Changes in Bangkok

[Thingamabob 2,405]

Loss, years ago, of the original Queen's Castle on Patpong 1. Described in Time Magazine as one of the best nightclubs in the world. And it was.

[OneMoreFarang 13,037]

2 hours ago, Catoni said:

Everything always changes in this world.  My grandfather was shocked at how much things changed between the early 1900's and 1980.  

      Years ago I had next door neighbours.... wonderful very elderly husband and wife in their 90's.... who lived before the Wright brothers got off the ground... and lived to see men walk on the moon and jet travel across oceans. Amazing to visit that couple and spend a couple hours talking about the past and what they had seen and experienced. 

    Things change... can't escape that..... Welcome to life and planet Earth. 

Good comment.

 

"Your" old couple reminds me of  biography of Albert Einstein and this theories, especially the theory of relativity. At the beginning of his live he lived in a house without electricity. But his thoughts were decades ahead. Amazing!

[OneMoreFarang 13,037]

4 minutes ago, Thingamabob said:

Loss, years ago, of the original Queen's Castle on Patpong 1. Described in Time Magazine as one of the best nightclubs in the world. And it was.

Any pictures?

[Thingamabob 2,405]

1 minute ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Any pictures?

I'll check. I have one or two just need to remember where they are.

[holy cow cm 6,392]

24 minutes ago, metempsychotic said:

Buckskin Joe's viilage, but always referred tos Soi Zero. 

 

Many things have changed radically. 

 

The mrt and Skytrain, there used to be a wet market on the corner of asoke and Sukhumvit. 

I am actually talking about before Soi 0 or Buckskin Joe's Village popped up. This was directly on the opposite side of the road, a makeshift drinking spot directly sitting pretty near the tracks with chairs and a makeshift roof and if I remember right could have something to eat. It was totally after hours railroad track spot for the Bar Girl and Expat team. You would walk up Sumkhuvit and just before the track flip a right and there you were.

[thaiboss 36]

BEERGARTEN SOI 7 SUKHUMVIT BANGKOK  Still stand.............open

[holy cow cm 6,392]

How about the Farang Connection at Nana in the older days and then over at Patpong the Tavern. those were some great times at both those places. 

[holy cow cm 6,392]

Or how about Patpong 1 main Soi at the end near Surriwong. There used to be an open Thai boxing ring on the left side that would let tourists come up and fight the small Thai boxers and lady boys. I used to watch the military guys think they were all that and get the holy stuffing knocked out of them. Funniest was by the lady boys and honestly scariest thing I ever saw. Learned what not to do thinking I am the international tough guy by watching.. 

[dluek 307]

Forget since I first came to Bangkok; it has changed massively even in the last few years. Tons of new buildings (Icon Siam, Mahanakorn Tower, etc.), many new metro lines either already open or under construction, and the whole character of the city has changed since the military started "sanitizing" the city. Formerly crowded markets like Saphan Han are now empty canal-side walkways, and former villages have been erased from the face of the earth. Fewer street vendors including at whole markets like Suk 38 - that is gone. Khao San Road has completely changed and will continue to change as they revamp it this year. A bunch of night markets were closed and now you have to go out to the fringes to find a decent night market in Bangkok. 

 

Actually there are now more homeless people because of all the forced displacement. The BMA gets most of the blame for that, but some of it has been the result of temples deciding to kick people off their land who had been living there for generations. For example, stilted wood houses used to line the riverfront at Wat Kalayanamit; those were completely destroyed a few years back. And at Wat Yannawa, an entire village was destroyed to build a a concrete lot that is always empty. And then there's the stately British embassy recently destroyed. Come back in a couple of years and Hualamphong station will be, what, a museum? Eventually all of the bus stations except Sai Tai will be moved further out of the city - Morchit to Rangsit and Ekkamai to Bang Na. Lots of heritage buildings have been torn down in Chinatown to make way for the new metro stations. In the Old Town, restorations of century-old shophouses has made them all identical in a lot of places, like Phraeng Phuthon. 

 

And the above barely scratches the surface... 

[Time Traveller 3,185]

I miss the times when bars/discos were open 24 hours.

[Jane Dough 1,980]

I've been in Bangkok nearly 40 years.

 

I've changed far more than the city. 

 

Rooster

[allanos 769]

Which all goes to show that nostalgia ain't what it used to be! 

[tatom 0]

Television 24 hours a day.

[brakar 67]

Some pictures taken on my first trip to Bangkok in july 1998. The area around Sukhumvit/Nana.

 

[7000gods 62]

Very sad news for me...

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