An ordinary life in an extra-ordinary place
Life
General ramblings
It’s more than five years since the 91 floor Ocean 1 project was announced. Tallest building in Thailand, new philosophy of living, prestige, sophisticated, fucking expensive etc. etc.
Since then, nothing; apart from the installation of a concrete plant which served all the projects in the area, apart from Ocean 1 itself.
When it comes to horses, I have no particular interest in flogging dead ones; but, as I receive Ocean 1 related hits almost daily, it seems like there are some people who want to know what is going on. So here we go, with some photos to gladden the hearts of investors:
Yes, it’s the CEO of Siam Best Enterprises (the company behind Ocean 1) Bruno Pingel and a representative of the Pan China Construction Group, signing a contract for the construction of Ocean 1.
My personal investment is limited to two penthouses and an assortment of units on the lower floors for renting out to minions; something I could easily afford to lose; but I realise that there are others who have committed a significant part of their savings to this project. No doubt they will be very pleased to hear this news.
They may be less pleased to know that these photos were taken some fifteen months ago. Perhaps mobilising from China is a slow process.
Thanks to Soigirl for providing the photos.
Another car display at the Royal Garden Mall. Given that all the hi-so Thais and assorted rich people head for Central Mall rather than here, leaving a ragged collection of Russians and an overspill of Beach road hookers, it’s hard to grasp the intended target market.
Never mind, there was a lovely old E-Type:
A slightly scruffy Ferrari:
A Lambo that would have looked better in orange:
And a boring Mercedes, partly obscured by a young lady:
I did enquire about part-exchanging my truck for the E-type; but they did not seem interested.
We’ve got five years, my brain hurts a lot - David Bowie
Five years married to she who must be obeyed and my brain was hurting as to how to celebrate the occasion. She wasn’t going to get that ring she was always going on about, so it would have to be a trip to somewhere special. Trouble is, she updates the list of places she would like to visit on an almost daily basis.
Everest base camp- too cold
Paris – too French
Korangal valley – too deadly
So I settled on this:
It’s the Marina Bay Sands complex in Singapore and there is so much of it I will let Wikipedia provide the description:
The resort features a 2,561-room hotel, a 1,300,000 square foot convention-exhibition centre, the 800,000 square foot The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands mall, an iconic ArtScience museum, two large theatres, seven “celebrity chef” restaurants, two floating Crystal Pavilions, an ice skating rink, and the world’s largest atrium casino with 500 tables and 1,600 slot machines. The complex is topped by a 340m-long SkyPark with a capacity of 3,900 people and a 150m infinity swimming pool, set on top of the world’s largest public cantilevered platform, which overhangs the north tower by 67m.
The total cost was S$8 billion and construction took four years, which is less time (and maybe less cost) than the ongoing nightmare to re-surface Thappraya Road. There’s a video on the project here:
It is an extraordinary feat of construction, but the 2,500 rooms do not make for a good hotel experience. Checking-in is inevitably impersonal and the ground floor concourse, which is shared by all three hotel towers, resembles a railway station at rush hour. The rooms are elegant (and expensive), but there is no way you are going to feel cossetted when you are sharing the facilities with around 5,000 other guests and 10,000 staff.
The ironing board on top of the hotel is called the Skypark and the views are pretty good.
There is an infinity pool which sounds like a good idea, but again the crowds do not make it very appealing.
The jacuzzis on the other side of the park were more peaceful.
As evening falls, the various bars and restaurants on top of the hotel fill up.
Fortunately, I had booked a table for dinner. Unfortunately, the bored-sounding women in concierge services had failed to make the reservation for us. Luckily, they had a spare table and we had a very good meal washed down by a most acceptable New Zealand white.
A wander through the bewildering casino and the dangerous shopping arcade, and that was it. A less than five star experience for a five star price. The Korangal valley is looking very likely for the ten year celebration.
