One of the things that’s most astonishing about Bangkok is how quickly it changes: new buildings seem to sprout up like mushrooms at night. It’s nice to be in a city so dynamic, though often the changes seem rather poorly thought out: new buildings tend to be ugly condos or unnecessary malls. The sole criterion for permission to build would appear to be having money; and while Bangkok is a very densely populated city, it’s easy to kick out residents if they’re in the way of your plans.

So it wasn’t entirely a surprise when it was announced that the Pak Khlong Talat flower market near Saphan Phut (previously) was going to be closed at the end of March; developers have belatedly realized that riverfront property might be where it’s at. A little bit further up the river the malodorous shrimp paste market near Wat Pho was kicked out last year; the fish market up the street from us is living on borrowed time. It’s hard to tell what’s actually going to happen at the flower market: the city would like vendors to move to other areas, including a sanitized and undervisited new mall along the river.

The market does most of its business in the night, as there’s an enormous demand for fresh flowers in Bangkok. But plenty of vendors were still there this morning:

It’s not all flowers. There are a fair number of fruits and vegetables on sale:

Here are some flowers: