Asia After Hours

The Siam hotel, Bangkok : construction state from around mid of November
The Siam hotel at the riverside is a new boutique hotel that shall open around mid of June 2012.
There is a lot of buzz going on about this hotel.
Jason, the first manager of the Four Seasons Tented Camp, will operate it for creative director and celebrity Krissada Sukosoi Clapp who owns it with his family. Bill Bensley, of whom I am a big fan of, is one of the main architects and designer of the project.

It is still too early to really write something about it. The construction state from mid November gives you a first impression of the location and stage of progress. The design and used materials are very impressive I can already testify.
The location is pretty far away and isolated at the Krung Thon bridge, in the Dusit area. I recommend to have a map or photo with you to show the taxi driver, it is more easy to find it by boat from the Chao Phraya river.
They focus on luxury tourists who enjoy the private service, peaceful location and unique design. Rates start from THB 16.3k++ and end at THB 46.5k++. They are not really competing with the other two big riverside luxury hotels Peninsula and Mandarin Oriental. Their style is more boutique and personal.
They are planning to open a Thai restaurant named Chon there as well.

At first I was thinking of booking a pool villa riverview but when I realized how small the plunge pool is, I rather will book their top room, Connie’s cottage my first time there.
The plunge pool is more something for the optics but I doubt many people will use it to actually “swim“ in there, maybe to cool down shortly ?
The only “real“, almost private pool hotel that exists currently in Bangkok is the Siam Kempinski with its duplex suites and their direct pool access.
What very much excites me about the place is the amazing design of the rooms/villas. You can check a few photos on their website already.
The setting shall reflext the golden ages of Rama V (1853-1910).
There are also some Jim Thompson influences. Connie was a friend of Jim Thompson. He built her a villa and they now transported it back from Ayutthaya, totally refurbished and equipped it with more comforts.
Connie was known for throwing the “hottest” parties for the high society those days in Bangkok. Show me some video/pics to give proof of that, hehe !
I guess it is their ultimate dream to revive something of those good, old days at their place and to bring such clientele there.
I actually consider the price levels almost to be too low. Even if they get a constant 75% booking rate, which is hard to achieve there, they won’t be making much revenues and even less profits. It is a nice, prestigious object and a museum-like collection of memories of an old, golden era in Bangkok – but don’t expect it to be big business.
I hope the rooms will be as inviting as they look on the pictures. Anyway, I am pretty excited to check out that place.

Four Seasons resort, Tented Camp, Golden Triangle

The Tented Camps are a prestigious object for the Four Seasons group, they love to use it in plenty of ads for their brand. And they also did win lots of awards from recognized luxury travel magazines. I think Conde Nast even voted this place as the world’s best resort recently.
The titles and names still won’t stop my honest criticism.

The most remarkable feature of the place is clearly the concept by Bill Bensley. The stay in such tents is unique within South East Asia : overlooking the river, the landscape, mountains and seeing plenty of rare animals and trees.
I was surprised to hear that they only have 4 elephants, but at a different camp a bit further outside you get to see more elephants and even baby elephants. The elphants are smart and some even managed to free themselves from the chains and escaped to Burma for a while.

The most special attraction there is the Mahout training : you get to learn 4 basic commands how to navigate an elephant. Keep in mind that the elephant still will try to get everything eatable on the way and the ride is bumpy ! I was riding an elephant only once before in 2005 on Phuket but this time it was without a basket. The area that they have for the elephants is huge and absolutely beautiful, very jungle-like.
I thought they would put me on a rather short ride, but in fact the whole track lasted 2 hours, I was really exhausted and tired after that, especially in the beginning I lost a lot of energy when not finding a comfortable balancing position. Well, later they told me I was the second person ever whom they instantly put on the longer peninsula track. I didn’t knew that before. They have a funny idea that they give you a Mahout certificate afterwards which looks like an ID card. Like Vikas recommended : next time I get asked for my ID, I pull that out with a pic of me riding an elephant – a guaranteed laugh.

