Bangkok Thermometer: What's hot in the city right now
We have a 48-hour attention span, which makes us perfectly suited to track (and back-track on) the latest trends sweeping Bangkok.
8 years ago
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December 23
Hot: Nannying
Not: Free speech
It’s pretty much one year since the junta first muted its plans for a single-gateway internet after a tribe of low-cost hackers brought down government mainframe with the F5 key. But just like herpes, it’s now back with avengence. Thanks to a 167 to 0 NLA vote in favor of a law that paves the way for the single gateway, expect 2017 in Thailand to look a lot more like Big Brother.
Hot: Chao Phraya dinner cruises
Not: Chao Phraya disco cruises
Paying over the odds for a crappy buffet on a river-going version of a hotel basement nightclub has never really appealed to us. Hence why we’ve always been down on the idea of Chao Phraya River cruises. Thanks to Supanniga, though, we’re willing to eat our words—as well as their delicious moo cha muang on a boat decked out like a chic Thonglor tapas spot (see page 22). Shame the other passing river discos have to ruin the atmos’.
Hot: Fishing off Africa
Not: Fishing off Thailand
Sticking to the newly tightened fishing regulations on ethical labor was just too much to ask of Thailand’s fishing trawler companies. Instead, they’ve been shipping out to more remote waters—away from the prying eyes of regulators.Greenpeace was watching though, and just released a damning new report.
Hot: 2017
Not: 2016
What did 2016 give to anybody? Another year of military rule, some cheese tarts and a new frying pan at BBQ Plaza (see page 8). For a glimpse at what the New Year has in store for Bangkok, make sure you pick up the next issue of BK on Jan 6, when we’ll be giving you a full lowdown on the city’s biggest upcoming projects. See you in two weeks!
Decmeber 16
Hot: Objectivity
Not: Subjectivity
Last year, France stood up to World’s 50 Best Restaurants (the yearly list which tends not to favor French restaurants) with La Liste: 1,000 restaurants picked by a computer algorithm to be completely impartial. And this year it’s back with an equally confusing list of restaurants from Thailand that made the cut. Right up there with Le Normandie and Nahm is a place on Samui called Ocean 11 and somewhere else called Breeze. What is Breeze? A quick Google search reveals it could be a detergent, a spa, or a restaurant at Lebua State Tower.
Hot: Actual travel
Not: Photoshop travel
A traveler to Doi Inthanon became public enemy number one recently when she stood on an out-of-bounds fence. But at least she actually went there. Another blogger who calls herself ticha_ek and won a contract with Emirates for her jet-setting Instagram was caught photoshopping herself into photos and pounced on by the internet. She no longer works for Emirates.
Hot: Inequality
Not: Wealth distribution
The only two places on earth more unequal than Thailand, according to Credit Suisse’s Global Wealth Report 2016, are Russia and India. If the thought of that makes you want to emigrate, you have a choice between 193 countries where you stand to gain a better slice of the GDP than here.
Hot: Festivals
Not: Beer gardens
Better late than never. Despite this year’s December being an out-of-town festival wilderness, news is quickly rolling in that Jan-Feb will have us more than covered in places to go exercise our inner hippie, starting this Jan 14 with Keep on the Grass. And this year they’re even loosening the rules: we still have to be quiet during the songs but can clap politely after.
December 9
Hot: Nostalgia
Not: Now
If you’re too old/out of touch/poor to enjoy music like Snakeships at places like Beam, then head over to Whiteline this Friday. Note Dudesweet will be there, confiscating people’s smartphones and taking them back to a simpler time for his latest bash, Dudesweet Party of 1999. If that’s not enough to convince you, they’ll also have a live band playing Spice Girls. See page 30.
Credit: Left: Hennem08/ Right: Sry85
Hot: 5-star hotels
Not: Rama 3
There’s a whole wave of luxe new hotels about to hit Bangkok. While most have chosen sexy, prime downtown locations (Park Hyatt, Phloen Chit; Waldorf Astoria, Ratchadamri; The Edition, Chong Nonsi) London-born hotel group Langham is set to bring a taste of the high life to Rama 3—about four clicks from the nearest BTS station, or anything, for that matter.
Hot: Video
Not: Print
With only a few weeks left to go, 2016 is making sure it will really be remembered as the year print died in Thailand. Amarin Printing (Baan Lae Suan, Praew and many more) just opened its capital to Vadhanabhakdi Co., the company of billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi (Chang Beer, Mekhong). That’s a fancy way of saying he’s bailing them out of bankruptcy, although the fresh influx of capital is meant to allow for a pivot to video. Baan Muang wasn’t so lucky. After 44 years in operation, the daily newspaper has called it quits.
Hot: Butoh
Not: Swing
Butoh’s back! Thanks to the International Butoh Festival Thailand, we once more have an excuse to run pictures of sinewy people in a silver-tinted world of uncomfortable postures—something there’ll be a lot of from now through to Dec 18 at BACC. Swing dancing, meanwhile, takes a back seat till the massive Swing Dancing at Phra Pathom Chedi event, which isn’t till Feb 2017.
December 2
Hot: One-stop service
Not: Single gateway
What sounds like a place to get your car washed and pick up a pack of smokes is actually the government’s latest plan to make the Computer Crimes Act even more archaic. The “service” being offered is to restrict what you can view online, and the “one stop” is the military government, who’ll choose what you can and can’t see based on what they deem “a threat to public order” or “against good morals.” Expect it to be debated in a parliament near you this month.
Hot: Glamping
Not: Airbnb
Hay bales, fairy lights, breton stripe and scatter cushions are the order of the day for any winter 2016/17 camping excursion. Mae Rim’s new Camp Chiang Mai offers the full Wonderfruit glamping experience minus the thumping electro and comedowns, while Rustic Camping in Kabinburi ensures the hangover remains thanks to free-flow beer incorporated in the nightly rate. See page 9.
Hot: Poke
Not: Ceviche
In 2017, we’re told, bowls of raw fish cubes should come from Hawaii, not Peru, and be dressed in soy sauce rather than lime juice. Until recently, Bangkok’s been having a pretty hard time wrapping its head around this, but then along came Shari Shari, where they’ll now sell you an authentically inauthentic Californian-style bowl of the Hawaiian food trend—which is the type you’re supposed to be eating right now. Confused? See goo.gL/oZamu2.
Hot: Siam
Not: Phrom Phong
The EmQuartier’s spiralling corridors of fish-shaped croissants and fried chicken the size of your head have had their moment in the sun. We ate, we regretted, and now we’re all heading back to Paragon, where the ground floor has recently been attracting all the hottest foodie names: Milch (cheese tarts), Pablo (cheese tarts), and MX Cakes (more cheese tarts). We’re beginning to see a trend here.
October 14
Hot: Stealing sidewalks
Not: Stealing dogs
After much talk and zero action, something has finally happened in the ongoing drama about Bangkok’s street vendors: they’ve been cleared out. Or at least from a few key areas like Siam, Silom and Sukhumvit, and it’s kind of hard not to miss them already. Meanwhile the streets of Thonglor have lost their own landmark: Little Beast’s bronze mascot Tumae, who was pinched by thieves last week.
Hot: Polka-dot drinks
Not: Sharing
Nahim cafe opened last year and stunned us all with polka-dot milkshakes. Someone at Dean & DeLuca was watching, and messaged the owner asking how she made those perfect white dots. Imagine her shock then when polka-dot milkshakes turned up on the menu at Dean & DeLuca, complete with perfectly circular spots. Social media outrage ensued, and soon the whole city knew her secret: they’re only marshmallows.
Hot: Wrongful accusations
Not: Sympathy
Last month, a teacher was wrongfully accused of hitting a student on purpose when he on-purpose threw a mug at his class. This month, a certain tubby deputy prime minister was wrongfully accused of eating caviar on a B20 million flight when all he had was rice and noodles. We’d spare them some of our sympathies if we weren’t all being used by the two young hilltribe girls accused by a tourist of running a watch-thieving racket.
Hot: Morrissey
Not: Queen
Psst… don’t tell the cool kids at Have You Heard? we said this, but Queen with Adam Lambert was pretty awesome. There were comfy seats. We knew the songs. No one spilled beer on us. But that kind of chat just doesn’t fly in the circles we roll in, so the only thing you read here is that Morrissey is great and we can’t wait. Yayyy :/
October 7
Hot: A Day
Not: Ploykampetch
For over two decades, Ploykampetch provided our moms with something to read at the salon. All that changed last week with the news that the longstanding society mag is the latest victim of Bangkok’s dying print industry. But it’s not all bad news. A Day Bulletin announced that it would be publishing every three days rather than once a week. Which sounds great until you learn it’s to cover the ass of another flatlining magazine from the same group—Life.
Hot: Flag Day
Not: Work
Thailand has 22 national holidays each year, and that’s just not good enough. Step forward Flag Day, which is here to save September from the day-off wilderness it’s been till now. The new Sep 28 holiday celebrates the day in 1917 when King Rama VI issued the design of today’s five-striped national flag. It also marks the day on Sep 28, 2016, when for the first time someone made it official what color those stripes should be. Seriously.
