“A Pleasant Hotel in a Beautiful City”

“A Pleasant Hotel in a Beautiful City”

Reviewed May 28, 2013

This photo of Hotel Wangchuk is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Travelling to Bhutan is not the same as travelling to some other popular Asian vacation destinations like Malaysia, Thailand or even Nepal. The mass urbanization, and to a certain extent, westernization that is prevalent in many Asian cities is surprisingly (and pleasantly) absent from Thimpu. 

The country and its leaders have decided to develop Bhutan without losing the cultural roots and heritage. All buildings share a similar design, and hotel staffs are required to wear traditional clothes. 

The Wangchuk hotel in Thimpu is a one hour drive away from Paro Airport. We were informed by the tour operator that it is a three star hotel. However, three star in Thimpu might be quite different from a typical three star hotel. 

Check in process was easy. I was surprised to find an almost all female staff in the hotel. It felt a bit awkward to see female porters taking up our heavy suitcases via the stairs. We checked in around 2 PM and was served lunch within a short time. 

The food was delicious, and had a good level of variety. The package included all meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner). Our tour operator allocated standard menus for us, but we customized a few meals and most of the items we tried (including a very tasty dish called Ema Datshi) were good. They have a wide selection of food items that can appease the taste buds of people from around the globe. We were delighted to find South Asian delicacies like Fish and Egg curry, chicken, lentils, steamed rice, matar paneer for lunch/dinner and luchi (an Indian bread variant) and potato curry in the standard menus. An English breakfast menu was also available that included bread, butter, jam and eggs. 

The room was spacious and had a very nice window view. In the morning. I could see the great mountains shrouded by dark clouds and people walking around lazily in the streets. The view was exceptional on the day of our departure. I stared through the window for more than 30 minutes, transfixed and I kept on pondering over my life. Both my wife and child was sleeping peacefully, and that 30 minute alone made my trip worthwhile. I can't remember when was the last time I've experienced such a peaceful time. There was literally no noise, no interruptions and zero stress on my part. 

The hotel is just opposite to a football stadium; so you either get that view or the mountain view. My room number was 308. A number of shops and restaurants are at a stones throw, so the evenings are not too boring. Most day activities in Thimpu will end by 6 PM, and you can spend 2 hours strolling around doing window shopping. You can buy local food, clothes, handicrafts (damn expensive, though) and also try out the music cafes. 

The room had a nice toilet with both hot and cold water available 24/7. They don't provide shampoo or tooth paste, so it's better to bring these. The room was equipped with a electronic kettle, which can be very handy if you have little ones travelling with you. The tap water is safe for drinking as it comes from the Springs, but if you are over cautious, you can always buy cheap mineral water from the nearby shops. 

Everyday, we found clean rooms upon returning from our day activities, and all meals were served on time. The staff were courteous and friendly. Whenever we sat for a meal, one of the staff members offered to hold my baby while we ate. They were always serving with a smile. 

However, we did find a few issues with their food serving. We had to ask for plates, cutlery and water almost every time. They never got it right. 6 plates given when we are 7, no water, items not refilled on time, etc. But these are minor inconveniences and they replenished the food and gave the missing items as soon as we asked for them. 

There was free Wi-Fi coverage in the dining room and the lobby, but the speed was not that great. The coverage was only strong at the far end of the dining hall, and in the lobby, it was virtually non-existent. But it's a good to have feature as we had too many activities planned and done to miss logging on to our facebook. And for more avid users, there was a internet equipped PC on the 1st floor which any occupant could use, whenever they wanted. 

We went as a large group. 9 of us, including two childs enjoyed our 2 day stay thoroughly. We went to Paro on the second leg of our journey, but we kept on missing Thimpu and Wangchuk hotel due to its comforts and pleasant location. 

“We hated the hotel and we won't be back”

Tripadvisor link

This review of Nova Hotel was written by me for the Tripadvisor website:

“We hated the hotel and we won't be back”

Reviewed August 14, 2011 NEW

This review is about Nova Hotel; situated in Jalan Alor--the brightly lit food street of Bukit Bintang district in Kualalumpur. Whenever I am traveling abroad, I try to book my hotel through Agoda. However, this time around, despite of rummaging through the seemingly unlimited number of accommodation options available in Agoda, me and my wife could not agree upon a hotel.

So what happened is that I kind of gave up the pursuit and my wife took over. She Googled "KL Hotels" and found out about Nova hotel from a website called Asiawebdirect. After looking at the impressive photographs of the hotel exterior, room interior and the toilet, we both agreed that this is the best option within our budget. I tried booking through Agoda but although the hotel was listed there were no free rooms during our traveling time.

