Guests use words like sexy, swanky, and seductive to describe this 31-story tower’s striking East-meet-West aesthetic, the work of a team of international designers including Soda Thailand and New York’s Avroko. There are original pieces by local artists throughout the hotel, like an installation of 800 blinking tuk-tuk lights in the elevator foyer, or the screens of gold metal fabric (representing the ropes of a muay Thai boxing ring) in the purple-illuminated bar. Accessed via hallways of black-mirrored glass, the 403 rooms include Wow and Extreme Wow suites, with ambient lighting and colored glass panels, black crocodile-patterned walls, and such eclectic decor as horsehair sofas, and zebra-striped coffee tables; tablet-controlled lights and temperature are a nice touch, as is the fully loaded iPod Nano. Across from the hotel’s main entrance stands a century-old mansion that was once home to the Russian embassy; when refurbishments are completed, it will house swanky bars and restaurants. Until then, guests can distract themselves with laps in the eye-shaped swimming pool or bliss out at the Away Spa, which looks like a set from the movie Solaris, with pod-like beds that seem to float in soft glowing pastel lights.
106 North Sathorn Rd., Silom; 66-2/344-4000; W Bangkok website; doubles from US$300
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