Hot: Anything but dreamwave
Not: Dreamwave
Have you grown tired of listening to bands called stuff like Jelly Wave and Naptime Twins pipe stretched-out melodies from retro synthesizers? You’re not alone. But since even people in the industry can’t tell us what happens to Thai indie music next (see page 6), you won’t hear it from us. Till something else does happen, go watch Paradise Bangkok International Molam Band at Boiler Room here: goo.gl/8UpNZt.
Hot: Tourism
Not: Conservation
Back in May, the Department of National Parks announced it would close 14 dive sites indefinitely to recover from the effects of tourism. The announcement conveniently fell at the time of year when dive sites across the country close for monsoon season. Now though the monsoon season’s nearly over, and guess what? All 14 are open for business along with every other dive site as of Oct 15. To hear what is being done to save our marine environments, read the interview on this page.
September 30
Hot: Free nibbles
Not: Barrel aging
Well, that spread pretty quickly, didn’t it? From Vesper in 2014 to now literally dozens of places in town where you can get a negroni that’s been left to stew in an old wooden barrel, we officially declare barrel-aging not hot (though admittedly still delicious). Now it’s time to get onboard with the next hot cocktail trend: drinks that come with dessert on the side (see Bronx Liquid Parlour). The sooner this one spreads the better!
Hot: British Chinese
Not: Brooklyn Chinese
If you’ve ever had British Chinese food, you’ll know it’s really not something that the rest of the world needs to know about. But if you are British and therefore blessed with a palate numbed to the saccharine violence of sweet and sour chicken balls, we thoroughly recommend you head over to Golden Bowl—this is Chinese food blissfully free from the influence of David Chang and his bao.
Hot: Ogres
Not: Dreadlocks
Never mind Marc Jacobs and his dreadlock-wearing runway models. Bangkok’s been suffering its own war about cultural appropriation. Mythical dancing ogres, according to Ladda Tangsupachai, a former director of the Culture Surveillance Bureau, are not for promoting domestic tourism through go-kart rides and selfies (see bit.ly/2cR1z3H). This is the case of a cheesy video made for the TAT depicting Ramayana characters frolicking around the country—a slap in the face for culture, no question, but not for the reasons Ladda is moaning about.
Hot: Bangkok
Not: London
If the news Bangkok now has British-Chinese food (see above) wasn’t already enough to make you never want to visit London again, now hear this: for the first time ever, we just beat England’s capital to becoming the world’s most popular travel destination, according to MasterCard’s yearly survey. Which goes to prove that military dictatorships just work.
September 23
Hot: Thai directors
Not: Hollywood
Bangkok directors have a ton of films coming up at indie film festivals. As we write, Bangkok Post film critic Kong Rithdee is touting his screenwriting debut with director Pimpaka Towira in Toronto, while renowned literary bigwig Prabda Yoon’s first foray into film, Motel Mist, is also set for release at the end of the year. Until then, take yourself down to Bangkok Screening Room, which just opened, and save yourself from the rest of the dross that’s in the cinema.
Hot: Courtesy
Not: Action
The National Anti-Corruption Commission has written a letter to Bangkok’s chief of police asking nicely if officers involved in the Red Bull heir case could go see them and answer some questions. They have until Oct 3 to take up the NACC’s offer at a time of their leisure. Meanwhile over at the BMA, architects involved in the riverside Norman Foster rip-off scandal will receive no action and their work’s only being scrapped to shut us lot up. How nice.
Hot: Hong Kong
Not: Brooklyn
The new SNP is a retro hipster restaurant by S&P. It could well herald a new wave of diner chic, replacing the ubiquitous white tiles of Brooklyn with the terrazo favored by Chinese diners from Hong Kong to Siam (remember New Light?). We wonder for how long SNP Headquarter will resist the urge to have “table tents,” those obnoxious promos that S&P has turned into veritable libraries of various cards, menus and flyers that sit on every table. Right now it’s just a wonderfully minimal number.
Hot: Classicism
Not: Hype
If you were going to launch some new ministry of high-tech stuff, you’d probably go down the obvious path of designing its logo with some ‘80s sci-fi font (think Tron). Not our government! In keeping with other governmental agencies’ unique visual identity, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society’s new emblem is a Buddha-shaped Wi-Fi router, the holy man’s finger acting as an antenna. Internet outrage followed its unveiling, but we love it.
September 16
Hot: Gold Line
Not: Purple Line
Even a 50-percent fare discount hasn’t been able to coax passengers onto the BTS Purple Line—maybe something to do with it alighting in an area no one needs to go, 1km from the next nearest metro stop. And now, news has broken of another line slated to start running in 2018. Don’t get too excited, though. The Gold Line will initially only ferry people from Thonburi station to Taksin hospital, which is less than 2km.
Hot: Graab
Not: Grab
Two recent prostration-based scandals—an Air Asia hostess who looked at someone the wrong way and a student who dared claim she had an allergy—underscored a shift in Bangkokian attitudes. The internets were largely outraged by the outdated practice. As for Grab Bike? Well they now have to contend with a new competitor: Banana Bike.
Hot: Timing
Not: Innovation
That’s it. We’re all switching to bluetooth headsets. Yes, they’ve been around since forever but Apple just made it official, cables are dead. Since the first iPhone’s white earphones became the ultimate status symbol on the BTS, there hasn’t been something quite like it to express one’s socio-economic background on the go. Apple’s new wireless headphones will finally restore a bit of caste system to our daily commute.
Hot: Food festivals
Not: Food markets
Forget winter markets; food festival season is a thing and it starts next month. Courageous Bangkok, Big Food, Bangkok Gourmet Festival, Eat Drink Pink and So Amazing Chefs all kick off in October and November. Courageous Kitchen, for one, features some of Bangkok’s bona-fide best restaurants—Gaggan, Bunker, Bo.lan, you name it. Always been put off by those B4,000 tasting menus? Now’s your chance (and for charity, too). See our full roundup here.
September 9
Hot: Toad
Not: Fugu
Could toad be the new fugu fish? The notoriously deadly Japanese delicacy for which diners will pay ¥20,000 (B6,600) has found a rival in the bloated amphibian. Following the deaths of two men in Nan, Thailand’s Disease Control Department put out a memo warning everyone that eating toad has the very real possibility of killing you. Good news for Thailand, then, as locally foraged food can be had a 1,000th of the price of Japanese sushi.
Hot: Drugs
Not: Populists
Well this is a bit confusing for us dyed-in-the-wool liberals. Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte is awash in the blood of alleged drug dealers, just like our own democratically-elected populist, Thaksin, was before him. Meanwhile, our military junta is relaxing legislation for drugs like marijuana, yaba and kratom. Less democracy means better drug policies?
Hot: Rubber
Not: Octopus
Rubber Land is a new theme park in Pattaya where kids can go bounce off rubber walls, stick to rubber slides and try on giant rubber flip-flops. It’s all a wonderful mind spin to think that anyone ever came up with the idea, let alone spent B300 million making it. It also sounds like a hell of a lot more fun than chewing through most of the rubbery octopus dishes we’ve been served at Bangkok tapas bars recently.
Hot: Profit
Not: Preservation
Last time the British Embassy sold off a portion of its land we all got the gift of Central Embassy—a name that could pretty quickly become obsolete now that rumors are flying that the embassy itself is up for sale. The asking price for a charming colonial mansion in palatial landscaped grounds: B18 billion. We’re guessing the redecoration will involve a bulldozer.
September 2
Hot: Quality tourism
Not: Tourism
The visa-on-arrival fee has been increased from B1,000 to B2,000. China is among the 19 countries whose visitors must purchase such a visa, so the move seems aimed at them. One might argue that Thailand doesn’t need tourists who can’t pay an extra B1,000 to visit our heavenly kingdom, but Taiwan has lifted visas for ASEAN countries saying the move would generate an extra B14 billion yearly tourism revenue. Couldn’t we use the cash?
Hot: Thai films
Not: Censorship
This past month we’ve seen films by Mai Suwichakornpong and Chai Siris premiere at festivals in Europe. On top of that, the BBC just announced its “100 greatest films of the 21st Century” as determined by 177 critics around the world. The list is topped by David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, but also contain three Thai flicks—all by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, naturally, including possibly the only film more divisive than Lynch’s, Uncle Boonmee. Of course, Apichatpong’s latest film, Cemetery of Splendor, didn’t even screen in Thailand due to his disdain for local censors. Let’s hope a similar fate doesn’t befall Mai’s Dao Khanong.
Hot: Sukhumbhand
Not: Pokemon humor
Even we fell for making some kind of Pokemon parody last week. (No one laughed.) These are officially over. Done. We don’t want to see someone photoshopping another red ball onto a picture of Thaksin or a motorcycle taxi on a sidewalk or super aunties on the BTS. What’s that you say? You have a GIF of Prayuth capturing Sukhumbhand wearing a giant Pikachu costume? OK, yeah, we’d like to see that
Hot: Super Tower
Not: Mahanakohn
Yay! Mahanakohn is now officially open. It’s the tallest tower in Bangkok. It was designed by starchitect Ole Scheeren (except it wasn’t because that would be illegal). And it’s now officially old news. Time for BK to move on to feeding you regular updates on the construction of the Super Tower in Ratchada: 615 meters tall, 320,000 sq meters, LEED platinum certification, fine dining platform six-star dining of the world. Cannot wait.
