When I arrived at the lobby of the just opened Zone by the Park in Coimbatore, I was taken by surprise by at the mood in the lobby. To kick off the launch, a treasure hunt of some sort was in progress, and there were groups of people, scurrying hither and thither, and letting out occasional exclamations of discovery and triumph. Casual, merry and there was — what’s that overused word — a buzz about it.
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Even apart from the excited people, the lobby was a bright space. There were several nooks with ample conversation seating, furnished in shades of blue and orange complete with toss cushions bearing polka dots. A foosball table to one side and on the other, a pin board that accepted any message or photo you cared to leave. Some computers occupied one semi-private area, and beyond that, the restaurant, Bazaar. It was all happening here.
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I went up to my room and looked around. The bed was white but they weren’t shy about colours for their accents. Blue doors, teal curtains, a yellow partitioned tray for beverages, storage spaces with cute orange and blue shelves. These cupboards were a bit too cosmetic for me — I like to unpack fully and found I couldn’t. Still, a nice glass topped table with the usual amenities, smart fittings everywhere and, yes, to ensure that you don’t die breathless without the new oxygen, there’s wi-fi on tap. For a price-conscious chain, superb.
The next morning, we were to gather early to head out to the local flower market in Coimbatore. The hotel is as interested in presenting the city it is located in as it is about the comforts it can provide you while you stay there. I was downstairs before the others showed up and requested a cup of coffee. In service that turned out to be sweetly personal, the attendant slid a plate of cookies across and asked, although the breakfast service hadn’t begun yet, if I’d want something more substantial. Others in my group joined us one by one and soon, without knowing quite how, we were having ourselves a pre-breakfast party.
Coimbatore doesn’t have a reputation for tourist sights but there’s actually quite a bit to hold the traveller’s interest. The flower and fruit markets were vibrant, we took off one day to visit the ancient Shiva temple at Perur and the spectacular Isha Yoga Center, some 30 kilometres away. Another day, we visited Coonoor to see a tea factory, walkabout the excellent Sim’s Park with its rare collection of plant species and have lunch at a beautiful colonial-meets-Kerala homestead.
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In spite of gadding about the environs, I did enjoy every meal I had at the hotel. For one, the eatery Bazaar has been lavished with designer-love; UK-based design company Project Orange makes its presence felt strongly here. Interestingly lit, there are shelves and shelves of display jars and objects. Classy containers of sirops on one, kitschy retro tin cans on the other. There’s even a faux street cart for chaat and other fast food. The menu was varied and always interesting — world food one day, oriental the next but unvaryingly there was a smorgasbord of desserts that booked itself roughly 40-50% stomach-room in advance.
The Zone describes itself as ‘social by design’. And everything in its design reinforces this. The recurring motif in the décor, for instance, is dots that need connecting to make larger sense. So even something like a door tag has a cloud of words containing Please, Do, Clean, Not, My, Disturb and Room, and it’s the connecting lines that’ll tell housekeeping what you want. This is a particularly clever touch. It picks up on the new ‘social’ codes, the way we’ve begun to think, the way we’ve begun to connect, and behave… as individual as dots we may be, taken together, we form patterns; we collect here, scatter there, become polarised or chaotic, ever subject to strong winds of societal opinion. And Zone is tapping into the new ‘us’.
The information
Where: 33/3, Avinashi Road, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641018. 13km from the airport
Accommodation: 55 Zone rooms, 1 Zone suite
Tariff: From Rs 3,000 plus taxes (Zone room, double), from Rs 8,000 plus taxes (Zone suite)
Contact: 0422-4005000; www.zonebythepark.com