Changwat Chanthaburi, Thailand — Towns & Travel Guide

What is Changwat Chanthaburi known for?

Rubies and sapphires drawn from the alluvial fields around the town have been cut and traded here for well over a century, and the gem market still fills its side streets each weekend. The orchards inland make it one of Thailand's great durian districts. Along the Chanthaburi River stands the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the largest Catholic church in the country.

Old shophouses line the Chanthaboon waterfront.

Where is Changwat Chanthaburi?

Chanthaburi sits in the east of Thailand. Its southern edge runs along the Gulf of Thailand, while its eastern boundary follows the hills up to Cambodia, the provinces of Pailin and Battambang lying just across the ridge. Trat continues down the coast to the south-east, toward the islands off shore. Rayong lies to the west along the same shoreline, and Sa Kaeo and Chachoengsao reach inland to the north.

Several rough crossings link the province to Cambodia through the eastern passes. Behind the coast the land climbs into the Cardamom Mountains, the range Chanthaburi shares with Cambodia. The Chanthaburi River gathers the rain off those slopes and carries it down through the provincial town to the Gulf, cutting the fertile plain that holds the orchards and gem fields.

Forest still covers much of the interior. National parks such as Namtok Phlio protect the wetter inland valleys and their waterfalls. The coastal strip is low and alluvial, built up by the rivers draining off the range.

Chanthaburi town stands well back from the open sea. Bangkok lies a full day's road to the north-west.

What is Changwat Chanthaburi like?

Gems and fruit run through daily life here. Each weekend, dealers spread rubies and sapphires on folding tables along Si Chan Road, and buyers from across Thailand crowd the narrow gem lane to haggle over the stones. Cutters and polishers work the streets behind.

Rough stones reach the town from mines as far off as Africa, are heated and faceted in its workshops, and travel on to jewellers around the world. When the orchards ripen, the whole province floods with durian, rambutan, and mangosteen bound for distant markets. The old town tells another story.

Vietnamese Catholics settled the riverbank in successive waves of refugees, and their descendants gave Chanthaburi its bakeries, its shrines, and the twin-spired Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception at the end of the waterfront. Sino-Portuguese shophouses front the Chanthaburi River. Reed-mat weaving is an old craft of the delta villages, sold in the same lanes as the gems.

Kitchens here are known for mu chamuang, a slow pork curry cooked with the sour leaves of a native tree. In the hills, the Chong keep an older tongue alive.

What is the history of Changwat Chanthaburi?

War made Chanthaburi's name. After the fall of Ayutthaya in 1767, Taksin gathered his forces at Chanthaburi and set out from here to drive the Burmese from the ruined capital and found a new kingdom. More than a century later, French troops seized the town after the Paknam crisis of 1893 and held it as security.

They stayed until early 1905, once Siam ceded Trat further down the coast in exchange. A second treaty in 1907 handed France the western Cambodian provinces of Battambang and Siem Reap, and Trat came back to Siam. Their red-brick fort still stands.

What is the climate of Changwat Chanthaburi?

Rain defines the year here. When the south-west monsoon sweeps in off the Gulf of Thailand from about May, it piles against the Cardamom Mountains and drops some of the heaviest rainfall in the country. The wet months run warm and humid, and the orchards depend on that soaking to fruit.

A hotter, drier spell settles in from about November to April. The heat never really lifts.

How do you get to Changwat Chanthaburi?

Most people arrive by road. Buses run down the Sukhumvit highway from Bangkok, a stretch of about 245 km that most travellers cover in four or five hours by coach or hired car. The province has no airport of its own, so flying visitors land at Trat and drive up the coast.

From the town, roads carry on to the Cambodian border and the piers for Ko Chang. Chanthaburi makes a natural staging post.