Boost city park space

Boost city park space

Re: “City project aims to return river to public” (BP, March 2).

I rarely go to Bangkok anymore, but when I do (to catch a plane, for example), I go to Bang Lamphu where, for 300 metres along Phra Athit Road, there’s a 1.5m wide promenade by the river. In my 33 years of visiting Bangkok, that’s the nicest place I’ve found.

So, you can imagine how much I applaud any efforts to build riverside trails in the capital. So much can be done there to improve trails for hiking and cycling.

Currently, Bangkok ranks low among cities worldwide in terms of the ratio of parks to built-up areas. It’s as if all planning decisions for Bangkok only seek to cram as many buildings and roads as possible into every square metre, and the heck with anything related to nature.

Cities all over Thailand lack park space. In my adopted town (fast becoming a city) of Chiang Rai, there are excellent possibilities for promenades along the Mae Kok River. Are the city administrators lifting a finger to act on them? Are they even aware of the great potential? My guess is that the answer to those two questions is a flat “no”.

Ken Albertsen


Act now on smoke

Right on cue, Sunday saw the hills and mountains disappear — the sights of half a kilometre away disappeared.

Burning season has started. Tourists will disappear as well.

The governor of Chiang Mai will come out and ask that no one wear protective masks since it will give a bad image to the province. Hospitals will once more fill up with people suffering from respiratory problems. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I saw a sign yesterday stating that a 5,000-baht reward is on offer to anyone turning in fire starters. Unfortunately, the sign was the only one posted in a 300 sq/km radius. We seem to be doing our best at not doing anything.

Coughing in Chiang Mai
MWB


Today’s ‘real’ Thailand

In contrast to Mr Suga, “A floating fake”, in his Feb 28 letter, I was impressed by the new floating market on Khlong Phadung Krung Kasem.

In tourist marketing literature we are promised the “real Thailand”, always just a little out of reach, just around the corner, away from the tourist hoi polloi. Tour guides know of the tourists’ desire to find the Thailand of their imaginations so they create a staged experience.

Tourists who think they’re above this go on five-day treks looking for “lost hill tribes”. But this is just a backstage show. Those canny, internet-enabled, tribes are visited daily by naïve backpacker tourists. The Thailand they find is simply the one they had in their minds in the departure lounge at Heathrow airport.

But the junta’s new market perfectly encapsulates today’s Thailand. It does not hide its shortcomings. It does not pretend to have been there since time immemorial; it claims no special market value beyond just appearing to be a market.

The final icing on the cake is the soldiers nearby. The emptiness and flexibility of the country today make it an invigorating and authentic expression of modern Thailand under the junta.

Iain F Cowie


Stamp out field fires

I am openly accusing the governor of Prachin Buri Province of gross negligence and dereliction of duty.

Burning rice fields is illegal. It has been for years. If the governor doesn’t see it, she has visual problems. If she cannot smell it, she has sensory deprivation problems. Or, she is either unable, or unwilling to enforce the law.

In either case, she is collecting a salary and doing very little to help improve the air quality in this province and in neighbouring provinces. It is time for the governor to call it quits. She is highly unpopular anyway.

Golani


Tin cars break easily

Has anyone noticed when you watch the news on TV, or read of automobile accidents in the papers, there is no such thing as a fender bender in this country? If there’s going to be an accident, let’s total it out, leaving only scrap metal.

It seems that cars and pickups in this country are made of rolls of tin foil, which can be purchased at any local supermarket.

Charlie Brown


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