All stories about "Bangkok"

The 2008 Beijing Olympics are still four months away, but they've already started with a bang. Activists who oppose China's occupation of Tibet have been holding huge protests as the Olympic torch makes its customary pre-games lap around the globe. In the past week, the torch toured Paris and London with an entourage of local policemen and Chinese security personnel. In spite of all the guards, protesters forced the torch to be extinguished for the first time in modern Olympic history. If you want to get in on all of the "Free Tibet" fun, the Olympic torch will be stopping in fourteen more cities between tomorrow and April 29th. The good people at Google have made a map showing all of the remaining cities along the torch's route. The tour includes such exciting destinations as San Francisco, Buenos Aires, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, and the hometown of everyone's favorite despot -- Pyongyang!

There's still plenty of time to plan a trip to go protest the torch in any one of these great urban oases. Protesters get to meet other cute politically involved types and rub elbows with the world-class athletes who carry the torch, all while enjoying the fun of screaming and flinging yourself at angry law enforcement personnel. So why not fly around the world following the Olympic torch and going apeshit? It's all for a good cause. It's kind of like the civil rights movement, with sightseeing instead of big dogs and high-powered hoses.

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Bravo's Top Chef kept many a foodie addicted to TV -- and launched first-season winner Harold Dieterle into celebrity-chefdom. If his food on the show got you salivating, head to his West Village restaurant Perilla and partake of Dieterle's love for all things duck by tucking into a bowlful of his spicy duck meatballs with Okinawa yam gnocchi. It's what dreams are made of. Until then, check out his take on the city that launched his duckly amour.

We're going to imprison you in the city of your choice for the rest of your natural life. You can do anything you want there, but you must stay in that city forever. Where would you choose?
Bangkok.

Why would you live in this city forever and not somewhere else?
Amazing culture. The food is some of the best I've ever eaten. [There's also a] great focus on family values.

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A good article in the New York Times on Bangkok street food is made great by its accompanying gallery, which features several salacious close-ups of Thai snacks and succulent seafood dishes. Some of the shots are so nice that they almost look styled -- it's hellishly difficult to get decent food photos in the field like this. Kudos.

Street Smarts in Bangkok [NYT]

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Sure, that Hello Kitty + Milo t-shirt is cute, but it's no match for Hello Kitty + Sin City. All courtesy the creative copyright disrespectors of Bangkok's markets. [Travelhappy]

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This David Beckham idol has adorned the Wat Pariwas shrine in Bangkok since 2000, but kindly blog Travelhappy supplies a few nice shots and a short video documenting the sculpture. The gold-leaf Beckham sports his more hirsute haircut of the past, and he's just one of dozens of other minor deities serving as altarbearers for the giant Buddha above him. Beckham's placement has something to do with the grandly modern religiosity of football and footballers, much like the saintly reverence given Bear Bryant in certain Alabamian houses of worship.

David Beckham Temple In Bangkok [Travelhappy]

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Breaking news from last week: Bangkok police officers who violate minor departmental policies will be forced to wear hot pink Hello Kitty armbands as a literal badge of shame. Incorrect parking, tardiness, or littering will result in forcible armbanding, which, while making officers cute as the dickens, will somewhat degrade their aura of civil authority. Previous tartan-colored armbands were simply stolen as souvenirs by officers supposedly under disciplinary threat, so the police chief hopes this more overt humiliation will breed a more contrite reaction. Expect the first one of these armbands to turn up on eBay to fetch a small fortune.

Cute Kitty Is Pink Badge of Shame in Bangkok [NYT]

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A reader writes int o enthuse about Bangkok's Bed Supperclub, with which we're quite familiar from way back in the day:

Had an amazing and bizarre evening at the bed supper club in bangkok. Modern minimalist building with interactive and abstract art installations as you eat from a bed!! Definitely worth a visit, if you want a totally different experience. I also wanted to get some tips on where is best in place to go traveling in June (I want somewhere hot!)? Is it possible to post this as a request to get some advice/reviews from other gridskipper users?

