This was the most un-Aman like stay I've ever had.

A very gorgeously designed resort but lacks a certain warm feeling to it. It's become really clear to me that the owners and Aman really want to monetize the heck out of this property for wellness, diet programs, spa houses, residences and who knows what else.

The good:
Spectacular hardware. One of Gathy's finest designs and it helps that everything is pretty much brand new.

Joy. She wasn't there for most of our stay but she immediately made us feel that Aman sense of family and familiarity. She would be the only reason we would even consider going back.


The bad:
"Crowded"

The bad weather combined with a high occupancy of guests and an influencer entourage made this Aman seem crowded. Breakfast and afternoon tea were crowded. I saw more people on this trip than we ever did at Jiwo or my wife at Sara. I think the culmination of this was when we had to share our buggy with another guest who was also departing from the spa. This shouldn't have happened. Doubling up seems very un-Aman like and that's how this trip was.

Housekeeping
This Aman's Housekeeping seems to have lost their ninja-like powers. They knocked twice when we were clearly in the room. Housekeeping also doesn't really clean very well. It's more like they rearrange your stuff and fold clothes around the room than an actual cleaning. Twice black flies died in the room and twice they were there where they had dropped. We also had an attack by some May flies from the sudden downpour that decided they wanted to make the shower into their death spot. My partner freaked out in the morning when their dead bodies crowded the shower booth. Housekeeping didn't clean the shower when we went to breakfast and I ended up just spraying them down with the showerhead. GM's response was the standard "we're surrounded by nature and these kinds of things happen".

Lack of amenities or toiletries upon request

We were both really surprised that this Aman didn't have a disposable nail file or dental floss. It's not like you can just zip down to a Walgreens or 7-11 to get an item you're missing. They did end up bringing my wife a metal one from the nail shop part of the spa but she would have preferred the disposable one-use kind. Mandapa was much better equipped for guests in personal hygiene. My wife was also disappointed that they didn't have any new tennis balls when she wanted to do a tennis ball massage in the villa. They just gave us some very used ones.

I'm okay with food being expensive because it is Aman and you're very isolated. I just wish they made certain dishes better. Like the beef burger tastes like the patty was previously frozen and their off-menu Vietnamese items could have been done better. I prefer my buncha to be separate rather than mixed together like bibimbap.

English

It can be frustrating to communicate over the phone at times and you really do feel isolated in your villa when you think the receptionist just doesn't get what you want. Explaining food preferences was excruciating. They would do better with a whatsapp IM concierge or something like that.

Spa

Very exciting programs from Corporate but the on-ground execution needs buy-in from the therapists and probably more time to iron out the kinks. First spa treatment. they told us that we could only pick a Vietnamese or Amanoi message because they were "training" for the rituals. We went along with it and it was a bad treatment. They cut the time short and massaged pretty badly for 220 dollars each. Told Nicolas and he probably tore the spa team a new one for pretending the entire menu was out of order and not wanting to work. A second makeup treatment was comped. It was slightly better but still nothing compared to Thailand or Tokyo in terms of technique and refinement.

You need top-notch therapists if you want to be a wellness and spa resort like Noi is trying to be. They won AsiaSpa awards but these treatments made me wonder how?!