mikel

Indigo Hotel on Wireless Road, has balconies, beautiful pool upstairs with bar and restaurant above, good gym. Very nice area (opposite US Ambassador’s house).
Guest friendly. Only issue is that it is 10-15mins walk to Soi 4.
I’m going to give Novotel Soi 4 a try this time. Will be interesting to compare.
 

Gaggan closed as I understand. He is doing some chef tables/stalls etc as I heard, and collaborating on something with the Suhring brothers.
Hearing a bit about something on or around Soi 15 called Varanasi (or Benaras) but not personally tried. 
Frankly it always surprised me that there is no really good Indian restaurant ( outside of Gaggan's- but that was fusion and hard to get in) in Bangkok.
Everything on Sukhumvit even between Thonglor upto Pratunam ( Siam) is passable or below
The Lebua had a good chef for inhouse dishes. UK, UAE , USA metros way ahead. 

This stopped me in my tracks at a store in Pakse.

Men having sex with men is the point of this forum. Looks like it'll be buyer beware for the foreseeable future. 

I always travel with at least three suits so this carry on nonsense sounds barbaric....

i stayed about 1 month ago and also stayed many times prior to Covid.
No change what so ever. Everything exactly the same apart from the breakfast buffet were they ask you to wear a mask (however this is still the norm in most hotels i have stayed)
That was a month ago, im not sure if that is still the requirement now.
 

Yes I stayed at Hyatt Regency Sukhumvit in July. Had stayed there back in 2019 as well.
I highly recommend it. Everything you need within a few blocks. It is on the corner of Soi 13 and less than 100 meters walk to Soi 11 and Nana BTS station just after that. Heaps of restaurants, beer bars and ofcourse Check In Bar only 280 meters walk away or short stumble back. There is an overpass over Sukhumvit which takes you straight into Hyatt Regency Level 1 but you have to go back down to Lobby to get up to the rooms.
I spent 7 nights there and did not venture more than 280 meters away  well i did get down to Nana Entertainment area too which is only 6 minutes walk.
No dramas bringing guests back to your room. No questions asked.
Buffet breakfast was very busy when i was there but still could get a table each morning. Big thumbs up for the swimming pool on level 6.
The rooftop bar Spectrum Lounge is pretty cool for expensive drinks and great view. I visited there in 2019 but not in 2022.

Nope stayed in sofitel and mer ure soi11 bothexcellent
Also spentonenight in pullman asoke wich was a bit of a deception short staff and not to the expected standards
 
 

I always travel with at least three suits so this carry on nonsense sounds barbaric....

I always travel with at least three suits so this carry on nonsense sounds barbaric....

Don't use a hard side bag as your carry-on, use a soft side bag. You are less likely to have a stuffed soft side luggage taken from you and checked at the gate for being oversized. 
That said...
Do you really want to spend several weeks in Thailand with nothing more than what you crammed into a carry-on? You may grow to hate that decision very quickly. True lost luggage is a very rare occurrence. Most "lost" luggage is actually just delayed luggage. That's a pain in the ass,  but in most cases the luggage will arrive on a later flight and be delivered to you by the airline the next day. That happened to me once on an AA flight from Narita to LAX.  American delivered the bag the next day to my house.  Besides, if your bag disappears never to be seen again, your travelers insurance will take care of replacing stuff. The airline will also have a compensation policy for vanished bags. 
If you are flying Cathay Pacific, you really shouldn't have any worries. They have had a rough couple of years due to Covid and the Chinese government's crazed handling of the Hong Kong takeover, but stellar service has always been their calling card and they likely still strive for that these days. It's what they're known for. You should be able to trust them. 

Jeez....you can also get run over crossing the road....don't over think things.....we spend days, months, years debating on LOS trips why on earth
would you want to restrict /challenge yourself over baggage.

Men having sex with men is the point of this forum. Looks like it'll be buyer beware for the foreseeable future. 

Again.
In Thailand people got vaccinated for smallpox to a much later date than in the west. Plenty of people in the scene have the vaccine scar on their arm.
Those vaccines are lifetime effective and cross protect against monkeypox. This is the current hypothesis of why some countries have almost no spread.
I can tell you with absolute certainty that this disease is not strongly underreported. Those blisters are huge, very painful and very visible. 
 
If you simply don’t have sex with anyone with blisters, your chance to get monkeypox go from absolutely neglible to theoretically possible in Thailand.
If you are still worried, get vaccinated. Several countries in the west have started vaccinating At risk groups. In France we get a lot of foreigners coming here for vaccination.

Presumably some factory owner in China thought swastikas would be a goid little earner in SEA and didn't really bother with research. Either that or maybe southern Laos is a hotspot for Nazi sympathisers.

Men having sex with men is the point of this forum. Looks like it'll be buyer beware for the foreseeable future. 

Thats just… wrong. I get the swastika has more meanings than just nazi propaganda but to exhibit it like this on a flag is just bad taste.

I lived in an apartment building on Soi 10 several winters ago about ten minutes walk from CIB and this was before CIB relocated there. The only place in that area near CIB was Lollipops. Further down the Soi, there is nothing going on and just a few small hotels and one or two restaurants near the beginning on the Soi. It’s only advantage is its proximity to the parks at end of Soi. Unfortunately, the cool venue in Chavit Park closed after Covid and it’s now slated for a large condo and commercial space, which is oh so sorely needed in Bangkok…
At least the location is discrete for punters. Unlikely, you will run into anyone you know there unless they are in the area for the same reason. 

Yes, exactly what Mikel said. The pool isn't the typical rooftop setup. Plenty of seating with lots of nooks and crannies for sitting with LBs. The rooftop restaurant also serves up a killer hamburger that rivals what Firehouse in Bangkok offers. Overall, it's a solid property and as said before it's about a 3 minute walk from CIB.
A couple of downsides: The lobby restaurant tends to get overwhelmed at breakfast. Tables don't always get cleared promptly enough and it causes customers to stand in line for 15 minutes or so waiting minutes to be seated. It's not a fun way to start the day when you have a pounding hangover from the night before and just want something to eat. 
I stayed there twice over a 10 month span. Both times the elevator music was nothing but Eric Clapton's "I Shot the Sheriff". As a bonus, they always had the volume turned up way too loud.  I have always hated that song. Hearing it in G10 elevators about eleventy billion times over 2 years was worse than waiting in line for breakfast every day. Way worse. 

Be warned the pool at G10 is essentially a large bath in the rooftop bar area. Good spot for a drink with your belle de jour.

Fly out of DM early and hire a car at CR. Easy and cheap. The roads are excellent and White Temple is well sign posted. Singha Park is ok for lunch and the Opium museum is a trek but not hard to find. You'll come back via the junction of Laos, Burma and Thailand. Plenty of good quality, cheap guesthouses and streetfood. Night markrt is ok. Up a side street, short distance from the Clocktower are two bars that have Lbs on staff. 
Midday flight gets you homw in time for fun in lower Suk 

All of the North of Thailand is worthy of a visit and time spent, a whistle stop day tour just to see a temple feels a bit rushed. Is there no opportunity in the future where you can take
a proper trip up North as it's worth it. Mongering is best spent in BKK and Pattaya but the North is often where you get to see true Thailand.