The Telephone Pub, Restaurant & Karaoke Lounge
114/11 Silom Soi 4, Bangkok, Thailand 10500
Tel (66) 02 234 3279, Fax (66) 02 632 7115
www.telephonepub.com
and receive a 10% discount.
For the past few months the maintenance staff, with the help of other staff, has been very busy repainting all the veranda's around the Hotel and catching up on all ongoing repairs before the High Season. We even managed to squeeze in a small staff party near the end of Low Season, where all our guests joined in the fun around the bar and pool.
The Managing Director's dog, a 6 year old female Siberian Husky (with blue eyes) named Prada, has claimed the bar as her own and spends most of the evenings greeting guests into the bar area, where they all make a very big fuss over her. We have now decided to re-name our bar, the "Prada Bar" and make Prada the official Hotel mascot and the only female permitted in the Hotel. Although Prada is considerably over weight, due to her lavish lifestyle in Bali, she still manages to get up a trot when she spots the local cats in the Hotel grounds, but unfortunately she never seems to keep up the pace and retires from the chase gracefully to the comfort of her bar.
We are presently constructing a new bar in the Hotel grounds, to be located adjacent to the swimming pool, where at peak times around the pool, guests can relax and sip a cool beer or cocktail and be pampered without having to get off their loungers. The Pool Side Bar is due for completion by the 22 nd July, when a small ceremony will take place to officially declare the Pool Side Bar open. We presently offer complimentary hot coffee in the Prada Bar and we will extend this service to the Pool Side Bar also.
Pizzas are back on our menu again, the only food we actually outsource now, also the introduction of Spartacvs hamburgers and toasted sandwiches, which are available in the Prada Bar and Pool Side. We have greatly improved our main menu, especially for Indonesian food lovers and gradually introducing more western style cuisine. Recently our barmen and waiters all attended a one day course, hosted by Bali Moon and learnt the finer points of making a first-class and appealing cocktail. Since the completion of the course, the bar staff have introduced 16 new Bali Moon cocktails to our already large drink list and every evening offer a "cocktail of the day" at a reduced price.
As we are now in Bali's High Season, the Hotel has been completely booked out over the past week and will continue at high occupancy through to the end of August. Several months ago we received our first group booking, a party of 11 Australian men, staying at Spartacvs for 9 nights during the first week of August. They are mainly here to celebrate the 30 th Birthday of one of their friends and combined with the Hotels other guests, it should be a very interesting week for all. A BBQ party is set down for Friday evening the 1 st August, which all our guests are invited to attend.
The biggest event of the year will take place on Monday the 1 st September 2008, when Spartacvs is officially 1 year old, our first Birthday. Most of the arrangements are still being kept secret and will not be released till about 2 weeks prior to the big event, but admission will be by "special invitation" only.
Christmas has come and gone once again, but we at Spartacvs will remember it very well. It was our first Christmas at the Hotel and our Managing Director treated all the staff to a Christmas Eve party for all the hard work they had put into the Hotel since its opening. There was plenty of food to go around and all you can drink across the bar, by late evening several of the staff were not capable of riding their bikes home safely, so were given rooms to sleep it off in. By Christmas Day the hotel was at 100% capacity and remained that way till after the first week in January.
On New Years Eve the Hotel hosted a exotic gay art exhibition in the Hotel grounds, which proved very popular with the guests and visitors, needless to say many of them stayed on to celebrate the New Year at our bar, mainly because of the torrential rain that spoilt a lot of pre-organised plans. As midnight approached the bar was in full swing, even the staff were in party mode, but exactly ten seconds after midnight, the whole power grid in our area was blacked out, of course that didn't deter our gusts and staff, so out came the candles and the party raged on till the early hours of the morning, thankfully power was restored at about 2.30am.
All in all it was a very wet Festive season, but the sun finally came out around the 5 th January and although we have had more rain this wet season than the previous 3 years, the Hotel occupancy remained quite high. Our first promotion for the New Year came on the 26 th January and as all Aussies know, it was Australia Day. This year was the 220 th birthday for Australia, so our bar was decorated with Australian flags in all sizes, we played nothing but Australian music all day and night, the bar sold icy cold cans of Fosters beer, our BBQ was well under way by 7pm and to set the whole night off, a fireworks display around the pool at 9pm.
We are now fast approaching Chinese New Year on the 7 th February and again the Hotel will gear up for another celebration, quickly followed by Valentines Day on the 14 th February. We have already received many bookings for February, it seems like the Hotel just may go to 100% occupancy again, so if you have plans to visit Bali this month and would like to stay at Spartacvs, please submit your bookings at the earliest moment.
Next month Bali will celebrate Nyepi, it is a Balinese "Day of Silence" that falls on Bali's Lunar New Year (7 th March 2008). It is a day of silence, fasting, and meditation.
