Latest news with #MladenAntonov
Forbes
27-04-2025
- Forbes
Pump Up The Posh: Four Ways To Do Bangkok In Style
Sunrise might be the traditional time to visit Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn), but Bangkok's iconic ... More riverside temple is even more gorgeous when illuminated in the evening. (Photo by Mladen Antonov) For anyone who first visited Bangkok as a backpacker doing the famous 'Hippie Trail' across Asia, distinct memories come to mind. Staying at the legendary Malaysia Hotel (where Tony Wheeler wrote the first Lonely Planet guidebook), tooling around town in tuk-tuks, sipping tom yum gai at a street stall, and making the obligatory pilgrimage to the Grand Palace to view the Emerald Buddha. You might have taken a dragon boat tour of the floating market, flitted across the river at the crack of dawn to experience sunset at Wat Arun, or made the trek to the summit of the Golden Mount (Wat Saket) for a panorama of a city where temples were once the tallest structures. How times have changed . . . Bangkok has grown into a modern, first-world city. While all of the old landmarks remain, the Thai capital is now a city of skyscrapers, superhighways and air-conditioned shopping malls. And you're (hopefully) ready to do Bangkok in the style you couldn't afford as a traveling college student, Peace Corps worker or NGO volunteer. Here are four ways to pump up the posh on your next visit to Bangkok: Decorated with genuine antiques and exquisite reproduction furnishings, The Siam Hotel could easily ... More double as a Thai royal palace. Or at least something that resembles one — like The Siam Hotel. Located in the Dusit District near Chitralada Palace where the current king of Thailand and his family reside, The Siam could easily pass for a royal residence. Although it looks vintage, the all-suite property was created in the early 21st century, an architectural blend of traditional and modern elements filled with original artworks and antiques from Thailand and beyond. There's also a luxury spa and Muay Thai boxing arena where guests can practice the national sport with a professional trainer. Even the simplest three-room suites boast ample space, exotic views, and elegant furnishings and décor. The ultimate overnight is a courtyard or riverside villa with its own garden, swimming pool, and outdoor seating area. Adorning The Siam waterfront are the upscale Chon Thai Restaurant, the outdoor pool area, and wooden deck with al fresco bar and landing for the hotel's own dragon boat, which ferries guests up and down the Chao Phraya. Pichaya "Pam" Utharntharm, founder and head chef of one Michelin star restaurant Potong, oversees ... More her kitchen in the Chinatown area of Bangkok. (Photo by Manan Vatsyana) Bangkok has always been an awesome foodie destination and nowadays the city sports 34 Michelin star restaurants. At the pinnacle of the local food chain is Sorn, a three-star establishment serving southern Thai cuisine not far off busy Sukhumvit Road. The extravagant 23-course chef's menu might include dishes like Roti Crab Curry, Phuket Lobster, Grilled Crispy Pork or Taro Soup with crab stock. If you can't snag a table at Sorn (it only seats 40 diners), consider one of the city's seven two-star eateries. Two of them — Mezzaluna and Chef's Table — serve contemporary French on the upper floors of the State Tower Building at the river end of Silom Road. While Sühring, located in a smart residential neighborhood, specializes in 'whimsical' modern German cuisine in a restored villa with greenhouse seating. But when in Thailand, it seems kind of sacrilegious not to cherish the local cuisine. Which means you should really be sampling the Spicy Ant Egg Larb Soup, Seven Color Lobster Curry and Spicy Snow fish at R-Haan restaurant. Or the artistically presented Thai-Chinese fusion dishes at Potong in Bangkok's Chinatown district. The vertigo-inducing view from Sky Beach Bar at the summit of the King Power Mahanakhon skyscraper. ... More (Photo by Petr Svarc) Even if you don't dine in the State Tower Building, be sure to ride the rocket-like elevator to the summit for a sunset cocktail at the Sky Bar by Lebua. Hovering at 820 feet above sea level, the outdoor rooftop seating area is literally breathtaking (and vertigo inducing). Among the signature cocktails is the Hangovertini, a blend of Dewar's 18 years, sweet vermouth, rosemary honey and green apple created by the resident mixologist after parts of the movie Hangover Part II were filmed there. If bubbly is more your thing, CRU Champagne Bar perches on the 59th floor of the Centara Grand Hotel. The al fresco drinking hole complements its champagne cocktails and rare single malts by the glass with Caspian Sea caviar, oysters on the half shell, Wagyu beef