Imagine Thailand 50 Years Ago.

[nakachalet]

it was a saturday morning around 8 am.... as i recalled it....

i took the cable from behind the "grundic' (?) large table size radio and connected it up with two good size car batteries.... LOL to provide electricity for the radio....

there was no electricity yet in a tiny town called haadyai....

we were listening to the voice of american.... the almighty english speaking radio station....

suddenly, the announcer came on and interrupted the ongoing program....

ladies and gentlemen, i have an urgent news....

our president is short....! he is being rushed to the nearest hospital in dallas, texas....

we urge everyone to remain calm and stay tuned to the station for further developement of this news....

.... the good doctor gregory couldn't believe his ear either, so he cranked up the black wall phone and asked for the u.s. consulate in bkk to confirm what i told him....

then, i was just finishing up my 12th grade....

oh, dear.... i completely forgot, due to my advanced stage of sinility, my real current age.... LOL

but i could tell that i must be the grand old fool around here.....

KUNG HEE FUT CHOI, everyone, young and not so young alike.... LOL

Edited February 13, 2010 by nakachalet

[SeanMoran]

it was a saturday morning around 8 am.... as i recalled it....

then, i was just finishing up my 12th grade....

oh, dear.... i completely forgot, due to my advanced stage of sinility, my real current age.... LOL

but i could tell that i must be the grand old fool around here.....

KUNG HEE FUT CHOI, everyone, young and not so young alike.... LOL

I get November 22nd 1963 as a Friday, but it's fair that the time difference would have seen Thailand into Saturday while Texas was still in Friday.

How did the Thai people react to that world-changing news?

PS: four years one month and six days before I was born, but yer not that old, matey.

Edited February 13, 2010 by SeanMoran

[harrry]

Goes visit Laos if you want to know what has changed

I took one of the business cards from the hotel in Vientianne in 1972. It had directions to the opium den a block away. I asked them how they knew that I was coming.

Well I sure couldn't find any - not that I was looking.

They did sell ganja out of big wooden barrels at the day market though.

That is not Ganga although it looks like it. I thought the same 35 years ago, remember it is illegal in Thailand

50 Years or so ago ganja was legal in thailand too as it was much later in Laos. It was only when it became a problem to the US particuarly in regard to their servicemen in Vietnam indulging that it was made ilegal here. In those dzys it was mostly the elderly who used it to relieve some of their aches and pains.

[isanbirder]

I came to Bangkok first in 1956 or 57; we came up from Singapore by train... with a ticket only as far as Padang Besar. We asked for a ticket to Bangkok there, and the ticket collector, who had no English, said, No, Thonburi! So we spent the next I don't know how many hours travelling to a place we'd never heard of. When we arrived at this big railway station (I now know it was Hualampong), we took a samlor to Sathorn Road, having no idea how far it was. Sathorn Road was practically car-free (I saw a Banded Krait crossing the road!), with trees lining the canal down the centre.

I loved Bangkok then (I keep as far away from the place as possible now); it was peaceful, everybody had time for you, and things were very cheap. The only thing was, when you asked for a price, after the first price was quoted, you had to say "I'm English, not American" (true in my case) and the price would drop by a third.

Unfortunately I was only an airman on leave from the RAF at the time (i.e. limited money and time), and couldn't go up country. But that trip is one of the reasons why I live in Thailand now.

[toptuan]

Post-wedding customs:

50 years ago the groom moved in with the bride's family to live indefinitely with them.

10 years ago, about 60-70% did so.

Now, about 30% do so.

About 70% now strike out on their own, following western custom.

Of course, regarding this custom, big differences between city and rural folk.

Source: Based on surveys of Thai university students, 2001 - 2010.

[Colabamumbai]

I came to Bangkok first in 1956 or 57; we came up from Singapore by train... with a ticket only as far as Padang Besar. We asked for a ticket to Bangkok there, and the ticket collector, who had no English, said, No, Thonburi! So we spent the next I don't know how many hours travelling to a place we'd never heard of. When we arrived at this big railway station (I now know it was Hualampong), we took a samlor to Sathorn Road, having no idea how far it was. Sathorn Road was practically car-free (I saw a Banded Krait crossing the road!), with trees lining the canal down the centre.

I loved Bangkok then (I keep as far away from the place as possible now); it was peaceful, everybody had time for you, and things were very cheap. The only thing was, when you asked for a price, after the first price was quoted, you had to say "I'm English, not American" (true in my case) and the price would drop by a third.

Unfortunately I was only an airman on leave from the RAF at the time (i.e. limited money and time), and couldn't go up country. But that trip is one of the reasons why I live in Thailand now.

