Lumphini Park and Manahakon

Bangkok, Day 28

Today we made our way to Lumpini Park, which is a 25-minute walk from the apartment. On our way there, a nice Thai lady who recognised us as tourists informed us that the building we were looking at was a bank and asked us where we were going. We explained we were just walking around and she told us she was a Police Officer and would be working in Lumpini Park, but it would be better to come there later in the afternoon as stalls would all be set up then for the current festivities. She suggested we go on the canal boat instead. We thanked her, but because we had experienced some nice helpful people previously, we decided to just go with our original plan for the day, so we headed into the Park.

Lumphini Park

Lumphini Park is a 142-acre park in Bangkok, Thailand. The park offers open public space, trees and playgrounds in the capital and contains an artificial lake where visitors can rent boats. Paths around the park totalling approximately 2.5 km in length are a popular area for morning and evening joggers. It is regarded as the first public park in Bangkok and Thailand.

17 Dec 2024

The land was originally the private property of King Rama VI, and in 1925, the king donated the land to the nation to be used as a fairground. The Siamrat Phiphitthaphan Trade Fair was held here to promote Thai commodities and industrial productions among Thais and foreigners. After the fair, the king envisioned for the land to be converted into a public park, and it was given the name Lumphini.

In World War II the park was a Japanese Army camp. At the entrance in front of the park, the royal monument of the king was built for his memorial, inside the park, there is a clock tower of Chinese styled structure built in 1925, a public library which was the first one in the country, a public aquarium, children's play ground, sporting ground, and large swimming pool. It is a public park full of varieties of plants and suitable for recreational use.

Today, the park lies in the heart of the main business district and is in the Lumphini sub-district, on the north side of Rama IV Road, between Ratchadamri Road and Witthayu Road.

In addition, it is also connected to another public park, Benjakitti Park in Khlong Toei District, using a 1.3 km elevated pedestrian walkway and bicycle lane at the corner of Sarasin Intersection, where Witthayu Road cuts Sarasin Road.

There were indeed lots and lots of stalls and event tents in the process of getting set up when we entered the park and it sort of spoiled the area in our opinion but we understand that there are few outdoor spaces like this that are big enough to be used for free (?) events for the public.

We had heard about the famous big cousin of Goliath the Gecko and they are not kidding when they say there are a lot of monitor lizards in the park. These prehistoric looking lizards are quite scary looking as they swim and walk through the park areas and you need to be on the lookout as they are stealth movers with their camouflage colourings.

We hadn't planned on sticking around for too long, so we had a good walk around the area before making our way to our next key stop.

Sala Daeng BTS & Silom Complex

On our way to see the King Power Mahanakhon building, we stopped off at the Silom Complex shopping mall, which is right beside the Sala Daeng BTS station. The shopping mall had some much-appreciated air cooling, and it was not too big like some of the ones beside the Sukhumvit line. We had a quick look around in here, but as it was lunchtime by this time, it was quite busy with the office lunch crowd, so we decided to pass on eating here and have a later lunch. A quick refreshment stop, and we were on the move again, passing some really interesting little streets selling all varieties of fruits and vegetables.

King Power Mahanakhon

Finally, we had arrived at the King Power Mahanakhon, a mixed-use skyscraper in the Silom/Sathon central business district of Bangkok, which was opened in December 2016. It features the unconventional appearance of a glass curtain-walled square tower with a cuboid-surfaced helix cut into the side of the building. With 77 floors, it was recognised as the tallest building in Thailand on 4 May 2016. Featuring a hotel, retail and residences, 200 units of The Ritz-Carlton Residences. It is one of the most expensive condominiums in Bangkok.

The building was purchased by the King Power group in April 2018, resulting in the name change from MahaNakhon to King Power Mahanakhon.

It is now a key tourist attraction in Bangkok with the sky walk, sky rides, sky beach bar and spectacular 306° views from the top of the building. A ticket for the sunset visit costs about £25 and given that R is 'feart of heights' and can barely walk on some of the walkways to the station and road crossovers because he can see through the railings rolls eyes which he deems are also too low for anyone over 5 foot, there was little point in us wasting money to go up on this. You can see many people walking on the glass walkway from below.

After a look around this area, taking our quota of photos, we then headed back to TOPS and had a very nice late lunch with some delicious ice creams for afters.

Then it was back to the apartment to be greeted by a Starving Marvin cat - he wasn't really, but Neko is a bit of a drama queen because of the diet situation, and I can sympathise with him on that front.

And so ends another busy but enjoyable day and after a shower, change and rest, it was back to some more mundane travel duties of doing a washing, catching up on admin tasks and preparing some future plans and tasks.

Bangkok, Thailand