And at this stage in its evolution, it's one of Bangkok's most popular tourist sights. Although the degrading live shows still go on upstairs, at ground level, stall-keepers hawking fake watches and bags to the most demure of package tourists are now taking over.Where are the locals going that tourists don't know about?The house of the late Mr Kukrit Pramoj, recently opened to the public. It is less of a museum than a pilgrimage shrine to the "Grand Guru of Suan Plu" - prolific writer, philosopher, actor, occasional prime minister, Thai classical dancer and gardener, who endowed this sizable plot of land with statuary, bonsai trees and beautiful lily ponds.Where are the chic people doing their shopping?Some sashay along to buy big international names at malls such as the Siam Discovery Center, but the smart money heads next door for the hippest Thai labels such as Greyhound in the Siam Center. Queuing up across the road in the warren-like alleys of Siam Square are the stalls of up and coming designers, along with grungy students' favourites.Where's the trendy place to escape for the weekend?Not in Thailand at all, but across the border to Cambodia and the magnificent temples of Angkor Wat - especially as daily direct flights to Siem Reap mean you don't have to endure the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.* Paul Gray is co-author of the "Rough Guide to Thailand" and the "Rough Guide to Bangkok".. The world's first 1,000-room designer hotel has just opened in New York. Naturally, it's an Ian Schrager/Philippe Starck collaboration - a complete in-your-face design experience, more stage-set than hotel. In the public areas, translucent floors, illuminated from beneath, are dotted with logs that sprout not branches but Regency-style backrests.

The world's first 1,000-room designer hotel has just opened in New York. Naturally, it's an Ian Schrager/Philippe Starck collaboration - a complete in-your-face design experience, more stage-set than hotel. In the public areas, translucent floors, illuminated from beneath, are dotted with logs that sprout not branches but Regency-style backrests. As has become the norm with designer hotels, The Hudson, on West 58th Street (between 8th and 9th), doesn't so much announce itself to the world at street level as simply assume its rightful place. There is no name in sight - in fact, no lettering at all, only a small torch bearing what I presume is Starck's idea of an eternal flame, plus the usual smattering of pretty male models trying to act like doormen - the gist being, if you don't know what happens inside you shouldn't be here.Schrager, of course, brought us the first "designer" hotel, Morgans, which is also in New York and opened in 1984. Since then, and along with Philippe Starck as his "designer-in-chief", he has created a string of hotels in the US and, more recently, opened the St Martin's Lane and Sanderson hotels in London. In fact, he's developed the concept of the designer hotel into a multi-billion-dollar business, spawning hundreds of imitators worldwide.

Even India got its first designer hotel earlier this year, The Manor in New Delhi.However, ascending one of The Hudson's entrance escalators two floors through a sea of yellow light and into the lobby with its chunky mock-Bavarian reception desk (staffed by more model-types), I got the distinct impression despite the novelty, I had somehow seen it all before. In a way, design hotels have become so homogenised in their desire to shock and not conform that they have become strangely tame and more than a little tired.And if you are feeling tired, they are about the last places you would want to check into. The Hudson's standard rooms, for example, are tiny cells, just fitting a queen-sized bed, an emaciated desk, a shower and a mini-window They are also potentially very expensive. The Hudson might be offering introductory rooms for $95 (£67) a night, but the Paramount (another Schrager New York hotel), which has rooms roughly the same size, is charging $420 a night.Perhaps this is why there appears to be something of a movement away from "hip hotels" (to use the weasel words of the best-selling book's title) - even among their core clients who invariably come from the fashion, movie, media and music-based industries.

There is a feeling that the sheer ubiquity of designer hotels means they can no longer be élite or cool. "They try too hard," says LA-based film producer Hooman Majd "They are all style and virtually no substance I don't want to be an actor on a set I want genuine hospitality. And hospitality seems to have been eradicated from these hotels." A former regular at the Royalton in New York and The Halkin in London, he also says he's sick of paying $400 a night for a room that's so small breakfast has to be left on the bed.International entertainment lawyer Andrew Lewis, who used to stay at the Metropolitan in London and the Royalton in New York, says he can no longer tolerate hotel staff who are "up themselves", or the total "minginess" of designer hotel bedrooms. He also hates the fact that staying in places such as the Metropolitan means that you can't even get a drink at the in-house bar because they are too crowded. "The fuss I used to encounter at the Met Bar was beyond belief," he says. "If it really was a 'scene' it might have been quite attractive, but, from what I saw, it was usually a load of ad executives getting smashed."When in London, Hooman Majd now stays at The Connaught, a 100-year-old establishment that has a client list like a "who's who" of European royalty and is full of mahogany and plush curtains."It has a great sense of time and place," he says, "and I like being called 'sir' by a guy in tails The staff know they are there to serve The hotel knows it's a hotel. For the amount of money one spends in these places it is nice to feel you get something special and that you are not just a part of the scenery.

Although I actually spend less at The Connaught than I ever did at the Halkin anyway - it's a terrific deal."Andrew Lewis has also switched to ultra-posh, traditional hotels. When he's in LA he now stays at The Regent Beverly Wilshire and when in New York at The Carlyle "I love the space they give you," he says. "Even the baths are huge." James Sherwin, general manager of The Carlyle, claims his 70-year-old hotel, located on the Upper East Side, has always been "hip" among top celebrities and fashion industry personnel - not that he would dream of naming anyone "Our business is based on discretion. It attracts people who lead very high-profile lives but who are desperate to lead low ones." However, he does say that he's noticed a number of new and predominantly young people checking in, and some others returning, as he wryly puts it, "from sojourns downtown".Whether The Hudson becomes a white elephant remains to be seen; no one from the hotel was willing to tell me how popular the project is proving to be - though, had I wanted, I could have booked a room there for next week.