-- Chris Mohney

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This here beast is a snakehead, and it was delicious. Served in a spicy hot-and-sour sauce that was kept on top of a small burner surrounded by ice, the snakehead is one of the many good things you can get at Somboon (Surawong branch, 169/7-11 Surawongse Road), a chain of seafood-heavy Bangkok restaurants. Closer in spirit to a cafeteria than a stuffy hotel restaurant, Somboon has speedy, no-nonsense, friendly service -- a necessity for a place that's so popular and crowded. If your Thai's a little rusty or nonexistent, there's also a handy (albeit abbreviated) illustrated menu. All Roundeye needs to do is point to which conch, crab, fish, or other dish looks good, and you'll hit the ground running. All four branches are cash only, and they're open 4 to 11:30 p.m.

Somboon Seafood [Official site]

-- John Rambow

Previously: Bangkok's Best Fish and Chips, German Food in Bangkok, Bangkok's Most Extreme Rooftop Restaurant, Chatuchak Market: Nike Cock Pizza

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Bangkok's newly-opened Teo + Namfah Gallery is a notable addition to the city's art scene. As owners Brad and Rattana Gordon explained to me last week, their aim is not only to showcase interesting contemporary work, but also to nurture promising artists both in Thailand and abroad. The gallery's current exhibition, Red Horses of Mongolia, opened Thursday night. It features the paintings of BAYAR, a Mongolian artist who creates horses based on ancient carvings. The show, which runs through March 25, marks BAYAR's first major international solo exhibition. Teo + Namfah also offers art classes and what is perhaps the best collection of high-quality art supplies for sale in Bangkok. The gallery is in the Ozono Complex on Sukhumvit Soi 39.

Teo + Namfah Gallery [Official site]

[Text: Newley Purnell]

Previously: OMFC: The Best Fish and Chips in Bangkok, Propaganda: Bangkok-style, Bangkok's Shrunken Hotels, German Food in Bangkok, Too Sexy For Thailand?

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Bangkok's Banglampoo district is home not just to legendary backpacker hangout Khaosan Road; it's also where you'll find the city's best fish and chips joint, a relatively new place called -- cleverly enough -- Oh My Cod! On a recent visit with Bangkok foodblogger and photog Austin Bush, we took in the charms of the place and I came away mightily impressed (yes, that's yours truly pictured here). The fish was fried to a beauteous golden brown; the chips were perfectly crispy; and the green peas were delightfully mushy. The owner clearly takes pride in his craft and his cleanliness, as he's a card-carrying member of the British Federation of Fish Fryers and he holds a Federation Certificate in Food Hygiene. (Seriously.) The outdoor seating area provides a relaxing venue, to boot. Highly recommended.

Oh My Cod! [Official site]
RealThai: Oh My Cod! [RealThai review]

[Text: Newley Purnell Photo: Austin Bush]

Previously: Propaganda: Bangkok-style, Bangkok's Shrunken Hotels, German Food in Bangkok, Too Sexy For Thailand?

Propaganda in Bangkok. No, it's not what you're thinking, given the recent political turmoil here in the Land of Smiles. Rather, I refer to a Bangkok-based design store called Propaganda, a place that sells whimsical housewares, like the combination chopsticks/spoon pictured above. And tons of other quixotic stuff: quirky plates and dishes, off-beat living room furnishings, picture frames, stationery, bags, and more. Think Ikea, but minus the Scandinavian pragmatism. As the store's Web site says, Propaganda's wares are all about "the innate sense of Thai playfulness." Propaganda can be found in the uber-fancy Emporium mall and the less-swanky but still upscale Siam Discovery Center.

Propaganda [Official site]

[Text: Newley Purnell]

Previously: Bangkok Shrunken Hotels: I Was In the Pool! I Was in the Pool!, German Food in Bangkok, Too Sexy For Thailand, Toilet Trouble in Thailand

Travel and Leisure recently rounded up a handful of mini Bangkok hotels with which one may find a level of intimacy lacking in the more developed hotels. The average number of rooms, like the age of the prostitutes one might find loitering around, is around 14. The hotels include the Arun Residence with doubles from $80 and freely flowing freshly squeezed mango juice; the The Eugenia, where "Eastern colonial grandeur meets African game-lodge chic ...Animal skins and trophies decorate the walls, brass light fixtures are imported from India, and the smiling staff stands at the ready." Wow, guilt-free colonial reverie for only $165 for a double. There's also a ludicrously overpriced wellness retreat and the Luxx a chic-and-silver hotel. T+L recommends room number 12, for $120 "a junior suite with sliding glass doors, a state-of-the-art sound system, and outsize sofa."

