Tita Honghirunkham

Bangkok keeps getting pulled into the fashion frame, sometimes boldly, sometimes through a detail you only catch on second look. A tuk-tuk in Burberry Check. Papaya salad reimagined as a sneaker. Muay Thai shorts turned into street wear. Each drop grabs a different piece of the city and sends it out into the world.  Tuk-tuks have gone Burberry. Som tam has gone sneaker. Bangkok – and Thailand at large – keeps slipping into the world’s biggest collections.  

The most compelling thing about Bangkok's current speakeasies is how little they resemble each other. A century-old apothecary basement in Siam, a forest-dark room high above Thonglor, a neoclassical mansion on Sathorn that has housed a tycoon, a Soviet embassy and now some of the most inventive bartending in Asia – these are not bars that share an aesthetic. What they share is the belief that space and story matter as much as what lands in the glass.  In 2025, Bangkok was the most represented city in Asia’s 50 Best Bars list, with seven venues in total, including a Thonglor studio that had been open for barely a year. The question is no longer whether Bangkok belongs in the conversation about Asia’s finest cocktail cities. It is which door to open first. There will be more doors. More basements. More unmarked entrances. Some are probably already open; others have not been imagined yet. Bangkok, at this hour, is still changing gear. The city is not, in any meaningful sense, finished. We'll keep a diary as we go. These are the ones we walked through. The ones that stayed with us.

Some of Bangkok’s best experiences cost nothing at all. They sit in plain sight between office towers, hide inside old neighbourhoods or unfold in front of people who pass them every day without really looking. If your idea of a good weekend leans towards wandering without much of a plan and lingering just long enough to people-watch, start here.

There is no sign outside Dots Coffee explaining what it is. No mission statement on the wall, no framed certificates, no small-print acknowledgement that something here is different from the coffee shop two floors down. You order, you wait, you collect your drink. The beans come from Chiang Rai, medium-roasted and they taste good. The barista behind the counter moves with efficiency, adjusting the portafilter, calling out an order, doing what baristas do. What you may or may not notice, depending on how closely you are paying attention, is that every person behind the counter is visually impaired. That absence of signage is not an oversight. In fact, sight was never part of the concept. The whole philosophy is physical – a place built around giving agency to those who can’t see. Where it all started Photograph: Dots CoffeeBangkok Dots Coffee is the world's first retail business operated entirely by visually impaired staff and its founders built it with a single ambition in mind – not to ask for your sympathy or your admiration, but to run a sustainable, profitable, well-made coffee business in which visually impaired people are not a feature of the story but take a central role in the whole operation. Photograph: Julien Wallet-Houget – Dots CoffeeBangkok   The social impact, as co-founders Julien Wallet-Houget and Gavin Kuangparichat see it, is not something that happens alongside the business. It is the business. And the business has to be good enough to stand entirely o

Thai queer cinema has never been one thing. It has been broad comedy and arthouse melancholy, sports movies and ghost stories, coming-of-age dramas and late-night fever dreams. Long before same-sex marriage became law in Thailand, queer characters were already appearing on screen – sometimes reduced to stereotypes, sometimes breaking free of them. The journey has not been tidy. Early Thai cinema often used kathoey characters as comic relief or cautionary tales, a habit that lingered well into the 1980s. What made The Last Song so striking in 1985 was that it asked audiences to grieve alongside a transgender showgirl rather than laugh at her, even if its ending remained bound by the conventions of its time. The Iron Ladies and Beautiful Boxer followed, finding humour, dignity and humanity in lives Thai cinema had too often pushed to the sidelines. Then the arthouse got involved. Apichatpong Weerasethakul won the Cannes Jury Prize in 2004 and nobody quite knew what to do except pay attention. The Blue Hour went to Berlin. How to Win at Checkers (Every Time) went to the Academy Awards. Queer Thai cinema was no longer just a domestic conversation. It was reaching audiences far beyond Thailand. Today, with same-sex marriage legal since January 2025, girls' love dramas sending satellites into space and The Red Envelope making B100 million at the box office, Thai queer cinema sits at a cultural high watermark. As Thai queer stories travel further than ever, these are the films worth

Not long ago, a Thai artist releasing music in English was a talking point. Now it's just Tuesday. What's interesting now is how it happened – not through one breakthrough moment but through a slow, stubborn accumulation of artists who simply made the music they wanted to make, in the language that suited them, and let it find its audience. Some have been doing this since the 1990s. Others released their debut single last year. All of them, in different ways, are part of the same story. This is that story, updated.

