Thonglor Style

As you might have read in my post about my dental issues, we had to spend a lot more time in Bangkok than we had initially planned.   A pleasant byproduct of this was that I got to discover a part of Bangkok I wouldn't normally have seen.   Since we're more or less done with the capital (at least for a while), I'd like to share my thoughts on this less-visited part of the country.  

Located in the dynamic Sukhumvit district of Bangkok, Thonglor, a neighborhood named after it's main street (also known as Sukhumvit Soi 55) is perhaps best known for three things:  it's Japanese restaurants, hundreds of dental clinics, and a young middle-upper class Thai community mixed in with a small group of expats.

Thonglor Highrises

Perhaps as you could guess, I got pulled into Thonglor for the second of these three items.    I got my first taste of Thunglor on our fourth day into the trip.   At this point, we hadn't seen too much of Bangkok or Thailand other than the area around the Anantara Resort we initially stayed at.

Looking back on it, that place was like a sheltered fortress for the well-off visitors who were too faint of heart to go full Bangkok and could venture out to the city by day only to retreat in the evening to the corny squidport Asiatique shopping center or to the comfort of the hotel's overpriced bars and restaurants.    It was pleasant at the time,  but I don't think I'd stay in that type of world again if I had the choice.

People waiting in line for a scooter-taxi on Thunglor

Thonglor, by contrast, had a much more 'real' feel to it.   There were plenty of Thai people walking around, no tuk-tuks circling like sharks looking for their next victim, and food carts lining the street in between regular shops and businesses.   I probably didn't catch it at this point, mainly because I was more concerned with getting my mouth to stop rejecting my tooth, but this part of the city had a certain unique feel.

When we initially booked our next hotel after Anantara, we took a place closer to the historical center of the city, and not too far from Khao San Road.   After spending a few days there, and getting my first taste of that classic Thai tourist hustle, I began to appreciate Thunglor's appeal.

Once I had my appointments set for the next week, Nathalie and I both agreed to move closer to that part of town to avoid having an hour-plus trip each way to get my mouth worked on.  Additionally, I was going to be in some pain and a bit out of it after my visits and I wanted to take it easy on myself and just relax.   We started looking on booking.com for places to stay in the neighborhood.  Unfortunately with it being close to the financial district,  the initial hotel prices were just a notch above our budget.  But after doing a bit a research, we were able to find lodging was literally 10 steps away from where I was going to have the majority of my dental work done. And while it was just a tiny bit over our budget, we were willing to pay the small premium for the comfort.

A room in the Playhaus Hotel

The Playhaus Design Hotel is located about halfway down Thonglor's main drive. It was founded by a young entrepreneuse who was looking to create a small, yet comfortable hotel based on a theme of four different musicals (each floor representing a different one, with the entrance being reminiscent of a theater's lobby).

Additionally, the hotel had only opened in mid-December.  The staff were all young, mid-to-late twenty-somethings looking for a challenge more thrilling than either working in an office or for a big hotel chain.   Their leader, a young, well-spoken hotel manager named Nez led the way, providing service and friendliness way above their 3-star booking.com rating.

We were immediately made to feel at home and, after discovering the opiate-like properties of the bed in our room, we settled on making it our go-to place in Bangkok.

Japanese Karaoke Club: This place is Boss.
Also, I'm fairly certain it's a brothel.

On the street itself, there was plenty to observe and enjoy.  As mentioned earlier, it's a 'Thai' neighborhood in the sense that tourists don't really make it out that way.  This could be because there aren't any temples or museums or anything really mentioned in the guidebooks telling the masses to come out and see what's probably just an ordinary street filled with middle-upper class Thais and tons of Japanese hangouts.  But for me, this is exactly a part of Thailand I wanted to see.

Away from the kitsch palaces and the charade that is Khao San road, it's wholly possible to see how a certain, very real, sub-set of Thais live.  Tuk-Tuks don't even bother with this part of town (you have to go a few stops towards the center on the BTS Sky Train to see one).    There's little to no feeling of discrimination coming from the Thais on the street towards the gringos (or Farangs as they're called in Thai), nor any sham travel agencies trying to book you on unlicensed minibuses to God knows where.

The bar at the Playhaus Hotel

In Thonglor, you're treated as an individual instead of a walking wallet.  There are plenty of places to eat, from street food to upscale restaurants, complete with an Irish pub.  Japanese businessmen seem to have made this their HQ in Bangkok, and as a result, there's plenty of restaurants to have sushi and Japanese BBQ.   The bar life is a spectacle within itself, seeing young Thai professionals getting drunk after work, along with younger Thai women looking for a successful husband, but not a sleazy sugar daddy like you'd find down the road in Nana (Bangkok's little Pattaya).

Bar scene in Thonglor

After coming back from Laos, we weren't sure how we felt about Thailand.  I think we're developing this kind of love-hate relationship with the country where when we get to meet cool Thais and get out of the guidebook universe, we thoroughly enjoy the country.  But on the other hand, getting constantly harassed because we're white and being forced to pay different prices because we are foreign really wears us down (I'm going to expand on this when I've left Thailand for the last time and can make my final judgement).

However,  when we arrived in Thonglor, we felt like we were home.  It came out of the blue, but when we walked down the street, and made it to the Playhaus, we were relaxed, and even relieved, to be back in a familiar, welcoming territory.     We were excited to see the staff at the hotel who have become good acquaintances over our past few stays.

We took a much needed two days to just enjoy the neighborhood.  We had a delicious, if pricey dinner (we did well in Laos budget-wise, so we treated ourselves), went to a movie, I got a haircut, and, perhaps more importantly, enjoyed a great night's sleep in the amazing bed.

I'm glad I got to know this part of town, and I know that I'll be returning to it, whenever my journey requires  me to swing back to Bangkok for at least one night.

With that said, breaking out of the advised and overwritten in guidebooks can teach you more about a city's real culture than visiting museums and tourist sites ad nauseam.   Cities are there not just because of their historical significance, but because people choose to live in them.   Seeing at least part of what draws them and keeps them there, for me, is what visiting a place is all about.