/ backstory /
22 OCTOBER 2017 / TRAVELANDLEISUREASIA.COM
“BEING ON YOUR OWN IS
OVERRATED. We thrive when
we’re with others,” says Tim
Reynolds, founder of both
international, billions-of-
dollars-a-day trading firm Jane
Street Capital, and of Ani Villas,
a group of buy-out-only boutique
resorts with all-inclusive amenities
on four off-the-beaten-path islands.
The Ani brand was born of a combination
of Reynolds’s need for a vacation home, his
passion for art, and his long-time desire to
open schools in the developing world.
Ani Villas is a place for “togethering”—a
vacation concept that entails gathering your
nearest and dearest and absconding to a resort
you treat like your home. Maybe it’s a wedding,
big birthday, family reunion, or maybe it’s just
a great vacation. Sure, you could just book a
block of rooms in the same hotel, but there
would be strangers there, there would be bills,
there would be inhibitions. Togethering
properties offer five-star-resort rooms (some
at Ani Villas Thailand, which I visited, have
their own plunge pools) and bells and whistles
(there’s a three-loop waterslide), with common
areas (chess and checkers tables in the main
pool) and communal meals (at a long table
bowed at the center to facilitate conversation)
meant to maximize interaction and grant the
freedom to do with the place what you please.
Like at the first Ani Villas, in Anguilla,
which opened in 2011, the community ideal
spills from the resorts in Thailand, Sri Lanka
and the Dominican Republic to their prime
beneficiaries: Ani Art Academies. Every hotel
has a sister school that offers free tuition to all
its students in the hopes of not only spurringFROM TOP:
Thailand’s iconic
Railay Bay is a
45-minute
speedboat ride
from Ani Villas;
Nakorn Sripetch
moved from the
east coast of
Thailand to Koh
Yao Noi two years
ago to study at Ani
Art Academy.sustainable local art markets, but also ginning
out international-caliber fine artists and
creative stars in fields from textile design to
video-game development. One graduate’s
paintings pull US$25,000, and students within
a year of starting training have sold drawings
in New York for as much as US$2,000.
“Ani” is a play on a Swahili word that means
to be on a path or a journey. Reynolds thought
it was appropriate “for artists just setting out
on their journey,” he says, and “people who
wanted more than just a vacation.” Which is
how I found myself in a togethering simulation
on Koh Yao Noi, a little island halfway between
Phuket and Krabi. It’s rare that I get to spend
time alone with my brothers these days—we’re
all in different countries—so I am psyched to
bring the one who lives in Shanghai on this
trip. Jaysen flies down to meet me for a week of
what I’ve billed as an open-bar, boat-trip-filled,
karst-climbing sibling-bonding beach trip.
On arrival, we meet a Singaporean writer
and her husband. And a father and son from
Bahrain. Then a writer from Hong Kong whose
best friend has traveled from the U.S. to be her
plus-one. This is sounding more like
togethering. Then, who is this doing flips into
the pool and scampering en masse down to the
beach to take out the paddleboards? Americans
from L.A., an actor and five friends (some also
actors, natch), all on their first visit to
Thailand, all managing to both brim with
excitement about their island adventures and
look completely at home on the property.
Well, of course. Celebrities in their need for
privacy were togethering pioneers. Reynolds
says professional athletes are a distinctive
chunk of Ani guests. Justin Bieber made the
news this year when he booked out the Lodge
at The Hills outside Queenstown, after his
Auckland concert. The six-bedroom Lodge
includes a chef, grass tennis court, heated pool
and access to the golf course that hosts the New
Zealand Open, for NZ$28,000 a night in low
season (with a five-night minimum).
Ani Villas Thailand is US$7,700 a night in
low season for 10 bedrooms (with a three-night
minimum). Sure, that’s not an insignificant
amount of money, but it’s also not a price tag
only accessible to the super rich. “Traveling
with friends and staying at villas like Ani is
actually more affordable than traveling alone,” FROM TOP: CLAIRE LEAHY; COURTESY OF ANI ART ACADEMIES.OPPOSITE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: COURTESY OF ANI (3); CLAIRE LEAHY