A hotel named Malaysia in Bangkok…

Bernama correspondent in Bangkok Mohd Haikal Isa traced a modest hotel named Malaysia Hotel in the heart of the modern metropolis which was the location of award-winning Hollywood movie “Good Morning Vietnam”.

The family-run business, which has just celebrated its golden anniversary, hosted late Hollywood funnyman Robin Williams for the shooting of the 1987 film.

The hotel was founded by entrepreneurial Chinese immigrant Peng Hui Saebae in 1967.

“They (the film crew) spend about a month here. Robin Williams came and shot the film here,” Saebae’s 73-year-old daughter Mayuree Rungsaeng told Bernama.

According to Mayuree,  who helped run the hotel during the shooting of the film, one of the rooms on the second floor had undergone extensive renovation to resemble a radio studio.

The comedy-war film which earned Williams a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor  in the Motion Picture Musical or Musical Category and an Academy Award nomination and other accolades, also starred another of Hollywood’s greats, Forest Whitaker.

Williams who tragically committed suicide in 2014,  played the role of radio DJ, Adrian Cronauer in the Barry Levinson directed film.

The hotel, Mayuree said, also received a lot of patronage from American military officers during the Vietnam war, either for rest and relaxation or for official duties at nearby Joint United States Military Advisory Group (JUSMAG).

According to Mayuree’s daughter Chanthiman Rungsaeng, who is the managing director of the hotel,  William’s did not stay at the hotel throughout the filming but only came to shoot the film.

On how the “Malaysia Hotel” name came about, she said, it was the desire to maintain the family’s ancestral name “Ma” which drove them to name the hotel with a name of a South East Asian country.

“Our family name is “Ma”,  so the family decided to named it Malaysia Hotel, as the name carries our family name and Malaysia, as it is easy for the customers to know,” she said of the 130-room hotel located in Sathorn area in Bangkok.

“Ma” in Chinese means “horse” she said, adding that an iron statue of a horse was placed at the entrance of the hotel to greet customers. 

The hotel just underwent an extensive renovation to commemorate its 50th anniversary as well as an effort to draw new customers  in view of the increasing competition from other hotels in the area, said Chanthiman.

In the renovation works  completed in September, many parts of the hotels were painted in golden yellow colour to mark its golden anniversary.

The hotel receives a small number of customers from Malaysia but aims to attract more with efforts like providing more Malaysian food and delicacies at its restaurant as well as halal food for them.

"We also hope our unique name, Malaysia Hotel will attract more Malaysians to stay with us," said Chanthiman of the hotel where the standard rooms start at about 900 Baht (RM113) per-night.

-- BERNAMA