Friday 27 March 2026

Good morning Bangkok. It's Friday and we're at 29-35°C (84-95°F) under clear skies in the city, but Chiang Mai's weather report literally says "Smoke" instead of a weather condition, with temperatures hitting 41°C. AQI in the North is firmly in the unhealthy zone and expected to worsen through next week. Bangkok is at moderate levels but climbing. The SET gave back 14.99 points yesterday to close at 1,442.92. Gold rebounded slightly to ฿68,700-68,900. USD at ฿31.54-33.08. And if you filled up your car this morning, you already know today's top story. Happy Friday.

This is the biggest single fuel price increase since the crisis began. Effective yesterday (March 26), the Oil Fuel Fund Management Committee slashed subsidies across all fuel types, resulting in an immediate retail price hike of approximately ฿6 per liter. Diesel is now ฿38.94. Benzene is ฿56.84. Regular gasoline is ฿57.54. These are the new pump prices you saw this morning. The reason: the Oil Fuel Fund has been absorbing approximately ฿2.5 billion per day (roughly $76 million USD) to keep domestic prices artificially low. That's unsustainable. With global crude still above $100/barrel and Singapore diesel benchmarks (Thailand's key import reference) surging, the government decided to pass a larger portion of the global price to consumers. They're asking the public to "exercise understanding and practice energy conservation."

Bottom line: Let's be blunt about what a ฿6/liter increase means for daily life in Bangkok. If you drive and your car takes 40 liters, your fill-up just got ฿240 more expensive. If you take Grab everywhere, expect fares to creep up within days as drivers adjust. Food delivery will cost more. Restaurant prices will rise. Anything that moves by truck (which is everything: your groceries, your drinking water, construction materials, market goods) just got more expensive to transport. This is the moment the fuel crisis stops being an abstract news story about the Middle East and becomes a line item in your monthly budget. The government says there's enough fuel for Songkran. But "enough" and "affordable" are two very different things.

In what might be the most tone-deaf reassurance of the week, Deputy PM Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn declared yesterday that Thailand will have sufficient fuel for Songkran and that public transport is ready, with key expressways and motorways toll-free during the holiday. Meanwhile, in the actual provinces where people drive to celebrate Songkran, Chiang Rai still has zero open petrol stations on some days, drivers are sleeping at pumps waiting for deliveries, and the Thai government is now advising people to make sure they have enough fuel for the round trip before they leave home. The Transport Ministry also confirmed that six airlines will discount Songkran domestic flights by 15-30%, covering 29,685 seats across 191 flights. That's the good news. The less good news: most of those cheap seats are already sold.

Bottom line: The government's official position ("supply is stable, distribution is the problem") is increasingly difficult to reconcile with reality on the ground. If you're planning a Songkran road trip to the North, fly instead if you can still find a seat. If you must drive, fill up in Bangkok before you leave, carry snacks and water, and accept that the journey will involve fuel stress. The toll-free expressways are a nice gesture, but saving ฿100 on tolls when you're spending ฿240 more on fuel doesn't quite balance. Songkran will still happen. The water fights don't require diesel. But getting there might.

It's Friday and we're ending the week with something extraordinary. Potong is a one-Michelin-star progressive Thai-Chinese restaurant set inside a 120-year-old Sino-Portuguese building in the heart of Yaowarat that used to be Chef Pam's family's traditional Chinese herbal medicine pharmacy. Chef Pichaya "Pam" Soontornyanakij is the youngest and first-ever female chef to receive the Michelin Thailand Opening of the Year award, Asia's Best Female Chef 2024, and World's Best Female Chef 2025. The restaurant debuted at #13 on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants in 2025 and holds the #1 spot on Top25 Restaurants in Bangkok. The building itself is five stories, each with its own story. The ground floor is the bar. The second floor is the main dining room with exposed brick and original heritage details. The third floor has an untouched shrine room with hand-painted murals of eight hidden tigers. And the fourth and fifth floors house The Opium Bar, a speakeasy inspired by the building's past as an actual opium den. The tasting menu (฿5,500++ for the standard, festive menus higher) runs about 20 courses guided by Chef Pam's "5 Elements, 5 Senses" philosophy: salt, acid, spice, texture, and Maillard reaction. Standout courses include the 14-day aged duck (two weeks dry-aged, crispy skin, pink center), blue crab with crab roe emulsion, and the Pad Thai deconstructed into something you've never imagined. Everything is made in-house: the soy sauce, miso, fermented tea, even the kombucha. Wine list has 200+ bottles from 21 countries. With a 4.6 on Google with 621 reviews. Book well in advance.

TIP: Come hungry and set aside three hours. Start at the ground floor bar, take the old-school lift up, and let the staff guide you through the building. The duck course alone is worth the visit. If you only do one splurge dinner in Bangkok this year, make it this one. Open everyday 4:30 PM to 11 PM except on Wednesdays it’s closed.

27 March 1964: The Great Alaska Earthquake struck at magnitude 9.2, the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in North America. It triggered tsunamis that reached as far as Hawaii and Japan. 62 years later, Bangkok sits on soft clay roughly 1.5 meters above sea level, and the Doomsday Glacier conversation from two weeks ago suddenly feels less abstract. But today's more immediate tremor is the one you felt at the petrol pump this morning. Magnitude: ฿6.

See you tomorrow morning.

— Devon

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