Muse Hotel - Bangkok

The main foyer

Our room

Bathroom with glass separation

As the Accor member, we always shortlist Accor hotels for our stay regardless local or overseas. It was when we browsed thru the list of Accor hotels, we saw how intriquing Muse Hotel was. With black colour dominance and lines of gold on its website, we skimmed thru the site and decided it as our hotel for our stay in Bangkok. We booked for 3 nights, which 2nights of them were free-of-charge (by using our 2nights complimentary of Accor card). What a luck and bargain! The publishing rate for a night was around IDR 2 mio.

The room furniture

Fluffy slippers

The leather chest

How to get there?

From the Suvarnabhumi Airport (if you are using Air Asia, you will arrive at Don Muang airport - the old one), you could take the express line (B90 with no stop) or the Yellow line (B45 only but takes longer) until Phaya Thai station and continue to Chit Lom station (you could see the building from the station). But if you wanna hassle-free transfer, then use taxi which will cost you about B450 (including the toll fee). The location of Muse Hotel is pretty strategic, with luxurious hotels (like Marriots, The Cape House no 43, and many more) cramping the one way street. It takes about 10mins of leisure walk to Chit Lom BTS Station and only a station away from Siam (where the most exclusive malls gather around). Thai massage is available next door, while 7eleven is located across the street. Starbuck and Central mall are just a stone away. There are few small malls which offer lots of place for dining and hanging out as well. But if you are looking for something different, then try the hawker stalls which occupy some of the pedestrian, offering local cheap comfort foods and snack bites.

The wash basin

Wall decoration on the bathroom, picturing Thai's heritage

Personalized mineral water

Muse Hotel is a hotel from Accor-M Gallery line, in which most of M Gallery hotels carry their own distinctive identity. The one we chose woos a gothic style on its hotel and its atmosphere. Tall grayish building intimidated me, gave off the air of entering Hades' underworld (well, that was the impression that I get when I stepped out from my taxi). Lush emerald sparkled on the main gate. The interior inside was darker in which my lighted camera couldn't get the pic right (pardon me but you will just make do with whatever pic that I've taken). Sparkling emerald lamps illuminated some corners here and there, giving the calming effect despite the spookiness. Complicated design of wrought iron bars donned the interior as well, on the frames hang on the walls, as partition, baluster to the Medici resto, and many more, adding a classy charm. Lobby and room alleys were beautified by various items, from broken antique china wares that were probably created an ages ago...to frames of Thailand's landmark and its heritage. Low music on the background with whisper-like conversation hummed around the lobby where the guests sit on a posh sofas and low chairs. Seeing the other guests around, Muse doesn't only cater business trip but leisure trip as well (but you wouldn't see a guest donned in bikini/bathrobe around the lobby, lift, alley nor other public area except on the pool). Snipping 4 different refreshing welcome drinks, we then were ushered to our room on 14th floor with a bellboy tagging along, carrying our 4 suitcases (guess I should start teaching my girls to pack lightly - perhaps choosing backpacking as our next holiday's theme - must be something).

View from our room

Look at the wall drawing...nice touch

Classic lamp

My girls suddenly rushed to the bathroom and yelled happily seeing the big bathtub inside (уєѕ! Ｏ(≧∇≦)Ｏ уєѕ!, my girls' criteria of a good hotel is the one with bathtub and swimming pool. I know it is kinda off the mark but the girls have their own perspective. Guessed it would be a hard time introducing backpacking for them - perhaps we should bring inflatable tub for them LOL). The room was spacious, in black, grey, and dark purple setting. Two beds (enough for 4 of us) in the middle with single couch on side welcomed you to sink your tired body on it. Working table incase you need to take care of your business was on another corner, fully equipped with basic stationery set. Wide flat screen tv and ipod docking speaker set were available too, along with the normal sdb, coffe/tea maker, iron and the table, hair drier, and mini bar. Heavily donned with teak-wood furniture and crystal lamps (that screamed price), the room sure looked great and comfy in an odd way (though I quickly removed the lamps - I would be terrified if my girls accidentally knocked it down "̮˚°◦♡ώκωķ(∩_∩)◦°˚"̮ ). 

