I’m always amazed at how fear can be used to sell things.  Sometimes subtly, sometimes quite obviously.  A recent advertising campaign for a new condo complex promised you will be able to “Escape the Old City Living” – pre-sale available at Siam Paragon shopping mall from the 28th of March until the 1st of April.

If you look closely at this black and white collage of familiar Khrungthep landmarks – Victory Monument, the Rama VIII bridge, etc – you can see all sorts of interesting signs of urban “decay”:

Giant cobwebs on the bridge’s cables

Shattered windscreen on the BTS Skytrain

And of course, the true sign that urban decay has blighted the Big Mango is the flock of pterodactyls flying over the city.

Because we all know that before white flight from the suburbs really started in the US in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, there were many incidents of prehistoric winged creatures in the skies.  One can only imagine what local sightings of these fearsome creatures portend for Khrungthep.

Fortunately, there are many options if you want a change from the “old city living”.  The Bangkok Post today reports that there are no less than 17 condominium projects going up between Sukhumvit Sois 53 and 63 – the distance between exactly one stop on the Skytrain.

Here’s the fast progress being made in the large property adjacent the Asoke BTS Station.  Formerly a Ford and Volvo dealership, it will become a large multi-use complex in the next eighteen months. 

That was taken two days ago.  Now there are twice as many cranes at work.  We need a new city motto.  Maybe, “Khrungthep: Things are always going up.”