A boutique hotel you might prefer ...

If you like peace and quiet ...

The Preferred Hotel Group holds annual awards for its rapidly growing global portfolio of properties annually, nominating outstanding properties based on general excellence, customer service, and guest satisfaction. 

We now cross live to the presentation ceremony ...

"Ladies and gentlemen, and assembled members of the third gender, it gives me great pleasure to announce that the winner of the Preferred Boutique Resort of the Year is the Andara Resort and Villas, Phuket."

Bigger than my living room at home

[Pause for thunderous applause ...]

"The citation reads: Named the 'Best Villa and Condo Development' by the Thailand Property Awards since opening in February 2010, the resort is impressive from its design, location, spatial accommodations, facilities to its service. The feeling of Asian fusion with luxury global ambience is present in an understated manner. Developed by visionary Alan Zeman, one of Hong Kong's best known entrepreneurs, Andara Phuket is truly a landmark in Phuket setting a new level of luxury in Phuket and Asia."

Never mind the length, you can swim widths!

Gosh, that gushes almost like a press release, jing jing! 

Oh, it was a press release! Nevermind,  now you have another top notch boutique property to consider for your next trip to Phuket ...


More, more, encore: www.andaraphuket.com

A date to remember ... Elephant Polo Festival 2011

Elephant polo can be a head-to-head battle, literally.

They say an elephant never forgets. I don't know why or how that expression came about, but here's something that you will never forget ... watching your first elephant polo tournament.

(This reminds me of the joke about the Irish polo team -- sadly their horses drowned!)

The highly popular King's Cup Elephant Polo Tournament will be celebrating its tenth anniversary this year and will return to where it started in 2001: the royal seaside town of Hua Hin.  Over the recent years it has been staged at the Anantara Golden Triangle Resort.


Picture if you will -- or if you can -- two teams of tuskers going head to head, egged on by their mahouts, with the players wielding super-long polo mallets and trying to strike the ball downfield into the opposition's goal. The things people will do in the name of charity (and Gins and Tonics!)


Having played a chukka or two of this over the years, it's adrenaline inducing to be in charge of several tons of mammoth mammal as it pounds its way down the field. 

You end up with inner thighs chafed raw, blistered hands, plus a raging headache -- and that's just from the sponsor's party, jing jing.


12 teams from four continents, encompassing 40 players from at least 15 countries take part in this week-long ele-festival. Talk about a jumbo-sized spectacle. And all the proceeds go to benefitting Asian elephants, so it's a good laugh for a good cause.


For more info, see www.anantaraelephantpolo.com

PS: Oops - forget to tell you the dates: September 5 to September 11 2011

A rash of new hotels in Bangkok

Can someone please tell me what's going on?

Just when you thought there were enough 4 and 5-star hotels in Bangkok, there has been a sudden rash (probably a poor choice of words in Bangkok, sorry!) of quality new ones opening all at the same.

There are at least six new ones, jing jing. So now you are really spoiled for choice. Some of the major ones to open their doors around this time include:

Novotel Silom Fenix 

Siam Kempinski 

Four Points by Sheraton 

Hotel Muse

Hansar Bangkok

St Regis Bangkok

I hope to bring you reviews of these within the next couple of weeks, after I do my sneaky mystery guest inspection of their pool bars, spas and mini-bars, so do check back for details on which is really worth staying at.

Footnote: Don't forget you can always search Thailand Jing Jing by destination or category to find exactly what you want to make the most of your travel to Thailand. Just go to www.thailandjingjing.blogspot.com and search

Tea for Thailand.

When part of Chiang Kai Shek’s defeated Chinese army needed a place of refuge back in the late 1940s, they were allowed to settle in the northern hills of Chiang Rai province. 

Today they grow the best tea in the country (if not the region); a wide variety of Chinese greens, oolongs, and herbal varieties. 

It’s worth a visit up Doi Mae Salong to see their colourful, Chinese-influenced way of life, and of course to stock up on rare aged pu-erh and fragrant jasmine teas. The sweeping views of the fields in bloom are pure magic.

