Omni Tower Hotel, Bangkok

I have been in Bangkok during the float alarm on November 2012. I made my travel plans much before and there must have been some disaster happening for real that I deviate my tip to tail flight and travel plans. Hence I didn't cancel anything but I had to arrange some hotel high enough! Omni Tower seemed to me very convenient in this sense and also had a relatively fair price for a 4 star apartment complex, thus, I made a studio reservation for 1600 baht per day. A week later, 2 days before my arrival to Bangkok, I realized by luck that the prices of the executive suites reduced to the same level. Therefore, I wanted to change my reservation like all of wise people would do. For that I just canceled the old reservation and finally made a newer reservation for the suite and I was ready to go.

The hotel, which is composed of a 33 story tower and its neighboring service building, is located very close and nicely connected to the modern center of Bangkok through Sukhumvit Avenue, Phloen Chit, Chit Lom and Nana station. If you really want to be around this area, it is a great option. You can reach everywhere with public transport or very low paid taxi fares. Don't forget to make the drivers start the meters before driving. This a common scam in Bangkok and the taxis waiting in front of the hotel usually have the tendancy to do the opposite. Besides the location advantage, there are also many drawbacks associated with the hotel itself as well and they welcome you since the very first moment you arrive to the hotel.

Although the hotel looks pretty luxurious and chic, you have to carry your luggage to the reception. There are bellboys but not smart enough to help you up. It is a very warm welcome especially if you arrive in the night. "-1". There was another great surprise waiting for me. After I checked in, I was given the key of the apartment and an RFID card to access the elevator hall. The bellboy then realizes that he needs to help you and takes you up to the room and also carries your luggage. So far so good. But the problem was actually the room itself. They gave me, accidentally or on purpose, the studio room. This I haven't figure out and thus I don't want to say something accusing. And you can't easily distinguish between the studio and the one-bedroom suit if you haven't stayed in this hotel before because they have similar surface areas and big enough for one person. Anyway, I doubted and wanted to clarify if they mixed something. They have claimed that the reservations were mixed but they have never reached my latest reservation and they were not willing to give me the room I reserved until I showed them my reservation on the phone. So it was not that innocent. "-2"! Anyway, I had what I wanted with some struggle but I was nervous at the end. 

Coming to the rooms, I can say the rooms were pretty large for both studio and suite. The furniture and appliances are quite old if you are willing to use them. The view is very nice if you want to stay on the 27th floor. However the room service is terrible. The first morning I put the "clean my room" sign on the door and went out. When I come back nothing was cleaned or changed and it was quite late. I called the reception and asked for it. In return they tried very hard not to do that and finally even asked for extra money for the towels they changed. How cute isn't it? "-3". That was cream on the pie to hate the place to be frank. So even this is quite enough not to recommend the place alone. But the stories never end. When you enter the rooms you see that they offer free sightseeing tours. This was not true, either. When you ask they say all of them are cancelled due to float but when you go to the palace or the temples by yourself you see that there is no float and no cancellation of any tour. "-4". I continue. In the reservation, it says in the reservation that breakfast is included in the price. Don't expect anything better than an hostel breakfast. I guess that was the most terrible breakfast I have ever had after the one I had in a hostel in Paris many years ago. But the difference is that one was a student hostel for 21€ in Paris the other was a 4 star business suit for 1800 bath in Bangkok. I leave the evaluation to you but "-5". I guess the only things good about the hotel were the location and the view that you can see below. Other than that I cannot recommend you the hotel at all. It is much better to find other options in Bangkok.

Kata Beach Center Hotel, Phuket

In my experience, accommodation is something that you need to pay attention the most in Southeast Asia especially after I experienced the four star, false paradise: Ecosfera Hotel in Bali. But this time in Phuket, I was quite lucky on lodging because I booked Kata Beach Center Hotel. This is a cozy three star hotel which is run by a lovely Dutch family. The hotel is in a small center, Kata Beach center, for hotels and restaurants located in the northern part of Kata settlement. Kata Beach Center Hotel is composed of three buildings with the facilities on the ground floors and the rooms on the upper floors. The main building is with the reception and lobby. Another one, on the opposite side, has the restaurant, swimming pool and bar. The last one is roughly 50 meter away, at the end of the street towards Patak Rd. This building has the jacuzzi, sauna and spa. Among all, I only had a chance to check out the massage although that was the only paid service. It was very good and the price was not expensive. You can get a reduction, actually two times if you have two massage, with a discount voucher given by the hotel upon your arrival. I recommend you to have the aloe vera massage at least once especially at the end of your stay to release all stress on your skin. Other than that, they also have a motorbike rental service through which you can rent a bike for 250 baht per day! Which is quite a deal in Kata where you have to pay 400 baht for a 7 km ride to Phatong beach by taxi or tuck-tuck.