Analogue is alive and well in Bangkok. Once you start noticing, you see film cameras everywhere – slung over shoulders at gallery openings, hanging off wrists on weekend coffee runs, peeking from tote bags on the BTS. Part of the appeal is ritual. You drop off a roll, get told it will be ready in a few hours or, sometimes, a few days, then carry on with your afternoon. Grab an iced coffee. Drift through a neighbourhood you have never properly explored. Lose track of time for a bit. Then comes the good part. The email lands, or you head back to the lab, and there they are: your images, scanned, uploaded, waiting. Somehow it still feels more satisfying than any instant preview ever could. Labs have sprung up from Chatuchak to Charoen Krung, each with its own character. Some double as bars or galleries; others feel like friendly studios run by obsessive hobbyists. What they share is a refusal to let analogue photography become a nostalgia act. Here, it is simply how plenty of people shoot.  Head east to Suan Luang for blink-and-you'll-miss-it turnaround times, cross the river for a studio that feels more like a gallery than drop-off counter, or wander into Chinatown's Soi Nana to find one of the country's most respected darkroom operators working by appointment, doing things with Fuji E-6 chemistry that most labs would not attempt. Below is a verified guide to Bangkok's best active film labs, confirmed as of June 2026. As ever with small labs, check opening hours, chemistry avai

Rainy days get a bad reputation, but for those inclined to embrace them, they can feel more like an invitation than an inconvenience. Bangkok in the rain has a mood all its own. It doesn't slow down. If anything, it tilts towards moodiness, romance and the kind of afternoon that calls for something more deliberate than scrolling on your sofa. Not every grey sky needs fixing. Sometimes it just changes the pace. Luckily, Bangkok rewards the indoors. From craft workshops and art exhibitions to live Muay Thai, escape rooms and low-lit jazz bars, here are the best ways to spend a rainy day well.

‘It didn't start with a grand philosophy,’ he says. ‘I had already experimented with drawing so many different things, and at some point, I just wanted to look closer at what was right in front of me.’ Photograph: O TerawatThai food aesthetics What was right in front of him turned out to be enough. A spoonful of nam pla prik. A condiment tray. The kind of thing you’d barely notice at lunch. O Terawat noticed. Years later, those everyday objects have become some of his most recognisable works. The Bangkok-based artist and design director – known simply as O – has spent years turning the vocabulary of the Thai table into a body of work that operates somewhere between still life painting and visual poetry. Not hyperrealism, he'd insist, though the precision is undeniable. Not quite commercial illustration either, though his client list suggests otherwise. He's done both, often at the same time. These days, he no longer worries about the distinction. ‘Aesthetics shouldn't require a passport to cross between commercial and fine art,’ he says. Photograph: O TerawatThai food aesthetics ‘I used to doubt myself back in the day, trying to figure out which side of the fence I belonged on. But I've moved past that. Ultimately, I'm just someone who loves drawing.’ That love goes back as far as he can remember. Drawing was always the first instinct – the thing that happened when something caught his eye. ‘Whenever I saw something beautiful, I just felt this intense urge to figure out h

There's a moment Taylor O describes that most designers would recognise, even if they might struggle to explain it. It comes before you understand why something looks right. Before you have the vocabulary. Before design is even the word you would use for what you are feeling.   Photograph: Taylor OProduct designer ‘I might have only felt that certain things looked beautiful, felt interesting, or made me want to get closer to them, but I could not yet clearly explain the reasons behind those feelings,’ he says. He grows up in Ramkhamhaeng, a Bangkok neighbourhood with its own particular texture – not the tourist-facing gloss of the city's centre, but somewhere lived-in, layered and unshowy, the kind of place that leaves a mark. He is the kid who draws everything: dinosaurs, cars, trees, whatever is in front of him. ‘Almost everything I saw at that time always felt full of fun,’ he says. It sounds simple. It isn't. That instinct – to look closely and find pleasure in form – is exactly what Taylor O Studio is built on. What stays with him from those years is not a single object, but something ambient.  ‘Not one specific object, but more the atmosphere of that period, the feelings, the memories and the different cultures around me.’ Photograph: Taylor OProduct designer He talks about the 90s, about the years before mobile phones reshaped daily life, about the particular charge of the early internet era. There is something telling in that framing: a designer who does not anch

'Thai taste' has always been layered. In 2026, those layers are only getting more interesting to pick through. The temple murals and the silvery drift of a khim zither have not gone anywhere. Neither has the thinking behind them: beauty is worth taking seriously, and atmosphere is its own form of respect. Now you find that instinct in wok smoke, in the stand-up communion of a proper street meal and in crates of luk krung and mor lam records that spent two quiet decades in someone's back room before the right ears come along. You find it on a Bangkok side street at 11pm, buzzing with the kind of untidy energy no amount of curation can fake. None of this is a break from tradition. It is the same old Thai habit of taking something seriously and making it your own. The seven places on this list do exactly that. None of them stops at the food, though the food alone is reason enough to show up. The music is just as deliberate: a needle lowered onto a Lao soul record, a reggae groove opening into ska, a Thai classical ensemble playing in a cocktail bar where, somehow, people have actually put their phones down. Each night is assembled like a good plate: with intent, generosity and a clear point of view.

