Saturday, June 06, 2009

Eravana, Jomtien beach, Thailand

I have been told quite several times by my local Thai friends that there have been more and more nice resorts and hotels in the southern part of Jomtien beach (south next to Pattaya main beach). Actually Pattaya was the first place I touched down on my first trip to Thailand in May 1997, on my way back from Rome and Milan. My friend chose a very interesting hotel (and actually he is much into Wong Kai Wai) and that hotel is filled with everything in rusty red (literally calling) but I can't complain about it because the room rate is just THB400. At that time, I was thinking if I would run into Jack Nicholson in the lobby with a typewriter typing "life is boring" repeatedly for a million times on thousands of papers on the ground (part of the renowned horror movie "Shining" if no one knows what I refer to). So Pattaya was such a contrast to me right after a 10 hour flight from a historical and nice city as Rome. Then I went to Pattaya for the second time in 2000 and stayed at a resort called Woodland, and in fact that was the first time TC brought me for checking on hotels and resorts in Pattaya. My impression about Pattaya was much changed. At least it had something nice though it's still a place with many "red" things and I can see most of the professional ladies wearing t-shirts "welcome US navy". Then on the 3rd time, my friends and I stayed in another nice mid-class resort in north Pattaya called Naklua. This time we chose to stay in the southern end of Jomtien and found this interesting resort called Eravana and the website showed the sensual healing as Six"th" sense. Some of my friends thought it's another outlet of the famous Six Senses group. :) In general, paying THB6,xxx for a big suite with a private pool inside is quite ok. We checked even with those 1+1 free room rate, this one is still the lowest one considering a private pool villa. The resort is called as eco-friendly. Their air-conditioner is with the water heater together. That means if you turn on the air-conditioner, the heat part of the air-con. would heat the water in the water tank; so that you would have hot water from the shower and bath tub. The only thing I would complain about this resort is that they closed the restaurant in the lunch time because of the low occupancy; so we needed to go to downtown for dinners.

1/2 a very spacious room inside and the good thing about it is that you can go in and out of the rooms in many of the window doors. Great for the kids to play hide and seek.

3. the pool and sun deck area. 4. the entrance is with lots of green.

5/6. the pool is with jacuzzi.

7/8. the bath tub - so big that I can stretch myself flat.

9/10. open bathroom and shower.

11/12. view to the pool from the patio table.

13/14. the other rooms.

15. the resort has around 10-15 private pool villas. 16. entrance to our villa.

17/18. the common swimming pool area.

19/20. another view to the pool and resting area.

19/20. the garden outside the restaurant.

21. the shower in common area. 22. the restaurant.


23/24. Coffee and toast served at breakfast.

25. orange juice. 26. egg and ham with salad - a bit too over-cooked.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

nowadays Pattaya does have many nice Phuket-style resorts (mainly in South Jomtien and on Sukhumvit Highway towards Sattahip Naval Base) and real international brand hotels

Pattaya is catching up!

many years ago i couldn't find a decent restaurant to eat, best food in Pattaya in the old days was gai-yang somtum (still the best), but now also many nice European restaurants with real western cooking technique and taste at an affordable price, nice local seafood restaurants other than those tourist-class on the Walking Street, and even a few Thai restaurants

Pattaya is changing!

in the sea said...

I recalled my friend bought me to those seafood restaurants. Not much impressed as the sauce is over than the seafood itself. Glad that there are some different hotels and resorts in Pattaya. At least the tourists can have other choices instead of those interesting inns.

Stella said...

Are you saying this nice hotel's suite with private pool is only $200+ US per night? This looks like $500 per night to me.
On your last sentence of the writing, why the restaurant closed at lunch then you have to go to downtown for dinner? Do you mean they close the restaurant for dinner instead?

in the sea said...

Yes. US$200. I chatted with my business friend from LA last week during a conference in HK. He told me staying in a resort like Aleenta in Phuket would cost him US$1,000 for a resort in the Caribbean or Hawaii. So even flying to Thailand for a nice resort plus a business class ticket is still cheaper than going to a similar class resort in the Caribbean or Hawaii.