Yes to No-votel

Rather than flying directly on from Bangkok to Hong Kong, which would have made for a late arrival, I broke the journey in Bangkok and booked a room at the only hotel directly linked to the airport, the Novotel. Having gone through  Bangkok Airport at high speed, the question was where was the hotel. I had read online that there is a shuttle bus every 10 minutes, or alternatively the hotel is accessible through a tunnel. It was unfortunately not signed from the arrivals level, but instinct/common sense told me to head down into the bunny warrens below the ground floor. And voila, on arrival at the basement level, the direction to the hotel was suddenly signed. And very easy to find. Basically straight ahead, one left turn past the train station, straight ahead again, up an escalator. 10 minutes at pensioner pace. 15 for those meandering with their faces glued to their mobile phones and blocking everyone else's way in the process.

The Novotel, like many airport hotels, is large, and reception was busy resulting in a ten-minute wait to check in. I had a room on the 5th floor, with a king bed. The bed was far softer than the one at the Regal in Hong Kong.

The widescreen tv with an amazing selection of channels in all manner of languages, most of which were incomprehensible to me, unfortunately.

A desk and an armchair

A window with a venetian blind looking into the bathroom, or out of the bathroom, depending on which side of the window you are on ......

Big shower, warm water, but pretty poor water pressure

Bathtub! Large - long enough for me at 6'1"

All the basic things you need to keep clean when you travel without your own soap and shampoo. That's one of my basic expectations of a good hotel.

I booked  room with breakfast as my flight the next day wasn't departing until 1330. Breakfast was good - great selection of western and Thai dishes, plenty of coffee. Give me copious cups of coffee in the morning and I become about as human as I get.

I say yes to the No-votel. The room was comfortable and clean, breakfast was great and the coffee was good (which is not always the fact in Asia). And with easy access to the airport, it is the perfect spot for a good night's sleep between flights.