A day of discovery starting with our taxi ride from our hotel to the airport. 12km and 35 minutes later with a metered fare of 270 Baht ($7.70) with 30 Baht tip added to even it up at 300 Baht. Taxi's in Bangkok are a fantastic bargain!
Our check-in for Bangkok Airways (PG) 913 took a bit - long line - but we were invited to the Bangkok Airways lounge for our 90 minute (planned) but 2.5 hour wait for boarding (delayed arrival of our aircraft). Lounge was very nice - small, quiet, with some really yummy snacks - we both had thirds on the popcorn and hot tea...
When we got aboard - ATR-72 - for the short 60 minute flight to Siem Reap - we were very pleasantly surprised - quick departure and even quicker service - on a one hour flight we got a beer and lunch service - hmmm - maybe their marketing tag line of being a Boutique airline is more than puffery...
Arrival at Siem Reap airport was interesting. We did not do a visa ahead of time having read about "Visa on Arrival". We filled out the paperwork on the plane and had the required passport pictures so when a uniformed official waved us over to the side for special handling, we figured it was because we had done it right. Turned out, I guess they know gray hairs are perfectly happy to part with a couple of bucks to avoid waiting in line for half and hour - which is what most of our fellow passengers ended up doing. We ended up passing our "short cut" a $10 bill which elicited a very happy smile. Didn't know this option going in - but then, that's why we're traveling - to learn these things and pass them on...
Travel Intelligence Tip - Money in Cambodia: I don't remember being in a country that uses US dollars throughout the tourist industry - everything is denominated and paid for in, USD. This includes being able to get USD from ATM machines in the cities. Was actually very convenient - no foreign conversion fees and you weren't trying to remember if it was 35 to 1 (Baht to $) or 4000 to 1 (Dong to dollars).
Our young and energetic host from the Shinta Mani was waiting to grab our bags as soon as we exited Customs. It was a short ride to the Shinta Mani but along the way we learned a lot about the property and Siem Reap from our young guide.
When we arrived we were greeted at the front door with cold, scented towels and ushered into the lobby where the General Manager, Christian, talked about the Shinta Mani and their efforts in the local community. I mentioned that it sounded like their philosophy is one of sustainable stewardship -- happy guests and happy community. Our experience over the past 24 hours has done nothing to change my mind... While Christian said they strive to be a 4.5 star property, in fact they are a 5 Star plus property without the price or trappings. With a total of 39 rooms, this is an intimate property that makes you feel like you have truly arrived.
We had proper turn down last night, then cold towels when we dropped into the upstairs bar for Happy Hour - 2 for 1 drinks with the "1" being a very nicely priced $5 glass of Chilean or South African red wine.
This afternoon when we returned from our tour to the local UNESCO sites - covered in our next blog entry - once again, more cool towels. Recovering from about 7 hours of heat and humidity demanded a trip to the pool - a beautiful disappearing edge lap pool with a staff of 6 attendants and a manager to keep pool going guests satisfied. Satisfaction turns to a smile when they brought everyone around the pool a free cone with lemon custard - just a hint of lemon and quite delicious.
Travel Intelligence Tip - if you want a very powerful tool for finding premium award (points or miles) air tickets -- and you fly International once or twice a year, try Award Nexus. It cost me 59.95 for a one year subscription but after trying it myself to route a European trip on our mileage points, I was sold - business class both directions, on all legs, in late spring - early summer. It also allows you to choose which Alliance partners' frequent flier program to use for the booking. We are Star Alliance fliers - but United charges you an arm and a leg in fees for upgrading to International business class - Air Canada's AeroPlan (what we used for Europe) and ANA are much better alternatives for Star Alliance award travel bookings.
My full Trip Advisor Review on Shinta Mani...
The Shinta Mani Club in Siem Reap has very solid Trip Advisor ratings - these ratings don't even begin to tell the story... Shinta Mani is hands down, possibly the best managed and best executed small hotel I have every stayed at. From our airport pickup, through check in, and into our room - grounds, staff and management were impeccable.
We made it a point to try everything the Club had to offer, happy hour in the bar, dinner on swinging seats and tables, and our daily, included breakfast. We also tried several of the recommended activities - hiring Mr Chen to do our full day Temple tour (outstanding) and going the the Phare performance (think Cirque de Soleil on a smaller scale or perhaps, America's Got Talent). Everything was flawless, even the things the hotel didn't directly control.
Our room was beautiful and tastefully furnished, airy, and directly next to the disappearing edge pool. Included wi-fi was reliable and plenty fast.
How do you know when a hotel and staff are one family? When the service and attention you receive from rotating shift managers - who all address you by name, know everything that you have been doing and the General Manager, Christian DeBoer, are all on the same page. Now, Christian's rationale for such cohesive teamwork is technology - everyone is on a common staff page with notes on each guest's evolving stay and experiences. But knowing and doing are two different things and in Shinta Mani's case -- it was how everything was done that sets this intimate property (37 rooms) apart from its peers world wide.
I'd like to provide a concrete example of how things are done at Shinta Mani - which demographically, is a perfect honeymoon or romantic couple setting. During our stay, there were two families with kids -- and of course, the pool is a major draw for families with kids. The disappearing edge construction looked particularly unforgiving (slippery tile) and there isn't a shallow end or wading pool for younger guests. So as soon as one couple's son marched into the pool, the staff reacted immediately and provided one of their life rings for the young man's safety and helping him not run along the edge of the pool. They didn't make a big deal of this, didn't scold the young man nor his parents who were blissfully unaware for much of the time. So while this is going on and we are sharing our appreciation for how slickly the situation was handled by multiple staff members, another family with three kids came to the pool. Their Mom wasn't interested in the pool right away so she hustled them by the pool and up to their room directly above our lounge chairs. About 5 minutes later, water began pouring onto one of the poolside umbrellas from the 2nd floor breezeway. Guess the youngsters were unhappy they weren't at the pool yet. Anyway, once again, staff springs into action - quietly and efficiently stopping the new waterfall - without making a single disruption of anyone's afternoon poolside peace. The next day, the morning shift supervisor apologized for the previous afternoon - clearly they knew that we knew what had gone on and were apologizing for having been an issue.
If you are into collecting hotel experiences and are heading to Siem Reap - which is a lifetime, bucket list, destination - you need to stay at the Shinta Mani Club - you will be absolutely delighted.
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