Tita Honghirunkham

From archive designer rails to bargain thrift piles, these are the best vintage shops and markets in and around Bangkok One person’s clear-out is another’s find of the year. Bangkok’s vintage scene runs from blocstore’s archive designer rails at Lido Connect in Siam to Pattavikorn Market’s second-hand clothing heaps on Nawamin Road. In between, there are cowboy boots at (un)FASHION S39, vintage band tees at Zotusstore in Srinakarin Train Market and furniture worth the taxi ride at Papaya Studio in Bang Khen. Some finds come with a bill that won’t sting (well, most of the time). Others are collector territory. Pick your level of rummaging: this list takes in specialist vintage shops, broader resale stores and flea markets, plus an air-conditioned detour to Ngamwongwan in neighbouring Nonthaburi.

Banthat Thong used to sell football boots. Banthat Thong used to sell football boots. Now this stretch beside Chulalongkorn University and near the National Stadium runs on jasmine-rice congee at Jok Sam Yan, Jeh O Chula’s tom yum Mama noodles and braised duck at Tang Sui Heng. Save room for toast at Nueng Nom Nua and the sugar-crusted Melting Sundaes at Ice Cream Samosorn. Sports shops and car-parts garages once defined this part of Banthat Thong Road, with repairs spilling onto the pavement. Chulalongkorn University’s redevelopment reshaped the area during the 2010s, including the sports-focused Stadium One complex, which opened in 2018. The restaurant boom gathered pace after the pandemic, though the neighbourhood’s older kitchens were feeding people long before the food crowds arrived. The street changes shift in the late afternoon. Shutters go up and neon comes on. Plastic stools multiply along the kerb, and garlic hitting a hot wok does the advertising. Students drift through in lanyards. Strangers with phones queue for instant-noodle tom yum. Dessert shops with their own fan clubs stay open past midnight. There’s an argument going on here, too. In 2025, the university’s property management arm honoured 42 businesses that had been part of the Banthat Thong-Sam Yan area for more than 50 years. That same year, reporting documented falling visitor numbers and pressure from rents. Amarin’s Spotlight spoke to the owner of Jeh Bow chicken rice, who was leaving after 25 years

Nobody ever explained the rules. They just appeared – mid-dinner, mid-sweep, mid-sentence – delivered by a relative with absolute conviction and not a footnote in sight. Don’t tap your bowl. Don’t answer that voice. Don’t step on the doorstep. I obeyed, obviously. Still do. These Thai superstitions turn rice bowls into invitations for hungry spirits and sweeping after dark into a threat to your fortune. Wednesday haircuts and pointing at rainbows have consequences too. Now that I’m older, I can see possible practical lessons in these warnings, from protecting crockery to navigating a dark house. Those explanations aren’t always proven origins, but spirits made the rules harder to ignore – especially for a kid like me. The rules range from properly spooky to suspiciously practical and vary by family and region. If your nan tells it differently, she’s not wrong. That’s how these things go.   Photograph: ShutterThai movie   House rules Don't clink your bowl at dinner Table manners, with an audience. Tap your rice bowl or clank your cutlery against a plate and, the belief goes, you’ve invited hungry wandering spirits to dinner. They hear the knock and assume it’s served. Some tellings specify spirits with no relatives to make merit for them. Bonus curse: you stay hungry because your guests ate. The unspooky reading: clattering is rude, especially around elders and guests, and hard knocks can chip earthenware or porcelain. The warning also fits a wider tradition of respect for r

Ahead of his Bangkok return, Yung Kai talks mango sticky rice, the joy of playing Wildflower live, a possible rock turn and exploring more of Thailand ‘I think I had at least, like, five or six.’ That’s Yung Kai’s mango sticky rice count from his first trip to Thailand. He bought a bunch, took it back to the hotel and tucked in. ‘It was very sweet,’ he says, ‘and just, I don’t know, it just tasted, like, different, like really good.’ He’s back on Sunday, November 1, playing Sphere Hall at EmSphere on his stay with the ocean, i’ll find you: Asia 2026 tour. When we speak, it’s 7.30pm where he is and 9.30am in Bangkok, and the trip is clearly on his mind. ‘I can’t wait,’ he says. The plan, as far as it is, sounds much like last time.   Photograph: @loewky, @ykaizzk – yung kaiArtist   ‘I like to just, like, walk around and just go wherever life takes me. I’m not really good at planning, but I love shopping.’ On stage, he’s more decisive. Ask which track he most wants Thai fans to sing back and he goes straight to Wildflower. Watch Wildflower on YouTube ‘Most of my songs are, like, slow,’ he says, Wildflower is ‘one of my, like, faster songs’, which makes it a live favourite.   Photograph: @loewky, @ykaizzk – yung kaiArtist   ‘I really like to see just fans, like, jump and just scream the words. It’s so fun to play that song, you know, because most of my songs are, like, slow.’ He’s keen to pick up the pace elsewhere, too, though a change of direction is still an idea rather t

