GENERAL  &  HISTORICAL  INFORMATION  ABOUT  THE  ATLANTA'S  LOCATION

AVOIDING  CONFUSIONS

ROGUE  TAXIS

DIRECTIONS  IN  THAI  (scroll to the bottom)

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The Atlanta is situated at number 78, Soi 2 Sukhumvit Road, in south Bangkok where the air is normally cleaner because it is nearer the river and the Gulf of Siam whence comes the breeze through Bangkok.

'Soi' means lane; hence, 'Soi 2' means lane number 2.  Sukhumvit Road is a major thoroughfare. 'Soi 2 Sukhumvit Road' thus refers to lane number 2, off Sukhumvit Road.  The Atlanta is a five storey building on the right hand side at the end of this lane and adjacent to the Calvary Baptist Church. The lane is 600 metres / yards long.

 

Clarifying possible confusions:  Soi 2 Sukhumvit Road also has a name.  The name is usually spelt Phasuk.  It is sometimes spelt Pha-Suk.  It is pronounced Paa-sook (not Fa-suck).  This name has not been in general use since the 1950's when Bangkok was a much smaller city.  Few today know this name.  Everybody, including taxi drivers, uses the lane number.  On the google map below, Soi 2 Sukhumvit Road is called 'Sukhumvit 2 Alley'.  Nobody calls it thus, not even ex-pats.  No taxi driver would understand 'Sukhumvit 2 Alley' even if he speaks English.  If you point the cursor at the red marker for The Atlanta Hotel and click it, the address will pop up on the top left corner of the map, 'Soi Sukhumvit 2 (Pha Suk)'.   Most would prefer it to read, 'Soi 2 (Paa-sook) Sukhumvit Road'.  Place names and their abecedarian spellings are not and have never been standardised in Thailand; and it may be too much to expect global cartographers to get it right everywhere!   

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Sukhumvit Road was named after a peer of Siam, Pra Bisal Sukhumvit, who was the first Thai to graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (class of 1923).  He was appointed Thai Minister of the Interior before his return to Thailand and remained in office until 1926.  He was the fifth Chief of the Department of Highways during the 1930's and 1940's, regent to King Rama VIII, Director of the Royal Irrigation Department from 1942-43, a senior member of the Thai delegation that was sent to the United States to persuade the United States to assist Thailand with post-war re-construction despite Thailand's support for Japan during the Second World War, and he was a close friend of the maternal grandfather of the present proprietor of The Atlanta.   That is why The Atlanta is right at the beginning of Sukhumvit Road, in Soi 2. 

 

What was Sukhumvit Road like in 1952?  What was Soi 2 like in the very early days of The Atlanta?  When Dr Max Henn moved The Atlanta Chemical Company, the antecedent of The Atlanta Hotel, to Soi 2 Sukhumvit in 1952, Sukhumvit was a single lane dirt road with a canal along the south side.  A wooden bridge had to be crossed to enter Soi 2 and all even number sois - the south side of Sukhumvit Road.  Soi 2 was an unpaved dirt lane with piped water supply but no public drainage and no electricity.  The Atlanta Chemical Company was the only building in Soi 2 in 1952.  It had its own electricity generator.   Thieves targetted The Atlanta Chemical Company and later The Atlanta Hotel because it was farang (meaning white foreigner) owned.   Dr Henn employed a tall Sikh to guard the property at night.  He called this Sikh 'Ali Baba' and often asked him about his forty thieves.  Thais regard Indians as outsiders and Ali Baba, being a Sikh, was unlikely to be in cahoots with Thais to steal.   By 1953, a Chinese family that had fled the Maoist Revolution in China arrived and squatted in the property next to The Atlanta where there is now the Calvary Baptist Church.  That family raised pigs.   A pharmaceutical company and a fledgling hotel next to a pig farm?  On the other side of The Atlanta, another Chinese family that had similarly fled the Maoist Revolution in China arrived and squatted.  That family lived literally in a hovel and had nothing to eat.  One day, quite mysteriously, they acquired a Singer sewing machine.  To help that family so they would not steal from The Atlanta, Dr Henn offered them work sewing table cloths, pillow slips, etc., for the fledgling hotel.  The daughter of that family, known by the name, 'Miss Hong', later became a noted dressmaker in Bangkok.  She was patronised by embassy people and became something of a celebrity dressmaker.   In the middle of Soi 2, on the east side, was another Chinese fugitive family.  That family raised ducks.   At the corner, where the Marriott Hotel now stands, was yet another Chinese fugitive family but that family had a profession: welding and ironworks.  The patriarch of that family, one 'Nai Heng', made steel chairs and tables for The Atlanta.  The steel tables he made are still in use by the pool.  They have lasted 70 years.   At the very corner of his work yard, at the apex of the corner of Soi 2 and Sukhumvit, a extraordinarily beautiful girl was selling flowers by candlelight every evening.  We never knew her name or who she was or what was her relationship with 'Nai Heng' or his sons.  A German, T.H., re-visiting The Atlanta in his very old age in 2014 asked whether we know what became of that flower girl he could never forget.   

