Bangkok Hotels in

The flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok is about two hours and 40 minutes so we weren't exactly exhausted by the time we turned up at the Peninsula Bangkok. Another chauffeur-driven limo took us from the airport to the 39-storey hotel, right on the banks of the Chao Phraya river, that was voted best hotel in the world in 2003 by Conde Nast Traveler readers.

WHEN FREQUENT FLYERS daydream, what do they imagine? Something like the week I spent in Hong Kong and Thailand recently, I'm certain. I spend a lot of time tracking the habits of business travellers. The sort of walking goldmines that hoteliers and restaurateurs find as alluring as a four per cent rise in the annual top line or a new chicken recipe. Perfect clients who eat fast, drink well and brandish corporate credit cards. So to further investigate the life of Viator comercii , I decided to travel to three of their favourite habitats - the Peninsula hotels in Hong Kong and Bangkok and Chiva Som International Health Resort.

I have a real problem with the Peninsula in Hong Kong . It spoils you for nearly every other hotel on the planet. The moment you clear customs at Hong Kong International Airport you are welcomed to the SAR (Special Autonomous Region), as the former Crown Colony is officially known, by guest relations officers immaculately dressed in black jackets and pin-striped trousers. Within minutes of entrusting them with your luggage, you are whisked away in limousines driven by equally nattily dressed chauffeurs. Once in the hotel's vaulted, marble-encrusted lobby, you are considered too fatigued to fill in your own check-in card - so another guest relations officer sweeps you up to your room and does the deed for you.

My first task after arrival was to 'road test' the Peninsula 's spa. I always worry when placing myself in the hands of Chinese professionals hell-bent on making you look better. They are brutally honest. I once accompanied a male colleague who was pretty good-looking to a Chinese tailor in Hong Kong , and the man who measured him up shouted out all his "figure faults" to the entire shop. By the time we left, he felt less like the well-set-up, 190cm blue-eyed blond with the swimmer's build that he was, and more like a clone of the Hunchback of Notre Dame. So I was enormously relieved when the Peninsula beautician pronounced my skin to be "elastic and quite radiant". God's gift to Asian facialists is their hands - light, expert and soothing. After one and a half hours, all I needed to be presentable at dinner was lipstick and lightly applied mascara.

The Peninsula 's Spring Moon restaurant plays host to a lot of catered parties. I mention this because anyone in the wine trade knows this means the liquor bills really inflate. I looked around the restaurant and two thirds of the diners looked like male business travellers. Their wives were out of sight and out of mind and they weren't driving either. A little sleuthing the next day revealed that one party of eight had quaffed $400 worth of "aperitifs" at the bar before being escorted to their table. Business was going well so the occasion called for vintage Champagne . The maitre d' wouldn't tell me what the final tab was but confided that, "For business people, it wouldn't look good if you asked for a glass of house wine". He sounded very cheerful.

The flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok is about two hours and 40 minutes so we weren't exactly exhausted by the time we turned up at the Peninsula Bangkok. Another chauffeur-driven limo took us from the airport to the 39-storey hotel, right on the banks of the Chao Phraya river, that was voted best hotel in the world in 2003 by Conde Nast Traveler readers. After depositing my belongings in a colonial-style Thai bedroom with a river view, it was time for a well-earned glass of Moet at The Bar and dinner in a teak pavilion in the Thiptara restaurant. Remember all those recommendations that beer is best with Asian food? Well, I am here to tell you that a Chateauneuf-du-Pape is just fine with a red curry.

Most of us cook Thai dishes in the comfort of our own kitchens, but if you want to move beyond the Asia-At-Home stage I'd advise you to book a cooking class in the Peninsula Bangkok's kitchen. We didn't actually sully our hands at the stove. Instead, we joined a gorgeous young Mexican woman in donning chefs' toques and aprons to watch a real chef whip up one of the finest Thai fish soups I have ever tasted, a very classy dessert that turned tapioca into a regal ingredient and a perfectly balanced green curry. To be honest, we all left with an enormous respect for the sophistication of authentic Thai cuisine, but decided that Western-style short-cuts would remain the major MO or we would have to spend up to 16 hours a day in the kitchen.

The Thai royal family spends a lot of their time at their palace in Hua Hin, about three hours' drive south of Bangkok . I mention this because the folks at Chiva Som aren't kidding when they quietly tell you their palatial health resort is the best luxury spa destination in the world. The capacious lobby, a huge expanse of marble, is grand. The splendid Thai pavilions and landscaped gardens are grand. Especially grand, and suitably vast too, is the President's Suite with its own rooftop courtyard. And then there's the beachside location, which is simply spectacular.

The name Chiva Som means Haven of Life, and the resort's aim is healing by water, which is everywhere - saunas, steam rooms, jacuzzis, cool plunge pools, waterfalls and Asia 's most up-market flotation tank. Beer and spirits are banned but thank heavens wine is considered healthy. And, believe me, there's nothing better that a glass of French, Australian or Californian wine (the three preferred destinations of origin) to make you reflect on a day well spent.

The Chiva Som well-being people, most of whom are Australian, assess your health and what you hope to achieve on your visit. Most women - like I did - want to emerge with better skin and less tension in the back and neck muscles, the price most of us pay for days spent hunched over computers. The staff outnumber guests by three to one and over two days the majority of my time was taken up by a Chiva Som detox massage, an oxygenating facial and a Thai massage. The latter is a kinder version of Swedish massage and my nuggety little masseuse (a heavily muscled 148cm dynamo) took the cricks out of every bone in my body. From 7am to 6pm , all day, every day, there are more activities to take part in than there are coriander leaves in a Thai soup. Almost everywhere you look, lithe bodies are enjoying yoga, pilates, aqua aerobics, cardio combo circuit and gyrokinesis classes.

But there's nothing boot camp about the food at Chiva Som. Sure, it's fat-free, but that doesn't hold the chefs back from working wonders. Only the desserts at the BBQ buffet at the Taste of Siam Restaurant looked like dieters' specials. Otherwise, I tucked into spring rolls, omelettes and muesli for breakfast, more Chinese and Thai soups than I have enjoyed in years and Thai curries that only slightly missed the richness of coconut milk. There's a 'mocktail' party on Friday night to 'break the ice with other guests', but at dinner afterwards it was clear we all clearly believed in the health benefits of wine with meals.