Bangkok Suites Sweet Deals

Bangkok Hotel Stay - Heaven on Earth
They stayed there from September 5th, 1993. It was a magical place to stay. Lined with timber, windows stretching to the heights of its cathedral ceiling and winding stairs leading off to different levels, the hotel looked more like an amphitheater. The floors of the foyer paved with marble and just as I had imagined, large white marble pillars towered above us to a seemingly never ending infinity to the executive suites separated in the center with the largest chandeliers you have ever seen.
To some extent they were living the ’90s dream life, eating food from five star hotel restaurants made by local chefs wearing hand-woven clothes, using only rainwater and local ingredients to achieve that Thai exquisite taste. Simon Smithen felt it would be the ideal place for him to write. He and his wife both felt that mixing the excitement of Bangkok bustle with the tranquil retreat of a luxurious hotel suite would further his writing inspirations. James and Felix lived with them full-time and Rebby and Matt came to stay on alternate months and often for a week during school holidays. They soon learnt the ways of Bangkok, bartering with the locals for a deal on the local merchandise then flattening themselves against the sidewalks when a mob of tuk-tuks passed by too close. Language was also part of the deal, learning new words and other gestures and even making new friends. They hired a servant they called Prince, he took care of just about everything in regards to the suite, the children and helped with deals on some of our purchasing needs. He was a great asset to them and they couldn’t have gone through this Bangkok adventure without him.

But the ’90s dream shouldn’t disguise the fact-as people often pretended it did –that the children found it difficult to adjust to these new ‘family’ arrangements. Matt was less than 15 when he began coming to stay with them in the Bangkok suite, and although he says he has no bad memories of the time, he remembers being bewildered at some of the goings-on not only in the suite but also outside in the streets.
Matt remembers one steaming hot Bangkok morning when the his parents had gone green for a day and had turned off all the hotel suite air-conditioners, Matt ran into one of the adjoining rooms to call for Prince and shouted “Come quickly. My dad’s gone mad.” He was standing on the veranda hurling cane chairs into the streets. Something had upset him -like his favorite shirt had not been returned from the hotel laundry service in time which I think, for him, was just the last straw.

Still, they began to learn to adjust to the little idiosyncrasies of Bangkok. And having the hotel suite modified to suit a writer’s needs helped a great deal. As the writing progressed so did the feeling of resolution and closure start to set in, it would be soon time to leave Bangkok. Their 45-day stay in this magical hotel suite would be one that sits in the heart of their fondest memories.