Iconic Oriental Hotel celebrates 140 years

Fighting back tears, Hyndman reaffirmed their devotion in "preserving the legacy" of the hotel before HRH Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana, who presided over the event at the listed property with a market capitalisation of Bt16 billion.

To mark the occasion, Hyndman told hundreds of guests comprising Bangkok’s who’s who that more than Bt500 million was being spent on renovating the old Garden Wing, the oldest part of the site housing the Author’s Lounge and Normandie Grill.

Founded in 1876, it is older than other historic Asian hotels such as the E&O (1885) in Penang, The Raffles (1887) in Singapore and The Strand in Yangon (1901).

The chairman of owning company OHTL, Nijaporn Charanachitta, fondly recalled that her father Dr Chaiyud Karnsuta and partner Giorgio Berlingierri – founders of infrastructure giant Italian-Thai – snapped it up when it came on the market without any reservations whatsoever.

Their dream was to make it world-class, and to do so, they tied up with Hong Kong Land, which ran the then-British colony’s best business hotel, The Mandarin, as it had the know-how. Today the hotel bears the new name Mandarin Oriental Bangkok.

Joining her onstage, guest-relations manager Angkana Kelantanan, 93, said she had spent 70 years serving La Grande Dame. She was recruited by war photographer Germaine Krull in 1946 to run the hotel.

Angkana made the audience laugh when she recalled the rate was Bt100 a night then with breakfast costing Bt15, lunch Bt20 and dinner Bt25.

OHTL director and Hong Kong Land partner Adam Keswick added: "It was love at first sight … and we knew we could charge more than Bt100 a night." Amid the toast, a magical air seemed to descend on the terrace as if spirits of old had joined the celebrations. This was the spot where stage and screen legends had stayed. Among them were David Bowie, Elton John, Annie Lennox, Leonardo DiCaprio, Hugh Grant, Bette Midler, Sylvester Stallone, Robert DeNiro, Robert Downey, Mel Gibson and Rene Zellweger.

Lee Kuan Yew made the Oriental Suite, its premier suite, his favourite address in Bangkok. Once "Rambo" producer Mario Kassar tried to oust Lee, asking: "Can we move him to another room?" The staff, skilled in Thai diplomacy, persuaded Kassar to wait until Singapore’s leader departed.

Such stories are the stuff that makes the property one of Asia’s most glamorous.

The world’s most beautiful stars including Sophia Loren, Julie Andrews, Jacqueline Bisset and Audrey Hepburn were guests.

Ray Charles, Tina Turner, Dionne Warwick and Randy Crawford played concerts here.

Writers Joseph Conrad, Somerset Maugham, Noel Coward, James Michener, John Le Carre and the Kingdom’s own MR Kukrit Pramoj lent their names to the suites.

Also honoured at the event was Kurt Wachtveitl, who is credited with bringing it global recognition when it won Institutional Investor’s prestigious "Best Hotel in the World" title for 10 years straight from 1980 to 1990, a feat unsurpassed by others today.

As general manager he saw The Oriental become the unofficial headquarters of films such as "The Man with the Golden Gun", "Deer Hunter", "The Killing Fields" and "The Beach", raising the stature of the Kingdom’s reputation of the world stage.