With busy work schedules and every day tasks, it’s not easy to find time to spend with your pets. Sometimes you just want to take them out with you to have a nice meal just to get some extra time with them.

Here are some restaurants throughout Bangkok where you can have a quality meal while spending quality time with your fur-kids.

D’ark (Emquartier)

G/F, Emquartier, Sukhumvit Rd. Open daily 10am-10pm.

Dine alfresco with your pooch and savor delightful Australian coffee and tantalizing menu items.

Quince

Sukhumvit 45. 02-662-4478. Open daily 11:30am-1am.

Dogs are invited to join you in the outdoor terrace as well as the air-conditioned dining room as you indulge your taste buds. Water bowls are provided for your tail-wagging pal. Goodbye to feeling guilty for leaving your pooch at home.

Kiosk Cafe (Barkyard BKK)

The Barkyard BKK, Sukhumvit Soi 26, 084-874-2777. Open Tue-Sun 10am-6pm.

With plenty of outdoor seating just footsteps away from the enclosed lawn area for dogs to roam around, you can enjoy a great meal while your furry companion stays close by.

Coccola Cafe

111/1 Thonglor Soi 5, 02-712-8225. Open daily 10am-6pm.

The pet friendly café serves detectable local fare and doubles as a pet shop so you can grab a meal for you and shop for doggie stuff all at the same time.

Eatdustry

555/55 Thonglor Soi 19, 081-567-5544. Open daily 9am-10pm.

If you dream of having all day breakfast with your fur buddy, you’ll be please to hear that canine companions are welcome in the outdoor dining area.

Ifitis

17 Thonglor 23

Pet-friendly seating is available in the backyard of this colorful restaurant. Your pooch can salivate as he watches you devour Thai and Western dishes.

Dog in Town

16/1 Ekkamai 6.

You can expect casual dining here with the company of your dog. This café not only welcomes fur companions, but they also have a few of their own resident pooches roaming around too.

Coffee Puppy

36/4 Chaeng Watthana Rd, 02-982-6519. Open Tue-Sun 11am-8pm.

This charming cafe is perfectly suited for you and your furry friend because their menu includes delicious food for both! Some of the gourmet grub for dogs include the amazing dog sushi made with liver paste that will make your dog beg for more.

As a pet owner, don’t you wish you could take those little furry balls of love everywhere?

It’s a shame that shopping malls are off limits for dogs, but safety and hygiene are obvious concerns of those establishments. Thankfully there are some open-air malls in Bangkok that designate some areas just for dogs.

The Garden

5/F, Central Embassy, 1031 Ploenchit Road, 02-119-7777. Sundays 4pm-10pm.

This isn’t exactly a mall that allows dogs, but rather a space on the rooftop of the glittering shopping complex, Central Embassy. It’s totally dog friendly although only on Sunday afternoons. Doggie water bowls are provided and if you’re feeling thirsty there’s food and drink options for humans too.

K Village

Sukhumvit Soi 26, Sukhumvit Rd., 02-258-9919. Open daily 10am-10pm.

K Village is an al fresco shopping mall that allows dogs in its premises. You can even find specified areas for dogs to do their toileting business with plastic bags provided. There’s also a dog obedience class held on a weekly basis and it’s free of charge. You’ll find several pet shops here with the cutest clothes and accessories for your furry ones.

Some pet stores will help baby sit your marvelous mutt while you do your shopping and/or dining. Several restaurants on the ground floor also have outdoor seating where you can have your meal with your dog. The weekend market is also a great time to bring your dog around as many other dogs and their owners will be there. It’s a great opportunity to socialize your dog and make new friends.

Central Festival Eastville

69 Pradit Manuthum Road, Lad Phrao, 10230. 02-102-5000. Open daily from 10:30am-10pm.

Located in Lad Phrao, CentralFestival EastVille is home to an outdoor park where dogs can enjoy the fresh air and roam freely. There’s even a playground just for dogs to exercise and explore while having fun.

Inside the mall, doggie trolleys are available if you want to bring your fur kid around to do some shopping. Just keep within the designated dog-friendly areas. If an accident does happen, the mall provides clean up products so please make use of them.

J Avenue

Thonglor, Sukhumvit 55 Soi 15. Open daily from 10:00am-10pm.

