AMONG Chiang Mai’s best attractions is one that most tourists have not heard of and this is the the canopy walkway at Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden in Mae Rim district.
It is in fact Thailand’s longest suspended walkway stretching across tall forest trees with wonderful views of the botanic garden below, and Sanook! Travel’s columnist Peeranut P. takes us there to marvel at this northern gem.
The canopy walkway rises 20 meters above the garden and stretches 400 meters across tall trees, and because it is made of study mess metal, by through walking through one comes into full contact with the surroundings.
The walkway is interspersed with 4 viewing platforms from where visitors can get panoramic views of the mountains and the magnificent trees.
At the end of the canopy walkway is a super coffee shop and from here one gets a full view of the towering structure and it is a good spot to take photographs.
There is another highlight at Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden with this being the glasshouse complex atop a hill, in front of which is a beautifully landscaped cold-climate garden with various colorful flowers blooming. This is another good spot to take photos.
Within the glasshouse is simulated landscape of various types of forests, such as rain forest where the vegetation typically found there is grown, with the temperature controlled to suit these shrubs and plants, some of them rare.
Another glasshouse is devoted to arid zone plants such as cacti and it is just like a desert.
This is both an important place to study nature and a key natural tourist attraction for all to enjoy and be beguiled by the rich colorful flora all around.
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Top, in-text and below: Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden’s canopy walkway and the beautiful plants and trees growing out in the open and within the glasshouses. Photos: Sanook.com