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Oriental: Timeout for a facelift

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BANGKOK, 3 December 2018: Even grand old ladies of 130 years and more feel the urge to invest in a facelift from time to time.

Part owners, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, announced last week the hotel’s River Wing would close March 2019 for a heavy-duty remake that will take at least six months to complete.

Bangkok’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel is the latest heritage hotel to announce a temporary closure to deal with structural wrinkles and regain posture.

Another historical city landmark, the Dusit Thani, albeit considerably younger in years, will close in early 2019. It will be demolished to make way for mega mix-use building including a mall and hotel.

Oriental’s original building, the Authors’ Wing was established as a seafarers’ retreat in 1876 and has reached the ripe old age of 132 years.

Made up of just the two-floor, the Authors’ Wing features banquet rooms on the ground floor, and an impressive atrium.  The original rooms on the upper floor evolved over the years from basic accommodation for sailors to luxury suites named after famous authors who had stayed there during the building’s humble beginnings.

The Garden Wing, built in 1958, connects to the Authors’ Wing via a corridor. It remains open, as does the top floor Le Normandie, possibly the only restaurant in town that requires male diners to be suitably dressed in jacket and tie.  At a pinch you can get in if you borrow a tie from the concierge.

The historic Authors’ and Garden wings will remain open as renovations on those two buildings were completed in 2016.

This time round the renovation focuses on the River Wing that opened in 1972 with 358 rooms and suites and reduced its inventory to 338 rooms during an earlier remake.

The latest renovation will take around seven months to complete with the opening set for the end of October.

It will involve all rooms and suites in the hotel’s River Wing, together with the lobby, two swimming pools and three restaurants; Lord Jim’s, The Verandah and Riverside Terrace.

Enlarging River Wing rooms is the major task of this latest renovation, which will further reduce the overall room count from 338 to 301. However, suites will increase from 30 to 46.

All rooms will have views of the Chao Phraya river.

Work will be carried out by interior designer, Jeffrey Wilkes of Design Wilkes.

During renovations, restaurants and banqueting facilities in other areas of the property will remain open including the Le Normandie, Authors’ Lounge, the Bamboo Bar, Ciao Terraza, Sala Rim Naam, Terrace Rim Naam, The China House and the ballroom.

The property’s spa and fitness facilities will also remain open, but not the two swimming pools. The hotel claims to have alternative arrangements for guests wishing to swim, although it omitted to provide details. Perhaps its location on the Chao Phraya River, the presence of a sturdy pontoon jetty and nearby deck chairs in the riverside garden offer a suitable hint.

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