Bangkok's New Mini Hotels [T+L]
Arun Residence
The Eugenia
The Luxx

[Photo: Luxx]

Previously: German Food in Bangkok, Too Sexy For Thailand, Toilet Trouble in Thailand, Bangkok's Most Extreme Rooftop Restaurant, Chatuchak Market: Nike Cock Pizza

Thai food is famously delectable, but that doesn't mean you wanna eat som tam and tom yum goong three meals a day. So when you find yourself in Bangkok and you've had your fill of the best vittles Siam has to offer -- and trust me: that moment will arrive eventually -- skip the bland international food chains (yes, there really are Sizzlers and Swensens here!) and get thee to Bei Otto, a cozy restaurant that serves up unfailingly hearty German cuisine, the kind that'll make you wanna unbuckle your belt and loosen up your lederhosen. I know, I know -- German food in the Kingdom? Believe me when I say it's fantastic. Standout dishes at the joint, which colorful owner Otto Duffner opened in 1984, include the asparagus soup, the Thueringer (pork) sausages, and, natch, the stick-to-your-ribs sauerkraut. Wash it all down with a big stein of Erdinger wheat beer on tap. You can thank me later. Bei Otto is on Sukhumvit Soi 20, across from the Windsor Suites Hotel.

Bei Otto [official site]

[Text: Newley Purnell]

Previously: Too Sexy For Thailand?, Toilet Troubles in Thailand, Bangkok's Most Extreme Rooftop Restaurant, Bangkok's New Airport, Chatuchack Market: Nike Cock Pizza

Turns out that denizens of lower First Avenue, Las Vegas and film critics aren't the only ones who hate famed bar/noted cinematic stinker Coyote Ugly. Thailand's Queen Sirikit banned Thailand's "Coyote Ugly girls" from performing in public places this week after video surfaced of girls gyrating near a Buddist temple on a holy day. She has more restraints in store for them (not the sexy kind), though watching the film is not rumored to be among her proposed punishments.

After the film debuted in 2000, many Bangkok nightclubs were moved to feature Coyote Ugly girls. They acted much as the bartendresses in the film: scantily clad, they would dance the night away atop bars, dispensing liquor. Soon, they became the Thai equivalent of giant balloons, christening car dealerships and the like. Considering the acts that are available for your viewing pleasure in Bangkok, it was all rather tame, but now that era seems to be drawing to a close.

More entertaining is the Coyote Ugly girl the AP found to give her side of the story if the profession is banned altogether. Hers is a familiar tale:

Ms. Parichart, who also calls herself Natalie, is a college student by day, pursuing a double major in law and English with a minor in hotel management. On evenings and weekends, she slips into stilettos, hot pants and midriff-baring tops for a few hours of dancing, which brings in a hefty $2,000 a month.

Queen Prompts Thailand to Restrict Coyote Ugly Dance Troupes [AP]
Coyote Ugly [Official Site]

[Photo: Joe Gasper/Flickr]

[Alexander Basek]

Previously: Estrela Da Lapa, Pop Goes the Vino, More LA Blow Back, Long Lines in LA, Private Clubs No Longer So Private

The ban on liquids in airports caused plenty of grief for travelers when it was instituted in July, but they'd better control their water intake if they wend their way through Bangkok's new Suvarnabhumi airport anytime soon. According to the New York Times, Thailand's blinged-out architectural marvel is short on facilities. And by facilities, we mean places to drain the lizard (or whatever the Southeast Asian equivalent of draining said lizard might be). That's right: there aren't enough toilets.

The Thai airport authority responded to complaints by bulldozing some offices at the airport and replacing them with 205 sweet new cans. Yet, that's not the only problem at Suvarnabhumi. They also have cobras--and not the entertaining kind that battles G.I. Joe. Suvarnabhumi was known as "Cobra Swamp" before the name was changed and the swamp drained to build the airport--just like Newark!