The pool is rather small but that is not the problem : the main problem are the distances (and a pool water temperature below 15 degrees celsius !) are very far within the resort. It takes about 15 minutes walking (hilly and sometimes slippery) from my tent 13 (explorer tent) to the pool and you have to carry your stuff along, not convenient. The walks to the breakfast area is the same. If you forget something, maybe like your passport for the Burma and Laos trips, calculate that you just lost 30 minutes because of that.
In the evening it can get really cold, at first I wondered why they have a heating system in the tents : you very much need it ! I mean it is part of the concept not to have all the luxury and convenience available there, but expect most Thais laughing about you secretly how much you pay for a rather inconvenient stay with slow service and a lack of luxury. I paid something around THB 70k++ per day. Friendly was, because I stayed alone and booked for 2, they refunded me the extra charge back to my credit card. Six Senses Yao Noi didn’t go ahead and refunded something for my 2 days single stay by their own action and I also didn’t wanted to ask. I often realized that I can enjoy places like these better alone, the girls can mean disharmony. At such isolated places the risk for me is simply high, so for pure relaxation, I mostly prefer staying alone.

The tent is really cool, I would have wished to spend more time there. They packed my schedule so heavy that I only had a 2 hours afternoon really being able to enjoy the best of this place. I had the feeling that they don’t really like it when their guests isloate themselves inside the tent. Similar behavior like at Six Senses in the recent post : they do want you to be active, that’s the only way they make additional money, morever the tent isn’t getting harmed the less you stay there.
Quite unprofessional was that my promised activity schedule wasn’t in the tent like they said, so I had to rely on the schedule by memory and missed one activity because of that.

The spa is beautiful, the walk there takes very long. They even have signs on the way not the give up walking there. Hilarious ! Yes, this place doesn’t need a gym, but do you expect to get a person above 60-years-old ever again there who isn’t a sports freak ? Those people will go to Dhara Devi next time once they experienced the pain of this resort.
The treatment itself was pretty good, no Top 10 Bangkok spa standard but the whole atmosphere was relaxing, the treatment was better than what I got at Six Senses but clearly worse than the Four Seasons Chiang Mai. I tried the Mahout signature massage which is a combination of several techniques.

I will later release seperate videos of activites like the Golden Triangle tour, the Laos casino at the border, Burma and some freaky markets and old temples.
Food at the Tented Camps is above average, nothing really to mention but also nothing to complain about. The waiting time are rather long but still acceptable for this place, it never took longer than 40 minutes to get the main course.

Here is part 1 of the video :

The baby elephant camp is further outside. It is pretty clear that you can have a very similar experience at this location with the elephants for a 1/10th of the money, you just must be willing to organize more by yourself and things might even get more inconvenient if you don’t have much time.

The Burma bar is sweet, much smaller than I expected it actually but remember that they only have 14 tents, so the size is very justified. At such places where I want to re-energize, I refuse to drink alcohol, so I didn’t try any drink there. On my last night there, there was a big party going on until the early morning. You hear everything through the tents and in the area. But later I read the Canadian GM Yonatan was just getting married around the times when I stayed there. This party might had been his wedding ? Because of his wedding preparations I probably also didn’t see him in the camp.
But his assistant manager Vikas from India was very visible, he just came from Mumbai a few months ago. I consider him to be the right person to really speed things up, make processes more efficient and to “kick some asses”. The Tented Camps are fully in the hand of the employees, I know it won’t be an easy task for Vikas trying not to piss off and lose a lot employees/the friendly culture, but still getting a tighter grip on his employees. I start to understand why many Four Seasons Thailand employees often tell me that they want to work there : because it is totally laid back there for them, an employee paradise – getting the best part of the resort for free more or less and not feeling the constant pressure like in Bangkok.
I was happy that Vikas was very open-minded for the criticism on my day of leave and he promised that he will soon pull the “Mumbai trigger” and I do think he really will.

