Hotel G Yangon opened just months ago, but this lifestyle hotel with big personality has already made an impact on the creative scene in Myanmar’s most vibrant city, providing a trendy urban venue for the local crowd and a contemporary residence with understated glamour for international travellers. As Yangon’s newest lifestyle hotel, Hotel G Yangon’s design ethos fuses contemporary design and modern ideas, incorporating the local traditions, culture and heritage of the site it occupies.
Hotel G Yangon has evolved from the foundations of one of the oldest hotels in town, the Thamada Hotel, which had been in operation for over 60 years. During the building of Hotel G Yangon, the bones of the building were preserved, while giving the entire building façade and the interior of the hotel an upgrade and reboot. One of the many beautiful design features kept from the Thamada was the original teak parquet flooring that now throughout the hotel.
In a homage to the vibrant entertainment neighbourhood that surrounds it, the walls of Babett Eatery & Wine Bar are decorated with framed prints of original posters advertising the old Burmese films screened in the cinema next door to Hotel G Yangon, which first opened in 1958 and is still in operation. Babett is also accented with Burmese decorative items sourced from the nearby Maung Maung Antique shop in Yangon.
Like Babett, Hotel G Yangon has styled its 85 guest rooms with cool finds and traditional crafts with a contemporary twist. Bedrooms have been designed in wood tones that contrast with vividly coloured walls and artworks with a modern graphic take on Myanmar’s design heritage. With the help of their friends at the social enterprise design collective, Hla Day (which means Beautiful in Burmese), Hotel G Yangon has decked rooms with treasures produced by local boutique businesses and traditional craftsmen throughout Myanmar.
All of these products are available to buy in the G Shop in the open-plan lobby adjacent to the Babett Eatery & Wine Bar, so guests can sip, shop and make a difference. The profits of each purchase will help Hla Day fund essential business and design training to support the long-term livelihoods of the producers, so guests can be sure that their purchase is helping a likeminded creative soul turn their passion into a successful business.
Items for sale found in the rooms and public areas of Hotel G Yangon combine traditional techniques with modern ideas. Many of them made from recycled products, like the plastic beach bags made by Chu Chu Plastics, or sourced through sustainable partnerships with other producers, such as the notebooks and wallets made by people with physical and mental disabilities from longyi material traditionally weaved by hand. Eagle eyed guests will spot the brightly coloured paper mache animals all over the hotel. This animal parade includes woodpeckers, elephants, giraffes and tigers, and is made by a local producer who started his business in 2009 after making toys for his son. Even the art of the walls is for sale. The graphic screen prints canvases on the walls include artwork from vintage Burmese coffee adverts and are produced Pann Nann Ein, a local foundation dedicated to helping persons with disabilities to have a full life through engaging in creative livelihoods. More information about Hla Day and their work can be found at www.hladaymyanmar.org.
Guests booking online at www.hotelgyangon.com for stays between now and 31st December 2017 will receive up to 40% discount on opening rates.
About Hotel G Yangon, Myanmar
Opened on 7 September 2017, Hotel G Yangon is an 85-room lifestyle hotel located at the heart of Yangon’s vibrant entertainment neighborhood, with art galleries, shopping malls, the famous Bogyoke market and the central railway station right on its doorstep. Yangon’s first lifestyle hotel, Hotel G Yangon has all the intuitive technology, super-fast connectivity and understated style that savvy modern travellers crave, alongside creatively designed social spaces, a fully equipped Real Fitness ExpressTM gym with yoga & Pilates studio, and Babett Eatery & Bar, a trendy chic bar and kitchen to relax, refuel and reconnect. Visit us at www.hotelgyangon.com or connect with us on Facebook @hotelsgyangon and Instagram @hotelG_Yangon
