Samut Songkram Province

About 50km south-east of Bangkok on the Gulf of Thailand is the province of Samut Songkram. I went with another teacher from Ruamrudee on a day trip organised by the Siam Society.

First stop was the Railway market. As you can see in the photo, the pathway through this part of the market is a railway line - which has a train come through a few times a day. All the stallholders have to pack up and move their items off the tracks, let the train past and then set up again!

In Thai markets, it is the smells that are most foreign. I don't think I will ever grow to get used to the smell of dried fish which is very popular and for sale everywhere. The fresh fish and crabs in the next photo have a strong enough odour as it is.

Our next stop was a small floating market where the shops are the boats.

We were very fortunate to visit the home of the leading craftsman of the Thai fiddle. The fiddle is constucted from a rare type of coconut and the highest quality fiddles can go for hundreds of thousands of dollars. We were treated to a brief performance as you can see below.

Not only does this man make and play the fiddle, he also teaches others how to play. Some of his proteges are sitting in the background above and are practising an item for an upcoming concert below.

The house was in a beautiful garden and orchard; a nice place to sit and relax.

We then moved on to have lunch on the river and then after lunch took a trip down the river, passing traditional homes on the banks.

Our final stop for the day was the town of Amphawa, which is very popular with the residents of Bangkok who make the trip on a Saturday night to shop in the market and enjoy the fresh seafood on the river. It was a very crowded place but an interesting end to the tour.