The Atlanta Hotel in Bangkok - a place to dream in a city that never sleeps

This week the Pchum Benh festival is celebrated in Cambodia, which means that I´ve got Wednesday-Sunday off from work. A perfect opportunity to go to my favourite city Bangkok I thought - so here I am! I arrived to a flooded Bangkok on Wednesday evening, checking in at my beloved "the Atlanta Hotel" (www.theatlantahotelbangkok.com) where I´ve stayed so many times before. Oh, my beloved Atlanta... Can´t descibe in words how much this place has meant to me over the years... This has been my base for my studies, research and writing, and for my travels - both on my own and together with Janne. I´ve met many good friends here, it´s become my Home away from home where I always feel welcome and being greeted as a family member. The family "the Atlantians" as we sometimes joke about ourselves, a group of more or less (usually more) excentric writers, researchers, independent travellers, expats, etc, of which many have visited the Atlanta for many, many years and still are coming and going on a regular or irregular basis. The Atlanta is a budget hotel, pretty much untouched since the 50:s, with a wonderful art deco lobby and sweeping staircases. Also with a lovely restaurant with tons of 50:s athmosphere, with the most delicious food and an extensive vegetarian menue. There´s actually where I´m sitting now writing this, and this is also where I ususally spend my evenings, reading, writing, catching up with old friends I haven´t seen for quite some time and sometimes also making new ones. In the daytime, it´s lovely to relax by the pool or in the garden, watching the turtles in the pond that´s constantly expanding as more and more baby turtles are hetched every year. And of course to cuddle with some of the more than 40 cats that has been adopted by the Atlanta. I´m always crying when I´m leaving this place, and I probably will tomorrow as well. But it´s good to know that I´m now living only an hour away by plane, which gives me the opportunity to come here a lot more often now. This might be the first, but maybe not the last stay at the Atlanta for me this year...?!