The rooms were not better or worse that it is promised but exactly the same as you see on-line. No disappointment! Though they have everything in the rooms: almost 100 channel international satellite TV with LCD screens, digital locked safe box, A/C, fridge with cold water (they didn't charged me the water I had during my stay!), electric kettle with tea bags and instant coffee etc. I had a chance to experience the double and twin rooms in two buildings due to my mistake on reservation on booking.com. I forgot to ask for the double room hence they put me in the available room which had two single beds. I booked for 4 nights. That would be quite sad to be squeezed in a small bed for all the time. I asked them to change and they changed my room in the next day with a big smile. I really appreciated their attitude towards this problem and this way of approaching customers and their problems was the same throughout the stay. Moreover, the room service was great. They were cleaning my room and changing the towels, upon my request tag on the door, everyday and making it like it was at the beginning. What I liked most in this hotel was the way they value the customer satisfaction through good service and a sincere smile.

Overall,  I had a great time in Kata Beach and a significant part of this satisfaction was thanks to the gorgeous people of Kata Beach Center Hotel. I highly recommend you to check out their web site for their availability before planning a trip to Phuket Island. I think in this hotel satisfaction truly warrantied!

Kata Beach, Phuket, Thailand: Get around, eat and chill

I think Thailand is a must see place at least once in your life time. Among all of the nice holiday destination in the country, Phuket Island is one of the best locations. This relatively big island facing Andaman Sea is located on the south west of the country. It is very easy and relatively cheap to transfer to the island from not only Asian countries but also all around the world thanks to Phuket International Airport (HKT). I personally had a very pleasant flight from Bali, Indonesia by AirAsia Thailand. It takes more or less 3h30 above millions of  islands and Malay peninsula. If you are lucky and have journey with clear sky, you will thoroughly enjoy your flight.

After that nice journey, landing in Phuket Airport was even nicer with the runway right after and perpendicular to a golden beach as you can see above. It was also a nice experience to see, if you are an aviation fan, the approach lighting system sunken in the sea.

Phuket Airport is quite convenient one for a small island's airport. It looks quite modern with its kind staff (including the border police), nice ground transport options and restaurants (especially for departure).  The route from the apron to the exit of the airport is quite short. On the way, you have clear immigration. The border police is quite nice. Here I would like to remind you that you have to fill an immigration form before hand. So don't forget to get it from the fight attendants and fill on the plane. After the immigration you will immediately see the luggage belts. When I arrived, there were GSM card salesmen. That was a free GSM card with 3G network and you can buy the top up card in 7elevens.I recommend you to buy it because the ones that I was trying to find and finally had to buy were much more expensive than this one. In order to get to your destination in the island, there are some options to enjoy. You have the taxi option for yourself, which was around 800 baht to get to Kata Beach, more or less the farthest point you may go in the island. There were a limo option and luxury van as well. I didn't check the price of them but they were definitely more expensive than the taxi. However, what I checked was, thanks to the screaming people trying to sell the bus tickets, the mini bus service which takes you directly to your hotel for a price of 180 baht. That was the cheapest and the most convenient option for me and it will most probably for you as well. There was only one crazy thing on the way. After they got out of the airport region, they stopped the bus, made all passenger go out and asked for the hotel names. First you might thing that it is a fraud, which I though to be honest. But then I realized that they agency explains the detailed routes to the drives who was not able to speak a word of English. The guy dropped every passenger to their hotels one by one and of course I was the last one. Finally, I arrived to my lovely hotel: Kata Beach Center Hotel about which you can find the detailed review on my blog post.

