Wednesday 22 April 2026

Good morning Bangkok. Happy Wednesday.

🌡️ Weather: 34-36°C (93-97°F). Hot, mostly sunny with a small chance of an afternoon shower. UV index remains extreme SPF 50 is recommended.

🌫️ AQI: 78 (moderate) as of Monday, best in two weeks.

SET: 1,489.73 . Gold: ฿71,850 buy / ฿72,050 sell. USD/THB: ฿31.39. Diesel B7: ฿42.90 ✅ Diesel B20: ฿35.90 ✅

The Oil Fuel Fund Management Committee approved the reduction on April 20, following a significant drop in global diesel prices from around US$172 per barrel on April 16 to US$155 by April 20. The new prices took effect at 5AM on Tuesday across all PTT and Bangchak stations: Diesel B7 is now ฿42.90 per litre and Diesel B20 is ฿35.90 per litre. Petrol and gasohol prices remain unchanged. One of the more telling numbers in the announcement is what happened to the Oil Fuel Fund's daily spending — it has fallen from over ฿1.2 billion per day at the height of the Hormuz crisis to just ฿53.75 million per day now, meaning the fund is no longer hemorrhaging reserves at emergency pace and has rebuilt enough breathing room to absorb future shocks. Thailand currently holds approximately 110 days of oil supply, a figure the Energy Ministry has been citing regularly to reassure both markets and the public that the country is not at risk of running short even if the Middle East picture deteriorates again. The timing matters: the ceasefire between the US and Iran expired Wednesday morning with no deal signed, meaning oil market volatility is not over, and this cut could easily be reversed if Hormuz traffic slows again.

Bottom Line: If you drive, fill up now and enjoy it while it lasts. The fund's improved position is genuinely good news, but with the ceasefire expired and negotiations stalled, anyone counting on stable fuel prices through May is being optimistic. The smart move is treating this as a window, not a new floor.

Officers from Chon Buri Immigration Police and Pattaya Tourist Police raided a two-storey pool villa in a private housing estate off Soi Chaiyaphruek 2 at 3:45PM on April 20, after residents filed complaints about suspicious activity involving a large group of foreigners who had rented the property. Inside, police found 20 Indian nationals who had converted the villa into a fully operational call centre, targeting victims back in India with what authorities described as an organised online investment fraud scheme. Equipment, phones, laptops and scripted materials were seized. Officers said the group had been using the villa simultaneously as their workspace and accommodation, with the setup designed to look like a standard luxury rental from the outside. The arrests follow a pattern that Pattaya police and Chon Buri Immigration have been tracking since late 2024, in which foreign-operated fraud operations increasingly favour residential villa rentals over commercial premises — partly because they are harder to flag through business registration checks, and partly because a pool villa in a gated estate generates far less scrutiny than an office block full of people on tourist visas working 12-hour shifts.

Bottom Line: The pool villa scam centre is becoming its own genre of Thailand crime story, and Pattaya's property rental market is squarely in the middle of it. For anyone renting out property in the Chonburi area, knowing who your tenants actually are is no longer just good practice — it is increasingly something landlords are being asked to account for.

Named after the gardenia flower, Baan Dok Pud is the kind of place most people who have lived in Bangkok for years have still never been to — a hidden Thai dessert mansion buried deep inside a Lat Phrao soi, surrounded by lush gardens, koi ponds and the general atmosphere of having accidentally stepped into a slower decade. The desserts are served khantok-style, on traditional low lacquered trays, and the selection is a tour through Thai sweets that most menus have stopped bothering with: Luk Chup, the miniature mung bean fruits painted to look eerily realistic; Foi Thong, golden threads of egg yolk, sugar and coconut milk that take more skill to make than they look like they do; Kanom Tom, sticky rice dumplings rolled in coconut; and Khanom Piak Pun, a pandan and coconut cream pudding that slides across cold like the dessert equivalent of a cool room on a hot afternoon. BK Magazine put it in their top dessert spots list and the reason is simple: it is genuinely the best place in Bangkok to take anyone visiting for the first time who wants to understand what Thai sweets actually are, before they get redirected to mango sticky rice at a mall. With a 4.3 on Google with 294 reviews it’s worth checking out.

TIP: Go before noon on weekdays. The garden seating fills up by mid-morning on weekends. Closed Mondays.

Yeah. That Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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See you tomorrow morning.

— Devon