Making a Christmas Splash without Endangering Vital Lifesigns (the only heated pool in the North)
Here at Anantara we like to think we have our finger on the pulse of global trends, being renowned for our healthy Spa treatments we have always sought to provide both the hedonistic re-tox and the holistic health kick under the same roof - you stay, you pick, you choose.
In previous cold seasons, in common with all other swimming pools in Northern Thailand we have provided a Scandinavian style ice cold pool, having seen pictures of Muscovites, Blackpool-ites and Hyde Parkers alike taking to freezing water on the 26th of December we figured this is what foreigners craved - I myself grew up in England and so thought nothing of throwing myself into a freezing Atlantic in the middle of what passes for an English summer.
We are, however, not deaf to our guests' needs and customer comments such as "Wonderful Hotel, the best service I've ever encountered but suffered a small heart attack on entering the pool" and "Husband sunk by iceberg" lead us to believe that maybe all Northern Thai hotels had this bit wrong, perhaps the majority of guests actually wanted a warm pool?
Trouble is, not only do we have a world beating view, friendly and efficient pool staff, we actually seem to have the largest pool in Northern Thailand, so how do we heat the thing without compromising our environmental principals?
We have, for years, heated the jacuzzi from compressors on the back of the kitchen cold rooms and fridges but this could not heat the pool, for some reason my plan to have the Front Office staff perform vigorous exercise in the shallow end before work was met with a, well, frosty silence and the Chief Engineer didn't like the idea of dropping a warm elephant in there every morning - something to do with clogged filters.
So I asked my friend Claude, of Samui Service Solarpower, the guy who supplied the solar heated showers for the elephant camp and the solar preheaters for the laundry, he suggested a Heat Pump and whispered something magic about taking heat from the air - I looked it up on Wikipedia, read the first sentence, something along the lines of "According to the second law of thermodynamics..." and remembered my promise to myself on receiving an engineering degree which was, bizarrely enough (among other things), never again to finish reading a sentence that begins "According to the second law of thermodynamics...".
So, suffice to say, the pool was pumping in at 27C at 0630 on Boxing Day and it costs about quarter of the energy of a normal pool heating system and, as the byproduct of cold air is pumped onto the wine cellar cooling system I was able to console the queue of disappointed, ice-seeking, Scandinavians with some chilled glug to wash down last night's turkey.
PS. The proof of the pudding is, of course, in the eating and despite another self promise on almost the same day never again to have semi-naked pictures of myself published on the internet, here I am, in the morning mist, swimming, not dieing.
PPS. For those of you who do enjoy being whipped by birch twigs, fear not, the Jacuzzi outside the sauna at the sport club still retains it's icy qualities.
In previous cold seasons, in common with all other swimming pools in Northern Thailand we have provided a Scandinavian style ice cold pool, having seen pictures of Muscovites, Blackpool-ites and Hyde Parkers alike taking to freezing water on the 26th of December we figured this is what foreigners craved - I myself grew up in England and so thought nothing of throwing myself into a freezing Atlantic in the middle of what passes for an English summer.
We are, however, not deaf to our guests' needs and customer comments such as "Wonderful Hotel, the best service I've ever encountered but suffered a small heart attack on entering the pool" and "Husband sunk by iceberg" lead us to believe that maybe all Northern Thai hotels had this bit wrong, perhaps the majority of guests actually wanted a warm pool?
Trouble is, not only do we have a world beating view, friendly and efficient pool staff, we actually seem to have the largest pool in Northern Thailand, so how do we heat the thing without compromising our environmental principals?
We have, for years, heated the jacuzzi from compressors on the back of the kitchen cold rooms and fridges but this could not heat the pool, for some reason my plan to have the Front Office staff perform vigorous exercise in the shallow end before work was met with a, well, frosty silence and the Chief Engineer didn't like the idea of dropping a warm elephant in there every morning - something to do with clogged filters.
So I asked my friend Claude, of Samui Service Solarpower, the guy who supplied the solar heated showers for the elephant camp and the solar preheaters for the laundry, he suggested a Heat Pump and whispered something magic about taking heat from the air - I looked it up on Wikipedia, read the first sentence, something along the lines of "According to the second law of thermodynamics..." and remembered my promise to myself on receiving an engineering degree which was, bizarrely enough (among other things), never again to finish reading a sentence that begins "According to the second law of thermodynamics...".
So, suffice to say, the pool was pumping in at 27C at 0630 on Boxing Day and it costs about quarter of the energy of a normal pool heating system and, as the byproduct of cold air is pumped onto the wine cellar cooling system I was able to console the queue of disappointed, ice-seeking, Scandinavians with some chilled glug to wash down last night's turkey.
PS. The proof of the pudding is, of course, in the eating and despite another self promise on almost the same day never again to have semi-naked pictures of myself published on the internet, here I am, in the morning mist, swimming, not dieing.
PPS. For those of you who do enjoy being whipped by birch twigs, fear not, the Jacuzzi outside the sauna at the sport club still retains it's icy qualities.
...I have a picture of someone else enjoying the pool, maybe better than the one of you!
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A stroke of genius, but that's another tradition gone! It's been our pleasure since the early '90s to sit by the pool (and its smaller predecessor) and to be entertained by the screams of unwary new guests who neglected to test the temperature. Does this mean that we may actually have to abandon our beautifully served refreshments and enter the water ourselves?
Happy new year to all.
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I have to agree with Phil & Jayne Two-Trees on this one.
Watching the brave souls jump into the pool, only to end up screaming like a school-girl at a Take That concert was a source of entertainment for us too....
I reckon the locals in Laos and Burma have thought for years that the hotel was a secret punishment centre for the bewildered.
bfg
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Ha, yes, good point - we must have been the envy of the various secret police forces on the other sides of our rivers.
Here's a pic. of some victims at midnight on New Year's Eve (or New Year's Day I guess by then).
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Well, I have always been looking forward to our return visit but I remember standing on the steps for oh, at least twenty minutes trying to work myself into the state of mind that made me jump in. I remember it well, one step from paraside. And I did swim, I could hardly breathe but I had a few other guests marvelling at my bravery so I stayed in for a few laps. I so look forward to coming back and 'testing' your pool. You have found the only improvement I could have picked out from our stay. I just want to take to opportunity to say thankyou for all your efforts and also the webcam facility.Happy New Year to you all at the Anantara. Love and Best Wishes, Debbie.
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