The Tarntawan Surawong Hotel.....update

[newalaan2]

Me too. I enjoy the Tarntawan posts because this forum is the means by which I keep up-to-date with events in Thailand, allowing me to enjoy the memories of recent trips and anticipate coming ones.
Tarntawan is my point of arrival; when I walk through the door after many tedious hours of travel, I know that my holiday has begun and that P. is getting ready to join me. Even the smell of those ancient carpets is welcome.
So, for those who, like me, have no interest in name-calling and abuse, preferring subjects that are informative and of practical help, let the Tarntawan-festival continue unabated.
By the way, despite the emails that we've all received. the price rises at the hotel are enormous, even on Agoda. i negotiated my own rates a few months ago but I am far from satisfied. Perhaps the management is regretting those rises and needs to fill rooms. In which case, serves 'em right.

Some good points there Oliver, especially that homely feeling when checking-in, although it's not 'quite' the same as the pre-sale era it's still the Tarntawan. I like it for a reason kind-of opposite to your own. While you use it for arrival, we always stayed at the Tarntawan last 3-4 days of every trip, we enjoy the winding-down of what always is a hectic month or so, and make most of last nights together before we head to respective homes, Bkk is the one place we don't share our time together with anyone....it's the one place we are 24/7 together so that in itself has Tarntawan at centre of good memories. When I go back, bf also goes back to his home to work in his shop, see to the seasonal farm issues, rice planting/harvesting/corn etc.. so his only breaks are when I visit and I think that's also why he always loved the Tarntawan.

While the new owners certainly did apply huge rises to the rack rates we've been fortunate to manage to avoid, for whatever reason, any net increases.....on all stays since they took over I've either paid around the same rate as before, but most times less. A couple times quite a bit less than before if we take the room-only option. Breakfast (in the morning that is) in Thailand for us is a bit of an absurd notion, we are only ever up 8-9am when in Issan where the breakfast choice is rice, sticky-rice or warm bananas wrapped in a leaf with a choice of rice on the side, oh, and the marvellous 3-in-1 coffee made with luke-warm water, that and being force-fed spoons of cereal-mash by bf's 7 year old nephew who claims it's what 'farangs' eat so I should find it delicious (saep, saep!).

On the name calling and abuse, I certainly do give it back when thrown in my direction, but have always been in favour of all those kind of littering posts/banter being swept away in to flaming forum/holding room far from the main page. But I agree one of the main reasons smiles and spike built up the readership here was due to the shear amount of useful information posted by a wide range of contributors, this aspect has been totally overlooked by those who see it purely as entertainment opportunity and a chance to have their egos massaged, the inane banter has unfortunately taken over and is in danger of suffocating the whole forum.