Past pleasures
Twentieth-century literary heavyweights often sought-out colonial hotels as bastions of style and luxury when travelling in Asia. Many of the hotels had dramatic histories that might challenge the plotlines created by the best writers, such as Graham Greene, No?l Coward and W. Somerset Maugham.
Nations and dictators rose and fell, wars were won and lost, eras came and went, but the elegant hospitality of the best colonial hotels somehow endured. Today they offer guests a slice of old-world opulence, and a rare opportunity for a glimpse into a bygone era.
When the Suez Canal opened in 1869, it heralded the beginning of steamship travel in Asia and a new era of luxury accommodation. Penang, the first British trading post in the East, provided the perfect multicultural hub for the Eastern & Oriental (eohotels.com), a splendiferous hotel with a zeitgeist that attracted movie stars and writers. The hotel witnessed two World Wars, the demise of the British Empire and the birth of Malaya and later Malaysia. Today, the bellhops at the E&O still wear their pith-hats and safari shirts. Guests can book the No?l Coward suite, and enjoy a high tea served with the same aplomb of a century ago.
The legendary Raffles in Singapore (raffles.com), is arguably Asia's most famous colonial hotel. During WWII, when Japan bombed Singapore and the Royal Navy off the coast of Malaya, it became the last stronghold for British high society who congregated in its lofty dining room. Later, when Singapore surrendered to Japan, the colonials gathered here again to dance and sing, a scene captured in the movie The English Patient. Even those who haven't dined under its ceiling fans and slept in its high-ceilinged rooms have tasted its influence. Bartender Ngiam Tong Boon created the Singapore Sling in the first decade of the 20th century, and the gin, brandy and tropical fruit juice concoction is a staple on cocktail menus around the world.
Around the same time, Maugham was holed up in Hanoi at another grand dame colonial hotel. The Metropole - now known as the Sofitel Legend Metropole - is a decadent edifice inspired by classic French architecture, with teak shutters hinting at the local Vietnamese style. It was here that Maugham wrote The Gentlemen in the Parlour, a travelogue about his trip through Burma, Siam and Indochina. Wartime drama was never far away either. In 1951, Graham Greene wrote The Quiet American in a room here, a prescient novel about the demise of French colonialism in Vietnam. A decade later Ho Chi Minh, 'father of Vietnam', checked in and saw to it that the hotel became for two years the exclusive residence for visiting Vietnamese government dignitaries. In the early '70s, Jane Fonda recorded her famous broadcasts about the American troops based in Vietnam from her room on the second floor. A huge bomb shelter was dug out in the hotel's inner courtyard, where the swimming pool is today.
Greene might have written The Quiet American at The Metropole, but he drew his inspiration from the Hotel Continental in Saigon (continentalhotel.com.vn), where he resided in room 214. Much of the drama in the novel was set in the hotel's dining room and bar, known then as a rendezvous point for war correspondents, politicians and businessmen and a hotbed of political commentary. Today's travellers might be torn between the traditional Vietnamese feel of The Continental and the distinctly French colonial and recently renovated Majestic Hotel (majesticsaigon.com), with its similar wartime past. Greene preferred the linen at the Majestic, apparently. How that came to be might be another tall tale.
