The Peninsula Hotel (Bangkok)
(Not simply the best, but really the very best!!!)
Getting To the Peninsula: Ferry from Koh Phi Phi to Phuket and a flight from Phuket to Bangkok, Bus to the "New Peninsula Hotel", obviously not the really new Peninsula Hotel, then taxi to the "Really New Peninsula Hotel". Here are the GPS tracks from Phi Phi to Bangkok. If you want a challenge, download the GPS tracks and see if you can plot them. The tracks from N 7 to N 8 degrees represent the ferry from Phi Phi to Phuket and the drive from the south Phuket pier to the Phuket airport. The tracks from N 8 to N 13 degrees represent the Thai airlines flight from Phuket to Bangkok.
Our Welcome at the Peninsula Hotel (a photo from our balcony): Fireworks in the evening of our arrival (Jan 28) and a very pleasant sunrise in the morning.
From our balcony room at the Peninsula, a view of the Oriental Hotel at Night (wonderful high tea in the Author's lounge - visited by Joseph Conrad, Sommerset Maughman, Richard Attenborough and a few other historic friends)
Getting Around
Water Taxi
Peninsula Ferry
BTS (sky train)
The map
The station and the Hardrock Carriage
Things to do:
Exploring side streets
Eating grilled corn and shopping for software and DVDs
Making a new jacket: The A. Moda shop and the family team
Ms Angkana - her family shop: absolutely the best in Bangkok! and the factory upstairs (where all the work is done)
Visiting Jim Thompson Silk and their cafe
Another potential Iron Chef and taxi drivers playing chess
Try walking through the alleys of Chinatown (note the motorcycle walking through the alley). One moment he is there (left) and the next moment, as if by magic, he has passed through the impossible maze (right)
A New Year, A New Beginning
New Year Fireworks from the balcony of our room at the Peninsula Hotel - 2004
Some music in the afternoon - a wonderful musical group, doing some songs from Chicago (60 sec segments from my "still" camera - apologies for the quality)
Calm before the Fireworks
Lift off
A few rockets
Starburst beauty
another view
Happy New Year (sorry for over exposure, not much practice photographing fireworks.Perhaps I should return for 2005 celebration at the Peninsula and improve my photo skills?)
A quiet sunset, waiting for the ferry and looking at the Peninsula Hotel as the sun says goodbye to New Year's Day
C. Frank Starmer