Jun 13, 2017
Remember the news from a few weeks ago when two journalists were arrested in Bangkok’s airport because they were carrying body armor? While the the arrest captured everyone’s attention, it’s not the funniest part of the story. Greg happens to be friends with one of the journalists in question, and he related an unbelievable (unless you like in Thailand) alternate body armor solution offered by the Royal Thai Police. Ah, Thailand. But that’s not what we’re talking about today. Bangkok is a growing city. To the untrained eye (that’s us) a lot of it looks like disorganized chaos, unrepentant disregard for historical properties, and unchecked sprawl -- vertically and horizontally. To get a better perspective, we invited Tao Rugkhapan to help us out. He’s a lecturer at the School of Global Studies at Thammasat University and he used to work for the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration as an urban planner. He also did his PhD work on Bangkok's preservation of Chinatown, an area of Bangkok we both love. Kuhn Tao helps us understand some of the finer points of Bangkok's urban development. Some of them are:
In reality, we have a wet, crowded, and likely less historic city ahead of us. But it’s not all bad news on the Bangkok-living front. While we can’t predict the future with any accuracy, we certainly do seem to be living in interesting times, for whatever that’s worth.
If you want to do something helpful to expose the world to Thai podcasting, would you mind sharing your favorite show (hopefully this one) with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, LINE, Instagram, or whatever and use the hashtag #thaipod. Unsure how far it’ll go, but why not? Share your favorite show based in Thailand with the world using #thaipod. And if you’ve been looking for a universal way to review and rate this podcast -- heck, this specific episode if you like -- check out Podchaser and use the key “Bangkok” to get early access. Rate us (say nice things!) and any other show you listen to -- no matter what platform you use to listen to your podcasts. It’s new and we’re helping them out by sending our listeners their way. Try it out!
Since the dawn of time (or at least public toilets), man (the gender, not the species) has had but a single refuge: The Men’s Room. But that sacred ground isn’t all that sacred in Thailand, where the cleaning staff is ever present and invariably female. Listen in to find out how we feel about this invasion of our only private time.
If it’s your first time experiencing The Bangkok Podcast, you really should get our show downloading to your phone automatically every week. If you use iOS, it’s a breeze to listen via Apple Podcasts. Android users are be able get the show any number of ways. And for bonus points, leave us a review on those platforms or however you listen to the show. We’d love to hear from you, either on the contact form on our website or through a comment or message on our Facebook page. You can Tweet to the show @bangkokpodcast or follow Greg’s tweets of snarky Bangkok goodness. Evo chronicles his Bangkok adventures on Instagram from time to time, if that’s your thing. And as mentioned, we now have a LINE account! Yep. Just for the Bangkok Podcast. Join us over there, too! See you next time on The Bangkok Podcast!