Bangkok: Then & Now

I am fascinated by historical photos. I can stare at an old black & white photo from turn-of-the-century anywhere for minutes on end. I look at the people or places depicted and try to put myself there. I look at the faces, the clothing..what was the weather like? Are those people miserably hot in their stiff century-old garb? What did they do after the photo was taken? What did they say?

Especially fascinating to me are the series of photos called “then & now”. These pictures will show some area, landmark, or building from long ago. Next to it will be a photo showing how that area or building looks today. Usually the “now” photo is in color. My local newspaper does this every Sunday and it is the first page I turn to every weekend.

This brings me to the topic of my blog. As I was leaving Thailand back in 2001, I ran across a book in the airport duty-free shop. It was called “Bangkok: Then and Now” by Steve Van Beek (ISBN #:974-87616-0-6).
This book has loads of photos taken from 1900-1901 in and around Bangkok. Next to those photos are their modern siblings depicted in a modern myriad of colors. Some of the photos are depicting well-known areas or structures. Many are often more obscure (such as a sidestreet or narrow little klong).

Without further ado, here are some of my favorite photos from the book. Enjoy! P.S. My apologies; I couldn’t fit these photos side by side. I don’t think too much was lost by stacking them like this. The quality might have suffered a bit as well, as I took the photos with my camera from the open book.

Looking north from the top of the Golden Mount ca.1880 and today