Tita Honghirunkham

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.

Opening hours and prices for these ten venues were verified in May 2026. Tuang by Chef Yip has moved to a larger warehouse space on Soi Charoen Krung 89 to handle the crowds, while Rung Rueang remains a Michelin Bib Gourmand regular. We update this guide often, so check back for the latest changes. Some mornings in Bangkok, you're just following your nose down the right alley when something stops you. A cloud of charcoal smoke slipping through a fence. The sound of a cleaver working fast on a wooden board. A queue of office workers who clearly know something you don’t. That's usually how it starts. This city is full of places like that. These are ten of them – not secrets, exactly, since half have had regulars since before we were born, but the kind of places that still feel personal when you find them. They’re light on the wallet, scattered across the city and genuinely good. Not a definitive list, more a friend leaning across the table and saying: go here. 

Updated May 2026: We've updated our list of rooftop bars and re-ranked them based on the most up-to-date experiences our writers have had in recent months. We've also added Bar.Yard, a much-loved and, until now, missing entry from our previous list.  The heat at street level in Bangkok can be punishing at times. Rise above it though and the skyline turns genuinely spectacular. Crucially, the rain rarely shows up at sunset either, which means the city stays dry most evenings throughout the year. In many ways Bangkok feels almost engineered for drinking outdoors at height. The scene has been building for a while. Moon Bar at Vertigo opened back in 2002 and has been considered one of the world's great high-altitude bars ever since. Then The Hangover Part II landed in 2011 and put Sky Bar on just about every bucket list going. Dozens more rooftop bars followed in its wake. Two decades on, Bangkok's rooftop culture is less a passing trend and more an entire ecosystem – sky-high spectacle venues, design-led cocktail lounges, lively party bars, river-view terraces and even a few quieter park-facing spots. So whether you're after a landmark experience, a serious cocktail above the green lung of Lumphini Park or a full evening of Nikkei cuisine 60 floors up, the city has a version of it waiting. The only real challenge is deciding which one to start with. Here's where to go.

Every summer, durian splits Bangkok cleanly in two. Devotees treat it like a national event while everyone else avoids enclosed spaces. But for those firmly on team durian, this year’s crop goes well beyond roadside stalls and supermarket trays. Across Bangkok, chefs, bakers and beauty brands are folding the king of fruits into curries, cheesecakes, ice cream and even skincare with surprisingly convincing results .  Here are seven durian creations genuinely worth your time this season.

Park aerobics in Bangkok has been around forever. Grandmothers at dawn, retirees after sunset, the same instructor calling counts through a slightly crackling sound system. Most people have walked past it at least once without paying it much attention. Now the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration is giving the citywide ritual a noticeable upgrade through its ‘Healthy City’ initiative, rolling out professional instructors, improved sound systems and organised sessions across all 50 districts. There are currently 38 registered locations mapped through the BMA’s Next Learn portal, and the best part remains unchanged: it’s completely free. Just show up with decent trainers and enough willingness to move in public. These are the parks actually worth knowing about.

What is Thonglor known for? Thonglor – officially Sukhumvit Soi 55 and its web of branching streets – runs just over two kilometres south from BTS Thonglor to Phetchaburi Road. On paper, it is a neighbourhood. In practice, it behaves more like a self-contained district with its own rhythms, regulars and internal logic.  Michelin-starred tasting menus sit beside B35 noodle stalls. Cocktail bars here regularly land on Asia's best lists, while Bangkok’s vinyl culture has quietly grown into one of the strongest scenes in the region. What keeps Thonglor relevant is not simply the concentration of good things, but the way the area keeps evolving without sanding away its personality. By 2026, the neighbourhood leans harder into wellness culture, now threaded directly into its dining and nightlife identity. Residents train for HYROX races before dinner reservations. Community malls relaunch with recovery studios, longevity clinics and boutique fitness concepts built into the tenant mix. Central Pattana's own research places the average resident age between 35 and 40, with the spending power to match, and Thonglor consistently delivers for that crowd. Why do locals love it? Because Thonglor became fashionable without fully losing the residential quality that made people care about it in the first place.  The neighbourhood takes its name from Thonglo Khamhiran, a naval officer involved in the 1932 revolution. These days, that history sits behind glossy café fronts and condominium tower

