To call from the UK, phone numbers need to be preceded by 00 66 2.
A room for the night
Budget Suk 11 Hotel, 1 Soi 11, Sukhumvit Road ( http://www.suk11.com/, double from £10, breakfast included). Soi 11 is one of the liveliest streets in Sukhumvit, and this delightful traditional wooden hotel is hidden away at the end of a leafy alleyway.
Mid-range Triple Two Silom, 222 Silom Road ( http://www.tripletwosilom.com/, double £64 including breakfast). Finally, Bangkok has a reasonably priced boutique hotel. The Triple Two Silom - perfectly located on Silom Road.
Luxury The Oriental, 48 Oriental Avenue ( http://www.mandarinoriental.com/ - doubles from £184, no breakfast). Repeatedly voted best hotel in the world, the Oriental lives up to expectations. Highlights are afternoon tea in the colonial Author's Lounge and taking a private ferry across the river to the state-of-the-art spa.
Where to eat
Splashing out Eat Me Art Restaurant, Soi Phi Phat 2, off Soi Convent, Silom (main dish £10).
Run by a genial Australian, Darren Hausler, this contemporary restaurant is the hippest place in town for a meal, combining creative fusion cuisine, extensive wine list, exhibitions by avant-garde local artists and live jazz at the weekends. .
Good value
i) Harmonique, 22 Soi 34, Charoen Krung Road, Chinatown (main dish £3). It's no easy job finding this enchanting restaurant, tucked down a backstreet in the depths of Chinatown, but the reward is to enter an antique shop-cum-art gallery-cum-cafe and gourmet Thai restaurant.
ii) Vientiane Kitchen, 8 Soi 36 Sukhumvit Road (main dish £4). This Laotian restaurant looks like an open-air barn, but don't be put off - this soi (a smaller road running off a main road) is just off busy Sukhumvit Road and the restaurant is a charming recreation of a rural Laos house.
Cheap and cheerful Rut & lek Seafood, Yaowarat, 2 Soi Texas, Yaowarat Road, Chinatown (main dish £2). This Chinese roadside restaurant is the ultimate test for the adventurous gourmet. Grab a cab and ask him to take you to Soi Texas in Chinatown - he'll know where to go.
The big night out
Bangkok is one of the world's great party cities, with venues catering for every taste, from elegant cocktail bars to cool lounges, arty cafe galleries to dance clubs, English pubs to German bierkellers. The three main nightlife areas are Banglamphu, Silom and Sukhumvit.
Start at the Banyan Tree Hotel at 21 South Sathon Road, Silom, zoom up the lift to the 61st floor and have a cocktail at Vertigo, a rooftop terrace billed as the highest open-air restaurant in the world. Great view, great music and a fashionable crowd. For cheap bars, live music and a friendly mix of local students and backpackers, head for Banglamphu. The main drag, Khao San Road (of The Beach fame), may be packed to bursting, but the best bars are on nearby Phra Arthit Road, especially Bali Bar and Hemlock, next door.
Silom Road has a lot more than just the sex clubs of Patpong, and the nearby Soi 4 has dozens of funky bars, such as Tapas Room (18 Soi 4) that turns into a dance club later. The adjacent Soi 2 is mostly gay.
Finish the night in Sukhumvit, either at Bed Supperclub (26 Soi 11, Sukhumvit Road), a surreal club that resembles a spaceship, where clients lounge on comfy beds and a DJ spins trance music, or persuade the doorman to let you in at the latest hot spot, Mystique (71/8 Soi 31, Sukhumvit Road), a three-story venue with French DJ, transvestite dancers on the bar and sharks swimming in an aquarium.
Objects of desire
If you're looking for designer labels such as Versace, Gucci and Louis Vuitton at cheaper prices than at home, join the crowds at one of the many shopping malls. The Emporium (Sukhumvit, Soi 24) and Gaysorn Plaza (Thanon Ploenchit, Chidlom) are the chicest, while Central Chidlom (Thanon Ploenchit, Chidlom) is where to find creative local Thai designers. The infamous fake designer labels are on sale everywhere, at a hundredth of the price, but be prepared for problems at UK customs if you are stopped.
If you can't make it to the Jatujak weekend market (see panel above), then don't miss the huge daily Suan Luan Lum night bazaar (corner of Witthayu and Rama IV Road, Bangkrak).
For the best Thai silk, head for the boutique at Jim Thompson's House Museum (6 soi Kasemsan 2, Thanon Rama), the fascinating home of the founder of the Thai silk industry, but far cheaper prices can be bargained at Pahurat, the Indian textile market.
The scores of tailors lining Sukhumvit Road really will run up a made-to-measure suit in 24 hours for £60, or a cotton shirt for less than a tenner (check out between sois 4-16 on Sukhumvit).
You may not find the bargain of the century on 'Amulet Lane', running down from Wat Mahathat to the river, but it is great watching devout Buddhists discussing the merits - and price - of ancient amulets and charms.
Getting around
The best choice is the Chao Phraya express boat, where a ticket costs just 15 baht (21p), there are no traffic jams and you sightsee at the same time, but the service only operates during the day. The elevated Skytrain and new Metro are fast, efficient and air-conditioned; one and three-day tourist passes are available.
Taxis are cheap and useful late at night for getting back to the hotel, though there is always the risk of getting stuck in a jam. Locals love to use motorbike taxis, which are the fastest way of seeing the city, but be prepared for a hair-raising journey.
Get out of town
Most visitors use Bangkok as a base for exploring Thailand, meaning serious excursions to tropical islands such as Koh Samui or trekking in Chiangmai. For a simple day trip, take the 70-mile journey by bus and then romantic river boat as far as the ancient capital city of Ayutthaya, a stunning World Heritage Site. River Sun Cruise operates excursions from the River City complex (266 9125; http://www.riversuncruise.com/).
Getting there
Thai Airways (0870 606 0911; http://www.thaiairways.co.uk/) flies twice-daily from Heathrow to Bangkok from £716 return, inc taxes.
Information
In the UK contact the Tourism Authority of Thailand (0870 900 2007; http://www.thaismile.co.uk/), then, while in Bangkok, the Tourist Bureau (225 7612) is very helpful.
A useful guide book is Time Out Bangkok, while Insight Bangkok is a great introduction for first-time visitors. In Bangkok, there's the English- language BK Magazine, a free listings publication that you can pick up in bars and boutiques, while the chic Lifestyle & Travel magazine has a monthly guide to the city.
