2001
It all began with the singing dancing man. Some liked him: “Nice legs, great eyes.” Some didn’t: “Why him? Ugh, those thighs!” Some loved him: “What’s his number? I’m a fan.” Some hated him: “I hate you, singing dancing man.” Like, love or hate, singing dancing man served his purpose (to get your attention), as coverboy on a four-page teaser introducing BK Magazine to Fun City.
The first proper issue of BK hit the stands March 16, 2001—30,000 copies strong. The feature story was a school-themed yearbook of characters populating our urban neighborhood. Gracing the cover were Paradorn Srichapan (Class Jock) and Tata Young (The Comeback Kid)…with a dog. Note that this was long before their short-lived romance—are we psychic? No comment. (And no comment on the dog.) Also in this issue: Samak Sundaravej was The Principal, Janista Liewchalermwong was Prom Queen, Phanthongtae Shinawatra was The Scion and Sonia Cooling was The Bad Girl.
The military look was hot back then, and we did our bit to perpetuate the trend. We did LOTS of shopping in 2001, with features on his ‘n’ hers custom suits, open-air markets and holiday shopping secrets.
While everyone else was digging in Kanchanaburi caves, we told you places to find gold nearby without a shovel: the Hard Rock Café (gold records), dessert shops (thong yib, foi thong, thong yod), movie theaters (Gold Class seats), etc. Aren’t we clever?
We also did LOTS of traveling in 2001. We foresaw China as a hot vacation destination, giving you travel features on Yunnan, Xinjiang, and Shanghai. In general we stayed fairly close to home, taking you to Phnom Penh, Dubai, Sydney, Singapore and Osaka—but also Pattaya, Kanchanaburi, Nakhon Nayok. Oh, and Vladivostok.
This was the year of the steakhouse, and New York was a prime cut above the competition. Brewpubs were also big in those days—remember Hartsmanns Dorfer and Taurus Brewhouse?
Oh, poor Ministry of Sound, we hardly knew ye! This was the year that nightlife zoning became a big issue, and, as you would expect, we had a few things to say about this. Our helpful government also made our phone numbers two digits longer. More blasts from the past? 2001 was the year of Moulin Rouge, Pearl Harbor, Jan Dara, the first Shrek and the first Legally Blonde.
2002
To celebrate our first anniversary, we ran our first Readers’ Choice Awards. Top honors went to Ministry of Sound (best new and best dance nightspot), Q Bar (best drinks), Saffron (best new restaurant), Baiyoke Sky Tower (best restaurant with a view) and Spasso (best pickup spot).
Even way before J Avenue, H1 and Playground, Thonglor was hip and happening. Filled with funky shops and cool bars like Bar Buree, this soi of sanook always had something fresh and new. Time would prove that it would only get bigger and better. It was steak and Italian in 2002, which saw the openings of places such as Papa Alfredo’s, Delicatezza, Café Buongiorno, Park Avenue and The Outback Steakhouse.
Before Astra and the new RCA, we had Ministry of Sound and this was its year. Not since the days of Taurus or The Palace had we seen anything like it in Bangkok. Too bad it couldn’t last forever. Or even a couple of years. Let’s not forget white-hot Bed Supperclub. This achingly sophisticated, too-cool venue was the most happening place to dine out and boogie the night away.
We see the early stages of mall madness with the opening of Gaysorn Plaza, which gives our Favorite Shopping Mall and our pick for worst parking place, The Emporium, some friendly competition. These two malls had a major impact on our tastes that year as we went heavy on the designer brands and luxury items.
Thai film was a featured topic as we reaped the rewards of our first homegrown B400 million epic, Suriyothai, by M.C. Chatrichalerm Yukala. We also decided to shed some light on the unsung heroes of the film industry at the time. Directors like Sua Tia (Butterfly in Grey), Pen-ek Rattanalueng (Fun Bar Karaoke and Mon Rak Transistor), Nonzee Nimitbutr (Nang Nak, OK Baytong) were featured; they talked about the struggle of making quality films in a what was a known as a “poor man’s profession.”
Don’t you just love cartoons? We re-capped the year’s highlights with hilarious drawings that poked a little fun at our PM, Viagra, nightlife zoning, designated smoking, girls going braless and Paradorn.
2003
After one year of the nightlife zoning policy, things were the same with more “surprise visits” from Interior minister Pracha Maleenont. Since night crawlers couldn’t stop their Friday night habits, new bars kept opening—do you recall the burst of Ratchada Soi 4? And the now-defunct dbl O took over Ministry of Sound.
Though it wasn’t in theaters until October, Fan Chan a.k.a. My Girl set the standard for all Thai films from 2003-2004. Fan Chan fever also brought back oldie songs (“Chatri” and “Sao Sao Sao”) and vintage fashion that year. It was also a year of huge production films: from Gangs of New York, Matrix Reloaded, Charlie’s Angels, Chicago, Hero and Hulk to LOTR The Return of The Kings. Indie films like Y Tu Mama Tambien, Blissfully Yours and Kill Bill Vol. 1 won many awards—the last one also caused an obsession with head-to-toe yellow sport suits.
After taking us high up in the sky with plenty of rooftop eateries, foodie entrepreneurs moved down to the river to bring us restaurants with the best Chao Phraya views. Good View, Khinlom Chom Sa Phan and To-Sit Pier 92 are still our favorite riverside outlets.
Girls, look at the guy by your side—does he look like someone from our funny “Evaluation of Thai Males”? One thing we know is that guys have been taking care of themselves since the Ayudhya Era—and much more these days. It went beyond skincare to cosmetics for “Real Men.”