What is Thonglor known for? Thonglor – officially Sukhumvit Soi 55 and its web of branching streets – runs just over two kilometres south from BTS Thonglor to Phetchaburi Road. On paper, it is a neighbourhood. In practice, it behaves more like a self-contained district with its own rhythms, regulars and internal logic.  Michelin-starred tasting menus sit beside B35 noodle stalls. Cocktail bars here regularly land on Asia's best lists, while Bangkok’s vinyl culture has quietly grown into one of the strongest scenes in the region. What keeps Thonglor relevant is not simply the concentration of good things, but the way the area keeps evolving without sanding away its personality. By 2026, the neighbourhood leans harder into wellness culture, now threaded directly into its dining and nightlife identity. Residents train for HYROX races before dinner reservations. Community malls relaunch with recovery studios, longevity clinics and boutique fitness concepts built into the tenant mix. Central Pattana's own research places the average resident age between 35 and 40, with the spending power to match, and Thonglor consistently delivers for that crowd. Why do locals love it? Because Thonglor became fashionable without fully losing the residential quality that made people care about it in the first place.  The neighbourhood takes its name from Thonglo Khamhiran, a naval officer involved in the 1932 revolution. These days, that history sits behind glossy café fronts and condominium tower

Photograph: Wanghin Lab There is a stick insect on the table. It is dead, but it doesn’t look it. Long and twig-brown, legs angled outward like dropped from a branch, it has the quality of an animal simply resting. The hindwings are spread flat on washi paper, broader and more ornate than the forewings, faintly iridescent under the light. In life they stay folded out of sight. They only open to startle.  Kawin Sirichantakul twists an entomological pin carefully between his fingers, with the ease of someone who has done this a thousand times – because he has. He tilts his head, finds the spot just to the right of centre on the thorax and pushes down with confidence. The pin goes in cleanly. 'You never pin through the middle,' he says. 'That destroys both sides. You want to leave one side intact for study.' Photograph: Time Out Bangkok This is Wanghin Lab, a home studio and learning space in a residential corner of Bangkok where insects are not pests, not curiosities and not decoration. They’re something altogether more serious: a window into a natural world that most city people might have stopped noticing. Led by two brothers, Kawin and Kavee Sirichantakul, the lab blends art, science and technology to create large-scale insect models, DIY exhibits and hands-on workshops grounded in real research and genuine curiosity. Photograph: Wanghin Lab By any standard, it is an outlier. Strange in shape, rare in spirit. And depending on who you ask, maybe the only one moving like

Saw that piece Tyla had on? It traces back to a Thai coastline and a sleeping toddler – and to a designer building something global without losing the thread. There’s a small coastal town in Thailand where a woman sews clothes that now turn up on festival grounds in California, on major music figures and in wardrobes across more countries than she's probably counted. Photograph: CHALAY Chaninporn ‘Cha’ Hess didn’t set out to build a label. She set out to do something with her hands while her son slept. That instinct – simple, practical, personal – grew into Chalay, a globally shipping brand with two artisan production teams, a sell-out track record and a story that still feels grounded. It starts with a self-timer and a handmade crop top, and somehow scales without losing its centre. Photograph: CHALAY Leaving Thonglor behind Before Chalay, life sat firmly in Thonglor. Cha was an accountant by day, orbiting bar culture by night, married to a professional DJ and constantly making things on the side. It worked – creative, social, a little chaotic. Then her son arrived, and the whole setup shifted. Bangkok gave way to the coast. Full-time motherhood replaced the old rhythm, and the pace slowed to something salt-lined and open. It didn’t read as a big pivot at the time. In hindsight, it was the reset that made  everything possible. Photograph: CHALAY A crop top, a wall and a nap window The first Chalay image wasn’t a campaign. It wasn't even planned. It was Cha, wearing a c

