We came during the scorching days of April, just before the camp closes at the end of the game viewing season beginning in October, but we still managed to catch sight of one wild tiger that looked big and fierce to me but, the guide explained, was merely an adolescent. Even better than I imagine Akbar had it, I returned from that afternoon safari to find the staff had run a steaming hot bath back in my tent and left a plate of my favourite cookies.
When I ask Bertie Dyer, of India’s hippest travel agency India Beat, to recommend some less lavish but equally worthy camps, he first adds another layer of historical perspective: “The Mughals’ elaborate tents were adopted by the British, who basically put together fully functioning Victorian houses and then covered them with tents. In fact, the single greatest expense for an officer of the British Raj was his campaign furniture, which all had to be transportable by elephant or oxen…Today tents have been taken to yet another level with air conditioning and polished concrete baths since they don't have to move anymore.”
Of these, Dyer recommends Khem Villas, Samode Bagh and Ramathra, which “built in the ruins of a fort in unexplored, eastern Rajasthan is exactly what the British would have erected as they travelled around their dominion. Ravi, the Rajput owner regales guests with stories of Indian highwaymen, called dacoits, and tigers in the surrounding jungles. Fortunately these days the dacoits have left but sadly so to have the tigers.”
India still dominates any comprehensive list of Asia’s tented camps, though these are more about finding peace than making war. Oberoi Hotels operates The Oberoi Vanyavilas, its own lavish canvas covered accommodations just outside Ranthambhore. Vanyavilas’ 25 tents have solid wood and glass walls under canvas roofs, which make them feel less tent-like than the nearby Aman, but interiors are sumptuously decorated with colonial-style furnishings and intricately embroidered canopy bed covers.
At the centre of the 20-acre lushly landscaped property, guests congregate by the heated swimming pool between jeep safaris in the park then dine al fresco around log fires. Travellers eager to experience India’s tented luxuries without sacrificing shopping or monument touring time, can book instead at Oberoi’s Rajvilas with its 70 swanky tents surrounded by peacock-filled gardens just outside Jaipur.
Bangkok- based architect Bill Bensley took camping to new heights at the Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle in north Thailand two years ago. Over iced tea on a sunny Bali morning, Bensley shared the memories that inspired him.
“Tents take me back to my adventurous childhood summers, when my family of five would pitch a tent almost every weekend in the greatest state parks of the western United States. We all helped to pitch the tent then we all laughed, ate and slept in it.”
Clearly, good childhood memories of the outdoors separate the hugely talented architect from this pampered camper, but the architect also looked for inspiration in Africa, home of the original safari camps. Before drafting the initial brief on what became Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle with its fifteen exquisitely crafted, canvas-clad 1,000 square foot palaces overlooking both Burma and Laos along their border with Thailand, he and partner Jirachai Rengthong travelled to Botswana’s Mombo and Jao safari camps. This explains the oil lamps, faux ivory clad camp baths and zippered flaps among other African details present in Bensley’s first Asian tented camp.
Of his decision to take Four Seasons in this entirely new direction, Bensley says, “I knew tents would bring the guests much, much closer to nature, literally only millimetres away. The skin of a tent is not a black out material, so the rising sun inevitably greets you in the morning as you wake to the cheerful sounds of birds chirping and elephants foraging for their breakfast.”
He smiles devilishly as he takes credit for one common criticism of the camp, “An often humorous consequence of the thin tent walls is that the guests don't realize sounds they make inside of the room can just as easily travel outside for others to enjoy as well!” Anyone like me who has stayed at the far end of camp in Tent 15 can confirm this.
Nonetheless, from my own half-dozen stays at the elephant camp, I have to agree that there are unexpected pleasures of sleeping practically inside the surrounding natural environment. Every time I arrive, usually exhausted and stressed from the Bangkok to Chiang Rai flight plus the hour-long car journey to camp, I find the tent accelerates my acclimation to nature’s rhythms, even as I growl back at the elephants wailing hours before I would rise at any other luxury resort. I am one of those wimpy guests who called the front desk the first time a small creature crash landed on my canvas roof, but I also relish unzipping my tent flap to watch for shooting stars.
Bensley says the greatest challenge was convincing his Thai contractor to abandon modern building methods that call for big bulldozers and trucks. “Those would get a normal job done fastest but here, in this very steeply sloped, fragile jungle, I had to insist on an alternative, lighter building method which required smaller machines and much work done by hand to make a minimal intervention to nature.”
