A collaboration between The Peninsula Hong Kong and Simpson Yacht Charter has delivered a new range of land and sea packages for hotel guests.

The management of The Peninsula Bangkok luxury hotel is being challenged by its co-owners, who claim the Peninsula group has not generated any profit for the property’s shareholders in more than 20 years of operation. The iconic 370-room-and-suite riverside property is owned by an affiliate of Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited, and the Phataraprasit family, split 50/50.

Thailand’s major river, the 372-kilometre Chao Phraya, flows through Bangkok and on to the Gulf of Thailand. There will be new hotels springing up along the east bank of the river in Bangkok, namely Steigenberger, between Mandarin Oriental Bangkok and Shangri-La Bangkok and, only a little further south, Capella Bangkok and, in the same complex, Four Seasons Bangkok (all these future hotels are much more convenient than the further-out The Siam, which was so glorious in the days when it was run by the charismatic Jason Friedman).

River Café always fascinates me. It has a gorgeous outdoor terrace, ideal for watching evening processions of gaudy tourist boats, each more luridly lit than the last, serving set dinners as they ply up and down the river.