Pond Villa Room at the Rawi Warin Resort

Earlier this year, the Langham Hotels group became the first international luxury hotel chain to establish a presence on the southern Thai island of Koh Lanta when it acquired the Rawi Warin resort. The re-branding of the resort as the Langham Place Eco Resort + Spa Rawi Warin is now more or less complete. The resort consists of 185 rooms nestled up against, and on, a small hill at the north end of Klong Tob beach, near the center of Lanta’s long coast.

The resort has several rooms types to choose from, starting with deluxe rooms, up through villas and suites. I chose a Pond View Villa for my three-night stay. My ‘villa’ was actually a large room on the second floor of a small building housing three other rooms. However, semantics aside, it was a large and comfortable room, with a view of the lagoon ‘pond’ and the ocean beyond. The room featured a king-size bed, wardrobe, Thai-styled sofa-bed and desk. The room had a balcony with two chairs and a table. The bathroom featured a large walk-in shower and separate large tub.

The Pond Villa turned out to be a good choice, not only because the room was comfortable, but the location was convenient to the coffee shop, the pool and the beach. The rooms up the hill might have a better view, but the schlep up and down the hill might get a little tiring. The resort does have carts to take you to and from your room, but that might get a little tiring as well. Breakfast is served in the coffee shop. The quality of the breakfast buffet was quite good, but the variety is a little less than one might expect, although you can order whatever you like from the menu. In addition to the coffee shop, there’s a seafood grill restaurant, lounge, and a bakery shop.

The hotel sports a total of four swimming pools - the large main pool, with children’s wading pool below; a lap pool nearby and a smaller pool with jacuzzi on the hilltop. There’s also a gym, tennis courts and a spa. Wi-Fi is available throughout the resort, although access is charged extra. There’s a library, children’s game room and internet room available as well.

The Langham Place is definitely an option for those that want to get away from the crowds that are all too common at most tourist resorts, but still want to stay in posh surroundings. It’s worth noting that many shops and restaurants, and even some of the smaller resorts, shut down for the low season, from around May to October. This makes the island a very quiet place to be during this time – which many might see as a good thing – but it also means that you may have limited options for dining outside of the hotel.

I can’t say that I’m much of a beach person, but that’s mainly due to my skin, which doesn’t tan, it just burns, after only about 30 seconds of direct sun. So, while I might like a day at the beach, sitting on the sand, absorbing all that fresh sea air, I generally can’t indulge in such a pleasure without several days of painful consequences.

Except at Dongtan beach, near Pattaya. Set between the much bigger Jomtien beach and the hill at the south end of Pattaya, Dongtan is the beach made for me. The tree-shaded beach is divided into sections of beach chairs, each staffed by a team of people that will bring you food, drinks and other things. The sections are covered by umbrellas placed so close together that no direct light may enter, although if you do want to work on your tan, the staff will be happy to oblige you by lowering the umbrellas over your chair.

Other vendors wander up and down the beach, selling ice cream, pastries, fresh fruits, grilled seafood, and many other things. It’s the most laid-back shopping experience you could ever imagine. There are also massages, manicures, and other ‘pleasures’ on offer as well.

The upper part of the beach, where the chairs are placed, is steep enough so that no matter where you sit, you can still get a good view of the sea, as well as the passing parade of people.

The cost for all this? Believe it or not, the cost of renting a chair for the day is just 30 Baht (about US$1) plus of course the cost of whatever food and drink you order.

I’m sure Dongtan won’t be to everyone’s taste. Different people look for different things in a beach, but for me, Dongtan is abou the best there is.

A "typical" room at the Rabbit Resort

Rabbit Resort is something of an anomaly in Pattaya. In a town where almost all the hotels are high-rise could-be-anywhere structures, Rabbit Resort is one of the very few places that makes a real attempt at Thai style, and the only one on the beach. The resort consists of just 45 rooms, housed in two-story Thai-styled pavilions holding no more than two rooms each. The rooms come in several different plans, and most can comfortably sleep three without extra beds. Most rooms have some cooking facilities.

My own accommodation was on the second floor, which felt a bit more private. There were two double beds, plus a Thai-style ’sofa’ suitable for a child to sleep on, and a small cafe table with two chairs. There was a large flat-screen television showing several channels, although the English-language channels were pretty much limited to news. A small alcove off the entrance had a large desk with mini-refrigerator underneath and a micro-wave oven. A walk-through closet led from the alcove to the bathroom. The bathroom had a large vanity as well as a large shower area, but there was no tub.

Owing to an electrical problem, I had to move to the downstairs room on the second night. The room was similar, but with a larger kitchen area that had a full-size refrigerator and cooking stove. Oddly, the bathroom was separated into two parts, on opposite sides of the room. The toilet and sink were in a small room on one side, while the shower was in its own room on the other.

The pavilions are arranged in rows within a tropical garden. They’re quite close together, but by turning the plans this way and that, they’ve managed to give each room some measure of privacy. Even though it’s a rather small resort, there are two pools at Rabbit Resort. One is for families, while the other is restricted to adults only. The resort also has its own section of beach chairs on Dongtan beach in front of the resort.

Given the small size of the resort, the breakfast laid on in the beach-front restaurant was quite good, with a variety of Western and Asian favorites. The restaurant does a fairly good business at night, owing to its beach-side location. It also has wireless Internet available free to guests and customers.

I haven’t been to Pattaya in quite some time, so I decided it was overdue. The trouble was, having decided to go there, I had to figure out how I would travel. It’s an easy trip by car, which I’ve made several times, but I just wasn’t in the mood to drive by myself on this occasion. There are many car services that can take you from Bangkok to the East Coast, so I decided to give one of them a try. After reviewing the options, I decided to give Image Limousine a try.

The driver arrived slightly early for the appointed pick-up, having found my little hidden part of Bangkok with a minimum of difficulty. The car was a large Japanese sedan with a roomy back seat. A Mercedes Benz sedan or van can be arranged, for an added price. Waiting for me in the car was an ice-cold bottle of water, some throat lozenges, the day’s Bangkok Post and a few other magazines to keep me entertained on the trip.

The driver made his way down the motorway at a steady 100 km per hour. That’s well under the maximum limit of 120, but based on my own experience, I know that you don’t want to take that road at 120 for the whole trip, unless you opt for the Benz car. The car delivered me to my hotel in Jomtien right around two hours after leaving my place in Bangkok.

Image Limousine is based in Pattaya, but they serve all destinations in Bangkok, the East Coast as well as Hua Hin and the vicinity.