Thonglor isn’t a strip. Sukhumvit Soi 55 stretches for around three kilometres, and instead of a single nightlife cluster, you get a sequence of hidden doors, unmarked lifts and bars in hotel corners you could walk past for years without noticing. That’s the appeal.   Photograph: Time Out Bangkok This route keeps things simple: start near BTS Thonglor and move steadily deeper into the soi, stopping in order. Each bar sits about 5-10 minutes apart, so you’re never rushing – just drifting. Exit BTS Thonglor (Exit 3), head into Thonglor Soi 1 and you’ll hit your first stop in under 10 minutes. From there, follow Sukhumvit Soi 55 north, dipping in and out of side sois as needed. Total walking distance comes in at roughly two kilometres, all doable without taxis if you pace it right. One thing to know before you go: Bangkok nightlife changes fast. Hours shift, doors close early, dress codes appear out of nowhere. Check Instagram before heading out, especially on weekends, and bring ID – the legal drinking age is 20 and it’s enforced more often than you’d think.

Updated and expanded for 2026 – the city’s best Pilates studios get a remix to match the growing demand. Club Pilates takes the top spot with their trusted brand presence across the US and beyond, while other studios explore new and trusted practices across 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

Cookies, comics and collectibles collide one evening at the Time Out Bangkok office. The Super Cookie Friends boxes materialise. Peeking into the bag, the first thing we saw was the top of the box: 'Out here, just trying to be the best cookie I can be.' We went – who said that? Photograph: Super Cookie Friends We took the box out and followed the artwork around. Then this round, beaming Chunk guy showed himself. Oh, it's Chunk. Cookie Town below him. And if you look closely there are clues – products and lines not yet out, hiding in plain sight. Then Chunk again, flying back through space with his gingerbread friend. Photograph: Super Cookie Friends Open it up and you're back with Chunk(s). 'Hello, Friend. You're the proud owner of a special box of cookies, created by hand for you.' Illustrated instructions for getting the most out of them. Then you notice the side flaps – open those and the scene keeps going, extending outward, which is a fun thing to find. Look inside the box itself: Take Me Down To Cookie Town and the link to the rewards community – Super Cookie Friends Friends. We'll get to that. Then the cookies. Lined up left to right at a very deliberate angle, what their creator calls 'tasty soldiers.'  Reader, we demolished them. Chuck got early access to our February 19 to 25 edition of Table Talk in Bangkok, our weekly roundup of the capital’s must-know culinary happenings. But here’s how deep the Chuck cosmos really goes. Photograph: Super Cookie Frien

Down a quiet Sanam Khli alley just off Wireless Road, behind the trees of Lumphini Park, this family-run shop has been frying chicken for close to 50 years. The bird is marinated with garlic, coriander root and white pepper before hitting the fryer, then comes out with paper-thin crackling skin and meat that stays properly juicy inside. Then comes the detail that makes this place its own thing: the whole plate gets buried under a mountain of crisp, salt-seasoned fried garlic that tastes dangerously good on its own. Eat it with warm sticky rice and a sharp, lime-heavy som tam to cut through the richness. CNN Travel once called it better than KFC. The daily crowd of locals and visitors seems to agree. Dishes to order: Garlic fried chicken (gai tod), sticky rice, green papaya salad. Price range: B100-200 137/1-2 Soi Sanam Khli, Wireless Rd., Pathum Wan. Open daily 7am-9pm

