These giant tree trunks set up near Siam Country
Club have local residents and tourists thinking England’s Stonehenge has
been replanted in Thailand.
Vittaya Yoondorn
Five giant tree trunks set up near Siam Country Club have
local residents and tourists thinking England’s Stonehenge has been
replanted in Thailand.
Lines of photographers and inquisitive visitors file
through Soi Pornpraphanimit 11 daily, asking what it is, why is it there and
marveling at its beauty.
The formation is actually the creation of 43-year-old
Nongyao Walker, a former food vendor who now offers landscaping, organic
fertilizer, ornamental flowers and home-made flower pots at her shop near
the trees. She insists she didn’t set out to copy the 4,500-year-old iconic
stone formation in Wilshire, England, but can’t deny many people think her
creation looks similar.
Walker said she designed the formation to draw people
into her store. The wood, called “Pyinkado” - “mai daeng” in Thai and “Xylia
xylocarpa” in Latin - sprung from Myanmar, where the trade name was
registered, and has about twice the hardness of teak. It has been used for
railway cars, flooring, piers and other underwater purposes.
The gardener used the hardwood’s ability to absorb water
- it supposedly can be used untreated for 15 years under water - to make her
creation, soaking the wood before placing the logs upright in the yard.
It was not a cheap showpiece. Actually native to
Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, it’s not as rare as Walker claims, but it is
expensive. She said she bought the three trunks from a dealer in
Chachoengsao for 80,000 baht each. She sells the wood to hotels for such
things as fountains, as well as foreigners building their dream home in
Thailand.
