In three months of exploring Southeast Asia — from Malaysia to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and finally here in Cambodia — we have endured the trials of boat, bus and train travel and the tribulations of countless back-breaking mattresses. Amansara offers a surreal change of pace and comfort.

Two uniformed chauffeurs collect us from our latest budget hotel in a vintage 1965 black Mercedes once owned by King Sihanouk. We glide seamlessly through the maelstrom of Siem Reap, Cambodia’s second-largest city, to a white perimeter wall and heavy gate. A guard opens it for us, revealing a short driveway fringed with tropical foliage leading to a striking, modernist building. The challenges of the past three months fall away. We have entered the rarified world of Aman.

© Aman

Aman is the world’s most exclusive hotel brand. Its 36 (and counting) properties, scattered around the world, are usually unmarked and unadvertised, secret havens for those in the know. Few hotel chains can match Aman for the devoted loyalty of its regular guests. There’s even a word for them: Amanjunkies. My wife and I are among their number. This is our third Aman hotel.

Amansara occupies King Sihanouk’s former guesthouse, built in 1962 in the architectural style known as New Khmer. It was a glamorous era, and the playboy king was at the heart of it, hosting the likes of Jackie Kennedy and Peter O’Toole (he stayed here while making Lord Jim). Then came the dreadful civil war, sending the king into exile and leaving Cambodia in ruins.

The royal guesthouse was reduced to a crumbling relic overrun by vegetation, much like the ancient temples of nearby Angkor. In 2002 Aman began a painstaking restoration, initially opening with 12 suites then adding an extension with 12 additional suites, each with a private pool. One of them is ours for two nights.

© Aman

While my wife settles in, I have an appointment at the spa. I envisage an hour or two of pleasurable relaxation, soothed by calming music and restorative aromas. Three months of wear and tear are embedded in my bones and knotted in my muscles. As I enter the spa reception, I carry the weight of every day and every mile. Amansara’s spa menu draws upon centuries of local knowledge, employing treatments that have been used in this part of the world for centuries. Some techniques evolved specifically to iron out the effects of arduous journeys.

While I browse the spa menu with its wealth of sensory treatments — oil massages, hot herbal compress massages, nourishing body wraps — the therapists have identified another course. They ask me if I would mind a male masseur.

Before we start, I fill out a form. I am asked to specify my preferred strength of massage. I tick “gentle” — I am still envisaging drowsy relaxation. In the treatment room, I clamber with difficulty (and probably an audible groan) onto the table. A big window looks out into a private courtyard and a wall bearing a bas-relief inspired by the friezes at Angkor Wat. So far, so serene.

The masseur tests my shoulders and lets out an exclamation that loosely translates as “Eek!” In English he mutters, “Very bad.” He softly grips my right wrist and pulls my arm across my back, reaching what I think is the point of resistance. He keeps pulling. I can feel and hear the crunching of bones and cartilage. Every muscle fiber strains to the limit. The masseur doesn’t stop pulling.

© Aman

There is soothing music in the room, but I don’t hear it. There are restorative aromas, but I can’t smell them. All my focus is on
the unnatural position of my arm, and the pain radiating from my shoulder. Finally, the masseur releases the pressure. The pain dissolves. He switches to my other arm.

Over the next hour, my limbs are manipulated into peculiar positions, and for the first time ever in an Aman hotel I am subjected
to waves of discomfort. But when I descend at last from the table, it is with a litheness I haven’t known since my teens. I practically float back to our suite.

One of the hallmarks of an Aman hotel is the ability to meet the needs of every guest even before they are expressed. When we need a drink or snacks or fine food, they are on hand. When we need local advice or a ride into town in the hotel’s luxury tuk-tuk, they are there for us. Sometimes what you need most is a thorough pummeling.