Too tired to face Bangkok traffic? Put on your favourite series and let dinner come to you. Pizza delivery in Bangkok goes well beyond the usual chains, with hand-rolled sourdough from dough bros., Romana-style squares from Pala Pizza Romana and big New York-style slices from Soho Pizza. There’s plenty of personality in the toppings, too. Royal Pizza’s munchie pizza turns the snack menu into a topping, Kick! Chop! Slice! brings Isan sausage to a New York-style base and MAD PIZZA pairs its soft, chewy crust with truffle and mushrooms. Whether you’re feeding yourself, sharing with friends or ordering for a family feast, these six Bangkok pizzerias are worth bookmarking. Enter your address before choosing your pie – delivery coverage, menus and ordering hours vary by branch.

Updated and expanded for September 2026 – Bangkok’s best Pilates studios get a remix to match growing demand. Club Pilates brings its trusted brand to the city, while other studios explore reformer, mat, hot, clinical and hybrid Pilates. Pilates. A workout that, to the uninitiated, looks like a complex, contraption-based workout that only fitness experts can master. And while Pilates does go heavy on the ‘contraptions’, the workout is surprisingly simple, getting into the smaller muscles most workouts miss.  In a nutshell, Pilates is about building strength, stability and control without beating up your joints. Low impact but the results are high. You walk out standing a little taller, moving a little better. For Bangkok, the trend crept in quietly. Physio clinics, a handful of low-key studios, places you’d find out about by word of mouth dominated for a time. Recovery over aesthetics. Small classes, specific clientele, not much to shout about. That's very much not the story now. What started as a niche has become a lot of Bangkokians' non-negotiable. A big player on the workout scene, and something more and more accessible as the trend develops. Reformers fill light-washed rooms across Sukhumvit. Heated classes push past 37°C with playlists that wouldn't feel out of place on a Friday night. Clinical setups run by actual physiotherapists sit alongside high-energy hybrid concepts and bilingual sessions that have opened the door to a whole new crowd. Reformer slots book out day

Twenty-odd years ago, when Swiss-born Preduce co-founder Simon Pellaux first landed in Bangkok's skate scene. To call it a scene at that time was probably an overstatement. There were no parks, no big brands and precious little backup. What there was: a lot of ingenuity.           Photograph: Janchai Montrelerdrasme – Preduce co-founder Simon PellauxBangkok     To set the scene, it was the early 2000s. Skaters carved out their own spaces and built the scene from the ground up. There were a few shops around, sure, but no homegrown Thai skate brand and no real way to make a living from it. The shared love of the sport was what made the scene what it was (or is?). And then Preduce happened. 'With my friends, we wanted to build the first Thai skate company, so skaters could have a way to keep skating and make a living, as a pro skater, but also working in a store or filming or, as an artist.' Founded in 2002, Preduce became Thailand's first homegrown skate brand. Videos came first, starting with 2005's Smooth, then the Siam Square shop in 2006. It hasn't slowed down since, at home or abroad. It gave local talent a base and backed Thai skaters and artists and the rest of the world took notice.  Today, the Siam Square store has since closed, but not for lack of interest. On the contrary, Preduce broke away from the malls and now runs its own park, Baan Preduce, in Phra Khanong. Simon says the past five or six years have seen the scene keep growing, with more and more skate

Sometimes you've got a situation. The urgent evenings, the spontaneous detours, the surprise non-vanilla desires. And you need way more than four walls and a lock. So off you go: love hotels. They exist purely for that sweet zone between naughty and practical. Bangkok's got them scattered around town – themed rooms, playful touches and cheeky purpose-built spaces designed exactly for steamy occasions like yours.

