A cool new club for skaters by Duangtawan Nilayon, photos by Grégoire Glachant

Sitting on the fourth floor of the recently opened Esplanade mall, Sub-Zero Ice Skate Club (the Esplanade, Ratchada Rd., 02-354-2139/-40. Open daily 11am-midnight. www.esplanadethailand.com. MRT Thailand Cultural Center) brings a third rink to Bangkok. Don’t go and compare Sub-Zero with what you’d get in Japan or Singapore but this place is still more than you’re likely to need in a skating rink: a bar (with tables covered in ice), a restaurant, a small shop selling skating gear and, yes, karaoke rooms. That puts Imperial World’s skating rink to shame (not to mention the fact that Imperial World is on a distant planet with no MRT or BTS stations nearby, see box). However, keep in mind that Sub-Zero’s rink is smaller, and its convoluted shape might be disquieting for serious skaters.

From the music to the ice bar, Sub-Zero is obviously geared towards a younger mall-going crowd interested in hanging out with friends in a modern club-like décor. Entrance fees are B200-300 per session, depending on the day and time. There’s an extra B30 for skate rental (and another B30 for socks in case you show up in flip-flops, like us). Cheesy songs are played all day long and, from 6pm onwards, spotlights and smoke machines turn the place into a nightclub. You  can imagine the kind of competitive “I can skate faster than you” mood this brings out in testosterone-pumped teens. If you’re a newbie, and positively freaking out, get yourself a coach for B700-2,000/ hour. And make sure you ask for figure skates; the other kind, for hockey, are harder to master at first. (The skate has no ridged section for braking.) Don’t be shy, skating is a blast—and falling flat on your ass (with grace, see box) can be a great pickup technique.