8/27/2015

Zhiwa Ling Hotel (Paro, Bhutan)


Zhiwa Ling Hotel
Satsam Chorten, Paro
Kingdom of Bhutan
Ph: 975-8-271277
Email: info@zhiwaling.com

The only Bhutan owned and operated 5-star  hotel, Zhiwa Ling is a dream come true, because of its traditional architecture and craftsmanship, its facilities, the friendliness and care of their staff, and the quality of the service.

Just entering the place is like being part of the royal family  because the hotel lobby is just like one of those palaces and temples that travellers visit in the country. A central inner courtyard with stunning (stunning with capitals) woodwork, paintwork, carving work, and the staff dressed in traditional costumes help you to realise that is a hotel like no other. Zhiwa Ling has a large wide garden area, with different blocks of grey stone where the rooms are located, tea and meditation houses, pond and seating areas around. 

THE ROOMS
The rooms where we were placed were fantastic. A block has only six rooms, so they are large and spacious. Wooden floors, Bhutanese decorative elements and classy sober facilities, with huge comfortable beds and marble bathroom.
 
My suit was very spacious, elegant and classy, with a rear balcony facing a tranquil part of the gardens and very luminous during the day. This spot was delightful, really pretty and cozy (see the photo above), and very conducive to relaxation and meditation. The room was spotless clean and kept that way during my stay. I also loved the small seating area in the room (leather armchair, a two-seater couch, coffee table and floor lamp), and coffee facilities; perfect to unwind, read or have a chat. Free fast wi-fi always makes me happy. 

RESTAURANT
The Hotel's Restaurant is spacious and very pleasant, not that imposing or posh, but the staff, the service and the food make for the rest. Their buffet breakfast is excellent. Everything there, even those things that seem to be very European or "imported", are locally produced, sourced and prepared. They are yummy, flavoursome and very fresh.  I personally loved their Danish pastries, the mini-glasses of fruit yoghurt, and their omelettes, but everything I tried was great. The restaurant opens for breakfast at 6am, but only cold dishes are served until 7am. You can have breakfast delivered in your room for no extra charge. The hotel staff will knock on your door at your preferred time on the clock.

Dinner and lunch are served in the same restaurant. Their dinner setting changes from day to night, and the mood is more intimate and classy. They have a mix of international dishes very well cooked, with several options for entrée, main and dessert. The local staff are working hard to bring an à-la-carte menu in the future (perhaps already have it, I don't know), but I really liked everything I had and they serve decent portion sizes, especially important if you are back from trekking. 

They had a good wine and spirits selection, but very expensive, more expensive than in Australia or UK. But hey, alcohol is not a necessity and if you cannot enjoy a dinner without a drink you probably have an alcohol problem :O.

SERVICE
If you want to experience what good service really is, go to Zhiwa Ling. I have been in many posh hotels in different countries, and this is the best service I have had so far. People seemed genuine, did not seem to be too pushy, too servant-like or too bothersome, they were very smiley and seemed to enjoy their job. Even the guys opening doors for you were lovely despite the task at hand, literally. I did not feel that, like in other hotels, things were done to get a tip. I hate that feeling and I get it often in many places, so it is great that these people made our stay so pleasant. 

The manager of the hotel (a Kiwi, by the way!) comes out to receive visitors personally at the lobby, no matter a couple or a group. How special is that?!

THE SPA
The Spa is not very big but very pleasant, well organised, comfortable and with very kind staff. They specialise in massage, Bhutanese hot-stone baths and facial treatments. The girls are really lovely and I absolutely loved the soothing massage and facial I had there. They are really excited that you are visiting your remote country and are keen to talk and know everything about you and your country if you feel like having a chat.

EXTRA KUDOS
>> Meditation and Yoga areas in the garden.
>> Golf cars to move you around if you need them, day and night.
>> Money exchange service at reception.
>> An oversized umbrella is placed in the veranda by your door if the weather is rainy. 
>> The boys opening the door were just gorgeous. They really look hot in the traditional dress. :O

MIND
# The hotel is a 25-minute drive from Paro city.
# Golf caddies are used to take your baggage in and out your room. The guys have to take the bags on their shoulders to the upper floors as there aren't lifts, so be mindful and don't carry too much stuff. If you do, you are visiting the wrong country. Also, think if you would like to carry that sort of weight on your own shoulders.
# Alcohol is very expensive in the bar and restaurant.
# All the floors are floorboards. So every time you walk they crack. That is specially noticeable when you have people staying in the room above yours. The movement of two wheeled suitcases might sound like the end of the world or a bunch of noisy neighbours dancing flamenco. No, it is not the case, it is the flooring system and people leaving for an early flight. 

