When we first came to Bangkok in April 2003, we were told that there was going to be a building site next to Bangkok Garden and that we should avoid the A and B towers. Well we got an apartment in B tower! And as you can see from the photos above, this is the view that we have.

Luckily this can only be seen from one of Jacob's windows and slightly from the balcony in the living room, and it looks as if it isn't going to get any taller. The view from some of the lower apartments around the side of the tower must be appalling, so we are quite lucky really.

What is really amazing is the pace of the construction, the methods used and the safety standards - or lack of them! There seems to be hundreds of Thai builders beavering away on the site at the moment, and they move around each floor in big groups performing each task. The photos above show the construction of the ninth floor, which wasn't there when we first arrived. The wood at the front of the pictures is part of a huge mould, and on the day that I took these photos they where pouring in all the concrete. Today, just two days later, the wooden mould has be taken away and what looks like the top of the lift shaft has been built where all those steel rods are sticking up in the first two photos.

As for the safety part, the builders were standing right on the edge of the wooden frame putting the wooden supports in place - nine floors up, and there is no safety net! And no sexual discrimination either - both men and women are working away within inches of certain death.

Lower down the building they are attaching pre-formed pieces of concrete to the side of the building's skeleton, and pouring concrete into moulds of staircases. I get the feeling that people will be moving in by Christmas.

Oh, and according to the tee-shirts that all the builders wear, this construction is being built by a company called 'Porn'!!!!

Posted on 27 August 2003.

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