Review of Siam Bayshore Resort and Spa, Pattaya, Thailand

Sleazy, Rundown Pattaya Resort in a Touristy Setting 

Note: This review (based on a my recent bad experience at this resort) was originally meant for TripAdvisor.com but was never approved. They wanted me to edit it, make it acceptable, subtly hinting that I remove all or most of the negative remarks if I wanted to publish my review on TripAdvisor. I didn't want to do that so here it appears now. I'll write about this TripAdvisor bias soon in a separate post!

The Siam Bayshore Resort and Spa is supposedly a posh 4 star /5 star rated Beach resort that's currently ranked #13 of around 300 odd hotels across Pattaya, Thailand. Its at the other end of the Walking Street (a Pattaya landmark) near the Mixx club (i.e if you are entering from Pattaya Beach). This is the only distinct advantage (for which even I booked) this poorly managed, run down resort seems to have. For the price you shell out here, I would recommend staying at one of the better hotels on the Beach Road which are definitely better and cheaper - an expensive insight I gained after 2 nights I stayed here.. 

Well, the key ailment the Siam Bayshore suffers from is their awful and brash staffs who man the reception, the restaurant, the pool….pretty much everywhere across the hotel. They are unnecessarily rude, apathetic and treat hotel guests as free loaders. So, take the other glowing reviews you read on TripAdvisor.com with not a pinch but loads of salt. Not believable at all considering I was at the same hotel treated by the same staff !! 

Anyway, apart from their ill-mannered and lethargic employees, some more bad pointers 

- The check in was a slow, ‘no smiles’ dismal affair. No welcome drink or cold towel that was promised and with a truly uninterested reception giving you that “ oh, here they come, one more check in” irritated look. 

- The lobby is small with a dated 80s look. Not the best of Thai architecture if you know what I mean. Nothing classy!

- The Rooms and their Balconies are in urgent need of renovation. Old furniture, faded worn out carpets, okay beds, erratic AC and a strong musty room odor and crawling insects all around. The water pressure in the shower (a must for me) was a miserable dribble that was never fixed in spite of bringing it to the hotel’s attention. 

- The entire hotel just has one single small lift that will take not more than 4 adults. I stayed at the topmost 4th floor and it was a perennial wait every time!! 

- They have 2 pools - one inside the hotel and one outside the hotel across the road facing the sea. The one inside is fairly big with a slide for children but the slide area stinks as it’s near the hotel sewer. 

- This pool is not manned by any lifeguard or staff ! I saw a near drowning of a kid who had waded deep into the pool and was rescued by a fellow guest so people with children need to beware of the hidden dangers!! 

- The pool outside on the road is used for their daily barbecue seafood buffet dinners. You don’t get access to this pool in the evenings unless you buy the dinner. It doesn't cut ice even if you are a resident guest at the hotel. Btw, don’t fall for the tempting buffet poster, I tried it – cold, limited selections with very little seafood, cheap deserts and most of all, expensive. 

- The morning buffet breakfasts were a mad rush with so-so service. Almost the exact small spread for both the days and I also found 2 of the dinner dishes too (from the previous night) repackaged in a new avatar for the morning selection. 

- The hotel concierge is a rip off. I ended up paying 3 times (more than the usual fare) for a taxi trip outing and I actually ended up at the wrong place.

- The Spa is a false suffix to the hotel name, the pricing is way over the top, and Spa staff – indolent and poorly experienced. You’ll get better quality and lesser prices just outside the hotel. 

- Night Security is lax at the gates and entry. As a late nighter, I found the inside hotel entry unmanned on both the nights and outside gates with guards who really don’t care who was entering or exiting the hotel. 

So, all in all, maybe this hotel works for desperate first timers who only visit Pattaya for all the wrong reasons and who are probably too intoxicated with all that Pattaya (and Walking Street especially can offer) but for frequent travelers and those visiting Pattaya for a nice holiday, the Siam Bayshore resort can be a complete spoilsport. I am not coming here ever again.

Dim Sum On Wheels

A Dim Sum Stall at the Food Street in Kuala Lumpur!

You get the most delicous Dim Sums at the ever busy food street in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. My staple for 3 nights besides other (much bizarre) foods. More pics to follow soon.

Brand New Year Resolutions for a Brand New You

Simple New Year Resolutions for 2010

It's a brand new year, and while you might not believe in New Year's resolutions ("You forget them halfway through January anyway," is one friend's excuse), January always brings with it the sense of a fresh start.

