Mandapa, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve

Mandapa, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, opened in September 2015 on Jalan Kedewatan, in the Ayung River valley outside Ubud, in Bali. It has 60 rooms, 35 suites and 25 villas with private pools, set down the hillside towards the river, and it holds three Michelin Keys.

At its centre is a rice field.

A village around a terrace

The resort was planned on the model of a traditional Balinese village, built into the slope around a terraced paddy that is still farmed, and guests can plant and harvest with the farmers. It has its own temple for meditation and offers temple blessings. The designer Jeffrey Wilkes, of the Kuala Lumpur firm DesignWilkes, used dark wood, rattan, jute and teak against marble bathrooms, and the rooms hang local artwork that can be bought on site. Each guest is looked after by a personal butler, called a patih.

The suites look over the jungle canopy and the river below; the villas add pools and, for some, a place directly on the riverbank.

Cocoons above the river

The best-known room for dinner is not a room at all. Kubu seats its guests in nine bamboo cocoons above the Ayung, named after the huts in which Ubud farmers store their rice, and serves a tasting menu of produce from within a hundred kilometres. Sawah Terrace cooks dishes from across the Indonesian archipelago by the river, and Ambar, on the clifftop, pairs Japanese cooking with a bar and live jazz.

The spa and wellness centre has a yoga pavilion facing the river and platforms among the paddies, and a vitality pool. The rice field that gives the resort its plan belongs to the island's wider system of terraces and water temples, which OKYTO describes in its guide to Bali's rice terraces and rituals.

Sources: Mandapa, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve; TTG Asia; The World's 50 Best Hotels; Wallpaper*.