Strand Hotel

The Strand is a Victorian-style hotel located in Yangon, Myanmar, built by Aviet and Tigran Sarkie, two of the Sarkies Brothers. The hotel, which opened in 1901, which faces the Hlaing — or Yangon — River to its south, is one of the most famous hotels in Yangon and Southeast Asia, and is managed by GCP Hospitality. The hotel is named after its address, at 92 Strand Road.HistoryThe Strand opened in 1901. It was built by the British entrepreneur John Darwood but later acquired by the Sarkies brothers, who owned a number of luxury hotels in the Far East, including the Raffles Hotel in Singapore and the Eastern & Oriental Hotel in Penang, Malaysia. During the colonial period, The Strand was one of the most luxurious hotels in the British Empire with a clientele of exclusively whites. The Sarkies brothers sold The Strand to Rangoon restaurateur Peter Bugalar Aratoon and Ae Amovsie in 1925. The hotel underwent a major renovation in 1937 and then in 1941, during World War II, following Japanese occupation of Burma, the hotel was used briefly to quarter Japanese troops. The following year, the Strand's ownership was transferred to the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. For the first time in 1945, since The Strand's establishment, the Burmese became part of the hotel's clientele. After Burma achieved independence in 1948, the hotel was neglected by post-colonial governments. In 1963, The Strand Hotel was bought by the Burma Economic Development Corporation, which poorly maintained it. After the 1988 coup d'état, The Strand was sold in 1989 to Bernard Pe-Win, a Burmese businessman, who formed an alliance with Adrian Zecha and a group of investors who formed The Strand Hotel International.