Right smack in the middle of the bustling Thonglor street is a dog-friendly outdoor mall called J Avenue. Enjoy some pastries, sandwiches and coffee at Au Bon Pain or ice cream at iberry where your dog can unwind with you in the open-air seats. Greyhound restaurant and café also allows your four-legged friends to share your seat in their al fresco seats.

The Commons

335 (Thonglor 17), 55 Sukhumvit Rd, 89 152 2677. Open daily from 8am-12am.

Another great place to hang out with your pooch and meet other animal lovers is conveniently located in Thonglor 17. There are several dining options at The Commons and some of them have outdoor seating so you can have your meal with your four-legged friend.

Just bear in mind that you can keep your dog with you in the outdoor terrace areas only and you’ll have a great time. Weekends here are especially popular with pets and their owners.

There is no shortage of beautiful recreational parks in Bangkok; however, none of them are dog friendly.

Ironically, stray dogs are free to roam these parks but you can’t bring your well-behaved, leashed dog inside any of these parks. Luckily there are a few places where dogs can feel the grass beneath their feet and run leash-free alongside their furry friends.

Barkyard BKK

Soi Sukhumvit 26, Sukhumvit Rd., BTS Phrom Phong, 088 874 2777. Open daily 10am-6pm (Closed Mondays).

A one-stop shop for all your pet’s needs, Barkyard BKK offers more than just a grassy space for your active tail-wagger to roam free. Their on-site pet grooming services help keep your dog smelling and looking its best. The pet shop is filled with sleek, designer accessories for you to spoil your furry loved ones.

An outdoor café with a full menu of delicious food and drinks means you can sit back and relax while your fur-kid runs off to make new friends. The facility also incudes a dog hotel where the rooms are fitted with cameras so you can keep an eye on your dog while you’re out of town. Dog access to the enclosed grass area is just 100 baht.

Ozono Petropolis Park

307 Sukhumvit Soi 39, Sukhumvit Rd., BTS Phrom Phong, 02-259-2788. Open daily 10am-8pm.

Tucked away at the end of Sukhumvit 39 is Ozono, a small community of stores catered to pets and their owners. Here you will find a members-only dog park called Petropolis, which costs 300 baht per day or 1,500 baht per month to give your dogs and cats access to two-rai of lush garden space where they can be walked by professional dog walkers if you choose to relax with a cup of coffee instead.

There’s also a communal area in the middle of the shopping complex where dogs are free to mingle without any cover charge; however, you must keep your pet on a leash for safety reasons.

BMA Dog Park

Wacharaphol, Bangkhen, Bangkok 10220, Thailand

Created by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), this public dog park opened just a few years ago and already has over six thousand registered dogs as members. The gated park has both grass and sand areas with plenty of space for all types of dogs to run freely off-leash.

There are also obstacle course facilities to train your dog’s intelligence and mobility while giving them a chance to increase their confidence. To qualify for membership, dogs must be up to date with their vaccines and implanted with a microchip in case if they go missing.

Soi Dog’s PR officer, Toon Pawena, shares with us her joy in helping stray animals and enjoying her time on the island.

If you ever see a woman up to her waist in water on a flooded road trying to save dogs and cats from drowning, it might be Toon Pawena. Born and raised in Bangkok, the Soi Dog Foundation’s (SDF) public relations officer took a month off from her real estate work three years ago and bought an outboard engine, got a fiberglass boat donated by a friend, and sailed out daily to save neglected dogs in flooded areas of Bangkok.

“It was during the flood in Bangkok, in 2011, when I decided to join the animal rescue volunteer groups to help rescue stranded dogs; most of the cats could get away from the flood somehow, leaving only the poor helpless dogs! I first started as a joining member where I just went with swimming gear such as my protected diving shoes, rash-guard surf shirt, long wetsuit pants … and that was it. I then realized that walking in flood waters of about semi-chest-height isn’t that fun, and that too much time is wasted in the aqua-aerobic walks (a distance of five kilometers can take up to four or five hours walking in a flood),” she explains.

Since then, she has been to many areas saving animals, almost every day, to the point that she became a popular face on TV; that’s when the volunteer-based SDF found her and offered her some help.

I love dogs very much

“I ended up working for SDF because I love dogs very much and I wanted to make some changes for the better living of the poor lives on the street of Thailand,” she says. “My job is to raise people’s awareness to understand what our foundation is, [how they can help] to improve the quality of the life of these stray animals in Thailand, and why these poor animals need our help. My main role is to raise funds in order to be able to help these poor creatures in the long term.”

