Anankhira And Khirana Not Operational

[ValEtienne]

We have stayed 1 night (out of 7) at Anankhira. We were really expecting a wonderful place to stay at but obviously the dream as far from what it should have been.... The hotel is not yet finished, there are people doing heavy works behind the rooms which leads to noise from 10am to 17pm.

The room has a wonderful bathroom with very litlle running water and it is not even hot water, not even a litlle warm. No restaurant but, as they say, you can order from breakfast to diner in your room! Wow, that's great! BUT breakfast arrives 1h15min later (after a full stay in the sunshine with flies around and on your food...great for malaria!). About dinner now, it arrives in your room after 50 min ride from the city center (where the hotel orders your menu). When it gets t your room, it is cold.

Once you get to your room you are informed that you cannot throw toilet paper into the toilet, you have to throw it away in a bin in your bathroom.....I let you imagine how nice it is when your room is cleaned one a day and when it is 33° outside with more than 60% of humidity!!!

I do not even talk about the nano pool, I should say "bath-pool" (do not believe when they say it is a 3mx3m....it is more like 1,7m x 2,5m) that is not even clean (the water is green and dirty because there is no filter), nor the missing spa treatments (they answer you that you can find everithing in the city center) and not even either about the view on local garbage that you get from your moskito sponsored terrass! Last but, who cares, the least,Anankhira is far from everything. They say it is located 300m from Sairee beach, that's true but it takes 25mn to walk to the beach via a "4x4" way and via another resort!!!

It will certainly be an intersting place in 2 or 3 years, so wait until then before coming to a non-existing-yet bungalow resort.

I had asked the manager 4 weeks prior to arrival if all the reviews and comments on this hotel where serious and he answered me by email that 'The hotel is now 100% operaional". Now that you have access to all tourists reviews on internet, know that whatever he tells you it is not the truth.

We have met another couple from England who arrived at Anakhira the day before us. This couple, unlike us, has even REFUSED to stay one night at Anakhira. They were then proposed to stay in one of the 2 bungalows of Khirana (bungalow on the beach). Because they knew they would loose a lot of money, they agreed with this proposition.

They have suggested us to visit this bungalow just to confirm our comments about Anankhira. They have had to accept an empty "pool-tub" (and NO your "pool" is not a 3x3 it is more like a 1.5x2.3m) for 3 days but I am sure you have a very good answer on that too. Since the bungalow is about 3m form the main road, they have had to cope with heavy work being conducted in the other villa (because I am sure the potential customers should know that the second bungallow is not finished until now....hte only person who has stayed there is the architect's daughter!). They have had to cope with motorbikes and trucks passing by their bungalow all day long. They have had to accept a non secure place since you can enter the bungalow from the beach as you enter a church.

They have accepted to pay for their breakfast at a nearby restaurant since no breakfast was available at their bungalow. They ahve had to accept mice running on the wooded structure of the ceiling.

They have accepted all that bacause they did not want to loose their money! When we have met them they were having a dinner in the hotel we have chosen as a replacement to our room at Anankhira. The last day of their stay on Kho Tao, they loved their bungalow so much that they decided to book a room in our hotel, The Kho Tao Resort! How is that?

I just speak about them because they did not want to spend one night at Anankhira....Anankhira being worst that their bungalow.

Now, about Anakhira, you should probably also know that everyone on the island knows about the big mistake it is. When we checked in at Kho Tao resort, the receptionist told us that he was not suprised we had come from Anankhira as he get all the non-satisfied customers from there! How is that?

Many places where we have been, from restaurants to shops, from bars to other hotels have confirmed all our complaints as they had also met people who were supposed to stay at Anakhira.

Anankhira, that does not even belong to Thaï people but to european financials, gives a very bad image of a part of Thaïland that has not been touch by the Tsunami. What a pity!

[limbos]

Maybe get the TAT (Tourist Authority of Thailand) involved and complain with them.

[sriracha john]

Ahhh... the joys of Koh Samui....

a little bit of paradise with 24/7 construction going on... and so many things falling short of the mark...

[DCS]

Ahhh... the joys of Koh Samui....

a little bit of paradise with 24/7 construction going on... and so many things falling short of the mark...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Please note this is on Koh Tao not Koh Samui

[limbos]

Thanks John,

Maybe you start with reading the full article and find out it was on KT and not on Samui.

