I'm a long-time visitor to Bangkok, and this is perhaps my 12th or so trip here. I like to stay in Sukhumvit, usually on Soi 11 as it's lively but not super-raucous, and it has a good mix of food shops, Thai massage and bars on it.
It also has one of my favourite Bangkok hotels - Aloft - which is the W brand on a budget, but a still means you can stay in a very nice, central modern hotel with free wifi and breakfast for as low as around £40/$60 a night. You're a saunter away from the Sky Train, Raja's tailors (the best value bespoke outfitters in the city, IMHO) is on the corner and there's the wackily fashionable Bed Supper Club.
Or at least, there WAS. If you don't know it, imagine if Apple designed a UFO and then parked it in central Bangkok and turned it into a restaurant that dished up avant-garde art theatre as you ate. Oh, and you eat your dinner sprawled out on white beds, like you're ordering canapes in 2001: A Space Odyssey. As eating experiences go, it's one of the most memorable and I try to go every time I'm in town. You can only imagine the sadness of the emoticon I felt like sending when I found out that it closed for business this summer.
Still, there's always Food Land on Soi 5, a supermarket canteen that serves up Thai deliciousness for less money than you find down the back of the sofa on an average foray. I'll have a lovely green curry, plea...oh, wait, that's a shopping mall now. Radio City, my Pat Pong go-to bar with its Thai Elvis and Thai Tina Turner acts: gone. Tomorrow I'm going to to to Raja's and perhaps buy a suit if they haven't become a Starbucks or something equally galling. Any more of this comforting familiarity gets taken away and I'm going to start to take this personally.
It also has one of my favourite Bangkok hotels - Aloft - which is the W brand on a budget, but a still means you can stay in a very nice, central modern hotel with free wifi and breakfast for as low as around £40/$60 a night. You're a saunter away from the Sky Train, Raja's tailors (the best value bespoke outfitters in the city, IMHO) is on the corner and there's the wackily fashionable Bed Supper Club.
Or at least, there WAS. If you don't know it, imagine if Apple designed a UFO and then parked it in central Bangkok and turned it into a restaurant that dished up avant-garde art theatre as you ate. Oh, and you eat your dinner sprawled out on white beds, like you're ordering canapes in 2001: A Space Odyssey. As eating experiences go, it's one of the most memorable and I try to go every time I'm in town. You can only imagine the sadness of the emoticon I felt like sending when I found out that it closed for business this summer.
Still, there's always Food Land on Soi 5, a supermarket canteen that serves up Thai deliciousness for less money than you find down the back of the sofa on an average foray. I'll have a lovely green curry, plea...oh, wait, that's a shopping mall now. Radio City, my Pat Pong go-to bar with its Thai Elvis and Thai Tina Turner acts: gone. Tomorrow I'm going to to to Raja's and perhaps buy a suit if they haven't become a Starbucks or something equally galling. Any more of this comforting familiarity gets taken away and I'm going to start to take this personally.
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