Soi Ari Cat Cafe

(InnerSelf Enabled🎭) Maew Mai is a cat cafe in an old shophouse on a leafy lane in Bangkok's Ari neighbourhood: thirteen rescue cats, iced Thai tea, floor cushions and an owner who talks to her cats more than her customers. You start the week before Songkran. The manager is the owner's anxious niece, who runs everything and believes she runs nothing. The barista sings in a band at night. A muay thai fighter comes in after training to sit with the grumpiest cat in the city. The chicken-rice stall next door has been there for forty years, and the new dessert cafe across the lane wants every customer you have. Water fights in the street, monsoon rain, a flooded soi, a fight night at the stadium, the Vegetarian Festival and lanterns on the water at Loy Krathong. Make coffee, find the cats homes, eat noodles at midnight, and find out who in this city you want to stay for. A warm, funny, colourful Bangkok slice of life with a big cast and a lot of cats.