Channel Your Inner Tom Cruise To Walk On This Glass Floor 310m Above The Ground

On the first floor, after you’ve got the tickets and gone through a security screening, make your way down the Bangkok-themed Digital Corridor. Looking like something straight out of The Matrix, the video walls bombard us with iconic images of Thailand.

And if you look up at the ceiling, it’s an inverted 3D street model of Bangkok. While we’re waiting for the elevator, stirring music from The Avengers and Ant-Man is piped into the hallway. Great mood setter and a not-very-subtle-nod to King Power Mahanakhon being — wait for it — a marvel of ingenuity. Geddit? We clever, right?

The 50-sec (yes, under a minute) elevator ride takes you to the Indoor Observation Deck on the 74th floor. If you’re an acrophobe, your journey ends here.

On this expansive and air-conditioned level, you have a 360-degree panoramic view of Bangkok and explore the surrounding buildings with binoculars, interactive touch screens, and an augmented reality app. Oh yeah, you can also send postcards from a vintage mailbox.

If staying indoors and mailing postcards aren’t your thing (too touristy, perhaps?), then skip the foreplay and proceed to the 75th floor. There, use either the glass elevator or the stairs to get to the rooftop area on the 78th floor.

Plan your rooftop rendezvous because timing is everything. There’s no shade up there so if you turn up, say, around noon, you better be properly hydrated and covered with sunscreen lotion. We arrive at about 4.30pm — it isn’t too hot and the slightly haze-shrouded skyline is still visible.

Order a round of drinks at the rooftop bar and hang around at The Peak — the highest viewpoint (314m) in Bangkok. Trust us, you'll need some liquid courage for a later activity.

Hang around The Peak till sunset and then soak in the breathtaking night view. But before it gets dark, you need to do this…

This is it. The centrepiece. The main event. The raison d'etre we flew 2,000km for: to walk on a 63-sq metre cantilevered see-through platform called the Glass Tray. Do you dare to step on this transparent plank?

Honestly, we're a little hesitant to try it. Then again, we didn’t come all the way here and not do it. Time to be brave even if our head keeps replaying that scene in Jurassic Park: The Lost World (you know the one I’m talking about).

One second we're weighing the pros and cons, the next we're already standing smack in the middle of the tray. We shudder to think that only a few layers of glass separate us and the laws of gravity. Let's not go there.

We originally planned to capture the vertigo-inducing experience of standing on the transparent floor with a nerve-wracking POV shot looking down. Alas, for safety reasons, cameras are disallowed on the platform.

The organisers don’t want visitors to drop their phones while taking selfies and leave a scratch. So unless you have a pair of spy camera glasses (shoot, should’ve thought of that earlier), photos can only be taken from the edge of the tray.

You have to put shoe covers over your footwear before stepping in. It’s unglamorous, but that’s the rule. (That’s yours truly having a moment — calm on the outside but scared s***less inside ) And when you're done, take the elevator on the 74th floor to the fourth level where you embark on a duty-free shopping spree (four floors!). Mission accomplished.

King Power Mahanakhon is at 114 Narathiwas Ratchanakarin Road, Silom, Bangrak. To get there, take the BTS Skytrain and alight at the Chong Nonsi station, Exit 3. It’s opened daily, 10am-12mn; last admission is 11pm.

Entry fee to the 74th floor indoor observatory is THB850 (SGD36.60) for adults and THB250 (SGD10.60) for children under 12 and senior citizens over 60.

Free admission for children under three. Access to the 78th floor rooftop will cost an extra THB200 (SGD8.50). For more info, visit King Power Mahanakhon’s Facebook page or KingPowerMahanakhon.co.th.