Sports & Fitness

So how do most people get around Bangkok? Private cars, buses, motorcycle taxis, sky trains or just walking. But, have you ever considered hopping on a bicycle?   The idea of cycling in Bangkok sounds a bit mad to most people. Even for regular city explorers who love wandering the streets on foot, the thought of pedalling through Bangkok traffic can feel pretty intimidating. The fear of accidents and not knowing how to navigate these roads safely puts most people off. Photograph: Anywheel But here's the thing. Bangkok has quietly rolled out a bike-sharing scheme that's actually pretty decent. Right now there are 350 docking points scattered across the city with over 1,500 bicycles ready to go, which you can check here. You'll find them in key areas like Rattanakosin Island, along Sathorn Road and Silom Road, over on the Thonburi side following the riverside road from Sathorn Bridge up to Rama eight Bridge, plus at various train stations including MRT Sam Yot, BTS Chong Nonsi, BTS Sala Daeng and BTS Asok.   Bike sharing isn't exactly new to Bangkok. Services have been floating around for more than a decade. The city brought the scheme back last year and now there are three or four main providers you'll spot around town including Leo, Anywheel, GCOO and HelloRide.   Photograph: Anywheel Getting set up takes about five minutes. Download whichever app looks good to you, punch in your details and sort out how you want to pay. If you reckon you'll use it regularly, linking a credit card makes life easier. Not keen on that? True Money works fine, or you can just top up credit in the system as you go.   Here's something worth knowing. Every citizen gets one free hour every single day. The exact setup varies between providers but right now Anywheel, Punpun and Pundai all do this. As for pricing, it breaks down roughly like this. One day costs about B50t, seven days around B100, 30 days approximately B200, 150 days about B750 and a full year sits at roughly B1,000. Photograph: Anywheel   Now about actually cycling around the city. The trickiest moments come when you need to cross major roads. If there's a zebra crossing and traffic looks heavy, just get off and walk the bike alongside other pedestrians. Same goes for narrow spots with motorcycle barriers where you're not sure if you can squeeze through. Getting off and walking the bicycle takes barely any extra time, cuts down the stress massively and honestly feels safer. Either way you'll still get where you're going faster than walking.   The whole setup works better than you might expect. Those docking points pop up in genuinely useful locations and having multiple providers means you've usually got options nearby. Whether you're commuting or just exploring different neighbourhoods, it's worth giving it a go.

The plan was New York. Bags packed, eyes on the concrete jungle. But life had other ideas for Steve Lim, who’s now a lifestyle content creator based in Thailand, the very Good Morning Bangkok! guy on TikTok and founder of Sabai Run club ‘Everything was ready except my visa, so I made a quick stopover in Bangkok. What was meant to be a three-week stay stretched into nearly eight months as my visa dragged on and somewhere along the way Bangkok began to feel like home. I started working remotely for a tech company and ended up building a life here.’ Funny how that happens. One day you’re killing time between flights, the next you’re eight months deep and the street food guy knows your order. You’ve got a favourite coffee spot. That thing you thought was temporary? It’s putting down roots.  Steve didn’t plan to fall for Bangkok. But somewhere in the waiting, he was living too. The city let him in – so warmly, so familiarly. It started feeling suspiciously like a destination rather than a detour.  Here’s the story of how he realised home isn’t always where you’re headed, but where you stop running. ‘What do I really want out of life?’    Photograph: imstevelim It’s a story that starts in New Zealand, in the stillness of lockdown. Steve was working at an investment bank, driving Uber Eats in his spare time and asking himself the kinds of questions that surface when the whole world pauses:  ‘What do I really want out of life?... I didn’t hate my job, but I knew deep down that I wanted something more creative and fulfilling,’  he recalls. Music, photography, something undefined – his soul was basically demanding more than this rigid desk.    Photograph: imstevelim So he quit. Packed up his life, set his sights on New York. But then another city pulled harder. Bangkok. Messy, magnetic, impossible not to fall for. ‘Growing up, Bangkok already felt like a second home.’ Steve did move cities. He also returned to one he’d never quite left. ‘Honestly, the transition was seamless for me,’ he says when we ask about settling into Bangkok.   Photograph: imstevelim  ‘Growing up, Bangkok already felt like a second home. I’d visited about 10 times, my family have close friends here and many of my schoolmates were Thai!’ Trace the map of his life and his roots don’t follow straight lines. They weave across Southeast Asia, with Bangkok appearing again and again.   Photograph: imstevelim Steve is a Chinese-New Zealander with Cambodian-born Chinese parents. His mother lived in Vietnam for years, his father relocated to Thailand after the Cambodian civil war. At home, they spoke Teochew, the same dialect that hums through Chinese-Thai families across the city. Language became the bridge. ‘Many of my friendships now are rooted in that mix,’ Steve tells us. ‘I even picked up the nickname Zek, which means uncle in Teochew. A lot of the conversations I have with my friends are a combination of Tinglish and Teochew!’ There’s a lightness in how he talks about the easy code-switching between Tinglish and his mother tongue. It’s the sound of belonging, unforced and familiar. ‘Compared to New Zealand, where I often felt like an outsider despite living most of my life there,’  Steve says,  Photograph: imstevelim ‘Bangkok feels like a place where I truly belong. I blend in here and culturally, it just feels more relatable.’ Not an outsider looking in. Just home. ‘When I first moved here, friends back home couldn’t understand why.’   Photograph: imstevelim Bangkok can have a one-sided image – seen as a stopover city, a place you pass through or use as a launchpad to ‘find yourself,’ whether that means partying or something deeper. Steve knows this perception well: ‘When I first moved here, friends back home couldn’t understand why. Their reaction was basically: Why Bangkok? Isn’t it just parties and drugs? That stereotype hurt, because I knew the city had so much more to offer.’  He’s spent the years since proving them wrong – not with arguments, but with community.  Photograph: imstevelim Which brings us to an interesting question: Steve’s now the founder of what’s been called Asia’s largest weekly social run club Sabai Run Club. Is that success because Bangkokians are just naturally friendly and eager to connect? Or is there something deeper happening here – the way city people actively seek out genuine connection as an antidote to urban loneliness? Photograph: imstevelim ‘I lived pretty impulsively.’ When Steve first landed in Bangkok, he was restless.  ‘I lived pretty impulsively,’  he admits.  Fresh into a tech job he wasn’t sure would stick, moving every couple of weeks, trying to soak up as much of the city as possible.   Photograph: imstevelim Community eventually found him through touch rugby. Coming from New Zealand, rugby was in his blood and even though touch rugby is niche here, it gave him a tribe. ‘That’s the thing, you just need one common interest to open doors.’ He dabbled with apps, of course, but those connections felt fleeting. What he really craved was something more intentional, more rooted. And that would eventually spark what became Sabai Run Club. Steve’s ‘Sabai’ state of mind In July 2024, Steve and two friends, Emiko and Maris, kicked off what they thought would be a modest accountability experiment. ‘None of us liked running, but we thought maybe if we did it together, we’d grow to enjoy it.’ You can catch the full back story here. Photograph: imstevelim Still, there was a bigger gap they wanted to fill. Bangkok had no shortage of nightlife, but where could people go for genuine connection that didn’t involve alcohol or staying out until 3am? The answer: morning runs. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Steve Lim (@imstevelim) Their motto was simple and cheeky –  ‘We run a little and socialise a lot.’  From that, Sabai Run Club was born. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sabai Run Club Bangkok (@sabairunclub.bkk) What happened next was extraordinary. More than 22,000 people ended up joining their Sunday runs. Strangers meet at dawn and become friends before breakfast. Tourists now fly in just to experience what participants call ‘the magic.’ Photograph: imstevelim ‘I often sit at the top of the stairs before runs just to take it all in,’ Steve says. ‘It's a beautiful sight.’ But the success of the club isn’t just about timing or riding a global running trend. It's about filling a gap Bangkok didn’t know it had. ‘Bangkokians are naturally warm and curious, but I think the city was missing spaces for organic connection,’ Steve reflects.  Photograph: imstevelim That natural warmth collided with a collective hunger for something real, something that didn’t feel transactional. Sabai Run Club became one of the answers. ‘Oh, you're the good morning Bangkok guy!’ Steve was also deliberate about keeping his own profile separate from what they were building. ‘With Sabai Run Club, I was intentional about not making it about me. I didn’t want the community to grow off my personal popularity. In the early days, people would turn up saying,  ‘Oh, you’re the Good Morning Bangkok guy!’  but for Steve, the club was never about him – it was about people connecting, sharing the city and making it theirs. Photograph: imstevelim It’s not the most ‘strategic’ approach, but it’s the one that feels right.’ And slowly, the narrative is shifting. Messages pour in from people discovering a different side of Bangkok for the first time. ‘People message me saying: I didn't know Bangkok had such wholesome, active communities,’ he shares.  The city Steve loves is finally getting the story it deserves.  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Steve Lim (@imstevelim) But the runs? They’re just the beginning. ‘Sabai Run Club started as a simple Sunday jog, but it’s grown into a movement. We have a lot of exciting plans for Bangkok’s wellness community – let’s just say we’re exploring ways to make recovery as fun as running itself.’ ‘I didn’t want to be seen as cringe. Eventually I got over that.’ Navigating public recognition in Asia has been its own education for Steve. ‘In New Zealand, people are casual around celebrities, but in Asia it’s the opposite. When I first started making content, I’d get DMs from strangers saying they’d just spotted me at a restaurant or shopping mall and it was overwhelming.’ View this post on Instagram A post shared by Steve Lim (@imstevelim) Sharing relationships online created anxiety before he learnt to set boundaries. ‘Over time, I’ve learnt what I want to share and what to keep private and that’s made things easier,’  he reflects.  Still, he considers himself small-time compared to peers navigating much larger audiences:  ‘I still consider myself a small-time creator compared to peers like Joyce Sin or Mike Yu. I can only imagine what they experience!’ View this post on Instagram A post shared by mike yu (@immikeyu) His content spans platforms differently. TikTok is where authenticity felt safest from the start –  ‘It felt like the place I could be myself, but I didn’t share that content on Instagram for a long time because I was worried about being judged by people back home. I didn’t want to be seen as cringe. Eventually I got over that.’  Instagram is his digital diary: cafes, fashion, friends, runs.  YouTube offers something deeper: conversations, day-in-the-life moments, the full picture.  Together, they capture someone living intentionally across economics, content creation, tech work and modelling – a chaotic portfolio that somehow makes sense. Photograph: imstevelim ‘It’s chaotic at times, but I enjoy it. No two days are the same and that keeps me excited,’  he says.  Once, he had a boxing match one day and a modelling gig the next, cast as a high school jock. ‘They gave me boxing gloves and makeup to make me look like I’d just been in a fight– it was perfect timing.’ A perfect collision of worlds really.  These days, he leans into imperfection.  ‘People connect more with unpolished vlogs and real moments than with curated perfection. That’s where the authenticity comes from. It’s real life, not a highlight reel.’ ‘The only certainty in life is death.’ Photograph: imstevelim For years, Steve carried a timeline: by 28, he should have relationships, career, finances figured out. But life kept teaching him otherwise. ‘The truth is, the only certainty in life is death and that thought has always pushed me to ask: if I left this world tomorrow, what impact would I leave behind?’ View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sabai Run Club Bangkok (@sabairunclub.bkk) Every Sunday at Sabai Run Club, he watches people from different ages, backgrounds and abilities come together organically. ‘There’s something magical about seeing those bonds form in such an organic way.’  Messages arrive weekly, online and in person, thanking him and the team for creating space that matters. ‘Those reminders never get old and they mean everything to us.’ Photograph: imstevelim We ask if he has any words for anyone considering a big move. Steve says:  ‘I’ll admit I’m biased, because I’ve always done things a bit unconventionally: moving cities, switching industries, taking risks. But I do it because I don’t want to live with regret. Try things. Do things. Life is short. The worst outcome is living with a long list of what-ifs.’ The man headed for New York ended up creating a life here, a beautiful one for himself and others – not because Bangkok was easier, but because his belonging here isn’t borrowed – it’s built.  Steve Lim made a home in the city that reflects his versatile soul, in Sunday mornings spent building community, in the choice to live without regret.

If there’s one workout that never gets old for me, it’s Pilates. Whether I’m trying to strengthen my core, improve my posture or just take a mindful break from the chaos of Bangkok, it always leaves me feeling stronger and more centred. Over the past few weeks, I’ve tried out tons of Pilates studios across the city from bougie boutique spots to in-the-know gems and each one has its unique personality. Some are all about serious form and technique, others are great for beginners or group energy and a few are just so gorgeous you’ll want to stay all day.  Whether you're a total beginner or looking to shake up your current routine, here’s my pick of Bangkok’s top eight Pilates studios – each with something special to offer. Let’s get into it.

