Queen Sirikit Park in the Chatuchak district was developed on a former royal racecourse and follows the formal French garden tradition: geometric hedgerows, circular planting beds, symmetrical paths, a long central axis terminating at a reflecting pool. The design is deliberate and composed in a way unusual for urban parks in Southeast Asian cities, which tend toward the informal. In the early morning — before the heat consolidates — the formality of the garden has a quality similar to its European sources: ordered, silent, the clipped hedges casting precise shadows on the gravel. The park's edges give onto the Chatuchak market district, which makes the transition from formal garden to Bangkok's most energetic weekend market the morning's natural second act.
Chatuchak, Bangkok, Thailand