They actually do gave me the “Black 50 years Four Seasons Invitation only card”. Vikas told me that I am only the 4th person there who ever got the card. Even if you offer to pay let’s say THB 100k, the Four Seasons still won’t give it to you. I very much wondered why they gave me the card, realizing that I didn’t really have such a long track record of luxury stays yet. I believe they gave me the card because I didn’t really look happy which scared them. Bad promo for their favorite child “Tented Camp” is something nobody wants to see. But again this card showed me that things don’t work better neccessarily. My check-out there took 50 minutes, whereas in Bangkok I am used to maybe 5 to 10 minutes. Somehow I already knew this could happen that’s why I did the checkout process the evening before my leave. When she pulled out the calculator and went through the sheets again, I knew that I will think very, very carefully again about booking such remote, isolated locations where they have you fully in their hands. The experience there instantly let me delete my South Africa schedule plans for 2012 – no way I run risks there now.
I have the feeling that they won’t renew this card for me after this review. But keep in mind that this criticism in general only helps to improve things.
On my drive to Dhara Devi, Chiang Mai from there, I made a toilet stop at Antantara hotel, Chiang Saen. I honestly have to say that the structure and whole appearance of the place would have been much more thing for this area : large pool, traditional Thai design, convenience very visible…
Anyway, the Tented Camps are an unique place, I am glad I stayed there and if it is only for the reference and comparison reasons. Jason, the first manager of this place recently became the new manager of the Bangkok riverside Siam hotel, opening June 2012.

Here is the second video part :

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Dear friends,

I want to thank everyone for making this fun and unique event possible. Especially I want to thank the main organizers Chokchai and Chompoo (taking a flight to Singapore 7am today and sacrificing her sleep for me !), DJ Team Bangkok Electro (sad news about the death of DJ Aof’s grandmom today, so sorry), the Indonesian designers Hirwin + team, the sexy and professional behaving coyote entertainers, the security team, 808 service staff and of course the friendly and inspiring guests who came along to check out an unknown, fresh party concept.

We didn’t had many guests, but the goal of the party was reached to explain and show Bangkok people the concept and style of Global Nanpa, to start branding it there. Moreover we proved that we are able to bring together creative minds all over the world, establishing a network for shaping the future in an intelligent, positive way. This party had some impact and two interesting and very different calls came in shortly after finishing at 2am (yes, we did respect the police rules). A large Thai TV channel and fashion series asked me for my some of video material but I like to edit it till christmas at least myself, so the featuring might take a bit more time and I am unsure If I like that at all. I am very careful with not burning the image of Global Nanpa for the wrong stuff, so we will see how things develop there…Like I said before : I am mainly interested in impact and not traffic or quick money…

We made some of the big Bangkok club owners who shortly dropped by at the party quite mad because they saw the power of the concept and we didn’t charge entrance fees. The most impressive scene of the party was probably when we walked the long RCA road with all coyote’s down from one club to the next and back to Club 808. That was an image ! LOL. I am looking forward converting that video material. Next time it would become a lot easier in Bangkok to bring across that party concept again once those news and the video are spreading.

Beforehand I already got threatened via Email to get sabotaged at this party, so our security got warned but nothing happened. My last party try at Club Noir got cracked down by some mafia guys and there were bookings of 2 different party organizers made for the same slot ?! I got the same warnings from some jealous Bangkok bloggers but when you see those people in real life, and yes I know your faces, it mostly turns out that they are just keyboard warriors who don’t get anything done in real life, toiling their lives away as low paid expats in Bangkok. Sad species..

The next Global Nanpa event will happen 2010 in Jakarta most likely. We have big plans for Jakarta. Jakarta, the big durian, shall actually become my base for future SEA travels. I see a lot of creative energy there, opportunities in many business fields, very unexplored territory and an immense lack of information coming from that place ! Bangkok and Thailand is full of people overflooding us with info and travel activities – not so in Indonesia, they don’t even have a single, cool and English written blog I know of yet ! Indonesia is also politically quite stable now, we hope for big changes. The Philippines has too many unsolved problems like transportation and safety issues. Travelling is really stressful for me there : Manila airport is my worst nightmare ! Moreover I figured out for myself that I am actually not such a beach person, I am a city guy feeling comfortable in real shoes and jeans with pockets.

