Helen van Berkel checks into the Aleenta resort, at Phang Nga, in Thailand.
Getting there: About half an hour's drive north of Phuket International Airport, across the Sarasin Bridge, is one of the most luxurious resorts in which I have ever rested my head.
Check-in experience: An honour guard of bowing staff greet you and peel off one by one to escort you to your room. Barely an eyelid is batted if one of your group, struggling after an ill-chosen lunch dish, flees the meet-and-greet — hands firmly over mouth — and makes a dash for the bathroom. And almost makes it.
Room: Across the road from the lobby, through a guarded gate and across a flagstoned patio is a wide concrete boulevard that leads you to your room. Well, cottage. Behind the double wooden door is your own private courtyard and your own private pool and my own private idea of where I want to spend the rest of my life. You're looking at about $450 a night.
What's in the neighbourhood? About half an hour's drive away is Phang Nga Bay, famous for its soaring limestone karsts and as the site of Scaramanga's hideout in the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun at Khao Phing Khan, now known as James Bond Island.