Other than that, have another smoke.

[womble]

Ahhh... the joys of Koh Samui....

a little bit of paradise with 24/7 construction going on... and so many things falling short of the mark...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Why do you even bother posting in this part of forum if you can't be arsed to read the article?

[sbk]

To be fair, the OP did only say Sairee Beach once in the entire article and didn't get to the Koh Tao part until the very end.

Best solution, who did your original booking? Inform them, demand some money back.

[ValEtienne]

Unfortunately, no third party is involved because the only way to book this place is with them direct...... you only notice your big mistake once you get there..... We have paid the full amount in advance......7 months ago!!! We have then read so many complaints on several forums (the bungalows were not even built at the time we have paid.....but we did not know it because the internet site was beautyful and finished!). Reading very negative posts on several forums we have contacted the Anankhira to ask them what is was all about. They answered that the resort was 100% operational in the meantime. What a joke!

These people are very clever. Whatever you type on search engines on internet you get to their website Anankhira (or the sister place called Khirana)! People on Koh Tao have told us they have bought, 4 years ago, a lot of html names in order to redirect any traveler to their places! That's what has happened to us and to many visitors. When you look at their website you would not believe that this place is as bad as it is when you get there.

Thanks for the advice about TAT, we will do. We will also write to the Thai ambassy in our country because we want to inform them of what these people do to their nice country.

Hope people read forums like this one in order to avoid them to have the same problem as we have had....

[RDN]

I'm very sorry to hear about your experience, and there's very little I can do to help. But what I would say is "Don't get mad, get even".

You've written a pretty good story, so why not tidy it up, add some hard facts (dates and times of communications with these rip-off artists), include their emails to you (if you have any) and pictures of the place. Then copy it to every tourism web site you can find. Screw them!

[jaidam]

How can the website with photos be finished before the resort is even built?

You mentioned they were very clever but this is beyond that.Maybe David Copperfield would be interested in this ;-)

Any reply from the TAT or a refund yet??

If you paid with a cc maybe the card company will issue a refund due to fraud.

You can post a photo on here what the resort actually looks like so we can get a better feel of your experience.

Edited November 18, 2005 by jaidam

[ValEtienne]

The website only showed "impressions" of the place and what was being installed (palm trees, flowers, nice shiny sink, etc.). You know these pictures of details of a decoration set but when you see it real it is not at all what they wanted you to see.....that's what have been done. And I am not the only one to tell it about Anankhira because Anankhira is the subject of many posts in different forums.

I am preparing my letter to TAT and to several tourism offices in Europe. I am also contacting my cc company to inform them, we will see. The problem is that payment has been made in April this year so they have no way to get the money back either but they will list them.

About the pics, I'll try to attached them....this is the first time!

[ValEtienne]

The website only showed "impressions" of the place and what was being installed (palm trees, flowers, nice shiny sink, etc.). You know these pictures of details of a decoration set but when you see it real it is not at all what they wanted you to see.....that's what have been done. And I am not the only one to tell it about Anankhira because Anankhira is the subject of many posts in different forums.

I am preparing my letter to TAT and to several tourism offices in Europe. I am also contacting my cc company to inform them, we will see.

About the pics, I'll try to attached them....this is the first time!

[ValEtienne]

The website only showed "impressions" of the place and what was being installed (palm trees, flowers, nice shiny sink, etc.). You know these pictures of details of a decoration set but when you see it real it is not at all what they wanted you to see.....that's what have been done. And I am not the only one to tell it about Anankhira because Anankhira is the subject of many posts in different forums.

I am preparing my letter to TAT and to several tourism offices in Europe. I am also contacting my cc company to inform them, we will see.

About the pics, I'll try to attached them....this is the first time!

Edited November 18, 2005 by ValEtienne

[womble]

What a sh*t hole!!!

[ValEtienne]

And this sh*it is worth min. 7800 baht (that is to say abut 156 euros or 189 USD) in low season....

I did not know sh*it would have been that expensive

[sriracha john]

good job of pic posting Val....

agreeably a huge scam

[jaidam]

From the resorts homepage:-

"Welcome to Anankhira

Anankhira, or "Eternal Light", offers a selection of private villas, each with a Jacuzzi pool and sea view. Anankhira's unique architectural style is in perfect synergy with Koh Toa's tropical climate and scenery. Each villa has been designed as a chic Balinese style retreat which blends beautifully with its surroundings.