Also many thanks to my German tax lawyer/advisor with whom I met up two days ago in Bangkok. I showed him Wat Phra Kaew, we had a cocktail at Vertigo bar during sunset at Banyan Tree hotel and later some good steaks there. Afterwards we walked from the hotel to Suan Lum night market and drove back with Tuk-Tuks to the Oriental hotel for a final cocktail. I might hopefully be able to tax-deduct my future travels from 2010 on. A very pleasent meeting and also brought me back down to earth seeing friends from Germany on “Mars” again.

On Thursday, Nov.26th, everything seemed to have worked out for me. I also finally was able to chat for almost an hour with Ms. Prof. Dr. Boonsri, director of innovations, pharmaceutical sciences, Chulalongkorn University. Thanks to her undergraduate students for bringing me as a group to her, they all were so extremely helpful and Ms. Dr. Boonsri is a very friendly, calm and smart scientist, as well as teacher. She came late to teaching her own class for that longer chat. I do respect and honor that a lot. This would have never been possible in my own country, Germany. Most people try to set up obstacles there and a lot of beaurocracy for creative and dynamic entrepreneurs is often being set up to break your spirit for change, especially in the shark pool, the healthcare sector. Moreover everything in the western world is so strongly based on competition that nobody wants to help you if they fear that you might endanger their own position or might get a larger piece of the cake than themselves. In SEA there is no such conflict of interest, that’s why things work out so quickly and easily for me here i guess. Now we established a first contact and who knows what will develop out of this network in the next 5 years….

In the Philippines I tried something similar without having an appointment or any contacts : I went to the Angeles University Foundation and thought I could easily enter it, but no : They are actually technologically pretty advanced and without a chip card you won’t be able to enter that and there are security guards everywhere. I have never seen such an advanced safety system at a university, neither in the USA nor in Europe. Once entering through the entry with your chips, the monitors display your photo, personal profile and study area. I was impressed. So I had to make from the entry phone calls with security guards to enter it. 15 minutes later I was in : the next 2 hours I got introduced to about 4 people chatting always around more than 15 minutes with them. Finally I got introduced to the head of research and development (with no appointment !), Mr. Dr. Roberto Pagulayan, executive director, professor of Biology. It turned out that he spoke German because he got his Ph.D from Tuebingen in Biology. We spoke about Global Happy Pills and trying to figure out how we might be able to work together and share knowledge for it. Like in Thailand and Indonesia, once the network is established, things can move on pretty quick, when the right time has come. So it was just a first exchange of ideas. I am very curious how things develop there in the next 5 years. The herbal medicine field, which we are starting with herbal lifestyle drugs as a first money maker (think of the former tiny pharma generics maker in the 80s and how quickly they became big within only a decade without doing anything innovative…). This will be an extremely exciting and important project. Global Nanpa’s Happy Pills are a lot more advanced idea and concept than the lifestyle drink Red Bull (water+sugar+caffeine+b-vitamins+taurine) for example. They are just living from their marketing and brand. A few really smart and friendly individuals have now showed interest in possible future cooperations. The global network is getting tighter. At the very top the circle of players is not that big anymore and most people know each other over friends.

Regarding hospitality I met up with general manager Rainer Stampfer, Four Seasons Bangkok, and we had an interesting chat for about 45 minutes in the executive lounge there. We exchanged some disturbing insider info, one of it really did shock me a lot and explained something I was always wondering about. This cannot be written here, as well as some of the talks I had at Thammasat University, likewise the info I gave him in exchange about something I found out in the Philippines.

Booking rates of all major hotels across Thailand are in general around 25% below last year, but the situation is stabilizing and Thailand is recovering. Currently it is more the financial crisis problem and not a political one. Imagine what will happen when the king dies, which could happen every day considering his health condition. At Thammasat University they are already in big time preparation mode for December 6th, the king’s birthday. Thailand will have an immense political stability problem once the king dies. Let’s just hope that it won’t happen so soon. I myself finally decided not to fly with Thai Airways / Lufthansa internationally anymore. Enough is enough, I will return my frequent flyer Miles and More card to Lufthansa and switch preferable to Qatar Airways or Emirates although the connection times won’t be that ideal anymore for getting into SEA, but I am now finally willing to make that sacrifice. I stick to my principles and the service and unfriendliness I just experienced again, especially with Lufthansa Germany ground staff finally marks the end of my relation to those two allianced flight companies.

