Abandoned, Derelict, Decaying Locations Around Thailand

[Ron19]

Amphoe Phichai - Uttaradit. Difficult to tell but looks like it has never been lived in or used.

 

[diznax]

I shot a series at the abandoned Dolphin Bay mansion in Som Roi Yod & one of the pics was published yesterday in The Guardian as a 'photo of the day'.  The full series is here & the article is here.  A very unusual place to see anywhere, much less in southern Thailand

[tifino]

 

anyone find WW2 Jap airfields??

 

I am assuming there must be old sites; just like in the Philippines, and down in Penang

[tolsti]

On 6/13/2017 at 2:44 PM, Halfaboy said:

Soi 18 (off Naklua Road) - Pattaya

these are currently being renovated.

[diznax]

On 7/27/2017 at 4:31 PM, Curt1591 said:

When were you there last?

 

Some time ago, there were people living in the building, mostly in the surrounding buildings. However, when we visited last, 4 months ago, the entrances were sealed off and there were "No Photo" signs placed around.
sides of the river and will be connected by an aerial tram. Can't figure why they don't want photos taken ....

I hope that, whatever their plans are, they preserve the beautiful main staircase of the customs building.  Would be a shame to tear it out and build a new one (though that's what the gentrification-happy city council seems to like doing.)  These are from 2015

[Halfaboy]

1 minute ago, tolsti said:

these are currently being renovated.

 

You are absolutely right. I noticed this and wanted to rectify with a picture at a further stage of rejuvenation.

 

Sorry about the misinformation....

[tolsti]

4 hours ago, Halfaboy said:

 

You are absolutely right. I noticed this and wanted to rectify with a picture at a further stage of rejuvenation.

 

Sorry about the misinformation....

Not disinformation at all. When you posted it did look awful. Your post was absolutely correct. 

 

Mine is simply an update,

 

It is only recently that they started to fix it.

[diznax]

Was very pleased to have my pics & interview published in CNN Style today, glad to be able to share my photos from Thailand with more of the masses.  They also made a gallery with my photos from Bangkok.  The 'ghost tower' photos aren't my images, however, as I've never been in there, though it is in my neighborhood.  Not really interested in getting in, but would like to check the movie when it comes out!

[Assurancetourix]

Was in Bangkok a few days ago ;

went to the french Ambassy for some official documents , so shot photos of the old buildings behind it

 

To go there, u are on Thanon Charoen Krung , take soi 36 which name is " rue de Brest "

 

 

You are rue de Brest

 

[Assurancetourix]

The french Ambassy , strange building, isn't it ?

 

 

U pass the french Ambassy; u are in the same soi but a little bit narrow

 

[Assurancetourix]

All the doors and windows at the first floor are closed

 

 

I didn't took a photo but many, so 

 

[diznax]

I got into an abandoned art gallery just off of Sathorn 1 road a few weeks ago & today the series was published by Unilad.  My full series from the location is here on my website. Not sure if anybody really follows this thread anymore, but I've really enjoyed seeing the places that have been shared from around the country.  I hope it keeps going, but if not, thanks everybody for sharing what you've shared.

 

Below are a couple of images (one that I took at the gallery but didn't publish in the series), part of an ongoing project I'm working on that explores abandoned places & Thai beliefs with regard to spirits that haunt them, calling it 'ghosts of abandonia'. 

[George FmplesdaCosteedback]

8 hours ago, diznax said:

I got into an abandoned art gallery just off of Sathorn 1 road a few weeks ago & today the series was published by Unilad.  My full series from the location is here on my website. Not sure if anybody really follows this thread anymore, but I've really enjoyed seeing the places that have been shared from around the country.  I hope it keeps going, but if not, thanks everybody for sharing what you've shared.

 

Below are a couple of images (one that I took at the gallery but didn't publish in the series), part of an ongoing project I'm working on that explores abandoned places & Thai beliefs with regard to spirits that haunt them, calling it 'ghosts of abandonia'. 

I do check in as you take some excellent pictures, but not every day or week as other things are more important.

Others have contributed too, I like photography but Photoshop touch up stuff I despise in professional work.

 

Have you considered the disused amusement parks in Bangkok (and elsewhere)?

Might be worth a look.

Last picture is funny, I'll show that to the missus...

Scare the pants off her!

 

 

 

 

[diznax]

7 hours ago, George FmplesdaCosteedback said:

I do check in as you take some excellent pictures, but not every day or week as other things are more important.

Others have contributed too, I like photography but Photoshop touch up stuff I despise in professional work.

 

Have you considered the disused amusement parks in Bangkok (and elsewhere)?

Might be worth a look.

Last picture is funny, I'll show that to the missus...

Scare the pants off her!

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the suggestion.  I didn't actually mean that I think everyone should check/contribute to this thread every day, but rather that there used to be regular contributions but hasn't been a new post in over a month.  

