Wednesday Walk: walking around shopping district in central Bangkok.

This year the cool winter weather came early making people much more cheerful and lively before the festive holidays. I could walk around without getting hot or sweating like usual. The weather has become quite dry and breezy. So, I hopped on a bus which would take me to Pleonchit area in about twenty minutes. Then I could take a walk along the main road (Sukhumvit road) where trendy shopping malls and some interesting tall buildings could be found. Sathorn road was known for being the hub of foreign companies, office buildings and some big hotels. There were also many foreign embassies in Sathorn road.

The bus took longer than usual due to heavy traffic along Sathorn road. It seemed there were many cars turning into the newly opened building complex at the corner of the intersection between Sathorn and Wireless roads. People were always excited and attracted by new luxurious shopping complex in Bangkok. The traffic jam allowed me to notice the electronic billboard displaying an advertisement of a crypto company in Bangkok. The billboard was showing the price of Bitcoin. This company was originally set up by a young graduate from Oxford. His company attracted the attention of the Income Revenue Department. He had to face a heavy court case with heavy fine as his business was illegal under the law.

It took him months of negotiations and discussions to educate civil servants, top businessmen and politicians to understand cryptocurrency and see the development of this market in other developed countries. Luckily things turned out in favour of cryptocurrency and the company was allowed to continue and new laws had to be provided to deal with the taxation aspect of this kind of business. His parents begged him to give up this strange project and to work with big banks like other graduates. But he persisted and became very famous among younger people.

I went to a few of his meetings and conferences and was astounded to see the halls packed with all kinds of people. I even met old college friends, (who became lawyers, bankers and civil servants) at these meetings. It was a lot of fun and the excitement among people were palpable. However, some older generations of Thais were still put off by ‘fake money’ as they couldn’t touch these cryptocurrencies like banknotes! I have given up explaining the matter to my older friends.

I could see the new shopping complex with very expensive condos, luxurious office space, extravagant malls with top restaurants. I thought this project would fail miserably as the construction started around the beginning of the plandemic. The designs of those skyscrapers attracted lots of attention and curious shoppers have flocked to this new complex causing traffic jam in late afternoon. I would have to visit this place before the New Year.

I got off the bus at the corner of Wireless road and went up to the skywalk for a better view of the area. I decided to walk to the next skytrain station along the main road so that I could take photos of the surrounding. In the past few years, several building projects have come onto the market making competition in condominiums and office spaces very fierce. Foreign companies and expats had the purchasing power to be located in prime areas of Bangkok.

The renovations at Central department store had finished after being closed for about a year. Customers returned to the store to admire the new interior design. I noticed an old style building with three floors in which the whole building was painted in gold colour. Thus building has the name “Christian Dior”. I was quite curious to see what’s inside this building. It had small LED light bulbs decorating the building so it glowed like gold bar at night!

I hadn’t visited this stretch of the road for years so I was quite entertained by all the changes and new buildings. The ‘JP Morgan’ building was quite impressive with large garden and nice connection to the skywalk. The most beautiful and attractive building would be the newly renovated Amarin mall. Lots of tourists took selfies in front of the Amarin mall, especially with the Louis Vuitton’s shop.

Inside the Amarin, the Christmas decorations were most spectacular and beautiful among the shopping malls in this area. I had to take several photos of the interior design and the building connection to the skywalk. The skywalk itself was rather crowded with tourists. I was glad that we had record numbers of tourists this year. That’s probably why all the shopkeepers along this road looked so happy and cheerful. There was a long queue of tourists in front of the door of LV shop inside the Amarin mall. It just amazed me how these people could afford these crazy prices for handbags.

I would have thought that it’s much better to get some ‘interests’ by buying some crypto such as Bitcoin. The profit from selling Bitcoin could then be used for living a good lifestyle. The knowledge about crypto especially Bitcoin has suddenly reached many corners of the country last week when the Prime Minister’s father told the party’s meeting that the country should consider using Bitcoin as a strategic reserve to reduce national debt and inflation. He even suggested that the government should use Phuket as a pilot project to allow Bitcoin to be used for payments. He said lots of visitors in Phuket would have liked to use cryptocurrency as an alternative to local currency. This created an uproar among older economists and civil servants who came out to oppose such wild reckless thoughts!

I couldn’t see this pilot project taking place as many lawyers would oppose drastic change to the traditional legal framework. Big bankers would also oppose this crazy idea as their power base would be crumbling in a few years. It was unfortunate that such drastic idea of allowing Bitcoin to play a major role in the economy came from the notorious ex-Prime Minister who escaped from legal persecution to living in Dubai for seventeen years. He was previously supported by the globalists and he wasn’t fond of Trump either.

So, I wondered what would happen next. I guessed the globalist’s branch manager wouldn’t allow Bitcoin to use in Phuket as people would naturally use crypto in other cities too. Crypto supporters who were against corruptions wouldn’t know how to react to this new policy suggestion. It would have been much better to have support for Bitcoin from a respected old statesman with clean background. Lots of people who were anti- cryptocurrency had been rudely awakened by this outrageous news several days ago. This would lead to more curiosity and questions about Bitcoin or ‘intangible’ money.

The Bank of Thailand and senior bankers would need some gentle therapy sessions before the New Year celebrations. Life here would be getting more uncertain and changeable next year. It seemed we would face ‘renovations’ of some kind on top of the CBDC project by the current government. Changes seemed to come to us with unintended consequences, for better or for worse!

Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.

Stay strong and cheerful.

#wednesdaywalk hosted by @tattoodjay