One night in Bangkok, but where? How to choose a neighborhood to stay in.
Oct 1, 2010
When I'm choosing where to stay in a city, I'm usually trying to find the most "real" neighborhood—where I'd live, if I lived there. That means out of the tourist ghetto, not close to the local Gucci store, away from anything labeled Marriot, and so on.
Except in Bangkok. In Bangkok I—and you, if you are taking my advice—want to stay in one of the insane luxury hotel towers on the Chao Phraya River. The towers are close to some major temples, the little streets surrounding them are stuffed with silk-fabric stores, jewelers, one-hour photos, tailors copying clothes, and other stuff tourists like and need and you will like and need too.
Any taxi that picks you up around here can take you to Khao San Road, no problem. (That's the backpacker mecca immortalized in the book The Beach; it's surprisingly difficult to communicate with cab drivers and get to even the most popular tourists spots). For many travelers, these hotels—The Oriental, the Shangri-La, among others—are the most luxurious places they've ever been able to afford. (Five-star rooms are around $350 a night; less depending on how/when you book). These are perfect, gleaming, travel-magazine-porn hotels. They have silk carpets and enormous air-conditioned lobbies and uniformed porters and people in livery handing you orchids when you walk in. The rooms have marble shower stalls and beds with bolsters and on every floor there's a concierge to greet you and hustle down the hall to open your room door for you. They're really, really nice. And the view—of the slow, gray, churning river far below, of boat traffic and bridge traffic and other luxury hotel-high rises, and the enormous city all around you—is probably not what you'd be looking at every day if you lived in Bangkok, but it's utterly wonderful.
Arriving in Asia from the US can be overwhelming, and it's nice to hide out in an oasis like the Oriental and acclimatize to the heat and humidity and time difference for a little while.
People who want the same level of luxury for less $$ could try any of the big hotels that aren't on the river. Le Meridian is very fancy and is located in a more insidery, more residential neighborhood near the big shopping streets. And at some point, it's all so luxurious, what's one orchid more, or less?
Here's some more photos of the Oriental:
