Thonglor (Sukhumvit Soi 55)

If the old town is where Bangkok prays, Thonglor is where Bangkok parties, eats, and pretends to be Tokyo. This long soi branching off Sukhumvit Road is the epicentre of modern Thai youth culture — a strip of craft cocktail bars, Japanese-influenced restaurants, gallery spaces, and rooftop venues where the dress code is as important as the drinks menu.

The food scene here has nothing to do with street food. This is where Bangkok's young chefs are opening restaurants that would hold their own in London or New York — tasting menus built around Thai ingredients, omakase bars, natural wine shops, third-wave coffee roasters. The street itself is a weird mix of old shophouses, brutalist apartment blocks, and gleaming new developments, and somehow the restaurants tucked into all three categories are equally good.

Thonglor is also where Bangkok's creative class hangs out. Small galleries pop up in converted houses. Design studios share walls with vinyl record shops. The nightlife runs late — this is Bangkok, after all — with bars that don't really get going until midnight and clubs that see dawn on a regular basis. Come here after you've done the temples and the markets and you'll see a completely different city — one that has nothing to do with tourism and everything to do with what young Bangkok actually looks and sounds like right now.