I Live just off Sathorn Road now a few minutes from Surasak BTS.

[StreetCowboy]

According to one old timer, who has been coming here since the 16th century, its scarcely changed at all

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?s=...t&p=3334006

QUOTE:

Thailand hasn’t changed much. There were the same % of pay for play ladies in the 1500’s, 1930’s or 1950’s. The only thing that has changed is the population. In the 1500’s, 1930’s or 1950’s almost all the visitors to Thailand were men so no one asked the same kind of questions as the OP.

Thailand now has the same kind of reputation as Shanghai in the 1930’s.

END

SC

[AGareth2]

I first came in December 1969

A few up country places have not changed

Pu Rua looked very similar when I went last 5 years ago

[SeanMoran]

I first came in December 1969

A few up country places have not changed

Pu Rua looked very similar when I went last 5 years ago

Pu Rua - may I ask the province?

---o0o---

Not Chaiyaphum by any chance, was it?

Edited February 13, 2010 by SeanMoran

[IanForbes]

Unless I am mistaken and was told the wrong facts, I believe all the small streams that have reservoirs on them were under the King's guidance many years ago. It was to provide a year-round water source for the country people who live in the forested districts. If you travel around Thailand you will find hundreds of these small reservoirs with people living on them in floating bamboo homes. They live a meagre existence on what they can grow and sell.

I've only been coming to Thailand for 13 years, but even in that time I've seen some remarkable changes. It takes a lot of money to build the infrastructure that most of us have come to accept as normal. Without a populace that makes a decent wage it is hard to squeeze any more out of the public source.

[Diablo Bob]

I arrived with my parents in 1960.

The road from Dom Muang to Bangkok was a two laner surrounded by Rice paddies nearly the whole way, around a 45 minute trip.

Payyaya was not developed yet, JUSMAG (US Army) had a little bungalow resort, at night you could watch movies outside on the sand.

Wireless Rd. in Bangkok was a two lane road with khlongs on either side, the trees covered the road like a tunnel.

Sukhumvitt was paved out to Soi 33, beyond that was dirt road.

Across from where Soi Cowboy is today was a movie theater playing all the US films on Friday & Saturday night. Regular theaters were awesome, impossible to describe. Imagine gold leaf covered walls, select seating.......

International School Bangkok was on Sukhumvitt Soi 17, the school itself hasn't changed very muich.

Below, from nakachalet, I was at ISB that Saturday morning for Little League Baseball. The commanding general of JUSMAG announced the death of John Kennedy, then in true form said "In the spirit of America, let the games go on!" Afterwards, my parents took me home, we changed and drove to the US Embassy on Wireless Rd., where in a room draped in Black, we signed registers for the Kennedy Family.

it was a saturday morning around 8 am.... as i recalled it....

i took the cable from behind the "grundic' (?) large table size radio and connected it up with two good size car batteries.... LOL to provide electricity for the radio....

there was no electricity yet in a tiny town called haadyai....

we were listening to the voice of american.... the almighty english speaking radio station....

suddenly, the announcer came on and interrupted the ongoing program....

ladies and gentlemen, i have an urgent news....

our president is short....! he is being rushed to the nearest hospital in dallas, texas....

we urge everyone to remain calm and stay tuned to the station for further developement of this news....

.... the good doctor gregory couldn't believe his ear either, so he cranked up the black wall phone and asked for the u.s. consulate in bkk to confirm what i told him....

then, i was just finishing up my 12th grade....

oh, dear.... i completely forgot, due to my advanced stage of sinility, my real current age.... LOL

but i could tell that i must be the grand old fool around here.....

KUNG HEE FUT CHOI, everyone, young and not so young alike.... LOL

These memories along with my more recent memories are a treasure to pass on to my children. Like the time I was 7 years old, in a whore house on the Chao Phaya River, looking for a bathroom. (Long Story)

[IanForbes]

Thanks for that, Diablo Bob. It puts things into perspective.

[sorensen]

I first arrived in Thailand in 1977...not quite 50 years ago, but 33 years ago. There were still people then who complained about how Thailand had been "spoiled" by all the foriegners.

For all the "night life" Patpong was the place to go, with Soi Cowboy and second and slightly lower class choice. There was no Patpong market and you could actually walk down Patpong road. Their was a 1 A.M. curfew, and the bars all closed (due to the unpleasent events in 1976). Thais walking out after 1 A.M. were quite likely to be taken to a police station and questioned at best. There were certain hotels that had all night clubs/lounges/bars that stayed open until 6 A.m. in the morning, if you stayed in those hotels any bargirls in the place couldn't leave after 1 A.M. which lead to an 'interesting" situation for a single guy with money. The Thermae was the place for after hours meetings...it was packed and yes they were all bargirls. You entered through the rear and the toilet was the first thing you saw. There was actually a policeman at the front door of the Thermae to tell you the place was "closed"...but it was obvious to even first timers you walked down the alley to enter the place via the back.

