All posts tagged: Luxury Resort

Eatprayflying’s Top 8 Villa Vacations you must stay in! Awesome for Honeymoons! (Thailand & Bali)

After all our crazy hard work in Singapore, it is always important to sharpen our saw and take a pit stop for a long marathon. So for those planning for your upcoming December holidays, these are our top villa vacation stays in across Thailand and Bali. And yes, I admit I have a bias to modern looking boutique villa architecture 🙂 1) Villa Noi @ Phuket Villa Noi is a private family holiday villa. It is the most luxurious villa I have ever been to; there are really only 3 villas on almost 2000 square meters of land. Villa Noi has a private chef, driver and manager. I am still confirming how the public books this villa and will update shortly! 2) Sala Khaoyai @ Khaoyai A boutique resort with only around 10 very private rooms and villas. Sala Khaoyai is our second favourite because it is set in the mountains, which also means it can get to under 20 degrees celcius at night, so you get to enjoy the temperate weather and vineyards within a 2.5 hour …

Maya Ubud Resort and Spa @ Ubud, Bali

I visited Maya Ubud Resort and Spa in Bali back in 2010, and it remains one of my favourite tropical resorts in Asia. This was recommended by my ex-boss who is Indonesian, and since he is local, I booked Maya Ubud without researching much, and it was a very good recommendation indeed! I had an enjoyable relaxing stay with Miss A, and fond memories of the resort still lingering after almost 4 years. It was also the first time I went to Bali not for the beach, but for mountains and scenery. The Spa (Spa at Maya) is possibly the MOST relaxing spa I have ever gone to in my life. Maya Ubud is ~1 hour from Bali’s  international airport. It only has 108 luxury guestrooms and private pool villas on many hectares of land, with a river running through the resort, so it is extremely private, quiet and picturesque. We stayed in the lowest tier room  in Maya Ubud  (Superior Room) and it was already very comfortable. The room was ~40 square meters, with 2 single beds, …

Aleenta Resort and Spa @ Hua Hin

After a week of full day meetings in Bangkok, I extended my trip to spend the weekend in Hua Hin. I have heard so much about beautiful Hua Hin, which is known for her majestic sunrises. Having had a very good stay at Aleenta @ Phang Nga before, I decided to choose Aleenta @ Huahin. I must admit it is partly because I didn’t have much time and capacity to do much research, so I went for a familiar name (Aleenta), but Aleenta @ Hua Hin definitely lived up to expectations! Firstly, as members of SLH (you can also sign up for free), Aleenta @ Hua Hin offered us a free upgrade from the main wing to the more expensive Frangipani wing. Both wings are 600m apart and you can travel back and forth by: 1) Walking on the Pak Nam Pran Beach beach, 2) Walking on the road, 3) Riding Aleenta’s tuktuk 4) Cycling with Aleenta’s bicycles. Aleenta started as a family beach villa that was upgraded and now boasts 23 unique suites. The …

Sala Khaoyai (II)

Have already said a lot in my first instalment on Sala Khaoyai, this instalment will be about the Deluxe Balcony Room which we stayed for Night 2 and 3, as well as the fantastic food at Sala Khaoyai Restaurant. The deluxe balcony room is much more modern than the villa. I love the black interior and sunk-in bathtub. This would be a nice design for a bachelor(ette) pad; just put in a PC for gaming and it would be a perfect pad already. Sala has a good restaurant. They serve good porridge and sandwiches at breakfast, and good Thai and western food through the day. Tip: Try the peanut butter banana smoothie as a dessert, chilling out at the sundeck….heavenly! We also tried their North Thailand cuisine special set menu. It was an interesting experience as we have never been to North of Thailand and there are subtle differences versus the usual Thai food we are used to. For example, they serve papaya salad with crabs, and generally, all the dishes are much more spicy than average …

Sala Khaoyai (I)

Easily summarized, Sala Khaoyai is one of the best boutique resort experience we ever had! This is our second Sala experience, after Sala Phuket (another amazing experience for another entry), and I am so glad we chose Sala. (Small Tip and Advice is to book early and go on weekdays (Sun/Mon counts) as we got 50% off the rates. P’Chatbodin (Orn), the chief service staff in Sala Khaoyai, is incredibly friendly and helpful. He takes huge ownership to be a great host and is definitely very proud of Khaoyai and Sala Resorts; he is so willing to share all the information about the area and the resort when I told him I am going to feature Sala Khaoyai in my writings. So I learn the Sala hotel chain belongs to the owner of the Central Group. Yup, that big shopping chain in Thailand! The owner first conceptualized Sala Khaoyai as a summer home that he retreats to relax. Eventually, he had so many requests he decided to open a resort, but he kept it to seven rooms …

The Side of Thailand More People Should See

Having worked and lived in Bangkok for a short period of time from 2009-2010, I had the privilege of exploring some of the interesting sites around Bangkok such as Ampawa and Ayutthaya. Among them, Khao Yai left the deepest impression because of the 13 degreesC night (yup, you read it right – it does get so cool especially from Nov-Jan at night), which is very rare cool weather in this part of the world near the equator. I also recalled European looking architecture with vineyards so Khaoyai is a short getaway to feel far from our Asian roots. So when we had a chance 3 weeks ago to plan a short trip over the long weekend, I decided to re-visit Khaoyai and also introduce N to this beautiful province of Thailand. Khaoyai is a beautiful mountaineous province, 2.5 hours drive from Bangkok, and is a popular short weekend getaway spot among Bangkok city folks to switch gears over a slow weekend. For me, I hardly repeat my eating and travel spots as I want to …