Six Senses Ninh Van Bay in Vietnam : the luxury of simplicity
The "Doï Moï" or the Vietnamese revival
At Ho Chi Minh Ville, a booming city, design boutiques, charming restaurants and international hotels are flourishing in this electric atmosphere. The animation is non-stop. Here Chinese bicycles have nearly disappeared from the streets now full of scooters and motorbikes. The cyclo-pousse, the former “taxi” of the old colonial time, ideal for a picture-taking tour of the city, is gradually becoming more of a landmark of the past, too. The continuous flow of spluttering scooters still ride past a few stray cyclists dressed in traditional garb (broad trousers, shirt and the "le non la" conical hat) for men and the le ao dai (long side-slit tunic) for women. Here you will become accustomed to seeing women covering their mouths with masks and wearing long flesh-coloured gloves in order to protect their forearms from the pollution and the sun.
A hideout for Robinson Crusoe types
After the hustle and bustle of the city, the time has come for peace and quiet.
An hour away from Ho Chi Minh Ville and 30 minutes away from Nha Trang, you will find the perfect Robinson Crusoe hideaway, the Six Senses Ninh Van Bay Hotel (the Six Senses Group).
You can only get there by a small boat leaving from the Evason Ana at Mandara, another gem of this hotel group.
Hidden away from the world at this secluded bay, you will be enchanted by this hotel offering 53 villas, lazily scattered along the beach, perched high up on the rocks or buried in the tropical jungle.
An environmentally-friendly concept based on authenticity
The Sonu and Eva couple (owners of Soneva Fushi and Soneva Gili) in Thailand and the Maldives, is also advocating eco-tourism and authenticity in Vietnam. From the very beginning, this group’s philosophy has been to safeguard the environment, to use natural materials and to choose sites on account of their exceptional beauty.
Villas with a colonial and Asian spirit
Sophisticated, all while offering a refreshingly simplistic decor, these villas have been exclusively built with local materials that combine a colonial and Asian spirit. Here you will find teak and stone embellished by local furnishings.
After diddle dallying around at your beach villa and relaxing in your huge bed with a mosquito net, you are ready to hop on your bike to tour the peninsula for the discovery of this ‘kingdom’.
Call Mister Friday
After a night rocked by the gentle hissing of the sea, time for a dive in the Mediterranean or a dip in your swimming pool before breakfast. Would you rather sit on the terrace on the ground floor or near the swimming pool, in the shade of a large white parasol? That is the difficult choice for you to make in the morning!
And you may call Mister Friday, the master of this house who, in perfect discretion, is there to see to it that your every wish and desire are met.
Dinner with your feet dangling in the sand
As evening falls, head for the restaurant, perched on stilts, open to the wind, but under the shelter of a pergola. It is also a recommended treat to dine with your feet in the sand with the murmuring of the waves as background music, set against the intimate lighting of the moon and the star-lit sky. Guaranteed romanticism. Best to go there with your other half, otherwise depression guaranteed!
A spa perched in the jungle
In the evening, back at the Six Senses Ninh Van Bay, you can enjoy complete relaxation from your intense adventures of the day by indulging yourself with a massage at the spa.
To get to the spa, you hop across several white slabs, like giant water lilies, across a large pond.
Scattered in the jungle, clinging to the rocks, the spa villas, connected by footbridges offer an exotic atmosphere.
From there, you will have an outstanding view of the China Sea. At the end of the day, you will find the tropical obscurity soothing, as you follow a trail back to your nightly paradise, guided by a myriad of stars in the sky that you will not grow tired of admiring.
