2012-02-01
Thai flavour to The Old Bridge House Hotel
What do The Old Bridge House Hotel in Looe and Thailand have in common? One is a hotel in Cornwall located in the south west of England. The other is a country in the far-east. Not much in common then...or is there?
Thailand, as you may have gathered from this blog, is one of my favourite places to be in the whole world. Its people and culture are part of the reason I love it so much. In addition the natural beauty of the country is rarely exaggerated – it is amazing. So imagine my surprise when I discovered some interesting parallels between Thailand and a small coastal town in the south west of England.
A standard review of many hotels in Thailand reveals a recurring theme: clean, comfortable, luxurious, and most importantly, cheap. A standard review of many hotels in England reveals The Old Bridge House Hotel to be in many top ten lists. Having visited it I can hardly say I was surprised. It ticks all the boxes that Thai hotels tick – clean, comfortable, luxurious and when you take into account the cost of living in the UK, cheap in comparison to many of its competitors.
Another parallel I found is the warmth and friendliness I received from the couple who run The Old Bridge House. In Thailand all guests are treated with politeness by the hotel staff in most places, but in addition they are some of the friendliest people I have ever met. I now count 10 Thai people I met in hotels amongst some of my closest friends. The Old Bridge House Hotel in Looe elicits the same feelings I receive from hotels in Thailand – warmth, friendliness and politeness. I admit I found it difficult to leave after a few days of staying there.
The town of Looe itself reminds me a lot of many of the small coastal towns in the Trang province in southern Thailand – agriculturally rich, inland forest and hills to be explored and largely peaceful and undeveloped (though in Thailand this will most likely change in the near future). The south west coastal path gives you access to so many beauty spots and beaches that after a while the only difference you can tell between these and their counterparts in Thailand is the temperature of the water – the UK will never win against Thailand in a battle of warm water.
My brief visit to Looe has made me seriously reconsider my obsession with Thailand, but for now all I can say is that if you are ever near the town of Looe, pop into The Old Bridge House Hotel to give yourself a taste of just what Thai hospitality is like in general. The owners may not be Thai born, but they go a long way to dispelling the myth that English people are cold and hard. They unwittingly serve as an advert for Thai hospitality. If only all of the UK could boast the same.
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