My Bangkok Day Trip for this week is two locations in Samut Prakan Province. Although you can still see the skyscrapers in Bangkok from these places, it is very unlikely that you will meet any other foreigner on this trip. However, be prepared to go off the beaten track a bit to an area where there are no roads or public transport. The day trip today is to Phra Chulalchomklao Fortress which protects the approach to the Chao Phraya River and Bangkok further upriver. The next stop is a temple which is surrounded by the sea at high tide due to land erosion. Click here for my map of the area.

It is possible to go to Phra Chulachomklao Fortress by public transport but the service is not very regular. From Phra Samut Chedi, there is a large songtaew and a bus that go to the fort. Obviously if you are driving it is much easier. I have marked the location on the map. Just follow the road to the end. The fort is on navy property so you will have to show some sort of identification at the checkpoint. But, it is free to enter the fort. There is a restaurant here as well alongside the river so you could easily spend 2-3 hours exploring the fort.

The main attraction here are the seven Armstrong guns which are still in good working order. The fortress was built in the 1890's and the guns were fired only once in anger against the French in 1893. In addition to the guns, there is also a Navy ship that you are allowed to explore. From the bridge there are some fine views of the river and the Gulf of Thailand. If you are interested in nature then it is worthwhile to also explore the mangrove forest as there is an extensive boardwalk built above it. Near the car park with the vendors and in the mangroves you will probably see some monkeys that swim in the water hunting for food.

If you came by your own transport, then you need to drive back up Suksawat Road looking for a turning to Sakhla on your left. Alternatively, take a songtaew that is heading back to Phra Samut Chedi and nearly halfway get off at the turn-off for Sakhla. Wait for another songtaew going down this road. Halfway to Sakhla, you will see an archway across the road in the middle of no-where. A short distance later there is a bridge over a small river. Get off there and you will see on your right a pier where you can rent a boat. Tell them you want to go to Wat Khun Samut. The taxi boat will take about 10-15 minutes. Make sure that you get his number as you will need to ring him to pick you up!

I know this is a bit challenging but it is really worthwhile. You are now literally in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by shrimp farms. No roads at all. Walk south for about 30 minutes and you will reach a concrete walkway that will take you out into the sea. I have been here many times and I really love the place. The village chief also has homestay which is worth considering. We go here every year to volunteer teach in the local school. Many of the local people have moved their houses inland three or four times because of land erosion. The temple is the only building that is still standing. Out to sea you can spot the concrete water tanks at low tide and also the electricity poles that used to follow along the main road in town. Visit our website www.KhunSamut.com for more information and also our site for Samut Prakan at www.Paknam.com.

I hope you enjoyed this Bangkok Day Trip. I am out every weekend looking for new attractions. You can follow me live on Twitter @RichardBarrow where I post pictures as I travel. Also check out my moblog at www.MyThailandBlog.com which I post from my iPhone as I travel. You will find news and links about my next trip on my website at www.RichardBarrow.com

A good way to explore an area is by using Google Earth. I have personally discovered some interesting places by analysing satellite images. So, I was really pleased to hear that Google had updated the satellite images for a large part of Samut Prakan Province. This gives me an opportunity now to write a "then and now" piece comparing images between 2002 and 2009. This first one is the old Paknam Prison in 2002. The inmates had already been moved out by this time though the bulldozers hadn't come in yet to pull down the buildings.

This second image shows what it looks like now. As you can see all of the buildings have now been removed. The plan was to start building a 139 meter high tower on this plot of land. The foundation stone ceremony was conducted back in 2007 but all they have done since is build the car park and a few paths.

This next image from 2002 shows the area around the newly constructed giant three-headed elephant at The Erawan Museum. It is about 50 meters high which is the equivalent of a 15 storey building. At that time, it dominated the landscape.

Things have changed dramatically for the elephant. As you can see from this picture it is now penned in by the Kanchanapisek Outer Ring Road. It still stands tall but it has more competition now.

This is the waterfront in Paknam at the City Hall in 2002. When this image was taken they had just started to extend the waterfront. The lawn and trees had been bulldozed and you can see at the bottom of the picture they had already made the first extension out over the water.