In 1978 I went to Phuket. I took the overnight bus from Bangkok with my Thai girlfriend to Phuket. About 12 hours on the bus, left Bangkok about 5 P.M. and got to Phuket the next afternoon. Phuket was a much smaller and quieter town. The beach I stayed at only had electricity from aout 4 P.M. until 11 P.M. Then the lights went out. The local fisherman used to bring their catch up to the beach and unload. There were a lot of small restaurants, many with open walls, across the road to the beach. They bought the fish from the locals, and cooked it on charcoal barbeques. My girlfriend and I had 6 crabs, 6, large tiger shrimp, and a large steamed fish. The crabs were 1.5 baht each, which my Thai girlfriend thought was too expensive. I had a large beer, she had a coke. My beer was 35 baht, the most expensive item on the whole bill. They didn't even charge us for the steamed rice, it was free. (I think the exchange rate was about 25 baht to the dollar then.)

Some good memories there, thanks for sharing.

[nakachalet]

obviously, you must be the most envious of your class mates.... lol

and what did mom deary say....? LOL

I arrived with my parents in 1960.

The road from Dom Muang to Bangkok was a two laner surrounded by Rice paddies nearly the whole way, around a 45 minute trip.

Payyaya was not developed yet, JUSMAG (US Army) had a little bungalow resort, at night you could watch movies outside on the sand.

Wireless Rd. in Bangkok was a two lane road with khlongs on either side, the trees covered the road like a tunnel.

Sukhumvitt was paved out to Soi 33, beyond that was dirt road.

Across from where Soi Cowboy is today was a movie theater playing all the US films on Friday & Saturday night. Regular theaters were awesome, impossible to describe. Imagine gold leaf covered walls, select seating.......

International School Bangkok was on Sukhumvitt Soi 17, the school itself hasn't changed very muich.

Below, from nakachalet, I was at ISB that Saturday morning for Little League Baseball. The commanding general of JUSMAG announced the death of John Kennedy, then in true form said "In the spirit of America, let the games go on!" Afterwards, my parents took me home, we changed and drove to the US Embassy on Wireless Rd., where in a room draped in Black, we signed registers for the Kennedy Family.

it was a saturday morning around 8 am.... as i recalled it....

i took the cable from behind the "grundic' (?) large table size radio and connected it up with two good size car batteries.... LOL to provide electricity for the radio....

there was no electricity yet in a tiny town called haadyai....

we were listening to the voice of american.... the almighty english speaking radio station....

suddenly, the announcer came on and interrupted the ongoing program....

ladies and gentlemen, i have an urgent news....

our president is short....! he is being rushed to the nearest hospital in dallas, texas....

we urge everyone to remain calm and stay tuned to the station for further developement of this news....

.... the good doctor gregory couldn't believe his ear either, so he cranked up the black wall phone and asked for the u.s. consulate in bkk to confirm what i told him....

then, i was just finishing up my 12th grade....

oh, dear.... i completely forgot, due to my advanced stage of sinility, my real current age.... LOL

but i could tell that i must be the grand old fool around here.....

KUNG HEE FUT CHOI, everyone, young and not so young alike.... LOL

These memories along with my more recent memories are a treasure to pass on to my children. Like the time I was 7 years old, in a whore house on the Chao Phaya River, looking for a bathroom. (Long Story)

[Nignoy]

Well here are photos of pattaya beach 1964 and our tented camp at what is now patong 1964 /65 I think they have changed a bit since then

[otherstuff1957]

Well, I wasn't in Thailand 50 years ago and my wife wasn't born 50 years ago, but she recalls that going to school 40 years ago involved being paddled upriver in an old wooden canoe by her grandfather. This was in Nakhon Sri Thammarat, not Bangkok though!

When she visited her mother's parents in the Dusit district of Bangkok, there were a fair number of trees and not all the roads were paved.

[SeanMoran]

Well here are photos of pattaya beach 1964 and our tented camp at what is now patong 1964 /65 I think they have changed a bit since then

Thank you very much for those excellent photos!

[Tejas]

I spent a lot of time in Thailand 35 years ago. Bangkok had no skytrains, no metro and no 7/11 convenience stores. There may have been 2 million people here in the city then. Big corporations have come in, large foreign investment has built skyscrapers and the world has come to Thailand so to speak. Heroin was the drug being sold and you could come and go from Don Muang Airport, although U.S. drug agents worked in the background.

