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), (8) and (9), as well as MAP, and WATCH VDO (1) and (2). 回