One of my favourite drives around Bangkok is the one that takes me through the old town _ Bang Lamphu, Phra Athit Road, Bamrung Muang Road.
I know the traffic is terrible in those areas most of the time. But if you're not trying to make an important meeting, and can afford to spend a little time at each red light, then it's quite worth it.
I love Bangkok _ it's where I was born and bred _ but I do admit that Bangkok is not one of the most visually satisfying cities in the world to look at.
If one day the world came to an end, and an alien species landed in a deserted Bangkok, they would have difficulty making head or tail of what our civilisation represents, and what our artistic or architectural identity is.
On one of our main thoroughfares, a building with Corinthian columns stands almost opposite another with art deco leanings.
There are skyscrapers topped with golden domes, jutting out of the landscape like giant pimples in the sky.
I've seen homes in expensive housing estates that proudly display on their front lawn a statue of a Roman goddess, flanked by a couple of cupids atop a fountain. I'm almost certain it has lights that change colour at night.
Our most marked and widespread architectural structures _ the ubiquitous hongtaew, or shophouse _ are the the pits, or the height of creativity, depending on which way you want to look at it.
More often than not, they are drab grey buildings with sad windows, torn awnings and a steel roll-down front gate for security purposes.
Most of these two-storey structures have been built up _ illegally, I'll wager _ to include a couple more extra floors. Each shophouse will have made its own upward extensions that reflect the haphazard way they were built.
On the other hand, some shophouses have undergone some really creative makeovers, and proudly display a shocking-pink facade adjacent to a lime-green shop and a canary yellow one on the other side.
Doesn't matter that they don't match. The point is that they stand out. "Just look for a shocking-pink shop. That's where we are!" It makes life so much easier for every one of us. After all, who can tell one drab grey shop from another?
However, the shophouses around Bang Lamphu and the old town areas have somehow managed to stay away from the prospect of shocking-pink facades. In fact, they have recognised the beauty of their old style shophouses, and attempted to preserve them.
Admittedly, this has been done to cater to the demands of western travellers and customers who have probably told them how quaint the shop is. And when more customers arrived, bringing in more cash, they realised they were on to a good thing with their "quaint" little shophouses.
Now if you look around, you'll see that it's not unique to Bang Lamphu. Singapore has its Haji Lane, Phuket has Thalang Road amongst others, and even Copenhagen has Nyhavn, to name a few. It's wonderful that these old buildings have been recognised for their architectural heritage, and have been injected with a new lease of life.
I drive past Bang Lamphu, and although these old shophouses now play club music and serve imported beer by night, they still present an old-time charm that modern buildings cannot emulate.
And if you look through the tiny gaps between the rows of shophouses, you'll probably see a number of old colonial houses, many of which have sadly been torn down already in the city centre where land prices are so tempting and who cares if we don't need another shopping centre or five-star hotel?
I love to gaze at these old houses and imagine who must have lived in them. They must have been quite well-to-do in those days _ probably a courtier or a high-ranking government officer with a title or Luang or Phraya or something along those lines.
Many of these old houses have been turned into offices now _ a few under the auspices of the UN. There are stories of beams leaking oil and young children in olden-day garb running around in the moonlight, though nothing has really been verified. It just adds to the mystique and charm.
Or was it just one beer too many?
Usnisa Sukhsvasti is the Features Editor of the Bangkok Post.