Interesting footage of Bangkok in 1974

 

 

 

The first thing I noticed were the huge teak? logs on the back of that truck.  Thank goodness Thailand came to their sense and banned teak logging.  Holy Moly those were huge tree trunks I wonder how old those trees were.

Looks the same but for the cars and uniforms. You could recreate 90 percent of this video with a create video filter. I love it.

I would bet that Thailand was a better place to live at that time ... not so much ( plastic ) pollution , people more friendly ...

" Progress " is destroying a lot of what was good before , everywhere .

" Progress " includes the greed of making more money , and more ...  ( why keep the old nice building ...? Just tear it down and make another condo building ... and more profit ...)

My first visit was a year or so after that video.

Looks like the photographer did the same standard tours I was on.

Floating markets, canals, palace, etc.

December 1974/January1975 my first fisit to Thailand.

The country and the people have changed a lot since.

Not to the better, unfortunately.

But which country has changed to the better since ?

Not my home country, for sure.

If you are in Bangkok or visiting and want to see an original teak house - dating back, I understand pre WW2 - free entry. Daughter (?) of original owners/builders, (an Indian Dr. and his Thai wife) still lives there.

 

http://www.bangkok.com/magazine/bangkokian-museum.htm

 

I took my Thai companion there about three years ago and she never knew the place existed. She was absolutely enthralled by the place. And she had been working in Bangkok as a nurse for the past 10 years!

 

 

Was in BKK in 1963 but I don't remember a lot about the place. Saw the golden Buddha, I was on HMS Alert and we were parked on the river with millions  of mozzies and I slept on the upper deck, no a/c in those days on old ships, went to see a belly dancer (don't ask) and got the worst case of food poisoning and in the sick bay for ten days. Looking at the video no plastic in the river, and the temples were no where near as ornate as now with gold and red.

As for countries changing.....population of the world doubled from 1960 to 2010 with all the problems that brings. And the only constant in this world is change.

Thanks for posting. Very interesting to see Bangkok from days long gone.

I arrived in Bangkok 7 years after that film was taken. Not a lot had changed, but like many things, change is not always for the better. I'm watching a city in the northeast going through a change of adding shopping malls and high rise condos, new housing. Many things have not changed which I would say should, but I am not looking through the eyes of a Thai. 

Some of the same scenes I got with my 8mm camera when my wife came over for a visit in March of 1971. We did some of the same tours including TIMLand, plus a visit to Kanchanaburi and up to the base at NKP. Brings back a lot of memories!

 

 

I first got here in Sep 74 and went to Utapao.