Part of living in Bangkok is realising the city never really ends. It spills outward into river bends, old capitals, pottery islands and market towns where things still move to older rhythms. Within three hours you've got ruined Siamese kingdoms, a market that casually folds itself around an incoming train, car-free islands full of Mon pottery workshops and a Gulf island that somehow resisted becoming a beach-club destination.

Sukhumvit Soi 6 is not an obvious place to look for quiet. Nana at night runs loud and bright in both directions, and the bars here have historically not been the kind that reward lingering over a well-made cocktail. Door No.6 changed that calculation. The story begins with a suit shop. Nawin Satchasiree's grandfather opened a bespoke tailoring business on this soi more than sixty years ago, and the family has been cutting cloth here ever since. When Nawin decided to split the space and open a speakeasy in the back half, he did not reach for a borrowed concept. He used the one he already had. The entire cocktail menu is structured around the six stages of suit-making – measure, cut, mark, stitch, press, button – each step becoming a door, each door becoming a drink. Inside, there are seats at the bar and a sofa arrangement at the back that manages to feel private even when the room is full. The tailoring heritage is there, but quietly so, in details that earn their symbolism rather than wear it on the sleeve. We'd point to The Measure, a bone-dry martini-style cocktail of vermouth and fino sherry, crowned with a tailor's measuring tape. A neat reminder that every great suit, and every good drink, begins with getting the measurements right. It is a compact, confident bar. One good idea, executed properly, in a neighbourhood that did not expect it. 25/1 Sukhumvit Soi 6, Khlong Toei. Open Tue-Sun, 5pm-1am.

There is a wooden door on a quiet stretch of Thonglor, between Soi 5 and Soi 7, marked only by a small carved rabbit head. No sign, no queue rope, nothing that announces what is behind it – just the head, low on the door, easy to miss if you're not looking for it. Push through and the reference clicks into place: this is Alice's rabbit hole, reimagined as a three-storey Bangkok speakeasy, dim and velvet-heavy, with exposed brick meeting marble counters and the occasional mural that would not look out of place in Wonderland. Rabbit Hole turned ten this year, old enough now to count as an institution in a scene that reinvents itself every eighteen months. It made Asia's 50 Best Bars list as early as 2020, ranking No. 31, and has stayed a fixture of the conversation since. The current menu, led by head bartender Noppasate ‘Depp’ Hirunwathit and the Rabbit Hole team, trades the bar's old alphabet conceit for something more travelogue: sixteen cocktails, each one built around a world capital and paired with a crossword clue that doubles as a flavour hint. Havana arrives as aged rum, salted banana and chaat masala lifted with sparkling wine; Tokyo is a cold, briny thing of gin, nori liqueur, clarified pineapple and wasabi cut with yuzu tonic. Beijing washes bourbon in duck fat and folds in hoisin and five-spice, a drink that reads more like a dish than a cocktail. The Bangkok entry, fittingly, closes the loop on home turf – Thai spirit and rum stretched with a coconut pandan shrub

The house on Kasemsan Soi 3 has been in the Kasemsuwan family for more than a century, designed during the reign of Rama V by the same Italian architects responsible for the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall. In the late nineteenth century, the patriarch Boonmee Kasemsuwan – better known as Moh Mee – concocted his famous herbal medicine in the basement, distributing it across Bangkok by canal. After he died, the family sealed the chamber. When Nachapol 'Na' Kasemsuwan, a fourth-generation descendant, decided to open a bar, he went underground. Philtration – from ‘philtre’, meaning potion – occupies that original basement. The concept was not invented so much as excavated. The entrance requires patience: a heritage compound, a left turn, an antique medicine cabinet, a door that reveals itself only if you know how to look. Inside, the basement is cave-like and warm, lit dimly, with much of the original interior left deliberately intact. A live band plays most nights. The room vibrates slightly with it. Every drink still carries a mock health claim – a wit inherited from Moh Mee's remedy packaging – but the 2026 menu is the most technically ambitious the bar has produced. The signature Janette Bond's Martini reworks the classic with pomegranate-infused vodka, U-Thai Moh Mee herb, rose vermouth and pomelo-zest gin. Sweet Tears of Mine 2.1 builds on Colonist Spiced Rum, now house-infused with lemongrass and kaffir lime, balanced by Tio Pepe and sharp Granny Smith juice. The Witcher arri

