Amazing Thailand Songkran 2012 festival

It's that time of the year again ... summer, when the mercury hits about 400 and there's 'mango madness' in the air.

Pattaya - Sleazy does it.

Just returned from a weekend in Pattaya in Amazing Thailand, and pleased to say that NOTHING has changed form my last visit! ;)

See my previous blog http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=1464710307120745531&postID=8292168080960829518 about the bars, great new Pattaya hotels, bars, the red hot Walking Street, bars, the beachside attractions, bars, and more.

Pakasai - at home with nature in Ao Nang near Phuket

Pakasai Resort is burning up a lot of energy in their going green eco travel program ...


'We tried hard for 4 Green Leaf stars but only get 3,' explains their convivial GM, Khun Umaporn. 'Now we change a lot of materials and get involved in more CSR.'

This sister of Red Ginger, a little down the hill from here in the Ao Nang/ Krabi district, is the only hotel in town with 3 Leaves, but its clearly not good enough for her. Umaporn drives the eco-tourism initiatives 'from the heart -- if there's a chance for us to do something green we will do it.'

The Pakasai offers a Green Traveller package in which guests get to plant a tree at neighbouring school with the excitable kids. 'Something like give something back for your holiday.'

'Lovely people, lovely city, Krabi. They care for their environment here,' says the lady who spent 15 years in Phuket before, clearly enjoying the relaxed and quiet atmosphere of her adopted home town here.

And what's not to appreciate?

Pebbled walkways are sided by soaring palms and ferns and ginger. The resort's newly renovated cream buildings are accented by big wooden railings. It whispers tropical playground from every shaded grove.

The Adora suite fetches 9000 baht (about US$300) in the high season, well worth it with its aquarium-sized oval bath, and you'll-definitely-get-lucky-tonight romantic in-room dining setting adjacent.

After an Everest base camp-assault on a meandering staircase, we reach the Chalet - a huge open plan room overlording resort from behind, with a sprawling rustic balcony, and a birdcage overlooking the trees. 'Our guests need to exercise first,' she says with a rather wicked grin.

She's damn right about that. I feel a king-size hunger coming on after that and a few laps of the pool at sunset. Dalah restaurant overlooks the gardens and pond, with a soothing fountain gushing in the background. Seafood tom kah, squid and chicken with pepper, fish with coconut curry, extinguished by mango stick rice with passion fruit and coconut milk. Aah! No wonder it's good -- the Chef used to work at Sofitel Krabi before, and gets all his stuff fresh from the boats at the nearby jetty.


Then a funny thing happened: I was trying to read their eco-tourism brochure but was straining my eyes.

'Sorry, we only use low energy lightbulbs!' laughs Umaporn.

Koh Yao Yai Village Resort - a taste of Africa in Thailand.

I was born in Africa. Spent a lot of time living in Africa. And have travelled there a bit. It has its own vibe, its own look and feel, and rhythm and sounds and smells.

So all the more reason I find myself questioning my judgment when I arrive at Koh Yao Yai Village and somehow felt I'd been tele-ported to some remote part of southern Africa. Lush bush dominates this 32-acre resort site, and around 50 villas are dotted around somewhere in there. The villas are topped by straw-thatched roofs, like Vietnamese cone hats. In Africa, they call structures like these rondawels (literally, round houses). The open sided, airy buildings have knotty branches for eaves, big wooden latches for locks, and an outdoor shower and bathroom.


Calico curtains, and a mossie-netted day bed add to the African portrait. And the biggest mini bar fridge I've ever seen in my life sits on the covered veranda. Should it be called a maxi bar instead???

Rustic comfort is the word. Well, that's two words but you get my drift. Maybe that's the thing that triggered the Africa analogy. But it's more than that ...

There's a total serenity here (surprising given that this is in Phang Nga Bay, southern Thailand, and party-hard Phuket is not that far away as the seagull flies).

'I came here because I heard there's no one here,' explains Christian, a solo traveller from Switzerland. He's right about that. And I hope he enjoys his own company, because just about everybody else is a deux (er, that means two in French).

An infinity pool looking out to the famous bay,  with rolling waves sweeping across the foreground, and the giant hump-back upthrusts yonder.

The hotel is just 2 years old, a sister property to the fantastic Phi Phi Village Resort I blogged about a little while back. The staff possess a totally endearing naivete ... with seemingly no idea about happy hour or what food they were serving or attractions on the island.

I finally ascertain that the island's fledgling positioning is all about authentic natural and local experiences. You can go and see local traditional village life, rice fields and rubber plantations. Some mountain biking. And that's about it, jing jing. But what more do you really want or need? Oh, maybe a wonderful airy library stocked to the rafters with great beach reads. 


Happy hour aside, we manage to get a wonderfully poured cocktail just in time for sunset and enjoy a most calming, soothing evening -- almost meditative -- with the white noise of waves washing below, and the evening sky gradually creeping in from the east across the water. Until dinner is served. And mighty fine it is too, served around the pool by candlelight.

Only I'm surprised to not see African staples like boerewors on the menu, and I hear no howling hyenas. So I am in Amazing Thailand after all.

Red Ginger, Ao Nang Thailand. Where red means go and green means stop.

Red ginger is a popular exotic flower in the south of Thailand. Even the very name is wildly exotic, isn't it?

And a particularly large red ginger can be found at Ao Nang, in Krabi, Thailand. How large? As large as a 60-room boutique hotel in fact.

And Red Ginger Chic Resort is as exotic as the name suggests ... a haven of designery touches and surprising flourishes that titillate the eye. The warm red colour concept is milked to the maximum -- starting with the welcome drinks -- and their signature cocktails are all, hic, ginger based.

