What a night under canvas is actually like

People hear "tent" and picture a sleeping bag. A permanent tented camp is closer to a room with cloth walls, and the difference is worth explaining before you decide against it.

What is actually there

A raised plinth so nothing comes in from the ground. A covered veranda with somewhere to sit. Inside, a hardwood bed, rugs, printed fabric on the walls, lamps, air conditioning and its own bathroom. It is built to stay where it is.

What the canvas gives you

Sound. This is the whole reason to do it. Cloth does not shut the night out the way a wall does, so you hear wind on rock, birds starting before light, things moving about that you will never identify. Guests who expected to sleep badly report the opposite, and it is because of this rather than in spite of it.

What it asks of you

Layers. The temperature swing between a dry-season morning and afternoon is large, and canvas follows the outside more closely than a building does. Take something genuinely warm for dawn and something light for the middle of the day.

A torch is useful. Shoes you can walk in are more useful than shoes you would rather be seen in.

Who should not

Anybody who needs a room to be sealed and silent to sleep. Anybody travelling with a child who would be frightened by an unexplained noise at two in the morning. It is worth being honest with yourself about both.

Who absolutely should

Anybody who has only ever slept indoors on holiday. It is a different kind of night, and it costs one evening to find out.

Jawai Riva is near Jawai Bandh, in the granite hills. More on staying in Jawai.