You can find yourself – or you can lose yourself. Deep in the Langkawi jungle, Ambong Pool Villas is a serene Malaysian rainforest retreat, a creation of just nine  idyllic villas hidden away at Teluk Baru.

A lanai of a studio, open to the cicada chorus of the jungle, is a tranquil setting for yoga, meditation and an inner voyage of spiritual discovery. Similarly, a treatment at Ishan Spa is another route to inner peace. As well as the Langkawi Classic Massage other specialities include an Ishan Four Hands Massage and a Bamboo Massage.

Or you can relax with a cocktail or mock tail from mixologist Wan. Signature cocktails include the Ambong Sundowner which gets tequila, angostura bitters and strawberry purée involved with apple cider vinegar, pineapple juice, egg white and cloves. In keeping with Ambong’s sustainability credentials the Coconut Rum cocktail is served in a coconut shell. Then sit back to focus on the forest and wildlife spotting: dusky leaf monkeys, long tailed macaques, giant squirrels, southern pied hornbill, great hornbill and white-bellied sea eagles are all common.

It takes some vision to imagine such a resort set unobtrusively into the steep primeval topography of a rainforest. After childhood holidays on Langkawi in 1980s, sometimes taken out on the smooth turquoise waters of the Andaman Sea by local fishermen, sailing through the 99 islands that make up the archipelago, Adam and Amran Ahmed could never quite forget this paradise. Like the islands that only appear at low tide, memories of Langkawi kept surfacing through the years: during lectures at Bristol University and then recurring through their careers of banking and engineering.

In 2011 the brothers returned to Langkawi and opened the Ambong-Ambong Rainforest Retreat. So successful was the eco-conscious boutique hotel, named after the delicate shoreline flowers found in the bay below, that Adam and Amran developed the concept further with the opening of the uber-luxurious Ambong Pool Villas two years ago.

Jungle-living has come along way since the days of lank-haired Tarzan and Jane in a passé leopard-skin outfit. Ambong Pool Villas uses cool contemporary minimalism, think of vast light-giving windows and wide views, to invite the rain-forest into open, spacious rooms.

Certainly, the monkeys find it hard to decipher where their territory ends and human habitation begins. There are locks on the fridges in each villa’s kitchenette to prevent monkeys from helping themselves to beer and soft-drinks. Ring-pulls? Merely child’s play to a determined monkey. How long before the intruders master the Nespresso coffee-machine and the remote control for the 42 inch HD television?

Typically of Ambong’s softly-softly eco approach, the staff use large soft toy crocodiles and tigers, moved daily by the cleaners, to deter the monkeys. Otherwise things can get out of hand: recently at one Langkawi resort a monkey, walking in a line that wasn’t quite straight, was seen departing with a rather good bottle of Bordeaux.

There’s a light tropical chic decor to the villas, dark woods contrast with cool cream bedding. Vibrant photographic artwork, using a natural palette of fertile greens, brings colour to the spacious rooms. Beds, day beds and sofas all look out over the rainforest. Scanning the forest for flying lemur, slow loris and the civet cat, which are rarely spotted, can become quite compulsive. Sarongs and fisherman’s loose fitting trousers, hanging in the wardrobe, symbolically invite you to let go out of the world beyond Langkawi, to immerse yourself in the rain forest. One villa is even built around a tree, in a glass well, as the architect wanted to preserve the integrity of the forest. There are interior bathrooms as well as exterior baths and showers on the secluded patios.

Remember the significance of the name – Ambong Pool Villas. Every villa has its own 12 metre infinity pool. Guests, depending on their villa, can either take a dawn dip to watch sunrises over Teluk Baru or a sunset swim as the sun sets over Pulau Tepor. Another mystical view across the sea is to the uninhabited island of Pulau Dayang Bunting which, because of the contours of its hills, translates as “The Isle of the Pregnant Maiden.” Legend has it that swimming in the island’s spring water lake boosts fertility.

Making the most of the views, guests can have breakfast, served on the balcony of their villa. Dinner, with a private chef cooking, can also be taken in villa. Eventually, even the honeymooning couples, are tempted out of their tranquil sanctuary to the Rimba Restaurant perhaps for one of Ambong’s Signature Skewers or the Squid Ink Spaghetti.

Ambong Pool Villa provides guests with the opportunity to relax, to throw off the shackles of frantic First World living, to become at harmony with the ancient rainforest. Perhaps experiencing a Malaysian culinary class with the chefs Aimy and Mizo, making the most of flavours provided by herbs and spices grown in Ambong’s organic garden. Maybe unwinding with a treatment – either in the villa or at the Ishan Spa. Therapists use local herbs, spices, fruit and flowers such as coconut, black rice, cinnamon, ginger and frangipani for the treatments. Such experiences evoke the age-old calming spirit of the Langkawi rainforest.