Mandarin Oriental: Bangkok's original luxury hotel

There's no need to fight the urge to don a pith hat and jodhpurs at the Mandarin Oriental. This Bangkok institution is a step back to a time when luggage was carried in trunks, dinner dress was de rigeur (tropics or not) and tea on the veranda was served with a stiff G&T to ward off mosquitoes.

Clocking in a over 100 years old, the Oriental’s riverside grandeur has played host to a proud list of clientele. It has also revived (and inspired) many a weary literary soul sampling the charms of Siam, including the likes of Noel Coward, Somerset Maugham, Norman Mailer, Joseph Conrad and Ernest Hemingway.

The older Author's Wing retains its magical aura of ‘the East’ of antiquity with its picturesque parlors, each named for a scribe they once hosted. The Garden Wing offers similar heights of nostalgic luxury, while the modern River Wing and Tower offer more contemporary design.

And if it weren't patently obvious by all of the plaudits rained upon this five-star landmark, high tea in the Mandarin Oriental's library is simply too civilized for words.