REDISCOVERING MY CITY
Blue-blooded Bangkokian on writing the Bangkok edition of Louis Vuitton City Guide
Returning to Bangkok in the late 1980s, ML Poomchai Chumbala became a New York Times foreign correspondent that had him writing a column about Thailand. The assignment had him rediscovering his hometown after being away for 12 years following schooling in the UK.
Working on the Louis Vuitton City Guide, ML Poomchai found himself rediscovering Bangkok again. It also spurred a journey of self-discovery of things that he had forgotten or things that he never thought he would like.
The Bangkok City Guide captures the essence of the metropolis with a compilation of places to experience in various categories such as hotels, restaurants, nightlife, shopping and arts and cultures.
ML Poomchai provides his favourite spots in each category. In dining out, for example, he suggests Khao (Sukhumvit 51), Baan Klang Nam (Rama III) and Eathai (Central Embassy) while shoppers for antiques and interior design objects should head to Chatuchak Weekend Market and JJ Mall.
The blue-blooded Bangkokian shares with Life on being Louis Vuitton’s guest contributor of its 320-page City Guide with a listing of 600 addresses. How can visitors experience the most of Bangkok? There’s no other place in the world like Bangkok. It’s a city that you have to feel. It’s not just looking and listening and if you open your mind and senses then you can start to feel Bangkok. What was difficult in compiling this guide book? To present a city like Bangkok, it’s not easy to compress what it has to offer into this small guidebook and you can only give a few lines on each place.
Tending to all needs, the Bangkok City Guide has good coverage, from an introduction to the city and how to live like a local to literature on Bangkok and Thai designer fashion labels.
It takes readers on many sidetracks, like every good guidebook should. I hope readers will find it as informative, fun and surprising as the city it portrays.
What was the easiest part? Bangkok is undoubtedly a foodie destination, and that was the easiest to compile.
One of the places is a lovely bakery in Silom that sells delicious buns. Memories came flashing back of how my dad would park the car on Silom Road to get me some buns. We might forget everything else but we can’t forget good food. What other childhood memories do you have of Bangkok? I live in Thong Lor, which was a canal. When I was a kid, I rode my bicycle along the canals, which are all gone except for one left in a sub soi. Thong Lor was very quiet and everyone knew everyone in the neighbourhood.
Today, Thong Lor has grown into a hot spot for cuisine and nightlife. It’s one example of how Bangkok keeps reinventing itself into a vibrant city. Your Thong Lor residence serves as a teahouse, where else can we enjoy a cuppa? Agalico teahouse (Sukhumvit 51) is my own contribution to local tea culture.
The Erawan Tea Room (Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel) is a recreation of an earlier teahouse that I remember from my youth.
Double Dogs (Yaowarat Road) is a quaint tea room that offers a wide selection of imported teas served in tiny earthenware teapots with matching trays accompanied by Chinese cookies and pies. Are there any “forgotten” places in Bangkok? There’s one place that not a lot of people know about. Located on the grounds of Wat Po, the Museum of Tea Ware has a beautiful collection of porcelain, mainly from the Chinese Qing dynasty, which was gifted to high-ranking priests of the royal monastery over the past two centuries.