Travelling to Bankok shortly and would appreciate some tips on Hotels and viewing facilities please.
I did read about a small viewing area at Bangkok, but it's quite difficult to locate. I seem to remember reading that the view was somewhat limited, and that it was mostly used by staff as a 'smoking area'.
There used to be a reasonable hotel about 2km north of the airport and between the parallel runways; it had a roof terrace, and the management were quite happy for you to spend time up there watching the aircraft land. There was almost no shelter up there; there was also no power (so no running a laptop); it was a 2 minute trek from the hotel to the nearest shop to stock-up on food and drinks.
You were marginally closer to the western runway; the eastern runway was further away and it was more difficult to take photos or note registrations.
(this was the "Queen's Garden Hotel")
However, that's all academic, as the hotel closed and was knocked-down about 2 years ago. For a while their web-site still existed, and would even take bookings (!), but you were transferred to a hotel called 'The Great Residence' which was 'nearby' (according to the web-site). That's being economical with the truth, it's about 3 miles away, much further to the east!. In fact, you'd have trouble taking photo's of stuff landing on the eastern runway, let alone anything on the western runway.
A quick Google found
Plane Spotting Bangkok Suvarnabhumi | Plane-Spotting-Hotels . This refers to the "Phoenix Hotel (former "Queen's Garden")". If it is the same site as the QG then it is extremely good when they are using 19L/19R. I'd need to check out it's exact location to be able to say for sure.
Update: Just checked on Google Earth, and the 'Phoenix Hotel' is not the rebuilt/renamed QGH ... they are few 100m apart. Both hotels appear to be the same height, so the views from the top/terrace should be pretty much identical.