This is how the waterfront looks now. Although it is nice to have more space, it really doesn't look finished and is more of a concrete monstrosity than a rest area. I miss the shade from the trees.

This is Khun Samut Chin temple. As you can see, back in 2002 it was already cut off from the mainland due to land erosion. To the north of the temple you can just work see a raised wooden walkway which is the only access.

In 2009 the temple is still surrounded by the sea but there has been some major changes. For a start there is now a more permanent concrete walkway to the mainland. There is also a stone wall around the circumference of the temple and the breakwater to the south of the temple has been extended.

This is a stretch of the Old Sukhumwit Road which is running along the coastline of the Gulf of Thailand. North is to the right of this picture and that is the direction where you will find the newly built Suvarnabhumi Airport.

This is what it looks like this year. They have been constructing a 15 kilometer long drainage canal from the area around the airport to the Gulf of Thailand. What they are building here is a pumping station that will force the water over an aqueduct, 12 meters above Sukhumwit Road, and out into the Gulf. Visit paknam.com to view our various maps and satellite images of the area.

Many of the coastal provinces in Thailand have mangrove forests. However, the number of mangroves over the last 30 years or so have decreased greatly. In 1961 there were 909,346 acres of mangrove forests. By 2002 this number had reduced to only 593,052 acres. This is mainly due to urbanization, agriculture and aquaculture. In Samut Prakan, many mangroves were destroyed to make room for shrimp farms, factories and housing estates. A direct consequence of this is land erosion. The worst example of this is Khun Samut Chin community that have had to move their village several kilometres inland. Local government tried to stop this erosion by erecting concrete pillars to act as tide breaks. But, these are not only very costly but have also proven to be destructive to neighbouring stretches of coastline that are not protected. In recent years, different methods have started to be used. These are a combination of bamboo sticks and the planting of mangrove saplings.

The two main locations in Samut Prakan where they have been doing mangrove reforestation is Khun Samut Chin and Bang Pu Seaside Resort. At the weekend, Mr. Kwanchai Wongnitikorn, the Governor of Samut Prakan Province, together with several hundred students from Chaengronwittaya School, went to Bang Pu Seaside Resort to plant several thousand mangrove saplings and also to release hundreds of crabs into the water. This was done to celebrate the 77th birthday anniversary of H.M. The Queen which is on 12th August 2009. They first met in the auditorium where the Governor oversaw the opening ceremony and also gave a talk to the students. He told them what land erosion would mean to their own future and that it was important for everyone today to start planting mangroves for future generations. He said that if we didn't take action now then this whole coastline could be underwater within 20 years. The students were then given some background information on mangrove plants from an official from the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources.

The students were told about the different kinds of mangrove plants and also how to plant them so that when the tide rose later in the day the sapling wouldn't be washed away. During the opening ceremony they were also told about the importance that mangroves play in the ecological system of Thailands coastlines:

* Mangroves provide shoreline protection and sediment accretion. They buffer the shoreline from the destructive impact of storms and waves.
* Mangroves trap and bind sediments, thereby reducing coastal turbidity, and help clean the water.
* Mangroves provide habitat for both marine and terrestrial organisms; homes for both plants and animals.
* Mangroves are nurseries for commercially important fish stocks, replenishing estuarine and coastal fisheries.

Once the instruction was over, Mr. Kwanchai Wongnitikorn led the students down to the mangrove nursery. He first set free numerous crabs into the water and then planted several mangrove saplings into the mud. The students soon followed. They stripped of their shoes and socks and climbed down into the wet mud. As you can see from these pictures, numerous other groups have already planted mangroves over the last few years. Although they are growing well, it does take time for them to reach maturity. Maybe as long as several decades. That is why it is important for everyone to start now before it is too late. I think all of the students had some fun at the weekend but also at the same time felt some satisfaction that they had done a small part in stopping land erosion.

I have posted some more pictures of this event over at the Samut Prakan Forums.