IF THIS WERE MY HOTEL I WOULD....
>> Improve the lighting of the rooms, which is way too dim for people with poor sight, and not good for reading or opening the safe for example. I always carry a torch with me, but adding a more powerful  lamp would easily solve the problem. 
>> I couldn't  find the heating/cooling air-con. I might be disguised and operated by the staff. I don't know. The floorboards and the stone walls contribute to the overall coldness of the rooms. Bhutan is in the Himalayas, so even in spring it is cold at night. Perhaps having portable good-quality heaters or a clearly signed system would be great.
>> I would remove the small carpets from the room as they don't have stoppers and, despite being beautiful, they can be a nuisance. Bigger ones or no one. My opinion. 
>> The towel hanger and the bath were too high for me! I could not reach the hanger on my toes! This might be great for tall people, but for average sized women, is not! Perhaps I am not average :\
>> It would be great if the Spa offered a few more services for the ladies, like pedicure, manicure, and hairdressing.
>> It would be great having an ATM in the hotel

***

Visiting Zhiwa Ling is an experience in itself. This is not a luxury hotel in the strict sense of the word, but the luxury is being in that amazing country experiencing an eco-friendly sustainable hotel, the profits of which go to the locals. What is more, the hotel is stunningly beautiful and the staff really welcoming and warm. This is a kind of hotel you cannot visit elsewhere. Unique and unforgettable. 

8/25/2015

Amazon Book Store (Online Retailer)

I visit Amazon Store very often, sometimes daily, mostly to buy e-books. Although I have purchased items that are not books from Amazon, this review is about the book store, from which I have been buying for years.

I rarely buy books on paper any more unless I need them and they are not available on digital format. This being the case, and Kindle being a free app, I have buying and reading Kindle ebooks for many years at very affordable or cheap prices (and some of the classics for free). Most digital serious books in Amazon would cost you around 9-10 American bucks, some academic ones included (although these tend to be way more expensive especially if very specialised). To be fair, I have also found many Kindle books (especially old ones) to be more expensive that the hard copy, but this is the rule not the exception. And really, you do not have to pack ebooks when you move.

I usually buy my ebooks and hard copy book by using "Buy with a click" button. You just press the button, and voila. You need to have your personal details and credit card registered and the button activated. Dangerous! because pushing a digital button is the easiest thing when you fancy something. Digital books are delivered instantly to your device/s, and a sale confirmation  emailed to you. The return polices for digital books are great. Sometimes you press the "buy this ebook" by mistake or just start reading it and you think it is bad quality or does not work in your device, and you can return it, no questions asked. 

If you buy a hard copy book, the procedure is the same, but your order takes a while to be processed and dispatched. The process of fulfilling your order is not immediate, even if the book is in stock, so you have a natural cooling period to cancel your order if you want. Delivery times vary from state to state and country to country. Usually, Amazon tells you the estimated natural period when you can expect your book at home, and they are right on the spot most times. A tracking link is provided with your dispatch notification email, so you just have to wait and see. Your hard-copy book contains also return forms just in case you want to return it or exchange it once you have it at home. In the past, I bought books that were very expensive in Australia at half the price for the same edition and book on Amazon. Despite the high International rates for some of those books, I got them way cheaper.

Prime and Kindle unlimited are great, especially if you live in the USA, but not so if you do not. Waw waw wawww.  On the other hand, Amazon has full sites in several countries; if that is the case, you will benefit from having access to the many features that they have, which are limited in partial Amazon sites. One of the advantages of having an Amazon account is that if you don't find the book you are looking in the American store, you could find it in other international stores, and sometimes a way better prices, and you can access those sites by using the same email and password you use to log in on your home Amazon. I have experienced this to be the case with the purchase of bilingual dictionaries that costed a fortune on Amazon, but were one third or half the price for the same item and edition in their country of origin.

