Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
several financial crises in its history up until relatively modern times, the
BNH
has fund-
raising in its
DNA
and is well known for its high-profile annual bed push.
There are those cynics amongst us (and shame upon them!) who declare that Bangrak,
the Village of Love, is so named because the red-light district of Patpong lies at its heart.
Whatever reputation Patpong has for debauchery, it is nonetheless a village, and it grew
in the same unplanned way that characterises so much of Bangkok.
Poon Pat was a Chinese immigrant from Hainan Island who in the early twentieth cen-
tury was working as a rice buyer for a company in Bangkok. Part of Poon Pat's territory
included the Ban Moh district in Saraburi Province, to the north of Bangkok, and look-
ing into the rice yields there, he realised there was something odd about the soil. During
the monsoon rains, erosion would often reveal what the farmers called white earth, lay-
ing a metre or so below the topsoil. Nothing would grow on or near the white earth, and
new topsoil had to be shovelled back over it before rice seeds could be planted. Poon Pat
took a sample back to Bangkok, where it was found to be almost pure calcium carbonate,
a mineral that is necessary for the production of Portland cement. At that time cement for
Siam's roads and buildings had to be imported, and so the discovery was of great value. In
recognition of his service to the nation, Rama
VI
bestowed upon Poon Pat the title Luang
Patpongse Panit, the “luang” roughly equivalent to viscount and with the “panit” signify-
ing the title had been conferred for services to commerce. Poon Pat adopted Patpongse
(the “se” is silent) as his new Thai family name and quickly adapted to the life of nobility.
Directly after the end of World War
II
., Poon Patpongse purchased an undeveloped
plot of land that lay between Silom and Surawong roads. The only building of any signific-
ance on the plot was a teak building that had been occupied by the Hongkong & Shang-
hai Bank, and which had been taken over by the occupying Japanese in 1941 for use as
their military police headquarters. Poon Patpongse had been looking for a large plot to use
as the family compound, and he paid 59,000 baht for the land, which had been used for
fruit growing. Deciding to cut a six-metre wide driveway from Surawong into the prop-
erty, Poon Patpongse handed the job over to his son Udom, and took the family away on
holiday to Hua Hin. Udom had studied at the London School of Economics directly be-
fore the war, and later at the University of Minnesota, and he sensed a business opportun-
ity. He doubled the size of the road and drove it through to Silom, envisaging a district
where offices could be built to accommodate the Western companies that were coming
into Siam during the restructuring that was taking place following the war. By this time
Siam was Thailand, a constitutional monarchy, and was eager to take its place in the new
world order. When his father had calmed down he saw Udom's logic. Finance was raised
