2 Best Hotels in Silom and Bang Rak, Bangkok

An architect was hired in 1887 to restore a riverside hotel post-fire, as it sat decaying on the jungled banks of the Chao Phraya River. Thailand was Siam in those days, and that saved structure would become the Mandarin Oriental and a great love story between a city and its most lavish hotel. A true respite of high-tea and fine dining, where you take a teak boat to the spa and a fleet of BMW 7 series wait to whisk you around Bangkok.

Welcome to a scene from Indiana Jones … or, perhaps, The Orient-Express. Welcome to a crumbling, old-world, spy-novel patina of a place; one that really sets a stage for immersing in Bangkok’s Chinatown.

In the 1800s, the building was a banking house, and the owners have restored well-loved hardwoods, faded plaster, and the iron staircase. They collected and added vintage sconces, glass-case antiquities, and taxidermy. The rooms make lovely use of teak and rattan, with antique shutters that open to dreamy vignettes of Bangkok’s bustling, colorful frenzy.