If you are new to Amazon and are making your first purchase, you might find that the site can demand your VISA to be verified. You do that through your bank's website. Most online retailers do not require this any more, and I am not sure if Amazon does so nowadays as I have been buying from them for years and my card is already verified. I think it is great that they required visa verified cards as this is an extra layer of security to your purchases. 

Before ordering anything outside the USA, not to inflate your purchase and not get surprises, check two things:
> That the book is sold and dispatched from Amazon warehouses. That means that the costs will be way cheaper than any other retailer selling on Amazon.
> If you are buying from other retailers through Amazon, check in advance their pricing for International deliveries, before proceeding to purchase, and decide if this inflates the price of your product or is still good.

In the past, I found Amazon Customer Service polite, very well organised, but extremely robotic and idiotic, annoying and frustrating despite them wanting to help. The good thing is that I only required their help once in the last 15 years. As I have already mentioned, books returns are effectuated automatically without any question being asked, no fuss, and immediate in the case of ebooks.

Amazon's reviewing system is great, but I have found a bit bunch of trolls, preachers, author's pals, author's mad fans, and free-book-for-review reviewers (Vine Voice being an example, clearly marked as so though) who can be an annoyance. Generally speaking, though, I trust the site's reviews and some reviews and reviewers are amazing. I have discovered amazing books through great reviewers. As a rule of thumb, always look for those reviews and reviewers who tend to have a "verified purchase" sign in their reviews.  Amazon does not do enough, not much really, to stop trolls, something that annoys me a lot, and they allow clear sexist comments, clear to anybody with two eyes, to stay there even if you complain. I think this is the case because those dealing with that sort of complain are... sexist themselves, which is disgusting and shameful.

The Kindle App is fantastic and you can download it and use it for free anywhere, your phone, tablet, PC and laptop. I would not recommend updating it too often, unless it is giving you problems. Many of the updates come fully charged with bugs and they can be very frustrating when they do not allow you to read the books you own or keep crashing the app. The reading experience with Kindle is fantastic as you can adjust the size and style of your font, brightness, spacing and margins and the lateral toolbar allows you to navigate the book in the easiest possible way. Unlike Google books, the passing of one page to another is not realistic, something I really love and miss. Besides, Kindle is not good for reading PDF book, EPUB books or any other format that is not Kindle. Yet, it is understandable.  Google Reader does no allow you to read Kindle books either.

Kindle for PC or Kindle on the Cloud, are also free and alternative ways to have your books at hand, especially if you need some of them for work, which is my case.

Regarding the rendering of books on Kindle format, although most books (and graphic books) are launched both in hard copy and on digital form at the same time (therefore, identical), many others ebooks are edited digitally way after the hard copy was published. Some editorial houses do not bother to update books that were not originally prepared for the digital market. So, you can find yourself exasperated because, despite being charged full price for a book, the rendering of the book for Kindle is defective, unpolished, lacking a bit of work, footnotes rendered badly, indexes rendered badly, and so on. Things that rest enjoyment to the joy of reading, and which I consider both a disrespect to the author and the reader.

Overall I am a devotee of ebooks and of Amazon Book Store.

Booking.com (Online Retailer)


 
I have used this site extensively for years and I only have good words and a great experience.

I tend to alternate my bookings between this site and Expedia, depending on which of them is selling cheaper, or better rooms for the same price, or better hotels for the same price.

The variety of accommodation is more than you will need, from backpacker places to high luxury, and everything in between. It is up to you what you pay for. They always have better pricing than other hotel online sites like Agoda or Asian Rooms, just to mention two examples, also a better review system and things are mentioned upfront to you.

Most of my bookings with Booking have been for overseas places, and I have always been happy with the pricing, booking system and how things went once in the hotel. I never found myself surprised by what I found, because, well, I knew where I was going and what I could expect.

The information page of each hotel is extensive, well organised, with a great amount of photos to see where you are heading to, plenty of reviews, plenty of room options and pricing to choose within a hotel, and specifications and pricing clearly shown.

One of the things I like most about Booking is the fact that they have more fully-refundable options than other sites, and also that changing and playing with your booking dates is not only easy, but you won't be charged for it, and your booking will maintain the pricing you first paid if the rooms are available for the new dates. This is something important to me, because I have changed dates of holidays or dates of stay quite a bit in the past with a great peace of mind.

