WHAT THE BUTLER SAW
The Age, Australia
Sept 28 2007
Colonial charm … the view at the E&O hotel.
It’s a steep learning curve but Stella Martin quickly adapts to
royal treatment.
‘Most people don’t know how to use butlers now," says Elizabeth Dass,
communications manager at Penang’s Eastern and Oriental Hotel, in
a slightly peevish tone. "For example, if you are busy you can ask
your butler to pack your bags for you."
I don’t really want a stranger poking around the dirty laundry at the
bottom of my bag, but perhaps with a bit of practice I could get used
to it.
It is 25 years since my husband and I met, as young teachers working in
Malaysia. Now with the nest empty, we have returned for our anniversary
and checked into the E&O, which prides itself on its 24-hour butler
service. It would be hard to find a better place to celebrate.
We stagger in from the oppressive afternoon heat and frantic streets
of George Town and are quickly guided to enormous armchairs, presented
with cold face towels and glasses of pink fruit cocktail. I like this
place already.
A porter in pith helmet, white shirt, shorts, gloves and long socks
takes charge of our bags as our butler guides us across the domed
entrance hall. At the end of a cool, high corridor lined with old
photos of the hotel in its colonial heyday is our suite. "There are
no rooms, only suites" is the catchcry of the E&O. A sumptuously
furnished living room overlooks the swimming pool and, beyond the sea
wall, the bay. Our emperor-sized bed is flanked by butler-summoning
buttons, and beyond stained-glass doors is a black-and-white marble
bathroom. You could get lost in here.
One of the delights of Penang is its colonial architecture. Many
of the great buildings constructed during the days of the British
Empire are in a state of advanced decay, but the E&O is in beautiful
condition. Built in 1884 by the Armenian Sarkies brothers, the Eastern
Hotel was such a success that within a year they had added another,
the Oriental, next door. Eventually the two merged; our butler points
out the slightly sloping wooden floor that marks the join. A third
brother added an extravagant ballroom in 1903.
The hotel was renovated recently. The main staircase had to
be completely rebuilt but is identical to the one ascended by
Somerset Maugham, Rudyard Kipling, Hermann Hesse and Noel Coward. The
neoclassical facades, domes and minarets have been repainted a crisp
wedding-cake white.
The hotel was built to last. Its solid walls have caused headaches
for technicians installing modern communication facilities but its
sea wall stood up to the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004.