August 26
Hot: Dubai
Not: Bangkok
The Economist just released its global liveability index and while we’re still down a couple points compared to 2011, our newfound stability is starting to pay off, making us one of the few cities to improve from 2015 to 2016. Elsewhere Dubai, Adelaide and Budapest are some of the big climbers, while over half of the top 10 spots still go to Australia and Canada’s second cities, from Melbourne to Vancouver, Toronto and Perth.
Hot: Mooncakes
Not: Macarons
Is 2016 finally the year when the mooncake gets with the times? We tried Chocolab’s latest batch—glorious mounds of, well, chocolate—and for a moment forgot we’d ever even considered using these annual treats as doorstops or paperweights (joking—no hate mail please). More flavors to get excited about this season include Man Fu Yuan’s whiskey and rum spiked cakes, Harrod’s truffle and Maxim’s oozing lava offerings.
Hot: Early to rise
Not: Early to bed
Ekkamai’s new fusion salad “bowl bar,” Kikimade, only opens from morning till 5pm, after which it transforms into Light Room, a nightclub that’s a blend of white decor, sci-fi lighting, cool customers and heavy basslines. Meanwhile in Thonglor, most of 72 Courtyard is slowly but surely starting to see the light of day, on weekends at least (see Lady Brett’s new brunch), leaving the night free for the really important stuff, over at Beam.
Hot: Phu Thap Boek
Not: Khao Yai
Move over Khao Yai. The latest round of resort evictions is for the once-forest-clad hill of Phu Thap Boek. Judging by the pictures, it’s too late. The place is crammed with bungalows and villas, dotted along the hillside without any semblance of a plan. It will take decades for the Northern destination to return to its former glory. Pencil it in for 2057? And make sure you bring a tent.
August 19
Hot: Taiwan
Not: Shenzhen
Earlier this month, China decided to stop issuing visas on arrival to Thai tourists coming through Shenzhen. Last to hear of the news were the Thai consulate in Guangdong and Thai Embassy in Beijing. Oh, and the whole of Thailand, including the people left stranded at Shenzhen immigration. Next holiday, give the mainland a miss and head across the strait to Taiwan, which just waived visa requirements for Thais. Tai-gi!
Hot: Standup
Not: This weekend
The most exciting parties happening this weekend sound like nights at college you want to forget. So stay in, don’t get drunk and save your money for the big upcoming comedy gigs instead. First there’s Note Udom, whose latest show happens on Sep 3-11. followed on Sep 11 by UK comic Jimmy Carr—the biggest name in comedy we’ve ever seen visit here.
Hot: Hanging On
Not: Democracy
Days after the referendum, the current military regime was in the news saying they definitely would not set up a political party. The next day, plans were announced for a pro-coup military party backing Dear Leader for prime minister. That same evening, he was on every TV station claiming at least 15 more months of dictatorial power under Section 44. Welcome to the world of post-referendum democracy.
Hot: Pokemon in libraries
Not: Pokemon in temples
Pokemon Go is a terrifying danger to society and the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission wants it banned. That’s unless the game’s developer bends to its list of demands—one being that Pokemon shouldn’t be put anywhere near temples. Instead, they say, the game should encourage kids to visit the library—the kind of suggestion that only someone who has literally never visited a library in their life would make.
August 12
Hot: Off-menu drinks
Not: Cocktail lists
Blink and the barrel-aged negroni is dead. What now? A flourishing of confident bartenders and waiters who invite one to go off menu when ordering cocktails, suggesting we share our mood and preferred spirit before entrusting our fate to them. Think of it as the omakase trend making its way from the kitchen to the bar. Lest we forget, this is a town that drank only beer and whiskey soda until yesterday.
Hot: Food in the ‘burbs
Not: Food in central Bangkok
If you want to try Beard Papa’s creamy balls of choux pastry, you’ll need to look up where The Mall Bangkapi is first. And he’s not the only one giving central Bangkok a miss in favor of the ‘burbs. Hello Churros can only be had in Ladprao and Bangna, The Copper Buffet’s wagyu steaks are reserved for Pinklao, and Kinkao’s plump crab meat curries are all the way over in Central Eastville. Boo!
Hot: Festival season
Not: Rainy season
This month we found out exactly how we’ll be spending the Nov-Jan festival season: partying to De La Soul on Koh Samui, EDM DJs in Khao Yai, and drum ‘n’ bass act Rudimental at Wonderfruit. OK, so this year’s lineups are hardly Glastonbury, but after eight months of Scrubb and Zweedz n Roll gigs, we’ll happily take what we can get.
Hot: Indie movies
Not: MX4D
Our experience of watching Suicide Squad was made even worse thanks to a seat that rocked up and down and blew smoke in our face—a privilege SF Cinema’s new MX4D cinema will charge you B490 for. For a film that doesn’t need the bells and whistles, keep an eye out for Anocha Suwichakornpong’s upcoming Dao Ka Nong (By the Time it Gets Dark), which took five years to make and should finally receive a Bangkok screening soon.
August 5
Hot: Hazing
Not: Studying
As August rears its sticky wet head once more, so does the outcry from civilized society about the ways students are willing to abuse their new peers. This term’s degradation techniques come courtesy of Ramkamhaeng university, where freshmen have had to brush their teeth with chili paste and have their nipples rubbed with what looks like a cheese grater—treatment some of these kids will be paying good money for when they’re older.
Hot: Jamie Oliver
Not: Concept restaurants
There’s still space in this town for restaurants that aren’t Latin-Korean/aged-negroni/craft churro specialists. It’s now official that Jamie Oliver is set to arrive here with a plain-old, honest-to-goodness Italian restaurant. Pizza, antipasti, carne, you get the picture. We have no idea how long you’ll have to wait till it opens, but until then you can delight in the lukewarmth of online reviews for every other Jamie’s Italian in the world.
Hot: Working for yourself
Not: Working for other people
The guy from Vogue Lounge, Hideyuki Saito, has let slip he’ll be leaving those swanky, plum leather confines and shuffling on over to Thonglor to open his own spot. Similar news comes from behind the bar at U.N.C.L.E., which Sebastian De La Cruz has announced he’ll be leaving to go do his own thing too. For advice on how to ditch your own employer, see our story on Thailand's hottest startups.
Hot: Shopping online
Not: Shopping in person
Bangkok moved one step closer to the rest of the world last month when Uniqlo announced the unthinkable: online shopping, with a returns policy that for once lets you actually return stuff. Then there’s all the guys in this week’s cover story, who are thinking up new and easy ways for you to over-extend your credit limit electronically.
July 29
Credit: Odette Singapore, 2 stars
Hot: Michelin in Singapore
Not: Michelin in Bangkok
After years of speculation, the Michelin Guide finally arrived in Singapore last week, where it awarded 29 restaurants with their own shiny stars. Good for them; and maybe good for us, with well-connected foodie murmurings of a guide coming to Bangkok as early as 2017 and photos of the Michelin Man himself hanging out The House on Sathorn doing the rounds on social media. Heck, one of Singapore’s star winners, Alma, even belongs to our very own Water Library. Watch this space for more developments.
Hot: Latin food
Not: Mexican food
Now that every neighborhood has it’s own taco-specializing food truck, it’s time to move on and get with Latin America’s other rich foodie offerings. Blu36 (Peruvian), Azul (Miami-Cuban), Clandestino Cantina (Latin) and Cali’s Grill23 (Ecuadorian) are just four new restaurants specializing in dishes which just six months ago we never knew existed.
Credit: www.flickr.com
Hot: Empty sidewalks
Not: Street vendors
Sunday marks the day that Silom’s street vendors are officially meant to stop trading—just two months after the original deadline of Jun 1. Though we secretly can’t wait to be able to walk along Silom without losing an hour of our life, we also don’t fancy their chances flogging DVDs to tourists in whatever godforsaken hinterlands of disposable real estate they get shoved next.
Hot: Transmission
Not: Tomorrowland
Nope, Tomorrowland, the EDM festival to trump all EDM festivals, isn’t coming to Thailand anytime soon. We learned that the hard way. But dry those tears—another massive European electronic gathering is heading our way. Born in Prague, Transmission isn’t quite the household name as Tomorrowland, but it does back up its trance and progressive house performers with a similarly over-the-top light and pyro show. You’ll have to wait till next March, though. Watch this space.
Jul 18
Hot: Food trucks in malls
Not: Street food in malls
Time was two years ago that opening a food court meant plucking your favorite somtam-making auntie off the street and putting her in the basement of whatever shopping mall you were opening. Well here’s bad news for you, somtam lady: our developers want cheesy Waffdogs in their food courts now, so you’re bang out of a job. Find out what a cheesy Waffdog is and where to try one on page 12.