Thai cinema is no longer the thing you’ll get round to eventually. From the family heartbreak of How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies to Hunger’s fine-dining pressure cooker and The Medium’s Isaan folk horror, these Thai movies on Netflix Thailand give you plenty of reasons to clear an evening. This year’s additions include scam-revenge thriller The Red Line, action romance My Dearest Assassin and crime thriller The Debt Collector, alongside classics such as My Girl and The Overture. Netflix says more than nine in ten of its members in Thailand watched local content in 2025. If your watchlist hasn’t caught up, start here. Streaming catalogues change, so check the title in your Netflix Thailand account before settling in.

'Thai taste' isn’t confined to carved wooden trim and a whisper of xylophone any more. At Bangkok’s new wave of Isaan restaurants, vinyl cafés and music bars, it might mean larb with a proper kick in Bang Kapi, mor lam records spinning in Nang Loeng or live Thai music over cocktails in Ari. Six new places have joined this guide, bringing more reasons to follow your ears as well as your appetite. Food may bring you through the door, but music often keeps you there: the crackle of a mor lam record, a room singing along to reggae-ska, classical Thai melodies or a properly romantic jazz set.  Some places put food first – fiery som tam, clay-pot chicken and grilled lamb ribs – while others are worth visiting for the records or live bands alone. Here’s where to start. We update this guide regularly, so check back for the latest.

Thai fabric has moved well beyond the temple wardrobe. Designers across Thailand are turning Hmong embroidery, northern sinh, southern pha thung and handwoven silk into mini skirts, slip tops, dresses and ready-to-wear pieces you can put on today. Chalay’s Manora embroidery even reached Tyla, while smaller labels are making local weaving easier to wear without losing the work behind it. There’s plenty to look for: Kahlong’s northern prints, Malinee’s adjustable skirt made from Nan’s mud-dyed cloth and Angelmæd’s Isan pha khao ma, a chequered cotton wrap, reworked with an eye on waste. Ketsarin offers made-to-measure batik skirts, while Sanæ, Cherlyn Ornika and Sirimon bring Thai silk into contemporary wardrobes.These eight brands give the craft – and the people making the cloth – a place in everyday fashion. These eight brands give the craft – and the people making the cloth – a place in everyday fashion.

On Soi Chula 1, just off Banthat Thong Road, Ice Cream Samosorn takes its swimming-club colours from an owner’s childhood habit of stopping for ice cream after a swim. Samosorn means ‘club’, and the house-made flavours reach back to familiar childhood treats: sour milk, raw Milo, Yakult and Nesvita have all featured, while the house flavour combines Thai tea, Hokkaido milk and blue spirulina. The Melting Sundae range hides sauces and toppings beneath the ice cream. The banana crème brûlée version layers banana, vanilla cream and caramel under a caramelised sugar crust, with ice cream added at the table. Crack through with a spoon and let it sink in. Other versions have included kopi tiramisu, Crazy Chocolate and Uji matcha lava. The large sundaes suit sharing, and the small shop can mean a wait in the evening. Address: 368 Soi Chula 1, Wang Mai, Pathum Wan, Bangkok 10330Opening hours: Mon–Thu 4pm–midnight, Fri–Sun 4pm–1am. What to try: Banana cream brûlée mlting sundae

Toast, but serious about it. Phuket-born Nueng Nom Nua announces itself with a giant logo of a boy holding a shokupan bun. Bread is baked in-house, with shokupan, charcoal chocolate and pain de mie among the choices, toasted crisp outside and light within, then cut into sticks for dipping. The medium set has been listed as three slices cut into nine sticks, with three sauces chosen from 19; check the current menu for the selection. Pandan and coconut-milk custard, salted egg yolk custard and Hokkaido milk cream are good starting points. Queues form before the 4pm opening. Address: 1471 Banthat Thong Rd, Wang Mai, Pathum WanOpening hours: Daily 4pm–1amWhat to try: Medium set with pandan custard

A short detour onto Soi Charat Mueang brings you to Jeh O Chula, the name many people mean by ‘that tom yum place’. Its tom yum Mama loads instant noodles into a tangy, mildly spicy broth, with toppings that can include shrimp, squid, pork, pork balls and egg. The noodles keep their bite even as the soup thickens. Add a shrimp omelette or sweet Chinese pork sausage if you’re sharing. Michelin featured Jeh O among its 2025 Bib Gourmand picks. The queue is the entry fee, so aim for just before opening on a weekday. A September 2026 guide reports use of the QUEiQ app, but check the queue system on arrival. Address: 113 Soi Charat Mueang, Rong Muang, Pathum Wan, off Banthat Thong RoadOpening hours: Daily 4.30pm-midnightWhat to try: Tom Yum Mama

