Photos

This photo was taken at The Verandah dining in Eastern & Oriental Hotel (E&O Hotel).This hotel was once boasted the longest sea front of any hotel and also claimed itself the Premier Hotel East of Suez. Like the Raffles in Singapore, the E&O Hotel harks back to the days of planters, palms and ceiling fans.

Among the famous visitors to the hotel were the author Somerset Maugham and the playwriter Noel Coward, who came with his friend Lord Amherst.

The enterprise began in 1885 when the Sarkies brothers met the Khaw family in Bangkok and were invited by the latter to set up a hotel in Penang.

The Sarkies brothers also ran the famous Strand in Rangoon, the Raffles in Singapore and the Crag HOtel in Penang Hill. The Crag was first promoted as a sanatorium then as a premier honeymoon resort.

In the 1920s, youngest brother Arshak Sarkies indulged in a flamboyant expension and the construction of the Victory Wing.

When those accustomed to fine living suffered from the rubber crash in 1930s, the E&O became a place to Eat & Owe, bankrupting the generous Arshak.