Hot: Ignorance
Not: Awareness
We really don’t know what’s legal and what isn’t anymore when it comes to the draft constitution. Apparently, it’s only “rude” opinions which are banned. Since there’s no way of telling where a rude opinion ends and a polite one begins, we’ve saved our cover story (see page 6) interviewees from any unwanted attitude adjustment this issue by blacking out some of the things they said. Hopefully that’ll put us in the clear, too.
Hot: Star Wars mooncakes
Not: All other mooncakes
We’re already watching the clock and dreading the day when mooncakes start arriving—those edible paperweights of salted-egg wrongness. But, just like herpes, you can count on mooncakes to come back, no matter what you throw at them or who you throw them at. So for the sake of the universe, if you have any intention of giving mooncakes this Mid-Autumn Festival, at least make them these Star Wars ones from Maxim’s. In chocolate flavor. (See page 12.)
Hot: Indie cinema
Not: Blockbusters
Pimpaka Towira and Kong Rithdee’s movie about a young Muslim traveling to the Southern conflict zone in Pattani, The Island Funeral, actually got its Bangkok premier last week—which is more than most indie films can hope for, even when their director is on the Oscars’ panel (see goo.gl/F5O8cC). Hope is at hand though with the opening of a new indie cinema in Silom next month (see page 18). Until then, you can still go see aliens blow up Big Ben at Paragon.
Jul 11
Hot: Tomorrowland
Not: Fact checking
Post Today spread the completely false rumor that Belgium’s massive Tomorrowland dance music festival might be coming to Thailand. The news was then covered by everyone in Bangkok, us included, thus sending the city’s EDM fans into a frenzy. It was left to the international edition of Billboard to eventually quash the story—though pinning it as a case of mistranslation was way too kind to the original story’s sneaky wording.
Hot: Pokemon Go
Not: Niantic Labs
The worldwide release of fantasy animal fighting game Pokemon Go actually made Bangkokians want to step outside this week. Pantip and Facebook exploded with updates of people catching Snorlax snoozing on Ladprao, Bulbasaur hopping around Silom and Magikarp by the Chao Phraya River. That is, until its developers blocked the game everywhere except in Australia and New Zealand and ruined the fun for everyone.
Hot: Chiang Mai
Not: Bangkok
Travel + Leisure’s annual list calling Bangkok one of the best cities in the world is out again. This time though we’ve dropped eight places from 6th to 14th, while Chiang Mai, which wasn’t even in last year’s list, has jumped to no. 2. In the world. We’ll repeat: Chiang Mai is voted the world’s second best city when 12 months ago it didn’t even bother a mention. The opening of Maiiam must have been even more special than we thought.
Hot: Spanish food
Not: Our diet
When it comes to Spanish food in Bangkok, Tapas y Vino and that other Tapas on Suk 11 had it their own way for years. All that changed in 2016, which we’ll forever remember as the year we learned what roast Segovian suckling pig tastes like. Good!
Jul 7
Hot: Japanese in Thailand
Not: Thais in japan
Apparently our love for kakigori, matcha tea and smoking indoors is so great that 6,000 Thais have never returned home from their holidays to Japan—or so the country’s immigration bureau tells us. Don’t worry if you’re one of the unlucky ones forced to come back, though; even our homegrown chefs can now run a decent Edomae-style sushi-ya (see page 12).
Hot: Bill Gates
Not: Bangkok cables
The tech tycoon doesn’t think much of this city’s wiring and took to social media to say so. Days later the MEA got together with TOT, called in NBTC and signed an MOU with the BMA: no more ugly overhead cables in major city centers by 2025, it promised. ROFLMAO, thought everyone else.
Hot: B250 cocktails
Not: B400 cocktails
It was always a matter of time before we’d finally get bored of drinking wallet-busting craft cocktails. But we never thought they’d be replaced by this: cocktails that taste just as good but cost half the price. Go try the Manhattan Latino at UNCLE (B195) or the Tommy’s Margarita at Touche Hombre (B275) and tell us otherwise.
Hot: Ceviche
Not: Craft beer
Raw fish drenched in lime juice, garlic and chili tastes just as good as that sounds and can right now be found at pretty much any new restaurant in town. We wish we could be so excited about the latest round of beer bars, which 1) all look identical, and 2) are way out in Ladphrao (see goo.gl/v5lJIK).
Jul 1
Hot: Coffee negronis
Not: Coffee martinis
Can we take back what we said about Bangkok being at peak negroni? The one infused with coffee at Q&A is awesome, and so much less embarrassing than ordering a coffee martini. And they’re not the only cool coffee cocktails that’ll knock you sideways: see “Dusk Till Dawn” at Backstage, “Great Grey” at Owl Society and “Jet Lagged” at Evil Man Blues. Read our coffee cocktail roundup here.
Hot: Multiple cards
Not: Mangmoom cards
The Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning, or Otutupup, is going back on its promise of a one-card transport system by August. They tried, they failed, and now they won’t tell us if it’ll ever be ready. But hey, at least you can still use your Rabbit Card at McDonald’s.
Hot: MX4D
Not: 4D
Since 4D was lame, chances are MX4D—which is the same but with seats that bump up and down—will be super, super lame. But since the only thing in the cinema right now is Independance Day: Resurgence, at least it might make that experience in some way sufferable.
Hot: Maiiam Art Museum
Not: Artistic censorship
One of Thailand’s most ambitious ever contemporary art museums just opened in Chiang Mai with a retrospective of local artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s work. However, don’t expect to see his latest, critically acclaimed film, Cemetery of Splendour—that one he’s not even bothering to submit to our local censors.
Jun 24
Hot: Folding bikes
Not: Full-frame bikes
The Skytrain has banned your bike from coming on board. Kind of. Unless it’s one of those folding ones, you’re only allowed to travel between 6am and—wait for it—6:30am. And since you won’t be allowed back on till after 10pm, we guess you’ll be cycling back from wherever it is you went. Weekends still allow all bikes all day.
Hot: Thai restaurants
Not: Thai universities
London education consultancy Quacquarelli Symonds released its list of Asia’s 350 best universities last week. Nowhere in Thailand makes an appearance until Chula at no. 45, by which time Japan is already in double figures. To mask the bitter taste of educational defeat, go eat at one of our top restaurants, which did slightly better in this year’s World’s 50 Best. No prizes for guessing who passed the grade.
Hot: Hotels
Not: Tourists
Now that all the tourists are staying with Airbnb hosts, it’s our turn to head back to Bangkok’s hotels. This weekend there’s the third edition of Hotel Art Fair at Ad Lib, while the roof of Hotel Indigo on Wireless Road has been turned into a rooftop bar worth visiting.
Hot: Theater
Not: Movies
Movies are always crap in Bangkok and this week’s no exception. But there are a whole seven plays opening in Bangkok this week, which is the most we’ve seen in BK since, well, ever. Culture vultures should swing by Democrazy Theatre Studio for a conceptual look at urban life in Plan B’s The Disappearance of The Boy on a Sunday Afternoon, while the rest of us can go watch a man dressed in a green fat suit at Shrek.
Jun 17
Hot: Ben & Jerry’s
Not: Matcha ice lollies
Spare a thought for our friends in the country. Never will they know what it’s like to go into their local 7-Eleven and buy a matcha green tea ice lolly imported from Japan. That’s right. Turns out it’s only Bangkokians who’ve been deemed worthy of that particular treat—something that’s not gone down well with the provinces. Don’t anyone let them know then that matcha ice cream went out with the Fjallraven bag now that Ben & Jerry’s is here. Whoopie!
Hot: Staying home
Not: Restaurants
Consumer confidence fell for a fifth straight month in May and our restaurateur friends are all in agreement: Times are very, very tough for the F&B industry right now. Support your nation! Go have a drink. Have a bite. Have another drink. It’s what Prayuth would want.
Hot: Jim Collins
Not: Long Island Iced Tea
For this week’s booze story on cocktails bartenders hate, it took some prodding to get anyone to say anything but Long Island—rivaled only by whiskey on the rocks with no ice as a drink they really, really wish you wouldn’t order. Cocktails are for savoring, not getting trashed, they tell us. We beg to differ, but still we’ll be sure to order a double Collins like good customers next time we’re at ToT.
Hot: Digital Economy and Society Ministry
Not: ICT Ministry
This September, our incompetent and archaic ICT Ministry, whose only real grand plan of late has been the single gateway fiasco, will be replaced by an equally incompetent organization with a new name. How will it reconcile “promoting the digital economy” and crackdowns on the likes of GrabBike? Stay tuned.
Jun 10
Hot: Specialist bars
Not: Speakeasies
Forget Havana Social. There’s only one place we know that even vaguely approaches a real speakeasy: it’s called Wong’s and it’s shit. So let’s just put that sorry little trend to bed and forget the whole incident ever took place. Great. Now that’s over with, can we start getting excited about specialist bars? Places that serve one spirit only and serve it well are one of the many reasons why you should be out getting drunk this weekend (think Teens of Thailand, Ma-Rum-Ba, Touche Hombre).
