Would have been perfect (Ben Guesthouse (Chiang Mai, Thailand))

Member Name: aylawarner

Product:	Ben Guesthouse (Chiang Mai, Thailand)
Date:	03/05/09 (63 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lovely pretty guest house, great restaurant, friendly staff, can book tours

Disadvantages: Cockroaches in room

Ben Guest House is in Chiang Mai in Thailand in a great location just 5 minutes walk over the river from the main street and the night markets. It is a little difficult to find down some alleys so the best way to get there is to jump in a cheap tuk tuk.

The guest house is in a secluded little street so it's lovely and peaceful away from all the traffic noise. It looks gorgeous from the outside like a sweet little guest house and the inside is just as lovely. The garden is very pretty full of flowers and this is where the restaurant is where you can order breakfast and meals any other time of day. There's also a TV under cover in the garden with lots of channels to keep you occupied while you're eating or if you just fancy sitting in the garden to relax.

Our bedroom was one floor up and faced onto the street. There were a couple of sofas just outside our bedroom next to a big open balcony which made the place very light and relaxing. Our room was a little dark but was perfect with a big double bed, desk, wardrobe and toilet and shower room (although the shower room was tiny). Everything was a dark wood so it made the room look a little old fashioned but it was still lovely and we were glad we chose this cheap place to stay at only 125 Baht a night for a double room which is only about £3! Having looked at their website though the prices have now gone up but are still cheap at 250 Baht a night (£5).

A great thing about the guest house is that you can book up trips from here such as elephant and jungle trekking and cooking courses. We booked the cooking course through them and it was a brilliant course. We got to go to a local market to buy our ingredients and then we were shown how to make 5 different Thai dishes and it really was one of the best things we did in Thailand.

There are also a couple of computers with free internet use but these are very slow.

Although we liked the guest house very much, there was one problem which caused us to leave and this was cockroaches. Now the place wasn't at all dirty but, because the guest house was all very open and the huge open balcony was right outside our room and our room was very dark, we found a few cockroaches in our room. Mostly they were in the shower room but we found if we kept the light on they didn't come back. However, we woke up one morning to find one lying on its back next to our bed and that just freaked me out that it could have come near us in the night. There was a fairly big gap under our door so it could have easily come in from outside. Assuming it was dead, my husband tried to push it out with something and all of a sudden its horrible little legs started wriggling - urgh it's making me feel sick just thinking about it now! Well when we eventually got it out I was too creeped out to stay there any more so we switched accommodation and moved to a different place as I just wasn't comfortable and relaxed there anymore. We did feel bad to leave though because it was a lovely guest house and this really was the only problem. Maybe the rooms further back down the hall wouldn't have had this problem but I hate bugs so I couldn't stay here!

If you're visiting Chiang Mai I'd definitely recommend this place to stay. It was a lovely guest house and there would have been no way we'd have moved if it wasn't for the cockroaches. Maybe it was just our bad luck, or if you're not as bad as me with bugs then you'll be fine. The staff were wonderfully friendly, the place was in a great location and it was just picture perfect.

Summary: Would have been the perfect accommodation if it wasn't for the cockroaches!