'Ghost Tower' haunts city 20 years after crisis

BANGKOK - The 49-story Bangkok high-rise was supposed to feature luxury condos for hundreds of affluent Thai families, but it was abandoned unfinished when the Asian financial crisis struck in 1997.

Now 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. It's a home not to Thai yuppies, but to bats, birds, weeds, trees and a black-and-white spotted cat, seen prowling one afternoon on a seventh-floor balcony.

In the booming 1990s, Bangkok's skyline was studded with construction cranes.

Architect and property developer Rangsan Torsuwan was flush with cash from selling ornate, high-rise condos along the beach in Pattaya. He drew up blueprints, cleared the land and made millions of dollars preselling the condos.

Then came what Thais call the "Tom Yum Goong" crash referring to the famous local sour and spicy soup. It started in Thailand when the government unexpectedly devalued the baht. Investors rushed to pull their money out as quickly as they could, setting off a regional financial crisis.

About 500 big construction projects from shopping malls to elevated railways came to a screeching halt. Some later resumed, but not this one.

In the Ghost Tower's heyday, hundreds of tourists flocked daily to the urban ruin, stumbling over piles of bricks and bags of cement to stage photo and YouTube shoots and hold boozy parties on the rooftop.

"The photos look so dope," said Sorcha O'Malley, a tourist from Ireland spotted one afternoon snapping pictures from a side alley. "I really want a photo up there, you know?"

For Rangsan's son Pansit, who now is in charge of the building, that was the last straw. "I only feel worry," he said. "This is not a complete construction, and it's very dangerous to let people to go up there."