To soak up the area some more, try a longer stay at the waterside Bang Luang House ( ), across the canal from Baan Silapin. The area is easily visited via canal boat and cycling day trips.
![chao garden tracker chao garden tracker](https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a4087226507_10.jpg)
Inside is an artist-run café and performance zone, with exhibits, puppet shows and local acts aplenty. A community of artists is clustered around Baan Silapin, a period teak house that sits beside an even older chedi structure, dating back to the Ayutthaya period (1350-1767 AD). While Bang Krachao fires the imagination, Thonburi – on the western bank of the Chao Phraya – fires the senses. Those with more time can stay at eco-hotel Bangkok Tree House ( ) or one of the traditional homestays in the area. If you'd just like a taste, try a day-long bicycle tour with ABC Bangkok Cyclist ( ). It gives an insight into what Bangkok must have been like before it became, well, Bangkok.
#CHAO GARDEN TRACKER FULL#
On even the simplest trips to Thailand, it's easy to take the road less travelled and go somewhere you've never heard of.īest for: Culture vultures and floating marketsīangkok is so full of traffic and noise, who would have thought you could simply putter across a river in a long tail and be delivered to a world utterly removed from its bustle?īang Krachao is a small conservation area formed by an oxbow in the Chao Phraya River and given over to palms, market gardens and mango plantations.
![chao garden tracker chao garden tracker](https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3864128596_5.jpg)
So much of the Thai kingdom remains little-visited by mainstream tourism, and exploring these overlooked areas is a profoundly rewarding experience. Whether you're daydreaming above the lake in Sangkhlaburi, cycling through the 'lungs of Bangkok', tracking wild elephants in a national park or just lazing on the beach of a little-known island, the country offers plenty of opportunities for introspection and connection with not only nature but the local people. Taking time out to savour the quiet moments while travelling in Thailand is what can make a trip here so very memorable. The only sound was the splash of wood on water as an old man wearing a tattered bamboo hat materialised, paddling his rafthouse and his breakfast. Slowly, the prow of a sampan appeared below, hauling an emerging trove of mangoes, bananas and a full clutch of rambutan. Sitting on the edge of a long wooden bridge, my feet dangling over the edge, arms and head resting on its railing, I stared straight down to the waters of Lake Vajiralongkorn in the little-visited district of Sangkhlaburi.
![chao garden tracker chao garden tracker](https://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-000116808567-jsglif-t500x500.jpg)
The early morning was misty, cool and fresh.