skewers, and truffled French fries. Higher still is Sky Beach Bangkok. The world's third highest rooftop bar rides the summit of the 1,030-foot King Power Mahanakhon skyscraper, one of the tallest buildings in Southeast Asia. During the winter dry season, the bar hosts DJ parties under the stars. Among the standout drinks are the Thai Daiquiri with passion fruit, a mocktail called the Last Mango in Paris, and quite good local craft beer. Celebrating Thai design, the cast of "The White Lotus" decked out in Jim Thompson clothes and ... More accessories at a soirée hosted by the celebrated Bangkok fashion house. (Photo by Amanda Edwards) Chatuchak Market is a blast to browse — and you might even find a few unexpected treasures. But collectors of genuine Asian art and antiques or faithful reproductions, it's best to consult the experts. A great place to start is River City shopping center, which boasts more than 50 upscale antique, fine art and jewelry outlets. While Thai artifacts predominate, you can find exquisite items from around Asia — Morita specializes in Japanese relics, Bo Gu Zhai in decorative arts from China, Himalayan Treasures in objects from Nepal and Tibet. Locals tend to favor small out-of-the-way places like Paul's Antiques near busy Soi Sukhumvit 11. It's a great spot for Burmese and Javanese antique furnishings and collectibles, as well as custom-made furniture created by artisans in the onsite workshop. Serious collectors zero in on RCB Auctions. Either online or in person, buyers can bid on a wide array of rare gold, silver, ceramic and wooden masterpieces from Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar and China. Even if you're not a potential buyer, you can preview the items and browse the catalogues in RB's River City showroom. Fashion wise, Jim Thompson is still the first name in Thai silk clothing and accessories (which feature prominently in the latest season of The White Lotus). The flagship store is on Surawong Road, the factory outlet on Sukhumvit 93. But the ultimate haute couture adventure is visiting the Jim Thompson Heritage Quarter, which includes the original shop and the museum house where the line's namesake American businessman and Allied spy lived after World War Two. Browsing modern Thai paintings at River City art and antique center in Bangkok. (Photo by Guillaume ... More Payen)
BBC News
30-01-2025
- Health
- BBC News
January 2020: The scanners used to stop Covid's deadly spread
In January 2020, Thai authorities were amongst the first to have to grapple with a worrying new disease. The frontlines included the country's shopping malls. In January 2020, a new strain of pneumonia that has been worrying Chinese scientists and doctors suddenly becomes a global problem. On 13 January, Thailand reports the first case of this new respiratory illness outside China: a 61-year-old resident of the Chinese city of Wuhan who had arrived in Thailand five days before. Slowly, the number of cases reported in Thailand increases. Within a week, other Asian nations such as Japan and South Korea report cases. Within three weeks, the number of cases rises to the point that the disease became a "public health emergency of international concern" according to the World Health Organization (WHO) on 30 January 2020. It will become much, much worse. The gradual spread of the disease starts to attract the attention of the world's media. In Bangkok, Mladen Antonov, a Bulgarian photographer who works for the agency Agence France Press (AFP), starts to cover the steadily increasing reaction to the disease. "Thailand took very early measures," Antonov tells the BBC from his home in Hong Kong in late 2024. "Southeast Asia has a big trauma from previous pandemics, the Sars and all these. So they are very, very cautious about all this." Antonov says the Thai authorities quickly install body heat monitors in places such as shopping malls. Businesses within the malls, he says, usually pay for the equipment to be installed. The monitors pick up any abnormally high body temperatures, and anyone found to have a fever is reported to the authorities. "I think it's the 27th of January [when this happens], or something like that. This is just the beginning," says Antonov. "Our job, as journalists for the wire, we had to provide daily [images] of how the world reacts. So I was walking around, going to different places, searching for images to show masks. That was actually what first we start doing, showing pictures with people with masks," he says. Antonov then walks into a shopping mall, and sees the body heat scanner in operation. "It's not easy to work in commercial properties like this, like in shopping malls, you need special permission," he says. "So it was not easy to take the photo. But of course, I didn't