Beneath The Coach Hotel on Sukhumvit 14, a flight of red-carpeted stairs leads down into a room fully committed to Prohibition-era Chicago, gangsters and all. The live jazz band works through standards that seem to rise naturally from the room itself. The cocktail menu reads like a rogues' gallery, organised into chapters with names such as The Velvet Rebellion and The Dark Commission, each drink tied to a real figure from the era. The Red Innk Scandal, named for Al Capone, mixes gin and port wine darkened with charcoal into something tart and velvety; The Silk Road Commission takes its cue from Pablo Escobar, with cocoa fat-washed bourbon and coffee cordial landing bittersweet and quietly dangerous. Lucky's Heritage, after Charles ‘Lucky’ Luciano, pairs gin with olive and rosemary vermouth and a thread of basil olive oil. There is a lighter register too: Soapy Suds Gin, inspired by Arnold Rothstein, hides real strength behind elderflower, honey and chamomile foam, while the Georgia Peach Blind Pig, a nod to Bonnie Parker, is a fruity, effervescent toast of Cocchi Americano, peach and Prosecco. Food leans into the bit just as hard. Dishes carry names such as Underboss Burger, Bluefin Conspiracy and Tommy Gun Shrimp, right down to dessert categories filed under ‘The Final Evidence.’ A private cigar room sits off to one side for anyone who wants to extend the cosplay a little further. The drinker this suits: groups celebrating something, fans of old gangster films and anyone wh

There are 71 rooms at Josh Hotel in Ari, and then there is the ‘seventy-second’. To get there, you do not head down a corridor looking for a room number. You go to the front desk, like any guest checking in, and ask for a key. The keycard comes with a small deposit and a half-wink from whoever hands it over, since everyone behind that desk knows exactly what you are really asking for. The room itself, once you find the unmarked black wall that hides it, is tiny and red, lined with mirrors and lit like a 1960s den that never got the memo about the decades passing. Two small screens loop quiet, quirky films in the background. The whole conceit is built around a fictional character: Mr Josh, a globe-trotting bon vivant whose imagined travels provide the menu's throughline, each cocktail a postcard from somewhere he claims to have been. Mr Josh's Journey makes the house style clear: a whisky-based twist on an Old Fashioned, topped with caramelised sugar flakes. A Drop of Tokyo runs lighter and stranger – vodka and Japanese sake cut with lemon juice and wasabi syrup, sweet and citrusy with a slow, creeping heat that catches you a beat after the first sip. Marilyn 1950s leans sweeter still, with vodka and Malibu rounded out by honey, cinnamon, lime and grapefruit bitters, often finished with a wisp of smoked cinnamon over the top. No towering concept, no design pedigree to cite – just a tiny red hideaway that earns its place by being exactly as much fun as a secret room behind a ho

The approach matters. You eat at Potong first – or at least you should – moving through Chef Pam Pichaya Soontornyanakij's Michelin-starred Thai-Chinese tasting menu in a Yaowarat shophouse that was, a century or more ago, her family's Chinese herb business. The building seems to know it. Then a tiny elevator takes you upward, two floors, and opens into a room operating on an entirely different register: dark, lacquered, quietly expensive, as though noise has been politely turned away at the door. Opium is the bar above Potong, occupying the top two floors of a 120-year-old Chinatown shophouse that, according to its own legend, once operated as an opium den. The concept, developed by Arnon 'KK' Hoontrakul and described as ‘liquid surreality’, sets out to blur fantasy and reality. In practice, that means a menu of nearly 50 cocktails arranged across seven clear sections: aperitif, sparkle, acid, acid+, solo, duo and bottle infusions. The categories act as a navigation system, letting drinkers orient themselves without decoding every ingredient on sight. Italian bartender Matteo Cadeddu, whose résumé spans Australia, Singapore and Mumbai, leads a programme that rotates seasonally and earns its ambition.  Opium entered Asia's 50 Best Bars at No. 43 in 2025 and appeared on the World's 50 Best extended list at No. 92. It has also handled one particular challenge with grace: keeping pace with Potong below, where Chef Pam was named Asia's Best Female Chef in 2024 and World's Best Fe

The elevator doors open on the thirtieth floor, and suddenly you are in a record shop. Some 6,000 vinyl records line the shelves, with a DJ on hand to spin whatever you fancy or sell you a copy to take home. Only after passing through that anteroom – past the listening counter, past the cassette corner – do you reach the bar itself. AvroKO, who designed the space, calls the record shop an anti-room: a deliberate surprise placed between the elevator and the main event. It is the rare hotel speakeasy where the concealment is not cosmetic. You genuinely do not know what is coming until you walk through it. What comes next owes more to a mid-century recording studio than to any prohibition-era pastiche. Floor-to-ceiling sloping glass frames the Bangkok skyline, two lounges flank a central bar anchored by a soaring vertical chandelier inspired by Vienna Secession design, and a spiral staircase rises to a mezzanine cigar lounge stocked with a proper humidor. Live performances run Thursday to Sunday, 8.30pm-11.30pm, threading through the room without ever overpowering it. The effect is part Gatsby, part hi-fi shop, entirely its own thing. The bar programme has recently changed hands in a way worth noting. Rosewood Bangkok appointed KT Lam as its new Director of Bars, overseeing Lennon's alongside the hotel's other beverage outlets. Lam previously led DarkSide at Rosewood Hong Kong to ninth place on Asia's 50 Best Bars in 2023, and took Sora at Rosewood Phnom Penh to No. 65 on the 20

