A former vendor of dried meat and long-time collector of antiques, Sukhum Meephansan is now a hotelier who has created a spectacular resort next to Suvarnabhumi Airport to serve mostly international visitors.

If you were sitting in a plane taking off from or landing at Suvarnabhumi, you may have witnessed down there a spectacular complex with red roofs and triangular objects just beside the airport. That is Ammata Lanta Resort.

The 40-rai (6.4-hectare) plot under a 35-year lease also houses a restaurant called Ammata Lanta, which opened eight years ago. The resort just opened last year with an investment of Bt300 million.

“After graduation, I started my own business, selling dried meat for nine years, and then shifted to producing and selling bakery goods. Since my first job, I started collecting art, antiques and used products. [There are now about] 10,000 pieces, and they are here at my resort,” Sukhum said.

His personal art collection cannot be valued in pure cash terms, but he has transferred the antique shop to his son to keep building up its inventory.

At Ammata Resort, the reception desk is an old gold-shop counter, the chandeliers once hung in luxury hotels, the paintings are by famous artists, and there are many other decorations from many places.

Sukhum said that before he decided to build the resort, he used to run many restaurants in Bangkok including Koh Libong, Rabiang Mai, Lanta, and Yes Indeed.

He opened Ammata Restaurant the same year that Suvarnabhumi opened.

“I wanted to build an extraordinary resort in the city that could attract visitors and would also be the place where I could keep my |collections. I invested Bt300 |million in this resort,” he said.

The resort consists of 27 private villas and the restaurant. Also, a meeting room can accommodate up to 300 guests.

“The highlight is not just the antique collection, but also the location. We are next to the airport, and this will make a lifetime impression for guests as they observe planes landing and taking off,” he said.

Room rates range between Bt20,000 and Bt35,000 a night per villa depending on the travel season. Seventy per cent of the guests are from Asia, and the rest from Europe and North America.

The resort offers transport to and from the airport in Hummers.

Sukhum said the occupancy rate in low season was 40-50 per cent and would climb to 70-80 per cent during high season.

At 57, Sukhum continues running his Lanna restaurant, but has becomes a health-conscious person and really enjoys middle age.

“I’m [very] keen on anti-ageing [activities] and a healthy life. I’m a health master, offering a health course at Bt25,000 per couple with one night’s accommodation and meals. I have taught many people including some famous persons. They come and learn my secrets to improve their health,” he said.

Aside from supervising the resort and the restaurant, Sukhum and his family spend time at another home in Kanchanaburi province.

BANGKOK – Doctors treating Thailand’s hospital-bound King Bhumibol Adulyadej placed the ailing monarch on a ventilator this week, the palace said Sunday (Oct 9), adding that the 88-year-old’s health was “not stable”.

Bhumibol is the world’s longest-reigning monarch and beloved by many in Thailand.

But he has not been seen in public for nearly a year as he battles a series of ailments in a Bangkok hospital.

Historically the palace has tightly controlled news about his health and it is difficult to ascertain his overall condition.

In recent months the palace has begun issuing more regular updates that point to a string of major health issues including renal failure.

Over the last two years he has also been treated for bacterial infections, breathing difficulties, heart problems and hydrocephalus – a build-up of cerebrospinal fluid often referred to as “water on the brain”.

The latest statement issued by the Royal Household Bureau on Sunday evening said a ventilator was deployed after the monarch’s blood pressure dipped following procedures to prepare him for dialysis and to change a tube that helps drain fluid from his spine.

“The medical team are watching his symptoms and giving treatments carefully because the overall symptoms of his sickness are still not stable,” the statement said.

His reign has spanned seven tumultuous decades and his frail health is a cause of great public concern for Thais, most of whom have never known life under another king.

He is also shielded by one of the world’s harshest royal defamation laws, which has been used to jail scores of Thais for criticising the monarchy.

Analysts say anxiety over the end of Bhumibol’s reign has aggravated the past decade of political conflict in Thailand, with elites jostling for influence.

But open discussion of his legacy and the future of the institution is all but impossible because of the lese majeste law.

Use of the law has surged under the ultra-royalist generals that seized power in a 2014 coup.

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AFP, The Nation/ANN