The conditions of the booking and specifications of the rooms available for each hotel are clearly visible and stated, with colour markers for important stuff, so you won't miss anything because the font is too small or not visible enough.

I always trust their reviews, because the come from certified travellers like me that cannot post anything there without receiving the link after you finish your stay. Moreover, the amount of reviews that the place generates is higher than any other site, perhaps as bold as Tripadvisor (but here reviews are not verified, just monitored), way more than Expedia, Agoda or any other site. To me, the more reviewers the merrier, because I have an array of many different people telling me that Hotel X is bad, so-so or terrific, and which things are a miss.

The only downside I can think of, is the fact that some hotels, especially in the past, allowed you to book and pay at your hotel's reception desk. I never like that, because it opens the door to trouble in countries and with people who see Westerners as a rip-off object. So I tend to book rooms in which the payment is automatically deducted from my bank account, without me having to go to the reception desk to pay for anything but the extras.

My experience has been fantastic so far and I hope it continues the same. I have a trip coming in  a week or so, and I will be using Booking. 

They also have an app, who doesn't?!, and it is very clean to the eye and well organised and easy to browse and book. I use it just to browse, as I always prefer booking from my laptop. 

Cover-More Travel Insurance (Online Retailer)



I travel quite often, and these days I pay for travel insurance. 

Cover More has been my travel insurance company since ever, meaning since I started paying for travel insurance. There were years in which my only insurance was praying the heavens to protect me because I did not have the money to do pay for anything but the ticket. I found the pricing of the polices really high, taking into account that I have rarely had any problem and that this might be the case of most travellers. Just guessing! They claim that spend many millions on claims per year, and I believe them; however, I think that the number of people not claiming is higher.

However, there is no detour. I have compared Cover-More with other travel insurance companies (even with my health insurance company, which offers discounts to members for Travel Insurance) and Cover-More is cheaper or the same price, depending on the policy, but it has more benefits. So I am stuck with them.

I would like their policies to be a bit more flexible and considerate with regular customers. But they do not have regular customers because their idiotic system does not record us as such, no matter how many times you book with them. They should implement a rewards point system for people who regularly buy their policies, and points added for travels done without claiming anything. Then, turn the points into discounts and voila. That would make me happy. And you.

The only time I had done a claim, everything was easy-peasy. The claim was for a last-minute flight change that forced me to move intercity immediately and the only thing I could find available was a room in a five star hotel. I produced the receipts, told them what had happened and I was fully reimbursed, no fuss.

In the past, I used to book on the phone because their website was just good for quotes but useless for booking. Currently, it is pretty good for bookings and I book directly online.

I am never happy paying so much money to a Travel Insurance company, but, really, if I got sick or something bad happened to me overseas, their policies give me a great peace of mind, and they are cheaper than other companies out there. So let it be. 

UPDATE 11/1/16
I have just bought a policy with Cover-more. I visited first their website, as I have been using it for years. They don't seem to get thing right. The booking of a policy is simpler and clearer than ever, and the look of the website has improved. However, something really important has worsened. In the former version of the website, you introduce your  personal info and dates of travel and you would get a quote in all policies they offer, side by side. At present, the police they offer for International, is just one, no the most comprehensive, . The latter (called Options) can bought through travel agents, which is always a pain because they inflate the prices and to get a discount you have to move your rear to find somebody who offers a better price and keep playing poker,and it only benefits the travel agents. It might be that you can book the Options comprehensive policy on the phone, but the website looks nicer and simpler but it is not better. 

Expedia (Online retailer)


I have used Expedia so much in the last 7-8 years and with so much satisfaction and saving me so much money that I am surprised at the low ratings out there on the net.

I travel overseas almost every year, sometimes twice a year, and I have booked flights alone, hotels alone and combos, always with great satisfaction and Expedia working as a machine for me.

I started using Expedia because I was fed up with the poor customer service (even lies) I got from my usual travel agencies (those constantly advertising on TV ). Also their prices seemed always more expensive than those I then saw online, and last episode was that the departure of my return flight from an overseas trip was changed in the Christmas period, and nobody bothered to tell me in the agency. I found out by chance and I found myself in a dreadful situation with a lot of out of pocket expenses and difficulty to find transport and hotel.