The founding story of Find The Locker Room reads like an industry fantasy: five of Asia's foremost bartenders, each with their own acclaimed venue in a different city, joining forces to open a single collaborative speakeasy in Bangkok. Ronnaporn 'Nueng' Kanivichaporn from Bangkok's Backstage Cocktail Bar. Colin Chia from Singapore's Nutmeg & Clove. Hidetsugo Ueno from Tokyo's Bar High Five. Nick Wu, who placed third in the World Class Cocktail Competition 2016, from Taipei's East End. Together, they built a bar behind a wall of steel gym lockers in a Thonglor shophouse, named it as a set of instructions and dared Bangkok's cocktail drinkers to find them. That was 2017. The bar has since relocated once and evolved considerably, but the founding DNA remains intact. The entrance – still through a narrow unmarked alley, still requiring you to locate and slide open the right locker – remains the signature ritual. Inside, the two level space gives way to a cocktail menu divided into Past, Present and Future, a founding idea that remains intact even as the drinks change. Find The Locker Room remains a consistent presence on best-of lists worth reading. It earns its place here not on historical reputation but on continued execution. The OG of the Bangkok speakeasy scene, as one regular described it in a 2024 review, still feels alive and still feels earned. The drinker this suits: cocktail enthusiasts who appreciate both craft and mischief. Anyone who has ever been delighted to recog

Hidden in Nang Loeng, Sala Chaloem Thani feels like a surviving fragment of another era. The wooden cinema occasionally hosts free screenings organised by the Thai Film Archive, bringing classic films back to life inside a building more than a century old. It is niche, nostalgic and exactly the kind of place you end up telling people about afterwards. Location: Nang LoengSchedule: Selected dates throughout the year – check @thaifilmarchive for updates.Admission: Free, first come, first served

Filmtastic bills itself as a photographer's clubhouse, and it is not entirely wrong.  The lab sits a few steps from MRT Sam Yan, right next to Samyan Mitrtown, in the Chulalongkorn area where students, designers and independent workers already congregate. The space leans into the social side of analogue photography in a way that feels lived-in rather than curated: the kind of place where you drop in to collect your scans and end up staying half an hour talking about reciprocity failure. Processing covers C-41 and B&W, using one-shot chemistry, for 35mm and 120 format, scanned on both Noritsu and Frontier machines. Push-pull processing is available. Filmtastic's Instagram, where the team posts actively, describes the lab as open daily 10am–8pm, making it one of the more accessible options for weekday drop-offs in the area.  Occasional workshops and film-exchange evenings give the space an after-hours life. Film stock is limited for purchase, but the team will talk you through options if you need guidance. Filmtastic, Pathum Wan (Chulalongkorn Soi 15, near MRT Sam Yan). Open daily, 10am–8pm. Check availability or contact the lab directly before visiting.

HiM Lab does not try to be anything other than what it is: a fast, reliable, no-fuss film lab near Silom.  The address on Pan Road in Bang Rak puts it within walking distance of BTS Saint Louis and the Silom business district, which is handy if you want to drop a roll off on a lunch break. The lab's calling card is its turnaround, with scans within two to three hours of drop-off. That has built a steady stream of regulars who need quick results without compromising on quality. Services cover C-41, B&W and ECN-2 in both 135 and 120 format, with scans delivered digitally. Film is available for purchase, including specialist stocks and bulk rolls at competitive prices. The vibe is technical and efficient rather than social – tmachinery running, negatives being handled, things getting done – but staff have a reputation for straightforwardness and care. For fast processing in the Silom-Sathon corridor, this is the reliable option. Hours are not independently confirmed; contact the lab before visiting. HiM Lab, Bang Rak (135/8 Pan Rd, Si Lom). Contact the lab directly to confirm opening hours and availability before visiting.

Just south of BTS Saphan Taksin, on Mahaisawan Road in the Bangkolam neighbourhood near Charoen Krung Soi 57, Warinda Studio occupies the kind of space that makes you want to spend an afternoon.  The atmosphere runs closer to gallery than lab: pastel walls, photography prints hung at considered intervals, enough natural light to see your negatives properly. But the technical ambition is serious. Warinda Noenphoemphisut runs the studio herself and handles the full range of still-photography formats: colour and B&W processing in 35mm and 120, ECN-2 for motion picture stocks, and darkroom printing including both silver gelatin B&W and RA-4 colour.  The personal service is a genuine selling point. Unlike drop-off labs where rolls disappear into a batch, here there is actual conversation about what you shot, what you want and what might bring out the best in the negatives. The studio also hosts occasional exhibitions and vintage camera events, making it a loose social node for the riverfront photography community. Hours are not independently confirmed; contact the studio before visiting. Warinda Studio, Bang Rak (338/7 Mahaisawan Road, Bangkolam, near BTS Saphan Taksin). Contact the studio directly to confirm opening hours and availability before visiting.

