ABOVE: Under the new alcohol ban soon to go into effect, alcohol could not be sold anywhere but registered hotels in the areas marked in red on this map of a portion of Bangkok’s central business district.
It’s the last Friday of the month, your paycheck has dropped and leaving the office it’s time to wash the week away.
You start at Siam Paragon or CentralWorld’s Groove for dinner and wine with your tii rak, but they’re not serving. You head to a sports bar on Sukhumvit Road for some brew with your crew, but it’s gone dark. Desperate you race to Soi Cowboy to find the vodka locked up.
Impossible as it is to imagine this scenario being real, that's the reality of a new ban on alcohol sales signed into law Monday and expected to go into effect next month.