The first thing I heard was the birdsong, then the pitter-patter of a tiny squirrel. My half-asleep brain couldn’t register the morning soundtrack. I rubbed my eyes awake and watched the buttery sun fill my mosquito net—then it hit me. I was in paradise .

It was the first morning of my getaway to Buahan, a Banyan Tree Escape perched above an Edenic rainforest and rice terrace in Bali’s less-trodden highlands, set roughly 12 miles north of Ubud. I’d arrived after dark and had yet to appreciate the property’s most novel feature: a no-walls, no-doors concept that takes “open air” to the extreme.

Photo: Courtesy of Buahan, a Banyan Tree Escape

I’d plotted my Buahan trip as a mental respite between two major writing projects. The thick jungle foliage, which provides a surprising amount o

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