Kata beach is a very calm neighborhood of Phuket Island, especially as compared to its crazy neighbor Pathong Beach. Yet there are many things to do around. For example, you have to check out the golden beach with a great sun set you cannot miss. There are many restaurant where you can taste nice Thai food as well. On top of it, the street food along with fresh tropical fruits is also nice option you can check out. There are two market places you can make grocery shopping. One is located on the Patak Road between Taina Road and Patak Soi. That one is open everyday but as pricy as the hawkers on the Kata Road in the center, not recommended! The other one is the local vendor's open  market which opens every Sunday and Thursday. It is open all say long and you can find anything and everything for very good prices. I highly recommend you check thr place out. It is established on the isle in front of the Kata beach center. On top of those, I highly advise you to have the breakfast at Kata @ Sports Bar at Taina Road. You can have delicious 5 items out of the international breakfast menu for 150 baht. For the dinner, I strongly recommend you all you can eat Thai BBQ. It is served in a restaurant located at a short dead-end on Taina Road. Thai BBQ is basically do-it-yourself type of food. The waitress just places a clay pot full of burning coal and close it with an aluminum dome shaped lid. It has a saddle shape around so that you can pour water to boil your veggies and noodles. The dome has many small hole to let heat penetrate to your meat and fish you grill on top. The place I checked out was 180 baht/person and must try stuff. You may a bit of discomfort due to the hygiene of the place but get over it! I guess I had food for at least two people and nothing really happened.

When you come to Kata beach, the first to check out is the golden beach. You can get to the beach on foot. The pedestrian is by a small creek, not stinky but dirty for sure. Don't forget to tip the local beggar!

Then forget about everything because you are in paradise.This is roughly a kilometer beach whose shore is mostly shallow till more or less 100 meter away. Then it gets deeper. You can rent a lounge chair and an umbrella for around 100 bath per day. There are some restaurants on the south end of the beach. I highly recommend you to try the Thai restaurant. They have very nice Thai dishes around 100 bath. Among all of those thing, you must drink the official beverage of the beach: cold coconut juice. Another tip which I mentioned in more detailed on Diving in Kata Beach post is don't go to the diving centers close to the beach they are considerably pricy compared to the ones in the center, beware!

I hope the video of preparation of fresh coconut juice below increases your appetite for Kata beach and its tropical attraction. Have fun!

Hotel Ecosfera in Bali, Indonesia: Sorry, I am not impressed!

Last October, I went to Bali Island in order to experience diving in the world famous Balinese Sea. While I was looking for some 3-4 star accommodation to stay on "booking.com", I came across Ecosfera Hotel at Canggu area, specifically Echo beach. I checked a bit the page of the hotel and read some reviews. Nothing was particularly bad about the place. Consequently, I booked my room at the hotel. Up to now, everything was good because I haven't seen my "4 star hotel" yet and I have had "4 star" expectations about it as it is nicely rated. But I saw that the reality was not like this when I arrived to Echo Beach.

In general, I hate, like many others, the inconsistencies between what is promised online and what is offered in reality. From this perspective, the hotel had its first negative points on arrival. When I have checked on the website, it was saying that they accept American Express credit card. However, they were not really accepting. Actually the attitude was like as if they have never accepted AmEx since the beginning.  Of course you see that when you get to the place. So now what if you don't have any other card and you get to the place according to the information on the website. Very good start! Anyway more will come related to the attitudes of the staff later.

After this very warm welcome, I was saluted once more by the room. I guess for 56USD per night (incl. tax) I was offered the standard room. After seeing the room, I can say it was not really that similar to the ones pictured on the web page. I don't know you but I normally don't expect too much luxury but just simple and ergonomic attributes from a hotel room. Well, unfortunately, my room was lacking both! Where should I start? First of all, the bathroom/restroom was open air. Great idea! So it was not only prevented to be cooled down by the room air conditioning but also you shared it with the local giant bugs. Of course, you cannot complain about it as you are a visitor and they are the locals. On top of it, because the bathroom faces the corridor where the doors of the other rooms are, you don't have much privacy. Anyway, this was not the only design failure of the room to be honest. There were so many and so trivial that you can notice them in the first night. It was really late when I arrive to the hotel and I was really tired that I wanted to settle in the room, set my wake up call and finally sleep. So what you would do in this case? You call the reception and ask for it. Very good idea if you have a phone in the room. If you DON'T have it, you hold your tired butt and go to the reception to make it happen. To be frank, that was the greatest idea not to have phone in the room. Not only for the first night but also for anything and everything. By the way, the wake up call, as you may imagine, was the bellboy knocking on your door! Ok, you lost your appetite to sleep and you want to get sleepy again. What would you do? I would watch TV a bit and sleep in few minutes. Don't be afraid, there is a TV but the great news is there is no channel broadcasting in English. Everything was either Indonesian or Russian. Well actually, there was no good reception either. But it really drives you mad. Please put a satellite dish or cable TV but DO something. Finally I gave up and just laid down on my bed to sleep. I tried to switch off the light to darken the room. Voila voila, it was not quite possible because the buttons were so away from the bad that you have to stand up to do it. That might sound like over exaggeration due to dissatisfaction. At the end of a tiring day on the beach or in the sea, you don't want to stand up to switch off the damn lamp, you really don't! Nevertheless, I am not gonna lie, the room was improportionately large. It was quite roomy for two people. But everything was so apart that you might be annoyed sometime. Finally, just to give you a heads up, if you are said "features a balcony/patio with ocean view" in your reservation, either it is a lie or you have to claim it because there is not such a view and it is not possible to have it if your room is on ground floor. All the patios are looking toward the common area and the swimming pool completely encircled by the buildings as depicted on the picture below. So don't expect much about the view!