Despite the name, don’t expect a Japanese hotpot. Order dry suki at Elvis Suki and you get glass vermicelli wok-fried with egg, vegetables and your choice of pork, chicken, beef or seafood. The smoky, eggy sauce is the point, with beef and seafood the signature orders. Soup versions are available too. Stir-fried rice noodles with chicken, or kway teow kua kai,  are worth a second order if you have the stomach space. It’s a no-nonsense, wok-hei kind of place. Address: 1456 Banthat Thong Rd, Wang Mai, Pathum WanOpening hours: Daily 3.30pm-midnightWhat to try: Dry beef suki or seafood suki

Haikee Kitchen suits anyone who normally only meets Banthat Thong after dark. Its signature stewed pork on rice follows a family recipe said to be more than 30 years old, cooked over charcoal and served with a punchy sauce to cut the richness. If you’re feeling less loyal to rice, there are egg noodles with the same pork, plus roasted pork ribs with a house sauce. It’s a homely lunch stop on Soi Chulalongkorn 12, with an earlier finish on Saturdays and no Sunday service. Address: 2 Soi Chulalongkorn 12, Wang Mai, Pathum Wan, off the main roadOpening hours: Mon-Fri 8.30am-7pm, Sat 9am-3pm; closed Sun.What to try: Stewed pork on rice

This is the splurge. Here Duan’s creamy omelette drapes soft, slightly runny egg over rice, with proper chunks of crab. An April 2026 review priced it at B590, the jumbo river-prawn omelette at B1,390 and stir-fried Mama instant noodles with shrimp at B260. That last dish is the cheaper way in, though all three sit well above a basic street-food bill. Check the latest menu before ordering. The Banthat Thong outlet has a retro Cantonese look, with wooden walls and jade-green tables, and tables can fill quickly.  Address: 1982-1984 Banthat Thong Rd, Wang Mai, Pathum WanOpening hours: Daily 11am-11pmWhat to try: Creamy crab omelette; stir-fried Thai instant noodles with shrimp

Call it a snack if that helps justify another stop. YOLK swaps the usual tart shell for a croissant-style pastry case with buttery, flaky layers. The original shop is a small counter on Banthat Thong Road, and the original caramel egg tart is the place to start. Eat it fresh, while the pastry is crisp and the custard glossy. Service may be quick when you catch a fresh batch, but don’t count on skipping the queue. Address: 1424 Banthat Thong Rd, Rong Muang, Pathum WanOpening hours: Daily 3pm-11pmWhat to try: Original caramel egg tart

What is it? A long-standing Italian restaurant and deli at BTS Asok//MRT Sukhumvit interchange, known for Roman-style pizza cut into square slices. The fermented dough has a crisp base, soft middle and a gentle olive-oil fragrance without feeling greasy. Individual slices make it handy for a quick lunch or dinner to take home. Published reviews have listed slices from B90, though current counter and delivery prices should be checked.  Why we love it: The generose toppings and substantial slices. Tartufo-funghi, with truffle and mixed mushrooms, is the pick for mushroom lovers, with enough aroma to announce itself before the first bite. A slice makes a satisfying light meal , and staff can warm it before  you eat. Time Out tip: Find it beside Terminal 21, between BTS Asok and MRT Sukhumvit exit three. Listed hours are daily 7am-10.30pm. Tel: 02-259-1228. For delivery, look for Pala Pizza Romana on LINE MAN and check the available slices.

What is it? A New York-style pizza shop with a crisp crust and soft, foldable middle, plus a dose of Brooklyn street attitude. Its Song Wat branch sits in historic Trok Saphan Yuan, with a raw, hideaway feel that suits a quick slice between exploring the neighbourhood. Seating is limited, so check ahead if you want to eat in.  Why we love it: The meeting of New York pizza and Isan flavours. The Isan beef sausage pizza brings garlic and black pepper, with house-roasted dried chillies adding a serious kick. The streetwear influence extends to the merchandise,, including caps, T-shirts, long-sleeved tops and aprons. Time Out tip: Choose between 1086/18 Charoen Krung Road, Bang Rak, open 1pm-9pm, and Trok Saphan Yuan, Song Wat Road, open noon-8pm. Both open Wednesday-Monday and close on Tuesdays. Order delivery through GrabFood or LINE MAN.

