Amy Poulton

Women-only spaces are nothing new. From convents to bathrooms, women’s shelters to girls’ schools, Girls Guides to the Women’s Institute, women-only train carriages to ladies zones in gyms. Women-only spaces fulfil a collective need for safety, ease, understanding, communication, support and community.

Who is jumping on the #WomensHistoryMonth bandwagon and who is using this time to genuinely amplify women's stories, and emphasise existing work being done to uplift women and manifest equality?

I’m spinning in circles at the end of Thong Lor 6 when the owner of a local bar asks what I’m searching for. I’m looking for The Hidden Closet, I tell him, and he points to an Art Deco-inspired building with the direction, “Upstairs.” To answer his question more accurately, I’m looking for a little self-love for my own personal hidden closet - on a quest to discover how to buy sex toys in Bangkok when they're technically illegal in Thailand.

Climbing three flights of stairs, my first impressi...

Now that BAB2020 has officially wrapped, we’re reflecting back on the event, looking at the gender balance of artists featured and asking some questions. Why were fewer female artists represented? Why is the number of Thai female artists so low? How does BAB2020's selection of artists compare to other events in Asia, and to the wider Thai art ecosystem?

My grandad recalls Christmas parties lasting long into the night, then the dark and cold walks home with his parents, “Well, my dad did most of the walking and carried me on his shoulders.” On those black December nights my great-grandfather would point down to the shadows of Summer Lane. “That’s where the policemen would only walk in twos. That’s where you’d find the razor-capped Peaky Blinders!”

Dear Hong Kong, we need to break up. It’s not you, it’s me. We’ve had five beautiful years together, filled with ecstatic highs and bitter lows, but I think it’s now best for both of us that we should part ways. This is my Hong Kong swan song.

I’ve been living in Bangkok for two years and it’s taken me just as long to compile this list of the best books about Thailand. I didn’t want it to be weighted toward novels set in Thailand by predominantly white, Western authors, yet great Thai literature that resonates in English audience and is available in good translation is hard to find. (Sadly, even after two years, my Thai is still mostly limited to: “Another beer, please,” “Straight on, then turn left,” and “I am a guava.")

What is the connection between social media, specifically Instagram, and overtourism? That's the big question we've been debating in the office recently, in light of fresh news every day detailing the ruination of places of natural beauty or historic cities by an overwhelming surge in tourists, whom often arrive with a smartphone in hand, ready to take that perfect Insta-capture.

In return for their hospitality, the village elders requested that we sing a song from our country, stood up with hands on hearts. Sharing anxious glances around the campfire, we remembered how our guides had told us this was a village of ex-headhunters.
Still, we obliged with a wobbly rendition of God Save the Queen, voices echoing out to the valleys of rice paddies below. In return, the elders declined to sing their national anthem and instead shared a haunting melody known as the Sagada Hy...

Street art connects people with their surroundings. From thought-provoking socio-political commentary, to playful cartoon characters that make passers-by smile, to zig-zagging tags that convey the message: “I was here.”

One silver lining of the downtime provided by the Covid-19 pandemic is the opportunity to take a step back, recalibrate and get creative. One such establishment using this time to improve and innovate is PRU, Phuket’s first and only Michelin-starred restaurant, housed at Trisara resort.
PRU stands for “Plant. Raise. Understand.” — a sustainable concept inspired by the ecosystems and biodiversity of Thailand. Indigenous ingredients are grown and permaculture-focused farming methods are impleme...

When I read Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood during a trip to Japan, both the trip and the book sparked a fascination with Japanese novelists that has stayed with me ever since. This list was meant to be a top five, but I simply couldn’t choose! So instead, here are 11 great Japanese writers and the best Japanese novels, in English, that you need to read during your trip to Japan.

My passport expires in 2020, but it’s almost certainly going to be filled by then. I’ve even stuck post-it notes onto the few empty pages left to save them from an Immigration officer’s careless stamp. But no matter how much I love flicking through the pages and admiring the ink, I don’t ask how many countries are there?
I don’t count countries.
I see a lot of travel bloggers, travel Instagrammers and travel enthusiasts with a running total on their websites or profiles, ’27 countries and cou...

Fresh durian and fermented bean curd in the steaming streets of Mong Kok. Strobing neon signs on Nathan Road. Soup noodles slipping from chopsticks held between clumsy fingers. The telltale salty tang of MSG...

Thailand's first tachyon chamber.