And you can spend a whole day tea-shop hopping, as the tea buffs pour out their knowledge as well as their product.

One connoisseur tells me no you mustn't let the leaves soak for 3 minutes. Another says you never drink the 'first pour' you must rinse the dirty leaves first and then drink. Others insist I plant my large Western beak firmly into the leaves to savour the aroma.of about 50 different types before I choose. 

They all smell the same to me, jing jing. Sort of like, well, dried leaves really!

But if you can't make it there, many teahouses across Thailand can fix you a soothing cuppa. Three of my favourites for atmosphere include:

Raming Tea House Siam Celadon, Chiang Mai (www.ramingtea.com): Located in a fine old teak building (nearly 100 years old now), this tea house basks in Siamese nostalgia and earthenware.Despite being in the busy Tha Pae Road area, it allows you to wallow in its quiet garden atmosphere, in something of a time warp as you sip your cuppa or enjoy a healthy light meal.

Namcha Samui Tea House, Koh Samui (www.namchasamui.com): Utterly charming, this new tea house in Fisherman's Village captures the tea-drinking experiences of China, Japan, England and Africa (the latter being the home of rooibos) in four separate corners. So chic you'd think you were in London, Paris or New York but with Samui casualness. Healthy wraps and rolls are a big hit too. 

Agalico Tea House, Sukhumvit Soi 51, Bangkok (www.agalico.co.th): Designed by one of Thailand's foremost landscapers, ML Poomchai's idea here seems to be to transport people back to the Great Age of Travel ... think Somersert Maugham and Joseph Conrad ... with its white-on-white rattan sofas, hanging bird cages, and tropical gardens. Oh, and they serve a damn fine cup of European style tea too.

Mountains of coffee ...

A cool new cafe in Nan which hasn't even opened yet.

How could there be any better place in the world to enjoy cafe culture than northern Thailand, where a lot of the freshest grinds are actually growing on the hillsides nearby to many of these uber-chic cafes? 

Household coffee brands in Thailand like Doi Chang, Doi Tung and Wawee are all named for mountains in the north here.

With its small lanes, huge student population, easygoing attitudes and plethora of small, family-run spots to grab a bite and a fine cup of java, Chiang Mai is the perfect place to sit and watch people go by while chatting with old friends or making new ones.

One lane off of Nimmanhaemin Road (Soi 9) is known as ‘Soi Kafe’ by locals, jing jing. 

I imagine it to be redolent of parts of old Asia when opium was at its peak, with ubiquitous dimly lit dens. Instead it’s side-by-side coffeehouses ... a caffeine addict's dream.

Now you can have your cake, and eat it too.

Chiang Rai is following similarly, now developing a bona fide cafe culture as it comes of age with a bit more boho chic. 

As for Pai, well, it’s The Chilling Fields already, and Nan is rapidly gaining in the cool cafe stakes, as I've blogged recently.

So no need to pack the large bottle of Nescafe 43 beans when you travel to Thailand. We've got mountains of coffee here.

Is Novotel Suvarnabhumi Bangkok Airport hotel the largest hotel lobby in the world?

Here are some numbers that'll put your head in the clouds ...

The rather new Novotel Suvannabum Soufarnapoom Suvarnabhumi hotel boasts the largest lobby of any hotel in the world. Not just of any Bangkok hotel, we're talking worldwide.

Its two buildings covering 10.5 hectares are joined by a HUMONGOUS glass atrium soaring to five stories in height.

The lobby itself covers 2,800 square metres, jing jing. That's roughly half a football field!


The bad news is guests have to bring a tent and camp there. Not a bad idea, but no ... I jest. The hotel's charming PR lady tells me that actually the hotel has rooms ... 612 of them, in fact.

Perfect if you need to be close to the airport ... or at least within 10.5 hectares of it. And don't forget with the new Airport Link (that's the new Bangkok airport train), you can be downtown in air-conditioned comfort within 17 minutes for less than 100 baht.

Website: www.novotelsuvarnabhumi.com

Pai in the Sky with Diamonds ...

