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Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Holiday Travel - To return visit to the people of the water



The REMAINDERS of the furnaces to red bricks therearones, village of pottery can still be seen on the island of Kret, just as can of the remainders of the ancient civilization of my and of the migrants of my who started to mould hundreds of ground of flasks here of years ago.

The island is a short and scenic voyage of boat of the north of Bangkok, offering a pleasant day-voyage, of no-car of the congestion and the traffic of the Thai capital as well as an outline in one of the oldest cultures of the area. My were known as people of water, an empire of riverine which dominated much of what is now Thailand and Myanmar (Burma), before the rise in Thais and the Burmese.

Migrants of my who balanced the account on what is now island of Kret or KOH Kret because one knows it in Thai was refugees of the Burmese invaders who later captured and sacked the old capital of Thailand, Ayutthaya. Kret became an island in the 1720s with digging of a channel, of a short cut to accelerate the traffic of boat along the river with the new Thai capital, of Thonburi, and its successor of cross-river, Bangkok.

To arrive at the island of Kret is at least half of the recreation. Take modern Skytrain of Bangkok at the station of bridge of Taksin, the end of the line, which is only the jet of a stone of the pillar of Chao Phraya. Then take in Chao Phraya the upriver with Nonthaburi, also the end of the line, a voyage which will slow down you the baht 10 (probe 95). Hour-length travels of boat provides some great sights of old man and new Bangkok: smooth new hotels and condominiums dominating of slum out of wooden dilapidated; wats Buddhist coloured and century-old man, or temples, including splendid Wat Arun temple of the paddle (higher and left) better seen in the light of the morning or of the twilight early.

Pillar of Nonthaburi, the taxis are available for the baht approximately 90 (RM8.50) to Your Kret, house of the temple of Buddhist of Wat Sanam Nuea. And from there, it is a turn court of vat through the river in the island of Kret, which costs the baht 2 (probe 20) for the return ticket, gathered on the return voyage. Chao Phraya recently began a service of boat of excursion in the island of Kret for the baht 300 (RM28.50), leaving to 9am starting from the pillar Nonthaburi and turning over to 3pm. Culture of my on the KOH Kret the products of the island of Kret are famous. Ceramics particularly is very popular. Is thus food. Fish crepes are different anywhere elsewhere inside from Thailand, and the pink shrimps of river are famous just as obsolete candies.

To the bottom the side one to take the new service is that Sunday is the day by far most occupied on the island, with mainly the Thai swarming tourists to buy manual food and work inside. During a recent visit of Sunday, almost all the restaurants on the island were out of food per semi-after-midday. In more of the eating and buying memories, much of Thais, in particular those of descent of my, come to pay their regards at Wat Paramaiyikawat, the principal Buddhist temple of the island built by immigrants of my there is more than 200 years.

Support then, it was known by its name of my, Wat Pak ao, which means the "temple at the end of the course" due to its geographical position on the river. It was renovated by King Chulalongkorn after it visited the island in 1874 and retitré Wat Paramaiyikawat, which means the "temple of Grandmother of the King". Today, the driving pedestrian path starting from the temple around the island is furnished with the stands of remembering selling the basins My-model, the pots and ceramics the flasks of water.

Some of the furnaces with red bricks where the products of ground pottery are made remains, while resembling the giant red tortoises or the formless red elephants. Others are émiettent after decades of disuse, forming the walls of some of the houses close to the temple. Although the majority of the residents of the island are descendants of my, it is rare to hear the spoken ancient language. "the children today do not want to learn my, and the schools do not teach it that in any event," a supplier selling food along the pedestrian path said. "we had obtained tourists more and more coming here in 10 last years. Much development.

Now we have the concrete gratings." Continue to go, north or south, along the concrete walk which surrounds the island and the stands of remembering carry out thereafter to the countryside, where the grating is furnished with the houses of farm, of the orchards of fruit and some fields of padi. The island of Kret, as the remainder of the province of Nonthaburi, was known like field of fruit culture, covered in the orchards of mango, the lychee, grapefruit, the plum marian, the mangoustan (right) and the durian. But in the last two decades, the urban abandoned position of Bangkok of the developments of housing pushed the fruit orchards to the margins.

The walk around the island takes about a hour-and-a-half and better is appreciated in the fresh season, as from November at February. Although there is no car, be prepared to dodge some motor bikes, which whiz close less frequently on the remote side of the island. Over there, surrounded by relative peace of the surrounding jungle and the fruit trees, one can almost smell oneself transported again at a simpler and quieter time.

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