Wat Sothorn is a large but somewhat unimpressive temple. The outside lacks decoration, although maybe I caught it on a bad day because it was pissing it down when I took this:
Inside, the drabness continues. It’s like the reception area of a boring hotel, with a few statues thrown in to ensure temple status.
So why was there a constant stream of cars battling for spaces in the car park on a normal weekday morning? Some special Buddhist event I assumed. But she who must be obeyed assured me that this was normal; because Wat Sothorn is superstition central; although that is not how she described it.
Next to the main temple is a large shed; of the type that often contains a market. This one was a market for wishes and rewards. There were places to make your wishes, and places to give thanks when your wishes came true; but it wasn’t clear to me which was which, so I couldn’t tell if those involved were pre or post wish fulfilment. Most common of all were places which would take your money in exchange for flowers, candles, Buddha statues and assorted tat. I never saw a monk. This was commercialised superstition on a grand scale and I found it rather depressing. Not so she who must be obeyed who disappeared into the scrum of hopefuls, leaving me to take a few shots in the semi-darkness (it was now raining even more heavily outside).
Near the entrance there was a dispirited group of Thai dancers.
They were probably dispirited because they spent the day repeating the same dance over and over and over again. You handed over some cash to a handler, and the girls would dance. Not sure if this was done to wish for luck or to give thanks because luck had arrived in some form; but it was sad to watch.
The girls were only mildly happy when they took a break:
Moving into the depths of the building, there was an almighty scrum of people not doing what Thai people are not famous for (queuing), with the objective of getting close enough to candles.
In the back room, gold leaf (purchased of course from one of the vendors outside) was being affixed to Buddhas. I suspect that much of it is peeled off at night, melted down and resold.
Dozens of dancers, hundreds of candles, ounces of gold leaf; all of these are as nothing compared to the eggs.
There are eggs everywhere. On shelves, on the floor, being carried by people and, in one unfortunate incident (unfortunate because I didn’t snap it), dropped by people. According to my cultural guide, if your wish comes true, you bring eggs to the temple. You offer them to the Buddha who apparently doesn’t want them, because you then take them home and eat eggs for weeks. I am sure she made some wishes while she was trotting round the various attractions, so there is a chance we will be back again at some point bearing eggs. If so, you’ll all be invited round for a monster omelette afterwards.
And so you know where not to go:
View Wat Sothorn in a larger map
It’s election day in Thailand and she who must be obeyed was keen to exercise her democratic right. I was keen not to spend hours waiting while she queued. so we were at the polling station shortly after it opened.
While everyday life in Thailand can often resemble unmitigated chaos, the Thais are pretty good when it comes to organising specific events; such as an election. A piece of paper had already arrived in the post, telling her where she had to vote; in the grounds of a nearby school. When we arrived we found six separate polling stations. First we had to check the lists posted outside each station till we found the right one. Each station had a desk where you queued to show your id card. In return there were two voting forms to be signed, and then off to stand in a little green booth, before sticking the votes in two boxes; one for a candidate and one for a party.
The whole process took about ten minutes and was very well organised; which was something of a disappointment. Given the hand-wringing in the press, I was expecting/hoping for swarms of shady characters offering increasingly large amounts to purchase she who must be obeyed’s vote. We did get approached by one dubious looking chap; but it turned out he was just telling us where to park. Bugger. This meant I had to pay for breakfast afterwards.
It’s only a couple of days before the Thai general election and, as an outsider, it would be easy to be smug about the lack of democracy and the assorted puppets and criminals running for office.
Nothing like the UK you might think, where there is a rigorous system of democracy that ensures only the brightest and best political minds reach parliament. People like Ed Milliband…..
Now go to this link and watch all of this.
Looks like a pig in urgent need of a crap; sounds like a parrot. I think Yingluck would do a better job.
Previously, there was some uncertainty as to the location. As we were passing recently, I stopped off and took a GPS co-ordinate:
View Steel Temple in a larger map
So now you know where it is; if you didn’t already.
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