9 minute read
Zen & The Art Of Mustang Valley
A BESPOKE ADVENTURE AWAITS TRAVELERS TO THE REMOTE KINGDOM OF MUSTANG IN NEPAL WHERE LIFE ACCELERATORS ARE CONVENING FOR THE SPECTACULAR TRIP OF A LIFETIME.
BY NIGEL SIMMONDS
THREE years ago, Bill Bensely’s longtime friend and associate in all projects melding luxury, adventure and conservation, Jason M Friedman, started working with the Sherpa family in Nepal. The family has lodges across the Everest and Annapurna routes, which Jason helped to consolidate into the Mountain Lodges of Nepal Group. These mountains truly run in their blood – Namgyal Sherpa’s mother was the first Nepali woman to climb Everest. Now arrives a new offering from the group, the Shinta Mani Mustang – Bill Bensley Collection.
Perched high in the mountains, it offers a more comfortable alternative to the usual circuit lodges of Nepal. Here lies the most luxurious lodge in the country, offering a base camp for three-to-seven days of exploration. Guests experience the full gamut of adventure: trekking, horse riding, archery, rock climbing, mountain biking, hiking and yoga.
“This is perhaps one of the most exciting projects we have ever completed,” Bill told WILD magazine. “I have never seen such wildly dramatic landscapes as the mountains and valleys of Mustang, and am thrilled that Shinta Mani can be the first to introduce this forbidden kingdom to international adventurers. This will be their base camp for explorations all around these phenomenal mountains for the experience of a lifetime.”
The 29-room Shinta Mani Mustang Resort is managed by its owners, Sherpa Hospitality Group, with creative design touches from Bill Bensely and his team. Warm toned fabrics and materials reflect the colors of the surrounding landscape, visible from every window of the property. Huge fire pits on the outdoor terrace allow guests to admire the stars in warmth as the temperatures dip. Inside, every area is complemented by the artwork of the late artist Robert Powell, a friend of Bill’s who drew the region’s vernacular architecture in mind-boggling detail. We caught up with Bill to ask him about his experience of designing such a remote retreat.
Bill, tell us about your design journey to Shinta Mani Mustang.
My design journey to Shinta Mani Mustang began in 1986 on one of my first trips to Kathmandu. I forget exactly how but I fell in with the design crowd there, as one did in those days. Gertz and Ludmilla Hagmuller, Eric Theophile, G2, and Robert Powell, to mention just a few. Robert had just come back from Mustang. He had walked into the valley which was a month’s trek each way for a very fit young man. He came back with a ton of wonderful drawings which put him on the map as one of Asia’s most skilled artists. We spoke for hours and as the sun went down the slides came out and I was smitten. Over the next 30 years I bought many of Robert’s wonderful watercolor paintings, which today hang in my home in Bangkok.
What were your first impressions arriving on site?
Well, when I did finally get there it was with the aid of an airplane, and I was deeply impressed. I kicked myself for not having visited with Robert in our youth. Better late than never.
What were the logistical challenges of working there?
The new road winds its way around some very steep contours and during each of the monsoons, the rains cause landslides and block the roads. This happened just three days before our grand opening, but the roads team worked through the night to open the passage and no one suspected a thing!
How did you approach a project like this in a place like Mustang, given the local culture and environment?
With every new project we do at Bensley Design, our goal is first to understand the neighborhood or environment – or in Mustang’s case, the valley – in which we are creating. The south and north of the Mustang valley are so different. Where our site is located in the North, it’s really like going back in time a thousand years. There are barely any TV antennas, few cars, little electricity. Every day, livestock walk back
“There are few places left in the world that have stayed as they were hundreds of years ago. This place, while raw, is such a place. Don’t hesitate. See it now.”
from the fields into villages, and even down the stairs of some homes. The biggest town has just four streets, which wrap around the main fort.
