Suan Luang or Royal Park, becomes Suan Siang, Noise Park

Suan Luang, or Royal Park has become Suan Siang, Noise Park. A majestic park of 80 hectares on the outskirts of Bangkok, it is visited by 10,000 to 25,000 visitors on weekdays. A park of great variety and beauty it is under the administration of the Department of Social Welfare. But as has happened to other parks under city administration, at a certain stage of development of the park where a policy of maintenance would have been best, allowing nature to mature naturally, a manic and irresponsible change in policy has occurred. Loudspeakers have been installed everywhere in the park, at about thirty meter intervals and all sense of peace banished from this onetime haven of quiet. Inane radio programmes swamp the sound of leaves swaying in the breeze and birds are frightened away.

The noise we hoped to avoid follows us to this one time refuge. Park employees enter into the spirit of things and leave the doors of pick up trucks open while powerful audio systems further spew out conflicting sources of noise. Attendants in sales kiosks and toilets play radios at full blast; is this the policy of the park or is it their private initiative? It seems that all policy of restricting the circulation of motor traffic is abandoned as young people ride in threes on noisy motor cycles around the once quiet paths. When I asked one of the park attendants he admitted the changes but could not explain why they were occurring.

It was a park where children could learn about nature and quiet beauty. Now they will learn that relaxation and "fun" must be accompanied by noise.

Do the Directors of the park know anything about park administration? Are they aware that noise increases tension and blood pressure? Do they not know that parks are administered with great attention to noise levels and the limitation of noise sources?

It will only get worse as more noise will call for louder "entertainment".