Something about the feel screams Straits Chinese or Peranakan ... something more akin Singapore's Chinatown, or Malacca or Penang, than Amazing Thailand, but it works. And works well.

Splashes of orange and perfectly placed greenery make it modern. Asian. Tropical. Think wicker hanging lanterns, open wooden slat screens, billowing muslin screens and bamboo ceilings. Inner city chic by the sea. Frangipani overhang the pool.

If that doesn't whet your appetite to come here, perhaps the next paragraph will ...

At Spice Restaurant, seafood and international produce is sourced from local fishing boats, and they help locals by buying vegetables only from nearby markets, Khun Orn Panida -- the hotel's articulate reservations manager from nearby Had Yai  -- tells me over a sumptuous dinner.

First spicy prawn starters come out. They do like it kick-in-the-pants hot down here. Then, an interesting chicken-and-bean crispy affair to keep us going until the chicken coconut soup arrives. I'm almost full already but battle on bravely (OK, dived in if the truth must be told!) to the main seafood dish, bass with pesto pasta and mussels, dripping in a rich Hollandaise sauce.

She tells me the chef (who's not imported either) has a bit of a reputation and they run cooking classes here.

And Red Ginger takes its eco-responsibility very seriously. Whereas most hotels post a lame note to encourage you to re-use your towels, here they incentivize you. Each time you recycle you get a token (actually a seed). Collect 3 in your stay and get a free drink, jing jing. Probably red, probably with ginger in it, definitely delicious!

While they are still working to achieve Green Leaf Certification, they already use Green Leaf-certified shampoos, and left over fruit and vegetables from the kitchen are turned into soap.

If you are here on a Wednesday, you'll see the staff all wearing grey T-shirts with a green message on it: they go and clean the beach with school kids, or plant trees at the local school. Guests with a twinge of a responsible conscience can buy a package and join in. Their sister hotel up the road, the Pakasai which I'll blog about soon, does the same.

So let me sum it up for you here: basically if it's Red say Yes to More. If it's going Green: say No and ReUse, Reduce and Recycle it.

Conrad Bangkok - a serious business hotel with a playful attitude

So picture this. I am languishing in a huge bathtub, bubbles foaming up to near the ceiling, when I spot a little blue plastic elephant. I find that when I submerge him in the water, he fills up and you can use his trunk like a water pistol. Squiiiiiiiiiiiiiirt! Great fun.

Suddenly I am 4 years old again, sharing a tub with my giggling siblings. But wait a minute ...

I am a professional, fully grown (some would say over-grown) man, with a mortgage, the weight of the world on my shoulders, a monkey on my back, and my nose to the grindstone. Yes, you see, our modern business lives are nothing but a cunningly disguised game of Twister!

But this little frivolity -- a blue plastic elephant, made in China probably -- allows me to forget that for a little while.

And that brings us to the magical difference of The Conrad Bangkok. It has been voted Bangkok's best business hotel already in its rather short history. But it never forgets that, at heart, we are all human. Additionally there is a red silk elephant placed on my bed, a little leaflet explaining it's made from traditional southern style fabric design, and explaining a little about its southern temperament.

And then there's the PlayStation 3 in all their suites.

When it comes to business, though, you'll find the Conrad pushing the envelope. Try Thailand's fastest hotel internet speed, 50 mega-kilo-bitty-widgety-somethings of raw surfing power. Free in all rooms, and most areas of the hotel. How fast? So fast your emails are sent before you even write them, jing jing.

And the executive lounge, bristling with Macs with screens that would make ground control at NASA envious ... and I'm sure some of those space cadets would surely envy the array of yummy hors d'ouevres freely for the taking in the executive lounge too. (Er, Houston, we have a problem ... it seems like some travel writer guy has eaten all the smoked salmon.)

As for location, it is nicely located near the BTS line in downtown Ploenchit (lower Sukhumvit Road embassy and business area), with shuttles running frequently to the station.

Not that you'll be in a hurry to leave your room, mind you. Each is artfully and tastefully done out with Herman Miller desk chairs, and Thai finishing flourishes; dark woods, silk fabrics, and ... well, elephants. Squiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirt!

Phuket Thailand breaking tourist arrivals records ...

I just read a report where Phuket is expecting a record 4,000,000 international visitors this year. Check the zeroes ... that's four million, folks.

That's like the whole population of Singapore visiting the island. Or the whole population of Sydney.
Or all the readers of Thailand Jing Jing.

And if you thought the queue at Burger King at the airport was a little busier, you'd be right. Those arrivals figures are a whopping 20% above last year's numbers and -- here's a funny thing -- if you add in Thai citizen arrivals too, the airport's actually running 22% over capacity.

Standing room only (even in the ladies' loo, jing jing).

Ok I've gone a little far this time ...

Point is, if you're looking for a great party island that's jumping and pumping with an international cocktail of Aussies, Thais, Swedes, Russians, Chinese, Koreans etc, head for Phuket. Patong is party central, of course, but the fun can break out in many other parts of the island too.

But make sure you book early. Otherwise you'll only get an airplane seat on the wing. Or you'll have to sleep in one of the dozens of hotels that are still under construction.

In any case, you'll have a great travel story from Amazing Thailand to tell.


(Source: C9 Hotelworks)

Eco travel and green tourism activities in Ao Thalane, Krabi Thailand

Kayaking in the Ao Thalane area of Krabi Thailand is one of the most peaceful things you can do in the Phuket area, enjoying the pristine nature amid the emerald bays of the Andaman Sea.

These companies can give you more information, or arrange a half day or full day green tourism adventure for you ...

+ Oriental Escape

+ Andaman Adventures

+ Rev Travel 

+ Lets Tour Bangkok

+ OK Krabi




+ Railay Tours