New Life Awaits Old Bangkok

If there is one building that personifies the past, present and future of Bangkok, wearing the city’s fortunes on its facade and interiors, it is the old Customs House, a majestic late-19th-century structure on the banks of the Chao Phraya River.

The building has been neglected and crumbling away for longer than most of us have been alive, but a plan drawn up a few years ago to transform it into a five-star hotel now seems likely to reach fruition.

Speculation about the fate of the old structure has been ongoing for more than 20 years, but the reason for optimism this time is that Thailand’s Treasury Department, which owns the building, in July announced that restoration and development would commence this fiscal year.

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