25.04.17The price was amazing for a whole beach front 2-floor residence. But it was too good to be true. The place is extremely run down, restaurant closed, the bar has NOTHING. Huge water damage throughout the entire property, a ton of bugs in the room. We booked two nights and left only a few hours after check in. Could not even sleep one night there, things kept crawling on me. Shame because once fixed up, the place has extreme potential.
25.04.05 I have never been more impressed and then more scared for my safety. Checkin started with a mandatory cash damage deposit, which I questioned, only resulting in half, but cash nonetheless. When I was brought to the unit(s), I could not have been more impressed with a personal pool and two beautifully, modern decorated, one bedroom apartments. The TV's were on with Netflix and it felt like a taste of home, but more luxurious. As I looked out at the ocean from the upper balcony I noticed a fair bit of peeling paint and dilapidated wood structures on other rooftops, but didn't let that fully change my opinion. There is a really neat outdoor bathtub in the first floor unit.. pure luxury... Except all the peeling paint chunks. As I walked the grounds I kept noticing trash and debris, an old mattress, broken slate and decorative wood. The sides of the building were dirty and needed to be pressure washed and the entire south side was closed, 4 buildings with 4, two story units each were closed. As I went down to the bar area at the beach level the pool was green and didn't look clean and the bar area looked staged with less than half full bottles of alcohol. There were storage areas with junk pouring out of them. I wondered if this place had been the victim of the tsunami all those years ago and then abandoned, but it's on a hillside so I didn't know.
I walked down the trash strewn beach and had dinner at the restaurant about a hundred yards away where locals played in the ocean. It was a seafood restaurant with expressive staff, not bad, pretty good actually. It was sitting there that I decided I couldn't stay. The "hotel" is too far out of the way and I feared for my safety. The guy from the counter was gracious to give me my cash deposit back and get me an Uber equivalent. I went to a decent hotel by the airport so I'd have plenty of time to make my morning flight.
While I kept getting the feeling I was overthinking it, I am a solo traveler and it was too risky for my comfort.