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Among the earliest patrons of The Atlanta during the time it was metamorphosing from a pharmaceutical company into a hotel were Dutch colonial administrators and plantation owners in the East Indies (Indonesia) who were leaving for The Netherlands during de-colonisation, and American aerial photographers and military cartographers who came to Thailand on Operation Bravo to map Thailand as part of the post-war settlement.  A photograph of them and a letter are framed on the wall in the restaurant.  When the pool was completed but before the present main building was erected, Scandinavian Airlines crew stayed regularly at The Atlanta but later and for reasons of economy were lodged in a rented house in Soi 3 Sukhumvit that is now the Embassy of Pakistan.   There were many, many others.   There was one Englishman by the name of Ducks----- the shadow of whose nocturnal antics with his wife was cast on the curtain of his room for Ali Baba and the night staff to watch at the same time every night.  Then there was a French Countess by the name of -------- who found our Vietnamese-born room service boy irresistible and paid him very well.   He would spend hours in her room, then flash the money he received for all to see.  There was also one J.T., an American, who was always hanging about trying to flog Thai silk to our guests.  Whatever happened to him?  If any of them are still alive today, they would remember Dr Max Henn, the cobra pit where Dr Henn extracted cobra venom for his pharmacy, the canal and wooden bridge at the corner of Soi 2, the guava trees everywhere, the pig farm next door and the very beautiful flower girl at the corner of Soi 2.   

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The whole area from Soi 1 and Soi 2 to Soi 21 (Asok) and beyond was, at that time, full of guava trees.  Before Pra Bisal Sukhumvit had Sukhumvit Road and its sois constructed - that is, compulsorily purchased the land and cut a path through the guava orchards - this part of the far outskirts of old Bangkok was known for its guavas.   Further north where New Petchburi Road is now, at the far end of Soi 4 Sukhumvit, were rice fields with their water buffaloes.   The rice fields and water buffaloes were still there during the Vietnam War (1955-75).   Taxis in downtown Bangkok near the river rarely agreed to drive passengers to this area because it was considered to be too far out of the city.  Now, 70 years later, this part of Sukhumvit is in the heart of the city and is known as the Golden Mile because of its high property prices.

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Now, back to the 21st century.  The nearest BTS or Sky Train Station to The Atlanta is Phloen Chit.  Pronounced Ploen-chit, not Floen-chit, the word 'Ploen' means gentle enjoyment or delight; 'chit' or 'jit' means spirit.  Delight of the spirit.  A beautiful name!  

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From Phloen Chit Station to The Atlanta.  Alighting the BTS at Phloen Chit Station, take exit 5, walk down the stairs to the street level.  On the landing of the stairs, you will see on your right the Novotel and a lane called Ruam Rudi (pronounced Rudee).  Ruam Rudi means 'union of hearts'.  Another beautiful name.   When you reach the bottom of the stairs, walk straight ahead for 150 meters / yards.  You will pass under an expressway, then cross a railway line, then pass a tall building with blue signage which is the Krungthai Bank, then pass a tall office building called Phloen Chit Centre with its McDonalds and Starbucks.  You are then at the corner of Soi 2.  Opposite you is the J.W. Marriott Hotel.  Turn right and walk 600 meters down to the end of the lane.  The Atlanta will be on your right, adjacent to the Calvary Baptist Church.  Soi 2 is a busy soi and is known to be safe at all hours.

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A useful landmark is the J.W. Marriott Hotel at the corner of Soi 2 Sukhumvit Road.  If you find this J.W. Marriott, you are 600 meters / yards from The Atlanta.

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Clarifying possible confusions:  There are two Marriott Hotels on Sukhumvit Road - one at the corner of Soi 2 (which is your landmark), the other at the corner of Soi 57 (which is not your landmark).  There are also many Marriott Executive Apartments in the city.

 

The entrance to The Atlanta Hotel is quite difficult to find until you are "on top of it".  However, look carefully and you will see the main entrance between two signs.  One reads: "This is the place you are looking for, if you know it. If you don't, you'll never find it".  This is absolutely true: nobody comes to The Atlanta by chance.  The other more famously reads: "Sex tourists not welcome".

Arranging transport by taxi to The Atlanta from either of Bangkok's two airports can be done in English, so it is not necessary that you have the address in Thai.
 
Arranging transport by taxi to The Atlanta from anywhere else in the city, for example, from the various bus terminals or from the railway station, CANNOT easily be done in English.  You are advised to show the address in Thai with directions and telephone numbers below to your taxi or tuk-tuk driver.  Note, however, that many drivers are from neighbouring countries and do not know Bangkok as well as they should.   Some cannot read Thai at all.

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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ROGUE  TAXI  AND  TUK-TUK  DRIVERS

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Do note that there are rogue taxi and tuk-tuk drivers operating vehicles with rigged meters.  These illegal meters are controlled by the driver who may speed up the meter from a slow tick-over to turbo-charged increments.  For most passengers and guests of The Atlanta, the turbo-charged meter remains a rare occurrence, but one about which you should know.

What to do with turbo-charged meter readout?  If your meter reading is suspiciously high and you think that you may be a victim of a turbo-charged meter, remain calm.  Do not alert the taxi driver that he has been rumbled  Make sure that the taxi reaches its destination directly outside The Atlanta, at the far end of Soi 2 Sukhumvit.  Remove your personal effects from the taxi immediately, then make your exuses (such as you need to change your money for Thai currency) and summon help from the Reception staff at the hotel. who will deal with the matter on your behalf.  Never leave your personal effects unattended in the taxi while dealing with a problem relating to fares.

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