In the coming months, many of the issues like Suvarnabhumi's lack of signage and ATMs will be addressed, but was there a reason the builders skimped on toilets in the first place? Were they worried about the potential for toilet-cobra infestation? Only time will tell, but stay vigilant. Cobras eat lizards.

In Bangkok, a Rough Start for a New Airport [NYT]
Bangkok's New Airport

[Photo: satya.w/Flickr]

[Alexander Basek]

I recently paid a visit to Sirocco, Bangkok's breathtaking rooftop restaurant, and all I have to say is this: holy fucking shit. As one of my companions said, the place is an opening scene of "Six Feet Under" waiting to happen. Patrons sit at tables and crowd around a circular bar implausibly perched on an outcropping some 64 stories above the city. The drop to the traffic below is sheer. Meager glass railings are all that separate visitors from the precipice. Looking out over the edge -- once you've calmed your jitters by downing a $10 cocktail or two -- reveals a straight drop from Bangkok's second-tallest skyscraper to the peanut-sized cars below. I saw one farang woman resting her elbows on the railing and peering down at the Chao Phraya river, her highball glass held straight out; had it fallen, the consequences at ground-level would have been dire. (In the photo above, consider that on the night I visited, the crowd was so thick that folks were nearly jammed up to the railing all around.)

If you can manage to calm your nerves -- and seriously, I'm not even afraid of heights and I felt a bit on edge -- then you're in for a treat, as the view is remarkable. While the drinks are (understandably) overpriced, the place simply must be seen to be believed.

Sirocco [Official site]
Sirocco Restaurant [2Bangkok.com]

[Newley Purnell]

Previously: Bangkok's New Airport, Chatuchak Market: Nike Cock Pizza, Chatuchak Weekend Market, Once You Go Lomo, You'll Never Go Back, Newley in the NYT, Lonely Planet Founders Do Bangkok, Bangkok Shop n' Block

Suvarnabhumi -- Bangkok's big, bad, brand-spankin' new airport -- opened last month, and I was lucky enough to score a peak a few days back. I am here to tell you this, friends:

1) it is fricking mammoth;
2) it is totally blinged out; and
3) its name is, well, hard to pronounce. But it goes something like this: "Sawana-poom." (Interestingly, the King bestowed this title on the joint, and it means "the golden land," which when you think about it, really beats the shit out of the area's old name: Nong Ngu Hao -- or "cobra swamp.")

Suvarnabhumi boasts the world's tallest control tower, and in terms of size, the airport is a bit smaller than Hong Kong's and slightly larger than Seoul's. (From personal experience, I can tell you that the former has a better view upon landing, while the latter has much better kimchi and bibimbap.) As you can see from the image above, Suvarnabhumi's main terminal is deliciously tricked out, with gleaming industrial metal assemblages and towering windows. Also, there is neon throughout. Blue neon. Which is awesome. So Suvarnabhumi gets major points for style. However, form might trump function. After our flight landed, we sat on the tarmac for a few minutes and then descended and had to take a bus to the terminal. Jetways weren't part of the new design, perchance? And then, once we got inside, we had to walk up non-functioning escalators to the baggage claim area. Oh well. Bangkok wasn't built in a day. Did I mention the neon?

Suvarnabhumi Airport [Wikipedia]
Bangkok's new airport opens to first commercial flights [USA Today]

[Text+Photo: Newley Purnell]

Previously: Chatuchak Market: Nike Cock Pizza, Chatuchak Weekend Market, Once You Go Lomo, You'll Never Go Back, Newley in the NYT, Lonely Planet Founders Do Bangkok, Bangkok Shop n' Block

Besides being the hangout for Thai cowboys, Bangkok's largest outdoor market is home to 15,000 stalls selling everything from country music to vintage Nikes. Daniel at Metroblogging Bangkok picks out three of his favorite market activities, and strange for Bangkok, only one involves cocks.

