Thailand: The Author's Lounge, The Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok

When Siam opened to foreign trade after the signing of the Bowring Treaty the sailors that manned the ships which conveyed this trade though Bangkok required accommodation on shore. To meet this demand, Captain Dyers, an American, and his partner J.E. Barnes opened a hotel called the Oriental Hotel. It was the first hotel in Siam. This burnt down in 1865.

Several years later, a partnership of Danish captains opened a replacement hotel. In the 1870s the board of the Oriental Hotel decided—with the opening of the new River Wing—upon 1876 as the official establishment date of the Oriental Hotel.

The hotel is a favorite of celebrity visitors to Bangkok. Joseph Conrad, Somerset Maugham, Noel Coward, Graham Greene, John le Carré, Barbara Cartland, and James A. Michener are among the famous authors who have stayed at the Oriental. Other famous guests have included Neil Armstrong, Lauren Bacall, George H. W. Bush, Jacques Chirac, Sean Connery, Michael de la Force, Mel Gibson, Václav Havel, Audrey Hepburn, Mick Jagger, Henry Kissinger, Helmut Kohl, David Beckham, Niki Lauda, Sophia Loren, Yehudi Menuhin, Richard Nixon, Pelé, Queen Sofia of Spain, Diana, Princess of Wales and Prince Charles, Omar Sharif and Elizabeth Taylor.

The hotel contains 358 rooms and 35 unique suites. The two-story Authors' Wing, the only remaining structure of the original 19th century hotel, houses suites named after Joseph Conrad, Somerset Maugham, Noel Coward and James Michener. The River Wing contains deluxe two bedroom suites named after former guests or personages associated with the hotel including Barbara Cartland, Gore Vidal, Graham Greene, Wilbur Smith, John le Carré, Jim Thompson, Norman Mailer and the Thai author and politician Kukrit Pramoj. Other suites are named after ships associated with the early Bangkok trade such as Otago (once captained by Joseph Conrad), HMS Melita, Vesatri and Natuna.

In 2008, it changed its name to the Mandarin Oriental, and is still considered by many experts to be the greatest hotel in the world.

Copyright:

CPA Media Co. Ltd.

Photographer:

David Henley

Credit:

Pictures From Asia