RD Resort keeps the focus on a private place to spend time together. Its love-hotel setup favours a low-key escape over the elaborate fantasy sets elsewhere on this list. It’s on Arun Amarin Road in Bangkok Noi, making it an option on the Thonburi side of the river when you want to slip away from the evening’s bustle. Location: Arun Amarin Road, Bangkok Noi, Bangkok

Romrudee takes the themed-room thing and gives you an entire world to choose from. Standard rooms come in Morocco, Safari, China, Venice, Mexico and USA. Deluxe rooms offer Zen and Nordic themes; the Exclusive rooms move on to Roman, Phra Nakhon, Harlem and The Emperor. Choose a setting and settle in. The hotel is in Nonthaburi, so allow time to get there. This is a place to pick for its range of rooms and its unabashed enthusiasm for a theme.  Location: Soi Liang Mueang Nonthaburi 13, Nonthaburi

If the full-scale fantasy sets aren’t your thing, G Boutique has a more contemporary look. It still makes room for a little theatre: options include a Love Themed Suite and an Executive Suite with an outdoor, cave-style jetted hot tub. Its Surawong Road address makes dinner and drinks in Silom easy to fold into the night. No elaborate journey required. Location: Surawong Road, Bang Rak, Bangkok

Twenty-five years on, Bodyslam are heading back to the big stage. The rock band, whose songs have stayed with listeners across generations, are marking the milestone with Chang Music Connection presents BODYSLAMFEST: Rak Khrueng Neung, Atthon Khrueng Neung (roughly 'half love, half endurance'), live at Rajamangala Stadium. Photograph: BodyslamBodyslam Concert A quarter of a century is a long time to live in people's playlists. Some Bodyslam songs get belted out with a group of friends. Some are lines you quietly keep for yourself on a rough day. Others send you straight back to a different year. This show is a chance for the band and their fans to look back over all 25 years through songs everyone shares, on one very big stage. Photograph: BodyslamBodyslam Concert It's familiar ground, too. On February 9-10 2019, the band took over Rajamangala for their Wicha Tua Bao album shows, and plenty of people still talk about those nights. Seven years later, everyone has moved on a little. Some will turn up with family, a partner or a group of friends, others on their own. Either way, there's a song in the set with your name on it, and this time you'll get to sing it together again. Where: Rajamangala Stadium When: February 13-14 2027 (two shows) Price: Standing tickets are B1,600. Seated tickets are 4,000, 3,000, 2,500, 2,000, 1,500, 1,200 and B900. Tickets: On sale Saturday January 9 2027 from 10am at all Thaiticketmajor branches and at www.thaiticketmajor.com.

Shoegaze meets the screen at The Synth-Nema, a film and music festival opening with Desktop Error and Siam Montage at Woof Pack in Sala Daeng on November 29. Its opening mini concert pairs live music with moving images and experimental visuals, exploring the connections between sound, cinema and contemporary art. View this post on Instagram A post shared by WOOF PACK BANGKOK (@woofpackbangkok) Thai shoegaze and alternative rock band Desktop Error share the bill with Siam Montage, whose experimental music project brings another angle to the night’s sound-and-image experiments. The organisers describe an opening night built around the interplay of live performances and visuals, with both art forms sharing the audience’s attention. Photograph: Siam MontageTHE SYNTH-NEMA The opening mini concert takes place on Sunday November 29 2026, on the second floor of Woof Pack, Soi Sala Daeng 1. BTS Sala Daeng and MRT Silom are options for getting there. Driving? The supplied event information lists parking at Ue Chuliang Building at B50 an hour; check the current rate before travelling. Listed ticket prices are B790 early bird, B990 regular and B1,500 at the door, with a drink included according to the supplied event information. Check Woof Pack’s latest announcement for ticket availability, the drink inclusion and the confirmed start time before booking For anyone whose attention usually wanders between the band and the projections, this one puts that relationship