Deep in the leafy residential pocket of Dusit, near the old Sriyan Market, this institution specialises in gaeng pa, or jungle curry, made the traditional way with no coconut milk. What you get instead is a searing, herbaceous broth loaded with wild ginger, fresh green peppercorns, bird's eye chillies, eggplant and holy basil.  It is hot in a way that feels architectural rather than simply aggressive; the heat is part of the dish's logic. Wild boar is the classic order, though chicken and snakehead fish work beautifully too. The mild eggplant salad with minced pork and boiled egg is the sanity plate, so order it and alternate. Finish with house-made durian ice cream over sweet sticky rice, which lands like a reward for surviving. Dishes to order: Gaeng pa (jungle curry) with wild boar, eggplant salad, durian ice cream. Price range: B100-250 954/2 Thanon Nakhon Chai Si, Dusit. Open Mon-Sat 10am-9pm

The Talat Phlu railway tracks run close enough that you feel the vibration through your plastic stool before you hear the train. Sunee has been operating railway-side for decades, turning  khao moo daeng into one of the most atmospheric cheap meals in Bangkok. The red pork is charcoal-roasted until sweet and tender, then paired with crispy golden pork belly and eggs simmered in five-spice stew until the flavour runs all the way through. The house gravy is what sets it apart: dark red, fragrant with toasted sesame seeds, peanuts and ground five-spice, and generous enough to coat every grain of rice.   Dishes to order: Red pork and crispy pork rice with five-spice egg. Price range: B40-60 854/8 Soi Thoet Thai 25, Talat Phlu, Thon Buri. Open daily 6am-8:30pm

Steps from BTS Ari, this bright, efficient shophouse runs a serious operation in crispy pork belly and red-roasted char siu. The moo krob (roasted pork belly) arrives with golden crackling that shatters on contact, giving way to tender layers of meat and fat underneath.  The char siu is marinated in five-spice and charcoal-roasted until just sweet enough, still moist and full of flavour. Everything lands over fragrant steamed rice with sliced lap cheong (Chinese sausage), a soft-boiled egg and thick ochre gravy that pulls the whole plate together. At lunch, the pace is relentless, with office workers buying trays to go. That tells you plenty. Dishes to order: Mixed crispy pork and red pork rice with egg. Price range: B50-80 1161-3 Soi Phaholyothin 7, Ari. Open daily 8am-4pm

Chef Yip Yun Keung spent years running the Cantonese kitchen at the Shangri-La's Shang Palace before moving to a warehouse space on Soi Charoen Krung 89, where he serves dim sum of serious hotel pedigree at prices that make the queue entirely understandable. The har gow (steamed shrimp dumplings) comes with plump, snappy prawns inside translucent skins so thin you can almost see through them. The cheong fun (fresh-steamed rice flour rolls filled with shrimp or barbecued pork) are silky and clean; the fried taro puffs are crisp and beautifully layered; and the salted egg custard buns arrive soft, pillowy and molten-centred. There is always a queue. That is simply part of the experience. Dishes to order: Har gow, cheong fun, salted egg custard buns, fried taro puffs. Price range: B60-100 Soi Charoen Krung 89, Bang Kho Laem. Open Tue-Sun 7am-3pm

Five minutes from BTS Phrom Phong, across two adjacent shophouses that were once one family operation before an old falling-out split things down the middle, this Michelin Bib Gourmand institution moves at a speed that feels almost reckless.  Bowls arrive fast: hand-minced pork, tender pork slices, springy fish balls and cleanly boiled offal, with your choice of noodle and broth. The clear, peppery pork-bone soup is reliable but the tom yum version – sharpened with lime juice, fish sauce, sugar and roasted crushed chillies – is where the place really earns its reputation. Go dry, finished with fragrant garlic oil, and add crispy fried fish skin on the side. The whole thing costs less than a large coffee at plenty of Bangkok cafés. Dishes to order: Dry tom yum pork noodles, fried fish skin. Price range: B60-80 10/3 Sukhumvit Soi 26, Phrom Phong. Open daily 8am-5pm

