Ratna Park is one of the oldest park in Kathmandu. The name is after Queen Ratna, Wife of Late King Mahendra. Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) also named it as Sankhadhar park. It lies in the heart of the city, between Ranipokhari and Tudikhel. The park was actually meant for children but we can see people of all ages there. There was a news regarding Free WiFi inside the park. So we want to give it a try, but we happen to find more than just the free WiFi.
This post, we are presenting what we saw inside Ratnapark on May 1, 2018. The day being a holiday and lot of people gathered around to celebrate the Labor’s day, we also found a lot of people inside the park. Contrary to our expectations for free entrance, we need to pay Rs 25 for the ticket to enter the park. As taking a DSLR would scare people, all the pictures have been taken by a smartphone.
Phones all around
We found most of the people in the park to be fond of using their phones. The park was clean and the greenery, garden made people to take a lot of snaps. They were not satisfied with a single shot at a place. Selfies are also everywhere even though you can ask your friend to take a snap. I also helped some of them take a picture for alone person and groups. Apart from photo, most of the people were busy in their mobiles for either listening music, playing games or the free Wifi which we will review it later below.
One of the most amazing thing we found is the Ludo Game that 3 people played in the same mobile. They were playing the game while lying in the grassy ground.
Sleeping
Although very less people were idle inside the park, we found some people having a nap there. We managed to take some photo from a distant, without revealing their identity.
Playing
As it is a children park, there are some playing stuffs like Swing (ping), Chipleti. Although it was meant for children only, few adults were also found playing.
Studying
Few students were also found studying inside the park. Having a quiet environment that is idle for studying, they were preparing for their exam together.
Dating
Yes we know Ratna Park has been a Dating Spot from the old era. But we found very few couples in the park. And they were not in any shocking position that journalists used to report before. May be couples are very clever enough for not to select the city center for their dating place.
Free WiFi
One of the other attraction of the Ratna Park is Free WiFi, for which the password is placed in the beginning of the park in a board. Amazingly, we also found people who are fond of internet to gather just near the board. We wonder if they had though the board to be providing the WiFi signal. First, we found that the coverage is available in all the parts. Two AP’s were placed in the pole at western and northern part of the park. Considering the huge masses there, there was no issue with the connectivity. But regarding the speed, it was not consistent, may be due to lot of people browsing with it.
The maximum speed we found with the Free WiFi in the park was 1.69 Mbps download. If it had been consistent, we would say it is a nice speed for a free WiFi. But instantly the speed drops to 0.4 Mbps download, the upload seems to have more issues so browsing hands around for a while. Here are the snapshot of the speed test of Free WiFi in Ratna Park.
Roamed around there for more than two hours, Ratna Park seems quite clean and has a nice space for a break. The renovation happened two years before, revamped Ratna park and now it is good destination for hanging out with friends. Do try out and even share your experience of Free WiFi there.
