Asia Spirit Lodge and Spa

Due to a high pressure stressful job, we wanted a holiday in Thailand but away from the shops and crowds. Perched on the side of a hill accessible only by 4wd or high powered car, with magnificent views of the South China sea and mainland lights at night, we thoroughly enjoyed the peace and tranquility and stayed 17 days. Ricky and his wife Tip were the best hosts you could ask for. We were taken wherever we wanted to go locally and then picked up accordingly and shown the best massage place. We booked a car and tours through Wanissa at The big tree and so had our days out touring the island but very happy to go back to Asia spirit lodge after. The accommodation was superb and meals excellent. Watching the storms come in was interesting and loved the coolness of the rain. We ate evening meals at village restaurants on the coast and learnt as much Thai as we could. If you really want to relax in peace and quiet with occasional shopping then this is the place for you. If you want tourism, and the hustle and bustle of a main town then go to Chaweng.Thanks again to Ricky and Tip.

We arrived at Koh Samui via ferry and organised a taxi driver to take us to Asia Spirit. We arrived at the turn and the driver explained he would call the lodge, who would send someone down to drive us up the steep slope. Repeated attempts to contact anyone were fruitless. When by chance the manager passed and saw there were clients in the taxi, he organised to take us to the lodge. When we arrived for check in he explained there was no electricity and so no telephone which was why the calls from the taxi driver had been unanswered. There was no internet, no airconditioning and the pool which features in advertising was a disgusting filthy mess as a result of fruits having dropped from the tree that towers over it. To be fair the place has pluses. The cook, Kay, does a great job producing breakfasts and evening meals are good given the nature of the ingredients, It is a pity they have only one menu and that the majority of the items are no longer available. The prices are high (350B for cooked bfast and 390 B for an average evening main meal.) However, the concept of customer service is lacking. Despite our requesting a second mug of coffee each day since we arrived, we have never been asked whether we would like a second cup any morning and one day when I went to ask, the kitchen had been vacated. Another morning I went and asked for coffee, only to be given the phone to the manager who asked me what I wanted. When I said coffee, please, he told me he was in bed. We never bothered after that- I don't feel 2 cups of coffee is unreasonable at breakfast. Staff do not come and clear away dishes, so if you want to linger, you do so with all your remains from the meal. The manager was keen to promote our leaving the property, especially on tour with him, at a cost. As several people have commented on the price of transport from the lodge I will leave it at that. At no time did I feel he was interested in providing us with anything other than money making service. Cleaning staff did a good job in the room and we used the separate villa pool on a few occasions. It was pleasant, with great views. We stayed here for five nights. Every day there was no electricity and/or water for part of the day. The shower is exactly as Janes B describes it. We just ensured the towels were removed before we showered. I am unsure whether the manager is lazy, incompetent or both. He is not a good leader. He stands at reception, smoking- he dresses unprofessionally and this at a place billed as a spa, he allows staff to sit around playing computer games when they could be tidying the grounds, for example. On several occasions he informed us that he had slept all day, when he had agreed to take us to another property. Our departure was typical. The manager had offered to take us to the pick up point for our next location, had told us he had no idea where it was, then told Kay to take us. It is not surprising that we were taken to the wrong location. Still we paid the charge 500Bt paid in cash.

first let me say that if you want one of the most breath taking views to chow down with your breakfast then this is the place for you. But if you want things like, a decent shower, the food you ordered, leaving the hotel when YOU want, security in your room then you may want to reconsider. So the view: 99 out of 10, thats how good it is. One of the first things we noticed upon checking into our room was the shower, whilst the design is striking, upon closer inspection what the so called "shower head" is, is a peice of copper tubing which has been flattened at one end and stuck through the mouth of a concrete dragon face on the wall, held in with liquid nails.the water squirts out with such velocity that if you're not standing in the stream you will end up wetting the far wall of the bathroom because theres no shower screen of any description, so it hits the floor and goes everywhere, and of course thats exactly where they put the towel rack... so you get wet towels too. We went in what i believe to be the low season, may, there was only 2 people manning the resort, Ricky and Kay. Kay - i cant sing enough praise, he was bloody fantastic. Ricky on the other hand, whilst a nice guy, was a constant headache for us. 2 of the 4 nights we were there he brought the wrong food to my wife, he was late picking us up multiple times and on the day we checked out he was supposed to be there to pick us up at 7:40 am, at 7:50 when Kay showed up to save the day, i finally got a call from Ricky asking what i wanted (i'd been ringing him) to discover he was still asleep. He'd also offered to take us into town, only to drive us to the end of the gate and drop us at a taxi point. We weren't exactly impressed. Room security, i noticed not only on ours but a few of the rooms the window locks for the bathroom windows are either broken or jammed, there's essentially no point locking your room. The restaurant has an amazing view, but the lack of housekeeping is annoying, we would have breakfast most mornings to discover tables had not been cleaned or reset from the previous night, or vise versa for dinner, cutlery glasses etc were never reset on the tables, nor wiped down. also they offer a menu with about 25+ main dishes, but we were informed that over half of them were not available, i dont know why, they just wernt. Also for all the fresh seafood around, i tried 2 seafood dishes, both used frozen and cheap seafood ingredients, for what they were charging, it wasnt great. What i can say was fantastic was Kay and his dog Deer. Kay went above and beyond for us, tried to give us information, showed us things, told us things and generally covered for Rickys lack of customer service, Kay is a bit of an allrounder going from driving us around, to bell boy to being the chef, i dont blame him for the food, he's only doing what he can with what he has. Oh, the beds are like concrete. didnt sleep at al. Summery, i'd go back for the view, but not much else.