Bangkok's Ratchaprasong Area Aims To Emulate Singapore's Orchard Road

[Misterwhisper]

Whenever I leave Central World, step out onto Ratchaprasong Road, stub my toes several times on the uneven footpath, almost fall into a only partially covered manhole, gaze at a homeless person lying next to a heap of plastic garbage, take in a whiff of thick, black diesel fumes from a passing bus that's been in service at last since the mid 1970s, get accosted by a horde of dishevelled taxi drivers who offer me "nice lady for you, goose, goose!", I usually stop in my tracks for a brief moment, take a deep breath and murmur to myself: "Oh how wonderful, just like Orchard Road!"

[TackyToo]

Hub of copy cat's

This is not reality- TIT!

[pepi2005]

@lujanit: Bangkok without its street vendors would lose most of its charme and convenience of daily life - what would remain would be an overheated (almost no parks, no green, no water) cooking pot with smelly and polluted air where you can't even walk the footpaths ..not because of the vendors, but because Thailand seems to be too poor or simply unwilling to build decent and safe footpaths for the citizens of its capitol city.

[Jaivin2011]

Firststly lah......what the thais so do lah is to get all their sales staff to at least speak some English lah. Then at least teach their sales staff to be a bot motivated and to understand Customer Service lah......then lah, at least the big groups like CEntral should start with at least rewards for their best spending expat or tourists customers instead so inviting only so called thai hisos lah a their special launch events etc who do not spend money but rather expect everything to be given to them for free lah. Why not use these funds to give rewards to the foreign buyers instead lah. (The same is also done by groups in their own umbrella like Zen,CMG, CDC, etc and also done by companies like ELCA, etc who only bring the thai hisos for their events but these people only want everything free lah....By the way Thai Hisos are not nothing like the real Hisos in Singapre who are the real philanthropists and real society people.) Anyway I can advise a lot lah but tired as I know that its all garbage as far as what they are trying to do in Ratchaprasong.

[PaullyW]

Whenever I leave Central World, step out onto Ratchaprasong Road, stub my toes several times on the uneven footpath, almost fall into a only partially covered manhole, gaze at a homeless person lying next to a heap of plastic garbage, take in a whiff of thick, black diesel fumes from a passing bus that's been in service at last since the mid 1970s, get accosted by a horde of dishevelled taxi drivers who offer me "nice lady for you, goose, goose!", I usually stop in my tracks for a brief moment, take a deep breath and murmur to myself: "Oh how wonderful, just like Orchard Road!"

And, there you have it. A useful summary of what it is like anywhere in Bangkok. Just the absolute worst of experiences -- unless you like it, of course. You forgot to add:

step out into the blazing heat with NO foliage or other means made to make walking even remotely more comfortable

get random whiffs of rotting food that street vendors have poured into the drains or along the road (perhaps from washing the dishes in putrid water)

thai people (aka the slowest moving, dawdling people on Earth) dawdling around perfectly and always in the way of others moving with intent

motorcycles riding on the sidewalks on occasion

[bigbamboo]

.

Ratchaprasong - Bangkok

Orchard Road - Singapore

yep.... same, same

Love the 'name' of the building front left of the photo. Now that is VERY Bangkok!

[Gonsalviz]

Hookers and all?

[Gonsalviz]

Whenever I leave Central World, step out onto Ratchaprasong Road, stub my toes several times on the uneven footpath, almost fall into a only partially covered manhole, gaze at a homeless person lying next to a heap of plastic garbage, take in a whiff of thick, black diesel fumes from a passing bus that's been in service at last since the mid 1970s, get accosted by a horde of dishevelled taxi drivers who offer me "nice lady for you, goose, goose!", I usually stop in my tracks for a brief moment, take a deep breath and murmur to myself: "Oh how wonderful, just like Orchard Road!"

And, there you have it. A useful summary of what it is like anywhere in Bangkok. Just the absolute worst of experiences -- unless you like it, of course. You forgot to add:

step out into the blazing heat with NO foliage or other means made to make walking even remotely more comfortable

get random whiffs of rotting food that street vendors have poured into the drains or along the road (perhaps from washing the dishes in putrid water)

thai people (aka the slowest moving, dawdling people on Earth) dawdling around perfectly and always in the way of others moving with intent

motorcycles riding on the sidewalks on occasion

Never been to Malaysia?

[Morakot]

.

Ratchaprasong - Bangkok

Orchard Road - Singapore

yep.... same, same

Trees???? What a sorry waste of stall space. Footpaths????? Same.

Ohh, where has the wild jungle of overhead cable gone???

[Reasonableman]

And the windblown rolling sagebrush of discarded plastic bags... ;-]

Edited June 28, 2012 by Reasonableman

[Pseudolus]

[Fozfromoz]

I hate orchard road. I travel to Singapore about every two months for business. I never stay on orchard road. It is sterile, boring, crowded and overpriced. When you are on Orchard road you feel like you are an actor in a grand commercial. Give me the flavor, the fun and the chaos of Bangkok anytime!

I'm with you.

Having previously lived there for a number of Years, its certainly a place to avoid. In fact many of the locals would be lucky to go there once in a Year

[ballpoint]

.

Ratchaprasong - Bangkok

Orchard Road - Singapore

yep.... same, same

Love the 'name' of the building front left of the photo. Now that is VERY Bangkok!

Pedant alert! That's Scotts Road, although granted, the little bit at the front right is Orchard Road. And the building is Shaw House. You'll find that Haw House is further to the left of the photo, next to the Thai Embassy. It's actual name is Orchard Towers.

Beside which, if I wanted Orchard Road I'd go to Singapore. If I want something non sterile and non artificial I'll stick with Bangkok.

[Reasonableman]

It is rumored, in an attempt to improve the general steel, glass, and concrete ambience, the roadside stalls are to be replaced by leafy sidewalks of flame trees...