Suan Luang Rama 9 Park
Bangkok is a city not often associated with outdoor space and the truth is it scores badly for green areas for the population compared to other cities, particualrly in Europe and the US. This can be off-putting for retirees and makes them immediately dismiss Bangkok as a retirement destination.
However, there is more park space than initially meets the eye. Bangkok has no less than a dozen decent sized parks. Some of them like Benjasiri Park are quite centrally located (next to Emporium Mall on Sukhumvit Soi 24) or Lumpini Park (near the business district of Silom). But no doubt the gem of Bangkok’s parks has to be Suan Luang Rama 9 Park and it requires a short ride out of the city but it is well worth it!
The park is 15 kms from the center of Bangkok but the sprawl means you never feel you are out of the city. A ride on the BTS Skytrain to Udom Suk and then a short cab ride will get you to over 200 acres of beautiful parklands.
This is a world class park to rival Hyde Park in London or Central Park in New York. Suan Luang Rama 9 is the largest park in Bangkok but cannot compete in size with Chapultepec Park in Mexico city at 10x its size for example or any other very large urban park but it can compare in quality. Every inch of Suan Luang Rama 9 is carefully looked after which is more than can be said for many other parks.
Also, what makes this park truly a delight to visit is the laid back atmosphere. There are no signs saying not to walk on the grass and no hoards of tourists. The park opens in the morning at 5am and locals use it to exercise. In the afternoon it is filled with picnicking couples and families but still very few tourists. It will cost you a few Thai bath to get in but 30c US is a small price to pay for this beauty.
The park was built in 1987 to celebrate Thailand’s King Bhumibol’s 60th birthday and features small gardens in international style – ie. Chinese, Italian, Japanese and even English. There is a botanical garden and a spectacular domed building (looking like it got lost from an episode of Star Wars) as well as perfect Thai style architecture dotted around on land and the many lily pond lakes.
There are cycle ways, a miniature train and even hoards of hungry fish to feed!
Suan Luang Rama 9 is such a wonderful oasis, you might want to take advantage of the excellent local connectivity by road and sky-train and base your retirement in the very affordable and safe local housing developments. For those looking to rent, a huge room overlooking the park would cost only $300 a month at the time of writing. We think this is a gem of a location not to be missed, especialy when you consider central Bangkok is a 30 min sky train ride away, the huge Suvarnabumhi Airport is only 15 minutes away and the beach around 30 minutes along the coast to Pattaya…
Getting There:the only way to go there if you don\'t want take public bus it\'s taxi
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Address: Soi Mu Ban Seri Villa Khrongkan 2, |
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