I promised to review a calm little hotel at Samui island in Thailand.
This video will be long, while my commentary will be short. I want you to feel the atmosphere from the first person perspective. So, Phangka Paradise hotel. We are welcomed by a bridge across some nasty river. Please remember this straight, I’ll talk about it later. Let’s go the reception, peeping at the monkey. Reception. Combined with dinery. The prices are normal for us, but triple higher than average local check go. Let’s go out to the beach. It overlooks Marine Park. We will focus on the beach later. The pool is fresh water, not salt water. The garden. Remember this road, I’ll also talk about it later. The garden view bungalows. Behind them is a tiny fence and the houses behind that is already another hotel. The barrels with water and scoop are to wash sand away from your feet. Let’s go out to the beach. The is the ocean and the sea view bungalows. It’s about 9 in the morning now, and the water has not yet come after nightly tide. Here that messy river comes out, bringing all the filth from local area, so you’d better don’t bathe near the reception. The sea is very low. And the seabed has some rocks, including the worst variety that are covered with seashells. These are razor sharp, and severely cut feet. The administration and the guests somewhat cleared the beach from those rocks, but not all of it. In general, the beach is nice. Peaceful and calm. Let’s take a walk to the neighboring, more expensive hotel. Trash on the sand. Well, yes, that’s Asia. As you can see, expensive hotel beach is close to boat station. They don’t go often, mostly at night to set and remove nets. Also at night a lot of people with head lamps walk where the water used to be collecting crabs and other seafood. There is a hotel on this hill. Despite it has a dug out beach for swimming, it stinks so much that no one actually bathes there. Behind it is a VIP hotel Conrad It doesn’t have a beach at all, however, each room has it’s own seaview pool. Also close is Jinta hotel. That’s how the beach looks. A little further is Centara hotel. Here is Centara beach. Right behind Phangka are Emerald Cove bungalows. Here you can eat. The prices are a bit higher then elsewhere, but only around 20 percent. It’s very close to Phangka, here’s the road I mentioned earlier. Let’s get back to Phangka to see the room inside. This idiotic step may cause you a lot of pain, especially at night. Who builds like that? The room doesn’t have a hairdryer and there is no kettle. In general, it’s a nice cozy room which even has an extra sofa, just in case. There’s no civilization nearby. The closest shops are about 1.5 km away. I recommend to walk or drive to the crossroads. Here you can buy fruits, there is an ATM, a minimarket, motorcycle repair shop and a couple eateries. If you want normal deep sea, drive to Lipa noi. The beach here is a good one – it gets deep almost after entry, the sand is clear and no seashells. There’s a navy station nearby, don’t swim there.