Samut Songkhram may be one of Thailand’s smallest provinces, but it offers a wealth of natural and cultural heritage. Within a compact area, you can experience ancestral arts, pilgrimage temples, places of royalty, floating markets, bountiful nature and communities that preserve their rural way of life. The landscape shapes the province’s character. Each of its three districts reflects a distinct ecosystem based on water, whether salty, brackish or fresh. Visits invariably involve boat tours and most accommodation is to be found along the banks of the Mae Khlong River or its maze of quiet canals. Located 75 kilometres southwest of Bangkok, Samut Songkhram attracts many Thai weekenders and increasing numbers of international visitors. Often nicknamed Amphawa after its best known district, the province rewards those who prize tradition, not to mention its celebrated seafood. Many come here just to eat the fresh shellfish, crabs, shrimp, squid and fish, especially its emblematic pla tuu — mackerel sold paired in bamboo baskets.

THE CHARM OF MAE KLONG
A strong community spirit preserves both folk crafts and court arts within their traditional way of life. This is a living museum.

FLOATING MARKET REVIVAL
Samut Songkhram holds several traditional talat (markets). Most feature vendors selling and cooking aboard traditional sampans or long-tail boats, making them iconic ‘floating markets .’ Dawn was historically the trading time, but itineraries can incorporate morning, day or evening markets.

• Talat Tha Kha
  
  Betel-chewing villagers still paddle to market by boat from plantations inaccessible by road. Trading days depended on the moon, given the tidal waters. With modernity making such bygone ways less tenable, the floating market of Talat Tha Kha has just started to operate on Saturday mornings, 8.30 am-11.00 am. Now it can catch the weekend visitor influx, while retaining its authentic essence.
  
  
• Talat Don Hoi Lot
  
  
  Many Thais stop en route from Bangkok at this all-day local market perched on the edge of mudflats famous for the razor clam (hoi lot). It has restaurants, but most shoppers load bags with fresh and processed seafood. Favourite take-aways include teased dry squid, shrimp paste and haw mok, a seafood soufflé baked in banana leaf. Mangrove boat tours also originate here.
  
  
• Talat Amphawa
  
  
  This market town transformed in recent years from a sleepy backwater into a vibrant destination. Today visitors throng the embankments both sides of a canal off the Mae Khlong. Some sit on the steps eating noodles prepared on boats. Others dine at stalls, down kafae boran (Thai traditional coffee) from quaint old cafés, and scoff bagged delicacies while browsing through the clothes, jewellery and other products on sale. A new extension has restored teak shophouses to expand the choice of activity, from massage to traditional music. Many market-goers end their trip after dusk with a ride to see the fireflies.

A certain gentility pervades this rustic province. It remains a treasury of traditional design. Domestic workshops produce several crafts, from basketry to khon court dance masks sold at Baan Benjarong Pinsuwan in Samut Songkhram and King Power Duty-free outlets.

• Baan Phya Saw Music House
  
  
  Beneath a stilted farmhouse, Baan Phaya Saw, a family contributes to the very small number of people still making saw instruments. This kind of three-string violin has a soundbox of carved coconut shell with a distinctive ‘three-bulb’ construction and taut cowleather drumskin. The most elaborate ones include mother-of-pearl inlaid by a former neighbour who moved to Ang Thong province.

• Baan Benjarong Pinsuwan
  
  
  This elegant establishment opens to view its production of benjarong, five-colour court porcelain. Each artisan applies individual elements to Ayutthaya-era floral patterns, gold-encrusted styles from the second to fourth Chakri reigns, and more contemporary interpretations. The kaleidoscopic ceramics on display range from lidded bowls to full dinner sets.

• Bang Chang Miniature Thai-house Handicraft
  The pointed bargeboard roofs of teak stilt houses perforate the Amphawa treeline. Artisans here make intricate models of Central Plains houses for sale and display, along with miniatures of the boats you still see being paddled.

ROYAL HISTORICAL ROUTES

King Rama II Memorial Park	Court connections thread this province’s history. King Rama II (1809-1824 AD) was born here. Many road and boat tours include King Rama II Memorial Park in Amphawa. Its Thai-style wooden houses contain artefacts relating to the second Chakri king. A patron of the arts, he was honoured by UNESCO in 1968 as one of its Great Personalities of the World.
Khromaluang Chumphon Shrine	A statue of King Rama II stands at the royal temple of Wat Ampawan Chediyaraam, which houses his remains. Murals in the bot (ordination chapel) depict the king’s literary works, such as Sang Thong, Krai Thong, Inow and Kathee. Wat Phumarin Kudeethong made a museum out of a teak house constructed by King Rama I. Visitors to Don Hoi Lot pray at the Khromaluang Chumphon Shrine, dedicated to a son of King Rama V revered especially by the Royal Thai Navy.

PILGRIMAGE TEMPLES
Among Samut Songkhram’s 110 Buddhist temples, Thai pilgrims flock to Wat Petch Samut Voraviharn, a royal temple also known as Wat Ban Laem. Devotees gild its Buddha images and receive blessings from its venerable abbot, Luang Phor Ban Laem.

Several temples feature extraordinary designs. Wat Satataam encases its walls inside and out with teak lacquered black and inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The imagery focuses on animals of the 12-year astrological cycle and Buddha postures relating to each day of the week. Intricate murals decorate the walls of the ordination chapel of Wat Chulamanee, which is tiled in vividly swirled Karachi marble. Wat Bang Kae Noi has an astonishing ordination chapel, lined completely in teak bas relief, with a 3-D Bodhi tree sheltering the wooden Buddha image. In a contrasting scene, the ordination chapel of Wat Baang Koong in Kai Baang Koong military camp is totally engulfed in the roots of a sai (ficus/banyan) tree. Eerily beautiful, it is a natural and mystical wonder.