Hot: Regional ingredients
Not: Organic ingredients
As half a dozen recent news stories on Thai ingredients made painfully clear, our food is messed up—organic certification or no organic certification. Fortunately, some restaurants are trying to blind us to that fact by telling us what province that cabbage was grown in, as if that makes any difference whatsoever. “Rice from Sisaket” and “pomelo from Nakhon Pathom” have become like the new “homemade ingredients” and “conscientiously chosen produce”—phrases that mean nothing but make you feel a lot happier about what you’re eating.
Hot: Buddhism
Not: Monks
It surprised no one when Mercedes maniac Janepob Verraporn scurried away to the monkhood after killing two students with his car. Nor that a temple billing itself as a wildlife sanctuary was packed full of lucrative and unregistered animal carcasses. Head over to the FCCT this week for a chat with two Buddhist scholars about how certain monks are distorting their religion beyond anything even remotely related to Buddhism (goo.gl/07EM9u).
Hot: Matcha ice lollies
Not: Giant cones
If you go down to the Sehwen today you’re in for a big surprise: a freezer bursting with Glico ice cream. Yup, that little bubble is well and truly popped. Good luck if you can get your hands on one of these little beauties, though: Japanese matcha ice bars imported direct from Japan and into our hearts. ♥♥♥
Jun 3
Hot: The environment
Not: Dive tourism
Thailand’s dive sites are so screwed that our notoriously laissez-faire Department of National Parks has been forced to break its usual do-nothing approach to conservation by closing 15 of them. With Phuket City Hall also ordering the demolition of 14 buildings built on land reserved for farming, we were beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, the environment here stands a chance. Then we remembered the 60 environmental campaigners who’ve wound up dead in the past 20 years.
Hot: Orange cocktails
Not: Orange juice
So it turns out that suspiciously bright orange stuff we drink each morning that tastes completely unnatural is in fact completely unnatural. We’re referring to the revelation that Bangkok’s freshly squeezed orange juice is the latest product to join a long line of recent food scandals. Drown your sorrow at this news by heading to your nearest bar for Negroni Week—where at least you know you’re basically drinking sugar syrup.
Hot: Iran
Not: Japan
We hope you had fun stocking up on Tokyo fashion when AirAsia launched their flights to Japan from Bangkok a couple of years ago. For your next trip, everyone’s favorite budget airline now wants to take you to experience Iran’s exotic blend of Persian architecture, horse-based sport, snowy mountains and hotly disputed nuclear policies. They may not have an A.P.C. on every corner, but they do have baqleh—a delicious dish of steam-boiled fava beans.
Hot: Staying in
Not: Going out
The most exciting event you’ve got to look forward to this weekend is a gig of Beatles covers on Ladphrao. That’s it. There aren’t even any Australian bros in scooped v-necks spinning EDM at Route 66. Hence, why we’ll be doing a Netflix-and-chill with the new season of Chef’s Table, which even stars this city’s top culinary mind, Gaggan Anand.
May 27
Hot: Banned Books
Not: Banned National Costumes
We don’t like having to agree with the Ministry of Culture’s Deputy Permanent Secretary, but Mrs. (yes, Mrs., not Miss) Universe Thailand’s costume was genuinely horrendous. That bizarre bell-shaped goop of gold meant to evoke Wat Pra Kaew’s Golden Stupa is fully deserving of some attitude adjustment. But to show we haven’t turned into full fascists just yet, we’ll be supporting the Sleepover project on banned books at The Reading Room instead.
Hot: Online shopping
Not: Malls
Last month, Central Group bought Zalora Thailand (and Vietnam) while Alibaba took a controlling stake in Lazada. This was seen as signs that online shopping in Thailand is growing much more slowly than expected. But maybe it’s just that Thai consumers are so fragmented in their web shopping habits. See our cover story for a multitude of online multi-label stores, and IG-focused standalones, that will spare you having to set foot in mall for a very long time.
Hot: Siam Discovery
Not: Your credit card
Can we take that back? Of course, you still want to go to a mall. With its reopening, Siam Discovery brings a Virgin Fitness and one of the best Thai fashion selections in the city. And people are actually excited about the Hubba co-working space because, surely, what you need is more places where you can work. Add to that the new Greyhound multi-label store at Paragon and it’s going to be a rough weekend for your credit card.
Hot: Nepotism
Not: UberMoto
What if someone came up with an app to make motorcycle prices transparent, allowing credit card payments and forcing drivers to supply a clean helmet to their passengers? Well, the government would ban it, of course. That’s exactly what happened to UberMoto and GrabBike, who clearly were cutting into the revenue stream of our boys in brown. What’s more, the junta now says it will develop its very own app for motocycle taxis.
May 20
Hot: Whatsapp
Not: Instagram
What is up with that new logo? It looks like someone who drank too much bubble-tea posted on Instagram with the X-Pro II filter and then puked it up in iOS 9. Meanwhile, the ugly-as-eff interface of Whatsapp is our new favorite given that your conversations are encrypted, unlike LINE and Facebook, where your messages, or complete lack thereof, could land you in hot water with Dear Leader’s attitude adjustment squad.
Hot: Gelato
Not: Kakigori
Nothing quite says “Bangkok 2016” like a group of friends sitting in a circle shovelling into a shaved ice mountain. Call us old fashioned but we still remember the days when icy treats weren’t precariously piled with Oreos, red bean and all the crumbs of dessert trends past. This summer, we’re more excited by Bangkok’s new wave of gelaterias, whether homegrown (Charoenkrung’s Gelato Finale) or imported from the motherland, like Ghignoni, who’s now popping up all over town.
Hot: Upper Silom
Not: Lower Silom
So, Silom Road’s infamous night market is the latest to bite the dust as part of City Hall’s ongoing cleanliness and order campaign. Part of us wants to feel outraged along the lines of what we felt over Saphan Lek and Pak Klong Talad. But another part of us relishes the idea of actually being able to walk from BTS Sala Daeng to the much more exciting happenings of Narathiwas without losing an hour of our life. Not that we’d ever do that in this heat, of course.
Hot: Shuttle buses
Not: MRT Purple Line
The MRT Purple Line opens Aug 6, linking Bang Sue to Bang Yai, in Nonthaburi. There’s only one problem. Just like the Airport Link Makkasan Station fails to connect to MRT Phetburi, this new line isn’t connected to anything, really. The Taopoon station in Bang Sue is one kilometer away from the MRT Blue Line’s Bang Sue station. The MRTA has responded with plans to operate a shuttle bus between the two. Lovely.
May 13
Hot: Watermelons
Not: Sausages
Bangkok’s food NGOs have been going testing mad. The Foundation for Consumers put 15 of our favorite sausage brands under the microscope and discovered we should only be eating one of them. Meanwhile, the Thai-Pesticide Alert Network (Thai-Pan) got in touch with some boffs in the UK, sent them 138 samples of fruit and veg and discovered less than half were safe to eat—including the stuff our food certifiers say is organic. Good news if you like watermelons though, which came out 100-percent squeaky clean.
Hot: Hua Hin
Not: Phuket
For some crazy reason, the people of Phuket think a museum dedicated to preserving their Peranakan culture doesn’t need a piece of Bangkok street art on its side. Fuming with rage, the president of the Old Phuket Town Community told the Bangkok Post: “We all genuinely think [the Phuket street art] project can boost our economy… But this particular piece of Alex Face is on the wrong building.” What a dinosaur! We reckon Alex should take his tins of paint to Hua Hin instead, where the more cultured locals are busy turning their town into Thonglor.
Hot: Diageo Finalists
Not: Iron Chefs
Remember when some dude who once appeared on Iron Chef headed every new restaurant in Bangkok? That little wave seems to be all but gone, but rest assured our new bars are still relying on the talents of Diageo World Class finalists. Bunker, Backstage and Track 17 all boast DWC cred, while the list of old places claiming their very own Diageo Finalist bartender would need its own story.
Hot: Beef ribs
Not: Tomahawks
They appear at new restaurants three times this issue: smothered in green mole sauce at Mexicano, given half a day in the oven at Meat & Bones, and falling from the bone in perfect inch-thick slices at Bunker. All taste amazing, but we really hope they don’t push sharing tomahawks off the menu.
May 6
Hot: Whatever comes next
Not: Rustic industrial
Over two years since we declared “This Needs to Stop!” (ow.ly/4nbEqY) about Bangkok’s love of Euro-rustic everything, most of our new restaurants—excuse us, “Eateries”—still want to pretend they’re on a farmyard. About Eatery on Sukhumvit has turned the former Le Maverick into a den of roughly hewn wood and chalkboard menus, while forthcoming Cocotte Farm Roast & Winery likes to picture all its food on top of hay. For more convincing rustic appeal, try leaving the Moet out of frame next time.
Hot: Cocktail competitions
Not: Hangovers
Bangkok has given us even more reasons to drink now that the local finalists of Diageo’s World Class bartender have been announced. They all pour amazing, highly expensive drinks that will happily suck up your paycheck and leave you feeling dead the next day. Good news is at hand though, thanks to a new pill promising headache-free mornings after.
