Street art of Warehouse 30

I was eager to see the Warehouse 30 development, another “hipster park”, this time in reclaimed 1940s warehouses (hence the name) on Charoen Krung Soi 30. Here, leading Thai architect Duangrit Bunnag (from the Bunnag clan, an originally Persian family powerful in the country for centuries) is spearheading a cluster of restaurants, cafes, a plant store, a performance space and a documentary movie theatre, similar to the ChangChui deveopment which had impressed me earlier, but with a much more central location. Changchui has been popular since opening a few months earlier, can Bunnag’s track record (he developed the Jam Factory on the other side of the river) and location put him out in front? Unfortunately though the complex wasn’t quite ready when I went to visit. It was actually about to be opened to the public the following (ie, this) week.

Still though, I was able to take a stroll (one thing I have learned is that no-one in Thailand tries to stop you from wandering through construction sites!) and into the adjacent small alley, which I discovered to be covered in great street art from many of the city’s “big names” (Lolay, Alexface etc). Here, hot and bothered tourists were being hustled into tuktuks, exposing me to a crisis of divided loyalties – should I say something? In the end though, the stupidity of the tourist’s overheard questions lead me to the conclusion that they deserved to be ripped off…