Penang Hotel

The facade of the Eastern and Oriental Hotel on Farquhar Street, Georgetown.

While visiting Penang the Passengers stayed at the Eastern & Oriental Hotel, a plush colonial pile dating back to 1885. In its heyday the E&O hosted luminaries like Somerset Maugham, Noel Coward, Charlie Chaplin, and Rita Hayworth. Eventually the place fell on hard times, but it has been restored to former splendor in recent years.

Overlooking a tropical paradise at the Eastern & Oriental Hotel.

We found our digs thoroughly enjoyable with a suite that had a balcony overlooking the pool and the sea.We had our own sitting room plus a deluxe bathroom entered through French doors with stained glass. Did I mention the outstanding breakfast, too? The hotel has an additional 17-story tower planned to augment the original historic building.

The view from our balcony at the Eastern & Oriental Hotel.

This hotel was one of the main reasons we chose to spend a weekend in Penang. The E&O in Malaysia peddles the colonial experience that is meticulously marketed by Raffles Hotel in Singapore, and was established by the same enterprising Sarkies brothers, but at less than half the price. High tea at Raffles: S$55 per person plus tax and tip. High tea at E&O's restaurant 1885: S$20 per person plus tax and tip. How do you know you've entered a colonial time warp? High tea.

Time Capsule Hotel

The Continental Hotel Saigon in central Ho Chi Minh City opened in 1880.

The Passengers just returned from a weekend in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.  We had a great time discovering a vibrant and changing city, and we will be sure to write future posts about our trip.  First, I wanted to provide a few images of our hotel, a relic of both French colonialism and the wars of the 1960's and 1970's.

The saucers and place settings at breakfast are like a breezy French cafe, but the coffee mugs are very American.  

The Hotel Continental Saigon was opened in 1880 by Pierre Cazeau on what was then called Rue Catinat, now Dong Khoi Street. The operation was later run by the mobster Mathier Francini until Saigon became part of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1975.  It looks like a huge colonial pile, and it featured as a central location for conspiratorial politicking during the country's troubles in the twentieth century.  Journalists and media reporters often stayed here.  Undoubtedly many swapped stories that never made the record.  Look for the hotel in Graham Greene's The Quiet American (both book and movie) or the film Indochine.

The courtyard cafe during breakfast.

The hotel stands beside the central plaza next to the old opera house.  Our balcony faced onto the plaza.  The whole affair was built with open-air corridors and double-height ceilings to help guests manage the tropical climate.  However, the anachronism that struck me most was the application of the hotel's mid-century logo everywhere.  The hotel's arms appear on the coffee cups, the ash trays, the towels, and even the tags of the bedding.  It's a piece of branding from a bygone era.

A corridor in the Continental Hotel Saigon.

Overall, we had a fantastic stay at the Continental and found all the amenities and services up to a very high standard.  The remnants from previous eras of traveling made our experience in 2010 an adventure in time as well as place.  For more images of the hotel, click the link below left.