Nakon Si Thammarat


Advertisement
Thailand's flag
Asia » Thailand » Southern Thailand
December 28th 2015
Published: December 30th 2015
Edit Blog Post

The main town spread from the very long street more than 5km, dotted with temple and mosque, the area offer day market, night market, weekend market , farmer market and flea market, comes with huge rat and cockroach, luckily not that many mosquitos. The city ia easy going and friendly, lot of cafe and tea house one can hangout.

Nakhon Si Thammarat has a long history, its Kingdom was one of the major constituent city states of the Siamese kingdoms of Sukhothai and later Ayutthaya and controlled a big part of the Malay peninsula. Most historians identify the Tambralinga kingdom of Chinese records with a precursor of Nakhon Si Thammarat.

Wat Phra Mahathat should be the most important site in town, It was constructed at the time of the founding of the town, and contains a tooth relic of Buddha. There is also a museum inside the compound display priceless item of offerings from different period. The now under repairing 78 m high Sri Lankan style chedi is the landmark of the city, milling with pilgrims all through the day. No far away along the Rachdamnoen Road after the clock tower you will find the remain of the old city wall could date back to the 13th century. Further on is the Chedi Yak and the train station with the busy Chinese quarter. If you still got energy, keep going onto the Thalad Park where the City museum locate, a brief history of Nakon Si Thammarat is open up to you for free! There is a small Shadow puppet house museum near the Wat Phra Mahathat compound, the owner Suchart Subsin is well known in southern Thailand and did performance for the Royal families, but he was pass away just a month ago. now the place is run by his son and daughter inlaw whom had inheritage the skill, they will perform on request as well.

Keeping bird as pet is quite common in this part of Thailand, and during weekend you often run into a bird-singing competition somewhere, the champion should be able to produce the most number of whistle within a certain time...strong and clear! so with 2 judge one for each bird counting out the number of bird singing(tough work!), and one guy control the time setting a bowl with a hole in a bucket of water, each round ended and stop counting once the bowl sink.

Pak Phanang is a small fishing village about 40km from Nakon Si Thammarat, although fishing are still quite alive there, but the main business in town is the bird-nest, the so-call "caviar of the East". you would see many windowless concrete building in town, those were the "bird's-nest condos", They are not intended for human inhabitants but for the local swifter bird. some said about 80 years ago people first noticed swifter made their nest inside their house, and finally invented this condos method to mass produce the bird-nest when the demand is too high. The condos are built to mimic the interior of a cave. Small ventilation holes, an access point for the birds and a door that remains locked until collection times are all that connect their pitch black interiors to the outside world. The interior vary widely in size, fitted with a humidifier, a dripping water pipe, wooden beams across the ceiling and a sound system spilled out playful noises of the birds to attract new arrivals. Add the stench of ammonia, from piles of droppings, and a condo becomes a foreboding place. local said there should more than 500 condos in Pak Phanang.

Ban Khiri Wong village is another tourist attraction here, a relaxing place to spent a day on bicycle, dip in the river, they can also arrange tracking into the nearby Khao Luang National Park. a daily market open until 9am right in front of the temple by the river.

Still feel itchy....the area offer couple of beach resort can be easy access by bus, just heading to Si Chon and Khanom, it is only an hour or so away from Nakon Si Thammarat.


Additional photos below
Photos: 38, Displayed: 24


Advertisement



Tot: 0.08s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 27; dbt: 0.0444s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb