The Mustang Blu Opens in Bangkok
Bangkok’s old-town neighbourhood Talad Noi gets a new boutique hotel in the form of The Mustang Blu — sister to The Mustang Nero — housed in a 19th-century building that was once a bank
It would be easy to miss much of Bangkok’s charm if you confined your adventures to the small vicinity around Sukhumvit Road. Head west to the historical heart of the city, beyond the last stop on the BTS line, towards the river and you’ll find a completely different energy. The newly recognised creative district here is the gritty, raw antithesis to the glitzy parade of luxury shopping malls that line the city’s busiest and most iconic thoroughfare.
In a narrow Flatiron-style building just a stone’s throw from the now infamous ‘other’ Soi Nana, home to a growing plethora of achingly hip bars (including Tep and Teens of Thailand, to name but a few), is the Old Town’s latest boutique accommodation, The Mustang Blu.
Situated in a former bank building dating back to the late 1800s, which lay empty and abandoned for decades, is the whimsical brainchild of stylist Ananda Chalardcharen. The 10-room bed and breakfast took just five months to renovate, which may come as a surprise to the untrained eye since the entire space exudes cultivated, ramshackle chic. Naturally finished wooden floorboards compliment raw concrete walls, high ceilings, original columns and a dramatic cupola. The interiors are furnished with oversized exotic taxidermy, giant tropical palms, artwork, antique furniture and vintage books. In the background, a soundtrack of eastern European classical music can be heard, while the hotel’s signature fragrance wafts through the air.
Rooms differ in size, but each boasts its own free-standing clawfoot bathtub and makes for a charming base from which to discover some of this editor’s favourite places to eat, drink and uncover best of what Bangkok has to offer.
Text / Suzy Annetta
Images / Courtesy of The Mustang Blu
