A Place of Memory

By Narathip Pijitrklar-iam

The morning winter wind blows the leaves along Ratchadapisek Road. They all move smoothly together as if they want to guide people’s eyes to their destinations. The greenish ones try to move their branches with them. While the yellow ones release themselves, and let the wind guide them to fall on the ground, a ground which is covered by grass and people standing and walking on it. There is a very large pool surrounded by walk path, a playground, an exercise area, and various kinds of plants and trees, with skyscrapers in the background. These are beautiful architectures that combine natural beauty with man-made one. Therefore, this park can be considered as the new lungs for people in Bangkok, and it is called “Benjakiti Park”.

Those who would like to escape from traffic jams in Bangkok's centre can find relief in the Benjakiti Park.

The Benjakiti Park was built with the concept of renovating the ex-Tobacco monopoly’s 130-rai (about 208 square kilometers) land. It was used to represent the celebration of the Queen’s 5th Anniversary.

A morning that has been a bit busy finally moves to the afternoon. All people’s noises are hidden by birds’ voices, and sounds of leaves and tides. It sounds like a natural orchestra.

The sun moves a bit lower toward the west; most of the morning atmosphere is coming back. At the front gate, there is a group of college students coming through. Rasikorn Attapol, 20, selects herself as the group representative. She always comes to this park with her friends for relaxing and reading. “The boys here are so cute!” Rasikorn said humorously, “but actually I come here because of the fresh air, the overall atmosphere, and it’s not too far for us.”

While talking with the students, loud dance music is turned on in the background. Many women are exercising according to the rhythm. They are all led by a man who is enthusiastically dancing in front, turning his face against them.

After observing their dancing styles for a while, the students choose to sit on the ground. Janpen Panna, a kind middle-aged woman, is one of the dancers. “It’s really good. I come dancing here every single day, because I’d like to meet many people”, Janpen says friendly while she is wiping her chubby face.
Next to the exercise area is a section called “International Garden”. Having a look inside makes its meaning more understandable. There are various styles of gardening here, European, Japanese, or even Singaporean. Some noise of children cheerfully laughing from the distance can be heard. That is the location of a playground. A group of children between four and seven years of age are joyfully running, jumping, and climbing. They are all looked after by their parents who are sitting around this playground. Apisit Jantrapart is one of them. The very tall father, who brings his two sons here, wants his kids to play, to exercise, to relax, and to live in his nature like the others.

Not too far from the playground, a couple of foreigners are chatting while slowly walking.
Looks like they just had some jogging around the park a moment ago. Alexandre Williams, a French man discloses with his unique accent. He likes to come jogging here with his wife due to the fresh air here. “Tee nee suay mak mak,” added Alexandre with his amazingly clear Thai accent.

Looking to the opposite side of the pool, there is a woman sitting on a waterside bench. She absent-mindedly stares at a group of fish that is seizing some bread that she had been throwing. Menisa Pakdee, 22, sadly discloses that she broke up with her boyfriend a few days ago. She likes this park due to many good memories she had here. “It’s my place of memory,” Menisa said with gentle voice, quieter than the tides in front.

One full day at the park almost turns to its end – a day of seeing people, talking with them, learning more about their lives. Everyone concentrates on one’s activity, until 6 pm. The national anthem is being played through the speakers around the park, and everyone stands up together. This is hardly seen nowadays.

The sun almost sets, and the grass is completely coated like a golden land. The winter wind blows again, maybe now as a sign for time to go home. It’s also time to turn back to memorize everything before starting to walk out with good memory at Benjakiti Park, a place of everyone’s memory.

Copyright © Narathip Pijitrklar-iam