FROM BANGKOK, THAILAND

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BANGKOK, July 20, 2007 -  My day started at 1:30AM again, followed by an annoying two-hour delay early this morning at the Mumbai airport.  Don't ask why... stupid reasons, not worth reliving.  But all was well and forgotten when I arrived in the Thai capital.  I felt renewed just being here again.

I can hardly believe that more than a year has gone by since my last visit to Bangkok (see Bangkok travelogue, June 2006).  The last 13 months went by like a flash.  It was great to be back though, this time to familiar surroundings...

...like these city vistas on the way from the airport.  Which, by the way, is brand new and spectacular. It is one of the most amazing airports (architecturally) I have ever seen.  It opened last September.  Must remember to take some photos on my way home.

Once at my hotel, the Lebua Tower, I was once again reminded of the outstanding Thai hospitality and matching views from my 57th floor room.  Can you beat these cityscapes?

Or the suite that you get for the price of a normal room?

Or these aerial views of the city from the bar and three restaurants on the 64th floor just as a storm was moving in? (this is the rainy season here, so you can expect showers and thunderstorms every afternoon and evening... a delight for this dried out desert rat).  :-)  The shots on the left and right in the first row, up and down the river that runs right through the city center, are all five-star hotels, like the Lebua Tower which evidently towers over them.

Now that the views from a 52nd floor Asian restaurant are too shabby, either, especially as the storm seems to have moved in quickly while I descended from the 64th to the 52nd floor.

Even the nearly Olympic size pool and the fitness center are high up in the sky, as you can see by the view across the street to the nearby office tower (left photo).  The second photo from the left is a shot straight up the hotel from the pool area on about 15th floor.  And, of course, what seals the deal is the Starbucks in the lobby which I remember from my last visit here.  I have not seen one of those since Paris, as I did not see any in Madrid or Munich, and I know that there are no Starbucks in India at all.

Up until now, the top place among the dozens of the world's top hotels at which I have stayed belonged to the Duxton in Perth, Western Australia.  No longer.  The Lebua Tower takes the cake now, at least in my books.  Everything about the place is first class - the people, the facilities, the views and the food.

After I waited out the storm to pass, I went out for a brief walk around the neighborhood.  I caught this interesting scene at the little Buddha shrine outside the hotel, a solitary man standing and praying (left photo).  Just a little ways down the street, there is another shrine... this one for the Thai beloved king, the longest ruling monarch in the world (now in the 61st year of his reign).  Coups and prime ministers come and go in this country like the summer rains, but the king's popularity is rock solid (second left).

Only a block away is a charming shopping area/pedestrian mall that I remember also visiting the last time.  It looks like "anywhere Europe," yet it is in the heart of Bangkok.

This is where I also spotted for the first time the "Melting Moments" patisserie.  This brought back fond memories of our visit to Brisbane, Australia, in Dec 2004, where we got first acquainted with a "melting moment" at a cute coffee shop.

Finally, some nighttime views of Bangkok from my room as another storm was passing through.  The air was sweet with balmy breezes and temperatures in the upper 70s (25C) as I ate my dinner outside in a poolside restaurant.

And now, here are some clearer view from my hotel room window on Saturday, July 21...

...including these zoomed close-ups of the Royal Palace (left), a sports stadium (middle) and the tallest building in Bangkok (right), a bank, of course.

And that's all she wrote from my first day in Bangkok...

TO BE CONTINUED... CLICK HERE to go to Day 2... 

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