Many of the websites in the Paknam Web Network are non-commercial. We don't make them to make any money but do them as a hobby site. Basically we make them as they are subjects that we are personally interested in. If we wanted to make loads of money then we would do websites on the bar girl scene. The www.khunsamut.com is a good example of a small site that we spend a lot of time on. It started in order to publicize the plight of the people of Ban Khun Samut in Samut Prakan province who over the years had to move their homes five or six times due to the encroaching sea and land erosion. Only the temple remains in its original position and is surrounded by the sea at high tide. We have been back to Khun Samut quite a few times to do updates. We have also volunteered to teach at the local school in our freetime. Khun Samut is not your average tourist attraction as a lot of effort is needed to go there. There are no roads and you have to rent a boat and then walk for about 30 minutes along the side of shrimp farms. But, if you do make the effort to go then they are very happy to see you.

Website: http://www.khunsamut.com

I find it very satisfying to be able to give back to my local community. I teach English to Thai students in a private school in Samut Prakan. But, these kids mainly come from rich families and they are used to seeing foreign teachers. What I sometimes find more rewarding is to volunteer to teach at a rural school in Thailand. I usually do this a couple times a year at small temple schools or ones where the students have never seen foreigners. Although Samut Prakan is so close to Bangkok and the international airport is on our doorstep, there are many students here who have never seen a foreigner close up, let alone been taught by one. We went to teach as volunteers at a couple of schools recently. As I know many people visiting www.thai-blogs.com like the idea of teaching in a school, I thought I would share with you some of my experiences.

The first school we went to was Ban Khun Samut Chin School in Samut Prakan. This is the school I go to every year and I have written about them before. You may remember me telling you that their playground is often flooded at high tide even though they have already moved further inland. Due to land erosion the sea is catching up with them again. I first visited this school while I was passing by on a Saturday morning a couple of years back. I saw some activity going on in the school grounds and went to take a closer look. The kids were there doing some art work with one of their teachers. They were happy to invite me in and let me take some pictures. After chatting with the teacher for a while I found myself volunteering to go and teach at the school. There are only 32 students in the whole school and only four teachers which includes the school director. But he is often away attending meetings. The kindergarten teacher doubles as the school cook. They don't have any support staff so everyone has to help out.

As they only have three teachers they can only teach in three classrooms. If you volunteer to teach at a school like this, then you are really being thrown into the deep end. As before, we were left alone to teach with the students. At this school they don't have any English teachers and the staff barely spoke any English themselves. When you go to a new school it is difficult to know what to teach as you don't know their ability. So, you need to have quite a few ideas already planned with spare games and songs up your sleeve. When I first went to this school none of the students had seen a foreigner before due to its isolation along the coastline. There are no roads coming here and we had to rent a boat and then walk for 30 minutes in order to reach the school. We could only teach them the basics. But, it was good to see that they had remembered lessons from previous visits. The aim of our visits is not really to teach anything new, but to help them practice what they know already and to show them that language learning can not only be fun, but useful too. Hopefully the next time that they see a foreigner they can now have a basic conversation.

The second school we went to recently was Wat Bang Nampheung Nok School in Samut Prakan. Although this is near the famous Bang Nampheung Floating Market, these students also had very little contact with foreigners. They also didn't have a qualified English teacher. This was the first time I had been to this school and I wasn't sure what to expect when we turned up. We had basically been volunteered to come here by the director of the other school. Apparently they knew each other. This school had 67 students from Primary 1 to 6. They each had their own classroom though there were only five teachers. This was another poor school. The school director told me that 60% of the students came from broken homes. Many lived with grandparents or with other relations. Although schooling in Thailand is supposed to be free, there are many extras which parents have to pay for. These include books and uniforms. The teachers themselves don't get paid much but they said that sometimes they had to use their own money to buy school supplies and pens and paper for the students.

As I had brought four foreign teachers here from my school I decided to split them up into two groups. One group first taught Primary 1 and 2 together and then Primary 3 and 4. The other group then taught Primary 5 first and then followed by Primary 6. There weren't that many students in the younger grades, so it was easy to combine them but also give them plenty of opportunity to interact with us. We practised with them basic conversations (such as greetings and introductions) and then vocabulary such as colours, days of the weeks and parts of the body. Variety and having fun is very important here. So, each topic had songs as well as games to play. I think all of the students had fun. They certainly want us to go back again. We stayed there for just half a day. They gave us lunch and then walked us back to the pier for the ferry. They kept asking us to come again and spend longer with them. They said that if we come again they would show us around and that we could stay with one of the teachers. At the pier they bought us some fruit to eat on the way home. Thai people are always very hospitable.