 

As far as using Photoshop, I'm sorry that you have such disdain for it, but it's one of those 'don't hate the player, hate the game' situations, as digital image processing (LR/PS) has become standard in the field (bizarrely enough most professional photographers don't actually use film anymore in the year 2017), which anyone who is in regular work in the field will attest.  I can certainly see where you're coming from when photos become something completely different than they originally were when the the shutter was pressed, such as adding unicorns or overdoing the HDR in landscapes nonsense (halos on skies are a personal pet peeve) that wasn't there.  When I teach elements of photoshop or lightroom to my students, I always remind them that we use this software to bring out the best of the original image, not over-enhancement which often makes it look fake (especially overdoing saturation/contrast/detail extraction).  

 

My mentor, Dennie Cody (the head of the Bangkok Photographers group) has been a pro for over 50 years.  He started shooting only black & white film in the 60's, moved to color in the 70's or so, and switched over to digital sometime in the mid-2000's.  I've heard him on several occasions talk about all the hours of tedious work that he used to have to do with processing images in film (dodging/burning, etc.) back in the day, and how the software now does the same thing in mere seconds (and there's no way that he'd ever go back to film).  In the end, Photoshop and Lightroom are here to stay, and if one of the requirements of being a photographer in the digital age is that know how to use them & do so the right way.

[xylophone]

Two of many derelict/abandoned buildings in Patong.........as can be seen one is a mere shell, but the Crystal is a completed building, but empty for some time, though still in good order. 

 

No idea why?

[Ron19]

Decommissioned sugar refinery on the southern outskirts of Uttaradit.

[George FmplesdaCosteedback]

16 hours ago, diznax said:

Thanks for the suggestion.  I didn't actually mean that I think everyone should check/contribute to this thread every day, but rather that there used to be regular contributions but hasn't been a new post in over a month.  

 

As far as using Photoshop, I'm sorry that you have such disdain for it, but it's one of those 'don't hate the player, hate the game' situations, as digital image processing (LR/PS) has become standard in the field (bizarrely enough most professional photographers don't actually use film anymore in the year 2017), which anyone who is in regular work in the field will attest.  I can certainly see where you're coming from when photos become something completely different than they originally were when the the shutter was pressed, such as adding unicorns or overdoing the HDR in landscapes nonsense (halos on skies are a personal pet peeve) that wasn't there.  When I teach elements of photoshop or lightroom to my students, I always remind them that we use this software to bring out the best of the original image, not over-enhancement which often makes it look fake (especially overdoing saturation/contrast/detail extraction).  

 

My mentor, Dennie Cody (the head of the Bangkok Photographers group) has been a pro for over 50 years.  He started shooting only black & white film in the 60's, moved to color in the 70's or so, and switched over to digital sometime in the mid-2000's.  I've heard him on several occasions talk about all the hours of tedious work that he used to have to do with processing images in film (dodging/burning, etc.) back in the day, and how the software now does the same thing in mere seconds (and there's no way that he'd ever go back to film).  In the end, Photoshop and Lightroom are here to stay, and if one of the requirements of being a photographer in the digital age is that know how to use them & do so the right way.

Thanks, I do understand that things have moved on from just 15 years ago. I know and have known a few professional photographers, one who worked for the Telegraph and another successful guy that freelanced like yourself, mostly in Asia (he took some of the pictures in the Royal Hotel in 1992 that were in the papers).

 

I am just having a moan that it is too easy now to make a very mediocre picture look good with computer tech not photographic skill.

A good mate is an amateur but pretty good and has won awards and sold a few pictures, not for publication, just local shots framed for tourists to hang on the wall as a holiday memento.

He now teaches at the local college part time, but half of what he teaches is Photoshop technique.

I am not knocking your work, as I find many of the shots you take are excellent, just making an observation having been a photo editor for a newspaper some years ago.

Best wishes.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 30, 2017 by George FmplesdaCosteedback

[xylophone]

The flipside of the "development boom" in Patong..........

[Halfaboy]

Unbelievable, what a waste of money....

[tolsti]

19 hours ago, xylophone said:

The flipside of the "development boom" in Patong..........

If that is where I think it is (Nanai Rd) it was once a busy hotel. It was then demolished and this abomination is what is left of the rebuild.

[xylophone]

2 hours ago, tolsti said:

If that is where I think it is (Nanai Rd) it was once a busy hotel. It was then demolished and this abomination is what is left of the rebuild.

Six different buildings there tolsti, but if you mean the last pic, you are correct! Others are in new middle road, including the ACE cond building, The Park on Nanai and two other shells further south on Nanai.

 

And there are others around...............

[xylophone]

19 hours ago, Halfaboy said:

Unbelievable, what a waste of money....

Read.........fraud, illegal building and lack of planning, not to mention insufficient funds. And I suppose you could add stupidity to that!

