Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
viewed their lessons under the shade of the rain trees. With the old trees dying of in the
middle of the last century, King Bhumibol visited the campus and planted five saplings
in 1962, three on the right side and two on the left side of the football pitch in front of
the auditorium. Most recently, at the time of the university's eightieth anniversary celeb-
rations, a programme was undertaken to plant eighty rain trees throughout the campus.
Although most of the extensive land holdings of the university are related to the cam-
pus itself, an interesting diversion was made in the mid 1960s when Siam Square was laid
out on university land immediately to the north of the campus. The aim was to lease out
the land to shop owners and use the funds for benefitting the university. Siam Square,
however, quickly took on a life of its own as Bangkok's first shopping mall district, a trendy
place around which the city's equivalent of the Swinging Sixties revolved. Nowadays, Siam
Square is Bangkok's prime shopping and leisure district, the building of the Skytrain inter-
change having been decisive in adding accessibility for a destination that is also serviced
by some twenty-five bus routes and even by boat, via the Saen Saeb canal. Consequently,
this is the place where youngsters continue to meet, and the thirteen steps in front of Siam
Centre have been one of Bangkok's prime people-watching locations for two generations.
Siam Square was laid out in 1965, and a couple of years later, at the beginning of 1967,
the Siam Theatre opened, specialising in the showing of foreign movies. The Lido Theatre
was built the following year, and the Scala appeared in 1970. The Bangkok Bank build-
ing, British Council building, and the Siam Bowl were all built during this period. In the
late 1970s, with the economy flourishing, a host of fast food joints, boutiques and tutor-
ing services opened. A small police station with four officers, plus a fire station, was set
up on Siam Square Soi 7, opposite Siam Theatre, in 1980.
MBK
Centre, also known as
Mahboonkrong (after the parents of developer Sirichai Bulakul, Mah and Boonkrong) was
opened in 1985 on the western boundary of the university's land. Rama
I
Road marks the
northern boundary of the square, and the commercial developments on the other side of
the road, although they are assimilated into the notion of Siam Square, actually stand on
royal land that was originally the grounds of Sra Pathum Palace. In terms of sheer size and
glamour, they outdo the humbler premises within the square. The first beer garden, now a
familiar sight in front of shopping malls throughout the city at the end of the rainy season,
was a Kloster event held at Siam Discovery Centre in the mid-1980s. The large courtyard
area between Siam Discovery and Siam Centre is today used for the same purpose, and for
other events. The opening a few years ago of Siam Paragon, the Kempinski Hotel, Centara
Grand and the Bangkok Convention Centre and CentralWorld have all added to the allure
