Thursday, December 20, 2012

Weirdly Named Buildings In Bangkok

Last week I was up at La Migra for my 90 day visit.  It's an easy visit, compared to the VISA renewal visit anyway.  Three hours, door to door, and 500 Baht for taxis and it's home again, none the worse for wear.

The new government building complex is way up on the northern edge of Bangkok.  The neighborhood is becoming denser as the city expands.  There's no urban plan, it's all just "we have a couple of Baht laying around, let's build condos!" and "oooh! there's an open space!"  This particular neighborhood does have one distinguishing characteristic:  many of the buildings have very strange names.

There's the "Twin Towers," which is really one, big, squat twelve story condo block.  I've seen other "Twin Towers" around town, there must be some new totemic significance involved.  Usually there are two, and they are taller. 

How about the "Jumbotel," which actually is a hotel, but a rather small one?

I like the "Dental and Jaw Joint," a hospital.

Mundane but fascinating is the "Bureau of Mechanical Devices and Communications." 

If I were ambitious I'd zoom all around town with a camera, taking photos and recording all of the weird names that I could find, and I'd find a lot.  Ambitious, wow, what color is the sky on that planet? 

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