Two intricately carved, eight-foot elephants stand at the lobby entrance with floor-to- ceiling windows overlooking the river, making it a popular meeting place for local celebrities and diplomats mingling with business professional and sightseers.

The Shangri-La Bangkok offers nearly every amenity imaginable, from babysitting and concierge services, meeting facilities supported by a business center to valet parking. Modeled after a Tibetan temple, the hotel's 10,700-square-foot spa offers 40 treatments; two outdoor splash pools lie above the river and hotel gardens. Visitors can also play tennis or squash, relax in two outdoor spa tubs, or work out in the fitness center.

Visiting dignitaries, business professionals or vacationers can choose from a variety of dining experiences, from the NEXT2 Café & Terrace with river views, the Salathip, sporting three, linked Thai-style houses guarded by stone elephants, the Shang Palace with its smiling Buddha, and the Angelini, a three-level Italian restaurant with Mediterranean-style hanging gardens.

The Shangri-La's 844 guestrooms, all of which have bay windows affording sweeping river or city views, are decorated in warm earth tones and noble materials such as wood, glass and leather. Thick Asian tapestries embellish the walls, anchoring the king beds; marble bathrooms are graced with bathrobes, slippers, scales, and separate tubs and showers. Touches of technology remind guests of twenty-first-century living: large work desks with ergonomic chairs, high-speed Internet access, satellite televisions and three telephones.

With continuing consistency, the Shangri-La Hotel Bangkok simply has been considered to be one of the top hotels in this part of the world.