An oasis of cool tranquility in steamy, chaotic Bangkok
Written: Jul 14 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Unbelievable rooms, pleasant service, good location
Cons: Too far away from the US for frequent visits!
The Bottom Line: Maybe the best hotel I've ever stayed at
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| sm71's Full Review: The Peninsula Bangkok |
I'm pretty frugal by nature, but my one indulgence is travel. I've also travelled a fair amount for work. As a result, I've stayed in some of the best hotels in the world. The Peninsula Bangkok ranks right up there in the top two or three I've ever visited.
In April of 2000, we booked Singapore Airlines package that included a 4 night stay, so we got picked up at the airport and driven to the hotel. It was not particularly far -- definitely under an hour's drive. When we arrived, check-in was smooth and the front desk staff spoke excellent English. (On our trip, we found this to be somewhat a rarity among the Thais, even those working in Western hotels, who seem to have a particularly difficulty in conversational English, even if they can read it very well. Not that this should be seen as a criticism -- I can't speak a word of Thai and find their alphabet completely over my head. It was a just a peculiarity and speaks very highly of the Peninsula that they were able to recruit such fluent employees.) We requested a room on a high floor with a view of the city.
When we went up to our room, it was breathtaking. There was a large entryway, with a dressing area to the left and the bathroom to the right. The dressing area had extremely large wooden built-in wardrobes lining two sides. There was also an electronic safe and a little door that connected to the outside where messages and your daily paper could be put so that you could obtain them without having to peek out the door in your jammies. The bathroom was absolutely enormous: bigger than most standard hotel rooms. There were two sinks, a toilet and a really really large stall shower, along with a big jacuzzi marble bath with a television.
From the entry way, you could see the panoramic view of the river and the city with essentially full wall of windows in the room. Going in, there was a sofa and table to the left, a desk with a fax machine angled in front of the window and an enormous king sized bed (that turned out to be unbelievably comfortable). There was also a television armoire. The curtains and the lights to the room were controlled by remote. There was every single channel of cable television anyone could ever want -- including a local New York station! The room also smelled delicious -- a subtle, mild perfume.
Because you can't drink from the tap in Thailand, they provided numerous bottles of water. There was also a plate full of exotic fruits on the coffee table and a book describing them (something that is apparently pretty typical throughout Thailand, we discovered).
We found the service to generally be impeccable. The concierge staff was very helpful, although their English speaking abilities varied.
The room came with breakfast every morning, which was the biggest buffet I've ever seen. There was everything you could ever want in both Eastern and Western breakfast cuisine. The variety of the food was surpassed only by its quality.
The location of the Peninsula is on the other side of the river from the main part of Bangkok. To accomodate guests, the Peninsula runs very frequent river shuttles on its own lovely little boats to an annex on the main side of the river. It is air conditioned, with a waiting area stocked with newspapers and magazines and one of the staff members will let you know when the shuttle arrives. We never had to wait more than about 5 minutes, and often it is just as pleasant to wait out on the dock. You can also check-in to the hotel there. When you are out in the city and want to return to the hotel by taxi or tuk tuk, you can save money by not having to cross the bridge. Simply tell the driver to go to the Shangri-La and then don't go up the driveway, but walk across the street to the annex, then take the shuttle. You can also easily access the Skytrain from this location and, if you cut through the Shangri-La (which is easy enough) to the Skytrain stop, it's shorter and you don't need to go through a not particularly nice area (although it's perfectly safe, there are too many stray dogs wandering around for most Westerners' tastes).
We liked this hotel so much that we booked another 3 night stay for the end of our 5 week trip. The rate they charged at that time (May 2000) was US$85 per night, for the same room, including breakfast daily and a ride in their Mercedes to the airport when we left.
Outstanding.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
sm71
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Location: Haverford, PA
Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
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