The Strand (also known as Strand Hotel) is a Victorian-style hotel located in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma), built by Aviet and Tigran Sarkies, two of the Sarkies Brothers.[1] The hotel, which opened in 1901, which faces the 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.
History
The 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[2] and then in 1941, during World War II, following Japanese occupation of Burma, the hotel was used briefly to quarter Japanese troops.