Hot: Web
Not: Print
Following the removal of all newsstands from BTS stations, further proof that no one buys magazines anymore came this week when Cosmopolitan’s Thai edition joined Image magazine in shutting down. Even the Bangkok Post has reduced its page numbers for the first time since forever. Meanwhile, our city made inroads at joining the rest of the world for the web revolution when it was reported that Alibaba bought Lazada, InVent bought Wongnai and Central group bought Zalora.
Hot: Suckling pig
Not: Food guilt
There’s a new on-the-bone cut turning up on Bangkok menus. Spanish-style roast suckling pig makes an appearance at three major recent foodie openings: Uno Mas on Centara Grand’s 54th floor, Islero on Wireless Road and Thyme on Nanglinchi Road. The only problem? It feels like you’re eating Babe with a suntan.
April 25
Hot: Mexico
Not: France
Too much of a good thing? We don’t think so. There’s been a veritable explosion of Mexican and Tex-Mex offerings in this town in the past few years, making this Cinco de Mayo the best one yet. And remember, you still have Touche Hombre to look forward to at 72 Courtyard. What’s the big deal with May 5? The Mexicans kicked some French butt, something Thailand can always get behind.
Hot: Architect’16
Not: The BMA
While Thailand’s architects keep making us prouder and prouder every day, the same can’t be said of the BMA, whose handbook of urban planning seems to have been picked up in a Soviet satellite town circa 1984. Just as Sukhumbhand will be announcing the fate of Mahakan Fort on Apr 30, you can go dry your tears at Architect’16 with some design done right.
Hot: Hi-so Encroachers
Not: Lo-so Encroachers
We’re not too worried about the fate of the families behind Bonanza, Chockchai Farm or the Kirimiya Resort—all of which are accused of encroaching on national park land in Khao Yai. We’re much more concerned about Den Khamlae, a 66-years-old land rights activist in Chaiyaphum who is defending a community accused of encroaching on the Phukhieo Wildlife Sanctuary and who has suddenly disappeared without trace.
Hot: Theme Parks
Not: Pop-up Markets
WTF seems intent on poking fun at us hipsters congregating every weekend to buy tote bugs and T-shirts with ironic quotes. Maybe it’s time to head to the city’s new theme parks instead: Dinosaur Planet (next to Benjasiri Park) and the Chang Global Carnival. It all feels a bit 90s, but how ironically cool is that?
April 19
Hot: Kakigori
Not: Bingsu
We can officially report that bingsu has melted from our hearts like a Korean-style mountain of shaved frozen soymilk topped with red bean paste. What you should be eating is the Japanese equivalent, kakigori, and Bangkok’s young entrepreneurs are wasting no time ensuring every neighborhood has its own ready supply. Find the best of them at ow.ly/4mNusI.
Hot: Sleep pods
Not: 5-star hotels
The days of crunching your prone body between airport seats’ armrests are over now that Suvarnabhumi has followed in Don Muang’s footsteps to offer “sleep pods”—yours for two hours at B600. Netizens were quick to point out that it would cost you about the same to stay the night at that rate as it would to head into town and check into the St. Regis. But does the St. Regis have dangling ferns and tasteful Scandinavian-style furnishings? No, no, it does not.
Hot: Laos Beer
Not: Thai Beer
If you read BK, you’ll already know that small-batch beer-making is illegal in Thailand. But the same doesn’t apply to our friends in Laos, and so our country’s brew pioneers have been upping sticks and bottling their beers across the border. What that means is Thai craft beer that might not technically be Thai, but which is fully legal. Go to page 16 to find out the new brews you can drink without getting arrested.
Hot: Parties
Not: The EC
After what must have been a very nice run of state-funded thumb twiddling, Thailand’s election commission finally has a job to do: preparing Thailand for an August referendum on the latest charter. So far both major political parties have come out in favor of a “no” vote, while occupying the “yes” camp sit Suthep and Suthep’s son’s wife. We predict the EC can go back to many more days of doing nothing before this country sees its next election.
April 4
Hot: Asia’s Best Bars
Not: Asia’s Best Bars
Some hits and misses in the six Bangkok bars which made the Asia’s 50 Best list. We’ll let you judge if you want to knock back craft cocktails with young cool hipsters at Teens of Thailand, or stand around in Maggie Choo’s ‘cos all the seats are permanently booked out by middle-age tourists in bad trousers.
Hot: Gutlessness
Not: Domestic violence
Days before a bodybuilder was in the news for imprisoning and beating his girlfriend, so was ad agency Leo Burnett for thinking it was OK to trivialize domestic worker abuse. Their excuse—that Thai drama has a rich history of demeaning maids so it’s totally cool—was about as convincing as a wealthy hit-and-run suspect’s toxicology report. Not that most of us seem to care when confronted with domestic violence, as this video made painfully clear: youtu.be/PYGbasskLTo.
Hot: Ice cream
Not: Salted egg lava
It’s almost 40 degrees out there. This is not a good time to eating molten egg yolk from hot croissants—not that there’s ever a good time to eat molten egg yolk from hot croissants (or macarons). Save yourself the trip to a Ladprao dessert cafe and pick up an ice cream instead. Find out which we think’s best here.
Hot: Ce La Vi
Not: Ku De Ta
It’s official: after several years of no one being really sure if Ku De Ta Bangkok is or has ever been in any way associated with the original club in Bali, it has been forced to change its name. You can now find the club on Sathorn Square’s roof filed under Ce La Vi, which is KDT-speak for “c’est la vie,” which in turn is French for “that’s life.”
April 1
Hot: Beers on the beach
Not: Coffee in Chiang Mai
The two weeks of the year when you can kind of pretend to yourself that Chiang Mai has hot-coffee weather are now well and truly over. With temps across the country pushing 40, there’s only one reason we’ll be traveling, and it ain’t to drink a single-origin latte in a room without Wi-Fi.
Hot: Business-based rewards
Not: Kickbacks
Remember the Thaksin-era when corruption was called “commissions”? Well the current term is now “business-based rewards.” Now that our defence minister who’s also a general has taken the word of another general on this, we can all move on.
Hot: Walking on the ARL
Not: Waiting for the BTS
Forget the BTS’s mini Bangkok shutdown last February. In March, the ARL was offering free, impromptu hour-long sauna sessions. This is the same ARL which manages its 17 million passengers on a budget of B33 billion a year. To put that in perspective, river taxis deal with 29 million people on B70 million.
Hot: Disclosure
Not: Tom Jones
The gap between how far an artist is past their creative peak and when they visit Bangkok has been brought down from four decades to just a couple of years thanks to the news that Disclosure and Two Door Cinema Club will both be coming to town—and bringing the sound of 2012 with them. But not before Tom Jones returns to excite Thai aunties everywhere.
March 25
Hot: MRT tunnels
Not: MRT stations
When we saw the first photo released by the Mass Rapid Transportation Authority (MRTA) for its new lines we thought, “Wow! Going to work’s gonna feel like living in the future!” But no. Turns out that was just a pic of one of the tunnels under construction. The stations themselves will be modeled on the lobbies of dodgy three-star hotels on Srinakarin. The only thing missing is the breakfast buffet.
Hot: PR
Not: News
Someone at state broadcaster Thai PBS seems to thinks that news should be about issues of public concern. You know, like the country only having enough water supplies to get us halfway through summer. This, according to Dear Leader’s remarks at a recent government forum, is way off. What they should be doing is 1) making Korean-style dramas about kick-ass army generals; and 2) communicating to the public about the junta’s latest problem-solving wizardry. If this sounds to you a whole lot less like news than it does public relations (or as it used to be called, propaganda) then you’d be right.
Hot: Lexapro
Not: Cocaine
The Red Bull heir who ran over a cop while drunk and on coke has yet to spend a day in jail. Now, Lexapro is in the spotlight, having been found in the car of the latest hiso in a fancy car to kill a bunch of people. Here too, the police kinda forgot to breathalyze the driver. And when they figure out Lexapro is just a boring anti-depresant, he can go free and we can all move on—except maybe for the families of the two master’s students he killed.
Hot: Moto discounts
Not: No motos
Last Tuesday, the Department of Land Transport called time on GrabBike’s motorbike taxi on-demand service. GrabBike’s response: a middle finger to the DLT with fares slashed in half on top of a bunch of other discounts. The only transport cheaper than GrabBike, claimed the Singaporean company, was to walk—exactly what we ended up doing last time we tried to use competitor service UberMOTO, who seem to have absolutely no drivers currently working for them.
March 18
Hot: UberMOTO
Not: GrabBike
Just as one motorbike taxi app launches, another gets shut down. While Uber is promising to revolutionize the hassle-free mode of transport with the hassle of booking a driver in advance, the Department of Land Transportation is calling time on GrabTaxi’s own call-a-bike service. Private motorcycles, it says, should not be used to carry passengers. With precisely no people having used GrabTaxi ever, the news was met by a citywide shrug of the shoulders.
