We were at Villa Bali, Laem Mae Phim with my husband to relax and enjoy the sun. We knew this area is simple, chose it just for that. I was told many times Thai people are the most friendly and kind, especially in service!
Well, Villa Bali's staff proved me wrong.
The manager Luck, one guy who repaired our tap and owner (thai woman) were very kind and nice, but all others - come on, they didn't smile, didn't understand english, were slow and gave us feeling "gosh, again one stupid white tourist wants something". This goes for the reception and restaurant and other hotel workers. They ran around all the time, talking to each other and not paying attention to clients at all! For example one breakfest was a total chaos - none of the waiters/waitresses spoke english and had absolutely no idea what they were doing!!! One lady waited for her pancake and tea for and hour!!! It was a total mess! And to top it up - the owners daughter, the one who speaks english and obviously had some idea about serving and talking to clients (saw her doing that the other night), was just sitting there and eating pancakes behind the counter, she didn't care at all!!!! The whole restaurant was full of confused and hungry people. This really makes me wonder why the owners (american man and thai woman) dont care, how come they let this chaos happen there?
Our cottage was ok, its nice to sit on the terrace in the warm night before going to sleep. Cottage was ok to live for a week, nothing special but also bot bad at all. Nice large bed:). Good massage in Villa Bali's "spa". We went swimming only to sea, so didn't use pool, but seemed to be ok. Nice plants and trees, so to say the cottages were surrounded by a garden. Breakfast was quite poor, you had 10 choices to order and none of them was actually good. One dinner in the restaurant was very nice, we noticed all the ingredients were fresh and with good quality, food was tasty and looked nice (we ate thai food).

All else was super - the Thai seafood restaurants where nice and friendly staff made us feel welcome, the sea and sun, snorkeling trips, massages etc.
We also wondered with husband why all the tourists went to eat to the places kept by western owners??? We ate only once in Villa Bali's restaurant and all other times in Thai places, wowwww it was gooooooooooddd:)))!!! Maybe other tourists were scared to get some stomach disease? Or they just like to spend their holiday with other white people?
Ok, it doesn't matter. We had a lovely time in Mae Phim and after that few days in Bangkok.
Next time we go to Phuket.

My Husband and I arrived at the Villa Bali Resort & Spa in Laem Mae Phim on December 31 2010, our first impressions of the location was incredible, we thought it was heavenly. We were booked into Villa 6B.

On arrival I decided to have a shower to freshen up after our long journey, there was no running water in the shower, I reported this to reception straight away, and the girl said she would get it fixed.

Day 2, same girl, same problem, yes she would get it fixed, and if we had a problem with that we could use the shower at the swimming pool - I said no thank you.

Day 3 we spoke to a lovely guy called Noon at reception who said he would get the shower fixed,

Day 4 spoke to Noon again, he got the repair man onto the problem straight away - yes he confirmed it didn't work!! but I was told they would send for an engineer and get it fixed that day, I spoke to two nice ladies at reception before going out for the evening to make sure the shower would be fixed that day - yes I was assured it would, but we could move rooms - as we were leaving on the 5th day, I said as long as the shower was fixed then that would be fine.

We arrived back at the villa about midnight, the toilet had overflowed all over the bathroom, and you've guessed it - no shower! My husband got the security man to come to the room, he confirmed the toilet had overflowed and the shower was broken, we were then moved to Villa 18 for the last night of our stay, which was okay apart from the cockroaches in the shower.

There was no interest shown to guests in reception or in the restaurant, for example on our last day there was nearly a mutiny due to the total lack of leadership in the kitchen, I waited nearly an hour for tea and a pancake - but didn't compalin - what was the point -(There were too many other guests complaing at the time) also we booked for B&B, but had to pay for the breakfast.

What was supposed to be a peaceful, relaxing holiday was ruined by the total lack of respect shown to paying guests, I get the impression they are more interested in selling their trips than running this resort.

On the plus side, there's a great Thai & American diner/bar just next to the Villa Bali, what a great welcome we got from Lita and her husband - who speak excellent English, don't be put off by the Thai singers, they welcome you with open arms - and the food and service are the best in Laem Mae Phim.

The beach directly opposite Villa Bali is stunning, try the local vendors who serve you food and drink at the table - what a wonderful life.

We had a very nice stay in Villa Bali. It is an oasis in a small beach area in eastern Thailand. The rooms are in Bali style cottages in a garden. Very clean rooms, 2 free bottle of drinking water, hot water shower in a lovely bathroom with stones & plants lots of light. The mosquito netted bed looks classic in the 4 poster style. The room was big enough for us to add a roll-away for our daughter. Breakfast is included in the price of the room. A nice swimming pool and the ocean across the street. There is a wood burning stone pizza oven that produces lovely pizzas at a very reasonable price. The area has a few (read 15 or so) bar/restaurants within walking distance most of which can be done on the beach. Sleepy area quite romantic.

The location is great, right across from the beach and up the street from great seaside Thai restaurants. Although I read about varied rooms, ours was pretty decent - air con was good, clean, bed was comfortable, although pillows a bit too firm and too puffy. The pool did seem to get increasingly brownish over the few days and we opted to hang in the kiddie pool which seemed to show less evidence of algae. Even a good brushing of the bottom would have helped.
The food in the restaurant was alright, though much better Thai food and coffee can be had down the street. The service was non-existent. Both in terms of the reception and the restaurant. All this place would need to do to make it top notch would increase the service. Send someone to the pool to serve drinks, send someone to the table to ask if you want something else. Anything, just a bit. Instead, the whole place seemed hands off. Which can be great, but not when it's 35 out and you want another beer. This place could be so cool if they just did a bit more.
Overall, we'd probably head over to Ko Samed next trip just to try something else.