As I went to Bali mainly for diving, I didn't stay in the hotel for the majority of the time I was there. Nonetheless, I will only mention about the basic services I used. For the remaining activities and the services, I will leave the word to other people. Since I had to take a long journey to the Tulamben beach to dive, I had to wake up around 5:30AM. As it was one and a half hour before the time when breakfast was served, I asked them to prepare something for me on the previous night. The guys in the restaurant were kind enough to prepare me a sandwich. Anyway, from the wake up knock on the door till the late evening arrival to the hotel, that was the only interaction I had with the hotel. Then evening came and I wanted to fulfill my hunger. Hence, I tried the dinner menu of the hotel's restaurant. Not recommended! Why? The prices were unnecessarily high, the quantities were not adequate and more importantly most of the food were quasi-western but not local. I don't know about other people but when I go somewhere I look for local tastes first and if the local food sucks then I go for something else. As far as I remember, there were only two types of sattis, meat on skewer, in the menu for local food. And that was not that good even. So if you ever decide to go to this hotel, I advise you to dine out! On the contrary, the breakfast was quite okay. I could pick 5 food or beverage from the breakfast menu and whatever I asked more I had to pay for it, even for bread. Overall that was something quite annoying in the hotel. After a certain point you feel that whatever you want to eat, drink or do, you have to pay extra for it and its tax and service charges. By the way, everything you buy in Bali EXCLUDES tax and services charges! You have to put 21% more on every price tag. BE AWARE!!!! Last thing about the catering service is that they were not really paying attention to any other common space other than the restaurant. For instance, you might not be served for hours, just because you are out of sight of the waiters, if you are lying by the pool. That was also quite annoying!



I would like to say a couple of word about the Echo Beach area before I conclude. As I have said at the beginning, I visit Bali with a primer motive of diving. Nonetheless, a couple of days of swimming or doing something else would be really good as you shouldn't dive and fly within 24 hours to be on the safe side. Unfortunately, Echo Beach or Canggu area is not the best place to stay if you don't surf. They have a great kilometers long beach but it is impossible to swim, at least in October. There were very strong rip currents and they were pulling me in the sea even when I was walking parallel on the shore. Moreover, along the beach, sand stones were covering all of the coast under the sea. They were not visible when there was high tide but I was lucky to see the low tides in the afternoon. You can easily realize when you see how strong currents can smash you on them. Actually, one of the visitors of the hotel was killed on the beach a couple of days prior to my arrival. So my advise is "be careful and don't swim".

Some words about the front desk personnel: I can say that they were particularly not kind to me. Especially the female responsible of the reception was not quite helpful. On the last morning, I had to have a taxi to go to the airport and she had to call them. When the taxi was late and I felt a bit anxious, she behaved like if it was my mistake. Furthermore, she didn't want to call the taxi stop. To make a long story short, she was not helpful and kind as it is a must for the front desk personnel.

As you may understand all of my experiences I tried to summarize above, I don't recommend you to stay in Ecosfera hotel to have a pleasant, best value stay. It doesn't satisfy your expectations not only as a relatively expensive hotel in the island but also as a four star accommodation. It doesn't have neither a good architecture to comfort you and nor nice staff to give good service.

Crocodile Kingdom at Old Airport Rd.

