Bangkok is not a particularly photogenic city (or maybe I’m spoiled from Budapest), not unless you go up… way up…to enjoy the stunning Bangkok skyline!

Online I had read that rooftop bars are quite in vogue in Bangkok, and one of the nicest views you apparently get from the Sofitel SO Bangkok hotel on one of the corners of Lumpini Park (you might remember Lumpini Park from my first photo trip in Bangkok). You can actually see the little tower featured in that post at the right bottom corner on the picture on the left.

Mentally prepared for some steep prices for drinks we found the Sofitel and took the elevator to the top floor. The scenery that expected us there was indeed breathtaking. So were the cocktail prices: around 10 Euro for a Mojito. But we viewed it as a photo-permit-disguised-as-a-drink and happily sipped on that drink for the entire two hours or so we stayed so tha I could take the pictures seen on this page. The majority of the guests that night were photographers who had the same idea I had and I happily shared my tripod with a photographer from Italy who kept struggling with his flimsy light-weight tripod.

From this perspective, the skyline of Bangkok with Lumpini Park reminded me a bit of Manhattan and the Central Park.

Neither the sunsets nor the sunrises in Bangkok turned out particularly dramatic during my stay, but your mileage might vary at other times of the year. I for my part had to boost them a bit with Lightroom.