The pace of life was slower. You could meet a young lady at any intersection who would be willing to spend a week or two with you and she would never ask you for a dollar. If you ate she ate. If you decided to buy her something fine, if you left here with some money when you left great. The woman was just happy to be with you although she probably did not speak English and at that time I could not speak any Thai, but it was all good.

If you could not find accomodation in the north you were always welcome in a Buddhist Temple to sleep for the night. I remember waking up one morning with the young monks tickling then my Canadian girlfriends feet, and it was all in fun. I don't think that they had been that close to foreigners at that time. Dual pricing may have existed but it was not visible if it was. Pattaya had the beach with bungalow type accommodation and one street running behind the beach street. There may have been 20 foreigners there at any one time. There was one or two more modern type hotels. There was no scene, such as there is today.

You could travel up and down the Mekong river. The Pathet Lao were fighting in Laos and 14 year old boys stood armed in the street.

Everyone was laid back and relaxed, no one bothered you for anything. 1972-1979 Thailand. You would be the only foreigner on a bus going almost anywhere, Chaing Mai, Chaing Rai, Mai Sai, etc. You stood out then. I liked Thailand a lot more then, but my heart has all ways remained here after all these years, and since my family responsibilities in North America have ended, fortunately I have been able to return to Thailand and I figure to die here and have my ashes scattered in the Chao Phaya River.

I can only go back about 25 years.

BANGKOK: I don't remember a McDonalds, but one might have been in Bangkok then. No skytrain, of course. The traffic was not good but nothing like it is today (actually worse today IMHO). Don't remember all the fancy malls. Don't remember all the huge skyscrapers (there were some). The air pollution I think is much worse today no matter what the official statistics say. Patpong was a male only place......no families and no Western females. In fact, I don't remember seeing Western females in Thailand at all until around the late 90s. Everything seemed less expensive in real terms. Bangkok had an "exotic edge" back then. It seemed a bit mysterious. Westerners were not that common then. Thais and the few Westerners living in Bangkok seemed more relaxed. Don't remember ever being concerned about crime. Life seemed easier for Thais. I think perhaps because they expected less.

PATTAYA: I remember a much smaller city. The water pollution was very bad though (still is but they have tried to work on infrastructure). There were many more people from the USA back then. The place seemed exotic and fun. It was not as "geriatric" as it is today. It was inexpensive. No traffic congestion. The real estate hounds had not invaded the place (that, in my view, has ruined the place). The "bar scene" was fun. People seemed less stressed out than today. I think the level of greed was far less back then. I don't remember all of the big malls selling stuff nobody wants. There were no visa problems at all if you knew what to do (that has been a huge change for expats). You felt wanted (now xenophobia is all over). I think Thais were, in general, doing better back then, but like what I said about Bangkok, I think expectations were lower......they needed less to be happy.

JOMTIEN: Jomtien was really a small town back then. I remember a long beach with virtually nothing on it but old (pine like) trees and a few huts across the street. [unfortunately, some idiot decided to take a chain saw to virtually all of those beautiful shade trees around 2002.] I do remember one or maybe two condos even 25 years ago. Jomtien was certainly not the place to be unless you wanted privacy and some time alone.

Now both Pattaya and Jomtien seem overcrowded and polluted.....just overdeveloped.

[IanForbes]

Thanks for all the stories. There is still a lot of rural life in Thailand if you bother to get off the beaten track.

And there are lots of Thai villages that have no power other than truck batteries for the few hours of darkness before people go to bed. Everything is done by hand and the rice paddies are watered by a series of hand built canals.

These ladies were collecting gravel to build a new cement bridge over the stream to their only road to the village.

[Ulysses G.]

Goes visit Laos if you want to know what has changed

I took one of the business cards from the hotel in Vientianne in 1972. It had directions to the opium den a block away. I asked them how they knew that I was coming.

Well I sure couldn't find any - not that I was looking.

They did sell ganja out of big wooden barrels at the day market though.

That is not Ganga although it looks like it. I thought the same 35 years ago, remember it is illegal in Thailand

We are talking about Laos in this case and it WAS ganja - Guaranteed.

Edited February 13, 2010 by Ulysses G.

[SeanMoran]

We are talking about Laos in this case and it WAS ganja - Guaranteed.

I just want to thank you contributors all for these fantastic photos and prose on this topic, because I never realised what it was worth last night, and I thank you sincerely for making this thread what it has become. It's more than I ever imagined, so thanks to all you people who have more than just your imaginations to go back 50 years. I'm totally happy to just be here to read this thread and cannot really claim OP status at all with all this wonderful data that I never expected at the start.