A shaded courtyard on Phiphat 2, right in the shadow of Silom’s financial towers, and the contrast could not be more satisfying. The cook here has earned the title ‘Queen of Som Tam’ for good reason. The tam pa (jungle salad) and som tam sua (papaya salad with rice noodles) arrive fiercely spicy, sour and fragrant with pla ra (fermented fish sauce), giving you full northeastern Isaan flavour without apology.  To give your mouth something to do between bites of heat, order the gai yang: charcoal-grilled chicken marinated with garlic and white pepper, the skin blistered just right. The kor moo yang (grilled pork neck), sliced thick and still fatty, is equally hard to argue with. Dishes to order: Tam pa, som tam sua, gai yang, kor moo yang. Price range: B40-80 146 Phiphat 2, Silom. Open Mon-Sat 11am-5.30pm

Down a narrow alley opposite Soi Charoen Krung 49, this open-air legend has been doing one thing since 1959: pork trotters. The work starts the afternoon before, when whole knuckles, trotters and intestines go into a sweet, five-spice gravy and simmer overnight until the collagen breaks down and the skin turns glossy, almost lacquered, then practically dissolves over rice. Pick your cut – whole trotter, lean leg or  thoroughly cleaned intestines – and the kitchen sends it out with a house-made dipping sauce of pounded bird's eye chillies, garlic and white vinegar that cuts straight through the richness. Everything is cooked in one batch per day and the best pieces go quickly, so arriving before noon is less a tip than a rule. Dishes to order: Stewed pork trotter (kha mu) over steamed jasmine rice. Price range: B50-150 492/6 Soi Charoen Krung 49, Bang Rak. Open Mon-Sat 7.30am-1pm

There's a brass pot at the entrance here that has been bubbling for more than 40 years. The kitchen never fully extinguishes it, so each morning's broth begins as a continuation of the day before, drawing from decades of accumulated flavour and collagen until the liquid turns dark, rich and almost mahogany.  That's the foundation for the kuay teow neua, one of Bangkok's great  beef noodle institutions: gelatinous, herbal, deeply savoury and perfumed with Chinese medicinal herbs, star anise and cinnamon. It comes topped with brisket, melt-soft stewed beef, springy meatballs and tendon. Choose your noodle – fine, wide or glass – then settle in at one of the ground-floor steel tables, non-air-conditioned, worn-in and exactly as it should be. The goat stew is the move if you want to go deeper. Dishes to order: Kuay teow neua (beef noodles), slow-simmered goat stew. Price range: B80-200 336-338 Ekkamai Rd., Watthana. Open daily 9am-7pm

How to get there: MRT Yellow Line, Sri Udom station, then taxi or public bus into the park. Schedule: Daily, 6.30am–7.30am and 5.30pm–7pm. Beginner sessions Saturdays and Sundays, 8am–9am. Entry B10 cash only. The beginner-friendly weekend sessions make this the easiest entry point for anyone still unsure about public aerobics. The routines stay slower and more forgiving, while the backdrop – botanical gardens framing the Chai Chon Building  – easily ranks among the city’s best-looking workout settings. It’s one of the few places where early morning exercise genuinely feels calmer than performative.

How to get there: BTS Phrom Phong (Exit 6).. Schedule: Daily, 6pm–6.40pm.  Wedged directly beside Emporium and EmQuartier, this session pulls one of the city’s most mixed crowds – office workers, expats, tourists and Sukhumvit regulars all squeezed into the same rhythm line by sunset. The appeal is partly logistical: exercise here folds neatly into dinner or drinks afterwards, with Thonglor and Ekamai sitting just a few BTS stops away.

How to get there: BTS Mo Chit (Exit 1 or 3) or MRT Chatuchak Park (Exit 3), then walk through Chatuchak Park. Schedule: Daily, 4.30pm–5.30pm. If Chatuchak feels slightly too hectic, continue through into Rot Fai. The aerobics area is broad, tree-lined and genuinely breezy by Bangkok standards. The soundtrack leans heavily into  Thai pop and contemporary luk thung remixes that somehow hit harder outdoors than anything your gym playlist has managed lately.