...hidden near exit 5 is a series of booths selling vintage shoes. Now if you're not into your pre-owned vintage shoes, well this may seem absurd, but to most sneakerfreaks its pure heaven.

his little gem of a restaurant sells both pizza and amazingly good Thai food. The pizza is by far the best I've had outside of Milan and the Thai is in the top 5 for this city. The name of the place is Pizza Bay and for those who know Chatuchak well, it's by the art section, near exit 5 I believe.

Hidden away from the main strip is a small area where some of the finest cocks in the city come to fight it out, not always to the death. There is a small plastic ring placed near the cages and then in true Thai fashion, more screaming and shouting on betting odds of who will win. I wont publish where this is, you will have to mail me for further details.

[Photo: Daniel]

Previously: Chatuchak Weekend Market, Once You Go Lomo, You'll Never Go Back, Newley in the NYT, Lonely Planet Founders Do Bangkok, Bangkok Shop n' Block

Lomography, as we noted in an earlier post, is cultish. There's something about the rich colors, the haziness that evokes a sort of nostalgia hard to shake. It takes the ordinary and picayune and turns it ethereal and fantastic. Take this shot for instance, found on the Lomography Society International's photography archive. Just your run-of-the-mill Bangkok street vendor stall but through the lens of a Lomo, a Technicolor feast. No wonder so many famous artists were lomos.

Lomography Society International

Previous Pics of the Day: Polar Bear, Cuba, Fishheads, LES in the Morning, Old Shanghai, Paris Metro

Sunday consists of going to gym to build up arm strength to pick up the tablet sized New York Times Sunday, heading over to Little Giant, and dissecting the newsprint like a fœtal pig. Imagine our joy seeing a byline by Gridskipper's own Newley Purnell in the Travel section. Newley joins the ranks of Ian Mount of Gskippers in the NYT. Entitled Thailand's Tourists: 'Coup? What Coup?' the article highlights the blithe insouciance of expats and tourists in Bangkok. Few if any tours have been cancelled, the bars are stll flled with drunken horny expats. In fact, the new government has loosened the regulation requiring bars to be closed at 1 am, an almost Bostonian time. The pacific relaxed air in Bangkok could be, one might conclude, a result of Miss Asia 1987 reading the news or perhaps some things, (cheap beer, the need to relax) trump geo-political upheaval.

Thailand's Tourists: 'Coup? What Coup?'

[Photo: NYT]

Previously: Lonely Planet Founders Do Bangkok, Bangkok's Shop N' Block, I Love the Way She Says Coup, Whither Goest Bangkok?

Tony and Maureen Wheeler, who founded the Lonely Planet guide book empire in 1973, gave a talk and signed copies of their new memoir, Once While Traveling: The Lonely Planet Story, at a bookstore in Bangkok's super-swanky Siam Paragon mall last night. As the New York Daily News once said, the couple are "the specialists in guiding weird folks to weird places." They also happen to helm the world's largest publisher of travel guides, an outfit that sold more than six million copies in 2004. The pair were affable and up-beat and proud of their new title, which, according to its promotional copy, is "equal parts autobiography, corporate history and travel book."

Strewing the entrails of Sunday's Travel section in the NYT across this whole week, we thought we'd mention the Bangkok shopper's guide by Ann Coulter lookalike Sheridan Prasso (thankfully, that's where the resemblance ends). Prasso, who won a Human Rights Press Award for coverage of Cambodian land mine victims, takes on Bangkok shopping with all the enthusiasm it demands. Which is to say, she explores one square block of Bangkok, a fact handily demonstrated by the Times' mildly tech savvy map shown above. Here are some of Prasso's picks that you won't have to walk more than 5 feet for (good thing too as you'll be laden by bags and sloth).

Grey Boutique Usually when a label's name gets halved, the shorter title is down-market (for example, Marc by Marc Jacobs or Lauren by Ralph Lauren) but Grey is the high-end line of Greyhound, the Thai version of H&M.

Tube Gallery: Dramatic colors and "cowboy chic." The founders have added larger sizes for the fat tourists who visit the Siam Center mall wherein they're located.

Boudoir: St. Martin's grad and former Galliano worker, Disaya Prakobsantisukh makes sexy lingerie for sexy women or as Prasso calls them "lacy underpinnings."

