Saturday 28 March 2026

Good morning Bangkok. It's Saturday and we're at 28-37°C (82-99°F) with clear skies. AQI in Bangkok is in the moderate range, but if you look at the North, Chiang Mai's weather classification on openweathermap yesterday literally read "Smoke" instead of an actual weather condition, with the city hitting 41°C. PM2.5 across the North and Northeast remains firmly in the unhealthy zone and is getting worse daily. If you have friends up there, check on them. Gold steady at ฿68,800-69,000. Diesel at ฿38.94 (yes, that still hurts). Benzene at ฿56.84. The SET closed Friday at 1,442.92. Chilli Fest is today. Earth Hour is tonight. Weekend mode: activated but slightly more expensive.

Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt has called on the entire city to switch off non-essential lights tonight (Saturday, March 28) from 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM as part of Earth Hour 2026. Wat Arun, the Giant Swing, Wat Suthat, and Wat Saket will go dark. All 50 district offices are coordinating with local buildings and businesses to join the switch-off. Over 7,000 cities in 190 countries are participating. Since 2008, Bangkok's Earth Hour campaigns have reduced energy use by 22,617 megawatts and cut carbon emissions by 12,330 tonnes. But here's what makes this year different: it's not just symbolic. The Oil Fuel Fund has been hemorrhaging ฿2.5 billion per day to subsidize fuel. The ฿6/liter price hike hit two days ago. Electricity bills are climbing. The government is literally asking people to conserve energy. Earth Hour 2026 isn't just about climate awareness. It's about the fact that energy has become genuinely scarce and expensive in ways that affect everyone's daily life.

Bottom line: Turn off your lights tonight. Not because a global campaign told you to, but because your electricity bill is about to look different and getting into the habit of being energy-conscious isn't virtue signaling anymore. It's budgeting. Besides, Wat Arun looks stunning in the dark. Watch it from across the river at Tha Maharaj with a drink in hand. That's an Earth Hour worth participating in.

Two days after the biggest single fuel price increase in years, the ripple effects are hitting every sector. Airlines have already added fuel surcharges. Hotels, especially in the North, are seeing a fresh wave of Songkran cancellations on top of the European cancellations that were already happening. Delivery firms are cutting routes. Some truckers have stopped driving altogether because the margins no longer work. In Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai, where local prices are higher and supplies are tighter, the situation is described as a supply crisis, not just a price crisis. The Chiang Rai Times reports the ฿6 hike sent diesel and gasoline up by as much as 22% overnight. Deputy PM Phiphat insists the supply is sufficient for Songkran, but the gap between official reassurances and ground reality is widening by the day.

Bottom line: The fuel price hike is now the story that connects everything else. Songkran travel costs more. Food delivery costs more. Your morning Grab to the office costs more. Restaurant prices will creep up within the week as suppliers pass through transport costs. The government is caught between an Oil Fund that was burning through ฿2.5 billion per day and a public that just absorbed a 22% overnight price shock three weeks before the biggest holiday of the year. There's no easy fix here. But being aware of how it flows through the economy helps you plan.

Saturday calls for a cafe crawl, and this one is worth the trip. Mansion in Copenh is a Copenhagen-inspired cafe on the third floor of a building in Soi Nak Niwat 37 that feels like stepping into a 1960s Scandinavian apartment that someone furnished with impeccable taste and then filled with vinyl records. The interior is mid-century modern meets retro Scandinavian: high ceilings, warm wood textures, color-block furniture in bold reds, yellows, greens, and blues that somehow work together without clashing. There's a cozy loft corner with vinyl shelves where you can pick a record to play while you drink your coffee. The rooftop seating has reportedly exceptional sunset views. Every corner is a photo spot, which is why TikTok has already found it and Gen Z moodboards are filled with screenshots. But it's not just aesthetics. The drinks are genuinely good: iced blueberry coffee with a bright citrus-forward profile, cream cheese tea (rich, slightly savory, deeply fragrant), and the signature burnt Basque-style cheesecake with a caramelized top and custard center. The menu even uses Danish language for drink names: "Iskaffe Med Karamel" (Iced Caramel Macchiato), "Varm Mokka" (Hot Mocha). Ranked #3 all-time favorite cafe in Bangkok by Corner.inc out of 2,500+ cafes tracked by 75,000 users, with a 4.7 on Google with 175 reiviews. Featured in Timeout Bangkok's Best New Cafes 2025 and Scandasia. Free parking. Not pet-friendly.

TIP: Go on a weekday morning for the quietest experience, or Saturday/Sunday for the extended hours. The cheesecake sells out, so get there early if that's what you're after. It's in Lat Phrao, so not on the typical expat circuit, which means it feels like a genuine discovery rather than another Thonglor spot. Pair it with a walk around the Nak Niwat neighborhood, which has its own quiet charm.

28 March 1979: The Three Mile Island nuclear accident occurred in Pennsylvania, the most significant accident in US commercial nuclear power plant history. A partial meltdown released radioactive gases into the atmosphere and changed the trajectory of nuclear energy policy worldwide. 47 years later, Thailand is dealing with its own energy crisis, except this one doesn't involve nuclear reactors. It involves the Strait of Hormuz, a depleted Oil Fund, and a ฿6/liter price hike that hit Thailand hard. At least at Three Mile Island, the lights stayed on. Tonight in Bangkok, we're turning them off on purpose.

See you tomorrow morning.

— Devon

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