Nobody wants ‘emergency bag’ sitting between ‘buy oat milk’ and ‘reply to Mum’ on their to-do list. But we are here: Thailand's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) is urging households to prepare a 72-hour emergency bag, with drinking water, ready-to-eat food, medicines, cash and documents among the essentials. The advice, issued on November 2 2026, covers the first three days after a disaster, when help may take time to reach everyone. DDPM director-general Nirat Pongsitthaworn linked renewed interest in emergency supplies to overseas advice amid the Middle East conflict, while stressing that household preparedness is a longstanding precaution. Cue the group-chat spiral: wait, should we be doing this too? The official message is to stay aware without panicking. Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has reassured the public about Thailand’s food and energy security. DDPM’s advice covers flash floods, landslides, earthquakes and disease outbreaks, as well as fires, riots and sabotage. Bangkok rainy season, we see you. Pack the six groups of essentials DDPM’s checklist breaks down into six categories. Adapt the contents to the people in your household and what you can carry. Medicine and health: Pack a first-aid kit, basic household  medicines, personal prescriptions and medical history records. Food and water: DDPM recommends three litres of drinking water per person per day, plus ready-to-eat food and energy snacks. Include suitable food for babies, older pe

Most bookshops sit still and wait for you to turn up. Somelee has other plans. P.S. Publishing’s Somelee Booktruck is heading to Rayong and Chanthaburi for four days of café-side book browsing. The planned November 7-10 itinerary takes the white mobile bookshop to Soulciety Coffee, Nani Matcha, Ruen Lek and Greenhouse Cafe Chanthaburi, with a different stop each day, 11am-5pm. Think of it as a pop-up bookshop with a coffee or matcha close at hand. The Bangkok publisher is the team behind the former red-doored Somewhere Bookshop and the ice cream-serving Something Blue Library. Somelee takes that bookish sociability on the road, with a mission to visit all 77 provinces of Thailand. View this post on Instagram A post shared by SOMELEE - Booktruck (สำลี) (@somelee_booktruck)   The trip announcement is pure charm: the sea would be lonely and the durian wouldn’t taste as good without you. It asks locals to turn up in numbers and send restaurant pins, so bring your best food tips. If an escape from Bangkok to the east is already on your radar, here’s an excuse to fit a book-shaped stop into the itinerary. The name is a little love letter to the vehicle. Somelee means "cotton" in Thai, a nod to its white paintwork, according to Thai PBS World’s September 30 report. Jarungdach Phosri drives the truck, handles sales and affectionately calls himself Somelee’s dad. It  debuted at the National Book Fair in March 2026; by its September 11 stop in Ratchaburi, it had rea

EYEKONS, there’s a Bangkok date for your diary. KATSEYE bring the Wildworld Tour to IMPACT Arena on February 12 2027, as the global girl group extend their arena run to Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Presale registration closes on November 1, ahead of the November ticket sales. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Live Nation Tero (@livenationth) Promoted by Live Nation, the new leg opens at Yokohama Arena in Japan on January 27 2027, then takes in Manila, Hong Kong, Seoul, Cebu and  Singapore before Bangkok. Next comes the Taiwan stop at Messe Taoyuan, billed as  Taipei, followed by Melbourne and Sydney. The run finishes at Auckland’s Spark Arena on March 5 2027. The original run reportedly sold out in under 48 hours when tickets went on sale in May 2026. It began at Dublin’s 3Arena on September 1 and has taken the group through Europe and the UK to North America, where the tour continues at Montreal’s Bell Centre on October 30. Know before you book KATSEYE: The Wildworld Tour – Bangkok takes place on February 12 2027 at IMPACT Arena, Muang Thong Thani, Nonthaburi. Ticket prices and the Bangkok show time could not be confirmed at the time of checking. Follow @livenationth for the local announcement and seating details. Plan your Bangkok ticket purchase All times below are Bangkok time and all sale dates are in November 2026. The Bangkok timetable supplied for this article is provisional; confirm the sale windows with Live Nation Thailand and Ticke

Find The Locker Room is ready to be found again. The hidden Thonglor cocktail bar announced an October 23 2026 return to Sukhumvit Soi 55 with a new look and a new cocktail menu. Its invitation: ‘Let’s catch up.’ Fair enough. There’s a lot to cover. The speakeasy opened in 2017, the work of five bartenders: Colin Chia of Singapore’s Nutmeg & Clove, Tokyo’s Hidetsugu Ueno, Taipei’s Nick Wu and Bangkok’s Ronnaporn ‘Neung’ Kanivichaporn and Chennarong ‘Jan’ Bhumichitr. By December that year, its original building faced demolition and the bar closed. It resurfaced at a new Thonglor address in February 2018. When Bangkok’s bars were ordered shut during the pandemic, it reinvented itself as a café in January 2021, serving cold brew, bubble tea and tonkatsu. Locked out, it simply found a side door. Getting in was always the game. First an unmarked passage, then a wall of steel lockers, one of which was the way through. The old trick? Slide, don’t push or pull. The drinks played games too. The original Past, Present and Future menu gave classics three interpretations, while later Time Capsule menus turned decades of fashion, toys and music into cocktails. The 2024 line-up included a Blackpink tribute split down the middle, with strawberry makgeolli on one side and, as BK Magazine described it at the time, oolong jelly on the other. Those are earlier chapters in the bar’s story; check the latest menu for what’s pouring now. What’s behind the lockers this time is yours to discover. Bri

