Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - HOBBES: Report on Amanjiwo?

Sorry about the delay, all. As promised.

We spent 2 nights at Amanjiwo recently. I am writing a brief report.

The airport transfer was okay. Even though the Amanjiwo rep who met us at the luggage conveyor belts was extremely eager to take our tags and say he would do everything he was clearly not competent enough. My husband was holding a Jenggala Ceramics carrier bag with my ceramic purchases which we had carried as hand baggage. The guy insisted on taking it then proceeded to place it, while we were looking for our bags, in the basket part of the trolley on top from where I watched it topple – luckily retrieved with no damage done but caused an anxious moment. Also, we were 2 people, he had only the 1 trolley then looked completely overwhelmed when our bags did not fit. My husband organized a second trolley. All in all not the seamless start I had anticipated. The transfer to the hotel took an hour. The driver was not prepared with cold water and had to pull over to give it to us. These are small irritants but IMO for what one pays at an Aman property attention to detail is paramount.

When we reached the hotel we were met by our designated hostess. She was great and seated us comfortably with a welcome drink to understand how we would like to spend our 2 days. For us this made sense coz we had such a short stay so needed to figure out what we would do with the rest of day 1 but for anyone there longer think it may be a better idea to go settle into your room rather than be waylaid in the lobby after an early AM start and flight to discuss your itinerary.

The room was FANTASTIC. I cannot say enough about the layout, the outdoor tub, the huge verandah with a straight view of Amanjiwo and a lovely lounge area complete with a diwan and bolsters from which to admire it. The architecture of the hotel is also amazing and IMO this is the most gorgeous Aman resort I have been to – largely because it is designed in a way that it fits beautifully into the surroundings. This is a HUGE draw for staying here. Don’t miss the opportunity to have an evening lie in the outdoor tub which is filled with rose petals every evening to welcome you.

We chose to go cycling to Borobudur on day one. The hotel provides lovely, new bikes. We cycled down got our first glimpses of Borobudur, had a cup of tea at the Manohara then came back in the jeep while someone else brought our cycles back. It was fun to cycle down also because the road is winding and gives an opportunity to see the villages. We had an early night as we had a 4 AM start the following day.

Day 2 AM we had booked the sunrise tour to Borobudur. Post a wake up call at 4:15 AM we came down to the lobby at 4:30 where we had a quick snack of a croissant and tea. Then we left for the temple in a jeep. We did not do the Intellectual Tour which is with the best guides because the guide was not available. The sunrise at Borobudur is a primary reason I would encourage those who go to Borobudur to stay at Amanjiwo or Manohara as only these 2 hotels have early AM access. Words cannot describe how beautiful it is to sit atop the temple and watch the sun coming up. After sunrise we spent about 1.5 hours with our driver cum guide wandering through the temple. Be aware that even tho this is the largest Buddhist stupa in the world it is not huge. The temple is the size of one of the smaller Siem Reap temples eg Bantey Srei or the Jungle Temple and less than 15% of the size of Angkor Wat or Angkor Thom.

We had booked to go back to Amanjiwo by elephant back which costs US$100/head but is a lovely experience. It takes over an hour but the elephants go through non motorable roads and we thoroughly enjoyed the school children waving, the elephants wading through muddy water, etc. Back at the hotel around 10 we had a HUGE breakfast then got ready to lie by the pool. Amanjiwo has a fantastic Olympic size swimming pool so don’t miss it.

In the afternoon the hotel GM, who is another huge draw of the property and who we really liked, had invited us for a trek. The trek is gently uphill on land which belongs to Amanjiwo to a machan they have set up from a vantage viewing point atop the hill. Is well worth doing for the aerial view of Amanjiwo, the view from afar on a clear day of Borobudur and on a good day a gorgeous sunset in hues of red and orange. The hotel offers to serve you a martini and snack atop the hill – be aware the martini costs US$80. My husband is veg and could not eat any of the snack – I think it was an oversight not to check with us and pack smoked salmon (which neither of us eats) and prama ham and asparagus rolls. The GM was very gracious and reversed the charges for our martini as he said it was at his invitation – we really appreciated the gesture. If you book in advance you can come down by jeep as after sunset the downhill path is a bit difficult to navigate. The jeep drive takes as long as the trek tho as the road route is much longer.

We had dinner at Amanjiwo. The food was good. The set local menu was a huge quantity of food. Definitely enough for two thought my husband had separately ordered a veg main course. I asked if I could order a dessert from the a la carte menu instead of the Indonesian dessert but was told I would be charged extra. I deferred my decision which was all for the best because the meal was too much food and I had no room for dessert.

Day 2 AM we had another huge and lovely breakfast. Though the breakfast menu is not large it is, to my mind, complete with all the things one wants to order. If you like Eggs Benedict go for them bcoz the hollandaise sauce had just the right lemony tang. Delicious. Our breakfast server was also very flexible – we asked for plates of just mango instead of mixed fruit plates which was no problem. I found our breakfasts better than our meal.

We left at 9 AM to check our bags in at the airport for our noon flight. After handing our bags over to an Amanjiwo rep we went to Prambanan. Our driver organized a local guide for us at Prambanan. The Hindu temples are not as awe inspiring as Borobudur IMO but well worth a look. There are 3 main temples to the Hindu trinity of Gods, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva then smaller temples for the animal vahans for the gods who pull their chariots. Our guide insisted on walking us back to our car the long way so we could walk through the very touristy shops – we did not realize why he took a different route back and he lied and told us he was taking us back the short way when actually it was the long way. I felt that our driver who contracted him should have explained that we were in a hurry and that we had expressly said we did not want to shop.

All in all very positive stay at Amanjiwo, gorgeous room, lovely GM, beautiful setting, great facilities, some small hiccups with staff – more related to high levels of expectations at this price of hotel than anything else.

One final point. As with other Aman properties the resort experience of the hotel is a huge reason to stay there. I always say this re Amansara – on a short completely temple oriented trip to Siem Reap one may not enjoy the hotel enough to justify the outlay. Ditto with Amanjiwo. We chose not to go to Jogjakarta city at all because we wanted to wind down after a hectic Bangkok trip and a wedding in Bali and had decided to stay here to enjoy the hotel. Jogjakarta is 1 hour away from Amanjiwo by road so a trip there means a half day which we did not have on this rushed itinerary. Aman hotels are worth the money if you enjoy the activities the hotel offers – which are fab, as in this case. But if you want to plan your trip around the venue rather than the hotel this may not be the place for you.