Khetwarin Resort

Small, clean, friendly, low-key, local resort by the river with smiley and sweet staff. The garden is lush and obviously well-tended. A bit difficult to find as Khetwarin Resort has two conflicting location pins on Google Maps. We had to stop to ask for directions. It is the pin on the smaller tributary of the Mae Klong, NOT on Mae Klong itself. The reasons Khetwarin Resort doesn't get five stars are that the superior twin room is small and forgettable, the beds were somewhat hard and at THB1,500 a night after taxes on Agoda it was priced on the high side for this category of accommodation. I liked the open-air bathroom. Breakfast was adequate but filling with the usual limited in range, generous in size spread of local resorts. The cook and overall handywoman was loveliest of all, very accommodating of off-menu requests, though strictly speaking on food, I would recommend having your other meals elsewhere. She was the one who saw us off and welcomed us back at the pier with her warm enthusiasm, a genuine touch we appreciated very much. Wassana, the manager, speaks good English and is crisply efficient. She will arrange river tours and even alms-giving in the morning where a monk paddles by in a sampan. The hotel is placed on a smaller, quiet tributary of Mae Klong but very close by boat to the tourist bustle of Amphawa floating market. We marvelled at the languor and cleanness of the river after the filthy khlongs of Bangkok. Even though it has been hot in the day time, it was cold on the river at night. It was relatively bright with a full moon and the lights from hotels, restaurants, temples, houses on the river on a long holiday weekend but the longtail-boatmen knew the darkest spots and the exact trees of faint Christmas fairy lights of fireflies. Just magical.