I truly hesitated to organise my first holiday with Expedia. Travelling is something sacred to me. If somebody or something messes up things, I am going to be furious and devastated. However, everything went great. I have been using Expedia services ever since.

The offer of places and companies is huge, from the humble backpacker place to the super-luxurious hotel, from the low cost airline to the the posher one, from national to International flights. The booking system allows you to clearly see waiting times between flights, something I find important because bygone are those days in which I considered reasonable waiting 10+ hours in an airport no matter how super-duper the airport. If there is any change to your flight, no matter it is of 5 minutes, you will receive an email telling you that your flight details have changed.

Pricing is great, usually the cheapest prices in the market, that is why I book with them. My love is not blind, ever. Sometimes the hotels are better priced at Booking.com, so I book those there.

The booking system is fuss-free, clear, easy to follow, with all the important things mentioned and visible upfront.

Depending on the destination, you can also book and pay for your transfer at cheaper prices than you would if you paid it at the regular prices you find them in your country of origin. I have used the service a couple of times and worked smoothly for me. Expedia also offers day tours and activities for some places, but I have never booked any of those. Travel insurance is also on offer, and I have also used it for short trips; for long ones or combo holidays I use other companies.

My last interstate ticket was purchased with them, the arrival and departure separated eight months, at fantastic prices and with Qantas. Last year I had a multi-country trip, so I did book the flight through a normal travel agent; however, the agent offered me a limited number of hotels at ridiculous prices. I checked those on Expedia and they were cheaper and offered better rooms. I ended buying all my hotels in five different countries via Expedia. Got there, presented the voucher, tadahhhh no fuss.

I have reviewed many of the hotels and companies I booked through Expedia, following the link they provide once you have finished your flight/stay, and they have always been published. Therefore, I trust other reviewers' reviews. A good deal of the reviews in Expedia come from Trip advisor, a place I trust because I am a contributor.

Expedia has a 24/7 Customer Service. I have used just once and the guys on the phone were very helpful. Unfortunately, the conditions of my tickets were set and there was nothing I could do. Since then, I make sure I find out whether the flight dates can be changed or not, and how much would cost me. That it is easy, because that sort of information is mentioned upfront while you are booking.

EXTRA KUDOS
> They have a decent app, so you can carry your trip details on your device without the need of printing. I personally prefer using my laptop for bookings (security reasons, size reasons, sight reasons), but it is great having the choice of browsing hotels and flights from your device. 
> They have launched a reward program, which is always great to be part of if you are a regular frequent traveller.

DOWNSIDES
> Although you can re-schedule the dates of your flights and hotel bookings, there is not a straight way to do so like in other online sites. Basically, you have to cancel your existing booking and rebook again. That is not convenient most of the time, because if you do that, the pricing you will be charged is the one valid at the moment of booking, not the one you initially booked. This might result in a change of hotels or airlines and higher prices.
> There are many reviewers online unhappy with Expedia. To be honest, if I was booking for the first time, I would be scared. Yet, I don't think this is the majority of users of the site.

TIPS
Before booking you should:
> Check and recheck that the dates you have typed and shown are those that you really want.  
> Check and recheck that your name is correctly spelled.
> Be sure that your ticket or bookings are refundable or you can change them paying little.
> Buy travel insurance. Life is unpredictable.

8/06/2015

WTF Foodie Moment 8: The Gift

I received this email from one of the community managers of a review site in my city. It sounds good. But is it good? Is it innocent? Below the real, but edited, emails. 

(...) I’m So-and-So, one of the community managers from X site. I just wanted to get in touch to say hey and congrats on being one of our top reviewers in city X!
We would love to send you a little so-and-so gift to thanks for your awesome posting. If you could reply with your full name and postal address that would be fantastic. (...)

My reply:

Hi So-and-So
Thanks a million for the detail.
Unfortunately, I don't give my personal details online, especially to people I don't know and are managing network online sites. I am very conscious about data collection online and no "gift" is going to change that, especially when X site could easily give a voucher for the fortunate to collect the goodies in person or just a gift voucher. I always love those.
Having said that. I appreciate the good will. 
(...)

The question is, how many of the fortunate people who have received this email have said no?

