Saturday, 15 March 2014

Laem Chabang - Thailand

Laem Chabang, Bangkok, Thailand.
15th March 2014

Today we docked at a placed called Laem Chabang, which is the gateway to Bangkok, and because we had been into Bangkok before we didn’t really fancy the 2.1/2 hour drive there.  So we chose an excursion called “Local Lifestyles”.

Our first stop was to the Nong Mon Market a large local produce market in the area, where we found hundreds of stalls selling dried seafood, desserts, fruits and much more, but lots of it looked unrecognizable. We then made a stop at a “very beautiful” Chinese Shrine or Nacha Sa Thai Chue Shrine, all rather ornate. 


Next we ventured to a place called Ang Sila, a seaside fishing town, where we strolled through a fish market selling all types of sea food, from crabs to huge langoustines, squid and many ordinary fish, but what worried me were the flies all around the produce.  Also we could see the locals drying their catch of the day in the sun (with the flies as well).  A very interesting but also smelly place.


Our next stop was to an area where granite was worked with and here you could buy a carved garden table and stools, Japanese temples,, pestles and mortars, or even a large elephant.  We saw stonemasons sitting and chiseling  at lumps of granite apparently producing 7/8  mortars a day and even the young children were starting early into a lifetime of chiseling (a rather depressing sight ) Luckily the weight of our cases we decided not to buy any of the  products.


Then finally we journeyed to Pattaya, on the coast, for an hour of sightseeing or whatever you fancied doing.  We decided that as it was now 1.00 o’clock it was time for a bit of lunch, and very enjoyable it was to.

We then had an hours drive along the coast back to the ship

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