Returning to a big Asian city after the best part of a decade’s absence, you expect big changes. On my last trip, Bangkok’s new Suvarnabhumi airport had just opened, taking the strain off the awful Don Muang airport. But Suvarnabhumi already looked dirty and was beset by teething problems and shoddy construction. The much vaunted skytrain link into the city was still mired in problems and years from completion.
On arrival this time I was delighted to sweep through the airport – which looks just like one of the airports in Paris (this is not a compliment) – without hardly having to break my stride. And was even happier to be able to whisk into town on the smooth air-conditioned train, rather than having to sweat-it-out in traffic jams with a crazy cab driver. But aside from a few quirky and moderately interesting shopping malls – I was surprised at how very little had changed.
I had flown in from Shanghai, where seven years would have been enough time to build a whole new city – look how the Pudong skyline has changed – new aiport and new metro.
Bangkok seemed beset by the same traffic problems and crumbling concrete as years earlier.
There’s still a thrill and energy about the city, but it’s hard to see its making progress. In other cities the brutalist architecture would have been torn down, or covered up, in the name of progress. The one thing to be said for Bangkok’s brutalist heritage, is that it’s still alive and well and probably quite safe.
And then as if to reiterate the point, two weeks after I left, the civil unrest and anti-government protest began again, throwing the city and country into another bout of political paralysis.
