July 4th, 2006, 13:08
I recently asked for recommendations of places to stay whilst I was in Bangkok for a few days. I received many suggestions and thanks to everyone who responded. In the end I opted for The Tarntawan Place Hotel (known mainly as The Tarntawan).
The Tarntawan is located on Surawong Road in the Silom area of Bangkok and is therefore very convenient for the gay nightlife and the nightmarket in Patpong, just a brief walk and you are in the midst of it all. The Tarntawan is not a large hotel, it has eight floors and does not offer some of the facilites of similar priced hotels (no swimming pool and no gym, but they do offer reduced rate access to nearby facilities if required).
The rooms available vary in price (internet price booked through the hotel website directly) from baht 2,500 to baht 7,000. On the Asia Rooms booking website you may be able to book some of the rooms slightly cheaper and some are slightly more expensive.
The hotel, as mentioned, is not one of the larger ones in Bangkok and is perhaps better for that. The staff are curteous and pleasant always and I found them to be extremely helpful when making enquiries about trips out and places to see. The Deluxe Room picture on the Tarntawan website has what looks like a king sized (or larger) bed whereas the deluxe room we paid for had only a queen sized bed, however, I found the room to be more than adequate, clean with plenty of those little essential extras such as tootpaste, toothbrush, general toiletries, condoms etc, however, some of these items will appear on your bill if used. The room, although not large, had enough space to fit a writing desk, and two seats with a coffee table, it felt comfortable but not cramped. The breakfast was served efficiently on request and was up to standard (breakfast was included in the room price).
I made enquiries with the reception about various trips and inparticular a day trip that included Ayutiyah and a return to Bangkok via a boat cruise. I checked with a couple of outside agencies for similar trips and found that the hotel's price was actually baht 100 cheaper per person than the agencies.
The hotel does not, I believe, operate as a 'gay hotel', but on the website it does show the rainbow flag. I would say that most of the patrons were gay with younger Thai guests but there also appeared to be a few straight couples and a few businessmen staying there. There is no problem with taking a boy (or boys) back to the hotel from the bars according to the info' available in the rooms.
There was one error on the part of the hotel in that when I checked my bill, there was a baht 700 charge for a limousine pick up from the airport. I explained that I had not ordered a limo' and on checking they found a guest with a surname the same as my christian name who had used this service. This was all ironed out quickly with no embarrrasment and many apologies but, as with any hotel, you may want to check each item on your bill before paying.
For three days my num friend and I experience excellent friendly service in a well run hotel. I was worried about booking a larger hotel as my friend is quite shy and this smaller less imposing hotel definitely fit the bill. On the first day my friend said he liked The Tarntawan and on departing he said the he felt that the staff 'Take good care of me'.
There are probably better places in Bangkok, there are definitely cheaper places, but for me I found The Tarntawan to be convenient, friendly and a very comfortable place to stay and I recommmend it wholeheartedly.
http://www.tarntawan.com/
http://www.asiarooms.com/thailand/bangk ... place.html (http://www.asiarooms.com/thailand/bangkok/tarntawan_place.html)
The Tarntawan is located on Surawong Road in the Silom area of Bangkok and is therefore very convenient for the gay nightlife and the nightmarket in Patpong, just a brief walk and you are in the midst of it all. The Tarntawan is not a large hotel, it has eight floors and does not offer some of the facilites of similar priced hotels (no swimming pool and no gym, but they do offer reduced rate access to nearby facilities if required).
The rooms available vary in price (internet price booked through the hotel website directly) from baht 2,500 to baht 7,000. On the Asia Rooms booking website you may be able to book some of the rooms slightly cheaper and some are slightly more expensive.
The hotel, as mentioned, is not one of the larger ones in Bangkok and is perhaps better for that. The staff are curteous and pleasant always and I found them to be extremely helpful when making enquiries about trips out and places to see. The Deluxe Room picture on the Tarntawan website has what looks like a king sized (or larger) bed whereas the deluxe room we paid for had only a queen sized bed, however, I found the room to be more than adequate, clean with plenty of those little essential extras such as tootpaste, toothbrush, general toiletries, condoms etc, however, some of these items will appear on your bill if used. The room, although not large, had enough space to fit a writing desk, and two seats with a coffee table, it felt comfortable but not cramped. The breakfast was served efficiently on request and was up to standard (breakfast was included in the room price).
I made enquiries with the reception about various trips and inparticular a day trip that included Ayutiyah and a return to Bangkok via a boat cruise. I checked with a couple of outside agencies for similar trips and found that the hotel's price was actually baht 100 cheaper per person than the agencies.
The hotel does not, I believe, operate as a 'gay hotel', but on the website it does show the rainbow flag. I would say that most of the patrons were gay with younger Thai guests but there also appeared to be a few straight couples and a few businessmen staying there. There is no problem with taking a boy (or boys) back to the hotel from the bars according to the info' available in the rooms.
There was one error on the part of the hotel in that when I checked my bill, there was a baht 700 charge for a limousine pick up from the airport. I explained that I had not ordered a limo' and on checking they found a guest with a surname the same as my christian name who had used this service. This was all ironed out quickly with no embarrrasment and many apologies but, as with any hotel, you may want to check each item on your bill before paying.
For three days my num friend and I experience excellent friendly service in a well run hotel. I was worried about booking a larger hotel as my friend is quite shy and this smaller less imposing hotel definitely fit the bill. On the first day my friend said he liked The Tarntawan and on departing he said the he felt that the staff 'Take good care of me'.
There are probably better places in Bangkok, there are definitely cheaper places, but for me I found The Tarntawan to be convenient, friendly and a very comfortable place to stay and I recommmend it wholeheartedly.
http://www.tarntawan.com/
http://www.asiarooms.com/thailand/bangk ... place.html (http://www.asiarooms.com/thailand/bangkok/tarntawan_place.html)