My wife and I were planning our next trip to Thailand and decided for The Mangosteen. It offered a quite unique program including an Ayurveda spa experience, which seemed a good choice for our yearly reset of body and mind.
Only after booking we decided to read a few more reviews, which made us think whether or not we made a good choice. Rantings about the jacuzzi included in the room, being actually outside the room, in a secluded, but open space.
In my opinion there's nothing strange about having to lock that area, but some people seem to have a problem with that. People also complained about the minibar to be too expensive, mold in showers, mosquitoes in the room, being
stalked by salesmen wanting you to buy into time-sharing apartments and so on.
However, our stay at the mangosteen turned out to be a very nice experience. We noted that the mentioned problems about mold, mosquitoes and the expensive minibar have been addressed by Mangosteen management.
We were approached by management by the way, and had a very pleasant conversation about the history and challenges managing the place. At least it made us aware of the challenges one comes across making sure Mangosteen customers are having the best time they could wish for. Well, we did!
At arrival we were welcomed by two smiling Thai ladies, and were privileged to make acquaintance with the Indian Ayurvedic doctor which was going to support our detox and yoga activities. He has a very thoughtful somewhat shy personality.
We talked about any minor health problems we could focus on and were treated individually for these. Nothing serious, but good to have different approaches to take away any bodily inconveniences. The food arrangement was adapted to
be vegan, specifically for the Ayurveda experience (as were the spa treatments). By choice people can have other food, like seafood, veal, pork, etc. in short, there is a taste for anyone.
The spa treatments are simply wonderful. We've seen many enthusiastic reactions other than ours alone. The treatments are a surge of Thai and Indian ways, to create an Ayurvedic approach.
---- Non techies better skip this part ;-) ----
One thing I do want to mention is, the WiFi definitely needs an upgrade, or at least some tweaking. You do get some more bandwidth when streaming video, like Netflix, but other stuff seems to be throttled to an uncomfortable minimum. I figure some sort of QoS is in place. Heighten the throttle a bit, and one could actually get some work done if necessary. I'm sure management will read this review as they did the others, and take care of it. I rather have a finite, but stable connection, then an infinite one which is throttled as it is now.
We decided to write this review, because we think the reviews written up to today are outdated, and not fair to represent the current service level at The Mangosteen. It deserves a higher appraisal.
Further more, if one is aware of the fact one might be approached by certain salesmen, they are easily avoided, or sent into the woods ;-)