Glowing floor

Playful lights

The reception area

The pillows and beds were so plush, made my short sleep even better. The light setting was again...low but sunlight from glass window helped a lot. The bathroom was quite big, but its a pity since they didn't put separation between toilet and the tub. Bathing crystals were provided on the head of the bathtub (ehm...soaking my feet after a day worth of walking felt really great). The tub itself was another piece of art, the old-fashion style with claw feet and the same classy old-fashion tap to go with. While on the shower room, they installed rain shower which felt like a drizzling rain (I longed for something harder to relieve my shoulder's pain). The washbasin was made of ceramic with details that might be dated by few decades ago. Stunning!

The Su Tha Ros resto

The all-you-can-eat style breakfast

My breakfast

The hotel facilities are complete too, a small gym center, wellness spa, and rooftop swimming pool where we could take a dip while feasting our eyes on the below traffic. The restaurant is on the same floor of the pool, with formal exclusive seating, offers various dishes for us to choose with surprisingly reasonable price (we compared the buffet price against Pullman Jkt). Another Medici kitchen, an Italian eatery was on the floor below lobby area, caters specifically for those who would like to snip an alcoholic beverages or munch a bite while mingle around the hip funky music. The library setting of it with low light, make a perfect place to host your wild Halloween party *grinning. Actually, there was a Lush party on May 31st at the hotel, but we didn't go (simply too tired). Then, they have Speakeasy, the rooftop bar which was considered as on of the most hip bar in Bangkok.

The rooftop pool

The greenery of The Speakeasy

The rooftop bar - The Speakeasy

Fast free passworded wifi is available around the hotel, but is limited to 3 gadgets only per room. The hotel staffs were very friendly and helpful, with top-notch customer service. They replied our questions prior our arrival and our feedback upon staying in such a timely manner. They made sure our stay there were memorable and problem-free. However, cleanness is a question since I found lots of dusty corner in the room. Probably bcoz it was quite dark so the room cleaning service couldn't clean it up properly. Anyway, if you would like to experience sleeping in Hades' underworld...then perhaps you could put this on your list

Light in one of public restroom

See...how dark the lobby was during the daylight

The hotel corridor

The wrought iron artwork

 

The wine cellar at Medici Kitchen & Bar

Chocolate Ville - Bangkok

Picturesque isn't it?

The information center

Windmill on the side of the street

From the name, I guessed it had something to do with chocolate, perhaps various choc dishes or even choc factory. However, I was totally wrong. I tried to browse and google bout it but couldn't find any significant info re to it except the facebook account and many pics on Google. It is actually a diner restaurant with a specific setting and theme of American suburb estate in 18th centuries. Its tag line is dining in the park. Curious aren't you?

The park map

Mini front white beach with props

The pier

That's why we went there right after we checked in at the hotel. Apparently, the place is quite new and some hotel staffs haven't heard of it. However, we weren't feeling down...we stopped a taxi and showed the map (which we saved earlier) to the driver. Lucky us, the driver seemed to know the area though not the place. We were stuck for 15mins in traffic due to office hour however traffic on the highway was scarced. It was a long way from our hotel at Chit Lom (Lang Suan) area that it took an hour to reach it. But we arrived at the perfect time when the sun was almost set yet we still had adequate light to take some pics.

Cute rubber duck setting

Romantic place isn't it?

Cycling in front of Sommerset Cottage

We were welcomed by 2storey-size of wooden windmill in front of the parking lot. One white information center and red gas station buildings, again in wood (every building here is wooden) serve as the lobby with mini beach park in between. Totally awesome! We were practically wowed (no jaw dropping though) and quickly reached our gadgets and started to take lots of pics. Too bad we arrived pretty late and the information center was closed just few mins before our arrival. So I didn't get any map nor brochures but I took the map pic inside the park (so you can check it out). There are lots of props on the mini beach, including sundecks, big parasols, even a red fire engine. Pretty tiny fake flowers beautify the red station gas with classic telephone on side. But the front view didn't prepare us for what was inside.

