AMANTAKA

My wife and I stayed at Amantaka (in Luang Prabang, Laos) for 3 nights over New Year's as part of a SE Asia tour that also included visits to Myanmar (Yangon, Bagan & Mandalay, including on the Road to Mandalay cruise), Hanoi (Sofitel Metropole Hanoi) and Bangkok (Peninsula.) The property has been reported on and discussed at great length in this forum, so I'll focus on offering my perspective on the service during this peak travel period (no surprise - Amantaka was booked full during our stay.)

We arrived at LPQ direct from HAN on QV 316, arriving at around 6PM. As we had requested seats at the back of the ATR 72, we were first to deplane - ATR 72s have doors at the rear of the aircraft. As a result, we were through immigration and customs in a flash. We had to wait, however, for about 10 minutes before the vehicle arrived (an Aman-branded van). No apology was given by the representative for the delay, which was a inexplicable.

Also a surprise was the lack of bottled water or cold towels in the vehicle. Mind you, it was a 10 minute drive from the airport to Amantaka, so it wasn't something we particularly missed. We were greeted by several folks, including Gary (the GM). We went over the various activities on offer, as well as several that were specificially prepared with New Year's in mind. This included a traditional Baci ceremony, a Lao dance in front of the pool area and the lighting of fire lanterns on New Year's Eve. We asked Gary what he thought of the Elephant camp (along with a ride on the elephants), and he advised against it, claiming that it was overcrowded at this time of year. We went ahead and booked it anyways, and we're glad we did... it was the highlight of our trip!

We stayed at suite #9, which was a Khan Pool Suite. Suite 9 is at the far end of the property and to the very far right corner, offering loads of privacy. It's about a 5 minute walk from the Suite to the main area, which is a plus or minus depending on how hearty you are.

Khan Pool Suite bedroom

Khan Pool Suite sitting room

Khan Pool Suite - hallway connecting bedroom (and sinks) to bathroom/showers

The Khan Pool Suite was was wonderful and inviting. It's tastefully decorated while being low-key at the same time. If there's one complaint to be had, it's in the layout of the suite - it's a very large suite, mind you, but it feels far less cavernous than it ought to be. While the sitting room (adjacent to the bedroom) is quite spacious, the bedroom feels a bit cramped. The twin sinks, closets and showers are all somewhat segregated, (sort of their own enclaves in a sense), often connected by mini hallways. The courtyard and pool are in the back of the suite with the courtyard having a table, two chairs and two loungers for relaxing. Unfortunately, it was very cold during our time in Luang Prabang, and we never got around to using it as a result.

Khan Pool Suite - outdoor courtyard & pool

We had dinner at Amantaka all three evenings we were there - during the holiday season, a compulsory supplementary charge is tacked on to the rate and includes breakfast and choice of lunch and dinner daily. If it wasn't for the supplementary charge, we definitely would not have dined there as often. We stuck mainly to Laotian dishes, although we did try two Western entrees for one of our meals. while there was nothing wrong with the food, we found it rather bland and unimaginative. By comparison, the food in town was great. We had lunch at Tamarind, and everything we had was fresh, full of flavor and very creative. We also checked out a "hole in the wall" noodle shop, which specialized in one noodle soup (which is all it offered!). Especially noteworthy was the dried crispy rice that gets added to the soup - think sizzling rice soup for those of you familiar with Chinese cuisine. It blew away the breakfast noodles on offer at Amantaka, which had far less umami and the noodles were way too soft. Dessert at Amantaka was decent, however. We had sweet sticky rice with mangos on two occassions; it's a great finale to end any meal.

Excellent sweet sticky rice with mangos

We availed ourselves to three excursions: Luang Prabang city tour, Mekong River Cruise, a visit to an elephant camp (along with a ride in one of the elephants). The rest of our time was spent exploring the city on foot and by bicycle (Amantaka offers them free for rent). While others on the board have gushed over the afternoon Mekong River cruise, our experience was - sadly - not the mind blowing experience we were expecting. For starters, it was COLD... probably in the 40s. Even after bundling my wife with blankets (thankfully there were 3 of them on the boat), she was shivering the entire time. Against almost everyone else's advice, we decided to tour the Whisky Village and Pak Ou Caves. Okay, so neither are mind-blowing experiences, but for a 10 minute diversion for each of them, it wasn't bad. At the very least, it's a good way to get off the boat and strech one's legs for a bit.

Mekong river cruise in the afternoon

Sunset on the Mekong River

The elephant camp, by contrast, was amazing. We've never touched or ridden in an elephant before - they're really majestic animals when you get up close and personal to them. It's clear that the elephants are well treated at the camp - they all seemed healthy, and the was evident by the look on the faces of the staff that they adored the gentle giants. The ride lasted for about an hour - the first 30 minutes or so, we rode on the back while the trainer sat up front (on the neck of the elephant). After taking a quick break, the trainer got off the elephant, asked for my camera, and directed the elephant to start walking. The trainer took about 50 or so photos of us while walking ahead, behind and besides the elephant as it meandered through the forest. Afterwards, we were able to pet the elephant and feed her some mangos and bananas. Oh, and it was nothing like how Gary warned it would be. It was a trainquil and enchanting experience - it was definitely not a tourist factory in the slightest bit. As our stay was over New Year's, we partook in three activities that Amantaka was offering on premises. One was a traditional "Baci" ceremony, which lasted for about 30 minutes and was some sort of traditional meditation. There was also a Lao dance performed by local children of minority tribes - they were all adorable! Finally, during New Year's countdown, everyone congregated poolside and took turns lighting "fire lanterns." They were a cross between lanterns and hot air balloons - when you set it on fire (from below) and enough hot air pressure builds up, they take to the skies. The same thing was happening all over Luang Prabang, so much so that literally hundreds of orange specks can be seen in the dark night sky.

Lao dance

Traditional Baci ceremony

Fire lanters in the sky

How was the service during this peak period, you ask? Good but far from exemplary. We were rarely greeted by name, and service at the restaurant was not attentive at all and was very, very slow (despite it being less than half full on most nights) - every time we wanted to ask for something, it seemed like forever before the waiter would appear... definitely not the "anticipatory" service that one expects from an Aman resort. At times, we sensed that the staff were under the strain of having to deal with a full house. One example: one our walk back to our suite, we realized we had forgotten to pick up our room key at the front desk (we always leave our keys there when going out), and asked one of the staff nearby if they could go get it for us. After 10 minutes of waiting in the middle of the property grounds, I gave up and trekked back to the lobby, only to find said staff member sitting at the desk. When he made eye contact with me, he didn't flinch - he clearly had completely forgotten about the key request.

Poolside at night

While we were not expecting perfection considering the period of our stay, I find it hard to excuse such mishaps, especially when you consider that Aman charges more during peak season (including the compulsory supplementary charge.) Given the wide quality gulf between Amantaka and other properties (including La Residence Phou Vao, which, while though highly rated on TripAdvisor, is a big step down, property wise), perhaps this is a sign of complacency? I definitely hope not.

In summary, Amantaka is a wonderful property that is slightly marred by mediocre food (which is the case at most Amans we've been to), slow and inattentive service, and some mishaps along the way (making us wait at the airport with no apologies as the most egregious one.) It definitely lacks the polish found at Amanpuri or the Bali Amans.

We're due to stay at Jiwo and Pulo in July, and hope that there's a bit more polish to the service than what we experienced at Aman's Luang Prabang property.