Sheldon Family Adventure: Dreadful Accommodations

A driver was waiting at the pier to shuttle us to our Ko Samui accommodations - Chalee Villas. When we booked our Thailand adventure through a local travel agency the agent asked us if we would like to stay in bungalos at the beach rather than a hotel. Sure, that sounded fun. The next question was "do we want an A/C or fan bungalo"? We chose the fan since we turn off the A/C anyway. Our hotels rooms are way too cold plus the A/C give us stuffy noses and sore throats.

We pictured sleeping in a cute bungalo on the beach with the ocean breeze coming in through screened windows (no bugs this way), falling asleep to the sound of the waves and then waking to birds chirping with the sun streaming into our rooms. Sounds magnificient right?

Our driver pulled up to the Chalee Villas and our maginificent daydream looked more like a bad dream. We saw three delapidated shacks facing a crummy beach. We didn't want to make a false assumption as we did the the Thai train so we walked up to reception to find out what our accommodations were really like.

The receptionist showed us our two bungalos. They were even worse! A wave of old piss smell greeted us when she opened the door, the floorboards flexed and creaked with each step and the bathroom was infested with a million mosquitos looking to drain the life out of the next guest. The boys bungalo wasn't any better. It smelled like a gigantic mold factory with about half as many mosquitos.

Robert and the boys were ready to move to another location. Wait! At least we could ask to see another bungalo, surly they aren't all this horrible. I didn't want to be seen as a wimp, sissy or a prissy girly girl that couldn't handle rough accomodations for five days. I'm from Alaska and have roughed it with the best of them for longer than 5 days damit!!

When I asked Robert to entertain the idea of seeing another bungalo he obliged knowing full well the attitude I was in and that he needed to let me work this out on my own. The receptionist said she would have to make the beds but would show me the other bungalo first. It smelled too, more mold! Plus, seeing the beds without sheets was actually good because there were yellow and black stains all over the mattresses. Disgusting!

It was time for a family pow-wow. We conviened down at the beach.

The beach was as bad as the bungalos. The sand was covered with washed up seaweed, dead fish and tons of trash; broken beer bottles, empty chip bags and old cigarett butts. That did it! I was now on board with the plan to move locations.

First step, tell the recepionist we would not be staying there. Next, call our travel agent in Chiang Mai to complain. Finally, find a new place to stay on entirely different beach.

The receptionist called the manager over when I explained to her that the accommodations were not at all satisfactory. I explained again to the manager. He prodeeded to tell me there were no mosquitos in our room and wanted me to show him. He walked in the bathroom and told me the bugs I saw were not mosquitos. Seriously!Yes, they were freaking mosquitos! "I have mosquitos in my home so I know mosquitos when I see them and these are mosquitos! Mosquitos like me and eat me! I cannot and will not stay here!" I think he got the picture.

Back at reception I pulled out my handy dandy Lonely Planet guide and began looking for new accommodations. Chawang Beach sounded nice and the Tango Beach Resort had everything we desire for our home away from home.

I made the call and fortunately the had room for us. We hired a taxi to drive us twenty minutes to the Tango Resort hoping it was better than we we just left. It had to be since I don't know what would have made Chalee Villas any worse.

We arrived to perfection. Nice mid-sized resort, great rooms, clean pool, beautiful beach, lovely grounds, everything we wanted for a Thailand tropical beach holiday.

We learned, after talking to our travel agent, that a non-a/c room is code for dumpy. To get nice rooms you have to request a/c. So we learned something new and will ask for a/c and just choose to turn it off. I still argue that it's not that difficult to make a "no a/c, fan only room" clean, comfy and cute.