Bathroom at the Park Hyatt, Saigon, VN

Warning I am still struggling with aligning pictures and text! Please do not be alarmed or frightened by how much time I spend thinking or photographing bathrooms. It's a strange obsession, I know. This is the first time I've ever actually published the photo's of my thoughts, so perhaps it's not too late.

OK, so now it's time for my hotel bathroom review.
The bathroom here is sparkling and it gets cleaned twice a day whether it needs it or not.

The closet that opens on both sides, one into the entry hallway and the other into the bathroom makes this one of the most interesting bathrooms I've ever seen. It seems like a great idea, but I do wonder if it would be practical in a home in any area that has moisture. I imagine this room has the aircon going most of the time.


Sorry, this one is blurry, but it's the closet from the entry hall. It has an armoir look to it and as you enter there is a shelf and mirror. As with most of the luxury hotels in which I've stayed in Asia, your room card/key goes into a slot next to the door which activates all of the power and aircon for the room. But I would imagine this would be really convenient in an entryway in a home.

OK, the first sliding door -- from the entry/hallway into the bathroom. I would say this is a genuine pocket door as it receeds into the wall. Sorry. I had to go check. After I made that statement I started to doubt it. It is true: pocket door.


The next door is a little different (leads to a room with just the toilet), it doesn't actually go into a wall. It is simply a sliding door with lovely wood trim / moulding to hide the tracking.

Goodness me! imagine if you shouldn't be able both edges of the top moulding.


This is the door, the panes are frosted glass. It's kind of around the corner from the bedroom and makes a nice night light.


I can't say exactly why I thought a close up of the under counter mounted sink was necessary, but well, here it is! Oh, the Kleenex box is kind of fun, there are several pieces made out of this material, I'd guess some sort of laminated bamboo, creating the image of tree rings.


And now we have the shower/bathing room. The walls and floor are marble tiles. There is a nice deep tub and two mirrors. The hook just outside the door (see the robe hanging there) that's a good idea.


The floor is slanted towards the tub, you can see the drain at the back wall. This has a cover that lifts right off, not sure of the purpose of that, but seems like it would make it easy to clean. I'm not sure if you can tell from this picture, but the tile at the bottom of the sliding glass door is cut thicker on one edge than the other, then there is the track for the door and then a nother tile that is thicker on one side. This helps with the water from running out of the shower room, but there is still water there every time I take a shower. I imagine just the right balance between water barrier and trip hazard is a little tricky.

Here is the shower mechanism. There is one nob that turns the water off and on. There is a seperate nob that sets the temperature. I really like this feature because it means I set the water to the temp I like when I arrived and haven't had to mess with it since. There is also a lever for switching the shower to an overhead fixture (you can see the reflection of the overhead fixture in the small mirror in the shower area). Notice the big mirror on the wall next to the bath tub. The small mirror in the shower area is actuall set flush with the marble tile, not sure why, but it feels like a nice touch.




When I saw the seat /shelf in the shower, I was in such shock --- whaaaat?! their's works! how come ours doesn't? Yup I was down on my hands and knees on a marble floor trying to figure that out and sure enough there are metal supports coming out of the wall that support the shelf. It's not just floating there hoping no one will ever put any weight on it.


Faucet over the tub has a hand held shower attachment. Also notice the nice wide corners on this tub.




And lastly, here's a picture of the bathroom from the desk where I am sitting typing this blog, one with the sliding door (leading to the room this time instead of the hallway) partially closed and one with the door open.


What do I dislike about this bathroom?

• I miss the hardwired-lighted-magnifying mirror, though I must admit I only use them as a night light and a means for drying a pair of underwear overnight.
• They haven't made it to the "if you want to use your towel again...." yet and when they do, there is only one spot to hang a bath towel. The issue with the slope of the threshold vs trip hazard is mitigated by them sending housekeeping to clean twice a day, but this would be pretty annoying in a private home.

Otherwise, I am loving this bathroom!