Nonthaburi

There have been a couple of Thai public holidays recently so Chris and I decided that we would do a bit of site seeing and visit some of the places that we've not been to before. One of the area's we have talked about visiting is the Island of Ko Kred - it's fairly easy to get to and sounds really interesting. It's inhabited by the Mon people (thought to have originated either in India or Mongolia) who have been persecuted and displaced for centuries. They are very similar to the Thai's in that they are buddhist but they also have strong animist beliefs and aparently all families have totemic house spirits such as the chicken, snake, pig etc. The Island is known for it's Ancient Mon Pottery centre which produces beautiful terracotta pots and Mon-style Buddha shrines. We thought that it sounded interesting so decided that we would go exploring.....Ah the best laid plans......

It started off so well, we got the Skytrain down to Saphan Taksin and hopped on the river taxi - the last stop is Nonthaburi and from there you can either hire a longtail boat to get to the Island or you can get a bus and a cross river ferry. We got as far as Nonthaburi!!

The best bit was the river journey itself....it was a stifling hot day and the breeze on the boat was divine - it was also the first time we had travelled so far up the river and we spent about an hour and a half weaving round huge sand barges and tiny canoes...we even passed a guy in a rubber tyre with a paddle!! The scenery was stunning and it was amazing how the skyline changed as we went along - I think there are quite a few Muslims in that area as we passed a number of beautifully decorated Mosques. When we arrived in Nonthaburi we looked at the sky (Yes, it's getting to that time again.....the rainy season!!) and decided that we really shouldn't go any further as it looked like it was going to lash down and we didn't have any umbrella's with us so we decided to explore Nonthaburi instead.

We had such a lovely day....there is not much to see there (that we could find - we had forgotten to lift the guide book!!) but it's a lovely little Thai town with a very different feel to Bangkok. It has a huge bustling market which we spent a couple of hours meandering around.....we bought this teapot and cup set for 210 baht (£3.40) which I love and then we went and had some lunch at a floating restaurant called Rim Fang. (If you ever get the chance to go I can highly recommend the Tom Yum Goong - spicy hot and sour prawn soup). We then jumped on the boat back to Bangkok where we met up with Caroline and her husband Andrew and went for a curry.....a good day out even though we didn't make it to our planned destination!!