Oh my god! I have to be really hungry to write 4 posts about food in a row!... Anyway, here I'd like to talk about "the place" to have crocodile meat in Singapore. The place called Crocodile Kingdom and located at Old Airport Rd. Hawker Center. They are specialized only on cooking crocodiles in various styles. 

We ordered black paper crocodile for two people like the one above to have the taste of the meat of this paleontological creature. The dish was garnished with a lot of vegetables and sprouts besides black paper and sauce. Although all of the ingredients had dominant touches on the taste of the plate, it is still hard to get the taste of the crocodile. Despite I have been told many times by friends who had crocodile in Florida that the crocodile tastes like chicken, I really didn't get any unique taste from the meat. That might be due to heavily tasted spices or the crocodiles used in there really tasteless. I leave the decision to you and your trials at the place. 

I recommend you to give a try to the crocodile meat at the place. At the end of the day, they offer crocodile meat for a really reasonable price (mostly around 10SGD). You can also check them out on-line from their web side: http://crocodilekingdom.blogspot.com/ .

A good address for Thai in Singpore: Lerk Thai

I don't know how you think guys but I love Thai food and where ever I find a good one I exploit this opportunity. One of those occasions were when I was in Singapore. There is a local chain who serves Thai food all around the island. The name of the chain is Lerk Thai and their food is simply great!... 

The one I have had a nice lunch was at the Bedok Point Shopping Mall. The food was superficially delicious and the prices were quite reasonable. You can go and check out the details of the menu on their website (http://www.lerkthai.com.sg/) but I can give you an example of an large lunch and overall price so that you have an idea before you go to the restaurant. We ate a seafood tom yum for three, six pieces of pandan leaves chicken, big pineapple rice and three coconuts. For all of those, we paid 74SGD. Back in the day, there was a reduction of 10% for AmEx payments as well. So you can enjoy extra reduction together with extravaganza food. 

Hawker centers: heart of food variety in Singapore

Singapore is a food heaven with astonishing number of different cuisines offered. You can access those varieties anywhere and any price range. There are a lot of shopping malls and all of them many restaurant in their food courts. Of course the price tags differ according to how luxurious the shopping mall is. I had a chance to visit many of those places but among all I like the hawker centers the most. Hawker centers are, by definition, the food courts established by collection of the hawkers. But don't be afraid of the term and the hygiene issues associated with it. Every shop is controlled by the authorities and rated in terms of their hygiene, from A (the best) to C (the worst). Normally, it is recommended to eat at A or B rated places.

Almost every community has its own hawker center. Although each hawker center is more populated with the restaurants fitting the demographics of the neighborhood, there are almost all varieties of Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Malay or Indonesian food can be found in every hawker center. In addition to the food selection, the juice shops, fresh fruits, coffee shops and dessert corners are also present in the hawker center. Most importantly, the prices are extremely low in this places. Just to give you a ballpark, I can say that a dish of Chinese delicacy can be bought around 5-10 SGD. Not a bad deal huh?

You can also buy fresh ingredients for your own kitchen in this places. All and all, hawker centers are local market places where you can buy, eat and have fun. You can find some locations attached to the this post. I highly recommend you go and explore the concept when you go to Singapore. Have fun!...

Potful of a dining option in Singapore: Steamboat

Singapore is quite famous with the varieties of cuisines that you can find from all around the world. You can find almost anything and everything if you agree to pay the bill. However, among all, you can have a great access to all kinds of Asian foods. One of them I have tasted just after I touched down Singapore was "Steamboat". Steamboat concept belongs to modern Chinese cuisine. The main item on the table is a pot divided into two where spicy water on one side and water with herbs on the other side boils. They bring it on an electrical heater so that it keeps on boiling. You can also adjust the temperature of the water by changing the rate of the heat on the stove.

Then you start to order the delicious ingredients to cook inside the boiling waters. All kinds of meet, chicken, pork or beef; many seafood like prawns, squid, many kinds of fishes, sprouts, mushrooms and noodles were in the menu of the place we went. You also have different types of sauces to spice up your food.

In Singapore, the steamboat restaurants are mainly located around Bugis Junction. You can have this unlimited fun food 15-25SGD per person. It has been a very nice experience for me to see the "A volonte" concept on the very same day I touched down Singapore. If you love to have high quality food in large quantities, unlimited if possible, like me then you should try this delicacy of Singapore. Enjoy!