Far from the madding crowds, Melissa Mylchreest finds a kind of luxurious solitude at the award-winning Sungai Gold villa.

I'm making my way to Sungai Gold villa from Ubud where I've spent the past six days downward dogging and saluting the sun at a yoga retreat. After all that hard work, I'm looking forward to a couple of quiet days lazing by a pool, reading my book and sipping cocktails while indulging in daily massages.

The villa is located in the village of Cepaka in Bali, just inland from Seminyak. It is lush and green, with rice husks drying on the side of the road, chickens roaming around and kids and locals smiling and singing out hello.

As I pull up at Sungai I am individually greeted by 13 staff - which makes me feel a little bit like a celebrity - and then shown to my villa. I feel slightly awkward about the extravagance of it all, but one cocktail and a couple of freshly baked cheese biscuits later I am more at ease. What better way to balance a week of yoga austerity, I say to myself?

My accommodation is made up of four pavilions, all facing a 10-metre infinity pool that overlooks jungle and a river. Australian Pamela Hayes is the owner and designer and has made the villa feel luxurious yet homey. A neutral and white palette is used throughout, with grass- thatched roofs, terrazzo and palimanan (a local Javanese stone) floors complemented by custom-made lime-washed and waxed furniture, large mirrors, neutral upholstered sofas and four-poster daybed. Not a single piece of dark mahogany, Bali-style furniture in sight!

After my cocktail and biscuits, I submit to a one-and-a-half hour massage, set up in one of 'my' pavilions. It is bliss and I feel completely spoiled... nothing here requires effort; I just roll from one pavilion to the next, enjoying every moment. The spa treatments are a measly $30AUD for 60 minutes and I decide I need more of this treatment and book in with the manager of Sungai, Made (pronounced Mar-day), for a pedicure and facial the next day.

Made is one reason I will be back to visit Sungai. By the end of my two days, I felt like I had made a new friend. He was intuitive about my needs and seemed to magically appear just as I needed something. He can organise anything his visitors would like to do including yoga, shopping trips to Seminyak, with guests enjoying complimentary access to a car and driver 24/7. Made is a true local and has been involved in the villas from the building and decorating stages through to now, maintaining of the property and guests' happiness! His dedication is such that he drove me to the airport at 11.30 at night.

Sungai Gold is also a fine-dining experience. Everything is made fresh to order and with only two villas (Sungai Gold and Villa Sungai), the ordering happens in the morning and the ingredients are shopped for and prepared from scratch during the day. I have not had a bad meal since my arrival in Bali, but this place is on another level; it's like eating at a hatted restaurant. Everything is so fresh and tasty and served as soon as it's cooked. My first dinner is so good I get out my iPhone and start taking photos, like a blogger. I talk myself through the light crispy pastry of the lamb spring rolls, the moreish peanut sauce on my entree, the flavour of the BBQ chicken with green chilli and lime dressing, then over my glass of wine, I contemplate how I can possibly fit in dessert and petit fours - after all, my stomach has shrunk after the yoga retreat. I almost make it - sadly I need to leave the petit fours and roll off to my bedroom pavilion- it's been a huge day.

The next day there is more of the same - more spa treatments, food, wine, rolling about, but I do manage some physical activity in the form of a walk to the village to take a few thousand more photos. As I leave the villa I think 'this is nice but very quiet, not much to look at'. But five minutes up the road it all becomes apparent. There are people everywhere; all meeting up, laughing, smiling, chatting. Kids on their bikes riding down the middle of the street dodge chickens and dogs, young teenagers congregate out the front of a milk bar, old people invite me into a ceremony taking place at a small local temple, kids buy sweets from the mobile food cart. Everyone I pass by says hello and smiles. There is incense burning and colour everywhere... the place feels so alive, in my massaged jelly state I hardly know what's hit me. The only way I can describe it is 'alive'.

Sungai Gold is the perfect couple's retreat... but also works well for a single traveller like me. The only thing missing was having someone to giggle with over the extravagant nature of the service, and the local visitors - including frogs, cats, geckos and two young local musicians that set up by the pool and played music while I eat dinner. It also suits small families and can also be booked in conjunction with the super-sized three-bedroom Villa Sungai next door to create room for one huge gathering - bring on my next significant birthday!

I will be back. I was expecting luxurious accommodation, but what I got was so much more...

Villa Sungai is comprised of three king-size bedrooms, four bathrooms, plus an extra fourth king bed in an open pavilion with an adjacent bathroom and dressing room.

Sungai Gold Villa has two king-size bedrooms, two bathrooms, plus an extra king-bedded sleeping area with ensuite and airconditioning.