Inspired By Inner Complexity: Our vote for most pretentious store name goes to this boutique whose latest collection is called "Inspired By Christ" and includes "T-shirts with 'Jesus' written on them in Hebrew." WWJD? I dunno, not shop here?

Previously: Bangkok Coverage You Won't See in the Times, The Hilariously Depressing Life of a Hotel Band, Jim Thompson House: Art and Breadpudding, Morally Diminished blog, I Dream (Hotel) of Bangkok, Bangkok's Quirkiest Online City Guide, Chatuchak Weekend Market

Bangkok is back to calm, or rather never really took leave of its serenity. And the ruling junta are proving themselves politically savvy (in fact, it is only the tetchy tourists posing with tanks that have the unseemly quality endemic to revolt). Their latest move in a PR blitz more robust though no less brilliant than the actual takeover of power is to hire Miss Asia 1987 to be the official newscaster. Though Ms. Thawinan Khongkran has worked for the Army owned Channel 5 for a few years, she is now the offficial spokesperson of the new government. In other news, Marshall McLuhan's disembodied voice was heard murmuring over the Bangkok sky saying, "You savvy fucks."

Military enlist 'Miss Asia 1987' [Bangkok Recorder]

Previously: Whither Goest Bangkok?, Tarntawan Place: Where The Boys Are, I Dream (Hotel) of Bangkok, Atlanta Hotel: Wholesome Bangkok, She Will Kick Your Ass, Morally Diminished Blog, Bangkok's Quirkiest Online City Guide, Chatuchak Weekend Market

Each week we deploy our elite cadre of headline sniffing apparatchiks who report back to us on what the other media is doing. We then compile a dossier, the dossier you're (be)holding right now. It has all you need to know about the others. And, unlike their fleshly papers, it will exist forevermore upon this delightful internet ether.

Bangkok
Food Markets [NYT]

Bergen
Instant Weekend [The Times]

Brooklyn
Isaac Misrahi's Faves [T+L]

College Station
36 Hours In East Bumblefuck [NYT]

Dallas
Texas State Fair Guide [Houston Chronicle]

Denver
Invasion on the Starchitects [NYT]

Dijon
More Than Just Mustard (Yes, Now There Are Bad Puns Too] [Wash Po]

London
Top 5 Restos [Guardian]

Omaha
Apparently, Not the Middle of Nowhere [Chicago Tribune]

Shanghai
Vivienne Tam's Picks [T+L]

Soweto
Things To Do [Virtual Tourist]

Quebec City
A NGT Guide to The Quebecian Galaxy [NatGeo Traveler]

Previously on Roundup Roundup: #37, #36, #35, #34, #33, #32

Already a number of live blogs are up documenting the dramatic events in Bangkok. Here are a couple we've come across and we'll try to have our man on the ground in Bangkok, Newley Purnell, to give us a report in the morning. In the meantime, here's some blogs on the ground:

Knifetricks
19 September
Metroblogging Bangkok
Newley Purnell

Also:
The Nation
Coup on Flickr

[Photo: Goshen42/Flickr]

Previously: Whither Goest Bangkok?, Tarntawan Place: Where The Boys Are, I Dream (Hotel) of Bangkok, Atlanta Hotel: Wholesome Bangkok, She Will Kick Your Ass, Morally Diminished Blog, Bangkok's Quirkiest Online City Guide, Chatuchak Weekend Market

Is Bangkok on its way to getting Beiruted? According to breaking news from the NYT perhaps. A military junta has taken advantage of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra being in New York to seize control of the country. But where Beirut's bombings were unrelentingly destructive, it remains to be see whether Bangkok will become more or less democratic. PM Thaksin was widely assailed for rampant corruption and using his political power to augment his family's fortune. The generals who have taken control of the capital, led by Army Commander in Chief, Lt. Gen. Sondhi Bunyaglarin, have promised to return the reins back to civilian hands but gave no timetable. According to an AP report, "The coup went largely unnoticed in Bangkok's popular tourist districts, where foreigners packed bars and cabarets, oblivious to the activity about two miles away." Sex and booze aren't opiates for the masses after all, only for clueless tourists. At any rate, if you're planning a trip to Bangkok, we'd say wait a few weeks or months. By then, who knows if Bangkok's not calm then maybe at least Beirut will be up and running again.