One of many beautiful bridges there

The setting inside the one of the houses

The menu book

At a glimpse, it looked like a place which I often saw on my old newly-invented-colour-tv (about 2-3decades ago). At that time, we didn't have many tv channels so the movie option was limited. One movie that I remembered though was Little Missy, a story about a white-skin-lady who falls in Ŀ♡√Ɛ with one of her black-skin-slave. Nah, Chocolate Ville looked a lot like the setting on that movie...so can you imagine, stepping into a place that transports you into 200years backward? Wonderful :-)

When the lights are on

The lighthouse

Awesome sky when the sunset

We walked up a small pathway leading us to the lake (wondered whether it was natural or human-made lake). Shaded by willowing widow trees, we saw the back of big (house-size) yellow rubber duck on the lake. An eye-catching since the colour around the place is mostly pale shades of pastel. There are small pier, a medium size terrace and beautiful canopied bungalow surround the lake. Some beautiful bridges were connecting one 'island' to another. Down onto our side of pier, a small speadboat and wind-surfing-boat are docking...another perfect place to pose :-) We circled the lake, taking various poses on various spots. There are few houses with lovely cute setting such as the white house, sommerset cottage, lighthouse, florist, bakery, bell house and many more.

Another pretty spot

View from the lighthouse

An hour passed so quickly...we felt tired and hungry and we were directly shown to our outdoor seat by the lake. Few swans were enjoying the sunset, swimming elegantly around the mini water fountain. Scanning the menus, we were confused seeing the number and variety of it...so many to choose, from Italian pasta, western type of fastfood, asian signature dishes and comprehensive selection of Thai culinary. I asked for the recommended ones and with minimum English, the waitress explained and took our order. Cheesy baked potato skin for our appetizer came. It was quite good, with bacon strip sandwiched between the potato skin and mozarella cheese. Too bad, it was quite spicy for my girls with chili powder and chopped spring onion as the topping. Next came my girls's dinner, fish and chips with green salad and coleslaw. The portion was quite big, each fish cutlet was longer than my streching palm. We started to talk bout how different thing was here, compared to Jkt. In Jkt, the picture on menu book is normally bigger than the real dish. However, here, the real dishes didn't compliment what we saw on the menu book. Perhaps, they should put the information about the portion on the menu in English (they probably have it now but since we can't read any curling Thai's language - we didn't know for sure). But nothing surprised us more when me and my hubby's dishes were served. I was definitely jaw-dropped...seeing how huge the size of my pork ribs. Lucky I only ordered for the half portion of 5 pieces of ribs...I wondered what would happen if I were to choose the full portion one (arrgghhh...I don't even want to imagine it). The bbq marinated pork ribs were tasty and I finished it all (just fyi, I am no fan of pork). My hubby ordered german something (the dish's name - we totally forgot) which looked like a fried huge part of a pork's tight (as big as my girl's head - so go ahead and try to picture it out). He was started to think...how many laps he had to swim to burn it off "̮˚°◦♡ώκωķ(∩_∩)◦°˚"̮ . But, he successfully managed to finish the dinner as well...hurray for us ‎​Ħǎː̗(^▽^)ː̖Ħǎː̗(^▽^)ː̖Ħǎ. For beverages, we went for the normal chrysantenum iced tea, iced milo for my girl and iced coffee for my hubby. The total bill for our dinner was about B1500 (they don't put service tax on the bill so we add another 10% on top of it) and it was quite cheap, again if we compared with the same dishes and the same portion in Jkt.

My pork ribs...see the size comparison with my mobile

My husband's meal...scary isn't it?

Baked potato skin

Fish and chips

With full belly, we walked around for a bit, trying to help our body to digest the eaten food. Beautiful sunset sky and the just-turned-on lights created another perfect setting for our pic. Then we climbed our way on the lighthouse. The view from the top was spectacular but definitely not doing anything good on my tummy. I was wondering whether I was afraid of high places...what they call it for? I forgot the bla-bla-phobia term. Anyway, we retraced our way backward, taking another set of pic with nite view. It gave a different vibe between day and nite and I prefered nite better :-) More romantic (swoon). Satisfied ourselves with pic, then we headed to the parking lot trying to figure it out how we were going back. Seemed no problem at all, lots of standby taxi were available. But these taxies didn't go by meter, so if you would like to use it, you would better know the rough distance and fare required (sharpen your bargaining skill first pls). Lucky for us, there was a taxi which dropped its guest and we quickly snatched it up and rode smoothly back to the hotel уααу!└(^o^)┘ \^o^/ └(^o^)┘уααу!

Oh-so-romantic gazebo

 

Spacious restroom

The place is beautiful. The diner was awesomely classy with friendly vibe. Though limited English capability, the waitress was doing their best in servicing us. Reservation during weekend is recommended, especially for dinner but on weekday, walk-in guest is welcomed. I liked their restroom, big spacious toilet cubicles are meticulously clean and smell good too (lemongrass). I recalled most of the restroom in Jkt with only enough space to do the toilet business, and bumped your shoulder or elbow on the partition if you manuver too much. Free un-passworded wifi was available around the place, enabling you to directly upload the pics taken onto your Instagram or FB accounts *grinning* To wrap it out, it was a perfect place for unwind and dine in style.