Moo Deng has gone from viral baby hippo to full-blown Thai celebrity, and now her admirers can find out what it actually takes to look after her. Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chon Buri has launched ‘Zoo Keeper Insight: Moo Deng Edition’, a behind-the-scenes programme that puts fans closer to her daily care routine. The announcement came via Kha Moo and the Gang, the Facebook page run by Moo Deng's keepers, who clearly know an audience-pleaser when they see one. Participants will take on the less glamorous bits most fans never think about: washing out her pool, tidying her enclosure and preparing the food she actually likes to eat, all under staff supervision. Moo Deng herself will be safely stationed in another part of the enclosure while the cleaning crew clocks in.  Once the chores are done, there is a payoff. Visitors get a selfie with Moo Deng, plus a short educational session on her behaviour and daily routines. Everyone also walks away with a souvenir to prove they did, in fact, spend their morning cleaning up after a celebrity. The experience is capped at four people per group and open to anyone aged 12 and up. It costs B6,000 per group, with bookings open now until September, giving fans plenty of time to plan a Chonburi trip around their shift. Those keen to sign up can book through the Khao Kheow Open Zoo Promotions Facebook page or call the zoo directly on 038-318444.

Thailand has never had a pageant quite like this. The Tom Thailand 2026 – the country's first competitive platform dedicated to toms or masculine-presenting lesbians, and trans men – officially launched at a press conference on June 15 at Calypso Cabaret, Asiatique The Riverfront.  And no, this is not just another beauty contest in a sharper suit. The competition is being pitched as a national stage for confidence, character and self-expression, with organisers saying contestants will be judged not only on appearance but on their thinking, conduct and way of life. The pageant is aimed at everyday toms and trans men from across Thailand, giving them space to step forward, be visible and take up a place in a pageant culture that has rarely made room for this community in such a direct way. Behind the project is Bunnada Thippibal, widely known as Phi Lek, who holds the rights to the competition. She says the idea grew from the belief that everyone deserves the chance to show what they are capable of, and that the pageant is designed to encourage a new generation to step proudly into the public eye.  Joining her as pageant director is Wilailak Sirisakhon, who has underlined the competition's inclusive remit. Three high-profile figures have also been named as Masters for the contest: Anant Semathong, better known as Mae Uan Return; Winit Bunchaisri; and musician Thachai Prathumwan, known as Keng.  Contestants will be guided by a coaching team comprising Patitthaya Khwantrakun, Su

Chances are you've seen Love of Siam, or at least heard someone talk about it like it rewired an entire generation. Released in 2007, Chookiat Sakveerakul’s Thai romantic drama told a story of love, friendship and family. What made it land differently was the  romance at its centre: a quiet, tender relationship between two teenage boys, Mew and Tong.  At the time, that was a big deal. The film's marketing leaned heavily on its family-drama and  coming-of-age elements, positioning it for a mainstream audience in Thailand's more conservative climate. The same-sex storyline at its heart wasn't exactly front and centre – which caused friction with some viewers who walked in expecting a different film.  But that also helped Love of Siam reach people who might never have gone looking for queer cinema in the first place. The film was critically acclaimed, commercially successful and a major force during Thailand's 2007 film awards season, winning Best Picture at several key ceremonies. Today, it is widely regarded as a modern classic of Thai queer cinema: a layered study of lives shaped by love, loss and longing, and one of the films that helped open the door for the wave of Thai BL series and films that followed.  For the actor who played Mew, it changed everything. Pich Witwisit was still a teenager when he took on the role and, almost overnight, became the face of one of Thailand's most quietly iconic on-screen romances. Now, as Pride Month rolls on, he is returning to the conver

TUFF Bar turns into a classroom of sorts this Pride Month as The Lovers' Plan hosts an evening exploring sapphic history, identity and activism in Thailand. Tucked away on the third floor behind Silom Edge, the community hub welcomes a night that's part lecture, part conversation and all about community, with a welcome drink included. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Lovers’ Plan | planner & organiser (@theloversplan.th) The event is organised by The Lovers' Plan, a queer rights advocacy group with more than a decade of experience in Thailand’s LGBTQ+ movement. The talk goes beyond surface-level timelines, exploring the language and terminology used across sapphic communities here, the people and moments that shaped them, and the kinds of honest conversations that rarely get a platform quite like this one. The evening begins at 7pm, with registration and complimentary drinks available until 7.20pm. The lecture runs from 7.20pm to 8.30pm, followed by a 30-minute Q&A session where attendees can ask questions in Thai. While the presentation is conducted in English, the atmosphere, audience and venue all carry a distinctly local pulse. TUFF – named after tuff rock, a volcanic stone that's soft yet enduring – opened last year as one of Bangkok's few explicitly sapphic-focused venues, welcoming lesbian women, transmascs, dolls and their friends. It's become less a bar than a community anchor, making it a fitting setting for a night like this. Ticke

