This Former Phuket Town Bordello Has Had a Sizzling Bill Bensley Makeover

YOU MAY BE FAMILIAR WITH The Slate, the Phuket resort that pays homage to the island’s industrial, tin-mining past with a slate-hued aesthetic, wrench heads on the cutlery, exposed girders and a favorite detail of mine: the creaky cyberpunk fans that cool the hotel’s Tongkha Tin Syndicate bar and the terraces of the private pool suites.  

To reach its traditional Thai restaurant, Black Ginger, guests are led to a wooden landing lit by flaming torches where they board a raft pulled across the misty waters by attendants in 19th-century Thai garb. You’d be hard pressed to find a more dramatic restaurant entrance anywhere else.  

The driving force behind the hotel is Krystal Prakaikaew Na-Ranong (also known as Khun Moo) who called on designer Bill Bensley to transform her family’s sleepy beachfront hotel into this dramatic reenactment of the Phuket of yesteryear. Before he came to Asia to sign the design of some of the region’s most iconic properties, Bensley grew up in the shadow of the original Disneyland in Southern California. That sense of playful wonder shows.  

So years later, when Moo told Bensley about her plan to recount another chapter of her family’s history by converting a decrepit building that her great-grandfather had acquired after WWII, his eyes lit up at the possibilities.  

During the war, so the story goes, Moo’s grandfather was given sensitive documents for safe keeping. After the war he was rewarded handsomely for his loyalty, and with that nest egg he acquired a building in a disreputable quarter of Phuket Town, frequented by Chinese tin miners seeking companionship after their hard labor in the quarries. At that time, the mines were already on their way out and with them went the red-light districts, including this one, which also housed opium dens and gambling houses. Over the years, the building has served as a flop house and a storeroom, and at times has merely stood empty. 

That gave Bensley a blank slate to work with, and he came up with plans that are both romantic and racy—right up the designer’s alley. Today the multicolored façades of Soi Romanee, the alleyway that connects Thalang Road, home to the popular Sunday night walking street market, with Dibuk Road, are some of the most photographed in town. (Romanee, which means “pretty” or “charming” in Thai, is a tribute to the ladies who once plied their trade here.) These days, it’s not uncommon to see couples posing in wedding gear in front of the vibrant pink, gold and blue houses in the lane. 

Coolies Club looks fresh and innocent with its green and white windows and balustrades. Step inside and the vermillion walls are covered in art, including vintage portraits of Chinese starlets and two oversized canvases on the left which are the work of Bensley himself. Moo purchased the junglescape over the stairs at auction to raise funds for Bensley’s foundation that defends wildlife and the environment.  

The food is curated by chef Piak, who also oversees the kitchens at Black Ginger. Here she serves a menu of tasty treats that makes Coolies Club one of Phuket Old Town’s new culinary destinations, with bar snacks like crispy chicken skin, a spicy fusion spaghetti for mains and charcoal-grilled pineapple for dessert. Sunday is the time for a generous dim sum brunch. 

Meanwhile the bar sends out drinks inspired by the lane’s colorful past. The Mama Twist, with a vodka base infused with berry tea, is a nod to an infamous Romanian mama-san who officiated in the lane. Pick the right night and you’ll also find live entertainment often with a wink-wink nudge-nudge to the area’s steamy past.  

But for a real taste of the previous trade conducted on the site, have a peek at the rooms upstairs. They have been restored to echo the bordello days with period furniture and four-poster canopy beds. Note the tiles, wood paneling and details down to the porcelain chamber pots and marble bathrooms. These days, guests can book these rooms for private events of a more avowable nature like private dinners or birthday parties. And you don’t even have to pay by the hour.  

Coolies Club is open Tuesday to Sunday, 12 pm to 12 am.  

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Images courtesy of Coolies Club, unless otherwise noted.

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