Sawad dee kha :-)

It's the day...finally. We were kind of overly excited for few days already...busying ourselves with packing and unpacking...rescheduling all the girls' private classes...and of course shopping for our holiday need. Not that the items couldn't be found there but especially for clothes...I need to wash it first prior using it (definitely not my hubby kind which can wear newly bought clothes...my high maintenance skin - read: sensitive - is troublesome). So here we are...on our way to Bangkok on 9k feet or is it 19k...90k? Well, when you read this post (wondering whether i could post it with my mobile blogger version), I will probably at Phuket already. We chose early morning flight so as not to waste more time there...the flight was on time...smooth took off plus perfect weather. Couldn't ask for more :-)

So, while I was wondering what should I do to kill this 3hour flight...my hubby is sleeping peacefully right on my left (geez....I envy him sometimes...especially now. He can practically doze off anytime anywhere, even after a cup of expresso). I looked at my girls on the right who are playing tab in turn (they sure feel like at home). While I am busying myself, wrestling my neck to find some comfort (a drawback for being a petite size huh), I decided to write something on my mobile (no worry...aeroplane mode is on) So, we are back to Thailand to celebrate me-n-my-hubby 10th anniversary. We had our honeymoon at Thai and now, with the girls tagging along...we decided to retrace our previous trip. However, this time we will visit Bangkok and Phuket only, excluding Samui. I still recalled my experience flying to Samui using small earoplane with full capacity of 20 passangers only...ringing machine sound along the way, complete with turbulance and any kind of vibration (felt like bajaj-after-effect LOL). It was such a long 30mins...unforgetable memory wkwkwk. Geez...how time is flying. Half way there already and with Beyonce's Love on Top is playing thru my earphone, I started to enjoy my flight. This trip is gonna FUN! I have a habit of predicting how enjoyable the trip based on how I enjoy the ride *silly but yeah I am quite superstitious. Beside, we have packed our itinerary with lots of interesting places (yes...u guessed it right)...places that fun according to my girls. That means forget historical places, stroked out museum and heritage places. Well, at least we will visit the Grand Palace (it was easy to persuade the girls...just telling them that we are going to a princess's palace)

Anyway, lots of my friend asked me...isn't it troublesome going for trip especially overseas with kids? Well, I have been taking my girls for overseas trip since they were 2yo. I didn't say that it was easy...we did have some problems like when the girls were sick and we had to choose between spending our holiday in the hotel or piggyback them while we sightseeing. But so far, we are always waiting eagerly for this kind of trip. I don't have any magic formula up to my sleeves but I guess I can share tids and bits bout bringing your kids holiday.

1. First and the foremost is maintaining the health...yours the most and of course the kids. I often double their vitamin intake a week before until the last day of the trip. Vitamin and common used medicine are the must items in my things-to-bring. Medicines for fever, motion sickness, headache, stomache, bug bites, allergy, teardrop...even the famous Tolak Angin are in my bag.

2. Next is the itinerary. Browse...ask around...google...or copy the tour-travel's ones. Some tourism website offer feee-of-charge consultation, make use of that. Put on your itinerary: the point of interest, how to get there, operational hour and day, and fee required (transport fee, ticket, etc). If English isn't commonly used, print out the address of your hotel and places that you wanna go in the country's mother tongue.

3. Once the itinerary is done, start calculating the budget. I know it is tough to stick on the budget but this will help you in figuring out how much cash that you need to bring...how much that you need to converse...etc. You dont want to be flat broke after holiday,dont you? If possible, online purchase any ticket that you need, so you don't need to bring too much cash on hand.

4. List out your to-do-list and things-to-bring. This way, you could avoid bringing unneccessary stuff and forgetting important item. Make this list at least 2days prior your departure so you have enough time to revise it.

5. The last but the most important is feeling good. Don't freak out or worse, feeling pessimistic. Just enjoy and have a great holiday. So what if my girls are picky-eater...we can collect goodies from those fastfood chain (the only time my girls can enjoy junkfood to their heart desire). So what if they are throwing tantrum and kick a fit...it's holiday and perfect time to pamper them once in a while. Again, enjoy it!

