Buhay Bangkok

I went to UNESCO yesterday for a job interview. The moment I entered the gate, I felt like I was crossing a time barrier; like I just crossed into the 50s.

The UNESCO holds office at the Mon Luang Centenary Building on Sukhumvit Road. It’s a short walk away from the Thong Lo BTS Station. Amid the hurly-burly of the road (and the rumble of the Skytrain above my head), the UNESCO compound seems to offer refuge.

The building’s design and the calachuchi trees around the compound only enhanced a 50s ambience. Not that I have lived in the 50s, for I was born in 1972, but I have lived in houses older than my parents, and have stayed in mansions made in the 50s that somehow all that’s needed for the whole tableau to be complete would be a bunch of boppy teeners in bangs and straight-leg pants and tight-fitting polo shirts dancing to the Twist.

Contrast it with All Seasons Place and the CBD of Bangkok. The steel-glass-granite buildings of Witthayu, Ploenchit and Sathorn emit out a certain vibrancy, as if they tell you, “This place is it.” You’re in the center, you’re in the middle of events, of major decisions, in the midst of the movers and shakers and the captains of industry.