Friday, April 11, 2008

Not your typical hotel

Josh and I are staying at the D2 Hotel in Chiang Mai right now. The hotel was booked for us, since he's working in Chiang Mai this week, and evidently this is the place where his coworkers stay when they come here (as they offer good service and rates).

We were told that it was "modern", but we weren't quite prepared for something out of a high-end design magazine...

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(Sorry it's so dark-- I was avoiding the flash to be polite.)

The place is very contemporary-- dark woods, beige stone tiles, basketry, metal, and highlights in a bright orange color tying it all together. There are interesting carpets and plexiglass boxes full of (artificial) pears, plus there are fresh tropical flowers all over the place (changed daily).

On checking in, we were presented with glasses of an ice cold ginger+lemongrass drink. Yum!

We then proceeded to our room:

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The interior is really beautiful-- more dark wood, golden wall panels, interesting carpet, and lots of textures.

The space in the center with the Venetian blinds is actually the shower! It's a glass box separating the bathroom and bedroom, with the blinds for privacy.

There's a huge window seat which is big enough to serve as a second bed:

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An added bonus was the wall-mounted flatscreen TV + DVD player for our entertainment:

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Not to mention the large, friendly tangerine that was waiting on the bed to greet us.

Why am I blogging this? Because I LOVE this kind of design. I've been boring Josh silly this week discussing how some of these ideas might be adapted for our apartment, or eventually our house back home. (I plan to do a lot more shopping at West Elm from now on...)

In some places, "cutting edge" design like this would be intimidating-- and that's where this hotel really wins. Every single person who works here has been unfailingly nice, cheerful, and helpful, and seems to genuinely enjoy their job (if that's a front, it's a darn good one). Thailand is a friendly country but this goes above and beyond the norm-- and more importantly, the attention here is not oppressive as it can be elsewhere, as in shops where people sometimes follow you around to "help" you browse.

In each hotel room there is an interesting orange box:

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Each day, the housekeeping staff leave a "surprise" in this box for you. On this particular day (yesterday), the box contained two herbal balls for traditional Thai massage. On other days it's been local rice crackers, tiny elephant keychains, or fresh-baked shortbread cookies.

Yesterday there was a knock on the door and we were presented with this:

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You can click through to Flickr to see a larger size and read the note, but it was from one of the guest relations "Gurus" making sure we were enjoying our stay. The chocolate was very yummy!

I sound like an advertisement, but that's okay, because this place deserves one. If you ever come to Chiang Mai, I'd highly recommend the D2 for amazing treatment. It *is* more expensive than most other hotels here in Chiang Mai or Thailand in general (the "Best Rate" right now is 4100 baht/night for the type of room we're in), but it's still relatively cheap by US standards, and the treatment is top-notch! We'll definitely consider staying here again (although exploring some other places would be fun too).

Monday, April 7, 2008

Change of location!

Well, right now I'm writing to you from the D2 Hotel in Chiang Mai, Thailand!

Josh had a business trip up here, and I decided to accompany him, since this two-week period is FULL of Thai holidays and thus a great time for traveling. Today (April 7th) is a day off for Chakri Day (which was actually yesterday), and next Monday to Wednesday (April 14-16) are holidays for Songkran, the Thai New Year/Mardi Gras celebration.

While Josh works this week, I'll be working from the hotel and also doing some fun activities like a Thai cooking class. From Saturday until Wednesday, we'll be visiting museums, taking a trip to the Elephant Nature Park, and trying not to get TOO wet from the water fight on the streets!

More later...