Bangkok fans who missed out on the first two dates have been handed another chance. Organisers have confirmed a third night for The Weeknd's After Hours Til Dawn Tour, with Tuesday October 13, 2026 joining the October 11 and 12 shows at Rajamangala Stadium. The three-night run marks a significant upgrade from the initial single-date announcement. The show forms part of a wider Asia run that also takes in Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia and South Korea. Support across the regional dates comes from Creepy Nuts, the duo behind viral track 'Bling-Bang-Bang-Born'. The production promises to be a large-scale affair. His previous Bangkok stop was contained within an arena. This time the staging expands across a full stadium, with cinematic visuals, towering structures and tightly choreographed lighting built around the darker aesthetic he has developed across After Hours, Dawn FM and Hurry Up Tomorrow. Tickets for October 13 Fanclub Presale: June 4, 2026, 10am to 10pm, at bit.ly/afterhourstildawnbkk General Sale: June 5, 2026, from 10am onwards, at bit.ly/afterhourstildawnbkk A maximum of six tickets per transaction applies during the general sale. Buyers purchasing online on June 4 are advised to join the virtual queue at thaiticketmajor.com at least one hour before sales begin. Each attendee is allowed to hold only one ticket under one full English name. Duplicate names will not be accepted. Organisers also note that visibility in certain zones and seats may be re

There's a fairground in north Bangkok right now, and it's a proper one. Talat Nat Liabduan Danneramit – a popular open-air night market that sits just off the expressway near Lat Phrao – is marking its first anniversary by transforming into a full-blown evening funfair for 24 nights. The event is a nod to the much-loved Dan Neramit funfair that many Bangkokians will remember fondly, and brings a hefty dose of that old-school energy back. We're talking 10-plus rides: a giant Ferris wheel, a Viking ship, a carousel, and a handful of properly terrifying thrill rides for those who enjoy screaming at strangers. Kids, adults, easily rightened dates – everyone's covered. Beyond the rides, the market's usual food and shopping zone is in full swing, with stalls selling street food, snacks, and market finds well into the night. Everything runs until midnight, so there's no excuse to rush! Getting there is straightforward: it's a short walk from BTS Phahon Yothin 24 or Ha Yaek Lat Phrao, with on-site parking available if you're driving. Talat Nat Liabduan Danneramit Night Fair. Now until June 21, 5pm-midnight daily. BTS Phahon Yothin 24 / Ha Yaek Lat Phrao (parking available).

Bangkok's theatre calendar just got a gothic makeover. Dracula, the sell-out ballet production that captivated audiences across Australia and New Zealand, is bringing its dark romance, big-stage drama and world-class dance pedigree to Muangthai Rachadalai Theatre for eight performances from January 19-24 2027. Better still, Bangkok is not just another stop. It is the final bite.The production begins its international run in the UK, with dates at the London Palladium (May 24-30), Sadler's Wells (Jun 2-7) and Edinburgh's Festival Theatre (Jun 12-14), before heading to San Francisco's Orpheum Theatre (Jul 3-12), Singapore's Esplanade (Jul 15-19), Sydney's State Theatre (Sep 22-27) and Melbourne's Her Majesty's Theatre (Oct 1-25). Bangkok then closes the curtain on the world tour in January, giving the city the grand finale. Choreographed by Joel Burke, the production draws from a sweeping musical catalogue, from Bach, Rachmaninov and Mozart to Liszt, Mussorgsky, Mendelssohn, Saint-Saëns and Debussy, woven together with an original score by Emmy Award-winning composer Jason Fernandez.  The cast includes alumni of the Mariinsky, English National, Stuttgart and Australian Ballet companies. Expect high drama, sharpened shadows and a two-hour performance including a 20-minute interval. Critics have already leaned into the darkness, with The Scoop calling it ‘a gothic spectacle you can't miss’ and Otago describing it as ‘ballet at its darkest – and possibly best.’  Presented by BIG Li

Raise a glass – just not behind the wheel. Thailand has officially extended alcohol sales hours to 11am-midnight, giving restaurants, bars, shops and supermarkets a clean, uninterrupted stretch for daytime and evening sales. The change builds on last December’s partial unlock, which allowed alcohol sales during the long-frustrating 2pm-5pm gap. This time, the update goes further, with the new rules published in the Royal Gazette and effective immediately. For most drinkers, the practical bit is simple: no more clock-watching through the afternoon. Long lunches, early dinners, lazy hotel drinks and post-brunch plans now run much more smoothly. Some venues get even more flexibility, including international airport terminals, licensed entertainment venues, hotels, large exhibition spaces and the Eastern Aviation City promotion zone, though screening measures must remain in place to prevent access by minors. For restaurants, bars and smaller operators, the change should bring an immediate lift – especially in tourist areas and venues that rely on afternoon trade. So yes, your afternoon plans just got easier. Drink responsibly, and never drink and drive.

