If shopping is one of your main objective of travelling to Bangkok, then you should stay in the Pratunam area of Bangkok.  Amari Watergate hotel is one of the hotels that is within walking distance to some of the best shopping areas in Pratunam – being directly across the road from Platinum Fashion Mall and located in the heart of the Pratunam all-day shopping area.

The Pratunam area has seen an influx of new hotels and guesthouses over the past year – so much so that taxi drivers (most of them non-English speaking) don’t know how to reach those hotels; but for Amari Watergate, having been around since 1994, most taxi drivers know how to get to the Amari Watergate (without even having to show them the hotel namecard with the address in Thai).

Despite being in the heart of all the shopping activity in Pratunam, you will notice that the Amari Watergate hotel does not skimp on space from the lobby to restaurant and even rooms.  The spacious Amari Watergate lobby is decked in refreshingly bright colors and decorated with various artpieces.  The lobby is also a great respite from all the shopping madness around the area – after bargaining hard and lugging heavy shopping bags all day, there is nothing better than to step into the cooling, quiet lobby for a quick rest on the comfortable sofas!

At 40 square metres, Amari Watergate’s deluxe rooms (the most basic room category) are spacious – perfect if you are on a shopping trip to Bangkok as there are lots of space to put your shopping bags around.  The room can be roughly segmented into 4 sections – the bedroom with the mini living room (with a comfortable sofa to lounge on after a long day of shopping), the walk-in wardrobe and the bathroom.

The king-sized bed was comfortable and a pillow menu was also provided – you can select from contour massage pillows to natural classic latex pillow.  Do note that your preferred pillows might not be available as the hotel has limited number of such pillows – I recommend that you call the front desk instead of housekeeping as the staff there can better understand English and thus able to assist you with such requests – other simple requests e.g. room cleaning can be made directly to the housekeeping line.

The usual personal entertainment facilities (what you would expect of any other hotels) e.g. high speed Wi-Fi, 40″ satellite LCD TV and a DVD player are also available.

The corridor from the door to the bedroom felt almost like a walk-in wardrobe.  On one side, you have a luggage rack (big enough for 2 luggages) that’s perfect for packing all the shopping at the end of the trip.  Just opposite the luggage rack, there is a wardrobe with all the necessities e.g. bathrobes, bathroom slippers; the only minus point is that the safe is too small – just adequate to keep your passports and valuables e.g. watches, jewellery but not big enough for laptops.

The Amari Watergate deluxe room’s marble bathroom is just as spacious with separate shower and bathtub facilities, separate cubicles for the toilet and double vanity sink.

The selection of breakfast items at Amari Watergate Promenade restaurant comprises Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Indian and Western cuisine and the menu refreshes daily so if you are staying for a few nights, you can expect a different breakfast daily!

Likewise, the Promenade restaurant is spacious and the breakfast buffet items span across the entire restaurant – do check out the salad bar and the pastry selections too.  The Amari Watergate Promenade restaurant staff are always eager to help and are attentive towards your needs, making this a great dining experience.

We have the city view from our Amari Watergate room where we can check out sights around us – mainly shopping malls e.g. The Platinum Fashion Mall and further afield Central World shopping centre.  This shows just how close Amari Watergate is to Platinum Mall – just across the road!  Crossing the road though requires a bit of a courage – there are no pedestrian bridge nearby; there is a pedestrian crossing but still the vehicles generally don’t stop or slow down to wait at the crossing.  So you will have to follow what others do – as they always say: there is strength in numbers – when you have a large group crossing the road, the vehicles will generally slow down (but they don’t stop! They will more likely inch towards you slowly!) and you will have to cross quickly!

The nearest BTS Skytrain station Chit Lom is approximately a 10 – 15 minute walk from the Amari Watergate. Cross Petchburi Road (in front of the Amari Watergate), proceed over the foot bridge with Central World on your right and you will come to the sky walk. Walk to the left (away from Central World) to get to the ticket machines. Walk to the right to get to Siam Paragon (about 10 minutes away).

Once you manage to get to Platinum Fashion Mall, you can proceed to indulge in shopping!  If you want to check out some affordable Thai food (and yet concerned about street food), you can check out the foodcourt at top level of Platinum Fashion Mall; for desserts, I recommend the Swensens restaurant on the ground floor – very cheap ice-cream sundaes (compared to what you are paying back in Singapore).

Pratunam one of Bangkok’s major market areas with hundreds of fashion wholesale stores; you can get good quality clothes at a very cheap price if you buy in bulk.  If you are an early bird, you can also check out the Pratunam Morning Market (open from 5am to about 9am) just a quick 6-minute walk away (near Shibuya 19 shopping centre) from Amari Watergate hotel.  You can also explore the endless small alleyways which are packed with the cheapest fashion and other souvenirs.

Just one floor up from the lobby, there are a selection of tailors you can check out.  I recommend Alex’s Fashion for their workmanship and good selection of materials; i have been tailoring my formal long-sleeved shirts and pants here for the past 2 years.  The shop is always crowded with Singaporeans – can tell from the “lahs” and “lohs” as they think about what to pick for their suits, shirts and pants.

The convenience of staying at Amari Watergate hotel is that I get to try out my tailored shirts and pants in the comfort of my own room and if my shirts require some adjusting, I can always bring it down to Alex’s Fashion anytime (as long as during office hours) to get it fixed.  If you are thinking of tailoring a shirt here, do factor in some time for the initial measurements, selection of fabrics (ideally on your first day of arrival) and also for a first fitting 2 days later and if everything goes well, that’s all you have to commit.

There are packages for different combination of shirts, pants and jackets. Check in-store for the Singaporean package or download this document for reference -> Alex’s Fashion Bangkok Tailor Price List (updated as of 16 November 2013).  Tell them you read about them from PassportChop.com too. 🙂 Don’t worry, we don’t earn any commissions from your purchase.

Amari Watergate Bangkok
847 Petchburi Road, Bangkok 10400
Tel. +66 (0) 2653 9000 Fax. +66 (0) 2653 9045
http://www.amari.com/watergate