Ideal Hotel to Stay in Bangkok

A friend of mine is coming over for a couple of nights stay in Bangkok to avail her free mileage. We had exchanged personal messages to find out where could they possibly stay on their short vacation. So I listed out four choices for her to stay. The easiest and most accessible hotels within the heart of the city.
1. Arnoma Hotel is 3-4 star I guess
2. Centara Grand at Central World
3. InterContinental Hotel
4. Erawan Hotel -5 star

It is convenient to book Bangkok Hotels online or anywhere else in US like New York Hotels or in Europe like Brussels Hotel.  Regarding transportation, the four hotels here that I have mentioned are either connected to the BTS Skytrain or only 5 minutes walking distance.

Here’s the tentative itinerary that I made for them.

• 1st day: (Friday)

Early morning arrival- ride a taxi going to the hotel. From Suvarnabhumi (su-wa-na-phum) Airport you can take a metered taxi on the departure area (top floor of airport). Metered taxi will cost you 400-600 Baht to Chidlom. If you take airport limousine it costs around 1,500 - 1,800 Baht.

RoE (rate of exchange) - as of  July 2008 is 1.00 USD= 33.7331THB /Thai baht

7:00 am- 8:00 Buffet breakfast
8:00 am -9:00 Prepare for Shopping walk from Arnoma to Central Chidlom using skywalk
9:00 am- 09:30 Roam around Gaysorn Plaza (there Bar Italia in the groundfloor has yummy green tea cake and more)
9:30 am- 10:30 Shopping at Central Chidlom (tea break at Angelina, 3rd floor)
detour using skywalk (take pictures of Erawan Shrine), walk straight going to Central World
10:30 am- 11:30 shopping at Central World Plaza (there’s Naraya and Jim Thompson on the 1st floor for pasalubong of Thai handmade products and Thai Silk)
11:30 am- 12:00 lunch at Central World Plaza
1:00 pm- 3:00 Siam Paragon shop or go to Ocean World on the ground floor
3:00 pm- 3:30 go back to Hotel
4:00 pm- 4:30 take picture of unique church in Holy Redeemer Church (Ruamrudee street, soi 5, Ploenchit station)
4:30 pm- 5:30 adventure in red light district in Silom Road also known as Patpong (or go straight to Baiyoke Tower 2)
5:30 pm- 5:45 travel by skytrain from Silom to Siam interchange (traffic time, better take skytrain than taxi)
5:45 pm- 9:00 sight seeing of the whole Bangkok in revolving tower of Baiyoke, 67th? floor then dinner at 66th? floor overlooking the beautiful cityscape and night sky.
9:00 pm-9:10 walk back to hotel (street vendors are all around this area) tell me if you want to buy electronic gadgets, it is around this area too but closes at 9:00. The name is Panthip Mall.

• 2nd day (Saturday)- 9:00 am- 4:00pm;

City Tour -you can approach the hotel counter for this. They might have 2-3 package to choose from. Or you can go to Chatuchak Weekend market (located in Mo Chit Station) in the morning and visit the Grand Palace in the afternoon then go back to the hotel.

4:00 pm- 5:00 pm -buy grocery/Thai foods at Big C
5:00 pm-6:00 pm; Dinner- within Chidlom area or side street in front Arnoma Hotel beside the small bridge. (depending on the weather)
6:00 pm- 6:45 pm- travel by skytrain,Chidlom to Asoke Station. Interchange in Asoke subway train going to Thailand Cultural Centre MRT station.
7:00 pm- 8:30 pm- watch Thailand Cultural show in Siam Niramit
8:30 pm-9:00 pm- back to hotel for packing of luggage
10:30pm- 11:30 Airport (check in 2 hrs before departure)