The Atlanta Hotel, Bangkok - #3 (The Guests).

Some of you may wonder why I am writing so much about – “just a hotel”. That is because it is NOT just a hotel. I am quite sure it is the most written about hotel in South East Asia. All you have to do is to just google “The Atlanta Hotel, Bangkok” and you will easily find hundreds of write-ups on this small hotel with only 59 rooms. Go ahead and read some of the reviews. I am not writing a review of this hotel of which there are already so many and better written than what I could manage. I’m giving a personal account of my stay there and things that caught my eyes so in case you want to give the hotel a try, you’ll know more or less what to expect. It is more to document my stay. Unfortunately, due to the very limited time I spent there; the photography was done in a bit of a rush usually in-between waiting for my guests to arrive and left much to be desired. I wished it could be better especially those taken at night.

I had stayed in many hotels before; from no stars to five stars, from resort to luxury hotels. But in none of them had there been ever a stranger and fellow guest who walked up to me and said “this is just great, isn’t it?” This man (I didn’t even get his name) from Belgium walked up to me and said exactly that. In the picture, he is surfing the internet which is available for free at the end of the corridor opposite the library. The guests in this hotel are not your usual mix of tourists and businessmen.

Yes, there is a library in this hotel and you can borrow them to read. Have you ever seen a hotel in Asia with such a collection?

There are books everywhere and there is even a place for book exchange. You can take any book from this section if you will drop one in exchange.

These are just examples of the many articles written by well-known newspaper, travel magazines and even books on this hotel.

Many books have been written about this hotel. In fact, it was in one of this that I learned about it and resolved to make a trip there to experience it myself. I read about it in the book with the yellow cover in the picture above - “Best Travel Writing 2006”.

This hotel is very popular with writers especially and many wanted to leave their mark behind. They either wrote about the hotel, or autographed books they have written or just scribbled something to be left behind. Some of these are displayed in the showcase

You wonder how many writers have sat here and wrote something. If I had the time, I would have done the same to see if just by sitting there where past writers sat, whether I will get the inspiration to write something good.

There was even a movie made in this hotel. It was “Black Magic” and the theme was quite similar to many B grade Asian horror stories about a beautiful Thai girl who got raped and used black magic to get her revenge. Thailand is famous for its powerful black magic. You can find all sort of strange things about this hotel.

So who are the people who frequented this hotel? There are people on a budget who took advantage of the low rates that the hotel charged as it was not run on a profit motive. While, there are cheaper hotels; there is not one that can offer the same value for money in its location, reputation, safety, and overall quality.

But the more interesting guests are those who could easily afford to stay elsewhere including 5 stars hotel but choose to stay here because of its character. These are the guests that appreciated The Atlanta for what it is. A uniqueness and slice of history that is priceless. As mentioned, they may be writers, models, movie stars, directors, artists, anyone who appreciates timeless beauty (with its imperfection). Some of the guests stayed there for months on end.

I and my friend are anomalies. We were in Thailand for business. Most of the guests were not. I chose to forgo a night stay in Conrad Hilton for a night here. My Thai friends who knew all the best hotels in Bangkok were shocked. They have never heard of the Atlanta or understand why I wanted to stay there. It is sad that this heritage was largely forgotten by the locals. It is the foreigners who valued it as a discovery. Except for a pretty Japanese woman who seemed to be traveling alone, we were the only Asian in the hotel.

I wished I was on a holiday so I could make friends with some of my fellow guests like this pretty lady pouring over the interesting menu that includes a meal called “weeping tiger”.

I liked the thought of staying there one day where I had all the time in the world. So I know I will be back.

The Atlanta Hotel, Bangkok - #2 (The AH! Restaurant).

The night I arrived I peeped into Atlanta’s restaurant which is simply named “AH!” So I exclaimed ah! as I looked into this famous restaurant that in its heyday, someone no less than the Queen of Thailand would dropped in for afternoon tea. It boasted of the largest selection of vegetarian dishes in the whole of Thailand though it also served meat dishes. I knew my tight program in Thailand would not allow much time to savor its food but I resolve that I must at least have a couple of meals here.

This is how the restaurant looked like from the outside of the hotel.

I told my Thai friend not to pick me up for breakfast the next morning so I could try the food here myself. This is how the restaurant looked (viewed from the inside to the entrance) in daylight.

My friend had this omelette. They served both local as well as Western breakfast. Their menu list is indeed very long with some interesting names such as “Weeping Tiger” which I saved for lunch.

I went for something much more substantial. It was a large bowl of plain porridge with three side dishes to go along. There was a fried egg, dried prawns and seasoned pork, both cooked with various herbs and spices. They were salty, savory, slightly spicy, sourish with the specific taste of the individual spices giving a myriad of tastes which add wonderful flavor to the plain but fragrant porridge. An excellent breakfast and very filling.

And I had it with this thick aromatic cup of coffee in the hotel specially minted cup.

Before the food came, I explored the restaurant for there are many interesting memorabilia like this testimony written by the Heavy Photographic Squadron Sixty-one of the US Pacific Fleet in 1957. This hotel has gone through several transformations, from one of the earliest hotel in Bangkok enjoying good reputation and patronage from the well-to-do to being a hotel favored by US Army. Then they went through a bad patch as it fell on hard time and frequented by sex tourists and drug addicts. Then, it was rescued and much of its history and glory restored by the son of the owner as his heritage. That explained the hotel’s aversion to sex tourists and its strict departure from its most recent past.

I was concentrating on taking the photo of this framed mirror on which was written part of the history of the hotel when I heard a voice asking me to stop in Thai. I sensed what it meant but ignore it. Then the protest came in English. I ignored that too until a stern thin old lady that was taller came and stood besides me. “No Photo” she reproached. I humbly said “sorry” and gave her my best smile which did not melt any ice.

She was obviously the supervisor in this restaurant. The workers in this establishment are all rather “strange” by which I meant they all exhibited individual characteristics and not like the standard all smiles fawning expression of large hotel staff. They appeared very much at home and treated you very casually but not impolitely. You have to win them over and your status as a guest does not guarantee automatic friendliness. In short, they behave as a normal human being and treat you as one. If you want them to treat you like a friend, you have to be a friend first.

My friend did not like the curt unsmiling way she served us and complained that she was all smiles to the next table. “Maybe she likes Westerners better”. I did not think so and said that I get through to her before our trip is up.

This is what we called the “Love Seat”. It is elevated and higher than the rest of the seats and is right in the middle of the wall at the end of the restaurant. Only soft music is played in the restaurant depending on the time of the day, classical, jazz and even the King’s favorite.

I had the pork porridge for the next morning’s breakfast. It was good. I always liked the porridge I have in Thailand and preferred them to most other Asian countries whether it is Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia or Singapore. Maybe it is because they are usually more savory and stronger tasting which suits my palate better.


During breakfast I worked up my charms without too much success. It was during dinner that the supervisor came and rearranged the way the dishes are placed. I smiled at her fastidious manner. I tried engaging her in small talk. She walked away and came back when our “Weeping Tiger” (thin slices of seasoned pork) was served. She was not happy with the way the meat was cooked and asked us. We told her it was alright. She was still not satisfied and advised us to have it re-cooked as pork should not be eaten too raw. We followed her advice. Then she gave us more explanations about the food we ate. Finally, we were able to bring a smile to her face. It was the “Weeping Tiger’ that did it. So every staff in Atlanta is a character, not the smiling faces you will forget the minute you leave a hotel.

To be continued...