Noooo - It's our last full day in Thailand

Today is our last full day in beautiful, lovely Bangkok, Thailand, as tomorrow, we leave to visit another country that is on our ‘travel list’.

Today, we decided to take it easy as we prepare to leave once again. After breakfast, we make our way to a large park nearby that we have spotted on the map. That is often our usual way of planning and finding things to do; we look at the map area and see what is located near us. This park looks quite large, and although it is about a 40-minute walk from our hotel, we are fine with that.

We walked through the Seacon Square mall to get to the BTS area and then walked past the Paradise Park mall area. We passed some very large and amazing-looking houses on our way to the park. These looked like private residences, so I’m sure they must be owned by some very wealthy and/or influential people, given their grandeur.

The Suan Luang Rama IX Park, also referred to as (King) Rama IX Park, is a public park in the Prawet District of Bangkok. It covers an area of 200 acres and is the largest park in the city.[1]

The park was built to celebrate King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s sixtieth birthday in 1987 and was opened by the King on 1 December that year. It features extensive botanical gardens, a lake, and a pavilion housing exhibits in honour of the King.

Well, it was quite a huge and very pretty park. It was so quiet as we entered the park that we were not even sure we were allowed to. However, a security guard directed us to some ladies, and we paid 20 baht each to enter. Initially, it did not seem very impressive, but once we got into it properly, it sort of opened up, and you could see how amazing it was.

I think we spent about 4 hours here, although there are areas where we didn’t even get near – it is just so big. We did a circuit around the main lake area, pulling off in certain directions to see certain additional features. Every so often, we would have a rest and a drink. We spoke to a lovely Norwegian gentleman in the ‘cactus house’ who told us how he comes to this area of Bangkok for 3 months every year and that he loves this park, as he always finds new places and things to admire in it. He also told us how cold Norway is at this time of the year (-10°C to -20°C or colder!), so we could fully understand why he visits Bangkok every year. We felt a bit wimpy complaining about our Scottish weather with him!

After walking around the main lake, we returned to a café area that we had seen at the start of the lake walk and had our late lunch/early dinner there overlooking the lake. It was a really lovely way to end our time in Bangkok, and the food was delicious too! It was an S&P café, but this must be the best one because of the location.

After we’d eaten, we made our way back to the hotel to finish our packing, ready for our early morning departure to the airport.

Today's route:

Day 49: 12 January 2026

Bangkok, Thailand