Hot: Bike booths
Not: Phone booths
TOT’s effort to turn one Bangkok telephone booth into a “Bike Repair Station” is the most awesome thing we’ve seen since Dear Leader rode that motorcycle in an orange cap. For the half dozen people who actually use their bikes to commute and not just park up outside cafes, we’re sure it’ll also be super useful next time they get a flat in that one very specific spot on Chaengwattana Road.
Hot: Louis Vuitton models
Not: Balenciaga bags
Thailand has really been making its presence felt in the world of high fashion. First there was the temple boy turned Louis Vuitton model in Kanchanaburi (see goo.gl/1YlwoL), then the impact our stripy plastic bags had on the runways of Balenciaga, which provided Nation TV with its customary quota of one story that’s total bullshit per week. The channel reported straight-faced about how Georgian designer Demna Gvasalia got the idea from a childhood spent flogging tat on the Myanmar border. Tune in next week to find out all about how Mae Sot has been named the new culture capital of the world.
Hot: Unhealthy health food
Not: Health food
We’re right on board with healthy food when it’s done like at Broccoli Revolution, where the only revolution going down is transforming broccoli from a superfood into something that’ll stop your heart beating. It gets fried, covered in sweet sauces and slapped between complex carbohydrates for a range of dishes which are all thoroughly delicious and the kind of thing we’d like to see more of from this city’s health cafes. For those into self-punishment, however, there's a bunch more credible, health-food openings in town. Stay tuned for more.
March 11
Hot: Old-school brunch
Not: New-school brunch
Remember Sundays before wooden cutlery, Joe Sloane sausages and Ikea tea towels for napkins? You’d go to a hotel, put up B2,000, plant yourself at a buffet till your pancreas said stop, then go home and spend the rest of the day wishing you hadn’t. Well, we’re bringing those days back, with a three-page celebration of practically every all-you-can-eat foie gras and wagyu beef session in town. So flip here, loosen your belt and tuck in.
Hot: Infographics
Not: Open debate
Worried that you won’t understand the draft charter? Fear not! Our favorite self-titled politico Wissanu Krea-ngam has vowed to put up handy infographics explaining its complexities to all us dummies. You know, like the one the NCPO ran on the front of three leading newspapers telling us about “without credibility governments” and how the “State of the People” is absolutely, definitely, not the same as populism. No way. In practically the same breath, he also told us that public debate on the charter’s contents is completely out of the question—yet more signs that failure of the CDC’s latest effort is evitable.
Hot: Drinking
Not: Photo exhibitions
We’ve rounded up all the cool photo exhibitions opening this weekend. We found eigh in total, half of which sound like this: “man travels Asia black white George Orwell Cho Why inspired by self-taught indigenous cultures street photography.” Hence why you’ll find us nowhere near any art galleries this month and at one of these bars instead. It’s not that long since payday yet.
Hot: Thonglor community malls
Not: Phrom Phong community malls
Picking up where Rain Hill and K Village left off comes places like 72 Courtyard and The Commons. What they may lack in fake grass, Wine Connections and despair, they more than make up for in bare concrete, bao buns and expensive cocktails. And that sounds alright by us.
March 4
Hot: Boulevardier
Not: Old Fashioned
Old fashioneds have become exactly that. So put down that glass and get with the new-school wave of old-school cocktails like Brooklyn, Boulevardier, Lucien Gaudin and Hanky Panky. All of these taste like pure booze, give you flame-thrower breath and cost a fortune—which is exactly what your drink’s meant to be like right now. Sorry, we don’t make the rules.
Hot: Thonglor
Not: Sathorn
We were all kidding ourselves that the U-bend of bars that constituted Sathorn’s uprising was ever going to rival Thonglor and its streets lined with ramen champion chefs, hidden speakeasy bars and co-working-cafes-slash-bike-shops. Now that those same Sathorn bars have all moved to Thonglor as well, we’re finally willing to throw in the towel. You win. Now can we have our old room on Soi 8 back?
Hot: Panda art
Not: Commercial art
As of Friday, 1,600 chubby papier mache pandas with more than a passing resemblance to Chavalit Yongchaiyudh (see below) have planted themselves on the grass at Sanam Luang. Their mission: to let us know that they have a life beyond Lin Ping’s cage and hope to keep it. This is obviously awesome news. It definitely beats the pants off what passes for art at Bangkok CityCity gallery, which is following up its exhibition to sell German sunglasses with one about why we should drink Perrier. And this is what people are calling the coolest new gallery in town?
Hot: Old PMs
Not: New PMs
After years without one-year-wonder Chavalit Yongchaiyudh making headlines, the aging general-turned-PM-turned-opponent-of-pretty-much-everyone is back in the news making bold claims about ISIS and telling Dear Leader to go shove it—something which the NCPO currently shows no intention of doing whatsoever. And Loong Maew, too, has come out of the woodwork! At this rate, we’re never going to have any new PMs who can become old PMs who can talk trash about the new new PMs.
Feb 26
Hot: Carlos Santana
Not: Madonna
The ageless Queen of Pop bumped and gyrated her way into our hearts. But was it enough to make up for three decades of neglect? We think not. Take guitar legend Carlos Santana, for example; he not only visits Thailand every two years, but this week he will perform with our very own rock gods Carabao. So show us the love, Madge—oh and how about a collaboration with modern-day material girl Madeaw?
Hot: Flight promos
Not: Pilot protests
This month, Nok Air was forced to cancel eight local flights after its pilots went on strike, leaving 1,000 passengers stranded at Don Mueang airport. On Valentine’s Day. Ouch. Now a month-long investigation will determine whether the pilots were forced to exceed the standard limit on flying hours. Will any of this stop us flying? Not likely. And judging by the deal-hungry mobs over at Ar-pae.com, we can’t see Nok wanting to cut flights anytime soon.
Hot: Indoor tanning
Not: Indoor skiing
So, Bangkok’s just welcomed its first tanning salon. Cue outrage. “This is like opening an ice bar in Antarctica,” one reader posted on our Facebook page. “Let’s open a pizza parlor in Napoli,” wrote another. Weren’t these same killjoys out in force recently wanting to deprive us the exotic joys of winter breezes, 4am pizzas and indoor ski slopes? See, this is why we can’t have nice things.
Hot: Gun deaths
Not: Dengue deaths
Another week, another sad tale of some jilted lover shooting up his ex, or road rage ending with gunfire, or technical students firing at each other. In the US, gun deaths are beginning to cause public outcries. Here, nothing. And yet, recent data from the University of Washington shows Thailand is number one for guns deaths among 10 Asian countries surveyed. We’re 50 percent higher than the runner-up, the Philippines. And at 7.48 gun deaths per 100,000, we’re at double the USA.
Feb 19
Hot: Gin bars
Not: Whiskey bars
Gin? Good! Tonic? Good! Massive balloon-shaped glasses? Good! Which is why we’re well into Bangkok’s new trend for bars specializing in the delicious, juniper-y goodness of quality gin. What’s more, these places are cool, fun, and attract people of both sexes. Not things we could say about the last wave of wannabe gentleman’s club whiskey bars tucked in hotel basements.
Hot: Celibacy
Not: Truth
Bangkok University recently polled some students and came to the conclusion that 61 percent of them think they can keep it in their pants till after marriage. What’s more, it reckons only 3.7 percent of students expected to have sex this Valentine’s Day. All this makes us think one of two things: a) Students are liars; b) We’re really, really glad we didn’t go to Bangkok University.
Hot: Rural development
Not: Urban development
You probably noticed from this magazine’s front cover that we’ve gone all right-on, anti-development this week. Who needs more community malls and condos when we could be preserving the things in Bangkok money can’t buy? Oh! But have you been to Khao Yai recently? Finally the place has a coffee shop worth leaving Sukhumvit for. And that new hotel by Kirimaya—totes amaze.
Hot: Launching appeals
Not: Accepting defeat
Was Worawi ever going to roll over and accept that someone else now has the top spot in football while he’s still banned from the sport? Of course not. That’s just not how we fly in this country. Not in our sport. Not in our politics. Not in our monkhood. With an appeal already launched against Somyot’s landslide victory as FAT chief, we’re happy to see the disgraced former top dog sticking with the spirit of tradition.
Feb 12
Hot: Sushi royalty
Not: Croissant royalty
Sorry, Monsieur Chatenet. Your croissants may have won over the pastry buffs at Paris’s Chambre professionnelle des Artisans Boulangers-Pâtissiers, but over here, where our knowledge of how good croissants should taste began and ended with Big C not all that long ago, they manage to play second fiddle to a local label (see bit.ly/1L2qENV). Let’s hope we don’t go mistaking New York fish-filleter extraordinaire Masato Shimizu’s perfect edomae sushi for Oishi.
Hot: Old-school burgers
Not: Gourmet burgers
As if Daniel Thaiger’s salty, buttery original burgers weren’t good enough, the man who sparked Bangkok’s food truck revolution has gone and done it again—this time in collaboration with Seenspace nice-guy-in-residence Chris Foo of BREW. The result is a three-pattie cheese-oozing beast that laughs in the face of anything so fancy as even a slice of tomato (see bit.ly/1L2rMRS).