Observed from 6 a.m. until 6 a.m. the next morning, Nyepi is a day reserved for self-reflection and as such, anything that might interfere with that purpose is restricted. The main restrictions are: no lighting fires (and lights must be kept low); no working; no entertainment or pleasure; no traveling; and for some, no talking or eating at all. The effect of these prohibitions is that Bali's usually bustling streets and roads are empty, there is little or no noise from TVs and radios, and few signs of activity are seen even inside homes. The only people to be seen outdoors are the Pecalang , traditional security men who patrol the streets to ensure the prohibitions are being followed. Although Nyepi is primarily a Hindu holiday, non-Hindu residents of Bali observe the day of silence as well, out of respect for their fellow citizens. Even tourists are not exempt; although free to do as they wish inside their hotels, no one is allowed onto the beaches or streets, and the only airport in Bali remains closed for the entire day. The only exceptions granted are for emergency vehicles carrying those with life-threatening conditions and women about to give birth.
Spartacvs will operate as normal as possible during the 24 hours of silence, our gates will be closed and locked from 6am on the 7 th March till 6am the following day, the only exception will be in a medical emergency. The one good thing about being in a Hotel for Nyepi is that our guests can still wander around the Hotel grounds, swim in the pool, frequent the bar and restaurant, compared to being in a private house, where you can not even venture outside the front door. Depending upon our occupancy we will roster enough staff to cater for all our guests for 24 hours and although it is a logistics nightmare for our Senior Management, we will still provide all meals, drinks, security and comforts during this period.
Since we started our refurbishments at Spartacvs on 1st August 07, and opened the hotel for business on the 1st September 07, a stray Bali dog has taken refuge on our premises. She is white in color and very friendly, we have named her "Dusty", all she asks for is a pat on the back and a feed every now and then. Most days you will find her laying in the shade at our front gate, otherwise playing in the street with the other stray dogs, sometimes she brings a male dog to the hotel with her, for a free feed and cold drink of water, could be her boyfriend? It would be nice to see other establishments in Bali doing the same, then maybe there would be less undernourished stray dogs roaming the streets.
On a lighter note, our hotel had the privilege of accommodating the owner and his partner ( Wayne & Ice ) of the Telephone Pub located in Bangkok, Thailand, here in Bali for a weeks holiday. The Spartacvs staff made the guys feel very welcome and formed a very good friendship with them, to the degree that Wayne & Ice have now placed a banner for Spartacvs on their website ( www.telephonepub.com ) and offering a 10% discount on food and drinks, by producing the Spartacvs Member card when paying the bill. In return, the hotel is also offering a 10% discount on room rates, bar & restaurant for guys producing their Telephone Pub Member card. The Telephone Pub, Restaurant & Karaoke Lounge is Bangkok's oldest gay bar, well known for their gimmick of placing phones around the bar, so that guys can phone a stranger and strike up a conversation, leading to many things !!
It's the festive season fast approaching and to avoid disappointment, we recommend you book early as possible for your Christmas holiday at Spartacvs, where clothing is optional in a private and secure environment, we look forward to your company.
Apparently the patter of little feet have been heard around the hotel, yes our adopted female stray dog "Dusty" has had a litter of pups, but has them hidden somewhere close to the hotel, hopefully she will soon bring out to show us all. We at Spartacvs keep striving to improve the hotel, so as our guests check out, we ask them for their comments on how we can make their stay even more enjoyable.
Where ever possible we try to implement these suggestions and ideas, so now once a week the hotel will have a Aussie style BBQ (barbeque) around the pool, at a nominal price, its also a great chance for our guests to meet their fellow guests and staff in a more relaxed atmosphere. The hotel has also installed smoke alarms in every room for your added safety. Another new addition to our Deluxe and Superior rooms is a small mini bar, stocked with beer and soft drink, plus a small basket of potato chips and other confectionary, and complimentary bottle drinking water is now also available in all rooms. As the Festive Season is fast approaching upon us, Spartacvs Bali is gearing up to decorate the hotel with small Christmas trees aligning the fish pond and colorful fairy lights around the pool area, with the centre of attention being our main Christmas tree, to be located in the bar area, with small gifts placed around the bottom. For those who would like to join us at Spartacvs Bali we will be providing a special lunch menu for our guests on Christmas Day, with all the festive trimmings, to make your stay away from home, a little more enjoyable. Hopefully Santa will not forget to drop in and visit us on his hectic schedule on Christmas Eve.
We are also planning to have a special get-together on New Years Eve, before our guests venture out on the town to celebrate. As a reminder, anyone planning to stay at Spartacvs Bali over the Christmas New Year period, please book early to avoid disappointment.
