Bangkok ‘has changed very little’

Anyone booking flights to Bangkok may be encouraged to learn that the city has not changed much over the past 60 years, according to one travel website.

Bangkok has seen very few changes when it comes to the city’s culture and tradition, one travel website has asserted.

As part of its Uncovering Bangkok series, CNNGo has found some footage from an American travel video made in 1948.

The film, which lasts for ten minutes, shows traditional Thai dancing at the Grand Palace, with the building itself showing very few changes over the past six decades.

Other landmarks featured in the old footage include some of Bangkok’s Buddhist temples and the Democracy Monument, which looks the same, but is now usually surrounded by considerably more motor vehicles.

Each of the four wing-shaped statues which surround the central feature are 24 metres high, which represents the date on which the Thai constitution was signed.

However, the website noted that taking a boat down some of Bangkok’s canals is not such a sedate way to travel as it used to be. In the old video, the narrator described the trip as “a tropical, luxuriant experience”.

Written by Nicholas Scott