BANGKOK -- Canny taxi drivers had always known a way to avoid the tailback that afflicts Bangkok's worst junction, at Soi Asoke on the city's famous Sukhumvit Road, by turning left into the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center car park. The turn brought them into an immense estate of green lawns, flame trees and stately old buildings before emerging through a small gateway into the top end of Sukhumvit.
