Cosmopolitan where Chiang Mai is contemplative, the Bangkok property carries its heritage lightly, not least the Baan Borneo Club, the soigne Jack Bain’s Bar, and the bijou Nitra wellness centre. The 29th floor grows its own organic herbs and vegetables, which find their way into Nimitr restaurant, where complex Thai flavours are cocooned by light Western touches. Drift from a morning by the rooftop pool into the hotel’s customised London cab – the only vehicle in Bangkok that has never once considered abandoning civility – for the short ride to Emquartier, where three glitzy interconnected malls deliver luxury retail, heaving restaurants and, why not, a hanging garden.
And as with Chiang Mai, Old Bangkok demands a longer expedition: A longtail boat along the khlongs showcases the city in a compressed, cinematic montage of colonial villas and timber shanties beneath gilded temple rooflines. Schedule a pad Thai lunch at Baan Plern Jitt at the Khlong Bang Luang floating market before heading to Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen where a 69-metre-high golden Buddha presides over the noise with inscrutable serenity.
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