Written by local experts, our secret guides are intended both for the local inhabitants themselves and the curious traveller. The places included in our guides are unusual and unfamiliar, allowing one to step off the beaten track.

Six nerve-wracking hours dangling from a frayed cable in a Venezuelan cable-car sent Mark Eveleigh into free-fall on a career as travel writer. He first visited Bangkok back in the days when elephants still begged at the roadside bars in the backpacker ghetto around Khao San Road, and when it was still feasible to hitch-hike all the way from the Golden Triangle to Singapore. After working on more than 100 magazine assignments in Thailand (for Conde Nast Traveller, Business Jet Traveler, CNN Traveller and the inflight magazines for the likes of Kenyan Airlines, KLM, Garuda and Qantas) he still ranks Bangkok among the three most exciting cities in the world.

Narina Exelby is a freelance writer and editor who, in 2012, swopped stability in Cape Town and 15 years in the international magazine industry for freedom and life on the road. Her default setting has always been to seek out quiet spaces, but she is often surprised by the delight she finds in the rhythm of big city life – and has been utterly captivated by Bangkok since she first set foot in the city in 2013. Perhaps it's because her natural tendency is to gravitate towards places that exude grit and soul, and her continual search for beauty in unexpected places has left her dazzled by Bangkok. The deeper you look, the city constantly reminds her, the more astounding the stories you find.