A result is that since the crash, Muang Thong Thani has everything but inhabitants. Bond Street is a mile-and-a-quarter strip of modern, window-lined buildings, but aside from a handful of colorful storefronts -- a bank, a restaurant, a pharmacy and a few others -- they are empty.
In the pharmacy at 11 Bond Street, Pornsawan Rakthanyakarn is fighting the ghostliness. A big Thai woman with a bouffant hair style, a brown flowered print dress and a diamond ring as large as her knuckle, she sits by the cash register, waiting for customers to come in and buy her Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion and Pond's Cold Cream.
Mrs. Pornsawan, a jeweler who hit it rich during Thailand's boom, heard about Muang Thong Thani on the grapevine. She inquired from the official sales agent and was told demand was so strong that she would have to pay a $27,000 surcharge per parcel of land.
That convinced her, and she ended up paying nearly $500,000 for a house and for the building that includes her shop.