Visiting Suanphung Bonsai Village
The author recounts combining a family holiday in Bangkok with a pre-trip visit to the bonsai garden of his long-time friend Mr. Montri Suksermsongchai, Thailand’s most prominent bonsai collector and international representative.
By Budi Sulistyo · April 1, 2020
Published in: BCI Bonsai & Stone Appreciation Magazine 2020 Q2
Last year I made a plan to have a family holiday in Bangkok Thailand during the Christmas and New Year holidays. A total of me, my wife, two daughters, two sons in law, and two grandchildren would stay for eight days. At that time, I recalled the invitation of Mr. Montri Suksermsongchai, the Past President of Thai Bonsai Society and the most prominent bonsai man in Thailand, to visit his bonsai garden located outside of Bangkok. Montri has been my good friend for almost 20 years; we have attended some bonsai conventions together. We used to exchange bonsai. Some bonsai in my garden are from him. I thought that it would be an excellent opportunity to combine my vacation with a bonsai visit. I decided to go on December 24 with my wife two days before the arrival of the rest of the family to go to his garden. By starting my bonsai trip before the family reunion, I would be able to concentrate and enjoy the bonsai, the garden, and our friendships more. At the same time, it would not interfere with the joy of the whole group who possibly did not have as much interest in bonsai as me.
Early on the 25th, after getting breakfast, Montri came to the hotel and took us to his house to see his bonsai collection. Montri is the biggest bonsai collector in Thailand. Many of his bonsai received awards in the competition. His ability to speak English makes him the most prominent bonsai man from Thailand in the international bonsai communities. Thailand once got a visit from Mr. John Yoshio Naka, the grandmaster of bonsai, in the early nineteen eighties. The teaching of Naka-sanis well applied in most bonsai in Thailand. They have beautiful nebari, strong trunks, and nice distribution of the branches and twigs with good ramification. We spent some time in his garden, enjoying his beautiful bonsai, and then started our journey to the resort.
It took about three hours by car, including one stop for lunch on the way to reach the bonsai garden located in Ratchaburi province. Before entering the garden, there is a sign on the side of the street pointing the way to it. Upon entering the garden, there is a beautiful small garden arrangement with nice decoration, a small pagoda for flower offering, and the sign of Suanphung Bonsai Village as the gate to the garden. It is a large garden of around 40 hectares of land surrounded by plantations and forests. As the garden is quite large and we were a bit tired already, Mr. Montri asked us to tour around with a garden mini-car. I could not believe my eyes to see so many beautiful bonsai, some were quite big, nicely put on big black stones or on stone stands in the garden. There were many beautiful trees as some of the bonsai have received awards in the exhibitions. The numbers were really unbelievable. It was said that they are over 2000 bonsai. It must have been a hell of a lot of money spent to create the garden!
We then spent the night in a nice small hotel inside Suanphung Bonsai Village. The name of the district is Suanphung, which locally means “the bee garden.” Previously it was a forest with many bees in it. Montri bought the land bit by bit over the last 20 years and has built his dream to make a beautiful bonsai garden in that place. He also included some facilities like a hotel, restaurant, bungalows, ponds, and some parks. That is why Montri names his garden Suanphung Bonsai Village. It will not be only a garden, but more suitably called a village. When we went out by car to get our dinner in a good nearby restaurant, I realized that it was located in a small tourist area with more facilities.
Early in the morning, together with my wife, we went around by ourselves to enjoy the fresh air. There was a lower landscape behind the hotel with a long road on the side of a river about 15 meters wide. The clear water runs along the river with some stones here and there. There is a forest on the right side of the river, giving a feeling of privacy to the garden. There are some bonsai displayed on concrete piles along the left side of the road providing the opportunity for people to enjoy one by one the beauty of the bonsai. The weather was cool, and the air was very fresh, in turn making us feel equally good and fresh. It was so much different from the atmosphere of the city.
While looking at the trees, I saw some people taking care of the bonsai. Bonsai is a living art that continues growing. They need not only watering but also maintenance. Some of the tropical trees grow quite quickly. It is not an easy job to keep 2000 beautiful trees in their optimal shape all the time. The watering, including liquid fertilizer, can be done by an automatic system, but repotting, trimming, and wiring, if necessary, should be done by people who know bonsai.
In the upper area of the garden, I saw better bonsai displayed with a long fence as the background to the plants that indirectly function as the backdrop of the bonsai display. It gave us a better opportunity to take good pictures. There were many kinds of species, like several kinds of Vicus, Podocarpus, Feronia, Murraya, Eugenia, and many more. Many of them were quite big—some over 3 meters tall. There was a big pond with a nice two-story house on the other side of the pond, a red bridge crossing the narrow part of the pond, a gazebo, a round door that went to the Chinese garden, and a Japanese gate going to the Japanese garden. The garden was not yet fully finished. Anyhow, I could imagine that it would be one of the best Bonsai Villages in the world.
We felt very lucky to have such an opportunity to visit the village. We should have spent one more night to enjoy the detail of the bonsai. There were too many to enjoy. Thank you very much, Mr. Montri, for taking us to your dream village. Thanks to Suanphung Bonsai Village, our visit to Thailand became complete and meaningful.
