Showing 1 - 10 of 19
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.
Between floods and dust, we never get a break
Oped, Sirinya Wattanasukchai, Published on 08/10/2020
» Last week, when Bangkok commuters were stuck in the usual nightmare of paralysed traffic, Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang was already warning us to get prepared for the impending annual PM2.5 pollution. He recommended everyone download the AirBkk app to check air quality in the city to ready ourselves before leaving home.
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.
Nature takes back seat in push for toilets
Oped, Sirinya Wattanasukchai, Published on 17/06/2020
» The removal of the leafy pradu trees along the road around the Grand Palace has triggered an avalanche of shock and anger. But this project, which has been touted as a landscape development project for tourism, hardly surprised me.
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.
Lessons to learn from Japan's stormy resilience
News, Sirinya Wattanasukchai, Published on 19/10/2019
» A few days after Typhoon Hagibis dissipated, images of cities in Japan resuming life as normal were widely shared on social media.
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.