How Hip is your Hood?
The definitive guide to what everyone thinks about where you live. Illustration by Jatuphorn Yamprasert and Varunthorn Uraroongroj
8 years ago
See also: BK's dynamic neighborhood guides
Click to enlarge
Thonburi 
Oh dear. Your hood is so unhip that we don’t even know what’s in it. For a time we thought Jam Factory was finally making Thonburi the cool Bangkok riverside equivalent of London’s Bankside. Then we looked it up on a map—that place isn’t even in Thonburi!
Charoenkrung 
There’s more to Bangkok’s historic heart than museums, temples and wrinkly poor people. We say you’ve got a couple more years tops of cheap rent, sipping illegal craft beers on shop-house rooftops and partying at bohemian art galleries before the gentrification is complete.
Upper Sathorn
Forget anything east of Naradhiwas Road. Sathorn Soi 10-12 has it all: a Rocket Coffeebar, a Crossfit gym and, round the corner, even a Dean and DeLuca (breakfast), Joel Robuchon (dinner) and Maggie Choo’s (drinks). This is hip from a very moneyed perspective.
Ari
Oh, to cycle your drop-handlebar single-speed through leafy sois before stopping for a slow-drip and a browse of Kinfolk. These streets lined with food trucks, coffee shops and fusion Japanese- slash-Italian-restaurants are made for you. Buy in now before everything gets turned into a condo.
Lad Phrao
Long the home of banished expats who can no longer afford Silom or Sukhumvit. We know it best as that area where our friend got his camera stolen, our sister lost her phone and our co-worker was mugged. At least Lad Phrao is never far from anyone’s mind thanks to the true crime stories on our Facebook feed.
Thonglor
Keep it between sois 10-20 and you’ll be in bourgeois Bangkok heaven: trustfund babies parking Porsches outside nightclubs and fashion-savvy moms with French bulldogs and Birkins. None of that makes it hip, of course, but the many vintage shops and only Casa Lapin we actually like do.
Lower Sathorn
Ayyyyye. Yes, the rent’s cheap for somewhere so close to Lumphini Park. But it’s cheap for a reason. And that reason comes in a singlet top, strappy sandals, and holding the hand of a moneyboy. At least Soi Suan Phlu (Smalls, Kom-Ba-Wa) is just around the corner.
Phloen Chit
Living the high life you gotta expect to pay high rent. And forget street food, the only Thai food you’ll find around here comes made with ingredients flown in from Japan. Never mind, a stiff drink at Hyde & Seek and an afternoon shop (all to yourself) at Central Embassy will take your mind off the fact your super-expensive downtown pad isn’t actually all that hip.
Ekkamai
By day you’ve got artisanal brownies and Aeropress coffee, by night it’s your pick of the city’s nightlife (hidden hipster cocktails or late-night dive bar, all choices eventually leading to Tul Apartmentkhunpa). Some people say there’s more to life, but we’re not convinced.
Rattanakosin
The National Gallery, RCAC, hip hostels, coffee shops, small music venues—you sacrificed the convenience of mass public transport to enjoy all this. There’s even a bike lane and the occasional flea market at Museum Siam. Stay away from Khaosan and you’re area has some serious cred.
Nana-Asoke
Congratulations, you managed to pick the least-cool yet most-expensive place in the whole of Bangkok. Arguments over what sport to watch in the British pub, pool tournaments with bar girls and plenty of short-time hotel rooms—a Monocle City Survey winner this ain’t.
Phaya Thai
You really wanted to live in Ari, but you’re stuck somewhere between Victory Monument (a giant parking lot for minivans) and Ratchatewi (a place frequented by tourists on their way to Pantip and underage drinkers at Coco Walk). Cheaper, less pretentious, three stations closer to Siam (not to mention right by the Airport Link) and with a proper park on Soi Rangnam, Phaya Thai is actually better than Ari in some ways, but not nearly as hip.
Phra Khanong
Give up the lie: you don’t live in Ekkamai. You live in Ekkamai’s gray, unloved, try-hard cousin. GOJA and a community mall that pretends to be an art gallery are not enough to make this the Ari of East Bangkok.
On Nut
You don’t live in On Nut because you want to. You live there because it’s cheap. At least you have the BTS to carry you swiftly to other ’hoods.
Phrom Phong
Hip, but it’ll cost you. Hi-so 20-somethings, Japanese families and perpetually bar-bound British expats all coexist in relative harmony. What the area lacks in tradition, it makes up for with hipsters working on their Apple laptop, yo-pros get their morning drip coffee, and Japanese housewives doing their weekly groceries.
Udomsuk
Nothing to see here.
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