Tasteful decor and music accompany the tasty food

Just as distinctive and quirky as the hotel, the Atlanta’s restaurant boasts a wide selection of dishes and a heavily annotated menu that serves as a primer to Thai cuisine and its ingredients. You’ll discover, for example, that "ginger" appears in the Koran as "zaniabli" and in Chaucer’s 1366 classic, The Romaunt of the Rose. As you digest the menu, you can enjoy the music; classical during the day, the compositions of the King of Thailand at lunch and jazz from the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s in the evening. You can also peruse the Atlanta’s wonderful photo collection including one of His Majesty jamming alongside Benny Goodman and Louis Armstrong with (now former) US President George Bush in the audience. Finally, the restaurant claims the widest selection of vegetarian Thai food in Thailand and thus, the world. With most dishes in the 55-65 Baht (US$1.40-1.60) range, the value is undeniable.

The perfect movie ‘set’

Perhaps the best way to judge a hotel is by its clientele. If you’re lucky, you’ll see the Atlanta used on a ‘short time’ basis by a certain group of Thai professionals. I’m speaking, of course, of the models and movie stars that regularly use the Atlanta as a setting for fashion shoots and movie scenes. Since its establishment, the Atlanta has hosted some of Thailand’s most glamorous stars. If you stay long enough, you can count on climbing over some lighting equipment and getting an up-close look at ‘Hollywood’ in Thailand.

Written in, but not about, the Atlanta Hotel

Many of the Atlanta’s guests are not tourists per se but expatriates based in other provinces or members of various volunteer groups who have come to Bangkok on business or a short holiday. Even the guests who are backpack toting travellers are generally more interesting than the businessmen jetting in to close a deal and staying at the five-star’s or the run-of-the-mill backpackers rushing off to Koh Phangan.

Then there are the writers. The hotel lobby devotes four display cases to books written by guests of the Atlanta. Included are several major guidebooks, Christopher Moore’s Smile series, as well as Cambodia travelogues such as GeckoTails,by Carol Livingston, and Off the Rails in Phnom Penh, which was written by yours truly during a three month stint in Room C-2.

A pool side hammock, try and find that a five star hotel!

Sure, you can get soulless luxury from dozens of big hotels. And, yes, Bangkok’s famous (and very expensive!) one-of-a-kind hotel may have suites named after famous writers instead of books on display but there is none of those big, fancy can come close to recreating the quirky atmosphere of the Atlanta. Besides the charm, remember that a full day’s room and board at the Atlanta will be less than the cost of a few cocktails at one of those big international chains. So, for a truly unique experience, stay in a Bangkok institution that won’t bust your budget, the one and only Atlanta Hotel.

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