Bangkok: Lumphini Park

Lumphini Lake offers beautiful reflections of the buildings

A short walk from our hotel is Lumphini Park, the Thai version of New York's Central Park, but much smaller, though a nice respite from the chaos of Bangkok traffic.

Apparently there aren't many public spaces in the city, which makes Lumphini Park a special one particularly for locals. We did walk there around noon so there were mostly tourists wandering around by foot or old school bicycles, or the odd local or expat doing their regular runs or cycling.

A komodo dragon wandering around the park

This piece of land was formerly owned by King Rama VI, and in 1925 he donated the land to be used as a fair ground. After this use it was turned into a public park, and at the entrance is a statue of him. Lumphini is named after Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha in Nepal. 

The park itself is a bit run down, paint on benches worn down, playgrounds looking a bit tired. There are giant yellow duck paddle boats one can power with your legs in Lumphini Lake. The staff manning these metal birds were having lunch and chatting.

Speaking of birds we saw many pigeons and ravens (crows), though there were many signs telling people in Thai and English not to feed them. But perhaps the most interesting animal we saw were komodo dragons! These lizards weren't huge, but they wandered around on the grass and in the water; they didn't seem to mind being around humans, or of them taking pictures.

A Chinese clock tower built in 1925

There was also a Chinese-style clock tower that was built in 1925 but sadly didn't have the correct time, and there seemed to be various construction sites in the park that were far from completion. Nevertheless the views are nice, with top office buildings, hotels and consulates surrounding the park.

 

We walked around the whole circumference (actually two half circles), which totalled over 5km and in the midday heat it was good (and hot) exercise!