When I was a boy, the Ploenchit Fair was held every year on the grounds of the British embassy. It was the one time a year when we could enter to walk around the trees and laze about the embassy grounds. A few years ago, amid some controversy, the British embassy sold the portion of their land along Ploenchit Road. Real estate developers envision an endless street of malls in Bangkok. The beautiful gardens of the Siam Intercontinental became the Siam Paragon shopping complex, and this former parcel of the British embassy will continue the stretch of malls from Siam Square, through Ratchaprasong, past Chidlom.
Where the entrance of the British Embassy used to lie is now an empty lot. The trees have been torn down, some permanently, others with their roots wrapped are lined against a wall waiting. Where trees have been dug up are now small polluted pools discolored shiny blue.
There are two small structures here, the abandoned guardhouse and a storage shed. The shed is a small square building filled with mixed debris, behind it lies a truck on ramp used for projecting advertisements over the walls of the ground. Close by there is a large satellite dish as well. The walls still have spikes and over the far wall a hint of the embassy can still be seen.
Littered with fallen trees and overgrown grass, the space is in decay. Stray dogs lay here while the rest of the city passes along the sidewalk outside. The fallen trees are browning, but there is one tree still planted, I hope the let it stay standing.
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