If you’ve grown tired of solo weight training or cycled through every mat pilates instructor YouTube has to offer, you’re not alone. This new wave of wellness isn’t about turning away from aesthetics – it’s about embracing them in a way that feels more expressive, more tailored, more you. Fitness is no longer just functional; it can be beautiful, social, and even a little indulgent. And right now in Bangkok, two formats are leading that shift: barre and indoor cycling. Because who says your workouts can’t feel like a moodboard and leave you breathless? Sure, any movement is good movement. But if your current fitness routine feels more like a chore than a celebration, maybe it’s time to try something new. Something that adds rhythm to your reps and community to your calories burned. In a world where dopamine often comes from screens and scrolls, these workouts offer something real: a place to move, connect and maybe even feel like the main character for 50 glorious minutes. Exercise becomes a mood, a mindset, and yes, sometimes even a fashion statement. Barre and spin both deliver on that niche appeal. One is low-impact and sculpt-focused, relying on high reps and bodyweight strength. The other is high-intensity and heart-pumping, ideal for those short on time but big on burn.

It’s a sweltering Saturday night in Pattaya, but the oppressive humidity has nothing on the mayhem unfolding inside the ring. A gargantuan local hero named Blobtang is nonchalantly smoking a cigarette mid-match, and the crowd is a screaming, beer-sloshing sea of pure energy. This isn’t the WWE your dad watched in the ‘90s, nor is it the stoic ‘strong style’ of Japan. This is ‘Pattaya Style’. This is Paradise Sports Entertainment (PSE). At the centre of this organised chaos is SunnyZ, a man juggling two distinct personas with relentless drive. In the ring, he’s a powerhouse competitor with a devastating finishing move called the ‘SUN-KNEE’. Outside of it, he’s the ambitious founder, promoter, and heart of Thailand’s most vibrant new wrestling promotion. He’s the boss, the booker, and occasionally, the builder. ‘I believe wrestling should be sports entertainment’, SunnyZ explains, his passion for the project evident in every word. He speaks quickly, sentences tumbling over each other as if he can’t get the ideas out fast enough. ‘I don't want to be an old-school, traditional promotion. I want to do something different, with more colour and more fans involved. I want people to feel they are part of the show, not just spectators watching us and then going home’. Photograph: Paradise Sports Entertainment The journey to create this paradise was an unconventional one. A long-time wrestling fan, SunnyZ, a Canadian of Chinese heritage, found himself living in Toronto in his thirties feeling, as he bluntly puts it, ‘f***ing dead inside’. He was stable, successful and had followed the path his parents had hoped for – work, make money, buy a house. But something was missing. ‘Anywhere I went, people would say, “Oh my, you’re a big Chinese guy, you speak Mandarin and English, you should try wrestling!” So many people told me, I was like, “Okay, why not?”’ He signed up for a wrestling school in Toronto just for fun, and was instantly hooked. ‘After that, I was so into it. I had a great time wrestling as a part-timer’. But it was a move to Thailand that sparked his entrepreneurial spirit. ‘I just love it here too much’, he laughs. ‘For me, Thailand is the perfect balance between West and East. I spent 16 years in China and 20 years in Canada, so I’m 50/50. This is the perfect mix’. The one thing his new home lacked was a wrestling scene that matched the intensity he craved. ‘I missed it so much. There are other good schools here, but the training wasn't as frequent as I was used to. So I thought, “I need to find a place to train for myself”. That's how it all started’. What began as a personal training project with his friend and fellow wrestler, Benji, quickly snowballed. They hosted impromptu fights in boxing rings and on the street, drawing an immediate, enthusiastic response. Soon, a school became a business, and a business needed a proper ring. The challenge was immense. ‘Oh, it was super f***ing hard’, he recalls of the construction. ‘In Thailand, it’s extremely hard. In America, you can order one, but it’s expensive and takes forever to ship. So I found a boxing ring guy and walked him through it step-by-step. I was driving my car every day to these middle-of-nowhere places to build it by hand. I basically became a builder. In Canada, I was definitely not a handyman!’ Now, approaching its second anniversary, PSE is thriving. It stands as the only promotion in Southeast Asia with a roster of full-time, salaried wrestlers. For SunnyZ, that’s the real victory, the core of his mission. ‘My goal is that I want our wrestlers to get fully paid’, he says. ‘So they can make a living from wrestling while they're in Thailand’. The PSE philosophy is built on a foundation of pure, unadulterated entertainment. SunnyZ’s vision is crystal clear and unapologetically visual. ‘The type of guys I'm looking for is a different ratio compared to other companies’, he insists. ‘I want a guy who, the moment he comes out from behind the curtain, before he’s even in the ring, people are like, “Whoa, this guy looks like a character”. The first impression is the look. That's the sad truth in wrestling’. Photograph: Paradise Sports Entertainment   PSE’s global recruitment drive has resulted in a glorious menagerie of personalities. The roster features the seasoned expertise of French veteran Marc Sebire, the hard-hitting fighting spirit of Japan’s Kojio Akumu and the raw power of Canada’s Ryan Rogan. These international talents share the stage with pure spectacles like Wam Bam Bellows – a ‘South Australian giant’ who dwarfs his opponents. And at the heart of it all is the champion, Blobtang, a super-new talent who has become a local phenomenon. ‘He’s famous on social media, even Snoop Dogg posts about him,’ SunnyZ explains. The key, he stresses, is variety. ‘If you see our guys, nobody looks like anyone else. I want diversity. No duplication of characters’. This anything-goes ethos, dubbed ‘Pattaya Style’, bleeds into the performances themselves. One night might see a wrestler use a scooter from the street as a weapon. It’s less a rigid script and more a high-octane improv show with suplexes. ‘You look around, see how many kids are there, and that's how you decide on the night’, he says with a grin. ‘If we’re in a mall, we tell the guys, “Keep it PG”’. But for all its rebellious bravado, the promotion is built on more than just shock value. The personalities themselves offer a compelling contrast, reflecting the true diversity of Pattaya beyond its stereotypes. SunnyZ is keen to showcase this duality, and no one embodies it better than one of his key international veterans. ‘Marc Sebire has a beautiful, stable family life with his Thai wife and kids. He represents the wholesome side of Pattaya... which makes a nice contrast to the rest of us!’ SunnyZ adds with a laugh.  Photograph: Paradise Sports Entertainment Life as the boss has forced SunnyZ to evolve. The carefree wrestler who partied with his colleagues after shows has been replaced by a focused promoter who heads home to rest. He draws on his past as a fitness trainer in Canada to ensure his crew stays healthy, proudly noting they’ve had no major injuries in two years despite a gruelling schedule. ‘It’s a different role’, he admits. ‘When I was a wrestler, I was the nice guy in the locker room. Now I'm the owner, there are rules. I need to make sure everybody is on check’. The hardest part, he confesses, is the human resources side of the job – managing pay, egos, and expectations. ‘I miss just being a wrestler’, he says wistfully. His own career has been a fascinating journey, including a surprising detour into acting. ‘You know the documentary series Dark Side of the Ring? I’m actually in that one’, he reveals. ‘The show was shot in Toronto. Before I moved here, if they needed an Asian guy, it was me. They’d put a wig on me, cover my tattoos, and I’d be in the recreation scenes’. The biggest challenge now, he says, isn’t finding venues or talent, but convincing a new audience – and potential investors – that PSE is more than just a novelty. His ultimate goal is to land a ten-episode season on a major Thai television network. ‘You know, like WWE has Monday Night Raw? I want to have, maybe, Sunday Night PSE. Once a week’. It’s not just about exposure; it’s about legitimacy. He wants to prove PSE is a serious, long-term venture and, most importantly, to honour the wrestlers who have stuck by him. ‘There are a bunch of guys who, to build the company, sacrificed and stayed with me for very little money, or no money sometimes’, he says, his tone shifting from promoter to loyal friend. ‘If I have the money, I'd rather spend it on my own people. I’m not gonna pay for big names. We are the big names for the local scene’. Photograph: Paradise Sports Entertainment For now, he’s building his paradise one show at a time, fuelled by a deep love for his adopted home and the wild, wonderful world of professional wrestling. His hunt for new talent is relentless, with a particular focus on finding female wrestlers to add even more diversity to the roster. He’s creating a dream for aspiring performers: come to Thailand, experience an incredible lifestyle and become a star. When asked for his final pitch to a curious newcomer, his answer is simple and direct, much like a punch to the chest. ‘PSE is pro wrestling, but it's also sports entertainment’, he declares. ‘It’s something you've never seen before. It's not WWE, it's not New Japan. You have to come to see this unique way of sports entertainment’. He’s right. You really do.

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