Photo: Jesse Rockwell
The building formerly known as the New World Shopping Mall in central Bangkok has had a troubled history since it first opened in the 1980s. The illegal construction work that led to its 1997 closure was then followed by a fire‚ a fatal accident during a partial demolition‚ and the dismantling of several of the building’s storeys – drama enough for any site. And then came the mosquitoes.
Rather unsurprisingly‚ a roofless abandoned mall in a climate as humid as Bangkok’s quickly turned into a something of a new world for an infestation of winged pests. Around 2‚000 local traders reasoned that introducing koi carp and catfish into the stagnant rainwater lake now filling the lower floors of the building might curb the problem. And so then came the fish. Thousands of them. Some fifteen years on‚ the Piscean residents seemingly brought more visitors to the mall than its shopping outlets ever did – so many that earlier this month local authorities fenced off the site and began the process of rehoming the underwater populace in an attempt to stop the growing number of urban explorers wanting a view into the fish bowl. p (fs)
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