Like so many Javanese words, leha leha says it all succinctly. It says peace, relaxation, day dreaming, an empty mind and lying prostrate gazing at the sky. In other words it says 'tropical spa experience', and more precisely the Spa at Bali Hyatt.This spa, designed and built as a Balinese village, is overhung with bougainvillea branches and lost in the midst of one of the most bountiful hotel gardens in Asia. It Is leha leha at its most tangible.

The Boli Hyatt was one of the first and remains one of the loveliest hotels on Sanur Beach.This swimming pool lies just back from the sand amid 36 acres of exquisite garden, designed by landscape architect MadeWijaya.

The spa at Bali Hyatt is special for the longer treatment programmes it offers. Once ensconced in your enermous private spa villa with sunken bath, shower and daybed outside and more within, it would be criminal not to linger for a two- or three-hour session. On top of this, the theraphist here are blissfully slow at keeping time and quick at offering unexpected added extras: a floral foot soak at the start of every treatment, heated oil for scalp therapies, flower bowls fragrant with essential oils and an almost excessive change of fluffy towels. They even leave you with a fruit platter midway through your treatment for 20 minutes more of pure leha-leha on your daybed. On leaving, it really is a case of pinching yourself back into the real world of signing the bill!

The traditional Balinese village layout of the spa.

Designed to mimic a Balinese house plan, these spacious 85-square-metre villas offer a complete escape for up to five hours at time with a seven treatment session called The Raharja. The day bed is known as a Bale Bengong which translate as a place for day dreaming

In the raised, open reception of the spa, enjoy the honeyed taste of a health drink while you look at the stone maidens, hear the water that trickles from their pitchers, smell the flowers and touch the velvet pink of lotus blooms in the pond Then walk through the Balinese doors into the inner sanctum for the ultimate leha leha.

This spa mixes a complement of Asian-based scrubs, baths, masks and massages with Western jacuzzis, saunas, steam treatments and Austral- ian essential oils.The belief is that its high-end customers like a tinge of familiarity to underpin the exotic.