I wrote about these visits on our school blog. We also added that if any other school in Samut Prakan would like us to visit then please let us know. Within a few days we received several invitations. It just shows you how desperate many schools are to have foreign teachers. They cannot really afford to pay for one. They don't even have a budget to have a Thai English teacher. They just don't know how to go about finding volunteers. I told the school director that there are organizations that help foreigners to volunteer at schools in Thailand. But, it isn't free. From the schemes that I have seen advertised, you have to pay something like between 20,000 and 40,000 baht to volunteer to teach at a school for a month. The Thai teachers are of course shocked. They don't understand why people would pay good money to actually teach for free. It does seem strange but these organizations actually make things a lot easier and maybe even cheaper for the volunteers. They not only find the schools and communicate with the teachers, but they also provide basic accommodation and meals for them too. This means that the school doesn't have to do much and it doesn't cost them anything to have teachers.

It is of course possible to volunteer at a Thai school without paying an agency. But, you have to do all the hard work. It also helps if you speak a little Thai. Schools in towns and cities are harder to just walk in. They might be suspicious of your intentions. However, the rural schools are more open and it is easier to walk in unannounced. However, it is best if you can get some kind of introduction. Maybe ask around town first about schools where you can go and visit. Someone is bound to know someone who works at the school or has a child there. It is probably best if you don't say that you want to teach. Just say that you are interested to go and visit. The chances are then high that they will invite you to visit a class. If that works out well then they will most likely be keen for you to visit again. Even more so if you say you would like to teach for free. All of the schools we went to recently would be happy for us to visit every day. Though with small schools you might not have many lessons in a day! I now have a new website about Thai School Life over at www.ThaiSchoolLife.com. You will find plenty of information there if you are interested in Schools in Thailand.

These pictures were taken this morning at the main intersection into Samut Prakan City. However, this wasn't your normal kind of flood. Even though we haven't had any rain for two weeks, we will be getting floods like this for about five days. Each flood is predicted and usually lasts about three hours. This is a regular occurrence in our city and happens nearly every month. It is a combination of high tides, phases of the moon and a weather front out on the Gulf of Thailand. This time of year is usually worse because we also have high river levels. However, this last flood was unusually high and caught a lot of people unprepared.

The sea water inundated the city at a fast pace. The first sign was the storm drains where water started to pour out. They couldn't cope with the amount of water coming in from the river. Then side roads soon turned into fast flowing rivers which poured out onto Sukhumwit Road at the main intersection into the city. Locals know that they should stay clear of this area during high tides after a full moon. The floods started at the end of last week after Loy Krathong. This morning was pretty bad though by the time I waded down to the intersection it was already starting to recede. The biggest flood will be tomorrow at about 9.50 a.m. This tide will be a whopping 3.5 meters above the lowest low water. Help! We are sinking into the sea!

I got a phone tip this morning to say that the flood was pretty bad down by the city hall. I quickly checked my high tide charts and even though high tide had already passed, I still had time to get some pictures before it receded. I had originally decided to drive down there as I was planning to go out for the day. I had seen floods there before and usually we can drive through them with little difficulty. But, as you can see from the above picture, they were diverting traffic down a side road in order to avoid the worst section. Only buses were passing this intersection this morning. I parked my car on high ground and walked down to the river. I then had to take off my shoes and roll up my trouser legs past my knees.

If you have walked down any sidewalk in Bangkok then you would know that you have to be careful to avoid the holes. Samut Prakan is no exception. That was my greatest fear as I had no idea of where the sidewalk ended and the road started. I also had to watch out for the buses and the big trucks. As they sped by they caused high waves which could easily swamp me. At the intersection, local firemen were helping stranded motorists whose cars had broken down. They were also trying to keep cars and motorcycles away from dips in the road. One car had water up to its lights.

Some people blame global warming and rising sea levels for these floods. However, others suggest that Bangkok and Samut Prakan are actually sinking into the sea. This is due to factories, and the ever growing population, pumping out the groundwater. Bangkok is built on clay and as the water is removed the clay becomes more compact. Some experts claim that Bangkok is sinking at a rate of four inches per year. Couple this with rising sea waters and they predict that Bangkok and Samut Prakan will be beneath the sea within 15 to 20 years. But, don't blame everything on the factories and global warming. Hundreds of years ago, this whole area was deep under the Gulf of Thailand. Inland cities such as Nakhon Pathom and Suphanburi were once coastal ports! If nothing is done soon to reverse this process, Thailand will have to start to find a new location for its capital. Maybe Chiang Mai would be a safe bet.

Another location in Samut Prakan that is often under water is the community at Ban Khun Samut Chin. We have a website about the temple there which is flooded daily at each high tide. You can see pictures at www.KhunSamut.com. We also have many more pictures about Samut Prakan Province at www.PaknamPhotos.com.

During the last few weeks, everyone has been talking about the predicted storm surge that could hit the coastline of Samut Prakan any time between now and October. A storm surge is caused by high winds pushing down on the water of the Gulf of Thailand. This will then make it rise higher along the coastline by about two or three meters. Much of Samut Prakan, as well as my house, is in the danger zone. This morning at 6.30 a.m., Anuwat Maytheewibulwut, the governor of Samut Prakan Province, took part in a ceremony at the city hall in order to keep the citizens of our city safe. It was called "Stop the Wind, Stop the Water". In the above picture that I took this morning, the governor is placing a jasmine garland on a statue of the Buddha which is in the posture of "calming the ocean".

During the ceremony, a total of 499 religious people, representing the four main religions in our province, took turns in praying and chanting. The religious groups that took part in the ritual were: (1) Christians, (2) Muslims, (3) Sikhs and (4) Buddhists. Each group had about 15 minutes each starting with the Christians. The prayers concluded with chanting by several hundred Buddhist monks present.

The ceremony ended with giving alms to the monks. I guess we can now all feel a bit safer now that the local authority have appeased the gods and spirits of four major religions. They even prayed to the statue of King Rama V. But, we shouldn't knock it. All the talk has made quite a few residents fearful of what might happen if we have massive floods several metres deep. I live in a four storey house so I shouldn't have a problem. However, I will pay attention to the brochures that have been distributed around town telling people to stock up on drinking water and canned food. It is the people along the coastline like Ban Khun Samut Chin that I feel worried about. A storm surge in that area would be devastating.

In early July 2008, I shared with you some shocking pictures of the Ban Khun Samut School where the buildings had collapsed into the canal. I have written about this community a number of times. This is the place where the local temple is surrounded by water at high tide. Even though the school was moved further inland in the early 1980's, the sea has caught up with it again and during high tide the playground is flooded. I was back again at Khun Samut Chin this morning and I wanted to share with you some of the latest pictures of the school.

As you can see from these photos, in just over one month, the classrooms have been raised and they also have concrete supports. The old wooden supports had been eaten away which resulted in the collapse. There is still more work to be done but the school has re-opened. Apparently it was only closed for one week. I guess it was to their advantage that there are only 30 students so it was easy to move them to an empty classroom. The local government came to their aid and sent some money their way to do the repairs. Though it wasn't quite enough.

It was exactly one year ago that I came to Khun Samut Chin to take part in the fund-raising effort at the temple. There were at least 500 people on that day including dignitaries such as the governor of Samut Prakan Province. A lot of money was raised for the temple. Other groups have come since and they have raised over one million baht for the temple. I also believe they have spent one million baht on building a sea wall around the temple as well as new buildings. But, none of this money went to the school which, in my mind, is just as important for the local community.

I was glad to receive an invitation to return to Khun Samut Chin for another fund-raising, though this time it was for the benefit of the school. There was a large crowd of people, though maybe not as much as last year. Nor did the governor of Samut Prakan make an appearance. People feel they are making more merit if they donate to the temple rather than a local charity. However, over 200,000 baht was raised. When I went to the school I could also see that they had received a number of donations of classroom equipment. There was also some company employees who had volunteered their time to do some painting. I am glad to see that the future for the school looks brighter. Though, as you can see from the above picture, the classrooms in the second block have started to lean as well.

You can see more of my pictures and read about this community at our sister site www.KhunSamut.com. I am planning to go back again in October to volunteer as an English teacher. I will share some updates with you later.