Des Indes II, Seminyak

Des Indes Villa II enjoys a peaceful location within the elite Laksmana Estate, moments from Petitenget Beach and Seminyak’s most celebrated restaurants and bars including Potato Head, La Lucciola and Ku De Ta. Named after Holland’s legendary Hotel Des Indes, this luxury, fully staffed pool villa offers guests a modern take on Asian heritage chic. Accommodation at Des Indes Villa II is in five pavilions arranged around two swimming pools. The social heart of the villa is the huge open-sided living pavilion surrounded by a koi pond and facing a large bale across the main pool. Set into one corner is a two-storey building with seating area, bar, kitchen and guest washroom downstairs and, above, a bedroom suite with a private terrace. Next to this is a sleeping pavilion with two large bedroom suites opening onto the pool terrace. To the other side of the main living pavilion is a second sitting area, a small alfresco dining area and two further bedroom pavilions, which face each other across the second pool. A wall of plantation shutters allows these two bedrooms and the second pool to be discreetly closed off from the rest of the villa if extra privacy is sought. The huge fan-cooled open-sided living pavilion – its soaring teak-lined roof supported on massive wood pillars – is the villa’s social hub. Opening onto the swimming pool and surrounded on three sides by koi ponds dotted with islands of heliconia blooms, this is Bali-style living at its best. Old-style cane sofas and planters chairs are arranged around coffee tables in two distinct seating areas, and ten guests may gather around the teak dining table in cushioned comfort.

Across the koi pond is a bar area with antique style seating and, behind the service bar, a very well-equipped kitchen with sophisticated coffee maker and wine fridge. On the other side of the main pool, facing a sun terrace fringed with sun-loungers, is a large cushion-covered bale.

A second fan-cooled living area, richly decorated with antique Indonesian furniture, faces the villa’s smaller swimming pool. Des Indes Villa II’s five bedrooms are spacious and handsomely designed, with teakwood-lined vaulted ceilings, custom-designed display cabinets, and polished wood floors embellished with oriental rugs. Four feature a king-size four-poster beds swathed in mosquito netting, while twin beds (that convert to a king if preferred) rest under a towering mosquito net in the fifth bedroom.The upstairs bedroom has its own roof terrace, two ground floor bedrooms open onto the main pool terrace, and two face each other across the second pool. All five feature fans and air-conditioning as well as a beautifully decorated air-conditioned marble bathroom with dressing area, bathtub, twin basins, and walk-in shower enclosure.