Thank you.

Tell us more of Thailand 50 years ago...

[Slaps]

We are talking about Laos in this case and it WAS ganja - Guaranteed.

I just want to thank you contributors all for these fantastic photos and prose on this topic, because I never realised what it was worth last night, and I thank you sincerely for making this thread what it has become. It's more than I ever imagined, so thanks to all you people who have more than just your imaginations to go back 50 years. I'm totally happy to just be here to read this thread and cannot really claim OP status at all with all this wonderful data that I never expected at the start.

Thank you.

Tell us more of Thailand 50 years ago...

Get me a bucket

[SeanMoran]

We are talking about Laos in this case and it WAS ganja - Guaranteed.

I just want to thank you contributors all for these fantastic photos and prose on this topic, because I never realised what it was worth last night, and I thank you sincerely for making this thread what it has become. It's more than I ever imagined, so thanks to all you people who have more than just your imaginations to go back 50 years. I'm totally happy to just be here to read this thread and cannot really claim OP status at all with all this wonderful data that I never expected at the start.

Thank you.

Tell us more of Thailand 50 years ago...

Get me a bucket

Are you high right now? Have you been smoking when you shouldn't?

[coolhandjoe]

Probally similar to Cambodia now.

[Garry9999]

Chiang Rai on January 8, 1955

[lovelomsak]

Chiang Rai on January 8, 1955

These pictures on Chiang Rai are the ones of what is said to be snow am I not right? The white stuff on the ground was recorded as snow by the newspapers.

[Garry9999]

Chiang Rai on January 8, 1955

These pictures on Chiang Rai are the ones of what is said to be snow am I not right? The white stuff on the ground was recorded as snow by the newspapers.

Yes, recorded as snow, but more likely hail.

[andyww]

I have on VHS video a movie called "Panic in Bangkok for agent OSS117". It was made in 1964. A kind of James Bond type of film. French with English subtitles.

It shows the agent flying into the airport which existed before Don Muang. Several Bangkok street scenes showing virtually open roads with just a few cars, none of which appear to be Japanese.

Lots of canals and teak houses.

I'll see if I can get it captured and put the intersting scenes on Youtube.

Personally I can only go back to 1987. The one thing I remember most is having a 5 minute barter (argument?) every time I wanted to take a taxi. Tuk-Tuks were the normal form of transport though and there were thousands of them buzzing around like swarms of bees. They were cheaper than the air-con taxis rather than the inflated tourist traps they have now become. I remember travelling from Phaya Thai to Thonburi once in a tuk-tuk. Not something I would remotely contemplate doing today!

My view is that if I were as young as I was then, I would prefer the old Bangkok. But I am not and like some creature comforts so for me the city has kind of matured along with myself. One think I believe is that the traffic has got slightly better in the past few years with the completion of the expressway system, Skytrain etc. Go back just 5 years and it was a total nightmare.

[Birdman]

It was a fantastic place with rich wildlife, dangerous and wild at many remote areas.

[bendejo]

I first came here in 1975.

The Vietnam War had officially ended a few months before, and on many occasions young lads walking around Bangkok would come up to me and say "Vietnam Thailand brothers!" in a confrontational way. They must have assumed I was part of the war (news of its ending hadn't sunk in yet) and this feeling of solidarity was probably elicited by the other side. I now know this sort of sentiment is not the Thai way of thinking. Also, when walking around Bangkok nearly every time I would cross paths with a young couple the guy would say to me 'you want her?' Pretty obvious a rip-off attempt. And it was on-going: being in public meant dealing with this at least once per block.

Rama IV was just as it is now but didn't have the overhead road near Silom. Ganja could be had from little old lady fortune tellers sitting on mats on the sidewalk, and it was kick-arse Thai sticks (when did they stop putting it on sticks?) That Lumpini market didn't exist, but instead was a huge court for food stalls, just next to the muy thai stadium. I was staying near Hualumpong and would take the bus there some evenings just to eat.

The Khao San goon show hadn't come up yet, that kicked in during the 1980s. Cheap travelers like me stayed at dumps near the train station, but it was not what could be called a scene, just another stop on the road. After leaving India or Nepal, Bangkok was the next stop going east, and the airlines would give you the option of stopping in Rangoon (where they gave you only a one-week visa, with heavy restrictions on where in Burma you could go). Lots of Aussies were doing the overland route to/from the UK.

The Bangkok bus conductors even then had those metal tubes for making change.