The Leela Mumbai, India

My first time to set foot in India, I went to Mumbai last week for the Asia Liberty Forum (ALF), stayed there February 9-11 evening, flew back to Manila afternoon of February 12. Nice and grand hotel.

This area is behind the hotel lobby and reception area. With a small cascading water gently flowing.

 

The reception area, and nice colorful fresh flowers in front of three elevators.

 

The hallway on the 3rd floor....

Leading to my room. I like my bed.

 

My work area with tv, my bathroom is very neat and cool.

 

The multi-curve swimming pool.

The artificial waterfalls not far from the pool area. And an aerial view of the hotel, from their official website.

Thank you, Economic Freedom Network (EFN) Asia for the travel grant to attend the ALF and see parts of Mumbai.

Taj Tashi Hotel, Bhutan

Finally, I have visited Bhutan, last November 23-25, 2015, when I attended the Economic Freedom Network (EFN) Asia conference 2015. Venue was Taj Tashi hotel in the capital city Thimphu. It is a grand, esoteric, eloquently designed hotel in that place in the Himalayas. It is also an expensive hotel, perhaps the most expensive in Bhutan, but the conference organizers were able to get a good discount for the international participants, several dozens of us from Asia, US, Canada and Germany.

I did not take a panoramic shot of the hotel but here's one from the web. Really beautiful.

Back view of the hotel, the people were my co-participants in the conference. On the left is the main restaurant, on the right is the main conference hall.

Outside the conference hall.

Just outside the main restaurant is this mini-temple.

Buddha in the middle.

Restaurant, view from the outside.

Another view from the back.

Outside the fence, I think it's a government office, or a small hotel.

My room. When I first saw it, I felt like a prince. It was huge, my bed can accommodate 3-4 people. Behind the bed is the toilet, it has a heated towel rack, heated floor. They helped a lot because late November, it was soooo friggin cold for me.

My work area plus a flat tv nearby. Behind me is a sofa.

Again, my bed. I and about 2 dozen other foreign participants were supposed to stay at the hotel for 3 nights and 4 days but our Bangkok to Paro, Bhutan flight on November 22 was cancelled, so we stayed at an airport hotel in Thailand that night. Which means we stayed in Bhutan for 3D/2N only. Well, others for another day for a tour.

Thanks again, EFN Asia for that wonderful conference in a wonderful country. I really enjoyed my stay in Bhutan -- very friendly, warm and gentle people.

The hotel staff, ahh, they are very polite and friendly. Thank you guys.

Plaza Athenee Bangkok

On October 20-24, I stayed at this hotel in Bangkok to attend the Economic Freedom Network (EFN) Asia 2013 Conference on "Middle Income Trap and Economic Freedom", October 21-22, then the GCOA-EMHN policy dialogue on ageing, October 23. My family joined me as they did not have to pay extra for the hotel, only the plane fare where they got a good price via Air Asia flying from Clark Airport in Pampanga.

The hotel is part of the four-buildings complex that includes a second hotel building plus the twin towers Athenee condominium. 

It is in the city center of Bangkok and is near other big hotels in the area. A train station is just two blocks away.

It has a nice garden and swimming pool on the 4th or 6th floor (I don't remember now).

Two swimming pools, the bigger one for adults, and the smaller one for children, only about 0.75 meters (about two feet) deep.

An open function room on the same level as the pool. A welcome dinner with program during the EFN Asia conference on the night of October 21 was held here.

The pool for adults, nice clean water.

A garden near the pool. There is a short jogging path in this area.

The main restaurant of the hotel on the ground floor. Buffet breakfast is served here.

A nice shallow pool with fishes on one side of the restaurant.

I enjoyed my stay in that hotel. Thanks again to EFN Asia for bringing me to Bangkok to attend the conference.
---------

See also:
Thailand trip, Part 1, June 10, 2008
Thailand trip, Part 2, July 22, 2008

Haevichi Hotel & Resort, The Interiors

This sprawling hotel and resort has wide open space, wide alleys, and wide, big guest rooms.

This is my room. It has a complete kitchen facilities – stove, cooking pans, plates, knives, spoon and fork, cups, etc. They are all inside those cabinets. So if people want to cook their own food, they can buy raw food in nearby shops outside the resort, walking distance, and cook inside their guest room.

 The dinning table, which became my work area. There is wifi everywhere in the hotel – guest rooms, lobby, meeting rooms, grand ballroom.

I think all guest rooms have 2 or more bedrooms. This is my bed, with own toilet inside, own air-con, but no tv.

TV room, playroom. Inside the cabinets on the right are many pillows, blankets and bed sheets. So one can lay them down and watch tv or play in this area. One can also watch tv from the sofa, beside the dinning table.

The high tech toilet bowl, yes, this is what I always look forward to when I stay in a Korean or Japanese hotel. The seat bowl itself is heated, and see the various buttons on the left – just push any of them to choose washing your behind: warm water, room temp water, moving sprinkler, warm air to dry your behind, really cool. This same toilet bowl is also present in the toilet inside the bedroom.

The bathroom with two showers but no bath tub. Nice and cool. I like the warm water of course, it was still cold in Korea last month. 

They do not give complimentary toothbrush, toothpaste and shave for men though, only a liquid soap and shampoo.

The buffet breakfast restaurant of the Resort wing. Nice food. The cakes, cookies, other food on display though, are not part of the breakfast, for sale separately.

Haevichi Hotel & Resort, Part 2

When I posted Part 1 of this hotel, I did not realize that there is another swimming pool, an indoor with heated water, in the main hotel building. I was roaming around the resort building areas, in front of my room then.

Children would definitely love this pool as it is heated, so they can swim even during winter or spring time.

That's one beauty of this big and sprawling hotel, it has lots of open spaces.

Inside this structure. The water could be at 35 C or warmer, nice to take a dip. I discovered this after I have checked out, argh.

Side and back view of the hotel building.

Haevichi Hotel&Resort, Jeju

This is my first time to set foot on the beautiful island of Jeju, S. Korea. Our conference, the 8th Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity, was held in this big and sprawling hotel.

The hotel is a rectangular building with wide open space in the middle of the four wings with a glass roof. I will post about the interiors of the hotel and resort in my next blog.

The second group of structure are the medium-rise (7-storey) and long buildings with huge rooms per unit. Below are those resort buildings.

A view from the balcony of my room on the 5th floor, I am staying at Rm 1513. Nice, cool view. Tomorrow morning, bye-bye room, I will check out to join a half day tour of selected scenic places of Jeju.

Continuation of the view from my balcony. A wide open grassland with cemented walkway, with short posts for evening lights + music, cool. There is a semi-wild area in the middle of the grassland where some wild species of flowers and short grasses are growing around a pond with naturally flowing water.

The swimming pool with a fountain in the middle. I did not have the chance to dip into this pool as time is limited, attending various panel discussions. Plus the fact that it's cold outside, should be around 20-25 C.

The glass structure below is a hallway adjacent to the grand ballroom. When there are hundreds of guests, the divider is folded and the dining tables are extended up to the hallway.

The kiddie playground with kiddie pool. If my two young girls are with me here, they might get sick as they might insist to take a bath in the cold but inviting pool.

After the bermuda grass in the resort is the road, then the black rocks and the sea. I should visit that place tomorrow before I fly to Jeju airport.

A view of the plains and the big mountain from afar, at the 5th floor of the resort building on the opposite side of my room.

I enjoyed my stay here. Very relaxing. Thanks again, EFN Asia and FNF for bringing me here for the conference.