Oliver Hayes

Oliver moved to Tokyo in 2015 for an unrelated job, became interested in the layered nightlife landscapes of East Asian cities, and shifted to writing about them full-time after 2019. Now based in Bangkok.

His beat covers eight Asian cities, four of which (Tokyo, Bangkok, Seoul, Hong Kong) he treats as core, and four (Singapore, Taipei, HCMC, Pattaya) as regular subject matter. Treats the Asian cities as deserving the same treatment as European ones — has the view that “exotic Asia” framing is the main reason English-language coverage of these cities is so poor.

Bangkok-based. Japanese (intermediate), Thai (intermediate), English (native).