Originally Posted by swingaling

The hotel is in a wealthy area of Yangon, close to the Shwedagon Pagoda. There are a bunch of (what passes for) mansions in the vicinity. Being outside the newer downtown core, there are no sidewalks so you really need to drive everywhere. That being the case, the hotel was close enough to downtown to be convenient and taxis are incredibly cheap. Newer, larger international chain hotels like the Pan Pacific and Lotte are substantially farther away, basically in the middle of nowhere.

It may be a 4-5 star hotel, but I wouldn't describe it as a luxury property. So if you're expecting the Four Seasons, you'll be disappointed. But I also only paid $100 per night, which is about the cost of a 2-star hotel back home. If you want luxury, you'd be better off with Strand or Belmond for 2-3x more. As for the wood coloring, I didn't notice and didn't care one iota...