First Impressions

Today I’m off to a previously unexplored (by me) area of Cambodia. To get there, I first have to fly to Phnom Penh. I chose Bangkok Air because it was cheaper than Thai, which is usually the case where they’re competing on the same route. Although Bangkok Air has its detractors, mainly about their pricing on the routes where they don’t have to compete with another airline, you can’t really fault their service.

Not many people know this, but Bangkok Airways has a lounge in almost every airport that is free for all passengers to use. I know that not many people know about the lounge because the Bangkok one was practically empty while I was waiting for my flight to Phnom Penh. That’s probably because not only does the airline not advertise the service, but the location at Bangkok is rather out of the way and there are no signs pointing you to it until you’re almost there. I think I’ll keep their secret so I can continue enjoying the free cookies, snacks, drinks, internet and magazines in peace.

The lounge isn’t the only thing that impresses about Bangkok Air. They had to use a remote parking space for my plane, so we all had to board buses to get there. Now, all the other airlines that use buses just load everyone on the transports and lets them sort themselves out at the plane. Not Bangkok Air. They used two buses and put those seated in the front of the plane on one bus and those at the back in another. Boldly printed on everyone’s boarding pass was a notice to be at the gate at least 15 minutes before the departure time, and sure enough, at no later than 13 minutes before our scheduled departure, both buses left the terminal. This is all frightfully organized for a Thai airline.

But enough about Bangkok Air. I arrived in Phnom Penh in the evening for a one night stay. I decided to check out the Bougainvillier Hotel based on many positive recommendations. As it is only one night, I’ve taken one of the cheaper rooms, which are smaller and at the back, facing another building. The room is small but not cramped, and very artfully decorated with silks. There’s a new flat screen television on the wall facing the bed, but no telephone. That may just be a temporary oversight, as the room appears to have been newly redecorated. I managed to poke into the larger front rooms, facing the river, for a look. They are substantially bigger, almost palatial for a hotel, and with the river view they would be great for a stay of several days. The hotel was remodeling their lobby, expanding it into the next two buildings by all appearances, so more changes are in the works.

Tomorrow, it’s off to Kep!

I woke up this morning to a rather beautiful blue sky filled with fluffy white clouds. It didn’t last, but neither did it actually rain at all today.

I arrived in Railay last night. Although it had obviously rained earlier in the evening, it had cleared enough for a fat crescent moon to silhouette the cliffs of the coast as my boat approached.

 
Railay (which would be better spelled Rai-Leh) is a bit of a geological curiosity. It’s a peninsula on the mainland of Krabi province, east of Phuket island, but sheer cliffs cut it off from the rest of the coast, making it only reachable by boat. The peninsula itself is really just a build-up of sand collected between the cliffs on the shore and two large rock outcrops. The sand forms three beaches, the east-facing and thus aptly named Railay East, it’s opposite number Railay West and another west-facing beach called Phranang. Railay East is coarse and rocky, but the other two beaches have a fine sand. A bit north of Railay West, but cut off from it, is Tonsai Bay. Boats connect Railay East to Nammao and Railay West to Ao Nang.

 
There are half a dozen or so resorts on Railay, as well as a hand-full of cheap guest houses for the backpacker set. The top end of the hotel offerings is the large Rayavadee, which faces all three beaches and is the only hotel on Phranang. My own base is the Sunrise Tropical resort on Railay East.

The Sunrise Tropical has proved to be excellent value for money. My “Tropical Villa” room is a small cottage with queen size bed, a sitting area, dressing room and large bathroom. There’s also a private outdoor shower. While the beach at Railay East is not very good, it’s just a short walk to Railay West.

With Monday the 20th declared a special holiday so Thais could vote on the new constitution, I decided to escape to Chiang Mai for a long weekend to check on some things for an up-coming addition to AsiaForVisitors.com. More on that later, but for the purposes of this trip, the Buri Gallery House seemed like a good location to base myself.

The Buri Gallery House is a small (21 room) hotel built into a large old (50 years) wooden house. Carving even a large house into 21 rooms has resulted in something of a rabbit warren that may be confusing to guests without a good sense of direction, and even my deluxe room was not that big. The room had ‘wood’ floors and walls, and a woven bamboo ceiling. All very authentic looking, but I put ‘wood’ in quotes because I think the floor was actually a plastic laminate. The thin floors and walls means that you can also hear a lot more of what goes on in the hallway or the next room than you would expect in a hotel.

All the wood doesn’t help light up the room either, especially since the only windows are two small frosted panes set in the door to the balcony. The small balcony faces directly into the wall of an apartment building, so even if it were cooler outside, opening the doors was not a very appealing thought.

On the plus side, the room did have a large television with a DVD player, and an internet connected PC free to use. The downside on the TV was that only a couple of the 30-plus channels were in English.

The bathroom was roomy enough, although the ceiling was low enough for me to have to watch my head. There was only a shower provided, with no tub. In addition, the shower had a manually operated water heater, the kind common enough in Thai homes but westerners may not know how to work it.

I suspect that the Buri Gallery House might appeal to ‘flashpackers’ - those people who used to backpack in their younger days but are now older and established enough to want a bit more from their accommodations. The location, just outside Wat Phra Singh in the old city, is not bad, although well away from the center of things - except on Sundays, when the walking street market is right outside the front door.

Yesterday I made the drive from Semarang to Yogyakarta. It’s a comfortable two and a half hour drive, but not all that scenic. My base for this stay is the Dusun Jogja Village Inn.

I’d have to describe the Dusun Jogja Village Inn as “pleasantly funky”. I’m sure there are some to whom the charms of this place won’t appeal, but I found it to be a quite pleasant change from the bland corporate hotels I usually end up at on my travels. Fortunately, the owners of the Dusun have generally avoided using the word “boutique” to describe their property. There’s no pretensions here.

The hotel consists of just around 20 rooms and is located just south of the old royal palace, the Kraton. The lobby and standard rooms are housed in a small building right on the narrow side street of the hotel. The deluxe rooms are in two story blocks on the other side of a large courtyard behind the lobby. The courtyard holds a swimming pool that’s rather large for such a small hotel. Beside the pool is the hotel’s restaurant, housed in a traditional open air “joglo” Javanese style pavilion.

My second floor deluxe room is good-sized, not huge but very comfortable to move around in. The design and decoration are early twentieth century, with tile floors and rough plaster walls. Most of the furniture is made of wood, except for the bed frame, which is wrought iron. The bed sports a canopy and mosquito net, which may come in handy. A pair of sliding doors lets onto a large balcony with a built in sofa, table and chair. Although there is a ceiling fan, which may be quite adequate in the cool season, the room also has air conditioning. Other modern conveniences include a mini-bar, but, there is no television in the room. There is a ‘movie room’ in the lobby, with a selection of discs on offer. The bathroom is quite large, although the fixtures are rather basic. There’s just a bathtub with shower, toilet and vanity.

The menu at the restaurant is somewhat limited, but both meals I ate there were very good. The breakfast buffet didn’t offer too many things, but the juices were fresh squeezed, the croissants fresh baked, and everything else was equally good quality.