We booked the hotel for 2+2 nights. We wanted to do an early check in on 21st July, 2011. We were supposed to reach Kualalumpur at around 5 AM and we wanted to move in to the hotel by 9 AM. When booking the hotel, we mentioned our special requirement. For such cases, Agoda would always give us a specific reply. Usually someone from the hotel in question is contacted by Agoda and the hotel directly replies back to the person who booked the rooms. On such an occasion, I booked a hotel for my in laws and asked Agoda whether there's any refrigerator inside the rooms as my father in law has to keep some medicine inside his room.

The hotel gave a courteous reply that although they don't have refrigerators inside the rooms, they can store any medicine inside their own refrigerators if it is handed over at the reception.

However, in our case, we arrived at the hotel at 8 AM and was told that we cannot check in early. in fact, we could not check in before 2 PM, or even later. We arrived in KLIA (KL International airport) at around 4:30 AM, and could not sleep. We waited till there was some sunlight and took a taxi to reach Bukit Bintang at 8. Me and my wife both were really tired and desperate for some rest. The receptionist at Nova hotel realized our situation and instead of helping us out, took full advantage of our vulnerable state.

She instantly conjured a brilliant(!) solution. I have deep suspicion that these people get a share of the rooms they book. She told me that we cannot check in to our booked room now, but instead she can give us an unoccupied "family room". She will not charge any extra money despite of the fact that we are checking in early. Instead, she will just take the extra amount, i.e. the price difference between the room I originally booked (superior room) and this new one. Sounds like a good deal, right? Read on.

This so called family room was actually for 3 persons, or more. The room was big with a double and a single bed, but nothing more. The air conditioning was good (which we realized later) and we got 3 breakfast coupons (useless as it's a buffet breakfast anyway). However, the fare was exorbitant. It was almost double of what I was paying for the superior room. The deal was almost like blackmailing. The receptionist lady was arrogant enough to say that "you can take this deal or come back after 2 PM". She even refused to allow us to keep our baggage inside the hotel.

Had I been a solo traveler, I'd just reject their so called deal and walk away from there. However, I was with my wife who was damn tired, and our luggage was also huge. So I decided to take the "deal" and check in to the room. We took a good 4 hour nap. After waking up recharged and refreshed, we went out to explore the amenities of KL.

Sleep was pleasant at night. The air conditioning was really good and the bed was comfortable. We woke up a bit late and went down for breakfast at around 9:30 AM. The cafe is ingeniously named "Cassanova Cafe". I have read a few morose comments regarding the average quality of the buffet breakfast in travel websites, but what I personally experienced was way below "average".

The menu was poorly designed with very little variety and irrelevant and cumbersome items. Few people would prefer to have rice as a breakfast item; no matter how tasty or famous "Nasi Lemak" is. There was no proper labeling on the food, so I skipped "cocktail sausage" suspecting it could contain pork. Refilling was done very casually, too. During my short stay of about 30 minutes, a particular dish or two was not refilled at all. The cooking was dubious and some familiar foods tasted different.

We checked out after staying for a couple of days. We were allowed to leave behind some of our baggage in their store room. They only agreed to keep the baggage when I told them that I have another booking and will get back after returning from Langkawi. However, the receptionist insisted that even though I have an internet booking, I should ensure the room's availability by paying the entire amount beforehand.

Now this was a ridiculous and outrageous proposition. The website Asiawebdirect collected 10% of the total room fare and gave me a booking voucher that guarantees a room on the mentioned dates. This voucher should have been good enough for guaranteeing me the room.

Another point to remind--the website and my confirmation slip mentioned free Wi-Fi in the room, but in actuality wi-fi was only available at the lobby. When I inquired about this mismatch, the hotel staff informed me that the information in the website is backdated; i.e. they used to have wi-fi in all rooms before they "renovated", but it is no longer available!

The best things about this hotel can be viewed from outside--literally. Location is the best or perhaps the only selling point for Nova hotel. It is situated at the very end of the illustrious food street Jalan Alor. In order to get to the hotel from Bukit Bintang, you have to enter this street which remains lively until the late hours of the night with roadside food stalls and restaurants. One day we had our dinner at 2:30 AM and still there were no lack of customers in the stores.

These restaurants sell mostly Chinese and Thai dishes. Traditional Malaysian food is also available, and so are a few Indian and continental items. So it is always a better option to have your lunch and dinner in these comparatively cheaper restaurants. Even if you book Nova hotel, you can safely skip the breakfast option and save some of your precious money. You can spend it elsewhere. KFC, McDonalds, Starbucks and Subway are all less than 5 minutes walking distance away from the hotel.

As the hotel is in Bukit Bintang, a number of shopping malls are also within walking distance. These are BB Plaza, Low Yat Plaza, Berjaya Times Square, Sungei Wang Plaza, etc.

Overall, I had a memorable stay in the hotel, but it was not because of the hotel--it was due to the proximity of nice places and the presence of my dearest wife.

I will not visit the hotel again. This is a promise to myself.

Room Tip: Try to get a room in better places like Radius or Alpha Genesis

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