Paradise Park, Nakhon Sawan

Paradise Park is a large public park in the centre of Nakhon Sawan in Northern Region of Thailand. As public parks go this park is great and it plays an important part in the life of people living in the town. 

Paradise Park is a gated park with lots of different entrances which is open every day from 07:00 to 18:00. Drinking alcohol and smoking are both prohibited within the park. There are, however, lots of bars and restaurant around the outside of the park and in the evenings this area is the liveliest part of Nakhon Sawan.

About Paradise Park

Paradise Park is approximately 1.3 km long and 500 metres at its widest point. The park is shaped like a letter ‘P’ with most of the centre of the park taken up with a man made lake. Paradise Park occupies an area which used to be a swamp called Nong Somboon and you will sometimes hear local people referring to the park by the name of the swamp that used to be there.

Around the edge of the lake in Paradise Park there is a long running track which is well used early in the morning and late in the afternoon by local residents. From the number of people you see running around the park the levels of fitness amongst the local population must be very good. It looks as though a significant proportion of the town’s resident go to the running track at some point in the day.

At the eastern end of Paradise Park there is a large lakeside area with free to use gym equipment. Like the running track, the gym equipment is well used early in the morning and late in the afternoon particularly by older men who were exercising in groups when we visited. To the west of the gym area there is small pagoda style building and large concreted area which is used for dancing and aerobics.

At the northern tip of Paradise Park there is a flood lit skate park, indicating that this part of the park is open later in the evening. When we went two children on roller blades had the massive skate to themselves.

To the south of Paradise Park is a large area given over the game of Woodball. Woodball emerged as a new sport in Taiwan in 1990 and is popular in Asia but hasn’t really caught on elsewhere. The game of Woodball involves hitting a ball through a gate using a wooden mallet, like a croquet mallet but swung in the same way as a golf club leading the game often be described as a cross between croquet and golf.

In the centre of Paradise Park is a large island accessible by two bridges, one to the south and another to the north.

The island in Paradise Park has the remnants of a bizarre plastic rock face which is the backdrop to a stage. Neither looks like they have used in many years and this part of the park clearly hasn’t worked and now lays derelict waiting for someone to redevelop the area.

Location of Paradise Park

• Paradise Park is located 7.9 km by road from Nakhon Sawan Railway Station.