A session in the Pita Maha Private Villa Spa makes you feel like the royalty that actually owns it. You may even be luck) enough to have the luxury spa villa - a three-tiered, herbaceous hangout - all to yourself (and partner), giving you the opportunity to plunge naked into the hot and cold whirlpools, the swimming pool and the spring water flower bath at your whim. Each of these pools sidle up to a steep preci- pice overhanging the prodigiously beautiful Oos river valley, so that you are bathing on what seems like the edge of the world, while still in a veritable tropical paradise.

the yoghurt body splash is integral to the traditional lulur treatment, enjoyed here in the open air. Standing naked amongst the tropical foliage, coated top to toe in cool, creamy yoghurt is as daring as it is unfortgettable

The private villa spa blends ancient and modern in a setting more akin to an upmarket Ballinese home than a beauty treatment suite for a maximum of four people- a near heaven experience which has to be sampled, if only once in your life

The medley of pools adjoining the private villa spa is set into the hillside, overhanging the Oos river valley which faces the rising sun; Ptta Maha translates as the "Great Shining"

The 400-square-metre spa villa complex is inundated with waxy leaves that reach out to tickle you and a garrulous chorus of frogs that croaks into song at duskWhile there is only a small diet of seven traditional-style scrubs and massages' this is much more of a sanctuary than many of the island's larger and supposedly plusher spas where you are herded in and out according to a strict treatment roster. What the Pita Maha PrivateVita Maha Spa lacks in resort-style veneer (no pizza head showers here), it more than makes up for in charm and tranquillity.The sauna and steam rooms are hewn from the rock face, the outdoor shower's soap dish is a tree trunk and the herbal refreshers are poured out of a teapot carved from a coconut shell.

All of this happens in a charming hotel on the outskirts of Ubud. It is as far away in spirit as it is possible to get just three minutes from one of Ball's major tourist towns. Owned by a local prince, Pita Maha boasts a standard of workmanship found only in Balinese palaces. Its rooms, laid out like a village compound with their own private pool, are as large as a good-sized apartment.