Once again, we check in on the Amazing Racers' latest pit stop. As usual, we leave every detail and ever pregnant pause of Phil's up to our sibling Jaunted while we take a look at which hotel we would choose to stay in at each pit stop.
This week, the crew landed in Malaysia where they could gobble cookies or "apply batik to fabric". We, on the other hand, would rather stop in at the Ritz-Carlton in Kuala Lumpur, mainly because it's a Ritz we can afford. Rooms average about $183 a night and are extremely spacious. You also can order your butler around, relax in the hotel spa, or around the pool, shop at the luxury mall next door and get this, according to one guest surf the internet with the hotel's free broadband internet. We never thought we'd see the day....
We reported very briefly on the The Datai Langkawia while back when a top hotel inspector added the place to his top hotels list.
But now we want to take a closer look. For starters, the Datai is located within a tropical rainforest on the northwestern tip of the island of Langkawi (off the coast of mainland Malaysia). So already you have an amazing location to work with.
Inside the hotel, there are four different types of accommodations--deluxe rooms, pool villas, superior villas and suites--yet all of them have at least a bedroom and a living room area, along with technological amenities like a BOSE stereo system and get this, complimentary high-speed internet.
More about the hotel can be found on its web site where cutesy little poems like this one deliver the information you want to hear.
Blended to echo nature, mixed with style and fine traditions, It maintains quality and excellence as its overwhelming missions. Look around you and you’ll notice subtlety and air, Of a hotel-experience that is beyond all compare.
Elsewhere on the resort you will find a golf course, a spa and four dining options. We are pretty much sold on the resort just judging from the pictures alone, but luckily the TripAdvisor reviews stack up as well. Everyone praises the location and the service. In fact, the only thing wrong about the resort is that it's not a great place for singles.
Naturally, the place has won some accolades and the folks over at Five Star Alliance named the hotel as one of Malaysia's top luxury picks. Another sign that this place is as good as it looks? The candid photos on TripAdvisor which are notoriously crappy (think blurry snapshots and pointless portraits) look like near perfection so you can imagine that this place is even better in real life.
Unfortunately, you may want to wait another year before heading here. The resort is starting a series of (needed) room renovations in May. It will still be open during the renovations but we say wait until December 2007 when its completed to enjoy the full effect.
This week we decided to take a look at some of the newer hotels that have opened up in Malaysia and Singapore, which we know is bit of a random decision. But we're always trying to broaden our hotel coverage, so if you know of a can't-miss hotel in either country (or really, anywhere for that matter), hit us up on the tipline with your suggestions or questions.
First up is Tune Hotels chain, which is expected to open next month in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and with four other locations in the country expected to open by 2008.
The man behind Tune Hotels is Tony Fernandes who helped bring low-cost aviation to Malaysians through AirAsia. His vision for Tune hotels centers around the capsule hotels (popular in Japan) and the idea that everyone should be able to afford a clean, hip and comfortable hotel stay at low prices. Indeed these prices are low, ranging from US $3- $30.
Yet keep in mind that the hotel will operate on the "no-frills" level to keep those prices low.
Tune Hotels.Com operates a "no frills" concept, therefore there are no telephones, television, radio, safe, mini bar, tea and coffee making facilities in the rooms.
You may also be subjected to some advertisements from other companies displayed in the hotel (We have no doubt there will be some AirAsia cross promotion.) Something to look forward to? All rooms have their own bathrooms and housekeeping cleans on a daily basis. However, one thing to note is that Tune Hotels will not provide refunds for any bookings made.
So far, Tune Hotels look like they will have a lot of personality to make up for the amenities they lack inside. The company's colors are bright red and white which they have used for the hotel's exterior so you will always know where the building is. Their web site is engaging with each aspect of the hotels' information depicted in a different manner, such as the "Vision" page in the comic book style (minus the pows! and ka-booms!) We particularly like the tabloid theme for the "Mangament Bares All" aka the "About Us" page.
Our only question is, if these are capsule hotel rooms how come the web site keeps showing a father and a son in a pillow fight? Can there really be that much room?
Prefer a cozy 20-room hotel or a massive 200-room resort? How about 2,000 doors with guests sleeping behind them? A blog in the Sydney Morning Herald recently discussed the notion of whether size matters in the hotel world. It all started out with a description of staying in a 4000-room Las Vegas hotel:
I needed a map to find my room and it took a lengthy and brisk walk along never-ending corridors to get between it and the hotel lobby. I carried water and sandwiches just in case I got lost.
But how about the First World Hotel almost an hour out of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia--the SMH blogger believes it needs 32 receptions desks to handle its 6,118 rooms. But let's not stop there: apparently the coming Asia Hotel in Dubai will top this with 6,500 rooms. Do you want to stay in a hotel this size? We just think we've got no chance of finding our way from our room to breakfast, let alone back in the evening after a couple of drinks. Yep, size does matter and a hotel can be too big.
Most hotels don't put a monkey on the front of their brochure: but then most hotels aren't at the gateway to the largest orang utan sanctuary in the world, Sepilok, where a conservation program encourages orang utans to come and go as they please. (Yes, the proper way to spell the name is with a space like Orang Utan. Or at least according to this zoo.)
They don't come as far as the Le Meridien Kota Kinabalu hotel, despite the enquiring orang utan faces in their advertising. This hotel is right in downtown Kota Kinabalu, a 2.5 hour flight from Kuala Lumpur and the perfect base for exploring some great parts of Malaysia.
KK's the capital of the state of Sabah, on the northern end of the island of Borneo. Le Meridien boasts of its proximity to the beauty of Sabah, "the Land Below the Wind", and views across KK and the South China Sea. Not only that, they're close to beaches, golfing, shopping and "soft adventure." Er...what exactly do they mean by that: rock-climbing with cushions?
If you have a fear of reptiles, then you should avoid this hotel. At the Mutiara Burau Bay in Langkawi, Malaysia, there's a resident lizard who likes to swim in the pool every few hours. No word on what type of lifeguard training it has done.
On the other hand, if you want to see wildlife without going to an amusement park, then this is the place for you:
Monkeys could be seen every day including lots of babies, monitor lizards strolling around and one even came for a swim with us on our last day! Loads of squirrels everywhere and the most amazing birds. I took tons of photos. In most places you have to travel around or go on tours to see the wildlife, here it was all around you.
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by juliana