I also talked with a few other German general hotel managers. It seems like the German’s are mostly the organization talents and commanders all across Asia. I rigorously checked out the new Shangri-la Boracay and got amazed of the extremely friendly staff there (Hi Mae and Spar – turned out we both know the embassy club owner at the Fort and had some super-funny talks about ladyboys there… !). It is one of the most beautiful resorts I ever saw in my life, it is brand-new too and has a very different standard than what you are used to from other Shangri-la’s – this one ranks more in the class of an Aman resort or Four Seasons. Unfortunately Boracay had been a very stressfull experience and I got an oyster food poisoning there again (like 2 years before !), getting 6 hours IV injections afterwards and being deaf on one ear for almost 2 days.

Mr. Goessing, manager of the famous Oriental Hotel Bangkok is since 6 months now as well in Thailand  and he is “of course” a German again, replacing a retired German manager. After staying there 3 days and checking-out, he surprisingly came up to me for about 20 minutes and we exchanged business contact info. He is not at all as conservative as I thought at first. He is easy to talk to just like the older lady, I think the No.2 of the hotel with whom I spoke more often. Mr. Goessing told me that billionaire Mr. Mateschitz will be coming soon to Thailand and staying at his hotel. He is one of the two founding members of Red Bull, the Thai founder Chaleo had the original idea and owned 51%, the Austrian Mateschitz the rest 49%, both invested USD 0.5 million at the start in 1987. Mateschitz is a marketing genius but he didn’t came up with anything innovative. Everyone I talked to in Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines certainly enjoy the idea of Global Happy Pills a lot more. This motivates, you can bet !

Sometimes strange things happen in life : At the G-club the Pent, I met the managing director of Osram Thailand (part of Siemens), I think it is Germany’s largest lighting company. It turned out he is in touch with Ms. Fleur M. every second week or so. She had been my very first girl-friend in Germany during high school times and now works for the same company in marketing in Munich. Sometimes the world is small and the circle closes again…

The entire 5 weeks trip, the memories and experiences will shape my life immensely. There are so many stories to tell about Thailand and the Philippines. As I will be extremely busy from Monday on in Berlin, I won’t be able to release any videos before christmas till new year’s time. I decided that for 2010 I will probably focus on only 3 spots : 4 weeks Jakarta, 4 weeks Bali and 4 weeks Bangkok. Jakarta shall become my base outside of Berlin, Germany, that’s the place where I see the most potential and that’s also the place where the next event will happen for Global Nanpa. I am really tired now and somehow happy to get back into my normal, certainly not “so stressfull” job on Monday again, just working my ass off 60 hours per week till end of the year. I am really glad to be able to do that right now, my energy reserves are empty for travelling.

Thanks again friends and stay in touch via email : info@globalnanpa.com

See you in heaven or on Mars !

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Terra incognita : Global citizen @ Four Seasons hotel, Bangkok

“My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.”

One of the main original ideas of the concept of Global Nanpa was to show how places really look like, trying it in an amateur, high quality POV style but still not professional or manipulated promoted : not using sophisticated video editing tools and not cutting scenes together which got shot over and over again for a perfectional look and appearance. NO : Global Nanpa lets the camera run, shows unwanted and embarrasing scenes, it is simply the truth and reality – a very powerful combination. I fully believe that this kind of POV (travel) reporting will have a tremendous impact on the world and Global Nanpa is the pioneer. I videotape places, discuss topics, and act in ways nobody has ever done before on public video. It serves the purpose to entertain and inform other people and to create a database of my own personal memories. Ultimately this will change the lifestyle of other, especially younger people, switching from a path of solely pursueing money/fame/power to pursueing memories/experiences/happiness.

Check out the Four Seasons hotel Bangkok video. Special thanks to Ms. Lookpad and Mr. Chettha :

http://www.vimeo.com/6870076

Karma Kandara, Bali :

http://www.vimeo.com/6871860