Praana Residence

Arrival at Praana Residence is a small ceremony of its own: stepping stones carry you across a koi pond, while tall Buddha figures look down from niches in a stone-clad wall. Beyond them waits the largest of the five residences on Panacea Retreat, a private hillside estate above Bophut on Koh Samui’s north coast, with an uninterrupted outlook across the bay to the offshore islands. Fisherman’s Village and Bophut Beach are around three kilometres downhill, and the airport roughly nine.

The heart of the house is a two-storey central pavilion whose upper floor holds a vast glass-walled lounge and dining room under a timber ceiling, lit by a cascading glass chandelier and hung with contemporary art. Below it, a twenty-five-metre infinity pool spills towards the view, lined with sunloungers and orange umbrellas, while a covered dining sala with a barbecue sits at the edge of the garden. One master suite even has its own second pool, twelve metres long, for quiet laps away from everyone else.

What sets Praana apart is how much there is to do without leaving the gate. There is a properly equipped gym, a sauna and steam room, a private tennis court and a Muay Thai boxing ring; a cinema with ten reclining seats, a games room with a pool table and a children’s playroom full of toys and ride-on cars. Six bedrooms open onto terraces and views, the master suites each come with a private rooftop garden and outdoor terrazzo bathtub, and a full villa team takes care of the rest.