I first heard of Take a Nap Hostel from Tallboyz (click on his blog link here to see the actual dormitory room). I suppose this hostel is fairly new, maybe have been operating for a year or so (considering that the website is copyrighted in the year 2007) so i have not heard of it or encounter it in the search engine. However, i can see that this particular hostel had accumulated many testimonials from satisfied customers. Just visit some of the travel forums to find out what i mean.

- Take a Nap -

After browsing through the website, i could understand why this place serves as a good starting point for traveling in Bangkok. The hostel is family run and very suitable for budget travels. Considering that hotels/hostels in Bangkok are no longer that cheap anymore, Take a Nap’s room rates is considered worthy (THB 1000 - THB 2000 per single/twin/double/4 bed room and THB 350 per dormitory bed).

Nestled in a heart of Bangkok city at the Silom district, Take a Nap Hostel is located in the central business area so you can expect a lively atmosphere for shopping, activities and nightlife. It’s a few minutes walk from both the sky train (BTS) and subway (MRT). Getting to places from the hostel is really a peace of cake.

1. MRTA(subway) Samyan Station: 0.4 Km.
2. BTS(skytrain) Saladaeng Sta.: 0.6 Km.
3. Hualampong Main train station: 2 Km.
4. Patpong: 0.6 Km.
5. Lumpinee Park: 0.5 Km.
6. Robinson department Store: 0.35 Km.
7. Central department Store: 0.6 Km.
8. MBK & Siam paragon: 2 Km.
9. Wat Traimitr: 2.3 Km.
10. Grand Palace : 5.6 Km.
11. Wat Pho: 5 Km.
12. Khaosarn Road: 5 Km.

On the other hand, i picked this hostel for my Bangkok trip because of the clean and modern rooms. The interior is somewhat interesting and refreshingly creative. Each of the 30 rooms available has an individual work of art. The room designs ranges from funky street art to a beautiful fairy tale with rooms named Happy Forest, Bang Bang, Bittersweet and Pub among many other names that exudes some creative flare. There are more subtle/less funky room graphics available such as the Bamboo, Big Blossom and In the Pink. They have every different theme possible that will suit your mood.

- Rooms -

Every rooms are equipped with bathroom, air conditioned, telephone line, cable TV, tea & coffee facilities and private safe. The lobby area is equipped with wireless internet connection so online access is no problem here. And of course, like other hostels they do have travel desk for tours, excursions and tourist bus transfer.

- Bamboo -

I’ve check out some other hostel that offers rooms that is less clean and less facilities for the similar price. In the end i settled for a twin room (Bamboo) for my parents and a 4-bed private room (In the Pink) for the sisters, Mr.Bf and i. Making a total of THB 3900 + THB 6000 = THB 9900 for a 3 nights stay per 6 person.

- In the Pink -

I see no point staying in luxury hotels in Bangkok because Bangkok is all about culture and i could easily stay in 5-stars hotels in my own country which offers similar services. Plus getting from places to places is a convenient at Take a Nap.

And oh, arranging for airport pickup earlier is a good idea if you are taking night flights like my family and i. You wouldn’t want to get stranded in Bangkok at midnight do you? LOL. Take a nap offer air-port pickups with reasonable fares, THB 800 via Toyota Innova or THB 1300 via Toyota Commuter (van).

I solemnly swear this is not an advertorial :P.

I’ve stumbled upon a really cool website (CompareHotel.com.my ) and i would like to share it with you guys. Avid travelers especially would be interested in this website.

It has somewhat been quite useful for me since i am planning a trip to Bangkok and Chiang Mai on February next year and looking for a affordable but comfortable inn or hotel at the most convenient area in Bangkok has proven to be quite an arduous task. There are so many hotels and guest houses in Bangkok, it could drive a mind crazy!  A tap on the google search button will return like thousands of sites or blogs suggesting different hotels and the rates together with different reviews from tourist or travelers (mostly useless since some of the reviews are outdated). It isn’t my idea of a good holiday by getting started with a headache of going through all the websites uno by uno.

With CompareHotel.com.my, all you need to do is to enter the check-in and check-out dates, number of guest(s), number of room(s) and of course the destination/city you intend to visit. CompareHotel would search over 30 top travel sites and also the sites of many wholesale online travel companies, travel agents and hotels on your behalf. The result is a wonderful and extensive list of hotels and inns/guest houses with information such as rates, ranks and popularity among other details. Alternatively, if you already have a hotel name in mind, just search using the name to get more information.

(If you want to know the agencies and companies which are searched, you can check it out on the website itself.)

For example, my search for Bangkok hotels returned an impressive list on 34 pages (500 hotels/inns).

Now i just have to sort it according to room price to get the lowest room rates in Bangkok.

What’s more interesting is that CompareHotel is currently running a ‘Review Me & Sponsor a Child Program for World Vision. Each review on CompareHotel will result in RM50 donations towards World Vision’s Child Sponsorship Program.

World Vision is a Christian relief, development and advocacy organization dedicated to work with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. Child Sponsorship Program helps provide necessities to the child, such as access to education, health care, immunisation, clean water and also support vital development work in the community of the child. Refer the flash demo for more details. This review campaign is open to blog with significant traffics. For every sponsored review, we will donate MYR50 to WorldVision’s Child Sponsorship Program. Our budget for this campaign is RM5000, for 100 blogs. Donation receipt will be forwarded to your email. We will forward a copy of children’s photos, details etc once we received from WorldVision. The review should contain more than 200 words with hyperlinks and images (e.g screenshots, banner etc) of www.CompareHotel.com.my Campaign period start from 20-Oct-2008 until further notice. The following bloggers have participated in WorldVision’s Child Sponsorship Program: Kenny Sia from www.Kennysia.com

Get on with it people!

Ps:// They might only approve blogs with significant traffic meaning this blog have like a zero chance of getting approve. But what the heck, the website is really useful and the program is for a good cause

With Christmas approaching 2 months away, many holiday goers are already planning for a long holiday getaway. I am already in a holiday mood too. The many travel advertisements about Luxury Holidays in the newspapers and magazines is not helping me concentrate on work either.

Besides a vacation to de-stress and enjoy, i know many couples are getting married within these few months. I guess end of the year is a good time to get hitched. Christmas is the month of love right? Well, with all my friends getting married, it got me thinking about my future wedding especially about the honeymoon trip (not as much as the honeymoon itself but because i’m such a travel enthusiast!). It’s pretty exciting, a romantic trip to somewhere exotic for special occasions such as honeymoon isn’t it?

Speaking of special occasions, many people prefer travel destinations in Europe such as Spain, Italy, Rome, Paris and even the Caribbean. But i prefer places that are more unusual. Only Exclusive Travel offers just that. Only Exclusive Travel is a UK travel agent who specializes in organizing travel to exotic or unusual locations in the Caribbean, Europe and also the far East. One of the destinations that caught my interest is Mauritius. They have the best accommodation ever! Le Saint Geran Mauritius and Le Touessrok Mauritius are one of the most beautiful places to stay for a holiday in Mauritius.

Ain’t it gorgeous or what?!

Le Touessro

Le Touessro - Ocean Suite

Le Saint Geran

Le Saint Geran - Le Terrasse Evening

Now there’s a destination worth a visit.