A Pokemon Go Trainer in Bangkok

Then Songkran festival between 13-15 April celebrated the traditional Thai new year. For 2023, things was pretty much back to normal. There were organized water battle at Silom Road, Khao San Road and other locations in Bangkok and throughout the Kingdom. The water battle in the City Center had been well-organized and confined to specified areas. However, in the suburb, people did not really pay attention to the willingness of the intended opponent to play. Locals would set up tanks or other containers on the pavement and throw water quite discriminately. Some rode on the back of pick-up trucks and throw water left and right. As I had been not partial to the water battle, I usually stayed at home and only ventured out by driving to protect myself from being soaked. The situation prevented me from playing Pokemon Go near my home during the Festival. In 2023, there were 2 Thailand-exclusive events at shopping malls in the city. Usually, when I went to those city-center shop...

The IconSiam was the newest luxury shopping mall in the planned 55 billion baht (1.76 billion US dollars) mixed-used development complex - shopping malls, hotels and residences on the Charoen Nakorn Road. It was the first high-end shopping mall in the Thonburi area on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River. The shops and decorations clearly reflected the exclusivity and expensiveness. As I first arrived from the underground parking space, the first impression was the eye-catching market that emulated the traditional floating market and communities on the ground floor with very high ceiling and mezzanine. In the central area, the floor plan was exciting with the shops around the outer walls with balconies around the raised space from the first floor in the middle which also connected to the galleries on each floor. In short, the space design was very innovative. On the green side, the energy consumption for air-conditioning must be very high due to the enormous cavern, but the inter...

The community mall Sena Fest was open for business in 2013. It was located on the south side of the Taksin Bridge on the west bank of Chao Phraya River, usually called Thonburi area. Sena Fest featured similar characteristics to other community malls. The central space was not air-conditioned; the ceiling was very high, so it was not uncomfortable. Actually, I quite liked the arrangement as it consumed much less energy and far greener than a typical overly cool, big shopping mall. There were many restaurants, bakery, coffee shops, and other miscellaneous shops on the main floors with a supermarket on the ground floor. There were also clinics, banks, children playground and educational areas. While there were no expensive brand name shops for clothes or cineplex as in the large shopping malls, the diversity of services were sufficient. Actually, the facility was definitely on the high-end side with an Apple service shop, a Starbuck, Villa Supermarket and strings of upmarket restauran...

The Thonburi Era, when the Thonburi was the capital city of siam, started in 1767 and ended in 1782 with only one king. King Taksin was born Sin from a Chinese descent father and a Siamese mother in 1734. He became the governor (Phraya) of Tak and became known as Phaya Tak (Sin). The name was there shorten to Phraya Taksin. In April 1767, the Burmese army successful captured and ransacked the capital Ayutthaya after a year-long siege, ending the Ayutthaya era in Thai history. Taksin was part of the defending army; he thought that the situation was hopeless a few months before the fall and led a small force breaking through the encirclement. He captured the Chantaburi Province as his stronghold. Instead of going back to the fallen capital, he selected the downstream port, Thonburi, as the new capital and was crowned king on 28 December 1767. His early reign was focused on unifying Siam by defeating other Siamese forces that arose in major provinces throughout the country. Then, ...