I'm having a house built. It's stressful. I haven't even signed off the plans yet after three weeks of too-ing and fro-ing with the architect who doesn't seem to have a clue about electrical engineering or regulations.
It's nothing special. Just a stock plan with a number of minor amendments as I could neither afford nor get my own design past the wife so it's a compromise. Anyway, more on this later but with this background in mind, we decided to take our first 'new normal' trip away on the bike for just 2 days and 1 night in Kanchanburi, home of the bridge over the River Kwai.
Currently in Thailand.....
We are in phase 3....or it could be phase 4 of lockdown restrictions. Bars are not yet open but massage parlours are, but only the traditional health ones, not the soapies. Restaurants are open but only one to a table unless there is a plastic screen between you. You still can't however, have a beer with a meal.
Beer with lunch and an empty bridge!
There is still an 11pm until 3am nationwide curfew and no buses south. There are a few internal flights now but our border is still rigidly closed to incoming passengers, unless you have a work permit and various letters of permission and health certificates from the Thai embassy in your home country. Basically there is no one coming in for 3 months now and this ban is expected to remain until at least the 31st of July. Tourism, on which much of the country relies, is trashed. Thousands are in poverty and out of work.
The government is now trying to promote domestic tourism and as such, some hotels have reopened and people are starting to travel a little but to be honest, Thais are not huge tourists and our chosen destination, Kanchaburi, despite it being a huge destination for foreign tourists, is never going to attract hordes of Thais....
So this isn't a review, merely a look at how things are, and that can be answered in one short sentence. Very quiet and rather sad.
The hotel was one of only a handful that was open and it was actually booked up. We got the last of the 40 rooms. There are special offers galore on hotel bookings all over Thailand at the moment, if only you could get here of course! Breakfast was served plated rather than buffet style. All buffet style eateries are still banned and despite pools being allowed to open again, ours was closed which was a relief as it was looking rather errr green!
The street on which the hotel is located is where most of the riverside hotels are, and is a long stretch of bars, cafes and restaurants but at nighttime, the normally bustling street was almost silent and empty except for a few local style eating places, a couple of shops and a rather forlorn mom and pop store.
In town at lunchtime, it was dreadfully quiet. The markets and touristy trinket shops open, but without anyone in them. The bridge itself is normally packed with tourists taking photos, seven days a week but there was barely a soul walking across, even when the train came over. We ate lunch at a riverside restaurant we enjoyed last time we were here but unlike last time when there was hardly a seat to be had, we were the only customers.
Classic tourist view....minus the tourists!
The government is mulling over an idea to give everyone 3000 baht ($100USD) credit or rebate if they book a stay in a qualifying hotel. It's possibly a good way to start the ball rolling and get some cash circulating in the tourist industry but I'm not sure it will work out quite as planned!!
So what of Hotel The Zeit ?
This isn't really a review. The hotel was just OK. To be honest, I've stayed in much better places for much less money. We paid a very heavily discounted 1500Baht ($50USD) and it was just 'OK', The location is superb, on the banks of the River Kwai and thankfully this time, there weren't hordes of revellers on party boats going up and down 24 hours a day! This trip, I had my tranquillity!
Nice, peaceful view from my room.
Cool design should look effortless....
From a design perspective, the hotel had tried much too hard to be cool, hip and trendy. I love industrial and modern design but it's been done to death and so to remain fresh, it needs to be different. This was just so generic and the whole place seemed to be begging for attention. There was also no flow amongst the various elements of the hotel.
Reception area. Look at me. I'm cool!
The toilets, reception, rooms, venue, pool and eating area were all separate structures without any sort of connection to each other and thus, the overall site. It was also a little shabby. One thing with this form of design is it needs to be kept in tip-top shape. Shabby modern design is just 'shabby', and is certainly not shabby chic!
A nice line of room blocks, with one, just stuck in front and slightly offset. God knows why but it ruins the whole aesthetic. Nice rainbow though!
Cool is cool, whether it be human or design!
Back to reality.....
Reality Thai style that is! Messages from the architect welcomed me home, informing me the brown window frames were almost double the price of the white ones and I was going to need a bigger consumer unit if I wanted the separate spur into one of the bathrooms I asked for.
Oh, and we passed a real Boeing 747 in a field at the side of the road as we drove home....as you do!
