Step back in time to 2008 for some grainy footage of all the usual haunts around lower Sukhumvit…

Work is being carried out to expand a Benjakitti Park in Bangkok into a sprawling green forest within the city.

A new 652 million Baht (22 million USD) project by the Royal Thai Army and the Treasury Department aims to extend the park to become three times its current size, or 72 hectares. The expansion project is expected to be complete by 2022 complete with extensive biking trails and walkways.

A huge tobacco warehouse standing beside the park will also be demolished and make way for the new city forest in Thailand. Aside from expansion, parts of the park will be developed into a leisure waterpark surrounded by a forest with different species of trees.

Museums will also be constructed around the park exhibiting a variety of themes.

GoPro footage shows what it’s like to kayak through once-polluted canals that have been turned into a ‘Venice of the East’.

Residents can use the boats for free to paddle along the Ong Ang canal in the centre of Bangkok.

The scheme includes 15 kayaks which are available to take onto the water every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Government chiefs rolled out the boats out as part of a regeneration of the area, along with romantic lights, food stalls, musicians, handicrafts and street art.

The area was once polluted, dirty and overcrowded but residents are delighted with how it has been improved. The water is also clean following extensive cleaning and filtering.