Small is Beautiful in Bangkok

Part of our "Crunchy Addresses" section we wanted to bring you out some tips (found in Time Asia Setp.11-06) about places with strong character where you can get good food and drinks - basically where you can enjoy life while you are savouring the bustling city of Bangkok.
Just as one waits ages for a bus only to have three come along at once, so Bangkok finds itself surfeited these days with boutique hotels. For many years the Thai capital was bereft of the welcome alternative these fashionable litle properties provide to the big chain hotels or the flophouses of Khao San Road (let's admit that the Buddy Lodge is a welcoming exception)- and it's still anyone's guess why so many have opened now. Perhaps the adoption of Thai style in so many boutique hotels and spas in the West has encouraged local operators to welcome long-haul visitors with the same commercially successful combination of elegantly minimalist furnishings and ethnic accents. Or maybe there's a growing realization that boutique hotels, because of their size, are viable entry level ventures in an industry that often requires daunting amounts of start-up capital. In any case, to identify the best of Bangkok's new wave of accomoation, check out the following tips or use this simple rule of thumb: if your taxi driver has heard of it, it's already passe.
- Arun Residence: Housed in a beautifully restored 80-year-old building, this riverfront property,has just 5 rooms with view on the famed Wat Arun. The action for diner time takes place at the Deck.

- The Eugenia: This 12-room, colonial-style Sukhumvit gem, doubles as an antiques repository for Taiwanese owner and Bangkok resident Eugene Yeh.

- Phranakorn Nornlen: Not so much a boutique hotel as a backpacker hostel done roght, the 50-room Phranakorn Nornlen, wins the approval of its bearded , tie-dye clientele by incorporating recycled materials in almost every aspect of the fittings.

- Luxx: This newly opened property, is the brainchild of the ex-financier Dusadee Srishevachart, who transformed a dingy, five-story shophouse off Silom Road into one of the Bangkok's hottest addresses.