 

Will be interesting to see how the new hotel and shopping complex, Beyond Patong, on the beach road turns out. Thus far a large restaurant with no customers at lunch time and a large mini market shop, and lots of empty spaces although the hotel becomes operational on Nov 1st. 

 

 

[tolsti]

yes, I was referring to the last pic. Pity, I used to walk past there regularly and saw it go from a thriving hotel to a Burmese workers hovel.

 

Those at the south end of Nanai are the ones that contribute to the floods of mud every time it rains as they have destroyed the hillside.

 

I was thinking of coming over to visit next month.... not sure I will now.

[George FmplesdaCosteedback]

There are other reasons, the '97 crash and the tsunami.

Expensive to demolish so they were left.

Land price will not change.

Good photos.

[xylophone]

5 hours ago, George FmplesdaCosteedback said:

There are other reasons, the '97 crash and the tsunami.

Expensive to demolish so they were left.

Land price will not change.

Good photos.

The buildings in some pics perhaps George, but those I have included had all been started well after that event and as I said, are a result of "fraud, illegal building and lack of planning, not to mention insufficient funds. And I suppose you could add stupidity to that!".

 

The ACE condo developers have disappeared with the money. yet the BIB and authorities know who they are, but have nothing done about it?? (connected or paid someone off perhaps?).

 

The Park development of 990 condos/apts stopped because supposedly they didn't have the correct permission to build, and also ran out of money (the last phase of a development of theirs in Phuket down is also unfinished/abandoned). Will investors get their money back??

 

The renovated/part rebuilt hotel on Nanai that tolsti mentions looks like another case of lack of funds as that has had a little work done on it over 4 years now,  but nowhere near finished. Having said that, just yesterday much of the Burmese workers camp seems to have been pulled down?????

 

As for two other shells at the end of Nanai............when I was taking the pics of them, a guy came over to me and asked what my interest was, and I said a friend was interested in knowing about them and what they were. He went into some long winded spiel about them being the first phase of a 120 room hotel. So I asked why they had been near derelict for around 3 to 4 years, and he said problems with the developer!!!! Yeah right!

 

At one time it was thought that the huge cost of digging out the hillside behind them and then having to reinforce it substantially with a very large, long, high wall sent them under. Even now the run off from the hill makes the ground around a soggy mess.

 

Another complex which has been under way for about 3 years or more is "The Dinso"  which has a little work done on it, then stops for a few months and so on.............more out there, not to mention a friends 20 room boutique hotel which is now empty and looking in poor repair because she borrowed from a loan shark due to lack of business and has lost it to him now because she couldn't pay him back (not uncommon here).

 

 

[George FmplesdaCosteedback]

18 hours ago, xylophone said:

The buildings in some pics perhaps George, but those I have included had all been started well after that event and as I said, are a result of "fraud, illegal building and lack of planning, not to mention insufficient funds. And I suppose you could add stupidity to that!".

 

The ACE condo developers have disappeared with the money. yet the BIB and authorities know who they are, but have nothing done about it?? (connected or paid someone off perhaps?).

 

The Park development of 990 condos/apts stopped because supposedly they didn't have the correct permission to build, and also ran out of money (the last phase of a development of theirs in Phuket down is also unfinished/abandoned). Will investors get their money back??

 

The renovated/part rebuilt hotel on Nanai that tolsti mentions looks like another case of lack of funds as that has had a little work done on it over 4 years now,  but nowhere near finished. Having said that, just yesterday much of the Burmese workers camp seems to have been pulled down?????

 

As for two other shells at the end of Nanai............when I was taking the pics of them, a guy came over to me and asked what my interest was, and I said a friend was interested in knowing about them and what they were. He went into some long winded spiel about them being the first phase of a 120 room hotel. So I asked why they had been near derelict for around 3 to 4 years, and he said problems with the developer!!!! Yeah right!

 

At one time it was thought that the huge cost of digging out the hillside behind them and then having to reinforce it substantially with a very large, long, high wall sent them under. Even now the run off from the hill makes the ground around a soggy mess.

 

Another complex which has been under way for about 3 years or more is "The Dinso"  which has a little work done on it, then stops for a few months and so on.............more out there, not to mention a friends 20 room boutique hotel which is now empty and looking in poor repair because she borrowed from a loan shark due to lack of business and has lost it to him now because she couldn't pay him back (not uncommon here).

 

 

Yep, dodgy dealings.

Oh well, makes for a few good pictures.

 

[helbob]

North thailand

[helbob]

Beautiful abandoned wooden house

[xylophone]

9 hours ago, helbob said:

Beautiful abandoned wooden house

Reminds me of some I saw near Chiang Rai a few years back.

[diznax]

On 12/8/2017 at 12:13 AM, helbob said:

Beautiful abandoned wooden house

Great photo, whereabouts did you take it?