If you've been looking for an excuse to disappear into European cinema for a few nights, this is probably the best free ticket in town. The EU Film Festival 2026 returns to Thailand from June 18-28 with 21 films from 19 countries screening across Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket.  This year’s theme, ‘See Beyond. Feel Beyond.’, leans towards stories that linger a little longer after the credits roll – intimate dramas, social tensions, political undercurrents and the kinds of films more interested in people than spectacle. ‘Each title is selected by its respective EU member state embassy, so the lineup feels less like a touring package and more like a fast-moving snapshot of contemporary Europe through different languages, cities and perspectives. Bangkok screenings take place at the Siam Society, House Samyan and Lido Connect – which honestly feels like the right level of cinema-hopping for this kind of festival. Chiang Mai hosts screenings at Alliance Française, while Phuket’s programme lands at BCIS International School and Phuket Girls’ School. The best part, it's completely free. Tickets are handed out one hour before each screening on a first-come, first-served basis, with a maximum of two per person. Translation: arrive early if there’s something you really want to see. Screenings take place at the Siam Society, House Samyan and Lido Connect (Bangkok), Alliance Française Chiang Mai, and BCIS International School plus Phuket Girls' School (Phuket), June 18-28. Free entry. F

Some bands you grow up with. Others grow up alongside you. For Thai fans who had  ‘She Looks So Perfect’ on repeat and walls covered in posters, 5 Seconds of Summer fall firmly in the second camp – which makes this return feel long overdue.  After ten years away, the Sydney four-piece – Luke Hemmings, Calum Hood, Michael Clifford and Ashton Irwin – head back to Bangkok with their Everyone’s a Star! World Tour, landing at UOB Live at EmSphere on November 9. Photograph: livenationth First breaking out in the early 2010s (yes, via those One Direction support slots), the band have since moved well beyond their scrappy pop-punk beginnings into bigger, slicker, stadium-ready territory. The songs hit differently now – less teenage angst, more lived-in nostalgia – but the hooks still land.   Expect a setlist that leans into the full catalogue, from early breakout tracks to later, more polished material. For anyone who’s stuck with them over the years, it’s less a comeback show and more a time capsule – just with better production. When: Monday November 9  Where: UOB LIVE, EmSphere, Bangkok Photograph: livenationth Tickets start at B2,800 and go up to B6,800, with a VIP ‘No.1 Obsession’ package at B8,900(. Presales run May 6-9 ahead of general sale here.  Fan club presale: May 6, 10am-10pm. Mastercard presale: May 7, 10am-11.59pm. Live Nation Tero presale: May 8, 10am-10pmGeneral sale: May 9 from 10am. An ‘Upgrade bite the Apple’ add-on (B3,400) is also available from May 9 — no

If you've been waiting for an excuse to dust off your dancing shoes, this is probably it. Bangkok Ballroom Dancing – or ‘วงบางกอกลีลาศ’ – lands at Lumphini Stadium in Lumphini Park on May 30, bringing live music, ballroom standards and the sort of old-school atmosphere Bangkok doesn’t really do anymore. Organised by the International Music Group under the city's Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the evening leans fully into classic ballroom energy rather than polished nightclub theatrics. Think proper dance-floor regulars, slower rhythms and couples who actually know what they’re doing.  There’s one catch: you must register in advance. No walk-ins, no exceptions. Registration is now open, so head to @bangkok_bma if you  want a spot before it fills up. A few things to know before signing up. Registration is limited to one-entry per person, and anyone bringing a dance partner will need to submit a separate form individually. Duplicate registrations will only count once. The event takes place on Saturday May 30 at Lumphini Stadium inside Lumphini Park – about as fitting a setting for a ballroom night as Bangkok gets. Get registered, loosen up those hips and clear your evening plans. Nights like this don’t come around often.

Photograph: Ministry of Culture of ThailandCannes For the first time since 2007, a Thai feature film is screening in Cannes’ Directors' Fortnight – and a Thai short is running simultaneously in Critics' Week. Two films, two parallel sections, one unusually strong year for Thai cinema. 9 Temples to Heaven, directed by Sompot Chidgasornpongse and produced by Apichatpong Weerasethakul – still Thailand's only Palme d'Or winner –  premieres this week at the 79th Cannes Film Festival. The last Thai feature selected for Directors' Fortnight was Ploy by Pen-ek Ratanaruang nearly two decades ago. Photograph: 9 Temples to HeavenCannes The setup feels unmistakably Thai. A multi-generational family crams into a van to complete a nine-temple pilgrimage after a fortune teller warns their grandmother is running out of time. Three generations, one ageing matriarch, simmering family tensions and a Christian girlfriend trapped inside the same vehicle for the day. Directors' Fortnight described it as a ‘delightfully sharp and tender road-trip comedy’ – absurd in places, unexpectedly emotional in others. The project spent nine years in development and received partial backing from Thailand’s Ministry of Culture. Sompot may be making his first fiction feature, but he has hardly arrived out of nowhere. He spent more than two decades working alongside Apichatpong on films including Tropical Malady, Cemetery of Splendour and Memoria. His 2016 documentary Railway Sleepers – a slow, observant portr