Baiyoke (ใบหยก)
Thai. ‘Blade of Jade’. Name for two high-rise buildings in
Bangkok, separately known as Baiyoke I and Baiyoke II and of which the latter until April 2016 was Thailand's
tallest tower, generally referred to as the Baiyoke Sky Tower II or Baiyoke
Sky Hotel (fig.).
At its official
opening in 1999 the tower's hotel claimed to be the highest in the world.
The
building stands 309 meters tall and its piling
runs 65 meters deep underground, i.e. about the height of a 22 storey
building. It has a Sky Walk revolving roof deck on the 84th top
floor that offers a panorama of the city (fig.).
There are altogether 2,060 steps from the bottom to the top, which
take a healthy person about one hour to climb and contests have at times been organized in which participants try to run up the stairs as fast as possible. Of course there are
lifts as well and the outer one, going up and down in a shaft of which one side is with glass window panels to allow visitors to experience the lift somewhat more involved and exiting, takes about one minute to reach the 77th
floor observation deck. The area inside the building totals 179,400
m², or about 30 football fields, and a total of 1,740
windowpanes have been used. The hotel offers several sky view
restaurants (fig.). In 2016, the Baiyoke Sky Tower lost its position as the
highest building of the nation to the 314 meter high
Maha Nakhon Skyscraper (fig.).
See also TRAVEL PICTURES (1),
(2),
(3),
(4),
(5),
(6),
(7)
and
(8),
as well as
MAP,
and
WATCH VDO.
回
|