La Folie Lodge
Eco-elegant, endlessly adventurous and eccentric beyond imagination, this lodge near the fabled Wat Phou Temple is owned by French aristocrat Antoine de Noailles and, like its owner, has character. You arrive by boat, which happens to be a floating platform with a scatter of chairs and umbrellas for shade. If you arrive at dusk, there are no lights and you seem afloat on a ghost river until suddenly, a meander of lamps appears, snaking up the sand to the lodge. Named after the French for madness, it is madness you discover when you have to step off the boat, hop-scotch planks and then jump onto a tractor to reach the lodge. If the experience leaves you mildly bewildered, there’s an ineffable allure about this place. Wooden cabins, like something Robinson Crusoe might have built, sit along the Mekong. The new spa occupies one such cabin, and it isn’t trying to be too sophisticated – the idea is imbibing the natural surroundings over massages using oils, created for the resort by the famous Artisans Laos. Drink up the ambiance from the foliage-filled riverside terrace, and if that’s not tranquil enough, embark on a peaceful sunset cruise with a private butler and the best canapés in Laos.
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