the lowe down
april 2007
much about something in the city of angels
TLR hit bangkok, thailand this month where the city has been transformed from a polluted, concrete mess of just a few years ago, into a megamall, skytrain and subway connected metropolis, with hotel, dining, entertainment and shopping facilities rivaling and even surpassing hong kong and Singapore, and approaching even Japanese standards....
What changes a few years make.
This month also marks the 10th anniversary of the meltdown of '97, the 'thaitanic' event that sunk the rich and halved the thai currency's value and halted economic growth across southeast asia.......
....the results of which are hard to see nowadays, swept away as they have been by construction and renovation.
Bangkok is still a crowded, polluted, chaotic, disorganized, run down, crumbling, among many other adjectives, mess, but that’s what TLR loves about place: sanuk seeps up from cracks in the pavement, falls from the sky, and swirls all round the thai capital, particularly on Mondays when millions wear yellow to honor their king who was born on Monday and for whom yellow is his favourite color. the sanuk lasts throughout the week when there is hardly the soulless feel of other cities (hong kong, for example...)
With streets clogged, the best way to get around is still a ferry on the chao phraya river, where for 13 Baht you can travel from the Grand Palace in the north, to the luxurious hotels down around Saphan Taksin Skytrain station in the south…… taking in the commuting boats, (or, in the case of TLR, a drowing man: read ‘100 hours in Bangkok’ The Lowe Road’s newest feature to read more about it….) temples, floating offerings, towering apartment blocks, and more flash past as you glide along the waters....
It Bangkok at its best.
While the new airport, suvarnabhumi, has gotten rotten tomato reviews from travelers, who say the terminals are confusing, the design is illogical and has many other problems.
how short an attention span they have.
denver; kuala lumpur, seoul and even hong kongs new airports all got labeled with a ‘flightmare’ status before the wrinkles were smoothed out and the places because synonomous with the new asian megaflighthubs that whisk us round the region without a bag lost, a flight missed or a nasty delay endured. (the wrinkles at suarnambhumi however, run a little deeper: cracks in runways may shut down the airport; with some domestic flights shifted back to trashy don muang, the airport still welcomes all international flights…)
The rest of the city, despite coups, bombs, economic problems and other things caused by the strengthening Thai Baht that forced many travelers to choose cheaper places (Cambodia, Vietnam) seems a burgeoning asian megahub, with fashion, design, culture, music and more spinning round and round, on and on……the costs to enjoy all this in the Thai capital are proving that the country is slipping further away from 3rd world status to a more developed state….. its an interesting transition in Bangkok...
....and TLR was glad to be there to marvel at it all.....
this april '007
be sure to visit www.flickr.com/photos/theloweroad for more of bangkok nights and bangkok daze.....