Queen Sirikit National Conventional Centre & The Park

We’re off to have a look at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre (QSNCC) today.

We saw this building last year when we went to visit Benjakitti Park, and we were going to go inside, but we felt a little intimidated that we shouldn’t, so we didn’t go in. That was a BIG mistake on our part. This time around, we DID go inside and oh boy, were we glad that we did. It’s a massive centre and has so much more than we expected. I think in our heads, because it is a convention centre, we expected it to be sort of similar to that of the SECC. Think again. The SECC doesn’t come anywhere close to this place.

The Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre was originally built by the Royal Thai Government to host a World Bank/IMF Annual Conference in 1991, and to serve as Thailand's professional and innovative guest lounge for both local and international visitors.

It was named after Her Majesty Queen Sirikit in honour of her 60th birthday. The centre reflects Thai culture in its architecture and design. More than 1500 pieces of Thai art are inside the centre. The inward-sloping exterior walls are traditional Thai architectural forms, and the building is pretty unique when viewed from its exterior.

It is a versatile venue with a total space of 300,000 square meters offering 8 exhibition halls, 4 conference halls, 4 plenary halls, 50 meeting rooms and a retail area. Boasting world-class facilities and technology, it can accommodate any event from a live concert to a global summit.

The place is amazing. There did not appear to be any big events on during the time of our visit, so I don’t know if the place is usually as quiet as it was when we were there or not. That said, there were plenty of people around. The staff are excellent, and security is at all entry points. The number of shops and restaurants was awesome – I mean, there was so much choice, and there was a large food court on the lower level. There was even a place where you could have a shower!

We walked all over the centre and admired the artwork all around. This location also has an Arabica coffee shop outside of it, and the percentage sign is actually a functioning see-saw, so you can imagine that it is popular with the Instagram and other social media folks. We had lunch in the food court, and I had a delicious spicy carbonara, though I cannot remember what R got!

After lunch, we left the centre and walked to The ParQ, which was practically next door. The ParQ is like a lot of the new buildings around Bangkok these days, in that it is a big complex which embraces work, living and play. It’s an integrated building with both office space, retail space and services. There is a lot of emphasis on well-being and health, too.  I especially liked their motivational quotes on the walkways.

After walking around this location for a little while, we headed back into QSNCC for a rest and drink from a lovely little place that sold the most amazing condensed milk toast snack. Then we decided to do a walk around Benjakitti Park. This park is one of our favourite places in Bangkok as it’s just so lovely and peaceful. It also has the most amazing backdrop and is an oasis in the metropolis of Bangkok.

Once we had covered a circuit, his nibs was getting a little bit hungry again, so we headed back into the QSNCC (they must have been sick of us by this time, even if we were going in and out via different exits!). Note: on one of these trips, we connected via a metro mall area, and there were lots of little shops and sellers, including a barber who was doing haircuts for 200 baht (less than £4), what a bargain! I wasn’t hungry at this point as the toast snack and delicious iced coconut coffee that I got had filled me up, but R got a garlic pork and rice dish at the food court, which he said was delicious.

Once he had finished, we made our way back to the apartment on foot, going through Benjakitti Park once again. I think we covered almost 20k today.

You can see a bit more about both the QSNCC and The ParQ in the following YouTube videos:

Today's route:

Day 44: 7 January 2026

Bangkok, Thailand