Hotel berhampiran HOOGA Camping in the Woods, Daerah Pak Chong

OK. So let's call it like it is. This hotel is a design classic. And that is why I wanted to stay. I dropped by about 10 years ago, and it was in full swing then and cost about B3,000 a night. Now it is less than half that. Why? Well, the place has seen better days. To say the least. Our rooms were clean and serviceable. The linen was fresh. Breakfast was fresh and started with a salad and fresh fruit, followed by joke, toast and boiled eggs washed down with instant coffee and water. BUT the place needs serious investment. And massive renovation. It is a design icon - think the 2001 space center landing in the Khao Yai national Park and you get the picture. I am concerned that the next time I go to Khao Yai it will be demolished to make ways for one of the many boring new condos that are prevalent in the area.

In Khao Yai there are three types of hotels: 1) Many quite local, inexpensive hotels of varying quality that cost ~B1000 (in other, non-touristy locations, these hotels would be B500-B600). 2) A few very fancy and quite expensive hotels. 3) A few hotels in the middle - nicer than #1, and less expensive than #2. Fortune fits into this nice middle category. We enjoyed our stay at Fortune, but it is quite expensive for what they provide. The Beds were quite nice (i.e. soft yet supportive) for this big Farang, and for that one big reason we paid the higher price. The room was OK, but nothing fancy. The included breakfast was quite basic, but edible. We choice to skip the breakfast after the first morning. While the gentleman at the front desk is *quite* helpful and responsive, and the rest of the staff do their jobs, there could be more attention paid to making sure things are done well. For instance, our bath mat was pretty disgusting and when we left it on the floor to be changed, the maids just hung it back up. Broadly, Fortune could invest in some maintenance. Visitors should seek discounts, either on-line or in-person when they arrive.

The staff were so nice! This is a family operated business and they really take care of the guests. The road its on is a bit busy and can be noisy at the front of the resort. It is an easy drive to the main street for restaurants and pubs. The national park is very close by. The view at the back of the resort is awesome, Get up early to see the sunrise. The bed was okay, however, the pillows were too hard for my liking.

The hotel is built on a large area and has a very interesting architecture. You enter through the parking garage, upstairs is a friendly reception. The room numbers are confusing, it takes some time to understand the system. The room is nice and big with an extra sofa, a balcony, a modern trendy bathroom with bath and there is a fridge. One side of the bed has no nightstand. At the end of the area is the restaurant and the swimming pool. The pool is very big and circles around a central area. It is 1.20m deep. It is very quiet (aside from loud guests from time to time) and there are many places to sit, lie and relax. The restaurant has a great menu of Thai and western dishes. The food is very good and the prices are reasonable. The steak was great and the pizza also nice and thin with good topping. Service is with attention to detail. So far so good. Back in the room, wanting to relax a bit with the remainder of the wine we were exposed to the thumping bass of music from a party at least 100 meters away. Extremely irritating to a point that I had to leave the room and go for a walk. The noise came from a small restaurant on the main road with just a few visitors. It could be heard hundreds of meters down the road and also in the pool area. No escape. I don’t directly blame the hotel for this, but they should contact their neighbors and ask for some consideration. At half the volume it is still more than loud enough for the dancers. It went on till well after 10 pm. After that you can hear some traffic, so I would recommend to ask for a room farther from the road, the second building row. A place where I have to leave my room cannot score high on my come-back list. Unless of course the issue is solved. What a pity that in such a nice place the fun of a small group can affect the guests of 72 rooms in this hotel alone.

เป็นโรงแรมเล็กๆบนถนนธนะรัชต์ ที่ราคาพันนิดๆ ในขณะที่โรงแรมอื่น ในละแวกนั้น ราคาต่อคืนสามพันกว่าบาทขึ้นไป มาดูข้อดีของโรงแรมนี้กัน 1.ราคาต่อคืนไม่แพง 2.อยู่บนถนนธนะรัขต์และอยู่กึ่งกลางของสถานที่ท่องเที่ยวหลายๆที่และร้านอาหารหลายแห่งบนถนนธนะรัชต์ 3.พนักงานยิ้มแย้ม แจ่มใส พูดจาดี บริการดี 4.มีไวไฟ สัญญาณแรงดี 5.มีสระเล่นน้ำ (ไม่ใช่สระว่ายน้ำ) 6.มีอาหารเช้านะ 7.ห้องน้ำ มีสายฉีดชำระ สะอาด มีน้ำอุ่นด้วย 8.มีที่จอดรถ แม้ไม่มาก แต่ก็สามารถจอดด้านนอกรั้วโรงแรมได้ ใต้ร่มไม้ใหญ่ 9.คุ้มค่าในราคาที่เสียไป

Beautiful setting. We booked the room with the upper floor, all nice and well-equipped with everything we need for our stay. Staff were friendly and helpful. Few points that we think the resort could take into their account to improve. 1. The pool area is really nice, except the beach bar and their music choices. I think they are trying to make it look like a fun beach bar but instead, look very cheap and out of the setting. Their music playlist is a crime. There were about 10 songs and they kept playing in the loop. If you cannot put together some nice and chill playlist (all covered song, not even the real artists), rather just don't play it at all. 2. Towels were run out at the pool area, we had to ask 3 times (within 1.5 hour) to get towels. There were no other guests at the pool area….just two of us. Not sure why they took so much time to get towels…. In my opinion, whoever responsible for the pool area should take more attention to improve it. 3. The seating in the room’s balcony had lots of dust.

Back in its heyday this place must have been the Francophile owner’s Versailles, even today it looks grand despite the crumbling buildings, potholed roads, and overgrown garden. Highly recommend to stay at the new residences wing at the back, which are very new. It’s a short walk to the open air breakfast area. The main resort buildings are in a pitiful state and seem to have squatters in them, seeing from the laundry hung outside. We stayed in a one bedroom apartment complete with kitchen & living room in the Bellevue building, which was really nice & big. Only complaint was the phone in the deserted lobby kept ringing non-stop until I took matters in my own hands and took the receiver off the line. Later someone put the receiver back and it started ringing again, this time I unplugged the line but discreetly left it under the phone so no one can tell.

I stayed for 3 nights. The room was a garden view villa overlooking the mountain and green country side. IT was so quiet and peaceful. A nice change from busy Bangkok. The room was very comfortable and clean. However, the bathroom was very dark even with the blinds open. It needs much better lighting in the bathroom. The towels were a bit old end should be replaced. Meals in the restaurant were okay but the staff seemed not too interested. English was a problem but I am used to that. I will most certainly stay again when I need to chill out and get way from Bangkok. I want to mention Khun Gift at the front reception. She was very pleasant and did an great job to welcome us. She likes her job and is proud to work at The Paz. Thank You Khun Gift.

Everything was good except , i got the room with the air of the AC is facing to the bed and facing our face . So we didnt have a good sleep .