Jumped on the scooter for a trip down the main road to Nongnooch Tropical Garden. Nick had been before as part of an overseas work trip outing but I had no idea what to expect…the place is vast and a bit quirky. In fact it purports to be one of the top ten in the world’s living tropical plant collections with a huge focus on conservation of rare species.
It’s a smorgasbord of plants. flowers and trees with over 12,000 species, but that’s not all; there are shows and be warned the Thai dancing performance should come with a warning that your hearing will be at risk…the decibel level was way too high and I spent a third of the show with my fingers in my ears…seriously it was that bad!
There is a sightseeing shuttle bus to get you around and it’s a great way to get your bearings and appreciate the size of the place. Even the plant nurseries are worth seeing due to the sheer amount of plants and everything is just so orderly in lines and colours and types. My perfectionist streak loved it!
The more quirky parts involved the UK style telephone boxes lined up in what was called the “Italian” garden and the dinosaur valley with a reported 814 dinosaurs and who knows how many species of cacti, again the scale was impressive. They are currently building an Egyptian themed area complete with pyramid so it’ll be interesting to see what they add there.
It was very easy to spend a few hours here and wander through the different garden areas appreciating the beauty of the plants and the effort the creators of this garden continually go to to maintain and improve the area.