Here's a list of ways to inspire you to start your year on the right note — and you'll notice that there are no references to quitting smoking and never eating chocolate again! In my view, life is all about moderation, but also being sure to enjoy all the things you love, too, whether it's that glass of wine after work every evening or a frothy cappuccino to get you started in the morning.

These are simply ideas to get you feeling on top of the world as 2010 begins, whether it's a post-festive season cleanser or ditching the gym to take up yoga!

. . . B o d y . . .

Inspire Yourself To Get Fit - Change Your Exercise Regime!

It's a new year and you're already dreading going back to the gym. Just the thought of the Gym makes you want to dive back under your duvet, even though you could really do with a post-festive season workout! If this sounds like you, perhaps it's time to change your exercise regime and opt for something that's less of a chore — something you really look forward to doing and can actually enjoy!

There are so many more exciting ways to get fit and toned, while also improving mental agility and even raising your consciousness. In the East, exercise is treated holistically, targeting not only the health of the body but also of the mind and soul, the thinking behind this being that you can't have one without the other. There's so much to choose from, too, from Kick Boxing or Kung fu (which you can now do at many gyms) to Tae Kwon Do and Karate.

The exercise of choice for stars like Madonna, Yoga is another way to get your body, mind and soul in tip-top shape. There are several different types of this ancient art form from which to choose and so much stuff on the net that you can read about the various types of yoga and also help you find instructors/classes in your area.

. . . M I N D . . .

Get Reading!

In a country where so many adults are illiterate, count yourself lucky that you've had the kind of education (hopefully - though if you are reading this, then you can read!) that allows you to access the vast, wonderful world of books, opening up infinite depths of information to you as well as allowing you to escape into distant or parallel universes through fiction, or have your soul touched through poetry and other erudite forms of prose.

If you've been labouring through that one dog-eared book for the last 12 months, either resolve to finish it (and do it) or ditch it! If you find the cost of books prohibitive, renew your library membership — you will be impressed by how up-to-date our librarians are!

If you need motivation to read more, join a book club — or start your own! This is what you do: get your friends together (and invite them to introduce someone new to the group) and plan to meet with your fellow book club members once a month, with someone different hosting at their home each time. Pool your resources to buy books (each person buys a book per month - you can get lists of new and recommended books from your local book store) which can then be shared, discussed and enjoyed within the group. Eventually, the books will become the property of individual group members.

Exercise Your Grey Matter!

Get your poor, under-used brain in shape by embarking on a little mental gymnastics! No, you don't have to start solving Mensa-style puzzles — simply start using that grey matter a little more! A fun way to get the brain cells working is by getting into crossword puzzles. Even games like Scrabble played with friends are better for your brain than staring vacantly at the telly. This level of problem solving can ultimately help you cope better with some of the other problematic stuff that crops up in our day to day lives. And what fun to be able to pepper your conversations with the new vocabulary you've picked up in your dictionary during your search for that right word!

Beat Stress!

Whatever research you do on the Internet and in health related books, you keep coming back to information citing stress as one of the most important factors influencing disease and a wide range of "modern day" complaints like panic attacks, depression and insomnia. With our work styles mostly having adapted to increased pressure to cut costs and yet produce more, we have to deal with longer hours, more demands and often less money.

Apart from work, things like finances and even family can get the blood pressure up. The only thing is, most of this is unavoidable (like that traffic jam you have to sit in twice a day!), so we pretty much have to learn to deal with stress as a part of life. Of course, even though it can be difficult, we have to learn not to let life get to us and also how to enjoy our lives more!

Luckily, there are many ways to overcome stress — exercise being one! Deep breathing is another (most of us breathe shallowly without even realising it. Stop what you're doing right now — breathe in slowly to your lungs' capacity, hold your breath for a few seconds, now gently and slowly exhale for the same length of your inhalation. Do it a few more times. Feel better?). Then, there are a host of "alternative" therapies and forms of exercise you can try, from tai chi to yoga. Get into meditating. Treat yourself to a Reiki, reflexology or long, super-relaxing aromatherapy massage session. You will feel relaxed afterwards!

. . . S o u l . . .

Resolve To Spend More Time In Nature!

Is this you? Every day you wake up, get in your car, drive to work, sit in the office (or drive around in your car) all day, perhaps taking a quick break for lunch which you eat on the run. Then it's back to the office, off to the gym and back home for supper, a bit of TV, then off to bed. By the time the weekend arrives, all you want to do is sleep late at perhaps hire piles of videos or watch movies to escape the routine.

