The write inspiration in Bangkok

This hotel with a history befits head of states. It is the choice of jet-setting celebrities. And the favorite of movie stars, from Tom Cruise to Mel Gibson to Sylvester Stallone to Renee Zellweger. But I love this hotel because I feel there is a place in its heart for me.
How can you not feel loved and welcomed in a hotel that tucks you into bed with little cards on your pillow with lines like: “I’ll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours” (Bob Dylan); “I arise from dreams of thee, in the first sweet sleep of night” (Percy Shelley) and “Golden slumbers kiss your eyes, smiles awaken you when you rise” (Thomas Dekker). And to ensure the sweet dreams, the pillows are goose down and the sheets are of the best thread count.

Mandarin Oriental Bangkok has always had a soft spot for
writers. You know it right away as you enter the grand but comfortable lobby. Look to your left and you see the Authors’ Lounge, with its refreshing white walls and charming handcrafted furniture commanding you to enter. Inside is the Reading Room where you will find works of Joseph Conrad, Somerset Maugham, James Michener, Graham Greene, Noel Coward, Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer and other writers who once sought inspiration in this hotel.
But wait — did the hotel inspire these writers or did these writers inspire the hotel? The history of this legendary hotel — which has attracted authors, playwrights and journalists embracing Thailand’s energizing sights as well as its excesses — points out that each gave the other inspiration.

Located along Bangkok’s Chao Phraya River, Mandarin Oriental’s 130-year history is interwoven into that of modern Bangkok’s. It began as a simple rest house for seafarers and traders from Hong Kong and Singapore that was transformed into a stately building by Danish proprietors Andersen & Co, which commissioned an Italian architect.

Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born British navy man who would frequent the bar of The Oriental (as it was then called) and swap stories with other bar habitués. “We talked of wrecks, of short rations and of heroism... and now and then falling silent all together, we gazed past the sights of the river,” Conrad recalled in Falk. His sailing trips from Bangkok to Singapore provided inspiration for his stories such as “The Shadow Line.”
The Mandarin Oriental’s seafood restaurant, Lord Jim, is in fact named after one of Conrad’s seafaring heroes. To honor him further, the hotel named a colonial-style suite after Joseph Conrad, equipping it with antique furnishings and a terrace with a beautiful river view.
Three other suites are named after W. Somerset Maugham, Noel Coward and James Michener, each one reflecting the author’s personality.
 Novelist and playwright Maugham suffered from malaria in 1923 while staying in a room at The Oriental, which he described in The Gentleman in the Parlour as “dark… with a verandah on each side of it, the breeze blew through.” He spent his recovery period writing. “And because I had nothing to do except look at the river and enjoy the weakness that held me blissfully to my chair, I invented a fairy story.”

English playwright Noel Coward never actually slept at The
Oriental, but often lingered at the hotel’s riverside area for
refreshments. “There is a terrace overlooking the swift river where we have drinks every evening watching the liver-colored water swirling by and tiny steam tugs hauling rows of barges up river against the tide. It is a lovely place and I am fonder of it than ever.”
  This is not to say that, to be inspired, writers must be cocooned in five-star luxury. For writers are moved, not by trappings of grandeur, but by the romantic beat of their hearts as well as the anguish in their beings.
What is it about The Mandarin Oriental that inspires writers? The Queen of England enjoyed the hotel and the Queen of Thailand is a faithful visitor. The hotel has history, a heart, a soul, a precious view of the river. For royal writers as well as real royals, the hotel provides sweet slumber.

As for a non-royal like me, I hope to one day wake up amid its
goose down pillows and soft cotton sheets, ready to tackle that
screenplay aching to be written.

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For inquiries and reservations, call The Mandarin Oriental Bangkok at 66(0)2659-9000 or The Mandarin Manila at +63 (2) 750 8888.

Email the author at mananquilmillet@gmail.com. Find me on FB and Instagram @milletmartinezmananquil.