At the mouth of our soi, right next to the Thong Lo BTS Skytrain station, is a nice large property.  This area of town is “old money” and decades ago was considered to be out in the countryside.  Many of the larger properties here started out as weekend homes for well-to-do families in business and politics, whose homes in the heart of the city could feel suffocating once they had enough money to buy a weekend home.

Over time the city grew and this area became indistinguishable from the rest of the urban sprawl.  Khlongs (canals) were filled in and paved, rows of trees were felled to widen the streets, and decades later an elevated train put the “countryside” just ten minutes from the heart of the city.

Yet some of these large estates still exist, large gardens and mature trees hiding them from the march of progress that knocks at their walls.  And, so, the answer is to raise the walls.  At least this was the case last week for the large property next to the Skytrain station.

Walls that used to be about six feet tall, topped with another two feet of iron work, have been increased to ten feet of concrete block.  During the day and early evening, some vendors park their carts along this wall, selling coffee, food, vegetables and, in the evening, magazines and books.

Above, looking over the wall, there is a large pond and several trees.  The house is set back about 150 feet / 45 meters.

Of course, I don’t mind that they want to increase the wall.  It is a busy street and their privacy is their right.  Hopefully, though, they will do something nice to finish it, so it doesn’t end up looking like a miniature Berlin Wall.

…

Sometimes in these tropical environments, it becomes hard to tell where man-made ends and nature begins.  While sitting in traffic one afternoon on Sukhumvit Soi 31, I noticed this interesting wall.

More precisely, this interesting wall-utility pole-tree combination.  Why don’t they just cut down the tree, you ask?  My first guess would be that the tree is holding the rest of it up.  But for a better guess, a good clue would be the faded ribbons and jasmine garlands on the tree. 

Thais have a healthy dose of animism running in their hearts and they generally believe that all natural things have spirits in them, particularly the land and trees.  Old trees like this often survive for a long time and have offerings at their trunks precisely because the locals believe that the spirits of the developed lands are now living in the tree.

That would be an interesting strategy for western environmentalists to employ!