THE FOLLOW UP
After my email the same manager wrote to me saying that she totally understand :O and offering me to go to their office to collect the gift in person, and that the gift is some vouchers from some business they work with. So I am not hurrying to collect anything. A block of French pate would make me happy :D. 

GIFTS THAT ARE NOT GIFTS BUT A WAY OF MANIPULATING
If you want to give me a gift. Great. Send me an email voucher that does not require of me giving my personal details to an stranger and, even worse, to a website partly financed by local businesses, which would be thrilled to get a positive review or just a review. Because you carry the voucher, they would treat you like a queen/king, very differently from the rest of mortals, so that you leave feeling that they have the best customer service ever. 

This sort of free gift policy is very similar to the polices implemented in Yelp. Although Yelp is way more generous and many of the freebies do not come with a suggestion to make a review afterwards (but they would end with one), many of the exclusive invitations to restaurants and the Elite Events are given with an explicit request to write a review, and you letting yourself being photographed no matter you don't want because it is in the Terms & Conditions and by being there "for free" you are selling your image to them for a plate of food.

Nobody forces you to review those places, of course. nobody tells you, I give you this free ticket in exchange for a review, the request is implicit, though, in many of the gifts received. However, most people being invited to an Elite event are explicitly requested to write a review about the business. High ratings are the result. There is no problem with that when the business and the product deserve it, as this benefits both parts. I can count the many times I really enjoyed the event and I was more than happy to give high ratings to a business. The problem arises when you do not like the business/product/service, or you think it is just mediocre, but you feel psychologically obliged to be grateful by rating higher than you would if you were paying for the same. This psychological bias affects us all, even if you aren't aware of, and marketers know how to exploit it. 

In the last two free activities I attended in Yelp most people I talked to thought that the food was OK and the business giving the tickets not really good. In the first one several people told me just that, explicitly, but added: "I feel bad after all the special treatment and food we have received, giving them a low rating and saying what I really think". However, most people wrote four and five-star reviews full of babble. Almost nobody said that the food was amazing or deserving of five stars, just that the evening was great and thanks to the business for organising it. I myself did so with a 4-star review (when I thought 3 would had been fair), and I felt that I was betraying myself. I did not like the feeling. The second time, I was on an outing organised by a new foodie business that gave free tickets to yelpers; as soon as the event started yelpers were explicitly required to write a review. None of the people who attended did so because, talking among ourselves, we thought that the rating would be low and that would be a bit ungrateful. However, this request was enough for me not to write anything and quit Yelp and erase my whole account. There were other important reasons why I quit the site, but the "gift for a review" weighed in my final decision. My quitting did not happen without the resistance of Yelp itself, something that convinced even more that I was doing the right thing.  In fact, Yelp does not have a cancel-your-account button you can press when you want, and you have to request it by email, and the USA and local Yelp managers contact you on this trying to convince you not to quit, as the site is really good for you (BS) and question you about why. Why do I need to give an explanation at all? Isn't my wish reason enough? Am I not a free person? Am I not an adult? Their closing-account policy is similar to that of the data-sucker flock-manipulator Facebook, and I don't like it a bit.

A gift is a gift, give it freely, not as a subtle way of manipulating people to get what you want. 

I don't want to be in that position ever again. Well, ever again is perhaps a too-bold assertion. If I was on the dole or had a low salary, I would be happy to grab restaurant invitations. If I was offered a voucher to visit the best restaurant in town, I would grab it closed eyes, too, but this rarely happens as top restaurants do not need of those tactics to get high ratings. Until then, I am independent in my reviews without the pressure of going against my gut to be grateful. I feel that doing the contrary is betraying myself and I don't like how that tastes after the meal.

NB: A friend told me just today that somebody (i.e. yelpers) could be upset because of my words. Really? I find it puzzling. I am not responsible for other people's feelings, especially when this is a personal blog and what I say is my personal view of how I see things, and how things affect me.  I hate preaching or being preached, in the same way I hate being bllxited and manipulated. This is just my opinion. There are things that annoy me and I don't like. That might not be the case of other people, who really don't mind anything and are happy with the system. Well, I respect that. I really liked my Yelp "friends" and at a personal level I have nothing but praise for them. Yet, if somebody feels upset because of what I've written here, well, don't read me back :).