07/04/2026
A walk down memory lane.
We just returned from a weekend in Bangkok. My wife had an event she wanted to attend, and I wanted to stay in the area where I had lived, worked, and played for decades. So we booked a few days at the Erawan Hotel.
On the way to meet a young YouTuber and his girlfriend, we unexpectedly ran into a health club friend we have known for thirty years but hadn’t seen in at least fifteen years. That kind of encounter sets a tone. You cannot plan it, but it stays with you. It put me in the perfect frame of mind to meet someone new.
Later that afternoon we found time for the sauna, whirlpool bath, and cold plunge before heading out again with my wife’s friends for an evening that stretched well past my usual bedtime.
The next morning brought a pleasant surprise. At breakfast, the restaurant manager recognized us. It had been nearly twenty years since we were regulars, but she remembered and went out of her way to make us feel welcome. Moments like that remind you how small the world can be.
Walking through Central Mall, we bumped into the YouTuber again, and later crossed paths with a couple from Chiang Rai. We go to the same gym but had somehow never been introduced. It took running into each other in Bangkok to finally say hello, and it turned into a genuinely enjoyable conversation.
That evening was the main event for my wife, a meet and greet and dance class that ran for three and a half hours. I spent the time filming her and ended up in a long conversation with the only other partner there supporting his girlfriend. He was a personal trainer, and we passed the time talking about everything from training to recovery to aging. I was surprised how quickly the hours disappeared.
The following day we slowed things down. A relaxed breakfast, a gym session, and some rest before heading to Lumpini Park, where an open air dance gathering was in full swing. The energy was contagious, people of all ages moving together. While my wife joined in, I stayed on the edge, finding angles to capture it on video.
The walk back to the hotel became something more, a quiet walk through memory. So many landmarks were gone, replaced by glass and steel. We wondered if we could still find the old AUA building, where I first taught English in the 1970s, and where my wife studied not long after we met.
We almost missed it.
What first caught our attention was an unusual brick structure standing apart from the surrounding modern buildings. Only then did we realize it was AUA, rebuilt. The building was closed, but we managed to step inside briefly and take a few photos.
Further along, we stopped at the hotel where I once worked, where I spent more hours than I can count, working, socializing, and living a very different version of my life. It has changed, as everything has, but the memories are still there.
Bangkok has transformed beyond recognition in many ways. In the 1970s there were only a handful of tall buildings. Now there are thousands. And yet, in the middle of all that change, it is still possible to find places that feel like home.
I am not going to list everywhere we went or everything we saw. That is not really the point.
What stayed with me was the strange feeling of moving between two different worlds at the same time. The Bangkok of today, full of glass towers and endless energy, and the Bangkok I first knew, where so much of my life began.
So much has changed, and yet something important has not. Walking those streets, I am reminded not just of the city, but of who I was when I first arrived, and everything that followed.
That is the Bangkok I see now.
