Developing like crazy

My friend Todd and I had gone searching for street food. We had walked to the street food markets at Lumphini Park only to discover that they were gone.  It seems like many of the famous street food eateries in Bangkok were slowly disappearing.  Bangkok was changing and losing some of what it used to be.  Given our search for street food, it was odd then that we ended up at a roof bar in an upscale hotel in the very expensive Lumphini district.

Looking out at the view of Bangkok's skyline, we were both amazed.  The pace of Bangkok's development is a thing to behold.  All around the city, there were skyscrapers and developments that wouldn't have been around when I first visited Bangkok in 2003.  In only 17 years, a new city had grown in Bangkok and largely engulfed what I once knew.  I think about my friends who used to live here.  I don't think they would recognise this place at all.  They hold fond memories of this city and I wonder whether they would still love Bangkok now that it seems to be becoming another version of Singapore.

Even being in this roof bar itself seemed to be incredible.  It was a speakeasy style bar which had another separate speakeasy hidden inside of it.  The second bar was far cooler than the first and made an otherwise standard bar something worth coming back to.  The drinks on offer were an assortment of the standard cocktail bar drinks along with some more unique creations.  I ordered a Manhattan and a Sazerac, and both were what I would class as being "OK" at best.  The bartenders needed a touch more experience with the drink mixing and a better understanding of how the elements came together.  One annoying thing was that they overmixed the drinks with ice which led to them being slightly too watered down.  Now, I don't normally critique such things so much, but for me it was just another element in the development of this city.  It now had the incredibly cool and sophisticated cocktail bars, it had the views, it had the clientele.  It was probably just a few short years away from further developing the culture that would completely provide for it all.

More likely than not, all of this will be changed again the next time I arrive.