Really good food and the best rooms:

In 1989, I wrote:

“Amanpuri is so stunningly beautiful, brilliantly engineered, and gloriously comfortable that one simply shakes one’s head, closes one’s eyes, and surrenders in disbelief.”

Today: Even though the entrance is now through the new Chedi Hotel grounds instead of through the virgin forest, Amanpuri hasn’t changed. We ate in the Italian restaurant. Absolutely delicious foie gras as an amuse guelle, and perhaps the best, fried zucchini and calamari I’ve ever had.

See my story on a conversation with a taxi driver in Bali: Amanusa (of the same group as Amanpuri) in Bali has the best Thai food I’ve ever had, while Amanpuri, here in Thailand, has some of the best Italian. Fun, huh?

We followed with roast chicken and rack of lamb accompanied by a 1993 Mondavi Merlot. Across the dark pool, the musicians, now under a new swooping roof, still plink-plunk traditional Thai tunes, but last night they had to compete with the people at the next table on a cell phone trying to impress their neighbors back in Scarsdale. Hey kids, we’ve got “No Smoking” zones, how about “No Phones?” …especially in paradise! ($230 for two.)

Back to the Sheraton Grande Laguna Beach; here are the niggles that made it less than paradise, and my summation:

It would be so easy just to tell you not to bother, but I want you to understand why. In any event it was my $5000 that you can now save.

Room Service & Housekeeping: Ever see the Broadway musical, “Company?” There’s a great song, “Doorbell rings, here comes Company.” At the Sheraton, it happens at least five times a day. Mind you, I was using the guest room on the third floor as my office, and had to go to the front door all the way downstairs each time the bell rang. Some visits were logical, the rest could have been either eliminated or combined:

Breakfast: I open the door in a towel and go upstairs to get dressed. I come down five minutes later. The breakfast tray with covered dishes had been plunked on the table, and the lad was long gone. I had to set the table, take the SaranWrap off everything, and lay out the dishes before even thinking about how cold the eggs had become! Also, the consistency of the inconsistency is wonderful to behold: one morning the juice and milk come in tiny glasses, the next they are in giant tumblers, and some days the bread is warm, while on others it is cold.

Check Minibar: O.K. but why not wait a bit until I would probably be on the way to the beach. Most guests at a beach resort keep the same general schedule.

Clean up room: O.K. But why not heed the little notice that says, “In the interest of conserving the limited resources of our planet, we offer you a choice of re-using your toweling, or changing it after use. Should you choose to re-use your toweling, simply hang it on the rack provided.” I racked ‘em, they changed ‘em!

My daily ghost: By the time I got downstairs, it was gone!

Daily Newspaper: It comes in a little cloth bag designed to hang on the outside of the door, but every day, he rang, and every day I answered.

Turn down the beds: O.K. But let me tell you about my first year at The Point. I cooked, I served, I sat with my guests, but at some strategic moment during dinner when I sensed the conversation could flow without me, I got up, went into the kitchen, out the back door, and ran to each of the eight bedrooms. Not only did I turn down the beds and change the towels, I also emptied the waste baskets and lit the fires in the fireplaces. I was back at the dining room table before anyone noticed.

All I’m saying is that if one is paying close to US$1000 a night in a country whose minimum wage is minimum, the hotel could afford to post a lookout (or put a connection to Housekeeping in the slot that controls the master airconditioning switch in which one is required to put the plastic key when leaving the villa) so that the turn-down could be done without bothering anyone.