The Change of Bangkok

By Suchada Tevinpibanphant

Symbol of Bangkok's change: a shopping mall in Bangkok's centre .

If you want to call Bangkok heaven, you will have to go back about 40 or 50 years – back to a time when fields were green and birds were singing; a time when people cared about one another. They were willing to help each other.

Sureerat Tevinpibanphant, 47, still remembers her childhood when she harvested the rice with her mom, “I want to go back to the past because I want to know that feeling again,” she says.

People lived their everyday-life. Most of them were farmers. When summer came, they were all harvesting their rice by using the scythe. After that, they would bring the rice to the threshing floor and used the buffalo to thresh the rice. In the past, there was no rice mill so it meant that the people had to pound rice by themselves. “It’s such a great time that would never come back,” she says. But now a lot of technology has come to Bangkok. As a result, the old culture has partly been disappeared. Nowadays no one is using the scythe for harvesting rice anymore; instead they use the machine to do it. There is no use of buffalos to thresh rice either as no one pounds rice by themselves.

Sureerat’s mom, La-or, also remembers her way of life in the old days. “I had to walk about ten kilometers to go to the market,” her mom says. “But the atmosphere was very good compared to today.” There was no pollution because no one owned a car except foot. The canal was very clear, so people could see the fish. Some people were fishing beside the canal. But now people travel by car, bus or sky train – only a few people still travel by boat.

Tweesub Nasuan, 78, used to live around Bangkok when Bangkok had not been modernized yet. “I had to use an oil lamp when it turned dark,” she says. At that time no one knew much about electricity, no one had electricity. People would use an oil lamp when they were doing their daily work or reading a book. At night, most people would kindle the fire for making them warm because the weather around that time was a bit chilly. There were also some people doing this for chasing mosquito for their buffalos. “Do you know the fire-flies?” she asks. When winter came, a lot of fire-flies would be flying around the field the whole night.

While Vietnamese rice farmers still rely on manual and buffalo power, farmers in Thailand use machinery.

Polpat Songthamjitti, 28, is a man who really loves the culture and customs of the past. “It would be good if I have a chance to stay in that time,” he says. Now most people, especially teenagers, are dressing up with inappropriate shirts, skirts and pants. Maybe the reason is that they have started to forget about Thai culture. Instead they replace the traditional culture by Western culture that they have known a lot about. “Try to keep our own beautiful culture,” he says.

Polpat’s longing for the past is not shared by many young people. Arporn Tunjanrus, 19, is a girl who loves hanging out and shopping with her friends. “I would die if there was no shopping mall for me,” she says. A shopping mall is a great place for girls. Some girls are shopping about five days per week, maybe even more than that. There is plenty of yummy food surrounded by a lot of brand name products. “You feel like you are in a heaven full of things you want,” she said. “Or do you want to go back in time?”

Time passed by, things are changing from old to new. Some things remain the same, some change from good to bad but some from bad to good – and all this depends on the person’s opinion. But one can wonder: If you were able to go back in time, would you survive?

Copyright © Suchada Tevinpibanphant