But when Pawena is not saving animals, she enjoys spending time in Koh Tao: “It’s my favorite place in Thailand because it has just all I need: I can escape from the hectic city life to relax and enjoy the sun in marvelous beaches, yet I am still able to live a little bit of nightlife and beach parties.”

She remembers when, during a New Year’s party in 2007, she tried to make jumping a fire rope her next area of expertise: “I decided to join the jumping team of about three drunk farangs and four Thai fire rope experts on the very New Year’s Eve. The result was having my whole left arm burnt but, as the fiesta continued throughout the night, I didn’t realize my arm was that bad until the next morning, when my hair was also a little bit frizzier from the fire too!” She laughs.

What are you passionate about in your life?

I’m passionate about helping others, improving things for the better. And I am not saying this because I want to be Miss Universe, but one day I want to look back and tell people that “I am a part of a change in this matter, and I really did it OK” while collecting some good karma points for a better next life!

• Bring there: A happy soul and a good friend. At the end of the trip, you will come back with a happier soul and a closer friend.
• Must-do: Go to Koh Nang Yuan (an island just 15 minutes from Koh Tao by longtail boat) snorkeling to see thousands of nosy fish that will swim with you just to check you out.
• Don’t do: Fire rope-jumping! And throwing trash into the sea or on the beaches when you are drunk. As a Thai, I hate to see visitors and just about anybody who is a guest destroying the place they are visiting. Respect the locals and the place.
• Must-see: Shark bay snorkeling in the morning can give you a marvelous start of the day.
• Eat at: Any beach restaurant; they always have good and fresh seafood.
• Drink at: I don’t really drink, but a few sips of bucket drinks can’t kill you!
• Sleep at: Every time I’m there I change my place to a new one just to explore the area, but I always stick to a beachfront place because life it too short to live too far from the beach and the sunrise!

Originally published at Look East Magazine. We’d love it if you would share this article on your social network. Thanks!

If you are renting your property in Thailand, whether it be a condo, apartment or otherwise, you need to comply with a law that applies to everyone who provides accommodations to foreigners. The law is called TM30.

TM.30 is the mechanism which the Thai Government uses to track and monitor the addresses of foreigners in Thailand, in cooperation with INTERPOL, with the function of improved international surveillance (hence the notification within 24-hour requirement).

The law states that all properties that have non-Thai nationals living on their premises must register the tenant with the immigration department.

The enforcement of the TM30 law has been expanded to include those not previously covered under the hotel act, and now includes anyone providing accommodation to a foreign national.

Although this regulation is not new, as of March 2019, the immigration department is now enforcing the law consistently, particularly in Bangkok.  Failure to comply with TM.30 regulations will result in penalty fines for the landlord and potential bureaucratic issues for the tenant.

Who is responsible for filing Tm30 notifications with immigration?

For houses and condos, the responsibility is with the home-owner/landlord to register a non-Thai national staying on the premises — within 24 hours of the time of their arrival, with the local immigration office.

When renting to a foreign national, irrespective of the length of stay —whether it is 1 Month or 3 Years, it is the responsibility of the the landlord (be it owner of a house, hotel, residence or lessor) to notify immigration.

Ultimately, it’s the owner that will be fined, so the overall responsibility falls upon the owner.

For the landlord, non-compliance can be costly. Fines are around 1,600 Baht for every instance of non-registration and can add up quickly, with the potential to be subject to fines of up to 10,000 Baht
Without the official TM.30 receipt, foreign tenants can expect to have their immigration requests rejected or delayed; affecting all types of visa extension applications, both first-year and renewal applications, 90-day reporting and multiple re-entry permits.

Listing your property with a property rental agency does not negate your responsibility. Most agencies will not follow through with registration of guests they rent your property to— though it will be you, the landlord that is responsible for the fine. SOHO Properties can streamline this process on your behalf, and ensure your tenants are registered.

As a tenant, you cannot always rely on your landlord to take care of this process – SOHO can coordinate this process on your behalf and ensure your next visit to Chang Watthana isn’t impeded as a result of non-registration.

Soho Properties can complete this process for you, by simply providing the following documents:

• Completed TM.30 Form (link)
• Copy of landlord’s ID
• Copy of title deed and house registration book
• Copy of rental contract
• Copy of foreign tenant’s passport – including copies of the following pages:
• Photo and information page
• Arrival stamp
• Departure card (TM.6)