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

  For the past two years, Thailand has been unusually generous to slow travellers. Since July 2024, passport holders from 93 countries have been able to stay visa-free for up to 60 days – a post-pandemic push designed to revive tourism after years of shuttered borders and quiet beaches. Digital nomads, long-haul retirees and the perennial ‘just one more month’ crowd leaned into it hard. Now, that window looks set to close. A proposal to cut visa-free stays back to 30 days is expected to go before Cabinet before any formal implementation date is announced. Nothing is official yet, but the policy already feels well on its way. For most tourists, this changes very little. Government figures show around 90% of visitors leave within 30 days anyway, with the average trip lasting roughly 15 days. A fortnight hopping between Koh Tao and Bangkok rooftop bars or a Chiang Mai café-and-temple stretch still fits comfortably inside the limit. The people who’ll actually notice are long-stay regulars who’ve quietly built lives around rolling visa-exempt entries. Remote workers, semi-permanent residents and, frankly, a fair few people who were never entirely tourists in the legal sense.  Authorities have already started tightening enforcement in Phuket, Pattaya and Bangkok, with coordinated inspections targeting nightlife districts, short-term rentals and co-working spaces. None of this arrives in isolation. Thailand isn't exactly slamming the door, though. The Destination Thailand Visa (DTV)

It started, as these things often do, with somebody spotting something odd by the water. In 2016, a local resident in Chaiyaphum province noticed several strange-looking rocks near a pond in northeastern Thailand. They weren't rocks – they were fossilised bones – and nearly a decade later, scientists have confirmed they belong to an entirely new dinosaur species: the largest ever identified in Southeast Asia. Meet Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis: a colossal long-necked sauropod that roamed what is now Thailand more than 100 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous period. Researchers estimate it weighed 27 tonnes and stretched nearly 27 metres from nose to tail – longer than a basketball court and more than three times the weight of a T.rex. One front leg bone alone measured 1.78 metres. The findings, published in Scientific Reports on May 15, came after researchers studied vertebrae, ribs, pelvis fragments and leg bones excavated between 2016 and 2019. Funding delays stalled the project for several years before a National Geographic Society grant in 2023 allowed the team to resume the study.  The names lean heavily into mythology, which feels deserved for something this size. 'Naga' references the serpent-like beings woven throughout Southeast Asian folklore, while 'Titan' nods to the giants of Greek mythology. 'Chaiyaphumensis' honours the province where the fossils were found. Photograph: Handout/ReutersHandout/Reuters Lead author Thitiwoot Sethapanichsakul, a Thai PhD st

If you're still lingering somewhere in your Coachella feelings – or just need a solid excuse to get out of the house – Songwat First Vibe is worth penciling in. Inside Tuk Khaek, the old trading building that once sat at the centre of Songwat Road’s multicultural bustle,the three-day pop-up folds together music, art, craft drinks and workshops with the kind of loose, easy energy this neighbourhood does particularly well. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Songwat First Vibe (@songwatfirstvibe) The main pull is the Coachella Listening Party, which runs through highlights from this year’s festival via a curated playlist that moves from golden-hour sets into late-night territory. Cinemagica handles the sound setup using a Waterfall Audio XT1 system, which means cinema-grade audio bouncing around a heritage shophouse instead of a sterile event hall. Beyond the listening party   Photograph: Street Star Gallery   Elsewhere, Street Star Gallery hosts You & Me, A Thousand Tomorrows by Thai artist Pu Rawiwan, a quietly warm exhibition built around the small rhythms and fleeting moments of two people sharing a life together. Photograph: Co-Drinking Space Drinks lean local. At the Co-Drinking Space, Onson pours craft spirits distilled from coconut blossom nectar in Sakon Nakhon, while Longbeach runs a matcha party using ceremony-grade leaves that work equally well neat or spiked. Photograph: Black is the only Color Studio If you’ve been flirting with t

