I went in search of the Lost World along a narrow lane in North Pattaya, heading down towards the ocean. The last time I had been here I was staying at the Central Wong Amat Beach Resort, one of Pattaya’s oldest resorts, and even those with nostalgic inclinations, such as myself, had to admit that the place had had its day. Not long after my final visit the hotel had been closed, its big green lawn had been dug up, its little timber bungalows dismantled, and the live band whose singer didn’t know the words to English-language songs and so stood in front of the mic howling out the approximate sounds, had mercifully been dismissed.

In place of this little patch of Old Pattaya, Central, now rebranded Centara Hotels & Resorts, has created something that pushes Pattaya’s hotel business to new limits. For, at the end of the lane, I found myself goggling in disbelief. The Centara Grand Mirage Beach Resort is a monster, its two towers resembling an 18-storey escarpment with a chasm in the centre, the two halves connected by three rope bridges at various levels. Pass through and you are in a jungle of palm trees, with glimpses of mysterious statues and buildings. Through the jungle runs a lazy river, crossed by swaying timber bridges, and beyond this, the beach and the ocean.

It is almost a century since Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published The Lost World, and since then we have had films, television series and more books on the theme, Jurassic Park being the most noticeable amongst them. The idea of a Lost World certainly tickles the romantic fancy, and given this amount of space and this location (and the right amount of money, for it must have cost a packet), Centara has come up with a brilliant wheeze. The Mirage, which opened only a few weeks back, is going to become a destination in its own right.

This would be a terrific place to bring the family. There is so much space here that you could actually lose a family in the grounds. Not that you’d want to, of course! You can bathe in that lazy river, explore the little creeks and pools, and eventually make your way to the main swimming pool. Or to the beach, because you step right out of the jungle and onto the sand. There are sun loungers everywhere, but because they are scattered in little clearings there is no sense of crowding. I saw plenty of families, and the kids were having a great time. And if mum and dad feel like offloading the little blighters, there are plenty of supervised activities, both for the very young and the teenagers. There is even an organised Kids’ Safari, which sounds a blast.

Off to one side of this huge space, tucked away so that it is almost invisible, is a real native village that houses the spa. There are several pavilions here, and of course you can have every kind of rub, scrub and tub. And because the spa village is so far away from everything else, there is a real feel of tranquility here.

On the other side of the estate, and also tucked away so that it appears almost distinct from the hotel itself, are the meetings facilities. This means that for those attending events—and the resort must be ideal for pretty well everything—there is privacy away from the main body of hotel guests. The ballroom holds 1,200, which makes it one of the largest ballrooms in town. Plus there are other meeting rooms, one of them being glass-sided so that you can look out across the ocean. And there is a small lawn in front and a large pavilion, which must be a great vantage point to stand with a glass of something cheering in your hand as you look out across the tops of the palm trees to the sea.

As with the resort’s public areas, so with the hotel rooms. They are BIG. And the configuration is novel. There are separate loo and shower rooms, with the washbasin somewhere in between them. A good, large balcony, large enough for two loungers and with every room looking towards the ocean. Nice furniture: the table fashioned after a steamer trunk with rivets and leather straps, bamboo fittings, lichen green upholstery, jungly motifs everywhere.

There seems to be an endless number of restaurants. I went on my first evening to dine at Flames, which is perched on stilts over the beach and is a barbecue restaurant, where the chefs cook on two or three little circular burners. There is a hearty charcoal flavour to the excellent range of meats and seafood, and the prices are very reasonable. This would be a great place to take the family.

On my second evening I had dinner at Ginger & Lime, which is a large open-sided restaurant on the far side of the estate, near the meeting rooms. The menu here is Asian eclectic; Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese and Japanese. I opted for the Japanese listing, noting that the sashimi has three or four grades price-wise, depending on the amount of local versus imported seafood, which again is a neat economy as everyone loves sashimi. I also ordered a beef teppanyaki and washed the whole lot down with a flagon or two of hot saki.

The Mirage, although well placed for exploring Pattaya, is the kind of resort hotel that is so diverse and so beguilingly comfortable that you have to make the effort to leave it. I didn’t even get that far. For three glorious days I slobbed around, and simply wallowed in this extraordinary new extravaganza. I never tired of wandering the jungle paths, and I went down to the beach where I contemplated organising a boat ride for myself, but in the end sheer laziness prevented me doing even that.