Saturday, April 4, 2026

Good morning Bangkok. It's Saturday and we're looking at 27-36°C (80-97°F) under partly cloudy skies with haze and isolated thunderstorms possible this afternoon. AQI is moderate around 75, bearable but sensitive groups should limit outdoor time during peak hours. Chiang Mai's burning season haze continues. SET closed Friday at 1,410.39, down sharply on Middle East anxiety. Gold volatile, check the Gold Traders Association for the morning fix. USD running around ฿32.72. Diesel at ฿47.74 after yet another ฿3.50 hike landed yesterday morning. Yes, that's ฿47.74. Gasohol 95 at ฿43.95. 9 days until Songkran. Here we go.

If you haven't booked your Songkran travel yet, you're officially running late. Regular train tickets are gone. The cheapest domestic flights evaporated weeks ago. So the government stepped in. The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) has coordinated with six major carriers, Thai Airways, Bangkok Airways, Thai AirAsia, Nok Air, Thai Lion Air, and Thai VietJet, to add 191 round-trip flights and 29,685 extra seats across 11 domestic routes between April 10 and 15. Fares on those flights are discounted 15-30%. Destinations include Chiang Mai, Phuket, Hat Yai, Samui, Krabi, Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, and Trang. Thai Airways is reportedly deploying wide-body aircraft on some domestic routes just to maximize capacity. Meanwhile, the State Railway of Thailand is running six special trains covering 22 additional trips from April 10 to 17 because every single regular service sold out. On the bus side, the Department of Land Transport approved fare increases (5 satang/km for buses, 2 satang/km for vans) but is freezing them on major Songkran routes from April 6-19 so holiday travelers catch a break. CAAT director Air Chief Marshal Manat Chavanaprayoon noted that jet fuel prices have surged more than 100% since February due to the Middle East conflict, but said the fare-cut campaign would proceed regardless.

Bottom line: Thailand does this every year but the scale in 2026 is unprecedented. The five-day holiday window (April 11-15) compresses the entire country's travel demand into a few days. If you're still planning, book today, not tomorrow. The discounted promotional seats will sell out fast. If flights are gone, consider midday or late-night departures, which tend to be less popular. If you're staying in Bangkok, congratulations: the city empties out, traffic vanishes, and it becomes the most livable place on earth for about 72 hours. Until the water guns come out.

PM Anutin Charnvirakul's personal data was allegedly leaked and then used to register on Thailand's Social Security Office (SSO) website, a revelation that has raised serious questions about the security of one of the country's most important government platforms. Thanarat Kuawattanaphan, CEO of DomeCloud and a well-known blockchain and software specialist, flagged the issue on his Facebook account, claiming that weak security on the SSO site allowed members of the public to access the Prime Minister's information. The claim is that someone was able to use Anutin's data to register for social security services, which shouldn't be possible if even basic identity verification safeguards were in place. This follows a pattern: in March, a Facebook page called CSI LA posted an image of a traffic ticket allegedly belonging to Anutin, claiming it was leaked from the police system via a hacker group on Discord. Police Chief Pol Gen Kitrat Phanphet confirmed an investigation into that leak. And earlier this year, the People's Party acknowledged a data breach affecting its membership database, including names, ID card numbers, addresses, and submitted document images. Thailand's digital infrastructure has been under scrutiny since the push to move government services online accelerated post-pandemic, but incidents like this keep exposing the gap between ambition and execution.

Bottom line: If the Prime Minister's personal data isn't safe on a government website, yours definitely isn't either. Thailand has been aggressively digitizing public services, from the Mor Prom health app to online tax filings and social security registration, all of which require sensitive personal information. The problem isn't the digitization itself. It's the security layer, or lack thereof. If you're an expat with a Thai ID number, work permit, or any registration in government systems, there's not much you can do except monitor your accounts and stay alert for suspicious activity. The irony of this happening to the actual Prime Minister might accelerate reforms faster than any petition could. When the person running the country can't keep their own data safe on their own government's website, the urgency becomes personal.

If Instagram had a Thai dessert baby, it would be Thongyoy. This kitschy, candy-colored cafe in Ari has become one of Bangkok's most photographed dessert destinations, and unlike most places that prioritize aesthetics over flavor, the sweets here actually deliver. The interior is an explosion of pastel pinks, plastic flowers, and whimsical ceramic figurines that somehow works. It's maximalism done right, the kind of space where every corner is a content creator's dream, but the menu is grounded in traditional Thai desserts executed with precision and restraint. The star is the Thai dessert set (฿250-350), a gorgeous arrangement of handmade khanom including thong yip, thong yod, and luk chup, each one shaped, colored, and plated to museum-exhibit standards. The passionfruit cheesecake (฿150) is the sleeper hit, with a thick biscuit base and just enough tartness to balance the sweetness. They also run seasonal specials, and the matcha and pandan-based drinks are solid. The Ari location benefits from the neighborhood's walkable, cafe-hopping energy, with plenty of other stops within a few blocks if you want to make an afternoon of it. There's also a branch at Siam Paragon for the mall crowd.

TIP: Go on a weekday afternoon to avoid the weekend photo queue. The Thai dessert set is the thing to order if it's your first visit. Budget ฿200-400 per person for desserts and drinks.

4 April 1975: Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They were 19 and 22 years old. They had no office, no employees, and a combined net worth that wouldn't cover a weekend at ÆTHER rooftop. 51 years later, Microsoft just announced a billion-dollar bet on Thailand, the company's biggest infrastructure commitment in Southeast Asia. Gates and Allen's original pitch was that every desk would have a personal computer. That sounded insane in 1975. Today, Microsoft is pitching that every Thai worker should have AI skills. That sounds ambitious in 2026. Give it 51 years. The desk won't just have a computer. The computer will have the desk. And the worker. And probably the office. Happy birthday, Microsoft. Your timing with Thailand is better than your timing with Windows Vista.

See you tomorrow morning.

— Devon