Ratchaprasong Interactions

During the trip to Bangkok two weeks ago, went to the shopping district at Ratchaprasong and noticed that life is slowing returning to normal. The crowds are back and the infamous Bangkok traffic jams have reappeared.

Alighted at Siam BTS interchange and headed for Zen/Central World. While shopping centres such Siam Paragon was not affected by the political protest in May 2010, Zen/Central World was really in bad shape. The damage by the indiscriminate arson attack has left Zen and the tower block badly damaged. Eventhough Isetan survived the arson attack, it was not opened to the public then.





Over at Siam Square, the damage to Siam Theatre was equally bad.

There were also damages to shopping centres at Victory Monument.



Nevertheless, it appears that the events in May 2010 has been quickly forgotten. Siam Paragon was filled with shoppers in the evening on a weekday. Noted part of the crowd are youths and a large portion consisting of students from nearby schools and Chulalongkorn University.

Some comments about the BTS:

1. Quite like the concept of a linkway running from Siam BTS to nearby MBK and also towards the Ratchaprasong interaction. This helps to cut down the need to go down to street level and dealing with vehicle traffic.

2. I was pleasant surprised by the orderly manner that Bangkokians adopted when taking the BTS.
While expecting passengers to surge into the train, Bangkokians at Siam BTS queued in single file beside the train entrance and waited for all passengers to alight before entering the train.