Crooked?
On Saturday I happened to take the boat down the Chao Praya river and noticed that this building was being converted to a Hilton Hotel.
Now, I’d been told that this building had originally been deemed unsafe as it was at a slight angle that buildings shouldn’t be at. And it did from a certain distance look slightly off. As a result it been hanging around empty for a long time. Until now, that is.
So, I’m hoping that it’s now indeed straight. But how does one go about straightening out a building of that magnitude? Or has it in fact been straightened?
*gasp*
I’ve seen that building while they still had all the construction stuff covering it. I wasn’t aware of the leaning aspect though :P
Geezus, that building has been empty for decades. Wouldn’t surprise me if they just said it has been straightened, and did nothing about it.
But I doubt the Hilton sisters would risk damaging their good name, if that building was to come tumbling down.
oh? isn’t that the grand china princess hotel?
in chinatown? the circular thing is the japanese restaurant?
Nope… it’s been empty ever since I can remember and it’s on the other side of the river. Now they’ve got this huge Hilton banner and lots of structural work going on.
if i remembered correctly , that was previously a sofitel hotel . they never got to open their business and it was left vacant till the hiltons came .
only in Thailand can something crooked for ten years (not allowed to opperate) get straightened overnight. you guys should check out the news owners (Local shareholders). must have required alot of hand grease.
Does anyone else find the idea that a chinese hotel having a japanese restaurant on top of it funny?
its a myth the building is unsafe. it was abandonned in 1996 because the developer went broke and the ensuing financial crisis ment no one had the money to buy it. the resulting years when everything was cheap meant it was more feasible to build a new hotel than take over a derelict structure, thus rendering it useless once again. only recently has it become worthwile as an investment, and as a result has been snatched up by Singaporean Investors (not “local shareholders” Herb). The amount of uneducated baseless criticsm on this website is ridiculous. It seems to me like most of you have a superiority complex when comparing yourself to Thai people.
I, for one, can confirm that I definitely feel superior to any building (this is what we are talking about). I can’t speak for everyone else though.
To my knowledge, I am the most uneducated person here. If you’re looking for factual information on the status of building projects, you can always try 2bangkok.com.
As for comparing ourselves to Thai people, unless you are referring to a comment left by a reader of the Bangkok metroblog there are only two contributors to this site who are not Thai (myself one of them) and neither of us have been comparing ourselves to Thai people. Having said that, when was it written that it is not allowed to compare one thing to another? Perhaps you need to take a step back and realise that this topic isn’t as earth shattering as you seem to think.
Thanks for the information about the building by the way. Now we know what really happened!
no worries dude. you’re right about 2bangkok.com though, im sure there is plenty of info on there.
That means Thai tour guides are giving out wrong information on those river cruises – so much for uneducated baseless criticsm.
I did a little bit of question asking (forums etc) about the building and everyone seems to agree that the crooked building bit is, indeed, a rumour – the truth is that money ran out in 96/97 as with so many places around BKK.
Of course, everyone knows the rumour, which means that maybe the Thai’s should stop their lies and get on with the less boring truth?
But even these facts won’t help “metblog this” and that huge inferiority complex chip on his / her shoulder. It must be hard to carry that extra weight. Maybe you could lie and suggest there wasn’t enough cash in 97 to chop it up?