I love Bangkok

How can I not love Bangkok?  Have been spending all my life here, was born on the other side of the river called Thonburi , relocated to Bangkok, my second home, when I was 6 years old. The house was on Sukhumvit soi  4. Few years after that, we moved to Rajdamri, my third home. If you ever visited Penninsula Plaza, that was it, my home sweet home before I went oversea.

I remembered so well what it was like hanging around Rajprasong square during my teenage year, plenty of huge rain trees on the bank of the small canal running along Rajdamri road. The street was narrow but good enough for traffic at the time.

So much changes, unfortunately not for the better. All we have now is huge concrete columns supporting the so popular sky train system; the canal and the rain tree were only in memory.

It is high time to recall what Bangkok was like and how are we, as Bangkokians, going to do something about it.

I am not running for the Governor seat, but I think I have the Bangkok solution. Not about relocating the capital, no sir. Bangkok should remain the capital of Siam forever.

My solution is so obvious. More people, more problems, bad traffic ,worst pollution. We need to encourage people to stay away from living in Bangkok.

The government needs to provide enough funding for the necessary infrastructure development to turn, 1. Chiengmai (tourism) in the North 2. Korat (High Tech Industries) and 3. Kon kaen (Indo china trade) in Esarn  4. Cholburi (Port) for the east and 5. Phuket (Tourism ) in the south, into five more Bangkoks.

With the worldwide high food prices for years to come, the government can create jobs by funding the super irrigation projects for the food producing central region.

You need to create jobs to keep rural folks away from Bangkok, ever run into any of them? None wanted to be here, they miss home but they did not have much choices.

You have to more or less freeze the mega project construction in Bangkok. You may want to finish off with the underground mass transit loop, but no more. Imagine what it will be like to keep building Bangkok for another 10 years. Do we ever learn from other big cities mistake that mass transit system could never get rid of street traffic?

Remember what Bangkok was like during Songkran or Chinese New Year when 2 - 3 million return home for vacation?

To start with, how about moving Bangkok port ( Klong Toey)  to Laem Chabang ( Cholburi ) tomorrow and turn the port area into another Lumpini park?  Or even better, equipped the new park with the cultural center, world standard art performance center, blah, blah, blah but not another shopping center, please.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have one more, even bigger, Lumpini park with Chao Playa river view?

My broad day light dream krub!