Change of Running Location

You may be asking yourself, “what does that picture have to do with Lumpini Park in Bangkok?”  Well, it has everything to do with jogging in Lumpini Park in Bangkok!  It is from a scene in the Thai action movie Tom Yum Goon with Tony Jaa fighting the monstrous Aussie Nathan Jones.  You may remember Nathan Jones from playing the giant soldier Brad Pitt slayed as Achilles at the beginning of the movie Troy.

The guy is 6’10″ and weighs 350 pounds of all muscle.  He is a former World’s Strongest Man contestant, Pride fighter and WWE wrestler.  What does this have to do with running in Lumpini park?  Well, according to his wikipedia entry Jones was the victim of a hit & run accident while jogging down the streets of Bangkok which severely injured his arm.

I figure if this incredible hulk of a human being can be injured by a driver I would have been killed instantly and I don’t really feel like instant death via tuk tuk.  I have gotten quite bored running the same route past the sewage smelling canal through the polluted, highly trafficked and crowded streets to the gym for some boring elliptical machine cardio anyways.  Today was my cardio only day so I decided that I would go to Lumpini Park to run.

Getting to Lumpini Park

Since I knew Lumpini Park was right next to the Sala Daeng (Si Lom MRT) BTS stop which is 4 stops (including a transfer) from my closest BTS (Phloen Chit). I always feel like a jerk taking a taxi / subway to go workout instead of jogging but I didn’t want to get lost.

I got in the crowded Saturday skytrain and was crossing the busy street to get to Lumpini park in about 20 minutes from when I left.  According to my GPS it was 2.2 miles from Lumpini Park to my apartment.

Running in the Park

Running was interesting because the park has a one lane cement path which is about 10 yards wide for running or walking around the park.  I was there on a Saturday afternoon so there was probably more people than there would be on a weekday but they posed no problem as I jogged at a fast pace. I was weaving in and out avoiding slower joggers and walkers.  I ended up running what I thought were mile intervals.

I used my Garmin Forerunner 405 GPS to monitor my running and I got suspicious results.  It said my mile time was around 5 minutes which I thought was too good to be true and it was.  I had the Forerunner set on metric measurements so everything was not what I though it was.  The whole path around the park which surrounds the lake is a little over a kilometer long.

What Else is in the Park?

If you’re not from San Francisco you may be surprised that there are American bison in Golden Gate Park.  When I went to Central Park in New York for the first time I had no idea there was a whole zoo in it.  I wasn’t thinking about any of this when I was in Lumpini park but I soon found out that there are some truly organic surprises which await any park visitor as well as some man-made attractions.

As I was runing around I noticed lots of exercise equipment including crude exercise bikes, pull-up bars, dips bars, swings and even a full gym with equipment which was probably from the 1940s.  There was a large and surprisingly clean bathroom as well.  I will head back soon with my AWESOME Canon HG10 camcorder/camera to take some pictures and videos.

Not your Average Park

To take a break from running and stretch with this old man who was probably 80 I headed to a bridge.  I bought a bag of fish food for 10 baht from this little girl after I saw the many people in peddle boats feeding the fish.  It was pretty amazing the amount of fish in the lake.  When you throw a handful of pellets or bread in the water, you can see hundreds of large catfish piling on the top of the water.

I would estimate there would have to be literally millions of fish in that lake unless the bridge was where they congregated for their usual feedings. During the whole time at the park I didn’t notice any ducks in the lake or any dogs in the park and I soon found out why.

In the depths of the water are GIANT lizards.  Water monitor lizards which are several feet long live in the water and come out periodically.  The Thai people completely ignore these modern day dinosaurs which come out of the lake and lackadaisically walk around the shore. From what I researched these lizards are harmless and many people keep them as pets in other parts of the world.  The picture (below) I found online from the Bangkok Post but I will head down to Lumpini park to get some better pictures with my Canon HG10.

Also See:  Lumpini Park Gym Workouts