"Ghost Tower" haunts Bangkok 20 years after financial crisis
BANGKOK (AP) — The 49-story Bangkok high-rise was supposed to feature luxury condos for hundreds of newly affluent Thai families, but it was abandoned unfinished when the Asian financial crisis struck in 1997.
[...] called the "Ghost Tower," it's a monument to mistakes made and an object of curiosity to a steady stream of visitors.
"Sathorn Unique," named after the up-and-coming neighborhood next to the Chao Phraya river it towers over, draws dozens of foreigners daily who come to gawk at the decrepit, stained concrete edifice.
A yellowing poster of Thailand's late king, clad in royal regalia, is plastered above ashes of spent incense and opened bottles of fruity Red Fanta — the ghosts' favorite drink, according to watchman Suwaschai Dadaelor.
Investors rushed to pull their money out as quickly as they could, setting off a regional financial crisis.
In the Ghost Tower's heyday, hundreds of tourists flocked daily to the urban ruin, paying a 200-baht ($6) bribe to stumble over piles of bricks and bags of cement to stage photo and You Tube shoots and hold boozy parties on the rooftop.
In April 2015, two 20-something parkour runners posted videos of themselves on YouTube ducking and weaving through the building, somersaulting off columns and dangling off balconies.
A Thai-Taiwanese couple stopped by to take selfies in an elevator shaft, and found other faces in the photos, Suwaschai said, pointing insistently to shadowy figures in a picture's background.