Climax, Ambassador hotel, Sukhumvit Soi 11, Bangkok
Climax is located in the basement of Ambassador hotel in the middle of Sukhumvit Soi 11. The place is known for being one of the hottest after-hours party places. Especially I am a big fan of the good vibe/atmosphere there, no matter what music they play. They often have live bands who mostly are pretty good. The place is full of freelancers but the girls are not aggressive and often look for a good time as well.
I am a frequent visitor there, the staff is very helpful too.
The place is behind Insomnia on Sukhumvit Soi 12. The place inside looks like a small gentleman club having posh interior and charging upscale G-club prices for drinks. They didn’t ask for cover charge but normal drinks cost THB 400 and a ladies drink THB 800. My schedule was pretty full that day so I left after 1 drink. Maybe I was unlucky but I just saw a handful of Eastern European girls who didn’t look that stunning to justify such show/entertainment prices.
The Russian girl you see below I met at Insomnia and the room is a short-time room on the lower Sukhumvit. The place White Lioness is mainly an entertainment place, I guess it is possible to pick up girls for take-out as well but no guarantee for that.
CM2 is an alternative freelancer choice for Eastern European girls.
Insomnia in Pattaya is already well established and among the better large discos on Walking Street. Because of their success they opened a disco in Bangkok last year as well, on Sukhumvit Soi 12.
The place is a bit smaller than in Pattaya, everything else is very similar. From my point of view it is not a place where people come for the special music, great F&B or the other friendly guests. It is so successful because they achieved to find the mainstream farangs taste who travels to Thailand for party.
They clearly have more guests than Bed Supperclub at the moment, on the opposite street on Sukhumvit Soi 11, but Bed Supperclub is more upscale and the guests most likely spend more money on their visit.
The 2 interesting things for me about Insomnia are : they are still open after official closing hours and second there are a few Russian freelancers around.
Sherbet is part of the BKcoolclub group and at the moment maybe their hottest club. I am fan of the Pent on Wireless road, but Sherbet certainly way improved in the last 2 years. Some local friends I asked confirmed that Sherbet might be one of the hottest G-clubs at the moment in Bangkok.
The location on Ekamai is good, although I prefer the Pent location more – it depends on where you stay.
I met there a person from the club who knew Chompoo with whom I organized a party at 808, 2 years ago. She called her and I had to find out that she lives/works now in Singapore.
I think Sherbet is pretty good and I will be coming back.
The Peninsula hotel always delivered for me on every stay. I had a deluxe suite again, room 3009, for which I paid something around THB 20k++ that time. I really liked it there and I consider it to be a great deal for money. The staff is incredible friendly and skilled. I can only recommend the Peninsula to everyone who wants to relax a few days in Bangkok : they have a great riverside location, stunning views over Chao Phraya river and their spa and F&B are among the very top of the city.
It is impressive how very sound-proof the rooms are, you really don’t hear anything and the rooms are bright too, a lot of light is coming in.
Still plenty of things inside of the Peninsula have an 80s charm, it is a bit out of date, but nothing is perfect.
I am glad that this place exists : the staff is perfectly organized and I always feel to be in good hands when staying there.
I am now vising Let’s Relax spas since 2005 and I am still loving them the same way. In my video guide lists many of my opinions changed over time, but the Let’s Relax spas I always had at the very top of the rankings.
I simply never saw a day spa concept again worldwide so far which I loved more than theirs. The therapists, who come from the same parent group like Rarinjinda, have the best training you could imagine. Even though some trainings of the group sometimes take part in Chiang Mai, I still very much consider Bangkok to be the very best place for spas.
Something I often recognize in Chiang Mai is that the massage is just too soft and the routine is not rigorously carried out from the beginning until the end. The friendly people in Chiang Mai might simply tolerate some more laid-back routines, the competitive situation in Bangkok does not allow such comforts that’s why I believe that the Bangkok therapists are just more focused.
The standard treatments are excellent and fair priced, especially their signatures are a fantastic deal for money. I mean check out my favorite, the Dream package for THB 700 : you get 45min foot reflexology, 30min back&shoulder massage and 15min hand reflexology. Their treatment chairs for the foot massage are the most comfortable I know of and the ambience there is simple but sufficient.
I know you can get very good 90 min Thai massages in Pattaya for only THB 100 in some streets. I actually agree that the massage experience itself sometimes really hardly differs from the super-pros but also consider the nice place and whole well-being setting. Paying around THB 1000 there for maybe 60 to 90 min is still an excellent deal for money. Most luxury hotels charge in the range of THB 4000++ for similar or more likely worse massage experiences – you just always pay for the entire overhead. Their only real advantage is the short way back to your room.
