Back in September of 2023, I wrote about a new city park called Benjakitti. This park was built on the state owned Tobacco Authority of Thailand property. The tobacco lands not only included a huge factory but also office buildings and even a small hospital. While the Tobacco authority still exists, a huge tranche of its lands in what is essentially downtown Bangkok has now become an incredible park.
As an aside, this property has great significance to me as well as to the wellbeing of people living in Bangkok. (A place that built cancer causing devices has been turned into a place of carbon capture and wellness.)
Back in the early 80’s, one of my partners, a civil engineer, and I were asked to come to Bangkok to investigate two issues, one was the master planning of a new airport, which later became the new international airport in Bangkok and also to look at the feasibility of building a tower on the tobacco lands that could be something like the CN Tower that had opened to much fanfare in the middle to late 70’s. The airport was finally built, but not by us. The tower was not financially feasible because of poor soil conditions. (The technology to overcome the soils issues did not exist in the 80’s but do now.)
It would seem that our visit was a waste as we did not get an airport or tower project.. But it wasn’t, as it was on that visit that I met the family with which, almost 40 years later, I am still involved. That trip turned out to be very worthwhile for me but not so much for my company.
The other coincidence was that those tobacco lands that we suggested would be a very poor place for a huge tower, turned out to be a wonderful place for an incredible urban park. And wow, what a lovely place it is, just steps from downtown Bangkok (slide #5) and huge enough to feel like you’re in the country. The last time I wrote about this park, it was not quite finished being built. But now it is. It’s incredibly important to Bangkok that has too little green space given its huge population and it has a huge significance to me because where it stands is where my journey in Bangkok and the start of this blog all got started.
If you’re interested in a short 5-minute tour of the park, check out the following video. It really is a lovely place to be.
As you once told me long ago, Thais have a wonderful way of working things out!
A city as large as Bangkok needs the respite of such an oasis
Must visit next time i am in Thailand
The park is absolutely worth visiting when you’re next in Bangkok. I’s particularly refreshing after some time spent in the chaos that is Bangkok.