Cool-breeze season is nearly here – prime time to take movie night outdoors. Skyline Film Bangkok returns to the River City Bangkok rooftop in Talat Noi on November 13-15 and 20-22 2026, with 12 films across six nights. The mix runs from classic rom-com 10 Things I Hate About You to the cracking soundtracks of La La Land and Singin’ in the Rain, with The Dark Knight, Trainspotting and Whiplash bringing a darker edge. Here’s the full line-up. View this post on Instagram A post shared by @skylinefilmbkk Friday November 13 6.30pm – 10 Things I Hate About You 9pm – La La Land Saturday November 14 6.30pm – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 9pm – The Dark Knight Sunday November 15 6.30pm – 13 Going on 30 9pm – Twilight Friday November 20 6.30pm – The Proposal 9pm – Me Before You Saturday November 21 6.30pm – Singin’ in the Rain 9pm – Good Will Hunting Sunday November 22 6.30pm – Trainspotting 8.50pm – Whiplash The November listing advertises a drink included with each ticket, with popcorn and additional drinks on sale. Skyline has also offered special activities on selected occasions, though no November extras have been confirmed. Seats are unreserved, so arrive early if you have a particular spot in mind. At earlier River City screenings, tickets were non-refundable, with admission carried over to a future event if rain disrupted the film. Check the November booking terms for drink inclusion, any additional charges and the current rain policy before paying

Bangkok’s next date night might be written in the stars. On Saturday October 17, the Thai Astronomical Society hosts a free Star Party at Bangkok Planetarium in Ekkamai, with telescope viewing from 6pm to 9pm. The main targets are Saturn’s rings and Titan, the planet’s largest moon, with Moon craters and constellation spotting also on the programme. The telescopes will be set up on the futsal in front of the swimming pool building, beside Building 4 in the Bangkok Planetarium complex. Curious first-timers are welcome alongside seasoned stargazers, with astronomers on hand to talk visitors through what they’re seeing. You don’t need your own telescope or any previous stargazing experience. Saturn, the sixth planet from the Sun, is the evening’s headliner. You can see the planet with the naked eye, but you’ll need a telescope to make out its rings. Titan and other celestial objects are also on the viewing programme. The timing helps. Saturn reached opposition on October 4 2006, when Earth lay between the planet and the Sun. Around opposition, Saturn appears particularly bright and is visible through the night. The Star Party falls almost two weeks later, but October remains a good month to get a telescope on it. You can also explore the Moon’s craters, learn to identify constellations and try the society’s two-sided Chalawan star chart. The programme includes photographing Saturn and the Moon through telescopes, conversations with Thai Astronomical Society astronomers and a vid

Bangkok has landed ninth among the world’s friendliest cities in Condé Nast Traveller’s Readers’ Choice Awards 2026. Nobody remembers a city’s friendliness as a number, though. They remember the stranger who walked them to the right station exit or the restaurant owner who translated the menu with a lot of enthusiastic pointing.  Melbourne tops the table with 98.52, ahead of Porto (98.33) and Seoul (97.94). Bangkok scores 96.16, just behind Buenos Aires (96.37) and just ahead of Cape Town (96.00). For the full top ten and who beat Bangkok to it, see Time Out's global round-up of the world's friendliest cities. What the ranking measures The ranking reflects readers’ experiences of a warm welcome, with each city receiving a score out of 100. Think help with an unfamiliar menu or directions when a metro map has defeated you. It’s a reader survey, so treat it as snapshot of visitors’ impressions. For Bangkok, the magazine points to a welcome that lives up to Thailand's ‘Land of Smiles’ reputation. The table has had a shake-up. Melbourne, Lisbon and Cape Town return from 2025’s top ten, while last year’s winner Quito drops out. Bangkok is back after a year away, having ranked fourth in 2024 with 92.00. Even that year’s winning score – Singapore’s 94.84 – would fall below this year’s top ten. Go easy on year-on-year comparisons: a higher score doesn’t tell us how much friendlier a city has become. Our take: where the friendliness happens The ranking doesn’t measure the following –

