3) 8 P.M. SUBLIME GAA

Gaggan is regularly ranked as Asia’s best restaurant. Don’t eat there. Just across the passageway is the less fastidious, less expensive, less-hyped, almost-brand-new and truly sublime dining experience known as Gaa, where you don’t have to book weeks in advance. (A few days are enough — for now). Décor consists of industrial materials and autumnal hues, music ranges from bossa nova to Bowie, and the innovative food comes courtesy of the Indian chef Garima Arora, who worked previously at Copenhagen’s Noma restaurant and, yes, Gaggan. The 10-course menu (2,200 baht) might showcase Indo-Siamese hybrids (Thai crayfish on Indian flatbread with shell bisque), high-end comfort food (warm fermented tofu whey with charcoal-roasted cauliflower), meaty-sweet mash-ups (chilled shards of chicken-liver mousse on toast with longan jam) or fruity fun desserts.

4) 10: 30 P.M. THE CHINESE COLLECTION

For most travelers, Chinatown’s appeals are street food and the huge gold Buddha in Wat Traimit. But the small nearby lane called Soi Nana is a gold mine of new bars. The red neon, flickering candles and dark wood at Ba Hao evoke a sultry den from 1930s Shanghai — complete with Opium (a Negroni variant with ginseng, herbal liquor and tiny chrysanthemum bulbs). Thai pride suffuses the cozy, candlelit Tep Bar. Not hungry for fried baby bamboo caterpillars? Try a herbal liquor, rice wine or Nila Pat cocktail (Thai rum, ginger syrup and a black gelatin cube made with Thai herbs) and absorb the traditional Thai music performances.