While there's no harm in doing any of this, it can be all too easy (especially if you live and work in a large city) to "forget" to enjoy the soothing benefits of our natural world. And we happen to live in one of the finest countries in the world when it comes to natural beauty! There's something incredibly healing about being "close to" or "near" the earth; about spending time marveling at nature's magnificence and sheer perfection, whether during a walk on the beach at sunset or in the park early in the morning when drops of dew still glisten on petal and leaf.
Resolve to wake up earlier on weekends and drive to the veldt or mountains or sea to hike or picnic or simply just be, and take your supper outside on hot summer nights. Your life will be so much the richer for spending more time in nature, and for noticing and appreciating small, simple things... like the colour of the sea, the formation of a cloud, the smell before a thunderstorm...

Pray and Meditate!

Prayer and Meditation offer a way of finding inner peace in a world that sees you always occupied with one or another activity, with a mind that's constantly buzzing with thoughts, ideas and worries. For many of us, finding a retreat from the incessant "noise" in our minds seems unlikely — there's just so much going on in there!

However, it is possible to find that "inner quiet" — through prayer and meditation, which is essentially about allowing the mind to rest and go quiet. Religions around the world have used meditation for centuries to "purify the mind and body" – monks do it, the clergy do it, and now many a man-and-woman-in-the-street are enjoying the benefits of retreating inwards for a short period each day.

If you are going to try meditating, then most of the experts agree it should be performed daily (early morning is best), preferably at the same time and before a meal; the spot chosen for meditation should be quiet and used specially for the purpose (unplug the telephone!) and one should be sitting upright with the spine straight. Playing soft music also helps some people. You can open or close the eyes while meditating, but if the eyes are open it is recommended that you "gaze on a blank wall" or the object you have chosen to concentrate on. The duration of your meditation is up to you – beginners usually start with about ten minutes at a time.

Get In Touch With Your Spiritual Side!

Whether it's going back to your church or other place of worship regularly if your attendance might have lapsed, praying more, going on a Buddhist or meditative retreat, or simply taking time out to quietly acknowledge your place in the world, resolve to nurture your soul as much as you look after your body and your mind. Bringing ritual into your life, whatever your religion or beliefs carries with it a rich sense of fulfillment for the individual. The rituals can be small, and meaningless to others, whether it's lighting candles and incense when you pray or turning your daily meals with your family into a time of loving togetherness; it's essentially about making every moment of your life more meaningful to you.

Here's to a healthy, happy, brand New You!

My Crush Nostalgia

Last week, I hit into an old crush of mine (someone I was secretly crazy about) at a pet store. Even after 8 long years, she hadn’t change much; she still looked charming and graceful, slender with good looks and curving bodylines, brown-black eyes like pearls and an accent that still seemed like music. I can proclaim this crush publicly for two reasons. One, she still doesn't know my pen name and two; she is not the blogging or reading kind. Thus, my crush satisfies the major crush criteria. It's my little secret, between me and my conscience (and now several readers) and it will remain unrealized, thus preserving my innocence, my dignity and my stato coniugale.

But let me not stop short my crush's total hooking power. She has a classic Colgate smile and a blushing, almost childlike grin. I won't objectify her further except to say, she's just breathtaking. Or let's just say that she's exactly the kind of women who would never go out with me anyway! And of course, I still barely know her. She used to go out with a software guy with a dumb face and an almost dead silent posture. Yet, we had lunch once, all of us together with a couple of my former office colleagues. And, for the most part he was a blank slate but she was brilliant. I could project onto her what I want. I used to think, it’s a pity, she is not single! She was a walking, living antidote to the sameness of my former workplace.

My friend describes this phenomenon as "anonymous flirting" and considers flirting harmless. He feels powerful erotic tension between passing strangers is as normal as part of growing up or growing old. My neighbor calls it “girl watching”, but then he is a sexually constipated, jealous old man, his characterization strikes me with pity for him. Girl watching, are something greasy-haired, sex-starved, pubescent boys do, not sophisticated Guys like me.

Less charitable critics might say that any admiration of unknown beauties, is a form of stalking - an objectification that hides a bubbling psychosis (remember Alicia Silverstone in the movie - Crush) but, I feel this is an unjust exaggeration. If I turned and followed the objects of my fascination after they passed, then perhaps. If my fascination persisted and grew dear; if I followed them home and waited outside their doors with fistfuls of shabby roses - well, then, yes. If I took photographs of them with a telescopic camera and wrote them love letters that I never mailed, if I trailed them when they went out with somebody, keeping a discreet distance, filled with jealous rage, thumbing a sharp-edged knife in one hand and weeping quietly in frustration - now that would be stalking.

