Prachinburi
Although located a short drive northeast of Bangkok, the eastern Thai province of Prachinburi is completely overlooked by foreign visitors and indeed largely ignored by locals yet, as we discovered on a recent Thailand family tour, Prachin has plenty of fascinating sites to offer.
A large chunk of the forested mountains of World Heritage Khao Yai National Park lies in the northern part of the province although the great majority of visitors to the park will enter from the north by way of Pak Chong in Nakhon Ratchasima Province. (The latter has a much better-developed tourist infrastructure and we can’t help but feel that Prachinburi Provincial Tourism Board is missing a trick here.)
Section of the 7th century moat at Si Mahosot ancient city To the west lies Nakhon Nayok Province, whose northern reaches also cover substantial sections of the park and whose waterfalls and white-water rafting opportunities are popular with domestic tourists from nearby Bangkok, albeit once again largely overlooked by foreigners. Sa Keow is positioned to the east, abutting the Cambodian border and overland travellers will at least pass through the province on their way to the border at Aranyaprathet/Poipet. (Siem Reap and Angkor Wat are then just 150 kms further down the road.) Head south from Prachin and you’ll reach the ‘beach resort’ (for want of a better term) of Pattaya and the northern limits of the Gulf of Thailand.
While this central location means that today a lot of people travel through it, (without stopping), in earlier times it formed a very strategic location. The region provided a link between the capital of the Angkor civilisation to the east and the fertile, central plains of the Chao Phraya Valley to the west. While the former was the region’s main power base from the 8th-9th centuries until the early 13th century, the plains were home to a series of prosperous Mon city-states, generally grouped together by historians under the title Dvaravati culture. Another, recently listed Thai World Heritage Site, Si Thep, lies to the north and is the best-known Dvaravati site today. (Unfortunately for the Mons, unified action appears to have been in short supply and no great resistance was ever offered to Angkorian imperial power.)
Ruins of one of Jayavarman VII’s famous ‘hospital chapels’ at Sra Morakot Much less known are the extensive vestiges of Prachinburi Province’s own ancient city, known today as Si Mahosot, which also dates right back to the 7th century. The myriad, (very), ruined temples are certainly not Angkor, but the site is historically crucial as it provides evidence of early interaction between the pre-Angkor, Chenla culture and the Mon city-states. The Khmer king in question was Jayavarman I, whose capital was situated at what is today Sambor Prei Kuk in central Cambodia (although to what extent this influence translated into political authority is debated).
The brick and laterite ruins are scattered across a wide, wooded area surrounded by a still intact moat and earthen ramparts and while, as we say, individually they may be underwhelming, the site as a whole is delightful – and of course, pretty much deserted.
To demonstrate the long-term importance of the area, (the nearby Ban Pakong River also provided vital transport and communications access to the Gulf of Thailand), evidence of a late 12th-century Khmer settlement lies a short distance to the south in the vicinity of Sra Morakot. Note these vestiges date to the reign of the much more famous king Jayavarman VII, whose royal temple was Bayon no less and whose capital was Angkor Thom.
Spectacularly well-preserved 7th-century lintel in a Sambor Prei Kuk style. (Prachinburi National Museum) Also well worth a visit, for its impressive array of artefacts, is the Prachinburi National Museum in the nearby provincial capital. The lovingly presented collection correspondingly includes sculptures and relics covering the entire 7th to 13th-century time frame, (and earlier), and includes Dvaravati Buddhist pieces, Khmer Hindu artefacts as well as late Khmer, (Bayon-period), Buddhist exhibits. It’s not a huge museum but to our minds, is one of the most interesting and best laid out provincial museums to be found in Thailand.
You won’t find Prachinburi on our Thailand small group tours, (it’s perhaps just a bit too niche!), and we did it as an overland travel option to Koh Chang – intending precisely to see some of the more off-the-beaten-track parts of the country instead of sitting around in airports. We also included a cycling tour at another Thai World Heritage Site, Si Satchanalai, and while not all the group were history buffs, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the overland option.
The end of the road was Koh Chang On a finishing note, we’d point out that Thailand currently includes 76 different provinces, of which only a small percentage are regularly visited by overseas visitors. Most of the country is classified as off-the-beaten-track Thailand and next time we hear something along the lines of “…we visited Khao San Road and Phuket/Samui/Pattaya – (delete as necessary) – but we thought Thailand was too touristy”, then the above is our answer.
