My Place Hotel
My Place Hotel was among the B&Bs I examined within walking distance of Earl’s Court Tube Station in London. It was listed as a hotel decorated by Terence Conran, of Conran and Partners along the principles of Feng Shui. Terence Conran was a famed archiltectural designer, who decorated many hotels. While it was in a nice, clean and peaceful neighborhood, I could detect no signs of its influence. I was doing a story on Feng Shui, at the time, and western applications would have been a nice addition. The article I read was in The Guardian, hardly a tabloid, so I suspect it was a promotional ploy.
Newly renovated with fresh carpets and restored antique furniture, the rooms were only slightly larger than those in Tokyo’s small Business Hotels. Even the breakfast alcoves and banquet rooms were tiny and awkwardly designed.
Although the rituals of geomancy are part of the craft, there are pragmatic elements involved such as spatial illusion, ventilation, light and fluidity. While the hotel deserved more than the single crown it modestly claimed on its brochure, I didn’t book a room there even though the room rates were only slightly higher than my own B & B at Sussex Gardens, in Paddington. I was not encouraged to move there. It was drizzling rain when I arrived, and I didn’t notice any restaurants close by. I would have liked to escape the faint smell of decay of my own digs, common with older establishments.
At the other side of the world, their logo greeted me in Hua Hin, Thailand. Just two weeks open, I saw a place that dredged my own and a Thai traveler’s memory. It was an argyle building recessed in the middle of Amnuaysin Road, not far from the hamlet’s fabled railroad station. I entered to be met by the glum proprietor, who was eagerly, expecting me to register as a guest rather than as a photographer looking for pictures. His establishment would have been blessed by a geomancer, but it was in the wrong place, a backpackers haven, where fan rooms went for about US $12 and airconditioned ones, US $20 to US $60. An entrepreneur observing how foreign franchises seem eminently successful in Thailand, he talked several countrymen into investing in an upscale hotel modeled after the British original. He confessed to me that he only had six Thai guests, wealthy businessmen and their wives, jealous about their privacy. He might have done better erecting it on the beach. He wasn’t acquainted with Feng Shui, but the fluidity, size of the chambers, and decor followed it to the letter. It has a Zen-like atmosphere of peace and well-being. I habitually stayed at an old hotel with a fan room costing US $13 and the accommodations were adequate. Also, I was friends with the owner and the staff. I was permitted, however, to take pictures that can be seen here.