Chat House

The first thing that struck me about the Chat House was not only it's location – a wonderful garden setting by a peaceful Buddhist temple – but the smiling welcome! If you've travelled in Thailand much at all you'll be aware how infrequent smiles can be from a local population often overrun with foreigners. Here at the Chat House smiles are broad and genuine and I immediately felt welcomed and wanted to be there. At these points in time prices of rooms don't matter anymore, even for the budget traveller.

Malai is the owner and a mother of two, so she's warm and friendly and the rooms generally have her touch. It's not world class interior designing but she's got pics of Thailand on the walls and the rooms are warm and sunny. The café garden and covered area has a large amount of books, cushions, futons and places to sit and relax. It's definitely a lazy place as Malai says, and the numerous little dogs (friendly, don't worry!) add to this atmosphere.

In the restaurant they actually sell freshly squeezed orange juice (I had some and it was very good) and there was a guitar on the wall that could be used by anyone. Unfortunately no one played while I was there. I could have sat in the garden for hours wiling away hours, that's the sort of place it is. There's an internet café nearby that's pretty cheap and you've got your own temple next door so it would seem you hardly need to venture out.

Chat House is well signposted and easy to find. It's set down a side street off the main road so it's pretty quiet. And it's only 10 minutes from the market and bus stop. A tuk tuk will cost about 20 Baht from the bus stop, more from the railway station.

I asked Malai about the name and she said when she first started about 15 years ago some French travellers recommended the name "Chat" because in French it means "cat" and English it means to "yak, yak"! The name stuck and it does seem appropriate.

If you wish to stay here I recommend that you arrive early in the day, especially between November-January as apparently rooms fill quickly and you could miss out. Apparently the private rooms go first before the dormitory but the dorm only holds four – all single beds. The dorm is supposed to be very popular with Japanese tourists over this November-January period when they have their holidays and come to Thailand. So arrive early!

— Avis exclusif de Hostelz.com
February 2004