ask. I just went and I start shooting them." Antonov has to move behind the thermal camera, which is being operated by two guards, and take a picture of the screen without them noticing. "It was a challenging time, as you can imagine, for a photographer, because we had to go to hospitals. We had to be outside when people were really afraid, you know, for any contact you had to go out and even go and push, to go closer," says Antonov. Thailand is one country that does not adopt the strictest lockdown procedures in early 2020. The thermal cameras soon became a common sight, Antonov says, as people travelled to work or to shop. "They introduced such thermal cameras to every metro station and to bigger shops. They were also using these 'gun thermometers', pointing the guns to your head and measuring the temperature. "We in the wire business, we cover wars, we cover tragedies, we cover hurricanes, we cover typhoons, we cover earthquakes, things like this," says Antonov. "So this was just another one challenge; yes, very different than anything else that we did previously, but still something were you have to find a way to do it and to be inventive, because it's very repetitive… masks, masks, masks, masks," he says. Around six weeks after the image is taken, Antonov starts to grasp just how serious the situation is. "We were reporting every day from… 200 offices around the world, so we had from everywhere information, we start counting cases, deaths and things like this." The invisible virus is a very different challenge to the normal threats war photographers face. "Is it deadly? What does it mean to catch it?" says Antonov, describing the uncertainty at the time. "Because when somebody is shooting next to you, yeah, you know, there are bullets that can hit you, but this is something that you don't see it. You don't know [immediately] when you catch it," he says. "We were washing our hands. We were using this spray disinfectants. Every one of us had small bottles in their pockets… every day, when you go back, you had to disinfect your camera," says Antonov. "There was, of course, a kind of a lockdown, but it was not so draconian [in Thailand compared to elsewhere]," Antonov says. "There are a lot of people from the countryside who work in the hospitality industry in Bangkok, for example. So when the rumour came of the lockdown, they [the government] gave them couple of days [to prepare to leave]. People took their leave, they left their jobs and they went back home to their villages." As the fear of the pandemic rises and the normally bustling shops start to quieten, Antonov sees what he calls "the most haunting image" of the early pandemic. "Grocery stores remained open all the time, and in big shopping malls, there are big supermarkets, and in order to reach the supermarket that is on the seventh floor, you have to pass through the escalators. They were making pathways in the shopping mall where you can go and all the stands, all the displays were covered in clothes," he says. More like this:• How Covid-19 myths travelled the world• 2021: The year of the mask• Can a civilisation feel 'mass trauma'? Most of the lights in the shopping mall have been turned off, making the mall feel like the setting for an apocalyptic movie. "It was like… you know when humanity is just on the brink of disappearance, you walk alone in total silence in an enormous shopping mall, take the elevators, and you're alone, and everything is grey, nearly dark. You know, it's unbelievable, so surreal… this happened within a week after this image [of the thermal scanner]… we couldn't imagine that really colourful and bustling shopping mall could really be dehumanised in a week. Just now I have goose bumps when I remember all these images walking with my wife, going to buy groceries from the shop." Before he leaves Bangkok for Hong Kong, Antonov visits some of Bangkok's usually busy tourist spots to experience their rapid emptying. They are usually filled with visitors watching professional Thai dancers. "You pay them, and they dance to please the gods. They were dancing with masks, with shields," he says. "Even after I left Bangkok, I continued to do namaste," Antonov says, describing the traditional bowing gesture performed by Buddhists when greeting people. "Bangkok, they do namaste, they don't shake hands. It's a good way not to transmit any germs. But for many years after I stopped hugging. Before, we were hugging with people… I'm working for a French company. and, you know, in France, people love to kiss each other. "When the pandemic left and when everything stopped, I was continuing to kind of feel awkward when I have to shake hands. "Now, after five years, I could say, yeah, the dark memories fade somehow, and it stays more a curiosity." --