In 2003, many mega-projects were in their infancy stage, including Siam Paragon, MRT and BMA urban planning—can you remember how hard it was to get from Lad Phrao to Hua Lamphong before the subway? And could you imagine how long it was gonna take before the opening of Siam Paragon?
When mainstream marketing strategies got old, textbook thinking got dumped. So we got to see Lukked taking a shower in the middle of traffic, a huge party of mini cars, and creepy mannequins at bus stations.
And no one could forget the grandest event of the year, the APEC summit. Many streets got a new look, there were fewer traffic jams and some other great improvements—for one week.
2004
This year we highlighted many international concerts in our BK Picks, whether it was Jay Chou, Black Eyed Peas, Linkin Park or Sting. F4 fever was in the air: The four Taiwanese boys were on everyone’s lips, their TV series Fantasy 4ever pretty much emptied the streets during hours it was broadcast and their concert in Bangkok was even bigger than Mariah’s. Hope they enjoyed their 15 minutes.
Like F4, H1 was hot, hot, hot but is now not, not, not. The Mahachon Party began with glory as well but retreated in disgrace with its failure in the election. Nong Nat’s MPEG almost got her fame and fortune—but then women’s rights activist senator Rabiabrat came along. And yet another brat son of a politician ended up on the front page of the papers.
The reality craze kicked off in 2004, with round-the-clock Academy Fantasia and The Star spawning various imitators that propelled many an unknown into stardom.
The battle between low-cost airlines resulted in lower and lower prices, but worse service. In October, we compared the airlines’ strengths and weaknesses. We also got the subway, which experienced more than a few hiccups in the early days.
2005
Big changes came in the first issue of 2005. We changed the BK logo and made the inside layout simpler, cleaner and easier-to-read. New columns included Recipe Request, First Person and Street Talk.
BK raised the topic of women, sex and love in late 2005, and this became one of the hottest—and most controversial—issues. We also launched our Sexpert column, Savage Love and the first pan-Asian sex survey—so we could find out just how kinky our readers are!
Like the airport, Siam Paragon opened “on time” though it could not be called “finished,” according to our definition of the word. Bangkok is now a battlefield of shopping malls, and we made that our cover feature in December. Before that was the opening of the unique Playground! store and J. Avenue.
Among all the sins, gluttony might have been the most prevalent last year as we covered a lot of dining venues—new ones were opening every week. The highlight was our round-up of old but nice grandfather restaurants around Yaowaraj, Phra Arthit, Tha Phrachan and even Silom. On the other hand, venues from abroad opened branches here—Wyndham Thai, Koi, Mistral, Crystal Jade and Tour de France.
The cool breeze of nightlife became hotter with the launch of the bigger, brighter, more luxurious Route 66—along with the openings of Astra, 3Some, Re-Feel, Hip Hop 2, it guaranteed a truly reborn RCA. Thonglor, Ratchada, Silom and Sukhumvit were also blessed with new bars and pubs.
Tata Young was on our first cover when she was en route to “going inter,” but in 2005, she had “already” become an international artist with more than a million copies sold. We had her as our First Person, along with Vanessa Mae, Hugo, Pen-ek, Danai Udomchoke and Sarocha Porn-udomsak in 2005.
2006
We’re weekly! They said it couldn’t be done, but we’re putting the magazine out every seven days. Highlights so far have included the results of our Sex Survey, conducted with our sister publications in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai, and an issue devoted to our favorite cutting-edge tech toys.
Everything you wanted to know about BK (but were afraid to ask)
Many people think we’re a tourist or expat magazine. In fact, 88% of our readers are Thai. More numbers: 58% are women, 80% are single, 92% are 20-39.
Though we’re based in Bangkok, BK shares content with HK (Hong Kong), I-S (Singapore) and SH (Shanghai). This gives us a bigger range of stories and columns to choose from and allows us to expand our coverage throughout the region.
We really do pay our own way. We have strict standards for food reviews, which is why they’re so popular. Unlike other publications, we won’t write a review based on a free meal organized by the restaurant. We never call ahead, we never identify ourselves (unless threatened!) and we never let someone else pay the bill. And if a venue isn’t worth your time or money, we’re not afraid to say this. Believe it or not, we feel bad for restaurants that earn only one or two stars. So if we hear a previously poor venue has turned things around, we’re happy to go back and review them again.
Rocker Gene Futon worked at BK in 2003. In the same year, one of the Sretsis sisters, Klyduan “Ib” Sukhahuta, was a member of our sales department.
In the Bangkok Yearbook feature in our inaugural issue, the Class Wit was none other than our current editor, who was then at the Bangkok Post. We described him as “Most likely to: Sell his own mother for a free wine tasting.” Guess things don’t change all that much.
Our previous editor now works for the Post. Honestly, there was no secret agreement.
You know those readership numbers that newspapers and magazines claim? We’re one of only a handful of publications that are independently audited. So when we say we have 90,000 readers, we can prove it. And this doesn’t even count the number of people who read BK online (www.asia-city.com).
Only our writers get bylines, but BK could not exist without our brilliant Art, Admin and Sales departments. There are also our distributors, who help get the magazine out. And we can’t forget our advertisers—they make it possible for BK to be free! Special thanks to our old friends: Accor Hotels, Anothai, A Garden, Bed, Chivas, Hong Kong Noodle, Heineken, Boonumsin, Tongsai Bay, Tony’s Roma, Old Map & Print, Lavazza Coffee and Starbucks. And thanks to our especially generous sponsors: Chivas, Heineken, Nokia, Shangri-La and Visa.