My goal was to give our guests all the comforts one expects at a Bensley Collection Hotel – electricity, internet, plush beds, gorgeous cocktails – but all the while keeping that intense feeling of authenticity and remoteness. What I find most interesting in this region is the symbolism one finds in the architecture, and the way the people of Mustang use dirt. It sounds odd but bear with me. I went to see three local clay quarries, each with their own distinct colors: dove gray, terracotta red and a yellowish beige. These are each bestowed with a different meaning: prosperity, knowledge and longevity. One can see these colors all over the region, not just in the mountains and cliffs and landscape, but in the architecture, so I made a deliberate effort to bring a very basic type of architecture to the fore.
What was the inspiration behind the interior concept; materials, finishings, and furniture?
The hotel is made from local stone and so appears to grow naturally out of the landscape. The interiors follow a similar ethos, having been sourced locally. As a lover of the environment, I set about repurposing and upcycling existing materials and furniture in inventive ways. This was also a logical choice for a site which is remote and therefore restricted in terms of shipping.
An example is the mini bar in each suite. There is locally and sustainably sourced yak fur draped over it, while the handles to open the mini bar are in fact engraved Tibetan conch shells. On the wall above, there are three big organic pieces of slate, with Sanskrit poems engraved on them. Traditionally in this northern region, when winter falls and it is bitterly cold, people take refuge inside. It is a quiet time and so people set to carving these poems and prayers into slate as a form of penance. Then in the summer one sees these
prayer stones stacked one above the other outside atop stone walls, showing years of wintertime atonement. It is this unique way of seeing the world which we want to carry throughout the experience.
Upcycling also played an important part as we scoured local antiques shops and junk yards to turn discarded doors and all kinds of materials into treasure with a bit of ingenuity and TLC. A similar approach applies to materials and finishings, which were sourced locally for reasons of both sustainability and accessibility. Every area is complemented by the artwork of the late artist Robert Powell.
Walk us through the place…
A long central courtyard leads to the lobby, a warm and convivial sitting room that invites conversation between guests, while overlooking an outdoor terrace with jaw-dropping views. Huge fire pits on the outdoor terrace allow guests to admire the night sky in warmth as the temperatures dip. The Lobby is flanked on either side by the Nilgiri Restaurant, and the Aara bar. Behind the Restaurant one can find the back-of-house, along with a handful of offices. Two wings run alongside the central courtyard: one encompasses 29 suites which run over two floors, while the other holds a multipurpose area, the spa and gym, including a stone jacuzzi, and a steam and sauna with views of the mountains. Some suites are also located on the first floor of this wing.
What do we do when we’re not luxuriating in sustainably sourced yak fur in the suites?
Most of the activities are held in the mountains surrounding the actual hotel as this is very much intended as a base camp for a week of adventure. There’s trekking, horse riding, archery, rock climbing, mountain biking … and then return to the hotel for rejuvenating spa treatments and warm, welcoming restaurants and public spaces that, through their design, encourage guests to speak to each other and share experiences.
What’s different about a Bensley Collection hotel, and in particular this property?
I say this with all the sincerity in the world. The Earth, for the most part, has enough hotels. The world does not need to build anything else. We need to manage better what we have. Knowing this, going forward, a Bensley Collection must make the place in which it sits into a better place.
Shinta Mani Wild Bensley Collection has, for example, made the Cardomon a safer refuge for wildlife and has slowed down the devastating deforestation there. Shinta Mani Bensley Collection in Siem Reap has changed thousands of lives for the better by way of education, clean water and housing. Our goal in Mustang is to revitalize a fragile society, as the World Bank defines Mustang. The young leave the valley as soon as they can. We want to give them a reason to stay.
What defines Nepal for you?
Rawness, colors, festivities, altitude, sacred places, and big smiles filled with white teeth.
What is your one lasting impression of Mustang?
It was about 5pm in Lo Manthang. I was sitting on top of a mud corral wall sketching a 1000-year-old village. An old lady was herding her sheep back from the foothills to place them in a tight corral under her house to heat her home. There was nobody else there. She smiled and greeted me and offered water. I thought to myself that this same scenario could have played out in exactly the same way centuries ago. There are few places left in the world that are as they were hundreds of years ago. This place, while raw, is such a place. Don’t hesitate. See it now. Like everywhere else, Burger King is on the way.
