This is the most quiet and secluded resort in Bali

Silence is a luxury that is high on the list of city dwellers travelling to Bali. With crowds descending upon towns such as Kuta, Seminyak and even Canggu these days, peace and serenity is hidden in the north-western tip of Bali, which is mostly rural and untouched by major tourism developments. 

The price to pay: a daunting 4.5-hour car ride from the airport in Denpasar to the West Bali National Park in Sinlarja, where Plataran Menjangan Resort & Spa is located. Guests have to drive past attractions like Lakes Buyan and Tamblingan and there’s a midway stop at The View Munduk, which is run by the resort group, for a scenic lunch. 

The 17-villa resort, which is run by Indonesian hospitality giant, Plataran, is located in the tranquil West Bali National Park that spans 190,000 hectares. Plataran Menjangan, which opened in 2016, is the company’s first venture in the eco-tourism space, which has since expanded to a portfolio of nine hotels and resorts. Besides running the luxury resort, the resort also manages 382 hectares of protected national park grounds. The resort is also located near Menjangan Island, a popular scuba diving spot.

The national park is home to close to 340 types of plants and animals, including the Bali Starling bird, which boasts an ethereal white coat of fur and blue eyelids. (The resort runs a breeding sanctuary). Ratu deers (Menjangan means deer in Bahasa) roam freely around the resort grounds, nonchalantly grazing right outside the 17 Joglo-style villas and around the resort’s main restaurant, Octagon Club and oceanfront swimming pool.

The Room

The Mangrove Oceanfront Villa, which I was put up in, is nestled on a mangrove swamp, with a long walkway in. It feels like getting private access to a slice of the national park. The 150 sq villa is cavernous for two and comes with tall glass windows, where the first sun rays filter in at the crack of dawn.

The towering living room has ample seating options: sofas, armchairs and daybeds for lounging around, though you’d be more inclined to spend more time languishing in the outdoor verandah that opens up directly to the mangrove-fringed Java sea. 

Stretching out on a deck chair on the wooden verandah, I faced the serene waters (so still that there was nary a wave) as the sunset with a warm amber glow paint of the evening sky. 

My peace was disrupted by light threading and rustling of leaves stepped on by rusa deers on mangrove roots during low tide, while they nibbled on leaves from the shrubs and mangrove roots. My heart did a little jolt as our eyes met for a few seconds, before their dinner resumed.

Having such unbridled intimate access to nature from one’s villa makes the extra trek to Plataran Menjangan worthwhile. 

Staring into the calm waters with a cacophony of chirping and humming from birds and insects buzzing around is an unadulteratedly therapeutic experience (but have a mosquito repellent on standby). The silence is so deafening that my ears picked up on deers stealthily threading on mangrove roots and feeding on leaves and the occasional zipping of boats in the almost-silent waters. 

The room comes with a one king-sized bed that sits at the foot of a wooden lattice and flower motif feature wall that faces a Smart TV with free Netflix access. The bathroom brings the outdoors in with a glass ceiling and a roomy bathtub that overlooks draping mangrove plants hanging outside the window. 

What to do at the resort?

The resort offers a host of activities, from kayaking, snorkelling and scuba diving off its private jetty. Not into water sports? Go on the Trails of Life hike, a 4.35km hike in the West Bali National Park. My ranger-guide, Gede Muliada gives a detailed tour, sharing about the native trees in the tropical forest, such as sandalwood and white bark acacia that grow up to 30 metres in height and is native to Africa. An avid nature enthusiast, he can also discern chirpings from different varieties of birds that fill the air.

 Muliada, who is also the resort’s conservation leader and has worked there for a decade, says: “My satisfaction comes from seeing saplings flourish into trees and growing the Bali Starling population, which is endemic to Bali. It is a way of giving back to nature.” 

The nature enthusiast, who grew up learning the names of trees and birds in Balinese language from his grandfather and father, can recite them effortlessly.  Growing up, he remembers villagers freely foraged honey and plants from the forest and chopping trees for wood. 

These days, he plays the role of the custodian of the forest through daily patrols. During our two-hour walk, he leads me to key spots like the Bali Starling sanctuary, where the once critically-endangered birds have been bred, with about 40 birds in the facility. 

Plataran Menjangan Resort & Spa takes pride in its endemic tree planting programme, which conserves the unique biodiversity of West Bali National Park by planting native trees such as sandalwood, Indian prickly ash tree and sapodilla tree.Since. Under this programme, a tree is planted in the national park for every room booked across the Platara group, which runs nine hotels in Indonesia. As of this May, close to 60,000 trees have been planted by the hotel group. 

The walk also comprises a picnic-style breakfast set up in a secluded corner of the nature park that faces a cluster of mangrove trees. Dishes, such as omelette and nasi goreng, cooked on a portable stove, are brought over as I enjoyed a breakfast soaked up in views of nature. 

Other activities include cooking class, where guests can learn to cook Balinese dishes like lawar kachang (long bean and coconut salad), ayam betutu (spiced chicken) and dardar dulung (coconut pancakes). With the help of two chefs (who shared that men helm the kitchen during celebratory feasts in Bali), I made bumbu gental rempah with a mortar and pestle, which lets out whiffs of aroma from turmeric, galangal, candlenut, belachan, lemongrass and chillies. The rempah is later added to dishes like sate lilit and ayam bertutu, which went into my self-assembled nasi campur platter.

Another new activity is the Aqua Harmonie, a sound bath therapy programme performed on water. Guests are resting on a floating bed in the middle of a swimming pool as one dissipates away with the soft chiming of bells and knocking of bowls.

 On my last day at the resort, I climbed the five-storey Ocean Observation Deck to admire  the first streaks of sunlight across the skies at around 6am. Soon enough, chirping fills the air as the resort wakes up to another day in nature nirvana.