Bangkok doesn’t get many nights like this. On May 23, The Royal Oak hosts a full-evening banjo session that pulls in serious talent from overseas and pairs it with a local scene that’s been quietly building momentum. It’s intimate, it’s focused and with just 100 seats, it won’t hang around. Catch Takumi Kodera live in Bangkok View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bluegrass Underground Bangkok (@bluegrassbkk) Headlining is Takumi Kodera, a Tokyo-based five-string player who’s been at it since he was 11. He placed second at the 2018 Winfield Banjo Contest – one of the toughest competitions going – and has since moved comfortably across bluegrass, jazz and classical. The draw here isn’t just technique (though there’s plenty of that) – it’s how he keeps that driving, old-school banjo feel intact while pushing things forward. Photograph: bluegrassbkk The local line-up holds its own. Bluegrass Underground Bangkok started as casual jam sessions and has grown into a tight community, with international Bluegrass Unlimited magazine recognition and a key role in launching the South Eastern Old Time Gathering in 2024. If you’ve not dipped into the scene before, this is about as direct an entry point as it gets – one room, one stage and players who actually know each other’s rhythms. On May 23, those two worlds meet. Doors open at 7pm, the show starts at 7.30pm and tickets run B900 in advance or B1,100 at the door – if there are any left. Grab yours here.

There's a version of Bangkok that never sleeps – and increasingly, it's running. What was once a city defined by street food and nightlife has quietly, then very loudly, become one of Southeast Asia’s most energetic wellness hubs. Run clubs, reformer Pilates studios, trail loops through Lumphini Park – fitness here has gone fully mainstream. So when HYROX arrived in Thailand in May 2025, the city was ready. More than 8,000 athletes turned out at BITEC. By March 2026, that number had surged to 17,500 – a record for Asia. If you’re new to it, HYROX sits somewhere between endurance race and functional fitness showdown. Founded in Hamburg in 2017 by Olympic champion Moritz Fürste and event specialist Christian Toetzke, it fills a gap: a standardised competition forf people who train in gyms but never race. Expect eight one-kilometre runs, each followed immediately by a workout station – sled pushes, rowing, wall balls – designed to test strength, stamina, speed and grit. Take on the race at a new Bangkok venue Photograph: hyroxtha The third Bangkok edition lands at Queen Sirikit National Convention Center (QSNCC), moving into a larger, more central space with direct MRT access. Think easier logistics, bigger crowds and a more electric race-day atmosphere. The event runs August 14-26, with race waves scheduled until around 8pm on Friday and Saturday, and 3pm on Sunday. Athletes' can access the venue only on their race day, so if you’re planning to soak up the atmosphere across t

Thailand's annual book pilgrimage is back. Book Expo Thailand 2026, the 31st edition of the National Book Fair, takes over Halls 5 to 7 at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre from Oct 23 to Nov 1, bringing ten packed days of browsing, discounts and new discoveries. It has a strong act to follow. The 30th edition, held earlier this year, drew more than 1.5 million visitors across 11 days, smashing previous records with total sales topping B474 million. Gen Z made up over 70% of attendees, with horror and detective fiction leading the way. Photograph: Thai Book Fair Organised by the Publishers and Booksellers Association of Thailand (PUBAT), the fair brings together publishers from across the country under one sprawling roof. The layout spans seven dedicated zones: general titles, fiction and literature, Y fiction (under the Wonder Y banner), comics and teen reads (Book Wonderland), children's and educational books, second-hand books and foreign-language titles. Special discounts and publisher-led promotions run throughout the event — making this  one of the better times of year to stock up without too much justification required. You can come with a list or just browse; either way, it’s easy to lose a few hours moving between shelves. Getting there is straightforward. Take the MRT to Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre and head out through Exit 3. Event Details Oct 23-Nov 1.  Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre, Halls 5-7 (LG Floor).  MRT Queen Sirikit Nat