To me, though, such crazy characterization aside, a crush is lively and interesting. I've come to think of it as an art, and art of crush is not about lust or sex. Sex is too easy - as simple and instinctive as masturbation and once it is over, it loses its charm. The crush in contrast, is a spell that, because it remains unconsummated, is never broken by reality's inevitable anti-climax. Because, there are no first dates, no hungry first kisses, no rocky times, no ups and downs. There is only the crush - part nostalgia and part hope, the infinite possibility of what may or might have happened, so far yet so close. The truly accomplished crush artist never falls into the reality trap; he is in fact, a grinning celibate! but if things come naturally, (I love it, when it does) to hell with celibacy.

Call me crush-prone. I had a torrential crush on Resham Kidwai in my eighth grade and the dusky Juliana in my ninth grade. In my tenth standard, I was silly over my school librarian Nupur who still remains one of my favorites besides Daisy Fuentes of MTV, Alexandra of Channel V, movie stars – Kelly Preston, Madchen Amick, Kristy Swanson, Monica Belluci are and remain, my monster crushes for the ages. I have had many more but they all have lapsed over the years.

In an era of high-risk sex and gender common workplaces, a good crush in its truest sense is harmless, simple and uncomplicated. And although, it's hardly a substitute for the euphoria of actual sex or the excitement of actual courtship, a good crush has spiritual and self-worth benefits, which many experts agree. A crush may awaken your vanity from the routines of domestic life and may boost your self esteem.

The crush concept also makes even more sense today। The modern workplace, college, school, club, or the neighborhood is a fertile breeding ground for crushes. It's where we spend most of our time. It’s a contained universe. You see the same people everyday. You've likely to share similar thoughts and backgrounds. People grow on you. People grow into crushes. The sexual charge released by a crush unleashes a creative energy, which can benefit us, professionally and it’s proven that teams composed of men and women are more productive than same sex cohorts. And these crushes can be very healthy, also as long as they're kept under control. Alas, control. If it’s not kept in the proper perspective, a crush can become entirely more complicated than it's worth and ruin a perfectly good and friendly relationship.

Forget productivity, creative energy and good health. Crushes make the daily grind easier to bear; they keep our eyes open and our egos healthy. After all, they keep us happy and awake.

Alaskan Safari

Welcome to Planet Endurance

If you liked the landscape you saw in the 2007 Horror Movie - 30 Days of Night, Alaska is the place to be. Nothing in Alaska is easy. The state is colossal. The distances from the towns to tourist attractions are time-consuming and grueling. The roads are hazardous and many are unpaved. Winters are resentfully cold, overcast and stretched, with only two hours of daylight. Summers are short and sometimes absent. Everything is bloody expensive. Travel is a bitch, and there are no major cosmopolitan cities to nourish with world-class restaurants, hotels, the arts or shopping after enduring nature's punishing elements. Alaska is the only state in America where residents are actually paid a stipend to live there. But where there is challenge there is also an adventure. And this is exclusively mine.

In Alaska you take a bush plane like an urban dweller would take a public bus or a call taxi. There are more small planes in Alaska per capita than any other American state. As everything is complicated, everything becomes a mini adventure. So why do Alaskans do it? What's the pay-off?

The answer I got, from pilots to taxi drivers to musicians to road maintenance workers, was pretty much the same - after facing the immense challenges of nature's elements each day, Alaskans feel they have conquered and triumphed by mere survival. Most of us feel we have a hard enough time getting through the exigencies of the day without a daily kick in the ass by Mother Nature but not sturdy Alaskans. There's also a very strong sense that this is a restricted nonconformist realm where citizens can't, won't or have no desire to live in the undesirable outside. (The word "Outside" is always capitalized up there.)

So what's in it for us Outsiders? Lots. Astounding panoramic beauty and superb wildlife, opportunities for both hard and soft adventures and a plethora of wintry sports. The Air is so pure you would want to bottle it and market it. And, most important, a true sense of mankind's place in nature. Alaska's sheer size, the cold silence and majesty is close to a true spiritual experience. You really get to know how minuscule you are in the scheme of it all, and the result is deeply overwhelming.

