Chiang Rai could use a riverside park

Similarly, all mid-sized cities in Thailand that I’ve visited have little bits of green space with a few trees, but none have real parks. The problem, in Thailand, goes all the way down to village level. 

Even if a park is designated in Thailand, it is essentially required to be devoted to either the Sangha or royalty, with obligatory cement shrines, platforms and walls throughout. How about some large parks dominated by grass and trees, with a few walking/jogging paths curving through?  

One example: in Chiang Rai, there’s a soaring limestone hill alongside the river. It has caves and is 2.5 kilometres in circumference – an ideal spot for a park. All it needs is some sort of official “park” designation and some TLC, but local officials aren’t concerned. They seem to only think of it in terms of revenue, if they think of it at all. So once a year, a few Songkran bamboo-and-thatch shacks are set up and rented out, and piles of garbage are left behind. With a small investment in constructing a trail, hundreds of folks could jog and bicycle there each week, and enjoy nature. Thailand doesn’t need more concrete and metal shrines, but instead could benefit from nurturing and showcasing its natural bounty.

Incidentally, a walkway in Bangkok was recently estimated to cost Bt1.65 million per metre. As a comparison, a masonry trail in a rural Thai park might cost Bt1,400 per metre. So, we could build over a kilometre of trail in rural Thailand for the cost of one metre in Bangkok.

Ken Albertsen

Chiang Rai