Anankhira imparts a revitalizing experience far removed from the usual tropical resort. We offer a choice of 1 or 2 bedroom villas to accommodate couples, families or groups of friends. Balinese-style interiors ensure that the villas exude tranquillity and charm.

Each villa has an open tropical-style living room, delightful air-conditioned bedrooms with king-size beds, en-suite bathrooms and walk-in wardrobes as well as its own private Jacuzzi pool and terrace.

Our staff will serve breakfast, lunch & dinner (as requested) in the privacy of your own villa. "

end

Vals photos would be even more impressive if labelled with quotes from the homepage description.

How funny would that little (is it plastic?) chest of draws look with the grand label"WALK IN WARDROBE". Or how about that festering pond with title "PRIVATE JACUZZI POOL"

The most fitting would be "Each villa has been designed as a chic Balinese style retreat which blends beautifully with its surroundings" ,next to the picture of the huge mound of bricks and halfbuilt road.

Anankhira imparts a revitalizing experience far removed from the usual tropical resort.

This resort is in Koh Toa however not Koh Tao.

[ValEtienne]

I almost forgot to write about the wardrobe.....actually the "walk in" wardrobe.

It is about 1sqm with a light bulb hanging from the ceiling. I understand now that Anankhira does not expect you to stay longer than 1 night because there are only 5 hangers....

"A perfect choice for a couple or alternatively a superb choice for a a small family", do they expect you to live naked as Mr UT (the architect)? Or is it again that Balinese style they talk about?

"Hanger"? I do not know if there is actually a name for this rough wooden rod with a hook. Do not even think of placing on this hanger your fancy silk shirt you have just bought on the continent before coming....you will end up with a "holes designed" shirt. That's probably also the best of the Balinese style ;-)

Apart from these hangers.....a small (not higher than your knees and not larger than your hips) chest of 3 drawers.

And that's it for the "walk in" wardrobe!

No actually, that is not it......you have to count on humidity as well!

No, just to make all parents comfy about bringing their little mickey's onsite, make sure you have a good insurance or at least a few harnesses with you: the "atmospheric open living area " is nestled at about 7m vertical from the garbages underneath your living room and open terrace and there is not fence at the end of this "atmospheric open living area ". Get ready to run!

[daniba]

Hello,

I am so sad, that i booked some days before this thread began....

what a big shit shit shit...

i just come back, i already postet my opionion on another site:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g3039...ao.html#2239510

well, the only way to &lt;deleted&gt; them is to post it everywhere you can...

perhaps to create an own site which will google at the first row whith

the keyword...

however, they have to be f*cked.

So, here my post from the other site:

Hello here,

the post above was the post, that made me taking the decicion to book two weeks on

anankhira...there are more pluses than minuses...

well...i should not have done this..

if you want the short version of my post:

-never go to anankhira, book something else on the island ( ex. koh tao cabana )

if you want to know why, continue to read.

in the end, we are very disapointed in this resort.

at the first day, after the horrible boat-transfer, we have been happy to be at koh tao and to be at our hotel, it looked nice.

like described by brent, it is not a westerised 5 star resort like you can find on koh samui, it is nicely made, rustic.

you have a comfortable living-room, a nice sleeping room, and depending on the villa you have ( actually there are only two ), you have a "outdoor"-bath, or a small bathroom.

the nicer bathroom is the one of the villa on the left side when walking down from reception.

but as they dont know how to construct buildings, these villas are already looking in some parts, as if they are ten years old without renovation.

if you go there, you can hope, that it will not rain, because water comes throug the roof on many many places...also in the small cabin, wich you must identify as your room to store your clothes...

unfortunatley, the didn't put anything inside, where you should hang your clothes,...you just can put your luggage on the bottom or on the small table..but be aware of the rain, because after a rain, everything inside your bag will be wet and brown. the brown color comes from the the color they paint the wood of the roof..

we had this in the first villa we stayes.

but dont even expect, that if you tell this to the service-personal, that you get an excuse for the damaged clothes, or that they will put your things in a dry place,...no they just put a towel on the bottom and wait until it stops to rain.