An extraordinary treat for me was to clamber an observation tower to shoot the 11:30 p.m. sunsets. Autumn color starts to scream in late August along with one Alaska's unique phenomena: the Aurora Borealis, the natural gods’ light show that defies any ordinary description. Denali, formerly Mt. McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America, reaching 20,320 feet above sea level, is in Alaska, but don't expect to get a great shot with a point-and shoot camera; between the cloud cover, rain and haze, the stately mountain appears only about 25 percent of the time.

When I went to investigate Fairbanks, the base town from which tourists depart for the Alaskan good stuff, I found that one afternoon was more than enough. Most of its old-time architecture had been destroyed for parking lots and McDonald type Fast-food restaurants. Its bland streets teem with infinite and gaudy stores that sell the kind of cheap souvenirs that people buy at consumer fairs, take home, store in a drawer and eventually can't sell at yard sales. Fairbanks has one shining jewel - its beautiful history museum. Skillfully and engagingly designed, lit and presented, the museum is captivating in how it brings alive the past while also maintaining the wild spirit of Alaskan life.

Quirky Coffee shops and rustic bars are many and excess in Fairbanks, people find a place to spin good music; the local military men, of whom there are many, hear about the music and move in; the local women follow; people move to another bar, taking the music...

If your endurance fantasies or your tastes for adrenaline are highly developed, try the Haul Road to Prudhoe Bay. This 414 mile gravel road (really Dalton Highway, developed to bring supplies to the source of the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company) stretches from Fairbanks to the Arctic Ocean. You'll be able to say you traveled an outwardly never-ending gravel road where food and gas stops are 115 miles apart. You'll be able to see the Brooks Mountain Range, the stately and pompous king of Dalton Highway and you'll be able to tell your friends you have been to the Arctic Circle.

However, there is a grueling 12-hour drudge of a road. And there are draconian lodgings at Prudhoe Bay, not to mention punishingly inedible "food", which is a truly supercilious statement to Outsiders- “We’re the only restaurant in town. Eat it or beat it".

Real Beauty? Yes. A surrealistic landscape of ice-cold tundra and absolute desolation, the pipeline buildings in the misty distance, living facilities resembling correctional mental institutions, signs of humanity practically unreal, the only place in the world where you must have a permit to see the ocean-the Arctic Ocean, no less-frankly, all that fascinated me. And it was well worth the price of ticket. For those who require a level of comfort, however, this leg of the tour will not work.

The trip back down the Dalton Highway was highlighted by a stop in Wiseman, a peaceful settlement of log houses (there seems to be an unwritten law that all log houses in Alaska must have moose antlers the state icon) above the front door). Wiseman was established in the American gold rush and in 1898 it was a big boomtown with $200,000 worth of gold panned there. It's reported that half the money was spend on booze and whores. And why not? What else was there to spend it on?

According to one very sexy local, the population swings "between 27 and 30 - depending who's pregnant!" This place is so right in its place, in its feeling of a small community separate in sensibility but unified in case of crisis. The people here are kind, hushed and much attached to nature and to their heritage. Wiseman is a place that contains a real sense of serenity-holding from the last century to this one with loveliness and style.

I next took a bush plane to Paradise Valley Lodge, where true aficionados come from the four points of the earth to pan for gold, not in a tourist attraction, but where gold can really be found. If you have a big hankering for roughing it - this is the place. The cabins are spaced very far apart so you have a real sense of privacy. Essential amenities are almost absent: one room cabin, outhouse, mosquitoes, etc. You stay a half mile from the lodge and must bring your own food or make previous arrangements with the manager. And think about it, when was the last time you checked into a lodge and they gave you a can of bear mace?

My final stop took me right to the Canadian border. The small town of Eagle has 130 people or something like that, a flower-laden landing strip, four museums four, and a general store-motel-gas station all-in-one. That's it. The museums are based on memorabilia from the remains of Fort Egbert, where the army first established law and order in a wild and woolly lawless territory run by power and guns. In the one cafe in town, four men, who look like they are from a movie casting call for grizzly 19th century trappers, meet every day to discuss in dramatic detail how they like to skin animals after they've trapped them. The former town mayor is a large sized woman with mighty arms and a tattoo on her neck who lives with her dainty friend in a log cabin with the only computer in town. The Princess cruise line buses passengers to Eagle from their ships docked downriver. They don't allow them overnight stays. Good. That's how Eagle maintains its purity.

If you are the brave and energetic kind, Alaska offers generous opportunity for real thrills, pristine wildlife and peaceful quietude. Once you take it in, you will never see your world the same. As I read it somewhere, "In life you are not really living. unless you take a chance". Take a chance. Go to Alaska.