Showing 1 - 10 of 21
Bangkok's clean streets, empty souls
Oped, Sirinya Wattanasukchai, Published on 10/11/2025
» Banthat Thong used to be a neighbourhood, not a concept. You could live here and find everything: restaurants, bookstores, hardware shops, clinics, banks -- even a place to have your shirts made. It was one of those streets where life unfolded upstairs and business happened downstairs. Today, it is something else entirely.
Put culture first in old town revamps
Oped, Sirinya Wattanasukchai, Published on 28/03/2024
» Will Thailand's old towns include their old communities as they are renovated? In many of these important districts, institutional owners of land are apt to evict legacy tenants to make way for redevelopment, threatening vintage architecture and eroding vibrant local cultures and ways of life.
BMA's Green Line fares are unforgivable
Oped, Sirinya Wattanasukchai, Published on 20/01/2021
» The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration's (BMA) plan to raise the Green Line's fare ceiling to the absolute maximum, at over 100 baht, from the original 65 baht, has triggered an avalanche of criticism.
Can one little plaque do that much 'damage'?
Oped, Sirinya Wattanasukchai, Published on 23/09/2020
» Less than 24 hours after the anti-dictatorship activists installed a plaque symbolising democracy at Sanam Luang before wrapping up the rally, state agencies managed to remove it, explaining that the brass item "damages" the historical site. Wow! Such swift action by state agencies is rare.
Let's hope it's not the final curtain at the Scala
News, Sirinya Wattanasukchai, Published on 10/06/2020
» When the government reopened the country in the third phase of easing this month, the Scala movie theatre remained shuttered. Rumours are widespread that the stand-alone theatre may be facing the final curtain.
Vulnerable and struggling
Life, Sirinya Wattanasukchai, Published on 20/05/2020
» Suthat Namgasa is relieved to discover he still has one packet of instant noodles in his relief bag. He will eat tonight, but he has no idea how he will find the money to pay the next instalment on his taxi.
Absurd disease controls show govt is clueless
Oped, Sirinya Wattanasukchai, Published on 03/04/2020
» As I checked in for my trip home at Brussels airport last Sunday, I wondered if it would be a once-in-a-lifetime flight. A THAI employee had told me I might end up being the only passenger on the Bangkok-bound plane that afternoon.
Food apps trade convenience for plastic waste
News, Sirinya Wattanasukchai, Published on 22/11/2019
» Last week when my friends and I were hungry, we began to discuss possible options. Should we go out to a nearby restaurant, or grab leftovers from the refrigerator? One friend suggested using a food delivery service and everyone reached a consensus and agreed.
Where's the alternative to plastic bags?
News, Sirinya Wattanasukchai, Published on 11/10/2019
» In less than three months, plastic bags will disappear from supermarkets and convenience stores as the government campaign to cut out single-use plastic gains momentum.
Public utilities are not a game of Monopoly
News, Sirinya Wattanasukchai, Published on 19/07/2019
» For years, the sight of tangled utility cables hanging and dangling from electric poles in Bangkok has been a topic of derision for tourists and city residents alike. Now that the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has kicked off a plan to move those eyesores underground, another problem has emerged.