Sunday 10 May 2026

Good morning Bangkok. Happy Sunday.

🌡️ Weather: 27-36°C (81-97°F). Wide range today as the morning starts cool before building through the afternoon. TMD has issued a heavy storm warning for 57 provinces including Bangkok through tomorrow, with thundershowers, gusty winds and flood risk flagged. Check conditions before afternoon outdoor plans.

🌫️ AQI: 138-159 (Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups to Unhealthy). Elevated across the city. Mask strongly recommended for any outdoor time beyond a short walk. Children and elderly residents should stay indoors during peak afternoon hours. Morning remains the cleaner window.

Nation Thailand reported yesterday that Thai exports to the Middle East have fallen 57% as the war disrupted shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz, the most severe single-market trade decline Thailand has experienced since the crisis began in late February. The Middle East has historically been a significant destination for Thai agricultural products, processed food, petrochemicals and manufactured goods, and the near-total disruption of commercial shipping through the strait has made physical delivery to buyers in the region either impossible or prohibitively expensive. The 57% figure captures both the direct shipping disruption and the secondary effect of buyers in the region cancelling or deferring orders as their own economies contract under the weight of the conflict.

The government is now pivoting to alternative markets to partially offset the loss, though the specifics of which products are being redirected and to where have not yet been fully detailed. The challenge is structural: many of the goods Thailand exports to the Middle East are not easily redirected because the buyers, logistics chains and pricing structures were built around that specific corridor. This is the trade side of the same crisis that has driven diesel price volatility, the ฿400 billion borrowing decree, the 20% road freight decline and the 9.3 million airline seat cuts this newsletter has been covering for weeks. The 57% export decline is the sharpest single number yet on how directly the Hormuz crisis is hitting Thailand's economy beyond the fuel pump.

Bottom Line: The compounding effect is what matters here. Thailand is not dealing with one crisis, it is managing several simultaneously: energy prices, supply chains, agricultural threats from El Nino, a record durian surplus, weakening tourism bookings and now a 57% export collapse to an entire region. Each of these stories has been covered individually in this newsletter over the past month. The 57% figure connects them into a single picture of an economy under genuine, multi-front pressure.

MUEBON, one of Bangkok's most recognized street artists, and Martin Whatson, the Norwegian artist internationally known for his layered grey stencils with bursts of color breaking through, have opened a collaborative exhibition in Bangkok that brings together graffiti, stencil art and contemporary culture from two very different cities. Whatson's signature style involves detailed grey-scale cityscapes and figures with vivid, almost violent splashes of color emerging from within, a technique that reads as both controlled and chaotic at the same time. MUEBON's work is rooted in Bangkok's own visual language, drawing on local references, humor and a street-level perspective that has made him one of the city's most followed contemporary artists.

The collaboration is the kind of cultural crossover that Bangkok's art scene has become genuinely good at hosting. The city's position as a regional hub for contemporary art has strengthened significantly in the past two years, with spaces like Dib Bangkok, Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok Art Biennale and a growing network of independent galleries in Charoenkrung and Talad Noi drawing international artists and curators. A Thai-Norwegian graffiti show may not be the most obvious pairing on paper, but the visual contrast between Whatson's grey European precision and MUEBON's Bangkok energy is exactly the kind of tension that produces interesting work.

Bottom Line: If you are looking for something to do this weekend that does not involve a mall or a rooftop, this is worth seeking out. The exhibit is open from April 28th to May 12th, 2026 at EM Gallery, EmSphere Shopping Center.

PRIDI is what a Sunday morning cafe should be: a place where the coffee is genuinely good, the food is considered rather than assembled, and the space gives you room to breathe without making you feel like you are sitting inside someone's design portfolio. The cafe occupies a renovated mid-century home on Pridi Banomyong Soi 25, with white interiors and warm wood accents that together create the feeling of a house that has been lived in well rather than styled for a camera. The coffee is roasted on-site in a micro-roastery visible from the seating area, and the difference between beans roasted in-house and beans delivered from elsewhere is the kind of thing you can taste clearly on a quiet morning when you are paying attention. Timeout Bangkok's Sunday brunch guide described PRIDI as "that rare hybrid of cafe and micro-roastery that actually knows how to roast its beans well," and the description is precise. The food menu is short and well-executed: the chicken liver pate is done elegantly, the fermented cream is house-made, and the strawberry jam makes it all taste like it came from someone who cares about the details without needing to tell you about them. For a Sunday morning in Phra Khanong when you want a good book, a good coffee and a few hours of genuinely unhurried time, PRIDI is the call. It is the kind of place that makes you wonder why you ever waited in line at a mall cafe.

TIP: Go before 10AM on Sundays for the quietest hour. The mid-century home setting rewards a slow visit rather than a grab-and-go.

(Confirm times and ticketing directly before heading out.)

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See you tomorrow morning.

— Devon