you wont find anything to put your wet towels on, nothing at all, you can put it perhaps inside your sleeping room on the roof-construction. if you like white towels, bring your own ones, towels of anankhira have almost brown spots of i dont know what..

the shower you find in the bathroom is broken, and if you are a women and have longer hair, dont wash your hairs to often, because with the 2 ml water that come out of the shower, you will need about half a day to get out the shampoo. you could perhaps jump into the pool to clean your hair of the shampoo ( if you like green algs instead )..

in the second villa, the small luggage room ist smelling awfully, the wooden bottom is full with funghi (?), mushrooms..because of the humidity wich also comes from the roof...

the bathroom here is also smelling like an open pipe from a toilet, not very nice..

if you want to use the aircondion in the room, don't expect something quiet, even expect ( in the first villa ) that you wont close an eye during the night, noise, vibrations an clickering sounds will fill the air....

ah, you could ask the personal about this, if they could do anything against these vibrations...they will "check it for you"..

next day, when you come back, and say, that nothing changed, they will check it again, and in the third day, when you ask them not to check, either to repair it, they say that they cant repair it...

if you are lucky like we have been, the next villa is empty and you can move there...

the aircondition really is more quiet, but still so loud, that you will prefer not to use it.

never expect you get the things you order for breakfast, there is always something missing, even if you say it twice before.

and dont expect something good, you get just some toast, instant coffee, if you are lucky some fruit, and if you have a good relationship to god, perhaps he can arrange it that you get a fruitjuice..

but everyday, there is something, you wont get whith the answer, that the boat with the merchandise didn't come to koh tao..

you can then go down to sairee beach, there you get everything.

but pay attention when walking down to the beach, because there is a great danger to break your feet, or legs on the way to there.

the path connection the resort to the street is nearly unusable, in the night never go there, you really will brake your bones !!

and if you have reached in the night the resort, don't expect that they will turn on the lights inside the resort, so that you could find the steps in the garden,...the dont turn it on because it is too dangerous with the humidity !!

and the view to the beach could be nice, if there werent the big pillars of rubbish 50 m away...

and as there are in the moment only two villas, the other ones are still in construction...the workers begin at about 8:30 am with the works...so..don't sleep to long...

all in all, they pretend to be the best on the island, they take the triple price of some other good resorts, there is no service at all, they even dont offer laundry service.....most things they pretend to offer on their really well done web site are different in reality.

they took 5500 Bath/night from us for the 2 weeks stay, for 1700-2200 ( high season 3000 bath ) you get a really very nice room in kohtao cabana, down on sairee beach, at the end of the beach, very quiet and in a nicely made park. i recommend to take this, you dont have there a separate living room, but everything else. You have around a lot of different restaurants you can choose from.

in ananhira food is not at all recommendable, and in the evening, you cant really walk the way down to the beach or back..

ah, and a last thing...we left anankhira 4 days earlier than booked..

we told it to them, and we told that we will leave next morning..

be sure that you wont get your last breakfast, be sure they will do everything, not to answer the phone, even if they are 5 meters beside the since 10 minutes ringing phone, be sure you will not get a cent back for the clothes they damaged, for the nights you couldnt sleep, for the rubbish around, for the dirty water in the pool,

just don't go to anankhira !

[leelou]

Im no expert but blatantly this is a good case for watchdog or some other scam exposing TV Programme. Im gutted for you who have been ripped off. There are dodgy resorts like this all over Europe and anywhere there is mass tourism there are some people who want to take advantage of tourists and rip them off, instead of forming an alliance and sharing a mutual respect and appreciation for an industry which is needed for survival in the economy.

Take it all the way and spread their name like mud all over the net and with the travel agents and tour operators. Some people think that if you can afford to get to Thailand you must be rich, therfore you can afford to be ripped off, that is far from the truth, ive worked hard all year to raise money to pay for my holiday and I would be devastated if I had to endure that.........

Good luck Kick ASS!!!!

[ValEtienne]

Hello Daniba,

I feel sorry for you too.....I know how you feel....

