Designed by architectural guru Bill Bensley, The Siam Hotel is a singular display of pure spectacle done in the most serene taste with an approach from the river on its own beautiful boat. Ancient Thai houses have been reassembled on the river’s edge as intimate restaurants. Behind them, the enormous property opens up via wide pathways and stairs. You walk past luxury villas with their own private courtyards and bathing pools through to the main inner covered court. Here, three tiers of beautifully appointed rooms rise up around a huge reflecting pool with enormous banana trees. There is a massive Moroccan-style, sunken courtyard surrounded by a spa and treatment rooms of princely portions. Scale, in fact, is the theme here, as it is in most Bensley-designed hotels. The public area takes up far more space than the residential with only 39 rooms in this entire property. All the various buildings are studded with antique details that have been incorporated into the design. Ancient doors, pillars, window-frames, screens, door-handles, and so on are all functional parts of the design, as are one-of-a-kind pieces of furniture, sculptures, and extremely rare free-standing pieces just there to blow your mind. If you’re looking for Asian-inspired hospitality, look no further than The Siam Hotel.