THREE WATERWORLDS
Samut Songkhram’s ecosystems — coastal, estuarine and freshwater — are best explored afloat. Boat trips explore the mangroves, mudflats, waterways and wildlife, both animal and marine. Specific tours cater to birdwatchers, while night boats venture to banglamphu trees to watch their fireflies pulse. The glowing insects have become such a local symbol that they now merit a statue in the capital.

• Gulf Coast
  

  Located on the Gulf of Thailand, Samut Songkhram rings the strategic mouth of the River Mae Khlong. The road from Bangkok to Mueang district (the provincial centre) follows the eastern coast, where windmills pump ocean water into vast saltpans. You can see workers hand-harvest the mineral-rich sea salt into cones of brilliant white. Roadside stalls bag and sell the gourmet condiment at bargain prices.

  At the Mae Khlong river-mouth, the mudflats of Don Hoi Lot take their name from its famous razor clams, teased out of hiding by harvesters kneeling on mats. Low tides expose the mudflats longest during March to May. Further out, fishermen haul nets on vessels made at the estuary’s timber shipyards.

• Brackish Mangroves
  Locals refer to Amphawa district as 'Mae Khlong' because the Mae Klong River which flows through the town is their lifeline. Amphawa hosts the area’s largest and most picturesque market, which distributes produce from its three waterworlds.
  
  
  
  

  Nature tours explore the mangrove swamps, which protect the estuary, nurture infant fish and host monkeys like crab-eating macaques. Everywhere rustle the fronds of nipa palm (jaak), which thrives in the brackish water. Khanom jaak is a sticky rice dessert prepared with fresh coconut milk mixed with brown palm sugar, and then wrapped in jaak leaves and roasted over a charcoal fire. Luuk jaak, the fruit itself, is preserved in a light syrup and served with crushed ice. Both can be found on sale in provincial markets and roadside stalls. Other palm parts give rise to a cottage industry of roofing thatch and woven basketry.

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  Canal Plantations Samut Songkhram has over 300 canals (khlong), with most of the freshwater threading through upriver Bangkhontee district. It supports plantations, orchid farms and orchards growing some of Thailand’s most prized coconut, pomelo and lychee. No trip is complete without visiting a Bangkhontee sugar palm factory. Look for brick chimney’s poking out of the palm groves. See how farmers shin up sugar palms and slice open shoots of immature fruit so the nectar drips into bamboo bottles. In huge stoves fed by coconut husks and leaves, they boil up the liquid in pans with bamboo towers restraining the fragrant froth. Thais prize the resultant cakes of brown palm sugar for cooking. Plantations and markets also sell sweets (khanom) made from this flavoursome fructose.

  

• Linchee (Lychee) Festival
  Thailand’s finest linchee fruit grow in Amphawa orchards. Because the fragrant flesh is crisp, dry and sweet, most of the linchee from Amphawa is sold fresh. The fruits come into season from April to June.
  
  
• Loi Krathong Sai Mae Klong
  The regional variant of this national festival every November pays homage to the waterways. It is also known as Loi Krathong Kaab Kluai.

  
  
  The Loi Krathong Sai Kaab Kluay Mae Klong is unique to the Mae Klong district of Samut Songkhram province, and is another type of krathong raft. The ancient tradition of setting adrift a raft of simple krathong floats hand-crafted from sections of the banana tree called kaab kluay disappeared from the Mae Klong riverside community for over fifty years, and was only revived by local residents four years ago. The Loi Krathong Sai Kaab Kluay Mae Klong is now an annual event.

  Unlike the krathong floats found in other parts of Thailand, the Mae Klong krathong kaab kluay float is made from the fibrous layer of the ‘trunk’* of the Kluay Nam Wa banana plant, a native species found in great abundance in the numerous orchards, plantations and farms dotted around Samut Songkhram.

• Plaa Tuu (Mackerel) Festival
  The season the mackerel run is a grand excuse to celebrate the full range of seafood harvested here. Many local specialities and Chinese dishes feature the pla tuu hua hak variety. Throughout the December celebration, hotels fill with seafood lovers, so book ahead.

HOMESTAYS
Throughout Samut Songkhram, homestays have emerged as a favoured accommodation option. Hotels and resorts are plentiful, but to experience village life with maximum authenticity, visitors increasingly choose to stay at stilt houses certified for their comfort, cleanliness, food, facilities and involvement with family and community activity. Plus, nothing beats waking to see morning mist swirl around the timeless canalscape.

COMMUNITY BASED TOURISM
The award-winning Khlong Kone Eco-tourism Community Enterprise gives holistic insight into a collective effort to preserve and enhance this mangrove village environment. It takes a full day to engage with the shellfish breeders, fisherfolk and seafood processors. Tailored visits depend on tides and can include clam catching, mangrove planting and homestays on raft or pontoon houses. Located in the west of Samut Songkhram, it combines well with Wat Khao Yi San, a Khmer-style monument.

SAVED FOR THE NEXT GENERATION
The revival of Amphawa Market has become a role model for how to keep fragile heritage viable. Five years ago, floating markets were declining fast. Now the market is expanding, not in concrete, but in sympathetic architecture offering wares in tune with its character. Most encouragingly, young people flock here at weekends. A new generation delights in the special qualities that rural life can offer the urban dweller. A properly preserved past provides a thriving template for the future.