What I have done in the meantime, I have contacted TAT office in Thaïland, this is the tourism office to inform them. They should be aware of the fact that these people use the "tsunami fear effect" to get people to Koh Tao and swindle them!! Unfortunately they give the visitors a very bad ilmage of Thaïland. To tell you the truth, with such a bad experience, we do not want to go back to Thaïland anymore.....I am not sure TAT likes that....

TAT Head Office

Tourism Authority of Thailand

1600 New Phetchaburi Road, Makkasan, Ratchathewi , Bangkok 10400, THAILAND

Tel: 6602 250 5500 (120 automatic lines)

Fax: 6602 250 5511

http://www.tourismthailand.org

E-mail Address: [email protected]

TAT Southern office : Region 5

Areas of Responsibility : Surat Thani, Chumphon and Ranong

5 Thalad mai Rd., Amphoe Muang, Surat Thani 84000

Tel. 077 288818-9

Fax. 077 282828

E-mail Address : [email protected]

TAT offices in Europe: http://www.tourismthailand.org/about/about...px?ParentID=186

This is the only way we can influence the whole thing together with posts on several forums. I have placed posts on forums in France, Belgium, Germany, Thaïland, USA. I'll keep going as I want to get even with them. I am now also contacting tour operators like and travel books as "routard" ([email protected]) and "lonely planet" (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/help/faq_lp.htm).

I suggest you email them your text as well.

Last but not least, list them with your credit card company. Either it is Visa, Mastercard, Amex, they will get in trouble sooner or later.

Finaly, you'll see, it feels good to let other people know about it. It is a relief to write posts like these because you feel that you will avoid someone to experience the same. Too bad you did not read my posts and the others before you booked....

Take care

ValEtienne

[sbk]

Do one more thing, contact the Consumer Protection Board:

Office of the Consumer Protection Board

(Legal Affairs Branch)

Government House

Thanon Rachadamnoen Nok,

Dusit, Bangkok 10302

THAILAND

Tel: (66 2) 629-8259-60, 629-8262-4

Fax: (66 2) 629-7040

URL: www.ocpb.go.th

E-mail: [email protected]

[ValEtienne]

Thanks Sbk!

[jaidam]

One more thing to do would be to make a police report on Koh Tao before leaving.Station is near the school and they are a friendly bunch.Grounds for this would be that you feel that you have been the victim of a scam.

Including evidence of the police report on your subsequent complaints to visa companies and other places would then carry far more weight,and I would imagine a full refund from said card companies would be automatic.

[ValEtienne]

Don't know why but I cannot send an email to that address !

Consumer Protection Board:

Office of the Consumer Protection Board

URL: www.ocpb.go.th

E-mail: [email protected]

[ValEtienne]

This comes finally to a happy end as we have just been reimboursed of almost the whole amount due thanks to the professionnalism of ThaiePay, the Thai payment organization who has played the ombudsman in this situation.

[limbos]

Good on you.

[Rooo]

Glad it worked out for you.Nice to see justice being done.

[Prasert]

This is absolutely the saddest story I've read sofar.

For those having a bad Koh Tao experience, but willing to consider a 2nd stay: read on! I'm not affiliated with the resort described below, just a customer who stayed there.

Sunset Buri is located in the center of Sairee. The bungalows are build between the beach and the main road. The resort is cleaned very single day and so are the rooms. Clean sheets on your bed, and large clean towels daily. The bungalows consists of 1 large room with a closet, fridge, television and a seperate bathroom. Prices start from TB700/night (fan) and TB900/Night (aircon).

Recently the building near the main road was finished, where you can take a hotel room.

Near the beach they have a large pool, which was rebuild in March 2005. That water is clean. (the pool is sometimes used for Open Water confined courses, since it's large and deep enough).

It's not the luxury you can find at the more remote resorts, but it's very reasonably priced and absolutely clean! Sunset Buri has no website or brochures, simply because the owner doesn't need to advertise.

If you are looking for more luxury, there are a lot more options. Well-known is Sensi Paradise, south from Mae Haad. It has been there for several years, so you defenitely won't be bothered by any construction workers.

Mae Haad also has hotels, I've seen the (seaside) rooms at Utopia Suites and they are large, nice view and clean!

Booking isn't necessary on Koh Tao, unless you're going around Christmas or July / August.

Payment-in-advance is certainly not necessary!!!

But do give this wonderful island a second thought and a second chance!!!