Beautiful sunsets are a sailor’s nourishment after a long day at sea, but they are even better when you can enjoy a great sunset from land. When I was sailing my schooner around the Pacific, I sailed up the Gulf of Siam from Singapore to Bangkok, stopping in Pattaya. My good friends, Connie Mangskau and her daughter Joanna Cross invited me and my crew to stay and rest for a few days at the family beach-house, just south of Pattaya. Connie would gather everyone on the balcony just before sunset and a tray of drinks would appear with the houseboy ready to mix whatever your pleasure was that evening. Watching the sun disappear in glory and magnificence, many stories were exchanged. I hold memories of those fabulous evenings fondly in my heart.

Alfredo's where we once ate is a tiny restaurant in Rome, and we would suggest anyone who wants a superb Italian meal to go there. But if you are not up to spending a pocket full of money for a round-trip air ticket, and for other expenses like hotels and taxis, we have another idea. Go down to the Shangri-La on the River of Kings, which you can reach by river taxi or Sky Train, and dine at Angelini. The food there is as great as anything you can get in Italy, and there's no air fare. And their chefs, they are always right out of Italy.

The Sala Rim Naam is The Oriental Hotel's signature Thai restaurant which has recently been transformed into a mini royal palace serving fine Thai cuisine. The new addition is the Sala Rim Naam Lounge, an open-air pavillion, adjacent to the restaurant overlooking the splendid Chao Phraya River.

Michelle and I heard about the changes and were anxious to see the results. The old Sala Rim was one of our favourite restaurants, especially when we want to impress visitors. We invited Kathy and Garry Reck to join us one evening. Kathy is Vietnamese/American and an immigration lawyer by profession. Her husband is English and a businessman working in Bangkok. As the Sala Rim is across the river from The Oriental Hotel we boarded the hotel ferry and made the ten-minute crossing. The restaurant loomed up ahead like a photo in a child's book of fairytales. But this was no fairytale. It was real, and Michele and I had a few surprises. It's not the same place we knew.

I don't know how Sid Sehgal did it, a graduate with a degree in economics from New York University, and then editor of Look East magazine in Bangkok. Not bad for a guy in his early 20's. And then what do you know! The next thing I heard, he was planning to open a restaurant. Certainly someone in his family publishing business must have told him that a degree in economics and the experience as a magazine editor don't actually qualify to run a restaurant. But then maybe they knew something the rest of us didn't. Sid went ahead and opened his restaurant and, the next thing I heard, it was a success. It seems that his mother, Asha, not only didn't discourage him but she ended up doing much of the design of the restaurant. Her touches can be seen everywhere.

It isn't good decor that makes good dining and the Prachak Restaurant on New Road in Bangkok will prove that. There's nothing fancy about the place -- no banners, no signs in English and no fancy displays to lure customers. It's only by word of mouth that you hear about the place. Once you eat there you discover why. You will want to tell everyone about your great discovery.

In a country in which about a third of the population is Chinese you know you will find good Chinese food, and Bangkok is no exception. There are many private Chinese restaurants around town, and many of the better hotels specialize in Chinese cuisine. In fact, name a five-star hotel and it's certain to have Chinese Restaurant.

One that caught my fancy when it opened in 1990 was the China House at the Oriental Hotel, located in a private house next to the hotel. The colonial-style house, in fact, was built a century ago for a wealthy Chinese merchant. It specialized in Cantonese cuisine. Michelle and I had lunch there a few times and had nothing but nice things to say about the place. And then recently, we heard the restaurant had been completely renovated. To acquaint us with the new restaurant, the Oriental's Public Relations director, Somsri Hansirisawasdi, or Susie, invited Michelle and me, along with writer Robin Dannhorn and some special guests, for lunch. One of the special guest included Ankana Kalantananda, the special guest representative who next year will have been working at the hotel for sixty years. Another guest was Porsri Luphaiboon, the previous PR director of the Oriental.

Mick Elmore is a writer and friend and he thought that readers of my BangkokRestaurant Reviews might find the below story interesting.

It's being billed as a million-baht(29,000-dollar) meal, but the organizer said there are plenty ofpeople who can afford it, and Thailand should cater to theirexpensive tastes.

In fact, 15 people have reserved plates for the Saturday dinnerand they are still taking bookings, the managing director ofChallenge Hospitality and organiser of the event, Deepak Ohri, toldDeutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Friday.

The event is about food, but the motivation is to showcaseThailand as an upmarket tourism destination, Ohri said.

Bangkok has no shortage of good Italian restaurants. In fact Italian must top the list of European restaurants in the City of Angelinos. Many are good so the competition is stiff and the standards high.

Picollo is among these top Italian restaurants offering northern Italian cuisine with a Thai flare. It's situated in its own private house on the grounds of the Royal Princess Hotel.

The restaurant came as a complete surprise to Michelle and me. We went to the Royal Princess Hotel late one afternoon to meet with its general manager, Khun Pornthep. Ours was a social visit for we knew Khun Pornthep from when he ran a five-star hotel in Phuket. It was after we were at the hotel that he asked if we would like to stay for an early dinner. "How about something Italian," he said. And like all good hoteliers, he boasted he had the best Italian chef in Bangkok. Later that evening, seated at our table, we met Chef Panij Hoglad. The first question I wanted to ask him was how you apply a Thai taste to something Italian.

When we have friends coming to Bangkok, and we want to do something special, we take them for a dinner cruise on the river. There are a dozen such boats that offer the service but we can't vouch for them all. We can tell readers, however, about two river dinner cruises that are top of the line. One is Maeyanang, run by The Oriental Hotel, and the other Horizon, run by the Shangri-La Hotel.

Two years ago The Oriental Hotel inaugurated its latest dinner cruise boat -- Maeyanang. When we asked Susie Hansirisawasdi, the Public Relations Director at The Oriental Hotel, for information about the boat and it services, she said the best way to find out was to take a cruise and she invited us for a dinner cruise. How could we refuse? Susie said we could bring another couple so we invited our son Paul and his date. We met in the lobby of The Oriental, listened to the music quartette for a few minutes -- great way to relax -- and Susie then led us to the garden facing the river for cocktails along with other guests making the cruise.

The Grappino restaurant has been operating at the Amari Watergate Hotel for nine years, and how we missed it we don't know, especially when we thought we knew all the Italian restaurants in town.