Too much weed can do this to you (that's the last straw ...)

Few places have such a strong sense of place as Pai does.

Sometimes it calls itself Pailand. Every shop is Pai Something, or Something Pai. And it does an amazing line in kitsch and cutesy souvenirs. But they're invariably one-offs or limited hand-made editions, not mass-produced low-grade Chinese nonsense.

Kombis are worshipped deities here.

VW Kombis are afforded hero status here, venerated as footballers might be in other parts of the world. Vespas run a close second.

So you can't help love the place for that retro hippie chic. Think of it as Thailand's answer to Nimbin (the dreadlock-and-dope capital of Australia), where there's an overdose of love hearts and rainbows and marmalade skies.

Pailand is about 150km from Chiang Mai, although the distance is deceptive because it can only be accessed by the most serpentine of roads through alpine coniferous forests. Some people never find their way out of the place. They arrive as young bucks and leave as old men.

It was a firm favourite on the hippie trail for many a year, cruising along in a cloud of blue smoke of its own making, with endless Eden-like vistas of rice fields and misty mountains. Then came a couple of movies -- Pai in Love and Ruk Jung -- that thrust it into national prominence.

Suddenly the odd clapped-out Kombi was supplemented by hordes of mini-buses, with hotels, resorts, cafes and restaurants sprouting like magic mushrooms. And a nightly walking street market, where all the kitschery mentioned above is for sale.

I'm not gonna take it lying down ...

Now there are Moroccan-styled chill lounges like Pai Post. And of course no place like this would be complete without good places for munchies, and the Lonely Planet rates Almido's Pizzas the best in Thailand, jing jing.

Er, the post orifice is on this side of the box.

Midnight Oil once had a hit with a song called 'Place Without a Postcard'. Clearly that place was not Pai. I don't think the largest philatelic museum in the world has as many postcards as are sold on a daily basis in Pai. Because part of the rite here is to send a postcard, thanks to Pai in Love in which love letters are regularly exchanged.

So in addition to the Kombi van, the red English-style postbox is another icon now accorded hero status. With the post code 58310 emblazoned everywhere.

Perhaps they should make a sit-com next, and call it Pai Hills 58310. Or American Pai.

Pai High ... 3 of the best hotels in Pai

Fancy getting away to Pai but don't see yourself bunking in the commune with the Khao San Road set? Fear not.

Pai has gentrified significantly of late, so you can separate yourself from the great unwashed, and sleep in style at a number of places, jing jing ...

The Quarter (www.thequarterhotel.com): Here you are more likely to find yourself breakfasting with a group of Thai-Chinese captains of industry from Bangkok, and their wives. A lovely oasis feeling within just a 200 metre walk of the night market. Rustic Thai villa feeling to the rooms with lots of nice heavy wood used and Thai fabrics, but with all the mod cons included. Lovely pool area to chill (although you might wait a while for a beer at sunset ... service runs on Pai time mostly).


The also have the Rain Spa on premises if you need the usual indulgence. Location is the strong suit of this hotel. You're right in the thick of it here.

Phu Pai Art Resort (www.phupai.com): Just look at the photo ... who wouldn't want to be lying there right now, gazing over the rice fields to the mountains? A superb valley location, down through the very Thai outskirts of Pai town. Charming service here. Why it's called Art Resort, no one seems quite sure, but there are a couple of paintings in the lobby. The waitress pointed to the banana leaf roofing as proof of 'art'. Anyway, young couples parade around the pool and enjoy individual villas around the padi fields. This is part of a lovely stable of evocative Thai resorts in major destinations.

The Montis (www.montisresort.com): The newest of the breed, the Montis has quickly become a favourite for fashion shoots because of its exotic Moroccan styling and faux-African safari feel. It's located a few kilometres from town, on the main road back to Chiang Mai. Views not as good as Phu Pai, but a very chic setting. Designed by a Bangkok-based architect, this is a one-off so far, although the owner might be thinking of adding a Chiang Mai property to his stable, according to one hotel staffer.