LUXE CITY GUIDES
[Books]
Bangkok
Publisher: Luxe Asia Ltd,
22 pages
THE latest travel guide on Bangkok tells you about the chic and cool places to savour in this amazing city, never mind if you arrive in a low-cost airline.
Luxe: Bangkok (fourth edition) is touted as “stylish, brutally frank, and sometimes, frankly, brutal”, but the best thing about it has to be its humour and unconventional style. Read how it introduces Vientiane Kitchen at Sukhumvit Soi 36: “Isaan food hot enough to blow your bra and pants off.” (Isaan refers to north-eastern Thailand.)
And of Jim Thompson, the American who promoted Thai silk to the world: “He could still be wandering in the Cameron Highlands for all we know, poor love.”
Thompson had disappeared in the highlands in 1967, while out for a walk. His Bangkok home, now called The Jim Thompson House, is the place to check out if you’re hunting for Thai architecture and art.
No travel guide to Bangkok would be complete if it didn’t mention Chatuchak Market, which has become somewhat of an institution for those seeking bargain buys for anything under the sun. It has a mind-boggling number of shops, so if you’re shopping alone and happen to lose your bearings, Luxe’s advice is to “scream violently and run about panicking”.
This compact-sized guide (measuring 15.5x8cm) can easily be slipped into your pocket. It provides an up-to-date list of restaurants, spas and clubs, and even tells you where to go for facials and the best manicures. You can also find out the place to get specially-made Thai silk ties or boots.
One gem of a place which Luxe introduces has to be Agalico, where you can sip coffee in a beautiful garden. Yes, a serene and quiet garden actually exists in noisy and busy Bangkok. Located at Sukhumvit 51 and accessible by the skytrain, it is a fabulous place to read your book while having afternoon tea. That is, if you don’t mind paying RM8.50 for a slice of chocolate cake.
The hotels recommended by Luxe are mostly for the well-heeled, like The Peninsula and The Sukhothai. Well, it does say in its website (www.luxecityguides.com) that it chooses only the very best, so that YOU can do the same.
The guide is indeed brutally frank. It dismisses snake and crocodile farms as “tourist rubbish” and describes the Songkran Festival as a nightmare of filthy water and flour.
One news report states that it is edited by Grant Thatcher, a 41-year-old Briton who used to live in Bangkok but is now based in Hong Kong. He has local correspondents who supply him all the details. “We fly in and see them all. I guarantee, we see everything,” Thatcher reportedly said.
Luxe: Bangkok is available at Asia Books, which has 10 branches in Bangkok. At Baht275, it is rather pricey. But hey, style and glamour don’t always come cheap.
The series, which also features Hanoi, Singapore, Hong Kong & Macau, Bali, and Ho Chi Minh City, is revised every six months to ensure travellers get the latest information.
Source The Star
Bangkok
Publisher: Luxe Asia Ltd,
22 pages
THE latest travel guide on Bangkok tells you about the chic and cool places to savour in this amazing city, never mind if you arrive in a low-cost airline.
Luxe: Bangkok (fourth edition) is touted as “stylish, brutally frank, and sometimes, frankly, brutal”, but the best thing about it has to be its humour and unconventional style. Read how it introduces Vientiane Kitchen at Sukhumvit Soi 36: “Isaan food hot enough to blow your bra and pants off.” (Isaan refers to north-eastern Thailand.)
And of Jim Thompson, the American who promoted Thai silk to the world: “He could still be wandering in the Cameron Highlands for all we know, poor love.”
Thompson had disappeared in the highlands in 1967, while out for a walk. His Bangkok home, now called The Jim Thompson House, is the place to check out if you’re hunting for Thai architecture and art.
No travel guide to Bangkok would be complete if it didn’t mention Chatuchak Market, which has become somewhat of an institution for those seeking bargain buys for anything under the sun. It has a mind-boggling number of shops, so if you’re shopping alone and happen to lose your bearings, Luxe’s advice is to “scream violently and run about panicking”.
This compact-sized guide (measuring 15.5x8cm) can easily be slipped into your pocket. It provides an up-to-date list of restaurants, spas and clubs, and even tells you where to go for facials and the best manicures. You can also find out the place to get specially-made Thai silk ties or boots.
One gem of a place which Luxe introduces has to be Agalico, where you can sip coffee in a beautiful garden. Yes, a serene and quiet garden actually exists in noisy and busy Bangkok. Located at Sukhumvit 51 and accessible by the skytrain, it is a fabulous place to read your book while having afternoon tea. That is, if you don’t mind paying RM8.50 for a slice of chocolate cake.
The hotels recommended by Luxe are mostly for the well-heeled, like The Peninsula and The Sukhothai. Well, it does say in its website (www.luxecityguides.com) that it chooses only the very best, so that YOU can do the same.
The guide is indeed brutally frank. It dismisses snake and crocodile farms as “tourist rubbish” and describes the Songkran Festival as a nightmare of filthy water and flour.
One news report states that it is edited by Grant Thatcher, a 41-year-old Briton who used to live in Bangkok but is now based in Hong Kong. He has local correspondents who supply him all the details. “We fly in and see them all. I guarantee, we see everything,” Thatcher reportedly said.
Luxe: Bangkok is available at Asia Books, which has 10 branches in Bangkok. At Baht275, it is rather pricey. But hey, style and glamour don’t always come cheap.
The series, which also features Hanoi, Singapore, Hong Kong & Macau, Bali, and Ho Chi Minh City, is revised every six months to ensure travellers get the latest information.
Source The Star
posted by 9T9 at
4:02 pm
<< Home