This was published 14 years ago
Atlanta Hotel, review: One night in Bangkok
Theatrical ... the Atlanta's 1950s foyer remains unchanged.Credit: Austin Bush/Lonely Planet
Graham Reilly checks into a time-warp hotel in the city's red-light district: cheap, cheerful and unequivocally clean-cut.
The first question that occurred to me when I came across the Atlanta Hotel was how did it get here? Located in the heart of Sukhumvit, home to Bangkok's sodomesque sex district, where fat, middle-aged men from around the world convene to drink beer all day and consort with thin Thai girls all night, a sign by the hotel's entrance is unequivocal: Sex Tourists Not Welcome.
Elsewhere on the premises are notices stating variously that the Atlanta is a sleaze-free zone with zero tolerance for troublemakers, rent boys, bar girls and possessors or users of drugs and "all illegal and nefarious activities".
Deadly serious about the kind of clientele it doesn't want, what it does want, and has succeeded in creating, is a family-friendly budget hotel full of charm that can provide a safe and convenient base from which to explore Bangkok.
Roger Le Phoque, a long-time friend of the family that founded the hotel in 1952, came to visit in 1999 for five weeks and has been resident here ever since. Reluctant to describe himself as the hotel's manager, he concedes he has been taking care of the bookings and reservations for the past 11 years. Until recently, these could be made only by telephone or fax. In a concession to contemporary technology, email bookings are now accepted, although the actual email address is yet to be widely distributed.
Le Phoque has a larger-than-life, Shakespearean presence and could easily be a character in the novels of one of the many writers who stay at the hotel. Generously built, the lawyer, teacher and vintage car enthusiast speaks in the mellifluous tones of a born raconteur.
"This is a hotel that has been in the same German-Thai family for 50 years," he says. "In a sense it is a haven from the craziness out there. There is a great sense of belonging, a great sense that it is not run by accountants. Profit is not the motive here."
Certainly, this appears to be the case. My double room costs about $20 a day. Notably bereft of anything resembling luxury, the room is, however, comfortably spartan. Arranged atop a base of historic pink linoleum, I have two single beds, a desk, a mirror, a bedside light, a functioning airconditioner, a wall-mounted telephone and a bathroom where the flow of water can only be described as tentative. The single window offers an uninterrupted view of the expressway that runs behind the hotel.
Yet, despite the absence of a mini-bar and complimentary shampoo and conditioner, I am content. For some reason, it just feels good to be at the Atlanta, which I'm told is not an uncommon feeling among guests. The hotel certainly inspires loyalty; 60 per cent of its trade is repeat business.
The basic rooms are at odds with the hotel's extraordinary foyer, which has not changed or been refurbished since it was built in 1952 by Dr Max Henn, a German chemist and adventurer.
Henn's father was a theatre set designer in Berlin between the wars and the foyer has a distinctive early 20th-century European theatricality that has made it highly popular as a backdrop among filmmakers from around the world.
It is also clearly popular with guests, who relax on leatherette banquettes or chairs, enjoying the ambience of a bygone era while being cooled by the bakelite ceiling fans, or browsing though books from the hotel's library.
The Atlanta remains faithful to Henn's original vision. An anti-Nazi who once worked for the maharajah of the Indian state of Bikaner, Henn arrived in Thailand in 1947 and set up the Atlanta Chemical Company to sell snake venom to the US and medicines to remote parts of Thailand. When the business floundered he turned the premises into a hotel. For a while his snakes were kept in a pit in the garden before it was converted into Thailand's first hotel swimming pool. The luxuriant garden remains and is home to two pet turtles, named Cary Grant and Doris Day.
Early guests included Dutch colonists returning from Indonesia and US army cartographers mapping Thailand.
Back then a guest would have looked out on guava orchards, the canopies of huge rain trees and small communities of Chinese immigrants living in thatched huts. Now the view from a front room is that of a quiet, dead-end residential street next to a baptist church.
These days the Atlanta is a haunt of families, backpackers, academics, writers and photographers, attracted by the hotel's social conscience and its distinctive ambience and style. It's also very cheap.
One morning I watch with some concern as a Dutch couple orders breakfast for themselves and their six children in the hotel's restaurant, its decoration a marvel of 1950s Americana. Six plain omelettes, two omelettes with ham and eight orange juices. I was relieved when the bill didn't wipe the smiles from their faces. The Atlanta might not be right for everyone but it is certainly right for them.
FAST FACTS
Getting there
Thai Airways flies non-stop to Bangkok for about $1150 (9hr) from Sydney and Melbourne. Fare is low-season return including tax.
Staying there
The Atlanta Hotel has a variety of rooms, from a single with fan from Baht500 ($18) a night to a family suite with airconditioning for Baht1700 a night. Accounts must be settled daily in cash, in baht. At 78 Sukhumvit, Soi 2, Bangkok. Phone +66 02 252 6069 or +66 02 252 1650; fax +66 02 656 8123; see theatlantahotelbangkok.com.
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