Thai MIlitary Faction Declares Martial Law [NYT]

[Photo: AP]

Previously: Tarntawan Place: Where The Boys Are, I Dream (Hotel) of Bangkok, Atlanta Hotel: Wholesome Bangkok, She Will Kick Your Ass, Morally Diminished Blog, Bangkok's Quirkiest Online City Guide, Chatuchak Weekend Market

Let's face it -- a lot of people heading to Bangkok are not heading there for its undeniable beauty. They're heading there for the kindness (and the on-stage dancing) of strangers. Sexy, sexy strangers. And, quite often, sexy strangers of the same sex. The Tarntawan Place hotel, on a quiet alley off of Suriwong Road, is near all the infamous boy bars but doesn't look sleazy itself. And even if you're not going to be seen at breakfast (and lunch, and dinner) at the in-house restaurant with a young Thai man half your age, it might still give you a frisson to be at a table nearby.

And for checking out the, uh, local color, the oddly named Dreaded Ned web site is a great place to start.

Tarntawan Place [Official Site]

[John Rambow]

Previously: I Dream (Hotel) of Bangkok, Atlanta Hotel: Wholesome Bangkok, She Will Kick Your Ass, Morally Diminished Blog, Bangkok's Quirkiest Online City Guide, Chatuchak Weekend Market

Between making it big and not making it at all there's just making it, a category most "hotel bands" fall into and perhaps one more depressing than utter failure. The bands do almost exclusively covers of songs like Tata Young's Dhoom Dhoom and Man-Eater by Nelly Furtado, coordinate their outfits and have a choreographed show. Bangkok Recorder recently interviewed one of these unintentionally ironically-named bands called The All Star Band. The band is currently fulfilling a six month contract at Novotel's CM² club. Turns out though that the Hotel Band scene is a bustling one. Other bands like Common Culture and Solid As can be found in various hotels throughout Asia. The best part of the interview though has to be the pictures which exhaust almost every permutation of poseurdom imaginable.

Music Scene: Hotel Band
Common Culture pics
CM²

Previously: Jim Thompson House: Art and Bread Pudding, Morally Diminished Blog Gives Hope, Pause, Perhaps STDs (NSFW), I Dream Hotel of Bangkok, Bangkok's Quirkiest Online City Guide, Bangkok Google Mapped, Luxx Bangkok

Jim Thompson, everyone's favorite proto-CIA agent turned silk merchant, surely left his mark on Bangkok. In addition to the chain of textiles and housewares stores bearing his name, his sprawling house along a canal is now a landmark and museum. Made from six rural houses he had taken apart and then reassembled together, the teak structure is full of art and artifacts he collected over his decades in Southeast Asia, until his still unexplained disappearance in 1967. Although the museum is beautiful and strange, it was the café on the grounds that really made my first visit. Next to a pond full of fat and sassy carp, it's a quiet, calm place to prep yourself for all the noise and excitement outside the museum's gates.

The Bangkok Recorder recently profiled the blogger behind Morally Diminished, a blog that chronicles the fuck-fueled days and nights of a British expat whose blogger profile lists his interests as "weed" and "sluts." He seems to do a good job of embodying Bangkok's new slogan: Harmony of Life. He smokes weed and has sex in almost equal measure. A recent entry read, in part, "At 4am this morning fucked the bejesus out of some Chinese chick in, and around, my swimming pool...." and pictures of his conquests adorn his page like a trophy wall. I visited the site looking for moral outrage but, 5 hours of perusing later, left morally diminished. The blog is a great insight into the life of an expat and--though I sound like a douche saying it--pleasantly Houellebecquian in its misanthropy. Asked in the interview where his favorite hangouts are, Morally Diminished recommended Q bar and Bed, two luxx Bangkok nightclubs.

Morally Diminished
Morally Diminishing [Bangkok Recorder]
Q Bar
Bed Supperclub

Previously: I Dream (Hotel) of Bangkok, Bangkok's Quirkiest Online City Guide, Bangkok Google Mapped, Bangkok Gets New Slogan, A Tumultuous Day in Bangkok, I Siam What I Siam