Phuket Pleasures

Stress melts away at The Slate Hotel on the shores of the Andaman Sea.

This article was written by Christopher White.

Imagine you’ve been traveling throughout Thailand. You’ve sipped mojitos on the 78th floor at Sky Beach in Bangkok and spotted a herd of wild elephants at Khao Yai National Park.

In meticulously preserved ancient teak houses, you’ve sampled nine-course tasting meals. In Chiang Rai, you’ve purchased silks for all your friends back home, and you’ve goggled naga serpent sculptures at the Blue Temple. You’ve chatted with strangers in markets, with taxi drivers, with hipsters in their local coffee shop–and you’ve shared the glow of smiles in this country known for that very quality. Through every adventure and encounter, a tension among contrasting forces drives the engine: the push-pull of the scripted versus the spontaneous, the relaxed and the refined, the fantastic and the familiar. We travel for surprise and wonder, at least my wife Yupin and I do, but we also carry the contradictory desire to see our expectations met. So, while it’s delightful to spot wildlife and to experience art, we also bank on an accompanying thrill and awe. Like, duh, as the ‘80s kids say, of course elephants and blue monsters are cool. Obviously…

So now you’ve made it to Phuket, the Andaman Sea, and you’ve sprung for the presidential suite at The Slate, a lavish five-star hotel that pays homage to the island’s past, when it whirred as a hub in the global tin industry. Because the property sits upon a 19 th century tin mine, artist/architect/ design-wizard Bill Bensley imbued the resort with avant garde, industrial elements–it’s a heaven for magpies: chock full of shiny objects, glass baubles and chandeliers, sharp angles, and fun twists, such as massive screwheads at the center of dining tables and utensils that double as wrenches.

You’re going to want to cue up Kraftwerk and New Order; it’s that kind of vibe.

Owner Krystal Prakaikaew Na-Ranong, scion of a prominent Phuket tin industry family, named The Slate’s presidential suite the “Bensley Residence” to recognize the designer’s work in reviving this local history. Set at the resort’s southern terminus near a semi-private gate across from the white sands of Nai Yang Beach, it’s easy to predict what one would love about this spot. Eif, our personal butler, sets us up via the Line app, so any time we’d like to book dinner at Black Ginger, we need only text, and she grants our wishes. She first tours Yupin and me through the Residence’s second floor, showing us the deck bar’s sunset view, then the master bedroom and upstairs living area. The angled wall behind the king-sized bed features a slate finish, a red model dragon boat resting at its center. The balcony overlooks palm trees and lush gardens full of spiky fronds and leaves, echoes of the sculpted metal elements. Just below, the private swimming pool is a work of abstract art unto itself, a multi-faceted piece of colored tiles and painted wood that’s a little bit Keith Haring and a lotta bit Escher, with a skosh of Piet Mondrian.

Given all the amazing features of The Slate and of the Bensley Residence in particular, I’d give a hundred-to-one you’ll not go wild over a desk. A plain piece of wooden furniture in the downstairs living area. And yet, this is my surprise, the thing that most defies expectation. So mundane, so infinitely un-Instagrammable, I won’t even take a picture of it.

Eif wraps up our intro with an overview of cool free stuff in the kitchen: dried mango, crispyfried minnows, the tea tower laden with finger sandwiches and confections. She gestures to a chilled bottle of champagne, smiles, and says, “Enjoy your visit.”

And I, looking at the desk, promise her that we will.

See, “wellness,” that trendy quality for which many of us travel, is pretty vague. One girl’s so-called wellness could represent another dude’s relapse. For me, I’m not looking for tai-chi or a body scrub, but I do feel especially well at a desk where I can write in the dawn quiet without disturbing Yupin. For years, I enjoyed the habit of writing “morning pages,” after The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, a method of priming the mind for creative endeavors. Though I no longer practice morning pages, I still begin my day with writing–which becomes a challenge when traveling, typing in the dark or in a lobby with bad muzak-jazz or on an uncomfortable perch somewhere. Physical space and atmosphere are essential, which is why this desk is so inviting. It makes me want to use The Slate’s stationary, to write an actual letter–remember the pleasure in doing that? What could be more leisurely decadent than curling into a cozy desk, cup of coffee just out of harm’s way, gazing through open glass doors into the tropical morning with only the sounds of birds and waves, and expressing yourself to someone? That’s paradise to me, starting the day right, and it’s all the better that it comes as an utter surprise, this unadvertised perfect detail in The Slate’s exquisite Bensley Residence.

The Slate

• The Slate sits on Nai Yang Beach, abutting Sirinat National Park (a small but protected piece of beachfront forest) in the northern part of Phuket. It’s the closest luxury hotel to the airport, just 3.6 kilometers away.

• Blue Canyon Country Club is less than a 15-minute drive.

• Phuket is Thailand’s premier yachting destination, with four world-class marinas, all within an hour’s drive of The Slate:
• 20-minute drive to Yacht Heaven Phuket Marina
• 30-minute drive to Ao Po Grand Marina
• 30-minute drive to Boat Lagoon or Royal Phuket Marina
• 60-minute drive to Chalong Bay Pier

Request a Copy