Our picks for the best things to do in Bangkok this weekend

Bangkok’s literary scene is tuning up again, this year under the playful theme ‘Melody of Books’ with the question: ‘Have you read? Have you listened?’ The fair stretches across aisles packed with titles from every imaginable genre, a mix of publishers old and new, while corners hum with workshops, talks and interactive sessions. It’s less a market and more a symphony, where pages turn like notes and voices carry stories beyond the spine. Visitors wander between author meet-and-greets, live readings and unexpected performances, discovering that books aren’t just for reading but for experiencing, hearing and feeling. By the time you leave, your bag is heavier, your mind noisier and your appreciation for narrative a little more… orchestral. October 9-19. Free. Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, 10am-9pm

Constellation of Complicity gathers work from Myanmar, Iran, Russia, Syria and communities long marked by displacement or autonomy struggles, places often reduced to headlines about conflict. What emerges instead is a map of connections, where power flows less as isolated regimes than as a network of cooperation – diplomacy stitched to military force, economies buttressed by shared violence, sovereignty used as camouflage. The exhibition doesn’t rehearse trauma so much as trace how oppression migrates, mutates and reappears across borders, and how resistance too moves in unexpected echoes. Its title signals a double act: exposing complicity while gesturing toward solidarity. Aesthetics here function as tools – ritual, forensic, speculative – reminding us that art can be evidence, a method of seeing patterns the news rarely lingers on. Until October 19. Free. Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, 10am-8pm

Ploenchan ‘Mook’ Vinyaratn has turned Bangkok Kunsthalle into a space where weaving isn’t just craft, it’s conversation. Her most ambitious institutional installation to date reimagines fragments of past textile works, letting textures, colours and forms collide in ways that feel both deliberate and accidental. The building itself – once the Thai Wattana Panich printing house – anchors the work, with 399 circular fabric pieces echoing its original logo, each stamped with words from children’s books once produced on-site. Collaborating with other Thai women, Vinyaratn deconstructs looms and rebuilds them into monumental forms, creating works that pulse with collective memory, resilience and quiet audacity. By the time you leave, the fragments have stitched themselves into a living narrative, a reminder that history, imagination and community can fold seamlessly into one. September 26-November 30. Free. Bangkok Kunsthalle, 2pm-8pm  

Chaiyot Jindakul’s latest series was born during a turning point in his life: becoming a father. Each canvas is threaded with the quiet astonishment of watching his first son grow, the weight of new responsibility balanced with the wonder of innocence unfolding before him. Love here doesn’t appear as sentimentality but as something sharper, etched into colour and form. For Chaiyot, art is never detached from living – it begins with action, discipline and a stubborn fidelity to searching. Every work becomes a record of perseverance, a refusal to accept easy conclusions, a reminder that beauty alone cannot measure value. What emerges instead is an intimate cartography of fatherhood, labour and faith in process, where each painting feels like both witness and offering. Until October 26. Free. Joyman Gallery, 11am-6pm

Dining by the majestic Chao Phraya River is always a treat and Asiatique Ancient Tea House has made it even more tempting. All through October, you can enjoy a ‘come two pay one’ deal on their all-you-can-eat yum cha feast. For the first time ever, over 30 a la carte dishes are on the table such as prawn har gao with asparagus, crispy pastry with shrimp and foie gras, steamed crispy prawn rice rolls and deep-fried purple sweet potato with shrimp and pork. Finish on a sweet note with traditional desserts and sip your way through the meal with free-flow drinks. Two hours of riverside indulgence never tasted this good. Until October 31. Starts at B888 (2 persons). Reserve via  020-595-999 or here. Asiatique Ancient Tea House, Open daily midday-midnight 

Jiajia Qi arrives in Bangkok with her first solo exhibition in Thailand, but this isn’t a simple retrospective or a neat display of greatest hits. Supported by Mondriaan Fonds, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds and the Embassy of the Netherlands in Thailand, the show stretches across her past works and new experiments, each piece circling back to her obsession with place and the slippery ways it shapes us. The framework leans into Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s idea of ‘nomadic thought’ where history isn’t pinned down and geography refuses to play by institutional rules. It’s less about tidy narratives and more about movement, flux and the sensation of being caught in between. Expect to leave with the feeling you’ve wandered somewhere unfamiliar, yet strangely close. September 25-November 8. Free. SAC Gallery, 10am-6pm

75 years after Charles Schulz first drew a small dog with improbable dreams, Snoopy is still everywhere – dancing on T-shirts, perched on mugs, drifting across the cultural imagination with the ease of someone who never grew up. This anniversary exhibition, arriving in Bangkok for the first time, asks what it means for a cartoon beagle to outlast presidents, wars and changing fashions. More than 100 works are on display, gathered across four zones that slip between art, couture, pop culture and nostalgia. Contributions from Thai and international artists sit beside collaborations with major fashion houses, while archival strips remind us that friendship and humour are never dated.  September 6-December 7. B350-890 via here. RCB Galleria 1-2, River City Bangkok, 10am-8pm

There’s a curious magic in stepping back millions of years – a chance to wander a world before ours, where giant creatures roamed freely. This event offers just that: an immersive trek alongside Thai dinosaurs and prehistoric beasts, as if the clock has unwound to a forgotten era. Each step pulls you deeper into a landscape shaped by colossal terrestrial rulers, their shadows still lingering in the imagination. It’s less a simple exhibition and more a portal to ancient earth, where awe and curiosity collide. For anyone who’s ever been fascinated by the primeval, this is an invitation to experience wonder unfiltered – a rare glimpse of a world lost but never forgotten. July 1-November 2. B150-350 at the door. Museum Pier, 10am-6pm

Shereif Eldesouky’s new exhibition is a meditation on how we break apart and find our way back. The Egyptian mixed-media artist, now based in Bangkok, draws on memory and sibling love, framing both as fragile yet astonishingly resilient. His chosen metaphor is the reef: sometimes bleached, sometimes reborn, always in flux. The pieces trace cycles of sorrow and repair, suggesting that the same emotional currents that pull us away can, in time, return us to one another. Eldesouky mirrors this in his process, painting, dismantling, then reassembling fragments into forms that speak of survival and renewal. It’s at once personal and planetary, asking us to see our own bonds in the same light as coral – vulnerable, but never beyond revival. September 20-November 15. Free. Bangkok 1899, 11am-6pm

In Bangkok, something strange is happening on the banks of the Chao Phraya – and it’s glowing blond. Iconsiam has become ground zero for Dragon Ball fever, hosting the largest exhibition the franchise has ever staged. A full-throttle homage to the Super Saiyan universe in all its loud, spiky, slow-motion glory. Iconic battle scenes have been pulled from the anime and built to scale, letting visitors wander through Namek like it's Sunday shopping. More than 40 life-sized figures lurk in corners and float mid-air, poised for battle or just waiting to be in your selfies. There's Kamehameha practice, a Dragon Ball scavenger hunt via app, even fusion zones. It’s half playground, half pilgrimage – and entirely designed for those who never quite left their Goku era behind.  Until October 19. B400-1,110 via here. Attraction Hall, Iconsiam, 10.30am-8.30pm