SUNDAY MORNING ON SILOM

This is Silom Road early Sunday morning, and what a huge change! Gone are the morning street food hawkers, the evening night market stalls, the 3rd degree sun-burned tourists, the inebriated young 'farangs', and of course the traffic of taxis and tut-tuts. It is such a pleasure to be able to walk on, and actually see, the neat and clean pavement. I remember Silom in the late 70s when it was the de facto main boulevard of Bangkok, where all tourists used to frequent. Dusit Thani regined supreme, Jim Thompson was de rigueur and, Pat Phong with all the go-go girls, the 'guys' and of course the famous 'girl-guys' was an eye opener. I cannot be certain but I believe lap-dancing might even originate from here, and not NYC as some claim. There is a set of nickel bronze cutlery at home which we bought on Silom, on our first trip as husband & wife. Times have changed and Sukhumvit has taken over, in part because of the BTS. However, it is still amazing how Silom keeps changing her face in the course of a day, the old girl may not be top dog anymore but her charm and energy linger on. Silom is alive, and all too well.