The Aloft Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 11

The Aloft Hotel is part of the group of hotels under the management of the Starwood Hotel Management company. Pakdokter had booked a room here using pakdokter's Starwood Privilege Membership Card and recieved an upgrade from the room that was originally booked. It is chic little hotel, comfortable and located in the centre of the area's entertainment and dining district.

The Bedroom SupperClub is a dining and a 'dance-club' outfit

located in front of the Aloft Hotel

as hotel guest pakdokter is entitled to a free entry to the club

modern stylish corridor

Sukhumvit Soi 11 seen from level 10 of hotel where

the swimming pool is

Jazz at the Bamboo Bar of the Oriental

The Bamboo Bar of the Oriental is listed as one of the Top Ten Jazz Bars of Bangkok. Our decision to dine at this hotel was partly decided on the fact that we also wanted to check out this jazz bar. We were not disappointed. There was a jazz quartet performing there that night with a polished lady jazz vocalist whose sultry voice could be mistaken for Ella Fitzgerald. And as a surprise for the night she also crooned Louis Armstrong numbers in a voice that could be mistaken for the maestro's.

Crusing the Menam Chao Phraya

We took the ferry back to the hotel after we finished dinner. The boatman offered to take us on a cruise along the Menam Chao Phraya which we were glad to accept. The cruise took us past the Shangrila Hotel, the LeBua Tower on the south-side of the Oriental and on the return upriver cruise we could see the Hilton and the Sheraton to the north of the Oriental.

Dinner @ Baan Rim Naam of the Mandarin Oriental.

Thursday,28th June 2012

Having had a late morning brunch - we checked out the other shopping malls in the Sukhumvit district - the Robinson's and the Times Square. Both of them were old malls and have lost their glitter. Pakdokter went back to the hotel to rest and wait for pakdokter's family to return from their shopping. We had earlier made a booking to have our dinner at the Baan Rin Naam Thai Restaurant at the Oriental Hotel.

We asked the concierge to get a taxi to the Oriental which cast 200 bahts. The trip to the hotel through the traffic jam took nearly 45 minutes.

the lobby of the Oriental

The Oriental Hotel is a classic - in the same class as The Raffles in Singapore, The E & O in Penang and the Majapahit in Surabaya. If pakdokter is not wrong, all these hotels were originally built and owned by the Armenian Sarkies Brothers.



The Baan Rin Naam Thai Restaurant was located on the opposite side of the Chao Phraya, so a ferry service was provided by the hotel to shuttle patrons from the hotel to the restaurant.

the Oriental ferries on the Chao Phraya

 the interior of the Oriental ferry boat

The Baan Rin Naam Thai restaurant has an inddor section where cultural performances and dance wer featured. The alfresco dining by the riverside was a more popular choice by most of the patrons.

 the chef's platter of appetisers

the vegetable slices and cuts came with 4 types of dips

 pan-fired fillet of snow fish with pepper

green curry beef

 banana blossoms salad with prawns

desserts

Chilli Culture on Sukhumvit Soi 11

All of us woke up late! at almost 11 am and we missed the Spain-Portugal semi-final of the Euro. Good that pakdokter booked the hotel room without the breakfast - learning from past experiences that we seldom got up in time for the morning meal.

pakdokter's family with a lovely glass-art  hanging on the wall

mussels salad - large mussels steamed and topped  with spicy sweet sour sauce

vegetarian spring rolls with 3 dipping sauces

tamarind prawn noodles (behind) and catfish salad with young mango slices

phad thai - fried kuey teow wrapped in fried egg

garnished with peanuts, bean sprouts

 and a banana blossom (pucuk pisang)

So off we went for brunch and the street where our hotel was had so many outlets to choose from. We settled for a Thai restaurant called the 'Chilli Culture'. It was a good choice and reasonably priced. 

Dinner @ MezzaLuna on the 64th Floor of the Lebua State Tower

Pakdokter had been to the Lebua State Tower on previous trips to Bangkok but was happy to take the family there again this time. The open-air dining at the 64th floor roof-top (the Dome) was fully booked so we had to settle for the upmarket fine-dining indoor restaurant  on the 64th floor called 'the Mezzaluna'.

The restaurant offered only 2 choices of dining experience - a 6-course degustation (tasting menu) or a 3-course set menu with a few selections for each of the courses. The degustation menu comes with a choice of paired wines with each of the courses.

The menu changes every day depending on what the 3 chefs decide to buy from the fresh-market that day.

For pakdokter's night out there, the day's dishes were mostly fish and seafood. The set came in small portions so that one can really enjoy every one of them to the end. They were also tops in the way the dishes were presented.

The price was naturally steep for such an establishment - in the range of RM400 to RM700 per head.

The open-air roof-top restaurant was fully booked but the Sky Bar was accessible for drinks and for a commanding view of the city. The Chao Phraya meanders by the side of the Lebua State Tower and the Bangkok Shangrila only rose up about half-way the height of the State Tower .

Terminal 21 Shopping Mall

Pakdokter stayed at the Aloft Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 11 - one of the entertainment, dining and shopping districts of Bangkok. Nearby are several shopping malls and pakdokter decided to check out one of the newer ones - The Terminal 21. It is named as such to reflect the somewhat of an airport architectural design and each floor of the 7 storey block carries a 'theme and name' of different great shopping cities of the world - Paris, London, Tokyo, Istanbul etc etc.

 the 5th Floor is the food court level

aptly called the Pier 21 of San Franscisco

the SF bridge is the hallmark of this level

food court prices are relatively cheaper than at

KL's KLCC and Pavillion

The Sukhimvit district also looks more like the Little India and Little Arab districts of Bangkok. The area is full of Indian and Middle Eastern restaurants. The Bangkok Skytrain passes through the district making it easy to go to other parts of the city on the train.