Author's Notes

Arriving at The Oriental in the early hours of the evening is a wonderful affair. Slowly the doors swing shut behind me. A string quartet is playing Vivaldi’s ‘Le Quattro Stagioni, I recognize this piece: it is called L’Inverno. That Italian for ‘Winter’ – when I entered, the outside temperature was at 31°C.
I step right out into the garden and walk to the terrace, to the ‘River of Kings’, the ‘Mother of All Waters’. Nicknames for the mighty Chao Phya. Little tug boats are towing strings of huge barges upriver. Later, in a few days, laden with rice, wood and other goods, they will be gliding past again, this time towards the Gulf of Thailand.
The two pools set in the tropical gardens are an oasis. While the busy city of Bangkok rarely comes to a complete standstill in the streets outside, at The Oriental you find an atmosphere of relaxed tranquillity.
The duplex rooms of the Garden Wing exude a very special charm. If you are of a romantic nature, however, you may prefer the Authors’ Wing with its spacious writers’ suites or the new rooms of the River Wing. They are simply perfect.
The history of the hotel dates back over 125 years, when the East Asiatic company was trading, sea captains were staying at the hotel and travellers were glad to see a mosquito net over their beds after a long journey’s end. Many legends had been spun over the decades, true ones and invented ones. Verifying them was one of the major challenges in this project. 
When night descends over Bangkok, the smell of charcoal hints at the magnificent buffets being served on the Riverside Terrace. Upstairs Lord Jim’s, a tribute to writer Joseph Conrad, serves the finest seafood in the city. In Le Normandie you may find a visiting chef from one of the world’s finest restaurants demonstrating his culinary skills.
The Sala Rim Naam across the river is Bangkok’s most elegant Thai restaurant. And in the Bamboo Bar the jazz legends currently in town jam until the small hours.
Twice a day, the river changes its direction, due to the tides of the Gulf of Thailand in the nearby delta. Overlooking these mighty waters, my mind always wanders back to the day when Anna, the famous governess at the court of the King of Siam, arrived. That was when the story of this hotel began, too.

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