Hot: Dentists in Journalism
Not: Dentists in America
If you choose to stare into people’s mouths for a living, you must be weird. If you choose someone who chose to stare into people’s mouths for a living to run a public-interest news corporation, you must be even weirder. That’s exactly what Thai PBS’s Policy Board did when it appointed dentist and former Thai Health Promotion Foundation cove Dr. Krissada Ruang-areerat as the station’s top man—in complete contradiction to one of the station’s own laws that says media pros only need apply. With this nation’s opinion of dentists currently at rock bottom, let’s hope he doesn’t blow it!
Hot: Mangmoom cards
Not: Rabbit cards
Did you ever use your Rabbit Card to pay for McDonald’s or cinema tickets? Of course you didn’t. You’re normal. But finally, the one thing you have been dreaming about using it for is about to happen. The BTS and MRT will soon merge their payment system so that one card works on both networks—just like in civilized cities. Only it won’t be called a Rabbit Card. It’ll be a Mangmoom Card, and it’ll also let you hop on the ARL, BRT and something else with a logo we don’t recognize.
Feb 5
Hot: Monkeys
Not: Goats
According to BK’s resident feng-shui master, people born in the Year of the Goat are “weak-willed, shy, pessimistic, moody and poor.” So congratulations if you just had a baby before Feb 8. You missed out on a Year of the Monkey kid, which she tells us are, “clever, ambitious, charming, and likely to study a strong core science subject at uni. One with a proven career path.” Poor you.
Hot: Business as usual
Not: Conservation
The government made in-roads towards ending Kanchanaburi tourist attraction and Tinder profile pic generator Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yanasampanno’s tiger petting enterprise recently. Officials from the Department of National Parks swept into the facility in the dead of night and spirited away five tigers as though they were Hong Kong booksellers holidaying in Pattaya. Five whole tigers! Do you know how many tigers are at Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yanasampanno in total? Maybe 147, possibly more like 200. Good work, boys.
Hot: Islanders
Not: Us
We, the cultured city kids of Bangkok with an encyclopedic knowledge of trending gua bao recipes and what sort of filament bulbs they’re using in the cooler parts of Peckham, demand an end to restaurants from Koh Bumblefuck coming here and stealing our shop space. In the past few weeks, Bangkok has been invaded by salad-dodging Koh Chang tourist favorite Barrio Bonito and Dressed looky-likey Farm Factory from Phuket. First sign of a Korean taco specialist from Koh Phayam and we’re moving.
Hot: Marble print
Not: Indigo dye
Get that authentic ‘80s bathroom sink look with this season’s hottest new trend: marble print on clothes, bags, shoes—just about anything you spent the last two years amassing in indigo tie dye. At least this time you don’t have to make it yourself at a Phra Khanong workshop.
Jan 29
Hot: Phra Arthit
Not: Banglamphu
Khao San is the worst. Right up there with extra-judicial punishments, terrorist atrocities and Bitterman’s Mr. Rapee spaghetti as things this country could really do without. Which is why we need to keep it between us and not let the tourists (who are right now making Banglamphu Airbnb’s second biggest-booming neighborhood worldwide) know that the street just around the corner is one of the coolest in town. For the latest hot-spots worth leaving Sathorn for, see here and here.
Hot: Apathy
Not: Participation
Vote for the charter and you get a fourth power on top of the elected government; don’t vote for the charter and you get Dear Leader and the DPM Gens for the rest of the decade. We’re beginning to see why so many Bangkokians have given up caring about politics so long as their favorite bars get to stay open late again (see here). Hot tip: Sugar Club till 4am.
Hot: Judge rage
Not: Media ethics
It wasn’t one week ago that we were wishing for the next incident of someone parking badly or fighting with a taxi driver to give us a news story worth reading in the morning. And our wish came true! Only this time, the road-rage stems from someone who could well be suffering genuine mental health issues—a point about which our media has shown as much restraint as they did with Por’s funeral. If you need us, we’ll be rifling through Nadech’s bins.
Hot: Glico ice cream
Not: Fish-shaped croissants
The Japanification of our diets moved one step forward recently with the arrival to these shores of Glico ice cream. Think of it as Wall’s only in packaging that’s stuck in the same time warp as most of the haircuts on Soi Thaniya—something about as exciting to this town as a free Garrett popcorn giveaway at an H&M x Versace launch. So get out of that Croissant Taiyaki queue head to your nearest Family Mart now!
Jan 22
Hot: Burmese hackers
Not: Thai hackers
So long, F5 system takedown. Over the past couple of weeks, a hacking group thought to be operating from Burma has been showing us how to do this thing properly with a series of attacks on the RTP and Thai judiciary’s websites. DPM Gen Prawit “Tubby Funster” Wongsuwan has come out guns blazing with talk of how our tech-savvy police force will bring the perps to justice any day now. We wait with baited breath.
Hot: ISIS in SE Asia
Not: ISIS in Thailand
Funster was in the news again recently to reiterate claims that there’s definitely no Islamic State in Thailand. No sir. No how. This is despite Russian intelligence citing the exact opposite and the alarming signs of IS activity across the region. But then this country has a track record of being totally cool in the way it treats Muslims, so why would we have anything to worry about?
Hot: Road rage
Not: Rubber prices
Since when were commodity prices ever interesting? Seriously, they must rank up their with Boyd Kasiyabong reunion concerts and unrest in the Deep South as things no one wants to read about ever. We for one can’t wait till the next incident of a drunk celebrity doing something dumb in their car to bring our front pages back on track.
Hot: Trampolining
Not: Indoor surfing
A company from Australia has rented a warehouse on Ratchada, filled it full of trampolines and made the whole of Bangkok freak out over this latest way to feel like we’re keeping fit without having to do much work. And the good news is that, unlike the time we tried to keep fit on indoor surf simulators, this one won’t set you back B9,000 a month.
Jan 15
Hot: Netflix
Not: Every other streaming service
Did you sign up to one of Bangkok’s early have-a-go streaming startups so you could see American Pie 9 and Teenage Turtle Warriors for just B549 a month? You might want to rethink now that Netflix is here in full, costing less per month and with movies you want to watch.
Hot: Political calendars
Not: White to Win
We’re sorry, but that Thaksin calendar looked terrible. Like the unofficial fan production of a minor celebrity cobbled together from whatever’s knocking about rights-free on Google. Having it banned is this country’s first smart move in the name of culture since… well… ever. Now if we could only start showing the same level of taste over blackface we might be getting somewhere.
Hot: Tourism festivals
Not: Airline safety
Last year’s Discover Thainess festival was just adorable. We found out all about royal barges, magic monkey gods and cutely dressed hill-tribe minorities while chomping pad Thai and being smiled at. Even Dear Leader came out to remind us what a happy-go-lucky, lovable bunch we all are. And now it’s back, with three more full days of Thainess to be discovered at Lumphini park. It’s enough to make tourists brave our airlines to get here, four of which just ranked among the most dangerous in the world on AirlineRatings.com.
Hot: Corporate cafes
Not: Artisanal cafes
You’d think from the number of artisanal coffee roasters and gourmet burger stalls that we’d have plenty of reasons not to need Nespresso and McDonald’s anymore. And you’d be right. Which is why those very same brands are now pretending to be like the businesses which stole all their customers. Visit Nestle’s delightfully rustic-industrial Nespresso Boutique and McDonald’s premium produce-toting My Burger pop-up at a shopping mall near you.
Jan 8
Hot: 2016
Not: 2015
What did 2015 give to anybody? Another year of military rule, some Korean shaved ice desserts and a cafe where you can stroke fennec foxes. Thanks, but we’ll happily do without any of that stuff (except maybe the mango cheese bingsu at Seobinggo). To find out what 2016 has in store (or, if our predictions from this time last year are anything to go by, what it doesn’t), see here.
Hot: Festive lights
Not: Public spending
Now that Christmas is over, we thought we’d seen the last of LED light displays intense enough to give a five-year-old a seizure. But when you’ve spent nearly B40 million in public change on your festive decorations, it stands to reason you want people to see them till long after the holiday season is over. So we’ll excuse our rosy-cheeked governor for keeping his latest purchase up well after Jan 1. Let’s hope it doesn’t bring him bad luck with the ombudsman. (Our prediction: it won’t.)
Hot: New restaurants
Not: La Liste
The French didn’t like how things were going for their restaurants in World’s 50 Best and so came up with a new ranking. One based on facts, figures and cold-hard empirical testing. The result: forget anything this city has to offer except a couple of places last visited by your big-haired auntie in 2004.
Hot: Charging Reds
Not: Charging Yellows
Just as the NACC announces it has dropped all charges against Abhisit, Suthep and the trigger-happy soldiers of May 2010, out comes news of one more malfeasance case for the man in Dubai and his family. This time, it’s the Shinawatra children in the Criminal Court’s firing line courtesy of some dodgy share deals back in ’06. Good luck with that one.
Read our 2015 archives here
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