A day trip to Samut Songhram (Thai: สมุทรสงคราม) began with a shrieking alarm clock at 7am. Then another at 7.30am. It was, it appeared, time to get up. Not my favourite activity, and certainly not my favourite time at which to perform it.
I showered, dressed, and – most annoyingly – completely forgot to pick up the headphones for my E71.
Still, I was impressed that my taxi ride from Thonglor to Pinklao took just 20 minutes, although I suspect that’s only true on early Sunday mornings.
Near the Tesco Lotus in Pinklao is a minibus service to Ratchaburi, where I met my mysterious (by intent of the author) companions. With no headphones, I had to amuse myself for the one-hour journey by playing Top Hits Solitaire. My win rate is currently 13.22%, with 295 wins and 1,935 losses out of 2,230 games – this game has fast become something of a worrying addiction, more on which anon.
Eventually we met in Photharam, and drove firstly to a buddhist temple. Part of the merit-making ceremony was, as I discovered all too late, being sprayed with water by a chanting monk. Wasn’t expecting that.
After this, and the more traditional candle-lighting, incense-burning, flower-hanging and applying of gold leaf to the idols (I really should figure out what it all means one of these days), we dried off back in the car.
Onwards to Don Hoi Lot (Thai: ดอนหอยหลอด) – specifically to the Don Nai mudflat, where we watched Thai adults and kids alike wading through knee-deep mud to catch various shellfish. I looked down at my almost-clean jeans and trainers, and decided not to join them.
Instead, we browsed the stalls and looked at four thousand different kinds of crab, an abundance of odd shellfish, squid and possibly (or indeed not) a kipper.
We had lunch here, in a restaurant looking out over the mud flats – mussels, tom yum goong, raw prawns with garlic, grilled fish, grated catfish salad, and of course a ton of rice. I can’t eat the rice on my gym diet, but everything else was pretty awesome, and about as fresh as it gets.
Then back to the car, for the drive to Amphawa (Thai: อัมพวา), and the King Rama II Memorial Park.
The park charges 20 baht per adult for admittance, children even less. No surcharge for foreigners, which makes a nice change – another rant, for another day…
There were a few old-style teak houses on stilts around the park, serving as museums of a sort. Some rooms were furnished in the traditional style, with antique furniture and paraphenalia from the turn of the 20th century. Other rooms were stuffed full of traditional Thai musical instruments. The airy teak rooms were also a welcome shelter of sorts from the baking heat outside.
Up to the river, we watched the boats go by, then came across a huge monitor lizard on the walk back – so huge, in fact, that I initially thought it must be a crocodile. I tried to film it, but it scuttled off into the river too quickly for me to get a decent shot. Still, an awesome sight.
Out of the gardens, by way of a trellis covered in flowers which were being visited by enormous bees, and across to Amphawa floating market.
The real draw here, apparently, is when the sun goes down, and the fireflies come out. Sadly, we just didn’t have time – the last minibus to Bangkok leaves at 6pm on Sundays. Next time we’ll stay over.
Still, we had a good wander around a (very busy) traditional market, had old-style Thai ice cream and another sit-down meal of seafood – a huge plate of fresh shrimps with chilli sauce, grilled squid and a couple of large salted fish.
A walk along the riverside stalls, and after we looked out across the river one last time, at what felt like a fleet of boats passing by (video, top), it was time to go home.