| While the main action was taking place on the tortuous 3.7 kilometre long street circuit, the party action at the Bangsaen Thailand Speed Festival 2009 was in full swing at the Activity Zone located behind the grandstands opposite the winners rostrum, a relatively narrow strip of promenade backing onto the sea where the sponsors and trade firms were pushing their angle. Toyota had the biggest gig, topped by a line-up of heavily customised cars. While one of the drawbacks of the circuit is that the key function locations, such as the pits/paddock, start/finish line, rostrum, media centre, etc, are all split away from each other, a problem that always faces a street circuit, the location of the Activity Zone on the cape was quite an idyllic setting. While sections of this coastline, such as Pattaya, has lost any charm in the relentless building of hotels and apartment blocks and the consequent sewage discharges, Bangsaen remains pretty much unspolit both on land and in the sparkling blue waters, although the vast beachfront is simply ripe for development, so one assumes that planning applications are swatted away with gusto. Apart from the new, upmarket The Tide Resort which has been pretty tastefully integrated into the landscape there are just a small handful of high rise apartments that are quite scattered so Bangsaen retains the air of a traditional, sleepy fishing village: ancient wooden boats with peeling paint and piled high with tattered nets bob at their moorings ... |