It was a big surprise for me that Let’s Relax now has a place to visit in the convenient located Terminal 21, at the heart of lower Sukhumvit. Let’s Relax really is the only place that interests me inside that whole shopping mall, but it does have a very cool airport setting idea I have to admit. The therapists of their branch at Sukhumvit Soi 39 I still consider to be the best though.
Hanako was the most positive restaurant experience of my last trip. This might be the japanese place I was searching for in Bangkok. Only the new Zuma restaurant at St. Regis could still beat them although their concept is very different and it might be hard to compare them.
Hanako is now among the 3 restaurants in Bangkok where I like to see myself more regular. The other 2 are D’sens for French and Medici or Jojo for Italian.
At the entrance you see a small Zen japanese garden. The place has different dining levels and a few private rooms like the one we had there. Check the video :
The authentic design, dark colors and dramatic ambience are really impressive. They also have a shushi bar at the bottom level which you don’t see in the video and it looks more inviting to me than the other good one from Tsu, JW Marriott.
Overall the place is fantastic, the girls loved it as well. Everything we ordered tasted great, you get very fresh fish and the best beefs aren’t even that very high priced. Ok, it is more upscale priced place but that is very much justified.
The Mei Jiang is probably one the best chinese restaurants of Bangkok. The Peninsula hotel in general is among the best in terms of culinary experiences with their F&B director Mr. Behrens taking care of that things remain as they are.
I am not an expert but the menu I chose was good, the staff was friendly and the service good. It even wasn’t really expensive considering that the restaurant is inside a top riverside luxury hotel. The restaurant gets booked well I heard, even better than their Thai restaurant Thiptara because of the high amount of chinese guests around the riverside.
Overall the restaurant is very good, but not that outstanding enough to let me go there if I would be staying far away from it. Their spa alone would certainly be enough reason to make the way/effort.
Gaggan is maybe the world’s only restaurant serving Indian molecular gastronomy, the owner calls it progressive Indian cuisine.
Sra Bua restaurant at Siam Kempinski is the only other molecular gastronomy restaurant in Bangkok so far.
Spains “El Bully” restaurant owner, Michelin star chef Ferran Adria came up with the whole idea. Gaggan had worked there as an intern.
Chef Adria did close his restaurant last year by the way and now thinks of opening a simple tapas restaurant.
Tyler has the following opinion :
“My hypothesis is that the restaurant was never intended to turn a profit, but rather it was a loss leader for book sales, endorsements, lecture fees, TV contracts, cookware lines, and so on for Ferran Adria. Even if higher prices could bring in a twenty percent rate of profit, it wouldn’t — at this point — be worth keeping the place up and running. Adria already has a reputation as the world’s greatest chef, running the world’s greatest restaurant. It’s best to quit while ahead and branch out into food-related money-making ventures.”
The restaurant looks like a traditional Thai style house, the interieur is simple decorated. Cool was to sit at this see-through glass window with a view into the kitchen. We all had the tasting menu (group of 4, THB 1600 each, including 10 courses).
The Indian person serving our table gave me this kind of friendly but sadly dishonest feeling, looking at me like as if he tried to stash out as much money from me that evening as possible. When he realized after course 3 or so that I can be a tough and unfunny game, he suddenly disappeared and someone else took over.
The dishes were tiny and what exactly reminds people there of Indian cusine ?
To sum it up : the whole experience there was mediocre and rather boring.
I share the opinion of Mr. Jakobs, St. Regis hotel, here who said to me beforehand that a good cuisine should not be influenced by trends.
And I go even further and say : I dislike molecular gastronomy – i like molecular biology !
Plaza Athenee hotel, Witthayu/Wireless road, Bangkok
This hotel got 374 rooms. I had a deluxe suite on the 28th flor, there are 29 flors. I think I paid something around THB 10k++ for the room that time, not exactly sure.
The hotel is really popular among the Thai Hi-So for wedding celebrations. During my stay there was also a big wedding going on with a few impressive cars parked outside of some Thai celebrities. The ballroom on the second flor fits almost 1000 guests and it is also popular for conferences. They established themselves well for being one of the top spots among rich Thais for weddings in Bangkok.
Staff is friendly and helpful. I had a problem with my internet connection and an IT person helped me out there, explaining me in addition some details about the hotel.
Negative is that everything looks pretty old there, the rooms are bit out of date as well. The pricing is ok, but certainly not a great deal for money. The Starwood group offers better deals for money in Bangkok. Check the video :
The location is good among many embassies on Wireless road and close to Ploenchit station.
The pool, spa and gym are ok, but not outstanding. The pool is a little better than from the Sheraton Sukhumvit but slightly worse than the one from Le Meridien, Silom.
Best reason for visiting the hotel again for me is the French restaurant Reflexions which I consider to be among the best French restaurants in town.
Overall the hotel is pretty ok, there is nothing really serious to complain about.