Thai fans, it's your turn again. Olivia Dean is returning to Thailand for LaLaLa Presents Bangkok 2027 on January 20 2027 at IMPACT Challenger Hall 3. The singer’s honeyed voice shares the bill with English band Jungle’s groove-heavy sound and three Thai acts: MILLI, KIKI and CYNDI SEUI. View this post on Instagram A post shared by LaLaLa Bangkok (@lalala.bangkok) Dean last performed in Bangkok at Centerpoint Studio in February 2025, so anyone who missed that show gets another chance. This time, she’s part of LaLaLa’s first  Thailand edition, with a line-up that gives you plenty of reasons to stay beyond her set. Photograph: lolamansellLaLaLa Bangkok 2027 Tickets are scheduled in three rounds, each opening at 10am Bangkok time:  artist presale on October 21–22 2026, local sponsor presale on October 23–24 2026 and general sale on October 25 2925, Listed prices start at B2,900 for GA Standing B, rising to B4,500 for GA Standing A and B6,900 for Platinum Standing. Prefer to sit with your group? A VIP Sofa for six costs B150,000.  Follow LaLaLa Bangkok for booking links, presale eligibility and updates on show times. Check whether booking fees apply before paying. Set your alarm for the ticket release – January can wait, but October’s booking dates are much closer.  

Midnight My Love (เฉิ่ม),  Kongdej Jaturanrasamee’s quietly aching 2005 film about a taxi driver and a massage-parlour worker finding each other in Bangkok after dark, has joined Thailand’s National Film Heritage list for 2026. Starring Petchtai Wongkamlao – better known as comedian Mam Jokmok – and Woranuch Wongsawan, it’s a love story with the city’s night shift running through it. The film is one of 12 films and moving-image works selected in the programme’s 16th annual registration. The announcement was made on October 4 at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya, Nakhon Pathom, on Thai Film Conservation Day. For a film that spends so much of its running time driving through Bangkok at night, the recognition feels particularly apt. The archive describes Midnight My Love as a record of the city during a major period of change, as well as a love story and a significant work in its director’s and lead actors’ careers. Petchtai plays Smbat, a taxi driver attached to old songs and AM radio. One night he meets Nuan, played by Woranuch, who works at a massage parlour. Their relationship grows in a city changing faster than Sombat’s carefully preserved world. And Bangkok is never really just the backdrop. Photograph: SahamongkolfilmMidnight My Love Its night roads, taxis and passengers become part of the film’s emotional landscape. The archive notes that Kongdej often weaves the social and political conditions of his time into his films. Here, Bangkok is a destination for people seekin

Thailand has its first-ever Tom Thailand. Khru Me – full name Methisa Suphaphoem – won The Tom Thailand 2026 on October 3 at Calypso Cabaret, Asiatique The Riverfront in Bangkok. Organisers billed the debut as the country’s first national pageant for toms and trans men, with talent performances and on-stage questions deciding who took the crown.   Photograph: THE TOM THAILANDThe Winner All 54 finalists performed a talent showcase before the field was cut to 10 for the question round. Khru Me came out on top, with Michelle, Georgia, Mee In and Aom named first to fourth runners-up respectively. ‘Tom’ is widely used in Thailand for masculine-presenting lesbians and women with a masculine gender expression. The competition was open to entrants aged 18-40 who identified as a tom or a trans man. The road to the final began with auditions on July 25–26, which drew more than 200 hopefuls from across Thailand. Of those, 55 made the cut, with 54 competing in the final. Organisers say contestants received free workshops along the way, with guidance from pageant masters including make-up artist Winit Bunchaisri and singer Keng Thachai Prathumwan. Thinking, conduct and way of life were part of the judging criteria alongside appearance. Behind the stage are Bunnada “Lek’ Thippibal, who holds the rights to the pageant, and pageant directors Wilailak ‘Nan’ Sirisakhon and Mae Not Maxim. Lek has said the idea began with a question: why wasn’t there a stage for toms? Nan, who has worked in ni