While the resort boasts exceptionally comfortable indoor plumbing and all other conveniences one would expect of a Four Seasons (minus television, by design) there is an ecological aspect of tent building that Bensley and others like Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts’ Dharmali Kusmadi hope will catch on. The Vice President of Design Services for Banyan Tree, Kusmadi chose safari-style tents for the brand’s top-of-the-line six-suite Banyan Tree Madivaru in the Maldives’ North Ari Atoll “because of the fragile environment and limited space for construction on the island. As it is important for us to protect the environment everywhere we work, all the villas here needed to be raised off the ground, which incidentally provided guests a view to the lagoon without cutting the Scaevola bushes in front of the tent.”
Guests feel anything but compromised among the safari style living room, air conditioned, incense scented bedroom and a spacious bathroom that includes two cushioned massage tables, a swooping bathtub and outdoor shower set among tumbling vines. After my own idyllic visit, Kusmadi explained to me the expansive luxury of each villa’s triple tent design was not primarily to spoil us but “to create flexible modules to suit the existing trees. The tented villa fits well in this concept while creating a unique resort unlike any other in the Maldives.
The buildings don’t dominate the island atmosphere and guests can truly experience the beauty of the island in private, stunning settings that blend in with its natural environment. Of course, in addition to soaking up the profuse foliage and cerulean lagoon from my eco-fabulous perch, I also fully appreciated the exceptional spa treatments and my personal butler, who delivered all my delicious organic meals promptly then managed to sneak in while I was snorkelling or beachcombing to make the bed and eliminate all traces of sand.
For Christopher Giercke and his Mongolian wife Enkhe, temporary dwellings were the only type that made sense for their Genghis Khan Polo and Riding Club outside the ancient Mongolian capital of Karakorum. Open only from June to September, the camp’s 25 gers retain the basic structure and materials Marco Polo saw. Inside the white circular tents however, guests are indulged with luxuries otherwise unseen across the vast Central Asian steppes. Cashmere blankets similar to those Giercke produces in Nepal for Hermes top the hand painted beds and Russian caviar as well as French Champagne and cheeses are available around the clock.
While these world class amenities and a hard working staff that includes guides, nannies, a yoga instructor and massage therapist attend to the needs of the camp’s high profile guests, the Gierckes actually established the Club to reintroduce polo to the Mongolian people. Polo was a popular sport in medieval Asia where Chinese princes played as did the Club’s namesake Genghis Khan.
It died out in Mongolia centuries ago then in the late 1990s a group of travelling European players reintroduced the game to their Mongolian hosts. Giercke took up the cause and with local luminaries established The Mongolian Polo Federation in 2000. The Club opened to guests a year later, offering locals the opportunity to learn from foreign polo players while introducing this vast peaceful panorama to today’s global nomads.
Luxury tents make sense for most any remote landscape. When Longitude 131 opened in 2003 at Uluru, the owners of Voyages Hotels and Resorts sought to detour from the sleek minimalism already defining Australian luxury tourism and allow the location to convey its own sense of awe. Australian architect Philip Cox raised each of these 15 glass front tents on stilts to enhance the panorama across the iconic red desert to Ayer’s Rock.
When guests do tear themselves away from the burnt ochre landscape, they can turn their attention to the books and memorabilia associated with the different outback pioneers each tent commemorates. Or they can simple sink into the king-size bed, turn on the air conditioning and enjoy the well-stocked bar. Electronic blinds ensure that the surroundings can be enjoyed without getting out of bed.
In other instances, luxury resort operators opt for tents simply to enhance the guest experience by delivering an alternative to the thatched roof villa with infinity plunge pool that has become the five- star norm.
Even the brand which helped define the Asian luxury resort villa, Amanresorts, asked architect Jean-Michel Gathy to design tents for Amanwana on Indonesia’s Moyo Island to give guests “something off the beaten track, a departure from usual holidays, but with all the comforts of air-conditioning, hot water and excellent dining, which are not customarily found on camping trips as we think of them” says Amanresort’s Ebert.
Architects like Gathy and Bensley did their technical homework before embarking on these high- profile projects, scientifically selecting the right material with long term considerations like maintenance and appearance in mind. I wondered who to blame a few years back while staying in one of four tented suites at Kirimaya outside Thailand’s Khao Yai National Park, about three hours from Bangkok. Though considered the resort’s finest accommodations, these ostensibly high-tech bungalows included an indoor sunken bath as full of dirt and leaves as water. Noisy air conditioners failed to keep sprawling 180-meter space cool even in the relative cool of January, and I saw as many exotic creeping crawlers around my pillow top bed as I did animals in the national park.
Still, I hold wonderful memories of cavorting under the canvas. Asked about their brief tenure managing that Thai-owned resort, Alila Hotels Managing Director Frederic Simon sums up what makes even a leaky tent special: “Everyone just loves a tent. It brings out the child in us all.”
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