The Great Escape Chalets

The Great Escape Chalets are the latest arrival to the Thong Nai Pan Yai accommodation scene. It is a group of larger bungalows or ‘chalets’ located back from the beach. It opened in late 2014 and offers good mid-range bungalows. It is not so much a resort as a small collection of bungalows.

The Great Escape Chalets are located 25 meters from Thong Nai Pan Yai beach between The Four Resort (formerly known as Central Cottage) and Pen’s Bungalows. It is a row of 10 large concrete bungalows that offer, as the official prose claims, ‘garden and mountain’ views. Naturally, previous occupants have already commented on the bad location. This seems unfair – the bungalows are close to the beach; they just lack sea views. This obsession with being beachfront never ceases to puzzle me. Is the extra cost really worth it? Most resorts tend to take up most of their beach frontage with a restaurant, as that can generate more revenue per square meter of sand than through accommodation.

There isn’t a restaurant or any other extra facilities at The Great Escape Chalets. No gym or swimming pool or spa. It is an accommodation option that has been created by separately branding a line bungalows that belongs to Pen’s.

The bungalows are concrete. Guests enter via glass folding doors. The rooms have tiled floors and windows. They are spacious. They have attached bathrooms with actual baths as well as hot water. The rooms also have small fridges, TVs and free wifi. There is a choice between a room with 2 single beds and a room with a double bed.

While prospective guests might get excited about the thought of an actual ‘bath’ in the bathroom, it should be remembered that the water that comes out of the taps is from the nearby waterfall. It is brown water. The colour is not noticeable when having a shower, but will no doubt be spotted in a white bath. Moreover, every summer sees water shortages in Thong Nai Pan. The use of baths hardly helps the effort to manage limited water supplies.

The ‘Superior Chalets’ cost about 1,500 Thai Baht a night. While they are more spacious than most of the bungalows in Yai they aren’t beach front and are more than twice the price to bungalows at The Four Resort, Dolphin Bungalows, Nice Beach Resort and Longtail Beach Resort.

Those brave enough in this age of internet booking to just turn up might well be able to get a discount as ‘walk in’ trade. In which case head for Flip Flop Bar on the beach and enquire in there.

Kids Club and Indian Buddha House Raksa Website – Gone

Things often disappear without any fanfare in Thong Nai Pan.  The exception perhaps is the finishing party for Baan Pong on Noi beach. This, however, was not much of a swan song, since Better Than Sex was all ready at the time of the party for Pong to move to. This is different to the silent disappearance of Hideaway, Jungle Bar, White Sands, Star Huts, Otto Bungalows, Que Pasa, the original Luna Lounge, The Rock Bar, the Doors Bar and Tipi Cantina. The list could go on to fill this entire post.

The reasons places shut and websites are taken down are numerous. Sometimes it is bad planning, sometimes the competition have too much money and clout, and sometimes what seemed like an easy way to make money turns out to be far too much work  for those concerned.

Kids Club

The Kids Club in Yai might be in the latter category. They set it up and had some initial success in terms of attracting paying customers; providing fun for children (both Thais and foreigners); and getting publicity. They set up a Facebook page and posted pictures and garnered a respectable amount of likes. Yet, the page soon announced that they were looking for a buyer. Sadly, no buyer was forthcoming – after all what is there to buy? Rented accommodation with a handful of toys is not much of an asset. It is the teachers, carers and qualified staff that make a playgroup valuable.

It is a shame because the big hotels in Thong Nai Pan do far too little for children. They are more concerned about ripping families off by charging for a compulsory breakfast for kids who stay with their parents. In the case of Rasananda it is 1,500 Thai Baht. That is outrageous. None of the hotels offer organised events for kids or qualified child minders. They want to think of themselves as ‘5 star’ but can’t be bothered trying to offer child-related services that are normally offered by real 5 star hotels. When a hotel says they have ‘babysitting’ services they mean they have a cleaner or bar tender who will look after your child while you go down the beach for a meal.

Indian House Buddha Raksa

This beach side place on Yai beach hasn’t closed down. They seem to be doing quite well. There was also a wedding in the family recently. So congratulations are in order.

What has changed about Indian House Buddha Raksa is that they have let their website slip. Obviously the foreigner who set it up (and never finished it) gave up in the end and let it slip into oblivion. I suspect that the Thai owners are happy just using Facebook. It is simple and seems to do an adequate job in promoting a business and announcing events, improvements etc. There is very little money in website design anymore thanks to content management systems that make coding skill unnecessary for making a web page. Moreover, Facebook is free whereas renewing an URL costs money.

The only thing I would mention is that Indian House Buddha Raksa used to be simply ‘Indian House’. It is less of a mouthful to say and makes more sense than the present moniker for the business.

Dolphin Bar and Café Becomes Siam House

Dolphin Bar and Café have made the decision to end the confusion between their bar and Dolphin Bungalows on the beach. They continue to receive emails addressed to Dolphin Bungalows. Visitors looking to book a bungalow online are confused. This is because Dolphin Bungalows have never bothered with a website. It was only last year they bothered to tell anyone their email address.

The solution has been for Dolphin Bar and Café in Yai village to rename. It is now Siam House. However, for the time being they are still reminding people that they were formerly known as ‘Dolphin Bar and Café’. This is because they have numerous glowing reviews on Trip Advisor under their old name. It takes a while to change these things.

The website address www.dolphinbarandcafe.com has been kept but the website has been completely changed. The header shows the new name but also explains that the place was once called ‘Dolphin Bar and Café’.

It is hoped that over time the new name will stick, the TA reviews will be updated and that the website will move to a new address. Then the confusion will finish.

As an aside, the new look website is particularly cool. It uses great photos taken by Myscha Oreo and has a stylish and easy to navigate feel. A big improvement on the last website design.

It is expected that the original and funky Siam House will go from strength to strength as visitors to Thong Nai Pan now have greater expectations. Accommodation prices have increased and people now want something more than the standard Thai / Western menu. They are looking for places with a bit of originality and good customer service. The days of just opening up a basic business on or near the beach and watching the money roll in are going. Those who ignore review sites do so at their peril.

UPDATE: This beautiful website was taken down in 2016. Also Siam House have decided not to use the dolphin bungalows branding, web address etc.