Happy holiday everyone :-) *cheers from somewhere with lots of squishy cloud and light blue sky

Epic - animation movie

Last week went slowly, most of the time spent driving to and fro for my girl's chiropractic therapy. It wasn't something big, just a bit posture correction due to her flat-feet. But my girls still enjoyed the week due to their latest addition toward their Lalaloopsy's collection. As promised, I bought them the Tree House as reward for their achievement in school. My girls got into the big ten уααу!└(^o^)┘ \^o^/ └(^o^)┘уααу! Believe me...it was a better result compared to last semester or last year.

Image taken from www.imdb.com

Though my hubby was a bit disappointed this week since we still haven't catch the lastest Star Trek movie (well - mainly his fault since he was deep in neck with work) but we watched Epic, one of my must-see-movie ↖(^ω^)↗...уιρρєу!...ㄟ(￣▽￣ㄟ). This time, we chose the 3D version and thru 100mins, the back of my ears itched and were hurt (well, using 2glasses at the same time was too much a burden for my delicate ears).

My girls' award

Anyway, despite the discomfort, I enjoyed the movie a lot. It was totally epic (๑'⌣'๑)づ . It is about a girl called MK who lived with her mother but due to the mother's recent death, she was about to live with her father. Prof Bomba is an eccentric guy who has been spending almost his entire life in his study about tiny people who lives in the forest near his house. MK totally thought his father was a freak (can't blame her though...her father seemed pay more attention toward his study anyway) and decided to leave the house. However, accidentally MK had to chase Ozzie (their three-legs-dog) into the forest.

On the other part of the forest, at the same time, Tara (the forest guardian or queen) was chosing her heir when Boggans (basically the bad guy - it was pretty difficult to explain what Boggans were - I didn't get a close look neither unless that they were bad and smelly and definitely not good looking) attacked them. Ronin (the head of leafmen - leafmen were the soldier who protect the forest) run into her rescue by riding a colibri (or hummingbird - well, it looked like it anyway). And apparently colibri was the trending vehicle especially for soldier since it was small enough yet fast. However, one of Boggans' arrow hit Tara and she fell.

Fate arranged their meeting. Tara fell onto MK and on her last breath, Tara handing the lotus bud/pod (the chosen heir) to MK and asked MK to bring the pod to Nim Glu. Unexpectedly, the magic of Tara shrunk MK into their size. Together with Ronin, Nom (the resigned leafmen but handy rider), and the hillarious slimey duo of Grub the wanted-to-be-leafmen-snail and Mud the big proud slug, MK began her journey to Nim Glu. Nim Glu was a place where the wise caterpilar lived with its scrolls of knowledge (yes...the wise animal was the silly caterpilar...not the serious looking owl as I have thought). Nim, the caterpillar explained that for the new queen to be born, the pod should bloom under the moonlight at that specific night. Too bad, Mandrake (the leader of Boggans) attacked Nim Glu and stole the pod.

Terrible thing would happen to the forest if the pod was blooming in the darkness of the Boggans. Therefore, MK, Nom and Ronin disquised themselves into Boggans and retrieved back the pod. Trouble didn't stop there. Boggans re-attacked and destroyed the forest right before the pod was blooming. Leafmen were desperately fighting back until MK realized that the only person who could help them was his father. Upon Prof Bomba's help, the pod was successfully bloomed under the moonlight and new queen was finally chosen. MK was back to her-own-self but at the end, both worlds keep their friendship intact.

This movie was actually so cliche just like any other children animation movie, where the good guy versus bad guy, and upon critical time, good guy managed to win. Anyway I like several things on it like the amazing sound and image effect. I like the leaves boat with Lotus pod as the core, and being pulled by the dragonflies. I like how the forest assented their queen, curling and uncurling of fern leaves or how the lotus leaves joined together so that Tara could walk on the pond gracefully. Everything about the forest was breath-takingly beautiful. I also like the moral stories of this movie. First, it was about leafmen principal of 'many leaves one tree' which means we are actually connected to the other, never alone. Therefore, in time of need, it is ok to ask for help of other and vice versa. Second, it tought us to keep trying...to keep fighting and never give up. Just like Nom and the leafmen, realized that they were outnumbered and have lots of handicaps, however they kept attacking the Boggans...trully EPIC!